Technology, media and telecom players are boosting communication budgets in CEE and SEE, says Grayling

Companies with operations in technology, media and telecom are “surprisingly dynamic” in communication in the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), South-Eastern Europe (SEE), Russia and Eurasia, is the finding of the Pulse survey carried out by Grayling following discussions with 1,252 professionals in this domain.

Respondents belonged to the governmental, public and non-profit domain (24.9 percent), technology, media and communications (16.5 percent), financial and professional services (11.8 percent),energy, industry and the environment (11.5 percent). consumer & retail (7.2 percent), health and pharma (5.6 percent). transport, auto and logistics (4.2 percent), and other domains (18.3 percent).

After Asia Pacific, where 16.6 percent of respondents have shown a growth in the PR budgets of these companies, in the regions of CEE and SEE companies are also boosting their communication budgets, as shown by 15.1 percent of respondents.

Investments in communication at the level of these regions have maintained at a stable level in the first quarter of the year, as indicated by 20.4 percent of the specialists who were interviewed, while other 19.4 percent reported a growth in the communication expenses.

Companies in the region are seeing a growth in investments in social media & digital communication as shown by 45 percent of respondents.

Corporate communicate and crisis communication remain important and, in the case of half of the interviewed subjects, budgets for these activities have remained the same.

The number of employees in communication departments has stagnated in most of the cases (54.5 percent) while 18.2 percent of respondents said it is growing and 14.5 percent say it is decreasing.