The days following a big event can feel anti-climactic. But having just wrapped up Ragan’s Communications Week, I am lifted up rather than let down.

Something special was in the air last week at the Future of Communications Conference in Austin. That shared oxygen is fueling some much-needed optimism about the state of society and the future for communicators.

Our theme this year for CommsWeek was “All Together Now.” What seemed a bit Pollyanna-ish leading up to the event became prophetic once we gathered 800+ people in the Hyatt Regency to learn, network and get a break from the routine.

Of all the outcomes from CommsWeek — be it advancing communicators around crisis management, brand storytelling, AI, employee engagement (I could go on and on!) — the biggest outcome just might be our success at bringing people together.

So much of a communicator’s role exists behind the scenes, elevating a story, a person, an issue. During CommsWeek, attendees elevated one another. They took center stage.

There was a palpable recognition among fellow attendees: We see you, we hear you, we have each other’s backs. The more we lean on the wisdom of this crowd the taller we stand.

This is the magic of live events.  No language learning model can replace eye contact, a handshake, a hug, collective laughter.

I see a near future where AI will improve productivity so significantly that more time  becomes available for human interactions like these.

What’s working?

I talked to many execs last week who shared how much they missed seeing their co-workers and peers. Going into the office has become novel for some. We’re still working through the calculus of three days, two days, fully remote. It all adds up to less human connection than in decades past.

In an inarguably divisive time, we came together last week and broke bread with people whose ideologies were outshined by their identities as communicators and as storytellers.

To simplify: We need to make connecting a more intentional act, for ourselves and for those in our organizations.

I am fortunate to be part of a “moving office” that allows me to hang out with my Ragan team in person as we hold conferences and other events nearly every month of the year. There is nothing more satisfying for me than seeing my team work together and bond. They even include me in some of their jokes. But connection is no laughing matter: it’s mission critical.

Communications Week’s success will be complete if we managed to not only connect the dots on the tough issues but also helped comms leaders connect with one another. Let me know if we met our goal.

And if we haven’t met yet in person, let’s meet soon.

Don’t miss out next year — Future of Communications 2025 will be held Nov. 12-14 back in Austin, Texas. Register today! 

The post When humans meet other humans appeared first on PR Daily.

The post CCO at Land O’Lakes cultivates a positive perspective to yield results appeared first on PR Daily.

Before moving to New York City to run Edelman’s New York office in 2022, Margot Edelman ran its San Francisco office, managing a team of 170 employees and focusing on technology clients. That Bay Area experience led to dual roles in New York – as general manager of the agency’s largest office and co-lead of its Tech Practice.

She’s a third-generation powerhouse within the Edelman family.  A leader at one of the largest PR agencies in the world, with more than 6,000 employees across 60 offices worldwide, Margot holds an MBA from Harvard and is a Young Global Leader with the World Economic Forum. She’s also an active member of many industry boards, including Ragan’s Communications Week Board.

In this latest installment of Wonder Women, we go inside the Edelman world with Margot as she shares her take on agency culture, team leadership, the changing media landscape, and the rising role of influencers and creators — plus a surprising finding from the latest Edelman Trust Barometer.

Margot and sisters Amanda (middle) and Tory.

Origin Story

DIANE: Share how you got here, as general manager of the Edelman NY office, and co-lead of the Tech Practice. 
MARGOT: I’ve had a dynamic journey at Edelman that’s shaped my leadership in the New York office and Tech Practice. While leading the Bay Area Hub, I focused on technology clients and building strong relationships with key stakeholders in Silicon Valley. Before that, I headed Edelman’s Technology Practice in the Bay Area, where I guided major tech companies like Infosys and Adobe on reputation management and trust-building. Today, as general manager of the New York office and co-lead of Tech Practice, I continue to drive growth and innovation, helping clients navigate the complexities of the global market.

Leadership

DIANE: What’s the most important quality a comms leader must possess? 
MARGOT: In communications, being able to think on your feet is essential. The media landscape is always shifting, with new developments happening all the time. A good comms leader needs to react quickly to those changes and help clients stay ahead of the curve. It’s about being adaptable and finding the right opportunities in real-time, so you’re always ready to respond.

DIANE: How would you describe your leadership style? 

MARGOT: I believe in leading by example and staying positive, even when things get tough, and showing my team and clients that there’s always a way forward. I think when you lead with optimism and purpose, it encourages others to do the same.

DIANE: How do you inspire your team? 
MARGOT: Much like my leadership style, I believe in inspiring through action. I approach challenges with positivity and look for solutions, which I believe helps the team feel more confident and motivated. By showing them what’s possible and leading with a clear vision, I try to create an environment where they feel encouraged to innovate and push boundaries.

Culture

DIANE: Fill in the blank: The future of communications is _________________. 
MARGOT: The future of communications is always changing. The landscape is evolving faster than ever, with new platforms, technologies and trends emerging every day.

DIANE: With remote work, how do you help the next generation stay connected and learn from their peers? What about helping veteran comms people learn from younger generations? 
MARGOT: We’ve embraced a hybrid approach, with three days a week in the office to keep that in-person collaboration going. Encouraging people to come in more often fosters those spontaneous conversations and learning moments that are hard to replicate virtually. It’s important for younger team members to absorb that real-time feedback and interaction, and at the same time, veterans can benefit from fresh perspectives and digital-savvy insights from the next generation.

DIANE: Some ways that you attract top talent? 
MARGOT: We focus on working with some of the most innovative and interesting companies out there. This not only attracts top talent but also allows our team members to engage in groundbreaking projects and develop new offerings, encouraging everyone to bring their ideas to the table and innovate in their roles.

DIANE: DEI, as a term at least, has taken a hit – your view?
MARGOT: Having a diverse workforce is incredibly important as our team should reflect the broader society we serve. While the term DEI may have faced criticism, the underlying principle remains vital: fostering an inclusive environment where diverse perspectives are valued. It enhances creativity and drives better decision-making, ultimately leading to more effective outcomes for our clients.

The Work

DIANE: Share a client success that underscores Edelman’s value proposition. 
MARGOT: One standout example is our work with the George Kaiser Family Foundation. We partnered closely with them to highlight their impactful initiatives in the community, and the results really showcased our ability to drive meaningful conversations and create lasting change. It reinforced Edelman’s value proposition by demonstrating how we can help clients connect deeply with their audiences.

DIANE: What technologies are you most excited about for Edelman and for your clients? 

MARGOT: Comms is evolving so rapidly, and I’m particularly excited about the opportunities presented by influencers and creators. These technologies are changing the way we tell stories and engage with audiences. They allow us to approach things from a fresh perspective, leveraging new platforms to reach people in ways that resonate.

DIANE: Thoughts on some communicators’ fears around AI impacting their role? 
MARGOT: I think there’s a lot of potential for AI to enhance our work rather than replace it. Ideally, these tools will enable us to do things more quickly and efficiently, whether it’s creating images or videos or analyzing data. It’s about leveraging technology to free us up for more strategic thinking and creative storytelling.

DIANE: Is there anything in the latest Edelman Trust Barometer that surprises you? 
MARGOT: I find the fear of innovation particularly interesting. It’s intriguing to see how data reflects people’s hesitations about change, especially in our industry. But it also underscores the importance of staying adaptable and open to new ideas in the face of that fear.

DIANE: How have client expectations changed in the last few years and what do you anticipate two years from now? 
MARGOT: While clients expect measurable outcomes, they’re increasingly open to exploring a variety of communication channels, not just traditional earned media (while still crucial). Channels like LinkedIn and collaborations with influencers are becoming more prominent in the mix. I anticipate this trend will continue, leading to an even broader set of tools that we can leverage to meet client goals.

DIANE: Would you say there is journalist fatigue, and if so, how do you combat that from a media relations perspective? 
MARGOT: If there is journalist fatigue, our job as communicators is to tell compelling stories that stand out and interest reporters. By focusing on quality and relevance, we can engage journalists with narratives that truly resonate, making our outreach more effective and meaningful.

Self

DIANE: Take us through a typical workday – what time do you wake up, what’s your morning routine, how many meetings, best part of your day? How do you close out the day? 

MARGOT: I usually wake up early and like to start my day by reading the news to stay informed for the day ahead. After that, I make an effort to fit in a workout before the workday begins, as my mornings can get packed with meetings that often last until the end of the day. I always carve out time for breakfast and occasionally meet with clients for drinks, which is one of the highlights of my day.

DIANE: Personal habits that work? A habit you want to shed? 
MARGOT: I tend to be about five minutes late to things, which is something I’d like to shed.

DIANE: Technology you can’t live without:
MARGOT: Smartphone

DIANE: Work-life harmony – if you do it, how do you do it? 
MARGOT: When work gets heavy, I lean into it. Conversely, when things slow down, I take a breath and use that time to reset.

Margot skiing in Japan.

To all Wonder Women: Show the world your shine! Enter Ragan’s Top Women in Communications by Oct. 25 to get the flowers you deserve.

The post Margot Edelman embraces the ever-changing comms landscape appeared first on PR Daily.

The post From ‘sign spotting’ to drag racing, CBRE’s head of comms keeps it interesting appeared first on PR Daily.

The post CMO for Discover Puerto Rico takes the sunny side of storytelling appeared first on PR Daily.

The post Getting out of her lane drives MMC’s CEO to new heights appeared first on PR Daily.

Diane Schwartz is CEO of Ragan Communications.

The timing was perfect to convene a cohort of communicators. Elon Musk had taken the main stage at the Cannes Lions Festival the day before and snubbed PR.

Musk spoke of the rapid acceleration of AI (20 billion robot companions are coming our way) and he apologized to advertisers whom he famously told last year to “go f-yourselves.” “I do shoot myself in the foot from time to time but at least you know it is genuine, not some sort of PR department deciding things,” he said last week.

Those attending the Communications Leaders Roundtable hosted by Ragan + Muck Rack at Cannes on June 21 knew, unlike Musk, that PR is more influential and impactful than ever before. As I noted in my coverage last week, communicators are gaining influence at Cannes and are finally being recognized more overtly for their role in the campaigns and initiatives being touted throughout the weeklong festival.

Yet among the roundtable participants, there was a recognition that communicators must step up and address critical issues facing their brands, employees and the world as a whole.

The changing role of comms

“So much of what companies deal with is reputation-focused,” said Mary Elizabeth Germaine, chief data and strategy officer at Ketchum. “There’s definitely a blurring of the lines between marketing and PR and a breaking down of the silos. That is very exciting to me.”

Even as newsrooms shrink and the reputation of the media continues to take a hit, participants were optimistic about breaking through the noise with their journalistic counterparts. Julia Monti, SVP of global communications at Mastercard, noted that “earned media is a more valued KPI” than ever before at her company. Muck Rack’s 2024 State of PR report, which launched earlier this month, reported that 88% of PR pros believe that leadership understands their work.

