Nigel Milton

How Heathrow used an integrated campaign to win its third runway

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Nigel Milton, director of communications at Heathrow Airport, recently spoke at the CIPR’s Influence Live event and explained how the airport went from being called ‘Heathrow Hassle’ to having its third runway approved by Government.

Heathrow airport is the busiest in Europe, with some 78 million passengers passing through it in 2017. It’s also recently had plans for a third runway approved – fulfilling the UK’s need for increased air traffic capacity.

But getting to this point wasn’t an easy journey; while a third runway was initially supported by Gordon Brown’s Government in 2009, the policy and politics all changed when the coalition Government came to power and immediately scrapped it.

Milton told Influence Live that when he joined in 2010, the airport already had the reputation of a ‘national embarrassment’, with ‘Heathrow Hassle’ in the lexicon. This made finding political supporters almost impossible.

So, how did they manage to turn it around? With the help of an international event, the London Mayor and an integrated campaign like no other.

In 2012, London hosted the Olympics and Heathrow became the official airport of the games. For Milton, it was an opportunity to reset the dial as the Games could effectively make or break the airport’s fortunes. In Milton’s own words, they ‘nailed it’.

Part of the success was leaving nothing to chance. Not only did Heathrow prepare for the oddly-shaped luggage carried by international athletes (oars, bikes, racquets etc), it also increased spending on toilet maintenance because, bizarrely, the number one factor that makes a difference to someone’s opinion of an airport is the cleanliness of the toilets.

Major incident-free, the London Olympics were a huge success for Heathrow and, what’s more, the Government had changed its position on the need to expand UK airport capacity. This policy reversal was, in no small part, thanks to the London Mayor at the time, Boris Johnson.

While Johnson may have more recently been elected as MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip with the promise there would be no third runway at Heathrow, he was at the time considered the airport’s champion politician – Milton said, ‘Without Boris, we wouldn’t have secured a third runway’. Johnson had argued that London needed more airport capacity, favouring the creation of an island in the Thames. While this wasn’t realised – his desire for more capacity was and so the long road to an extra runway began again for Heathrow.

The success of the Olympics put Heathrow in a strong position for its runway plans, as it could now trade on its national and international reputation of excellence, making it the frontrunner for expansion.

Milton’s approach was two-fold, a public relations campaign was designed to bring everyone, from its staff and local residents to Scottish businesses, on board and a public affairs campaign to gain political support.

The airport’s four business priorities were at the centre of its PR campaign:

  • Mojo – getting staff onside by making the airport a great place to work and risk-free when increasing staff numbers
  • Service transformation – proving it can deliver the best service for passengers and airlines
  • Beating the business plan – staying ahead of its plans so it could meet deadlines and expectations
  • Sustainable growth – working with local communities to impact them negatively as little as possible and positively as much as possible

The campaign was complex, with thousands of stakeholders to be considered, influenced and managed. It required a national strategy, and the airport reviewed both passenger and freight journeys, so it could prove that it wasn’t just London’s airport, but Britain’s airport. It got Scottish business to back the plans, explaining the benefits locally because, Milton explained, ‘My accent saying Heathrow expansion is good for Scotland, in Scotland, means nothing compared to a Scottish accent saying it’.

The PR fed into the public affairs, Heathrow using the wins up and down the country to gain additional political support. It also polled politicians to show MPs they were not alone in their support. With a comprehensive integrated campaign that took everything into consideration, Heathrow was successful and a third runway has now been approved.

But the challenge isn’t over yet, as Milton is all too aware. When Vuelio asked if he was planning for a change in Government, Milton responded that yes – administrations and policies change and Heathrow was still preparing for every eventuality.

Do you want to run successful campaigns that combine public relations and public affairs? With Vuelio, everything you need is in one place, on one platform. Find out more.

Elton John

What PR did on its holidays – 6 inspirational campaigns from the summer

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Summer is over, the Hogwarts Express has departed Platform 93/4 and it’s time to go back to school. But getting back into the swing of things can be daunting after the holidays, and it is often difficult to find the inspiration for an excellent end to the year.

Not everyone was on holiday this summer and many PRs have been truly outstanding while creating brilliant campaigns. We’ve rounded up 6 of the best to give you the inspiration you need to have a killer year.

