✅ Monday briefing: ad cartel, cookie reprieve, UK data registration, R&D tax relief, voice technologies, corporate digital responsibility, Socially Mobile dinner, and more...

Media, best practice, industry, research and insight, social media and platforms, and events

This newsletter is crowdsourced each week from my blog and community of practice for people studying and working in marketing, media and PR. It’s a hive mind, newsroom and source of information, help and support.

Media

🤑 AD CARTEL: Google, Facebook, Alibaba, TikTok owner Bytedance, and Amazon generated almost half of all worldwide advertising sales last year - equivalent to $296bn. A Group M global ad spend report predicts 20% growth in Brazil, China, India and the UK in 2021. Spotted Alan Morrison.

Best practice

💬 BUSINESS JARGON: In To Be Clear: A Style Guide for Business Writing author Philip Collins says business writing has become dreary, boring and incomprehensible, with jargon, clichés, and nonsense. He calls on businesses to use language that has clarity and meaning. Spotted Sue Fox.

📰 EVERGREEN CONTENT: List posts and how-to posts are the two most evergreen content formats. Presentations, press releases and podcasts are the least evergreen. Backlino’s Brian Dean teamed up with Buzzsumo to analyse 3.6 billion articles to investigate evergreen content. Spotted Andrew Smith.

🔐 COOKIE REPRIEVE: Google has released an updated timetable for its Privacy Sandbox initiative that will phase out support for third-party cookies in Chrome. Changes have been pushed back to late 2022 with third-party cookies eliminated by late 2023. Spotted Stephen Waddington.

ℹ️ UK DATA REGISTRATION: This is your regular reminder that UK businesses should register with the Information Commissioner's Office and pay a data protection fee. It's a legal requirement. There is a self -assessment tool on the ICO website to help determine the cost. Most organisations pay £35 or £55 per year. Source Michael Collins.

Industry

😌 R&D TAX RELIEF: Agencies can claim a proportion of research and development investment costs against their Corporation Tax. It is an incentive aimed at promoting innovation in areas such as augmented reality, data analytic tools, software development and web design and development. Source Sophie Smith.

Research and insight

🗣️ VOICE TECHNOLOGIES: Voice is evolving from an interface to a distinct channel according to the Voice Consumer Index published by Vixen Labs in partnership with the One Voice Network. A third of UK consumers use voice assistants daily. Popular applications include search, information, entertainment and travel. Source Stephen Waddington.

📊 STATE OF PR: The biggest challenges for public relations are getting responses from journalists (59%), budget limitations (49%), and measuring business impact (46%). The Muck Rack State of PR 2021 report also found budgets are being held or increasing. Strategic planning was cited (88%) as the most essential PR skill for the future.  Spotted Rod Cartwright and Andrew Smith.

📈 BENCHMARK REPORT: Despite efforts to raise its game as a management discipline, public relations remain doggedly tactical. Last-minute requests, lack and budget, and too many distractions, are reported as the main barriers to effective practice by the Ragan Communications Benchmark Report 2021. Spotted Andrew Smith.

🤔 CORPORATE DIGITAL RESPONSIBILITY: A report by Allegory sets out the urgent need for organisations to act on issues related to Corporate Digital Responsibility (CDR) and proposes a framework to support planning. CDR is a broad set of responsibilities related to the application and management of data and digital technologies. Source Stephen Waddington.   

Social media and platforms

📸 PHOTO EDITING: Retouched social media images posted in Norway must be labelled as such. Changes to the 2009 Marketing Act have made it illegal for influencers to share retouched photos without appropriate labelling. The move aims to reduce the country's levels of body dysmorphia. Spotted Peggy Simcic Brønn.

📵 FACEBOOK BAN: Government organisations in Germany have until the end of 2021 to close their Facebook pages. The move comes after the data protection commissioner found the social network had failed to change its practices to comply with European privacy laws. Spotted Michael Greer. 

Events

🗓️ SOCIALLY MOBILE: Join Sarah Waddington CBE and I on 21 July for the fundraising launch at the House of St Barnabas in London to find out more about Socially Mobile. It’s our new community interest company that aims to improve socio-economic diversity in PR. Spaces are limited. Source Stephen Waddington.

Disclosure: Allegory, Nectarine and Vixen Labs, mentioned in this newsletter, are Wadds Inc. clients. I am also a director of Socially Mobile.