While much of what is highlighted each year at Cannes centers around paid media efforts, Monti and others noted that in panel discussions and in the Lions Awards presentations, the earned media coverage around a campaign was spotlighted more frequently.

Especially for consumer campaigns, PR departments are getting a bigger budget slice for influencer marketing. Rebecca Roberts, director of client services at Powell Communications, noted that LinkedIn influencers are becoming more prevalent and a focus of many of her clients’ B2B campaigns.

Stephanie Graves, CEO of the Lee Andrews Group, said that many of her government clients, ranging from municipalities to airports, have an annual budget spend for influencers. “This is a relatively new thing,” she said.

The AI talk

Conversations around AI always include at least one person rolling their eyes and others cautiously optimistic about the potential. Mastercard’s Monti summed up the utility of AI by noting that it “removes the drudgery from human life.”

AI usage among PR pros jumped from 28% in March 2023 to 64% in December 2024, according to Muck Rack’s 2024 State of AI in PR report. All agreed that employees need to be trained properly on prompt writing and on brand safety/privacy issues, but according to Muck Rack’s study, only about one in five companies are training their employees in the proper usage of AI.

Johna Burke, CEO of AMEC, warned of the bias and lack of standards in AI. At the same time, she sees this as a moment for communicators to shine. “I’m most excited about the changes coming our way,” she said.

Margaret Taylor Tuskey, PR account supervisor at Peter Mayer, spoke excitedly about PR being brought into the creative RFPs and pitches from the start. Germaine pointed to the “emerging tension between AI and creatives” which opens up an opportunity for the comms team to serve as counsel on brand safety and reputational issues.

Experience with and interest in the latest technology, whether it’s media relations platforms or the latest AI tools, are key requisites in hiring communicators. And just as important is hiring emotionally intelligent team members, said Rebecca Loveridge, Ketchum’s EVP, managing director of financial and professional services. “We need to build a communications team that is empathetic,” she said, with people who understand how to connect with other humans.

And amid all the tech talk, it was conversations around simple, human connections that generated buzz at the roundtable. Kellyn Smith Kenny, chief marketing and growth officer at AT&T, during a separate session at Cannes, offered a simple tactic to build stronger bonds with other people at events: Don’t look at badges when you meet other people. Look them in the eye and just meet them for who they are, not what their name tag implies about them.

Amid the high-level conversations and high-tech focus of Cannes, that was a simple, classic strategy for us all to incorporate in our lives.

The post The changing role of comms: The view from Cannes appeared first on PR Daily.

Despite its name, South by Southwest is not easy to navigate. But getting lost in the thousands of sessions, meetups, exhibits and concerts in Austin, Texas every March is much of its appeal. As I explored this year’s festival, I found myself at the intersection of Contradiction and Promise.

Within the first few hours, I attended keynotes and panel discussions stuffed with paradoxes: AI is good; AI is bad; opportunity awaits you; the end is coming. If you’re a lifelong learner with an open mind, this type of discourse is like a bee to honey.

One session focused on interpersonal communication, social atrophy and the need for humans to be more civil. That’s a lot to take in, but workplace expert Amy Gallo reminded us of the multiplier effect that one good deed produces. Considering the political discourse in the U.S. this election year, her tips on how to work with difficult people seemed reasonable and achievable for attendees. (During tough conversations, she advised, “Always grant someone their premise.”)

Not too far down the hallway was a keynote about “Billion Dollar Teams” fueled by generative AI. Ian Beacraft, founder and chief futurist of Signal and Cipher, spoke optimistically about the pervasiveness of AI and a future where one person can run a billion-dollar company, thanks to AI. In a nod to Publicis Chief Growth Officer Rishad Tobaccowala, he reiterated that “The future does not fit in the containers of the past.”

People who need people

Beacraft shared future-of-work scenarios, such as the manager-employee meeting in which the manager is in AI form. In this possibly far-fetched scenario, your boss won’t need to show up for your check-in because their AI version will suffice. This technology may be coming to an office near you. How this impacts manager communications is something we might want to bake into the 2025 strategic comms plan.

Bleeding-edge technology like generative AI means fewer paper cuts and more time for strategic and satisfying work. The average employee spends 32 days a year searching for documents or information, said Beacraft. With AI, that time will be whittled down to hours. What will they be doing with that extra time, assuming they still have a job? Beacraft’s assertion was they’ll forge better social connections, and teams will be more efficient. “The small team is the ultimate flex,” he said.

There is undoubtedly a dark side to AI, just as there are with other technologies. Whether you’re a communicator, a teacher, a doctor or a lawyer, future teams will be built with AI and people in mind.  The good news, promised Beacraft, is that people will have more time for other people.

Lastly, I stumbled upon a standing-room-only session led by Noah Kagan, author of the new book “Million Dollar Weekend,” and founder of the wildly successful, entrepreneur-focused software marketplace AppSumo. Kagan extolled the virtues of hard work and grit and the power of that first dollar earned.

The room was full of what Kagan calls “wantrepreneurs” whose business ideas ranged from custom jewelry to a local hiking app. Promise permeated the room. There was no talk of AI, as Kagan focused on time-tested advice such as “Just Ask.”  Successful people seek help from the people around them — family, colleagues and friends.

As we integrate AI into our work lives, we’ll be doing this together, not alone. Just ask for help. We’ll be leaning into one another for insights and ways to make the workplace, our communities and the world more human.

These three SXSW sessions underscore the paradoxical new world we’re stepping into: We want to understand AI, to embrace not fear it. We want social connection — we know we need that to be whole. And we shouldn’t stop dreaming, even if we can’t stand up a million-dollar business in a weekend.

Diane Schwartz is CEO of Ragan Communications. 

The post Generative AI is making us hanker for human interaction appeared first on PR Daily.

➢ Communicators have a steady seat in the boardroom and are taking an active role in crafting corporate policy and voting on pivotal issues.

➢ Generative AI wipes out the busy work and allows communicators time to be strategic, creative and proactive.

➢ The word “strategic” has been scrapped from the term Strategic Communications for its obvious redundancy, and the Chief Communications Officer now reports to the CEO.

➢ DEI and ESG are no longer polarizing labels as the practices of inclusion, diversity and sustainability are as normalized as media relations and community relations.

Is this the future of communications, or is this just a pipe dream? For most communicators, it’s hard to imagine a future in which the scenarios above come to fruition.  

There’s a small cohort, perhaps the ones attending Davos or other economic global forums, who have the seat at the table and the ear of the C-suite. But for most communicators, you are just too busy getting through the day.  

You say you’re too busy. In Ragan’s 2024 Communications Benchmark Report, communicators cite that the top reason they can’t be more strategic is because they are being pulled in too many directions, with tasks and requests that keep them from big-picture strategy. This answer has topped the other choices for the past six years of the Benchmark Report.   

The last several years have been seismic for communicators. As the stakes were raised during the early stages of the pandemic, and amid social justice and geopolitical unrest, communications met the moment. In my three decades in this space, I’ve never seen so much positive movement.  

Communicators were front and center, keeping stakeholders informed, employees safe and connected. They weren’t in the boardroom, per se, but they were (and arguably are today) at the heart of their organization, not missing a beat.  

The risk is real

But the more things changed, the less it stuck. As we look to the near future, we risk a slide back.  

The tremendous influence and authority gained from 2020 to 2023 is at risk of slipping through the many priorities organizations face unless there is a collective awareness that Comms is still taking a back seat to other roles in the organization. Communicators need to come together around the core issues impacting society and their organizations and assume a role they might not have deemed themselves worthy of when they first entered the profession.  

The stage is set to take the lead role on critical issues of the day: AI’s impact on work and society, employee upskilling, brand management and social issues, misinformation management and ensuring a reasonably diverse and inclusive work culture.  

We are not talking side character or cameo roles — comms should be the lead role in this regular series.  To do this, it’s critical that communicators get curious beyond the walls of its own comms department.  

Here are some ways forward: 

Play in the AI sandbox: Dabble in the potential of AI for you and your team and for the larger organization, asking questions that will positively transform business. Play with AI rather than pray that it won’t impact you. Partner with other communicators to create a framework that moves our profession forward.  

Become business fluent: Treat it like learning a new language and commit to diving into the numbers, getting curious about the ecosystem that drives your business and dashboarding KPIs that truly tie comms to business growth. 

Take the lead in upskilling: AI has accelerated the need for most professionals to develop new skills and competencies (upskilling has always been important). In addition to ensuring you and your comms team are learning new skills, you have the chance to be at the table formulating and overseeing a talent revolution. Somebody’s got to do it – why not you? 

Be comfortable in the fog: With the U.S. election and nearly 40 other elections around the globe in 2024, this will undoubtedly be another year of uncertainty and division within your organization and among your customers and other stakeholders. Communicators will need to manage the murkiness and be the voice of reason, stability and truth. 

Stop being so busy: As mentioned earlier, communicators are busy bees. But as you commit to taking the lead on upskilling, AI and strategic business counseling you’ll find that the stage is yours to take the lead. Decide where you need to spend your time or someone else will decide for you. 

This is all to say: Buckle up, communicators, for an exhilarating ride.  

Diane Schwartz is the CEO of Ragan Communications.  

The post Communicators need to shed cameo role for the lead appeared first on PR Daily.

I envision Mark Weiner reading this piece from his slice of heaven and then calling to applaud my latest work, to ask what I meant by a certain phrase, and by the way, is there anything he could do to help me out this week?

In the two decades I’ve had the honor of knowing Mark, I could always count on him to give the most honest feedback, the most genuine support and without fail a conversation filled with belly laughs and intellectual wit.

Mark’s passing on December 10 is a terrible loss, a life taken too soon. I know Mark wanted to do more and be a part of more great things.  In my view, years ago he had surpassed so many communicators in his contributions to the trade.

He enriched countless lives, personally and professionally. His professional legacy will be one of formidable contributions around PR measurement, evangelizing for research and outcome-based communication strategies.

Early in my career, Mark took me under his wing, connecting me with communicators and media execs whom to this day I count as friends and advisors.

Mark sponsored me throughout my career, giving me an extra boost of confidence, sometimes sprinkled with unsolicited advice (he was always right). As a member of the PR Daily Advisory board, he redefined what it meant to contribute to a board, going above and beyond the original list of responsibilities.

Mark’s most recent book, “PR Technology Data and Insights: Igniting a Positive Return on Your Communications Investment,” is a tangible leave-behind for students and practitioners who appreciate the science behind the communications practice. He made measurement accessible.

He cared about our profession and throughout his career advocated for the role of communications.

I will greatly miss my chats with Mark, his unique insights and ideas, and, most of all, our friendship.

********************************************

A memorial service for Mark Weiner will be held in January 2024. Read more about his life and legacy here. 

