Audiences are quicker to relate to pictures than words and our mobile generation often requires the immediacy of an image. This is reflected in recent research conducted by 3M, which shows that human beings process visuals 66,000 times faster than text and more than 65% of people are visual learners - compelling statistics to say the least.
PR and visual messaging have previously been regarded as completely separate aspects of a brand's strategy, but PR needs to evolve into the principal driver of a brand's visual development. There's a reason why data visualisation has become so popular in the business environment. Google, for instance, has established that people are far more likely to click on links that are accompanied by images they trust, which has led to the success of their personalised searches.
The rising influence of visual communication is further evidenced by the increasing use of infographics as well as the popularity of social media sites such as Pinterest and applications such as Instagram, which enable users to upload, share and edit images.
How can PR strategy harness the power of visual communication? Storytelling has always been the most important element of PR - and that will never change - the story is simply going to become a lot more visual. Whether it's through graphics that accompany presentations, cartoons, illustrations or graphic recording, expect to see a great deal more visual representation in brand communications.
The nature of critical business meetings, pitches, and traditional and social media strategies are starting to adapt as infographics are used to engage viewers and help them to assimilate more complicated information, by tapping into their emotional and cognitive responses to images that appeal to them
As visual communication becomes an increasingly important aspect of PR strategy, one thing is for certain, the story is about to get a whole lot more pictorial.
