"Recruiting and Retaining Talent": csuitepodcast Show 30 Part 1

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Blog post by Russell Goldsmith, Founder, Audere Communications

Show 30 of the csuitepodcast was the first of three shows recorded at the Global ICCO PR Summit that took place in Oxford at the start of September.

Part 1 of this episode was on the topic of Talent Creation, Recruitment and Retention within the PR & Communications industry.

Joining for this first section of the show were Mohamed Al Ayed, CEO and President of TRACCS, Tanya Hughes, President of SERMO, Talk PR’s global network of independent communications agencies, and Susan Hardwick, Co-Founder of Global Women in PR – all three had just been part of a panel session at the conference.

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My guests all agreed that the critical issues that were being discussed around this topic were global and as Tanya explained, a key theme in her own Group’s international conference was not just on finding the right people, but keeping them happy with job satisfaction and work-life balance too.

When I spoke with Weber Shandwick’s Colin Byrne in Cannes, he said the big issue was the fact that PR agencies’ approach for talent has been to steal each other’s staff and that actually PR needs to recruit the kind of people who are currently going to work at Social Media Platforms or the World’s top Advertising and Digital Agencies, something Karen van Bergen, CEO of Omicom Public Relations Group also touched on in her opening keynote at the ICCO Conference.

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Sarah agreed.  She explained that her Spanish agency’s Head of Digital came from an advertising agency and in their Hong Kong agency, they’ve just recruited a creative from a Film Production House.  However, she warned that it works both ways as she’s seen her own talent recruited by Ad and Digital agencies too.

Given Susan’s role in Global Women in PR, I asked her if one way of keeping talent in the industry was to tap into the growing freelance network, particularly in encouraging mums back into the industry.

However, Susan said that whilst freelancers plug gaps, do project work, add value when necessary when you don’t need to employ somebody for 52 weeks in the year, or offer specialists to balance out the team, the difficulty, particularly in relation to mums coming back to work, is in dealing with is the very big gap between leaving work to have children and coming back, as our world changes very rapidly.  She therefore feels there needs to be work on both sides, i.e. perhaps offering retraining to allow returning mums to get up to speed.

Sarah added that in her experience, she felt employers are actually fairly flexible, certainly in her agencies, particularly in creating work-life balance and ensuring people are happy at work.  However, she said that recent experience for returning working mums, particularly after having their first baby, can be a bit of a shock and given the PR industry is a service industry, even if people are working part-time, they are expected to be available to service their client and do longer working hours.

H+K Strategies’ Richard Millar previously said on this series that that the make-up of his agency had fundamentally changed over the last two or three years and that he couldn’t remember the last time he interviewed someone with a typical PR background.  Mohamed made an interesting point on this as he talked about the evolution of the word talent, where it has evolved from ‘employees’ through ‘resources’.  He agreed in that those people who PR recruits don’t need to be PR people by education.  However, in his view, talent is defined by the organisation’s recognition of the skill and the personality of an individual that will suit and best serve their purposes.  At TRACC, Mohamed actually has engineers, a doctor and a psychologist in the team.

One aspect we touched on was retention of as much as attracting new talent and one of the ways Sarah looks to achieve that at Talk PR is in the organisation’s ‘Learning & Inspiration Programme’, which consists of 52 Masterclass workshops, each geared around personal development for everyone in the agency, from junior to board level.  They include everything from helping people to present or run meetings, to handling conflict and business and financial management.  They also aim to inspire the team by getting external speakers in and organising cultural trips plus development for the team’s client relationships too, including measurement and evaluation or helping to pitch great stories to the media and influencers.

When summing up, my guests offered the following advice between them when it comes to attracting the best talent to the industry:

  • Create a great environment in which to work, i.e. a place where people will be banging at your door and want to be part of your team
  • Do great work and promote the hell out of it
  • [ensure] Transparency, Ingenuity and Integrity

#ad – Many thanks to global media intelligence provider CARMA for supporting the series of shows I produced from ICCO.  Please do visit their website to find out more about how they can help you deliver actionable insights through media monitoring and PR measurement.

All previous shows of the csuitepodcast series are available on Soundcloud or itunes and please, if you subscribe, can you give the show a positive rating and review on itunes in particular.

Executive Summary – World PR Report 2016

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Article by Francis Ingham, Chief Executive of ICCO

The ICCO & PRWeek World PR Report is the definitive analysis of where the global PR and comms industry stands today; how it has been performing over the past year; and what it predicts will happen in the next few. Drawing on the breadth and depth of ICCO’s membership – 37 national associations, operating in 48 countries, and representing more than 2,500 agencies – it is a vital tool in understanding our industry.

What are the headlines?

Agency heads are optimistic. On a scale of 1-10, there is a global average of exactly 7. The most optimistic markets are the UK (8.1), and the Middle East (8.0); the least are Latin America (5.9), and Africa (6.0).

