Thea Chippendale

The agenda for this conference is fab! I'm looking forward to chairing so I can learn more and also dig deeper into the brilliant experts subjects. See you there?

1

It's a little later than usual, thanks to half term, but if you're looking for reactive PR inspo, great events to get involved with or need to update your internal comms calendar then look no further... 🗳 The upcoming election holds opportunities across sectors. If you have something to say and you're willing to be bold, then there are lots of ways to engage local, trade and national press with a reaction or opinion on a policy promise. 🏳️‍🌈 Pride Month, June: It should go without saying that changing everything to rainbow colours is not really supporting the LGBTQ+ community. If in doubt, ask those within your organisation that your words will impact, who can give you a sense check. 🍖 National BBQ Week, 1-9 June 🧀 National Cheese Day, 4 June 🌍 Earth Day, 5 June 🚲 Bike Week, 10-16 June 🤖 London Tech Week, 10-14 June 👨🏼 Father's Day, 16 June 🕌 Eid-ul-Adha, 16-18 June ⛺ World Refugee Week, 17-23 June 🎶 World Music Day, 21 June 👖 Wrong Trousers Day, 28 June - a special local mention for the Wallace & Gromit's Grand Appeal, raising much-needed money for the Bristol Children's Hospital and Neonatal Intensive Care unit. 👩🏼‍🔧 Women in Engineering Day, 23 June If you're planning a fun story, pithy comment or great internal initiative to align to an upcoming day, it can be a quick win but it is also competitive out there. So, be clear, concise and always authentic for your comms to have value.

14

6 Comments

PR Week asked me to provide an instant reaction to today's UK budget announcement. Here it is. Link to the PR Week story in the first comment. Labour has said from the beginning that they wanted to prioritise serious policy-making and responsible governing. But since taking office, their communications approach has made their policy workings appear chaotic. As a result, this budget has been a particularly gruesome exercise in public sausage-making. Having finally reached the formal red box moment, the resulting sausage looks edible, and even enticing. Delivered with confidence, the Chancellor found means to invest in key areas of the UK economy, provided funding to stabilise the NHS, and support substantial capital initiatives. Still, much of the burden of rising taxes falls on business. Increased employer NI and a significant increase to minimum wage will make it harder for businesses to expand payrolls. She’s been careful to reassure gilt markets, and the price of UK government debt dropped substantially during her speech, although it has ticked upwards this afternoon. Follow-on analysis will focus on whether Labour over-egged its doom and gloom messaging in the run-up and whether the economic strategy goes far enough. But considered in the round, the Chancellor’s proposals read as reasonable and responsible given the UK’s fiscal realities. She has also projected a greater degree of certainty and predictability. And with global upheaval and unpredictability sure to surge following next week’s U.S. election, this budget might help position the UK as a bastion of relative calm and normality in a messy geopolitical landscape.

88

8 Comments

If you want to learn more about the recently released DMA (Data & Marketing Association) UK Value of Measurement report sponsored by JICMAIL, I'll be covering off some of the key highlights next week in a session at the DMWF: 25th June @ 12.10pm.... See you there!

29

The DMA is at the Digital Marketer World Forum today. If you want to learn more about the Value of Measurment come and find me at the Data, CRM and Insights stage at 12.10....

12

R - Taking control of your Reputation A - Becoming the go-to Authority in your industry V - Maintaining Visibility E - Showing off your Expertise so people know how good you are. Does your marketing tick these boxes? https;//insidenews.co.uk #SME #Marketingstrategy #Marketingideas #Marketingtactics #Reputation #Authority #Visibility #Expert

3

70% of the PR sector got a pay rise in the last year. This is down from 79% in the previous year. A survey of over 400 UK in-house and agency corporate communications professionals from The Works, found that 82% of in-house and 76% of agency employees were “feeling OK to very happy” with their pay. This is an increase of 4% and 13% respectively, on the previous year. The Works said this highlighted how a soft market and companies tightening their comms budgets had “taken their toll” on the industry as the reason for the drop in pay rises. It’s really interesting to see the comparison between in-house and agency professionals salaries, bonuses and pay rises.

