✅ Intuition to insight: The digital transformation of corporate communications
Corporate communications, public relations, media and management insight
The shift to data-led practices in corporate communications is transformative. It is also inevitable.
Our latest report for NewsWhip - Intuition versus Insight: Digital transformation and the corporate communications function - is a study of the digital transformation of corporate communications.
Unlike marketing or sales, corporate communications doesn’t have a standardised workflow to underpin digital transformation efforts. Practice, processes, and structure differ from organisation to organisation based on factors such as culture, industry, scale and stakeholders.
We’ve identified distinct approaches to digital transformation. The most radical is a complete digital transformation from a data perspective. More commonly, teams approach the issue task-by-task and tool-by-tool.
Whatever the perspective of an agency or in-house team there is an inevitability about digital transformation.
Digital has become the dominant form of media. Data and insights have shifted practice from intuition to insight, and AI has brought a new wave of innovation.
The benefits of digital transformation are numerous, driving improvements in effectiveness and efficiency. These include:
Supporting strategic communications and alignment with management
Improving management planning and decision-making
Enhancing risk mitigation and crisis response
Boosting creativity and content generation
Optimising resources and efficiency
The report outlines the steps for solving business problems with communications technology, emphasising that tool selection should be the endpoint of a review of business processes, not the starting point.
It also includes guidance on future-proofing the corporate communications function. The steps include assessment and planning, tool selection and implementation, capability development, process optimisation, and measurement and reporting.
Intuition versus Insight, along with our earlier studies for NewsWhip on the contribution of corporate communications to management and managing issues related to purpose and polarization, provides valuable insights for communications professionals navigating the digital landscape and looking to improve their practice and strategic value within organisations.
All three reports are based on interviews with corporate communications practitioners from large international companies and senior public relations agency practitioners.
Have an excellent week.
Management
🧠 LABOUR'S INTERNAL STRUGGLE: Sie Keir Starmer's Labour government faces a balancing act between its "working people" focus, progressive ideologies, and the pragmatic Treasury mindset. As Starmer's new chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, pushes for policies to improve working-class lives, tensions between fiscal prudence, social justice, and economic growth will shape Labour’s strategy ahead of the Budget. Source: Financial Times.
🇬🇧 MODEST GROWTH: UK GDP grew by 0.2% in August 2024, rebounding from zero in July. Key sectors including production (0.5%) and construction (0.4%) showed improvements. Services output also grew modestly by 0.1%, continuing its steady trend from the previous month. Source: Offices for National Statistics.
🛞 WHEEL OF LIFE: Sarah shared insight into our personal and professional lives last week on LinkedIn when she posted a sketch of the wheel of life. It's a tool to help you manage work and life and personal and professional activities. We use it as a diagnostic tool with clients and to check in on our relationships, family and professional lives, from time to time. Source: Sarah Waddington CBE.
Social media and platforms
🌐 GOOGLE BREAKUP: The US Department of Justice is pursuing a landmark antitrust case to break up Google’s search business, aiming to open the door for more competition and generative AI startups. Potential outcomes could include a restructuring of Google’s core services and significant shifts in the tech landscape, impacting advertisers, competitors and consumers. Source: Financial Times.
📱 MODERATION CHAOS: Meta’s automated moderation on Instagram and Threads leads to accounts being wrongly restricted or deleted, sparking user complaints. Despite Meta’s CEO Adam Mosseri acknowledging the issue, many continue to experience account removals for unclear reasons, raising concerns about the system’s effectiveness. Source The Verge.
🎥 YOUTUBE SHORTS UPDATE: YouTube has introduced new features for Shorts, allowing creators to remix more video elements and receive notifications when full songs are released. Additionally, users now have the option to reduce the number of Shorts in their Home feed, and YouTube Studio Mobile has added a landscape view for improved performance tracking. Source: YouTube.
👮♂️ X SCALE BACK: Several British police forces are reducing or reviewing their presence on X due to concerns over the platform's role in spreading disinformation and extremist content. As X reinstates banned extremist accounts under Elon Musk's management, police and other public services are reassessing the platform's alignment with their values and effectiveness in reaching the public. Source: Reuters.
Industry
🌍 PROMOTING REPRESENTATION: Representation at industry events and in the media remains challenging, but two inspiring activist initiatives are driving change. Advita Patel has launched an open list of diverse speakers through her Leader Like Me platform, promoting inclusivity at events. Katie Kelly has created Antiquoted.com to amplify under-represented voices in media.
✍️ JOBS IN PR COLUMN: I’ve launched a new monthly column on PRmoment about an experiment to uncover valuable data to support agency planning. The Jobs in PR project analyses monthly job listings from the UK's top 50 agencies as a leading economic indicator, revealing market trends and insights that standard industry reports miss. Source: PRmoment.
🚫 TECH HESITANCY: The 2024 Global CommTech Survey shows communication practitioners are hesitant about artificial intelligence (AI), focusing mainly on simple tasks such as content creation. Most lack AI policies and training, despite recognising it as a major opportunity. Source: Purposeful Relations.
Media
📰 REACH CONTENT PUSH: Reach has launched an initiative to boost story output across its regional websites in response to falling page views, driven by Facebook and Google algorithm changes. Reporters are expected to increase article production, with office-based journalists aiming for an average of eight stories per shift to help sustain digital traffic and fund the company's journalism. Source: Hold the Front Page.
⚖️ NEWS IMBALANCE: A YouGov survey reveals that half of Brits feel sports and US politics are over-covered in the news, while topics like science and lighthearted stories are underreported. Although most people think coverage of politics, crime, and the economy is adequate, there is a desire for more science and lighter news stories. Source: YouGov.
📺 GENDER IMBALANCE: A study from City St George’s reveals that men experts appear on flagship news programmes twice as often as women, though this marks an improvement from ten years ago. The research also shows a shift in health reporting, with patients increasingly recognised as experts, influencing policy and media narratives. Source: Expert Women Project.
Thank you to Julian Christopher, James Crawford, Kerry-Lynne Doyle, Matthew Dunn, Kristian Hoareau Foged, Michael Greer, Katie Kelly, Ben Lowndes, Alan Morrison, Advita Patel, Mandy Pearse, Andrew Bruce Smith, Laura Sutherland, Sarah Waddington CBE and everyone who shares and debates the stories in the newsletter via our Facebook community. You‘d be welcome to join us.