This week in PR (13 December)
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.
News in brief
A career first. Our pr stunt for Burger King makes it onto the hallowed pages of the Financial Times. pic.twitter.com/rwsm2xJORB
— Andrew Bloch (@AndrewBloch) December 12, 2019
- Time magazine’s Person of the Year Greta Thunberg has accused world leaders of ‘creative PR’ (via Sky News)
- The PRCA published an eve of poll prediction from public affairs experts. The average predicted number of Conservative seats was 333 against 228 for Labour. That compares to the exit poll prediction of 368/191 and a morning-after result of 364/203 with just one result still to declare.
- Here’s the full list of UnAwards 19 winners
- ‘AMEC board elected for 2020 ‘(via AMEC). The CIPR‘s elected board members will be announced today.
- Nexus founder Jonathan Choat has died aged 79 (via PR Week)
Trust and professionalism
#CIPRinfluence @CIPR_UK My 6 year old loves my new copy of Influence – he keeps picking it up and asking what it is I do for a living.. he's disappointed I don't make toys… pic.twitter.com/JaJ8c6NjfU
— Suzy Giles (@suzygilesglobal) December 11, 2019
- Ella Minty: When Truth and Lies Become One, Who Do We Trust? (12 December)
‘While Public Relations will always retain its core functions of building relationships and mutual understanding, reputations and goodwill, its imperative is now that of building trust – we can trust someone we don’t have a relationship with because trust is not rooted in emotions and feelings, but in standing by what you believe in.’
- Peter Holt: Making membership of your professional body a ‘no brainer’ – Q and A with leading PR industry figure Mike Browne (10 December)
‘The biggest difference between CIPR and The Law Society (TLS) is that Solicitors have to be a member of the Law Society at the moment, but we want to get to the point where if membership became voluntary, it would be a “no brainer”.’
Consulting and careers
- Chris Owen: Stop chasing your next promotion and focus on gaining experience instead (9 December)
‘A senior role for requires depth of knowledge, skill, judgement and pragmatism that only time in the job can deliver. The goal should always be expertise, not the job title – and ultimately, simply chasing the latter approach will prove to be self-defeating.’ - Joe Mackay-Sinclair: The Romans History, MMXIX (9 December)
‘There’s something incredibly satisfying about taking a deep breath, remembering your past 12 months and writing down what you’re most proud of and the stuff that made you happy. (Don’t make a rubbish PR film tho or record an end of year song. You’re better than that).’
Public and third sectors
- Sally Northeast: Losing, giving, winning and being grateful (10 December)
‘The most valuable thing about putting in an award submission is the chance to reflect on and relive the fab work you’ve done.’ - Claire Burroughs: The NHS, kindness and Krispy Kreme: reflections of a comms professional turned patient (9 December)
‘It’s devastating to see the NHS’ capacity to cope decline as recent years of under investment bite. Its treatment over the last nine years has been less than kind, including a brutal diet of nine years of the lowest cash increases in its 71-year history.’
Politics and public affairs
- Simon Fitzpatrick: The Cicero Elections Awards 2019 (12 December)
‘That’s about as many mostly awful moments from this election as I can bear to re-live. To the Gaukes and Molly Bennett – thank you. To everyone else: make it stop!’ - Tom Hashemi: Communicating policies and messages to the public (8 December)
‘I founded my firm in the wake of the vote to leave the EU because I felt that policy experts on both sides of the debate had failed to have a meaningful voice during the campaign.’
Campaigns and creativity
- James Herring: Banksy’s latest artwork highlights homelessness at Christmas (10 December)
‘Street artist Banksy is known for his commentary on the state of society, with images that call out such things as homophobia, greed and the nuclear arms race. His latest piece, on Vyse Street in Birmingham, depicts flying reindeer in a harness – which appear to be pulling a bench which is used as a bed by the homeless.’
Crisis and reputation
- Jennifer Sanchis: Operation Matterhorn: How the Civil Aviation Authority navigated the turbulence caused by Thomas Cook’s sudden collapse (6 December)
‘In total, Thomas Cook’s liquidation impacted about a million people, including 150,000 UK passengers abroad, 9,000 employees in the UK, 360,000 future bookings and 3,400 hotels in 18 countries around the world.’
Wellbeing, gender and diversity
- Martina Topic: Work Discrimination and Bias against Women in Public Relations Literature : A Full Circle of Women’s Plight for Equality (10 December)
‘The findings are predominantly based on research conducted in the US, as American scholars are the most active in this field, and thus there is a heavy skew towards liberal feminist perspectives in research analysing career progression, pay gap and the glass ceiling.’