The post In honor of Mark Weiner appeared first on PR Daily.

Gather a group of communicators and HR professionals in a room to talk about Return to Office strategies and the intensity of the conversation and energy in the room skyrockets. That was the case when attendees at Ragan’s Employee Experience & Wellness Conference in Denver were asked to make two lists: one of the benefits of working from home and another on the benefits of working in the office. Many expected lopsided results.

But when all was said and done, the group was surprised to see that the numbers of benefits in each column were almost equal. A dead heat.

So what’s all the fuss about going into an office, what with the free coffee, spontaneous conversations and the chance to attend a meeting fully dressed?

“All hell’s going to break loose tomorrow when the new return-to-office guidelines are announced,” one executive at a large PR firm told me. “Some people just never want to come into the office.”

At this conference, attended by communications and HR professionals alike, it was clear that communicators have a heavy weight to carry as they struggle to hold together work cultures that are being redesigned and redefined by the new rules of attendance.

This workplace shift, many years after the start of the pandemic, threatens culture, productivity and talent retention. As one conference attendee noted: “We need to focus on culture, not on why Sally is working from home on Tuesdays.”

From RTO to RTC

Framing return-to-office initiatives as a “return to culture” is an effective way of connecting with employees about this issue. Communicators should lead the way through the messiness and be okay with the idea of internal stakeholders figuring it out together. Getting your return-to-office campaign right requires a close partnership between Communications, HR and the C-suite that puts employee experience front and center. Even with the advancements in AI (see trends below), your human employees are the business drivers.

Ragan has distilled five key challenges communicators are facing — issues that also affect business leaders in Marketing, Sales, HR and Finance. The communicator, however, is in the most unique position of being the eyes and ears of the organization while also creating and owning the brand narrative.

As this year’s theme for Communications Week in November – “Leading the Way” — comes into full focus, communicators should take heed of these five major trends:

1. Focus on a return to culture. Employee behaviors, attitudes and engagement levels are defined only in part by whether they need to come into the office. Employees want to feel heard, respected, challenged, safe. Employers have every right to require that employees return to the office. Those companies finding success with their strategy will be the ones that treat employees with respect whether they’re in person, at home or in the field or factory, and are clear and consistent with their messaging and actions.

2. Lean into generative AI. While we’ve been using and benefiting from artificial intelligence (AI) for decades, new tools like ChatGPT, Bard and Midjourney have made the incredible opportunities—and risks—of automation accessible to communicators in unforeseen ways.  On the positive side, we are already seeing the benefits of AI in terms of overall output, with 82% of respondents saying AI can help them be more productive. As communicators seek to trade in their order-taker status and be more strategic within their organization, they must learn how to put AI to the task to free their focus up for higher-level work.

But many aren’t ready to jump in headfirst just yet. Communicators polled in a recent Ragan/Conference Board Survey on AI, said misinformation and legal uncertainties topped the list of major concerns they have with the tools. This underscores why communicators need to be involved early and often in the conversations at their organizations around use of AI among their employees, creating guidelines for responsible use cases and prompt creation while keeping eyes wide open for misuse of the organization’s intellectual property.

3. Pay attention to manager communications. Employees don’t leave companies; they leave bad leaders. A manager ill-equipped to guide and inform their direct reports threatens the viability of that team and the organization. Communications leaders need to pay close attention to how information cascades in their organization and mend the areas where the flow has slowed from their high-level perspective at the top. Not every employee reads corporate emails or actively listens during town halls. Managers will increasingly rely on communications partners to help them keep their teams informed, engaged and connected.

4. Add mixternal to the mix. Another major change, borne of social media plus the increasing influence of the employee on an organization’s reputation, is the partnership between internal and external comms. More teams than ever are now led by a Chief Communications Officer or head of comms who oversees both internal and external communicators. A communicator operates at their peril if they don’t understand that what’s conveyed internally will be shared externally. And external campaigns impact the organization internally, too — what’s internal is external and vice versa. Mixternal communications recognize this truth, and communicators who craft mixternal strategies will see more airtight outcomes.

5. Be purposeful and practical with your communications. Employees, customers and other stakeholders are no longer just curious where a brand stands on social issues — they are taking note and action. In some cases they’ll leave your company, picket outside it or even stop buying from you. Communicators can no longer be on the receiving end of corporate dictates on social issues. They need to be part of the decision-making process. Actions around environmental, social and governance (ESG) will make or break some brands, especially mid to large-size organizations.

Climate communications is another growing area where communicators can mitigate risk and even help save lives. This year’s devastating fires in Maui and hurricane battering Palm Springs are a reminder that no place on earth is immune to a climate event – be it extreme heat, tornados, wildfires, hurricanes or powerful storms. Keeping employees safe, and confident that their workplace has safety measures in place, is now an expectation.

Communicators have made incredible strides over the past three years in navigating a pandemic, social justice issues and workplace culture changes. The next year will undoubtedly test their mettle. Embracing these five major trends will elevate their status as effective, creative and empathetic business leaders.

Want to discuss these topics more? Please join Diane Schwartz and hundreds of your peers at the Future of Communications Conference being held during Communications Week, on Nov. 6-8 in Austin.

The post Focusing on a ‘return to culture’ puts to rest the return-to-office debate appeared first on PR Daily.

Communications is often a misunderstood discipline. It seems to have loose ties to a company’s bottom line, and it’s apparently far from the corridors of corporate decision-making.

But in the last two years, during a trifecta of crises (public health, social, political), the communications department has been placed front and center, deftly handling essential stakeholder information and prioritizing employee well-being and engagement.

Yet, most communications and PR departments are not tied to revenue. Often seen as a cost center, they tend to float in the organizational chart under Marketing or HR.

The time has come for a change.

Communications is one of the most powerful revenue generators for a company.

And communicators are the architects of a brand’s story, the messengers of critical information, and the stewards of an organization’s reputation and community relations.

The communications department does generate revenue through its campaigns and initiatives. You just don’t hear much about it.

No longer a nice-to-have, a communications department is a must-have for organizations that understand the dynamics between employee and brand, between customer and corporate purpose, and behind trust, transparency, and mission.

Although the chief marketing officer is a common title in most midsize to large organizations, the chief communications officer is a unique find. The lack of CCOs on org charts is reflective of short-sighted organizational thinking and strategy permeating corporate America.

The PR perception problem

PR execs are often not invited into boardroom conversations or strategy and budget meetings because they are seen as supportive, not additive, to revenue decisions. Those on the inside, in employee/internal communications, lament the order-taking role they find themselves in and struggle to find the KPIs that matter most to the C-suite.

Even those at the highest ranks of the PR/communications profession operate without a budget to directly manage. A well-regarded senior executive who recently joined a multinational shared her excitement with me about her finally getting a P&L to manage. After 25 years in communications at Fortune 100 brands, she is now responsible for revenue generation.

Another executive, a VP of internal communications, told me she has never reviewed a budget, and she wanted to find a new job where she would have some fiscal accountability. She is an executive responsible for overseeing communications for arguably the top customer at every organization: the employee.

Fortunately, the dynamics are changing because marketers, HR execs, and the C-suite are starting to see that the communications department is not a loss leader. If you look at brand reputation through a different lens, you can see that Communications generates revenue.

CEOs highly value their communications leaders. CCOs’ most important contributions, according to research that Ragan Communications and HarrisX conducted in October/November 2021 with CEOs and communicators in North America, is protecting the reputation of the company, making data-based decisions, building relationships, and critical thinking. Although CCOs and SVPs of communications also rank those competencies highly for themselves, they gave more weight to empathy and integrity than did the CEOs who were polled.

Of the skills deemed most important by CEOs, team leadership, project management, and data analysis ranked highest, whereas for CCOs writing, media relations, and team leadership ranked highest. The good news is that CEOs and communications leaders were mostly aligned on their opinions of current contributions.

Four steps forward

Communication leaders should take four major steps to work toward being seen as part of business generation and to change the narrative around their role.

1. Prioritize data and measurement

Whether in relation to PR or internal comms, there are metrics that matter to senior leadership. Understand what those are and accept them as the North Star guiding the communications effort. Then measure, iterate, and share those metrics with business leaders, including a straight or dotted line to revenue.

2. Speak up

Ironically, communicators can sometimes lean back out of deference or habit, allowing Marketing, HR, or other business units to speak on their behalf.

Most communicators are excellent at packaging and presenting information—for their peers, especially. Time to expand the audience to include the C-suite, the board, and other stakeholders.

3. Get in the driver’s seat around DEI and ESG

Unpack the alphabet soup of corporate priorities, from diversity, equity, and inclusion to environmental, social, and governance. Communicators are in a prime position to craft strategy around those priorities because they recognize both the need for change and the impact such initiatives have on talent retention, brand reputation, and the bottom line.

Although DEI and ESG initiatives should be co-owned by many business units, communicators need to carve out their ownership piece now.

4. Defend the value of the employee

Businesses continue to grapple with office reopenings, vaccine mandates, the Great Resignation, and more employees’ working from home and demanding a more equitable work/life balance.

Workplace culture is being redefined in ways unforeseen just three years ago, and the dust will not settle for years to come.

In the middle of that are communicators, who have the opportunity to amplify the voice of the employee, create a workplace that keeps employees engaged and motivated, and prove that a healthy workplace equals a healthy business.

Communicators as business leaders

Communicators should not sell themselves short. To be seen as business leaders like their marketing counterparts, they must lead with a business mindset, not a communications mindset. They need to be viewed by leadership as business executives first and communicators second.

Reading a balance sheet and budget, understanding their company’s ecosystem and business dynamics, being fluent in business and economics—those are critical competencies for any communicator who wants to be heard and heeded.

Reputation management, employee communications, media relations, and community engagement are bedrocks of communication, and they do not need to be a revenue line item to be viewed as a revenue generator. The communication department needs to change the narrative and make sure that its value proposition is connected to organizational growth and health.

That is the bottom line for communicators.

This story was originally published on MarketingProfs.

The post How communications is proving its value to the C-suite appeared first on PR Daily.

Communicators, you are at the proverbial fork in the road.

The last few years have demonstrated to the C-suite that your role as a communicator is essential to your organization’s ability to inform stakeholders, help employees and enhance reputation. You are not just part of the transformation of the workplace, you are working up the blueprints and ensuring the foundation is sound.

There’s a reason we chose “Transformation” as the theme of this year’s Communications Week. As a society we are undergoing a transformation—and it is profound and confounding for us all.

As a profession, communications is at a transformative moment. This is not a time to self-congratulate and rest on laurels. It is a time to accelerate and raise expectations. Whether it’s crafting your company’s DE&I and ESG strategies, playing a more active role in recruiting and retaining talent, rethinking and enhancing your relationship with the media, using storytelling to drive revenue, or mitigating organizational risk by seeing around the corners, you and your team are now in a position of strength.

