A review from my seat on the PRCA Digital Report launch panel

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I was very pleased to recently be asked to sit on a panel at the launch of the PRCA Digital Report. But it quickly became clear that many of the problems keeping big agencies awake at night are simply not things we have to worry about.

I also couldn’t help but agree with a few familiar faces in the audience that there really is no “analogue” and “digital” PR. Often, Digital is just a word used to replace “new”.

It’s a bit like when people use the word “millennial” instead of just saying “young people”.

So, looking at the findings, what’s not new?

Online media. Once new, now ordinary (special mention to “online press release distribution.”)

Blogger outreach. Once new, now ordinary.

Is it really that hard to see things like making videos and continuing to integrate social into strategy seamlessly becoming normal?

All technology is really just a matter of evolution. It’s about enhancement and adaptation — all words that describe starting with something and gradually growing or changing that thing.

The thing about this is, we can expand into these new areas most successfully by using what we have been great at historically.

Look at two of the fastest-growing budget areas: Video and sponsored social.

Who is better suited than PRs to find stories, interviews, customers, great material that can be used for video?

Who is better suited than PRs to help produce short, focused stories and pitch-like snippets to amplify on social — especially then we have often been the genesis of the great owned or earner material being megaphoned?

If you already do case studies, think about how you can record and flip the output of those interviews in a constellation of different ways.

If you already pitch stories to journalists and influencers online, why not interview them back about the wider context for your own blog?

I’m a firm believer that what made us great at “old” PR will continue to make us great at the new.

Stop asking if you can do something digital. Start thinking about how you can do something new.

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Observations from Level 39 office hours

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One of the pleasures of what we do is being invited into accelerators like Level 39, Barclays Fintech and TravelTech to give time to the next generation of young startups.

Every time we wrap up one of these sessions, it strikes me how the themes progress between the different conversations and how I think it says something about the current state of the startup ecosystem.

I’m sharing some simple notes here, in the hope that they may be of interest and use to some of you.

Messaging is a new plateau, not winner takes all

Messaging is the new big trend. As a result many founders are turning their design principles toward this, just as the move to apps became very common in the last few years.

One reaction to this is to think: “won’t your messaging platform just get stomped by Apple, FB, Google and co?” But the interesting thing about messaging is that you don’t have to own the platform to design something valuable that speaks the language of that format.

Quartz new app shows how a messaging dynamic and design language can inform a useful new way of presenting things, whether you are literally running on a messaging platform or not. You get a head start working to this trend, you are immediately compatible with anyone that may think to acquire you and the language of successful messaging apps like Line and WeChat is to integrate a whole variety of third party services into the platform.

Messaging is an opportunity to join the new normal, not just a looming ecosystem war in the hands of a few giants.

Persuading institutions

Often, innovations must play into and function within the realm of more traditional markets or communities. As a result, it can be hard to get the buy in of established key figures and influencers.

One way to tackle this challenge is to think about how you create prestige and opportunity for a core few, that incentivises them to be part of the trend. How do you make disruption aspirational in the eyes of those wed to the old way of doing things?

You may start small — but gathering these first few advocates is like bringing together the first flakes of a snowball, a snowman, then an avalanche.

The entrepreneur is changing

If nothing else, the “Tech City” initiative has made one thing clear: if you want to found a business, London is ready for you.

The variety of founders I have me in the last year is far broader and more diverse than those present five or six years ago. For example, it feels like people who may have been more conservative in the past, who already have existing and growing businesses, are more eager to take the path less trod and disrupt themselves.

This previous experience can be an enormous asset. But, especially if disrupting an existing established biz, you don’t have to have watched every episode of Dragon’s Den to know that investors will quickly push for the old business to die and the focus to shift entirely to where their interests are.

I love indirect network builders

Some businesses produce a product, sell it to an audience and reap the rewards. Others provide a service, often nearly for free, that fulfils a need and disrupts an industry — but crucially, builds a valuable network of connections at the same time.

Tradeshift was such a business. Facebook did this with photos to establish social connections. Whenever I hear a similar mission, my eyes light up. It’s hard. But it’s valuable.

 

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What If The Press Release Exists For A Reason?

