CIPR Influence - Q2 2017

INFLUENCE Q2 2017 www.cipr.co.uk

INFLUENCE

FOR SWITCHED-ON PUBLIC RELATIONS PROFESSIONALS

Q2 2017 ISSUE 6

HOW TO MAKE A THOUGHT LEADER | LE PEN AND THE RESURGENT RIGHT | YUVAL HARARI ON THE FUTURE OF COMMS | BEWARE MERCILESS MEDIA

PARALYSED PR: THE BOTOX COMMS STORY

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LET’S TALK ABOUT EMOJI, BABY

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INFLUENCE CIPR 52–53 Russell Square, London WC1B 4HP Tel: +44 (0)20 7631 6900 Fax: +44 (0)20 7631 6944 Email: info@cipr.co.uk President Jason MacKenzie FCIPR Chief executive Alastair McCapra Deputy chief executive Phil Morgan Editor Rob Smith CIPR EDITORIAL BOARD Avril Lee MCIPR Bridget Aherne MCIPR Rob Brown FCIPR Rachael Clamp MCIPR Dr Jon White Chart.PR FCIPR Louisa Bartoszek MCIPR Valentina Kristensen MCIPR INFLUENCE Published on behalf of CIPR

by Think, Capital House, 25 Chapel Street, London NW1 5DH Tel: +44 (0)20 3771 7200 Email: influence@ thinkpublishing.co.uk THINK EDITORIAL TEAM Content director Matthew Rock Deputy editor Gabrielle Lane (gaby.lane@ thinkpublishing.co.uk) Group art director Darren Endicott Chief sub-editor Charles Kloet Group account director Ruth Lake Publishing director Ian McAuliffe ADVERTISING AND PARTNERSHIPS Mel Michael +44 (0)20 3771 7204 mel.michael@ thinkpublishing.co.uk

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WELCOME The human touch still matters

eing techreassurances” as to the content savvy media ads would appear beside. types, we Meanwhile, attempts to have all, no block controversial content doubt, taken have caused yet more full advantage controversy: the LGBT of the opportunity that social community reported that its media provides to engage with content was being blocked. our stakeholders in real time.

While swift action was taken But it’s clear that there’s an to reassure users that they element of risk in such online would not be censored in the conversations. Just look at the future, weaknesses in the recent turmoil in the ad world. system have been laid bare.

The placing of YouTube We hear more and more adverts beside hatemongers’ about what robots can do, and Algorithms have content has caused many to there’s no denying that the question the entire business Fourth Industrial Revolution proven blind to the model of online advertising. looks more impressive and values of clients Displaying your client’s logo terrifying by the day. and urging viewers to ‘Join us’ Algorithms play an as an ISIS video plays in the background seem important role in Google’s business model, yet a long way from effective brand management. here the tech has proven to be blind to the values The reputational consequences are clear or intentions of either the client or the content. and I’m sure many PRs have tweeted ‘smh’ at In contrast, PR is about relationships. the thought of having to deal with this unforeseen Understanding the layers of meaning that any problem – all the while reviewing where their interaction can have is a skill that algorithms own paid-for content appears. are yet to master. Whether it’s perfect timing, Several brands suspended contracts due adapting to social change or generating trust in to Google’s inability to “provide specific legitimate experts, PR professionals can rightly be proud of the skills they practise and the value they bring to organisations. Turn the page and you can see great examples of all this in action.

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We were pleased to welcome GQ editor Dylan Jones to a recent Influence Live event. Look out for more soon

ISSN 2397-4494

COVER ILLUSTRATION: SOPHIA HAINES

The views expressed in this magazine do not necessarily reflect those of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR).

All information is correct at the time of going to press. The inclusion of advertisements in this magazine does not constitute CIPR endorsement of the products and services concerned. © Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR). All rights reserved. Reproduction in part or in whole is prohibited without prior agreement of the CIPR. Please direct all requests to Think in the first instance.

ROB SMITH Editor, Influence

WHAT’S BEEN SAID ON TWITTER? Just settling down with the new issue of @CIPR_UK #Influence mag – I want to read everything immediately – where to start?! @lauramaywing

Perfect Thursday morning reading with a cuppa @CIPR_UK #Influence #PRPros @redbrickers

Very interesting & clever campaign outlined in #Influence but certainly raises ethical issues of building a stunt on a lie @CIPR_UK #PR @fieah39

Fascinating read from #Influence on nudge theory, Russian comms and a surf trip to North Korea @CIPR_UK @DanC00ps

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MAG IN A MINUTE 7 INFLUENCE / Q2 2017 / issue six / cipr.co.uk

CONTRIBUTORS PROFESSOR YUVAL HARARI P44

The historian, scary guy and author of Homo Deus shares his thoughts on the future of mankind, and the implications for how individuals and organisations communicate

ADAM GRANT

ZOE BRENNAN

ALAIN DE BOTTON

P40

P7

P51

The awardwinning author of Originals on why you must highlight your flaws

Warn clients who are meeting a tricky interviewer to beware that ‘one last question’

Lower your expectations and you’ll feel more satisfied at work and in life

BE AFRAID Grant client access to acerbic interviewers: some of the prickliest media outlets ask difficult questions but have credibility and audience reach

YUVAL HARARI

In the 21st century, censorship works by flooding people with irrelevant information, or misinformation.

And power means knowing what to ignore. The rich and powerful, above all else, have the ability to focus PAGE 44

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THE INDEX The 2017 CIPR State of the Profession survey of 1,578 PRs suggests the average pay gap between men and women in the industry is £5,784. The difference is largest in agencies

TELL US WHAT YOU THINK

Go on, tweet us – we get a thrill when you do.

Tell us what you think of Influence at: @CIPR_UK influence@thinkpublishing.co.uk info@cipr.co.uk

CIPR PARTNERS

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INSIDE STORY A great thought-leadership strategy needs a recurring media topic, new stats and a vibrant spokesperson – as well as a willingness to admit when the data is wrong

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TIMING IS EVERYTHING Aerospace campaigns are measured in lifetimes; healthcare launches need years; book publicity lasts months; and political rebuttals take seconds

WHY YOU SHOULD BE POSITIVE ABOUT PESSIMISM In the workplace, we’d all feel much more satisfied if mediocrity and relative failure were assumed to be the norm

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THE BOTOX COMMS STORY Exclusive: how Allergan International has worked within strict pharmaceutical comms guidelines to build the reputation of its $2.8bn drug, Botox

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THE RISE OF THE RIGHT The surge in right-wing populism across the world owes much to simple, repetitive messaging and addictive Twitter feeds. Le Pen, Wilders and Trump have a lot in common

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COVER STORY THE POWER OF EMOJI In 2016, smartphone users sent six million emojis in text messages every day. Emojis let people enhance a message with the tone, gesture and expression of face-to-face interaction.

So it makes sense that businesses want to communicate using the same methods that people do. Durex attempted to get its own condom emoji added to the dictionary, leading to record-breaking PR impact

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EMBRACE YOUR FLAWS In Originals: How NonConformists Move the World, Adam Grant says the best way to disarm an audience and get what you want is to highlight the flaws in your pitch

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PR LIKE AN EGYPTIAN Years of political and economic upheaval have presented communications directors in Egypt with big challenges. Here’s the inside story from consultant Lamia Kamel of CC Plus

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DO IT BETTER + New rules on lobbying Scots + How challenger brands win + How to get more budget + Stop procrastinating (now) + And much more

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THE BACK STORY What will PR look like in 2025?

The new generation of young communications professionals know how important it is to be enterprising – like Christopher Columbus

FYI

INFLUENCE MAGAZINE WINS NATIONAL AWARD Influence was crowned Best Association Magazine at the Association Excellence Awards 2017. Pat our back: @CIPR_UK #Influence

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T H E S E C R E T T O B U I L D I N G R E P U TAT I O N ?

WEAR YOUR PANTS ON THE OUTSIDE

PANTS is our way of saying ‘People Are Now The Story’. Whether that’s employees telling their story or simply sharing content, we know that people can be much more effective in influencing audiences and building reputation. So, come on, it’s time to put on those PANTS. To find out more about creating compelling employee stories and developing an employee advocacy programme, contact Henry@106comms.com or call on 020 35449121

106comms.com

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@106comms

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BE AFRAID

The most poisonous pens write for media outlets with credibility and reach. So grant them access to your clients but be on your guard. And beware that ‘one last question’

BY ZOE BRENNAN. ILLUSTRATIONS BY WAYNE MILLS INFLUENCE.CIPR.CO.UK Q2 2017 7

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PRICKLY MEDIA BEAFRAID e’s been likened to “a fairground prizefighter taking on an amateur”.

Indeed, John Humphrys has claimed many scalps in his 30 years on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

Most famously, the acerbic interviewer took on his own boss. George Entwistle resigned as BBC director-general just 12 hours after a gruelling encounter with Humphrys in 2012, described as the “dead man walking interview” by The Guardian. Entwistle had revealed his ignorance about a Newsnight report that wrongly implicated a Tory peer in allegations of sexual abuse.

Humphrys later said: “Once you start an interview like that, the years of doing it take over and you don’t think: ‘That is my boss.’ You just do your job. Then, when it’s over, you think: ‘Oh my God.’” But, perhaps most cuttingly of all, Humphrys grilled former chancellor George Osborne last year, after he missed two of his three key economic targets, finally asking: “What’s a bloke got to do in your job to get the sack?”

An interview with Humphrys can make or break a career. He is not alone.

Certain journalists and outlets have a Rottweiler-like reputation for aggressive questioning, dogged persistence and brutal character assassinations.

Political journalist Michael Crick, say, is notoriously direct. And then there is Jeremy Paxman, grand master of tenacious interrogation. His infamous style is perfectly exemplified by an interview with shadow home secretary Michael Howard in 1997 in which he asked the same question – “Did you threaten to overrule him?” – 12 times.

More recently, in 2012, he pilloried then junior Treasury minister Chloe Smith in a cringeworthy exchange: “You can’t even tell me when you were told what the change in policy was… You were told sometime today, clearly.

Was it before lunch or after lunch?”

There are examples of prickly media in many sectors. The mere thought of The Sunday Times’ Style magazine apparently strikes terror into the heart of beauty PRs, wary that their products will be trashed with a few strokes of the keyboard. And the arrival of the critic AA Gill at a restaurant struck

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If you are on the ropes, repeat your core message – two can play Paxman’s game fear into the heart of every chef and their well-meaning comms team…

So should a PR professional ever encourage a client to engage with a killer hack, or should they be advised to run for the hills? Without a doubt, the answer is: yes, take the opportunity. Be brave. Be scared. But, above all, be prepared. For, despite the fear factor, these interviewers and outlets can actually have greater credibility than ‘softer’ alternatives.

Such is their reach and clout that they often present a wonderful opportunity to showcase a client’s integrity.

As a comms professional, your role is to present your client and tell their story to their best advantage. An important point, however, is that the client must be able to be truly transparent and must tell the truth. A good journalist can sense an area of unease, and will chisel away at it.

Having worked as a political journalist at several national newspapers, and written features at The Daily Mail for a decade, I learned the art of aggressive journalism from the best in the business.

Given some thorough research, a little artful warm-up, and a sudden bombardment of difficult questions,

interspersed with some long, intimidating silences, even the most resilient interview subjects eventually crack. A comms adviser can ask for copy approval in exchange for access, but these are tricky waters to navigate successfully with harder-nosed journalists or publications.

Beware the journalist who promises to deliver on this. ‘Copy approval’ suddenly becomes ‘quote approval’, with the article taking on a snide slant. I have often seen such agreements simply ‘forgotten’ before the piece goes to press. One hard-hitting ex-Sunday Times journalist tells me: “This is the mark of a naive or inexperienced PR. I would never in a million years give copy approval. Some magazines do it, but the question just flags up to me that the PR has had little contact with big-league journalism.”

Likewise, be wary of ‘off the record’ conversations. The journalist’s job is to publish your client’s secrets – take this road and you are a sheep doing deals with a wolf.

So how do you prepare a client for a difficult interview? This is where canny media training comes in. Those who ‘win’ at this game are ultra-prepared and on top of their subject.

Critically, they are not defensive.

They acknowledge difficult areas or failings, and then move on to deliver their message calmly, confidently and clearly. If you are on the ropes, come back to your core message and repeat it – two can play the Paxman game.

The less defensive you are, the harder it is for an aggressive interviewer to find their mark, because this journalism is all about conflict – which, of course, makes for interesting viewing or reading.

Focus on facts. Practise reeling these out in response to difficult questions.

And a final piece of advice: it is often the last question that catches people out.

I’ve lost count of my ‘Oh, one last thing’ triumphs at the end of interviews. The tape recorder is still on, and the camera still rolling. If you’re in the boxing ring, keep your guard up till the end.

Zoe Brennan is a partner at Portland Communications. During her 20 years in journalism, she was Westminster correspondent at The Sunday Times, and senior features writer at The Daily Mail INFLUENCE.CIPR.CO.UK Q2 2017 9

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THE INDEX

THE STATE YOU’RE IN LESS PAY? MORE STRATEGISING? HERE’S A SUMMARY OF THE FINDINGS FROM CIPR’S 2017 STATE OF THE PROFESSION SURVEY OF 1,578 PUBLIC RELATIONS PRACTITIONERS WITH COMMENTARY FROM AVRIL LEE, MD OF CONSUMER UK, AND HEALTH UK AND EMEA, AT MSL GROUP; AND BRIDGET AHERNE, HEAD OF COMMUNICATIONS AT GREATER MANCHESTER COMBINED AUTHORITY

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THE PR WORKFORCE

THE GENDER PAY GAP While public relations attracts a large number of women, this year saw a mean salary difference between men and women of £12,316. Following a regression analysis that discounted external factors that influence pay, the true gender pay gap was revealed as £5,784. The most notable discrepancy in gender pay lies in agencies.

Mean salary

MALE: 39% FEMALE: 61%

MALE

£58,115

FEMALE

£45,799

True gender pay gap

Mean salary across the PR industry by gender SALARY (,000)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

MALE £58,115 PAY GAP: £12,316 (*BEFORE REGRESSION ANALYSIS)

MEAN SALARY FEMALE £45,799 MALE £65,623

IN-HOUSE PRIVATE IN-HOUSE PUBLIC IN-HOUSE NGO AGENCY

PAY GAP: £11,848* FEMALE £53,775

MALE £47,345 PAY GAP: £6,378*

FEMALE £40,967

MALE £46,758 PAY GAP: £2,317*

FEMALE £44,441

MALE £69,745 PAY GAP: £24,265*

FEMALE £45,480

It’s disappointing that the pay gap hasn’t altered in the last year, despite the significant work that CIPR and other groups have done to raise the profile of, and address, this issue BRIDGET AHERNE

FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT CIPR.CO.UK/GENDERPAY 10 Q2 2017 INFLUENCE.CIPR.CO.UK

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STATE OF THE PROFESSION

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WE’RE LACKING IN DIVERSITY

IN-HOUSE BUDGET CUTS Over the past 12 months, has your PR budget increased, decreased or stayed the same?

Almost a third of in-house professionals reported budget cuts. The biggest spend in-house was on media relations (17% of budget), events (14%), and consumer and public campaigns (13%). A further 15% of respondents said client fees for agencies and independent practitioners also fell in the past year.

