This week in PR (5 March)

Author: Richard Bailey, Editor
5th March 2021 18 min read

About the author

Richard Bailey Hon FCIPR is editor of PR Academy's PR Place Insights. He has taught and assessed undergraduate, postgraduate and professional students.

Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus @thatwilkochap on Instagram
Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus @thatwilkochap on Instagram

News in brief

  • ‘Gordon Beattie resigns following backlash over social media post’ (PR Week)
  • ‘Frank has completed a management buyout from Enero Group, taking back 100% ownership of the UK PR firm, 14 years after it was sold to the Australian holding group.’ (PRovoke News)
  • PR Week has published its PowerBook 2021 list of the most influential people in UK public relations.

Virtual events

Please check out our PR Calendar and send us links to your events.

Academic and education

  • Maja Pawinska Sims with Ralph Tench and Stephen Waddington: Podcast: A Public Relations Textbook For A New Era (4 March)
    ‘I felt that we had to address the fact that society has shifted. Our media landscape is so different from five years ago and keeps moving at pace.’

Covid-19 and comms

Corporate and financial

  • Gihan Hyde: What is ESG and how does it differ from CSR? (4 March)
    ‘In this blog I explain each component of the ESG and how it differs from CSR using two infographics.’
  • Elisabeth Steyn: The UK’s Green Market Moment (2 March)
    ‘On March 10th, the long-awaited EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) kicks in.  The first-of-its-kind regulation asks asset managers to bed sustainability risks into their investment process and disclose the ESG profile of their funds.’

Consulting, teams and careers

https://twitter.com/CIPR_Global/status/1366327379401007105

  • Tamara Littleton: Creating the right space for strategic thinking (1 March)
    ‘I believe that you really need distance from the day-to-day issues and challenges of agency life in order to take a birds-eye view of where the organisation is in relation to its goals, what might need to change, and where there are new opportunities.’
  • Sally-Ann Rogers: A day in the life of a ghostwriter (1 March)
    ‘As a ghostwriter I don’t need to be an expert in the sector, my clients have all the in-depth knowledge required. My task is to craft words – specifically targeting the chosen audience – using my client’s voice and ensuring that when the assignment is completed, the words, tone and overall content is accessible to all.’
  • Isobel Camier: Nurturing tomorrow’s leaders (26 February)
    ‘Get juniors to reflect on their performance frequently. After a project request that they answer inward looking questions: e.g. ‘What did I do well?’, ‘ What could I do better next time?’ This will ensure self-learning and self-questioning becomes part of their personal development.’

Wellbeing, gender and diversity

  • Perry Miller: Sorry, what did you say? (3 March)
    ‘As a group and an agency, we plan to host a number of events for colleagues and clients in the coming months in which we’ll look at the workplace, the use of language and very much affirm the importance of diversity.’
  • Adam Tuckwell and Jon Wilcox with Jay Evans: My Year As A Shielding Practitioner [podcast] (2 March)
    ‘From last March, I was suddenly unable to leave my house as I was told I was at high risk. I started to doubt myself and didn’t have anyone to talk to. Had my dog not been here, there’s a chance I might not be.’ [After 19 mins]
  • Ross McLean: World Hearing Day 2021 – a communicator’s perspectives (2 March)
    ‘It’s important to note that your hearing doesn’t just effect what you hear but also how you feel; the psychosocial impact can be life changing. Hearing loss can cause feelings of isolation and reduced participation, low mood, low confidence, increased stress, fatigue, and frustration; a few of the reasons why people with hearing loss report higher rates of absenteeism.’

Politics, public affairs and public sphere

  • Chris White: Chancellor tries to ease the pain with ‘buy now, pay later’ Budget (3 March)
    ‘Overall, the Chancellor delivered a balanced budget that extended support to the economy but delayed the pain of tax rises until 2023.’
  • Clotilde Gros: Online retailers defend their corner against potential new sales tax (2 March)
    ‘A 2% levy on all goods bought online would raise £2 billion a year for the Government – much needed revenue in light of the cost of the support it has given the country over the last 18 months.’
  • Ciaran Gill: What does COP26 mean for the world? (2 March)
    ‘The COVID-19 pandemic crystallised that the edifice that underpins both modern society and the global economy will always be vulnerable to natural and biological threats. It also illustrated both the interdependence that binds countries together across the world and the capacity of governments to make substantial changes in short spaces of time to address considerable collective challenges.’