Our editorial team at Ragan and PR Daily reports every day on your successes, how you’ve solved for the challenges and how you’ve proven your worth. In my 20+ years in this industry, the pace of acceleration has never been so fast and furious. Let’s face it: Your role is as bumpy as the road that has led us here. You’re still struggling for resources and not always invited into the board room, even the Zoom board meetings.

Is all your amazing work—your potent storytelling and strategic initiatives—hiding in plain sight?

Of the two forks in this road, one path familiar: settling for a small slice of the budget, hanging out in the middle of the org chart and often feeling like an order-taker. The other fork is the more exciting path, where you ride this momentum and rewrite the future of communications.

Of the two paths, the transformational one is paved with more resistance. But the rewards are higher, and you’re stronger than ever.

Leading up to Communications Week Nov. 15-19 and our signature Future of Communications Conference on Nov. 17, I implore you to think about what you want the industry to look like 10 years from now. What will you be doing and what will your role entail? Will you and your team be part of the change you want to see? Will you be more influential inside your organization? Or, during this decisive moment, did you choose the other road?

Let’s use our expertise in community relations to bring communicators together to define our future.

The post Communicators, it’s time to choose your path appeared first on PR Daily.

I am overjoyed to share that Ragan Communications has acquired Communications Week, the preeminent event and thought leadership brand for communicators worldwide. This year’s flagship event will take place November 15-19, and I am hoping you and your team will join us. Your role as brand managers, storytellers, messengers and strategists has never been more important and influential — and that is what Communications Week is all about.

We are reimagining Communications Week as a year-round endeavor. The rollout will begin next month with thought-provoking content on the future of communications on Commsweek.com, Ragan.com and PRDaily.com, culminating with a weeklong series in November that will feature conferences, networking events, workshops, webinars and more. Our industry partners will also be hosting events during Communications Week in a combination of virtual and in-person gatherings around the globe. To unite as a community—in the same room, bumping elbows—will be a treat and a feat in and of itself.

This acquisition represents our commitment to a community that for more than 50 years has relied on Ragan for education, connection and inspiration. We are humbled by this opportunity and will be looking to you for ideas and suggestions as we support your efforts to be the best communicators that you can be.

To find out more about Communications Week and our plans, please see the press release on CommsWeek.com, and we hope to see you for a week of connection, learning and celebrating the communications role later this year.

The post Ragan acquires Communications Week with premier event Nov. 15-19 appeared first on PR Daily.

To say there’s never a dull moment in his workday would be an understatement. As senior director of public affairs and brand communications for Kaiser Permanente, John Stratman is accustomed to constant change.  He’s among those leading the messaging for the nation’s largest nonprofit health plan, with more than 200,000 employees serving more than 11 million members from 600+ locations in eight states and D.C.

“The biggest challenge is the time-sensitivity of the information and sheer volume amid all the unknowns and anxieties people are facing,” says Stratman, who’s been with Kaiser Permanente for nearly 14 years. Prior to Kaiser, he held numerous public affairs roles at the state and local levels and at major corporations, including director of external affairs for AT&T.

John Stratman

As a senior member of the Kaiser Permanente Orange County Leadership Team, Stratman oversees the company’s government relations, corporate communications, media relations, issues management and the community health program.

He spoke to Ragan from his home in Coto De Caza, California, and shared these morsels of wisdom about work, life and being the calm in the storm:

1. Make remote work work: “It has forced me as a manager to be more engaged with my team,” says Stratman, who noted that it’s also been easier to pull people together quickly, and for staff to work interdependently on projects. Stratman manages six communicators and is responsible for Kaiser’s corporate communications serving the 3.3 million residents of Orange County, California.

2. Be patient. “One of the stronger attributes we have as communicators is our ability to be patient,” says Stratman. Feel comfortable with change and the unknown.

3. Journalists can be critical partners. Stratman says the local media in particular have played a key role in helping get word out about Kaiser Permanente’s clinic and office closings and consolidation during the pandemic, as well as vaccination updates. “We’ve been very nimble with the media and our relationships have strengthened in the past year,” he says.

4. Understand vaccination hesitancy. Says Stratman: “While we strongly encourage it, we have to be mindful that getting vaccinated is a personal decision. There’s tremendous power in friend-to-friend, family-to-family [vaccination education].”  Kaiser Permanente has administered millions of vaccinations so far.

5. Practice empathy. “As you communicate to internal and external stakeholders, you have to have a good amount of empathy to succeed.”

6. Cool heads will prevail. During a crisis, communicators need to be the calm voice. “We can either stoke a fire or put it out,” says Stratman.

7. Public affairs is a roller coaster ride. Stratman was attracted to public affairs early on, as it encompasses traditional communications and brings in the larger picture of brand placement and community engagement. But, he says, “issues management is not for the faint of heart. There are lots of highs and lows.”

8. Go on vacation. For any leader, always find time for yourself because it’s easy to get wrapped up in a task, says Stratman, who enjoys golfing, going to the gym and devouring business books about leadership. He’s currently reading “The Ride of a Lifetime” by Disney’s former CEO Robert Iger.

9. Choose your surroundings wisely. Surround yourself with good people, those who believe in you and want to see you succeed, he says.

Here is some more of his advice for pros looking to get their start or take the next step in their career:

• Tips for recent college grads: Find ways to intern. Ask a lot of questions, and, says Stratman, understand all the spokes in the comms wheel, from community relations to advocacy, from strategic decision making to writing.
• Don’t squander a role: “These jobs are difficult to come by, and you’ve got to get in somewhere. Every opportunity is a growth opportunity.”
• Passion equals career success: Says Stratman: “A lack of it comes through no matter what, so find your passion.”
• Best advice: A friend once advised a hard-charging Stratman, “Sometimes you’ve got to move slow to move fast.”

The post The value of the communications role: ‘We can either stoke a fire—or put it out’ appeared first on PR Daily.

Last year might have been the first time that Ronn Torossian met with clients in his sweatpants and a T-shirt, but it will not be the last. Nor will it be the last time clients text him directly to set up meetings, rather than going through his assistant. Turning lemons into lemonade might be the best way to describe how Torossian has approached this past year.

“In some ways, business operations are working better than before COVID,” says Torossian, founder and CEO of 5W Public Relations, one of the largest independently-owned PR firms in the country. “Meetings are less formal. I’m taking walks with clients in my sweats, riding bikes with them. There’s just more spontaneity.”

Ronn Torossian

In its 18^th year, 5W is growing at a rapid pace, so much so that it is executing what it’s calling a “major hiring spree” this spring, with account exec to SVP positions open across its core practice areas of consumer, corporate, technology and digital marketing.  With more than 200 employees managing a client roster of Fortune 500 companies, including nine tech unicorns and 20 publicly traded companies, Torossian sees his agency’s niche as at the intersection of media, tech and data.  Clients present and past include GNC, L’Oréal, Unilever, Walgreens, Docupace, Pritikin Longevity Center, SAP NS2, Sparkling Ice, KRUPS, Zeta Global, Sinclair Broadcast Group, McDonald’s and Microsoft.

Torossian is seeing double when it comes to growing agency revenues. In the past year, 5W exceeded $40 million in revenues. Back in 2016, Torossian predicted his firm would double in size in five years, and it did. So in about five years that would put 5W at $80 million. Torossian is confident they’ll get there. How?  “The old-fashioned way of doing hard work,” he says.

Communicators already have a seat at the table

For communicators to serve as effective counselors to the C-suite, they need to be curious and attentive, says Torossian, author of “For Immediate Release: Shape Minds, Build Brands, and Deliver Results With Game-Changing Public Relations,” which will be re-released this month with an updated and revised edition. “Smart PR people will learn as much as they can, but they need to listen more and talk less. It’s not necessary to be the loudest person in the room.”

Torossian rebuffs the refrain that communicators are left out of important conversations among senior leaders. “We’re part of the dialogue, absolutely.”

During the pandemic, Torossian has been spending his time commuting between his residences in New York and Miami, spending time with his two daughters, both under the age of 16, and playing a lot of chess.

While his Manhattan office is technically open, about 20% of employees are going into the office. Torossian anticipates this to be the case at least through the summer. “We used to be a 9-to-6, Monday-through-Friday-in-the-office type of place. I don’t believe we’ll ever go back to that.”

The biggest downside to the new way of working, he says, is “it’s harder to build a culture in a remote world, but we are learning.” 

The 5W Manifesto

Those familiar with the five W’s of journalism and effective communication—who, what, where, when and why—understand why Torossian named his firm 5W. To put a spotlight on that and other values, the firm recently released its “Manifesto” which outlines what the five W’s mean today for communicators:

Who: There is no longer a single “who.”  There are multiple “whos,” complex and overlapping audiences that need to be influenced and activated.

What: We are no longer in the era of the single message. There is the need for a calibrated, strategic messaging architecture.

Where: Never in history have there been so many “wheres.” Different audiences must be reached through all available channels, with messages bespoke to the nuances of each platform.

When: Technology plus sophisticated message development gives us the ability to master the art of timing in new and exciting ways. “When” has never meant as much.

Why: Every audience today is hyper-conscious of motivation—the “why” that drives innovation, behavior and ultimately, meaning.

The Manifesto is part of 5W’s recent rebrand which includes the agency reinventing itself for the new and unique challenges its clients are facing. The agency’s new tagline is, fittingly, “Built for Now.”

The post 5WPR CEO Ronn Torossian shares his firm’s manifesto for comms success appeared first on PR Daily.

Kristin Graham is comfortable being uncomfortable.

She just left her powerful role as Principal of Culture & Communications at Amazon to launch a consultancy to help organizations and business professionals improve communication and productivity. It’s not unlike the two times she went skydiving: the fear, the adrenaline rush, no safety net, flying high.

“When you pull the ripcord, you free-fall for 30 seconds and then you’re just floating up there,” says Graham. Quoting musician Ben Rector in his song “30,000 Feet,” she notes: “It takes the sky to see what’s on the ground.”

For Graham, unraveling the knots of interpersonal communication is what excites her most. For the past four-and-a-half years at Amazon, she taught tens of thousands of employees about the art of narrative writing and communication best practices—and counseled teams from senior leadership to interns to communicate with cultural sensitivity and transparency.

A “one-stop nerd shop” is how Graham describes her new, independent gig.

When you tap into both brain science and information science, says Graham, you discover amazing insights about attention spans, cognitive overload and interpersonal communication — or lack thereof.  This mix of brain science, psychology and marketing is how you break through the noise. And for communicators, it’s been a noisy year.

Kristin Graham

Navigating year two of a pandemic, smart communicators keenly understand that the changing nature of corporate culture requires an open mind and a desire to listen to all points of view across the company, says Graham. That means looking beyond the org chart to everyone in the organization to improve dialogue and create positive change.

