This week in PR (5 April)
In the news
Was a year in the making but we’re winners of ?EVENT OF THE YEAR? for Valentine’s at Greggs ❤️❤️❤️#PRMomentAwards pic.twitter.com/QpqdNdZclG
— Fiona (@millsy_f) April 4, 2019
- Here are all the winners from Thursday’s PR Moment awards: south and north.
- CIPR released its State of the Profession 2019 study. See commentary on this below.
- Arcadia Group has appointed MHP on a short-term contract. According to Financial News, several other agencies refused to pitch for Sir Philip Green’s business.
- LEWIS has appointed Leila Mountford as creative director. A 2013 Greenwich PR graduate, she previously worked at Amnesty International, and before that The Romans.
- Gender pay gap reporting: this was such a big story last year, but has been widely ignored this year. Yet the figures appear to be going in the wrong direction. The BBC has a pay gap calculator and explanation of terminology.
We’re proud to say that 30 year old @LansonsLatest has no #GenderPayGap (well 0.8%). We’re a company that’s always been run by women and men – and is fair to everyone.
The #publicrelations average is a shocking 21%.
Our report, published last year: https://t.co/xBNVmDJPPd
— Tony Langham (@TonyLangham) April 5, 2019
Academic
CFP extended to 10/4/19. Calling all UG/PG in PR – great opportunity to hear @GregsAnne and deliver your own paper. @UlsterPRStudent @QMUPRProgrammes @PR_Place @historyofpr @BUPR_Soc https://t.co/vb6dvQHQAQ
— Grant Thoms Chart.PR, MCIPR (@GrantThomsMCIPR) April 5, 2019
- With marketisation comes marketing: The Guardian provides some numbers showing how much universities are spending on student recruitment. For the University of Central Lancashire, it was £3.4 million in the last academic year (compared to £70,000 spent by Durham). Anglia Ruskin has 120 full time equivalent staff in its marketing team.
Insights and opinions: Pick of the posts
These are the editor’s pick of posts about public relations this week (UK focused, but with a global outlook). Recommendations are welcome to editor@prplace.com or @pr_place
State of the profession
- Sarah Hall: The profession is in a right old state. This is a pissed off post – less talk, more action please (no date)
‘For an industry that purports to place people front and centre of our work, it appears we are spectacularly failing and worst, we’re all apparently cool with that.’ - Dan Gerrella: The State of PR: Wrong skills and very little diversity (3 April)
‘The industry is mainly white (92%) and disproportionately represented by people who went to a fee-paying school (27% versus a UK average of 7%).’ - Avril Lee: School’s not out for PR: An industry for white public-school alumni (3 April)
‘We’re at least more diverse than the notoriously un-diverse Parliament, where 32% of MPs have been to private schools, but only just.’ - Koray Camgoz: Public relations is becoming less diverse – we cannot afford to maintain the status quo (3 April)
‘Some 28% of the public relations workforce have attended private school. That’s four times the national average and those who are privately educated in our industry go on to land more senior roles and command higher salaries than their state-educated peers.’ - Stuart Bruce: Top 10 takeaways from the CIPR State of the Profession Survey 2019 (3 April)
‘There is strong evidence that PR practitioners with a commitment to professionalism earn more. Chartered practitioners earn an average of £18,000 more per year, while those with a professional qualification earn an average £3,800 more. CIPR members earn £2,963 more than non-members.’ - Stephen Waddington: Learn to write and you’ll have a job for life (2 April)
‘Writing is an important and often underappreciated skill in business. The CIPR data shows that if you can write well you’ll likely have a job for life.’
Consulting, careers and skills
Great to see Nina Dowell’s @DowellNina Newgate board appointment in @CityAM.