And they are expecting an increase in profitability, with a score of 6.2. Leading the pack is North America (7.2), followed by the UK at precisely 7. At the other end, we have Latin America again (5.2), and Western Europe (5.7).

Both of those findings deserve celebration, given the at times tempestuous and uncertain state of the world economy. What is driving this performance? I would highlight three factors, which we have seen for the past few years now, and which are remarkably constant region-by-region.

The first is chief executives taking corporate reputation seriously. Quite simply, the business community around the world is more aware than ever before of the fact that their most important asset is their reputation.

The second is that marketers are taking their spend away from other disciplines, and diverting it into more effective mediums of PR and comms. And the third is that clients are increasingly asking public relations firms to provide non-traditional services.

Those last two points amount to one incontrovertible trend – in an increasingly integrated marketing world, PR’s nimbleness, insight, and creativity is beating the competition.

What have been the main practice areas of growth?

Four stand out head and shoulders above the rest – digital comms; corporate reputation; marcomms; and public affairs. And when agency heads are asked to predict which sectors will drive growth over the coming years, they name exactly those four again.

Obviously, there are variations by region, reflecting different local priorities, and different levels of market maturity. But the message is clear – those areas have driven growth in the past, and are set to do so again in the future. Looked at by sector, we again see four key areas of growth now and in the future – technology; consumer; healthcare; and financial and professional services. And underpinning all of this behaviour is the crucial role PR and comms agencies now play in social media and community management, and in creating content across the whole range of media – areas where wise agencies are making significant investment. So far, so encouraging.

But what of the challenges faced by the industry?

It will come as no surprise that two perennial ones are right up there – meeting profit margins, and handling general economic conditions. The first is a symptom of PR’s inability to charge appropriately for the value it delivers – former ICCO chairman Richard Houghton’s regular lament that ‘Fridays are free’; the second is something over which we have no control.

The area where we certainly have the ability to make a difference is talent. In six of the nine world regions, it tops the bill as the key challenge. In fact, only in Asia does talent not rank in the top three. Although our industry continues to power ahead, its growth is being hindered by our failure to attract and then to retain the very best.

Within that challenge are two specific areas of concern: hiring senior staff, and attracting people from non-traditional background. The latter is of particular concern to ICCO. If agencies keep on recruiting the same type of person, with the same type of background, they are automatically excluding themselves from large parts of the market. The more varied teams are, the abler they are to deliver excellent services to the widest possible range of clients.

I would make two final observations: First, and it is a point made by several contributors from different regions, the industry has reached a happy place of maturity. Social media and content may be the biggest areas of growth, but there is still room for the older skills of PR and comms, such as media relations. And that place exists in established and developing markets.

There is, quite simply, a home for all branches of our profession.

Second, what a brilliant time to be in this industry. Even in difficult economic circumstances, PR and comms agencies are profitable, growing, and optimistic.

How would I sum up the future? Bright. And getting brighter.

Download a free copy of the ICCO & PRWeek World PR Report 2016 here. 

 

Trends transforming global PR

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Article by Tanya Hughes, President, SERMO Communications

This summer, we locked SERMO’s 15 lifestyle PR agencies from all over the world in a conference room in Milan for three days to talk about transformation.  Transformation of clients’ and brands’ needs, of our services, of digital influence, of retail and technology, of our staff makeup. There was plenty of inspiration and plenty of handwringing. In the end we agreed that ‘only the paranoid survive’ and that that’s a good thing. Here are outtakes from the conference – the trends we think are transforming global PR:

  1. Every company is a digital company

Generalist PR skills such as writing, media relations, event management and strategic planning are still core competencies. But now that digital content is the new ‘me time’, every agency is piling in to fill the space. Specialist skills in multimedia content development, SEO, social and digital and analytics are now critical ingredients in the arsenal of progressive PR agencies. To find these digital experts, SERMO agencies are recruiting from media, advertising and production agencies. Nota Bene in Spain have recruited Art Directors, Online Marketing Managers and IT/Programming Managers and Mojo PR in Dubai have a new Head of Creative Content who’s highly connected to filmmakers and other producers, training agency staff in video production and editing.

  1. Keep millennials happy

How to keep our people happy, especially ‘millennials’, was a hot topic this year. Millennials (those born between the 1980s and 2000s) need targeted attention. They have grown up in a society thriving on rapid technological advancement. They expect to be able to access the latest technology at work. Upgrade or die! For them, change is the constant, and they demand this from an employer – they want their careers to progress quickly. According to a report produced by PwC Australia, 71% of millennials are dis-engaged at their jobs as a result of this sense of entitlement. SERMO agencies know that human capital is their biggest asset so they’re investing in training, tailored benefits and new perks to help recruit and retain the very best talent. Talk PR in the UK have introduced a mentoring programme, RSVP in Singapore hold weekly yoga classes in the office to improve staff’s health and wellbeing and Tomorrowland Group in Australia have introduced a quarterly reset day (extra holiday day every quarter) to help their people maintain a work/life balance. All report improved retention and productivity.