Risk, crisis and reputation

  • Amanda Coleman: What is the future for horse racing? (2 March)
    ‘The whole [Gordon Elliot] situation is a reminder for all businesses not to become complacent about how they treat people and animals. If employees lose sight of the human impact of their work it is a slippery slope towards a reputation crisis.’

Brands, storytelling, and influence

  • Scott Guthrie: WTF is an NFT: why creators are turning to Non-Fungible Tokens (4 March)
    ‘NFTs have been around for almost a decade but low interest rates, spiking cryptocurrency prices, easy-to-use online auction houses and the froth of conversations in rooms on Clubhouse have brought renewed interest.’

Planning, insight, measurement and evaluation

Internal communication

  • Rachel Miller: Podcast: How to measure internal communication (28 February)
    ‘You have to measure your internal communication. The mindset I encourage you to have comes from the late great Peter Drucker. He said: ‘If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.’ You need to know the language of measurement: traditionally we have measured outputs.’
  • Jenni Field: Is the focus on hybrid working a red herring for leaders? (26 February)
    ‘Wherever work happens’ is important because for years, work has been happening on trains, planes, in cars, coffee shops and more.’

Technology, media and digital

 

#prstudent #bestPRblogs

https://twitter.com/nettisuveges/status/1365065092883169281

  • Madison Fowler (Leeds Beckett): How Fashion is Going Backwards in Time (4 March)
    ‘I’m curious about how and why fashion is going backwards in time. Have we run out of new ideas? Can fashion designers think only of things that already exist? … Even corsets and big ball gowns from the 1800s becoming increasingly popular all because of a series on Netflix. Is it because we like the actual fashion or is it just because we like the idea of this woman falling in love with a Duke and we want to re-enact this fairy tale ourselves?’
  • Megan Laura Harris (Liverpool John Moores): ‘Love for Libby’ – the small campaign that has managed to gain incredible support. (4 March)
    ‘Before I go into the influencers and how they have promoted the ‘Love for Libby’ account for free, let me tell you about Libby and her story. Libby suffers from Severe Aplastic Anaemia which is a condition where the bone marrow doesn’t make enough blood cells for the body.’
  • Katie Hull (Sunderland): Social Media, Misinformation and PR. (4 March)
    ‘Misinformation is one of the biggest threats, in my opinion, to health. I see countless tweets, statuses claiming that the pandemic is fake, a conspiracy theory and all these other theories which are completely false. Key stakeholders, primarily the public, use this information to spread propaganda, knowing that it will cause immediate distress and panic to millions who view it.’
  • Will Wollaston (Newcastle): Are Press Releases A Thing Of The Past? Cyberpunk 2077 and Their Ransomware Hack (3 March)
    ‘With the rise of social media, media corporations are no longer the gatekeepers of information they once were. Anyone now has the potential to have access to stories in an instant, and so it seems realistic to expect the PR industry to get more creative and move beyond traditional formats, to find new ways to communicate with their relevant stakeholders.’
  • Tara Hamill (Ulster): From student life to adult life, my placement experience. (2 March)
    ‘It was certainly challenging for me going from being a student in university 2/3 days for two years and working a couple days a week, to completely making that switch to a full-time working adult life.’
  • Daisy Hughes (Sunderland): First week in my new Comms role (2 March)
    ‘In terms of internal communication platforms, my company uses ‘Yammer’,which I will be responsible for posting project updates and milestones, positive news etc. I’ve posted two posts now and have created a social media plan for the next couple of months.’
  • Rachael Thompson (Sunderland): The Power of Stories (1 March)
    ‘A lot of what’s involved in the role of a PR practitioner is carving out a brand’s identity, helping it to distinguish itself not simply because of what it offers in terms of goods or services, but also what lies at the heart of the organization – it’s ethos, it’s people, it’s stance on global issues.’
  • Sophie Smith (Newcastle): Does digital PR deserve its own module at universities? (1 March)
    ‘It’s not enough to stick to just traditional PR anymore, the key is to have a mix. Since the rise of the internet we have so many new opportunities for getting yourself and your brand known.’
  • Niamh Deeny (Ulster): The Rise of Veganism – Is Veganism Taking Over? (1 March)
    ‘With over half a million people in the UK pledging to go vegan in January, let’s explore why veganism is taking over?’

Related topics

#bestPRblogs #prstudent #ThisWeekinPR