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Cultural PR Conference 2011

- Proving your worth – evaluation and selling the PR team internally

Chaired by Kevin Read – Managing Director, Bell Pottinger Business & Brand (KR)

Panel:

Gretchen Pierce – Internal Communication Manager, Tate (GP)Oliver Hickson – PR & Client Director, Central Office of Information (OH)

Explore the best methods out there to sell your PR team internally, from improving internal

communication to measuring the results of PR campaigns and projects. Our panellists will

share their experiences and outline the importance o PR evaluation and the strategies and

tactics needed to implement it, from getting colleagues and partners on board to proving the

value of your hard-won PR successes.

KR

Great campaigns that made a great difference don't need evaluation. Your stakeholders andsponsors have seen the news.

For the others, how do we show and tell, and in what ways can we illustrate what we hope to

achieve. What are you trying to do?

It is important to understand how PR is viewed in your organization.

• Who listens to you?

• What does the chairperson want to see?

• What does your Chief Exec want to see?

Why is evaluation important?

• It shows you are keeping your promises

• It shows you have delivered what you said you would deliver

• It shows you are fulfilling objectives

Did it lead to something?

• A new donor?

• Better media relations?

If the evaluation is done well it can reflect well on the team

Some think that evaluation is the end of it. It isn’t, it is continuous.

It is also information to reflect on. A time for reflection

• What did we get right?

• What didn’t go as well as we wished?

The best PRs have good relationships with those higher up.

They are trusted to give open, honest and confident advice on what is going on.

GP

Role and Purpose of Internal Communications

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o American president/British rock band story (NASA Janitor seeing beyond the end of 

his broom – mission that matters, biggest ‘Champion’)

o Four (to Five) Rs –

o Research the tools (i.e. email digest, intranet redesign) and rationale

o Rally the troops (town-hall meetings, recruit IC champions)

o Relate (manageable, bite size goals, ‘a ha!’ moments)

o Report (and Repeat if necessary) GBShaw said ‘problem with communication

is the illusion that it has been accomplished’ – communicate good and bad –repeat comms if necessary. Ingraining strategic messaging to so that iteffectively influences behaviour requires repetition, preferably in differentformats)

Job entails/Came About/Comms Team

The Internal Communication Manager, Tate is a new post.

In an employee Survey in 2006 – one of lowest rated questions was ‘there is good communicationacross Tate’. Only 9% of staff said there was good communication across the site.

From Tate Strategy doc: “We are responding to feedback from staff about internal communicationby appointing an experience professional who will be responsible for improving how we shareideas, knowledge and information across Tate.”

What’s driving Tate’s need for internal communications are operational efficiencies and ongoingand increasing organisational change requiring a more joined up approach, particularly in light of the upcoming changes related to the CSR cuts.

o Improving cross-Tate comms, breaking down silos

o Two way process – exchanging information and making connections (Connecting to Tate,

to people, to information)

o Role sits within the Director’s Office, strong dotted line to Press/PR and HR

Channelso Intranet

o Weekly email digest - I really appreciate your short, pithy emails each week as I don’t 

have a lot of time to read Tatenet . I just wanted to say how useful this weekly updateis, particularly for our Retail staff who don't have regular access to Tatenet, or whowork part-time and just need the headlines!

o Staff Forums

o Central Briefing Group

o

Weekly Briefing Sheet for FOHo Daily Briefings for FOH

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o Lunch and Learns/Show and Tells (Library & Archive trip to St Ives – huge hit)

Proving worth of PR/selling internallyo Staff are an organisation’s best ambassadors/champions – need to know ‘Before

Reading in the Guardian’

o Sharing PR stories internally helps to celebrate successes/achievements of organisation, build engagement

o By PR highlighting work of others this helps to make connections/network with other 

staff /improve efficiencies/share knowledge & resources

Ties to strategy/vision - Strategy maters because we are all operating in resource limitedenvironments. We must prioritize our expenditures for maximum benefit because we wastemoney and time when we are not clear about our objectives across the entire organisation

Anecdotes/Successeso Tate – Ai WeiWei (statement shared with staff before press, FOH teams continually

briefed)

o Tate – Media Bulletins, comms around exhibitions highlight all the elements including

reviews, marketing material, blogs, social media

o BHF – Relocation welcome pack (“shelved” the idea of a manual in favour of portable

pamphlets – “from copier locations to cafes” )

o BHF – Open Day (short, sharp & relevant interactive sessions rather than death by

PowerPoint)

OH - Please see Powerpoint presentation