Business leaders must communicate with clarity, consistency, credibility, says PR expert, Ajayi

Every July 16 of each year, integrated marketing communications (IMC) – especially public relations (PR) practitioners celebrates the World PR Day. Omotoyosi Ajayi, a strategic communications and growth marketing consultant /founder, Stage Africa Media and Advisory, who is also the Vice President and Programmes Director, Nigerian Women in Public Relations (NWiPR) spoke with BUSINESS DAY, on why World PR Day matters to Nigeria and why strategic communications now belongs at the centre of business strategy.

World PR Day, marked globally on July 16, is an opportunity to recognise the contribution of public relations professionals and reflect on the role communication plays in organisations, industries, and society. For practitioners, it is a celebration of the profession. For founders and CEOs, it should be much more than an industry observance. It is an invitation to consider how communication affects trust, reputation, stakeholder confidence, customer adoption, and business growth. The 2026 theme, ‘The Golden Age of Strategic PR,’ captures an important transition. Public relations is moving beyond publicity, press releases, media coverage, and corporate announcements. It is becoming a strategic business function that helps organisations understand their environment, influence perception, manage risk, earn trust, and support commercial outcomes.

Nigeria is one of Africa’s most dynamic business markets. It is home to ambitious founders, innovative consumer brands, financial institutions, technology companies, creative businesses, and large corporate organisations. It is also a market shaped by intense competition, economic uncertainty, regulatory pressure, social-media scrutiny, and increasingly vocal customers. A service failure can become a viral conversation within hours. A poorly handled statement can damage years of brand-building. An innovative product can struggle because customers do not understand or trust it.

A company can also invest heavily in advertising and still lose credibility because its actions contradict its message. In this environment, communications cannot remain an afterthought. Nigerian organisations need professionals who can connect business objectives with public expectations, cultural realities, and stakeholder interests. They need strategic communication that is proactive, commercially aware, and close enough to leadership to influence decisions before problems emerge. The golden age of strategic PR is therefore not merely a celebration – it is a call for Nigerian businesses to rethink the place of communication within their organisations.

At Nigerian Women in Public Relations, we are using this year’s celebration to create conversations, learning opportunities, and platforms that reflect the changing role of the profession. Our activities are built around the movement from execution to counsel. Ahead of World PR Day (NWiPR) hosted a panel discussion titled ‘From Execution to Counsel.’

The conversation brought communications professionals together to examine what it takes to move beyond implementation and become trusted strategic advisers to leadership. We are also running The Human OS, a digital campaign that highlights the judgment, empathy, cultural intelligence, relationships, and ethical responsibility communications professionals bring to organisations, particularly in an age of artificial intelligence and automation.

Following World PR Day, The Counsel Room will provide an opportunity for senior women in communications to give back through focused conversations and practical guidance for younger and mid-career professionals. These activities matter because the future of strategic PR depends not only on celebrating the profession but also on equipping practitioners to operate at a higher level. We need professionals who understand business, interpret data, anticipate risk, advise leadership, and connect communications outcomes to organisational priorities.

Yes. For decades, communications occupied a familiar place in many organisations. It handled media relations, speeches, corporate announcements, events, and crisis response. In many cases, the communications team entered the process after strategic decisions had already been made. Its job was to package, explain, or publicise those decisions. That model no longer reflects today’s business environment. Markets are noisier. Customer expectations are higher.

Trust is more fragile. Competition is no longer based only on product quality, pricing, or distribution. Businesses now compete on perception, credibility, relevance, experience, and their ability to maintain trust across multiple audiences. Strategic PR has therefore moved from simply managing messages to helping shape business outcomes.

Strategic communications helps organisations answer questions that are central to growth and survival. How should we position our organisation in a changing market? What do customers currently believe about us? What could prevent people from adopting our product? How do we build credibility before we need public support? How do we communicate innovation in a way people understand? How do we protect our reputation while expanding? How should our leaders communicate during uncertainty? These are not simply communications questions. They influence revenue, customer loyalty, investor confidence, employee morale, partnerships, and market relevance.

When communications professionals are involved early, they help leadership understand not only what the organisation wants to say, but how its decisions may be interpreted and what response they may generate.

Every organisation is competing for attention, but attention alone does not create business value. A company can trend without earning trust, and it can generate media coverage without increasing sales. It can stage an impressive launch and still fail to achieve sustained product adoption. The stronger pathway is: Visibility creates awareness.

Credibility strengthens trust.

Trust encourages consideration. Consideration supports adoption. Adoption can lead to advocacy and growth.

Strategic communications helps organisations manage this progression. It ensures that visibility is connected to a clear narrative, credible evidence, meaningful stakeholder engagement, and a defined business objective.

Without strategy, communications may create noise; but with strategy, it can create understanding, confidence, and action.

Reputation is one of the most valuable assets an organisation owns. It affects whether customers buy, investors commit capital, talented people join the company, partners collaborate, and stakeholders support the organisation during difficult periods. Yet reputation is not built during a crisis. It is built every day through customer experience, leadership conduct, employee behaviour, public statements, responsiveness, and the alignment between what a company says and what it does.

In Nigeria’s highly connected environment, negative reviews, unresolved complaints, weak executive communication, and inconsistent messaging can quickly become commercial problems. Businesses that fail to manage their reputation deliberately leave customers, competitors, critics, and the wider market to define their story for them.

Today, the CEO is also a communication channel. Employees, customers, investors, and partners want to understand what leaders believe, where the company is going, and how it responds when the stakes are high. This does not mean every CEO must become a social-media personality; it means leaders must communicate with clarity, consistency, and credibility. A well-positioned CEO can strengthen confidence in the organisation, attract partnerships, influence industry conversations, and provide direction during uncertainty. Executive communication should therefore be treated as part of corporate strategy, not as an occasional visibility exercise.

Strategic PR should not be measured only by the number of press releases distributed, interviews secured, or events organised. Those are outputs. The stronger questions are: Did communication improve stakeholder understanding? Did it strengthen trust? Did it support product adoption? Did it protect the organisation’s reputation? Did it increase leadership credibility? Did it help the business enter a market, attract partners, or grow? The value of communications lies in the outcomes it supports. This requires stronger measurement, better use of data, and closer alignment between communications goals and business priorities.

It means communication should be brought into the room earlier. Not after the strategy has been finalised. Not only when there is a crisis; not only when the organisation needs publicity.

Communications professionals should be involved when products are being developed, markets are being selected, customer issues are being reviewed, major partnerships are being considered, and decisions with reputational consequences are being made. Their role is not simply to make every decision look attractive. It is to help leadership make decisions that can be clearly explained, credibly defended, and sustainably supported.

At Stage Africa Media & Advisory, we help consumer-facing brands and ambitious organisations connect strategic communications, reputation management, and growth marketing to defined business outcomes. We support organisations seeking to launch or reposition products, strengthen customer trust, improve reputation, increase product adoption, enter African markets, manage negative narratives, and build executive visibility. Our approach begins with the business problem, not with a list of communications tactics.

We examine what the organisation is trying to achieve, what the market currently believes, what may be preventing trust or adoption, and what communication and growth system is required to close the gap, because serious organisations do not only need to be seen – they need to be understood, trusted, chosen, and remembered.

As we celebrate World PR Day, we should recognise how far the profession has come, but also the responsibility that comes with this moment. Communications now connects leadership with stakeholders, purpose with perception, innovation with adoption, and vision with execution.

My message to CEOs is simple: Do not wait until the decision has been made before inviting communications into the room. Bring communications into the room where strategy is being shaped. Because in the golden age of strategic PR, communications is no longer just the voice of the business – it is one of the architects of its future.