Turkey poised for big growth in PR sector: Expert

ISTANBUL

The size of Turkey’s public relations sector is $100 million, showing its great growth potential in terms of the overall economy, according to Gonca Karakas, the head of the Turkey’s PR professional organization.

Speaking Thursday at the Global PR Summit Istanbul 4, which Anadolu Agency is the global communications partner for, Gonca Karakas, president of the Turkish Public Relations Association (TUHID), said that there are 600 active PR companies in Turkey, with 30 dominant market players.

"The world’s largest communications group invested in a Turkish PR company couple of months ago. This is a good sign. Although [some] people say trust and investment in Turkey deteriorating, companies believe in Turkey and its growing sector," Karakas said.

The world PR sector is expected to grow 40 percent to $20 billion by 2020, from its current level of $14 billion, Karakas added.

"The biggest problem of our sector in the world is talent. There are lots of students studying PR at universities but they don't improve their skills. We can only measure outcomes, but [in our sector] we can’t measure the change we made and the overall additional value we give," Karakas said, stressing talent and metrics as the most significant issues for the sector.

Karakas also said that local agencies active in the sector who want to become global players should keep up with global trends and technological developments.

In his keynote speech, Khaled Ismail, the regional vice president for communications at Swiss-based food packaging and processing company Tetra Pak, said the three ingredients for being successful at work are loving what you do, simplicity, and staying a step ahead.

"If you want to make your message more efficient, make it use simple, everyday speech -- big words mean nothing," he urged.