  1. The seismic shift in retail

Retail, and fashion retail in particular, is going through enormous structural change. From the push for change in the now outdated two season fashion calendar, to the shift in consumer buying habits facilitated by digital and mobile technology. We heard from expert e-commerce speakers. POPSUGAR talked about the challenges of co-creating content for brands that will grab the eight second attention span of Gen Z, the domination of mobile and the holy grail of marketplace sites – seamless check out. While Yoox said their customers know what they want and come to them to shop, not for content! At the sharp end of technology, Metail are creating virtual fitting rooms that will improve and personalise service and cut returns. In the real world, bricks and mortar retail is moving toward creating experiences that can’t be replicated online.

All of which has implications for PR – the lifecycle of fashion/lifestyle stories is shorter and requires an integrated approach across content and channels, from influencer marketing to creative execution. It’s all about driving sales across all consumer touchpoints. Working with digital influencers, in particular, now drives huge sales for brands and retailers, often resulting in completely sold-out pieces.

  1. Redefining influence

Influence is not what it used to be. It’s more complex and dynamic and, above all, digital. But the digitisation of influence, doesn’t diminish PR’s core competence – harnessing influence through relationships. What it does mean is that working with digital influencers and KOLs and creating compelling digital content requires constant innovation – Negri Firman in Italy has set up a creative content arm called NFLAB, Flare in Hong Kong set-up a social and digital PR Hub in summer 2015 which now contributes over 33% of their total revenue, Tomorrowland Group in Australia and RSVP in Singapore have launched Talentland and RSVP@Talent (respectively) to manage the profiles of experts, digital influencers and creators. SERMO agencies like Adventi in China are also offering integration of paid, owned, shared and earned media and broadening their portfolio from working with digital influencers and paid amplification to programmatic advertising.

  1. Global media vacuum

Condé Nast Italia impressed us all with their innovative work with brands and co-created, extraordinary content. But what they can’t do, and what no major publishing house can do, is press a ‘button’ for global reach. There’s really no such thing as truly global media. We know this from our work with global clients such as Pernod Ricard and Procter & Gamble. It occurred to us that we could bring each of our market’s local influencers together, connected by the network partners, to create tangible global online reach for our clients’ brands. And at the same time, help influencers extend their global reach. So our next step is to make the SERMO Digital Influencer Index interactive, live and a service for clients and influencers – watch this space.

The ICCO Global Award Entries: The Quest To Demonstrate True Effectiveness

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Article by Renee Wilson, president, PR Council; co-chair of ICCO Global Awards jury

Another awards program? Oh my…….but wait! – here is a chance to get some deserved recognition for your team’s stellar work, while helping educate the global marketing communications community on the power of public relations.

Our industry is going through somewhat of an identity crisis redefining who we are, and what we do, at an incredible pace.  There are many types of different discipline agencies that claim to know how to ‘earn influence’ or ‘earn media’ in a way that public relations can, with credibility and relevance.  However, our discipline is truly an art and a science, and operates in some similar ways but in a lot of unique ways too.

The ICCO Global Awards is a great opportunity for our industry to showcase the way in which public relations campaigns achieve real results, through powerful outcomes.  It is the measurement of changes in attitudes, opinions, and behavior (eg,votes, shares, sales etc.) that truly helps underscore the effectiveness of our campaigns, and what the ICCO Global Awards are all about.

The Cannes Lions Festival and Awards is very much rooted in creativity, and we love it for that, while the ICCO Global Awards punctuates the campaign “effectiveness.” That’s not to say that you don’t need a creative entry to win the ICCO Global Awards too, but proving how you help achieve your clients’ objectives with something measureable and tangible, not just opinion, is where your focus should be when entering for an ICCO Global Award.

Additionally, could this be the year we come up with the best collection of global campaign entries that demonstrate the powerful effectiveness that public relations offers?  I think it could.  Let’s challenge ourselves and our industry to do it!  Then, let’s use these ICCO Global Award winning campaign entries as calling cards to clients all over the world to better demonstrate what our discipline is capable of when it comes to effectiveness.

In my role as president of the PR Council, I talk to many leaders from CMOs and marketing clients, to communication directors, about the power of PR.  In order for them to continue to prioritize PR within their organizations with supporting resource, and in some cases, start to prioritize, we need to do a better job of explaining our effectiveness.  It’s that simple.  And, it’s that complex.

If you listen to the trade media that cover our industry and the industry pundits, some feel that we are moving too slowly in doing this.  The observation – (whether you agree or not) – is perhaps we are not retooling as quickly as other disciplines in terms of our talent, infrastructure and campaign thinking.  Let’s prove them wrong!  Let’s show the remarkable work our teams produce.  Let’s enter the ICCO Global Awards and use these entries as our industry calling cards.