The process of releasing your story to relevant audiences will always be a part of building positive understanding around what you’re doing. But, in this respect, the press release is a verb frozen in noun’s clothing. It has become a clumsy part of antique furniture in the life of a modern PR professional.

For this reason, I’ve been pretty hard on it recently. But today, it struck me that below the seemingly benign, stagnant surface of this old template, there lies a potentially more interesting conceit.

The press release format wraps a story in a natural game, designed to tempt a journalist to free it for their readers.

Thinking social

When trying to foster a community, it’s common to create social objects that get them involved. These can be all sorts of material from writing to pictures to posts to questions or competitions.

The best ones take advantage of something called the Zeigarnik Effect. This is the theory that “people remember uncompleted tasks better than completed tasks” — and will experience a natural desire to ‘close the loop’.

In the case of social objects, this means a piece of material that leaves a clear and simple action unperformed will invite the passive observer to become an active participant.

The aspiration

For a while, I’ve advocated replacing the traditional press release with more specific and modern pieces of material: for (a slightly stuffy) example, an announcement bylined to your leadership and supporting key facts as bullet points.

But the issue here is, by creating a more efficient and immediately interesting way to read the story, you have added a full stop. And the better a job you do at making that an interesting read, the more potent the effect of closing the circle becomes.

On some deeper level, you have made the journalist gently redundant and passive, instead of potentially provoking them to add value and feel empowered.

My point here is not that PRs are some kind of Machiavellian masterminds, swirling potions of datelines and quotes about excited CEOs. It’s that perhaps a fit has organically emerged between the mindset and goals of professional media and this common format.

I discussed an early draft of this piece with Chris Lake, who spent many years on the other side of the fence at Econsultancy, and now runs Empirical Proof. From his perspective, some of the beauty of the game is in this familiarity:

“Digestibility is a big deal. Games that have difficult to comprehend instructions are often abandoned before they are played, no matter how good they may be.”

When you see a press release, you know what you’re getting and you know what game you’re playing.

This is one of the challenges with innovation in the PR business. If the output is too unfamiliar to other stakeholders, you may have shot yourself in the foot.

I’ll be honest, I still hate it.

You’ll notice that I’m not saying the press release is a desirable thing or the best way to share a story. I still don’t believe it is, especially for anything beyond building media relations. And, of course it still relies on a story worth saving under the surface.

But I’ll give you this: if there’s one thing the press release does well, it’s creating that feeling of “how on earth did they do such a bad job of telling the real story here?”

For me at least, I can make peace with the release in that sentence by worrying less about the how and more about the why.

I originally published this piece over at The Holmes Report.

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Techstars Fintech Demo Day: Challenges of the startup story

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Having spent time in the thriving, frothing, exhilarating, exhausting, terrifying, illuminating world of tech startups myself at Tradeshift, I think Augur is lucky to have insight and a perspective that many agencies don’t.

Because it’s a world full of people doing the next wave of interesting, important work, Augur proudly dedicates time to mentor programmes for both TechStars Barclays Accelerator and the Canary Wharf based Level 39. It sometimes feels about as close as you can get to being a VC without being a millionaire.

Today’s Techstars demo day demonstrated a complex side to this world that particularly leaps out at us: the difficulty of telling a distinct and compelling story.

Here’s what we noticed from the ten presentations.

1. Where’s the depth to your story?

My guilty habit is trying to find the thing a founder doesn’t want to tell you. In real life, it can make me seem like a cold bastard — but as a mentor, I think that’s one of the most valuable things we can provide.

In practice, what this also means is if you don’t tell me the very serious things, I’ll suspect there’s a reason you aren’t. God knows, your story and communications are going to be scrutinised from every angle at this stage of the company. We can help plug those holes (even if it’s possibly by bashing at chinks in the armour.)

This also extends to how you construct that story. It’s all too easy to fall into the generic — size of market, challenge being solved, team and experience. Sitting ten presentations back to back really reveals the underlying genre. Naturally, fitting a model helps and often works. But maybe there’s an opportunity to lay the icing on the cake and gain a memorable advantage. Don’t miss it.

2. Differentiator difficulty

Is it enough to be so close to existing, great companies but be on mobile or on the blockchain? In the latter case especially, there’s a weird chasm where what you’re describing can be so so simple (a marketplace for Bitcoin) that it seems both a bit meek — and curiously impossible. I.e. If such basic things haven’t been done yet, what’s the big looming challenge I don’t know about?

