Creative Day at the Olympics

Today, July 31st 2012 – is Creative Day at London 2012.  No it’s not a new sport, it is a themed business summit organised by UK Trade & Investment which is designed to bring foreign investment into the UK.

This is one of 18 such summits being held during the games and Nick Baird, UK CEO of UKTI says it will bring in £1bn of investment during the period of the Olympics and Paralympics and £13bn over the next four years.  Great news and hats off to those involved, though I’m sure our media will treat them with a degree of cynicism.

This push for inward investment is exactly what the country needs and this positive drive for new business is exactly what UK plc should be doing.  After all it’s what the private sector does day in and day out.  Recognition for our world leading creative industry is also welcome.

If future governments of whichever colour can now simplify our tax system, reduce red tape on small businesses and encourage employment for both permanent and temporary staff then we really could develop a confident and vibrant country.  But do any of today’s politicians really strike you as courageous leaders with the strength to really change the way our country works? Or will they be blinded like so many, by party and not national interests.

Justin Kent - Managing Director

A View from the City: Salaries set fair for 2012

On the 24th January, Fabric hosted A View from the City, an informal networking event for corporate and financial communicators. It represented a chance for delegates to network and take part in a debate with industry leading figures on the challenges facing corporate communicators in 2012.

The panel consisted of Alex Sandberg, Chairman of College Hill; Victoria Brough, Group Communications Director of London Stock Exchange; Paul Harris, Senior Financial Press Officer at HSBC and Tim Ledeboer, Head of Corporate & Financial at Fabric.

Among some of the many discussion points which created a lively debate, was the key area of remuneration and benefits vs. job security.

Most in the room were in agreement that whilst salaries are, in general, weathering the downturn and in fact showing a slight uplift in some cases, candidates are realistic about what is on offer. There was a meeting of minds between employers and employees as to the key motivating factors when job seekers weigh up their next opportunity – principally job security and career progression, alongside the financial gain.

Salary snapshot in Financial PR consultancies 2012

If you are interested in hearing more about A View from the City, or to arrange a meeting to discuss in person how our expertise and experience could be of value to your business, please contact Tim Ledeboer on:

+44 (0)20 7734 0441

or

tim.ledeboer@fabricrecruitment.com

A view from the City

How heart warming to see that in these times of riots, protests, countries on the brink of bankruptcy and Frankie Cocozza (!) that the PR industry has such a great wave of talent coming through. The recent PR Week 29 under 29 (11.11.11) showed off the cream of the crop and it was great to see the future stars emerging.

Whilst I am all for celebrating the achievements of these undeniably excellent young professionals, I wonder whether it actually goes far enough.

I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiments Alex Sandberg, Chairman and Founder of College Hill shared in the last issue of PR Week (18.11.11), which for a number of reasons is well worth a read (including tales of him seeing Hendrix live in Covent Garden). For me, what resonated most was the passion and fire which still burns inside after all these years and the fact he is still so hungry for success for both his business and the industry as a whole. "On a good day, the best agencies are as good as any professional service because we can add huge value. Some of the planet’s best brains work in PR and I sometimes wonder whether we are proud enough of what we do," said Sandberg.

I couldn’t agree more. In my experience, comms people as a whole are an underrated breed and too often underrate themselves. Industry leaders are singing our praises and UK plc sees the value of effective communications so why don’t we?

Taking that point to the next level, should we as an industry celebrate talent (young or otherwise) across the board and shout about the best in Consumer, the best in City PR and the best in Healthcare for instance? If we are going to do it, let’s do it properly.

One of the joys of my job is that I see how many great comms professionals there are and contrary to popular belief, there are also plenty of jobs around. Whilst there is an undeniable risk aversion that continues to pervade amongst employers, there are still many agency and in-house roles which are yet to be filled and are there waiting for candidates with the requisite skills...they just might take longer deciding on the right one! I therefore maintain that whilst there will be significant challenges next year, there will be a good pipeline of opportunities out there for us all.

And don’t get me started on Cocozza!

