Smoke Signal, A Public Relations Podcast: Recent Episodes
Paul Cheal
Smoke Signal is Australia's first podcast dedicated to sharing news and views from Australia’s public relations and communication sector. Each episode features a conversation with industry professionals, educators and influencers on the themes, trends and issues shaping Australia's PR landscape. Smoke Signal is hosted by Paul Cheal - an experienced financial and corporate communications leader with over 20 years’ experience working with Australian and global brands to build and protect their reputation.
It is PR Measurement Month! This year, we speak renowned measurement leader and author Mark Weiner. Here’s a bit about Mark to set the scene:
- His latest book PR Technology, Data and Insights was named one of the top three PR books for 2022.
- He is a member of the exclusive Arthur Page Society
- The Institute for Public Relations awarded him Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018
- He is a member of the PR News all of Fame
This year our theme builds on the Public Relations Institute of Australia 2023 Conference theme Ignite to Spark. For Mark his ‘spark’ in many ways came down to a sign he saw outside a coffee shop in California – Begin Simply, Simply Begin. This neatly frames Mark’s advice on measurement and evaluation of PR: there are so many obstacles and challenges but begin simply, simply begin and learn as you go.
For Mark, the key to proving the value of PR is to understand the priorities and preferences of the people who make the budgeting decisions and from there identifying what metrics matter.
Often, communicators assume they know what the executive want without asking them directly. Mark puts it like this: “You are three quarters of the way home if you negotiate properly, understand what is meaningful to them, what is measurable and what is reasonable Once you have that you eliminate a lot of obstacles and traps.”
Mark talks through how using a marketing mix model, bringing in data from all disciplines, can be the way to talk the language of business. In Mark’s experience, advertising gets 70% of the budget and delivers approximately $1.10 in terms of sales; price promotion gets 28% and these loses 25 cents on the dollar; PR gets the remaining 2% of budget and delivers $8 on every dollar. Where is the PR for that!
One of the symptoms of not properly measuring is that PR hasn’t earned the trust of executives in the C Suite. And if you’re ever asked about the value of PR again, here’s a quote to shoot back across the boardroom table:
“PR is the only form of marketing communication that lifts all boats. So when PR, when earned media coverage in particular, is positive and prominent, sales are easier and advertising works better. And the alternate is true, when the news is prominent and negative, it creates harm.”
In this episode I am joined by Dan Wilcock, Sustainability and Governance Manager for the UN Global Compact Network Australia.
The UN Global Compact Network may be the biggest movement you haven't heard of.
A special initiative initially set up by then UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, it is a call to companies everywhere to align their operations and strategies with 10 universal principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment, and anti-corruption, and take action in support of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
With more than 18,000 companies across 160 countries, it is the world's largest corporate sustainability initiative.
In this discussion we take a dive into all the different terms out there - greenwashing, bluewashing, whitewashing, green hushing – and what they really mean for PR and comms professionals.
Dan wraps all these terms up into the neat package of ESG-washing and says the reason we are seeing more of this now is that there has been a real increase in appetite for ESG information and that is coming from every direction – customers, employees, boards, supply chain partners, finance providers – all these groups now have an active interest in what a business is doing on ESG.
This has been accompanied by a rise of misinformation. An online sweep or corporate websites by ACCC put it at more than half of businesses had made concerning claims about their environmental credentials. For Dan there’s a spectrum from puffery through to outright fabrication, with the majority being sloppiness and hyperbole – which doesn’t excuse it.
The UN Global Compact Network just completed a series of consultations with the Australian business community on ESG which found:
- We’re in a transition period, there is a lot happening very fast. Businesses need to upskill and likely mistakes will be made.
- Businesses are consumers too. A third of businesses they spoke to had also fallen victim to greenwashing
- Reporting and disclosure is very much in flux – there’s a way to go for organisations to streamline data gathering, and delivery of the right narrative
- 93 percent of our respondents said green hushing had been considered as a potential approach as a result of the attention that it's getting right now.
- The business community is looking for more detailed guidance from regulators. (Check this guidance from ACCC giving eight principles for trustworthy environmental and sustainability claims)
For Dan it is about developing a bit of confidence, closing the capacity gap and being informed - businesses should not fear regulatory action from making legitimate and truthful environmental and sustainability claims.
And why does all this matter? Because business will only get harder for companies that aren't aware of their impact and aren't transparent about their impact.
In this episode of Smoke Signal, I am joined by Scott Brinker, a.k.a Chief Martech, author of the Marketing Technology Landscape Supergraphic.
Scott is in the envious position where is hobby and passion has become his career and vice versa.
First launched in 2011 with 150 tools, the latest 2023 version, released last month, featured an unbelievable 11,038 tools and technologies.
This exponential rise in Martech is mirrored in Commtech.
“Everything that marketing does is now connected or driven or powered some way by something digital but that was not always the case,” Scott says. “Back in the day, even senior marketing executives we're highly dubious about tech.
“That is where the Martech Map was conceived, to show marketers the range of different software that was probably already being used in their organisation… and there’s a lot of them.”
Scott sees both supply and demand factors leading to this significant growth over the years.
“Technology has essentially have lowered the barriers to entry. If someone has an idea for what they believe is going be a valuable software tool for marketers, they can get into the market with it.
“But there's the other side of this too. I can't think of any other profession that has gone through so much change and so much expansion of scope over this past decade… So marketers as a result, are always open to technology that's going to help.
“There's this symbiosis where there are lots of Marchech startups a year to tackle these new challenges, and a lot of demand among marketers to figure out how do we how do we do this.
It is not a podcast in 2023 without speaking about AI. So what impact with AI have on this Martech Map?
“It is going to be incredibly disruptive to the existing Martech Map because I do think a lot of things are going to change. One of the things AI is doing in the software world is yet another thing to dramatically reduce the barrier to entry.
“Generally, I do not know. I am absolutely fascinated to see how this plays out. But I feel pretty confident it's going to be a lot of change in this industry.”
PR Futurist Stuart Bruce features in this episode of Smoke Signal Podcast, sharing his insight on how tech is impacting the practice of public relations.
Regardless of what you call it - CommTech, CommsTech, PRTech, one thing is clear, technology is impacting the practice of public relations at an exponential rate. Whether it is to enhance, augment, make us more efficient, there seems to be an app, website or tool for every aspect of our role.
The challenge we face though, as Stuart points out, is that PR professionals are notoriously slow at embracing technology. There is a list of examples - blogs, social media, SEO – where we’ve been late to the party.
Referencing a quote from long-serving Microsoft communication professional Tom Murphy, at a conference at which Stuart was in the audience: “PR people don’t need to worry about big data because they haven’t even mastered small data yet.” That was circa 2005 and for Stuart believes it is still very much true today.
Stuart gives listeners a first exclusive insight into a yet-to-be-released global survey his firm Purposeful Relations has just completed into attitudes of PR people to tech. It finds around 40% of people are using excel to manage contacts = further evidence PR people don’t embrace tech.
Talk about CommTech naturally falls into discussing AI and the launch of ChatGPT which has brought the role of technology in PR to the fore. Stuart is astounded by the varying degree of different attitudes when it comes to AI with some at a peak of inflated expectations and others in a trough of disillusionment (citing the ICCO survey that found 25% of PR leaders say they will never use AI).
While ChatGPT has been grabbing the headlines, looking forward, Stuart is most excited about the launch of Microsoft Copilot – the integration of AI into the day-to-day tools we are all using presents a phenomenal opportunity for PR professionals… The flip side of that is if you look at how most people us Word, PowerPoint or Excel, they can’t even use the basic features.
The challenge (and opportunity) for PR professionals is two-fold: using CommTech and AI to improve what you are doing – make it faster, better, easier; and on the others side it is really understanding the ethical implications and being knowledgeable enough to advise your organisation on where and how to use AI. Here, Stuart suggests taking a look at the Aletheia Framework which was developed by Rolls Royce as an open-source toolkit for assessing ethical issues and trustworthiness in using AI within an organisation.
As a PR futurist, Stuart knows it is way too difficult to predict the future. Especially in the case of AI which, as Bill Gates says in this letter, is as big an innovation as the personal computer, the Internet, and the mobile phone. But what he does know is that as PR professionals we need to stay up to date, we have to experiment, and we must keep an open mind about doing things differently.
It is only February and it almost feels like we can already call it – 2023 will be the year of AI.
It has been impossible not to get caught up in the ChatGPT tsunami that has made headlines, swamped social media feeds and seemingly replaced the weather as the most popular piece of small talk before meetings.
Not to add to the deluge, but rather to cut through the hype and the noise, in this episode I speak to UK based digital and data PR expert Andrew Bruce Smith.
Andrew is Chair of the UK’s Chartered Institute of Public Relations AI in PR Panel and in this episode he tells us that in the past two months there’s been over a quarter of a million media articles on ChatGPT globally and over five million social media impressions. It certainly has certainly enjoyed a charmed PR run.