For more information on the ICCO Global Awards visit: awards.iccopr.com

Don’t let storytelling become a fantasy

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Article by Petra Sammer, Chief Creative Officer at Ketchum Germany

Over the last few years, storytelling has become one of the most frequently used buzzwords in PR.  The accepted wisdom now seems to be that, the future of communications lies in storytelling – and PR owns that expertise.

PR claims it is home to exceptionally good storytellers for good reason.  Our industry is used to analysing complex situations and identifying the top line story – we know that every good story needs a reason to be told.  Our industry is used to assembling stories in ways that encourage sharing – we know that every good story has viral potential.  Our industry is used to recounting stories in ways that will grab attention – we know that every good story needs a universal connection with the reader.

But in saying this we easily forget both weaknesses of PR and the strengths of our advertising rivals – who also claim the storytelling mantle.  Advertising firms have long been trusted partners in developing the client’s “big idea.”  Their entire business workflow is geared to deliver film and imagery – just when the world is obsessed with YouTube and Instagram.  Advertisers know how to work with a palette of emotions.  They are immersed in audience data and culture.  They understand how edutainment makes messages sticky.

PR on the other hand is still earning its right to handle the client’s “big idea” in a channel agnostic world.  Our business workflow is often geared to understand, unpick and create content using words and narratives.  We also use a very specific vocabulary from the world of rational hard news and train ourselves to describe our stories in certain restrictive formats.  In some cases we have almost become consultants like McKinsey, working to set methodologies that strip out subjectivity as if it were an evil.  Our industry is still learning to handle value and behaviour based audiences.  And most fundamentally we understand storytelling though the concept ofnews-storytelling – which is not the same as creative-storytelling.

So for me, if we are to truly to seize upon the potential to own a wider notion of storytelling, and transform our industry accordingly, we need to spend a little more time understanding what that really means.  PR must learn how to make people laugh and cry, every day.  PR must get comfortable with a balance of facts and emotion.  PR must focus its stories around heroes and encourage our clients to recognise the need for conflict in our work.  We must give equal thought to words and visual communication.

If we can do this, and some of the work of our industry proves we very much can, there are some truly wonderful and incredibly rewarding opportunities to be had.

For example, my firm, Ketchum was responsible for the origination and production of these films for Samsung and Häagen-Dazs.  We have been busy hiring producers, artists and camera operators.  We are beginning projects with visual turns and images instead of relying only on the written word.  We are helping CEOs and managers to tell their personal stories in the colourful language of day to day life.  We are connecting brands with creators like documentary filmmaker, Morgan Spurlock and Academy Award Winner, Morgan Neville.

PR cannot just claim creative storytelling as its natural right, we need to reengineer the way our organisations solve problems if we are to broaden our horizons.

 

Message from ICCO President to the Participants of the Global PR Summit in Oxford

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Dear ICCO Summit participants,

A sincere thanks for attending the most prestigious and useful event in our business in the world – the Global PR Summit – last week in Oxford, UK.

We all witnessed many professional and interesting presentations, exploring the future of the Public Relations business and to the enormous changes which are happening everyday. The quality of the speakers, the topics, number of participants (almost 200) and countries represented (36) put this year’s Summit among the best in the almost 30 year ICCO history.

As you know ICCO is growing very fast and develops its structure and management according to this growth and also according to the needs of this dynamic business – Public Relations. Establishing our Regional Groups, launching new events more focused on regions and much better cooperation between countries, sharing both achievements and problems within our business at special forums, trainings, further enlargement of the organisation globally and also creating a special professional Innovation panel are the projects we would like to develop next year, to name just a few. And also – the Global PR Summit in Oxford was undoubtedly the most covered, shared and commented professional event on social media most probably since its launch a decade ago.

Thank you very much again for coming to Oxford to be one of us, to be one of the selected group of people looking to the future of the business, for your posts on social media, for the comments, remarks and questions both from the stage to the audience and from the audience to the speakers and during the coffee breaks, lunches, dinners and other social events.

We all look forward to an even more successful Summit next year in Helsinki, Finland, and I would like to announce that all participants to our Oxford event will have a very special discounted rate for the 2017 event in Finnish capital.

I will be happy to meet you in the meantime at any PR event throughout the world and – of course – in London on December 1st at the ICCO Global Awards Gala Dinner. If I can be of any help, please do contact me anytime.

All my best,

Maxim

Maxim Behar
ICCO President
www.iccopr.com

CEO & Chairman of the Board
M3 Communications Group, Inc. | A Hill+Knowlton Strategies Partner

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103 TAKE-AWAYS FROM 2016 ICCO GLOBAL SUMMIT/OXFORD

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By Elise Mitchell, CEO, Mitchell Communications & Dentsu Aegis Public Relations Network

This year’s conference theme was “Talent, Inspiration and Innovation – Creating the Consultancy of the Future.”
Two fast-paced days of speakers, panels and networking opportunities made it hard to pick, but here’s the best from my notes. As a bonus, I’ve included 23 links to research, case studies, frameworks and other resources.

