This week in PR (19 November)
About the author
Richard Bailey Hon FCIPR is editor of PR Academy Insights. He has taught and assessed undergraduate, postgraduate and professional students.
Profession
- Sarah Pinch, Alex Aiken and James Powell: Strategic communicators [podcast] (17 November)
‘A theme of this conversation will be the necessity of learning; the primacy of strategy over tactics; the need to provide a comprehensive communication service to the board; and the importance of internal communication.’
ESG, corporate and financial
- Andrew Adie: Revving up for a net zero future? (18 November)
‘Royal Dutch Shell (soon to lose both the ‘Royal’ and ‘Dutch’ parts of its name) has announced it is simplifying its corporate structure, losing its dual listing and moving its HQ to London as a UK incorporated business. Part of the rationale for this is that it enables the company to restructure its assets and operations more easily for a net zero future.’ - Luke Cross: What are the ingredients of a good ESG report? (16 November)
‘The launch of the ESG framework generated positive publicity for Hyde Housing, further enhancing its profile as a sector leader in social value and impact reporting.’ - Fraser Schurer-Lewis: The Great Retention (no date)
‘Consider what really matters. According to the Harvard Business Review, 80,000 data points over 20 years told us what people value most at work is: value, purpose, certainty and belonging.’ - Claire Barraclough: COP26: Getting closer to 1.5? (15 November)
‘Ambitious business and governments are moving on and are using COP26 to get agreements backed by finance. Alan Jope, CEO at Unilever is asking all 56,000 suppliers to be 1.5 degree aligned. This will become the new normal.’
Public and third sectors
https://twitter.com/stuartbruce/status/1461290246352654338
- Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe: How to build trust in a team – 5 key insights (14 November)
‘Building trust in a team is critical to having a productive, empowering organisation culture and can help ensure the team collaborates as a high-performing team. From my experience I suggest five ways leaders can build trust in their teams.’
https://twitter.com/comms2point0/status/1460200043244314626
Politics, public affairs and public sphere
“Ban all second jobs for MPs with very limited exceptions… stop the revolving door between government and the companies that ministers are supposed to regulate”
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer issues a five-point plan to change MPs' behaviour
— Stuart Thomson *Public Affairs* (@Redpolitics) November 17, 2021
- Scott Harker: The integrated rail review: Levelling up is easier said than done (18 November)
‘On the same day that he said that he had “crashed the car” over the Owen Paterson lobbying row, the Prime Minister is now facing accusations that his ‘Levelling Up’ agenda has come off the rails following the announcement of the Government’s long-awaited Integrated Rail Plan.’
- Stefan Rollnick: Making sense of misinformation part two: Why are people falling for misinformation? (17 November)
‘According to Google Ngram Viewer, the word ‘misinformation’ has been around since the early 19th century, with the 15th volume of Encyclopaedia Perthensis, published in 1816, defining misinformation as “false intelligence” or “false accounts”. Use of the word plateaued in around 2003, but it’s seen a huge spike in its usage after the bombshells of 2016 with no sign of slowing down.’
- Vincent Carroll-Battaglino: Government scrambles to keep levelling up on track amidst second job row (16 November)
‘Despite the U-turn from the Government and the resignation of Owen Paterson as an MP, the Government has continued to find itself in an awkward position as the newspapers have trawled through the Register of Members’ Financial Interests.’
Wellbeing, gender and diversity
https://twitter.com/KateBurkeNHS/status/1460214396957990917
- JFG Communications: Equal Pay Day 2021 – Why has the gender pay gap increased? (17 November)
‘Today is Equal Pay Day. This marks the day in the year when women effectively stop earning and work for free until the end of the year.’ - Kirsty Scott: Why we became a real living wage and disability confident employer (12 November)
‘We have sought to achieve two separate independent accreditations in recent weeks, working toward becoming a Disability Confident Employer and a Real Living Wage Employer too.’
Planning, measurement and evaluation
- Emma Drake: Size isn’t everything: how to get big results from your PR plan [podcast]
‘Disappointingly for me, there’s a huge focus on media placements. You will learn three reasons why you should measure your PR activity; top tips for getting started; and why quality not quantity should be your driver.’
- Gary Preston: CoverageBook 2. AI? No. Full data attribution for PR? No. But a big step forward in measurement & evaluation for the PR Industry. (16 November)
‘Not everybody wakes up dreaming of metrics and data. In fact, 99.9% of people don’t. And rightly so. So we wanted to ensure we were providing next-generation, credible metrics for those with other things to do.’