AI has been the next big thing for the last decade. And on November 30 last year that actually came true, literally overnight, with the launch of ChatGPT. PR and comms professionals have been obsessed by how ChatGPT can write but Andrew explains the use cases go far beyond content – it can be a media trainer, plan crisis comms scenarios or be our research assistant.
And while it has captured the headlines and made everyone pay attention, Andrew is quick to point out that ChatGPT is just one of a universe of AI tools that have the potential to transform the role of PR and communications. He recommends practitioners check out https://futuretools.io/ - a free online searchable database of AI tools to help you explore the many different AI tools that may be of use in your role.
Andrew makes a point that seems to have been missed in the noise surrounding ChatGPT. If we truly believe PR is not just about communication, that is, not just what organisations say, but more importantly what organisations do, then the role of the PR professional in this AI world is two-fold: we need to understand the opportunity for using these tools in our role as communicators, and also, perhaps more importantly, the reputational, moral and ethical implications for organisations using these technologies.
While welcoming the introduction of ChatGPT as marking the democratisation of AI. Andrew is also quick to caution about the ethical challenges, warning that it is clear all these amazing technologies can be good or bad with the ease at which misinformation and disinformation can be weaponised being quite scary.
Will AI transform PR, and our organisations, or just be another tool in the kit bag of PR professionals? Andrew gives shares his views in what no doubt will be an ongoing discussion and debate for a long time to come
Most PR practitioners are used to managing issues. In fact, many thrive most when they are in the midst of a major crisis. But what about war? That is the situation that has faced Julia Petryk, Head of PR at MacPaw, since Russia invaded Ukraine at the start of 2022.
MacPaw, is a software development company that has apps installed on one in every 5 Mac computers worldwide. It has 30 million users and 500 staff with its headquarters being in Kyiv, Ukraine.
“PR as a business function is so critical and when you’re facing difficulties like a war it is becomes so obvious…. I would like to inspire others –even though they may not work under such stressful conditions - that PR does matter.”
Creating the PR Army
The Ukrainian PR Army was formed on day one of the invasion with the single aim of using our weapon for fighting for truth – the word. Since then it has been fighting against Russian propaganda, fighting misinformation and fighting for truth.
“With the PR Army we found the most effective way of fighting for truth is by giving access to the truth – through eyewitnesses, and through experts.”
Working from the bathtub
During air raid attacks, Ukrainians are advised to go to a bomb shelter. If it is not possible then they work in hallways or bathrooms – as they don’t have windows.
To bring much deserved attention to this stark reality faced by Ukrainians today a mock creative agency has been created - Bathtub Creative as a communication campaign to raise awareness and funds.
The power of purpose
Julia is working under such stressful conditions yet maintains motivated to do so much because of an underlying alignment of purpose in what she is doing.
“I am doing everything that I do for my very selfish goal that my grandchildren have the option to live in Ukraine. I want to preserve my country for future generations for the future. It really drives me and gives me so much energy.”
How can we help?
Julia calls any and all help appreciated. She urges people to check out the Ukrainian PR Army and the Bathtub Creative website, visit the MacPaw Foundation and if you can donate time, expertise, money – resources are desperately needed.
And here is a very heartfelt thank you from the people of Ukraine https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=PqYSGrGz6HU
It is November so that means one thing – it is AMEC Measurement Month. In conjunction with The Public Relations Institute of Australia this episode features an in-depth discussion with measurement pioneer, Katie Paine.
This year’s Measurement Month theme is Measure What Matters.
Katie coincidentally wrote a book by that same title way back in 2011 and says what matters today as a communication professional is that you are making a difference to the bottom line in a way that senior leadership expects you to contribute. That doesn’t necessarily mean making a sale, it may be increasing credibility or increasing trust.
The big ah ha moment that set Katie on her lifelong measurement journey was the realisation that communication people speak in words and everyone else speaks in numbers; so our job is to translate it.
How do we do that? Katie suggests starting with something concrete. A product launch, an event, something that has a specific measurable goal, and a project you can carve out and measure the impact of communication on the business goals. A week before the launch, sign up for a free trial of a media listening tool, use Google Forms to do a survey right before and right after the initiative. Measure something very discrete and concrete that doesn’t take a long time to set up. Show those to metrics to senior leadership and you will get funded for your next project.
The good news today, according to Katie, is that measurement is much more sophisticated with the combination of media analysis, survey research, web analytics, social analytics coming together in an integrated dashboard where practitioners able to show how they are doing relative to the organisational objectives. Check out The Communication Dividend as an Australian innovation doing just this.
Listen to this podcast even if your eyes glaze over at the thought of measurement as Katie has a great turn of phrase. Here’s a few of my favourite from our chat:
- Measurement is the vaccine for the stupid stuff - the advantage of having measures of success based on goals and objectives is that you can say this decision gets made based on our business objectives;
- Analyse your data from the worst to the best - you find out more from failure than you do from success so be sure to find out what didn’t work;
- The problem with AVEs or impression is they give big numbers that confuse the c-suite… they are like sperm, lots of them out there but very few of them do what they are intended to do;
- I think the biggest mistake PR people have done with measurement is saying look how well I have done and insisting on all the charts going up and to the right;
- Don’t tell people what you think they want to hear, tell them what they need to hear. Do it in a way that cuts through all the charts and number. You are storytellers, tell a story with the data.
After three decades writing and speaking on measurement and evaluation, Katie hopes that we can start to spend less time worrying about how to set up and do measurement and more time actually using the data to find insight and give better advice. The problem in the past was getting the data, today there is no shortage of data, there is a shortage of insights. Practitioners need to dive into the data to find the ‘ah ha’ moments.
In this episode of Smoke Signal I continue to take a deep dive into climate communications. I am joined by Belinda Noble, who is President and Founder of Comms Declare – an Australian coalition across the communication, marketing, media and advertising sectors united to drive positive climate action.
“Comms Declare wants marcomms to be respected and trusted... We want people’s talents to be used to promote solutions that make the world a better place… Our end game is to make fossil fuels as socially unacceptable as tobacco” - Belinda Noble, Founder Comms Declare
Belinda first took up arms against the role of PR and communications in promoting fossil fuel clients post the Black Friday Bushfires in 2019. She decided it was time for action and founded Comms Declare which today is very much part of a global push to call out the PR, marketing and advertising sectors for their role in helping shape the climate change debate.
The focus on the PR sector in particular has gained significant momentum over the past year:
- Edelman – the world’s largest independent PR agency - handed a petition at the time of COP26 calling on it to resign all fossil fuel clients
- A US Congressional hearing was held earlier this year into the role of public relations firms in preventing climate action with an accompanying a report detailing "deceptive" and "misleading" tactics they use for their client campaigns.
- And just in recent weeks the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres used a speech at the UN General Assembly in New York to call out the “public relations machine raking in billions to shield the fossil fuel industry from scrutiny”
Comms Declare recently released a report that quantified the impact of the PR, comms and advertising industry on climate change. The F-List named GRACosway as the PR/Lobbyist agency responsible for the highest volume of scope 3 emissions – that is the emissions of their clients, which include the likes of Santos, BHP, and Glencore – totalling 20,612,667 tonnes of CO2 equivalent which is on par with Kenya.
In this discussion, we discuss one of the key issues and challenges for PR practitioners – greenwashing: that is providing misleading, or outright false, information about the impact a company is having on the environment. Comms Declare is tackling that head on and calling out culprits such as: Santos which is currently being taken to court to prove its claims to be reaching net zero by 2040; Ampol for claiming to offer a carbon neutral fuel; and Glencore’s recent brand campaign titled “Advancing Everyday Life” - which Belinda explains is co-opting all the imagery of the renewable industry but does not mention their main commodity, coal – as just a few of the many examples So we would see that as greenwashing as well.
“When it comes to green claims, and particularly emissions, which is so serious and the implications of inaction are so hideous and almost can’t be contemplated to be leaving out half the picture and putting yourself forward as an environmentally friendly company I would say is quite a misrepresentation of the facts... No one is perfect and no one is expecting perfection but if you say you are going to hit net zero you better."
In this episode we are tackling the climate crisis.
We are six months on from COP26, where the outcome didn’t match the hype. Australia’s State of the Environment report has just been released and generated world headlines for the grim picture it painted and the environmental challenges facing Australia. And we are seeing an energy crisis globally as we struggle to agree how to a transition to renewables.
Against this backdrop we take a timely and much needed deep dive into the role of the PR industry in helping to inform, educate and navigate this global climate crisis.
Joining me in this episode is UK -based practitioner Laura Sutherland. Laura has over a decade experience working in the sustainability, environment and climate sector and is founder of Aura Advisory, a strategic communication and advisory consultancy dedicated to helping organisations accelerate to a sustainable future.
Laura is also a member of the UK industry body PRCA’s Climate Misinformation and Climate Change Strategy Group which has just released its second annual research report exploring the attitudes and perceptions of practitioners – as well as consumers - towards the climate crisis.
