✅ Monday briefing: Local radio stars, FT investigations, flawed process, final call Women in Marketing awards, local fracking lobby, market woe, kamikwasi.tax, charity activism, and more...
Media, industry, politics, social media and platforms, tools and events
This newsletter is crowdsourced each week from conversations in the House of Marketing & PR Community managed by Wadds Inc. It’s a hive mind, newsroom and source of information, help and support. You’d be welcome to join us.
Thank you to the speakers who joined WaddsCon last week to discuss data in public relations: Emma Thwaites, ODI; Rebecca Moss, JBH; Sophie Smith, North; and Amy Stone, Hard Numbers.
They shared examples of using public and owned data, tools, and case studies for b2b and b2c storytelling. You can catch the replay via YouTube.
Thanks to everyone who participated helping to raise £550 for the Bay Foodbank in Newcastle.
Media
📻 LOCAL RADIO STARS: Prime Minister Liz Truss was interviewed across local BBC radio stations last week. If she was expecting an easy ride she was badly mistaken. Stations puts their best journalists forward and recognising the one-off opportunity journalists were more direct than their Westminster counterparts. Spotted Steve Earl and Sharon O’Dea.
📰 FT INVESTIGATIONS: The Financial Times has appointed Madison Marriage as special investigations editor, leading a team of three reporters. Marriage joined the newspaper ten years ago and has delivered several award-winning investigations, including her 2018 exposé of the all-male fundraising dinner organised by the Presidents Club. Spotted Stephen Waddington.
Industry
👎 FLAWED PROCESS: A new research paper reports on that there is a flawed power dynamic in the agency pitch process that works in favour of the client. Agency leaders cited the human cost of pitching, the lack of transparency in the process and the lack of feedback, as the main issues. Source Liz Bridgen.
🏆 FINAL CALL AWARDS: This is the final call for the Women in Marketing awards which include The PR Communicator of the Year Award. The deadline is Wednesday, 6 October. Spotted Stephen Waddington.
Politics
💨 LOCAL FRACKING LOBBY: The Government is considering bypassing local councils to allow fracking companies to poll residents over drilling in exchange of investment. The proportion of people in a local area who would need to agree before drilling can take place is also being considered. Spotted Stuart Bruce.
📉 MARKET WOE: Poor communications and stakeholder error, not policy, have been blamed by 10 Downing Street and The Treasury for the collapse of Sterling. Unfortunately, communication doesn’t appear to be a feature of the solution to restore confidence in the markets. Spotted Paul Middleton and Nigel Sarbutts.
💷 KAMIKWASI.TAX: Activist group Led by Donkeys has produced a data visualisation of the mini budget. It shows the cost of the £45billion tax cuts compared to the cost of a new fire station (£3.5m), free school meals (£126m), funding national museums and public galleries (£283m), and the national budget for the ambulance service (£1.3bn). Spotted Sarah Waddington CBE.
🌿 ECO CHARITY ACTIVISM: The RSPB, the National Trust, the Wildlife Trusts, and Wildlife and Countryside link are encouraging supporters to lobby Conservative MPs over proposals that weaken environmental and wildlife protections. It is usual to see this level of coordinated activism by charities. Spotted David Edmundson-Bird and Sarah Waddington CBE.
Social media and platforms
⚠️ ONLINE SAFETY: A coroner concluded that 14-year-old Molly Russell died from an act of self-harm while suffering depression and the negative effects of online content. The inquest heard that Instagram and Pinterest used algorithms that resulted in the teenager's exposure to "binge periods" of self-harm and suicidal material. Spotted Stephen Waddington.
🎥 TWITTER VIDEO: The social media platform has added full screen video and horizontal video. Twitter says that the updates are aimed at improving engagement on the app. Spotted Alan Morrison.
📄 LINKED DOCUMENT AD: You can now pay to pay to put a document or deck into a newsfeed. Gated lead generation enables data gathering. LinkedIn recommends providing a preview of the content. Spotted Andrew Bruce Smith and Louise Gibson.
Tools
🖼️ AI IMAGE GENERATOR: DALL·E 2 is an AI system that creates images and art from a natural language description. It has removed its waitlist, giving anyone immediate access. Spotted Andrew Bruce Smith.
Events
📅 COMMSHERO WEEK: The annual virtual event takes place next week from 10 to 12 October. Session’s cover climate, crisis, the economy, sustainability, and more. Sarah Waddington CBE will be speaking about how to recession proof your business and I'm talking about how to increase your earning potential. Source Asif Choudry.