17 June 2024

Welcome to The Advisory Club: Weekly Update. For new subscribers (hey, thanks) this is a summary of posts and links from a WhatsApp community of 700+ communications / marketing people, organized loosely by topic into 20 or so separate live chats. Not scientific, but a useful glimpse into the collective mind of some switched-on people.

Typos happen.

New Chat: La Croisette

With so many participants gathering n the South of France this week and feeling compelled to post from the Cannes Lions festival, we've created our own croisette for related content. DM for a link to the live chat.

WPP and Elon Musk. This surprised us.

Peformative values. From Alex Wilson : "Terrific segment from Jon Stewart skewering the way brands and corporations "financially exploit" Pride, BLM and other social causes for their own benefit. Hopefully this year's Cannes Lions jurors will watch it before they give the top award to a burger wrapped in a Pride flag or whatever."

Meet up? Members of the community are using the ICCO / Little Black book venue as a rally point.

Olympic Torch. Passing through on Tuesday the 18th. Great photo op.

Award ROI. Do awards really matter?

The Cookout. Damon Jones is talking culture and creativity with Dr. Marcus Collins .

Artificial Intelligence

Dove Code. Dove's efforts to keep beauty real in the AI age, via Candace Kuss .

AI bias. More on AI bias ... Sonya Cullington MA MSc shared two outputs from a workshop she ran last week:

Jobs. David Armano on AI and jobs.

Mainstream generative AI. And more from David Armano : Apple Intelligence is a big deal.

End of work? From Gay Flashman , a piece by the chief of staff to the CEO of Anthropic.

Role playing. How to use AI to create scenarios for students, via Andrew Bruce Smith ... and Philippe Borremans has created one for crisis communicators.

Cognitive changes. Jenny Nicholson on how we shape the tools we us, only to have them shape us.

Politics & Policy

UK manifestos. Andrew Bruce Smith created a custom ChatGPT to compare and contrast manifestos from Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats in the UK general election.

Weasel words. What does "moderate" mean in an age of extreme politics?

EU elections. The other side of recent EU parliament elections: authoritarianism is not inevitable?

GOP loyalty. What does it mean, now that it's total?

Social politics. How Americans navigate social media in political discource.

Gen X. Forgotten voters in the UK election?

Old vs weird. Both of the presumed major party candidates for the US presidential election are old. But it only stick to one of them. Why?

Unscreened. A new Trump film most Americans probably won't see.

Education

B School Sustainability. Coincidentally I’ve been in touch with universities in the US, UK and Europe over past few weeks on topics similar to this - a great take from Alison Taylor on how business schools can incorporate sustainability into their curricula … I’d only add that this silo-busting approach can be expanded to include journalism/comms, natural sciences, economics, international relations, law, engineering etc.

Global Sustainability Institute. And in reference to above, I'm late to the party. Natalie T. J. Tindall connects us with the UT-Austin Global Sustainability Institute, run by Lucy Atkinson. Hook'em.

TOTC. And from Stephen Waddington: "An essay in Public Relations Review argues that large organisations should take a more strategic and thoughtful approach to their public relations engagement, specifically the amount of media and content they publish. Press releases, blogs, and social media posts are used as activity metrics rather than relationships."

Ukraine News & Information

Another new chat added this week ...

Re://Build. Tom Hashemi and I caught up yesterday and London and discussed among other things his creation of a web development agency, Rebuild.

BUILDING WEBSITES, REBUILDING HOMES.

Ukraine is rich in website development talent. We bring that talent – our team – to marketing, communications and design agencies in the UK and USA. We turn the designs your team creates into efficient, pixel perfect websites and digital products.

By working with us you are not only supporting Ukrainian jobs and increasing foreign currency going into the country, but we’ll also be using 20% of our profits to fund prefabricated homes for Ukrainians whose homes have been destroyed in the war.

Mixed bag. A colleague sent this to me yesterday: a look at the impact of sanctions, public pressure etc on corporate behavior re Russia.

Bio Comms (Health, Wellness and Science)

Loneliness. Still an issue, according the US Surgeon General.

And in the UK, Neil Flash links to some great work in support of Loneliness Awareness Week.

Creativity

Inspiration sources. Two collections of free, digitally accessible wells of encouragement:

• Smithsonian Open Access ...where you can download, share, and reuse millions of the Smithsonian’s images—right now, without asking. With new platforms and tools, you have easier access to more than 4.9 million 2D and 3D digital items from our collections—with many more to come. This includes images and data from across the Smithsonian’s 21 museums, nine research centers, libraries, archives, and the National Zoo.
• Harry Ransom Center Digital Collections ...an internationally renowned humanities research center at The University of Texas at Austin. Our extensive collections provide unique insight into the creative process of some of our finest writers and artists, deepening the understanding and appreciation of literature, photography, film, art, and the performing arts.

Mis/Disinformation

Pentagon papers. Apparently the US department of defense ran a secret anti-vax campaign to undermine China during the pandemic.

Fake news. No, Biden didn't "wander off." Thanks Traci Mulligan.

Pulling the plug. Stanford is dismantling large chunks of its Internet Observatory.

Power hold. A look at the guardians of AI from the LSE Festival, via Gearóid Carroll .

Capital Markets

TXSE. I thought this was interesting, a new stock exchange in Texas. From The Economist, via Anastasia Ivanova : an opportunity to avoid "woke stocks."

And a take from Julio Romo from conversations he has had with market-watchers:

There are 20+ exchanges in the US today. Most people don’t know that.

