This week in PR (28 February)
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.
News in brief
So it's been a rough weekend.
On Friday, the Chancellor shared a photo of our tea. Politicians do that sometimes (Jeremy Corbyn did it in 2017). We weren't asked or involved – and we said so the same day. Lots of people got angry with us all the same. pic.twitter.com/7uVmKDf7Jd
— Yorkshire Tea (@YorkshireTea) February 24, 2020
- AxiCom’s European CEO Henry Brake has died aged 45. There’s an obituary in PRovoke.
- The CIPR is inviting experienced practitioners to apply to join the judging teams for its regional PRide Awards.
Academic and education
- Markus Wiesenberg and Ralph Tench: Deep strategic mediatization: Organizational leaders’ knowledge and usage of social bots in an era of disinformation (April 2020)
‘This paper explores the knowledge and usage of social bots by organizational leaders in an era when trust is declining in many institutions and professions.’ - Andy Green: ‘Social Capital PR’ – a new branch of public relations and Comms practice (24 February)
‘Most will recognise the term ‘Social Capital’, yet few really understand what is, how it works and how it could be harnessed to provide an improved way of doing ‘Public Relations’.’
Purpose and professionalism
- Jenni Field: CIPR President Jenni Field’s February Update Video (26 February)
‘At head office I’m delighted that we’ve welcomed a Knowledge Manager to the team.’ - Jon Gerlis: Culinary diplomacy to K-pop: ‘soft power’ in international communications (25 February)
“Global diplomacy is now far less about the size of your army, more about who has the best story.”
Conferences and exhibitions
TODAY IS THE DAY! #PRFest 2020 is LIVE! I'm so pleased to launch "Seriously Organised People" tickets (£105+VAT), plus the added bonuses of PRFest headshots, buddying for newbies AND four elements of the programme! Stay tuned for the tweets or visit https://t.co/JBAKKUlP1o NOW! pic.twitter.com/KJ9FqP9m6v
— PRFest (@ThePRFest) February 27, 2020
Consulting and careers
I wrote about agency growth for @prweekuknews — but with only 500 word limit, wanted to expand on some of my thinking here. https://t.co/fYwJ6OwyIS
Especially with more examples of what agencies should do differently to pursue depth.
— Max Tatton-Brown (@MaxTB) February 26, 2020
- Ben Smith with Tamara Littleton: Can a virtual agency scale? [podcast] (26 February)
‘The Social Element helps brands have a genuine connection with their consumers. We’re obsessed with social and with human behaviour on social. I call it the three Cs: there’s creative, consultancy and communications.’ - Chris Owen: Recruiters. A plea. (25 February)
‘Understand what we do. And you know what, if you don’t handle talent in the space we operate in, just be honest. Don’t try and bluff your way through b2b tech.’ - Katie de Cozar: Acing the PR agency briefing process (no date)
‘Here are my top five considerations before putting pen to paper which will help you kick off the process in the search for the ideal PR partner.’
Public and third sectors
- Dan Slee: WATER COURSE: What you can learn from communicating the floods (28 February)
‘Forget the emerging channels such as TikTok or instagram. In an emergency, your website, Twitter and Facebook are the three places to concentrate resources.’ - Edward Welsh: A changing team in a changing world (27 February)
‘Our communication activity is underpinned by research and evidence, with clear objectives and a corporate narrative aligned with what we’ve heard and tested.’
Politics and public affairs
- Stuart Thomson: Public affairs under a majority government (26 February)
‘For the last ten years in Westminster, we have known nothing but coalition and minority governments. Boris’s sizeable election win last year put an end to all of that.’ - Claire Smyth: No government? No problem! Lobbying in Northern Ireland (25 February)
‘The breakdown of the Stormont government necessitated this more creative approach to lobbying.’
Wellbeing, gender and diversity
https://twitter.com/LiamSmithSocial/status/1233154861266501635
- Debs Field: Managing Maternity (24 February)
‘A year ago, I saw a job advertised and knew I wanted it. It was the next step up for my career, with a company I had great respect for, in an industry I adored. I polished up my CV, took great care with my covering letter so it didn’t sound too much like fan mail, and submitted it with a rush of adrenaline. The next day I got a very different rush of adrenaline: I was pregnant.’ - Jed Hallam: Finding belonging: imposter syndrome, adland, and culture (21 February)
‘For most of my career to date, I’ve felt like an imposter. What compounds this is my fear of losing what little sense of belonging and security I was starting to feel. But being an outsider – or an imposter – just means that you’re different from the dominant archetype. For a long time imposter syndrome has been seen as a typically female trait, but I think it’s much more intersectional than that.’
Campaigns and creativity
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Golin London (@golin.lon) on
Brands, storytelling, content and influence
https://twitter.com/michaelwhite1/status/1232739550256123905
- Ella Minty: The People Behind The Brands On Social Media (27 February)
‘Behind most brands’ social media handles there are only employees, paid to broadcast corporate blurb and, sometimes, constructively engage with their followers.’ - Orlagh Shanks: Does Politics Belong in Influencer Marketing? (26 February)
‘The campaign strategy apparently came from a company called Meme 2020 who were also behind promoting Fyre Festival and well, we all know how that turned out.’ - Sarah Lay: 7 top tips for paid content copy and creative (24 February)
‘Unlike billboards, or mass media ads in traditional channels online ads don’t have to be a one-way push at people, but can be the start of a conversation. - Ste Davies: Influencer marketing in 2020 with Scott Guthrie [podcast] (no date)
‘A key trend is data and insight. The conversation has moved from ‘we need it’ to ‘can we trust it?’.’
