This week in PR (5 April)
Profession and ethics
- Alan Anstead: An Englishman in Latvia: On Sir Stephen Tallents [podcast] (31 March)
‘Join me as we learn more about the man and how he operated, like how he created the Tallents Line border between Latvia and Estonia. We will even visit the town that Tallents divided, Valka/Valga.’ - Stuart Bruce: Senior lawyer says it is unethical not to use AI (25 March)
‘“One may ask rhetorically whether lawyers and others in a range of professional services will be able to show that they have used reasonable skill, care and diligence to protect their clients’ interests if they fail to use available AI programmes that would be better, quicker and cheaper.”’
- Daniel Tisch: 2024: A ‘hinge’ year for global communication (25 March)
‘Five forces are driving change in the roles of communication leaders: the pandemic’s cultural aftermath; geopolitical conflict; the evolving relationship between business and society; the impact of technology, particularly AI; and the continuing crisis in public and stakeholder trust.’
Business and finance
- Tom Carnegie: FTSE 100 breaks new ground: Glass half empty or half full? (4 April)
‘On Tuesday afternoon, the FTSE 100 index set a new all-time high, hitting 8,015.65 points, surpassing the previous record closing level of 8,014 set in February 2023.’
Purpose, climate and ESG
SUSTAINABILITY COMMUNICATION DIPLOMA
- Zharina Arnaldo: Five Ways To Communicate Impact And Tell Your B Corp Story (no date)
‘The question I’m often asked is, “How do we communicate our positive business impact?”. Here are five ways that B Corp companies can share the great work they are doing to build a better world.’
- Sophie Morello: Purpose on payday March 2024 (28 March)
“With a Republican backlash against ESG in the US, it is perhaps no surprise that there was no mention of ESG in the [Larry Fink] letter this year, and just a couple of passing mentions of sustainability / sustainable investing.’ - Steve Earl: The ESG Review: ESG communications moves from quantity to quality (27 March)
‘Perhaps the greatest signal of underlying ESG commitments and investments continuing despite much consternation about what to say about them is the US Government’s news that the Biden administration will put a further $6 billion into public decarbonisation projects.’ - George Hutchinson: The End of Purpose and The Too Hard Box (25 March)
‘A couple of years ago you couldn’t move for Chief Executives queuing up to tell the world and their investors how their corporate strategy was grounded in purpose… Move forward to today and those voices have quieted and the corporate world feels a bit bereft, left with a tinnitus of purpose reminding us that they once wanted to be more.’
- Sarah Browning: 3 tips for communicating about your responsible business (22 March)
‘Communication about responsible credentials is not something that can be simply top-down or seen as commanded from ‘on high’. You need to tell stories from a range of different sources to illustrate the culture of your whole organisation.’
Consulting, skills and careers
- Sarah Cockett: The future of PR: Flexibility, training and socio-economic diversity – please! (2 April)
‘I find the challenge of constantly adapting quite exciting. I hope this continues to happen within the industry as it evolves, with a continued openness to adapting to new technology, new practices and new ideas.’
- Eden Shelley: What’s it like working in B2B public relations? (2 April)
‘I think it’s easier to make really creative campaigns in the consumer sector, because you have a lot more things at your disposal like social media. But in B2B, while you still have tools like content creation and graphic design, you have to put more effort into making campaigns creative. But I actually think that makes it more gratifying.’
- Borja Iglesias: Making mistakes: Why communication is a problem and a solution (3 April)
‘Whatever the misstep, how leaders communicate is paramount to damage control. Clear communication is essential to stop mistakes from spiralling and further harming the team. Honesty also helps build trust and respect and can transform a mistake into a positive end outcome if communicated well.’ - Ben Smith: Mitch Kaye, celebrating 10 years of The Academy on the PRmoment podcast (2 April)
‘Dan and I felt there was an agency of the future that we wanted to build, but we felt it best to do that outside Engine. It’s easier second time round because you have a body of work. It’s a brilliant time for consumer PR.’
- Emma Duke: Why I’m qualifying as a coach (2 April)
‘I’m not leaving PR. I love it, but bits of the industry feel a bit broken and the connections between leaders and their publics feel hollow.’ - Maja Pawinska Sims: Headliners: Andrew Bloch (29 March)
‘To run a successful business, agencies need to be more focused than ever on their margins. There’s no point running an agency that isn’t profitable.’
Gender, diversity, health and wellbeing
- Arvind Johal: People like us (1 April)
‘People Like Us is an award-winning not-for-profit that celebrates and supports journalism, marketing, and communications professionals from Black, Asian, Mixed Race and minoritised ethnic backgrounds.’ - Shilpa Saul: IWD proved the need for authenticity over tokenism in public relations (26 March)
‘In recent years, we’ve witnessed a surge in performative activism, where brands prioritise optics over substance, using IWD as an opportunity for self-promotion rather than genuine advocacy.’
Politics, public affairs and public sphere
- Stuart Thomson: Don’t Ignore The Power of Intuition: Why Gut Feeling Is Still Important (2 April)
’Intuition is the culmination of years of experience and accumulated information. Those that can process that information and experience are better able to assess the views and advice of others as well as any of the information available to them.’
Crisis, risk and reputation
- Emma Drake: Rerun: How brand advocacy could help manage reputation impact in your business [podcast] (4 April)
‘Brand advocacy is about wanting people to recommend your company. A trusted network of people can also help you out of a reputation hole. Employees can be some of the best brand advocates alongside business partners, influencers and customers.’ - Robin Tozer: Everybody is watching you (26 March)
‘For celebrities and business leaders, it is not enough to just to call in crisis lawyers and PR when news breaks, reputation needs to be constantly considered. Culture is more important than ever, with issues quickly addressed, before they fester. You can’t just behave well in public, or a Company appear to be good from the outside if inside the culture is rotten. The truth will get out.’
Internal communication
INTERNAL COMMUNICATION DIPLOMA
- Katie Macaulay with Rachel Miller: Leaving the ladder down: Helping IC pros step up [podcast] (3 April)
‘There was a gap in the market for a book on internal communication strategy. It’s been a pleasure to write this book. Once I started to write I found I couldn’t stop. I was diagnosed with ADHD last year and so I had to hyperfocus.’ - Claire Munro: Book Review: Internal Communication Strategy (29 March)
‘This book is intended to be practical for anyone with internal communications in their remit, whether in a communications or human resources team. While not an academic read, it touches on useful theory, deploying a breadth of references, including renowned internal communications theorists such as Dr Kevin Ruck.’
- Jenni Field: The importance of organisational purpose (25 March)
‘The correlation between purpose and employee engagement is high. So, when it comes to looking at employee retention, productivity and efficiency, all routes lead to purpose.’
Media, digital and technology
- John Harrington with Allison Spray and Natasha Torres-Coote: ‘We’re turning up the heat on AI’ – MSL, H&K on PRWeek podcast (3 April)
‘AI will mark a change to our jobs. AI will produce lots of the content but you’ll always need those guardians of quality who can critically review the work AI has produced. We have to be more critical.’
- Ben Eaglestone: April’s Digital PR Trends and Updates: Answer engines, social search and spam crackdowns (2 April)
‘Digital PR is so much more than link-building—it’s building reputation and authority wherever your target consumers are spending time. Earning our way into conversations on these platforms and originating content should be important components of any comms strategy this year.’ - Trevor Young: PR Essentials: Your toolkit for building visibility, influence and trust in today’s noisy digital-first world (25 March)
‘Owned media is just as crucial as social media engagement, with earned media being the ‘icing on the cake’, with the ability to turbo-charge the reach and credibility of your business, personal or nonprofit brand.’