Qualifications, training and CPD: the keys to PR’s recognition as a profession

/in

Written by Adrian Wheeler FPRCA

 

We do our best to behave professionally but we are not yet regarded as a profession. Why not?

It’s nothing to do with the Privy Council, medieval costumes or barriers to entry.

The Cambridge English Dictionary explains: ‘any type of work that needs special training or a particular skill… often respected because it involves a high level of education’.

From nothing to £9.63bn in 50 years

We are the new kids on the block. The PRCA was established in 1969 with less than 20 members. Today it has 350; the UK PR sector is worth £9.63bn a year and employs 63,000 people. By contrast, 130,000 solicitors generate economic value of £26bn a year; the Law Society was founded in 1826.

There has never been a professional business service which has grown as rapidly as ours. There is a tide of change in international PR and it’s about qualifications, training and CPD. The PRCA and ICCO are leading this evolution: their sights are fixed on PR’s recognition as a profession.

Look and learn is not enough

Qualifications matter. Some people say that PR education is ‘look and learn’. So it is, and so is surgery. Alongside practical experience practitioners of both also need to master a body of knowledge.

There are 50 first degree courses in PR in the UK and 80 master’s programmes. In Germany there are 45 master’s degree courses. In the USA there are 480 institutions offering PR degree courses and in China 300. There are PR degree courses in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.

Training delivers ROI

Training goes hand-in-hand with working in a PR team. Beginners, executives and managers should receive three or four one-day training courses every year and should watch six or seven webinars. The PRCA and ICCO provide both and also recommend further reading and research which people can explore in their own time.

Continuing Professional Development

CPD is what distinguishes professions from other forms of commercial career. Doctors, lawyers and architects are all required to keep up to date via CPD programmes administered by their professional bodies.

It’s the same for PR. The PRCA and ICCO are encouraging members to install formal CPD systems and have a certificate/diploma-based CPD framework to support them.

If not, so what?

Does becoming a profession matter? Some eminent practitioners shrug and others snort. But they tend to be old-school. Younger people take the practice of PR very seriously indeed and want to be taken seriously by their clients and counterparts.

Professional standing is one of the factors which will help public relations become a fully-fledged boardroom priority. Beyond that, and perhaps more importantly, it is a matter of personal pride.

Qualifications, training and CPD. These will make the difference. The PRCA and ICCO have a vision: in twenty years public relations will be perceived as a profession standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the law and accountancy. No-one will remember that it was ever not so.

 

For more information about ICCO Training packages visit: http://www.iccopr.com/services/online-training/

 

Raise Your Hand! PR at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity

/in ,

Written by Renee Wilson, President, PR Council

 

The marketplace is quickly transforming. That is evident. The older, more traditional forms of communications are no longer moving the needle as they once did. However, one thing is clear:  the methods, strategies and activity that have PR-thinking at the core are where the action is. It is my prediction that this year at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, we will see the majority of winners from a host of categories have PR-thinking at the core of the idea. And when attendees ask why the program was so successful, raise your hand and proudly say it was “PR-thinking that powered the strategy and the creative idea.”

This will be my sixth year going to the Festival, and I’m just as excited as ever. Nowhere else in the world can you have a professional experience that is so awe-inspiring, educational and enjoyable all in one place. I’ve had the good fortune of serving on two PR juries, once as the PR jury chair, and this year, along with two of my PR Council Members, I’ll be serving as a PR Mentor in the Cannes Young Lions Marketers Academy, along with A.G. Bevilaqua of M Booth and Ron D’Innocenzo of Golin. It’s a great opportunity to help teach and inspire about the power of PR-thinking as it’s important to help marketers of all ages understand more about the types of work we do. It’s not PR versus advertising. It’s PR and advertising, and media, and in-store, online etc.

What do I mean when I say PR-thinking? It’s strategies and ideas that involve working with influencers, third parties, experiential, content and stakeholder relationships for starters. You will find it in the winning Cannes entries.