1. The celebrity campaign – Snickers and Elton John
Snickers has bagged one of the biggest names in pop (ever) as part of its ‘You’re not you when you’re hungry’ campaign. The video features Elton John in a rap battle, singing his own song, until he eats a Snickers and turns back into the rapper he actually is. It’s simple, it’s consistent with the existing campaign and it’s quite funny. The agency is AMV BBDO – check out the video below:

 

2. The reactive campaign – Kit Kat’s proposal
Back in June, Kit Kat inadvertently became the subject of a viral tweet:

Kit Kat – and its agencies Ketchum and Anomoly – got in touch with the boyfriend and together they planned a Kit Kat-themed marriage proposal using a custom-made Kit Kat ring box. Thankfully, #SheSaidYes, and the campaign was completed less than a month after the original tweet:

 

3. The undercover campaign – Will Smith, JUST water and Boots
Will Smith working in Boots. No, really. Will Smith dressed as a Boots employee and promoted his son’s JUST water brand in the Westfield branch. The campaign generated a heap of public attention within the shopping centre and an amazing video.

Boots has partnered with the eco-friendly water brand for its UK rollout and benefitted hugely from the celebrity connection. Obviously, this campaign is easier if your dad is one of the most famous actors on the planet.

 

4. The stunt – NOW TV’s #JurassicJeff
This campaign was fairly basic in its creation and execution but, as is always the way with communications, simple is best. NOW TV placed a giant statue of seductive Jeff Goldblum next to Tower Bridge to celebrate 25 years of Jurassic Park. The oversized model hit social media during a quiet news spell and managed to generate lots of coverage in the mainstream press. Not bad considering NOW TV were just promoting the fact they stream the film:

 

5. The print campaign – Stabilo’s highlighters
Print campaigns sometimes trend on social media for all the wrong reasons, but Stabilo’s ‘Highlight the remarkable’ campaign went viral for all the right ones. The simple campaign displayed historical photos with a yellow highlighter picking out a significant woman from a massive human achievement. The campaign hit all the right buttons, championing amazing women from history who are so often overlooked, while showing the simplicity of its product. The agency was DDB Germany, and the ads can be seen on PR Examples.

 

6. The political statement campaign – Trump balloon
The campaign from 13 July already has its own Wikipedia page. The ‘Donald Trump baby balloon’ was flown above Parliament Square to protest the visit of the American president in the UK. Paid for through crowd-funding (raising £16,000) the six-metre tall Trump blimp (Trimp?) drew a massive amount of attention online and in print, extended by the fact it followed the President to Scotland as he took a rare break to play golf.

The balloon upset many who believed it was disrespectful. A group crowd funded £58,182 to create a Sadiq Khan in a bikini copycat campaign, possibly expecting it not to be approved.  It was and Sadiq Khan even joked about it, so that campaign fell rather flat.

Whether this is now the new ‘floating something down the Thames’, remains to be seen.

 

How are you planning your campaigns? How are you informing the press, measuring your coverage and results, and presenting this to the board? Whether it’s a PR stunt, political campaign or reactive tweet, Vuelio has everything you need on one platform.  

press release blueprint feature

The Press Release Blueprint

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The Press Release Blueprint cover

One of the essential building blocks of PR and media relations, the press release, has endured as a way of communicating with journalists and, more recently, digital audiences online.

Download the white paper by filling out the form below.

How to create an award winning campaign II

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How do you create an award-winning campaign that challenges consumer perceptions?

Creative PR specialist Tin Man knows how – as its recent win at the CIPR Excellence Awards shows. Its #ISeeMore campaign tackled the challenge of getting young girls to consider careers in engineering for The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET).

Join Mandy Sharp, founder and CEO of Tin Man, and Hannah Kellett, External Communications Manager, The Institution of Engineering and Technology, as they explain why the campaign worked, what it takes to win awards and what lessons can be taken from their success.

Award Winning Campaign II

Diversity in Comms – How the PR and comms industry can improve

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The PR and comms industry is not diverse enough, but the Taylor Bennett Foundation is trying to change that. Taylor Bennett Foundation alumnus Kuldeep Mehmi tells his own inside story of diversity in the industry and what we can all do to improve it.

Listen to the recording to hear how Kuldeep has worked his way to the top and learn:

  • How diverse our industry truly is and why diversity matters
  • What the Taylor Bennett Foundation is doing to promote diversity and how you can help
  • How we can change attitudes to improve the PR and comms industry

Diversity in comms webinar

Crisis Comms – Lessons from Greater Manchester Police

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What if a crisis is a matter of when, not if? What if it’s both unpredictable and inevitable? What can you do to make sure you expect the unexpected?

Amanda Coleman is one person who knows how to stay cool in a crisis.

As head of corporate communications at Greater Manchester Police, Amanda has been through some challenging times, including last year’s Manchester Arena terrorist attack and the August 2011 riots.

