What an interesting year! I’m not sure how many end of year wraps are going to start that way, but it’s the best way I can think to open up on what I’ve seen this year. For me, 2020 was the year that the core principles of a good communicator became clear to see. It’s rare that you get to experience the same event across the world and compare and contrast different approaches and their effectiveness.
Last week we hosted our final webinar of the year with a panel of media experts across Australia and New Zealand, and it gave me the chance to reflect on what 2021 might look like. Rather than a trend list I thought I would outline some key themes that will continue into 2021.
Listening:
During 2020, call out culture continued to grow while everyone was in their homes and consuming more information. Online social movements have “cancelled” celebrities, influencers and brands due to behaviour or values that don’t reflect those of their key online audiences. On the other side of this, there was also an increase in divisive rhetoric, conspiracy theories and misinformation. As a communicator, it’s crucial to not be singular in the type of information you consume and to consider if you are across new platforms, different audiences and opposing points of view in your own media consumption.
Crisis: Respond and Adapt with Clarity, Compassion and Creativity:
I have always believed and advised that leading with compassion and transparency promotes authentic communication, which I know is a point most communicators agree with, just sometimes it can be hard to convince stakeholders of that same point of view. It’s always clear in crisis who has a bank of trust to draw on and who doesn’t, and when you couple this with some audiences growing increasingly wary of governments and media, it’s important that the trust is built and maintained consistently outside of a crisis.
During the crisis itself, we’ve seen the need to be incredibly clear and transparent this year. Public health information can be complex and needs to be translated and applied to a wide audience, in the languages and formats that work best for those audiences rather than the communicator. Governments have created new frameworks that have become vernacular, and I know I know way more about viruses and immunology than I ever thought I would.
The Year of the experts:
I have directly taken this idea from Patrick Crewdson, the editor in chief at Stuff (you can listen to this here) At the beginning of the year I would have struggled to name the Chief Medical Officers of major countries in the world, this week I made a team quiz questions about them, and have put an image of t-shirts with the face of Dr Ashley Bloomfield (Director General of Health in New Zealand) on them in a number of presentations this year. I think this illustrates a sentiment that has existed for journalists for years: as communications structures have expanded, they want access, and they want to hear directly from experts. Audiences have echoed this in 2020 through high viewership of entire press conferences and live streams from public officials. Creating a supportive communications environment that can allow experts to be heard and embrace their role in the media can take work, and a bit of evidence and training (especially in a raw and unfiltered media environment), but I hope it continues into 2021 – it only helps to build trust and transparency.
This is just scratching the surface of what was quite a year, and one I’m sure we all won’t forget anytime soon. In spite of what was a tough year for many, it’s pleasing that communications has been given an opportunity to prove the value on a broad scale.
I want to sign off with some holiday reading and resources (because there’s nothing quite like some measurement reading on the beach!)
AMEC (International Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communication) hosts a month of great content and events on communications measurement each November and it’s the chance to hear from experts all around the world. This content is all available virtually and on-demand here: https://amecorg.com/measurement-month/2020-mm-events/
There’s something relevant here for everyone, from influencers and google studio to those just trying to get their head around research and evaluation. If beach homework isn’t your thing, bookmark the site and come back to it with fresh eyes in January.
Ngaire Crawford leads Insights and Research at Isentia, driving innovation in measurement strategy and product development across the Pulsar group. With nearly two decades of experience in communications research, she champions the power of insight to tell richer stories, shape smarter decisions, and prove the true value of communications. A passionate advocate for meaningful data and inclusive storytelling, Ngaire believes great measurement doesn’t just report impact, it creates it.
As communications professionals look toward 2026 planning sessions, one question dominates the conversation - How can we use AI in a safe, scalable, and sustainable way?
Behind this question often lies the hope for an "AI easy button"—a one-click solution for complex measurement challenges. However, as discussed in our recent APAC webinar, the real opportunity lies not in automating old metrics, but in architecting a smarter era of measurement.
Hosted by Russ Horell, Isentia’s Chief Revenue Officer for APAC, the session featured deep dives from two industry leaders who've contributed immensely to research and planning: Ngaire Crawford (Director of Insights, ANZ) and Prashant Saxena (VP of Research and Insights, SEA). Together, they unpacked the transition from using insights and converting them into strategic, measurable storytelling.
Here are the key takeaways from the discussion.
1. From experimentation to transparency
If 2024 and 2025 were the years of "playing in the sandbox," 2026 is set to be the year of transparency.
Ngaire Crawford emphasized that while AI is incredible at summarising data and recognising patterns, it does not automatically generate insight. As we integrate these tools, the focus must shift to methodological integrity—understanding the source data, the structure, and the limitations of the models we use.
"Models are really good pattern finders. But they don't necessarily set what good looks like, or understand the consequences of being wrong. And the antidote to that is always going to be good design." – Ngaire Crawford
2. "More data, better insight" is the misconception
A major misconception remains that feeding AI endless amounts of data will naturally result in better answers. In reality, without the right framework, more data often just creates more noise.
Prashant Saxena warns against the "sameness" that AI can generate. If everyone uses the same models on the same big data sets without specific objectives, they will get similar, generic answers. The role of the insights professional is evolving from descriptive reporting to strategic storytelling—using judgment to break through the "echo chamber" of AI validation.
3. Kill, keep, create: redefining our metrics
The panelists played a game of "keep, kill, create" to determine the future of measurement metrics.
Kill: The panel was unanimous in moving away from vanity metrics. Ngaire called for the end of Cumulative Reach, noting it is a biased metric that offers no context. Prashant agreed, suggesting that AVEs (Advertising Value Equivalents) need to be finally left behind.