However, if you are still on the fence as to whether or not to attend the Festival, or more importantly to care, here are three reasons:

1. Cannes Festival showcases creativity at its best. There is no other festival that brings together the greatest creative minds in the global marketing communications industry and gives you access to the best and brightest in integrated communications. Think of it like the Olympics of Marketing. We can all learn from the powerful work.

2. Young Lions Competition. For only the third time, PR is included as a category in this competition. We are proudly sending Team USA and I’m sure other regions are putting forth their bright young talent too. These future leaders definitely have a thing or two to teach us about the industry.

3. ICCO House of PR. For the second year in a row, ICCO will be hosting the House of PR. This is a great meeting place for PR professionals to gather to glean insights from the juries, points of view from thought leaders, and network with colleagues from different agencies and companies from around the world. It can’t be missed!

I hope to see you at the Cannes festival, where we can push forward the power of PR-thinking from around the world, inspire others, and be inspired!

 

For more information about the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity visit: www.iccoguidetocannes.com

Conversis launches ‘The importance of understanding language and culture when managing an international crisis’ report

/in ,

Foreword by Francis Ingham, Chief Executive, ICCO

The UK and US markets lead PR. It’s a statement that I make dozens of times every year, and it’s completely right. In size, sophistication, and staff skills, it’s unquestionably true. And it’s a source of great strength and pride. But it comes with a price attached, and it brings risks. If you’re going to operate globally, and if you’re going to maximise your reach and effectiveness, then you need to be able to communicate globally too.

We simply do not invest enough time effort and – yes – money in communicating in other languages, and in understanding other cultures. The costs of that failure are never higher than when crisis hits. Both the commonalities and the differences strike me.

First, the things that are the same in the UK and the US: Basically all (99%) senior PR executives with responsibility for international crisis comms are confident that their work will take account of cultural sensitivities. And in both countries, when asked if they can respond in a timely manner and across all markets, between 40-50% of executives agree strongly.

On both sides of the Atlantic, there’s a need for support from Language Service Providers – 92% in the US, and a still very high 72% in the UK. But the differences are starker as you dig further into the data. Almost a third of UK respondents translate their campaigns into between 1 and 5 languages; the US figure is only 7%. Conversely, over half of US work is translated into 11-20 languages; compared with just a quarter in the UK.

Monitoring reveals significant differences too. Only 14% of UK companies monitor in 11 languages or more, compared with 47% that do so in the US. Surprisingly, the time taken to issue a first response holding statement shows the opposite trend. 37% of UK respondents are out there within an hour; only 17% of their US counterparts can say the same.

What is the conclusion that I draw from this incredibly valuable Conversis report? Basically, that there is a great deal more we need to do. The world’s two most developed PR markets need to embrace the world around them a little more. When crisis hits, they need to be out there responding with nuance and in local language right away. They can’t afford to be held back by lack of resource, lack of knowledge, lack of preparedness. If the UK and US markets are to continue to speak to the world, then they need to think more carefully about speaking its language: and that language quite simply isn’t always English.

A full copy of the Conversis Report can be downloaded here: http://www.conversis.com/News/April-2016/Conversis-launches-The-importance-of-understandi

 

 

 

Conversis launches 'The importance of understanding language and culture when managing an international crisis' report

/in

Foreword by Francis Ingham, Chief Executive, ICCO

The UK and US markets lead PR. It’s a statement that I make dozens of times every year, and it’s completely right. In size, sophistication, and staff skills, it’s unquestionably true. And it’s a source of great strength and pride. But it comes with a price attached, and it brings risks. If you’re going to operate globally, and if you’re going to maximise your reach and effectiveness, then you need to be able to communicate globally too.

We simply do not invest enough time effort and – yes – money in communicating in other languages, and in understanding other cultures. The costs of that failure are never higher than when crisis hits. Both the commonalities and the differences strike me.

First, the things that are the same in the UK and the US: Basically all (99%) senior PR executives with responsibility for international crisis comms are confident that their work will take account of cultural sensitivities. And in both countries, when asked if they can respond in a timely manner and across all markets, between 40-50% of executives agree strongly.