Amanda has learned valuable lessons from every crisis she’s been through and will share all of them with you on an exclusive Vuelio webinar.

Crisis Comms webinar

Amanda Coleman

5 Crisis Comms lessons with Greater Manchester Police’s Amanda Coleman

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Amanda Coleman recently presented the Vuelio webinar: Crisis Comms, Lessons from Greater Manchester Police. Amanda, who is head of corporate communications at GMP, talked us through the Manchester Arena bombing and the importance of keeping people at the heart of your response.

The webinar included a live Q&A, but due to the flood of questions coming in, we didn’t have time to answer them all. Amanda has very kindly found time to answer the rest, so we can present five (additional) Crisis Comms lessons.

Can you walk us through exactly what steps you took after the Manchester Arena attack?
The on-call press officer was contacted and called me, as head of branch, to run through a tweet we were putting out to say we knew something was happening and that we would provide further updates. That was sent out without any further authorisation around 20 minutes after the first call to police.

A more detailed statement confirming it was an explosion and that there were fatalities went out 40 minutes after the first call coming in. Regular updates were provided via Twitter and the first press conference was given by the Chief Constable at 3am and then another at 7am. During the night there were four staff in and we worked closely with the operational commander to ensure we could provide accurate and timely information.

I spoke to heads of communications in key agencies including Manchester City Council, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service, and British Transport Police during the night. In the first few hours it was about preserving and protecting life and that had to be our focus. There was so much more we did after but that gives you the initial response.

What did you learn from the Manchester attack? What didn’t go well and what would you have done differently? Did you have any issues with other public services?
With every major incident there is a huge amount of learning. For me, it is very much along the lines of what I said within the webinar: people have to be at the centre of everything, welfare must be a priority for organisations and we need to be better at recognising the impact on us as comms teams.

I was really clear about what I would have done differently on the webinar, and that is to call for mutual aid much quicker. We also needed to recognise that the national plans would not fit and the liaison between the national counter terrorism communication structures in London and us in Manchester was going to add some delays into our plans. Working with the partners and other public services was good and, because we knew each other, we were able to have open conversations from very early on in the night. We have a strong network and meet regularly, so working between services was much easier to manage.

Do you ever have situations needing internal crisis communications at Greater Manchester Police?
Yes and the approach is very similar. We need to provide an open and honest response, provide timely information and do it over the whole lifetime of the event or incident. Being visible from the top of the organisation is also critical. Above all, keep the views of the people affected at the heart of how you decide to respond.

Do you have any experience of benefiting from ‘coming clean’ before a crisis is otherwise revealed/comes to light?
Being proactive is at the heart of communication for me. We should ask why we are not providing information rather than why we should provide information. If organisations or businesses look like they are withholding information, even if it is not the situation, then it will lead to concern and will impact on confidence. We have to make sure that we are as transparent as possible even when this may be challenging.

Can you provide any examples of poor crisis comms?
This is difficult as I know that often the response we see is something that may have been challenged by comms teams but senior executives take a different approach. For me, it is anything that fails to keep people at the heart of it, and which may appear overly legalistic. Thomas Cook is one I have mentioned before in relation to the death of two children in 2006.

If you want to focus on people during a crisis, take the pain out of process. Find out more about Vuelio and how it can help. 

Coming home

6 PR Goals for a winning 90 minutes

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Want to go one better than England? Score six quick PR goals in the next 90 minutes AND keep a clean sheet.

1. Research, research, research
No journalist, blogger, member of the public or politician is going to take you seriously if they don’t think you know what you’re talking about. In-house? Take 15 minutes to read the latest news and features on your company’s sector. Agency? If you specialise in a sector, great, take 20 minutes to read about the latest news – especially anything that’s about your clients. No specialism? Focus on just one area you have important clients in; you can catch up on the others later, tomorrow or next week.

2. Grow your network
Take 15 minutes to find new contacts that are relevant to your sector. Make sure their bio says they work with comms and check out their latest content to see if it’s a good fit for a future pitch (football or otherwise). If you grow your network by just five people each week, you’ll know an extra 260 people at the end of the year.

3. Send out a comment
It may be one of the simplest press releases to create, but journalists are always keen to hear from experts to add colour and richness to the news. If you work in sport, you should be all over this after the weekend saw the Queen’s tennis final, Lewis Hamilton’s victory in the French Grand Prix and signs from the World Cup that football possibly IS coming home. If sport’s not your thing, check out the political headlines, or any news headlines and see where your management or clients could intelligently add to the news agenda. And check what’s coming up; planned events (whether it’s the World Cup or otherwise) give you time to plan comments in advance.

