Over the past few years, there have been more than a few topics du jour within the real estate industry. Among the top three is proptech, along with the long-term outlook for commercial office space and everyone’s favorite semi-definable acronym ESG (more on that later). Also known as property technology for those not attuned with the lingo of the built environment, proptech is one of the industry's fastest growing trends.  

While senators battled over the climate, tax and spending bill, there was surprising agreement that hydrogen, Plug Power’s business, needed a big dose of support. “My biggest concern that I have right now is that we have not invested the money that we needed to invest in hydrogen,” West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin said at a hearing in July when he was blocking the overall package. 

One of the most interesting aspects of PR is its potential is pretty much limitless. What PR is continues to evolve, as does what it means for brands. And that’s been an interesting thing to witness, particularly throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. What’s been encouraging to see over the years is how clients have continued to invest in – and prioritise – PR. 

We have limited word counts for each agency description, so we won’t have room for all of Allison’s 2022 account wins.  Now a global giant, the 21-year-old firm snagged work from AAA, Athleta, GE Power & Water, Hasbro, Grammarly, Mars Wrigley, Moderna, Poshmark, Sennheiser, and TikTok – and that’s just a partial list. Some of its campaigns became the year’s most talked-about, from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s #MoreForMentalHealth initiative to Corona’s global plastic fishing tournament, which removed over 20 tons of plastic from the ocean and garnered over two billion impressions. If that wasn’t enough, Allison launched its new Allison+Sports and BrandGeist divisions this year.

The agency has created one centralized unit for its research and analytics efforts, called the performance and intelligence group. The group, led by one of the agency's partners, Brent Diggins, will offer cross-channel analytics and insights, data science, measurement and research.

While the often-used expression of “buy low, sell high” is still the best bet for investors of any type in any field, commercial real estate investors, especially those in the multifamily sector, don’t need to be as laser-focused on this storied adage.

When I think of 2017, I reminisce a bit on a pandemic-free world we used to inhabit. So, I am grateful we are in a much better place now! That aside, 2017 was an exciting year for us, launching Allison+Partners in India and seeing the opportunity and the phenomenal prospect of the India market. As Steve Jobs said, “You can’t connect the dots forward but only backwards.” 2017 was only the precursor to PR’s increasing prominence on the centerstage. And as the pandemic showed later, companies placed even more importance on the need to over-communicate. I am glad that we had the opportunity to quickly build valuable relationships with our clients, demonstrating our value from the get-go to all the way through the worst of the pandemic to present day.