Increased – 18%

What impact will Brexit have on the UK and is your organisation implementing new strategies?

INNER RING: STRATEGIES ■ Yes ■ No ■ Don’t know

OUTER RING: IMPACT ■ Very positive ■ Slightly positive ■ Neither positive nor negative ■ Slightly negative ■ Very negative ■ Don’t know

DON’T KNOW – 21%

This year has seen a significant spike in the number of practitioners who believe in the benefits of diversity, but ethnic diversity across the workforce remains limited. “We’re missing out on talent and new thinking every day. Unfortunately, the survey didn’t assess people’s social background but I think many would say we’re failing on that front too,” says Lee.

“We’re right to brace ourselves for Brexit. We wouldn’t be good strategic communicators if we weren’t preparing for risks and thinking about strategies to cope with the worst-case scenarios,” says Aherne.

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THE ROLE OF THE COMMS PROFESSIONAL How do you spend your time?

NO. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

TASK/COMPETENCY Content creation Media relations Strategic planning Digital and social media management Content curation Crisis and reputation management Business planning & objective setting Measurement and evaluation Influencer relations Internal communications

MOST OR SOME TIME – 2017 82% 73% 69% 66% 63% 59% 58% 56% 52% 50%

MOST OR SOME TIME – 2016 81% 72% 59% 63% 62% 55% 54% 55% 49% 53%

DIFFERENCE 1% 1% 10% 3% 1% 4% 4% 1% 3% -3%

And we’re on board with video…

Photo/video creation & editing

35%

Not sure – 11%

BRACE FOR BREXIT

Are PR campaigns by ethnically diverse teams more effective?

DISAGREE – 20%

Stayed the same – 40%

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WHITE 90% MIXED 3% Ethnicity in PR ASIAN 2% BLACK 2% OTHER 1% PREFER NOT TO SAY 2%

AGREE – 59%

Decreased – 32%

28%

7%

This year saw a 10% jump in respondents who are spending time on strategic planning, and a 7% rise in those spending time on photo and video creation. “Clients want more strategic counsel, but our challenge is being able to charge for senior time as part of ongoing campaigns.

Procurement like to put a red line through senior hours to cut budgets,” says Lee.

INFLUENCE.CIPR.CO.UK Q2 2017 11

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19/04/2017 15:27

INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS AND THE BOARD

INSIDESTORY Speaking knowledgeably about a US Federal Reserve decision turned Jeremy Cook into a much-sought-after economics pundit

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GETTY IMAGES

The experts’ guide to experts

Some people might think they’ve had enough of ‘experts’ and ‘thought leaders’, but they haven’t met yours yet…

BY GABRIELLE LANE

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INSIDE STORY n September 2010, economist Jeremy Cook appeared on BBC News 24 to discuss the US Federal Reserve’s decision to maintain its existing interest rates in spite of the country’s flagging economy.

The US central bank’s inaction had surprised analysts and, in the wake of the global recession, the two-and-a-half-minute slot at 8.40pm in the evening was bread-and-butter business news.

Cook spoke knowledgeably about the effects on international markets.

He acknowledged the disappointment of financial institutions and predicted a future injection of funds into the economy through quantitative easing.

His appearance went well. In the following months he was asked back to comment on everything from the rise in the price of gold to Greece’s national debt. “From that first live appearance, the next month I had two, and 12 months later I was doing two a week,” he says.

Namechecked as chief economist for disruptive online currency exchange World First, Cook’s willingness to “stand on a cold rooftop and talk about sterling” has underpinned the firm’s communications strategy.

“In a sector that has been dominated by banks, we are trying to position

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World First as a viable alternative.

As a small or medium-sized business, providing expert commentary allows you to expand the image and reach of your company, and makes you look like a bigger player than you actually are,” he explains.

At the time of those first BBC appearances, World First had 180 employees; it now has an international team of 600. While the business’s growth is not solely down to Cook’s energetic public profile, up to 60% of his time is now spent on media engagement. He says: “It has let press and clients know that we are available and helped to gain their trust.” Across large companies and small, publicsector and private, communications professionals will long for their own in-house ‘thought leader’ to enjoy a profile as pronounced as Cook’s.

Want to harness the power of your own experts? Here’s how to do it.

As a small business, providing expert commentary allows you to expand the image and reach of your company The Office for National Statistics is well versed in communicating interestingly and authoritatively

CHOOSE YOUR TOPIC WISELY The subject that an organisation engages with and speaks out about should align with its business objectives: it should be an issue that the organisation’s goods or services can help solve. “Internally you need to assess where your expertise lies and who you want to talk to, and externally you should look at what other people – including your competitors – are saying, and identify the white space,” says Jon Bennett, director at Linstock Communications.

The agency has helped Grant Thornton cement its reputation as a global advisory firm that helps businesses harness talent and skills.

One way Linstock helps is by promoting Grant Thornton’s insights on gender equality in the workplace. Each year attention is turned to a different aspect of professional equality, such as the challenges facing women in FTSE-listed companies, or which country has the most women in senior leadership roles.

“It works because it’s answering questions that a lot of Grant Thornton’s potential clients are grappling with,” explains Bennett. Importantly, each topic also has longevity. “If the debate

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Grant Thornton has established a reputation as an expert on gender equality in the workplace, tracking trends in female leadership roles around the world. (See illustrations, left, from its 2015 Women in Business report, which generated 600 articles globally, and, right, its 2009 survey on women in the boardroom.) Linstock Communications has been instrumental in promoting the global advisory firm’s expertise in the ever-topical issue of equality

and discussion around a topic constantly move on, you can continue to be talked about. The media comes back to Grant Thornton to ask its view on new equality issues because of the expert position it has been able to set up.” Dealing with a similar topic, the Chartered Management Institute gets regular coverage through its updated gender salary survey.

DO YOUR RESEARCH One way to communicate your expertise is to offer analysis of a particular story to the media. However, to gain real traction, you should consider adopting a thought-leadership approach. “The real expert is an individual or organisation that can provide new insight from its own evidence that changes the tone or direction of a debate – that’s thought leadership,” says Bennett.

That means being prepared to dig deep into your own data or commission new research to create a compelling argument. “A time-honoured and successful media technique is the publication of an annual survey by X or Y. It allows you to repeat methodology and comment on how things have

changed over time so that you can remain relevant to what is going on in current affairs and policy,” he explains.

Grant Thornton’s expertise is packaged as an annual Women in Business report. In 2015, it surveyed businesses in 40 economies about issues such as support for boardroom quotas, and unveiled its findings on International Women’s Day (8 March).

The findings – distilled into blogs, social media posts and graphics – were then easy to use for stakeholder and media engagement in different regions.

The report fuelled 600 articles globally. Four features in The Financial

The real expert is an individual or organisation that can provide new insight from its own evidence that changes the tone or direction of a debate

Times’ Women in Business supplement used the firm’s research and commentary, including the front page and main infographic. To date, there have been more than 22,000 views of the report on the Grant Thornton website, 12,000 LinkedIn impressions and 500 retweets.

If you want to follow a similar approach in your own organisation, you should reckon on a three- to six-month timescale to get all the research and amplification components in place.

GET BUY-IN FROM THE BOARD Thought leadership should bring together ideas from across your business. “The most successful organisations I’ve seen have a centralised thought-leadership strategy – some have a committee where people represent each business area,” says US headhunter Sara Noble, who has sourced in-house thought leaders for many professional services and strategy firms, such as McKinsey.

The individuals that Noble has handpicked are tasked with assimilating this expertise and generating content.

To do so, they need to ask challenging INFLUENCE.CIPR.CO.UK Q2 2017 15

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INSIDE STORY

Couch your expertise in terms that people want to hear about. For example, explain that, if sterling is up 1%, we expect that to affect the price of petrol – and cheese!

GETTY IMAGES

questions of senior figures. The thought leader should have subject knowledge, and good writing and editing skills, in order to drive content that addresses issues in the marketplace.

“The best candidates are ‘straddlers’.

They know how to be a good storyteller, but they also know how to target the content. They may have worked in journalism first, and then a corporate environment,” explains Noble.

DEFINE A MESSAGE Hard graft done, it’s time to distil your expertise into useful sound bites for the market. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes official statistics related to aspects of the UK economy and society on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis. When new material is published, well-oiled public relations processes kick into action.

“We have a communications responsibility to help the wider public, and stakeholders with an interest in those areas, to understand the statistics and the world around them,” says the ONS’s head of comms, Chris Lines.

First, the key points and any notable movements in data are identified in partnership with the organisation’s statisticians. “Once we’ve highlighted that, we ask: ‘If a journalist wanted a top-line quotation that summarises what a statistic says, what would it be?’

We include that quote in the press release,” he says.

Then, care is taken to avoid overstating the findings. “As an independent public-service organisation, trust is our number-one currency. The challenge

for us is to report on the picture as it stands, or has been, without fear or favour. Often people will want to speculate about the future, but that’s not territory we will go into.”

In the wake of the EU referendum, any numbers related to the British economy face intense media scrutiny.

When the ONS published first-quarter GDP figures that assessed economic growth after the result, “to boil those numbers down into a phrase that helped people tell the story was a hard task”, says Lines.

Seeking a straightforward narrative, the team opted for “the economy has not fallen at the first hurdle”. “That phrase was widely reported. It was politically neutral, impartial but authoritative,” he explains, pointing

out that the collaboration between statisticians and communicators is “crucial”.

STAY IMPARTIAL For most organisations, it’s important to be seen as politically neutral, especially after the Brexit vote – but newsworthy issues frequently overlap with political party concerns. The key thing is to flag the danger with others working on the communication and make sure your messaging reflects events, without suggesting what a government policy could be.

The need to remain impartial could affect the commentary opportunities you take up too. “If you’re looking to create more of an image in the media, you can’t afford to be too picky,” says

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As well as appearing in the press, these spokespeople should also be at the forefront of your social media strategy. The ONS promotes its statisticians’ Twitter handles in the run-up to the release of its publications, while Cook personally mans the World First Twitter account.

The effect is to position an organisation as an active player in any debate and enable comms to stimulate business development.

“If you are constantly listening and engaging, you cultivate a corporate image as someone who is personable and open to talking – not just a robot at the end of a keyboard,” says Cook.

Strategy consultancy Populus got the outcome of the EU referendum wrong – but admitting so limited the damage

World First’s Cook. “But, if your company wants to take a politically neutral tone, [a spokesperson could] appear on BBC News about day-to-day events; if it’s for a report linked to a statement by an MP, such as Theresa May, you might want to pull them back from that.”

CHOOSE A SPOKESPERSON To make sure you stay on message, pick a spokesperson who is close to your story, rather than the most senior person in your organisation.

At the ONS, the statistician who leads on a particular topic becomes the spokesperson for it: “They will be able to explain any points that arise clearly and help journalists understand them,” says Lines.

Reflecting on an error can still be a good opportunity to expose serious thinking and the intelligent, inquiring people who work for you STRIKE THE RIGHT TONE No-one wants to listen to a bore, so encourage your people to let their personality shine through. “Experts can often barricade their message in jargon that doesn’t appeal to the average person on the street,” says Cook, who was challenged during his first BBC appearance to answer the question: “Why should the people at home care?”

“You must couch your expertise in terms that people want to hear about,” he says. “For example, explain that, if sterling is up 1%, we expect that to affect the price of petrol – and cheese!”

This makes advice unique, easy to understand and, therefore, sought-after.

“If I can continue to make what is going on in the economy ‘real’, and not just echo the noises coming from

Westminster, or the noises coming from the City, I would anticipate a high level of media engagement continuing.

If you can get your opinion across in a well-articulated manner, people will want to ask you about what is going on,” says Cook.

BUT BE PREPARED TO FAIL Publishing insight or commentary carries reputational risk. Just ask the organisations that base their business on making forecasts. When strategy consultancy Populus incorrectly predicted that 55% of voters in the 2016 UK referendum would opt to remain in the European Union, the outcome was nothing short of “embarrassing”, says its chief executive, Michael Simmonds.

Therefore, his advice for those who want to incorporate expert commentary or thought leadership into their communications plan is to opt for transparency at all times. “If you’re a company that chooses to give advice to people based on data, you need to be clear when you make mistakes. If you pretend that your figures are right when any sort of common sense could detect that they aren’t, people aren’t going to trust you or regard you as an expert.”

When the referendum result was announced, Populus promptly issued a 1,100-word statement on its website, in which it admitted that its prediction was “wrong” no fewer than five times.

It boldly conceded that, compared to competitors, the poll was “furthest from the result” and “more wrong still”, while detailing the erroneous survey methodology.

Counterintuitively, this honesty can fuel client engagement and boost reputation. For Populus, “clients have taken the view that it’s interesting; we’ve had a number of discussions about the reasons why we think the prediction poll was wrong”, says Simmonds.

The message to the wider market?

Give expert commentary a go.

“Reflecting on an error that has been made can still be a good opportunity to expose serious thinking and the intelligent, inquiring people who work for your organisation,” he says.

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A BRIEF

HISTORY OF TIMING

Lessons in scheduling from aerospace, pharma, publishing and politics

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PRECISION SCHEDULING 1

instruct our teams about the importance of national newspapers’ daily news cycles. We weigh up the trade-off between a splash during the summer ‘silly season’ and reduced coverage later in the year. And we constantly discuss whether you should pre-empt bad news by releasing it earlier than a journalist can.

But execution is like the final coat of paint on a wall: it’s important, but it’s only as effective as the preparation behind it. And the pace and scope of campaign planning differ dramatically from sector to sector. Each has its own critical path, and its own hurdles, pitfalls and stumbling blocks.

In aerospace, the product life cycle is measured in generations. In healthcare, comms around the launch of a major new drug take shape over years – and regulatory hurdles can make it impossible to predict exactly when launch day will be. In magazine publishing, the big deadline is often monthly. But book publishers have to publicise their product long before the product has actually been written (if, indeed, it ever is – here’s looking at you, Milo Yiannopoulos). Then again, when it comes to the ‘fast twitch’ world of political rapid rebuttal, messages may be put out in seconds, although their planning and preparation may have taken months.

So synchronise your watches as we take a closer look at comms schedules in four very different sectors.

PLANES: LIFELONG PR

Most PR activity is measured in seasons and news cycles. Campaigns for aircraft are measured in lifetimes – a timescale that few businesses can conceive of, let alone plan for, says Jeremy Greaves, Airbus UK’s vice president for corporate affairs and strategy.

“Aircraft manufacturers would normally start strategic positioning and profile activities at the projectdefinition stage,” he says. “To bring an aircraft to market can take a further 15 years. Once in service, the production line can be open for approximately 30 years. Each individual aircraft can then be in service for around 30 years.”

This means aviation firms are operating within a product life cycle of about 75 years. Communications are central to commercial success throughout, says Greaves: “A typical aircraft programme can cost anywhere between £3bn and £15bn to develop.

So it’s vital to create the right launch conditions, profile and reputation.

“As with any other product, you’re creating a brand and a demand. But these are hugely iconic products that must represent the economic, industrial and technological prowess of a nation or trading bloc. We don’t mess around with our comms: this is a deadly serious enterprise on which we focus considerable resource, professionalism and creativity.”

