Thanks to Feliz Ozakinci and Peter Finnegan, CIPR Student Reps at Leeds Met, who wrote this review.
The penultimate lecture in the CIPR guest lecture series was delivered by former Leeds Met student. Justin McKeown is a divisional director for Grayling, the second largest independent PR agency in the world.
Justin wasted no time in interacting with the students and using Bruce Forsyth as a tool to do this. Although not clear at the time Justin used Brucie as way of showing the different generations in the room.
This began a common theme that ran throughout the lecture about how the modern world is changing and how PR is constantly adapting to these changes. Justin then spoke about past and present communication tools and used YouTube to illustrate how something new can be so effective. YouTube recently celebrated its 5th birthday and is the most watched channel in the world. With more views than the BBC, CNN, and NBC combined.
Justin explained why comparing generations is so important and how the news of today is news for a matter of hours instead of days as updates are constant. Twitter is so quick and widely used to communicate news that the traditional forms of news simply can’t compete with it. Gone are the days of seeking approval for press releases and statements that could take days.
“PR is in a changing world. Change is now happening so rapidly, this gives both great opportunities and hard challenges in keeping up with what is happening.”
Justin went onto explain how social media has grown and will continue to grow at such a fast rate. His advice to the audience was “get used to embracing thing as they happen.”
We learnt how few PR people are advocates of using AVE (advertising value equivalent) because evaluation is changing. AVE focuses on output whereas PR needs to evaluate output, changes and outcomes to be most effective.
Justin ended the lecture by referencing seven key points about PR, the changing world and how PR fits (six of which he quoted from Ross Dawson’s Facets of the Future of PR).
1. Media is being transformed and distribution is changing
2. Information flows in every direction (all the time)
3. Increasingly business is a conversation
4. Everyone expects more (Evaluation is changing)
5. Whether you are naturally honest or not, transparency is essential
6. Accessing influencer networks is critical
7. Opportunities have never been greater for the PR profession
To view the original review, visit: http://is.gd/i7e1y
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