PRFest - Thursday, 14 June

WELCOME
TO
PRFEST 2018!
Thursday, 14 June

Laura Sutherland FCIPR Chart.PR MPRCA
Founder, PRFest
Owner, Aura
@laurafromaura @AuraPR

Our Industry
• Office of National Statistics (ONS) data, there are now more
than 71,000 PR practitioners currently employed in the UK
• The Chartered Institute of Public Relations’ 2017 study
reports that 84% of in-house teams and 96% of consultancies
are either growing or stable in size. What do you think?

What do people look for when
recruiting?
• Almost two-thirds of recruiters (65%) said they looked for
evidence of resource and people management in senior
hires, but only a quarter (25%) of senior practitioners ranked
those abilities amongst their strongest skills.
• Similarly, 66% of recruiters reported looking for senior
professionals with business acumen, but only a third (33%) of
those respondents ranked the skill amongst their strongest
competencies.
Do this match our drive to being a strategic management
function?

Global Capabilites Framework
The framework takes a high-level view of what practitioners
can deliver:
Communication Capabilities
1. To align communication strategies with organisational
purpose and values
2. To identify and address communication problems
proactively
3. To conduct formative and evaluative research to underpin
communication strategies and tactics
4. To communicate effectively across a full range of platforms
and technologies

Organisational Capabilities
5. To facilitate relationships and build trust with internal and
external stakeholders and communities
6. To build and enhance organisational reputation
7. To provide contextual intelligence

Professional Capabilities (those expected of any
professional)
8. To provide valued counsel and be a trusted advisor
9. To offer organisational leadership
10. To work within an ethical framework on behalf of the
organisation, in line with professional and societal
expectations
11. To develop self and others, including continuing
professional learning
The Framework is the result of a two-year research project
led by the University of Huddersfield, with partners in eight
countries across six continents.

Moving away from tactical delivery to
strategic management function
1. Tactical dominance
Copywriting/editing (73%), PR programmes/campaigns
(68%) and media relations (65%) comprise the top three
most commonly undertaken activities, suggesting PR
professionals spend the majority of their time on tactical
delivery.
2. Gender inequality
The true gender pay gap – which strips out factors that
influence salaries such as part-time work – rose from £5,784 to
£6,725.
ONS data indicates women now comprise 56% of the industry
– a proportion which has declined year-on-year since 2013
when women made up 63% of the industry.

3. Diversity gap
More PR professionals than ever (65%) believe PR campaigns
are more effective when practiced by ethnically diverse
teams but ONS data indicates the industry has remained
more than 91% white since 2013
4. Mental health
Around one in six PR professionals (16%) report living with a
mental health condition – an increase of 10% from last year’s
research.

So, who’s in charge of developing and setting the strategy?
How can we move into that role and demonstrate the value
public relations can add when done strategically?
By showing the results. Showing IMPACT!

4 Key Resources
• PRCA
• CIPR
• Global Alliance
• International Association of the Measurement and
Evaluation of Communication (AMEC)

HOUSEKEEPIN
G
• No planned fire alarms
• First aid, please report to ECCI front desk
• Toilets out to the right of this room
• Water and juice available at the back of the room –
help yourself
• All got your WIFI codes from reception?
• Please use #PRFest
• Speakers – please keep to time or I’ll be chasing you!

Matt Cartmell
Deputy Director General, PRCA
@MattCartmell
Headline Sponsor

Ella Minty
CIPR Board and Council Member
Co-chair CIPR Energy Leadership Platform
Founding Fellow Commonwealth Communicators
Organisation
@EllaMinty

TO DO LIST – client/employer side
1. USPs
2. SWOT Analysis
3. PESTLE
4. Porter’s Market Forces
5. Competitor Analysis
6. Corruption and nepotism
7. Media market
8. Reputational impact
 Industry Associations
 Chambers of Commerce
 British Embassy/Consulate
 “Exporting is Great”
 DTI and FCO
 Trust and perception barometer
(customer base)
 Intelligence gathering

Questions to answer - AGENCY
Who are you?
What do you know about this market?
How culturally aware are you?
What do you bring to the “table”?
What are your competencies?
How well do you know the sector?
Do you understand the language?

Andy Barr
Founder, 10 Yetis
@10Yetis

The importance of link-
building
Donald Trump Mode: PRs are THE BEST link builders

We all get authority link-building, yeah?
Dummy’s guide:
• Get web-links from “authority” websites back to your client’s website
• Helps your client’s website move up the rankings for its key terms
• SIMPLE AF!