On both sides of the Atlantic, there’s a need for support from Language Service Providers – 92% in the US, and a still very high 72% in the UK. But the differences are starker as you dig further into the data. Almost a third of UK respondents translate their campaigns into between 1 and 5 languages; the US figure is only 7%. Conversely, over half of US work is translated into 11-20 languages; compared with just a quarter in the UK.

Monitoring reveals significant differences too. Only 14% of UK companies monitor in 11 languages or more, compared with 47% that do so in the US. Surprisingly, the time taken to issue a first response holding statement shows the opposite trend. 37% of UK respondents are out there within an hour; only 17% of their US counterparts can say the same.

What is the conclusion that I draw from this incredibly valuable Conversis report? Basically, that there is a great deal more we need to do. The world’s two most developed PR markets need to embrace the world around them a little more. When crisis hits, they need to be out there responding with nuance and in local language right away. They can’t afford to be held back by lack of resource, lack of knowledge, lack of preparedness. If the UK and US markets are to continue to speak to the world, then they need to think more carefully about speaking its language: and that language quite simply isn’t always English.

A full copy of the Conversis Report can be downloaded here: http://www.conversis.com/News/April-2016/Conversis-launches-The-importance-of-understandi

 

 

 

Winning at Cannes – an Interview with Tom Beckman, Prime PR

/in ,
Swedish agency Prime has received more Cannes Lions awards than any PR agency since the creation of PR Lions in 2009. Cannes Lions interviews Tom Beckman, Executive Creative Director and Senior Partner of Prime PR, about what it’s like to win and the affect on the agency.

Tell us about the foundations of Prime; where do the agency’s roots lie?

Our origin traces back to American political campaigning in the 90’s. That was probably the real birth of the channel agnostic approach – long before social media or even the internet. To build and activate a universe of communication assets under one common frame story is still a valid principle for us.

What is the philosophy of the agency?

Communications should have a value in itself beyond the product, idea or message its promotion. We try to create value that generates awareness – not create awareness that generates value.

How did you first learn about the Cannes Lions Festival?

The founder of legendary ad agency Forsman Bodenfors took us there. He introduced us to the festival and how to use the insights from the festival to grow our business. And we’ve been there ever since. For our delegates it’s all work and (almost) no play – see all the seminars, look at all the case reels, and bring home the insights.

When did you know you were ready to enter?

We started to compare our work with the best work out there from all agencies, not just PR agencies. And the only way to do that is start building your own case videos. We didn’t know if we were ready when we entered the first time – I guess you must just start somewhere and build from your experiences and learnings.

Tell us about the experience of winning your first Lion.

A shortlist is really a remarkable achievement. In fact – the way I evaluate our performance is the number of shortlists divided by the number of different campaigns entered (not multiple entries of the same campaign). That gives you a good idea of the strength of your agency. To win a Gold – that’s special of course. People don’t realize how big the audience actually is on that stage – it’s insane.

How do you choose the work to enter into Cannes?

Sometimes the clients take the initiative, sometimes it’s the team. Regardless we make sure that the work can represent us and our clients. Entering in the right category is important of course. The fact that a good case fits in a lot of categories proves how integrated the industry is today.

Since first entering in 2010 Prime has been awarded 14 PR Lions alone – what impact has this had on your business?

It has given us access to pitches we didn’t get have before. And going head to head with ad agencies forced us to up our game even more. It has led to more CMO budgets and to a ticket to play on an international arena.

How did winning influence the culture of your team?

It has changed the way clients look at us obviously. But more importantly it has created an internal culture of living up to our own requirements and expectations. We now benchmark with the best – and that’s a painful but rewarding relationship to your own work. It has helped us break free from limiting industry definitions.

What advice would you give PR agencies looking to enter work into PR Lions?

Cannes Lions is about ideas. Make sure your unique idea comes through. And then validate the relevance of that idea through engagement from stakeholders and media. Getting a lot of clippings is not enough – all decent campaigns in Cannes have that. Instead make sure to focus on the problem and the solution – what did you solve and why was it important? And show how the idea came to life and became a part of society or discussion.

