Abbie Fink and Terrie Ard discuss the 2025 M.Cast™ Trends Report and the importance of forward-looking thinking and data-driven insights for business leaders and communications professionals alike.

Terrie shares how the M.Cast™ Trends Report was initiated as a guide to help leaders think like futurists, equipping them with the insights to foresee and adapt to inevitable industry transformations.

The report encourages leaders to balance technological advancement with maintaining genuine human connections, a critical aspect for organizational success.

Key Takeaways

• The M.Cast™ Trends Report was created to help leaders anticipate future trends and challenges by adopting a futurist mindset.
• In 2025, Artificial Intelligence is a "mega-trend" that is shaping business strategy and decision-making in nearly every industry, from healthcare to finance to marketing, education and entertainment.
• Successful leaders balance technology solutions with the essential human connection in their organizations.
• Organizations are shifting from customer service to customer care, emphasizing the need for a more empathetic approach and authentic interactions.
• Embracing convergence—the merging of distinct industries and technologies—will lead to innovative business models and solutions.

About the Guest

Terrie Ard is Partner, President & COO of The Moore Agency, a full-service marketing communications agency in Tallahassee, FL with a 31-year track record of building trusted influence and delivering impactful results. Terrie leads the strategic direction of the firm, including key initiatives, partnerships and client and business development. With a passion for collaboration and culture building, Terrie oversees the Moore Team, boasting a 92% retention rate.

Terrie is a specialist in corporate positioning and branding with a keen focus on strategy and creativity. Her expertise includes crisis communications, communications strategy and employee relations. Through Terrie's leadership, the agency has achieved a 98% client retention rate and is ranked a top 50 agency in the U.S. and top 200 globally. Terrie has been recognized by Florida Trend as one of the top 500 most influential leaders. She is a recipient of the Florida Public Relations Association Stanley Tait Award for Leadership, the American Advertising Federation Silver Medal for outstanding industry contributions and recognized by PR News as a Top Changemaker in the U.S.

About the Host

Abbie Fink is president of HMA Public Relations in Phoenix, Arizona and a founding member of PRGN. Her marketing communications background includes skills in media relations, digital communications, social media strategies, special event management, crisis communications, community relations, issues management, and marketing promotions for both the private and public sectors, including such industries as healthcare, financial services, professional services, government affairs and tribal affairs, as well as not-for-profit organizations.

PRGN Presents is brought to you by Public Relations Global Network, the world’s local public relations agency. Our co-host and executive producer is Adrian McIntyre with Speed of Story, a B2B communications firm in Phoenix.

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From the Public Relations Global Network. This is PRGN Presents. I'm Adrian McIntyre.

And I'm Abbie Fink, President of HMA Public Relations in Phoenix, Arizona and a founding member of PRGN.

With public relations leaders embedded into the fabric of the communities we serve, clients hire our agencies for the local knowledge, expertise and connections in markets spanning six continents across the world.

Our guests on this biweekly podcast series are all members of the Public Relations Global Network. They will discuss such topics as workplace culture, creative compensation and succession planning, the importance of sustainability and environmental, social and governance programs, crisis communications and outside of the box thinking for growing your business.

For more information about PRGN and our members, please visit prgn.com. And now let's meet our guest for this episode.

Hello, I am Terrie Ard, President and partner of The Moore Agency. We are a full-service marketing communications agency based in Tallahassee, Florida and we are the producer of the M.Cast Trends Report.

I have been fascinated for a long time, 20 years probably about this concept of looking forward. And I had never heard the term futurist before, but I was at a conference and we had a futurist as a speaker and he was talking about, this was again about 20 years ago, but he was talking about how television was going to be customized and we were going to be able to pick channels that only showed the shows that we wanted.

And there was this new online thing that you could write messages to people and it would be like 140 characters and you could get instant, you know, response. And we looked at this guy like he was nuts. And of course we know all of those things were, were true.