Every milestone in an aeroplane’s development is mined for maximum publicity. During the first 15 years, the manufacturer will publicise various technological and manufacturing milestones – mostly to the trade media. “An aircraft can have anywhere between three and five million parts,” says Greaves. “You can publicise advancement of new production facilities, the first staffing up on the programme, the rolling out of the first wing or fuselage, the shipping of the first engine, the first and every subsequent customer to sign up, and the unveiling of the prototype. We do all the ‘est’-based PR pushes, such as ‘first’, ‘biggest’ and ‘latest’.”

The largest aircraft in the world, Airbus’s double-decker A380, first flew in 2005, but it was unveiled to the public in the mid-1990s with futuristic images of onboard cocktail bars and shower rooms.

Its first flight was also planned years ahead. “The first flight of a new aircraft is a big moment, with major publicity opportunities, often including heads of state and major events,” says Greaves. “As ever, you need to decide on the date and then give as much notice as you can. The A380’s first flight involved coordination of four prime ministers and heads of state. That involved an enormous amount of planning that stretched into years.”

Left: a scale model of a plane is prepared for testing in Airbus’s low-speed wind tunnel.

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IAN RUTHERFORD, REX FEATURES/SHUTTERSTOCK

SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

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PHARMA: YEAR IN, YEAR OUT

When it comes to comms about the launch of a major new medicine, every company has its own approach, says Kate Hawker, head of EMEA healthcare at Burson-Marsteller. “Some companies don’t believe in pre-launch work as they don’t engage in market-shaping activities.

Or sometimes the market is very niche so comms are highly targeted.”

Generally, however, PR work for the global launch of a new drug starts two or three years before the product hits the market, with educational programmes for physicians. And regulatory decisions along the way are so important that they are themselves comms events.

“Pre-launch activity is generally related to significant developmental milestones, such as findings of clinical trials, which assess efficacy and safety, or regulatory decisions by government authorities,” says Hawker. “This tends to happen about a year out from launch.”

THE CROSSINDUSTRY TIMELINE

Because of the huge costs and risks of a major new launch, this information is often aimed as much at the financial and business sectors as the medical. The one group that won’t be targeted, in the UK at least, is the end user. “We are not allowed to encourage consumers to ask for medicines by name, and raising their hopes about efficacy is certainly out.”

One to three years from launch, companies may well also start internal comms programmes aimed at explaining data, and begin to train various teams.

While most of the comms work is straightforward public relations, there may also be public affairs work taking place at the same time – for instance, engaging patient-advocacy groups.

“But at this stage it will be to discuss the unmet need in the disease area, not the medicine,” says Hawker.

About a year from launch, the client and agency will start working on

messaging in earnest. “We start thinking about the disease, how well it is served and what the main proposition is,” Hawker says. Then, with six months to go, work starts on materials: content, releases, infographics, video blogs and patient case studies for all the different audiences – generally in English.

Three months from launch, materials are finalised and translated into local languages. “We may even start early engagement with the media, asking who they want to speak to, while talking to the medical community and patient groups.”

From then on, it is mostly “phone work”, says Hawker. There’s rarely a launch event or even a press conference.

“Journalists are not sufficiently resourced, or interested enough, to spend a whole day at a conference. Besides, we can’t launch until we have final regulatory approval and that can be at any time over a two- or even three-month period.”

15 YEARS

THREE YEARS

AEROSPACE

AEROSPACE

Project announcement publicity.

Publicise ongoing technological milestones to trade media.

Schedule the date and secure attendance for the first flight.

PHARMA

Educate physicians. Begin internal comms to educate teams.

POLITICS

Lay foundations for effective cooperation (a better office, say).

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PUBLISHING: MONTH BY MONTH

In 2012, James Rebanks, a sheep farmer in the Lake District, set up a Twitter account: @herdyshepherd1. His online flock grew so quickly that just a year later he was commissioned by The Atlantic magazine to write a piece about looking after his real-world herd.

That led to interest from publishers. In 2015, Penguin published his memoir, The Shepherd’s Life.

The book has now sold an astonishing 250,000 copies and @herdyshepherd1 has 92,000 followers.

It would be nice to think the success of the book was organic. It wasn’t.

“There is no such thing as a sellitself first novel,” says Penelope Vogler, deputy publicity director at Penguin.

“We first got involved with James in 2014 when we went to see him six months or so before publication. We had to read the book and get to know him personally.”

She explains that a key consideration in promoting books is the long lead times of magazines that may run extracts or reviews: “Our first act was to put together a plan. We consider who we are going to talk to, what our pitches are and how we are going to position it.”

Pitches? Surely a key feature of any comms plan is the core message, the one, single differentiating idea. Not so, says Vogler: “Pitches change constantly depending on who you are talking to, because everything is individually set.

Getting coverage is largely down to individual interests and relationships with journalists.”

Three months from launch, Penguin approached the commissioning and literary editors of national newspapers’ culture sections to set up reviews. “Two weeks before publication, social media kicks in,” says Vogler, “with the intention of creating a buzz around launch.”

Reviews started appearing in papers such as The Independent in mid-March 2015, and continued appearing for months. The New York Times didn’t review the book until June. Indeed, publicity doesn’t stop after the launch: events, bookshop appearances, festivals and serialised extracts in the media can all give a book more exposure for months and even years.

But selling in a book before it is actually ready can lead to serious embarrassment if there is a hitch: lots of coverage but no book.

“We work mostly with non-fiction so we tend to wait until

ONE YEAR

SIX MONTHS

we actually have the proof – usually a month or so prior to publication – before we approach the media. We don’t want to lose momentum,” says Ella Davidson of literary comms agency The Book Publicist.

But, increasingly, she works to position her authors as experts in their field for months or even years before publication. “Articles, guest blogs and media appearances showcase expertise and raise the issues addressed by the book. It’s about positioning the author as the go-to expert in their field.”

One man and his dog – and his book.

Rebanks’ ‘organic’ literary success was in fact the result of a sustained PR effort

THREE MONTHS

PHARMA

PHARMA

PHARMA

Define messaging around how the disease is currently treated.

Publish clinical findings. Target business sectors.

Work starts on materials: content, releases, infographics, video blogs and patient case studies.

Translate materials into local languages.

PUBLISHING

PUBLISHING POLITICS

Meet the author and read the book.

Identify rivals’ positions on key issues, such as taxes.

POLITICS

Work within national publications’ lead times and pitch the book to secure coverage.

Assemble content to counter rivals’ policies.

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Don’t waste time on PR Our software takes the hard work out of your PR activities, helping you focus on what matters most to you – connecting with your audience.

Stop wasting time. Get communicating.

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PRECISION SCHEDULING

POLITICS: EVERY MINUTE MATTERS

GETTY IMAGES

4

On 26 July 2012, US presidential candidate Mitt Romney, then visiting London, let slip to a TV interviewer that he thought London wasn’t ready to hold the Olympics. The remark caught the ear of Matthew McGregor, then leader of Barack Obama’s digital rapid-response team. In minutes, social media was awash with news of Romney’s diplomatic blunder.

For the rest of the campaign, Obama’s team harried Romney, picking him up on errors via tweets, blogs, graphics and even films. “Digital and rapid response are really the same things these days,” explains McGregor, who also worked in Labour’s rapid-rebuttal unit during the 2015 general election. “People consume news in real time so all comms need to be done quickly and in the moment.”

But rapid response isn’t simply a matter of witty social media put-downs.

It takes months of preparation to make it work, says McGregor. A good rebuttal operation depends on three factors: preparedness, culture and structure.

“The best form of rapid response is anticipation,” he says. But that demands a full understanding of your opponent: “We knew Romney would, at some point, promise to cut taxes across the board. So, when he did, we had films and interviews ready so we could respond in minutes or hours, not days.”

Not only do you need strategic insight, you need strategic focus. It’s vital not to

lose sight of your strategy in favour of a free-for-all, says McGregor. “Our goal was never purely coverage; it was getting eyeballs on the right message.

Trump, say, is easy to beat up every day, but, if the goal is to persuade people he’s wrong, you need real discipline.”

Of course, the structure of a comms team is also important. Some of that is purely physical. Labour’s first rapidresponse unit, for the 1997 general election, wouldn’t have been possible if Labour had retained its old HQ in a Georgian house on London’s Walworth Road. “It was the open-plan office at Millbank that helped us communicate quickly internally,” says one source.

Once you have office space that’s fit for purpose, recruiting the right people is the next step. Obama’s unit couldn’t operate until it had a team of people with the time to monitor the media and mount a response. Short, clear chains of reporting also help. McGregor says his desk was opposite that of comms director Brent Colborn for the whole Obama campaign.

TWO WEEKS

TWO MINUTES

Mitt Romney at the Olympic opening ceremony in 2012, after his faux pas a day earlier

Culture is important too. “Sometimes we’d have 50 or 60 people on an email chain, but that would never hold up a response because they all knew that nitpicking and defensiveness would go down very badly... There was a culture of risk-taking within clear parameters and a culture of empowerment,” McGregor notes. A Labour source says mistakes were tolerated: “When you are reacting at such speed, there’ll be errors. It’s better to be fast and wrong than slow and right.”

You may make errors, but one thing you can’t do, if you’re trying to build a healthy reputation, is lie, even in a posttruth era, McGregor warns. “You can’t bullshit on the web because people will spot you. Rapid rebuttal depends less on spin and more on finding honest, empathetic and compelling ways of telling your story, even if they are rough and incomplete.”

Alex Benady is an award-winning journalist who covers business, media and communications

ONGOING

PHARMA

POLITICS

AEROSPACE

Phone journalists.

Respond to rivals’ gaffes with social media posts. Speed is critical – words and images will be prepared beforehand.

Each aircraft model needs around 75 years of PR.

PUBLISHING

Post on social media to create a buzz.

POLITICS

PUBLISHING

Position author as an expert in their sector via articles, blogs and media appearances.

Monitor media coverage of rivals’ statements.

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ANATOMY OF A CAMPAIGN

Adopting emoji – the native language of social media – could lead to record-breaking consumer awareness. That’s if Durex’s safe-sex campaign is anything to go by

BY GABRIELLE LANE. ILLUSTRATIONS BY SOPHIA HAINES

s feedback for a campaign goes, “@durex stop trying to use @unicode as a marketing ploy, you fucked-up dickheads” wasn’t what the team at comms agency Premier were after.

In December 2015, they’d applied to get a little blue condom added to the smartphone emoji dictionary. The pictograph was submitted to the Unicode Consortium – the not-forprofit body that encodes characters for digital communication – on behalf of contraceptive manufacturer Durex.

The request was denied: the condom wasn’t among the 77 new characters unveiled in 2016, despite the presence in the list of some arguably less important symbols, such as an avocado, a drum and a person playing water polo.

Commentators blamed the Unicode Consortium’s exclusion of “images of products strongly associated with a particular brand”. Indeed, while Premier’s director of client strategy, Lawrence Francis, insists that “this campaign wasn’t about driving sales or brand presence”, he admits: “We knew that commercial applications were frowned on.”

Yet this was no PR failure: Premier had planned for the rejection. It promptly unleashed emoji in-jokes, staged five-hour social media hoaxes and hijacked the definition of the ‘umbrella with raindrops’ symbol on online listings, as part of a campaign that it says will help young people to talk about safe sex.

A

In total, the activity triggered more than seven billion impressions across print and online media. And, as the “dickheads” tweet shows, the agency, together with its global partners, had tapped into a powerful social trend.

Emojis are a dominant part of modern communications platforms; those who use them take them seriously – and pay attention.

THE POWER OF EMOJI “In the past few decades we have been communicating with written language in real-time interactions. Emojis are meaningful because they provide a way for individuals to give visual information that can enhance a message in place of the tone, gesture and expression of faceto-face interaction,” explains cognitive scientist Neil Cohn, who specialises in linguistics. So it makes sense that “organisations want to communicate with the methods that people do”.

Last year, smartphone users sent six million emojis in text messages every day, according to software firm SwiftKey. While the most popular image in the UK was a face with tears of joy, it was the widespread use of an aubergine as a

We wanted an emoji that 100% promotes safe sex. If they’d rather people use aubergines, that’s not right

phallic symbol that made headlines.

In fact, in April 2015, Instagram made the aubergine the only emoji out of a possible 1,851 to be banned as a search term because of its connotations.

Mindful of playful interpretations of the vegetable, Durex chose to apply for the condom emoji on World AIDS Day (1 December) in a move that it insists was part of its CSR activity.

“It’s very clear that the Unicode Consortium has a problem with sex,” says Volker Sydow, global category director for Reckitt Benckiser, which owns the Durex brand. “It’s still a fact that young people talk about it, send text messages about it and use symbols in that communication. We wanted to introduce an emoji that 100% promotes safe sex. If they’d rather young people use aubergines and peaches, we don’t think that is right.”

In any event, Durex’s quest to insert condoms into the emoji dictionary highlights many of the challenges and incentives for organisations that want to capture the communication zeitgeist.

DEMOGRAPHIC DEMAND Firstly, emojis won’t appeal to everyone.

In the case of Durex, the comms team knew its target audience of 16- to 25-year-olds used emojis frequently.

They had commissioned research with the University of Durham that showed 84% of young people felt more comfortable talking about sex when using emojis. Meanwhile, the MTV Staying Alive Foundation had found INFLUENCE.CIPR.CO.UK Q2 2017 25

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that there was much misunderstanding of sexual health among the target audience. So Durex made its case for “putting safe sex into a language that was easy to use” by sharing this data in press releases. It also used a video and images of the condom emoji (hashtag #CondomEmoji) on Facebook and Twitter. Then, with its application to the Unicode Consortium filed, the wait for a decision began…

THE WAITING GAME The thing about dealing with the Unicode Consortium is that, in the words of Francis, “it’s a mysterious organisation”. Applications for new emojis receive little or no feedback.

“We entered a zone of unknown timing, where we were waiting for a response.

We didn’t know what was going to happen throughout the year,” he says.

Officially, the approval process can involve 18 months of deliberations behind closed doors. While the identities of the decision-makers are a closely guarded secret, they are known to include Google and Apple, which first proposed emoji standardisation across electronic devices in 2007, as well as Microsoft and IBM. Premier used the wait to its advantage.

In May 2016, it published an image of an open text message that called for the condom emoji to be accepted (pictured above). Circulated as a promoted tweet, it was targeted at key journalists and supported by a Facebook video.

At this point, charity partners such as the Terrence Higgins Trust and New Zealand AIDS Foundation offered to support the campaign on their own channels. “We want to achieve the same thing – safe sex and better health for all,” explains Sydow. The combined effort drove 1.03 billion impressions across print and online.

Of course, a philanthropic seal of approval also helps counter the inevitable accusations of commercial self-interest that arise when an organisation tries to push an emoji of its own product.

ENTER THE LEGAL MINEFIELD From a legal perspective, it certainly is in a company’s interest to have its own emoji: existing emojis are protected by copyright law, as they are artistic works.

“The Unicode Consortium that enables their use doesn’t own the rights to the emojis themselves. There’s a big assumption that, once you make content available on the web, it’s fair use – that is not the case,” explains Steve Kuncewicz, principal lawyer, business advisory, at Slater and Gordon.

So, when using emojis in a way that promotes an organisation or that is outside of the messaging platforms on which they are mainly used, “the Durex way of doing things is best”, he says.

