Digital public affairs: transformation or hype?

How do you want to be heard in a world that is fundamentally changing its communication mechanisms? In which old recipes are no longer enough to get your point across? In which just five seconds are given to decide whether information is relevant or not? Public affairs in the age of digital transformation requires not only an understanding of the core principles of public affairs, but also an expanded skill set in the field of digital communication.

Political and social changes have an impact on business models

Politics has always been as much a "market maker" (or "destroyer") as innovation or supply and demand. However, the coming years will be decisive for a number of companies and sectors. Politics can use regulation to promote markets or challenge business models. Particularly in times of fundamental socio-political transformation (paradigm shifts such as environmental and climate protection, the Green Deal, ESG criteria, EU taxonomy), successful interaction with the political system is required. At European, national and regional level, this is crucial for companies and organizations in terms of competition and often even their very existence.

COVID-19 has not only changed the political and social climate, it has also greatly accelerated the digital transformation. On the one hand, this has led to a change in our understanding of communication in general - away from mass media passive consumption towards a multi-individual exchange, co-designed by "prosumers" and, on the other hand, to a reduced attention span for content.

Reduced attention: new logic for public affairs

This does not stop at political communication. What was the "one pager" in the old world is now the "5 seconds". Content must be prepared within this time frame if you want to have a chance of getting your concerns heard in theory.

Organized stakeholders such as associations, but also individual companies, therefore need to understand this new logic of how public affairs is conducted and be able to apply it as an organization. 

Profound digitalization leads to a new way of communicating

COVID-19 has accelerated the digital transformation. As a result, the term "digital public affairs" is rapidly gaining relevance. It requires the ability to use traditional lobbying methods to achieve objectives. But it also requires the integration of a new way of thinking in order to actively engage in long-term campaigns.

Can digital public affairs help or is it just hype? While digital public affairs is often understood as the digitalization of existing working methods or instruments (CRM as a stakeholder tool, monitoring software, etc.), another view is that setting up a Twitter or LinkedIn channel is sufficient as "digital public affairs". In fact, the disruption in the field of public affairs due to far-reaching digitalization and the new way of communicating goes much further than the two views mentioned above. 

Digital public affairs: rethinking public affairs

Public affairs must be fundamentally rethought. Away from the back room and onto the digital stage. Away from closed networks and towards fluid alliances. Away from expert opinions from the ivory tower and towards jointly developed content.

 

In the political arena, it has always been "survival of the fittest". Only those players who become campaign fit and know how to regain the power of interpretation in this new environment will win this competition.

Becoming NGO-fit in order to be heard (again)

Digital public affairs means that 

• organizations have the mindset to think and act not only in terms of expert content, but also like NGO activists in long-term campaigns,
• the processes and structures in these organizations are aligned in such a way that not only the appropriate content can be created, but also communicated in a channel-appropriate manner, and that
• organizations and their employees have the skills to plan and technically implement data-driven, dialogue-oriented, multi-individual campaigns.

Activist NGOs in particular understood this very early on and can set the agenda in their agile, communication-driven campaign structure. Associations and companies have the right to be heard and to have their interests taken into account: their public affairs work must become "NGO-fit".