Half time
Take a break and have lunch – you’re only human.

4. Check out the competition
Don’t make this an obsession; it can be easy to be so focused on your competitors that you lose sight of what you’re doing (and probably doing well). Take 20 minutes to run through your competitor monitoring, see what’s being said, and check if they’re controlling the conversation or if the conversation is controlling them. Staying on top of the competition is a great way to benchmark your own brand, spot opportunities and avoid abject failures.

5. Prove your worth
How often do we hear that PR and comms have to prove themselves to get a seat at the table? Why won’t the c-suite take our industry, and its value to their business, seriously? Take 25 minutes to prove your worth by putting together proof of your success, and show how you are meeting your objectives. Maybe you’ve achieved coverage, maybe you’ve got your CEO on TV, maybe sales have increased off the back of a viral campaign, or maybe your business is now the number one in your sector. Whatever it is, measure it and own it.

6. Call Vuelio – 0203 426 4125
We’re in stoppage time, but that’s okay because it only takes one minute to call Vuelio and get the software you need to achieve your goals. Want a database of amazing media and political contacts, with detailed bios to help you target them? No problem. Need a distribution service that targets your network and includes special features so you are GDPR compliant? Easy. How about monitoring that keeps track of your sector, your company and your competition so you know what’s being said and by whom? Certainly. And high-level analysis, showing levels of coverage and campaign success, with beautiful reports and presentations that can be shared with a simple link? Naturally.

Vuelio has everything you need to make your life easy and takes the pressure out of the game. Whether it’s our Influencer Database, News Distribution or Canvas – Vuelio’s integrated software is in your starting XI so you know you’re guaranteed a win.

Train

How integration improved Greater Anglia’s PR

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Public relations has never been an industry that relies on one skill set or a single speciality. As the PRCA’s recent census showed, PR and communications covers a vast array of disciplines from reputation management and strategy planning to writing articles, SEO and sales promotion.

Your role is increasingly diverse, so the last thing you need is lots of different platforms when you want to manage everything in one place. That’s why Vuelio is fully integrated software to cater for all your needs, whether it’s finding new influencers to build relationships with, monitoring your coverage (and automatically linking it to your distribution), creating reports and proving how awesome you are or managing relationships with the press, clients and public.

True integration takes the hard work out of PR. But don’t take our word for it – Juliette Maxam, media manager at Greater Anglia, told us how Vuelio’s integrated platform has made their PR ‘seamless’.

Find out more about integrated software

Greater Anglia

The problem
Before Vuelio, we were collating press coverage manually, reading everything individually and producing our own analysis – it was a hugely time-consuming process. Now, Vuelio has freed up our time so we can focus on the PR we want to do.

The solution
Vuelio has given us to ability to do a number of things on one platform.

We distribute press releases, which makes things much easier to send out, and the monitoring allows us to track our coverage back to the releases – it’s seamless. The distribution is also great for sending out pictures and video, and allows us to see who is opening and not opening releases, so we can better manage our follow up.

One of the best features is the media analysis and reporting – it is so flexible and allows us to drill down into so many different topic areas and analyse enquiries. Also, the charts are presented clearly in the graphic dashboard and we can customise different parts. So, with things like sentiment, we can tweak individual articles, which is much quicker than having to do each one manually (like we did before).

The reporting function is useful for a number of reasons, from when we’re internally asked how well a particular release or campaign has done, for example the new range of trains, to creating regular reports for different teams. And, because we can tag all our coverage, it allows us to easily report on different areas, like competitors.

We also use Vuelio to log press enquiries, giving us a record of what we did in the past. The media team finds it particularly useful as they can easily see what (and when) previous enquiries were made.

And we use Canvas, which we really like – it allows us to quickly and easily send a single link out with all our coverage in one place.

Joining Vuelio
With Vuelio, everything is all in one place, and everything is connected. We can see how much coverage we’re getting and for what releases, which will ultimately make planning future campaigns more successful.

The whole process of joining Vuelio, from our first point of contact, was really good. The Vuelio team worked really hard, especially as I feel like we were really demanding with what we wanted, including good value for money. The set up was also great; one of our requirements has been face-to-face customer support and that’s what’s happened – which is really important for us.

Vuelio is a really useful, efficient and smart way of distributing press releases, tracking enquiries and analysing our coverage.

Ready for integrated software? Fill in this form and we’ll be in touch.

Pr and comms stats

86,000 people work in PR and communications

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The UK PR and comms industry has grown nearly 4% since 2016, when the industry had just 83,000 people. New figures from the PRCA’s 2018 Census also reveal the industry is now worth £13.8bn, up 7% from 2016.

