✅ Monday Briefing #19: Sorrell on PR, Influencer slapdown, freelance gigs, Facebook ad block, searching for insight, news bias checker, social media boom and more
Industry news, media, tools, COVID-19 insight, practice, data and insight, and food bank fundraiser
Good morning. My name is Stephen Waddington. This is a weekly summary of news from my blogs and topics discussed in a community of practice that I run on Facebook. You’d be welcome to join us. My thanks to all the contributors.
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Industry news
🗡️ SORRELL ON PR: PR is performing strongly as part of the service mix within integrated agencies according to Sir Martin Sorrell. Instead of being down 5-10%, PR is down by 2-4% within IPG, Omnicom and WPP. PR leaders need to be more assertive in staking out their turf against ad-land counterparts, he said. Source: Maja Pawinska Sims.
🖼️ INFLUENCER SLAPDOWN: The ASA made its first TikTik ruling this week against influencer Emily Canham and GHD, a manufacturer of hair care products. It ruled that her TikTok post which included a website promo code should have been labelled as an ad. Spotted by: Laura Sutherland and Scott Guthrie.
Media and social media
⌨️ FREELANCE GIGS: Journalists are building DIY media businesses around their specialist content. Five journalists talk about building paid products using Patreon and Substack that provide a gateway to consulting and other work. Spotted by: Michelle Goodall.
🙅 FACEBOOK AD BLOCK: Several community members reported that their paid content has been repeatedly rejected by Facebook in the past months only to be reinstated after raising a ticket. Máire McGrath shared a message from Facebook acknowledging the issue. Keep a watching brief. Source: Aamir Abbasi, Vicky Robinson, Kate Hartley, Alan Mobinson and Máire McGrath.
Tools
🔎 SEARCHING FOR INSIGHT: Search listening is a way of understanding what people are saying about brands and markets and the questions that they are asking. It makes sense of the 3.5 billion search queries that people make each day and is a powerful form of marketing and PR insight. Source: Stephen Waddington.
🤳 PROFILE PIC MAKER: PFPMaker generates professional looking profile images from a headshot by applying filters, lenses and backgrounds. Alternatively you could hire a photographer to do a proper job. Spotted by: Stuart Bruce.
🗞️ NEWS BIAS CHECKER: Ground News is a chrome plugin that checks news bias. Whenever you read a news article it will show you who else is covering the same news story and compare how other sources from all across the political spectrum are reporting on it. Spotted by: Stuart Bruce.
😏 EMOJI FINDER: Sarah Evans recommended Emojipedia for finding emojis in her newsletter this week. Each platform has its own native tool but they are typically limited. EmojiFinder is my go to. Source: Sarah Evans.
COVID-19 insight
💁 COVID-19 COMMS: The CIPR and PRCA are seeking volunteers to work on a project to evaluate and share the experiences of communications professionals responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. The initiative aims to build a global repository of communications practice. Source: Rod Cartwright.
😷 COUGH BOT: An algorithm developed by MIT has correctly identified people with COVID-19 only by the sound of their coughs. It’s in R&D for now but in the future your voice assistant could diagnose illness. Spotted by: Stephen Waddington.
📊 COVID-19 DASHBOARD: An Open Data Institute team has launched an interactive COVID-19 dashboard for England covering five areas: covering find, test, trace, isolate and support. It calls out gaps in public data for isolating individuals. Spotted by Stephen Waddington.
Practice
❓ ETHICS QUESTION: How can Sainsbury’s, a purpose-led UK high street supermarket that has benefited from £230m business rates relief, justify a £231m dividend (7.3p per share)? The asymmetry is almost elegant. Spotted by: Stephen Waddington.
🎭 CAREER OVER: Reputation management lawyer Mark Stephens said the ruling against Johnny Depp over his wife beater libel claim was "immensely damaging." Depp subsequently resigned from the Fantastic Beasts franchise. Stephens said the only way he can find forgiveness is to admit his problems and get treatment. Spotted by: Stephen Waddington.
Data and reports
🗞️ HEADLINES FIRST: Press release headlines that include action verbs such as confirms, reveals and proves are most likely to be read according to Cision’s 2020 State of the Press Release report. It’s packed with insight about writing press releases that cut though. Spotted by: Alan Morrison.
💥 SOCIAL MEDIA BOOM: Digital media is booming as a result of the pandemic. But 1-in-3 don’t know why they invest in social media and 88% don’t measure its impact according to the Serious Social report by Immediate Future. The solution lies in planning and measurement. Source: Katy Howell.
Food bank fundraiser
🍝 If you find this weekly newsletter helpful please consider donating to my food bank fundraiser. £5 would be great, £10 would be fantastic, and £20 would be amazing. We’ve raised £7,875. I’m aiming to make it £10,000. Thank you.