 

ICCO President and Chief Executive at Communications Directors Forum in Davos

/in ,
Maxim Behar, ICCO President and Francis Ingham, ICCO Chief Executive, were today leading participants at the annual World Communications Forum in Davos.
ICCO is an official partner of World Communications Forum, which this year gathered more than 250 representatives from 35 countries at the Congress Centre in the Swiss mountain resort.
Behar and Ingham met with representatives from the Ukraine, Armenia, China, Turkey, Russia, Malaysia, Morocco, Jordan, South Africa, Egypt, and other countries, to discuss future cooperation with ICCO.
Speaking within a panel discussion, ICCO President Maxim Behar said:”The world is changing fast, our business even faster, and as we unite 32 countries within ICCO, we must be the leaders of these changes. We must make the case for the necessity of honest and transparent businesses. Soon the three main areas of modern communications – public relations, advertising, and digital will merge, and PR must be the leader of this new world.”
ICCO was recently recognised as Best International Association at the Association Excellence Awards at a Gala ceremony in London, and both ICCO representatives in Davos received congratulations on that occasion.

PRCA to launch new professional association in Middle East and North Africa

/in ,

The Public Relations Consultants Association (PRCA), the biggest PR association in Europe representing and controling over 18,000 Public Relations people has actually revealed the launch of PRCA MENA (PRCA Middle East and North Africa). PRCA MENA will be the expert subscription association to represent PR consultancies, in-house interactions groups, and individuals in the United Arab Emirates, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco and Egypt.

PRCA MENA will be co-chaired by MENA PR market leaders Loretta Ahmed, CEO Middle East, Grayling, and Mohamed Al Ayed, CEO, TRACCS. Establishing members consist of leading MENA consultancies Golin MENA, Memac Ogilvy, Fleishman Europe, Q Communications, MCS Action – the UAE branch and Middle East center of the Action Global Communications network, Sept Public Relations, Active (Digital.

The association will enable members to share best practices, participate in world class training, network with like-minded professionals, and assist to raise requirements in the industry. Working together with ICCO (International Communications Consultancy Organisation), PRCA MENA will offer a global structure within which its members can develop global networks and links to London.

Loretta Ahmed stated: “I am delighted to be given the chance to co-chair this excellent brand-new resource for the Public Relations industry in MENA. As a Fellow of the PRCA I am completely knowledgeable about its successes in the UK, and believe that this move will help the market here to grow, to enhance its professionalism, and to enhance its profitability.”.

Mohamed Al Ayed included, “PRCA and TRACCS discovered comparable synergies, passions and a vision for the development and advancement of the PR market in MENA in 2013 and have been working together carefully given that then. There is plenty for us to discover and plenty to impart to our international PR counterparts, and PRCA MENA will intend to facilitate this exchange of knowledge and know-how.”.

Francis Ingham, PRCA Director General & ICCO Chief Executive said: “I’m really happy to be announcing the latest PRCA leap forward– this time into the Middle East and North Africa under the leadership of Loretta Ahmed and Mohamed Al Ayed.

“By developing a new, lively association throughout the entire area, we will bring PR experts even better together, and raise standards even higher. The link with the PRCA in the UK, and its management of ICCO in 32 countries, will make the area fantastically well connected with the international Public Relations neighborhood.”.

The launch event will happen on March 8th in Dubai and PRCA Partner YouGov will remain in attendance, providing essential understandings into the interactions landscape of the MENA area.

Boilerplate

Who we are: Founded in 1969, the PRCA is a UK-based PR membership body, operating in 45 countries around the world. We represent in excess of 20,000 people across the whole range of the PR industry. The PRCA promotes all aspects of public relations and internal communications work, helping teams and individuals maximise the value they deliver to clients and organisations. www.prca.org.uk

 

 

From talent, to creativity, to taxis: The learnings from ICCO Summit

/in

Written by Ben Smith+

Like every business sector, public relations has some challenges at the moment, but what makes communications such an exciting place to work in right now is that, for me anyway, the opportunities outweigh the threats.