This means the most senior managerial roles in the company, Executive Chair, Chief Executive and COO, are all held by women. https://t.co/zs3ptajQNt#WomenInPR #GlassCeiling @emmavkane @DeborahSaw pic.twitter.com/j3bygOVdDZ
— Newgate Comms (@NewgateComms) March 29, 2019
- Fiona Pargeter: 5 habits to make you a successful leader (4 April)
‘Good managers lead. They also plan, organise and control, but I think leadership is where you can make the biggest difference.’ - Andy West: Hotwire & Hoffman Asia: Another piece in the global PR agency jigsaw (3 April)
‘Building a new alternative to the global order is both fun and exhausting. It takes commitment and luck in equal measure as well as a healthy dose of self belief. So when, over the course of a few short months, a plan comes together it makes all the air miles and time worthwhile.’ - Ben Smith: Sarah Scholefield, CEO, UK and Ireland, Grayling, on the PRmoment podcast (2 April)
‘The people piece is really important. If you get the people right, everything else falls into place.’ - Iliyana Stareva: Why The Challenger Sale Approach is the Best Approach to Consulting Too (2 April)
‘Every B2B sales rep falls into five different profiles that define the skills and behaviours they use when interacting with customers. These profiles describe a rep’s natural mode of interacting with a prospect and are not mutually exclusive. I think these apply to the types of consultants as well.’
Politics and public affairs
- Charlie Pownall: The UK’s failure to rebut the euromyths is a cautionary tale (2 April)
‘Stories abounded of the EC (now EU) banning bendy bananas or curvy cucumbers or outlawing cheddar cheese or forcing donkeys on beaches to wear nappies. The problem: very few were true.’
Public and third sectors
- Joanne Ford: Pressing pause: a playlist for comms team development (1 April)
‘We agreed that for the month of December we would step back from the day to day stuff as much as possible and focus on our team’s development. We stripped back our social media schedule and held off on any proactive PR and stakeholder engagement except what was absolutely essential.’
Gender, diversity and wellbeing
- Advita Patel: Be proud of who you are (no date)
‘I’m such a champion of people believing in themselves and never apologising for who they are, yet here I was feeling a little embarrassed about being on this list compared to what all the other fabulous people had achieved.’
Brands and influence
- Scott Guthrie: Don’t like influencer marketing? Then offer a better alternative (2 April)
‘Yes, influencer marketing is suffering from teething problems in some quarters. What young industry doesn’t?’ - Roger Darashah: The Apparent Demise of Influencer Marketing Does Not Invalidate the Relevance of Influencer Engagement (2 April)
‘In essence, the difference between the much-maligned Influencer Marketing and Influencer Engagement is as stark as between rugby and football; both involve a ball and kicking it.’ - Stephen Davies with Scott Guthrie: Making The Case For Owning Your Own Online Platform [podcast] (no date)
‘If my only shop window is on rented land, how is that going to work out in the long run.’
Trust, crisis and reputation
- Timo Burbridge: An erosion of trust: Boeing struggles against tide of criticism (4 April)
‘Passenger trust in technology underpins the entire aviation industry, and for many of us flying has become a ritual that has permeated both our personal and professional lives.’
Internal communication
We’re thrilled to announce that we’ve been recognized by @IABC with a Gold Quill Award of Excellence for Disrupting the Function of IC – A Global Perspective. Congrats to all contributors of the eBook and to all 2019 winners! Full list of winners: https://t.co/gLm5UTL1yJ #IABCGQ pic.twitter.com/i8SvXsjsbo
— IC Kollectif (@IC_Kollectif) April 2, 2019
- Katie Macaulay: How to communicate Brexit (1 April)
‘We remind leaders that our employees are astute. They are insiders. They can spot spin and obfuscation a mile away. But in the case of Brexit, how do we communicate when almost everything is still unknown?’
Media and digital
Want to write a piece for the Financial Times opinion page? https://t.co/Ba56Q8B5hR (FT, free to read) – FT opinion pages seek contributors. Provides a good guide to producing opinion pieces in general.