Tim Ledeboer - Associate Director, Corporate & Financial

Is Google Plus going to rule the world?

Many blog posts and articles have already been written about Google+.  Some of these have focused on the ‘who will win, Google or Facebook’ angle, Phil Bradley argued the case for why Librarians need to get up to speed on it, while others have taken a broader viewpoint. 

One of these that I particularly liked was by Vincent Wong who uses an innovative visual presentation to argue that Google+ is in fact a tool to amalgamate everything that we do on the web into one cloud based platform – that includes tweeting, blogging, sharing, email, collaborating, documents, presentations, networking, etc, etc.

What are the implications if this is how use of Google+ develops?  How will Google generate revenue from having a large captive audience within this platform?   Should Twitter, Facebook, or even Microsoft be worried?

I don’t claim to have any answers to these questions, but I do agree with Phil that librarians everywhere, in public libraries as much as in law firms or in government, should make sure they keep a close eye on what’s happening.  There are already hundreds of librarians on there (Phil himself has almost 750 contacts in his ‘circles’ so far), so plenty of people to connect with, share with and collaborate with. 

As Mike Elgan, editor, blogger and columnist, wrote on Google+ earlier today: 

“Instead of saying, "I'm going to write a blog post now," or "I'm going to send an e-mail" or "I think I'll tweet something" you simply say what you have to say, then decide who you're going to say it to.

If you address it to "Public," it's a blog post.

If you address it to "Your Circles" it's a tweet.

If you address it to your "My Customers" Circle it's a business newsletter.

If you address it to a single person, it can be a letter to your mother.

I'd say this is pretty revolutionary.”

Are PR agency salaries the same as 13 years ago?

I joined Scope Communications, now Ketchum, in 1994 and left in 1997/98.  I worked across consumer, corporate and sponsorship and when I left as a senior account manger my salary was £32k per annum.  Tim Court, now a Director at Fabric, left his senior account manager role in corporate PR in 2006 on a salary only slightly higher.

So the question is, have salaries in consultancy PR increased significantly over the years?  In our opinion - no. 

Some salary surveys have suggested that the recession has brought an end to salary inflation seen over the past decade. We have worked with the UK’s leading agencies for that entire period and the salary survey and remuneration levels we discuss with our clients have changed very little through the years.  Healthcare and financial PR salaries have increased but in a comparable way to other industries.  However the core Account Executive to Associate Director salary brackets are broadly the same as they were in 1998.  Where we have seen a real increase, but by no means an eye watering one, is in the salary of directors.  These are now far more commensurate with the role and its degree of responsibility. 

PR undoubtedly remains an attractive and rewarding career for many reasons. However there is no denying that in consultancies in particular the hours can be long, the work can be very full-on, yet the financial rewards for many aren’t compelling.

The cost of living has certainly gone up in the last 13 years so are PR consultancies still able to attract the best talent on these salary levels or are they losing out to the digital and integrated agencies? 

- Justin Kent and Tim Court

Trends to look out for during 2011, in what is expected to be a “de-fluffing” of the PR industry

People I have been speaking to recently have given me hope that PR has a key role to play in the future of social media. PR is currently in a good position of having genuine credence as a bridge to unite and lead the other disciplines in the marketing mix. Having said this some PR agencies, and indeed their clients, may not know quite what they want from social media or how to go about it, but there is some really good work going on.  Here are some trends to watch out for this year: 

• Better measurement and techniques
• AVE is dying as a metric and there is now a wealth of data out there to weight up social media reputation (socialmention, radian6, vocus, meltwater buzz). None of it is perfect though, what does it really mean? The key is to realise that PR success is all about engagement – so viewpoints, interaction, passing content to friends, contributing, transacting
• Exploiting mobile better
• Power of mobile is huge for 2011. It is so current, so instant
• Orange did the world’s most tagged photo from Glastonbury
• T Mobile have had huge success with their flash mob theme
• The blurred lines between paid and earned media
• PR people need to get their head around the concept that it’s not a drama to pay a blogger from time to time. It’s the same as running advertorials – there is a place for it in PR
• Closer collaboration
• Contentious issue this!
• There needs to be greater collaboration between ‘rival’ disciplines – so PR, SEO, DIGITAL etc
• Inevitably it will lead to more fighting for territory but nature dictates that it is survival of the fittest as it has always been. Therefore the best agencies / companies will find a way to collaborate but still earn their ground
• SEO and digital companies will certainly be looking to hire more PRs
• Social search
• The essence of building relationships
• More relevant, impactful campaigns for PRs
• Trying to achieve the social media ROI utopia