“Communications is no longer the drive-thru window,” says Graham, who spoke to us from her home in Bellevue, Washington, in the Seattle area, which she shares with her two teenage sons and a rescue dog. “We are influencing the two-way conversations.”

o get there, Graham calls for “space and grace,” allowing employees to unplug, be it turning off their camera on a team video meeting or going for a walk in the middle of the workday. She encourages managers to schedule (and stick to) shorter meetings (40 minutes max) and to declare meeting-free days. Slack may be replacing that standard, 9 a.m. team meeting. Get used to it.

As most of us have increasingly short attention spans, communicators should be delivering information in more bite-size formats, or “micro-content,” whether it’s five-minute excerpts from a corporate town hall or a three-minute podcast from the CEO. Include translation services and close captioning, and provide collaboration channels such as Slack, says Graham.

The hankering for concise communication is coupled with employees’ demand to be working for a company that takes diversity, inclusion, and equity (DEI) seriously. “I can have all the experience in terms of my training, but my experience as a white American needs an ampersand,” says Graham, likening it to playing with Lego vs. a flat board game. “Make room for additional Legos, and bring in other voices to enhance and educate.”

Three major shifts: Are you ready?

Annual reports and scripted presentations still have a place, but Graham sees the most effective leaders zig-zagging on the uneven path toward transparency and DEI. “There’s a shift from trying to be elegant to trying to be more responsive. Messy is the new credibility.”

Graham identifies three distinct, burgeoning communication modes:

1. In-person, kinetic information sharing. As more people are vaccinated and begin to congregate, Graham puts a high premium on collaborative spaces and in-person meetings. “It’ll be like the Paris salon – a very powerful mix of people and ideas coming together.”

2. Active through technology. This is where people of all backgrounds and experiences are showing up and not waiting for an invitation. Social audio platforms such as Clubhouse allow for real-time conversations and a larger “playground” focused on connecting through auditory channels.

3. A demand for on-demand content. We are now living in a world where content is accessed at any time. Employees want to consume and create content, and they want it now or maybe later, but it’s up to them. Communicators should provide more options. “Having choice is the new benefit,” says Graham.

These changes challenge hierarchy, are asynchronous and allow for more voices, backgrounds and perspectives. “These are going to light up the under-tapped talent segments in your organization,” she says. “You don’t have to wait two years to have an opinion.”

A journalist’s mindset

After graduating from Northwestern University with a masters in journalism, Graham expected to land a reporting job, but “communications chose me,” she recalls. She joined Allstate’s corporation communications department where she was a generalist, contributing to executive communications, grant writing, media relations and even light computer programming. “At one point, they said to me, let’s start this thing called an intranet.”

It was at an Allstate executive offsite meeting in Tucson, Ariz., that Graham realized “employees were my jam.” The new CEO at the time was met with some resistance by the other Allstate executives because he didn’t have an insurance background. Kristin listened to his speech that day where he conceded that those in the audience were challenging his ability to run the company.

“He was telling the audience, we are responsible for two things – our people and our capital. He knew that the job of the leader is to bring back employees the next day.” His ability to communicate and resonate with a skeptical crowd got Graham hooked on comms. She sees her role in employee communications as similar to a journalist’s beat. “Every day you have to bring back an audience, in this case, employees.”

After Allstate, Graham spent about a decade in communications roles at Expedia and Aon Hewitt before joining Amazon. In 2019, Ragan Communications named her to its inaugural list of Top Women in Communications.

Raising the bar

A common misconception about Amazon is that it can’t have a distinct culture because of its Amazonian size. “We are customer-obsessed and are always raising the bar together,” says Graham. This focus on high standards is even part of the interview process where Amazon’s designated “Bar Raisers” interview job candidates to assess cultural fit of the candidate and whether they’d raise the bar, keep it level or lower it.

Across all departments and disciplines, Amazon puts a premium on great writing. Its “Doc Bar Raisers” are volunteers who work one-on-one with a colleague on their writing. Whether to help write a strong wiki post or a coherent financial report, these are internal volunteers who “teach it forward.” And they do so happily, says Graham, as “people show up even without free pizza.”

During her tenure at Amazon, Graham has touted and followed Amazon’s 14 Leadership Principles, which are also shared outside its walls (see sidebar). Among her favorites are to “Learn and Be Curious” and to “Have Backbone, Disagree and Commit.” On the latter, she said, “It’s an equalizing principle, so regardless of your title you should have an opinion, speak up and then commit to the goal,” even if you sometimes disagree with it.

Putting the principles to action is always the hardest part for any organization, and Graham says communicators can help senior executives earn trust through everyday actions and words. “There’s incredible currency in just saying, ‘I don’t know’ or ‘I don’t know yet,’” she says.

‘Drop-dead healthy’

To stay upbeat and sharp during the pandemic, Graham takes frequent breaks indoors and outdoors. She’s a stickler for the 20-20-20 rule – after 20 minutes spent looking at a screen, you should look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds.

She purchased a NordicTrack treadmill desk to combine physical and intellectual wellness, with the aim of being what author A.J. Jacobs describes as “drop-dead healthy.” Her walk-and-talk calls (or meetings, when back in the office) strengthen her auditory skills and help her retain information. Even walking in circles in her backyard while taking in the Pacific Northwest air, she says, activates her senses and keeps her pumped up for the day.

Graham says she’s looking forward to jumping out of an airplane again, when she turns the big 5-0 in a couple years. As she puts it: “You need to sit on the edge of something scary – get your feet dangling off of something.”

Amazon’s 14 Leadership Principles

Customer Obsession
Leaders start with the customer and work backwards. They work vigorously to earn and keep customer trust. Although leaders pay attention to competitors, they obsess over customers.

Ownership
Leaders are owners. They think long term and don’t sacrifice long-term value for short-term results. They act on behalf of the entire company, beyond just their own team. They never say “that’s not my job.”

Invent and Simplify
Leaders expect and require innovation and invention from their teams and always find ways to simplify. They are externally aware, look for new ideas from everywhere, and are not limited by “not invented here.” As we do new things, we accept that we may be misunderstood for long periods of time.

Are Right, A Lot
Leaders are right a lot. They have strong judgment and good instincts. They seek diverse perspectives and work to disconfirm their beliefs.

Learn and Be Curious
Leaders are never done learning and always seek to improve themselves. They are curious about new possibilities and act to explore them.

Hire and Develop the Best
Leaders raise the performance bar with every hire and promotion. They recognize exceptional talent, and willingly move them throughout the organization. Leaders develop leaders and take seriously their role in coaching others. We work on behalf of our people to invent mechanisms for development like Career Choice.

Insist on the Highest Standards
Leaders have relentlessly high standards — many people may think these standards are unreasonably high. Leaders are continually raising the bar and drive their teams to deliver high quality products, services, and processes. Leaders ensure that defects do not get sent down the line and that problems are fixed so they stay fixed.

Think Big
Thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Leaders create and communicate a bold direction that inspires results. They think differently and look around corners for ways to serve customers.

Bias for Action
Speed matters in business. Many decisions and actions are reversible and do not need extensive study. We value calculated risk taking.

Frugality
Accomplish more with less. Constraints breed resourcefulness, self-sufficiency, and invention. There are no extra points for growing headcount, budget size, or fixed expense.

Earn Trust
Leaders listen attentively, speak candidly, and treat others respectfully. They are vocally self-critical, even when doing so is awkward or embarrassing. Leaders do not believe their or their team’s body odor smells of perfume. They benchmark themselves and their teams against the best.

Dive Deep
Leaders operate at all levels, stay connected to the details, audit frequently, and are skeptical when metrics and anecdote differ. No task is beneath them.

Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit
Leaders are obligated to respectfully challenge decisions when they disagree, even when doing so is uncomfortable or exhausting. Leaders have conviction and are tenacious. They do not compromise for the sake of social cohesion. Once a decision is determined, they commit wholly.

Deliver Results
Leaders focus on the key inputs for their business and deliver them with the right quality and in a timely fashion. Despite setbacks, they rise to the occasion and never settle.

The post ‘Messy is the new credibility’: How to communicate in a noisy world appeared first on PR Daily.

Music carries us through the best of times and worst of times. For the past year, arguably the latter role applied. Amid the pandemic, an escape into a favorite song or creation of a new playlist has been a balm for the soul.

Dustee Jenkins, head of global communications and public relations at audio streaming company Spotify, embraces this responsibility with verve. More than 345 million people worldwide stream Spotify’s music and podcasts every month.

“Music has given people some relief during this difficult time,” says Jenkins, “We leverage music to respond to uncertainty, challenges and even bright spots.”

The experience of the pandemic is in many ways reflected in the playlists created by listeners over the past year. To wit, there were playlists created for baking bread, cutting hair at home, working from home and spring cleaning.

Jenkins spoke to us from her home in New York City, where she has been managing a global team of almost 70 communicators, helping to keep 7,000+ employees engaged and informed, and counseling Spotify on its efforts to support the millions of musical artists and podcast creators and their teams financially impacted by the pandemic.

“There has never been a better time to be in communications,” she says. “We are not just an output for the teams we support across the business, the partner you bring in at the end to write the press release. We are being asked to play the role of strategic communicator, managing risks and driving decisions across the organization—which for companies of all sizes, has been entirely upended by this pandemic.”

Other artists in the rotation: Dolly Parton, “The Daily” podcast, “The Journal” podcast, Brene Brown’s “Unlocking Us” Podcast, KIDZ BOP

Be first to arrive, last to leave

Jenkins began her career answering phones on Capitol Hill and managing constituent issues for the office of Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who represented her home state of Texas. She would arrive at work before sunrise to read all the news items and clip them for the senator, aiming her sights at the press office. “I was likely the most sleep deprived person in that office, but always knew exactly what was going on around the world, including in small towns across Texas. This was something the Senator really valued and where I could differentiate myself.” she recalls.

After serving as deputy press secretary and then and press secretary for Sen. Hutchison, Jenkins became director of communications with the U.S. Dept of Housing and Urban Development, then joined agency Hill + Knowlton Strategies as director of media relations and crisis communications.

Before joining Spotify in late 2017, Jenkins spent seven years at Target as senior vice president and chief communications officer. During that time, in 2013, the retailer was hit with a major data breach, which led to Target paying $18.5 million in a multistate settlement in 2017.

“The first days of the data breach were dark days as I watched the fall of such a beloved brand. We knew we had to do right by our guests,” says Jenkins, referring to Target’s customers as guests. “It was one of the biggest challenges of my career, but we operated with transparency and worked daily to re-earn trust.”