The comprehensive survey, which took information and views from nearly 1,700 respondents, was launched at Golin on Tuesday 1 May by PRCA director general Francis Ingham and PRWeek’s editor-in-chief Danny Rogers.

Among a whole host of detailed revelations, the study revealed the gender pay gap within the industry; something that’s been largely impossible up till now because most organisations don’t meet the 250-employee threshold set by the Government for mandatory gender pay gap reporting.

The average salary across the whole industry is £45,950, but for women it’s just £42,588 and men its £53,952. This 21% gender pay gap is even more shocking when we consider that 66% of the industry is female, suggesting that women fill the more common junior roles while men take the fewer senior roles.

This formed part of the discussion at the launch event, as both Ingham and Rogers were questioned about the gender pay gap. Somewhat putting the two successful men on the spot, an attendee asked what women could do to earn as much as their male counterparts. Both suggested through their own experience, it’s about asking for it and knowing your own worth, and suggested more pay transparency could be useful.

The census also looks at ethnic diversity, and reveals that 78% of the industry is white British, which is the first time it has been more diverse than the country (though it still falls short of the London diversity levels, where the majority of the industry is based). Beyond British, the industry is 89% white, which is a 2% decrease from 2016; no other ethnic grouping makes up more than 1%. There were no details on a diversity pay gap, which was later suggested by an attendee and Ingham agreed it would be looked at in future Censuses.

One of the most surprising areas of the census is the section on evaluation. It reports that 24% of professionals recognise the Barcelona Principles 2.0 over other valuation methods, while 12% still use AVEs. The use of AVEs is dropping, down 4% since 2016, but what’s perhaps more concerning is the lack of a replacement.

A huge 33% of the industry does not use any evaluation methods, while 20% use blended methods of existing frameworks and other tools or in-house models. As the post-launch discussion revealed, the industry is in desperate need for standardisation in this area, to prove its value and increase its professional status.

Ingham said that PRs would never be loved, but he thinks the industry should be respected. He likened the role of comms to that of finance or legal – you don’t need to be shouting about the work for people to know how vital it is. When asked if more could be done to regulate the industry to improve its reputation, Ingham pointed to the expulsion of Bell Pottinger from the PRCA last year, and said, ‘On the same day, 17 agencies joined the PRCA’.

The full report is available online, and allows an entire industry to benchmark both individual company practices and compare against everyone else in the market. Hopefully the positive trends we’ve seen toward a more diverse industry will continue, while those worrying signs of a lack of standardisation and professionalism will be addressed.

Empire State of Mind

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Representing some of the biggest names in luxury and real estate, Relevance International is on a meteoric rise and we’re delighted that Suzanne Rosnowski is joining us for our webinar: Empire State of Mind – Going Global with Relevance International.

Suzanne will be discussing how PR is different in New York and London, and why her clients increasingly want one agency to cover the entire planet. We’ll also explore the ethical boundary between paid and earned media, and how different markets use influencers in different ways.

Watch the webinar to learn:

  • What it takes to communicate on a global scale
  • Whether it’s ever worth paying for PR
  • How to expand an agency to new countries and time zones

empire state of mind

GDPR for Comms

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GDPR is the most important change in data protection in 20 years. It affects everyone who deals with personal data, and getting it wrong is not an option.

Vuelio is delighted to partner with Rowenna Fielding, GDPR specialist at Protecture, to discuss:

  • What GDPR means for the comms industry
  • Why you need to know the difference between ‘legitimate interest’ and ‘consent’
  • How to comply and still communicate successfully

rowenna fielding gdpr

Relevance PR

What does it take to be a global PR?

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New York-based Relevance International recently opened its London office and has its sights set on more. With a raft of clients from the luxury, real estate and corporate worlds, Relevance International has come a long way since its launch in 2012 – driven by its founder and CEO, Suzanne Rosnowski. 

 

Relevance’s London office recently announced two appointments, Anita Gryson as associate director and Alice Lacey as account director, and it has been named global public relations agency for The Royal Atlantis Residences in Dubai. So, how does an agency go from seemingly humble beginnings to taking on the world in just six years?

Luxury and prestige brands have a global client base, and it can be a challenge targeting such an expansive audience. For Suzanne, finding this audience and, more importantly, reaching them with the right messaging is an ‘art form’ for which Relevance International has an unwavering passion. Growing a global presence is part of this challenge, and the new London location – coupled with an engaged affiliate network of publicists – aims to tackle it.