Keep:Share of Voice remains useful as a foundational benchmark (a "census" of market presence), provided it is redefined to measure the share of a specific idea or perception rather than just volume
Create: The future lies in Authenticity Metrics. Prashant argued that while reputation is a downstream outcome, authenticity is the upstream outcome that drives it.
"Authenticity is more upstream, as reputation and trust are more downstream... That's an authentic ritual on a day-to-day basis, which leads to reputation." – Prashant Saxena
4. The "home field advantage" for communicators
Despite the technical buzz surrounding AI, the panel argued that communications professionals hold a distinct advantage. "Prompt engineering" is, at its core, a language and communication skill.
The future doesn't necessarily belong to the most technical users, but to the most articulate—those who can clearly define an outcome, ask the right questions, and deconstruct language to get the best result from a model.
Trust your judgment
As we move into 2026, the advice from our experts is to not let AI replace your strategic point of view.
Have an opinion: Don't wait for metrics to be imposed on you. Go into conversations knowing what you want to measure and why.
Pause before you prompt: As Prashant advised, "Paper before a chatbot.". Define your strategy and objectives on paper, using your human experience and judgment, before turning to AI to execute the work.
By combining the speed of AI with the nuance of human strategy, communicators can finally build the sophisticated measurement systems they have always wanted.
Interested in viewing the whole recording? Watch our webinar here.
Alternatively, contact our team to learn more insights into meaningful measurement, KPIs and communicating using the right dataset.
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Blog
Key takeaways from the Future of Measurement webinar
Our recent webinar explores what the future of measurement in 2026 looks like and what brands must do to scale in this AI era.
The media landscape is accelerating. In an era where influence is ephemeral and every angle demands instant comprehension, PR and communications professionals require more than generic technology—they need intelligence engineered for their specific challenges.
Isentia is proud to introduce Lumina, a groundbreaking suite of intelligent AI tools. Lumina has been trained from the ground up on the complex workflows and realities of modern communications and public affairs. It is explicitly designed to shift professionals from passive media monitoring back into the role of strategic leaders and pacesetters.
“The PR, Comms and Public Affairs sectors have been experimenting with AI, but most tools have not been built with their real challenges in mind.” said Joanna Arnold, CEO of Pulsar Group.
“Lumina is different; it is the first intelligence suite designed around how narratives actually form today, combining human credibility signals with machine-level analysis. It helps teams understand how stories evolve, filter out noise and respond with context and confidence to crises and opportunities.”
Setting a new standard for PR intelligence
Lumina is centered on empowering, not replacing, the human element of communications strategy. This suite is purpose-built to help PR, Comms, and Public Affairs professionals significantly improve productivity, enhance message clarity, and facilitate early risk detection.
Lumina enables communicators to:
Understand & Interpret: Move beyond basic alerts to strategically map the trajectory and spread of narrative evolution.
Focus & Personalise: Achieve the clarity necessary to execute strategic action before critical moments pass.
We are launching the Lumina suite by making our first module immediately available: Stories & Perspectives.
In the current fragmented, multi-channel media environment, communications professionals need to be able to instantly perceive not just how a story is growing, but also how it is being perceived across different stakeholder groups.
Stories & Perspectives organizes raw media mentions into clustered, cohesive Stories, and the Perspectives that exist within each, reflecting distinct media, audience, and public affairs angles. This unique functionality allows users to:
Rise above the noise: Instantly identify which high-level topics are gaining momentum or fading from attention.
Get to the detail, fast: Uncover the influential voices, niche communities, and specific channels actively shaping the narrative.
Catch the pivot point: Precisely identify the moment a story shifts—from a strategic opportunity to a reputation risk—or when a new key opinion former begins guiding the conversation.
"Media isn’t a stream of mentions," said Kyle Lindsay, Head of Product at Pulsar Group. "But rather a living system of stories shaped by competing perspectives. When you can see those structures clearly, you gain the ability to understand issues as they form, anticipate how they’ll evolve, and act with precision. That’s what we mean when we talk about AI built for communicators, and that's what an off-the-shelf LLM can't give you."
The Lumina Roadmap: AI tools for the future of comms
The launch of Stories & Perspectives is the first release of many. Over the upcoming months, we will systematically roll out the full Lumina roadmap, introducing a comprehensive set of AI tools engineered to handle every phase of the communications lifecycle.
The full Lumina suite will soon incorporate:
Curated media summaries: AI-driven daily summaries customized specifically to the priorities of senior leadership, highlighting only the most relevant stories.
Reputation analysis: Advanced measurement tracking how critical themes like ethics, innovation, and leadership are statistically shaping corporate perception.
Press release & media relations assistant: Tools designed to accelerate content creation and craft hyper-focused, personalized pitches that reach the precise contacts faster.
Predictive intelligence layer: Technology engineered to track and anticipate story momentum and strategic change before the window of opportunity closes.
Intelligent agents: Background agents continuously scanning all media channels for emerging key spokespeople and previously undetected reputation risks.
Enhanced audio, broadcast & crisis detection: Complete, real-time oversight of all channels—including audio and broadcast—enabling rapid context building and optimal crisis response delivery.
Want to harness the power of Lumina AI for your PR, Comms, or Public Affairs team? .
Complete the form below to register your interest.
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Blog
Announcing Lumina: The purpose-built AI suite for PR, Comms, and Public Affairs
An intelligent suite of AI tools trained on the language, workflows, and realities of modern public relations and communications.
