This week in PR (24 November)
Profession and ethics
- Heather Yaxley: Reflexivity Memo on PR practice from craft skills to education. A case of ‘plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose’. (22 November)
‘While PR has become a graduate occupation, most practitioners are not qualified in their chosen field. This is despite availability of a greater range of undergraduate, post-graduate and professional qualifications that offer specialism in public relations or as part of another subject. A minority of practitioners are members of professional bodies, and a low percentage of members participate in formal continuous professional development programmes.’ - Katie Marlow: Top four themes from CIPR Horizon Conference (18 November)
‘Katie King, MBA gave an incredible session on AI. Her experience and knowledge is incredible from her membership of the All-Party Parliamentary Group Taskforce for AI to her business experience she’s amassed extensive knowledge.’
Purpose, climate and ESG
SUSTAINABILITY COMMUNICATION DIPLOMA
- Alli Hayman: Spotlight on the built environment at COP28 (21 November)
‘The built environment accounts for almost 40% of global energy-related carbon emissions and 50% of all extracted materials. If the cement industry were a country, it would be the third largest emitter in the world, behind China and the US. The challenge to decarbonise is gargantuan.’
Consulting, skills and careers
- Mike Carhart-Harris: Working from home (23 November)
‘I’m pro-flexibility and hybrid. I don’t want to be in an office five days. But I can feel lonely, demotivated and unfocused. I sit in a (quite nice) box for 7.5 hours most days. I block out my lunch break. I get stuff done. I have Teams meetings. I’m an introvert and value solitude. But most of the time I don’t feel very… connected.’ - Farzana Baduel: A Strategy for Success: with Prof. Nirmalya Kumar [podcast] (21 November)
‘Strategy is the most challenging part of running a business. It’s about making choices: what we’re going to do, and what we’re not going to do in future. And based on these choices we’re going to deploy our limited resources.’ - Orlagh Shanks: Why I Prefer Being Alone To Being Around Other People (19 November)
‘I’m never the loudest person in the room, don’t like to draw attention to myself and can be pretty awkward at conversations with people I don’t really know. This is hard when it comes to working in public relations, as you’re meant to be a schmoozer and be able to work your way around a room.’
- Ben Smith: In Hindsight: Charlotte Brooks, managing director at Mischief on the PRmoment Podcast (17 November)
‘This year has been tough; there’s greater scrutiny from procurement teams than ever before. Where we’ve been fortunate at Mischief is that we have strong, retained clients. Those retainers give you a bit of security.’
Gender, diversity, health and wellbeing
- Marie-Alix du Putter: Breaking the Silence: A Conversation on Mental Health in African PR (no date)
‘At the Bluemind Foundation, we are aware that the onerous task of destigmatising mental health on the continent cannot be carried by one party alone. That’s why we’re always open to collaborating with all stakeholders, whether state, private or other. This is the only way for us to achieve lasting results.’
- John Harrington: From the UK editor: Does PR need an advocacy group for men? (20 November)
‘It’s my view that ‘Men in PR’ could be a progressive force for good in the industry; encouraging men to talk openly, spreading good practice, and highlighting where change is needed; ending PR’s gender pay gap could be an explicit aim, for example.’
Public and third sectors
- Hayley James: How PR teams worked together to make Eurovision in Liverpool a success (22 November)
‘Liverpool undertook a forensic data gathering exercise on the event to ensure that the legacy of Eurovision in the city was captured and articulated in a sort of ‘annual report’ of the event.’
Politics, public affairs and public sphere
- Nathalie Dixon-Young: Tax, tax, tax: Hunt’s Autumn Statement was a tax give-away aimed at driving growth (23 November)
‘Speculation is already mounting that further tax announcements will follow in a pre-election ‘give-away’ in the Spring Budget, and Hunt was clear that the government’s plan will have an immediate real-term impact, but the job is not complete.’
- Laura Thomas: Vantage Point x Baroness Nicky Morgan: The advantage of being curious and thinking broadly in politics [podcast] (22 November)
‘What I want to do with this series is to get behind elections: to understand the thinking and motivation of those standing for reelection; how to put together a manifesto; what’s it like to be at the heart of a campaign; what’s it like to be involved in a campaign headquarters.’ - MHP Group: Political Insider: Autumn Statement 2023: Jeremy goes hunting for a pre-election boost for the Conservatives (22 November)
‘Lower-than-expected inflation has given Jeremy Hunt some fiscal wiggle room, hence the gamut of crowd-pleasing announcements, especially around National Insurance and other elements of personal taxation.’
- Tom Frackowiak: Autumn Statement – five takeaways (22 November)
‘Fiscal events are always highly political, and you may be forgiven for thinking we are entering a General Election year – with measures to freeze all alcohol duty until 1st August 2024, a cut in employee National Insurance by 2%, and the government reconfirming its commitment to the triple lock resulting in a rise in the state pension by 8.5% in April 2024.’
Brands, content, community and creativity
- Alex Myers: Let’s kill ‘the Consumer’ (22 November)
‘‘Consumer’ is an economic term that pre-dates contemporary brand thinking. It came before we recognised the power of peer-to-peer recommendation. Before social media. Before the internet even. It is a term coined by economists to help define transactions, and it boils each and every one of us down to the transactions we make, rather than the actions we take.’
- Stephen Waddington: Book review: Wallman and Edwards strike again (21 November)
‘How Brands Blow is contrarian and anti-establishment. It joins a growing body of work in the marketing industry by practitioners such as Cindy Gallop, Bob Hoffman, Rob Mayhew and Dave Trott.’
Research, data, measurement and evaluation
Crisis, risk and reputation
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- Amanda Coleman: 10 minutes with Rachel Miller
(21 November)
‘I have a very unscientific test I call ‘the snow test’. If you’re faced with heavy snow, where would you go for trusted information on whether it’s safe to travel? Is it your line manager? Is it the intranet?’
- Amanda Coleman: 10 minutes with Rachel Miller
Internal communication
INTERNAL COMMUNICATION DIPLOMA
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- Jenni Field: How to run more effective meetings (22 November)
‘Be clear about when cameras should be on or off if you’re online and if the meeting is hybrid, explain how you will run it if you’re chairing it so people know what to expect.’
- Jenni Field: How to run more effective meetings (22 November)
Media, digital and technology
- Ruby Tyson: “You come at the King, you best not miss” (23 November)
‘Just like that, after four days in exile, Sam Altman has been reinstated as CEO of OpenAI. While the likes of Elon Musk on the one hand are congratulating OpenAI on a good marketing stunt, others are worried about what this means for the future of AI.’ - Paul Sutton with Stephanie Henson and Becca Caddy: Screen time, burnout and techtimeout [podcast] (22 November)
‘It’s really simple: just take a techtimeout. In January 2020 I started building the website and thinking about awareness campaigns.’ - Neville Hobson: The hate speech problem on X: a test of conscience for users and brands (18 November)
‘The serious challenge for X now is not only financial but also about upholding ethical standards in content moderation, which is crucial for maintaining advertiser and user trust. The trouble is, such a challenge does not appear to matter at all to Elon Musk.’ - Claire Simpson: LLM Wars: How to choose the right AI model as a marketer (no date)
‘While Open AI has been the de facto market leader since launch, it’s no longer the only game in town. Big Tech rivals from Meta to Google have lined up to challenge ChatGPT’s dominance.’
Academic, education and training
- Rebecca Roberts: Ben Verinder on the challenge of further education [podcast] (no date)
‘About 80% of FE is for 16-18 year olds; then there’s this large and varied adult market. It’s a heady mix and a considerable diversity of market.’
