This week in PR (14 June)

In the news

Some shocking findings about how prevalent sexual harassment is in PR and comms. Please take time to read this important work. Ignorance is part of the problem. ‘Exclusive sexual harassment survey lifts the lid on abuse in PR’ | PR Week https://t.co/SBzbuEeEIs via @prweekuknews

— Arvind Hickman (@ArvindHickman) June 13, 2019

• Is this the world’s hardest PR job? Sarah Sanders has toughed it out in the White House for two years, but she’s to stand down as the US president’s press secretary at the end of June (The Guardian reports). There used to be daily White House press briefings – but the last one was three months ago.
• Past president of the CIPR Sarah Waddington (until recently Sarah Hall) has been appointed chair of the PRCA’s new Borderlands and North East regional group.
• The CIPR has welcomed ten new Chartered Practitioners: Rachael Clamp; ​Lisa Fleming; Sarah Kinson; Helen Owen; Amanda Pearse; Paul Riddell; Charlotte Sanville; Stuart Thomson; Giuseppina Valenza; and Daniel Wood.

Research and academic

• For data and insight into global internet usage, here’s the Internet Trends 2019 report from venture capitalist Mary Meeker (NB 333 slides).

Insights and opinions: Pick of the posts

These are the editor’s pick of posts about public relations this week (UK focused, but with a global outlook). Recommendations are welcome to [email protected] or @pr_place

Purpose and professionalism

Big news about the PRCA National Awards, we’ve decided to rename the Corporate Social Responsibility Award to the Purpose Award, sponsored by @porternovelli, in order to encourage entries that cover a much greater scope! Find out more here: https://t.co/c6cLGZQsYp #PRCAAwards pic.twitter.com/vPs6TbWeBH

— PRCA (@PRCA_UK) June 10, 2019

• • Jenni Field: Why the IABC world conference is now a regular in my calendar (13 June)
    ‘I see the word keynote on a lot of programmes but this conference taught me what a keynote should be. There were four keynotes in total… Each one was thought-provoking in its own right and each one enabled conversations, debates and discussions both in the rooms and online.’
  • Tom Hashemi: Do PR firms take their own medicine regarding social purpose? (10 June)
    ‘Our society is changing. It is not clear what will define the new socio-political order, but we are already in it. And our industry is changing. The rise of AI and the relative decline of Western economies (and their businesses) will come to bear. A lodestar would be a useful ally to navigate with.’

If you’re interested in social purpose and profit (and you should be of you are in public relations or corporate communications) then this should be worth looking at. #PR https://t.co/or9yVUga7Z

— Stuart Bruce ???? (@stuartbruce) June 12, 2019

Consulting, careers and skills

• Arvind Hickman with Mandy Sharp, James Herring and Tanya Ridd: Is the PR pitching process broken? [podcast] (13 June)
  ‘There’s so much time and money involved in pitching that it has to be right. It all starts with a great brief. But so often the brief is broken, because it’s been written by committee.’
• Stephen Waddington: Don’t sweat Cannes. Awards are a form of media (11 June)
  ‘The public relations industry like many other markets is saturated for awards. There are more than 1,000 different individual awards up for grabs in the UK among media, associations and third parties.’

Politics and public affairs

Another consolation about not winning the #PeterboroughByElection is that I am back on the PRCA @PubAffBoard as the past Chair. Will enjoy supporting @GeorgeMcGregor, @Emma_Petela and working with @Ingers1975. Public affairs is important for good government and democracy pic.twitter.com/sdyysZ4CD8

— Paul Bristow (@paulbristow79) June 11, 2019

• Michael Stott: The Conservative leadership contest: why businesses need to prepare for a Labour Government (13 June)
  ‘Any Conservative Prime Minister is likely to find themselves in an impasse where calling an election within the next 6-12 months is one of the few routes out of that impasse still available.’

Public and third sectors

What are charities’ hopes and fears for digital over the next year? How is digital changing across the sector? What does this mean for your organisation? Check out the new #CharityDigiReport from us and @skillsplatform https://t.co/RCG9hdgv3e pic.twitter.com/4jvQR2AY5n

— zoe amar?? (@zoeamar) June 13, 2019

• Andy Hillier: Oxfam got it wrong – but so, I suspect, have many charities (12 June)
  ‘The [Charity Commission] concludes that the senior executive team and trustee board failed to make the right decisions in 2011 when faced with allegations of abuse by its workers in Haiti, essentially putting protection of the brand before the needs of those who had been exploited.’

Gender, diversity and wellbeing

• Jill Spurr: Will the real imposter please stand up? (11 June)
  ‘I’ve really focussed on my mental health in the last couple of years, and in particular, I’ve been working on my response to situations.’
• Ranjeet Kaile: Be more Joanna: Creating an NHS Communications Trainee Scheme to improve diversity and talent. (9 June)
  ‘Here is my five step guide to creating a 12 month NHS Communications Trainee Scheme to improve diversity and talent.’
• Jade Parker: A 5 step plan to managing wellbeing in comms (9 June)
  ‘Be passionate but don’t let it consume you. Don’t race around at 100mph trying to do everything. It’s ok to ask for help. It’s ok to say no.’