The issue is that if PR doesn’t respond to and deliver on these opportunities, we’ll miss the boat. By that I don’t mean that the public relations sector will disappear; I don’t think that will happen, but we won’t reach our potential in terms of the breath and importance of work that we do.

The recent ICCO summit in Milan was a senior meet up of some of the top agency talent in the world, and the challenges affecting PR consultancies globally were much discussed. I interviewed ICCO CEO Francis Ingham, immediate past president David Gallagher and Avian Media’s Nitin Mantri:

Here are my takeouts and learnings from my time in Milan:

# Expect accelerated change to the type of work PR agencies do and the way they are structured

Renee Wilson, global chief client officer at MSL, talked to delegates about the changes happening in PR firms, including the external influences of the PR ecosystem.

The influences of the PR Ecosystem on agencies:

There is a danger that the rapid changes in public relations result in an overly complex approach to communications, but good communications still need to be simple and easily understood. This slide highlights the challenge and opportunity of technology in public relations:

# The challenge of finding enough talent. For me this comes down to some simple numbers. If your agency is growing at 15% and you have a staff turnover of 15%, if you have a 100-person agency then you are going to have to find 30 new people. That’s 30% of your workforce and that is going to be difficult to do.  Especially when most of your competitors are doing the same.

The root cause of the problem is actually positive, but the solution is challenging. Especially when the skill sets of the people PR agencies need to employ are changing so rapidly and the methods that PR firms used to use to recruit cost effectively, for example specialist job boards, no longer work.

I suspect, in fact it’s obvious, that there is not a Eureka! solution to this, but it probably includes the following:

  1. Treat your current staff better.
  2. Retain spare capacity. If the business can afford it, hang on to your good people even if you lose the odd client.
  3. Promote from within, a sure way to retain your best staff.
  4. Invest in your agency brand.
  5. Invest in a training scheme that has a structure, is valued by staff and positively incentivises people to stay with you.
  6. Hire more graduates; you’ll lose some, but you’ll keep some.
  7. Be nicer to recruiters.
  8. Do better client work. If your employees are proud of their work, they’ll be happier and less likely to leave.
  9. Get better clients. If you’ve got a client who treats your people like shite, sack the client.
  10. Sort out your flexible working programme. Make working at your firm easier for parents than your rivals do.

# Creativity

For many clients creativity is vital. Creativity in PR is different in the way it manifests itself from creativity in other areas of the marcoms mix. That said, creative concepts that use big ideas to tie an integrated, cross channel campaign together are clearly the way to go. That’s inarguable and I don’t think it matters whether the PR firm comes up with the idea, the ad guys, the clients or whoever.

But I would issue one note of caution for PR – I would very be careful about defining creativity in public relations as the same as creativity in advertising. For me, very often (not always) creativity in PR campaigns is a different type of creative thinking than I see in advertising campaigns. With that in mind, Cannes is a great scheme to be involved in. I’m not suggesting not entering it, but global agency heads seem almost obsessed by it. It is dangerous to let success/or failure at any awards ceremony define your business, let alone your profession! So I’d encourage PR people to be confident about their creative credentials, not paranoid.

# Authenticity

My favourite presentation of the summit was Guto Harri’s talk around authenticity. He discussed the need for communications to be authentic, real and true. Guto regarded Tony Blair as one of the world’s great communicators who in the end abused the art of communications by not being authentic.

There is much bleating about the importance of ethics in PR at the moment (in the UK anyway) but as this is such an obvious debate, it quickly becomes frustrating;  I just don’t believe PR people are en masse dishonest. Sure there are a few bad eggs, but that is the same in every profession. A far more interesting, less obvious and helpful discussion is the need for communications to be authentic.

For example, in the image to the right, former UK Foreign Secretary William Hague was a serious man who would never have worn that cap, so the PR guy who is responsible for that shot (many years ago) made an error because the image is not authentic. It is not believable.

Guto believes communicators today still make these errors, and they do the reputation of the profession, their clients and themselves no good whatsoever. So if your next campaign isn’t authentic and true to the values and capabilities of the product or firm you represent, don’t do it – because it won’t work!

