This week in PR (15 May)

News in brief

https://twitter.com/PRCA_UK/status/1260489362007089152

• Economy: The services sector shrunk by 1.9% in January-March, the steepest fall since 2008 – and it doesn’t even reveal the full effects of the lockdown which started in late March and which will be revealed in the April-June GDP statistics (Office for National Statistics).
• Weber Shandwick is the latest international agency to announce cost-cutting measures including redundancies (PRovoke)
• London is now Chinese-owned app TikTok’s second largest office in the world, after Los Angeles, reports CNBC.
• Buzzfeed is to close its UK news operation, BBC reports.
• The UK Influencer Study by Vuelio and Canterbury Christ Church University shows incomes were up in 2019, with one in five influencers saying it had become their main source of income.
• Next week is #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek. It seems more relevant than ever this year.

Academic, education and training

I think all of us probably have at least one teacher who is a lifelong inspiration.

— Hamish (@HamishMThompson) May 7, 2020

• Sarah Browning: Lessons learned (13 May)
  ‘The overall impact of such an effective and skilful approach to communication is that I feel as informed as I can be, without being overwhelmed. I trust the head and her team and believe her when she says we will get through this together.’

Covid-19 comms

• Kate Hartley: Why do people flout the lockdown guidelines? Lessons from 1940 (no date)
  ‘How do you communicate with a group of people who believe they are immune? Scaring them won’t help. Nor will giving them autonomy to decide what’s acceptable. Perhaps it is communicating a sense of collective responsibility that will do it.’

• Tony Langham with Jane Stevensen: Sustainability now and post Covid-19 [podcast] (no date)
  ‘The critical question now is: what is the environment going to do to my business – and that makes businesses look very hard at their strategies for growth over the coming five or ten years.’
• Sheena Thomson: Be Alert: A pragmatic approach (12 May)
  ‘There is no pleasure writing any of this. The nation needs reassurance to help return to its ‘new normal’.   It shouldn’t be like this: we shouldn’t be joking about something this serious.’

• Gavin Devine: Covid-19: The UK Government’s Communications Own Goal (12 May)
  ‘Floating ideas and messages before a big announcement is sometimes a really good idea. You can test what works, build excitement and avoid surprises. But in a situation like this – literally life and death – allowing speculation to mount at the end of last week… was a catastrophically dumb idea.’
• David Gallagher: Expert Insight: Industry Snapshot (12 May)
  ‘I’ve heard CEOs say this is the most challenging situation of their professional careers. I think those most likely to succeed are those emerge with a clear sense of why their business exists and how to deliver on what the world — not just shareholders — expect.’

• Shavaun Glen: Wanting to be right (11 May)
  ‘We each bring our lived experience, political bias, knowledge, expectations, and a whole lot more to every interaction we have. It is hard to part company with our deeply held beliefs and values.’
• David Brain: Can Tories only communicate well in elections? (11 May)
  ‘These are the slides your intern puts together when they are desperately trying to pretend they are working for McKinsey, not your communications agency.  These are the interns that don’t make it.’
• Darren Caveney: The streets aren’t empty, they’re full of Stella: Messaging madness is risking the health of our nation (10 May)
  ‘The street had observed lockdown to the absolute letter up until VE Day, the day after those newspaper headlines.’
• Adam Driver: ‘Stay alert: the issues with subjective language (10 May)
  ‘There is no such thing as common sense. What is common, is that everyone has a different opinion. It all depends on context – how the next few months affect you personally, socially and economically as an individual, family member, employee, businessperson, home owner and so on.’
• Rachel Miller: What does the Government’s new messaging mean? (10 May)
  ‘I liked the original messaging because it was clear, concise and the use of the word protect was particularly smart to evoke the emotional and practical response from UK citizens.’
• Stephen Waddington: Brand conversations during COVID-19 (9 May)
  ‘Organisations often aren’t very good at conversations. Like a needy friend they want to talk about themselves all the time. Instead of listening they shout about their latest products or services.’

Are you confused about what the latest COVID-19 guidance actually means for you?

Well, luckily, because we’re a local government authority, we’re fluent in this kind of language.

Allow us to translate it for you. pic.twitter.com/K0Gv78C0Pd

— Doncaster Council (@MyDoncaster) May 13, 2020

Consulting, teams and careers

• Danny Rogers: ‘Furloughing is just kicking the can down the road’ – PR now faces tough decisions (14 May)
  ‘A fall in economic activity means lower PR spend, especially in hard-hit sectors. This means fewer jobs.’
• Natasha Hill: Remote pitching during a pandemic (14 May)
  ‘Mute yourselves & come off video unless you’re the one presenting so it’s just the presenter and the clients who are visible. No-one wants to be distracted by a lay-presenter scratching their head – we’ve found out the hard way.’