While at Target, the CEO asked her to take on internal communications and reimagine the department. Up to that point, Jenkins viewed internal comms as “formal and corporate,” and initially declined, but she soon changed her tune, seeing the opportunity to help engage more than 350,000 employees in an entirely new way.

“I thought about how we could bring internal and external voices together. Brian Cornell gave me a blank sheet of paper and the permission to reimagine everything. We restructured the entire internal communications role and made the voice of the company much more approachable.”

Embedded in the Business

As with all communications leaders, a strong, trusted relationship between comms and the CEO is integral to advancing ideas and positioning communicators in a strategic business role. Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek, based at the company’s headquarters in Stockholm, empowers Jenkins to take risks that underscore his commitment to transparent communications.

“He’s invested in truly understanding communications and thinks a lot about employee communications, in particular, which can be an afterthought in many companies,” she says. “He pushes me and allows me to disagree with him. Every once in a while, I even change his mind.”

At Spotify, communications is embedded across the business, and internal and external comms are viewed as one unit. Jenkins questions why a company would splinter its internal and external voices. “Employees don’t want to read one thing about the company in the news and hear a different thing on the company intranet. Employees are savvy and they expect transparency in good and bad times and need to have a solid understanding of the company strategy to do their job.”

While Jenkins is a glass-half-full person, she concedes there’s been constant pressure on communicators in the past year and surely for the year ahead. “Public Relations is always near the top of the list for most stressful jobs,” she says. “We are dealing with a series of unknowns, so as communicators we need to be comfortable operating in the unknown on a daily basis.”

A warm hug on Zoom

To keep her global team connected, Jenkins borrowed a page from her experience working in the Bush administration when she and the team would have daily huddles. Now, Jenkins and her entire global team get on a call for 30 minutes every morning. “Asia is going to bed and the U.S. is just waking up. In 24 hours so much can change; it’s important everyone is aligned on the issues and stories taking shape around the world.”

These daily huddles, she describes as “a virtual warm hug.”

Jenkins is a shining example of women breaking the glass ceiling but sees a long and winding road to equity. “Because of this pandemic, so many women are leaving the workplace, and progress is slow, between the number of women leading top companies to the number of women on boards,” she says. “The results so far don’t reflect the conversations we’re having.”

She is the mother of two young children, son Hutch, 4, and daughter, Havanna, 7. She is deliberate when she talks to Havanna about her job. “I tell her how much I love my job and that it helps me to be an awesome person and a better mom,” she says. “You need to say you love your job, to say it out loud so that kids know it’s a choice you are proud to make—not a burden to carry.”

The explosion of podcasts

With more than 2 million podcasts on its network, Spotify is one of the leading platforms for audio storytelling. The Joe Rogan Experience, exclusive to Spotify, is the most-listened to podcast with 200 million downloads per month, and has earned the comedian/UFC commentator upwards of $30 million a year (per Forbes).  The top genres for Spotify podcasts reflect a certain mood, as well, with true crime and mental health/wellness podcasts topping the list.

Before launching your own podcast, Jenkins cautions brands to thoroughly consider time and resources. “You need to understand what you are signing up for when you commit to producing a podcast. The good news is that you don’t need a lot of technical resources to produce one. For our own team’s Spotify For the Record podcast, we are not at a studio producing it – we’re at home with a blanket on our head in the closet recording the podcast.”

But successful podcasts require a consistent production schedule, content with a point of view, and guests and hosts who are transparent and show some vulnerability. “No one wants to listen to a commercial for your brand.” That transparency also applies to brands advertising on podcasts – a burgeoning revenue stream expected to generate more than $3.5 billion in ad revenues globally across all podcasts.

Always let them know you’re there

Jenkins grew up in a small West Texas town among strong women, including her mother, who owned an engineering firm, and her grandmother. “My grandma was feisty and fiery and told me to come early, stay late and always let them know you’re there.”

Jenkins used to be someone who worried about what she said in a meeting or group setting, and how she was perceived. She attributes that to an meaningful conversation with a former manager early in her career who commented, “You need to get a dimmer switch.” For about a year and a half, Jenkins says she became quiet, demure. “I do think the advice was well-intentioned but it was counter to what I believed and who I was at my core. It really threw me for a while.”

It wasn’t too long before Jenkins deleted that advice.

When recently she was asked to write a letter to her third-grade self, she wrote “Dear Dustee, Keep talking. Someday they will pay you to do it.”

The post Spotify’s Dustee Jenkins: ‘Always let them know you’re there’ appeared first on PR Daily.

When Amy Binder founded her agency nearly 20 years ago, public relations was viewed by many as a soft discipline. It’s not so much that it was hard to measure PR’s impact and effectiveness, it was more that clients didn’t expect that from their PR partners. Binder sought to change that perception.

“It has got to start with: what is the business problem we are trying to solve?” says Binder, who spoke to us from her mid-town Manhattan home. As the CEO of RF|Binder, an integrated strategic communications and consulting firm serving Fortune 500 clients, emerging businesses and not-for-profit institutions, Binder and her team tackle client challenges with a business lens and a multidisciplinary approach incorporating PR, data analytics, marketing, digital and creative.

Her agency revenues grew 5% last year, an impressive performance given the challenges facing PR firms during the pandemic.

Binder started her career in PR at Ruder Finn, founded by her father, David Finn, in the late 1940s, and she was a partner there for more than three decades before founding RF|Binder.

Identifying brand purpose

The pandemic and other crises of the past year have showcased the importance of purpose-driven communication and the communicator’s role in effecting meaningful change.

“During COVID, it’s been important for our clients to make the connection between their purpose and action,” she says. “If you are a company in the candy business, for example, are you selling chocolates or are you providing happiness through chocolates?”

Binder says she and her team start at “ground zero” with a client to create and define a purpose that is authentic and allow the client to make that purpose sustainable. “If the C-suite is not committed to the purpose of their organization, it’s just window dressing. I’d rather see a client scale back their efforts as long as they are being real.”

She sees the business world effecting the positive change we need in society, and communicators having a stronger role in those strategies. “Business leaders understand that everything they do must be transparent, and communications is the driver of that,” says Binder. She is optimistic that business leaders will continue to step up in important areas—be it climate change, social justice, world hunger—and communicators will need to be by their side.

An avid consumer of business news every day, Binder encourages all communicators to understand the business of your business. She recommends all communicators, regardless of job title, read the quarterly earnings if your company is public, devour the annual report and ESG/CSR report, ask a lot of questions and seek answers. In other words, be curious.

“In college, communications majors are not taught enough about business, and business school students are not educated about communications,” noted Binder, who has an MBA from Columbia University and Bachelor of Arts in history from Brown. “Communications is critical in addressing business issues.”

Binder is bullish on the integrated approach to communications and pushes clients to apply the entire paid-earned-social-owned (PESO) model to their initiatives and not come to an agency partner focused on tackling just one of those areas.

Creativity runs in the family

RF|Binder has won more than 200 industry awards, including Creative Team of the Year and Best Place to Work in New York City. Clients include McGraw Hill, First American Title Insurance, Cargill, MarketAxess, Pax World Funds, Dunkin’ Brands and Tupperware.

One client, Dunkin, has stayed in the spotlight serving free coffee to essential workers, and more recently promoting drive-through weddings at its stores in honor of Valentine’s Day. The agency worked with Dunkin on the “Marriage is on the Menu” contest (#DunkinIDoContest) featuring couples taking their vows at Dunkin drive-thrus. Another client, McGraw-Hill, sought the counsel of RF|Binder to promote free online educational resources for teachers worldwide during the pandemic.

Binder started out as a freelance photographer and learned photography from her father, who not only ran a top PR firm, but was a writer, painter and sculptor. He was particularly keen on photographing sculptures from all angles and produced more than 100 books on artists such as “Egyptian sculpture: Cairo and Luxor” and “Henry Moore: sculpture and environment.”

When Binder was a teenager, she assisted her father in the darkroom by printing his photographs, and soon developed her own love for photography. It is no surprise, then, that Binder is a business leader who sees all angles and appreciates the nuances.

Zoom isn’t so bad

Keeping her team and clients engaged during this time of remote work is not without its upsides. Zoom, she says, is the equalizer. “We’ve actually seen that staff meetings are more engaging.”

Small activities during these calls, like rotating every staff meeting with an employee asking colleagues a question of their choosing, such as the story behind their name or what song best captures the feeling they have now, has proven to keep employees upbeat and connected. Employees participated in a virtual Walk Across America contest, with four teams competing in a step contest.

Binder, who tries to visit Italy every year, has taken to cooking and studying Italian during the pandemic. She’s particularly fond of famous chef Lidia Bastianich and has mastered her spaghetti and meatball recipe. Cooking has helped Binder stay centered. “When you cook,” she says, “you have to focus on the recipe, and nothing else.”

Buon appetito!

The post Getting down to business with Amy Binder appeared first on PR Daily.

It was about 365 days ago that Joan Cetera was called into the first of what would be hundreds of COVID-19 team calls among the designated crisis chiefs of staff across PepsiCo’s global footprint.

At first, most of the updates were coming from the team in Asia. “We were keeping an eye on things and then it quickly escalated, becoming top-of-mind every day, and it continues to be,” recalls Cetera, who is vice president of communications for PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay and Quaker units, PepsiCo Foods North America. “The pandemic has permeated everything we do in the communications department.”

From disseminating information on availability of PPE and hand sanitizers to office closings and virtual town halls, Cetera and her team have produced an unprecedented amount of internal and external content. Getting word out quickly—and accurately—to field leaders and managers while keeping employees engaged and productive is no small feat.

The keys, says Cetera, are accuracy and speed. “Tell your associates before you tell it in a press release. We need to ensure employees are among the first to know important company information and for leaders to not be afraid to say, ‘I don’t know.’”

Cetera, who lives near PepsiCo headquarters in Frisco, Texas, has been with PepsiCo for nearly six years after 18 years in the agency business at Edelman, MSLGroup, Ogilvy, Golin and others. Her expertise spans consumer packaged goods, health and wellness, financial services and home products, where she’s handled media relations, brand activations, executive communications and crisis management.

Joan Cetera

Employees ‘crave’ specificity

Communication leaders often struggle with how to respond to the vocal minority while ensuring that the most salient information is communicated, especially during a crisis. Cetera calls it a “constant tension” and cautions against excessive focus on issues that are less significant in the greater context. “If you have 60,000 field associates and 100 of them respond to a survey, what can you really extrapolate from that data? The trick is to be relevant to the masses.”

Despite the reality of “Zoom fatigue” among employees, Cetera sees companywide video gatherings as here to stay. “Technology and the ability to reach so many more people cannot be overstated.”

With content creation a top priority, Cetera and her team built an in-office studio about a year ago, modeling it after the one at PepsiCo’s Purchase, N.Y., headquarters to shoot video and photography themselves. Upskilling team members to take on new roles like videography and editing has allowed PepsiCo Foods to create and distribute content more quickly. “You need to give people distinct roles and be clear what they’re responsible for. People are craving to know exactly what their role is.”

