✅ Monday briefing: Brand sanctions, Russia in and out, social leaders, deeds not words, Socially Mobile, WaddsCon March, and more...
Ukraine, International Women's Day, Industry, Research and Insight, Tools, and Events
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.
Congratulations to Lorna Bithell on being awarded a distinction in her MSc in Strategic Public Relations at the University of Stirling after engaging with the community for her dissertation on cybersecurity.
Ukraine
⚠️ BRAND SANCTIONS: More than 300 companies from Apple to Disney, and from Mastercard to Netflix, have pulled out of Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. It’s a challenging ethical and reputational issue for organisations with staff working in the market, supply chains, and local suppliers and partners. Source Maja Pawinska Sims.
🛑 RUSSIA IN AND OUT: Researchers at Yale School of Management are tracking the companies that have exited Russia, as well as those that remain. The list is updated continuously to reflect announcements from companies. Spotted Michael Greer.
🗣️ SOCIAL LEADERS: Two-in-five CEOs of large companies have written publicly on LinkedIn about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine while more that a third have described the action their organisation is taking. The survey examined 50 CEOs of cross-sector businesses with turnovers greater than $100m. Source Phil Szomszor.
International Women's Day
👛 DEEDS NOT WORDS: The @paygapapp Twitter account called out organisations that celebrated International Women’s Day despite having a gender pay gap. No organisations responded to the bot, and worse, several deleted their original tweet. Spotted Nigel Sarbutts.
🖖 MIND THE GAP: Organisations don’t want to talk about the gender pay gap whereas employees do according to Sharon O’Dea. She replied to corporate content from organisations posting on International Women's Day asking what they're doing about their gender pay gap. Reaction included her LinkedIn account being checked out by a corporate legal team. Source Sharon O’Dea.
Media
👁️ CHASING PAGE VIEWS: Reach journalists will be expected to generate increases of up to 70% in online page views on their stories by the end of 2022. News reporters who have been with the company for more than six months will be set minimum benchmarks of between 80,000- and 850,000-page views per month. It’s a race to the bottom. Spotted Alan Morrison.
Industry
👥 SOCIALLY MOBILE: Socially Mobile, the leadership communication programme that aims to increase diversity in public relations, has opened applications for its second cohort. The ten week executive education course is aimed at helping PR practitioners increase their earning potential. If you know someone that might benefit please urge them to apply. Source Stephen Waddington.
🏆 YOUNG CHANGEMAKERS: PRovoke Media is searching for diverse young communicators who identify as women through its Young Changemakers Awards. Its seeking to celebrate the next generation of communications leaders and lift up young talent while also creating more opportunity for those in marginalised groups. Spotted Maja Pawinska Sims.
Research and insight
📔 INNOVATION AND PR: Public relations makes a contribution of management areas to innovation. As part of my PhD studies I’ve identified three primary types of innovation, the contribution of management factors, and the role of public relations. Please let me know if you spot anything that I have missed. Source Stephen Waddington.
🔍 SEO SERVICES: The global agency SEO service market is expected to grow from $41.97 billion in 2021 to $51.25 billion in 2022. The growth of more than a fifth is due to the companies reorganising their operations and COVID-19 recovery. Spotted Andrew Bruce Smith.
Tools
📱 SUBSTACK APP: Substack has launched an app to help you find new writers and bring all your Substacks newsletters together in one place. It’s a lot like an old school RSS Reader. I miss Google Reader every single day. Spotted Stuart Bruce.
😃 ACCESSIBLE SOCIAL: Accessible Social is a toolkit created by Alexa Heinrich for anyone who wants to learn how to make their content inclusive and accessible for people with disabilities. It includes information on accessibility, hashtags, alt text, using colour, video, testing, and much more. Spotted Nafisa Ali Shafiq and Louise Gibson.
Events
🗓️ MARCH WADDSCON: Each of the speakers at WaddsCon March (1-2pm, 30 March) has a story to tell about how they worked with the media to engage the public in an important and challenging conversation. They include 9/11 legacy, addressing Britain’s slave past, women’s safety and the Reclaim These Streets campaign, and Common Goal. Source Stephen Waddington.
If you enjoy the Wadds Inc. community and this newsletter we’d appreciate a donation to this United Help Ukraine fundraiser. Thanks to everyone that has donated over the past week.