Ben Smith’s Post

It's Good & Bad PR time again, and it's no surprise that top of Andy Barr's good list this week is Keir Starmer and The Labour Party after a landslide win. "Whilst many talked about Labour’s “just keep quiet” approach I think it is doing their comms teams an injustice," says Andy. "They faced difficult times, especially at the start of the campaign and Diane Abbott emerging as a potential thorn in Keir's side. The party machine moved quickly and decisively (in political terms) to address and solve the issue. "They also learned their lessons from previous ill-judged campaign ideas. No gimmicks (stone manifesto), no awkward photo-shoots (eating never looks sexy on camera) and no walking near the sea when the tide is coming in (one for all my fellow old-PR-people right there). "I have not seen that kind of political-party-togetherness since the Osborne and Cameron era. It bodes well for the Labour party going forward." Read Andy's full review of the PR and comms side of Labour's election campaign here: https://lnkd.in/efdinHus

Are PR and AI a match made in heaven, or more like a Greek tragedy? Adopting change is a knotty task, and the ever-growing selection of AI tools on the market can make traversing the new tech landscape confusing. Not to mention, nobody likes change. Our recent PRmoment Masterclass demystified the idea of AI driven aids. It brought together some of the best, most forward-thinking minds in the sector to help people in PR know a little more about AI. You can’t avoid it, it’s going nowhere and it’s only going to become more prominent. So, what did our experts recommend? Luckily for you, our editor, Elizabeth Howlett, pulled together some of the best snapshots of the day in one helpful column on our website. Take a look here: https://lnkd.in/dbRapEpv 

How do you look back on 20 years in business? I recently chatted with Alec Samways, CEO and founder of Splendid Communications on the PRmoment podcast about this and many other things. Most interestingly, we chatted about Splendid’s pivot to becoming an aquiring agency. In recent years, Splendid has acquired Riot, Kingdom Collective and DIY. Why? Alec tells me: “We won 3 big pitches in one year and they all evaporated within one year. I said to my head of finance: ‘Is there a better way?’” “It was a reaction. It was about controlling growth.” Listen to Alec’s fascinating journey as an agency founder on the PRmoment podcast here: https://lnkd.in/dgiYEws2 

As the competition for the top talent in PR picks up again, the need to look after your people becomes not just moral responsibility but essential for business growth too. How far do you think PR has come on its journey to become a better employer? Answers on a postcard to Elizabeth, see below.

How do you ask a journalist for a correction? The hours of work and relationship building have finally paid off, and you've secured coverage for the client. But you can't share the good news just yet because there's an inaccuracy in the copy. Perhaps the company name, oDDcapITals, has been reverted to the publication's house style, there is a distinct lack of backlinks or the latest set of financial results are a few zeros shy of accurate. Either way, the client isn't going to be thrilled. An email has to be sent asking for a correction, but dealing with time-pressed journalists can be a delicate art, so we asked PR for their best practice on dealing with this very situation: 1. Don't forget your manners 2. Is it necessary? 3. Don't panic and don't bombard 4. Be courteous 5. Use sparingly 6. Utilise the [expletive] sandwich method Thanks to Guy Marturano, Nick Baines, Marley Lumbard, Jaya Jackson, James Swan and Tristan Van den berg for their thoughts on this. Read them in full in the comments.

Do you have a day in your career that really stands out? In our new “My PR Moment” series, we asked the brilliantly experienced Paul de Lara about his stand-out day over the last 25 years. As well as his current role at Oracle, Paul has also worked at Canon, Skype and HP, so it came as no surprise that Paul had an interesting story to tell... In 2012, the British CEO of Autonomy, which was acquired by HP in 2011 for $11bn, Mike Lynch was dismissed. The company also announced its quarterly earnings, alongside a major redundancy programme on the same day as Lynch’s departure. The morning afterwards, Paul de Lara was running the PR desk and clocked in at 7.30am with his phone ready to go. “A well-known British executive was leaving the company and it was about to make a significant reduction to its headcount on a global level, so it was quite big news,” says Paul. “The reason why this was quite an incredible day, and why I remember it so well, is that the first phone call of the day was from BBC Radio 4 Today and the last was from BBC News at 10. “So literally from 7:25am, I’m sat knowing the results had come out the night before, and my first call was from a researcher at BBC Radio 4 Today. I gave him a background comment and within five minutes the BBC had reported what I said as a spokesperson for HP.” Read Paul’s story in full here: https://lnkd.in/e9_7B-bP 

How did CIPR make a loss of £200k last year? Detailed in its 2023 annual report, the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) said that despite growing its revenue by 5.8% and net membership by 5.7%, it made a significant loss of £207,854. CIPR CEO, Alastair McCapra told PRmoment: “Our annual report showed one year of poor results in 2023 but we are solvent, within our established reserves policy, and trading strongly in 2024. We have just had a clean and unqualified audit report for 2023 and are performing better than the budget for 2024. The loss, according to the body, was an amalgamation of different things but mainly the decreased demand for training and less demand for the CIPR's regional awards program. Read the our editor, Elizabeth Howlett's full chat with Alastair here: https://lnkd.in/eKqjPSuS 

Love Wednesday Club. If you know, you know.

In a world that can sometimes be a bit rubbish, i love this story: "A nine-year-old chess prodigy is set to make history as the youngest person ever to represent England internationally in any sport. Bodhana Sivanandan, from Harrow, northwest London, has been selected for the team which will represent England at the Chess Olympiad in Budapest in September." https://lnkd.in/e7PcttH6

How often have you been ghosted after a PR pitch? For me, I think basic etiquette would be to thank somebody for their time, regardless of whether or not you’re going to go ahead with them. You’ve put in a considerable level of effort. Hours of client research, collaboration and brain power has been reduced to this one simple task. Then you get ghosted. The potential client never gets back to you, and it’s deleted from your pipeline after a few ignored emails. This has become a recurring theme, and it doesn’t seem to be changing any time soon. Elizabeth Howlett asked PR leaders about whether you should respond to being ignored, how best to do it, and if dabbling in the occult is actually the only way to get a reply. Their thoughts? – Check for signs of life – Dead it off – Ghost in the machine – Kill them with kindness – Please, put us out of our misery – Playing dead? Here's the bill Thanks to Ben Lowndes, Daisy Whitehouse, Rick Guttridge, Lottie West, Christopher Slevin and Nigel Sarbutts for their thoughts. Read them in full here: https://lnkd.in/edt-hfYB