Spinners, the PR thriller which we reviewed yesterday, is set in roughly 2015.

That’s not that long ago, but it describes a different world. One in which social media plays little part.

The authors – skilled and experienced operators for decades – admit that the point of the book was partly to entertain friends and contacts.

The characters in the book certainly enjoy themselves – no one is allowed to eat or drink that much anymore.

They also wanted to explain some of the planning methods that were used to make their client’s case in complex situations. 

The businesses Byron Ousey and Richard Constant were involved in seemed to need advocacy more than promotion. They were in tricky spots where international politics was never far away.

The CEOs are lonely folk who don’t really trust their bankers or lawyers. They lean on their PR guys for strength.

They do their best work, in “no-man’s land,” says Robert, the lead character. The book was nearly called that.

Robert continues: “We do not always sit at the high table in our clients’ estimation, although that is changing. But we usually get the first call from them when the shit starts flying.”

Back then, one purpose of high-level PR was to be the main place to lay the blame – to take the flak.

These days, the largest PR firms are bigger than many of their clients. Indeed, they don’t even describe what they do as PR – that seems a bit grubby for them.

Constant says: “The communication tools or channels we had at our disposal in the past were relatively few. Clearly today things are very different.”

So the socialising, the relationship building, was all vital.

He agrees: “The pace and volume of information delivered and received by discrete audiences has vastly increased. In my opinion, to succeed in communications today requires investment in AI and other technologies capable of researching reputation in close to real time to alert the client’s comms group, and their advisers as reputational issues are arising.”

So, in the future technology platforms might be able to predict communications issues before they arise. Which means your well-connected, clubby PR man is out of work – or at least less vital.

Ousey and Constant admit they see better times behind them than ahead of them, for the PR world they know best.

Maybe that is just a function of age. Or maybe they are right; valuable things have been lost to the robots, human and otherwise.

** Spinners: To The Edge and Beyond is available on Amazon.

Please send candidates for press release of the day to: Simon.english@roxhillmedia.com