We’re delighted that Suzanne Rosnowski will be joining Vuelio for a live webinar on Tuesday 27 March, at 2pm (BST). She will tell us how she grew her agency for the global stage, how US PR differs from UK PR, and why she has her sights set on even more locations across the planet.

Sign up to the webinar here. Even if you can’t make it, we’ll send you the recording

Suzanne will also discuss the PR industry more broadly, and has a wealth of experience to talk with authority on everything from social media to the benefits of being a partner at a firm. We will be exploring a huge industry issue – the ethical dilemmas around paid/earned media, with Relevance’s position of not blending advertising and PR, part of their global approach. This is particularly significant when considering the rise of influencer marketing and paying for coverage.

The webinar will also include a live Q&A with the audience, so if you have any burning questions, and want answers from the top, this is the webinar for you.

 

 

AI robot

Artificial Intelligence making PR smarter

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The CIPR artificial intelligence (AI) panel has published an initial list of 95 tools that are helping to make PRs work smarter. Is anything missing?

The AI panel was founded in February to explore the impact of AI on public relations and the wider business community. Stephen Waddington, chief engagement office at Ketchum, is on the panel and said: ‘The conversation around the impact of #AIinPR on culture and society is getting louder. The new CIPR panel will aim to characterise its impact on public relations practice, workforce and conversation in the public sphere.’

The full AI panel is made up of 12 leading PR experts from a variety of backgrounds and is tasked with three projects in 2018:

  1. A crowdsourcing exercise to characterise technology and tools that are helping public relations practitioners work smarter and more efficiently
  2. A skills framework that will seek to estimate the likely impact of artificial intelligence on the public relations workforce. It will aim to produce a paper for the World PR Forum in April
  3. A literature and content review to explore the impact of artificial intelligence on the public sphere. This project will aim to produce a discussion paper for practitioners

The first project has created the initial list of 95 tools, but the CIPR believes there are plenty missing and is calling for submissions to be made through the website.

If you can think of a digital tool that can help PRs work smarter, take a minute to complete the short form here

The list is broken down into 22 broad categories, including those that Vuelio clients will be familiar with – media monitoring, media distribution, campaign management, stakeholder identification and management, and media relations workflow platforms – as well as platforms that manage audio content, written content and utilities like WeTransfer and Open Library.

The full list is likely to reveal new resources for even the most tech-savvy PRs, and includes hidden gems like PNG Mart, a library of images with transparent backgrounds; Readable.io, which helps make writing more readable; and GoAnimate, which allows anyone to create professional animated videos.

The AI panel is aiming to complete a full list of 150 tools for all PR professionals to easily access by April.

The next step will be benchmarking these tools against the skills and competences for public relations set out in the Global Alliance competency framework. Waddington said: ‘The overall goal is to start a meaningful conversation about the impact of tech on practice’.

For more information about the project, visit the CIPR website.

Shouldn't have missed

5 Things You Shouldn’t Have Missed – 2 March 2018

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This week’s five things includes the sexual harassment survey from PRWeek, the cancellation of Leveson II, Max Mosley’s bad week, Comcast’s attempt to oust the Murdochs and TWO national newspaper editors departing.

And there’s a sneaky sixth for all you PR fans out there.

1. Time’s Up

Time's Up

A survey from PRWeek, the PRCA and Women in PR has made for grim reading this week, after it was revealed that a quarter of women in the industry had faced harassment in the last year and one in six had been sexually assaulted. The shocking report also revealed that in nearly 45% of sexual harassment cases, it was a line manager or senior person within the organisation that carried out the offending behaviour, and in over two thirds of all incidents, the organisation took no action.

Bibi Hilton, president of Women in PR said: ‘We need employers to review policies and ensure there is a clear course of action for cases of sexual harassment: to train and empower men and women across their organisations in how to report and respond to cases, and to put in place clear codes of conduct for relationships between PROs, clients, journalists and influencers. Above all we need to drive real behaviour change. Failing to act is not acceptable.’

 

2. Leveson II cancelled

Matt Hancock

Matt Hancock, the secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport has officially closed the Leveson inquiry, quashing the hopes of some that the second part would be enacted. Hancock, speaking for the Government, believes the first part of the Inquiry was sufficient in bringing criminal convictions against wrongdoers and creating change within the newspaper industry due to the creation of IPSO (and to a lesser extent IMPRESS).

This a huge win for the press, as the Government has effectively endorsed the none state-backed regulator IPSO, and Hancock even revealed he is going to repeal Section 40 – a controversial piece of legislation that would have seen publishers pay legal fees for accusers in court cases, win or lose. For those that feel they have been victims of press intrusion and corruption, this is disappointing – but with the Government currently waging a publicity war over Brexit, having good relations with the press is a must.