A10: It’s not only the #PR agency landscape that will change. I think the business landscape will change too. Companies like Twitter are now allowing home-working 'forever' & I expect more will follow. I see the #VirtualPRAgency becoming the norm #VirtualPReality https://t.co/66ePP1OTfg

— Jo Field (@jofield1) May 14, 2020

Politics, public affairs and public sphere

• Molly Nolan: Disunited? The future for regulatory divergence within the United Kingdom (14 May)
  ‘In recent days, however, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson allowing England to ease its lockdown and thus diverge from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland; the crisis has shed an uncomfortably bright light on the fragile equilibrium of our federal government and its devolved administrations.’
• Aidan Muller: Think Tanks: The Four Stages of Digital Maturity (12 May)
  ‘This should serve as a benchmark for organisations who are looking for where they can improve further. We are hoping to turn this model into a free interactive benchmarking tool.’

Wellbeing, gender and diversity

Read all about the 2020 Mentoring Programme on today's @prweekuknews https://t.co/xSNxyBoCLY

— WIPRUK (@WIPRUK) May 12, 2020

• Katrina Marshall: Jobless, possibly stateless and almost homeless: my life as a crisis comms case (13 May)
  ‘After almost three successful years plying my trade a communications professional across the sectors in the UK, I have hit a pretty huge obstacle: This month my legal right to remain in the United Kingdom expires.’

• Sarah Pinch: 11 Lockdown Lessons (12 May)
  ‘Clearly guidance is changing, especially on how often we can exercise outside. But I thought these ideas might still help. And I wanted to write something. I’ve missed it.’

• Chloe Wise: Overcoming Your Insecurities (11 May)
  ‘Whenever I am having a rough day, or questioning my work, I utilise the above steps to alleviate the negative thoughts.’

Brands, storytelling, and influence

• Ben Smith: Chris Talago, VP PR and communications JAPAC and EMEA at Oracle, gives an in-house perspective on the Covid-19 lockdown [podcast] (13 May)
  ‘When the lockdown first hit we took the decision to pause all commentary across social so we could get a tighter control of what we were saying as a brand and so we could look at how the crisis was developing and also the way in which our business was responding to it.’
• Scott Guthrie: Influencer Asma Elbadawi produces TV-quality content for £250 (11 May)
  ‘The average age of a BBC1 viewer is 61. It’s a year older on BBC 2.  Research by Enders Analysis places ITV’s average viewer at 60 years-of-age. It’s two years younger on Channel 5 at 58 and on Channel 4 the average viewer’s age is 55.’

Monitoring, measurement and evaluation

Urging all listeners on today's #pranalytics session to try @AmecOrg's amazing free tools, we are on a mission to educate

Measurement Maturity Mapper
Integrated Evaluation Framework
Free resources including videos
Case studies#prmeasurement

— Steph Bridgeman (@stephbridgeman) May 14, 2020

• Carrie Rose: Why Digital PR is MORE than just links – and the metrics we track at Rise (14 May)
  ‘We have a live dashboard showing everything link we have built, the DA of the site, how many people click on the links, buy a product, and engage via social. We combine around 5 tools to allow us to do this but the data is insane!  It means I know exactly which links drove the most value for my client and which links my client’s boss is actually going to care about.’

Internal communication

The show must go on…#TheICPodcast pic.twitter.com/d0NtfhGzd2

— Katie Macaulay (@Katie__Macaulay) May 13, 2020

• Arvind Hickman: ‘The pandemic has changed how internal comms, crisis comms and purpose are valued’ (14 May)
  ‘The COVID-19 pandemic has elevated the importance of several communications services, but one that has risen up the agenda for agencies and clients alike is internal communications.’
• Katie Macaulay and Amanda Coleman: Crisis communication at the coalface [podcast] (13 May)
  ‘The key thing in any crisis is leadership: it’s around humanity and empathy. The fundamentals are more important now than ever. At the heart of everything is people. As communicators, we’re people people.’

• Dan Holden: Planning for #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek 2020 (10 May)
  ‘Mental Health Awareness Week is a key date in many of our content plans, yet this year, I’ve seen many communicators reach out to ask for help and guidance on how to engage colleagues throughout the week.’

Technology, media and digital

Interesting story from @Sam_L_Shead on the way TikTok is spending big bucks to attract staff. It also makes $$$ offers to creators to join the platform https://t.co/sfFLUZZkvT

— Chris Stokel-Walker (@stokel) May 8, 2020

• Paul Sutton with Matt Navarra: Beyond Covid: Redemption of the social networks? [podcast] (13 May)
  ‘This is a huge opportunity for all of the platforms to show that they are a power for good at this time when people need factual, authoritative sources of information.’
• Phil Szomszor: How you can harness the power of LinkedIn to achieve your goals (13 May)
  ‘Five months in to our new venture my partner and I looked back to where our business had come and one thing stood out: almost a quarter of our revenues can be attributed directly to LinkedIn. We’re not the only ones seeing success and getting value from the platform.’