# Taxis

Hailing a cab from the street in Milan, as far as I can tell, is impossible. Just doesn’t work. I don’t think they are allowed to stop. So don’t even bother. The taxi ranks are equally depressing; no taxis ever turn up. If you want a cab in Milan, order it from your hotel. Works a treat. Uber worked well for some people out there, not for me.

Article published on: PRmoment.com

ICCO Summit: It’s ‘game on’!

/in

Written by: Nicola Nel, Managing Direct, Atmosphere

Print@NicolaN3

I have just returned from the International Communications Consultancy Organisation (ICCO) Global Summit in Milan, Italy. What an experience! As an agency owner, I’m rejuvenated and inspired after sharing the stage with industry leaders from large networks such as Hill+Knowlton, Ketchum, Ogilvy and Burson Marsteller, to feisty independents such as fischerAppelt from Germany, Shine Communications in the UK, Levanter Africa from Kenya and Cannes award-winning Swedish PR agency Cohn and Wolfe.

By Nicola Nel, founder and MD of Atmosphere Communications

All over the world it is the same. To quote the inspiring David Gallagher, outgoing ICCO president: “Clients want more for less. Good people are hard to find and harder to keep. Competition is relentless and from unexpected quarters. And technology continues to disrupt business models.” So it is ‘game on’, whether you operate in Moscow, Seattle or Cape Town.

These are my top eight take-outs:

  • The wonderful world of PR is changing, rapidly. A few years ago our worlds were divided into advertising or third-party endorsement via editorial ink. But now the web has changed the rules. Companies and brands who develop relationships directly with consumers are the ones who are winning.
  • There is global optimism about opportunities in the PR industry. Agencies are tapping into marketing budgets with digital and tech driving the growth. Good PR companies are re-inventing as communications players using measurement and analytics to drive change.
  • If you can’t measure it, don’t do it. Every campaign can be measured and should. The new Barcelona Principles provide guidance on measuring integrated campaigns.
  • Interconnected strategies rule. Great campaigns that lead to business results for clients all have the following in common: they balance insights, creativity and engagement, and use at least two or more channels.
  • Hire for attitude, train for skills. Agencies – and companies all over the world – all sing the same refrain. Talented professionals are hard to find and we keep on fishing in the same pond. Look for people who think differently, as diversity creates creativity.
  • Solving a human problem creates meaning. Marketers are learning from PR people that brands that apply their expertise to solve a human problem – and therefore don’t only push their product – create a connection and meaning in a noisy market.
  • Reputation advisers are growing in importance globally. The 24/7-connected consumer demands immediate responses when things go wrong. The need to protect a brand – corporate, personal or political – means public relations experts are in high demand.
  • Media relations are waning in certain markets. Paid and owned channels dominate. There is an ethical debate emerging, however – are consumers being made aware that the content in their favourite ‘independent’ publication or broadcast outlet has been paid for by the brand?

It is a very exciting time to be in our industry. My team and I are looking forward to making the necessary changes to ensure that Atmosphere, and our clients, remain focused on the future.

Maxim Behar Letter to the ICCO Summit Attendees

/in

Dear all,

Let me express my sincere thanks to you for coming to the ICCO Summit in Milan and actively contributing to the Global PR event of the year. Your presence was significant and I really believe that the presentations you heard, the contacts you made and the time you spent in Milan were really valuable for your business.

Nowadays, as you perfectly know, our business is changing every day and the communications industry is among the fastest developing in the world. This requires from all of us completely new qualities, management abilities, knowledge and practices. That is why, in ICCO we are strongly determined to be the leaders in our business and to spread globally the best, the newest and the most comprehensive achievements in the industry among our members, supporters and partners.

My request to you is whenever you have any ideas to share or stories to tell, contact me anytime. I look forward to see you again soon and hope to see many of you at the ICCO Global Awards on 26 November in London.

All the best,
Maxim Behar
ICCO President

m: +359 888 50 31 13
e: max@m3bg.com