The research confirms that climate, environmental and ESG issues are quickly becoming an increasing part of our role as strategic communicators:
- More than 9 out of ten (96%) of PR professionals now advise their clients and colleagues to understand the climate crisis and how they can effectively communicate the part they play - up from 82% last year
- Almost half (45%) have noticed their clients or organisation attempting to greenwash, however 89% have pushed back on this and 57% managed to change the approach as a result
- Almost all (97%) said they have taken action to address the climate crisis but only 48% measure their carbon footprint
- 71% of consumers say they would stop buying from a brand if they knew it had misled its customers about having a positive environmental impact
- 57% of the general public don’t know the outcome of COP26 and a third (33%) felt the agreements made at the conference didn’t affect them
There are so many aspects of climate change and in this discussion we get into a range of areas: the ethics of working for organisations not doing the right thing for the environment; the call for integrating climate change and sustainability within the school syllabus; the risk of professional communicators pushing ‘spin” and getting lost in what Tony Jacques aptly described as “the conga-line of initiatives and their snappy acronyms”; and the role of Government versus business in the climate debate.
July 16 is World PR Day – a day dedicated to recognising and celebrating public relations and communication. Yes even PR needs PR.
I am joined by one of the committee members responsible for organising World PR Day, Enitan Kehinde, for a Q&A on the initiative, the events and how practitioners can get involved.
“PR is a very important practice across the world, across businesses and across governments, so it is time for us to prioritise PR…. Our goal is for practitioners across the world to answer the call of duty to help people, companies, government communicate more honestly and responsibly.” - Enitan Kehinde
The theme of World PR Day 2022 is Trust, Truth and Transparency with a number of headline initiatives to mark the occasion:
-
MyPRStory - PR professionals are encouraged to share their own personal experiences from their journey in the PR industry
- PR Bible – development of a crowdsourced wikipedia with all the best PR resources from across the world.
- A fireside chat on twitter spaces – with global PR leaders discussing this year’s theme
Enitan, who was recognized as one of the 40 under 40 women in marketing communications in Nigeria, also shares her impressive #MyPRStory, including leading the establishment of Nigerian PR agency bhm’s UK office and founding a network to support young women in PR and communication.
Get involved in World PR Day by telling your #MyPRStory, join the conversation on socials #WPRD or take The PR Pledge.
Shane Allison and I always enjoy a robust discussion and in this episode we dive into two areas that we are both passionate about – the role of professional industry associations and the uptake of CommTech across the PR sector.
It is just over 100 days since Shane took on the role of President of the Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA) and he has certainly hit the ground running: rolling out a 2022 Member Program; unveiling a number of working groups to address key issues impacting the industry right now - such as the skills shortage and diversity and inclusion; and advocating for a name change to better reflect the changing nature of the profession.
While we disagree on the need for such a change, Shane is committed to setting solid foundations, ensuring members get tangible value from the PRIA, and driving long term growth.
“I am a huge believer in the role of the PRIA to champion for our industry, to support our profession and to recognise the great work we do.” - Shane Allison.
Equally passionate about CommTech, Shane this week will present at Mumbrella CommsCon in a session titled: Challenges, Pitfalls and Opportunities of Building your CommTech Stack.
In this discussion, Shane gives us an insight into some of those challenges and opportunities; calling out the industry for being “scared” of automation when in fact we should be embracing it as a way to both help us achieve better outcomes and freeing up valuable time and resources.
While you are here, take a read of the Commtech User Guide that Shane developed to help PR professionals on their CommTech journey.
At its core public relations is reputation management. Building, protecting and repairing brand reputations is what we do. Research shows that organisations with better reputations outperform their peers, better attract and retain talent, inspire deeper loyalty and develop louder advocates. A brand’s reputation is built by both what it does and what is says – making communication a fundamental building block of reputation
It is in that context that I picked up with interest the 2022 Global RepTrak 100 which ranks the corporate reputation of the world’s leading companies.
In this episode I am joined by Oliver Freedman who heads up RepTrak in Australia and APAC to discuss all things reputation. In this report, which RepTrak describes as the definitive ranking and analysis of corporate reputation, the reputation research firm searches the globe for the world's best corporate reputation.
At its core a good reputation is an emotional attachment that individuals have towards a company – the level of trust, admiration, respect and good feeling. Oliver talks through the seven drivers of reputation - products and services; innovation; financial performance; employee wellbeing; its citizenship in the community; corporate conduct and governance; and leadership - as well as some emerging themes from across the globe:
- ESG is only increasing in importance… the public is only becoming more disappointed. There is a desire – and a sense of expectation - from the community for companies to put the community in front of profits and drive real change…. But while there are a lot of commitments there remains growing disappointment that real change is not happening quicker.
- Media and reputation are symbiotic. How news outlets discuss organisations impacts reputation, how corporate reputation is perceived impacts how news outlets discuss those organizations, and so on.
- You’re not competing against your competitors for attention, you’re competing with everyone, everywhere, all the time. Gone are the days you compare performance against just your competitors; you’re not just competing with other companies, you are competing with politics, you are competing with COVID. It is about being smarter, using the right channels to reach the right audiences with the right content.
So which brand has the best reputation in the world?
Surprisingly it is not the new and cool tech companies that may come first to mind. Rather the list features companies that have been around for many decades, but despite the world changing dramatically, have stayed true to who they. Many are also luxury brands - Rolex, Mercedes, Ferrari, Harley-Davidson – they are classic, but the innovate and they are aspirational.
Take a listen to hear the who else makes the list and why.
It has been the communication story that has dominated the past 12 months – getting Australians vaccinated.
Last month, we marked one year since the COVID-19 vaccination roll out started in Australia. While our vaccination rates are now among the highest in the world, a successful roll out was not always so certain.
One person who has been deeply engaged with this communication challenge is Darren Behar who is Managing Partner at one of Australia’s largest independent consultancies – SenateSHJ.
In this episode of Smoke Signal, Darren takes us back to that time 12 months ago when we’d emerged from the depths of 2020 hoping that 2021 was going to be the year we returned to normalcy. It didn’t pan out that way. Mixed messaging from Federal and State Government, competing narratives, and a rise in misinformation and disinformation saw the push to vaccinate start out, for lack of better words, in chaos.
Darren explains that in the early days there was no playbook for facing such a big challenge. It was being made up on the run – and that was a challenge for everyone, not just communicators.
While there was much confusion and complexity, it is at such a time that you need to go back to first principles: what is going to motivate individuals and communities and drive action?
“Peers, friends, family and trusted organisations in our lives are more likely to motivate us to change our behaviour,” Darren says. “Grassroots communication was key to help those at the front line communicate with their communities and stakeholders directly.”
While much of the attention was on the Government communication – no one will quickly forget the daily press briefings to announce case numbers – this was becoming increasingly challenging. Senate SHJ research found trust in Government deteriorated rapidly during the pandemic. While almost 60% said Government was effective at keeping them informed in 2020, 12 months later, just a third said Federal Government communication was influential in their behaviour – this at a time when they were trying to maintain COVID-safe behaviour and also get people vaccinated.
This made creating a social movement at the grassroots vital in overcoming this distrust and the increasing amounts of misinformation. Darren explains this was achieved by bringing together five elements: Common Cause; Catalyst; Connection, Coordination and Conversation.
There was also a need for more than one story and Darren sees three narratives that came together to help drive up vaccination rates:
- Duty: as a citizen this is the right thing to do for all Australians.
- Consequences: help open our borders quicker so we can travel and see family and friends; help open up the economy and get back to your local coffee shop.
- Responsibility: keep your family and community safe.
In terms of the lessons to add to the playbook for the future. Darren has three for leaders (Government and business):
- We need to be transparent and a more authentic in our communication: do what we say we are going to do.
- We have to be prepared to acknowledge faults: fess up when you mess up. It is ok to be vulnerable.
- Stories and narratives matter: It took a while to get them right but when it worked it drove tangible change.
PR and journalism have a long and deep symbiotic relationship. So in this first episode of Smoke Signal for 2022 I thought it timely to take a deep dive into the current state of journalism and predictions on how the media industry will continue to evolve in the year ahead.
The past two years has seen news media rise in importance and relevance as audiences turn to trusted sources for health and economic information. As we look forward to 2022 the question becomes what’s next?
Senior Research Associate at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, Nic Newman has studied trends in media and journalism for over a decade. He has just released his latest research paper, Journalism, Media, and Technology Trends and Predictions 2022which looks at the state of the profession and the key challenges, and opportunities, for the year ahead.
The research encompassed 246 senior editors and publishing leaders from over 52 countries, including a number of senior leaders in Australia. Here’s a few highlights from the report that we discussed in this podcast.
Revenue models continue to evolve
In recent years revenue models have substantially changed. Where it used to be advertiser-focused it has shifted to be much more reader-lead in the form of subscriptions, memberships, donations and events.
