This week in PR (25 March)

It happened this week

Flowers are left in tribute at the National Covid Memorial Wall on the Albert Embankment in central London yesterday to mark the second National Day of Reflection and remember those who died during the pandemic pic.twitter.com/ypkSWM21lz

— John O'Brien MBE (@AnthropyFounder) March 24, 2022

P&O Ferries

• City A.M. editorial: P&O boss’s performance is a slow motion ferry crash into reputational damage (25 March)
  ‘If one of London’s esteemed public relations agencies was involved in the briefing of P&O boss Peter Hebblethwaite before his appearance in front of a parliamentary committee yesterday, it would perhaps be wise for said firm not to put it in their next pitch document.’
• Alex Malouf: A Tale of Two Brand Reputations – MNCs in Russia and P&O’s Sacking of 800 UK Workers (23 March)
  ‘Firms must think about the reputational impact of their actions, especially in a digital world where anyone and everyone can comment in an instant.’

• Mark Borkowski: Will P&O Ferries get cancelled? (22 March)
  ‘Will this abhorrent treatment of workers impact P&O Ferries’ brand and profit? Sadly, I suspect not. Time and again we see big businesses bully workers and customers and get away with it.’

Ukraine

Today we've launched the new PRCA ICCO Ukraine Communications Support Network (UCSN) to coordinate volunteer comms activity for the people of Ukraine.

Read reaction from Co-Chairs Nataliya Popovych & @TBoneGallagher and find out how to get involved. https://t.co/gjZxtuuXte pic.twitter.com/RsyAzI1t5Y

— PRCA (@PRCA_HQ) March 22, 2022

• Sheena Thomson: The Ukraine/Russia war – doing the right thing (24 March)
  ‘Drawing on some of my Balkan conflict experience in the 1990s, here is what I recommend we pay attention to now and in the coming weeks and months.’

• David Gallagher: Actions Speak Louder Than Words: Five Minutes With Paula Stei (18 March)
  ‘Everywhere I went the action was run by volunteers like me – seemingly rocking up with no concrete plan and just trying to help the best they can. I did not see a single representative of any government, Red Cross, OCHA, Unicef… So with a huge humanitarian crisis being left in the hands of inexperienced civilians, it all remains very chaotic and inefficient.’

Leadership

• Georgie Proctor: The role of a role model (24 March)
  ‘When looking at the role models in my life – many being my colleagues, our CEO Emma Kane, my dad, my cousin, even many of my friends – I often wonder, why exactly do I consider these people role models?’
• Emma Kane: Is it time we reimagined the CEO? (22 March)
  ‘As the founder of an entrepreneurial business and now the deputy CEO of an international firm which has three deputy CEOs all with specific geographical focuses and also a collective responsibility for building one business, I see the benefits of building a leadership team every day but I see too few businesses embracing this as a new approach that delivers better business outcomes in a world that is changing.’

Purpose and ESG

• Sean Farrance-White: Comms People: Net Zero needs you! (22 March)
  ‘The latest IPCC report from the UN states that emissions at current levels would result in “irreversible” impacts and that 40% of the global population are “highly vulnerable” to climate risk. Mitigating the worst effects of this planet-wide heating will require a fundamental shift in the global economy.’

Consulting, teams and careers

https://twitter.com/10Yetis/status/1507243947852247040

• Rich Leigh: Reintroducing… Radioactive (no date)
  ‘We are Radioactive. The home of measurable creativity, across our range of services, including digital PR, creative stunts, media relations, technical SEO, influencer marketing, affiliate management, paid social and more.’
• Andy West: Time: Sell it, track it & don’t give it away – why timesheets matter (22 March)
  ‘I’m a disciple of Neil Backwith, an industry legend who literally wrote the book on agency management based on his experience of taking Countrywide into Porter Novelli and leading that firm in EMEA for several years. Neil uses the term ‘wastage’ when describing the scourge of our industry which is over-servicing.’
• Holly Monger: Meet the ‘Numbers: Q&A with Natasha Carter, Communications Executive (no date)
  ‘I’ve been learning about PR for three years and it’s nothing like the ‘real thing’. There’s so much more to it than on paper and agency life is definitely more interesting than just reading about it in a textbook.’
• Amanda Coleman: Still here two years on (23 March))
  ‘During the past two years there are times I doubted myself, particularly in the early days when the lockdown turned the world upside down, and I thought it was not going to find any work.’
• Jessica Morgan: Finding your tribe when you start a business (22 March)
  ‘Before I began to grow the business and took on my first employee, I found it invaluable to work alongside others. I quite quickly found that it’s possible to create a tribe even as a sole trader. This is where I found mine.’

Gender, diversity and wellbeing

If you want to do one thing for yourself / your career, it should be this.

Socially Mobile has been challenging, but in a good, I’m pushing myself, kind of way.

Cannot recommend it enough! https://t.co/xM2VOKqmol

— Nafisa Ali Shafiq ~she/her~ (@NafisaShafiq) March 20, 2022

• Michelle McVeigh: Is ADHD a superpower? (24 March)
  ‘This week is Neurodiversity Celebration Week and I want to talk about the good side of ADHD and, in particular, how a career in communications can play to the strengths of ADHD.’

