✅ Monday briefing: A&E Storytelling, sports washing, Zoom termination, management consultancy threat cedes, tackling ageism, PR boom prediction, and more…
Best and bad practice, industry, research and insight, social media and platforms, and tool
This newsletter is crowdsourced each week from my blog and community of practice for people studying and working in marketing, media and public relations. It’s a hive mind, newsroom and source of information, help and support. You’d be welcome to join us.
Best and bad practice
🏥 A&E STORYTELLING: Bolton NHS Foundation Trust posted a live feed on Twitter of one of its A&E departments in Greater Manchester over a 24-hour period. It provided a real-life insight into the relentless pace through the eyes of nurses, doctors, and patients. Spotted Deborah Wroe.
🏎️ SPORTS WASHING: Mercedes Formula One has ended its controversial sponsorship deal with Kingspan, a firm that manufactured insulation used in Grenfell Tower. Kingspan's logo appeared on Sir Lewis Hamilton's car when he won the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. Spotted Sarah Waddington.
👎🏽 ZOOM TERMINATION: Online lender Better.com has been slammed after CEO Vishal Garg announced the termination of more than 900 employees in a three-minute call via Zoom. A day before the layoffs, the company received a $750 million cash investment. Spotted Michael Greer and Stuart Bruce.
Industry
🙅🏽 MANAGEMENT CONSULTANCY THREAT CEDES: The threat of management consultants moving in to the agency space may have been over blown. Creativity, the commoditisation of digital media, and lack of international cohesion, has locked them out. Instead, agencies are pushing into the management consultancy space and picking up digital transformation work. Spotted Stephen Waddington.
Research and insight
🧓🏽 TACKLING AGEISM: The Centre for Aging Better has published a guide to support communications professionals and charities to represent aging in a more positive and realistic way. It aims to counter the narrative that aging is associated with decline and ill-health. Spotted Nigel Sarbutts.
👔 PR BOOM PREDICTION: Two-thirds of UK business leaders are planning to recruit public relations staff or hire agencies in the next three months. The CIPR Business Leaders Survey surveyed 300 leaders about their PR function and future needs for PR services. It’s consistent with other industry data that has predicted a COVID-19 boom. Spotted Andrew Bruce Smith.
Social media and platforms
🎥 VIDEO SHARING STANDARD: The ASA has taken on regulation of advertising on video sharing platforms under Ofcom’s oversight. It protects viewers from violence; hatred; content considered to be a criminal office; child sexual abuse material; and racism and xenophobia; and inappropriate content for U18s. Spotted Keith Lewis.
🎞️ SOCIAL AD SPEND: The social media advertising market will overtake television next year according to Zenith. Advertising across all digital channels will exceed 60% of global ad spend for the first time in 2022 rising to 65.1% by 2024. Spotted Andrew Bruce Smith.
📆 END OF YEAR REVIEWS: We turned to YouTube for community, comfort, and creativity; TikTok caught our attention for life affirming moments that bring the community together; and we sought out Google for information about the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on society. Source Andrew Bruce Smith.
🖼️ PINTEREST VIDEO PUSH: Pinterest has announced the acquisition of video editing app Vochi as part of its push into video. It enables users to remove items from clips, add 3D effects, and add other specialised visual features that can make your clips stand out in feeds. Spotted Alan Morrison.
🗑️ AUTO-DELETE OPTIONS: WhatsApp has added auto-delete options, enabling chat threads to be set to self-erase. It is billed as a privacy option however critics of parent company Meta have called it out as a media of shielding dodgy activity. Spotted Alan Morrison.
Tools
📝 CONSOLE + ANALYTICS: You can now connect Google Search Console to Google Analytics 4. The lack of interoperability had previously held back the usefulness of Google Search Console for reporting. Source Andrew Bruce Smith.