The wider adoption of subscription formats for music (i.e. Spotify) and entertainment (i.e. Netflix) has paved the way for news media to more actively adopt this model. However, there is a limit to the number of subscriptions people are willing to pay for, and Nic believes we are getting towards that limit.
Generational divide
A real challenge for publishers is being able to engage audiences of all ages. 95% of all digital news subscriptions are paid by those over 30 years old.
Younger audiences consume news in very different ways. For example, those under 25 are unlikely to have brand loyalty; are more likely to be spending their time on social platforms like Tik Tok and Instagram etc; and they want convenience.
The role of journalist becomes ever more challenging
There’s a lot of noise on the media industry being in crisis, but in fact 60% of media leaders in the survey said revenues had increased over the past year. Only 8 per cent said revenue had fallen. That reflects the rise in subscriptions revenue and the bounce back of digital advertising as advertisers look to back trusted media brands.
Journalists on the front line are facing burnout - the relentless 24/7 news cycle; needing to work across ever more formats and outlets; and then on top of that the global pandemic and associated stress – addressing this is high on the media leader’s agenda for 2022.
Big tech and media
You can’t talk media without talking big tech. While there has been much made of the recent revenue sharing agreements that Google and Facebook have made with publishers around the world over the past year, the trouble with these according to Nic is that there is not much transparency around the deals and it was mostly the big media companies getting the lions share of the money.
This is not necessarily good for audiences; not good for innovation; not good for local news; and not good for competition. You also want to ensure media companies aren’t overly dependent on income from platforms as they need to be independent enough to robustly report on these same platforms.
The take-out for comms professionals
Smart brevity. In this world where there are so many different choices and people are short of time, how can you get your point across quickly, effectively. Using the right format at the right time.
The global pandemic has fundamentally reshaped the communication profession, with communications becoming more materially important to the C-suite than ever before. So, as we look ahead to 2022, what does this mean for the role of corporate communicators?
Research from Edelman in the US looks at exactly this question. The report – The Future of Corporate Communications – was based on a survey of over 200 Chief Communication Officers across the US. In this episode, I am joined by co-author Geren Raywood, who gives us her take on some of the key opportunities, and challenges, facing communication professionals in the year ahead.
On the role of Comms today: The strategic positioning of corporate communications within the organisation has fundamentally changed. The pandemic pushed the discipline forward in the way that any good crisis does - communicators had to be in the room to be able to help the c-suite to help maintain stakeholder engagement and brand reputation through the global pandemic. It provided a lot of opportunities to elevate the role of communications.
On employee engagement: Employee communication has moved way up the agenda and this is not just a passing fad. The underlying issue is the social contract between employer and employee is changing... the fundamental expectation that employees have for the work experience, how an organisation treats them and how an organisation engages with the outside world is changing and the power dynamic is shifting.
On organisations taking a view on societal issues: It is here to stay. 73% of CCOs say societal issues have changed their communication agenda in the past 12 months. That is huge.
On measurement: There is increasing expectation from the business to prove results. Communicators are moving from counting the volume of communication or basic channel performance to measuring the impact of communication on behaviour. Are they moving audiences – whether external or internal – to do a certain action?
On the role of the communicator: There’s been an expansion from just media relations or internal comms skills to teams needing to have advanced digital, advanced multimedia, brand PR, and increasingly today, data and analytics skills – the demand for communication has never been stronger.
On CommsTech: The first challenge of CommsTech is defining CommsTech - The tools, tech and data that allow communicators to precisely target, measure and shape perceptions and behaviour at the individual level… Using AI, analytics and Natural Language Processing to mine insights and then apply those insights into communication strategy to reach an audience where they are.
On the opportunity in 2022: The pandemic, for all its hardship and tragedy, has created this moment for communication to take centre stage in the organisation and claim its position as fundamental to business performance and business success. The number one item on the agenda in the coming year is not to lose that momentum – how do you institutionalise those changes made during the pandemic.
In this episode I speak with Tom Watson who is both an academic, currently emeritus professor in the Faculty of Media & Communication at Bournemouth University in England, and an esteemed author, writing about measurement and evaluation of communications for the past 30 years, including being co-author of three editions of the seminal textbook Evaluating Public Relations.
Tom takes us back to the origins of PR measurement and evaluation; way back in fact to the first President of the United States, George Washington, who wanted to know what people thought of him – not too different to the goal of every politician today.
Tom describes the global pandemic as the biggest ever communication measurement and evaluation scenario ever –the greatest data collection on behaviour change and attitudes we have ever seen. In many ways a golden age for communication measurement and evaluation because the outcome of communication has become so vitally important.
Communication professionals are very good at words, narrative, creation of stories but in Tom’s words, we have to grow up and become adept handlers of data how to gather it, how to process it, and how to express it.
“Gather the data anyway you can because any data is better than guesswork.”
Tom points practitioners in the direction of a German Model called Communication Controlling which has at its core a goal to show the business value of communications – what was the impact on the strategic and financial targets of the organisation. To this end, Tom warns practitioners off using the term ROI, referring his research with Ansgar Zerfass -when management talk about ROI they are talking about return on employed capital, when communications talk about ROI we are talking to intangibles that can’t be added to the balance sheet. Even if we have one number – an AVE, for example, (which Tom describes as being a classic example of the statement of easy, simple and wrong) – it isn’t an amount that actually exists.
Tom puts it simply - the idea of one metric is not reality. We have to have a portfolio of measurements – being both tangible and tangibles.
This is the latest in a series of podcasts released during Measurement Month. Catch the other podcasts on this blog, on iTunes or wherever you listen to podcasts.
November is Global Measurement Month, and in association with the Public Relations Institute of Australia, this month Smoke Signal Podcast will feature a series of episodes with global leaders in PR measurement, all under the theme of “reimagining measurement and evaluation”.
In the next episode of the series I am joined from London by Allison Spray who is H+K Strategies Global Head of Data + Analytics as well as an International Board Director for AMEC.
Allison describes measurement and evaluation as being like a tailored suit – there is no one size that fits all. Every client is different, every business has different goals and measurement needs to reflect that reality.
As part of her role with AMEC, Allison lead a working group for developing a PR planning Framework. For Allison, It all begins and ends with strategy – what do you want to happen and back track from there.
“What is it you are trying to achieve and do the metrics I am tracking right now prove that I have done that – it is about thinking beyond what data I can collect easily and moving to what do I need to know.”
The Global pandemic has seen everyone get a lot more fluent in the language of data and statistics – we have had to, it has been coming at us everyday. But data has been around a long time, however the scale of data we are talking about now is literally incomprehensible.
Allison cites a fascinating statistic: by 2025 it is estimated humans will interact with data every 18 seconds – that makes data science, AI and engineering increasingly important for the future of communications but for many professionals big data seems miles away from what they are doing day to day.
And Allison accepts that the volume of data makes traditional manual analysis almost impossible, rather what is coming is augmented analytics. The use of enabling technologies or machine learning to help analyse the data, making it digestible and helping practitioners get to the insight faster.
Brandwatch, Signal AI and Quiid are all examples of technology and tools that, often with engaging visualisations, help make sense of the data.
If Allison could change one thing, it would be that measurement doesn’t only come at the end – so many pitches measurement is literally the last slide in the deck. Knowing what you want to achieve and working backwards.
*“Measurement needs to be throughout – it needs to be in the front, in the middle at the end. Measurement is an iterative process, constantly evolving, and that is the most value measurement can bring.”
We will be releasing a new Measurement Month Podcast every Monday throughout November. Be sure to subscribe via the blog, iTunes or wherever you listen to podcasts.*
November is Global Measurement Month, and in association with the Public Relations Institute of Australia, this month Smoke Signal Podcast will feature a series of episodes with global leaders in PR measurement all under the theme of “reimagining measurement and evaluation in public relations”.
This first episode of the series features Dr Glenn O’NeiI. Based in Geneva Switzerland, Glenn is founder of OWL RE, leading evaluation, research and communication projects for NGOs, UN agencies and international organisations.
Glenn strongly believes measurement and evaluation needs to both prove the value of communication and improve the practice of public relations.
“Working with the NFP sector, NGOs and UN Agencies there is really a desire to use measurement and evaluation in a way that also helps continual learning – and that is important. It becomes as much about proving what we’ve done has made a difference as how do we improve for the future,” Glenn says.
Showcasing the application of measurement in practice, Glenn uses this example on a Euro 33 million anti-smoking campaign #exsmokers are unstoppable which he reviewed and assessed to show the opportunity, and challenges, with measurement and evaluation for PR practitioners.
In summing up this campaign, Glenn says monitoring and evaluation done well can really support the communicators the contribution they are making based on sound data.
To move the dial on measurement and evaluation, Glenn believes research, evaluation and monitoring should be at least five to ten per cent of every professional communicators workload every day.
Glenn is an advocate for the profession jumping from measuring outputs (number of people reached, tonality, share of voice) to measuring outcomes (changing in behaviour, attitude and knowledge).