“If you’re coming up with your own idea for an emoji as part of a PR campaign that says it should be part of

There’s a belief that visual symbols are universal as they look like what the world is, but that’s not true the lexicon, then you’re winning. You’re using something that’s yours and you’re trying to get that adopted for greater internet use: it’s the safest and most efficient way of generating engagement.”

But the problem is that devising a new emoji won’t guarantee its use. That’s just not how language works, explains Cohn.

“Language is always user-motivated; you have a vocabulary of words that you have learned over time. If an external body is deciding what the vocabulary is for a communication set, people might see new emojis but they’re not going to know every one or internalise them easily.”

For this reason, when Durex and Premier discovered that the Unicode Consortium had rejected the condom emoji in June 2016, they based their response around emojis that were highly popular.

In a bold move, they slapped an image of a real aubergine on spoof packaging for flavoured condoms and shared it on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

The stunt triggered 3.13 billion impressions. Five hours later, they revealed that the launch of the product

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ANATOMY OF A CAMPAIGN

Does your comms team need an emoji translator?

Left to right: Durex drummed up support for its condom emoji with graphics on social media.

Its emoji rejected, Durex raised safe-sex awareness by mocking up aubergine-flavoured condoms and hijacking the umbrella emoji above

was a hoax. “It’s all about the creative idea,” insists Sydow. “The packaging was not sophisticated but the key result was that consumers played along with it and even made their own designs.”

Then, to mark World AIDS Day 2016, the comms team announced the results of a survey to find the ‘unofficial safe sex emoji’: an umbrella with raindrops. Internet dictionary Emojipedia then added ‘unofficial safe sex emoji’ as a definition for the symbol, which helped to trigger a further 789,000 interactions with Durex social media posts.

However, for its tongue-in-cheek appropriation of aubergines and raindrops to resonate, Durex had to rely on people sharing the same interpretation of the emojis. “There’s a belief that visual symbols are universal because they look like what the world is, but that’s not true. In the case of emojis, you have crosscultural variability. They may also be interpreted in different ways by the same people, given the context,” says Cohn.

Even though in the end we didn’t get the official emoji, it didn’t really matter – we achieved our goal

Fortunately for Durex, the aubergine emoji is perhaps less open to misinterpretation than others. And its sexual connotations are certainly understood internationally, originating as they did in Japanese manga comics.

The worthy message of the Durex campaign would help to alleviate any offence too. “In some territories, some emojis might be interpreted in different ways and cause confusion, but we felt that, because at heart the message is positive throughout, that overcame any negative reactions,” reveals Francis.

For his team, the biggest advantage of emojis is their light-hearted tone.

“Using an emoji enabled us to play along with the audience and have a conversation that was fun,” he says.

That conversation was global.

The total number of impressions across print and online for Durex’s #CondomEmoji campaign was 7.9 billion – its highest level of engagement ever. The team attributes this success to adopting the natural language of social media and mirroring it with campaign pitches to traditional media.

The execution, not the outcome, was what was really important, says Sydow. “Even though in the end we didn’t get the official emoji, it didn’t really matter. Once you have more than seven billion impressions fuelled by a campaign, you’ve achieved your objective anyway.”

So, the question is this: is it time to whip out your aubergine?

Today Translations hit the headlines in December 2016 when it bid to add an emoji translator to its army of 3,000 linguists across the globe. The company translates business communications into more than 200 languages but found that its work was being hindered by rising use of emojis.

“It’s not just about the ability to translate [symbols into words] but the ability to interpret behaviour and understand culture,” explains CEO Jurga Zilinskiene. “It became apparent that it’s a very challenging task and one that we expect more of from our business customers.”

Schooled in cross-cultural norms, she suggests comms professionals avoid using the emoji.

“It means ‘goodbye forever’ in China,” she explains. “And you can’t use a in the Middle East or – we think of it as a wonderful thing, but someone in the Middle East would always associate it with sadness.”

Ditch the ‘okay’ sign too.

“The is widely used – but it has an offensive meaning in Brazil.”

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BOTOX: reading between the lines Think you know what Botox® is?

You haven’t heard it from the comms team – pharmaceutical PR is one of the most tightly controlled sectors of the industry. But there are ways to get a message across...

BY GABRIELLE LANE. PHOTOGRAPHY: GETTY IMAGES

he coverage appeared in January. The cover story of one of the world’s most influential current affairs magazines presented the findings of a scientific investigation by its crack team of writers. The strapline was hyperbolic.

It namechecked a medical brand and extolled the virtues of the product synonymous with it to more than three million readers. Yet no-one in the brand’s PR team wanted the credit.

Welcome to pharmaceutical communications – a sector that stonewalls emails, sidesteps voicemails and routinely admits it is “unsure whether it can help” with media

T

Botox® alone generated sales of

$2.8bn last year

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INSIDE PHARMA

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INSIDE PHARMA

enquiries. Bound by national guidelines that prohibit the promotion of prescription medicines, its senior professionals walk a tightrope of education and commercial-awareness obligations, with the compliance team on speed dial. They cannot even freely name their brand to the consumer press.

“The art of pharmaceutical public relations is what you do in the spaces that are available. That’s where countries vary: the national rules vary, as well as the appetite and experience of the local compliance team,” explains Janet Kettels, vice president of communications and PR for Allergan International. “The nuances can be difficult.”

Allergan is the manufacturing behemoth behind well-known medicines such as Botox*, its brand of botulinum toxin. It is testament to the company’s successful communications strategy that Botox alone generated sales of $2.8bn last year. Indeed, ‘Botox’ is the trademark on the box but also the term used colloquially to refer to the entire product category. Competitors include Dysport and Xeomin.

In the UK, the comms rules around prescription medicines are set by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency and administered by the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA), an independent subsidiary of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI).

The ABPI Code of Practice for the Pharmaceutical Industry only allows for PR activity around the licensed medical uses of a drug. For Botox, that includes treatment of hemifacial spasms (involuntary twitching of facial muscles); wrist and hand disability due to strokes; and severe hyperhidrosis (excessive sweating).

At a macro level, the rules seem straightforward: communications

COMMS PROFESSIONALS IN THE PHARMA SECTOR MUST TREAD A FINE LINE BETWEEN PROMOTION AND COMPLIANCE, SAYS JANET KETTELS

must be “factual and non-promotional”, “putting the treatment in the context of the effects of the disease”, and “not encourage the general public to ask their GP to prescribe the product”.

That means the PR strategy is one of health education, as well as financial updates for the business press, while ensuring “use of brand names is kept to a minimum”.

THE COMPLICATIONS Yet the 31 clauses of the 70-page Code of Practice throw up interesting challenges. “Within a disease education programme, we can talk about the disease, what’s happening and the risks, but, when it comes to talking about treatment options, we must be balanced and list all of them… so the doctor and patient can decide what is right for them,” explains Kettels.

This means published information might namecheck a competitor.

“Different companies may have a view on whether they list the generic treatment name or the brand name,” she adds.

In the UK, there is an added complication. When a pharmaceutical product is the only one available for a condition, disease education is viewed as promotional: Botox is indicated for use for a particular type of headache but Allergan is restricted from talking about it. The solution? “In the UK, we must go broader and talk about ‘migraines and headaches’ so we can

include other kinds of pharmaceutical treatment as well,” says Kettels.

Not that this information can be slapped on a press release. The PMCPA insists releases must be newsworthy and important within the management of medicine. In practice, this means Allergan rarely uses them except for licensing or pricing milestones.

COMPLEMENTARY ALLIANCES But there are other ways of disseminating a message. Pharmaceutical firms often partner with patient organisations to educate a target audience about a condition. The alliance is permissible as long as the firm is transparent about the financial support provided. It’s also recommended that there are a set of clear goals and a time frame for the collaboration. In 2015, Allergan declared a £65,000 donation to the Migraine Trust to help it raise awareness of the treatments available. “It helps the patient take another step on their treatment journey and speak to their doctor about management options,” says Kettels. “If it increases the number of patients going to doctors to talk about their health, that’s INFLUENCE.CIPR.CO.UK Q2 2017 31

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INSIDE PHARMA

Adverse events and new uses are frequently reported as being about Botox®, when they’re not

why a pharmaceutical company would be interested.”

To enhance the medical value of their communications, drug companies can also engage healthcare professionals as media commentators, in the same way that experts are used in other sectors.

However, statements by paid third parties fall within the Code of Practice and must be neutral. “The brief needs to be really tight. If they have a misfire in their communication and it gets printed, that is our responsibility,” explains Kettels.

But what a doctor says in their own time, including to the press, is up to them. So highlighting someone as an expert commentator on toxins within your own comms could help the media and patients identify supportive voices in future, when seeking a balanced viewpoint.

It is crucial that a journalist knows who to go to for information. Prevented from proactive campaigning around unlicensed uses of a drug (which in the UK include all but 12 cosmetic and therapeutic uses of Botox), the only way that Allergan and the like can give their views is by answering unsolicited questions from the media. When it comes to those responses, they must be neutral, accurate and concise, and flag the unapproved status of the treatment.

Of course, the media can sniff out a story about off-label uses via their own sources. Scientific discourse, conferences and trade media – including journals – often give insights into investigatory uses of a prescription medicine, and they’re all the more clearly signposted because, in the trade space, the manufacturer can talk ‘brand’.

concerned. Tweets from the company’s Twitter account must be pre-approved by the in-house compliance team, which neuters any interactivity. “I struggle with the fact that social media is a two-way dialogue that needs an exchange – within our pharmaceutical practice, we’ll be limited in what we can say about a product,” reveals Kettels.

Inevitably, however, global connectivity means that information often bleeds across channels from territories where pharmaceutical communications are less restricted (typically, the US and Hong Kong). This benefits the constrained comms professional, but it can also fuel the transmission of inaccurate messages.

“There’s confusion around our product and trademark,” says Kettels.

“In some people’s minds, ‘Botox’ is a generic product name, but that is not true: it’s the trademark of Allergan’s line of botulinum toxin products.

Adverse events and new uses are frequently reported as being about Botox, when they’re not, and I find it difficult to unpick that,” she explains.

“It’s hard for us to say ‘Look at the fact sheet, which lays out what a prescription product does’ without it seeming promotional.”

With the PR’s hands tied, inaccurate reports require a call to the lawyers.

Allergan has standard wording that it uses to flag trademark infringements by journalists. “When we see clear breaches of the trademark, we do send corrections. They come from our legal team, but they are polite reminders and not heavy-handed legal letters,” she insists. “Pharmaceutical comms should be done completely in collaboration with the compliance team.”

SOCIAL MEDIA USE Allergan opts only for limited social media use – it’s a communications channel as far as the various codes are

*Botox is a registered trademark of Allergan plc. For more information about the ABPI Code of Practice, visit bit.ly/pmcpa-code INFLUENCE.CIPR.CO.UK Q2 2017 33

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RISE OF THE RIGHT

REUTERS

TERRORISM, IMMIGRATION AND ECONOMIC STAGNATION IN EUROPE – MARINE LE PEN AND GEERT WILDERS HAVE THE ANSWERS...

OR DO THEY?

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RISE OF THE RIGHT eng Xiaoping once said that keeping order in China was like walking with a tray of sand and keeping every grain firmly in place. That’s an impossible task of course, but the Chinese statesman’s point was well made. Stability matters, and, although maintaining it perfectly is all but impossible – you’re always going to have bumps and bounces along the way – that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try.

Europe right now could do with a good dose of Deng. The continent, or at least the European Union, the political project at its heart, is suffering from a massive identity crisis. A glorious ideal of togetherness scraped from the ashes of war has been thrown into turmoil by the Brexit vote, the Greek debt crisis, mass immigration and economic stagnation.

The economist Roger Bootle has described the EU as a “malfunctioning construct”, ill-equipped for the modern world. Chris Hartwell, president of the Center for Social and Economic Research (CASE), a respected Warsawbased thinktank, has called the EU “an old, sclerotic institution focused only on its failing currency, and which countries like the UK peel away from”.

And, as always, one thing leads to another. Europe’s struggles, such as its inability to combat economic torpor or instil hope, have left the region’s established political leaders looking weak. Into this vacuum has stepped a motley bunch of characters, some compelling, some dull and some sinister, but each peddling similar populist messages – namely that the EU is failing to keep the people of Europe safe and

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wealthy; that nation states are beset by malign forces, ranging from economic stagnation to out-of-control immigration; and that only they have the answers.

THE REBRANDED FIREBRAND The arch-exponent of this neo-populism is Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s Front National (FN), a right-wing political party whose key messages – opposing immigration and EU membership while advocating economic protectionism and a zero-tolerance approach to law and order – chime with a public tired of terrorism and stagnant wages.

Her ascendancy, at a time when the popularity of mainstream local politics is at an all-time low, is no accident. It would be foolish to dismiss the messages crafted by Le Pen as blunt tools swallowed by a gullible and jaded electorate, for several reasons.

First, Le Pen is manifestly not her father, Jean-Marie, the FN’s charismatic but anti-Semitic founder. In recent years, she has recalibrated her political personality, opting to play the more conciliatory role of a concerned but stern parent acting in the best interests of her children. Her message is simple: the current system has failed the people, leaving change – the sort that would, naturally, put her in charge of the French state – as the only viable option.

“Marine repeats the same message over and over. She says the right wing and the left wing have both failed France, so the only possible solution is to give her a chance,” says Xavier Chinaud, a senior partner at Paris political consultancy ESL, and chief political adviser to former French premier Jean-Pierre Raffarin. “Her

Their policies may be unworkable and their grasp of economics often shaky, but one thing is certain about the new populists: they sure know how to get a message across

BY ELLIOT WILSON

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RISE OF THE RIGHT

AS CHIEF POLITICAL ADVISER TO DONALD TRUMP, STEPHEN BANNON HAS LIKENED HIMSELF TO “THOMAS CROMWELL IN THE COURT OF THE TUDORS”

discourse amplifies the public’s fear of unemployment, insecurity, social decline and immigration, and claims to champion those who feel they’ve been left on the wrong side of society.”

Le Pen has also been careful of late to brand herself a voice of reason, nationally and within her party. This is important, as the FN is in reality two parties: a northern bloc of voters who feel alienated by France’s slow-burn economic crisis; and a southern faction, dominated by Marine’s niece, Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, that clings to the FN’s origins as a socially conservative party united in its antipathy towards immigrants. But voters in both regions believe the French system is “not functioning properly”, notes John Gaffney, professor of politics at the Aston Centre for Europe at the UK’s Aston University, feeding into fears of joblessness and immigration, and fomenting nostalgia for a bygone era.

So Le Pen heartens southern voters by defending populist causes, and mollifies one-nation Republicans and liberal northern centrists by “using rhetoric that is nationalist in tone, rather than racist”, says Chinaud. “It’s the same thing really, but it’s a sexier option for northern voters as it makes them feel less guilty.”

Often overlooked, particularly by the international media, is the relationship between Le Pen and her closest political adviser, Florian Philippot. A former civil servant, Philippot is a melange of political and social ingredients: a former Trotskyite who has made the unlikely transition from socialist to Gaullist to beating ideological heart of France’s political right wing.

Since Philippot became the FN’s vice president in charge of strategy and communication in 2012, the party’s ratings have soared. “He has made her more ‘presidential’,” says a veteran voice in French politics. “Marine Le Pen had no consistent theory or ideology before he came along. When you hear her speak

Populists as a rule don’t expect to win power, so they can do what they like. That makes them feel more real, and voters warm to honesty now, it’s not her you hear, but Philippot.”