One of the most interesting companies that spoke today let its advantage via blockchain remain almost entirely implicit. This is because there was a match between the concept of the company and blockchain as the tool to solve it. That makes a big difference vs saying you’re simply building a tool/ service for that platform.

3. Is technology the solution?

When you have to set up a challenge and solution for slides, you can easily set up a straw man and knock it down. In the real world, resistance to technology is an everyday and sometimes near insurmountable nightmare.

There’s no doubt buyers are more advanced than they were in years gone by but this journey still feels work in progress. There’s also something intriguing in how technology can become a panacea for those with a mildly entrepreneurial mindset, sitting in their job and wondering “why is this harder to use than Facebook”?

Having just the right balance of understanding how technology businesses are different and also having spent years in a particular vertical where you see a specific and non-obvious problem is rare.

Both today and from speaking with her previously, Everledger co-founder Leanne Kemp was a remarkable demonstration of this. Market specific experience advantage in her background, already working to the bone to get the work done, already working with the right kind of people, history of previous companies. A definite one to watch.

In a world where you hear confident setup slides, market value etc you start to rely on these kinds of things as indicators of the real ones to watch.

The Game of B2B

Despite all these challenges,the companies really demonstrate why unsexy B2B tech, including fintech, retail tech and more, is thriving right now.

Even with the potentially weakest of these concepts, they are speaking an ultra clear language. It’s not about getting 100m consumers to download an app or buy a fizzy drink, it’s about targeting a clear and specific group of valuable companies and helping them make or save 100s of millions of dollars.

That’s a game of value we’re really delighted to see continue to thrive and play our own small part in.

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The Right to a Good Story

A small visit to the Economist’s Big Rethink event got me… thinking.

I never fail to be amazed by the way some marketers talk of the time before I arrived in this industry.

On one hand, there’s all this chat about data. As if marketers used to operate by a kind of soothsaying intuition, divining the thoughts of audiences like oracles to the Gods. Maybe it was this way. But I doubt it.

On the other hand, there’s discussion of some heady, halcyon days when audiences had no way to avoid marketing messages. When you could just pump cash into channels and guarantee your target had it rubbed in their face.

By contrast, they seem to bemoan the fact that, today, you have to actually create material people want to pay attention to. They speak with a mottled nostalgia for the power and influence over opinion that money once bequeathed them. Can that be for real?

But (and without using the increasingly over-employed term ‘democratisation’) I think there’s something even more important in all this. And it gets to the root of why the PR and communications function is so important today.

And maybe it’s something that was always true in the background somewhere.

Control

There was a time when control — of the media, of audiences’ attention etc was a matter of buying space in the right place at the right time. PR relationships were ultimately just another way to buy media attention to complement your adverts. They’d force stories into the media simply because a journalist owed them a favour.

All of this created a warped and broken feedback loop. A great, effective story needs an engaged, interested audience. That’s how you know you’re onto something. One of a brand’s key missions, especially up front should be finding a sort of message/market fit, as one facet of their product/market fit.

If you cut out a key feedback signal i.e. “your story is boring/ this isn’t news/ I don’t want to watch this advert and stupid patronising message”, then you eliminate a key, valuable signal that tells you your story isn’t good enough. That you don’t have the right fit yet. And so, you never get better.

The right to better

If it sounds like I’m talking about some form of reputational justice here — where those doing something good and finding a story that matters are rewarded — that’s no coincidence.

In a time where this is so important, I believe there’s something to be said for the idea every company deserves the best possible shot at declaring and communicating what makes them great. Today’s brutal brand transparency should be empowering those organisations who are genuinely doing a good job. But that is only true if they can communicate what makes them great with clarity and power.

Just as lawyers must represent their client in court, agencies should look at their responsibility as identifying companies’ singular, core strengths and help them express that to thrive. Of course, noise alone won’t get them far, so the measurement, the strategy tied tightly to real business objectives — all these pragmatic elements are essential too.

But at its heart, the right to a good story is something I think even the worst and most incompetent companies should be able to enjoy. Because then, once you have given them every chance, if you still find them wanting, it’s because they are genuinely inferior or flawed.