“PR is great at deliverables but the measurement remains superficial. Jumping from outputs to the outcomes is not easy but today is not impossible. To measure outcomes it comes back to asking, consulting or observing people; how can algorithms and technology help us as communicator more effectively and efficiently look at behaviour change.”
To achieve this, measurement should start from the beginning of the communication program to set a baseline. At the very start, at a minimum, estimate where the organisation is and where it wants to get to. Then set up points to monitor throughout the campaign.
We will be releasing a new Measurement Month Podcast every Monday throughout November. Be sure to subscribe via the blog, iTunes or wherever you listen to podcasts.
A Public Relations Podcast: Smoke Signal - The impact of COVID-19 on PR and CommunicationAt the start of the global pandemic as the world was turned upside down I put a hold on this podcast.
So for the first episode back I thought it only right to look at how COVID-19 has impacted the world of PR and communications. Stephen Waddington says COVID-19 had an “immediate and dramatic effect on PR and communications”.
He authored a report for the UK Government Communication Service titled COVID-19 Communication Advisory Panel Report to look at what the impact those experiences may have on professional communication over the long term.
In this episode we speak to Stephen Waddington direct from his house boat on the River Thames to discuss some of the key take-aways from his report:
- Communication as a strategic management and leadership function. Professional communications was absolutely critical for organisations throughout COVID-19 and has ensured professional communicators a seat at the ‘table’.
- A significant increase in focus in employee engagement and internal communications as workers went remote. We have let people into our home and it has had a humanising effect on society, and how leaders communicate. We’ve discovered new channels and ways to communicate to overcome the absence of face to face communication but we need to find a balance.
- An acceleration to digital media. More than just more channels what we saw was innovation and creativity we’ve seen emerge across all aspects of communication.
- Impact of disinformation and misinformation. Especially concerning was the role of social networks to quite easily disrupt and cause harm in terms of misinformation
Stephen Waddington writes a regular blog and weekly newsletter, follow him on Wadds Inc here https://wadds.co.uk/blog
Measurement, Evaluation and Learning is how we should be reframing the discussion around metrics in public communication according Jim Macnamara, in a special Measurement Month episode of PR podcast Smoke Signal.
In the final episode of Smoke Signal for 2019 I share a summer reading list for PR practitioners, speaking to a number of practitioners turned authors who have recently – or will soon –become published authors.
This month, in partnership with the Public Relations Institute of Australia, we mark Global PR Measurement Month by speaking with adjunct professor, lecturer, researcher, presenter - Fraser Likely - from his hometown in Ottawa Canada.Having an industry level discussion to highlight the importance of measurement has never been more critical. According to a recent study into continuing professional development conducted by the Public Relations Institute of Australia, measurement and evaluation is one of the top three priorities for Australia’s professional communicators.While Fraser Likely is today synonymous with PR measurement and evaluation, for 30 years, while running his own communication management firm, Fraser never spoke about measurement and evaluation. It was simply performance management.And while the tools, technology and techniques are now more sophisticated, at its heart measurement and evaluation is still all about performance - whether that be of a program, a campaign, a team or an organisation.Fraser defines seven units of measurement: we can measure a specific communication activity and associated messages; a project or campaign; programs such as internal comms or issues management; how PR helps the whole organisation achieve its business goals; how organisation do in regard its environment and society around it (CSR or reputation); the performance of individual practitioners; or the overall communication function and what value it has to an organisation. With measurement and evaluation more sophisticated than ever, the greatest question today is what is the uptake among practitioners? For Fraser, engagement with measurement and evaluation goes hand in hand with the role communications plays in an organisation. Those professional communicators with a seat at the table and part of the strategic management process will look at measurement and evaluation in a much more sophisticated way.
In the final episode of this special Smoke Signal series looking at mental health in the PR sector, Sophie Holland shares the latest research and insight coming out of the UK.Sophie heads up the mental health research team at UK-based insight agency Opinium. Having studied Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford, Sophie is dedicated to giving people greater understanding on the topic of mental health so we can more effectively take a preventative rather than a reactive approach. Opinium recently released a report titled Opening the conversation: mental Wellbeing at Work and in a survey of 400 PR professionals in the UK to be released this month, Opinium found: -89% have struggled with their mental health in the last 12 months that is stress, anxiety, feeling low/ down, panic attacks, exhaustion/ burnout, stress, other mental health problems), versus 62% in wider worker population- Only 31% of those who struggled took any time off work for their mental health (vs. 36% wider workers). Compared to 63% for physical health (vs. 59% wider worker population).
Andy Wright is co-chair of the Mentally Healthy Change Group – founded by a group of leaders from across the creative,marketing and media sector with the aim to de-stigmatise mental health as a topic of discussion and help facilitate the conversation between leaders in the industry and employees.The Mentally Healthy Change Group evolved from a survey of over 1800 workers across the creative, media and marketing sectors – the biggest study ever done into mental health in the sector – which found 56% were displaying mild to severe levels of depression, 55% were displaying mild to severe levels of anxiety. The Mentally Healthy Change Group evolved from a survey of over 1800 workers across the creative, media and marketing sectors – the biggest study ever done into mental health in the sector – which found 56% were displaying mild to severe levels of depression and 55% were displaying mild to severe levels of anxiety. To help set the sector on the right path, the Healthy Change Group recently released a set of minimum standards to put a line in the sand. Since being launched, 45 businesses and agencies have signed up – including Facebook, Edelman and Havas to name a few. In our discussion, Andy describes the goal of the minimum standards as two- fold – to bring the topic of mental health front of mind for employers and a framework for employees to raise issues if they feel they are not being delivered on.
For the past 6 years I have had the privilege of working closely with the Margo Lydon, CEO of Superfriend – a not for profit workplace mental health and wellbeing organisation that was established by the Superannuation industry.Margo has been in and around the industry for the past 20 years and when it comes to raising awareness of mental health and wellness I have never met anyone more passionate than Margo and I have no doubt you’ll hear that too as you listen to Margo.In this special episode to mark World Mental Health Day today, Margo shares her insights into why the workplace, all workplaces, are so important in supporting individual’s mental health.
To mark World Mental Health Day I am thrilled to launch the first in a series of episodes this week discussing the topic of mental health and wellness in the PR sector.These are the statistics: 1 in 5 Australians workers are suffering a mental health condition in any 12 month period; 45% of the population aged 16-85 will experience a mental health condition in their lifetime – that is 1 in 2 of us!To raise awareness and provoke discussion of this topic in PR, I have asked senior PR leaders from around the world to share their three wishes when it comes to mental health and wellness in the PR sector.In this first episode I speak with UK practitioner Jane Fordham who coined the three wishes concept as a way to get PR leaders to share their three wishes, three tips, three kernals of advice for moving the discussion on mental health forward in a positive way.
Matthew Gain moved from agency to in house three-and-a-half years ago with a clear goal of working at one of the FAANGs (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google). He wanted to work in a growth industry, to immerse himself in big data and he was a true believer that the future of media was going to be in global digital brands.He landed at Audible, not in a communications role though, but as country head of the emerging business. Now, as Head of Audible in JAPAC and India, Matthew shares his journey from PR consultant to running a growing technology company across the region, and one that is owned by one of the world’s biggest growth company – Amazon, no less.Listen here, watch on YouTube or download on iTunesAudible’s mission is to unlock the power of the spoken word. It allows people to consume books at times and in places they previously couldn’t – while driving a car, exercising, cooking or cleaning. Matthew notes that 84% of audible users say they still love the smell of books, so Audible is not about replacing physical books, but creating enjoyable entertainment experiences that keep people coming back.The competition, in Matthew’s view, is not Netflix or other subscription services but time and attention. To grab this attention, Audible is increasingly focusing on original content –working with authors in Australia, movie stars in Bollywood, actors in off-broadway theatre – creating great experiences that are brought to life for listening first and foremost.At its core Audible is a data business and this, Matthew says, was one of the steepest learning curves in the move from PR.“Sometimes I think the data knows more about us than we do ourselves,” Matthew says. “At Audible, the data informs our strategy. Every single person I work with is fluent in data and understand how to use data to inform the decisions they make. It is a huge a part of our day and part of every conversation.”Matthew describes a future where voice becomes ever more prevalent – we use voice to engage with the devices around us, today’s smart speakers become smarter personal assistants, and the vast majority of people – especially non-english speakers – use voice to interact with the internet and technology.After three and a half years Matthew says he’s still learning and shares a great anecdote about Audible for Dogs – that is some PR campaigns are just that, for PR, and not necessarily profitable business ventures. It shows you can’t take the PR out of the guy.In the news this episode I discuss the fallout from a recent article in the UK Guardian that revealed a lobbying firm run by Lynton Crosby – CTF Partners – allegedly built a network of unbranded websites and news pages on facebook for dozens of clients that were reportedly promoted as independent online news sources.I thought astroturfing was something I’d left behind in the university textbooks but it seems it is alive and well and ti seems has only become more prevalent in the age of social and digital media. With one industry veteran telling the UK’s PR week that astroturfing is “just another tool in the PR box that is widely used.”This is a story that is worth watching as it evolves.