— Karan Chadda (@kchadda) April 2, 2019
- Jason Mackenzie: Words work (4 April)
‘The chances are you don’t craft campaign messages. But you do write, and speak. These are the main tools we use to influence and persuade others.’ - Gini Dietrich: Adopting the PESO Model as Your Own is Theft (3 April)
‘I LOVE that the industry has adopted the PESO model. I do not love that people think it’s OK to take the model and the image and pretend it’s their own.’ - Paul Sutton with Darryl Sparey: To blog or to podcast: that is the question (2 April)
‘Blogging is the entry-level drug – it’s cannabis – whereas podcasting is the hard stuff, it’s crystal meth!’ - Claire Etchell: Interview with David Meerman Scott (1 April)
‘Meerman is my middle name – there are a whole bunch of David Scott’s out there – one who was an Iron Man triathlon champion, a David Scott who is a member of Congress, a David Scott who walked on the surface of the moon and so rather than compete I use my middle name Meerman in my professional endeavours. This has been a really important aspect of my branding in that I am one of one rather than one of many.’ - Harry Gardiner and Isobel Arrowsmith: PRCA PRcast episode 4: Rax Lakhani [podcast] (1 April)
‘There’s this phrase: content is king. No it isn’t: conversation is king!’ - Nicola Rossi: Facebook asks government to take a more active role in the internet (1 April)
‘Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has surprised some commentators by suggesting that ‘a common global framework’ is needed to regulate the internet.’
#CommsSchool
CommsSchool on Facebook
- Yana Miladinova (Bournemouth): The art of branding yourself (4 April)
‘Twitter and LinkedIn are the professional networks, where you need to have an online presence. You must keep them up-to-date, because as I mentioned before, people do ‘stalk’ you on social media.’ - Marcel Klebba: Personal branding basics and leaving digital footprint (2 April)
‘In practice, personal branding is your online presence, social profiles and your blog or site. It’s what people will see on these sites — colours, headers, profile pictures. It’s up to you how you position it. Personal branding online is everything others see about you online.’
#prstudent #bestPRblogs
PR Careers: 2019: 150 PR internships and graduate schemes
- Heiða Ingimarsdóttir (Leeds): Surrounded by sales! (4 April)
‘I have a knack for sussing people out, I quickly learned how to “hook” which characters to get then to agree on a meeting. With some I had to be ballsy and witty, others needed information, some I had to be very formal with, others I had speak very calmly to and then there were the ones that didn’t want to know I existed.’ - Orlagh Shanks (Liverpool John Moores): The Line between Sponsored Posts and Plain Old Adverts (3 April)
‘I think there is a lot of confusion and ‘winging it’ when it comes to advertising with Influencers. Is it sponsored content, a paid partnership or paid promotion? Or is it just a plain old #Ad?’ - Rachel Mole (Southampton Solent): The Reality of Finding Work Placements (3 April)
‘For the last six weeks I have been frantically trying to find work placements for my upcoming assignment for University, however what I didn’t expect was how hard it was really was going to be.’ - Lucy Hayball (Bournemouth): #Startingout: Career profile with Marcel Klebba (2 April)
‘Blogging and content creation can help you get ahead. That’s one of the reasons why together with Stephen Waddington, my long-time mentor and now boss, we founded Comms School — Facebook community, where we run a series of webinars for students and teach practical skills you need to start blogging.’ - Niamh Murray (Ulster): Are we Easily Offended? (2 April)
‘It’s pretty straightforward – if people don’t want to be called something, don’t call ’em it. Drake’s real name’s Aubrey, but he doesn’t like it (wonder why) so wants to be called Drake. So what do we do? We call him Drake. See how easy it is??’ - Megan Tidbury (Southampton Solent): Top 5 April Fool’s Day Ads (2 April)
‘April Fool’s Day is the perfect time for professionals to make the most of their creativity.’ - Katie Gebbie (Sunderland): Pitching To Journalists (1 April)
‘Be unique and be exclusive. When you’re pitching to a journalist it isn’t the same as creating a ‘send to all’ press release.’ - Eleanora Izzo (Leeds Beckett): Walking and writing: the perfect recipe to calm the soul (1 April)
‘Writing is an incredible self-discovery tool, because it forces us to make sense of our story from an outer perspective, as if we could see ourselves from the outside.’ - Silje Bekkelund and Maria Torstad (South Wales): Social media influencers: podcast edition! (31 March)
‘There’s a debate going on in Norway (where we are both from) about influencers and the responsibility they have on social media.’ - Ceri Jones (South Wales): How much does it really cost to start a profitable blog? (30 March)
‘This is the crucial, number one step if you really want your blog to be profitable. You’re not just starting a blog, you’re starting a business, and like any other business you need to invest in it for it to be a success.’