Would love to know what you learned too, so please connect with me and share. Here’s to being inspired!
Elise Mitchell
CEO Mitchell and Dentsu Aegis Public Relations Network
Twitter
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Mitchell
EliseMitchell.com

A Fresh Look at Talent
1. Retaining talent is the top challenge agencies face today
2. Embrace diversity as if the future depends upon it
3. Technology can help agencies attract talent — use virtual reality when interviewing prospects to give them a tour of the office, give them an authentic feel for the company culture
4. Data can help agencies attract talent — we should use learnings from CRM tools to find and reach talent when they’re interested in making a job change
5. Be braver about who you hire

Global Women in PR Gender Pay Gap Study and panel discussion
6. The gender pay gap is £12,600 ($16,175)
7. 36% of agency board level (senior management) are men; 16% are women
8. Wage inflation is a challenge for agencies: pay is increasing, over-servicing tendencies by agencies and inability to raise fees means margin is squeezed
9. Flexibility needs to work both ways – between the agency and the employee, they must work together if flexible roles are to be developed successfully
10. The PR profession often doesn’t lend itself to flexible working roles or job sharing due to the unexpected needs of clients in a 24/7 world; harder to offer these types of situations to employees
11. Look at what people can do, not just what is on their resume
12. Challenge that lies ahead: Close the gender pay gap, retain talented women for a balanced boardroom, be more flexible in working practices, help women develop their skills to grow confidence

Diversity in Turkey
13. Communications is going back to being human, it’s the individual that counts
14. Family is an important aspect of life in Turkey; togetherness is something people value
15. Be hopeful – residents choose to celebrate life and look to the future in spite of the challenges the country is facing. A quote attributed to the Dalai Lama sums this up well: “What is the happiest moment of your life? Now.” The teaching: live in the present
Talent lessons from China
16. Give stretch assignments to your employees to keep them engaged, growing and bringing new value to clients
17. Don’t miss opportunities to bond with employees, capturing key moments of truth – review and reward employees when they don’t expect it (based on behavioral science, an unexpected positive event will send dopamine to the brain)

Winning the war for talent
18. Employees are effective brand ambassadors for their employers — content shared by employees has 8x greater engagement than content shared by the organization itself
19. PR agencies can compete for talent against management consultancies by offering a more creative environment; employees are attracted to work environments that place creativity at the core; work/life balance = fun
20. People leave bosses more than they leave agencies

Emerging markets
21. In India, 30% of revenue is coming from non-PR services
22. Hong Kong – PR pros need to develop talent in many areas and hire for hybrid roles, looking for combinations such as social media and entrepreneurship
23. Russia – the role of communications in organizations is changing significantly, the need for the CCO role is increasing
24. “Africa means business” – the PR industry is growing, but recognize that Africa is a very diverse continent that requires local market knowledge and strategy to engage with local stakeholders

Brand-building and brand culture
25. A brand is only as good as its people
26. Integrating your social feeds can enable you to build a more compelling personal brand, build your community
27. Millennials comprise more than 40% of those who use ad blockers
28. Criteria for winning at Cannes (Entertainment Jury): quality of content, relevant, entertaining, effectiveness
29. New York Times campaign “The Displaced” – Cannes Lion winner, example of experiential content like VR to immerse audiences in an engage manner ;it’s not just about understanding, it’s about feeling
30. ING campaign “The Next Rembrandt” – example of how data and deep learning can help a brand build meaningful relationship with audiences
31. Content marketing is most successful when it communicates a message and compels the viewer to share that same message; researchers have found the key to the content virality is to evoke an arousing emotion, whether positive or negative.
32. Crowdsourcing is an increasingly popular way to engage consumers, give them more power and choice; allows brands to gain valuable insights for innovation purposes

The power of the earned brand
33. Four behaviors that increase the most when “involved” consumers become “committed” consumers: participate in creating the brand’s content, like what the brand says on social media, willing to share personal data with the brand, early adopter of brand products/services when they come out
34. What consumers value about different media: earned media is most likely to get their attention; paid is most entertaining; peer media is most likely to change opinion or lead to purchase of a new brand; owned media is most accessible

Storytelling
35. Every story needs: a reason to be told, a hero, conflict, to touch our heart, to “go viral “ (living on from generation to generation)
36. Pick one person and tell their story, not an entire group of people
37. Creating empathy is key – the conflict and struggle are what draw us in
38. “Desire is the blood of good storytelling.”

