This week in PR (12 August)

Author: Richard Bailey, Editor
12th August 2022 10 min read

About the author

Richard Bailey Hon FCIPR is editor of PR Academy's PR Place Insights. He teaches and assesses undergraduate, postgraduate and professional students.

Purpose, climate and ESG

  • John O’Brien: A new vision for Britain (10 August)
    ‘I felt morally compelled to contribute to the ‘Build Back Better’ national recovery agenda. Along with a group of individuals working across industries, I considered where my – and our – influence could be most beneficial.’
  • Fraser Schurer-Lewis: Here’s the deal (no date)
    ‘When it comes to making successful deals, differentiation and track record are always key. ESG embedded into a tried and tested corporate strategy that delivers revenues and results will increasingly provide a more attractive proposition for investors.‘

Consulting, skills and careers

  • Ben Smith: Alex Myers, founder and global CEO of Manifest on the PRmoment Podcast (11 August)
    ‘Being literate in brand is so important for anyone working in comms; otherwise you’ll think strategy is ‘how do we get this product into the media?’  That’s a tactical brief. The strategic brief is ‘what’s going to make this brand significant to the world – not successful but significant. What’s the impact it’s going to have on the world.’
  • Olivia Evans-McCaffery: The Catch-22: Confidence & Assertiveness (11 August)
    ‘The thing is, people-pleasing is great as a junior. Willingness to prove one’s capability, tick the boxes of others, and be seen as the ever-bright-eyed-and-bushy-tailed go-to is what is needed at the beginning of a career. It starts things off on the right foot. But … it won’t get you any further.’
  • Emma Drake: Summer Hacks Series (part two) Getting your message out there. [podcast] (11 August)
    ‘There’s a huge number of ways of getting your message out: social media, email, blog posts, media coverage, events, paid advertising, in-person meetings, round tables, speaking opportunities. Choosing which to use depends on what you want to achieve and who your audience is.’
  • Tariq Peters: Five ways to raise your profile to get a job in PR (no date)
    ‘Before getting my first job role in PR, I developed a music blog during my time at university which allowed me to grow an organic audience that had a similar interest to mine. Not only did this encourage me to write regularly, learn about SEO and how to run a website, but I also learned PR from the perspective of a music journalist.’
  • Gavriel Cohn with Phoebe Huntington and Izzy Marsh: An Interview with our Interns: Responsibility, Variation, and Creativity (no date)
    ‘Being communicative is a helpful skill, including being a good listener. This enables you to understand different clients’ priorities and pressures. I also think that creativity is something that is valued very highly, as fresh ideas are always appreciated.’

Gender, diversity and wellbeing

  • Sara Thornhurst: Time to close the business case for diversity (11 August)
    ‘Moving away from homogeneity in the workplace has always been about challenging thought processes (i.e. those which serve only the dominant cultures) and changing behaviours. Continuing to use the business case for diversity in its currently understood form may appeal to a board, but there’s increasing evidence it does more harm than good.’
  • Anette Suveges: Tavistock Clinic closes: What this means for the war on woke (10 August)
  • ‘Polling shows that the public isn’t actually as opposed to trans rights as the media positions it. But sadly, the media leads the conversation.’
  • Jill Spurr and Louisa Dean: Real queens straighten each other’s crowns (8 August)
    ‘Women have a tendency to put themselves down and think they can’t do something. Or worse still, they put each other down.’

Public and third sectors

Politics, public affairs and public sphere

  • Rebecca Coleman: It’s not easy being green (11 August)
    ‘Around 12% of England is now designated as green belt – stamped with a presumption against building on it unless there are ‘very special circumstances’ for doing so. As it happens, that’s more than all of England’s developed land and infrastructure, which makes up a whole 8%.’
  • William Gould: Confessions of a Shopaholic: Look to the Belgians to rescue our high streets. (11 August)
    ‘As the city of Roeselare shows, local government can be a positive force if given more powers to intervene when required. Ultimately, if we want to deliver meaningful reform that’ll meet the needs of our communities, then both intervention and business rate reforms will be required.’
  • Natallia Nenarokamava: Please get to the point (11 August)
    ‘Being concise is often more difficult than writing about a topic at expansive length. Brevity requires time, confidence, creativity, language wit and familiarity with the audience and the topic. Most importantly, it requires the ability to break down an argument and lead the audience through your complex thread.’
  • Douglas Johnson: The energy crisis: the £4,266 question (9 August)
    ‘Conservative MPs may well not get on board with the energy solutions proposed by the candidates. Limited local acceptance was one of the key reasons fracking stalled in England in the first place – and some MPs have already raised concerns about its re-emergence as a potential solution to the energy crisis.’
  • George Esmond: #TradeTuesday: The Commonwealth Games may be over but Birmingham’s trading legacy has only just begun (9 August)
    ‘While the Commonwealth Games Federation frets over the future of the games, its continued relevance as some of the best athletes continued to stay away and the added concern about the future of the Commonwealth after Queen Elizabeth II, its legacy may yet be one of investment and future innovation for Britain’s trading relations.’
  • Stuart Thomson: Why is transport policy so confused?  (9 August)
    ‘There is an opportunity for the new Prime Minister, and presumably the new Secretary of State for Transport, to bring clarity to the sector but only if they address some of the big underlying challenges. If not, then the confusion is set to continue.’
  • Roberto White: In Liz we Truss? (8 August)
    ‘The numbers suggest that even if all undecided members voted for Sunak, Truss would still win by a double-digit margin, meaning Sunak faces a great uphill battle before reaching Number 10 – something he has publicly admitted.’

Internal communication

  • Dan Holden: A candid conversation with Kathryn Prosser (10 August)
    ‘There generally seems to be a lot more respect for internal communicators post-pandemic and we are far more valued than we ever were before. There’s an increasing understanding that we’re not simply ‘post boxes’ for communicating out tactical communications; we can actually add a lot of value to an organisation by driving strategy and outcomes and being trusted advisors to our senior leaders.’
  • Miles Kendall: Three things IC professionals can learn from the world of content marketing (no date)
    ‘Within IC we need to work just as hard to gain engagement. Treat colleagues and other internal stakeholders as a ‘captive audience’ in any way and you risk creating content and comms that will go unread or unwatched.’

Media, digital and technology

  • Zander Mills: 5 ways to persuade your boss to join TikTok (10 August)
    ‘[TikTok’s] UK audience is estimated to be more than 13 million and with 67% of TikTok’s audience over 25s, it’s become far more than a playground for teenagers. Which begs the question, why are so few corporate  brands on there?’
  • Son Pham: Gen Z and takeaways from Spotify’s global trend report (10 August)
    ‘According to the report, “Gen Zs construct the next era of culture, blurring the line between consumption and creation”.’

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