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ICCO to launch international Partner University Programme

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The International Communications Consultancy Organisation (ICCO) has announced the launch of an international Partner University Programme.

The scheme aims to bridge the gap between academia and PR and communications practitioners on a global scale.

ICCO plans to engage with international universities that offer PR and communications qualifications, providing students, academic staff, and communications teams free online training in practical PR skills, and promoting international work placements and student exchanges across the network.

The organisation will also work alongside university bodies to offer research and speaking opportunities for leading academics, publish international thought leadership, and provide access to global award-winning campaigns and case studies.

The programme will lay the groundwork at an annual event that facilitates structured discussion on the future of our industry, providing senior academics and senior practitioners with a formal platform for debate.

Francis Ingham, Chief Executive, ICCO, said: “As a firm believer that we have more to do in building a bridge between practitioners and academics, I’m pleased to announce the launch of the ICCO Partner University Programme. I believe that the time is right for this to be an international focus. I hope that all parts of our industry are willing to take part – we will all be better at what do we as a result, and it will enable our industry to move forward more quickly and decisively.”

Sue Wolstenholme, Managing Director, Ashley Public Relations Ltd, said: “Academics and practitioners in our field sometimes regard each other with a mixture of confusion and even suspicion, usually borne out of misunderstanding. However, they all want the best futures for the students in the subjects that come together under the PR and communication umbrella. This wise initiative by ICCO provides an opening into both worlds to augment knowledge and provide practical insights into becoming a professional, with those futures firmly in mind.”

Universities and practitioners that are interested in getting involved in the Partner University Programme should contact Sue Wolstenholme on ashley1@ashley-pr.co.uk.

#StepUp to Leadership

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ICCO members Global Women in PR hosted a #StepUp to Leadership event at the House of PR, with senior women and ‘manbassadors’ from across the festival attending to support the initiative. Co-founders Sue Hardwick and Angela Oakes opened with remarks about the importance of female leaders inspiring the next generation of women to have the self-belief to step up and achieve success. We grabbed seven high achieving women at the event to give their quick tips on how to #stepup, view here.

Alan Vandermolen: Live Podcast

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28th June 2018

ICCO welcomed WE Communications President Alan Vandermolen for the Holmes Echo Chamber Podcast, interviewed by Arun Sudhaman, CEO, Holmes Report and a live audience.

“Holding companies aren’t buying PR agencies at the moment. Consolidation is not innovation – some groups are playing defence. For public relations to compete with the advertising industry, for example through film campaigns, it must be willing to adapt to changing demands. Communicators are often being relegated to the back room as they see their budget being given to the marketers”

Alan continued to give his no holds barred views on the evolution of the judging process at Cannes, giving his insights as 2018 juror, including which categories are easiest to win and which ones need to be dumped.

Listen to the full podcast here.

Jury Insights: Why the winners win!

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“When it came to the social purpose entries, we had a saying: tears are not enough” Candace Kuss, Director of Social Media, Hill and Knowlton Strategies. If you are thinking of entering Cannes Lions next year, we have two much watch videos for you.

Firstly, a panel of four jurors from this year are quizzed by Maja Pawinska Sims, Holmes Report, on their decision process and advice for PR entries across all categories. Insights came from Denis Kaufman, Ketchum; Patricia Batuiri, Flieshmann Brazil; Alan Vandermolen WE Communcaitions and Candace Kuss.

Secondly, ICCO President and former PR Lions juror Elise Mitchell talks to the 2017 Young Lions winners at the House of PR about their successful and method strategy.

You can see the videos here.

Trends in Marketing Communications Law (5th Edition)

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Check out Davis & Gilbert’s Trends in Marketing Communications Law (5th Edition) publication.  It identifies and explains 20 of the top trends impacting the marketing communications industry and offers practical advice to help marketers and agencies understand these recent developments and consider the potential impact on their businesses.

Amnesty International sets Young Lions PR brief

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Amnesty International has today provided a campaign brief to the Young Lions PR competitors at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, with the aim of developing a new communications platform to unite people against the evil of racism.

The brief is to develop a versatile communications platform / campaign for Amnesty, enabling it to credibly join and lead conversations on combatting racial discrimination.

Raising its profile as a relevant voice amongst 18-34 year olds, the platform needs to be flexible enough to adapt to local market and international deployment. The overall objectives are to raise awareness and positive sentiment for Amnesty, whilst growing its supporter base.