Measurement and evaluation
- Andy West: Plan it, don’t wing it (26 February)
‘I’m troubled by the transactional mentality that pervades the industry which, if left unchecked, can serve to undermine the credibility of our profession.’
Internal communication
- Rachel Miller: Say no to logos (26 February)
‘In my mind you have one brand identity and hopefully just one logo.’ - Helen Deverell: Top writing tips for internal communications (25 February)
‘People generously shared so much good advice that others could benefit from, so I’ve collated them all here in this blog.’ - Trudy Lewis and Advita Patel: The Internal Comms Holy Grail: Measurement and ROI [podcast] (25 February)
‘It’s an area a lot of internal communicators do struggle with. There hasn’t been anything that’s been done specifically for internal communicators.’
Technology, media and digital
- Phil Szomszor: Yorkshire Tea inadvertently whips up the mob: why being a social media manager is harder than you might think (27 February)
‘Who would want to be a social media manager for a brand? Sounds like a cushy job, manning Twitter and Facebook all day. But if the Yorkshire Tea Twitter storm has taught us one thing, it’s that it’s complicated.’
- Steph Palmer: The importance of working with local and trade press (26 February)
‘National newspapers aren’t always the key to success. Many businesses overlook local and trade press, not realising that they are important for growth.’ - Duncan McKean: Please, no Big Yellow Taxi for the BBC (no date)
‘I love this little image that shows the relative value you get from your BBC licence fee now versus 1995. Simply put, more for your money.’ - Holly Hodges: PR Blogger Spotlight: Jessica Pardoe (25 February)
‘We’re thinking more about reputations and less about media relations. Meaning that there’s less of an emphasis in getting brand coverage here, there and everywhere, but more getting great exposure for your clients in areas that are really relevant to them. I’ve also noticed a massive shift in influencer marketing over the past couple of years, and I think that despite its flaws, influencer marketing is absolutely here to stay.’ - Stephen Waddington: Book review: Powerful B2B Content by Gay Flashman (24 January)
‘Brand journalism is a form of content marketing whereby an organisation reports on its business, people, events and industry news. It’s a concept as old as the web itself but is something that very few organisations do well.’
#prstudent #bestPRblogs
Huge thanks to our rising star panelists for sharing a few invaluable career tips with PR undergrads today at our Career Development Day. @UniWestminster. pic.twitter.com/tnj7WhsKA9
— PRCA (@PRCA_UK) February 25, 2020
- Hannah Chambers (Ulster): Tesco Proves Every Little Does When It Comes To Diversifying Their Product Range. (27 February)
‘The plasters also show the power of social media, as the product was developed as a response to an emotional tweet from a US Man who was able to find a ‘band aid’ in his own skin tone for the first time.’ - Emma Rogers (Solent): Too little, too late (27 February)
‘I personally will never respect or buy from Victoria’s Secret until they cater to all sizes, properly celebrating diversity in all shape and form.’ - Niamh Murray (Ulster): Don’t shout at tea. It talks back. (26 February)
‘Yorkshire Tea’s response got a hell of a lot more attention than the original post by Rishi Sunak did.’ - Paulina Solka (Leeds Beckett): The long and rocky road called equality (26 February)
‘Just because men don’t experience sexism doesn’t mean that it does not exist.’ - Teela Clayton (Leeds Beckett): I will live in the past, the present, and the future. The spirits of all three shall strive within me. (26 February)
‘I can flick through a multitude of new to Netflix programmes and then decide to watch a film on Sky whilst recollecting the clatter of the VHS machine as it rewound to the start of the tape.’
- Niamh MacManus (Ulster): Have you too been victimised by marketing decoys? (26 February)
‘At the end of the day, these secret marketing strategies are just one big catalogue of manipulations really. Hopefully by reading this it will make you slightly more aware of the sneaky games retailers play on us daily.’
- Susan Greer (Ulster): Single or Self-Partnered? (25 February)
‘The stigma of being single has lessened over time. As a result of women like Emma Watson who have gone on to say, “It took me a long time, but I’m very happy [being single]. I call it being self-partnered.”’ - Shannon Walsh (Ulster): My experience in the busiest press office in the country (24 February)
‘There were days that you would have 20-30 calls on your book to deal with and so efficiency was key, this isn’t the kind of place that you would succeed in if you didn’t cope well under pressure.’
Huge thanks to everyone who participated in today’s @PR_Solent Crisis Sim exercise.. you all worked very hard and demonstrated excellent professionalism! Congrats to the 2 winning teams.. sorry only got one photo.. pic.twitter.com/6DsKTlkSDa
— Lynsey Watt (@LWattPR) February 27, 2020