Reputation and trust
39. Different reputations exist for different audiences within the same brand
40. Study by Mayer, Davis and Schoorman on three dimensions of trust: ability, benevolence, integrity
41. Reputation engagement is achieved through behavior, networks and narratives
42. Other people own your reputation; narrative is a powerful tool to influence reputation

How public affairs is changing
43. Position papers are no longer enough; we must tell stories on behalf of clients
44. An engaged CEO is the key to successful public affairs initiatives
45. Creativity plays an important role in public affairs

Being a learning leader
46. Learning leaders are open-minded, humble and believe “the world has something to teach me,” engage their teams in finding solutions, make the time to invest in themselves
47. Arrogance leads to ignorance; the world is changing and you must change with it
48. Benefits of learning: We stretch ourselves, gain broader perspectives, make better decisions, enable others around us to grow
49. Leaders today are becoming adaptive leaders – finding new solutions to new problems in real time
50. Learning tips for busy leaders: Listen to podcasts in the car or on the train, while you exercise; speed date suppliers to swap ideas and spot innovation you can apply to your agency

Next practices in public relations — Lord Chadlington
51. “The hamster is dead but the wheel is still turning” – i.e. you’re all dead unless…you can incorporate software, analytics and the ability to measure reputation online
52.We need to make more time to think: we are working too hard, too fast
53. Agencies of the future will invoice based on digital movement
54. Insights will carry the day, critical to be able to provide clients insights to drive campaigns

Communicating at the speed of culture
55. Consumers unlock their phones 150 times/day not to call anyone but to access and create content
56. “Moments in between doing other things” – when people are looking at their phones, flicking through infinite content
57. PR agencies are best positioned to manage clients’ needs in a noisy world; we are consistently good at two things: being reactive to what the world cares about right now; telling a good story

Lessons from the UK government communications
58. Four essential outcomes of comms work: changes in behaviors that benefit individuals and society, operational effectiveness of public services, reputation of the UK and responding in times of crisis, explanation of the government’s policies and programs
59. Why citizens would rather talk about football? Timeless themes: struggle, persistence, challenge, success
60. Download evaluation performance tools and framework
61. Good leaders ask themselves: What do you want to be remembered for? And then strive to live up to that
62. Good leaders have the courage to step up/step in when they are needed, voice ideas that help drive needed change, inspire others to learn

Cannes panel
63. The emotional connection is essential for entries to demonstrate
64. Campaign illustrating impact of data on creativity: “The House of Clicks”

The science of human behavior
65. Study on what impacts our decision-making in completely unrelated situations: what judges ate for breakfast, whether a college football team (American football) won/lost
66. We make 226 decisions a day about food (most are unconscious); example of “system one” decision-making (automatic, effortless, associative); we use system one more than we think we do!
67. Publications of Daniel Kahneman, Nobel prize winner on “thinking fast and slow”
68. Clients are very interested in behavioral insights because they are evidence-based
69. We spend too much time on the “Sherlock Holmes” bias – trying to persuade people with pros/cons; emotions play a much larger role than we think
70. Social persuasion can be a very effective approach –“everybody’s doing it” – example: communicating that 9 out of 10 people file their tax returns on time to encourage timely filing
71. Download insights framework: Four simple ways to apply behavioral insights
72. Give and take: How reciprocity drives our behavior
73. A/B testing of campaign messages on your website is a valuable way to determine what motivates people to respond more often; apply learnings to gain traction; however PR industry should test behavioural triggers more often rather than just wordsmithing

“Spikey” ideas rather than just a big idea
74. An idea that enables many activations, manifests itself across many channels
75. Good insights are at the core of spikey ideas; the combination of human insights, social insights, brand/product insights
76. Spikey ideas have at the core a persuasive human truth or purpose
77. PR agencies are better equipped to develop/deliver spikey ideas because we think and can activate across all channels (PESO)
78. Semantic encoding –it’s not just what you see or hear but the meaning of something helps you remember it
79. Case study: “Kern the Gnome” engaged scientists around the world to teach us about gravity
80. Case study: #emergencylessons to bring school to children in war-torn countries

Time-keeping and timesheets
81. You don’t prove value to clients by showing time sheets. Demonstrate that you have achieved pre-defined objectives and targets.
82. Some clients do require time sheets and audit them, but employees struggle to keep them accurate and current
83. Daily time entry helps fight “time slippage,” a big challenge for agencies
84. The downside of time-keeping: Time sheets are “an assault on creative brains at work”
85. Don’t threaten employees who are not keeping accurate time sheets, instead reward employees who are (occasional free venti or beer when time sheets are up to date)
86. Time-keeping is a valuable tool to measure time spent against certain activities and the opportunity cost of not being able to do other things

Analytics functions that work at agencies
87. It’s not just about the numbers, it’s also about the packaging; think about how to make data beautiful and shareable
88. The role of metrics in award-winning entries: We have a responsibility to force award-winning entries to demonstrate robust metrics; otherwise we send the wrong message to the industry that it’s okay not to measure. Could this encourage clients and agencies to invest more in metrics?
89. Challenge for agencies: Until more of agencies’ work is paid based on results, they’re not going to invest as much in measurement
90.Outputs alone are losing their effectiveness; must include outtakes (response and reactions of audiences) and outcomes to show business impact
91. Download integrated evaluation framework from AMEC

