How to be an effective and authentic leader, whatever your gender

This time last week, I was sitting down for the first session of the Women in Communications Conference 2019. The agenda looked promising, with senior comms directors and strategists lined-up to speak about the role of women in the communications sector and the skills needed for success.

Without a doubt, it was one of the best conferences I have attended. I left feeling truly inspired and wanting to continue the debate with friends, family and colleagues.

There are so many things I will take away from this day – and many pieces of advice that I have already taken to heart and acted upon – but here are my top 10:

1. “Diversity and inclusion are good for people and good for business”

– Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development

Research has shown time and time again that organisations with diverse workforces are more profitable and more effective. For example, a recent study by the Boston Consulting Group found that diverse companies produce 19% more revenue.

2. “You cannot be what you cannot see”

– Abbie Sampson , Director of External Affairs, Energy UK

Having visible female leaders in aspirational positions is hugely important if we want to inspire the next generation. Sometimes it is easier to imagine a path if we see someone else paving a similar way.

3. “Don’t be put off by different leadership styles”

– Poli Stuart-Lacey, Director of Communications, HMRC

Work on, develop and stick to a style that reflects you. Don’t try to imitate someone else, it’s impossible and exhausting. Authentic leaders make the best leaders.

4. “To position yourself as a leader, bring your cynics in”

– Sally Otter, Head of Internal Communications, Oxfam

This one is easy to say and very, very hard to do. But, if you can find out why a colleague feels more like a nemesis or what it is about your work that they just don’t rate, you could turn things around and they might become your best advocate. I particularly love the idea of ‘disagreeing productively’. There is power in being brave and in being curious.

5. “It is easier to be courageous if you really care about what you’re doing”

– Emma Reynolds, Head of Communications, National Crime Agency

Do you have an emotionally compelling story about why your work/project is important? Is it something you, personally, believe in? If you do, you’re much more likely to take risks and push hard to get the outcome you want.

6. “Don’t step away from the challenges”

– Poli Stuart-Lacey, Director of Communications, HMRC

When things get challenging, that’s good. Being pushed out of your comfort zone is when you are most likely to see the greatest change and development.

7. “Comms people are very keen to go into the detail. Sometimes we need to take a step back”

– Sarah Pinch, Managing Director, Pinch Point Communications

Invest time in understanding what motivates your senior leaders. Which are the targets they are really focused on? What cannot be ‘dropped’ in their mind? Take a step away from the detail of your project and try to see how your work impacts the organisation at large.

8. “No-one cares about your development like you do”

– Sneha Patel, Senior Advisor for External and International Affairs, Mayor of London’s office

The thought of adding yet another thing to your to-do list might feel impossible but it’s true that no-one is going to develop your career for you. Make time to work out what it is that matters to you and how you’re going to achieve it. Get a mentor, a coach and/or a sponsor (you can have more than one), but be clear about what you need and whether they are the right person to give it to you.

9. “Work is what we do – not where we are”

– Ebony Gayle, Independent Consultant & Founder, Ebony Gayle Communications

There was lots of discussion around the pros and cons of flexible working but, for me, it all boils down to this: You should be judged and recognised for your outputs, not where (or even when) you get your work done.

10. The gender pay gap in the western world is not estimated to close until 2078!

– World Economic Forum

Probably the most shocking thing I learnt so a good one to finish on. We have to keep pushing for gender equality and being inspiring leaders ourselves seems like a great place to start.

What do you think about the advice and information shared above? As always, if you have anything to add or you’d like to continue the conversation, please use the comments.

The rise of ‘considerate marketing’ – is being nice good for business?

I was impressed to receive a marketing email from flower delivery company Bloom & Wild offering me the chance to opt-out of receiving their Mother’s Day marketing emails. Acknowledging that this can be a ‘sensitive time for some of us’ struck me as not only a kind move but a smart one, too.

And it seems I’m not the only one…

Bloom & Wild’s Mother’s Day opt-out has been picked up by national media ranging from The Independent to Grazia and Good Housekeeping, all of whom have praised the company for its thoughtfulness and encouraged others to follow suit. In fact, I’ve already seen at least one other high street store now doing the very same thing in the past few days.

As you’d expect, the opt-out invitation has also resulted in a ground-surge of appreciation from customers on social media.

It’s heartening to see that a company doing something that feels intrinsically ‘good’ is being recognised and held up as an example for others. I hope to see even more examples of ‘considerate marketing’ like this in the near future.

