Geeks PR Lab, Launching. What is the determination behind exploring a new standard for PR through the 'struggles' in the field?
Why launch a note now? We did it before, didn't we?
As 'AI penetration' and 'information short-livedness' progress, and the 'common sense of PR' is rewritten daily, we have dared to expose the 'behind-the-scenes of our work.' This is not PR activity as corporate public relations, but a choice to restart note as a process to re-examine the PR function itself.
We have summarized the background of the launch of 'Geeks PR Lab,' which was established as an 'experimental field' to continue exploring new standards for PR.
Why launch a note at this timing?
A post that earned tens of thousands of impressions until yesterday can become unreachable to anyone due to a single algorithm change. The success stories we have built up will no longer work tomorrow. We are facing such a severe reality.
Can we continue to convey Geeks' social significance only through conventional news releases and blog posts?
Are we creating a 'flow' that moves the world's atmosphere and people?
With generative AI significantly changing the status quo, what value will PR provide, and can it even survive as a career?
These questions were constantly swirling around.
In fact, we have a past of operating a note, but we ended up just reprinting and archiving the vast number of releases and blogs posted on Geeks' various sites, and it gradually became a mere formality. We have a bitter past of finally making the decision to 'stop the operation.'
Continuing official communication and delivering information correctly and timely to all stakeholders. That is our duty as PR and our top priority. While thinking that and repeating PR tasks, and as our roles expanded daily—not just PR and media relations, but recruitment PR, internal communication, planning and operation of internal events, regional revitalization initiatives, sustainability disclosure...—a pride close to conviction sprouted.I thought that.
PR has wider and deeper possibilities. We want to be a partner that supports the foundation of the company, such as management strategy and organizational culture cultivation, rather than just disseminating information.
We, the Geeks PR team, as such 'specialists in handling information,' want to explore and update the new form of PR step by step, but steadily.
When I thought of that, I had already raised the topic of launching a new note at the department's morning meeting.
Instead of just conveying success stories and repeating robust information dissemination, we will share the process of trial and error, including hesitation and failure, as it is. If we do that, we might be able to explore new standards for PR together with various people.
With that thought in mind, I decided to name this place 'Geeks PR Lab' and try to operate it as an open 'experimental field.'
The '4 areas' that Geeks PR Lab will update
We are planning to divide our trial and error into '4 areas' and deliver them periodically.
1. [AX Log] 'AI utilization' to maximize the value of PR
How do we embody the 'co-creation of humans and AI' that Geeks advocates in the PR field? We focus on AX (AI Transformation) because we want to maximize the areas that can be left to AI and create space to devote our full energy to 'passionate PR' that only humans can do. We will nakedly share the specific experimental process, including failures, such as the conflicts when implementing the latest tools into practical work and how the value provided by PR has changed as a result.
2. [Inside Story] The 'blueprint' behind the measures
Media relations, internal communication, recruitment branding. The areas that PR should face are diverse. While telling the 'behind-the-scenes' of each project, we will disclose the process and conflicts of what we thought about and where we were stubbornly particular.
3. [Collaboration] 'Co-creation' to liven up the PR scene
Public relations is not a job that is completed solely within one's own company; it involves joining hands with media professionals and PR representatives from other companies to 'do something interesting together,' and sometimes even getting on the same boat. We will share logs of such borderless, flat dialogues and joint projects.
④ [Insight] 'Insights' that update the way PR is done
Sasaki, who has experience in management, as a para-athlete, and in launching media, and Arakawa, who manages a PR community and aims to be a front-runner for young PR professionals. These two, with different backgrounds and generations, will share their unique perspectives on 'what the PR profession should be in the AI era' as they feel it on the front lines.
Why dare to record our 'struggles' now?
Launching this new note has a very 'us-like,' selfish intention.
One reason is for us to conduct 'continuous self-reflection'.
When you are busy with daily tasks, it is easy to get caught up in just chasing immediate results. If left alone, you will never find the time to look back at your actions from a broader perspective. That is why we want to use this space to force ourselves to write down our 'records of struggle'—where we worried and how we acted—to confirm our own standing.
The second reason is to verbalize our 'success formulas'.
Knowledge born in the field will disappear as mere 'memories' unless it is verbalized. We want to stock our thoughts as weapons to lead us to our next achievements. We intend to use this place to stoically polish our own 'patterns'.
And finally, to create a situation where 'we cannot run away'.
It is obvious when a note stops being updated. It would be embarrassing to say all this and then quit after three days. We will continue for at least a year, no, half a year, or at least three months. We believe that creating a situation where we cannot turn back is the shortcut to becoming 'strong PR Geeks'.
If these logs, polished for our own sake, end up becoming something like 'open source' for everyone in the PR community, there would be nothing that makes us happier.
We would be delighted if you could join us in finding the future challenges of 'Geeks PR Lab' interesting.