So I'm very fascinated about your, your trends report because this idea of looking forward, using information, you know, that we know now and looking forward is so important. So how did it come about, how did your agency decide that you were going to be this future thinking in this very robust document?

Well, Abbie, I love that you also are intrigued with the notion of being a futurist. And that is exactly how our M.Cast Trends Report came to life is how can we help other business leaders and executives to think like a futurist?

We know we're living in a landscape of fast movement and change and transformation. So each of us as leaders of our organizations, we really do have to adopt this futurist mindset, certainly to help us anticipate and prepare for future trends, but more importantly, how to see the challenges before they ever come to life.

So that is how our M.Cast Trends Report was born and we really internally here at Moore started thinking about, you know, this is a culmination of big ideas as a culmination of predictions what is going to happen in the future and then certainly what are the trends that are already happening now but will continue to evolve?

And how do you get started? Where do you think about what's going to be, what we're looking at? Certainly, you know, over the last, well, couple years probably, but maybe over the last year to 18 months, AI has been there. And maybe five, six, seven years ago, someone predicted this automated effort would be so much more dominant in our working life. But it's going to continue, that's not going to change.

But how are you looking at the types of things and what drives, what do you consider that is a trend versus, you know, a one-off opportunity that might just be resonating at this particular point?

I like your question of where did you start? And I think all great things that are birthed right starts with the end in mind, really.

When we started putting fingers on keyboard to produce the M.Cast Trends Report, we knew we wanted this to be a certain number of points, tips, insights that could come forward in a concise way. So was it 10 or 7 or 5? We didn't know.

But we started with data and research, really pulling forward our data strategists to help us in looking at what are the conversations on social media, what is the quantitative and qualitative data that we could pull forward that helps to validate what we know to be true right now, the things that are continuing to change and how we communicate with an audience, how we engage with an audience, how we get, you know, more precise in reaching an audience where they are right time, right place. So a big driver of our M.Cast Trends Report has been the research and the data. And that's where we started.

And from there we moved to what are the most important factors that are truly impacting how organizations relate with their audiences and their stakeholders. And this year for our M.Cast Trends Report, it really is centered around the mega-trend of artificial intelligence.

AI is embedded throughout each of our seven trends and we felt it was the right time to help bring that through in every thought process of what is going to be at the forefront for business leaders next year.

Were there any surprises in your research and your data collection? Were there things that you assumed would be there that weren't or other things that surprised you that came through that might not have been, you know, on the radar as a trend.

Specifically, one of the things that, you know, it took me back, it took me a good minute to process what we kept seeing surface of the trend of organizations shifting from customer service to customer care.

And the data showing that some of the most successful organizations right now really have found the art and science of making that transference to where the focus is on caring for your customer versus servicing your customer.

Now when you say that, it sounds pretty simple, but if you look under the hood right at what does that truly mean to care about your audience, how does that show up in the communication and the engagement and the experience with them? So that was one of the ahas for me that at the end of the day, it's pretty simple to care for people versus servicing them.

But when you shine a light on it and you talk about it as a prediction and a big idea, you start to give business leaders the tools and techniques for how to put that into action.

So I'd like to expand on that a little bit because it's one thing to know this information, it's another thing to use it and help guide what you are doing.

And I'm assuming that here in the context of business leader, where we can refer to anyone leading an organization, whether it is a for profit, nonprofit, an association, it's not just, you know, the for profit businesses. It can apply to all. But, you know, knowing the information, but implementing on it is another conversation altogether.

So with the data and with these predictive trends that you are seeing, what are the conversations now that need to happen so that we can start applying the information that we've learned from your report so it really is informing decisions into the future?

Well, we like to talk about a vision without a plan is just a vision. I love that statement. And so applying these trends, I believe starts with your business plan. What are the goals?

What are the challenges, the opportunities that any organization is facing? And Abbie, you're right. Whether you have two employees or 2,000 employees, companies, organizations of all sizes.