A Public Relations Podcast: Smoke Signal Episode 18- Postcard from CannesThe Cannes International Festival of Creativity is the only global stage where so many pieces of our industry come together at one time to celebrate creativity and celebrate what we do as an industry.Against the sun-soaked backdrop in the South of France, the Cannes Lions are the industry’s premiere awards for creativity. PR in many ways is the new kid on the block but in an age when ”earned creative” is more valuable than ever they are increasingly making their presence felt.. PR stalwart Michelle Hutton this year held the privileged role of President of the PR Jury – a role she describes as a “career highlight” -and in this episode gives us insight into how the jury whittled down close to 2000 entries from 67 countries to six Gold Lions (and excitingly – or perhaps perplexingly – for the first time one that originated from a PR agency)Michelle said the Jury came together around three clear guidelines. Firstly they wanted to see campaigns that had PR as an input, not just an output. That is, work that was designed with PR thinking not just PR that amplified someone else’s creative. Secondly, the work had to have a clear insight that the creative then developed around. Thirdly, great measurement that looked at not only outputs but the real impact of the campaign.Michelle said the jury really wanted to not only recognise and reward great work but set benchmarks about where the industry should be going. Some of her favourite campaigns were: -Mums For Safety Campaign https://www.lendlease.com/au/company/about-us/safety/mums-for-safety/ created by Sydney’s Houston Group for Lend Lease and took home a Silver Lion-#Stopmithania https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYXHLrOqSy8 created by Leo Burnett for HDFC Bank in India to encourage blood donations won a Silver Lion-The Land of the Free Press https://tbwa.com/work/land-of-free-press by TBWA/Helsinki FInland also took home a Silver Lion for its defence of press freedomMichelle distils two key takeouts from the festival: •There is no doubt that earned creative is winning across the festival. Work that earns the right to be part of the conversation is not just successful in awards but is the type of work that brands need today to be successful. It is yet another proof point that the industry is well placed, this is our time and we should be showing up at the C-Suite to have bigger and broader conversations around how we can protect and promote brands•“he brilliant work that stood out was those that used data to underpin earned-centric thinking to identify the insight; to target the audience; to amplify the work; and to measure the impact. So for those looking to future proof our work data and analytics has never been more important.Michelle said Australia again punched above its weight at the festival and so she is excited to return to Australia later this month when she returns to take the reigns as Edelman’s Australia CEO and Chief Growth Officer for Asia Pacific.“We have some fabulous talent in Australia and in many respects we have been ahead of the curve for many years and I have no doubt we can continue to do that,” Michelle said.“Australia is an innovative market and there are many businesses and brands who can take some risks and I think that’s the wonderful opportunity we have – to do things differently and to lead. That is certainly something I will be focusing on in our business.”In the news this episode I check in with UK pracademic Andy Green in Smoke Signal Episode 5. At the time, Andy was spearheading what had been coined the Dublin Definition – a grassroots effort to better define and make sense of the world of PR and how communications need to evolve and change to make a difference.In the 12 months since the Dublin Conversations have continue online and across the world and last week, Andy and his colleagues toured Ireland to share the outcomes. I look at how the c
The gig economy – made up of contractors, consultants, and freelancers - has emerged rapidly over recent years. Driven by the move away from traditional employment models – by both employers and employees – and the rise of digital technologies that create marketplaces for talent to be matched with job opportunities. The side hustle has quickly become the favourite barbeque conversation as people look for opportunities to learn new skills and try new opportunities.In this episode of Smoke Signal, I speak to Luke Achterstraat, CEO of Commtract – Australia and New Zealand’s first marketplace for professional communicators.The Grattan Institute estimates that over 80,000 Australians earn some type of income from a peer to peer platform - be that Uber, AirTasker or Commtract - in any given month. By 2020 almost 40 per cent of the ASX 200 workplace will be non permanent, in some form consultants or freelancers. When founded just over two years ago, Commtract hit on what Luke describes as two mega trends: from an organisational perspective there was an increasing restriction on headcount, movement to an agile workforce and the increased demand for talent immediately. Effectively companies needing to do more with less.The accompanying employee mega trend saw the rise of people seeking autonomy and greater variety in the work they do – especially among experienced professionals who started looking for a “portfolio career”.Luke talks to an on-demand economy that will only get bigger, with more platforms that become hyper specialized (check out snappr for photographers as a case in point) and a greater focus of community around these platforms. His advice – whether starting out as a grad or an experienced professional - don’t fear the way the market is moving as it is by no means a new phenomenon. The key is to embrace the opportunity it presents. In the news this episode I look the 2019 Digital News Report - a global study into the issues facing news media that was just released by the Oxford University-aligned Reuters Institute.The report is based on a survey of over 75,000 people in 38 countries, including 2000 in Australia.
In this episode I speak with industry veteran David Brain post the Accenture acquisition of Droga5 – an acquisition by a management consultancy into a creative agency that is of a size and scale that makes it different to what we have seen before.David Brain uses an apt analogy to describe the competition the PR industry now faces from management consultants who are moving into brand strategy and creative: the PR industry has been training for the past decade to take on the boxing world champion in the weight class above them (creative agencies) but now having stepped into the boxing ring it has found an MMA athlete waiting for us as well. David Brain has worked at some of the largest agencies globally, including 13 years at the world’s largest PR firm, Edelman, where he was a member of its global management Board as well as a number of regional CEO roles across Europe and Asia.He’s recently taken a “step back” and now is on the board of ASX-listed communications network Enero; an advisory Board member of online New Zealand news magazine The Spinoff; an investor and advisory Board member in start-up Parkable; and is currently launching a new research software Stickybeak. In a recent blog he described the acquisition of Droga5 as ‘at scale threat’ to creative agencies that marks the end of PR’s brief chance to become a lead brand discipline’. David believes there was a moment in time, that is now closing due to greater competition from management consultants - the likes of Accenture, KPMG, Deloitte - for PR to get more of the CMO budget (that can be anywhere from ten to twenty times the size of an organisation’s PR budget) by moving into strategy and creative. That is, rather than falling in behind an idea and “making it famous through earned media”, PR could lead the creative idea from the beginning. But to do this PR agencies now must fight not only against creative agencies (the boxer) but with acquisitions like Droga5 by Accenture we now face even greater competition by management consultancies (the MMA athlete).David says: “That is a big fight for our industry to pick and win. There are no doubt individual agencies who can win that battle, but as an industry on mass, I don’t feel we now have the opportunity of being the lead strategy or creative agencies, an area that five or six years ago I thought we could own.”“We have to be smarter and not go head to head with creative agencies who are more creative and management consultancies who arguably are more strategic from a business standpoint.”David sees a better ‘on ramp’ to those larger CMO budgets, now being an area that is often dismissed - marketing automation. The opportunity: marketing automation tools and technology – such as Marketo (purchased by Adobe for $4bn) and HubSpot – that is now more fundamental in how companies are managing their relationships with customers and partners and managing their outreach to prospects and customers. “At their heart is placing different content in front of different people in different channels – that seems a natural area that PR can play.”
Evolving role of influencers, social networks becoming increasingly attentive to their broader role in society, and the continued rise of voice are just a few of the forecast trends discussed in Red Agency’s recently released 2019 Red Sky Predictions Report.In this episode, Global Chairman of Havas PR Collective and CEO of Havas PR for North America, James Wright, takes us through this look at the top 10 trends predicted to hit the Australian communications landscape in 2019.James is a well-recognised face in the Australian PR landscape, having spearheaded the growth and reputation of the Red Agency. I catchup with James on how he’s found the New York market since landing in January. Apart from the obvious – bloody cold; he shares his experience to date – higher budgets, a much deeper media landscape and bigger businesses.We then jump into the Red Sky Predictions report which focuses on Australia, but James hopes to take global in the near future. Some of the trends we discuss include:Social platforms becoming society platforms as they become increasingly mindful of their role in society: There is ever greater pressure on social platforms to take an increased responsibility to monitor and administer public safety: whether in terms of detection of public threats; or health and wellness around screen time; or social bullying and data privacy. And contrary to many media reports, James is already seeing a shift in approach by major social networks, as they move to better ensure they are looking after the huge numbers of people that are on their platforms.Defining the role of influences: We’ve always had influencers in some way – whether celebrity, a blogger, a journalist. But James explains that today, brands are now using influencer marketing more strategically to drive a brand narrative. James describes the emergence three new categories of influencers – co-creators (work together to co-create a piece of content); distributors (those with access to an audience that you want to reach); and narrators (offer a media appeal outside of social networks; and used in owned media as a trusted brand representative).Quality journalism to rise again: There will be a continued migration back to trusted information. Newspapers have become brands in themselves and the report predicts 2019 will see a renaissance in investigative journalism as publishers reinvest in the traditional business model that will increasingly attract increasingly larger audiences. And for James, such journalism is a cornerstone of the democratised world in keeping politicians and organisations accountable.The rise of ‘ears in’ generation: Voice has made a huge impact in the past year. Everyone today has their headphones in – millennials spend 40 hours a week with their headphones on. At the same time, we are also talking more – not just to each other but to devices – think Alexa. And this is only going to grow as it is only at its infancy.Check out the report for all 10 predictions for 2019.In the news this episode I recap on two of the sessions that resonated with me at the recent 2019 Mumbrella CommsCon – the rise of the slow movement and the need for the PR sector to get more serious about mental health and wellness.