 

3. Max Mosley’s bad week

Only partially related to the above, Max Mosley is having a bad week as he continues his war against the press, and they continue their war against him. Evidence of a racist leaflet Mosley published on behalf of Walter Hesketh (who was running in a by-election for Mosley’s father Oswald Mosley’s Union Movement) was found by the Daily Mail in archives in Manchester. The disputed leaflet reads ‘colour immigration threatens your children’s health’. The story led to this excruciating interview with Channel 4’s Cathy Newman:

Over the rest of the week, the Mail continued its attack on Mosley, discussing right wing links he allegedly had in the past – inadvertently drawing attention to the paper’s own right-wing links from the past.

The row is ongoing, with some members of IMPRESS – which is funded indirectly by Mosley through two charities – saying the revelations have made them reconsider their membership, as the Press Gazette reports.

 

4. Comcast aims to ruin Murdoch family fun

21st Century Fox

Completely unrelated to any of the above, the Murdoch family’s control over their share of the UK media landscape came under threat this week. Giant US corporation Comcast, stomped all over 21st Century Fox’s bid to take over the entirety of Sky, with their own, significantly higher, bid. The Murdochs have been attempting to secure Sky since 2016, but have hit multiple snags including the CMA’s uneasiness at the level of control over the UK media it would give them and the recent takeover of Fox by Disney.

Comcast’s bid may be favourable to the regulators, and a UK Government keen to be seen as open for business post-Brexit, but the Murdoch tradition in UK media is strong so it really could go either way.

 

5. Two National Newspaper editors quit

Express and Star

In a shock announcement, two national newspaper editors quit their roles this week, after their papers were acquired by Trinity Mirror. Dawn Neesom, the longest-serving female national newspaper editor (after 15 years in charge) has left her role of editor of the Daily Star to pursue a career as a freelance writer and broadcaster. Hugh Whittow has also left his role of editor of the Daily Express.

The moves led to a raft of changes at the papers, with senior Mirror staff now at the helm of each paper. How this will affect the political independence of each paper remains to be seen, but Mirror CEO Simon Fox remains adamant that his papers will stay on their respective political paths.

 

6. A sneaky sixth – Top 10 PR Blogs

Where do you go to read the best PR and communications content (other than Vuelio, of course)? If you don’t read them already, check out these leading blogs.

Snapchat

What did Kylie Jenner teach us?

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The headline isn’t a joke. Kylie Jenner managed to wipe over $1bn off Snap’s market value (that’s BILLION), with a single tweet. But everyone seems to have missed the key point.

We talk a lot about social media on the Vuelio blog – from Facebook’s youth problem and changing News Feed, to celebrities buying fake followers and being on Matt Hancock. But recently, the news has been focused on Snapchat – the youth-friendly network whose recent update has made all the wrong headlines.

First, a petition against the update passed one million signatures (it’s now reached over 1.2m). Snap’s response was straight out of Facebook’s playbook, saying: ‘We hope the community will enjoy it once they settle in’. While Zuckerberg has got away with this time and time again, the platform is fundamentally different.

Facebook is focused on connecting people that know each other, whereas Snapchat’s popularity is in part due to power of celebrity and insight it gives users into the celeb lifestyle. So, what’s the worst thing that could happen for Snapchat? One of its most famous users saying she doesn’t use it anymore.

But is the lesson for PRs that Snapchat is dying (as the Guardian would have us believe)? That influencer marketing is more powerful than people realise (which we know, right?)? Or is the lesson actually about an entirely different social network?

Kylie Jenner’s criticism of Snapchat was posted on Twitter, and it quickly made headline news around the world. And there it is, Twitter.

Facebook is constantly under fire for spreading fake news, not dealing with inappropriate content and ruining the fortunes of publishers who now rely on it. LinkedIn is for workers, and while useful in its own way, will never be the leading ‘social’ platform. Even Instagram, the friendly visual platform with soaring popularity, has users angry with the algorithm.

Twitter – for all the accusations that it is ‘negative’ and needs an edit button (which would be a mistake for a hundred reasons) – trundles on, both in the background and seemingly at the forefront of major news stories every day. It may not be as visual or attractive as Instagram or have as many users as Facebook, but for setting the news agenda, none beat it.

It gives public figures and ‘stars’ the chance to share their thoughts and opinions, allows these to be spread easily as each tweet can be embedded on news sites. Every journalist worth their salt is on Twitter and is using it to source news or reaction to news. Twitter means the President of the United States has never been more accessible (incredibly awful, maybe, but excellent for news).