Innovation and creativity
92. “Some skeptics insist that innovation is expensive. In the long run, innovation is cheap. Mediocrity is expensive.” (Tom Kelley, General Manager IDEO).– IDEO founder
93. Invitation to join the Innovation in Communications panel
94. Where a client starts isn’t always where they end up; design thinking helps uncover what is really most important to clients and what their objective is
95. Snapchat: Users are documenting their lives on this platform; brands in the Middle East have been using Snapchat as a valuable customer service channel for the past 2-3 years
96. National Geographic campaign Face Swap to create and demonstrate empathy with others
97. AR/VR can help create empathy in audiences – “augmented empathy”
98. Use of robotics in business: Pepper the Robot uses ability to understand emotions to manage customer service interactions
99. Reuters Institute for Study of Journalism: Many valuable reports on innovations in the profession
100. Creativity should be as important to study in schools as STEM
101. World Economic Forum 21st century Skills Gap goes in-depth on key skills needed in the future — critical thinking, problem-solving, persistence, collaboration and curiosity; flexibility is a critical skill due to the amount and speed of change
102. Being perceived as an innovative workplace can help agencies attract talent; employees care significantly about what they get to work on and who they work with
103. Adobe Kickbox is a toolkit to jumpstart innovation in your company

Other resources
• “Innovate or Die” – another great summary of ICCO summit takeaways by Sonya Madeira
• C-Suite podcasts — interviews with many ICCO summit presenters
• Official speaker presentations and photos from the summit can be downloaded from ICCO here

 

The 2017 Global ICCO PR Summit will take place in Helsinki, Finland. To find out more, contact ICCO General Manager Charlene Corrin, charlene.corrin@iccopr.com.

Demonstrating expertise to clients

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Article by Connor Kinnear, Chief Marketing Officer, Passle

 

Most agencies and professional services companies are named after the individuals that founded the company. The reason for this is that the talent driving these companies is the asset that clients buy into. Saatchi and Saatchi was named after Maurice and Charles because, as advertising greats, they realised they were their own secret sauce and their communications should reflect that.

This poses a question for all agencies and businesses where the people are the asset that clients buy. How do you communicate the knowledge and expertise of the true experts in your business? The problem is two-fold. How do you access the insights of these people, given that they are going to be extremely busy and then how to distribute that knowledge?

Research conducted by Passle shows that the top 50 UK PR Agencies produced over 3,500 knowledge pieces last year. The number might seem impressive, but it amounts to only 0.72 pieces created in a year per member of staff. For comparison, the top 100 UK lawyers produced 0.75 pieces of content per staff in 2015! What is this world in which the famously reticent British lawyers are outflanking creative and engaged agencies that sell their ability to communicate?

These two points – that clients want to buy into the core talent at an agency and the industry’s surprising silence in communicating its knowledge – represent a huge opportunity for agencies across the world.

Enter, content marketing. Content marketing is a strategy that puts your audience first. It creates content to inform, help or entertain your audience. The opposite of content marketing is to sell at your audience. Content marketing takes many forms, from blog posts, to webinars, to, yes, social media updates.

If your agency is ignoring digital content marketing for itself, whether that be blogging or vlogging, you are making it harder for yourself to a) attract new clients b) maintain existing ones.  It’s such a shame not to make the most of it, when doing both doesn’t need to take much time away from your day-to-day or cost much money. Indeed, Hubspot’s State of Inbound Report claimed that “content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing and generates about 3 times as many leads”.

PR Agencies have all the skills required to excel at content marketing. They know how to create content that attracts audiences because they help their clients achieve this every day. They just need to create it for themselves now.

 

In Passle’s panel at the Global ICCO PR Summit on 29th September, we’ll be discussing what your brand, including the personal brands of your experts, says about your agency. If you would like to download Passle’s report into the content marketing habits of the top 50 UK PR agencies, and request a free personalised report, visit pr.rankmyfirm.com  

What is PR? A new answer to an old question

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Article by Julian Boulding, President, thenetworkone

 

PR. Public Relations. Influencing the public, via editorial media. Lunches with journalists. Press conferences. Press offices. That was then. Today, rather like advertising people, communications professionals are almost embarrassed about the label ‘PR.’ But these days, one hears ‘I work in PR” almost as rarely as ‘I work in advertising.’

We live in a time of existential crisis: we don’t know who we are, or what we do. A few years ago, we thought we had the answer. Some bright spark coined the terms “paid media” and “earned media.” Aha! PR doesn’t pay for media, so we do “earned media.” And since the big new thing was social media, which was essentially earned media, the future looked rosy.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t that simple; because paid and earned media became indistinguishable. Organic search spawned paid search. Amateur bloggers became paid influencers. Viral communications agencies paid “seeders” to kick-start the sharing process. Native advertising proved more lucrative than features.

Meanwhile, paid media started to reverse into earned media, as advertising agencies realized they had to create communications that people chose to watch, and share, and talk about. And in new markets like China – soon to be the world’s biggest economy – the distinction never existed anyway.