Have you seen any other companies putting their customers’ feelings at the forefront? Please share them in the comments below.

When it comes to PR, its the toy makers I’m watching

There are two brands I can’t help but get excited about when it comes to their PR: Barbie and LEGO. But how is it that the toy companies are the ones producing some of the best PR stunts and stories out there? Shouldn’t it be the disruptor brands and start-ups that pull my attention?

It could be that I enjoy the toy brands’ PR so much because the basis of their business is play. They’re not afraid to push boundaries or do something to make people genuinely smile. Corporations can be guilty of over thinking things so going ‘back to basics’ and focusing on what’s genuinely fun and entertaining is a great place to start.

And if all else fails, there’s always childhood nostalgia to fall back on.

Here are a couple of recent examples:

LEGO’s Royal Wedding

Capitalising on a national event like a Royal Wedding is harder than it seems. With so many brands trying to ‘cash in’, finding a unique angle can be a huge challenge.

But, as usual, LEGO didn’t over think it and simply did what they do best: building incredible scenes out of their iconic bricks. This is something they’ve done time and time again and it never fails to generate headlines.

This time, they’ve unveiled a miniature “LEGO Royal Wedding & Windsor Castle” at their Legoland Windsor Resort, playing on its proximity to the big event and astounding people with the detail of the design.

Not only has it generated a huge amount of press for the brand, I’m sure it’s translated directly into ticket sales for the Windsor theme park, too.

 

Barbie on the cover of CIPR’s Influence Magazine

When Barbie manufacturer Mattel announced it was giving its iconic doll the opportunity to wear flat shoes in 2015, it felt like a real turning point for the brand. They went all-out to generate headlines about Barbie moving with the times and shrugging off her “airhead” image, generating big pieces of PR in fashion magazines and newspapers alike.

The following year, they introduced three new body shapes for Barbie, firmly reinforcing the notion that they’ve listened to and understood the current market –  and that they’re here to stay.

With 98% brand recognition globally, this is a powerful brand, regardless of whether you think there’s much more work to be done to shrug off the negative associations of Barbie’s past.

In this month’s CIPR magazine, the cover and five whole pages are dedicated to “Barbie the feminist and her PR breakthrough”. Certainly one to keep watching if you ask me.

 

Should your next comms campaign be all about influencers?

At a recent conference, a major player in the sports arena shared details of how their communications focus is moving away from targeting traditional media to developing and courting social media influencers.

As the conference was held under Chatham House Rule, I am not allowed to divulge who this information came from – suffice to say it is a major, global brand that is known to everyone (that is no exaggeration).

10 years ago, this brand had lost ground to its main competitor so they had a “brand reset” and created a new overarching comms strategy. A big change was to focus on key markets and expect the rest of the world to follow, rather than trying to communicate with the entire world at once.

One of the four primary roles of their communications team (along with earned PR, owned/paid social and sports/entertainment talent marketing) is now to engage social influencers. And this is where it gets really interesting…

At the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, this brand made a bold decision to give 70% of its talent interview opportunities to social influencers and only 30% to traditional media  based on the knowledge that:

• Traditional media will not talk about the brand; influencers will
• Influencers have a far greater reach (more than 150million social media followers)
• Influencers are more integrated with the brand so advocacy is much, much stronger
• Influencers are easier to work with than traditional media
• Influencers crave the experiences high profile brands are able to provide for them

…this brand now expects to give 100% of its talent interview opportunities to social influencers at the next Olympics.

So how do they choose which influencers they will engage to deliver their message?

Work with people who are credible and fit with the brand. It’s not just about how many followers they’ve got.

Have you begun introducing social influencer engagement in your communications plans? Will you consider it after reading this?

Turning customer contact into PR gold

Once again, I have to applaud the the PR team at Virgin Trains. They really know how to spot an opportunity and turn it into a winning story, as demonstrated this weekend:

They clearly haven’t forgotten the rewards of publicly going over and above for their customers…

The story of the new menu reminded me of the time Sainsbury’s grabbed headlines by changing the name of their “Tiger Loaf” to “Giraffe Loaf” on the advice of a three-year old girl.

The foresight to realise that doing so would be a great story resulted in a viral hit and a huge amount of positive PR coverage on BBC, Daily Mail, Telegraph, The Sun… the list goes on and on.