Dull anonymous example!
Campaign start
Month 1 (oh fuck)
Month 2, 40 links!
WOOT
On-going campaigns,
Constant links.
Contract
renegotiation
time (jokes lols)

Myths
• Google will penalise you for doing this – FAKE NEWS
• Content needs to relate back to what you do – FAKE NEWS (for now)
• Google understands positive/negative sentiment – FAKE NEWS (for
now)
• Can’t get authority links for “nasty” sectors
• Payday loans, gambling sites, banking in general (lols)

Positive v Negative Sentiment Examples
• Protein World
• 145 “authority” links
• £2m in extra sales

Positive v Negative Example Two
• Cecil the Lion killer – dentist in US (PRICK)
• 170 links!
• His practice dominated local
search until he closed it

A link is a link, right? Wrong
• Google decides “authority”
• We use Moz.com scoring 0-100
• 4 types of link
• Follow (Gold)
• NoFollow (Silver)
• Affiliate (Poo)
• “Shit” (technical term) link: 0-10 DA
• Story shares, likes, comments influence the score!

It’s not all about the nationals though
• Game time – guess the domain authority!
• Higher or Lower!
• Prizes!

What makes good link fodder?
• Widgets/Calculators
• Concept images
• Regional comparisons
• Reactives (old school works baby!)

Some examples – stand by
• http://www.SexCalculator.co.uk – 1k links
• Sleep Calculator 500+ links https://www.hillarys.co.uk/static/sleep-
calculator/
• Coffin of the future
• Drink Driver campaign (against it, OBVS)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKd84cqM060

Coffin of the future! 50+ links

Secret content tips
• Create content that gives multiple bites of the cherry
• Launch, results, regional breakdown
• Pack the page
• N/L sign up
• Best selling products
• Links to key pages (passes through Google Juice (TM))
• What can you offer in return for a link?
• Shares from client pages/social accounts

Rules – we all need rules right
• Make linking the natural way to tell the story
• Use vanity URL e.g
• YourDomain.com/Amazing-widget-title
• Make the content embeddable
• But don’t offer it up straight away

Traditional PR baby!
• Go to wires first, PA, Solent, Caters, SWNS
• Daily Mail – crap for links, great for copy cat snowball
• SkyNews online = syndication similar to PA
• Get on the phones for link reclamation

Let’s workshop
• Who has an example idea we could plan for?

Jenni Field
Founder and Director, Redefining Comms
@MrsJenniField
@redefiningcomms

Research into the state of the
sector – what does it mean for
the future?

Where can we find out about our industry?
• Gatehouse State of the Sector
• VMA Group
• CIPR Inside Making it Count
• The Big Yak 2018

My definition of internal communication
Everything that gets said and shared inside an organisation.
As a function its role is to curate, enable and advise on best
practise for organisations to communicate effectively,
efficiently and in an engaging way.

Highlights from VMA Group Inside Insight
70% 75%of IC professionals
rate the organisations
use of digital and
social media as poor
or average
highlight employee
engagement as
one of the top
competencies for
an IC professional
73%have an internal
communication
plan
59%think IC is valued just
the same as other
communication
disciplines by the
communications
director

But the story from Gatehouse is very different
35% 86%of IC professionals
rate the adoption of
digital and social
media as excellent or
good
Rated the use of
social media inside
organisations as
non-existent,
embryonic or
limiited
50%have an internal
communication
plan
33%have an internal
communications
strategy

What are the barriers to internal communication?
• Poor line manager communication
skills
• Internal technology not fit for
purpose /legacy systems
• Hard to reach employees
• Volume of communication too
high/lack of time for employees to
read communications
• Lack of resource/budget/investment
Source: Gatehouse State of the
Sector 2018

What is the focus for the next 12 months?
1. Communicating strategy, values
and purpose
2. Improving digital channels
3. Enhancing leadership
communications
4. Supporting a change and/or
transformation programme
5. Developing/refreshing an internal
comms strategy
Source: Gatehouse State of the
Sector 2018

We need to make an impact and create value
Culture
Internal communication is
responsible for culture
Broadcast
CEO’s are focussed on
broadcast, not employee voice
Measurement
Recognition that it is hard to
measure as a main factor in
culture and engagement Alignment
Alignment is our biggest
blocker to success
Source: CIPR Inside Making it Count
Research 2017

What does this data tell us?
• We need to stop focussing on channels
• Face-to-face communication needs to be given the investment
• Alignment of the function is key to success
• Be strategic with the tactical
• Communication is fundamental to relationships: culture

What does this data tell us?
• Social media is not the silver bullet we thought it would be
• Change and transformation are the new normal
• We need to learn from other functions about the use of data
• We need to think about reputation and risk

Padraig McKeon
Communication Advisor
@PadraigMcKeon

“Well I wouldn’t start
from here anyway…”
Padraig McKeon
‘The skills we are known for and the future of public relations’

In practice we have to…
* Go beyond the tried and trusted
* Lose this obsession with writing…
* Prioritise the engine room, as well as the boardroom…
* It’s not about us – it’s about them
* Not always be so urgent!