- Tim Court

Where is the country heading?

There is increasing awareness in the public arena of the growing threat to public libraries, through the fantastic work being done by the Voices for the Library Group and by young professionals like Johanna Anderson and her Friends of Gloucestershire Libraries campaign.   Added to this is the slower and less visible erosion of school library provision across the country, as described by Caroline Roche on the CILIP communities blog. 

 CILIP also reported a couple of weeks ago that the Government consultation paper ‘Liberating the NHS: An Information Revolution’, while a welcome focus on information management, missed out on consideration of the role of external content in the health service:

“...the importance of information to clinical practice, medical education and Continuous Professional Development by NHS staff, and the needs of research are not given sufficient coverage.”

Overall the picture is not a happy one.  Widespread misunderstanding &/or ignorance exists of the vital role that librarians and information professionals of all types play in ‘making sense’ of the information overload that is widely accepted to affect many people. 

Further closures of public and school libraries could deprive many of the most needy groups in society of access to information.  This loss is occurring at just that time in history where the internet and social media are making information literacy vital to success; success in work but also in life, in education, in getting a job, in claiming benefits, and so on across an ever increasing spectrum.

What will this country look like in 5 or 10 years time?  What will it be like if there are children growing up without access to a library of any kind, GP Consortia instead of PCT’s, again without librarian support to give them the medical evidence on which to base practice, and unemployed and disadvantaged people with no one to help them get online?

It doesn’t sound like a country to be proud of.  Blaming the public, or anyone else, for this state of ignorance won’t help resolve the problem, however.  If we are to avoid this situation becoming reality then all librarians, information professionals, knowledge managers – whatever we call ourselves – have to band together and reach out to the public and the government and make the case for librarianship.

- Nicola Franklin

Twitter comes of age....?

 Twitter is unarguably one of digitals’ more complex beasts.  No other site manages to divide opinion in quite the same way.  To many of its 175 million users (and adding 370,000 per day), Twitter is the freshest, most interactive way to communicate whilst to others, it is simply a faintly egotistical platform to loudly announce which sandwich you ate for lunch...

Whichever camp you may sit in, it is now achieving what sceptics doubted may happen – it is now starting to make money.  Twitter booked around $45 million in ad revenue in 2010, (generated by Promoted Trends, Sponsored Tweets and Promoted Accounts) . This year, eMarketer expects strong growth from the small base to reach $150 million.  In 2012, this is expected to increase to $250 million.

This may sound like pocket change compared to Facebooks’ $4 billion 2011 revenue, but it does suggest that Twitter may be finding its feet.  One concern is that revenue forecasts are based on continued surges in growth, which will be near impossible to maintain.  The real question lies in how Twitter can develop creative, user friendly ways in which to engage users.  With the entire premise of Twitter being it’s usability and simplicity, it is unlikely to be able to match the (arguably) targeted nature of Facebooks ads nor the creativity of virtual community sites such as Habbo.

Twitter may be finding its feet, but it will need a combination of creativity and continued user growth in order to truly fly...

- Tom Lakin

PRJS is changing to Fabric today!

It’s with great pleasure that I can announce our official launch of Fabric today and our three new services for clients.

Clients and candidates of PRJS, you know us well as specialist PR and communications recruiters – which we very much still are!  However you may not be aware of our specialist recruitment teams in digital, marketing, information and sales.  To reflect this wider offer we are today taking the exciting step of changing our name to Fabric.

