A Public Relations Podcast: Smoke Signal Episode 36 - It is World PR Day!

07/14/22 • 22 min

Smoke Signal, A Public Relations Podcast

July 16 is World PR Day – a day dedicated to recognising and celebrating public relations and communication. Yes even PR needs PR.

I am joined by one of the committee members responsible for organising World PR Day, Enitan Kehinde, for a Q&A on the initiative, the events and how practitioners can get involved.

“PR is a very important practice across the world, across businesses and across governments, so it is time for us to prioritise PR.... Our goal is for practitioners across the world to answer the call of duty to help people, companies, government communicate more honestly and responsibly.” - Enitan Kehinde

The theme of World PR Day 2022 is Trust, Truth and Transparency with a number of headline initiatives to mark the occasion:

#MyPRStory - PR professionals are encouraged to share their own personal experiences from their journey in the PR industry
PR Bible – development of a crowdsourced wikipedia with all the best PR resources from across the world.
A fireside chat on twitter spaces – with global PR leaders discussing this year’s theme

Enitan, who was recognized as one of the 40 under 40 women in marketing communications in Nigeria, also shares her impressive #MyPRStory, including leading the establishment of Nigerian PR agency bhm’s UK office and founding a network to support young women in PR and communication.

Get involved in World PR Day by telling your #MyPRStory, join the conversation on socials #WPRD or take The PR Pledge.

July 16 is World PR Day – a day dedicated to recognising and celebrating public relations and communication. Yes even PR needs PR.

I am joined by one of the committee members responsible for organising World PR Day, Enitan Kehinde, for a Q&A on the initiative, the events and how practitioners can get involved.

The theme of World PR Day 2022 is Trust, Truth and Transparency with a number of headline initiatives to mark the occasion:

#MyPRStory - PR professionals are encouraged to share their own personal experiences from their journey in the PR industry
PR Bible – development of a crowdsourced wikipedia with all the best PR resources from across the world.
A fireside chat on twitter spaces – with global PR leaders discussing this year’s theme

Get involved in World PR Day by telling your #MyPRStory, join the conversation on socials #WPRD or take The PR Pledge.

Previous Episode

A Public Relations Podcast: Smoke Signal Episode 35 - PR, CommTech and the future of the PRIA

Shane Allison and I always enjoy a robust discussion and in this episode we dive into two areas that we are both passionate about – the role of professional industry associations and the uptake of CommTech across the PR sector.
It is just over 100 days since Shane took on the role of President of the Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA) and he has certainly hit the ground running: rolling out a 2022 Member Program; unveiling a number of working groups to address key issues impacting the industry right now - such as the skills shortage and diversity and inclusion; and advocating for a name change to better reflect the changing nature of the profession.
While we disagree on the need for such a change, Shane is committed to setting solid foundations, ensuring members get tangible value from the PRIA, and driving long term growth.
“I am a huge believer in the role of the PRIA to champion for our industry, to support our profession and to recognise the great work we do.” - Shane Allison.

Equally passionate about CommTech, Shane this week will present at Mumbrella CommsCon in a session titled: Challenges, Pitfalls and Opportunities of Building your CommTech Stack.
In this discussion, Shane gives us an insight into some of those challenges and opportunities; calling out the industry for being “scared” of automation when in fact we should be embracing it as a way to both help us achieve better outcomes and freeing up valuable time and resources.
While you are here, take a read of the Commtech User Guide that Shane developed to help PR professionals on their CommTech journey.

Next Episode

A Public Relations Podcast - Smoke Signal Episode 37 - PR & the climate crisis

In this episode we are tackling the climate crisis.

We are six months on from COP26, where the outcome didn’t match the hype. Australia’s State of the Environment report has just been released and generated world headlines for the grim picture it painted and the environmental challenges facing Australia. And we are seeing an energy crisis globally as we struggle to agree how to a transition to renewables.

Against this backdrop we take a timely and much needed deep dive into the role of the PR industry in helping to inform, educate and navigate this global climate crisis.

Joining me in this episode is UK -based practitioner Laura Sutherland. Laura has over a decade experience working in the sustainability, environment and climate sector and is founder of Aura Advisory, a strategic communication and advisory consultancy dedicated to helping organisations accelerate to a sustainable future.

Laura is also a member of the UK industry body PRCA’s Climate Misinformation and Climate Change Strategy Group which has just released its second annual research report exploring the attitudes and perceptions of practitioners – as well as consumers - towards the climate crisis.
The research confirms that climate, environmental and ESG issues are quickly becoming an increasing part of our role as strategic communicators:

More than 9 out of ten (96%) of PR professionals now advise their clients and colleagues to understand the climate crisis and how they can effectively communicate the part they play - up from 82% last year
Almost half (45%) have noticed their clients or organisation attempting to greenwash, however 89% have pushed back on this and 57% managed to change the approach as a result
Almost all (97%) said they have taken action to address the climate crisis but only 48% measure their carbon footprint
71% of consumers say they would stop buying from a brand if they knew it had misled its customers about having a positive environmental impact
57% of the general public don’t know the outcome of COP26 and a third (33%) felt the agreements made at the conference didn’t affect them

There are so many aspects of climate change and in this discussion we get into a range of areas: the ethics of working for organisations not doing the right thing for the environment; the call for integrating climate change and sustainability within the school syllabus; the risk of professional communicators pushing ‘spin” and getting lost in what Tony Jacques aptly described as “the conga-line of initiatives and their snappy acronyms”; and the role of Government versus business in the climate debate.