This week in PR (16 February newsletter) - the reputation issue

There are 31 content links in this week’s roundup. From these, one theme emerges most strongly: reputation.

The PR Week podcast notes the formal entry of a law firm into the reputation management space occupied by agencies such as Brunswick.

‘Schillings Communications has officially launched with a core team of senior hires from top PR agencies. The digital side of things seems particularly strong; they see controlling your online presence as the future of reputation management.’

For a round-the-houses discussion of reputation: how to manage it, how to measure it, and who is responsible for it - I recommend the PRmoment podcast. ‘A reputational North Star is the one thing key stakeholders need to think, feel and believe about you for your organisation for it to succeed against its business plan. So defining that enables you to link comms to business’ argues Ellie Thompson.

Ellie Thompson and Danielle Restivo make reputation sound rational and manageable. But what’s the role of the frontline corporate communicator facing an attack on their organisation’s purpose and values? Should they roll with the punches for fear or provoking a greater reaction? Or should they stand their ground and fight fire with fire?

Simon Lewis and David Yelland have warm words in this week’s When It Hits The Fan podcast on BBC Sounds for Celia Richardson, Director of Communications at the National Trust.

Faced with an onslaught of negative culture wars headlines in the rightwing press attacking the National Trust for its supposed ‘woke’ agenda, she has been pushing back on X (formerly Twitter).

Let’s take the example of our racist countryside. How do we know this to be the case? Because charities like the National Trust have apparently said so - according to some parts of the media. Here’s her response:

‘The divisive ‘wildlife charities say the British countryside is racist’ story this week is one the Telegraph has been looking to tell for some time. They found a way via an umbrella group’s answers to direct All Party Group questions on Race and Community.’

Politically-biased journalists calling out charities for their political bias. Why shouldn’t she call out this hypocrisy?

The conventional approach to public relations or public affairs would be to avoid public conflict and any risk of causing offence. But culture wars narratives are forcing organisations to take a leaf from political communicators and to be more combative - even welcoming of the attention that only a public spat can bring.?

Plus the demand for authenticity requires us to speak human rather than speak corporate. That means emotion is welcome and humour helps.

In response to a lurid and tongue-twisting Sunday tabloid headline: ‘WOKE-ROW DEER PARK’S KINKY DOGGING SHAME’ alongside the explanation ‘SEX PEOPLE FLOCK TO POSH CHESHIRE SITE’ Celia Richardson calmly notes: ‘I’m off to posh Cheshire site Dunham Massey today. I hope this doesn’t make me a sex person.’

In the words of Simon Lewis on the When It Hits the Fan podcast on the BBC: ‘Good for Celia. She’s taken a risk, she’s caused a bit of a ripple but she’s doing her best for the National Trust.’

Many of us will feel glad we’re not in the culture wars crosshairs. But we are all necessarily engaged in information wars and the volume is only getting louder. So it’s as well to think this through in advance of coming under attack. Things are only going to get messier because of social media algorithms and generative AI.

By contrast, there are still some PR people desperately seeking attention. Because if you’re not yet known and don’t have a reputation to protect, you really want above all to be talked about. So how to stand out and earn attention amidst all this noise?

How about floating something down the Thames? This is the ‘somewhere over the rainbow’ publicist’s dream (see image above). Though long derided as one of the oldest stunts in the PR playbook, it appears there’s life in the old dog yet. Jessica Pardoe weighs up the arguments on both sides.

‘In terms of getting people talking – you can’t deny that this stuff works; but putting data to it is impossible. You have to have a client that’s willing to say ‘yes’ to things and who’s not crazy on numbers.’

But what if you have nothing to float down the Thames? What if the client does care about numbers? You could always invoke the Taylor Swift effect. Chris Carr and Jemma Nightingale document the singer’s effect on the until-recently masculine world of NFL.

‘When Travis Kelce caught a touchdown pass and helped the Chiefs narrowly win last year’s Super Bowl vs. the Eagles, he had 162k Instagram followers. Heading into the big event this year, he has 2.41m. 63% of his Instagram following is under the age of 25 and 54.1% are female – and likes on his account have grown from 187k at last year’s Super Bowl, to a whopping 13.2m today.’

Taylor Swift knows all about the culture wars and the dangers of being a political football. Let’s not forget, this is the year of elections.