The Young Lions PR competition, organised by the International Communications Consultancy Organisation (ICCO), seeks to discover and celebrate the leading young creative PR team in the world. Teams of two from around the world are competing for the coveted title in Cannes after local competitions and elimination rounds, in their own country. These initial rounds of competition were set up by local Cannes Lions representatives.

Amnesty International is calling on teams to develop creative campaigns that will drive support for the campaign.

Francis Ingham, Chief Executive, ICCO, said: “One of the great contributions to the global PR and communications market has been our management of the Young PR Lions. We are delighted to see that it is bringing in more competitors year on year, and wish the best of luck to all of the teams, whichever ICCO country they come from.”

The competitors will have 24 hours to prepare their campaigns. By Tuesday 19th June at 19:00, all presentations and materials must be submitted, before they are then presented to judges on Wednesday, 20th June. The winning team will be announced at the PR Lions ceremony on Wednesday evening.

Last year’s Young Lions PR winners were the Hungarian team of Luca Hadnagy and Paloma Medina from HPS Experience.

AMEC Summit Perspectives

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ICCO Chief Executive and PRCA Director-General Francis Ingham gives his thoughts following his time in Barcelona at the AMEC Summit. A tribute to industry stalwart Barry Leggetter and how far PR measurement has come in recent years as well as a sharp reminder that there is no room for complacency. Whilst AVEs are almost extinct in the UK and US, they are alive and kicking in some other markets, and there is a role for both associations and global holding groups to confront these challenges…

Francis Ingham, Barcelona, 14th June, 2018

“This year’s AMEC Measurement Summit was my sixth. In a row. And quite frankly, I wish I’d been to more. Barry Leggetter invited me to the first one, in Berlin. To my regret, I said yes and then weaselled out – in those days, I didn’t travel.

“What can I report on it? I think that everyone present will remember it as the final Summit organised by Barry. And those words seem strange. Barry has been -IS- AMEC. He raised it from virtually nothing into the body that represents a new profession. And he did it basically through his own sheer determination, will-power, and hard work.

“We began at the PRCA and AMEC within weeks of one-another. And two men who hardly knew their opposite number became friends pretty much immediately. Sharing the joys and the occasional (?) frustration that goes with running a membership body….

“Barry, for your eleven years of brilliant AMEC service, I salute you. If I could make you a PRCA Fellow, or induct you into the ICCO Hall of Fame, I would do. But I’ve done that already! That’s my main message – Barry you have been awesome. You will be missed.

“What’s the secondary message from AMEC’s Barcelona Summit? I’d say it’s this. AMEC and the industry it represents, and the PR and communications industry that the PRCA and ICCO represent, need to stand on Barry’s giant shoulders, and continue his work, in order to make sophisticated evaluation truly global.

“AVEs are almost extinguished in the UK and North America – the latest PRCA Census told us that a mere 12% of practitioners used them in the preceding twelve months.

“But in many other parts of the world, they are alive and kicking. In the Middle East for example, 83% of practitioners use them according to ICCO data.

“Equally, while half of UK practitioners are aware of the Barcelona Principles, that number is much lower in other regions of the world.

“So here’s my challenge. We need to keep taking this issue seriously. In particular, we need to convince the big holding groups to take a lead – their companies in every region of the world should be adopting sophisticated evaluation techniques – not just, as sometimes is the case, their companies in the most well established markets.

“We also need to continue the 11 year-long collaboration between ICCO, PRCA, and AMEC. And then together we can achieve our common goal. The goal that Barry has pursued with such typically unflagging vigour for over a decade.”

European PRs Share Best Practice in Budapest

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Representatives from 20 different countries came together for the ICCO European Group meeting in Budapest on 7-8 June, hosted by HUPRA, the Hungarian PR association. Krisztian Szabados, Flow PR (an Edelman Affiliate) began with an eye-opening insight into the rapidly changing Hungarian media landscape and challenges for PR professionals. Hanning Kempe, Managing Director, FlieshmanHillard Germany, then spoke about the successful “agency surfers” project that has seen German students take part in a PR exchange across numerous Euorpean cities in a scheme that could be replicated across Europe. The group exchanged GDPR approaches, pitching best practice and progress on ICCO business matchmaking initiatives.

The afternoon session was attended by trade media and featured talks from The European Innovation in Politics Institute, Austrian Red Cross, FliehsmanHillard, Mitchell Communications and the Young PR Lion Winners Medina Paloma, ACG and Haadnagy Luca, HPS Experience.