So, make sure you have a good relationship with your customer service team and ask them to let you know if they receive any ideas from your customers that you could make a reality. Beyond making that one person happy (and most likely a customer for life), the story could bring big rewards for you in PR terms.

 

The art of great content

I’m always on the lookout for great webinars and courses to continue my professional development so I was delighted when I spotted a tweet from Socialbakers about a free lunchtime webinar on The art of great content.

Based primarily on concepts from the book Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger, here are my key takeaways for creating truly great social content:

1. Social currency

“You are what you share”. Focus on producing content that makes people look good when they share it.

Good examples of this are:

• Behind the scenes photos and info – make followers feel like insiders
• Put your fans in the spotlight – crowdsource content from your community. Engage with the user before you repost it to find out the story behind the image or video so that you can share that too and get even more engagement. This is a good example from GoPro who post a fan photo every day:

2. Trigger

Celebrate events that are happening right now (you can use a content calendar to look ahead and plan your activity) but be part of it, rather than trying to make it all about you.

There are some great examples of brands doing just this at events like the Golden Globe Awards (L’Oréal) and World Cup (Orange).

Focus on your brand values not your brand products. Invite people to join the conversation with you.

3. Emotion

When we care, we share.

“Emotion is one factor that drives sharing. We see lots of funny stuff go viral on YouTube, but we also see angry political rants get shared,” Berger says. “Any emotion that fires us up–humor, awe and excitement, but also anger and anxiety–drives us to share.” – Jonah Berger

4. Public

Recognise the power of social influencers to spread your message.

How do you find those influencers?

• Use social listening tools to monitor for keywords relevant to your brand or campaign
• Identify the most active and the most engaging content creators for those keywords
• Ensure their style and their values align with yours

5. Practical value

Think about how you can be valuable to your fans. Package knowledge and expertise in your content so people can easily pass it along.

A good example is a supermarket (e.g. Lidl) sharing video recipes with its fans:

6. Story

I’m a big believer in the value of storytelling in marketing communications. If you don’t believe me, check out this blog post on Storytelling: corporate buzzword or clever business?

When creating story-based content for social media, the key is to embed your brand into the plot so people cannot tell your story without mentioning your brand.

A good example of this comes from Adidas who told the story of the World Cup in Brazil from the ball’s perspective:

 

 

Storytelling: corporate buzzword or clever business?

‘Today, one of the biggest corporate buzzwords is ‘storytelling’.’ – Snow

Strange, I thought. Do the two really go together? Surely storytelling and business inhabit two separate parts of our lives: one belongs at home, the other in the office…

But if you take a step back and consider that the people making big business decisions are the same that revel in stories at dinner parties, read fairytales to their children and devour the latest bestsellers on the beach, it makes sense that they’d enjoy an element of storytelling in their professional lives, too.

‘A social worker once said: There isn’t anyone you couldn’t love once you’ve heard their story.’ – Andrew Stanton, film director and screenwriter, Pixar Animation Studios

Even the ‘dullest’ business exists to solve a problem. If you can start with the story of how the product or service was born, who it has helped and the difference it has made, it will be much easier to convince a customer of its value than simply listing its features or benefits.

As an example, try re-writing the About Us page on your company’s website page using the  storytelling template below from Pixar. You don’t have to follow the format exactly. You could substitute “Once upon a time…” for “In 1999…”, for example, or “After the banking crisis of 2008…”.

By thinking about how to evolve your marketing copy from sales fodder into stories, your writing will stand out from the crowd and you will start to engage with your customers on a deeper, more personal level. After all,

‘Those who tell stories rule society.’ – Plato

A huge thank you to the Berkeley Storytelling Academy for inspiring this blog and sourcing the quotes. I was fortunate to win a place on the Business Storytelling Programme by entering a Twitter competition. I would highly recommend it to anyone who is looking to take their copywriting to the next level, improve their presentation skills or log some CPD hours in a fun and fulfilling way.

 

 

Heinz turns #BlueMonday bright red

I’ve written before about how celebration days, awareness days and national holidays can be used to build a Content Calendar that will help you plan your communications activity for the year ahead. They’re a great tool for identifying opportunities for a PR stunt, a bit of thought leadership or a timely social media campaign.

I spotted a great example of this being put into action by a big brand today when the team at Heinz delivered an effective PR stunt on what has become known as “Blue Monday”.