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#PRstack and PRgeeks.co give PRs the tools they need

Just recently, Danny Whatmough and I were discussing the future of PR tech on our semi-regular podcast “Digital Wake”. I’ve embedded it below (so now’s a good time to catch up…)

Toward the end of our discussion, we agreed there’s a long sprawling tail of agency-shaped businesses that know they could be adapting and upgrading their offering — but just don’t know how.

We must acknowledge that outdated techniques are not just suboptimal for those who deliver them — but bad for us all (not to mention the poor bloody clients.)

It’s with that in mind, that we’ve taken great pleasure working with Prezly and Stephen Waddington to launch a couple of initiatives next week — designed precisely to narrow this divide. In PR, there will be no such thing as the digital haves and have nots. Anyone will be able to find the tools they need — and implement them with smart strategy and advice.

#PRstack

#PRstack is the initiative that started it all — a creation of the indomitable Stephen Waddington, fresh off his year-long CIPR presidential stint. What began as a crowdsourced Google Doc, has quickly grown to over 150 tools for PRs in areas from measurement to management.

Prezly has stepped up to build a simple interface that makes it easy for any PR to find tools fit for purpose and get a short description of key characteristics. The new #PRstack front end is, quite simply, made for you.

PRgeeks.co

But if it was a matter of just finding the tools, this problem would have been solved long ago. In tandem, Prezly has created PRgeeks.co, a resource that guides everyone from novices to masters on putting #PRstack tools straight into practice.

And, just for good measure, it has a ton of useful top 5s as well, including everything from who to follow on Twitter to which regular PRchats will help unlock your inner PR Geek. Check it out.

We’ve got the PRCA on board (since I help run the technology group.) We’ve got the CIPR on board (through @GemGriff) and Stephen Waddington), we’ve got the infamous TechJPR group (formerly UKTJPR) involved. And we’re working on the rest.

This industry will only change if we take action. The breadth of tools and skills needed to understand great communications strategy today is greater than ever. But the ways in which they actually simplify our focus are often underestimated.

These tools and techniques are key to everyone doing a great job in PR. I hope you’ll all support and promote them as much as we plan to at Augur.

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#PRstack and PRgeeks.co give PRs the tools they need

Just recently, Danny Whatmough and I were discussing the future of PR tech on our semi-regular podcast “Digital Wake”. I’ve embedded it below (so now’s a good time to catch up…)

Toward the end of our discussion, we agreed there’s a long sprawling tail of agency-shaped businesses that know they could be adapting and upgrading their offering — but just don’t know how.

We must acknowledge that outdated techniques are not just suboptimal for those who deliver them — but bad for us all (not to mention the poor bloody clients.)

It’s with that in mind, that we’ve taken great pleasure working with Prezly and Stephen Waddington to launch a couple of initiatives next week — designed precisely to narrow this divide. In PR, there will be no such thing as the digital haves and have nots. Anyone will be able to find the tools they need — and implement them with smart strategy and advice.

#PRstack

#PRstack is the initiative that started it all — a creation of the indomitable Stephen Waddington, fresh off his year-long CIPR presidential stint. What began as a crowdsourced Google Doc, has quickly grown to over 150 tools for PRs in areas from measurement to management.

Prezly has stepped up to build a simple interface that makes it easy for any PR to find tools fit for purpose and get a short description of key characteristics. The new #PRstack front end is, quite simply, made for you.

PRgeeks.co

But if it was a matter of just finding the tools, this problem would have been solved long ago. In tandem, Prezly has created PRgeeks.co, a resource that guides everyone from novices to masters on putting #PRstack tools straight into practice.

And, just for good measure, it has a ton of useful top 5s as well, including everything from who to follow on Twitter to which regular PRchats will help unlock your inner PR Geek. Check it out.

We’ve got the PRCA on board (since I help run the technology group.) We’ve got the CIPR on board (through @GemGriff) and Stephen Waddington), we’ve got the infamous TechJPR group (formerly UKTJPR) involved. And we’re working on the rest.

This industry will only change if we take action. The breadth of tools and skills needed to understand great communications strategy today is greater than ever. But the ways in which they actually simplify our focus are often underestimated.

These tools and techniques are key to everyone doing a great job in PR. I hope you’ll all support and promote them as much as we plan to at Augur.

