✅ Monday briefing: Wadds Inc. 2.0, planning tool for creative agencies, local democracy boost, govt blames comms, dodgy digital data, PR and management, Twitter deal, charger standard, and more...
Media, politics, industry, social media and platforms, tools, and events
Today is the first day of the second generation of Wadds Inc. We’re relaunching the professional advisory firm as a family business. Done well, it’s one of the original forms of regenerative business models.
In practice that means operating the business to support our family, working with people that inspire us where we can make a difference and investing in projects in our communities aligned to our values. It’s where I want to focus the remainder of my career.
Sarah Waddington CBE will join the business over the next six months and will build a portfolio of her own clients. She’s run her own agency for more than a decade and built the brand and proposition for Wadds Inc. She’s also proofread more than a million words on my blog and in my books.
As part of the launch we’ve published a strategic planning tool for creative agencies. The 35-page report covers more than 50 issues that you should be thinking about as you plan for the next 18-months and beyond.
We've used a PESTLE framework - a review of the Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental situation - and impact/certainty analysis to identify what we believe are issues and scenarios agency bosses and communication teams should be aware of.
We've also mapped the life cycle of agencies against an S-curve and proposed a series of strategic outcomes.
We’re excited to see the future full of opportunities that we can help organisations build.
You can catch us at CommsHero this week where we’re supporting as speakers and a sponsor. I’m also heading to the ICCO Summit to talk about research and practice. Alternatively, please hit reply if we can help you.
Media
💁 LOCAL DEMOCRACY BOOST: A new national website highlights public notices placed in regional newspapers in a boost for local democracy. The Public Notice Portal has been created by the News Media Association with the aid of £1m funding from Google. Spotted Alan Morrison.
⚖️ DAILY MAIL LEGAL ACTION: Doreen Lawrence, Elton John, Prince Harry and others launch legal action against the publisher of The Daily Mail. The group claims the alleged misuse of their private information, including an accusation relating to the placing of listening devices in private homes. Spotted Ben Lowndes.
Politics
😡 GOVT BLAMES COMMS: Penny Mordaunt, the House of Commons leader, speaking at the Conservative Party conference blamed public relations for the government’s woe. “We’ve learned that our policy is great but our comms is shit.” Spotted Stephen Waddington.
👎 ANTI GROWTH COALITION: Prime Minister Liz Truss took aim at the “anti growth coalition” during her speech at the Party Conference. It was an effort to frame the government against environmental activists, unions and podcasters who Truss said are talking Britain down. Spotted Susan Kinnear.
🚫 ENERGY CAMPAIGN BLOCKED: No 10 has blocked a £15m public information energy saving campaign amid claims that the Prime Minister is ideologically opposed. National Grid's Electricity System Operator (ESO) has warned that planned three-hour power blackouts could be imposed if gas supplies fall short of demand. Spotted Ben Lowndes.
Industry
📈 DODGY DIGITAL DATA: Public relations is getting better at avoiding vanity metrics but if you measure web traffic take another look at your data. It could be inflated by as much as 40% driven by bots and inflated analytics according to digital ad industry analysis. Spotted Andrew Bruce Smith.
👤 PR ON BOARDS: Analysis of the boards and management teams of the FTSE 100 by the CIPR finds corporate reputation management lacks the same attention as human resources. It says companies are playing reputational roulette and leaving themselves exposed at a time of unparalleled challenge. Source Jon Gerlis.
✅ PR AND MANAGEMENT: A new Vuelio survey explores the role of public relations in management. It will form the basis of a discussion paper for practitioners to be published later in the year. Source Stephen Waddington.
Social Media and Platforms
🥚 TWITTER DEAL: Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter is back on in a surprise U-turn. However Twitter says the Tesla founder is trying to enforce unfair terms and is continuing to seek redress in court. Spotted Stephen Waddington.
⌨️ EDIT TWEET ROLL OUT: Edit Tweet is now rolling out to Twitter Blue members in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The US will follow soon but no there’s no news on the UK or other European markets. Spotted Alan Morrison.
📤 TWITTER INTRODUCES NEW WAY TO SHARE Twitter is introducing a new way to share different types of visual content - videos, images, and GIFs - together in a single Tweet. It seems like a solution looking for a problem. Spotted Andrew Bruce Smith.
Tools
🖼️ DIVERSE IMAGE LIBRARY: A new photo library published by the Centre for Ageing Better features more than 200 photos of women aged over 50 in their workplaces. It responds to the lack of images of over 50s, and particularly older women, in print media, magazines, and advertising. Spotted Alan Morrison.
🔌 CHARGER STANDARD: Phones, tablets and cameras will have to use USB-C connectors by 2024 in a move mandated by the European Union. It’s the current standard charger on Android products and has been resisted by Apple which uses its own Lightning connector. Spotted Stephen Waddington.
Events
🎓 3THINKRS ACADEMY: An open source industry training effort for new entrants kicks off again on 17 October. It consists of 21 training modules from a diverse set of agency and in-house practitioners. Source Ruth Jones.
🔍 TIKTOK DISCOVERY: Instagram and TikTok are impacting Google’s dominance as part of the public conversation online. Hype Collective will discuss the fundamentals of optimising content for search on TikTok in a webinar on 19 October. Source Paul Stollery.
Disclosure: 3THINKRS, Hype Collective and Vuelio mentioned in this this week’s newsletter are Wadds Inc. clients.