Brands and influence

• Scott Guthrie: Influencer marketing after Instagram (13 June)
  ‘Instagram’s Paid Partnership fares the worse. Creators who use this tag with brand collaboration work see their engagement rates plummet by a third (32%) on average. Further, average engagement rates on brand sponsored posts decline as account sizes grow.’

Trust, crisis and reputation

• Charlie Pownall: Why VW’s electric driving campaign is worth the risk (13 June)
  ‘Most companies expressly avoid mentioning past scandals in their advertising. Not so VW, which makes its 2015 diesel emissions crisis the starting point for its latest ad ‘Hello Light’.’

Internal communication

Beyond honored to be recognized by @IABC with a Gold Quill Award of Excellence for our publication ’Disrupting the Function of IC – A Global Perspective.’ https://t.co/q13TO99h4h #IABCGQ Congratulations to the 31 contributors of the eBook and to all 2019 winners! #IABC19 pic.twitter.com/wsPkQq8aSE

— IC Kollectif (@IC_Kollectif) June 12, 2019

• Liam FitzPatrick: How to make Internal Communications add up (14 June)
  ‘Great communicators think like leaders. And leaders are focused on results, not just processes.’
• Suzie Robinson: Intranet Now in Three Themes (12 June)
  ‘The community that we belong to (whatever your department, if you see that value in an intranet then you’re part of this community) is a fantastic one. It’s friendly, knowledgeable, and people genuinely want to help each other.’
• Jenni Kampf: Together in perfect harmony? (12 June)
  ‘To be honest, I don’t think I have my work-life harmony entirely figured out. Like many things in life, it’s fine when everything’s going ok and according to plan. But life is very rarely so straightforward. We have so many different demands on our time, that achieving any kind of harmony feels basically impossible.’
• Rachel Miller with Jenni Field: How to communicate with remote workers (9 June)
  ‘There are two things that surprised me. The first was the importance of third space as a concept for communicators. This is a terms used to describe the space between home and work, and for remote/deskless workers this is often the canteen, mess room etc.’

Campaigns and creativity

• Claire Bridges: Does your organisation make people feel comfortable enough to voice all their creative ideas? (no date)
  ‘As I learnt at speed when I changed roles from management to creative leadership in my agency-life, there’s a big difference between ‘being’ creative and ‘leading for creativity’.
• Emma Giles: Chocolate cottages and floating houses: is there an expiry date on the experiential PR tactic? (10 June)
  ‘Don’t get carried away by a cool idea purely because it would make a good visual. Without it naturally linking back to the service or product the brand provides, it will feel like you’re jumping on the bandwagon and shoehorning your brand into a hook that doesn’t work.’

Measurement and evaluation

• Laura Joint: A Handy Trick for Measuring the Awareness of a PR Campaign (7 June)
  ‘Measurement in PR often stops at counting clips and audience figures. If you’re guilty of this, you’re missing out on digging into the results of a big part of your campaign — the “outtakes”.’

Technology and AI

PR legend @DavidBrain unveils #stickybeak – smart use of chatbots to transform research pic.twitter.com/wWHQry0FET

— Martin Thomas (@MartinTmkg) June 10, 2019

• Rebecca Potts: Does AI hate women? Female role models in data and AI (13 June)
  ‘‘The importance of female role models in data and AI’ was a panel session chaired by David Reed, editor of DataIQ, who opened the discussion with the question on everyone’s lips: does AI hate women?’
• Stephen Davies: Facebook Cryptocurrency: Everything You Need To Know (no date)
  ‘In this podcast we delve into what cryptocurrency is, the types of cryptocurrencies there are and everything we know about the Facebook cryptocurrency.’

Media and digital

A perfect way to summarise what social media is all about @HelReynolds @CrowdControlHQ #InspiredSocial pic.twitter.com/6JmwWfuCOG

— Jacob Prichard (@Jacob_Prichard) June 13, 2019

• Maya Pawinska Sims with Jim Hawker, Andy Barr and David Fraser: Podcast: Why Public Relations & SEO Need Each Other (12 June)
  ‘The aim of SEO is to get to position five or above on page one of a search. Earned media is basically the holy grail for SEO.’
• Marcel Klebba: Key takeouts from the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2019 (12 June)
  ‘The report finds growth in the number of paid subscribers for publications like the New York Times and the FT, as well as the success of alternative models like the Guardian’s membership scheme.’
• Lauren Devlin: Make your PR invincible with these SEO tips [Checklist] (no date)
  ‘In order for your PR to work in tandem with your SEO efforts, both have to be designed with quality content in mind.’