This week in PR (14 July)

It happened this week

The Evening Standard picks up on some remarks I made on ⁦@BBCr4today⁩ about the Huw Edwards story… pic.twitter.com/XJHZFEuCCD

— Craig Oliver (@CraigOliver100) July 13, 2023

A fascinating and engaging talk from @jonronson, author of ‘So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed’. Particularly pertinent due to the events of recent days.

Thanks to @CIPR_Global for organising this as part of this year’s AGM. pic.twitter.com/XxCKrXhVFp

— Steven Stokes (@Steven_Stokes) July 13, 2023

• Danny Rogers: Industry figures remember PRCA’s Francis Ingham at memorial service (12 July)
  ‘Speakers who paid tribute to Ingham included Alison Clarke, former chairman of the PRCA; Richard Houghton, another former chair; and Ben Smith, founder of PRmoment, and one of Ingham’s close friends.’
• Ben Smith: Francis Ingham: Saying goodbye to PR’s Showman (11 July)
  ‘That’s how I will remember him. As perhaps PRs Greatest Showman of the 21st century, so far! But he was a contradiction. He loved being the centre of attention, but he was also pretty shy.’

Profession

We’re thrilled to welcome some new members to our @InfluencePRMag Content Editorial Board:

• James Andrews, @BorkowskiPR
• Marie-Noelle Elissac-Foy, The Talent Factory
• @TaniFatugaPR, @HardNumbers
• Nicky Garsten, @cardiffuni
• Dipika Patel, Health Education England
•… pic.twitter.com/dPpL2B4tI6

— Chartered Institute of Public Relations (@CIPR_Global) July 12, 2023

• Maja Pawinska Sims: Influence 100: PRovoke Media Reveals The World’s Top In-House Communicators For 2023 (12 July)
  ‘For the fourth year running, the list has more women than men, with 61% women and 39% men. In terms of geography, this year half of the influencers are from North America, 32% come from EMEA, 13% are from Asia-Pacific and 3% are from Latin America.’

Purpose, climate and ESG

We have identified seven Values Archetypes that define people, and BCW’s deep understanding of each means that we can target, engage and move them more effectively.

Download the BCW Age of Values 2023 report and meet the seven: https://t.co/T4tqO5VmLF pic.twitter.com/sQtjm4kYNM

— BCW London (@bcwldn) July 10, 2023

• Ian Morris: Should companies worry about the war on woke? (13 July)
  ‘If a company decides to support a particular social cause as a genuinely core value, then great. They must stand up for that. But they need to be able to justify why they support it publicly and with staff, and they should make 100% sure that their actions – the policies, procedures and behaviours they instigate – mirror their words.’
• Stuart Lambert: Communicators helped to ruin ESG. Now it’s time to get more precise (11 July).
  ‘If anyone has helped to kill usage of the term ‘ESG’, it certainly isn’t Larry Fink, investors or rabid conservative politicians. It is communicators, whose misuse of the idea has led directly to confusion and needless culture war nonsense.’

Consulting, skills and careers

• Emma Drake: The Power of Public Relations: 5 Tips to Impact ‘Know, Like, Trust’ with customers [podcast] (13 July)
  ‘When there’s a lot of competition in the marketplace this ‘know, like. trust’ factor can be really important.’
• Evie Barrett: Does Gen Z think PR is a ‘lazy girl job?’ (13 July)
  ‘“Success in PR is synonymous with being proactive and taking initiative,” asserts Georgia Cotterill, account manager at Stone Junction. “It’s not just about following procedures and checking off a tick-list, but more about taking the time to do research, outreach and constantly learning to keep your knowledge up to speed.”

Gender, diversity, health and wellbeing

• Son Pham: Jessica Hope on entrepreneurship, African tech and DE&I advocacy (13 July)
  ‘Wimbart is a peculiar company, in that 100% of our team is BME. We were intentional about making sure we were representative and diverse in that respect. One of my bugbears is hearing agency leads talk about diversity and then not actually do it.’

Public and third sectors

• Dan Slee: LONG READ: What the public sector needs to know about the new Meta app Threads (9 July)
  ‘On Threads hashtags don’t work and when you search you can only search for names. This means that it is less about big wide spaces and more about narrow niches.’

Politics, public affairs and public sphere

Good to be at @ifgevents this morning listening to @AngelaRayner & @PutneyFleur talking about Labour's plans for reforming politics, including the creation of an Independent Integrity and Ethics Commission.#IFGRayner pic.twitter.com/zf5tOMilaz

— Inflect (@inflectpartners) July 13, 2023

• Matilda Hartwig: Rethinking consultation in the age of the nimby (13 July)
  ‘The recent green policy flip-flopping by the government has highlighted the increasing need for planners, developers and policy professionals to obtain more robust data on the preferences of the whole community, so the loudest voices in the room do not overpower the decision-making process.’

• Stuart Thomson: Interview with Philip Salter, Founder, The Entrepreneurs Network [podcast] (12 July)
  ‘I was always interested in ideas, but didn’t realise you could do that for a job. I had an interest in policy but wouldn’t say I was a politics junkie.’
• Scott Harker: Lots of sense, but little appetite for it (11 July)
  ‘The Chancellor’s Mansion House Speech yesterday passed by with relatively little fanfare. His speech to the great and good of the financial services world in the City of London set out several ambitious measures designed to make use of the UK’s financial services sector to drive economic growth.’

Brands, content, community and creativity

Crisis, risk and reputation

• Amanda Coleman: Stepping with care and determination (10 July)
  ‘There is a lot to come from the current issue the BBC are facing but here are my thoughts on the top five things that matter most when staffing complaints and problems happen.’

Behaviour and influence

lynn bulletin – Why is vaping on the rise? pic.twitter.com/K8BeYQHJd3

— lynn (@lynn_global) July 10, 2023

Internal communication

In case you missed it, the IoIC National Awards 2023 shortlist is out (see link below).

But tell us… what award or honour – at any point in your life – are you most proud to have won?https://t.co/3yuWlsMPOr

— Institute of Internal Communication (@IoICNews) July 13, 2023

• Martin Flegg: Review of IC 2023 Index (7 July)
  ‘When will organisations finally ditch performative annual employee surveys in favour of more effective methods of listening and when will IC practitioners rise up and say no to their practice being judged by these proxy measures of IC performance?’

Media, digital and technology

• Catherine Arrow: The second future is AI-powered (13 July)
  ‘There is common ground between data professionals and public relations professionals – both disciplines set out to frame the problem by asking the right questions and it is this common ground where I believe the AI powered public relations future lies. There is no going back from this (as long as the electricity stays on) as artificial intelligence is embedded in our lives – and practice – from this point on.’
• Duncan McKean: Don’t believe the hype: How to avoid falling for the next tech fad (12 July)
  ‘This week it’s Threads (vs. Twitter). Last year it was Metaverse, and this year (so far) has been dominated by (generative) AI.’
• Paul MacKenzie-Cummins: Debunked: Summer is as good a time as any for media outreach, Clearly poll finds (10 July)
  ‘56 per cent of senior executives, business leaders and founders will continue to keep abreast of what is happening in the business world whilst on holiday this July and August to some extent or another.’
• Michael White: Introducing Threads: Meta’s new social network now 100m users strong (10 July)
  ‘Developed by some former Twitter engineers, Threads closely resembles Twitter’s early appearance in 2008, appealing to users seeking a friendlier alternative amid increased scrutiny of Twitter’s policies under Elon Musk’s ownership.’

Academic, education and training