The GCPR-Blog team talked to Łukasz Wilczyński, PR Director of Planet PR, this week. Planet PR is a partner in the international GlobalCom PR Network in Poland.*
1. Which industries/markets are booming at the moment in Poland?
Currently we have several sectors that are booming in Poland. The first one is our energy industry as a few years ago the Polish government decided to open this market and allow private companies to enter it. People can now choose their energy supplier so we can see big marketing campaigns in this sector. There is also a quite big boom in lifestyle industries, especially in the beauty products sector, and many companies are launching new brands especially for women. Some other areas where we can see the significant market increase are telecommunications, legal, tourism and outsourcing sectors. Polish telecommunication companies are spreading their activities and entering foreign markets – usually young eastern markets such as the Ukraine. Poland becomes more and more attractive for outsourcing services in many branches. We can also say that public-private partnerships can be a potential boom area in Poland but there are still not enough of such initiatives although there is certainly a market for this sector. Last but not least is the healthcare sector which is growing very fast in Poland as more public health centers (or its selected services) are being privatized. So many international healthcare companies are entering this market.
2. What makes Poland currently so interesting for these industries?
Poland is a stable market with no significant warning from any international rating agencies. Moreover, for the first time since end of communist regime we have the same government serving a second term. The crisis that is running through Europe is somehow passing round Poland as both the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and people’s level of life are growing. We have still EU funds in use for programs connected e.g. to innovations and technologies, investments, public infrastructure and education. Moreover, Polish citizens’ level of buying goods is stable or even rising while in some European countries is going down. Polish workers are well known among Europe or even US as good and trustful subcontractors, employees or specialists and managers. Poland has still many institutions or even whole sectors that are not using a professional IT infrastructure. This is one of the reasons for a boom in cloud computing right now. Last but not least – Poland has just finished its EU-Presidency and is now preparing for the EURO 2012 football games. So the international spotlight on our country has been lighted since last July and will probably last till end of football championships.
3. Why should companies from these industries start doing Public Relations in Poland?
Poland’s Public Relations market has quickly adapted to the international standards by implementing new ways of communications, e.g. via all digital channels, and looking for new and effective tools of verifying PR services by its effects. As I said before the market itself is stable so by combining these two factors you can receive good and effective way of communication to build a strong position in Poland and gain customer’s loyalty. Giving an example of such trends I will focus on our business at Planet PR. Last year we have started building a unique PR product that meets the requirements of international PR trends (e.g. AMEC Conference in Barcelona about effectiveness in PR). We could see the first effects of these initiatives as we have received very positive feedback from our clients. This year we will focus on implementing a new brand (Lexplanet) which will fill a significant gap of Litigation PR services in Poland. So by only our example you can see a more and more professional way to provide unique and effective services for companies and to follow new trends in worldwide PR. Moreover, Poland’s PR campaigns can now be seen more often in international PR contest receiving awards not only for creativeness but also for effectiveness.
*The series is based on phone or face-to-face interviews and written input, therefore please excuse language mistakes which might reflect foreign language influences.