This week in PR (26 November)

Author: Richard Bailey, Editor
26th November 2021 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.

Seven Sisters cliffs @darylwillcox on Instagram
Seven Sisters cliffs @darylwillcox on Instagram

It happened this week

Profession

  • Mandy Pearse: November video update (25 November)
    ‘Coming up in December we’ve got a series of events looking at climate change and our response to COP26.’
  • Tony Bradley: Thank you for helping us to help you (23 November)
    ‘This year, our work has included funding the CIPR’s professionally-staffed mental health hotline, as well as all the material that is available via the supporting online resource centre.’
  • Stuart Bruce: ICCO Global Summit 2021 shows PR industry bouncing back (21 November)
    ‘One of the most interesting sessions for me was the keynote by Alex Aiken, executive director, UK Government and until recently, head of the Government Communication Service.’

ESG, corporate and financial

  • Paul Sutton with Pete Martin: Tackling sustainability and avoiding greenwashing [podcast] (24 November)
    ‘Investors are actively seeking companies where ESG principles are strong. Greenwashing simply does not cut it in 2021.’
  • Richard Bicknell: Position Available: Pay – $130m-a-year (25 November)
    ‘A cursory glance over the London Stock Exchange’s Regulatory News Service is littered with plc’s announcing delays to their reporting due to their auditors requiring further time.’
  • Louise Nicolson: Right Here, Right Now (no date)
    ‘Do not just communicate your goal for 2050, or even 2030. Show where you aim to be next year. Tell stakeholders what you are doing today.’

Public and third sectors

  • Clodagh Pickavance: How to create a growing Instagram account (19 November)
    ‘Largely, Instagram is for escapism. Users want to see beautiful pictures and they want the content to inspire them, whether it’s with a family activity, next stylish staycation, or a new fitness class. So my first ‘rule’ for Instagram is ‘beautiful content only’.’
  • Ross Wigham: What’s eating NHS comms? (19 November)
    ‘One clinical colleague said recently that we’ve gone from “clap to slap” with the doorstep celebrations of the summer a distant memory.’

Politics, public affairs and public sphere

https://twitter.com/jofield1/status/1463906584728375296

  • Laura Grifiths: A Channel Tragedy (25 November)
    ‘Whatever the circumstances of individuals may be for choosing to make the crossing, the priority for both the UK and France should be a safe and legal passage for refugees to use  to prevent any further loss of life.’
  • Sian Jones: Will Labour and Plaid’s deal leave the Conservatives out in the cold? (25 November)
    ‘Although Westminster still tends to get a little queasy at the prospect of cross-party working, it’s long been the norm here in Wales.’
  • Imogen Shaw: Might a four-day week be the future after all? (25 November)
    ‘This week, Atom Bank made headlines with an announcement that it has introduced a four-day working week, without loss of pay – making it the largest company to do so to date.’
  • Daniel Lowther: White Ribbon Day: How can we stop male violence against women and girls? (no date)
    ‘So, what can we do as individuals, businesses and across society more widely? The only way to answer this question is to change it. What can men do as individuals, in the workplace and in their communities to stop make violence against women and girls?’
  • Tiffany Burrows: Made in the UK, sold to business? (23 November)
    ‘The government has long been criticised for not providing enough support for the services sector, something that the Export Strategy goes some way to rectify. Services make up around 80% of UK GDP, accounting for 49% of exports in 2020.’
  • Scott Harker: Vroom vroom, Peppa Pig World and Moses: has the laughter stopped? (23 November)
    ‘Viewed in isolation, the speech would not have done much damage to the Prime Minister (if anything, it played to his disorganised, ‘wing it’ image). However, on the back of the Owen Paterson scandal and growing disquiet at the failure of levelling up to match the Government’s impressive rhetoric, the speech gave the impression of a Prime Minister lurching between crises with little control.’
  • Ben Peart: The power of the political cartoon (no date)
    ‘Political cartoons are fundamentally a British phenomenon. Despite ‘going global’, British creators still lead the political cartoon ‘industry’, if you can call it such a thing. The first cartoons were created by the ‘Shakespeare of the etching pen’, James Gillray in the late eighteenth century.’
  • Alison Dunlop: Shared Decision Making — Is Progress Threatened by the Move Towards Remote Consultations? (22 November)
    ‘The Patient Voice Panel brings together an ethnically diverse group of patients from a variety of demographics, living with different long-term conditions. Our aim is to understand the unique perspectives of lived patient experiences to help shape the decisions and communications strategies of organisations involved in healthcare.’
  • Aimee Howard: Biodiversity Net Gain-changer (19 November)
    ‘The Act includes a new statutory requirement for developers to ensure all new schemes include improvements to surrounding biodiversity – a ten per cent Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG).’