It’s not for everyone – if you’re looking to start a style trend or shift product, it’s probably not the platform for you. But for PRs who want to be in the news (and which of us don’t?), then Twitter is the place to be.

A tweet can wipe over $1bn off a company’s value AND be covered by every major news outlet in the Western world.

So, next time you’re planning your #socialstrategy we’d like you to remember just one thing: Twitter.

media

Social or traditional?

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Social media is often seen as the death of traditional media, as more people go online for their news. The ease with which competitive news sites can be created – coupled with low advertising rates – has stunted revenues and traditional media’s grip on the industry.

But for the PR industry, and often agency clients, it is traditional media that holds the appeal – a mention in an article in The Times is considered, by many, to be a greater achievement than a trend on Twitter.

On the other hand, new agencies are now popping up with a dedicated focus on social and digital media – promising results with huge numbers and Instafame.

Which is right? Traditional or social?

The answer, unsurprisingly, depends on your brand and what you want to achieve, but chances are, you should be focused on both.

Social boasts the audience numbers and one mention can make or break a business. But what social lacks, is respect. A timeline on Twitter can publish a tweet from the Pope alongside your cousin Dawn and Geoff from accounting, which for brands makes it less attractive.

In a printed newspaper or magazine, the content is hand curated, and the audience expects quality. Sure, the reader numbers may be low (or tiny in comparison) but the engagement levels are high and your mentions can again make or break a business.

So, if you’re still trying to work out if you should be monitoring social or traditional then the chances are it’s both. If you focus on one, you risk missing half the conversation about your brand and with that, opportunity to react, grow and evolve.

No business can afford that.

That’s why Vuelio is integrating our social monitoring and measurement alongside traditional (print, broadcast and online news). You’ll be able to see how you’re performing across every platform, all from one dashboard.

Vuelio integrated social media monitoring allows you to monitor the topics and influencers that your audience is engaging with by tracking their activity across social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and many more. This content will now appear next to your traditional monitoring and metrics, so your success is clear on all fronts.

We have also introduced pre-built reports to help you compare social media coverage to traditional media and understand the impact social has on your campaigns and brand.

Tired of curating stats and monitoring mentions? Don’t waste time researching reports, let Vuelio do all the hard work for you.

Facebook people

Have you updated your Facebook strategy?

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After signalling a huge change in Facebook’s News Feed, with more focus on posts from friends and family, Mark Zuckerberg has now revealed the second stage of his changes, promising the platform will serve up news from ‘trusted’ sources.

As Zuckerberg’s latest post explains:

‘I’m sharing our second major update this year: to make sure the news you see, while less overall, is high quality. I’ve asked our product teams to make sure we prioritize news that is trustworthy, informative, and local. And we’re starting next week with trusted sources.

‘There’s too much sensationalism, misinformation and polarization in the world today. Social media enables people to spread information faster than ever before, and if we don’t specifically tackle these problems, then we end up amplifying them. That’s why it’s important that News Feed promotes high quality news that helps build a sense of common ground.’

The ‘high quality’ news and ‘trustworthy’ sources will be decided by the Facebook community. As part of its surveys, the network will now ask if users are familiar with a news source and if they trust it. Facebook is aiming to create a list of sources from people that aren’t necessarily regular readers but those that know and consider the source to be trustworthy. Users who haven’t heard of the source will be discounted.

This is Zuckerberg’s latest attempt to legitimise his network and shift the focus from the spreading of ‘fake news’ and alleged interference in the likes of the Presidential election and Brexit.

What does this mean for you?

The first set of changes are expected to reduce the amount of news in the Feed from 5% to 4%, and the second will dramatically reduce the sources news comes from. This will benefit the sources that are trusted and should make all PR pros and brands consider who they’re targeting in media outreach.

Publishers with the biggest stats and the most readers are going to be greatly affected if they’re not also trustworthy. As the list will be publicly-sourced, it may be easy to think you know what will and won’t make the cut. But just because a news site has a reputation for being untrustworthy, it doesn’t mean Facebook’s crowdsourcing will stop it from appearing. Nor is it clear if those less high-quality publishers will be removed altogether.

As such, your new Facebook strategy needs to be reactive, rather than proactive. Using quality social media monitoring, keep an eye on which of your media partners are still appearing frequently on Facebook, and find new ones that you haven’t used before.

Take time to build new relationships where necessary, and broaden your PR community. That way, your stories will remain where they belong – on people’s News Feeds.