Numbers, budgeting and forecasting are not normally the natural domain for PR professionals. However, if you’ve ever worked in an agency there is one thing we certainly know well – timesheets. But is filling out timesheets and billing our services at an hourly rate devaluing the work we do as a profession? In this episode... Continue Reading →
Reports of the death of media relations have been greatly exaggerated.According to practitioner and entrepreneur, Shane Allison, media relations accounted for 51% of agency revenues in 2018. As such it remains a core skill, but in many ways the way we practice media relations has not evolved from when we used fax machines to reach journalists.Shane has launched a new platform, Public Address, bringing much needed innovation and technology to improve the practice of media relations and help remove the friction that can exist between PR practitioners and journalists.In this episode, Shane supports the view of David Skapinker in Smoke Signal episode 8 that there are now more journalists and media outlets than ever before.As a profession we’ve gone from interacting with 2500 media outlets in 2013 to nearly 5000 media outlets today. In the same time we’ve seen nearly 1000 journalists added to the population of journalists.As Shane puts it: “You look at that explosion of media outlets you understand why the PR is struggling to meet the needs of journalists. There are so many different titles and outlets that we need to be communicating with, and pitching to, on a daily basis.“As a result we have never been busier as an industry. The number of people employed in PR has doubled in the last 8 years… We are putting more and more resources to get the same impact as we would have done five years ago with a placement in mainstream media… So the net effect for the PR profession has been a declining productivity."For Shane, the PR profession has often confused innovation with diversification. So we've innovated by diversifying away from media relations - we’ve introduced video, social, content creation, community management among other skills. But, in Shane's view, that is now holding us back, we need to come back to our core and ask how we innovate in this core skill of media relations.Shane is excited about what he sees as the imminent golden age of media relations in a time when media relations has never been more valuable for brands – the process can be improved and evolve but the discipline will remain at the core of what we do.In the newsEarlier this month I attended the launch of the 2019 Edelman Trust Barometer. In the news this episode I discuss three of the key findings:Media is becoming more trusted than everTrust in social media as a source of news and information continues to be persistently low, especially in AustraliaA trust gap has arisen between men and women – women are less trustingTake a listen and you can view the full results here.
With it being that time of year when we are getting back to work, I thought it would be timely to speak to an expert about how we can stay positive as our holidays quickly fade into the memory. Who better than Dr Happy! Listen here or download on iTunes Dr Tim Sharp has two great titles... Continue Reading →
Throughout 2018 I’ve had the opportunity to interview a range of interesting people across the PR profession. One question I’ve asked them all is: Does the term public relations adequately describe what we as professionals do today?The term PR often comes with negative connotations around spin and dishonesty. It is one of the reasons I named this podcast Smoke Signal – as PR is often clouded in mystery and not well understood.In the final episode of 2018 I bring together responses from across the spectrum.Some, such as UK pracademic Andy Green, see the writing on the wall for the term “PR” unless we do something about it, and quickly. While others like PR Warrior Trevor Young and HSPR’s Sarah Mason are sticking strong to the old school definition, seeing relations a key word describing what we do.I tend to agree with the latter, but it is an open debate and one that continues not just locally, but globally.In the news on this episode of Smoke Signal, I discuss one of the many 2019 outlook pieces out there. This one, by social media monitoring platform Talkwalker, looks at the 12 social media trends that will impact PR and marketing in 2019.The rise of data, ongoing technological innovation and dramatic societal changes will be felt in 2019.
In this episode we delve into the world of Consumer PR with Bessie Hassan - Head of PR Australia at finder.com.au.Finder compares everything from personal loans to pet insurance and Bessie is charged with engaging individuals on a topic that is not always top of mind – finance.The trick – understanding the readers are just like 'me' - they want helpful advice in simple language.We discuss some of the current buzzwords and what these mean for consumer PR professionals:- Content Marketing: Brands need to be targeting audiences from all angles – video, facebook, blogs and the more the better. Experiment, look for ways to reach new audiences in new ways – and those ways are constantly changing.- Thought leadership: This means coming out with an opinion but it needs to be genuine. Ultimately it needs to be something that is different, that is going to change the industry you are working in.- Influencer marketing: It needs to again, form part of an integrated approach. You want a genuine relationship that is well aligned and that will work in the long term. - Creativity: To stand out you need to not be afraid to try something new.- Brand purpose: Once you do have that clear purpose you are becoming a brand that customers and employees are not just buying, but are buying into, and that is how brands move to the next level.- Measurement: creating a dashboard of metrics to show how PR is helping to achieve business goals.Bessie is an accomplished journalist and also shares some great lessons of her career journey.In the news this episode I discuss a new report from the University of Southern California Annenberg Centre for Public Relations - the 2019 Relevance Report.The Report is a compilation of contributed articles from leading industry academics s and practitioners. Each article gives a snapshot of a trend or issue that is likely to impact the public relations profession in 2019.The introduction, cleverly titled Fast Froward, playing on the ongoing pace of change the industry has experienced over the past 12 months. The report states that this change has been driven by five T’s. Technology, transformation, transgression, turmoil, and of course, Trump.According to USC’s Global Communication Report – a report conducted in conjunction with the Holmes Report and discussed in Episode 3 - 75% of communications professionals believe this dramatic pace of change will continue well into the future.“As the communications report becomes more complex, PR executives must become more sophisticated. Reading the USC Relevance Report is one way to do that.”I recommend you download and have a read.
The title on Alan VanderMolen’s bio is Respectful Disrupter – in his words, our industry, and the environment in which clients operate, is being greatly disrupted by technology and, at the same time, we’ve seen the massive disruption in the media ecosystem. So in that environment, Alan’s role at WE Communication is to disrupt the agency’s business model to make sure it is keeping pace with the external environment.Alan was in Australia recently to launch WE Communications Global second Brands in Motion Research.The research challenges the traditional concept of brand perception as a static indicator, by arguing that all brands are constantly in motion – either driven by or inspired by technology.In this episode, Alan, takes us through a few of the key findings:Consumers still want a high level of innovation. However, given real concerns about data security consumers are getting a bit nervous about the pace of innovation and now expect brands to use technology and innovate ethically and responsiblyConsumers and B2B decision makers are defaulting to rationality. That is, show me, prove it, versus tell me. Consumers have become increasingly weary of being talked to, and marketed at, and want to be engaged with. Consumers have become binary. They tend to love you or not love you, there is not a lot of in between and that has been a big change over the last 12 months. In this environment, it is more difficult for brands to be consistently loved.On the hot topic of brand purpose, 72% of respondents think it is important for brands to take a stand on important issues. There is a nuance to that – the brand has to have permission to take that stand. Permission is given by having a good product or service from an organisation that is operating ethically and responsibly - then consumers are very interested in the brand having a purpose. In other words, brands need to start with do - do what they say will do; move to the how – act in a way that meets community expectations; and then end with the why – the broader purpose of the business.So what it means for PR professionals? For Alan, this represents a call to action for PR professionals to take responsibility for the moral and ethical behaviour of brands and not just be focused on promoting products and services.Beyond the research Alan believes the future for the profession is a positive one. As issues become more real time and more transparent, the communications function will re-establish itself in the C-Suite. We’ve seen communications subsumed to marketing in the past three to five years but that trend is reversing. Alan believes you will see communication re-emerge primarily because there is a massive call for responsibility and ethics to be embedded in innovation and that is clearly the domain of PR versus marketing.