Of her 21 team members, roughly a third are focused on internal communications. The flood of information internal comms is responsible for, whether related to the pandemic, social justice, the election and vaccinations, has made it both more difficult and more essential to be creative in messaging. “There’s more risk to being ‘exciting,’ but internal communications cannot merely be informative,” says Cetera.

“This has tested our mettle as communicators, to be seen as relevant and to have a stronger voice,” she says. “Communicators need to be the trusted advisor.”

PepsiCo Foods’ Zoom-side chats led by CEO Steven Williams have been a highlight of Cetera’s pandemic communications strategy. The CEO leads companywide video conversations with internal stakeholders such as a recent Q&A on vaccinations with the head of HR and the company’s global chief medical officer.

Performance with purpose

Like many brands, Frito-Lay has contributed money and time to support those affected by the pandemic and systemic injustice. It has carefully chosen brand activations and philanthropic endeavors in the past year. For example, Doritos has donated nearly $1m worth of outdoor advertising space in the U.S. for the #AmplifyBlackVoices initiative, in which Black artists are creating murals and videos for billboards. As Doritos’ tagline is “for the bold,” so too are murals a bold expression.

Another example is Stacy’s Pita Chips. During Women’s History Month last year, the Stacy’s Rise Program raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to support United Way’s efforts to reduce the funding gap for female-owned businesses. This is a cause in line with the product’s founder, Stacy Madison, who began her career peddling pita chips from the back of a Boston food truck.

The Doritos and Stacy’s Pita Chips social good programs reflect PepsiCo’s “Performance with Purpose” mission, which is grounded in the belief that its success is linked to the sustainability of the communities it serves.

‘Why don’t you go into PR?’

Cetera had planned on being a reporter after graduating with a journalism degree from the University of Illinois. However, when exploring a master’s degree in public affairs reporting, the head of the program wondered instead if PR was her path.

It was that moment in life, she said, “when someone unexpectedly intervenes, and your life takes a new turn,” she recalls.

She applied for internships and landed at Golin Harris, where she was eventually hired full-time. PR “combined my love of writing and learning with my love of people.” She worked the agency life for nearly two decades before joining PepsiCo and moving her family to Texas.

Cetera and her journalist husband, Mike Cetera, have two kids, ages 11 and 14.

Living the three G’s

A self-described “cockeyed optimist,” Cetera stays mentally and physically fit by riding her Peloton every morning (favorite trainer: Cody Rigsby) and turning off work by dinner time to focus on family.

Among the best advice she’s heard is from her daughter’s grade-school principal, who espouses living the “3-G Mantra”:

• Grit (work hard and smart)
• Grace (give yourself a break)
• Growth Mindset (push beyond what you think your role is)

When it’s safe to travel again, Cetera is most looking forward to an extended family reunion in Gatlinburg, Tenn., the middle point for family members whom she hasn’t seen in more than a year.

When Cetera reflects on her career in communications, she harkens back to the early days of reporting when she took that advice to get a job in PR. “I can count on one hand the number of days I’ve been bored,” she says. “My goal was to find a job that would be fulfilling and dynamic, and it’s lived up to that and even more.”

(Image via)

The post Why can’t employee communications be exciting? appeared first on PR Daily.

Underlying the multiple, momentous challenges communicators have been grappling with for the past six months is the imperative to speak truth through storytelling to identity and amplify the very purpose of an organization.

This is hard work with few shortcuts, says Ayanna Robinson, chief client officer at Porter Novelli. Recently elevated to the post after 19 years at the agency, Robinson is charged with collaborating with her agency colleagues to guide clients on purpose-driven communications.

“Be present, but peek back to the past and answer for past mistakes. Do not settle for ‘communications lite’,” says Robinson. “There’s a lot of opportunity now to rethink our approach to communications.” That means, for Robinson, guiding your organization down a path of self-reflection and healing.

Brand leaders operating from a position of purpose will focus on the greater good, acknowledge past mistakes when it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and help the C-suite act on corporate commitments.  “It takes time to take measure of your past and follow through on your promises,” she says. “Most companies want to acknowledge those mistakes but sometimes don’t know how.”

Robinson sees progress on this front. “Conversations on DEI will continue, and we’ll see all the commitments start to pay off from all the hard conversations happening now.” She acknowledges that it requires courage to take even a small step in the direction of having a positive impact.

Porter Novelli, part of the Omnicom Group, works with clients including T-Mobile, Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, P&G and Bayer, which was Robinson’s key account before her promotion to chief client officer.  Porter Novelli includes Purpose as one of its practice areas and defines it on its home page as such: “We believe Purpose is more than just a mission statement or a commitment of values. Purpose defines an organization’s authentic role and value in society and allows it to simultaneously grow its business and positively impact the world.”

In its just-released Executive Purpose Study from Porter Novelli, 76% of the 150 business leaders surveyed recognize businesses’ role in systemic racial inequality; 66% want their company to be more proactive about sharing past mistakes and biases, and 33% are nervous to discuss their company’s past mistakes or biases related to systemic racism.

Robinson encourages communicators to use their influence to make change within their organization and the broader community. Now is not the time to be wishy-washy.  “Businesses do not need to be neutral,” she says. “I don’t think of human rights as a political situation.”

As it is often difficult to see your own flaws, Robinson advises organizations to seek insights from the outside and use the data to effect change within your organization. “It’s challenging to do with internal eyes because you may not see all your vulnerabilities,” she says. “Get real-time data from customers, partners and third-party groups and make sure you are seeing yourself fully.”

But don’t rush what is not necessarily a linear process. Porter Novelli understands the need to meet clients where they are on this journey and help them move forward with awareness of where they are.

“Make sure you look at your own house before you go out there and make statements,” she says. “Some CEOs want to get out of the pain points quickly. That’s when mistakes happen.”

The convergence of stories lines (COVID-19 and civil unrest, for example) make garnering media coverage a constant challenge. “The industry was already going through a shift and we’re seeing an attack on the media’s credibility,” says Robinson. “We need to ensure the media is playing the role they were intended to play.”

Based in Atlanta, Robinson has been savoring the bonus time with her two daughters, a 5^th and 10^th grader, taking more family walks and indulging in binge-watching shows such as “The Vampire Diaries.” While this is not a typical “back to school” experience for her daughters, she points to Wellness Wednesdays in her local school system as a salve needed to get us through this difficult time.  For many public-school students in Georgia, Wednesdays are a day away from the regular curriculum with students focused on emotional health, discussions around equity and inclusion, how to be anti-racist and how to take care of mind and body.

Like many organizations now, Porter Novelli seeks ways to build cohesiveness and connectiveness among a dispersed workforce that spans the world, from North America to Europe, the Asia-Pacific and Latin America. Teams that would never have connected before the pandemic are now having virtual coffees and getting to know one another. Senior leaders working from home like everyone else are more visible than ever.

“The senior leadership is not a distant group of individuals; they’re showing up on screen on a regular basis,” says Robinson. “There might be a pendulum swing back to less frequency, but maybe not.”

The post Purpose-driven communication is hard: ‘There are no shortcuts’ appeared first on PR Daily.

Pick almost any public affairs issue out of a hat and Richard Levick will not only share his unvarnished opinion but he will back it up with a passionate accounting of historical truths that make the listener a true believer.

As the chairman and CEO of LEVICK, a global crisis, public affairs and litigation agency based in Washington, D.C., Levick muses on a few current issues we selected out of the Ragan hat.  The longtime agency leader doesn’t disappoint.

Let’s start with the communicator’s role during this dual crisis of pandemic and social unrest.

“The only way to have a seat at the table is to earn it,” says Levick, an attorney by trade whose firm has led communications strategies related to the Catholic Church, Guantanamo Bay, more than 150 product recalls and the largest environmental disaster in the past decade. He sees communicators as key participants in the corporate board room. “If you don’t have a seat at the table now, then you’re never going to get it.”

The ongoing social justice issues being debated in our country are exposing the strengths and weaknesses of organizations and their brands.

“Companies want to do the right thing, but many don’t know how,” he says, referring to organizations’ stepped-up diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. “They have to wake up to the fact that diversity and inclusion is not a ‘thing’ that’s going away. We had far more people protesting during Black Lives Matter than during the Vietnam War. Think about that.”

Levick advises brands to identify and understand their “tribe” and communicate and connect in ways that matter to those constituents. He points to Apple as a quintessential example of a brand that gets inside the mind of a consumer, the first computer company to display its logo on the machine’s exterior and to put a high premium on design. Starbucks, he offers, is another brand that has not only connected with its consumers but changed their habits and ways of speaking. “Starbucks forced you to learn a new language,” says Levick, reeling off a little Italian by way of latte macchiato, grande and venti.

Levick contends that brands cannot be apolitical, as consumers now expect companies to be consistent with their corporate values. “It’s no longer about shareholders; it’s about stakeholders,” he says. “In a movement, companies need to realize that their marketing and advertising are no longer neutral.” (See Levick’s 10 Imminent Changes for Comms.

Those looking to lead should always look to read, to open their minds to new voices and viewpoints and self-educate. “Read everything, including your brand’s history, and learn other perspectives,” advises Levick.

As for recruiting more Black people and other minorities and then fostering a culture of inclusivity, Levick warns communicators against metrics that are quota-based. “Diversity isn’t a quota—we have goals but once we make it a quota, we stop independent thinking. Recruitment is a mission not a goal. Work closely with Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Work with charities that make a difference in diverse communities that give people a chance to exceed their grasp.”

Levick views the business community as the one “saving our Democracy” and points to historical precedent, such as when J.P. Morgan secretly convened a group of bankers in his mansion during the Bank Panic of 1907, ultimately leading to the creation of a central bank and the Federal Reserve. “It will be companies that are going to step up and understand that the mercantile class is the last great bastion of democracy.”

Like most organizations in the past six months, the annual budget has been torn up and burned and agencies such as LEVICK have faced considerable budgetary challenges. Whereas in previous years, a good first quarter set up an agency for a healthy year, right now Levick says he’s working with more clients on a monthly or hourly basis.  “Agencies find themselves husbanding resources very carefully.”

The upside to this instability is the increase in cross-agency collaboration and loyalty among clients, says Levick. In hot business climates, clients tend to leave more quickly for another agency. But in terms of securing new clients, Levick compares it to high school dating: “You’re the one, but can we wait another five or six months?”

For potential agency clients, there’s a lack of urgency to commit to a new firm, he says, and you end up giving away more intellectual capital in sales calls. To wit: “If you watched the Julia Child cooking show, you didn’t need to buy the cookbook.”

