This week in PR (6 November)

Author: Richard Bailey, Editor
6th November 2020 15 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.

Lone figure on a wet seafront @MandyPearse
Lone figure on a wet seafront @MandyPearse

News in brief

https://twitter.com/stuartbruce/status/1323954706885058560

  • Philippe Borremans is the president-elect of the International Public Relations Association (IPRA). ‘The Public Relations profession today is more crucial than ever. Our organisations – be it private, public or non profit – are all under pressure. Political, social and environmental changes are constant and stakeholders are more active than ever. It takes a communication professional to navigate these waters, build bridges, explain strategies and make an impact. We are the only profession with the skills to navigate complex relationships with a multitude of key audiences.’

Covid-19 and comms

  • Claire Simpson: 5 Comms lessons from the pandemic (3 November)
    ‘The last six months have given rise to a completely different context around purpose for brands and many organisations have stepped up to make meaningful contributions, or smaller acts of kindness, at a time of great public need.’

Purpose and professionalism

  • Harry Shackleton: Will responsible business survive the recession? (3 November)
    ‘Purpose has become the hot topic over the last few years, and a band of consultants have sprung up to address the market, or added it to their existing roster of brand and PR services.’

Consulting, teams and careers

Wellbeing, gender and diversity

  • Richard Fogg: Driving diversity: Our new client charter (no date)
    ‘The Blueprint is an amazing piece of work. It’s been put together so mindfully, it’s so thorough and it forces you to really think hard about your agency’s commitment to diversity. In short, it’s doing precisely what it set out to do.’
  • Orlagh Shanks: New Month, New Lockdown, New Goals (2 November)
    ‘Hello lockdown my old friend. I’ve come to socially-distance-talk with you again.’
  • Amanda Coleman: Facing the future by focusing on today (1 November)
    ‘There is no doubt 2020 has been a hugely difficult and at times damaging year. Living through a pandemic puts us under huge pressure. What we need to do is be kind to ourselves, help each other and remember that these times will pass.’
  • Elizabeth Bananuka: When no one cares if you eat… (31 October)
    ‘Fighting inequality and racism is exhausting and I’m spent. Since June alone I have emailed 36 individuals to call out hypocrisy, poor D&I practices and/or racism.’
  • Daniel Cattanach: feels on wheels: how it started – how it’s going…  (30 October)
    ‘I thought that I should share my thoughts on the things that I’ve learned over the last five(ish) weeks. I’m going to try to impart this knowledge in the way I know best; through cycling-themed puns.’

Public and third sectors

[If you have the time, click on this tweet and read the thread – twice!]

Politics, public affairs and public sphere

Brands, storytelling, and influence 

https://twitter.com/Vuelio/status/1322126525525905417

    • Adam Tuckwell and Jon Wilcox with Lee Price: Don’t send me your creds deck [podcast] (5 November)
      ‘The Paddy Power PR gig is not a standard PR gig. I learned to do it my way and it seemed to go OK. I’ve just reviewed our PR and have banned our team from sending out day-to-day press releases. We’ve now moved to a brand PR focus.’
    • Scott Guthrie: UK AD watchdog makes first ruling on TikTok ad (4 November)
      ‘A hairdryer advertisement fronted by Emily Canham has become the first TikTok post to be ruled against by the UK’s advertising watchdog.’
    • Vassilena Valchanova: Message Mining: Don’t Write Great Copy – Steal It! (no date)
      ‘Message mining is a great tactic that lets you quickly understand what customers are interested in and how they speak about their problems and potential solutions.’

Measurement and evaluation

Internal communication

https://www.linkedin.com/embed/feed/update/urn:li:ugcPost:6729410862953578497

Technology, media and digital

  • Stephen Waddington: Search listening and insights (5 November)
    ‘We turn to the search engine to ask questions and seek out information that we wouldn’t ask anybody else. The search engine almost certainly knows more about us than our partner, parent, or children.’
  • Jessica Pardoe: Extending The Lifespan of PR Coverage (4 November)
    ‘To me, “you can get paid to drink pints”, was a perfect angle, and it turns out it worked for the press too. The piece got picked up in the likes of LadBible and The Mirror, and was syndicated through to other big titles too.’
  • Badara Jeng: Media relations is the same as dating (3 November)
    ‘There is a fine line between following up with a journalist and harassing them. Don’t be annoying. If a journalist asks for some time to look over a report, press release, or article you sent them, don’t chase later that day.’
  • Sophie Shaw: Will perennial bridesmaid LinkedIn ever become the bride? (no date)
    ‘The June 13th, 2016 acquisition of LinkedIn, by Microsoft promised much. Excitement heralded from the owner and pioneer of Microsoft Dynamics getting to grips with LinkedIn and finally helping it to achieve its promise. Sadly, we’re still waiting for this to happen.’
  • Annabelle Lawrence: 2021 social media planning checklist (no date)
    ‘Social cannot be ignored – half the world’s population is on it, and to be honest, with many other media facing challenges in reaching audiences right now, digital marketers really need to spend some time integrating social into early planning.’

https://www.linkedin.com/embed/feed/update/urn:li:share:6729714823505985536

#prstudent #bestPRblogs

https://twitter.com/missmilliePR/status/1323009893176135682

  • Eloise Newman (Solent): Insensitive or Lucrative: Is It Ever Ethical To Use Sensitive Situations As A PR And Marketing Tool? (5 November)
    ‘At a time when well-being and positivity is as important as ever, it seems that this particular organisation missed the opportunity to reach out to loyal customers and showcase their products in relation to what benefits they could bring. Instead, this advert focussed on consumers’ negative thoughts and tried to encourage sales by manipulating consumers’ feelings of stress and worry.’
  • Emer McDevitt (Manchester Metropolitan): Going down the rabbit hole – evaluation and measurement in 2020 (5 November)
    ‘The interviews also highlighted that although senior practitioners and their departments were engaging in strategic behaviours (a common example of this was the frequent mention of ensuring communication objectives met with overall organisational goals), they were not truly operating as a strategic management function.’
  • Lauren Simmons (Ulster): Is Freelancing the Answer? This is My Journey. (5 November)
    ‘I hope to continue freelancing alongside my degree and sign more clients when I graduate. If you’re thinking of putting the skills you’ve learned during placement or your course into practise and want to dive into working for yourself, then I couldn’t recommend it more – why not go for it? If I can do it, I promise, you can too.’
  • Keela Costello (Ulster): My Work Placement Experience Before and During a Global Pandemic (4 November)
    ‘I had always worked in retail and hospitality and had no idea what working in an office environment would be like, let alone working in a Marketing and Communications role.’
  • Megan Laura Harris (Liverpool John Moores): NHS Campaign: ‘Help Us, Help You’ (3 November)
    ‘The NHS realised that around half of the public were not accessing the help that they needed so they relaunched the ‘Help Us, Help You’ campaign.’
  • Kayla Collins (Ulster): What life is like as a student during Covid-19 (3 November)
    ‘Doing online lectures at home you find yourself feeling tired, and mentally not at the lecture, most of the time you don’t even realise you’ve zoned out until you zone back in again.’

Related topics

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