- Ana Adi: #7 Rachel Royall_Women in PR [podcast] (10 December)
‘I’m getting much better at [managing stress at work]. I need to do more exercise, but one of the things I’ve started to do is to get much more disciplined about my social media. When I’m spending time at home with my children it’s quality time.’ - Paul Sutton with Gini Dietrich: Running on empty: Business challenges, burnout & signs of recession part 2 [podcast] (11 December)
‘I keep joking that my bike is taking the brunt of my stress – and that I’m in the best shape of my life. It’s been really rough.’
Measurement and evaluation
- Ben Smith: PRmoment podcast – Petra Masinova, global director, reputation intelligence at Kantar, (12 December)
‘Media measurement has changed completely in the last ten or fifteen years. These days the role of people in PR is much more challenging. News travels at the speed of light. Data is not enough: relevance and context is key.’
AI, tools and automation
- Stephen Waddington: Kerry Sheehan on the slow march of AI in PR (11 December)
‘Those who embrace AI will have competitive advantage. PRs who fail to accept this new reality and fear AI will see others move ahead.’ - Andrew Pakes: How do we get digital ethics right? (10 December)
‘AI has the potential to create prosperity but – in the immediate term – it will leave a lot of people behind.’
Brands, storytelling and influence
- Scott Guthrie: Influencer marketing trends 2020 (11 December)
‘The TikTok versus Instagram wars will heat up as the platforms fight for the attention of young users. 39.9% of TikTok users are under 20 years old, according to Business of Apps.’
Internal communication
Interesting thoughts on #EmployeeExperience via @InstituteForPR especially 'changing from creating content, to facilitating experiences' #InternalComms #ListenToEmployees https://t.co/a81VnndWm8
— Dr Kevin Ruck (@AcademyKev) December 11, 2019
Media and digital
https://twitter.com/theachippendale/status/1204423173674065920
- Chris Norton: Twitter negativity: Is it the trolls platform of choice? (12 December)
‘It used to only be footballers or celebrities that others seemed to troll online, However, it appears to have got worse as time has gone by. It got me to thinking, is Twitter broken now?’ - Nigel Sarbutts: If PR fails to change tack on local journalism we fail our clients and we fail ourselves (10 December)
‘The PR industry has an obligation to act to defend and protect the regional media for all of these reasons and more. And it is in an especially strong position to do so.’
#prstudent #bestPRblogs
After 85 posts from 28 students at five universities, we’re giving you a break. #bestPRblogs will be back in the New Year. In the meantime, congratulations to Ulster University for dominating and to Hannah Chambers and Niamh Murray for jointly leading on ten appearances apiece at half-time.
- Emma Rogers (Solent): Election day persuasion (12 December)
‘Our Country needs each person who is eligible to have their say and vote. Whatever the reason may be, people haven’t been voting, with one third of registered voters not taking to the polls on Election Day.’ - Hannah Chambers (Ulster): Can Christmas Ad Giants Team Up In the Name of Corporate Social Responsibility? (12 December)
‘The ad break marked a refreshing move away from traditional commercialised Christmas ad’s towards an appeal for a good cause. It is expected that 5 million people will take part in the annual Christmas Jumper Day on this Friday – 13th December. Raising more than £4 million for Save the Children.’ - Niamh Murray (Ulster): Using films for political campaigns: Good for politicians, or bad for the films? (11 December)
‘Trump compares himself to an infamous villain that no one but himself likes, who vows to wipe out all of his enemies. And wants to kill everyone. And then dies. After he’s wiped out by his enemies. No, it wasn’t the Democrats who came up with this. It was actually Trump’s team. I know.’ - Abi Kitcher (Solent): Developing your professional self: the importance of digital creativity in PR (11 December)
‘I wanted to base my blog post this week on what I felt I’ve learnt that has been most valuable to me this semester. This has been the importance of creativity in the PR world.’
- Emma Street (Lincoln): How To Focus in The Christmas Period (10 December)
‘One of the reasons it feels so horrible working in December is because you want to see your friends before Christmas, especially if you’ll all be moving back home after the semester finishes. So schedule a study session where you can all go to the library together at a certain time and do some work together.’ - Bronagh Carey (Ulster): The Most Important Fashion Trend of 2019 (6 December)
‘Not only did this year present to us statement chunky trainers, biker shorts and tiny sunglasses, but it introduced the concept of sustainability, with the help of 15 year-old climate activist, Greta Thunberg.’
Follow #ThisWeekinPR on Twitter to stay up to date