Wellbeing, gender and diversity

https://twitter.com/bmeprpros/status/1463563413943164928

  • Jenni Field: Seek a second opinion (24 November)
    ‘[Matthew Syed] focuses on diversity of thought and how bringing together different people from different backgrounds and walks of life can forge a really strong viewpoint and truly effective solutions.’

Planning, measurement and evaluation

  • Paul Cheal with Tom Watson: Measurement Month: A golden age for PR M&E with Professor Tom Watson [podcast] (22 November)
    ‘AVE always limited PR to being a media practice whereas most practitioners, whether in government, not-for-profits, corporates or consultancy were looking at organisations and their role, their behaviours, their actions out in the community.’

https://twitter.com/Commetric/status/1463920038147145730

Consulting, teams and careers

  • Marc Cohen: Thinking of a change in career? PR/communications could be for you (no date)
    ‘A career in PR is a great way to use many transferable skills developed across a range of industries but in a fun, creative and challenging industry.’
  • Antonia Welch: Tips for building long (and happy) relationships with your clients (19 November)
    ‘Don’t stop communicating. Schedule regular calls and ask for feedback to ensure things are going along as you think they are – you may have failed to pick-up on something but, by talking regularly you can avert issues becoming serious and do something about them before they impact negatively on your relationship.’

Behaviour and influence

Internal communication

 

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Media, digital and technology

  • Darren Caveney: Case study: Twitter vs LinkedIn engagement (25 November)
    ‘For me, all comms pros should be on Twitter – it’s the number one breaking news channel and an influential professional platform. And I add LinkedIn to that essential role for profile raising, network building, promotion of our offer and keeping in touch with people frankly we see less of in our Covid world.’
  • Trevor Young: Reframing how we use social media: Presence + Value + Connection = Heat (21 November)
    ‘Generating ‘social heat’ is my way of saying that your brand is attracting attention for all the right reasons. People start taking notice of you, and it’s not just brand awareness either: it’s deeper recognition for what it is you do, and what you stand for professionally, or as a business.’

Academic and education

  • Stephen Waddington: Back to school (25 November)
    ‘I’m kicking off a part time PhD at Leeds Business School next year to explore how public relations can drive innovation in organisations.’
  • Scott Davidson: Jump 7: The pseudo (social)science of boomers and millennials & the background briefings backlash (22 November)
    ‘I have always considered generations to be for social science what astrology is to astronomy. None the less, it is important for public affairs, because it is how profound demographic and social changes are discussed and policy implications understood.’

#prstudent #CreatorAwards22

For students

https://www.linkedin.com/embed/feed/update/urn:li:share:6868886580325609472

By students

  • Jasmine Denike (LCC/UAL):

    @jazzdenike saved this sound for this specific date #minivlog #datinginlondon #marylebone #dailyvlog #fyp #prstudent #ual #gradstudent #single #bumble ♬ Everybody Wants To Rule The World X Electric Love – darcy

  • Sadie Straw (Sheffield Hallam): My experience as an intern in public relations (24 November)
    ‘No day is ever the same and being able to work across B2C and B2B clients, alongside influencer campaigns, is exciting – I love the collaboration and creative process, so being able to work with the team to develop ideas and then implement them has been great.’
  • Julie Mari (Solent): Environmental activism & Coca-Cola (24 November)
    ‘Two other activists had the idea of discreetly replacing the labels on Coca-Cola bottles in supermarkets in the south of the UK with similar labels, but with strong messages such as “Choking Dolphin”, “Retching Turtle” and “Strangled Seabird”. The project aims to raise awareness about plastic pollution.’
  • Elena Niculescu (Solent): Fashion just got lighter (23 November)
    ‘Fashion just got lighter, because a well known fashion brand – CHLOE –  the first luxury maison to become B-Corp certified last month, as reported by EcoWatch. There wasn’t much of press fuss about it, there was no noise on social media about it. They came a long way from being rated ’’Not good enough’’, after ’’18 months of collective work by our teams worldwide’’(Chloe 2021).’
  • Bethany Gough (Solent): Does social media encourage corporate greenwashing? (22 November)
    ‘PLT marketed this line as sustainable, but, in reality they use planet-damaging polyester in most of its clothing and have taken little to no meaningful action to improve its environmental credentials.’

Related topics

#CreatorAwards22 #prstudent #ThisWeekinPR