So having that business plan and then overlaying the communications and marketing plan and really that communications plan, helping to set the structure for how to ensure that business plan is successful.

So you can take these seven trends and predictions that we have outlined and really it's a playbook for what can be overlaid to that communications marketing plan of better understanding. Who is your audience? What is the message that best resonates with that audience?

And then what are the strategies and tactics and communication channels to best reach that audience.

And then most importantly, how are you measuring that and how are you analyzing that each day and optimizing what is working and certainly pivoting when something is not working.

But you know, I go back to the research and data that has to drive all of this research and the data needs to drive the business plan, the communications, marketing planning, and certainly the application of these trends. We know with artificial intelligence, it's helping many leaders scale even faster on the analysis of massive amounts of data and information.

And so that's one of the cool things that's within our trends report is, you know, AI has been around for a long time, but what is that application to help elevate how you're communicating and engaging with your audience? And I think a big one is the analysis of data and information.

What I find interesting in that is your trend of customer care versus customer service, which is a very human element. It would be hard to put the bot and expect the bot to care about our customers.

And so we're using the technology to give us tools to care more about who we're reaching. And I think that's a really interesting use of the technology to, you know, inform and guide how as humans we're going to utilize this information.

I mean, after all, our target audiences are humans or, you know, or humans that are buying things for others. But we need to use this information in such a way that allows us to reach and connect with those important audiences for us. So to me, it's a very nice blend of the technology part with the human connection part.

Are there any other data points that were in this trend report that really informs on the larger conversation for business leaders to be thinking about? I like the idea of the overlay with your business plan and then your communication strategy. So what are some other things that you uncovered that might fit into that category as well?

Well, I want to emphasize the point that you just made because I think that is the answer to your question is where is that unique intersection between the rapid advancement of technology and those technology driven solutions and that enduring quest for human connection?

So we see this each day, the CEOs and C-suite leaders that are able to find that sweet spot of that intersection where they have technology solutions helping to drive their organizations while equally never losing that human connection. Those are the leaders that are most successful right now in business. And so a lot of our data and the trends are focused on that intersection.

How do we have balance? Most organizations are trying to scale very fast right now and how are we applying more artificial intelligence to how we are doing our jobs, how we are working within our organizations? We all know if you lose sight of the team and the people doing that, you will not have success. So throughout this report, the data continues to point to that unique intersection.

So how do we take this information? We being communications professionals, whether we are advising clients or we are an internal communications team and executive communications manager, we take this information.

It's extremely valuable, and we recognize the value of it because the role we play within that organization may not be as easily understood or why it needs to be part of, you know, your business planning.

What are some of the conversations that need to happen, you know, between the person that's bringing this information forward and those that are receiving it to understand the true impact of what this knowledge can do for their business?

I'll go to the trend of convergence and really unpacking your question. Such a great point. And if we start to apply that unique intersection of technology and human connection, overlaid with what we know is continually at the forefront of application of artificial intelligence, and then this trend of convergence, right?

And when you put all of those three pieces together, it starts to show how the merging of distinction industries and technologies and markets are creating opportunities. Let me give a few examples of that. We know that how healthcare services are being delivered and consumed is transforming.

It's been transforming with telemedicine and wearable health devices, right? That is convergence. How is the technology helping to intersect into how we're delivering services to our customers? Right?

And so this point of convergence, I believe, is so powerful as we think about how it will create new business models, how it will create new solutions for better reaching audiences with new services and products and delivery that we may not even be able to imagine sitting here today. You talked about at the top of a television that you could program what you wanted to watch, right?

And when we look at the rapid transformation we are feeling and seeing with technology, we will only continue to get that as technology converges within organizations and industries to bring new solutions that really will help our world become an even better place. So I think for this trend of convergence, it is about embracing your inner futurist.

And how can you think about the technology that's at our fingertips now, and how can we bring that to the forefront to solve some of our greatest challenges?

Thanks for listening to this episode of PRGN Presents, brought to you by the Public Relations Global Network.

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