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Why Augur – 1 year on

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Today, if you can imagine something, it’s easier than ever to create it. But in such a world, where anything is possible, intent has become crucial. Why must this particular thing exist?

At the same time, it’s not rare to see competitors race ahead of worthier foes simply by virtue of communicating their take on that ‘why’ with more volume or more breadth. It’s clear that even though you are patently great at what you do, that doesn’t immediately equip you to squeeze every drop of value out of your story.

It doesn’t have to be like this. And for Augur, this leads in to why we believe great PR matters today.

Augur is built on a simple concept:

“If you can communicate your true strength accurately, success will follow.”

Reputation reputation reputation

More than ever, PR and communications strategy isn’t a glossy sheen applied at the last minute, (or worse: in moments of crisis), it’s rooted in the bones of a good business. It’s exhaled with the excellence of your service.

PR has historically claimed to help you punch above your weight. Today, it can help you put on real muscle instead. In a world where where your reputation is inevitably jabbed day in day out, this is more important than ever. Especially since those punches are often coming, not from trolls, but newly enfranchised stakeholders with a way to get real attention.

Only substance can weather such incessant scrutiny.

Getting started

In the last year, we’ve learned a lot and we’ve done a lot. The new systems and business model we are pioneering are now certified ISO compliant, we’re PRCA audited (as well as running the PRCA Technology group), we’re active CIPR a members, helped launch #PRstack, have worked with 20+ companies and have grown the team in our HQ at Somerset House.

The exciting thing about writing up what we’ve learned in these 12 quick months is not just the substance of how we have developed. It’s the prospect of where we, our work and our clients will be in another 12. Then another. And another.

Thank you to everyone that has given us the opportunity to prove PR can be better and do better. And welcome to everyone reading this who may be considering that remit.

We’re ready for the next stage. I hope we’ll see you there.

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Get over the newsfeed

For the Guardian: Marketers must get over their social newsfeed obsession.

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We’ve started writing for the Guardian. First up, about how it’s hard to properly understand changing use of social networks if you stay hung up on your own expectations.

When your Facebook includes everyone you know, the feed is inevitably going to become like “an awkward family dinner party we can’t really leave”. You haven’t selected what’s showing up anymore, it’s just aggregated noise. Why should it reflect your interests? Especially when it’s only one of a number of sources most people frequent these days.

Read the full article on The Guardian here — and let us know what you think.

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The Media Relations Paradox

Imagine if the most valuable thing you could offer was close relationships with journalists. Not to say there isn’t power and potential in those — but imagine if that was what your whole proposition hinged upon in 2014.

I can’t work out which way the chicken and egg of this value in the PR industry started — but it’s still one of those things people talk about when they talk about PR. Even some great companies approach Augur expecting us to talk about the strong links we have with major editors.

I think this perception is one layer too superficial vs PR’s real potential today. It’s one of the things  I talked about with Danny Whatmough on Digital Wake, our new semi-regular podcast about PR and technology (blame him prioritising his wedding over sitting with me in a soundproof room.) It also links up with Stephen Waddington’s recent #PRforPR campaign (more on that here.)

Why PR?

So what’s going on? And what about the voices out there in the PR industry who may be shouting “we’re good at the media relations thing, what’s so bad about that”?

Well, here’s the issue: we’re operating in a world where more or less all the marketing disciplines are converging on the same zone. Within that nexus, there’s one persistent priority. One point around which so much else revolves.

It’s the thing that comes before all the glitz and glamour of advertising, the chummy chatter of social or the obsessive optimisation of search.

PR can lead the charge in helping companies understand and articulate their Meaning.

PR fit for purpose

This is the opportunity. Because our industry has grown up sparring with the media, it has had a century’s head start in grappling with the scrutiny and cynicism of the journalistic mindset.

You couldn’t hope for a better training regime. Because PR has had to learn to harmonise with influential audiences for so long, it has become part of our way of operating. In the marketing multiplex, it defines the direction of our industry’s potential.

This is what I think we can focus on. Yes, journalists develop relationships with good PRs and yes there’s some value there. But they are the result of our real skill and specialisation: Identifying and amplifying a company’s meaning to tell its story, for whichever audience matters.

When it comes to propositions you can be proud of, I think that’s worth shouting about.

Photo Credit: Esparta via Compfight cc

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