✅ Monday briefing: Data journalism, agency incubator, oil greenwashing, UK productivity bounce, influencer agencies, social media benchmarks, Reddit insight, and more...

Media, industry, research and insight, social media and platforms, and tools

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.

Media

🌬️ DATA JOURNALISM: An air quality tracker has been launched by a Scottish newsroom to help readers understand pollution levels in their community. DC Thomson’s data journalism unit has taken from several sources to create an interactive map showing air quality levels. Spotted Alan Morrison.

📰 US PRINT FALLS: The US’s largest newspapers are mirroring UK counterparts, losing 30% of their print circulations over the past two years. The country’s top 25 newspapers now have a combined average weekday print run of 3.1 million, down from 4.4 million in late 2019. Spotted Andrew Bruce Smith.

Industry

📉 RETURN ON INVESTMENT: Marketers should develop agile, reactive response systems instead of focusing on return on investment at the end of a campaign. The speed of data, and feedback loops has increased faster than a company’s ability to keep up. Source Mark Stouse.

🛍️ AGENCY INCUBATOR: COVID-19 has led to a wave of energy and innovation in the agency market in response to workforce changes, shifting demands from clients, and new opportunities created by technology. One Accelerator is supporting new agency startups with capital and know-how. Source James Crawford.

🛢️ OIL GREENWASHING: A study found that BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil and Shell are not fully backing up their clean energy talk with action. Now the PR and advertising firms that have been creating the industry’s greenwashing strategies for decades face a moment of reckoning. Spotted Philippe Borremans, John Brown, and Sarah Waddington.

Research and insight

👨‍💼️ UK PRODUCTIVITY BOUNCE: In Q4 2021 output per hour worked was 2.3% above the 2019 average, prior to the #COVID19 pandemic. It’s the first time since before the pandemic in which output per worker was above pre-pandemic levels. Spotted Stephen Waddington.

⭐️ INFLUENCER AGENCIES: The influencer marketing industry is growing fast, professionalising at speed, and specialising. A new interactive report characterises the industry’s 550+ agencies in Europe and the US. Source Scott Guthrie.

📊 INTEGRATION TRENDS: The integration of marketing and public relations within an organisation is highly situational. A new report published by Vuelio explores areas of opportunity from account based marketing (ABM) and community management to campaigns and measurement. Source Stephen Waddington.

📱 SOCIAL MEDIA BENCHMARKS: Organic engagement on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter is falling, leading brands to post more frequently. Brands are struggling to keep up with enough video to compete with the popularity of TikTok and YouTube. These insights and more are from the Rival IQ Social Media Benchmarks. Spotted Stephen Waddington.

Social media and platforms

🗳 POLITICAL PERSUASION: We had high hopes for social media as a democratic tool in the 1990s. But social media isn't strengthening the engagement between politicians and the public. Instead algorithmic driven echo chambers, misinformation, and polarisation undermine democratic discourse. Source Stefan Rollnick. 

👫 METAMATES: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg promoted Nick Clegg to president of global affairs and announced a set of new values in a bid to lift morale. These include “live in the future” and “be direct and respect your colleagues.” He also told staff that they should refer to each other as Metamates. No really. Spotted Stuart Bruce and Andrew Bruce Smith.

Tools

❓ REDDIT INSIGHT: Reddit is a useful source of insight that unlike Google search isn't corrupted by ads, SEO-gaming, or an algorithm. However, the search function is rubbish. Users resort to using Google and adding “reddit” to the end of our queries. Spotted Kristian Hoareau Foged.