6

1 Comment

Have you taken the quiz yet? https://lnkd.in/ePs4YTh7 Find out how PR ready you are in just a few mins and get free advice to support you no matter what stage you're at x

1

Do you run a UK independent agency with billings UNDER £1M? Then this BenchPress State of the Agency Nation report by The Wow Company is another must read. Started a dozen years ago, it’s grown to become the largest annual survey of UK independent agency owners. This year’s report includes a review of 2023 - growth rates, confidence, challenges, profit, remuneration, and staff changes. Plus they detail the key metrics for 2024, including the latest hourly rates and cash balances. Check it out to see how you compare to your peers - and whether you’re underselling your expertise! Full report uploaded (or if you prefer to download the PDF, check out comments below for the link👇🏼). The agencies over £1m version of this is coming next week…. #AgencyBusinessStrategy #AgencyBusinessDevelopment #AgencyMarketing #AgencyClientDevelopment Peter Czapp

4

1 Comment

I've compiled what I hope is pretty much the complete guide to Chartered Institute of Public Relations qualifications. Every week I speak to lots of practitioners who are thinking about getting #CIPRQualified and I hope this guide over on PR Academy Ltd Insights answers many of the common questions. In it I talk about the qualifications available, the different levels and how to pick the right one for you, the benefits of a qualification and much more. If you know someone who is thinking about studying please do share it with them! #pr #internalcomms

9

4 Comments

Alice doesn't know which road to take. Do you know which road to take to achieve your PR and communications objectives? 💡 I am Stuart Bruce. I can help you: 🚀 Modernise your PR and comms 🤖 Use AI for PR and comms 🔥 Protect your reputation in a crisis 📈 Improve your insight and measure your comms 🔔 You can ring the bell on my profile to see more posts like this. #publicrelations #communications #pr #aiinpr

2

1 Comment

This article on PR Week yesterday offered nothing new in times of the PR recruitment market. It is hard. It has always been hard. Attracting and retaining the best talent is a constant challenge for PR agencies. Never in my 20 years' in the industry has there been a "easy" time for hiring. It has typically always been skewed to candidate led or client led. That said some of the challenges of course have changed, both with attitudes of candidates and agencies but also methods of hiring. I remember having to ring prospective candidates at their work desks to headhunt them, well before people would just send off generic messages! What I always say to candidates and clients is it is always evolving and always changing. The lows don't last, but nor do the highs for either side. Retaining your best people is always your first step in also hiring the best. Hiring for attitude and aptitude over "perfect on paper" almost always works better. Listen to your people, what are their priorities? Actually action things you discover. Listen to your recruitment partner, we have a huge amount of insight into the market and what candidates want, which processes are working and where people want to work. Oh and above all else. If you want to have the best teams, hire diverse talent. It makes commercial sense, you will do better work that reaches wider audiences and to top it off "a diverse and inclusive culture" regularly comes up high on priorities for my candidates. Yes times are tough right now but "this too shall pass". https://lnkd.in/eSBsQ-95

15

Perfectly presented posts - hit or miss? As a PR and content marketing agency, a big proportion of our day at Open Communications UK Limited is spent developing content (copy and imagery) to be shared across social media channels. Given that the brands we work with differ massively, there really is no one-size-fits-all. In fact, we've found that while one approach will deliver for a brand, it will fall flat for another. It's all about testing and measuring. What I've noticed with LinkedIn company pages is that brand posts are becoming increasingly polished. The imagery is perfectly set and consistent with a colour palette. My question is, do you think this helps or hinders a post and its performance? Personally, while I don't want to see poor quality imagery or badly written posts, I like things to look real. I will always respond to something that feels more authentic than perfectly curated. I'm interested to hear other people's thoughts and preferences. Caption: Trying to get a lovely picture during a walk with my dog, Duke. Duke having absolutely none of it, resulting in a far from perfect shot. #Socialmedia #Posting #Content #Imagery #Video #PR #ContentMarketing

