This week in PR (2 December)

Author: Richard Bailey, Editor
2nd December 2022 17 min read

About the author

Richard Bailey Hon FCIPR is editor of PR Academy's PR Place Insights. He teaches and assesses undergraduate, postgraduate and professional students.

It happened this week

  • The Financial Times has reported on the governance debate within the PRCA.

Profession

Purpose, climate and ESG

https://twitter.com/AnthropyFounder/status/1598381985633894423

  • Lucy Walton: Loss and Damage (no date)
    ‘The most memorable outcome of COP27 was the agreed fund for climate justice, from which payments will be given to developing countries who suffer “loss and damage” from the implications of climate change.’
  • Arun Sudhaman: Analysis: As Easy As ESG? (28 November)
    ‘The disconnect between the flimsy rhetoric of ESG reports and the reality of corporate risk management that they are intended to represent is something that communicators must address if they are to overcome the notion that ESG is nothing but hot air.’

Consulting, skills and careers

 

https://www.linkedin.com/embed/feed/update/urn:li:share:7002981830144442368

  • Stuart Bruce: ICCO World PR Report – PR leaders optimistic, despite global challenges (28 November)
    ‘Strategic consulting’ and ‘purpose and ESG’ easily top the list of skills that will be required by PR professionals around the world over the next decade. As usual with these type of surveys it’s hard to separate the public relations and communication areas of practice, from the skills needed to do them.’
  • Ella Minty: Instinct. Intuition. Gut feeling. (28 November)
    ‘My instinct and intuition have helped me enormously along the years, but I never relied on them alone; to do that would be very dangerous because the environment we operate in is much more complex than that of the hunter-gatherers of millennia ago.’

Gender, diversity and wellbeing

  •  Samiah Anderson: D&I in Public Affairs: What’s missing? (30 November)
    ‘PA professionals are the conduit between business, government and the general public who wish to influence legislation that impacts everyone in this country. A diverse workforce shaping the law can only further aid policy decision-making that is more inclusive and equitable.’

Public and third sectors

https://twitter.com/laura_skaife/status/1598054778873204736

Politics, public affairs and public sphere

  • Max Richardson: The current energy crisis is a sign of more to come (1 December)
    ‘At current rates, there will be over 1 million electric cars in the UK within two years, all of which will need charging, raising the question, can we handle the extra demand?’
  • Matteo Bellani: Halfway to 2030: Equalising the Global HIV Response (1 December)
    ‘Ending the AIDS pandemic is both an ethical imperative and an urgent health and economic priority. Yet, in the age of polarisation in public debate, HIV no longer inspires the strong feelings it once used to, the kind which motivate more vocal advocacy.’
  • Emily Wallace: So, where are the workers going to come from? (30 November)
    ‘Both Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer gave speeches at the CBI conference that all but dismissed employers’ demands for immigration rules to be relaxed to allow them access to the people they need to support the growth of their businesses.’
  • Doug Johnson: The Levelling Up Bill – blowing in the wind? (29 November)
    ‘Despite a pledge from Rishi Sunak to maintain the moratorium on onshore wind during the Conservative leadership contest in the summer, the Business Secretary, Grant Shapps, has said that the government can see a place for onshore wind, ‘where communities are in favour of it,’ and where it benefits communities.’

Brands, content, community and creativity

  • Josephine Timmins: Just What Exactly is PR? (1 December)
    ‘Every brand has a set of values, a mission, a raison d’être. And the role of PR is to tell the story around those values.’ 

Research, data, measurement and evaluation

https://twitter.com/PRCA_HQ/status/1597622365999009792

Crisis, risk and reputation

https://twitter.com/MrsCulverwell/status/1597589819898699777

Behaviour and influence

  • Scott Guthrie: Verity Park founder of TBH Talent talks creators [podcast] (30 November)
    ‘I’d create videos with rate card estimations, strategy predictions, and I show the behind the scenes of the industry which people rarely get to see those videos began gaining traction with some of them reaching over half a million people. The TikTok algorithm honestly never fails to amaze me.’
  • Nick Taylor: Tyto launches 2022 Tyto Tech 500 influencer report (30 November)
    ‘Overall, business leaders and journalists continue to be the most prevalent influencer types across UK, France and Germany, this year accounting for 58% and 19% respectively… However, it is the Academics that have gained the most significant ground in our rankings, up 25% across Europe since last year and 118% since 2020.’

Internal communication

  • Liam Fitzpatrick: Intelligence has to make sense to the boss (1 December)
    ‘Our challenge is to present information in a way that helps leaders make better communications decisions. Great sources and methods, and analysis only work when a reporting officer can help the leader make sense of the insights on offer.’
  • Mike Klein: Winning in 2023: Five Key Firefights for Internal Comms (28 November)
    ‘Businesses are generally measured on the actions they take (what people do) – operationally and commercially – yet for the most part, internal comms data is largely based on employee engagement surveys, which measure how people feel.’
  • Calm Edged Rebels: What makes us credible? [podcast] (25 November)
    ‘I think we get a bit stuck in trying to encourage leaders to be authentic. If you take two politicians to illustrate the point: you could argue that Donald Trump and Boris Johnson are both authentic; but you could also argue that neither is credible.’

Media, digital and technology

https://twitter.com/danslee/status/1597918526630555650

https://www.linkedin.com/embed/feed/update/urn:li:share:7004007688275697664

#prstudent #CreatorAwards23

This section is open to any UK-based public relations student (or indeed, any UK-based student seeking a career in public relations). Tag your shareable content with #prstudent and I’ll consider it for inclusion here.

  • Chloe Rose (Sunderland): One Love… but only when it’s allowed (30 November)
    ‘Though both the Qatari governement and FIFA officials insist that everyone is welcome regardless of sexuality, members of the LGBTQ+ community have been left with doubts after looking at the country’s track record of how they’ve been treated in the past.’
  • Destiny Hollern (Sunderland): The influence of influencers: why they are vital for the PR gaming industry. (29 November)
    ‘According to Google’s internal data of 2018, 200 million people watch gaming content on YouTube, double the television audience of that year’s Super Bowl. When the pandemic hit in 2020 that skyrocketed numbers due to people being at home looking for escapism around 62% of adults to be precise.’
    • Chloe Angel (Manchester Met):
@chloeeangeel4 Day in the life of a student ambassador This is the first voice over I’ve ever done so sorry it’s not the best #studentambassador #dayinthelife #fyp #mmu #manchestermetropolitanuniversity #openday ♬ original sound – Chloe Angel

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#CreatorAwards23 #prstudent #ThisWeekinPR

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