Analysts draw parallels between Le Pen and Philippot, and Donald Trump and his chief political adviser, Stephen Bannon.

THE LONE WOLF While Le Pen’s utterings, at least in her latest guise, can err on the bland, the views of Geert Wilders, probably Europe’s most eccentric and effective populist, are never less than pungent.

Born into a blue-collar family in a relatively poor region of Holland, his background could not be in greater contrast to that of his French peer. While Le Pen is second-generation political royalty, Wilders was raised a world away from the Dutch establishment.

Both use Twitter to advance their cause. While Le Pen is circumspect on social media, Wilders fires out dozens of

tweets a day, machine-gunning the public with his views on everything and nothing. “He’s far more active on social media than any other Dutch politician,” says Wouter de Winther, political commentator of De Telegraaf, the country’s leading daily newspaper.

“A lot of people follow him on Twitter, and some of these people will have voted for him. He likes Twitter, because it lets him express his views to the public without having to justify them.” Wilders currently boasts 820,000 followers, against a population of 17 million.

Wilders is a classic populist, in that he listens very carefully to opinion polls and knows his message to the letter. While he likes to freewheel and ignores the modern imperative to hire speechwriters and spin doctors, he tends not to stray far from his anti-immigrant narrative. He is also an accomplished and charismatic orator. And his strange appearance – the mop of unruly whiteblonde hair – and willingness to say what he sees and thinks, lend him the air of authenticity. Sam Blainey, senior political consultant at London-based The Whitehouse Consultancy, believes that “populists as a rule don’t expect to win power, so they can do whatever they like. Mainstream politicians do expect to win power, so they have to be more careful. That makes populists feel more real, and voters warm to honesty”.

But how honest are they? The new populists are artful users of so-called ‘fake’ news items that make their way to online networking platforms, and then mainstream media, before worming themselves into our heads. Trump’s ability to disseminate fake or altered

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RISE OF THE RIGHT

A PUPPET OF PUTIN LOOMS LARGE OVER SYDNEY’S MARDI GRAS PARADE, MUCH LIKE THE MAN HIMSELF DOES OVER EUROPE

GETTY IMAGES

news, and then refuse to debate its partiality or prove its veracity, is already legendary. Countering this phenomenon is tricky. “The new conditions allow people to say anything they like,” notes Aston University’s Gaffney. “Coping with this is a real headache for the mainstream media or anyone trying to counteract post-truth politics.”

Perhaps mainstream media only has itself to blame. “Let’s not kid ourselves by overstating how influential Twitter is,” says Blainey. “Mainstream media magnifies those tweets, making them seem more relevant and powerful. In this sense, mainstream journalists run the risk of wringing their hands about populists, while actually aiding and abetting them.”

THE SAME BUT DIFFERENT Do Wilders and Le Pen have much in common? Interviewed in February by the BBC, Beatrix von Storch, a member of the European Parliament for the German right-wing Alternative für Deutschland party, said: “While the voices might sound different, the message is often the same.” Gaffney points to four rallying points trotted out by populists from Washington to Warsaw: “The elites are corrupt. You have been deceived/betrayed/left

behind. The solutions are simple. We will bring order and prosperity.”

But look more widely and there are notable disparities between the new populists, and not just in terms of their tone. Trump could only be a product of America’s enduring love affair with the straight-talking, belt-and-braces businessman. Wilders, an extreme Islamophobe, has vowed to ban the Koran and shut Dutch mosques.

Compare both with Le Pen, who is

Journalists run the risk of wringing their hands about populists, while actually aiding and abetting them a specific product of France’s highly personalised presidential politics.

De Winther has interviewed Le Pen and Wilders together, and noted a key difference. “They both made it very clear that they had different views on Islam,” he says. “Wilders was banging the drum about closing the borders to Muslims; Le Pen was far more moderate in how she expressed her views.”

PUTIN’S PUPPETS The eastern frontiers of European populism are embodied by Hungary’s premier, Viktor Orbán, an erstwhile liberal who switched political tack, and Poland’s ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS), dominated by co-founder Jarosław Kaczyński. Both feed off each other politically and ideologically, and they are united as much by their hatred of the EU as by their admiration of Vladimir Putin.

Indeed, if a single figure can be said to loom over the debate about European populism, it is Russia’s long-standing president. CASE’s Hartwell believes populists love Putin “because he and Russia have the appearance of strength, at least compared to the sclerotic old west.

Why hitch your wagon to a dying horse when you can hitch it to big Vlad?”

Hungary’s Orbán is a notable devotee of Putin, inviting him to Budapest at every opportunity, cracking down on the local press, and nationalising banks and industries. (Putin’s influence can be felt elsewhere, too, thanks to the soft money that seeps out of Moscow and into the hands of, among others, Orbán’s Fidesz party and Le Pen’s FN.) There are also echoes in Poland and Hungary of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, most notably in terms of the real-estate mogul’s oft-stated desire to return America to greatness. “It’s the same with populists in Britain, France and America. They all equate national success with the notion of national power,” adds Hartwell.

“Make Poland great again. Make Hungary great again. It’s a snappy INFLUENCE.CIPR.CO.UK Q2 2017 37

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RISE OF THE RIGHT

'BLONDE IS THE NEW BROWN.' SO SAYS A FLOAT AT A CARNIVAL IN DUSSELDORF, LINKING WESTERN POPULISTS WITH HITLER AND HIS BROWNSHIRT PARAMILITARIES

GETTY IMAGES

banner, and it resonates in regions where wealth hasn’t trickled down.”

The irony of a Russian leader being presented as a role model to Europe just decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union is, for now, seemingly lost on voters.

MIXED MESSAGES And that leads us to two final and interconnected incongruities. First, the west’s populists, from Le Pen to Wilders to Trump, often rail about the iniquities of the economic system, blaming existing elites for a blend of slow growth, disappearing jobs and ballooning debt.

But, when asked for solutions, they have none. “They try hard to jam an economic message into their ideology, but it’s impossible, as they are financially incoherent,” says Hartwell. He points to PiS, which is paying the equivalent of £100 to each Polish citizen in an attempt to boost spending. “They are borrowing to boost growth while lowering the pensionable age, imposing huge fiscal burdens on future generations.”

Second, despite all the rhetoric about the rise of right-wing demagogues, Europe’s new-age populists are, by and large (Le Pen is an exception), either apolitical, at least in the conventional sense, or content to pilfer ideas from

thinkers on the left and the right. Wilders leans wildly to the right on immigration, while advocating a progressive pension system that would keep the pensionable age at 65 (it’s due to rise to 67). “One of the reasons mainstream parties struggle against populists is that they often don’t have political beliefs,” notes

Populists suffer when growth rises and jobs return. That’s also usually when they fall out with each other Blainey. “They believe in just one thing very, very much.”

Perhaps the next batch of populists will be capable of marrying a simple, vote-winning message with an ability to add up. One to watch may well be Arron Banks, funder of UKIP and co-founder of the Leave.EU campaign. Savvy, serious, driven and rich, Banks – who is more organ grinder than monkey, preferring to operate from behind the scenes – appears to have fallen out of love with UKIP, and is planning to shape a new Trump-flavoured British political

party that leans heavily on technology, mining big data and using psychometrics to craft politically palatable messages.

Are the west’s populists here to stay?

Will their message wax in a year that contains so many landmark European elections, each contested by shouty populists, or will it wane, as voters grow weary of demagogic doom-mongers? In the Netherlands’ general election, held on 15 March, incumbent liberal premier Mark Rutte, head of the VVD party, thumped Wilders’ PVV party, grabbing 21.3% of the vote, against 13.1%.

All eyes now turn to France’s presidential election, and to the question of how the continent’s centrists and liberals can stop populists in their tracks. Blainey reckons the simplest way is to get Europe moving in the right direction again. “Populists suffer when growth rises and jobs return,” he says. “That’s also usually when they fall out with each other.” CASE’s Hartwell adds: “The best thing the EU can do is go back to being its 1990s iteration, when everyone wanted to be in it.

Give Europe’s moths a flame to flock to. That would do the trick nicely.”

Elliot Wilson reports on business and finance across the world, and speaks German, Russian and Chinese INFLUENCE.CIPR.CO.UK Q2 2017 39

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CHARM THE ROOM

Pitch imperfect The best way to convince others to work with you? Accentuate the flaws in your pitch

BY ADAM GRANT. ILLUSTRATIONS BY MATT HERRING

fter having their first child, Rufus Griscom and Alisa Volkman were appalled by the amount of false advertising and bad advice being offered about parenting.

They started an online magazine and blog network called Babble to challenge the dominant parenting clichés. In 2009, when Griscom pitched Babble to venture capitalists, he did the exact opposite of what every entrepreneur has been taught to do: he presented a slide listing the top five reasons not to invest in his business.

This should have killed his pitch.

Investors are looking for reasons to say yes, and here he was, hand delivering a list of reasons to say no. Entrepreneurs are supposed to talk about the upsides of their companies, not the downsides.

But his counterintuitive approach worked: that year, Babble brought in $3.3m in funding.

Two years later, Griscom made a sales visit to Disney to see if they might be interested in acquiring Babble.

For this pitch, it would logically have been unthinkable to lead with the downsides. It’s one thing to admit that your startup has problems; you can promise to fix the flaws. But when you’re selling an established company,

A

you have every incentive to emphasise the silver linings.

Strangely, though, Griscom did it again. One of his slides read: “Here’s why you should not buy Babble.”

Presenting to the family division of digital at Disney, he explained that user engagement, at less than three page views per visit, was lower than expected. Babble was supposed to be a parenting website, but 40% of the posts were about celebrities. And the back end of the website was in sore need of retooling.

Disney ended up buying the company for $40m.

In both situations, Griscom was presenting ideas to people who had more power than he had, and trying to convince them to commit their resources. Most of us assume that, to be persuasive, we ought to emphasise our strengths and minimise our weaknesses. That kind of powerful communication makes sense if the audience is supportive.

But, when you’re pitching a novel idea or speaking up with a suggestion for change, your audience is likely to be sceptical. Investors are looking to poke holes in your arguments; managers are hunting for reasons why your suggestion won’t work. Under those INFLUENCE.CIPR.CO.UK Q2 2017 41

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CHARM THE ROOM circumstances, for at least four reasons, it’s actually more effective to adopt Griscom’s form of powerless communication by accentuating the flaws in your idea.

The first advantage is that leading with weaknesses disarms the audience.

Marketing professors Marian Friestad and Peter Wright find that, when we’re aware that someone is trying to persuade us, we naturally raise our mental shields. Rampant confidence is a red flag – a signal that we need to defend ourselves against weapons of influence. In the early days of Babble, when Griscom presented at the first two board meetings, he talked about everything that was going right with the business, hoping to excite the board about the company’s momentum and potential. “Every time I would say something emphasising the upside, I would get sceptical responses,” he recalls. “Unbridled optimism comes across as salesmanship; it seems dishonest somehow, and as a consequence it’s met with scepticism.

Everyone is allergic to the feeling, or suspicious of being sold.”

At the third meeting of the board, Griscom reversed his approach, opening with candid discussion of everything that was going wrong with the company and what was keeping him up at night. Although this tactic might be familiar in a debate, it was highly unconventional for an entrepreneur. Board members, though, responded much more favourably than they had in previous meetings, shifting their attention away from self-defence and toward problem-solving. Griscom decided to try the same approach with investors, and noticed a similar reaction: they let their guard down. “When I put up a slide that says ‘Here’s why you shouldn’t buy this company’, the first response was laughter. Then you could see them physically relax. It’s sincere; it

doesn’t smell, feel, or look anything like sales. They’re no longer being sold.”

Along with changing the frame of the interaction, being forthright about faults alters how audiences evaluate us. In a fascinating experiment, Teresa Amabile asked people to gauge the intelligence and expertise of book reviewers. She wondered whether adjusting the tone of reviews would change people’s judgments of the critics. She took actual book reviews from The New York Times and edited them so the content was identical, but the evaluations were either flattering or scathing. Half of the

Unbridled optimism comes across as salesmanship; it seems dishonest somehow, and so it’s met with scepticism participants were randomly assigned to read a positive review: “In 128 inspired pages, Alvin Harter, with his first work of fiction, shows himself to be an extremely capable young American author. A Longer Dawn is a novella – a prose poem, if you will – of tremendous impact. It deals with elemental things: life, love, and death, and does so with such great intensity that it achieves new heights of superior writing on every page.”

The other half read a harsh version of the same review, in which Amabile left the language intact but substituted some adjectives that were critical rather than complimentary: “In 128 uninspired pages, Alvin Harter, with his first work of fiction, shows himself to be an extremely incapable young American author.

A Longer Dawn is a novella – a prose

FOUR ADVANTAGES TO PRESENTING YOUR FLAWS 1.

2.

3.

4.

You’ll disarm your audience.

It makes you look smart.

It makes you appear more trustworthy.

It leaves audiences with a more favourable impression of your idea.

poem, if you will – of negligible impact.

It deals with elemental things: life, love, and death, but does so with such little intensity that it achieves new depths of inferior writing on every page.”

Which version makes the reviewer sound smarter? They should be equal.

The quality of the reviewer’s prose hasn’t changed. The vocabulary is comparable, and so is the grammatical structure. It took the same level of ability to write both versions. But people rated the critical reviewer as 14% more intelligent, and having 16% greater literary expertise, than the complimentary reviewer.

People think an amateur can appreciate art but it takes a professional to critique it. Merely changing a handful of words from positive to negative – ‘inspired’ to ‘uninspired’, ‘capable’ to ‘incapable’, ‘tremendous impact’ to ‘negligible impact’, ‘great intensity’ to ‘little intensity’, and ‘heights of superior writing’ to ‘depths of inferior writing’ – was sufficient to make the critical reviewer sound smarter. “Prophets of doom and gloom appear wise and insightful,” Amabile writes, “while positive statements are seen as having a naive ‘Pollyanna’ quality.”

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CHARM THE ROOM

Leading with the limitations of an idea makes you look smart This is the second benefit of leading with the limitations of an idea: it makes you look smart. Rufus Griscom first discovered this early in his career, which started in publishing. “There’s nothing more shameful than writing a review that’s too positive,” he learned.

Even if reviewers loved a book, they felt an obligation to add a paragraph at the end noting where it fell short.

According to Griscom, it’s their way of saying: “I’m not a chump; I was not totally snowed by this author. I am discerning.” When he told investors about the problems with Babble, he demonstrated that he wasn’t snowed by his own ideas or trying to snow them; he was a shrewd judge of his shortcomings. He was smart enough to do his homework and anticipate some of the problems that they would spot.

The third advantage of being up front about the downside of your ideas is that it makes you more trustworthy. When Griscom described the hurdles he faced in his own business, he came across not only as knowledgeable, but also as honest and modest. Griscom’s audience were already sceptical, and they were going to find out about many of the problems anyway during due diligence.

“The job of the investor is to figure out what’s wrong with the company. By telling them what’s wrong with the business model, I’m doing some of the work for them. It established trust,” Griscom explains. And speaking frankly about the weaknesses of the business in turn made him more credible when he talked about the strengths. “You need confidence to be humble, to front-run your weaknesses,” Griscom says. “If I’m willing to tell them what’s wrong with my business, investors think: ‘There must be an awful lot that’s right with it.’”

