28 October 2024

A few of the non-political things we discussed last week …in the run-up to the SCARIEST US ELECTION EVER.?

Press release: dead or alive. Eleanor Hawkins says it’s time to rethink them. Ray Kerrigan says not so fast.?

And Georg Schmitt : I found over the years that press release approval processes are often the first moment people come together to think about what they are actually wanting to say.

Pricing. Lots of views exchanged on the best way to charge for PR services. Nobody really likes time-based systems, but productizing a service is harder than it sounds, as are value-based approaches. I do think there’s something to be said for updating the language used to describe what’s being offered ( Ricki Unger talks about steps/sprints/stages with clear outcomes or deliverables) and, importantly, digging down into the real costs of delivery.

Paddington Bear. He was awarded a passport.?

Resumes/CVs. Also dead??

Immediate understanding. Scientists say some sentences can be understood in the blink of an eye.

57 sauce. I heard from a well-known US recruiter in comms that 57 is just a tad too old for candidates to get a second look. But Georgina Blizzard thinks with age comes wisdom. I agree.?

Asian Communications Network. Launch event scheduled for London, 19 November.?

Che Guevara. Jamie Klingler on the woman who "changed the rules, reversed the shame given women permission to reject shame" in the New European.

Pitch Forward. The U.K. agency trade association PRCA has issued a report pinpointing the pain for agencies in the new business pitch process. Stephen Waddington has a nice summary too on his LinkedIn page).

And from Nigel Sarbutts : “Things will only improve if the path to a better way to pitch is easy has no cost to the client. Usually good and easy can't co-exist but in this situation I think they can.”

Social crisis. The U.K.’s professional PR body CIPR has a new best practice guide on crisis communications and social media, featuring contributions from Advisory Club participants Rod Cartwright Shayoni Lynn FCIPR FPRCA and Philippe Borremans .

Just do it. From Rachel Miller : I’m noticing more of the “we don’t care if it was made with AI, just make things better/faster” type narrative. I’m not sure when this ad from Fiverr came out, but I’d not seen it before.

State of AI. Jesper Andersen shared Sequoia Capital’s AI report with a thoughtful but too-long-for-here summary - another reason to join the chat live if AI is your thing.

In the meantime from Andrew Bruce Smith : The conclusion is that there is a big future for “AI wrapper” apps - its just that so far they’ve been? very simplistic “toys” (unsurprising given the speed with which things have developed). But longer term, there will be opportunity to develop sector specific tools - will hinge on how much domain expertise can be encapsulated in them - and and the division of “pools of work” into what can be automated and what can’t.

Star struck. Chris Reed wrote a piece on celebrity crisis management in hotels. Went through a few of those in my younger years.?

Echo bunker. From Urban Dictionary: An echo bunker is an echo chamber so tightly sealed that no amount of the truth can seep in.?

Total recall. Why ad jingles work. Thanks Keren Darmon .?

Peer pressure. And shifting briefly into politics … didmyfriendvote.org - via Shayoni Lynn FCIPR FPRCA .

Endorsements. Like much of the world, we scratched our heads at the decisions by the Washington Post and LA Times to scrap presidential endorsements, even though their unpublished pro-Harris positions were immediately leaked. So what was the point? And do legacy newspaper endorsements matter much these days??

Pretty sure the next report will be almost all politics. Enjoy the respite while you can.