- Stuart Bruce: AMEC Measurement month speaking engagements (15 November)
‘I’m speaking at a couple of Measurement Month events. Both are remote events that are free to register for.’ - Andrew Bruce Smith: PR people don’t care about measuring outcomes. (15 November)
‘When asked which metrics do you plan to use in 2022, coverage volume still continues to rank number one. Of the 17+ other metrics considered, only sales and revenue could be regarded as an outcome metric (cited by 22pc).’ - Paul Cheal: Measurement Month: Working Backwards with Allison Spray – H+K Strategies [podcast] (15 November)
‘I do not believe in a black box solution, a one-size-fits-all approach. Good measurement is like a tailored suit, custom-made for you.’
Consulting, teams and careers
- Phillipa Chikwedze with Gemma Cook: Let’s chat comms podcast (15 November)
‘I work at TikTok, looking after consumer brand comms. In short, I look for global good news stories to tell.’
Content and creativity
Risk, crisis and reputation
It was great to have the opportunity yesterday to talk to @itvcalendar about how to approach crisis communication and the situation at Yorkshire Cricket Club.
If you want to check it out it was on last night https://t.co/Y4jDlUjzXN #crisiscommunications #crisismanagement pic.twitter.com/Grb0haZszE
— Amanda Coleman (@amandacomms) November 12, 2021
- Vicki Marinker with Sheena Thomson: What the corporate world can learn from how the Navy manages a crisis [podcast] (19 November)
‘I was appointed as the NATO spokesperson in Bosnia in the lead-up to the Kosovo conflict.’
Brands, celebrity and influence
- Orlagh Shanks: The Ethics Of Online Influencers (15 November)
‘Ethical influencers are often the best to partner with and offer a very high return on investment. There are also the influencers known for their ‘good influence’ where they promote causes tackling climate change, plastic pollution and more.’
- Jessica Pardoe: Why Do Christmas Ads Lose Their Appeal? (15 November)
‘John Lewis were truly on to something golden when they near enough monopolised the Christmas advertising industry for a time, but we have to accept that they simply can’t retain that level of amazing content forever.’ - Katie de Cozar: Why Taylor Swift is a marketing genius – and four key lessons brands can learn (no date)
‘Isn’t that what we’re ultimately doing as communicators—striving to build a deep connection between a brand and its audience, based on trust?’
Internal communication
- Katie Macaulay with Phil Dobson: Brain care: Mastering your mind [podcast] (17 November)
‘If you’re feeling a little frazzled as 2021 draws to a close, then please consider this episode as our gift.’ - Jenni Field: What is internal communication? (18 November)
‘I would encourage leaders to think about where they can invest the most time and how employee engagement will be measured. That’s the biggest question for me – how do you measure it?’ - Rob Yeldham: How to write about equity, diversity and belonging (16 November)
‘Alastair Campbell was recently reported as saying that using the right language feels like walking on eggshells. It can feel like a minefield. Concepts like white privilege can be triggering for people who do not feel that privileged.’
Media, digital and technology
- Paul Campbell: Do telecoms journalists plan on attending MWC 2022? (18 November)
‘Babel spoke to journalists from a selection of international telecoms publications – Light Reading, TelecomTV, The Mobile Network, Telecoms.com, Mobile Europe, Fierce Wireless, Vanilla Plus, RCR Wireless, Computer Weekly and Mobile News – about their plans for MWC 22.’
Academic and education
- Ilan Manor, César Jiménez-Martínez and Alina Dolea: An asset or a hassle? The public as a problem for public diplomats (16 November)
‘During the Cold War, the public was a prized asset. Both Western powers and the Soviet Union used international broadcasting in an attempt to sway public opinion and win the Cold War.’
#prstudent #CreatorAwards22
https://twitter.com/sophiersmith19/status/1459100933254791168
- Julie Mari (Solent):
@juliemariA day in my life ##PRStudent ##CreatorAwards22 ##adayinmylife ##southampton♬ Rumors – Jake Miller - Elena Niculescu (Solent): COP 26: Just talks, carbon-heavy food & racism (16 November)
‘In the Scottish Larder category, they had ‘’Haggis, Neeps & Tattis’’ cost 6.5 GBP and used 3.4kg of carbon, its vegetarian option only 0.6kg of carbon. Only two thirds of the menu options used below 0.5kg of carbon. The menus were measured by Swedish start-up Klimato to help delegates ‘’choose the dishes with the lowest carbon footprint”.’ - Bethany Gough (Solent): Is corporate activism genuine or just a good PR tactic? (15 November)
‘Fast fashion brands such as Pretty Little Thing spoke out about the BLM protests yet have failed to continually campaign for change.’ - Andrea Carbonell (Solent): “Boys will be boys” (13 November)
‘Boys will be boys is a phrase we should stop using, because being a boy does not give you the power to wolf whistle, wink at you, grab your bum or try to take a photo up your skirt.’ - Jasmine Denike (LCC/UAL):
@jazzdenike ok but #minivlog #datinginlondon #singlelife #prstudent #ukgradstudent #londontok #uktiktok #ual #shoreditch #datingstorytime #dailyvlog #bumble ♬ Why Are There Boundaries – Fkj