Media coverage—or lack thereof these days—is another silver lining Levick has spotted during this crisis-ridden year. Between the pandemic, social justice issues and the upcoming election, it will continue to be more challenging to get press for stories not related to those topics. A positive outcome of this, especially for business reporting, is that the bad stories don’t last as long in the public. “President Trump and the election get so much media attention, there are far fewer reporters and less time to cover business stories.”

Whether you’re a communications leader focused on media relations, internal communications or brand management, Levick advises spending time understanding your greatest strengths and to obsess over strategy rather than tactics. “Find your purpose and what you are great at,” he says. “If you can see what’s coming next, you have value to your organization.”

Levick, who has landed on the list of the “100 Most Influential People in the Boardroom” by the NACD and Directorship Magazine many times and has been named to multiple Halls of Fame for lifetime achievement, has mastered the art of slowing down as well. He cherishes the rocking chair on his back patio overlooking a national park and the procession of wildlife, from foxes to owls to wolves and coyotes.  “I try to get as close to God as I can. Nothing like walking in the woods to heal you. You have to connect with nature.”

Get more insights to manage through our precarious future and network with peers to discuss solutions to your latest problems by joining Ragan’s Crisis Leadership Network.

The post Brands can no longer be neutral appeared first on PR Daily.

It’s a lifeline, a meeting spot, aisles of possibilities. We’ve relied on the grocery store to be open, to deliver and to keep customers and employees safe. Behind the scenes of the country’s largest grocery chain, Kroger, are the communicators making sure those inside and outside the organization are fed the most accurate information.

Kristal Howard, director of corporate communications and media relations at The Kroger Co., views this period as “The Year of the Pivot” for her and fellow communicators.

“This crisis has solidified the communications function as a critical part of the C-suite and of the decision-making team,” she says. “You can’t have a functional leadership team without communicators.”

From her home in Cincinnati, Kroger’s headquarters, Howard spent some virtual time with PR Daily to share her views on leadership, communications and the best time of day to grocery shop (early, early morning).

“For the last six months, we’ve played a critical role in society,” she says.  “No matter your race, lifestyle—we all convene at the grocery store.”

Kroger, which employs a half million people, has 2,800 stores, 20+ divisional offices and 11 million customers, witnessed a jump of 30% in sales at the start of the pandemic.  With more $122.3 billion in sales (2019), it is the second largest retailer after Walmart.

With changes coming at her at a dizzying pace, Howard understands the need to put her energy into key business priorities and to know when to ask for help, whether it’s by bringing on an agency partner or collaborating with other internal departments. This period also has allowed Howard to accelerate initiatives that might have taken years to materialize.

A time for leaders

“This time calls for a different leadership style,” she says. “It’s all about how leaders show up.” The strongest leaders, she says, are visible, vulnerable, and they know how to show humanity. “This is hard. Leaders are always on, and there’s not a lot of time to rest, stop or pause.”

With conflicting and ever-changing information about the virus, public gatherings, mask-wearing and the like, Howard had been steadfast in establishing a cadence with the media since March. That included presenting all the facts up front, “establishing what we do know and don’t know,” she says.

Whereas pre-pandemic, she spent a good amount of her time with the trade and business press (Progressive Grocer, Supermarket News, CNBC, Bloomberg), Howard and team established a “Go Everywhere” media relations model that casts a wider net, allowing for more frequent messaging to consumers, the everyday people who frequent Kroger.

Howard says she’s more intentional now about dialing up consumer press and engaging with outlets like the “The Today Show” and “Good Morning America.” “We want to reach every demographic, every generation,” she says.

To guard against misinformation about Kroger, Howard reached out to about 50 journalists who cover her business early on and established herself as the point of contact for any COVID-related news concerning the grocery operator. She’s been using that same email chain from March, with the same subject line, for her updates to roughly now 100 reporters to ensure legitimacy.  She watches what’s being published and reported “like a hawk” and uses paid tools from Cision and Sprinklr and free tools like Google Alerts and word of mouth monitoring.

Like all smart communicators, Howard understands the order of operations for disseminating corporate information and news: “We have an employee-first model—share with the employee first before the media.”

Blueprints for success

Kroger’s team of 100 corporate affairs leaders created Kroger’s Blueprint for Businesses that serves as a helpful resource for other companies navigating the pandemic. The 79-page guide includes a communications section that provides insights into how Howard and her team have established a “source of truth” that keeps the messaging consistent and accurate. The comms teams use digit asset management tool Brandfolder to store all Kroger brand assets, be it photographs, statements, video, CEO statements, media comments.  In May, Kroger brought on agency partner LaunchSquad to assist with external communications.

With the police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota and the BLM protests in the spring, Howard started looking inward. “Personally, I questioned, should I be doing more? How am I showing up and how can I better use my platform to effect change?”

Kroger is in many ways a microcosm of society as its employees represent every race, gender, religion, political bent and socioeconomic status. In the spring, Kroger started internal listening sessions with Black employees and two to three leaders in a virtual open forum, allowing employees to express how they’re feeling. This, Howard says, has informed Kroger’s DE&I framework, which includes civic engagement initiatives that take advantage of Kroger’s position to create greater access to voting.

Its new Allyship Guide includes podcasts, books, movies, get-out-the-vote materials, and more.  The guide has been downloaded more than 10,000 times—about 100 downloads a day.

A forever Texan, Howard moved to Cincinnati over three years ago to take on her newest Kroger position. In this quarantine, she is “trying to find humor despite the heaviness and weight” of it all. To wit, she is re-watching “Parks and Recreation” and turning to dance music as a source of comfort, with Beyoncé and Rihanna at the top of her playlist.

She has also discovered how to make a delicious red velvet cake. While she says Produce should be her stated favorite department, she gravitates to the Baking aisle. “It inspires me; it’s such a hopeful and happy aisle.”

Get more insights and prepare for the future of our industry by joining us for Ragan’s Future of Communications Virtual Conference Nov. 10-11. 

The post Kroger’s Kristal Howard shares the blueprint for thriving amid disruption appeared first on PR Daily.

Dear Ragan community,

Like the rest of the nation, we have been taking a critical look at what we need to be doing better to support racial justice. We are starting by making a stronger commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion within our own organization, as well as using the Ragan platform to advocate for change in our industry and beyond. We are taking the time to educate ourselves, raise awareness and have much-needed conversations.

With the help of an internal committee and industry advisors, we have established goals to create a more racially diverse workforce, advance representation and equity for marginalized groups in the communications industry, and amplify the voices and issues impacting underrepresented groups.

We make these commitments to ourselves, to our colleagues and to you. We intend to accomplish many of the following goals in the upcoming months with the acknowledgement that real change requires consistent and sustained focus:

• Partner with external organizations to diversify our hiring pool and ensure 25% of new hires across all job titles at Ragan in the next three years will be BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of color).
• Amplify the faces and voices of BIPOC by ensuring they are always represented in our editorial content and speaker lineups.
• Donate time and money on a quarterly basis to groups promoting racial and social justice.
• Offer more programming and content to our audience that will improve understanding and advancement of racial justice, and diversity, equity and inclusion. These include two Diversity & Inclusion conferences and workshops in August and September of 2020, and the launch of the D&I Collaborative within Ragan’s Communications Leadership Council.
• Continuously educate ourselves on how we can improve our efforts to create a more fair and welcoming workplace that reflects our diverse world. The Ragan team completed its first unconscious bias training in July 2020, and Ragan’s D&I Committee is dedicated to keeping management and the entire staff accountable.

We have seen so many of you make similar commitments and we are proud to be a part of a community dedicated to using its power and platform to benefit all. There is a lot of work to be done and we hope to continue to serve you in this urgent and overdue conversation. Please reach out to us with your story, your ideas, your needs.

Sincerely,

The Ragan Team

The post Ragan’s commitment to diversity, equity & inclusion appeared first on PR Daily.

Among the items not on Yanique Woodall’s agenda way back in February, before the coronavirus crisis:

• Eating lunch at the kitchen table with her three children—on any given weekday
• Watercolor painting in her backyard with her communications team on video
• Teaching math and grammar to her home-bound, school-age children

(Watercolor by Woodall)

Finding the silver linings in this current crisis is something Woodall, the senior director for corporate communications and external affairs and head of brand communications at The Home Depot, has built into her mindset.

“The pandemic has overturned our daily lives and urged all of us to reimagine what our day looks like,” says Woodall, speaking to us from her home outside Atlanta. “I set priorities for each day and move fast. There are no rules now.”

Woodall’s been fortunate to be working for a company that was among the essential businesses during the pandemic. And Home Depot has been grounded for decades in principles that are helping her and the 400,000 other “orange-blooded family members” stay strong, she says.

As with all communicators, flexibility is not only helpful, but essential to leading through a crisis. Who really knows what next month will bring for you and your team? Woodall describes her current strategy as “building a plan for the unknown.”

Woodall leans into industry insights—whether culled from news articles, research or talking to colleagues in other markets—on a regular basis. These tactics, she says, help her manage to up, over and down the food chain at Home Depot.

“Keep your finger on the pulse, see what’s evolving, understand the research and then share it,” she advises. “Having information and bringing new ideas to the table fosters important conversations.”

Woodall oversees 10 people in her comms department, which is part of a division of more than 100 corporate communications and external affairs professionals. While she misses the impromptu desk-side chats with her team, she is very deliberate about keeping her remote colleagues engaged daily. “You need to be intentional about the informal,” she says. “We can’t be communicators if we can’t communicate with one another first.”

The pandemic, coupled with the crisis around social justice, has underscored how critical communicators are to an organization.  With Black Lives Matter, says Woodall, “it was the reality that we were all confronted with the pain and anguish, and as an organization we could not ignore this.

In addition to donating a million dollars to social justice issues in the past several months, The Home Depot has supported its employees with $850 million in expanded benefits, including adding between 80 and 240 hours of paid time off to employees (depending on age and risk factors), and $100 weekly bonuses for in-store and distribution center employees. When the pandemic first hit, Home Depot froze prices on product categories in high demand, provided masks to healthcare providers and first responders, and donated millions of dollars in personal protective equipment and other products to hospitals, healthcare providers and first responders.

Woodall, who has also held communications positions at 1-800-Flowers, Fujifilm and Avon and has served as adjunct professor of comms at George Washington University and Hofstra, is no stranger to crisis. However, this crisis has changed the game because of the universal nature of a global pandemic. “We’re in the same storm but in different boats,” she says. “We’ve all been in a crisis before, but the traditional rules do not apply.”

While she can easily reel off the list of traits most important to leaders right now—vulnerability, transparency, empathy, to name a few—one of the most important screams for an exclamation point: “Stamina!”.

Learn more insights on how to manage through this crisis by joining our Crisis Leadership Board

The post How Home Depot’s comms director is building for the unknown appeared first on PR Daily.