David Skapinker is a Corporate Affairs and media relations specialist having spent his career working in agency (consumer), in-house (corporate), and today in a self-described tech start-up – having founded the Australian office of Telum Media in 2014.Telum Media, in David’s words, looks to alleviate the friction between PR professionals and journalists and make that interaction a little smoother. Telum Media also delivers news services covering the PR and media industry.It is insights from this this unique viewpoint that David shares in the latest episode of Smoke Signal. Trends, issues and themes we discuss in this episode, include:The number of journalism jobs is actually increasing NOT decreasing. While the big media houses have consolidated and are clearly shrinking; the media industry more broadly is definitely not shrinking, if anything it is growing. Journalism jobs today though are more likely though to be outside the traditional media houses.Never has there been more media. There has never been more content being produced and consumed. The publications that are doing well are the ones that have a well-defined audience that is appealing to advertisers. Relevance is key – geographic or industry – those are the titles that are growing.PR practitioners are being asked to do more than ever. They are being asked to consult on advertising, social and many more areas. There’s just a huge range of skills that PRs have had to pick to up very quickly.The Asia Pacific PR sector are looking far more regionally and far more global than Australian practitioners. PR professionals in Asia are spending a significant portion of time looking at Australian media where Australian PR practitioners aren’t, on the whole, looking at regional media.Measurement: It’s a difficult thing to do and nobody has got it right.In the news this month, I touch on the rise of brand purpose and the move by Nike to feature controversial American footballer Colin Kaepernick in its latest Dream Crazy campaign.Brands are increasingly being expected to not just be good corporate citizens but take a position on issues and stand alongside their customers on issues that are important for them.A recent UK study found that nine out of ten people think businesses should take a stance on societal issues. Specifically hard to crack issues that Government can solve themselves.Nike certainly has stepped into controversy but the campaign is achieving what it set out to achieve - it has had impact, reignited an important conversation and set further set Nike in the ultra competitive consumer sector.Don’t forget to subscribe via my blog or on iTunes – just search for Smoke Signal Podcast.
“Distinguished Professor of Public Communication at University of Technology Sydney (UTS) former journalist, PR practitioner and media researcher” - Jim Macnamara’s twitter profile was the briefest descriptor I could find to summarise the career of Jim who started as a journalist; has worked in agencies; owned and sold his own business; is a published author; award winning researcher; and today a Distinguished Professor at UTS.I’ve had the privilege of being both a student of Jim’s during my Masters of Public Communication and a colleague when working as a casual tutor and lecturer at UTS. I am excited to have Jim as a guest on this episode of Smoke Signal.Jim has many passions – he truly believes society is communication - and among other things I was thrilled to talk about three of them in this podcast: the changing nature of Public Communication education; measurement and evaluation; and organisational listening.In the news this episode I look at the recent investigative series into the state of journalism by Mumbrella. The statistic that just one quarter of journalism grads find a job in media was one that resonated with me.I have long been concerned that while journalism courses continue to rise in popularity, and universities continue to pump our journalism grads, the number of journalist roles is falling. So where will they all go? This, to me, is an issue nut just for the journalism profession or PR practitioners but society more broadly as we should be encouraging and supporting the next generation of journalists.
In this episode I speak to newly appointed National President of the Public Relations Institute of Australia – Sylvia Bell.Sylvia, who originally studied science, has for the past two decades worked in both in-house and consulting roles across the education, health and sciences sector.As a former member on the NSW PRIA Council, a fellow of PRIA and Chief Judge of the Golden Target Awards for the past two years, Sylvia brings a deep knowledge and passion for the industry.Sylvia has a clear mission in her role as PRIA President to advocate for the profession and be an authentic voice for the trends emerging in communications not only among the direct membership but the broader corporate community.
Why after 120 years don’t we have a universally accepted definition of public relations? According to UK pracademic (practitioner and academic) Andy Green it is because we have been asking the wrong question.Andy is spearheading what has been called, The Dublin Conversation. As described in my earlier blog There’s something going on in the world of comms, this includes proposed definitions of PR, comms, advertising and brand and is a starting point for 100 conversations in 100 days.After seven years of struggling to arrive at a definition for public relations that was fit for purpose, Andy finally realised that previous thinking was blinkered in trying to define PR in isolation rather than as part of a bigger universe.In this podcast, Andy discusses a new theoretic PR canvas, based on the work by Nobel prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman who identified that five things govern all social interaction – being known, liked, trusted, front of mind and being talked about.According to Andy, and as detailed in the Dublin Conversation, these conditions form the foundation stone of any communication campaign as you are invariably looking to do these five things. On that canvas – which we are all operating whether you are in public relations, advertising, digital marketing or any ‘comms’ role – there are then four channels of interaction: paid, earned, social, owned (PESO).In this world of ‘comms’, advertising and PR work in polarity of each other with advertising being born out of the need to be known and PR out of the need to be trusted. In other words, advertising leads with paid (PESO) and PR has earned at its core (ESOP).At the heart of PR is earned trust and PR five prime activities:Managing the activity of earning, growing and measuring trustChampion of corporate listening to its wider environmentAdvice and counsel on brand characterBuilding social capitalManaging narrative, storytelling, media relations, and content marketing or inbound PRThe reality of existing PR practice is that we tend to focus on the last point, so by broadening this out further creates a whole new extended platform of future PR practiceThe good news, this validates existing global definitions of public relations but also gives us as practitioners greater clarity and focus on what we can/should deliver in practice and always with earned trust as the cornerstone of what we do.
At its core, public relations is a set of vocational skills that can best be learnt by doing, that is the view of Sarah Mason who shares with us the mission of HSPR in helping improve the professional standards of the PR industry.HSPR is the only Registered Training Organisation dedicated to the PR sector and helps deliver professional development to emerging practitioners, career progressors, senior executives and career changes who may be coming to PR for the first time later in life.Sarah has a clear passion for the professionalisation of the PR sector which she believes will help attract a more diverse workforce, new ideas, new thinking and new perspectives and help keep good practitioners in the industry longer by supporting them to do great work.In this discussion we touch on:What makes a good grad: It is all about attitude and a willingness to keep learningHow to teach ethics: It’s common sense – do as you would be done by and be true to yourselfSkills that as an industry that we need to get better at: Creative thinking is our industry’s currency. Creativity is really the only thing that can differentiate allDiversity: we need to step out of our echo chamber and build a deeper understanding of our audienceDigital and social: skillset remains the same just broadening opportunity to engage with stakeholders
In this episode I speak with Trevor Young, a.k.a. the PR Warrior Trevor is well known on the PR circuit, having been a practitioner for over two decades, a regular speaker at industry events and one of Australia’s earliest PR bloggers and tweeters. His blog, PR Warrior is still ranked in the world’s top 100 PR blogs to follow in 2018 (#33).Trevor talks about the need for brands (and individuals) to embrace content marketing as a way to deeply engage and influence consumers.
In this episode Andy Eklund, a.k.a. the Creativity Coach, takes us into the wonderful world of creativity.
According to Andy, who defines business creativity as the act of combining two different ideas in an unusual way to create something unique, useful or new, creativity is one of the most important life skills that everyone should learn. He believes it should also be taught in schools!
Creativity seems and ever more important skill for PR practitioners where creativity is becoming more and more vital as brands look to differentiate themselves and cut through the clutter.
Andy currently runs his own creativity coaching business, having held both in house and agency roles, including Global Creative Director for Burson Marsteller in the 1990’s where he was involved in 4-6 brainstorms a day.
According to Andy brainstorming gets a bad wrap. In reality brainstorming is simply the act of your brain coming up with an idea – whether that’s in a formal team setting or a chat in the hallway.
Some of his tips on brainstorms that he discusses in this podcast are:
- You need ice breakers to help participants become creative
- Understand 90/10 rule – it’ll take at least 10 ideas to get one good one
- To brainstorm in the absence of the audience is a complete waste of time
We also discuss the fact that while creativity is a right side of the brain, it also requires discipline and consistency that is left brain thinking. And relax, creativity can be taught, you just have to really want to learn.
In the news this week we look at what feels like the only story going around – the Facebook Cambridge Analytica controversy. The story has continued to roll on since I wrote this blog and it shows no sign of since Mark Zuckerberg appeared in front of Congress to admit guilt and apologise.
There is no doubt a lot more to come on this story but restoring trust will be a key challenge now for Facebook.
If you enjoy this podcast then do be sure to check out Andy’s blog www.andyeklund.com where you can get a lot more tips on creativity.
In episode 1 of Smoke Signal we speak with Editor-in-Chief and CEO of the Holmes Report, Arun Sudhaman.
“Bell Pottinger is probably the biggest story that I will cover in my career,” reveals Arun in episode one of Smoke Signal.
The demise of the venerable Bell Pottinger brand was not only the biggest story in the last 12 months but of his whole career, a big call for a journalist who has been covering the PR sector for over a decade.
As well as giving an inside view into the collapse of Bell Pottinger, Arun shares his views on some of the key themes that he’s seeing as major influences impacting the practice of PR globally – the emergence of purpose as a key driver for brands; the increased role of data and analytics in creating and measuring campaigns; and the impact technology now plays in everything we do in PR today.
While the quality of PR campaigns across the globe has never been higher, as seen in awards winners being given globally, Arun believes there still a breadth of work that is “relatively average” that continues to plague the industry.
The cricket loving Arun (he hosts a podcast on this too), also shares his views on the increased presence of creativity; the role of awards in the PR sector; and the rise and rise of crisis management as an important facet in the PR toolkit.
In this episode we also take a look ‘inside the news’ at one of the more bizarre stories of recent times with ACT Chief Minister, Andrew Barr, telling a group of communications professionals that he “hates journalists and is over mainstream media”.
Enjoy episode one of Smoke Signal.