We need to learn a new lesson. And we need to work in a new way. The lesson is: PR and advertising are dead. But communications is not dead. It just needs redefining.

Agencies today are either reputation managers (long term) or creators of visibility (short term). Both are fusions of what-used-to-be-PR and what-used-to-be-advertising. Customer insight. Storytelling. Engagement. User experience. Video content. Brand ambassadors. The tools are the same. Where’s the difference?

Actually the big difference is data. What do individual consumers actually read, view, share and do. When, where, why and how.

The advertising industry has bought into this. Even a small media buying agency in the US spends half a million dollars a year on subscriptions to data provider services. But PR and data still live miles apart.

The PR industry, all too often relies on gut feel and experience: darling, you need to be in Elle, not Cosmopolitan; the Mail Online, not Facebook. This is last century stuff. And yet.. how many examples have you seen, of a PR agency actively partnering with a digital media buying agency?  With this one little fix, PR could end up top of the heap.

PR professionals are used to orchestrating multiple stakeholders with differing objectives, needs and skills. They just need to engage better, with professionals from other communications disciplines. A leading PR firm needs a broader competence than media relations, or content development, or event management: and that means looking outside the box. Some niche firms are also showing the way.

Montieth & Co in New York, knits together media communications with litigation expertise: 35% of their staff are trained lawyers. Jericho Chambers in London, leveraging its founder’s communications skills to create and manage diverse stakeholder and advocacy communities, to defuse tension between proponents of differing policies.

The traditional multinational holdings could to this, but mostly don’t, due to their finance-driven models, silo structures, earnout deals and separate P&L’s.

Independents have the biggest challenge, because developing diverse capabilities, expertise and contacts takes time and money. But they also have the greatest potential: only if you can choose your partners freely, do you have the power to choose the best.

 

Julian Boulding is President of thenetworkone, the world’s biggest independent agencies organization. thenetworkone hosts the annual ‘Indie Summit’ (indiesummit.net), a unique forum for leaders of independent communications agencies of all disciplines. The next Indie Summit will be in London on 14th and 15th June 2017. @thenetworkone

Applying the science of human behaviour to the art of communications

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Article by Dan Berry, Behavioural Insights Strategist, H+K Smarter, Hill+Knowlton Strategies

 

As communicators we have always known that people act in ways that are often surprising and seemingly irrational. People do not always switch to a better and cheaper product. Employees are sometimes resistant to change that would benefit both them and their company. Almost all of us do not save, exercise or eat as healthily as we know we should.

But it’s only in the last decade or so that behavioural science has begun to help us really understand why this is. To put it simply: our feelings and habits not only influence how we think, but are more important than our conscious and rational thoughts. What we then do, our behaviour, is likewise not usually driven by rational thought.

There’s a consensus in psychology and economics that this is true. It’s spurred the new discipline of behavioural economics and Nobel Prize winners.  It’s led to the creation of teams of behavioural economists and similar specialists in the White House and the UK government – as well as at Facebook and all the big banks.

The PR industry needs to catch-up. We’ve moved on from the days where our primary expertise was a knowledge of how the media works. As more of our communications become direct to audience, we need to become expert in the science of how people actually think, behave and make decisions.

You may be thinking that the notion people are influenced by our feelings, emotions and habits isn’t controversial.  You surely often draw on emotions in your own communication strategies. What’s new?

The answer is quite a lot. Whilst the human brain has hardly changed in thousands of years, our understanding of how it works has recently increased greatly.

For instance, people are hardwired to over respond to both positive and negative actions of others. We all feel obliged to give back to others the type of behaviour we have received from them. This is what you feel when someone gives you a Christmas card; you feel a strong urge to give a card in return. Communications professionals can do a lot more to harness and share this sense of reciprocity. This is just one behavioural insight.

These new insights are very important. Scientific research shows that rational communication approaches may be less effective than we might think and sometimes actively counter-productive.

The good news is that we now have a better than ever understanding of precisely which emotions or other instinctive thought processes matter – and in what circumstances. The science helps us to analyse the drivers for human behaviour as well providing the tools to better influence them. People may behave irrationally, but they behave in predictably irrational ways.

There is also a big positive to the seemingly unhelpful implication that human decision-making and behaviour is much more complicated than we previously thought. This makes our jobs more difficult but also more valuable: it would be much easier to influence a bunch of rationally calculating robots.

But to truly seize this opportunity, we need to be brave. Applying behavioural science will often mean changing the way we develop insights and solve problems. It is not a term to be used to badge or package the ways we worked yesterday.

This means we need to challenge the models and approaches we typically use and question whether they reflect the new knowledge we now have. We need to ensure they are not just a reflection of our own habits.

If we do then the potential is significant. Adding the science of human behaviour to the art of communications makes campaign ideas better as well as more buyable.

 

Dan Berry from Hill and Knowlton Strategies’ in-house behavioural insights team, H+K Smarter, will give some more examples and tools at the Global ICCO PR Summit on 30 September 2016 – iccosummit.org