16

5 Comments

The The Social Mobility Foundation’s Class Pay Gap Day (17 November) is a stark reminder of the inequalities that persist—professionals from working-class backgrounds earn, on average, £6,000 less a year than their peers in the same roles. That’s one in every eight days worked, unpaid. As a member of the of the Creative Access steering group, I’m proud to support their work to tackle socio-economic inequality in the workplace. I spoke to Marketing Week, about how barriers to entry remain steep for industries like PR, comms, and the creative sector, because: ➡️Opportunities are often unadvertised, making access about who you know. ➡️ The industry is very concentrated in London and the cost of living makes it difficult for those without financial support to take advantage of them. There’s still a long way to go, but together we can move the needle. If your business is looking to make an impact on social mobility, contact: [email protected] #SocialMobility #ClassPayGap #CreativeAccess

8

SHOULD A TASK BE PART OF THE INTERVIEW PROCESS IN PR AND COMMS? Well of course it really depends on the role. Tasks or tests can be really helpful as part of the interview process but only when they are relevant. If a client has a specific need and therefore know the skills they are looking for, testing those skills in some way can be helpful. That could be a press release (if writing is an essential skill) or responding to a creative brief (again if that is a key part of the role). Tests and tasks can be really helpful as part of a fair and equal hiring process, so long as they are relevant and approached and reviewed by the same people in the same way. They can also be a test in themselves to assess if the candidate is really keen, and therefore perhaps willing to spend some of their own time working on it. They can also provide the candidate with a snapshot into the type of work they could expect to be doing if they are successful in securing the role. On the flip side, too often tasks are dated and irrelevant, often requiring candidates to give up far too much of their own time (often when they work full time already) and not being reflective of the business or the work. Sometimes they are added as an extra layer for the sake of it and not always assessed by the most relevant decision makers. Whatever you decide to do in your interview process I would always recommend a few things to think about: 💠 Clearly set out the process at the start so candidate knows what to expect and when 💠 Ideally max of three stages and try not to allow too many different stakeholders be involved. Too many cooks and all that 💠 Try to have the same process and interviewers for all candidates. This makes for a much fairer and transparent process 💠 Ensure everyone interviewing has undergone some form of unconscious bias training. This tends to prevent the "oh look we went to the same uni" (and much more/worse) opinions before you have even met someone 💠 Only include a task if it enhances the selection process and reflects the expectations of the role 💠 Give clear, concise and timely feedback. As in ideally within 24 hours but certainly 48hours, even if it is to say you will be fully feeding back or making a decision at the end of next week. Keeping candidates informed is so vital 💠 Remember interviews are a two way process and the first impression someone will get of how you run your business. If the recruitment process is chaotic and drawn out, what does that say about how the business operates? What would you add? Do you think tasks make for a better or worse process?

6

Instead of a Advent Calendar why not treat your business or any business buddies to a content calendar that lasts 12 months 🤗 365 content ideas 💡 to inspire you https://lnkd.in/eure4CFr

1

4 Comments

Online workshop this week! On Thursday 14th November I'll be delivering an online workshop for PR agencies via the PRCA What's on the table? 👨‍🎓 "PR Evaluation and Effectiveness: How measuring results helps everyone win" 🧠 What will attendees learn? 🚀 How to prove our worth to our clients, in order to maintain or grow our share of their marketing spend 🚀 How to craft offers that tap into qual and quant deliverables, and not just rate cards... An introduction to value-based selling and performance-based pricing 🚀 How to talk the language of value and not just price 🚀 Evaluation as the cornerstone to continuous improvement and long relationships / retention 🚀 A step by step Integrated Evaluation Framework, taking us from aligning objectives, to implementation, measurement, and client impact 🚀 What are the best agencies doing to put effectiveness and results front and centre of what they do? (PR effectiveness case studies and why they work) Find the course here: https://lnkd.in/eRpCZHEs #PRagency #agencygrowth

2

This makes for an encouraging read - good to see confidence returning across multiple sectors but still some sticky spots, which I think is to be expected. It will be interesting to see what impact October 30th has on confidence and also elections stateside. Add into that the geopolitical scene and I sense there is still someway to go before industry jitters disappear completely. Q4 2024 is critical (as every Q4 is) in bulding revenue for Q1 2025. It would be good to get a sense of sales days as confidence returns - are they shortening? Also - is the sense of confidence shared in the regions and by agencies that sit outside of the Top 150.

6