? If it was so easy and cheap why hasn’t it been done before? It’s been tried several times. All failures

? Listings is key. That’s why Long Term Stock Exchange and IEX both failed

? The key is listings for IPOs and marketing.

? Companies choose Nasdaq over NYSE because it’s a lot less expensive to list your stock. One annual fee, plus you get all the marketing of bell ceremonies, events, the Tower in Times Square

? Nasdaq has a secret weapon — the Nasdaq 100 index. Only if you list at Nasdaq can you be on that index and it is the most liquid index in the world. Companies benefit from millions of shares traded every day

? NYSE is more expensive but also offers access to the floor, it’s rich history, market makers on the floor to help your stock trade, and events all year.

? For TXSE to succeed it needs listings. The top 100 from Nasdaq won’t leave. It’s too risky to lose all of that trading in your stock

? They will likely get a handful of companies to list that have no trading volume. The anti-woke message doesn’t matter when it comes to trading volume, brand exposure, and more

? Also, companies love that all of the TV networks are at Nasdaq and NYSE. It’s another bonus that’s free. TV networks that cover NYC deliver exposure

? TXSE like all the other exchanges beige it has a similar message and song and dance. It’s needs to be taken seriously, but their road to success is going to be very, very difficult

? TSXE really needs to figure out listings fees, marketing for companies, how they will help with liquidity, and a host of other factors. Just being low price or antiwoke won’t make a difference.

Crisis, Risk and Resilience

Mental states. Philippe Borremans maps mental states during an emergency.

Luxury crisis simulator. As mentioned above, ChatGPT makes good training scenarios for crisis situations. Chris Reed has created one for a luxury hotel scenario.

Digital & Technology

Trump verdicts. A lesson in branding, from Scott Gallowway via Olaf Grewe .

BeReal and Voodoo. Acquired, the former by the latter.

In-House Discussion

Seat at the table. KornFerry report on the increasing importance of CCOs on the board.

State of the global workplace. Report from Gallup, via Rod Cartwright .

Inclusive culture. Latest podcast episode from Advita Patel , in conversation with Samantha Thomas-Berry .

The Library

Mixed Signals. Another podcast, recommended by me.

The Rebooting. Another newsletter, also recommended by me.

When The Dust Settles. A book by Lucy Easthope, recommended by Kate Hartley : "For anyone in crisis / risk / disaster management, I've just finished the brilliant 'When the Dust Settles' by Lucy Easthope after hearing her speak on the radio. It's really excellent read, and a great reminder about the importance of empathy and attention to detail in crisis management - and remembering the people who matter most, the victims and bereaved. Strong recommend."

Worldmaking After Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-Determination. A book by Adom Getachew, recommended by me, in my attempt understand how things got the way are in Gaza and other parts of the world.

The Skill Code. A book by Matt Beane, recommended by Andrew Bruce Smith : "Just begun reading this. Recommended by Prof Mollick. Only a few pages in, but liking what I see so far - highly relevant to PR and comms."

And a whole behavioral science summer reading list, from Shayoni Lynn FCIPR FPRCA .

General Discussion

And everything else ...

AI & corporate comms. Stephen Waddington previewed a paper published from Helsinki, The Use of AI in Corporate Communications and Public Relations: The Story So Far.

Mojo booster. A Follow-Of-The-Week from Nina Arnott Rogers : "For anyone job hunting, seeking a coach, or simply wanting to get their mojo back on track, I can recommend following coach / recruiter Vicki Marinker ACC on LinkedIn. A previous Comms pro, she has tons of experience and says exactly what she thinks in a refreshingly authentic way. Very knowledgeable and professional with a good sense of humour and sharp insights into our industry."

The British. Takes from a NY Times piece on why so many Brits are in prominent US news and media roles: scrappy journalism | relatively cheap | ethical flexibility | less elitist | the accent

Go bag. Never really considered what I’d put in a go-bag - a survival pack to grab and go in case of a major disaster - but I’d probably think conventionally - Swiss Army knife, some water purification tablets from a trip to Mozambique ten years ago, some gauze bandages?

Clearly watched too many Walking Dead seasons …the real need is probably documentary…

For the group, this wasn't hypothetical: from cyclones in New Zealand to escaping mobsters in Moscow, there were stories to share. So go pack your bag.

New Burson. Everyone's LinkedIn timeline is lighting up with Burson's introduction of new titles. Mostly happy posts, but we were reminded that not everyone is pleased with how agencies evolve in "late-stage capitalism."

Better together? News of a UK agency winding up sparked a lengthy discussion: can independents find ways to collaborate through this community?

Sligo #ConversationFest24. Padraig McKeon, FPRII, SCMP, Chart.PR (UK) and Andy Green FRSA are putting together a salon-style conference in Sligo, Ireland for early September.

Mental health. Jules Day on helping people open up about their mental health.

Project 2025. A look at a second Trump term. Is anyone clocking this, Stephen Waddington asks?

Shared production. Omnicom is pooling its production capabilities, for "best in class content production services." Adam Clyne notes the sole reference to artificial intelligence.

Meet-Ups

Ann-Marie Blake Rachel Miller Ludivine Delattre, MBA, ICF Coach caught up at the Festival of Work.

I spent an enjoyable evening with Rachael Marshall Darryl Sparey (Chart.PR, FPRCA, FCIPR) Anna Geffert Nicky Regazzoni and a lot of others at a reception for agency founders hosted by PR Moment in London.

Richard Bagnall, Hon FCIPR, FPRCA, FAMEC Jonny Bentwood and Andy West , probably discussing measurement and evaluation.

Merci!

If you'd like to jump into the live conversation, drop me a line for a link, and thanks as always to those who contribute each week.