Welcome to the first newsletter from the PR, Marketing and Communications team at PFJ. We hope you'll find this monthly roundup of stories interesting and they will open the door to some lively debates. This is a work in progress and if you have any suggestions or stories that you think we may have missed we would be delighted if you can email them to us.
The main talking point at PFJ Towers this month concerns the remuneration of interns. A number of you will have had your first taste of the industry via an internship. Internsips have had a rocky ride recently, being considered the privilege of the wealthy few, or slave labour for some unscrupulous PR agencies using internships as free labour. A report in this week's PR Week outlined the fact that only 25% of interns were paid more than the minimum wage. What are your opinions - do you think internships are a necessary hardship to get a foothold into a competitive market, or are we exploiting young people and narrowing the diversity of our market? Let us know your thoughts on our blog here.
The PR and marketing world is changing rapidly, and the industry and regulators are having to make up rules as they go along. Nike this week were the very first company to be censured by the ASA for a Twitter campaign. Do the same offline rules apply to the online world or should we be looking at a new set of guidelines? How much do the ASA need to look after the consumer, or was the Nike campaign obvious with the hashtags?
It was Cannes Lions this month and the top prize went to a PR campaign from Puerto Rico for the first time in the country's history. Should we be looking to the emerging nations for novel PR ideas or do people still consider their campaigns less innovative than the traditional powerhouses?
When we watch 'Mad Men' those halcyon days of advertising seem like the dawn of the PR and marketing professional. Many believe that our current ideas of publicity and advertising were created in the days of Don Draper, or were they? This fun infographic outlines the evolution of the PR professional - do you think they've missed out on any historical PR maestros or do you think we had caveman PR specialists?
No newsletter from a recruitment consultancy would be complete without some advice on making your CV stand out with a client, so here is a quick article from BDaily where they interview Stefan Lepkowski, the MD of Karol Marketing, on making your CV stand out from the crowd.
The State of the Market
The PR, Communications and Marketing job market is still very buoyant and we are seeing a huge variety of roles from a number of sectors. There is a real surge in the internal communications recruitment as a number of organisation are going through fundamental change which throws up change management projects.
As always the digital sector is leading the way and we are seeing both trade and consumer communications and marketing roles. There is still the same level of excitement in the start up field and we are seeing some really interesting roles come up from that market.
We are also seeing some light at the end of the tunnel in the Public Sector and Not for Profit markets as new changes come into effect and the need for effective communicating increases.
And finally...like any good news outlet, a bit of humour. As PR and communication experts, all I am sure none of these glaring errors are evident on your CV! Are they?
We hope you enjoyed this monthly look at our industry and we look forward to seeing you next month!