A fourth advantage of this approach is that it leaves audiences with a more favourable assessment of the idea itself, due to a bias in how we process information. To illustrate this bias, I often ask executives to judge how happy they are after thinking about the positive

features of their lives. One group is tasked with writing three good things about their lives; another group has to list 12 good things. Everyone expects the 12 group to be happier: the more blessings you count, the better you should feel about your circumstances. But, most of the time, the opposite is true. We’re happier after we list three good things than 12. Why would this be?

Psychologist Norbert Schwarz has shown that the easier it is to think of something, the more common and important we assume it is. We use ease of retrieval as information. It’s a cinch for executives to come up with three good things about their lives. They immediately list their love of their children, their spouses, and their jobs.

Since it was a breeze to generate a few positives, they infer that their lives are pretty darn good. It’s noticeably harder to name 12 good things about their lives. After covering family and work, executives often mention their friends and then ask if they can count each one separately. Having struggled to come up with a dozen good things, they draw the conclusion that their lives aren’t quite so good after all.

This is what happened to investors when Rufus Griscom cited Babble’s weaknesses. By acknowledging its most serious problems, he made it harder for investors to generate their own ideas about what was wrong with the company. And, as they found themselves thinking hard to identify other concerns, they decided Babble’s problems weren’t actually that severe. Griscom saw this happen in the early Babble board meeting when he first tested his upside-down pitch. “When I led with the factors that could kill the company, the response from the board was the exact opposite: ‘Oh, these things aren’t so bad.’

Newton’s third law can be true in human dynamics as well: every action has an equal and opposite reaction.”

Extracted from Originals: How NonConformists Change the World by Adam Grant, published

by WH Allen on 9 February at £8.99 INFLUENCE.CIPR.CO.UK Q2 2017 43

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ESSAY

In Homo Deus, Professor Yuval Harari paints head-scrambling pictures of the future, where power is freedom from misinformation, humans merge with robots, and people live to 200. In an Influence exclusive, he considers the evolution of communication

BY YUVAL HARARI. ILLUSTRATIONS BY BRETT RYDER

raditionally, people lived in a world in which information was scarce. Power meant that you had access to information: the king had an archive and scribes; the peasants had nothing.

Censorship worked by blocking the flow of information.

In the 21st century, censorship works by flooding people with irrelevant information, or misinformation. And power means knowing what to ignore.

The rich and powerful, above all else, have the ability to focus.

Look around you in an airport: the rich are insulated from the announcements and the advertising and all the attention-catching messages, whereas the poor people are constantly bombarded. Not having a smartphone is the new symbol of power because it provides the ability to have peace and quiet from misinformation.

I don’t have a smartphone precisely because I care very much about my time. It’s not that I’m afraid of information leaking out and people spying on me; it’s that I’m afraid of irrelevant and, increasingly, fake information flooding in. It is becoming more and more difficult to know what to ignore and what to pay attention to.

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LEARN TO CHANGE To compete as an individual in the 21st century, the ability to change will be one of the most important mental abilities.

Traditionally, we’ve had a view of life that divides into two main parts: in the first part, you mainly learn; in the second part, you mainly work and make use of the skills that you learned as a young person.

This worked perfectly well for thousands of years, but it won’t work in the 21st century because the pace of change is so rapid that most of what you learn as a teenager will be irrelevant by the time you’re 40.

So the most important mental skill that you’ll need is the ability to keep changing and reinventing yourself throughout your life. You cannot create a personal and professional identity and then stay with it. This is very difficult because, while you change quite easily as a teenager, you just don’t want to change when you reach your 40s and 50s.

COMMUNICATING WITH THE ONE With the coming of big data and extremely sophisticated machinelearning capabilities, it may become possible to monitor public opinion on an individual basis. You no longer have to work with general statistics; you can actually follow each and every

individual (for example, through their Facebook account).

In political campaigning, it will be possible to tell who are, say, the 120,000 people in Pennsylvania who still haven’t made up their mind how to vote. You could also know what to tell them, on an individual basis, to swing them in your favour. Politics will rely on such big-data algorithms.

Traditional politics is based on crude statistics and on an almost mystical belief in the free will of individuals.

Once we have the ability to monitor individuals, both of these beliefs will become obsolete. Instead, you’ll have a personal algorithm that follows you and knows about everything that you do, based on real-time data.

This will go down to the level of biometric sensors in your body. You’ll watch an ad on TV – whether it’s about Donald Trump or a vacation or a car – and the sensors will pick up your biometric reactions. This might be what’s happening to your brain activity, blood pressure, adrenalin level and so forth. With this data, the sensor can have a better understanding of what the person feels or thinks than the person does.

This is particularly powerful because people often lie to themselves about what they like: they see something and they like it, but they know they INFLUENCE.CIPR.CO.UK Q2 2017 45

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ESSAY that are beginning to spread in your liver. This will be discovered when it’s easy and cheap to get rid of it. You won’t have to wait five years and go through chemotherapy. When people are offered this kind of deal – give up your privacy and get the best healthcare in history – most of us will go for healthcare.

shouldn’t because it’s wrong for some religious or ideological reason. But they still like it, and they don’t tell themselves the truth. In politics or economics, this is one of the biggest problems. When pollsters ask people questions, they lie to themselves. With big data and biometric sensors, you don’t need to ask the people themselves; you can peek right into their brains and biochemical system, and you know what they feel much better than the person themselves.

TECH TITANS: BEYOND BUSINESSES Facebook and Google are now beyond businesses. They have the potential to shape the future of the world, the future of humanity and even the future of life, to a degree people usually don’t grasp.

In the past, the most important assets were land or, in Marxist jargon, the means of production. In the 21st century, the big question is: who owns the data?

With enough data, you can, potentially, hack human beings. You just need enough data and computing power.

And, when you do that, you can not only manipulate people, but you can upgrade them and create them. When you combine this with the abilities of bioengineering, then the sky’s the limit.

Data giants such as Facebook and Google or, in China, Tencent, Baidu and the government have the potential to change what it is to be human and what life means. For four billion years, life was confined to the organic realm; all life forms were based, basically, on biochemistry. Now we have the chance to create the first partly inorganic life forms, based on the combination of an inorganic brain with inorganic parts,

or even the direct combination of organic brains with computers. This is far beyond normal business or even normal politics; you’re talking about taking life in a different direction.

This is the scale at which we should understand enterprises like Google and Facebook. They’re accumulating the data and the computing power that is necessary to hack human beings and create a new kind of life form.

THE IMPORTANT DATA IS INSIDE US At present, Google, Facebook and the like focus primarily on your activities online and, to a lesser extent, your activities in the outside world – following you on your smartphone and with GPS, say.

But the really important data is not what you click on online; it’s in your body – your DNA and biometric data, which can be extracted by biometric sensors.

I think that the healthcare industry will convince most people to give up this data because, in exchange for giving up your privacy, you will receive much, much better care than ever before. In the conflict between health and privacy, health will win. People will be willing to give up the privacy of their own body.

If you allow, say, Google to monitor your body, it could discover cancer when you have, say, just 10 cancer cells

If you’re lucky and rich enough, you will be able to live to be 100, 150, 200 and so forth

LONG LIVE SOME OF US It’s not impossible, with the proper technology, to overcome old age – to discover ways to rejuvenate the body, to replace body parts and, thereby, to give people indefinite lifespans. This is not immortality – immortality is a religious idea of being unable to die, no matter what happens – but it is postponing death and extending life indefinitely.

If you’re lucky and rich enough, you will be able to live to be 100, 150, 200 and so forth. It is feasible though it won’t happen in the next 40 or 50 years. My sense is that a baby born today to a rich family with enough money may, for the first time in history, have a fair chance of living indefinitely.

THE RESPONSIBILITY OF GIANTS There is more social and political responsibility on the shoulders of people in the information technology and communications industries than ever.

Today, information technology is the most powerful agent of change in the world, but it wasn’t always like this.

Of course, information was always important, but until recently the big revolutions in the world – whether the rise of Christianity, the Chinese empire or communist Russia – did not originate in the information sector.

Now IT and the people engaged in it have moved to the frontline. They are no longer in a support role. It’s for good reason people such as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Google co-founder Larry Page now get a lot of attention, as they’re not in the service of some king or prophet or priest – they are the prophet and the king. They’ve huge responsibility, and can’t hide behind numbers and algorithms and say: ‘Oh, we’re just a transparent platform or medium.’

Yuval Harari was in conversation with Matthew Rock. Homo Deus is published

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PR AMID THE REVOLUTION A melting pot of political and economic change, Egypt is hungry for strategic PR counsel. Lamia Kamel, who worked closely on the election campaign for President el-Sisi, reflects on her experience at the heart of the industry

BY ROB SMITH

rom Julius Caesar and Cleopatra to Howard Carter and Tutankhamun, the history of Egypt has captured the imagination of generations. When the Arab Spring spread to Egypt in 2011, the eyes of the world turned once again to Cairo.

Egypt has seen both progress and setbacks in the years since. While credit-rating organisation Moody’s rates Egypt as having the strongest economic outlook in the Levant and North Africa, many challenges persist – from terrorist atrocities harming the

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tourist trade to the annual inflation rate reaching 29.6% in January 2017 under the government of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

Lamia Kamel is managing director of CC Plus, one of the leading PR consultancies in Egypt. A political strategist, Kamel worked closely on the election campaign of el-Sisi, and of former presidential candidate Amr Moussa. She has also provided counsel for the UN Development Programme for ICT in the Arab states. Having witnessed events that will define her nation for years to come, here Lamia discusses the role of public relations in Egyptian public life, how the industry engages with a diverse demographic

and what the future holds for an iconic part of the world.

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What was it like to live and work through the Arab Spring, a period covered by every news outlet in the world?

This era was a vast opportunity disguised in challenges. Despite political trauma, uncertainty and economic problems, it was a very open time for communication. The political institutions of the country were getting established twice: once in 2011-2012 and again in 2013-2014, with presidential elections, parliamentary elections,

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PR LIKE AN EGYPTIAN

constitution drafting and so on. Each step needed communication strategies.

We learned so much in this period that helped us grow and evolve as an agency. It crafted our crisismanagement skills and added strategic insight to our work, which directly benefits our corporate clients.

However, as you move to the corporate and political side, you find there is more understanding and much greater expectations of the discipline.

Until recently, politicians did not see or fully comprehend how PR could be put to use. Now that the dynamics of the political scene have changed, public relations has started to have a greater role.

When Egypt began going through a tough patch economically, it was an opportunity for the government to see the role of PR in terms of attracting foreign investment and tourism, as well as relaying the right messages during a crisis or in difficult times.

However, PR professionals must demonstrate ability and establish trust among institutions in order to be able to do more.

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You’re one of the pioneers of public relations in Egypt. How has the business changed since you started?

You can tell communications is one of the fastest-growing and most promising disciplines when you look back at how PR was in the 1990s and the evolution it has gone through – and not just in Egypt. At one point, PR was a marketing tool and PRs were only really responsible for tactical operations like basic media relations, and writing and circulating press releases.

Since it was rather commercial, the content was hard to sell, forcing companies to rely on advertorials and media events to generate coverage.

From around the year 2000, public relations began reporting to the corporate affairs function, giving it a more strategic scope.

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How is public relations viewed in the country, from the point of view of politicians and business people, and the average citizen?

The average citizen still does not differentiate between PR and advertising, unless they are educated in both. Some still think of PR as the nice guy receiving VIPs at the airport and finishing up paperwork.

In your experience, which type of media is most important for public relations? Is it traditional media, such as newspapers, radio and television, or social media channels like Twitter and Facebook?

I would say Facebook is definitely the leading communications channel.

More than one-third of the Egyptian population is under the age of 30, and there are more than 30 million Facebook users in the country. We have an internet penetration rate of 42%, so you can easily draw the conclusion that digital is leading the communications arena for both advertising and PR. However, many government and corporate chiefs, as well as investors, still rely on print and television media for information. So, on a strategic level, we try to strike the right balance and reach all our stakeholders.

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As well as political change, Egypt has seen some tragic events, such as the terror attack at Sharm el-Sheikh, which reportedly led to a significant decline in tourist numbers. What role can PR play in rebuilding international trust in this vital part of the country’s economy?

Public relations can play a pivotal role as there are so many misconceptions

and untold stories; Egypt offers many opportunities that the world should know about. PR can help point out those opportunities – whether they are economic, social or cultural – and create bridges of trust with the world.

In 2016, we conducted a PR summit called Narrative – the first of its kind. It was our way of drawing attention to the role that public relations should assume at a national level: our theme was getting all those great communicators under one roof and calling for action.

However, it’s a two-sided dynamic – Egypt as a state must acknowledge the importance of communication with the rest of the world, and the rest of the world must give Egypt a chance, listening without judgement and predetermined decisions.

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What does the future of PR in Egypt look like? Which areas do you think are likely to grow?

I am calling 2017 ‘the year of strategic public relations’ and ‘the year of integration’. PR simply cannot survive without taking back its strategic role.

The Egyptian government is currently reaching out to PR consultancies. We are glad to see this happen and hope that communications will play more of a role nationally.

Lamia Kamel is founder and managing director of CC Plus, one of Egypt’s leading consulting firms INFLUENCE.CIPR.CO.UK Q2 2017 49

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THE BUSINESS OF PUBLIC RELATIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS

DO IT BETTER THIS ISSUE

NEW SCOTS LOBBYING RULES INSIDE DISRUPTERS GET BUDGET FROM THE BOARD STOP PROCRASTINATING

You’re totally alone and your problems are only going to get worse, but there’s a bright side, says Alain de Botton

How to turn pessimism into a positive

BY ALAIN DE BOTTON

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DO IT BETTER lmost certainly, you’ve been having a bad time at work recently. In a perfect world, work should do so much for us: lend us purpose and a sense of achievement, offer us meaning and comradeship. But, invariably, something goes wrong: our talents feel like they’re not being recognised, the company seems unfit to sacrifice a life for, the day-to-day tasks are mundane and stressful, and many in management are like grown-up versions of playground bullies. The best way to stay calm and remain an amiable presence in the face of all these difficulties is to give up on the idea that the project will go perfectly; the route to tolerance and patient good humour is to realise that one simply is, where it counts, irredeemably alone.

This sort of pessimism has a bad reputation, but it is one of the kindest and most generous of philosophies.

That’s because what often makes us sad and angry isn’t mere disappointment, but a deeper sense that our hopes have not come true and that our lives are unusually bitter – that we have been singled out for particular punishment.

Pessimistic ideas suggest otherwise.

Life isn’t incidentally miserable, they tell us; it is fundamentally difficult for everyone. It should be quite evident that this can be enormously helpful when dealing with the typical struggles of a working week.

The greatest part of our suffering, at work and elsewhere, is brought about by our hopes (for health, happiness and success). Therefore, the kindest thing

we can do for ourselves is to recognise that our griefs are not incidental or passing, but a fundamental aspect of existence that will only get worse.

This might sound depressing, but it is in fact an incredibly liberating realisation.

