Challenges for today's comms directors: EACD Conference, Brussels

3.5 seconds. That's the average attention span of an audience on an image. How can they discern truth from fake in that time? A fascinating and powerful presentation this morning from Joumana El Zein Khoury of the World Press Photo Foundation at the European Association of Communication Directors (EACD) conference in Brussels.?

Following Joumana was Lewis Iwu, CEO of Purpose Union, covering the oft-discussed topic of purpose. Lewis’s advice was to the point, and practical: Purpose needs leaders who are ‘allies’ - organisations need a framework for your approach to purpose - who’s in the room when you make the decision on which agendas to get behind?

Lewis recommends that the teams involved in decision-making around purpose must be broad and inclusive themselves - ask yourself how do you bring in the people who disagree? “We haven’t done a good enough job of framing our approach to decision-making.? Listen to all in the organisation and give them an opportunity to share their views.” Staff might disagree with the decision, but it’s always more palatable for individuals if they can see a link between purpose and position.

Lewis says storytelling needs to move away from ‘piousness’ to ‘joy’. “Ensure people see that this is a great thing to embrace. We need to do a better job of talking to the sceptics and that’s a huge role of communications.”?

Future Generations, the future of work, new digital frontiers…

Chloe Combi - future generations

Writer and researcher Chloe Combi presented via Zoom (we heard that something exciting had happened that meant she couldn’t travel… but we never found out what that was!)

What is influencing the younger generations? Chloe pointed out that a rite of passage in the past was doing shocking things that would upset our parents and the Establishment - she maintains that influencers today (like Andrew Tait) are the replacement “counter culture” for Gen A and Gen Z age group. Followed to shock and concern.?

How can established brands and individuals respond??

“You have to flood the zone with good information, and good influencers,” says Chloe.

She added, “with Gen A there needs to be media literacy information. Now it’s hard to differentiate between what’s real and what’s fact.” How do we educate youth to help them manage this new world??

Plus it’s useful to note that TikTok is not GenA and Gen Z’s favourite social platform, it’s Snapchat. “What’s emerging is that as soon as mums and dads get onto a platform then kids leave it in droves.” She added that younger people are moving away from broadcast, narcissistic social media into ‘tribal social media’ like Discord.

“For brands, young people view brands as more favourable and more trustworthy than government and media. When you get brands doing it well, as they should, brands are more influential with young people than they’ve ever been.” The challenge is - how do you engage those young people? There’s a lot of competition for their attention. And brands don’t need just to get attention to their brand, they also have to manage it - and that’s a tricky hire wire act, but nonetheless a great opportunity.?

Exploring the Future of ESG: Emerging Trends and Opportunities

Josep Catlli from Sanofi told the audience that ESG has led to some companies simply ticking a box - he says that Sanofi took the opposite path, that is, the company was rethinking its strategy and used that as an opportunity to re-think its approach to sustainability.

Truus Huisman, the Chief comms officer from the IKEA Foundation added: “Trust goes beyond just transparency - it’s about showing what as a business you want to create as a legacy. What is it that you want to contribute to this planet. ESG is an enabler for that. It’s no longer a nice to do.”

Companies must ensure they integrate the entire approach into the business - CEOs must also act as Chief Sustainability officers - it’s integrated into the business. The role of the comms function is enabling that process to happen and understanding the heartbeat of comms - telling the story that provides credibility and demonstrates the company is making a positive difference.?

Martin Porter, Exec Chair, University of Cambridge Institute for sustainability leadership believes business should see themselves as agents for social change.?“There’s a risk that it [ESG] becomes a tick box compliance exercise and if it becomes that then you lose the purpose - the sustainability objective. It’s crucial to give it a sense of change, transformation - ESG must be matched alongside sustainability in a much wider sense.”

His concern is that companies silo the E, the S and the G, and the comms around those issues becomes too narrow and fails to deliver the linkages between those issues. Comms needs to enable and create those linkages to come through in ‘solutions’ rather than just disaggregating to provide solutions in single areas.?

Martin added that the comms function can help to? integrate internal and external perspectives and stakeholders and can be the ‘conscience’ in the organisation to centre the corporate strategy. Comms should reflect the integration of all of these issues into an organisation, he told the audience, “where it’s a bolt-on then the comms risk being superficial”.