According to mathematicians, a combination of grey skies and failed New Year’s resolutions means Monday 16th January is officially #BlueMonday – the most depressing day of the year (source: Cheapflights.com)

The stunt was simple:

1. Place cans of Heinz’s famous tomato soup in bright red, ‘In case of emergency – break glass’ boxes in highly photographic locations around London
2. Send strong images – like the one featured by Secret London below – to the media with a compelling caption or two
3. Encourage the spread of user-generated #BlueMonday content across social media
4. Revel in the thanks of grateful soup eaters (and maybe a picture desk editor or two)

It’s a good case study for seizing an opportunity that provides a strong platform to communication your brand message. In this case, Heinz was keen for its tomato soup to be associated with warmth and comfort – everything that Blue Monday is not – so they presented their product as the solution to the most depressing day of the year.

Time for a nice warming bowl of soup, I think…

How to turn non-news into social media gold

While the summer “Silly Season” (the slow news period when most people are on holiday) is notorious for gifting column inches to stories that wouldn’t normally warrant such attention, the 24/7 nature of social media sites means that small, silly stories have a whole new home.

The non-news story that caught my eye last week was about Iceland (the country) considering launching a lawsuit against Iceland (the supermarket) over its name. The key word in that sentence that makes it non-news is ‘considering’; Iceland (the country) hasn’t actually done anything yet.

“I can confirm that this is being looked into, but no decision has been made,” a spokesman for the ministry told the Press Association (source: theguardian.com)

This fact aside, Iceland (the supermarket) put its social media team to work, adding a healthy dose of hilarity to proceedings and grabbing quite a few more headlines at the same time:

They say there’s no such thing as a bad news story and while this lawsuit has the potential to do some real damage to the supermarket chain, its great to see they are capitalising on the media interest in such a humorous way to keep their name front of mind with shoppers – while they still have it – and boost engagement on their social media channels.

Top 3 campaigns of Summer 2016

I was fortunate to return to the UK from 7 months abroad during a summer filled with fantastic marketing campaigns. Here are the top three that caught my eye:

3. Panasonic’s #Superfans campaign

I really admire well executed user-generated content campaigns. Coming up with an idea that will spur social media users into action can be a real challenge. It is undoubtedly a lot easier to encourage fans to like or comment on pre-existing content than inspire them to take a photo or make a video themselves and share the results.

You therefore need to find a new and exciting way to inspire and energise your fan base. The result can be absolute social media gold – content that is more powerful at communicating your message because it is user-generated and a campaign that can run and run.

Panasonic made the most of its Olympic partnership agreement this summer and launched its #Superfans campaign to run during Rio 2016.

The campaign capitalised on the British public’s desire to show their support for Team GB in a public way and so users responded in abundance. There are some great examples on the dedicated #Superfans website.

2. Airbnb’s ‘Live There’ campaign amplification

Having circumnavigated the globe this year, I am now an avid fan and frequent user of Airbnb. I loved the company’s adverts with the message, “Don’t go there. Live there” which inspired travellers to rent apartments or stay with locals to get a richer experience than they may find in a conventional hotel.

So, it’s no surprise that I was excited to see Airbnb taking this campaign one step further over the summer with a pop-up experience in Shoreditch.

‘The five storey townhouse in East London has been transformed inside and out to welcome travellers from all over the world, and all they have to do is ring the doorbell to join in and get a taste of local London,’ say Airbnb

Coined ‘The #LiveThere House’, the pop up generated plenty of national PR coverage for the brand and, I’m sure, some warm fuzzy feelings from the Londoners who got to enjoy the experiences for free.

1. British Airways #GreattobeBAck

It’s no surprise really that my third and final pick is yet another Olympic campaign.

The simplicity of this British Airways ‘stunt’ is what made it so brilliant in my opinion. While I’m sure the operation of seamlessly flying home that many high-profile athletes was anything but straightforward, there were three very clear and incredibly strong main elements:

• The gold nose cone of the jumbo – great for photo editors and social media content curators alike
• The public vote to name the plane ‘victoRIOus’ – clever, catchy and engaging
• Athletes tweeting #GreattobeBAck and sharing photos from the flight

Source: BritishAirways.com

Well done, BA, on a brilliantly executed campaign.

Have you seen any other examples of exceptional PR or marketing campaigns this summer? Let me know in the comments below!