Global Women in PR Launches in Romania

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Over 70 PR and Communications professionals joined together to celebrate the launch of GWPR Romania at an event hosted by the new group’s founding members. This new community of senior PR women is the latest group to join the growing global networking organisation GWPR.

GWPR Romania announced that its key goal was to improve the reputation of the PR industry in Romania; where women make up 80% of the profession and to increase the number of PR women in the boardroom.

GWPR Romania Founder Members

GWPR Romania is being led by Ana-Maria Diceanu (Brain 4 Strategy), Corina Vasile (Raiffeisen Bank) and Cristina Hanganu (Lidl). The founding members are: Lidia Solomon (Honeywell); Dana Oancea (Forum for International Communications), Irina-Ileana Ionescu (Coca-Cola Helenic Company), Ioana Mănoiu (GMP PR), Crenguta Roșu (DC Communications), Cristina Popescu (Danone), Gabriela Lungu (WINGS Creative Leadership Lab), Anca Ungureanu (UniCredit Bank), Irina Roncea (Golin) and  Oana Mateescu (Ursus Breweries).
Co-founder Ana-Maria Diceanu announced that a partnership with the prestigious Quadriga University in Berlin had been established, to help support the education of the next generation of PR women.

In addition, Unlock Market Research presented the results of a qualitative survey into the effectiveness of the Romanian PR industry. Highlighted was the importance of the Romanian PR industry in providing real innovation to businesses, despite having only small budgets.

Ana-Maria Diceanu, Co-founder of GWPR Romania commented “From today we are part of a global community. This will benefit PR women here in Romania by giving us access to greater knowledge, resource and an international network”.

“I believe this is a significant opportunity for female PR professionals to educate the market about the value communications brings to a company” added Corina Vasile, Co-founder GWPR Romania.

Also attending the launch were Susan Hardwick and Angela Oakes Co-founders and Joint-Presidents of the umbrella organisation GWPR.

Sue Hardwick commented “We are delighted to welcome GWPR Romania to our growing global network of senior women in the PR industry.  Our goal is to help, encourage and inspire women to take leadership roles in the PR and communications profession.”

GWPR Contacts 

Sue Hardwick
Co-founder and Joint President, GWPR,                
sue@globalwpr.com                                                
+44 (0)7710 260743                                               
Website: www.globalwpr.com

Ana-Maria Diceanu
Co-founder, GWPR Romania
office@globalpr.ro 
+40 0740 426 835
Website: www.globalwpr.com

African PR Industry Unites Around New Ethical Vision

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ICCO has endorsed the PR Gaborone Declaration, launched today at the African Public Relations Association (APRA) Conference in Botswana. The Declaration has been designed to manage ethical challenges in PR practice across Africa and beyond. Nkechi Alli-Balogun, CEO at NECCI proposed a statement for ratification by APRA members as part of a progressive and ambitious agenda, which will pave the road ahead for PR in Africa.

The Gaborone Statement 2018 reads:

“Public Relations is a relationship management function that fosters understanding and unity, strengthens diversity, builds a strong brand and encourages good governance”

The clear, concise statement will inform and educate those working outside of PR as well as guide those within the sector. Throughout the conference, challenges including mistrust of media and governments, fake news and the fallout from the Bell Pottinger scandal have been confronted head on. By committing to this declaration and cementing it into the minds of businesses and politicians across the content, PR agencies and practitioners can boldly shape perceptions of Africa, and shift focus back to telling the multitude of positive stories taking place.

APRA is a member of ICCO and has already signed up to the Helsinki Declaration, which commits professionals to act under ten ethical principles. The Helsinki Declaration was created by collaboration from 40 national and regional PR associations, including APRA.

ICCO welcomes the new Gaborone Declaration and together with APRA will be seeking to spread and implement its message across Africa, alongside the Helsinki Deceleration.

ICCO Chief Executive Francis Ingham welcomed the Gaborone Declaration tweeting it was “an excellent African-owned imitative”. Ingham has been speaking at the APRA Botswana Conference about the importance for industry bodies to be tough on bad ethical practice, no matter how big or powerful the organisation may be. Bell Pottinger’s expulsion from the UK’s PRCA, at which Ingham is Director General, provides an illustration of how an industry really can take a stand for what is right.

To find out more about the Gaborone Declaration, please contact info@afpra.org

To find out more about the Helsinki Declaration, please contact rob.morbin@iccopr.com