Could you explain these words to others in your organisation? #CiprCymru pic.twitter.com/irfk4DJndb

— Lisa Davies Chart PR (@Murphster79) March 24, 2022

Public and third sectors

• Dan Slee: POST EMERGENCY part 2: How to shift out of emergency mode (24 March)
  ‘In an anonymous blog, one senior comms person observes that the emergency pace of long hours has become expected. It’s now baked in.’
• Tim Gatt: How to use organic influencing to boost your posts – a 4 lesson case study (21 March)
  ‘At the Department for Education, we’ve been looking at how using credible and relevant influencers organically and at no cost can help boost the visibility of our posts.’

Politics, public affairs and public sphere 

• Emily Chen: Family relationships and international relations…. it’s complicated (24 March)
  ‘Iran’s economy has shrunk by 14.3% as a result of the various sanctions imposed against it, meaning that the recent UK payment of the £400 million debt that opened the way to Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s release was greatly welcomed.’

• Steve Richards: Tax Rises Now, An Income Tax Cut To Come (23 March)
  ‘Usually a pre-election tax cut is kept as a surprise until the very last minute to propel a governing party towards a campaign. But, given today’s announcement, two years before implementation, there will now be no surprise in 2024. The far-off pledge shows that Johnson and Sunak are alarmed by the commentary about their tax-rising policies over the last couple of years.’

• Nick Vaughan and others: Political Insider: Spring Statement (23 March)
  ‘The view taken by those around the Chancellor is that – as people continue to watch the horrific scenes in Ukraine and with a country barely back to a “new-normal” post-pandemic – a sense of security and protection was the prescription required from this Spring Statement.’
• Jonas Helyar: Public Affairs or Parliamentary Affairs? (22 March)
  ‘Consultancies are so important in the political sector. They act as a bridge between political parties, cutting through the tribalistic rhetoric to the heart of an issue and aiming to unite sides on a shared goal.’

Risk, crisis and reputation

• Kate Hartley: Your Crisis Communications Update: It’s a struggle for P&O, Chelsea and Disney (18 March)
  ‘There’s an old saying in crisis communications that you can’t communicate your way out of a crisis you behaved your way into. Yesterday, P&O Ferries behaved its way into one of the worst corporate reputation crises I’ve seen in recent years.’

Behaviour and influence

• Scott Guthrie: Arron Shepherd Goat Agency co-founder talks $100 billion industry [podcast] (23 March)
  ‘For the last 5 or 10 years influence has been seen as an extension of celebrity PR or journalism PR, but we’ve always thought it should be compared to paid media and the other channels that get full measurement.’ 

Media, digital and technology

• Immediate Future: Social Media Statistics you must know in 2022 (no date)
  ‘We are looking at StatusBrew which has shared significant social media stats that marketers should know in 2022.’
• Paul Sutton with Josh Greene: Wikipedia for Business [podcast] (21 March)
  ‘When something looks like marketing and not an objective look at a company, that’s when you run into trouble.’
• Neville Hobson: A new approach to strategy for building community (20 March)
  ‘If community strategy is a topic you are interested in, the first Guild Community Summit will take place in London on 19 May 2022.’

Academic and education

#prstudent #CreatorAwards22

20 years of @globcomProject call for a new look! This year's students will be able to put their own, lasting stamp on the GlobCom experience thanks to an international logo competition. The winner will be announced at this year's #GlobCom22 Symposium in Barcelona (& virtual) pic.twitter.com/zr8V4fCeUO

— Katharina Wolf (@KatharinaWolf) March 21, 2022

• • Martin Agunwa (Leeds Beckett):

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by MC Martin tha ‘Poet’ (@eazymartinez)

• • Jasmine Denike (LCC/UAL):

@jazzdenike SERIOUSLY GUYS 10k?? #minivlog #londonlife #londonvlog #singleinlondon #10k #prstudent #dailyvlog #bigben #londontourist #boroughmarket ♬ Baby – Spe3d_up_songs

• Elena Niculescu (Solent): Walking out on Disney (23 March)
  ‘Disney’s own LGBTQIA+ staff must be feeling disappointed by this bill and CEO Bob Chapek, who apologized to them after a whole week of protesting, but what do apologies mean?’
• Ellie Jones (Liverpool John Moores): Big news! Plus an exciting catch-up… (22 March)
  ‘The whole process of placement applying was really tedious, I am just glad it is over. I can now focus on my dream role and my own personal development in the process.’
• Bethany Gough (Solent): Was the P&O ferries sacking ethical? (21 March)
  ‘I believe that in a post-pandemic world we have become more understanding of others, and I personally have become much more hyper-aware that everyone becomes impacted by things in different ways. By sacking their staff, it is not only the staff who will directly be affected, but subsequently their families and children.’

• Bridie Buckingham (Chester): Are April Fool’s Day Campaigns Still Effective For Brands? (18 March)
  ‘For 364 days a year, brands work hard to create content that builds and strengthens trust with their audience. This is the bread and butter of PR, and it isn’t easy! But on a single day (or even just the morning, if you’re the superstitious type) in April, many brands suspend those trust-building efforts in the name of creating content deliberately meant to fool (or worse, make fools of) their audiences.’