My findings
* Digital is no longer ‘part’ of the conversation
* However, resource always an issue so we stick to devil we know
* We are still distinguished by core, traditional, communications capability
* Our work doesn’t start where others see our input
* Scope to explore limited by scope of influence
* Influence is about being aligned with business model and organisation KPIs

* Account or client management
* Strategic planning
* PR programme planning
* Project management
* Media relations
* Social media
* Issue management
* Crisis management
* Internal or employee communication
* Events, conferences and meetings
* Community relations
* Stakeholder relations
Our building blocks…?
Global Alliance (2015) GBOK introduction

Central concepts…
* Relations
* Planning
* Management

Thought leadership…
* “we are down in the weeds with technical skills…we have to broaden skills and stop saying
‘please understand us’” ” (Gregory, 2018)
* “think critically about who you’re trying to communicate with and doing your homework
to make that happen” (Deitrich, 2017)
* “We have to understand our audience’s purpose” (Parry, 2018)
* “foster engagement, relationships, dialogue or two-way communication” (Macnamara, 2014)
* “[with advent of AI] we have to evolve our work to a higher order” (Waddington, 2018)
* “our decisions should be based on ability to create insights (Breakenridge, 2018)

The market still tells us…
* “When looking at skills most sought-after by communications teams, the top ten
[is] led by writing ability” (The Conference Board, Corporate Communications Practices: 2018)
* “73% of respondents time spent ‘copywriting and editing’ which is also perceived
by both senior practitioners and non-managers as the ‘strongest skill or
competency’ required for PR (CIPR State of the Profession 2018)

… and so, as actions speak loudest
* “Our reputation is society’s judgement on us” (Gregory, 2018)
* there is a job to be done in the mainstream
* We have to “step outside our echo chamber” (Minty, 2018)

Our first principles…
* To understand
* To listen
* To be ‘the sensemakers’
* the connectors
* the conscience
* … and hire the writers

In practice we can deliver…
* an amalgam of competencies informed by first understanding …
* at every level in an organisation culminating at the top table…
* by dealing with what is important!

To get there…
* people and relationships
* listening… and responding
* understand and then create
* outcomes – not outputs
* influence follows impact

The challenge…
* Not why… or what
* ‘How’ do we bring on change
* Go beyond thought
* align academic and practice
* bring substance to representation

Padraig McKeon, FPRII, Chart.PR
* Email: padraig@mckeonireland.com
* Phone: +353 87 2312632
* Skype: padraigmckeon
* LinkedIn: https://ie.linkedin.com/in/padraigmckeonireland

Jen Green
Director of Strategic
Communications,
Manchester City Council
@JenGeekPR
Amanda Coleman
Head of Corporate
Communication,
Greater Manchester Police
@AmandaComms

The Road to Recovery
Amanda Coleman, GMP
Jen Green, Manchester City Council

Communications recovery work stream
• Handover from response to
recovery to Manchester City
Council
• Set up multi agency group across
GM
• Thinking about people and place
• A strategy - one cohesive voice
and message
• Language

Impact on staff
• Welfare hub in place within hours
• Around 1,000 officers and staff accessed help
• Range from CBT to conversation
• Referrals continue today
• Recovery over years

Impact on people
• Manchester Resilience Hub
set up
• 4,000 calls, 3,100 screened
and over 700 referred for
local NHS support
• Media protocol required
• Social media campaigns for
support

• Within a week the fund was up
and running and the first gifts
made by 31 May
• Over £21m in the fund
• Respecting families and
learning from others
• Transparency, solidarity and
recovery messages.

Future
• Support to families
• Support to affected people
• Remembering Together – memorials
• Building positive future

Laura Richards
Head of Communications,
Sunderland Software City
@Iam_LauraD
Anne-Marie Lacey
Managing Director,
Filament PR
@AM_LaceyPR

How Human-Led Design can Empower Public Relations
Presented by: Anne-Marie Lacey // @AM_LaceyPR
MD - Filament PR
Laura Richards // @iam_laurad
Head of Comms - Software City

105
Today’s Workshop…
• What is Human-Centred Design?
• HCD and PR
• The Process – how to adopt a HCD approach
• HCD and personal challenges
• Getting stuck in…

106
Human-centered design is a creative approach to
problem solving developed by globally renowned
design firm IDEO. It's a process that starts with
the people you're designing for and ends with
new solutions that are tailor made to suit their
needs.

107
Human-Centred Design and PR
• PR is all about people – our employees, customers,
shareholders, local communities, etc.
• HCD is all about people – designing products, services or
campaigns by engaging the end-user from the start.
• By properly understanding our publics’ motivations,
needs, interests and challenges and using this as our
starting point, we can develop more impactful work.

109
‘In the First World War, the number of head
injuries soldiers suffered went up after the
British Army replaced cloth caps with steel
helmets, also known as ‘Tommy helmets’, in
1915.’
Beware the dangers of steel helmets….

