This week in PR (14 June)
Purpose, climate and ESG
SUSTAINABILITY COMMUNICATION DIPLOMA
- Steve Earl: Are silent lay-offs getting louder? (13 June)
‘Experienced communicators will all have their HR horror stories. I was once sent a press release for comment that had the headline ‘Company X announces execution of human capital element’. Comment I did.’ - Andrew Adie: ESG is ‘dead’, long live ESG (11 June)
‘When Larry Fink, global champion of ESG, claims he’s no longer using the phrase as its become ‘entirely weaponised’ you know that the anti-ESG movement is landing some effective blows.’
Consulting, skills and careers
- Damian Greenfield: A guide to talking to stakeholders: keep it real or stay at home (13 June)
‘First things first, you need to talk to people like they’re actual human beings, not robots. No one wants to hear a droning lecture that sounds like it was written by AI on Valium. Imagine you’re in a coffee shop, drink in hand, chatting with a friend. That’s the tone.’ - Paul Stollery: Trading through a downturn, part three: Growing your business while tightening your belt (12 June)
‘When the bottom falls out of the economy, budgets tighten yet the need for leads becomes more urgent than ever. It’s a pincer movement, and one that leaves a lot of agency founders struggling to balance the short term need for cutting spending, and the mid-to-long term need to grow their businesses.’
- Richard Price: Zeno Thinks: Effective leadership comms during a time of social and political flux (11 June)
‘It is overwhelmingly likely that at some point every business leader will be compelled to speak out. And when that time comes, you’d better be ready.’ - Louise Thompson: How to succeed as a new Director of Communications (11 June)
‘Here’s my guide on how to smash those first 100 days in a new comms leadership and set yourself up for long-term success.’
Gender, diversity, health and wellbeing
- Sarah Waddington: How can the public relations industry improve social mobility? (13 June)
‘Public relations is becoming a closed profession to those who are predominately white, wealthy and networked.’ - Martin Flegg: Warning: This profession can damage your mental health (7 June)
‘The poor mental health experienced by public relations professionals, and by definition, internal communication practitioners isn’t improving, and seems to be getting worse.’
Politics, public affairs and public sphere
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- Phil Briscoe: Will the wind of whange become the beast from the East? (13 June)
‘As election coverage is peppered with references to the Red Wall and the Blue Wall, the Eastern Front will be a defining region for the Conservatives on July 4th.’ - Imogen Shaw: A cautious but assured manifesto from Labour (13 June)
‘Despite being significantly longer than the Conservative manifesto launched by the Prime Minister on Tuesday, there is little in the way of brand-new policy in the 2024 Labour manifesto.’ - Joshua Kaile: ‘Dishy Rishi’ is running the worst election campaign in modern times (12 June)
‘As we pass the halfway mark in this general election campaign it is now clear that Rishi Sunak is running the worst campaign we have seen in many years.’
- Phil Briscoe: Will the wind of whange become the beast from the East? (13 June)
Research, data, measurement and evaluation
- Richard Bagnall: Thoughts from AMEC’s International Measurement Summit (11 June)
‘There can remain far too strong an emphasis on media metrics that are losing their relevance. In the same way that old metrics such as number of articles and ‘column inches’ are no longer relevant, ‘reach’ and ‘impressions’ are losing theirs too.’
Brands, content and creativity
- James Herring: British Heart Foundation murals spotlight heart disease ahead of Euros (12 June)
‘Ahead of the Euros the British Heart Foundation have unveiled a powerful series of murals, commemorating young football fans who died from heart disease.’
- Rebecca Roberts: Street cred? Maybe you’re trying too hard to reach Gen Z (7 June)
‘My research report, ‘What does news media mean to Gen Z? An investigation into the media habits of Gen Z in the UK’ was published in February and supported by the CIPR research fund. Here’s a few practical takeaways that could shape your approach to youth audiences.’
Behaviour and influence
- Scott Guthrie: The US is home to 11.6m full-time Creators (10 June)
‘The livelihood of the 11.6m full-time creators is a robust $179k/year affirming the ability of Creators to make a good living once they can devote full-time to being a Creator.’
Internal communication
INTERNAL COMMUNICATION DIPLOMA
- Gary Hernandez with Rachel Miller and Monique Zytnik: The Internal Communication Book Club [podcast]
‘What we’re doing now is essentially the same, but the environment in which we operate has shifted in so many different directions.’
Media, digital and technology
- Matt Redley: Apple’s AI pitch (13 June)
‘Apple has this week made its long-anticipated push into AI. This marks one of the most significant integrations in its history, and a major moment in consumer adoption of the technology.’ - Ben Smith with Jim Hawker: Does PR still have a digital problem? [podcast] (13 June)
‘One of the challenges is that PR people are expected to do lots of things: client handling, creative, data and analytics. Trying to find people who can do all those things is really difficult.’ - Neville Hobson: Just How Risky are Fake LinkedIn Profiles and What Can You Do About It? (10 June)
‘The fake profiles problem clearly extends far beyond one company, with LinkedIn removing tens of millions of inauthentic accounts annually that impersonate real businesses and executives. It’s an ongoing challenge as fraudsters use increasingly sophisticated methods like AI-generated images to create fake profiles.’