If a crucial presentation goes very badly (we drop our papers everywhere, muddle up some key statistics and call a client by the wrong name), it is very reassuring to realise that

disasters such as these are entirely unexceptional. Conflict with our colleagues, embarrassment before our superiors and unexpected roadblocks to a dearly sought promotion are very much routine in life. In the workplace, we would all feel much happier if mediocrity and relative failure were assumed to be the norm.

Unfortunately, we live in an era that is horribly lopsided when looking

FIVE MOST PESSIMISTIC LIFE LESSONS

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PHILOSOPHICAL TAKEAWAYS FOR WORK/LIFE WELLBEING

SCHOPENHAUER’S HYPOCRISY Philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer claimed it is not “necessary for the saint to be a philosopher [or] for the philosopher to be a saint; just as it is not necessary for a perfectly beautiful person to be a great sculptor, or for a great sculptor to be himself a beautiful person”. In other words, hypocrisy is to be expected in life; we shouldn’t agonise too greatly over our mistakes.

COHEN’S COMMONALITY Poet and songwriter Leonard Cohen once said: “Recognise that your struggle is the same as everyone else’s struggle, and that your suffering is the same as everyone else’s suffering.” His pessimism is positive: it shows us our suffering is not a personal curse but something ordinary and shared. It can be a platform for greater compassion.

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EMBRACE MELANCHOLY

Our careers and productivity are not dependent on an endless show of optimism and good cheer

at the nature of our existence. The possibilities of a pessimistic workplace are unlikely to be understood when, all around, an overly sentimental and cheerful world view is forced on us from the outside. Communications, in particular, is especially guilty of representing life back to us in bright and enthusiastic snapshots, without allowing tones of sadness or disappointment to enter into a message.

This can make our bad moods and private annoyances a source of frustration and anxiety. Here, professionals need to understand the authentic, mature message of pessimism in which great art excels.

Across history, the articulation of melancholy attitudes in works of art has provided us with relief from a sense of loneliness and persecution.

Among others, Pascal, Keats, Shelley, Schopenhauer and Leonard Cohen have been able to reassure us of the normalcy of our states of sadness. In particular, they have made a case for melancholy, a species of low-level, muted sadness that arises when we are open to the fact that life is inherently difficult and that suffering and disappointment are core parts of universal experience. It’s not a disorder that needs to be cured. The good life is not one immune to grief, but one in which we allow suffering to contribute to our development.

And yet the dominant tone of advertising continues to be cheerful or, its more brittle cousin, cheery – a good mood that tolerates no other. There

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All together now: “There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in...”

KEATS’S CONSOLATION John Keats, the Romantic poet, had a difficult life. Plagued by ill health and financial difficulties, he wrote: “I hate the world: it batters too much the wings of my selfwill.” But, in his poetry, Keats reminds us of the bittersweet consolation that art and natural beauty can offer. His famous poem Endymion begins: “A thing of beauty is a joy for ever.”

SENECA’S ENCOURAGEMENT Stoic philosopher Seneca told his readers that “even after a bad harvest there must be sowing”. It is an important reminder that there is a limit to how much we can grieve or feel sorry for ourselves.

Even in the midst of total disaster, some sort of action is better than none whatsoever.

have only ever been a handful of melancholy ads. This presumes that the best way to please others must be to present ourselves in a vibrant mood.

But the central motive of melancholy art is to help us by specifically not trying to cheer us up. It doesn’t attempt to suggest that it doesn’t matter that a parent has died, that one has been been made redundant, or that a novel one has been working on for seven years has been rejected.

Businesses could usefully extend their emotional range to learn to meet us in other moods, as there are so many needs we’re more alive to when we acknowledge our sadness. We don’t stop being consumers when we’re down, but we have different priorities. Admission of our despair and the number of moments when we wonder if it can really be worth it are key tools in the process of selling, properly reimagined.

The promoter, no less than the product developer, needs to remember how much of life deserves solemn and mournful states – and how much loyalty we will be ready to offer those who don’t feel aggressively compelled to deny our melancholy. The same is true in our places of work – we desperately need an employer who accepts that it is okay to feel subdued and upset; that our careers and productivity are not dependent on an endless show of optimism and good cheer; and that pessimism can leave us happier than the false show of happiness.

Alain de Botton is an author who covers philosophy, and CEO of The School of Life. Console him: @alaindebotton

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KIERKEGAARD’S ACCEPTANCE Søren Kierkegaard, an early proponent of existential philosophy, wrote: “Marry, and you will regret it; don’t marry, you will also regret it; marry or don’t marry, you will regret it either way.” It can be reassuring to remember that all of our decisions are guaranteed to present us with problems; we simply have to make a choice and tolerate the outcome.

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DO IT BETTER

Six key questions about Scotland’s new lobbying law Scotland is preparing to usher in a new lobbying register. Is it a step towards openness or doomed to fail?

BY CAROLYN LOCHHEAD ince it was reconvened in 1999, the Scottish Parliament has seen its fair share of wrongdoing.

Former First Minister Henry McLeish resigned over an office subletting error (famously described as a “muddle, not a fiddle”) and Bill Walker eventually quit after his conviction for domestic abuse.

But there has been little in the way of lobbying scandals.

Perhaps that’s not surprising given the Parliament’s founding principles of openness, ease of access and accountability. Its meeting rooms are walled with glass and passers-by can easily peek into the office of members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) from the corridor. Frankly, it would be hard to find a quiet corner in which to hand over a brown envelope.

Nevertheless, Scotland has recently agreed its very own Lobbying Act, and those of us operating here better get acquainted with it. Overseen by newly appointed lobbying registrar Billy McLaren, the Act introduces a register intended to publicly record lobbying of MSPs, ministers, special advisers and the permanent secretary. The register is likely to be operational by early 2018.

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HOW WILL IT WORK? Those affected will need to provide details of each time they lobby a relevant person, filling in a six-monthly return.

The Act differs from its UK counterpart in that in-house lobbyists are covered – indeed, anyone who lobbies in a paid

capacity must declare it, regardless of their actual job. So a charity shop manager who discusses retail rates with a minister would need to report it, even though their day job has nothing to do with lobbying.

WHAT ARE THE EXEMPTIONS? The key exemption is that only face-to-face meetings are covered (that includes Skype). If you email, phone or send a paper aeroplane, you don’t need to declare it.

Also, the Act only applies to paid employees. Volunteers, including unpaid charity trustees, are not covered. Nor are businesses with fewer than 10 employees, unless they are representative organisations.

There are other, more minor exceptions, such as those that deal with initiation. If the meeting was initiated by the person you are lobbying, it isn’t covered. And a meeting that covers purely local issues needn’t be declared.

WHY IS THERE DEBATE ABOUT IT? Jenny Bloomfield of the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) has written some useful blogs that set out the details of the scheme (scvo.org.uk/author/jennybloom). These include a step-by-step guide to figuring out if your organisation will be affected by the Act and what to do if the answer appears to be that it will. Bloomfield describes it all, with admirable understatement, as “a bit complicated”.

Complicated it is, and there is some debate about whether the Act will have any effect. Right now, Scottish lobbyists

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SCOTTISH LOBBYING

A notable feature of debates as the Bill passed through Parliament was a sense of uncertainty about the problem it was trying to fix are mostly focused on understanding and complying with the Act. Peter Duncan, chairman of the Association of Professional Political Consultants in Scotland, says: “The priority now for everyone involved has to be twofold. Firstly, [there’s the matter of] widening awareness of the legislation being passed, and the coming register and code of conduct, and we all have a role to play in that.

“Secondly, while the legislation sets out the framework, there are still many details to be sorted out, including the exact process of registration, penalties and the code of conduct. We all have a role to play in ensuring the implementation... works first time, and delivers genuine transparency without undue burden on compliance.”

DID SCOTLAND NEED A LOBBYING ACT? A notable feature of debates as the Bill passed through Parliament was a sense of uncertainty about the problem it was trying to fix. Joe FitzPatrick MSP, the minister responsible for the Bill, acknowledged in committee evidence: “There is no indication that those involved in lobbying in the Scottish Parliament are seen in anything other than a positive light.”

And the Scottish Grocers Federation submitted evidence that it was not sure there was “any noteworthy problem or issue with lobbying in Scotland.

Indeed, in its original report on this issue (February 2015), the committee stated that it had heard no evidence of wrongdoing – the proposed register is trying to solve a problem that simply does not exist”.

The Scottish Parliament is big on transparency, but it’s unclear what problem the Lobbying Act aims to solve

WILL IT WORK? Some lobbyists have raised concerns about unintended consequences.

Scotland is a small country and its

politicians, by and large, do not live in a bubble. It is not unknown to spot Nicola Sturgeon in M&S at Glasgow’s Central station. Should a lobbyist bump into her in the queue and mention what they are working on, must that conversation be declared? What of parliamentary receptions, where non-lobbyist staff at third-sector organisations or trade bodies might chat to MSPs without knowing who they are? How would we make sure that was reported?

The narrow definition of lobbying has also attracted much comment. At the committee stage, opposition MSPs unsuccessfully tried to widen the scope to cover phone calls, emails and letters.

Neil Findlay MSP, who introduced the private member’s Bill that indirectly led to the Act, has been quoted as saying the final Act has been “watered down” to “a bowl of rather meagre gruel”.

Finally, there are questions about enforcement. The registrar has investigative powers, and there are sanctions for non-compliance. But, with just two staff responsible for implementing the Act, there is little chance that everyone who doesn’t comply – deliberately or accidentally – will be caught.

Indeed, the SCVO’s Allan Young has recently gone on record to state that the Act is “going to fail”. He argues that it is unduly burdensome, wrongly exempts public bodies and will be easy for private lobbying firms to circumvent, creating a skewed impression of the proportion of lobbying undertaken by charities.

WHAT ARE THE NEXT STEPS? The Act will be reviewed after two years, in line with a CIPR suggestion. Despite all the issues, the register will shortly be a reality, so we need to make sure our systems and staff training are up to the job. If we don’t, the Lobbying Act may, ironically, lead to Scotland’s first lobbying scandal, as journalists trawl the register to spot those who haven’t complied.

Carolyn Lochhead is public affairs manager at the Scottish Association for Mental Health. She lives in Glasgow with her husband, two children, two cats and very little free time. This article is written in a personal capacity INFLUENCE.CIPR.CO.UK Q2 2017 55

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DO IT BETTER DISRUPTIVE COMMS

Inside the disrupters Three breakthrough brands showcase the power of considered comms strategies

BY ROB SMITH hallenger brands tend to gain a foothold in the public’s consciousness by the swagger of their entrepreneurial figurehead. But, if small, innovative businesses are to become truly established brands, they need the right public relations strategy.

“There’s a huge difference between having a shoot-from-the-hip founder who will stand in front of the media just to get some ink and a company that is really clear about what it is trying to disrupt and speaking consistently,” says Narda Shirley, MD of Gong Communications, who believes organisations need to look beyond their media-friendly boss as soon as possible.

Coverage can dry up when the next big thing comes along, and that’s when having a skilled PR team involved from before launch can pay dividends. Lisa Carr, director and partner at reputation-management consultancy Lansons, says: “Getting the launch of any challenger brand right is crucial, as you have one chance to execute it. Before launch, there are numerous stakeholders that need to be engaged with, from the regulatory bodies to the media.

This takes time, planning and expertise. Any challenger brand should be prepared before launch for all eventualities, and for anything that can go wrong.”

Here’s how three breakthrough brands faced the challenge of being a startup in established industries.

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Crowdcube

THE DISRUPTER: PEER-TO-PEER CROWDFUNDING PLATFORM WITH NEARLY 50% MARKET SHARE THE COMMS LEADER: LUKE LANG, CO-FOUNDER AND CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER. HE IS ONE OF AN IN-HOUSE TEAM OF TWO, WORKING WITH EXTERNAL AGENCY EUREKA COMMUNICATIONS

What were you looking for in an agency?

We wanted a PR agency with knowledge and experience of alternative finance. We clocked that Eureka Communications and its founder, Teresa Horscroft, had secured good press coverage for an innovative finance company.

We talked her through our plans, mission and philosophy. She was very excited. Then we confessed we didn’t have much money to pay her with! We agreed to give her shares. That was the best currency we had. It worked well, as we needed a PR firm’s expertise, and it meant Teresa and her team were committed to what we were doing.

What are the challenges for a disrupter?

Working out what press opportunities to go for. Even in the early days, we were getting the press coverage of a FTSE 500 company. Being able to focus our energy on the right stories has always been a challenge, as we have limited resources.

How do you deal with negative press?

As a disrupter, you do have detractors.

You need to get used to managing them.

You should work through potential questions that might be challenging and work out what responses you’ll give. Our openness as a company and willingness to talk means speaking to journalists when they have difficult questions too.

You win journalists’ respect if you don’t hide behind an email or a cold statement.

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Fitbit

THE DISRUPTER: WEARABLE FITNESS TECH MANUFACTURER WITH 23 MILLION ACTIVE USERS THE COMMS LEADER: LUCY SHEEHAN, MARKETING DIRECTOR, FITBIT UK, WORKING WITH EXTERNAL AGENCY FLEISHMANHILLARD

What’s the structure of the comms team?

With Fitbit being an innovative, fastmoving company in the sometimes volatile wearables market, we need a team that can respond quickly to current industry developments, embrace product announcements and have great media relationships.

When Fitbit became available in the UK, we were a very small team, with centralised PR, which then extended across EMEA regions as we launched there. In January 2016, we started working with FleishmanHillard to provide pan-EMEA coverage.

How important are media relationships?

Media relationships are key for product exposure. With so many new products entering the market, it’s vital that titles know who the best contact for samples and information is. And event attendance is always stronger if the PR team has a friendly relationship with the media.

Have you made any decisions that you think propelled the success of the business?

Since its conception, Fitbit has always striven to build and support its user community. By doing so, we have formed a wealth of brand advocates, building strong brand awareness through word of mouth.

Seeding devices to key media and influencers has also proven a very successful strategy.

Atom Bank

THE DISRUPTER: APP-ONLY BANK, VALUED AT £261M THE COMMS LEADER: KATY RINGSDORE, HEAD OF PR AND INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS. SHE IS ONE OF AN IN-HOUSE TEAM OF FOUR, WORKING WITH EXTERNAL AGENCY LANSONS

As a new launch, what kind of skills did you want in the communications team?

We don’t behave or talk like a traditional bank, so the core aim of our PR strategy has always been to develop a narrative that isn’t about products, and that essentially turns banking on its head.

We worked with Lansons from the beginning: there will always be a need for financial services expertise, but the PR team has to be able to make banking appealing to a broad range of people.

We also have support from an agency outside financial services, The Romans, whose fresh approach helps us to distinguish ourselves from other banks.

What have the PR challenges been?

As the first digital-only bank, the greatest challenge was starting a completely different narrative about banking.

Communicating the brand’s identity is something we continue to work hard at.

Our owned social media channels are about explaining our way of business and how we’re different. We don’t talk about products on Twitter – that’s boring. We have a very cool team who like to create content that is fun and a little bit cheeky.

But there are still serious messages we need to get across. We are a strong and trustworthy bank with an experienced team at the helm. In our comms, there is a balance to strike when showing that we aren’t like other banks.

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19/04/2017 14:21

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19/04/2017 15:43

SLICK NEGOTIATION

How to get the board to give you more budget Identify the alpha. Think about love. Work backwards.

