Standing out from the crowd - How to ensure annual tech predictions land great media coverage

In B2B tech PR and journalism, the end of the calendar year triggers a wave of expert predictions for the trends we’ll see over the next 12 months.

It’s a crowded market of technology vendors and service providers. Every one of them has an idea (or ten) of what the next 12 months might hold. The challenge is that there are only so many trends that journalists can include in their articles before they reach saturation point.

They’re spoiled for choice and will be receiving predictions comments from the beginning of October right up to the end of January. For technology companies, it can end up being a bit of a bun fight to get in there first, and be heard above the rest.

Best practices for predictions

At Spark, we have a great track record when it comes to securing predictions coverage for our clients. Based on our experience here are some of our top tips for predictions coverage success:

• Start at the end. There’s a natural instinct to tell a story from the beginning, providing background, then building towards a conclusion before delivering the punchline. When you’re making predictions, you have to invert that approach. Begin with the prediction, then offer supporting points, and end with more background, but only if it adds colour.
• Be bold. To grab media attention, you have to avoid stating the bleeding obvious. ‘This will be the year AI gets big’ isn’t even going to make a footnote. Predictions have to carry an element of surprise or something that differentiates them from what others say.
• Don’t be absurd. It’s important not to go too far though. ‘This will be the year AI learns to fly planes and do the dishes’ is over-egging it a bit. While you might grab the media’s attention, you’re unlikely to make it into their articles, and risk damaging your longer-term credibility.
• Be timely. Linking your predictions to something that will likely dominate the news cycle over the coming year can be a great way to go big and really grab attention. With the right angle, you can even break into the national news cycle, like we did with this Sky News piece for Venafi’s predictions for 2024. Here, we highlighted the impact of AI-generated content on voters during a bumper year of elections taking place around the world.
• Be alternative. Playing it safe and predicting something safe, or that everyone knows is coming isn’t going to work. To stand out, you need something different to say, ideally with an element of controversiality or shock.
• Use an analogy. Predictions are all about painting a picture of what the future looks like. Analogies are a great way of getting the message across and making it relatable or even entertaining.
• Make it punchy. Predictions articles tend to be a round-up of five to ten of the most interesting trends on a particular topic, gathered from all the submissions a journalist receives. So try to keep individual predictions to single paragraph (or two maximum).
• Go easy on the plugs. As we know it’s the media’s job to be cynical. They’ll see past any predictions that are clearly a product or service plug. An AI company predicting AI will be a prerequisite in the next 12 months is unlikely to be taken seriously. Predictions are expected to relate to the client’s offering in some way, but that message should be the seasoning, not the main course.

Landing your predictions in the news By taking this approach, we’ve seen some great client coverage with their comments being delivered using a variety of tactics.

For example, if a client has multiple predictions, we often create dedicated media alerts. These have resulted in dedicated articles like this piece in AI Magazine for Venafi, as well as individual predictions being carved out for inclusion in round-up pieces like this one in Silicon.

Longer-form content can also be developed from a client spokesperson, like this bylined article we placed in Beta News last year.

For organisations that sell through the channel, it can also be a really effective tactic to put a partner lens over a set of predictions and adapt them for that audience. This had helped us to secure pieces for Dynatrace like these in Channel Life and MicroScope amongst others.

Predictions don’t have to be focused on the technology sector either, they can be verticalised for different industries and business areas. Last year, we landed some great pieces in Fintech Magazine, Retail Systems, Manufacturing Digital, Drug Discovery World, Procurement Magazine, and HRO Today to name just a few.

If you’d like some help developing trends predictions that will cut through the noise and get your message onto the agenda for the year ahead, then get in touch at [email protected]