This week in PR (9 July)

Author: Richard Bailey, Editor
9th July 2021 13 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.

Into 3rd set @denis_shapo v @karenkhachanov - it’s SO close @Wimbledon #Wimbledon 👊 @iain_w_anderson on Twitter
Into 3rd set @denis_shapo v @karenkhachanov - it’s SO close @Wimbledon #Wimbledon 👊 @iain_w_anderson on Twitter

It happened this week

https://twitter.com/Melissacannon76/status/1413051345687531520

Academic and education

Here’s the speaker information and booking links for next week’s MindThePRGap conference (free registration)

  • Stephen Waddington: Public relations capitalism versus societal purpose (8 July)
    ‘Cronin has analysed public relations from the perspective of a social science. It’s a young profession that is working hard to professionalise and improve its status as a management discipline. Critical texts such as Public Relations Capitalism: Promotional Culture, Publics and Commercial Democracy remind us that it is very much a work in progress.’

Sport

ESG, corporate and financial

  • Louise Nicolson: Revealing All (no date)
    ‘The Financial Conduct Authority is currently consulting on proposals to extend the application of their climate-related disclosure requirements to all listed companies.’
  • Alex Malouf: What’s your green license to operate? (7 July)
    ‘As a communicator, I envision a time this decade when climate change will become one of the top three issues that stakeholders ask of their organizations. Organizational leaders are going to be asked, “what is your green license to operate?” In other words, what are you doing to mitigate climate change?’
  • Gihan Hyde: How brand truth will bring your ESG and Green story to life (5 July)
    ‘As times are changing, due to climate change, social injustice and decision making, Brands must evolve too. By looking in depth at your Brand Truths you will reveal how to shape your future goals in a way that fits in closely with your values, your Brand culture and ultimately, your proposition.’

Consulting, teams and careers

Wellbeing, gender and diversity 

  • James Ellaby: Why we need to elevate the voices of autistic people – not talk over them (6 July)
    ‘As a parent to an autistic boy, I consider it my responsibility to read as much as I can to enable me to help and support him with whatever life has to throw at him.’
  • Rachel Royall: My living donor journey (5 July)
    ‘Regarding the impact of kidney donation, there are a lot of things to think about because the decision doesn’t just affect you, it also affects your family and your children. I would describe the impacts as both emotional and physical.’

Public and third sectors

https://twitter.com/Salzasal/status/1412661344667590660

Politics, public affairs and public sphere

  • Alice Wilkinson: Meet your new landlord, John Lewis (8 July)
    ‘Iconic British retailer, John Lewis, made headlines this week with the announcement that it plans to build 10,000 rental homes over the next decade.’
  • Sara Neidle: How do we improve the ‘pensions consumer journey’? (6 July)
    ‘For starters, we need to change the language around pensions. Do we even call them pensions anymore? Some people have been talking about a ‘Future Fund’.’
  • Stuart Thomson: The importance of soft power (5 July)
    ‘It is not all about direct power and arguing about your issue. Instead good public affairs is so much broader than that. It listens and learns as well as argues.’
  • Matthew Mann: Government eases restrictions and bursts school bubbles (6 July)
    ‘Benefits from youngsters receiving the vaccine are primarily societal, given the low risk of serious illness or death from catching the disease in children, which will pose a moral dilemma in the eyes of many.’
  • Andrew Adie: Why bad gardeners are good for the environment (5 July)
    ‘A report out last week from the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee stated that the UK has the lowest level of biodiversity of any G7 country.’

Campaigns, creativity and behaviour

Internal communication

  • Rachel Miller: What startups need to know about internal communication (8 July)
    ‘In my experience, what leads to Comms professionals being hired is the realisation time, money and effort is being wasted due to employees searching for credible, accurate and reliable information. It’s at this point Founders think about investing in internal communication.’
  • Sam Knowles: Winning awards in the time of Covid (8 July)
    ‘With last year’s ICE Awards inevitably Covid-cancelled, Thomas and his team were determined to celebrate great work in internal communications and engagement combined with a properly three-dimensional experience that also accommodated the nation’s love affair with Southgate’s young and dynamic team. It paid off.’
  • Jenni Field: Working from home reduces productivity by 20% (7 July)
    ‘This evidence indicates that employees worked longer but less productively, with output remaining about the same. People are less productive because they still aim to reach the same output or goals, they just work longer to be able to achieve that level of output.’

Technology, media and digital

  • Emma Lyons: Essential comms skills: the art of writing a good press release (7 July)
    ‘All too often we churn out ‘information’ and not news. I think my days at a vicious PR agency have drummed in to me how important it is to find the news angle, how to make the facts interesting and how to get this into a few words in the first line!’
  • Oliver Hughes: In conversation with: Rory Cellan-Jones

    (2 July)
    ‘We were delighted to host the BBC’s Technology Correspondent, Rory Cellan-Jones, in conversation with ENGINE MHP’s Head of Capital Markets, Oliver Hughes – where they explored the impact of technology and its ability to infiltrate all aspects of our lives and become intensely personal.’

  • Tilly Haines: What Are Backlinks And Why Are They So Important? A Short Guide (2 July)
    ‘A good backlink profile is rich and diverse, spanning links from niche industry publications, local links (particularly for businesses with a brick and mortar presence), large, authoritative sites with high traffic, as well as smaller websites with less traffic.’

Related topics

#ThisWeekinPR