For both clients and candidates, the benefits to you are immediate:

• For our candidates we now offer a far wider choice of career opportunities across the whole digital and marketing spectrum.  

• For our clients, we’re now talking to and engaging with a much wider pool of talent boasting a whole variety of skill sets.  It is access to these new skills that our PR agency and in-house team clients have been asking for as it allows them to find the right talent for every clients’ needs.

Looking ahead to 2011, we’re particularly keen to support clients further by advising and helping improve their overall recruitment strategies and we have three new consultancy services to deliver this.  The services are:

• Competency based interview training for line managers
• Retention strategies
• Internal recruitment consultancy

Each of these services is designed to deliver significant savings and truly enhance how a company attracts new talent and then keeps it.

Here’s to a great 2011; I hope it is a good one for you.

- Justin Kent

Product Placement

 Product placement will be allowed on UK TV from 28^th February 2011, OFCOM has confirmed.

Well, whilst this is hardly a surprise to all in the industry, it certainly does raise some interesting questions.

Firstly, will it make commercial TV unwatchable?  First guesses are that the product placement advertising will be just about acceptable – OFCOM restrictions require the products to have relevance and context to the programme.  This is likely to remove the most jarring and obtrusive product placements, however, those familiar with US TV may fear the worst.    To see quite how not to do product placement, check out Mac & Me, an ET rip-off involving an alien that needs Coca-Cola to survive and seeks refuge in McDonalds.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdvO0tmNjGo 

Secondly, and possibly more importantly for marketers, will product placement generate new ad revenue or simply cannibalise other channels?  Well, on this one, the jury’s out.  Whilst it is unlikely to affect PPC budgets, it is highly likely that TV ad budgets may simply be moved to product placement – ie. not generating additional revenue but potentially annoying customers.  Product placement currently generates 5% US ad revenue – I am highly sceptical that the UK will see anyway near such take-up...

- Tom Lakin

Records Management or Information Governance?

Twitter came into its own again yesterday when I spotted a re-tweet from FoIManUK of a post from Peter Kurilecz (RAINbyte), with a link to an excellent report of the ARMA International conference in San Francisco in November 2010. 

“It’s not your parents’ records management anymore. Old-fashioned library services, full of retention schedules and version control, recede into the wallpaper. Now new media, hosted solutions, e-discovery, contextual analytics, cloud computing and more converge, transforming records management into information governance.”

Among the many questions being discussed at the conference, the report highlights:

• How can we build alliances with IT?
• How can we harmonize record retention schedules across many continents?
• How can we manage records in the cloud?
• How can we produce Facebook correspondence for e-discovery?
• How can we control derelict collaboration sites?

And there is also mention of “the threatening issue that almost no one mentions: long-term preservation of digital records”.

Overall the report’s conclusion is that traditional records management challenges aren’t getting any easier, while technology’s challenges are adding to the mix and have the potential to transform a records manager’s role.

- Nicola Franklin

Digital Marketing Recruitment

If I were a betting man (which, incidentally, I am not – I have many vices but betting is not one of them....), I would put my money on a few shake ups in digital recruitment this year.

Here are my predictions for 2011:

PPC & SEO  - Think there are still a lot of opportunities for intelligent search marketing in the UK.  Candidates with SEO or PPC will continue to have the pick of jobs with near endless agency or client side vacancies.

Ad Operations – Campaign management is key and the role Ad Ops/trafficking specialists play in this has long been underestimated.   Expect lots of opportunities for hands-on trafficking gurus in 2011.

Insight – Digital marketing is getting more and more targeted to reduce wastage and insight specialists will find their knowledge in much demand over the coming 12 months...

Mobile Marketers – With even my great aunt doing the weekly M&S shop on her iPad, this is officially no longer a niche channel.  Those with the experience, knowledge and passion will be snapped up.

Social media – I think we may begin saying goodbye to social media as a separate specific marketing tool and it will become an extension of digital marketing channels such as search.  Expect social media agencies to be snapped up by Media or PR agencies...

- Tom Lakin