This week Octopus, in conjunction with our pals at PR Week and Marketing, held its Future5 Live Event to showcase the type of campaigns we think are starting to signpost the future of the PR industry.

It was a cracking bash with the PR industry seemingly in fine fettle. Fifty communicators from all sectors coming together to have a look into the future and hear from some of their peers who have conceived and executed cutting edge campaigns over the last year.

There was much positive debate, discussion both in the Q&A and over coffee afterwards. Here's a quick summary:

1. The campaign of the future will be totally integrated.

So to be a Future5 award winner in the future, campaigns will need to use all, not just some, of the  trends - research and planning, brand partnerships, audience participation, use of technology, and of course what we've termed, the BIG Idea. And maybe even more that will evolve in the future.

But to deliver those campaigns there needs to be a new skill set for agencies and in-house teams. Not just the core skills of media relations but content development, video, design, production, app development, influencer relations, direct communications, even traditional advertising. The list goes on. PR is doing lots of stuff it's never done before.

Of course you can get all of these different skill sets from individual agencies, but we're convinced that the more forward thinking ones (ahem, like us J) should be able to offer all of these services under one roof.

Any PR agency, or in house team, failing to innovate at the moment won't be here in a few years.

2. Managing risk versus trying new stuff

PR people are good in a crisis. We've long been the guardians of corporate reputation and let's face it, doing new things can be risky. So how do you minimise risk but maximise campaigns and new approaches? Well Future5 shows it's through research and planning, something that PR agencies have been slow to embrace.

Unless campaigns start with an insight into the audience - spotting gaps and new channels - we think they are at best ineffective, at worst risky to the brand. And lots of the Future5 winners demonstrated this.

3. Outcomes not outputs

One trend we've seen over the last couple of years with Future5 is the need to drive audience participation and action. This has been brought about by the growth in social media channels, like Facebook and Twitter, where encouraging 'likes' or 'follows' is easy and demonstrable. But increasingly PR is being asked to predict and goal ourselves on direct action not coverage.

This can be a problem for those who don't have the integrated mindset or the ability to benchmark. Without this foresight and confidence, you can't build more direct metrics around direct outcomes - sales leads, registration or online feedback - which undoubtedly is the way we're heading.

4. PR relationship with the business and who pays?

One comment made was that it seemed less about whether PR and marketing owned the campaign, and more about what tactics made it a success. An encouraging sign. But often, in reality there are still barriers. There is still the perception from many in marketing and beyond that PR is butting in on a conversation if it requires anything beyond the press release.

So what's the opportunity? The opportunity for PR is in coming up with campaigns, not just story ideas, and to go and find money from other parts of the business to bring these to life. Thinking bigger and more long term. Because in reality, the overstretched PR budget alone cannot do everything.

So, what was the message from the floor? Coming out loud and clear was think bigger and PR practitioners can all be rewarded with the opportunity to do more and evolve their roles. Develop well-planned ideas, integrated approaches and a focus on outcomes from your campaigns and your agency partners. And try and push outside of our comfort zones occasionally and not be scared of failing sometimes. Which is after all, the very essence of what Future5 is all about!

You can learn all about Future5 from our website pages or why not read all about the campaigns in Marketing.

Jon