110
How to adopt an HCD approach
Phase 1: Inspiration
Learn directly from the people you’re designing for as you immerse
yourselves in their lives and come to deeply understand their needs.
Phase 2: Ideation
Make sense of what you have learnt, identify opportunities for design and
prototype possible solutions.
Phase 3: Implementation
Bring your solution to life (and eventually to market) through prototyping,
knowing it will be a success because the people you are looking to serve
have been at the heart of the process from the start.

111
Inspiration Phase
1. Start with a challenge – this could be a business objective, a
hard-to-reach audience, or a personal challenge
2. Research your challenge –
a. Experts
b. Immersion
c. Other Sectors (analogous)
d. People (stakeholders, customers, end users)

112
Ideation Phase
1. Make sense of your research – start clustering responses
together, identify recurring themes, highlight the most
mentioned issues
2. Craft your ‘how might we/I’ question – e.g. how might we
better support our customers to be activists? how might we
better support our junior colleagues? how might I feel more
fulfilled at work?
3. Come up with possible solutions – the more the better (the
first solution is not necessarily the best, just the most
obvious!)

113
Implementation Phase
1. Prototype your solution – this could be a mock up, drawings,
a technical specification, a miniature cardboard design, a
single or string of tweets… anything!
2. Test your prototype – get the people you’ve co-created it
with, test it out.
3. Iterate, iterate, iterate! – your first design will not be your
final design. Every time you get feedback make changes,
adapt and test again.

114
HCD and Personal Challenges

115
Designing Your Way Out of a Career Rut
Facing a
challenge at
work
Inspired by
stories of other
people
Researched careers
in PR/
Communications
Identified an
opportunity to test
out (‘prototype’) a
new career path
Feedback – enjoy
the role, continue
with a second
iteration
Feedback – need
to learn more, so
researched/
inspired by other
people
Iterate through
learning or CPD
Finally, you reach
implementation –
when the challenge
is overcome

117
Exercise 1: Framing Your Challenge
Step one: Write down the biggest challenge you’re facing at work
today. It could be anything from feeling frustrated with the types of
campaigns you’re working on, not feeling inspired by your client
accounts, trying to encourage your employees to work harder, right
the way through to being fundamentally miserable at work with no
clue what to do about it!
Step two: Explain, briefly, what your challenge is to your partner/
group.

118
Exercise 2: Understanding Your Challenge
Group or
community
Maintaining shit Inventing shit
Global
National
Industry
Organisational
Individual
Fixing shit

119
Things to think about…
• Are there any outliers on your chart – what does
this mean? Were these positive or negative
experiences?
• What motivates you at work? It’s easy to get caught
up with ‘being busy’ and we don’t often stop to
think what gives us that feeling of flow when we
are at work.

120
Exercise 3: Research: The 5 Whys
Step one: Start by asking a pretty broad question about your Interview
participant’s habits or behaviors then ask “why” to their response five times in a
row. (e.g. Why are you frustrated at work?)
Step two: Remember that you’re not asking a horizontal question, (ie “Why else
are you frustrated at work?”) you’re actually going for depth (ie “Why are you
spending so much time on admin?”).
Step three: Write down what you hear, paying special attention to moments
when it feels like you’ve moved a level deeper into understanding why the
person does what they do.
Step four: Keep in mind that you might not get to the core stuff until the fourth
or fifth “Why.
Step five: Swap, and interview your partner. When you have both been the
‘interviewee’, share what stood out from their answers.

121
Exercise 4: Prototyping begins
Step one: Decide on your ‘how might I…?’ question
Step two: In your groups/ pairs: Start thinking about what
your prototype solution might look like.
Step three: Pick one or two things you can do, in the next
couple of days to start prototyping your way to your
solution.
I commit to………………………………………………………………….

122
When most people do things, they have to decide to do them.
When you have a bias for action, you automatically do things;
not doing things is what takes a decision.
Make the decision now, that you are going to take 100s of
little actions to improve your career or performance, every
day from hereon in.
And because you now know everything you do is just a
prototype, you don’t have to wait until something is perfect,
or formal, or official, to do it.

123
Feedback
• HCD is all about getting feedback as you go,
sharing learnings and being inspired by other
people.
• In the spirit of this, would anyone like to share
their next steps, what their prototype might look
like, what they’ve discussed, etc?

124
Further Resources
• http://www.designkit.org – Ideo.org free online toolkit
for HCD projects
• https://www.plusacumen.org/courses/introduction-
human-centered-design - free 8 week long course
developed by IDEO and Acumen+
• https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01HOE1NPK/ref=dp-
kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1 – Bill Burnett
& Dave Evan’s life design guide
• https://www.ted.com/talks/david_kelley_on_human_ce
ntered_design - David Kelley (IDEO co-founder)

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