Here’s everything you didn’t know about great negotiation

– and it may not always be the most senior member of staff. “Clues to look for include who they are facing towards as they stand or sit. The alpha member will be the person others seek reassurance and approval from,” says Adcock.

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evidence that leads towards your summary,” says Adcock.

YOU NEED TO GET EMOTIONAL (YES, REALLY) According to psychologist Phillip Adcock, author of Master Your Brain, it’s a mistake to think of negotiation as a rational process. He insists you need to prime your brain for the emotional reward that a larger budget would give you, before you enter a discussion. “You need to think about what’s in it for you emotionally, so that you can behave more effectively,” he explains. The emotional response might be pride – more budget would allow you to try more promising ideas. However, he adds: “Frequently, it’s love. A budget could be a way to ensure job security and support your family.” If you’re emotionally primed, you’ll be more motivated and it will subconsciously focus your behaviour.

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IGNORE THE BOSS Humans are a social species.

We take cues in our decisionmaking from those around us. In a boardroom setting, it pays to take time to identify the alpha member and direct your speech towards them. This is the figure that others unwittingly defer to

WORK BACKWARDS One of the clearest ways to mentally structure your argument for more budget is to consider your final point first and plan around it, before a budget meeting. “It will help you identify all the supporting

SIT TO THE SIDE OF YOUR PRESENTATION – AND DON’T QUOTE IT To make a message easy to understand and follow, stand or sit to the side of any presentation screens or visual aids that you’re using so that your voice reaches your audience’s left ear first. This will help them digest information more clearly as you are providing auditory information from the same direction as people in the west read. And don’t parrot your slides. As humans process visual and auditory information at different speeds, doing this will make it harder to digest a message. Instead, Adcock recommends adding supplementary information to your slides to support your argument.

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TALK LOSSES NOT GAINS Risk aversion – a mental bias – means we are more sensitive to losses than gains. Therefore, explain what an increased budget would help to protect. For example, more budget and resources could mean that you can respond to media enquiries more quickly, meaning there’s less chance of losing coverage opportunities with the daily press.

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USE MICRO-EXPRESSIONS TO YOUR ADVANTAGE “During a negotiation, know the emotional response you are aiming for and check for facial expressions as you present an argument,” says Adcock. “You’ll then be able to amend your pitch accordingly.”

In a negotiation, overlook the broad facial expressions that often accompany engagement with others and prioritise the micro-expressions that occur beforehand. Humans have seven basic emotions: happiness, fear, sadness, disgust, contempt, anger and surprise.

Lowered eyebrows or tension in the mouth are both signs that a reason is likely to be rejected. “If a particular concept is received better than others, you should stick with it,” Adcock adds.

“If it isn’t, you can either reframe it or move on. If you’re going to negotiate, you may as well emphasise the evidence that gets the best reaction.”

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omms budgets are falling. CIPR’s State of the Profession survey (see page 10) shows 32% of in-house professionals suffered budget cuts and 15% of agencies and consultancies cut fees last year.

That means negotiation with financial decision-makers is critical. While there are practical reasons that dictate the level of funding that can be expected from business leaders, there is an art to negotiation that could help you state your case for a bigger communications budget more successfully.

Master Your Brain, by Phillip Adcock, is available now INFLUENCE.CIPR.CO.UK Q2 2017 59

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DO IT BETTER

How to stop procrastinating

BY DANNIE-LU CARR

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WHY DO WE PROCRASTINATE? The psychological theory of why we procrastinate is straightforward: procrastination works to actively limit our performance. When our performance is limited, we don’t work to our full ability. And, when we don’t work to our full ability, our self-worth is protected, regardless of how well we actually do.

We have been conditioned to correlate our self-worth directly with our abilities. We are usually educated that way – the pupil with the high marks often gets more attention and more approval. So we take pride in what we can achieve and work hard to protect our fragile self-worth.

If we do things at the last minute and do well, then we can glow in the knowledge that we could have done even better. If we leave things till the last minute and don’t do so well, then we can console ourselves

with the knowledge that we can easily do better.

So what can be done about it?

Here are five steps to more effective time management.

1

Slow down Remember the fable of The Tortoise and The Hare? Steady, consistent effort is way more effective than last-minute pushing, whatever you may tell yourself. Break down each of your tasks into three smaller, bite-size chunks and keep your effort consistent.

2

Incentivise yourself Take breaks at regular intervals to improve your focus. One way to do this is by adopting the Pomodoro Technique. First, set a timer to work for 25 minutes without interruption. If a distraction pops into your head, scribble it on a piece of paper and get back to the task at hand. After 25 minutes, take a 10-minute break. Repeat this cycle four times before taking a longer break of 30 to 60 minutes. You will get so much more done and feel far less overloaded and overwhelmed with this strategy (you can download the free app Focus Keeper to help you).

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Learn how to say ‘no’ and push back People-management skills go hand in hand with time management. Working efficiently is all very well, but what about the people who hijack our time? An effective way to avoid interruptions is to remember that saying ‘no’ doesn’t have to be an

Dealing with procrastination can have benefits for our social, mental and physical health. Break down your tasks into smaller, bite-size chunks

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e are more overloaded than ever before. Many of us manage portfolio careers or several roles within the same job title. We must meet tight deadlines, and satisfy the speed and relentlessness of social media.

It can often feel impossible to get work finished and, at times, even started.

The biggest culprit in hindering our effective time management and allround productivity is procrastination.

Dealing with this can have benefits for our social, mental and physical health.

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19/04/2017 14:21

TIME MANAGEMENT THIS ARTICLE COUNTS TOWARDS CIPR CPD CIPR CPD is a free online platform where you can plan, track and record everything you do to keep your knowledge and skills up to date.

Structure your development and work towards becoming a Chartered PR Practitioner. Visit cipr.co.uk/mycpd all-or-nothing affair – buying time to help with a request can be useful.

Phrases such as “I can speak to you about this in 30 minutes” can improve not only your own negative patterns of time management but other people’s too.

Another appropriate response is: “I can help you with this after 2pm, but not before.” This phrase is a positive and helpful response that also creates boundaries and pushes back on time-encroachers. Practise these kinds of phrases when the stakes are low initially, and then you will feel more comfortable using them in highpressured situations or when influencing more senior members of the team.

4

Manage your self-talk Our monkey minds can tell us all sorts of things that can sabotage effective time management.

Often these thoughts are unconscious.

Look at how accurate your self-talk is by listing all the reasons why you procrastinate. These might include ‘the project is too big’ or ‘I want it to be amazing’. By comparing your thoughts with the reality of a situation, you can reclaim a sense of perspective and a calmer, clearer head.

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Remember your strengths When you have confidence and focus on your abilities, you work more effectively. So write down your best qualities and revisit them regularly.

This will enable you to develop the skills you already have, and avoid wasting time repeatedly trying to fix the things you are less good at.

Dannie-Lu Carr is an acting coach, author and communications specialist.

At CIPR, she runs courses including ‘Time Management and Personal Effectiveness’. dannielucarr.com INFLUENCE.CIPR.CO.UK Q2 2017 61

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SPONSORED FEATURE

5 WAYS COMMS PROS CAN HELP ORGANISATIONS BE MORE AGILE

1

USE DATA Measure what’s working and what’s needed. Present meaningful data about the thoughts and behaviours of colleagues to the business. Offer insight about how to create the right outcomes.

Memo to the new, agile internal comms pro Listen up – your job is to be the catalyst for organisational change

BY HENRY DAVIES hange. It’s the watchword for organisations everywhere. Becoming more digital, growing market share, launching new services, creating an inclusive culture – businesses have got to do more just to keep up with the new, disruptive entrepreneurs in their market.

So what part can comms play in all this? At 106 Communications, our research, Internal Comms, and the Agile and Responsive Organisation, points to a shifting role.

It’s no longer enough to be the gatekeeper; comms has to help change and sustain behaviours to create a culture that is more responsive to clients and colleagues, that aids collaboration and innovation, and that makes the organisation more responsive.

It would be easy to say tech is the answer – and, of course, it is

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fundamental – but what our research found was that organisations often see the inability of people to change as the biggest barrier to becoming more agile and responsive.

This is a challenge that asks new questions of the comms team: how do you change, rather than just communicate? How do you involve, rather than simply inform?

Then there’s the ability to respond and act quickly, to make leaders more visible and more agile, and to wrap all this up in a strategy that is clear, measurable and outcome-focused.

Welcome to the new world of internal comms.

Henry Davies is the founder of 106 Communications, an award-winning communications agency focused on internal comms and employee advocacy. Download the research at 106comms.com/agile

2

FOCUS ON BEHAVIOURS Encourage and promote the models of behaviour that are required, and agitate for change. Don’t simply try to explain and inform – open up an ongoing dialogue.

3

BE STRATEGIC Get closer to leaders and the business, helping to shape the strategy and cultural change from the outset.

Avoid ‘fluff’ and focus on the goals you want to achieve.

4

ENGAGE LEADERS Support leaders to become more visible and involved in the change that’s required.

Our research shows a mismatch between the ambition to be more agile and the priority given to this by leaders.

But leaders have to be as agile as anyone else.

5

EMPLOY THE RIGHT TECH Invest in technology that will make you more agile and responsive, and help the organisation to use it effectively. Our research shows that, when it comes to cascading communications about change, leadership comms and email are the most effective methods. And don’t underestimate the importance of good old-fashioned meetings.

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Start your journey to Chartered CIPR CPD is a free online platform where you can plan and record everything you do to develop your knowledge and skills.

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#InvestinCPD 11/04/2017 19/04/2017 12:02 15:34

IT’S LONELY IN-HOUSE

Lonely PR professional seeks others for friendship and support Alan Sillitoe famously wrote about The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner but no-one has, as yet, highlighted the solitary struggle of the solo in-house PR practitioner

BY REBECCA SNOW ommunications is a people profession. In fact, that’s often what draws graduates and others to it. So moving in-house from an agency can be a shock on many levels.

Firstly, the speed of activity changes a lot. You rarely have an account director chasing you. You’re now the chaser.

Secondly, it’s something of a surprise to move from an environment where PR is king to a place where no-one really cares, much less understands, the concept (until, of course, there’s a crisis that you’ve tried to prepare people for – remember that email about media training that no-one responded to?).

I work as a solo PR practitioner in a busy and vibrant architectural studio, but every time I come to the office I have to look to myself to generate the day’s activity. Clearly, plans start to develop momentum, but it is hard being the only person to discuss ideas with, make judgement calls or prepare for the next six months. Yes, my directors are committed to and believe in the power of PR, but they are running a business and answering clients, so it’s easy for PR to slip down the agenda.

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As an in-house practitioner, you miss the camaraderie of an agency, if only to check that an image looks right, a tweet reads perfectly, or the text for a website makes sense. These are precisely the small things that busy people don’t want to be bothered with – unless you’ve got them wrong. Most of what you do goes unremarked, but I’ve taken that to mean I’m doing it right.

To work alone, you need to have confidence in your abilities and choices and be ready to defend them. I would never recommend working in-house as a sole practitioner to a young PR professional – learning and working in a team is incredibly valuable and great fun.

Setting out key activities throughout the year helps to give me focus. I also prepare a brief monthly summary of my activities, much as I would for a client.

Not only does this show my value but it

When you’re in-house, you miss the camaraderie of an agency

also reminds me of all the things I’ve done. It can be easy to downplay your role but you should be proud of what you do. After all, if you’re working alone, no-one else is keeping your company’s profile high and protecting its reputation.

I also use the team in my office as my very own tiny PR army, encouraging them to be proud of the company’s work, sharing details of award wins and new business, and making them think of themselves as ambassadors for our brand. We may be doing very different jobs but the goal is the same. We want our business to be successful.

So, while there are challenges to solo working, the benefits are huge. Yes, it can be harder to take a strategic overview, and easier to get mired in the day-to-day, but that is no bad thing: the day-to-day keeps things moving on. Every tweet, Instagram post and LinkedIn thought piece – they all count. And you get the glory when the big stuff happens.

So perhaps I won’t place my lonelyhearts ad just yet. No job is perfect but I’m happy to be single – just don’t tell my husband.

Rebecca Snow is in-house PR manager at Stiff + Trevillion INFLUENCE.CIPR.CO.UK Q2 2017 65

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19/04/2017 14:21

THE BACK STORY Fortune favours the enterprising

or years, I’ve been banging on about entrepreneurship and the contribution of small companies to the UK economy. Blah, blah, blah – change the record, Matthew.

Over time, I’ve refined my thinking as it’s become clear that not all of us are cut out to be an entrepreneur. As legendary bookseller Tim Waterstone often says, you need to be particularly thick-skinned to run your own business. It simply isn’t for everyone.

What we all do need is to be more ‘enterprising’. This is a subtle but important distinction: if everyone in Britain could be, say, 20% more enterprising, selfreliant and inventive, we’d be in better shape for the post-Brexit economy and a world in which self-employment, underfunded pensions and multiple career changes are the norm. As Professor Yuval Harari, the influential author of Sapiens and Homo Deus, told me recently (see page 44): “To compete as an individual in the 21st century, the ability to change will be one of the most important mental abilities.”

You witness this enterprising spirit a lot among young communications professionals; it seems to come naturally. Shaun Bell of Stripe Communications, crowned ‘Outstanding Young Communicator’ at the 2016 CIPR Excellence Awards, says that, when he interviews young people for placements, “you get a feel for those who create opportunities for themselves”.

PR professional Florence Stiff lived in my loft for several years – not in a Jane Eyre way, but because it was cheap lodgings as Florence (my wife’s niece) patiently laboured her way through interminable ‘work experience opportunities’, unpaid internships and placements in PR agencies. (Only after she moved on did we discover that the radiator in her room had been broken all that time, so, as well as

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The best young comms pros aren’t just thinking about their careers in a new, more enterprising way – they’re rethinking what PR itself is

having to endure many rebuffs and disappointments, she’d been lightly chilled, too. Sorry, Flo.) Florence now works for cultural communications company Sutton, advising arts organisations. She recently helped launch a campaign in Hong Kong introducing the global art press to the luxury watch brand Audemars Piguet. Looking back at how she got into public relations, she says: “The world of PR is such a broad network of people who all know each other – one connection led to another. Over time, I have realised the importance of building relationships with people.” Here’s the key bit: “Opportunities are always there; it is just a matter of finding them.”

Maybe it was always like this – Christopher Columbus went to sea at the age of 13 and had to swim to Portugal after his ship was attacked by pirates. But, having talked to many young comms pros since we launched Influence, it’s clear that the best ones aren’t just thinking about their careers in a new, more enterprising way – they’re rethinking what PR itself is.

For Shaun Bell, the industry is changing so much that it’s hard for people entering it to know exactly what they’re going into. For him, modern PR comes down to reputational management and storytelling.

For Florence Stiff, PR is “a mix of brand consulting, event management, and long-term and short-term brand strategy”.

Neither dismiss the importance of traditional media relations, in the same way that they wouldn’t dismiss the value of preparing properly for a formal job interview, but what they really focus on is being adaptable and agile. And it helps if you have a thick coat.

Matthew Rock’s first job was creating a rubbish sports quiz for BBC Northern Ireland. Tweet him: @matthewrock

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19/04/2017 15:19

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