Viva PR

Awards season isn't over for us yet! Within 24 hours, we've found out we're shortlisted for both the AMEC Measurement and Evaluation Global Communication Effectiveness Awards and the PRCA UK Awards 🏆 Being recognised on both a national and a global stage means a great deal, especially from AMEC, whose awards focus on the measurable impact of communication. That's something we've built our work around. The office shelves are already bursting with trophies, but we're confident we can find room for a couple more. Thank you to our clients for trusting us with work worth entering, and good luck to everyone else on the shortlists.

I'm super happy to say we've been shortlisted in the #amecawards again. Experienced Media Analysts are finalists for small measurement team of the year - we won in 2023 and were highly commended in 2024. Our work with Viva PR has also made it through to the finals. That's a serious amount of communications measurement excellence coming out of #Rossendale in #Lancashire. We support other clients too behind the scenes on their award submissions and we have had another 100% success rate this year in terms of the shortlist. Can't wait to see who takes home the prizes on 5th November in London. Congrats to all the other finalists.

AI making many crisis comms plans unfit for purpose, introducing PM Andy Burnham to social media, and AI as a stakeholder. These were just some of the real world applications of communications and PR I discussed with Tony Garner, the founder of Viva PR, for the PR in the Real World podcast. Read more and watch or listen to the podcast in the latest issue of PR Futurist - https://sbpr.cc/AKyYu

AI isn't a channel to optimise for. According to PR Futurist Stuart Bruce, it's a stakeholder in its own right - one with a view of your organisation built from everything it can find, whether you've given it anything or not. That shift is already rewriting crisis communications. A plan built around staying quiet and keeping a story tight might still work on journalists, but it hands AI nothing to go on, and something else fills the gap instead. Stuart's point is that the same thinking now has to extend across the board: give AI a place on your stakeholder map, the same as you would any audience with the power to shape opinion. You can catch our latest episode of PR in the Real World on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts: https://linktr.ee/vivapr

Lisa, one of the directors at Viva, volunteered her time to judge three categories of the Lancashire Business View's Sub36 Awards - returning for the first time in years. She was impressed by the calibre of passionate, energetic and driven individuals she interviewed - and managed to take a short break to grab a picture of her fellow judging panel on the day. The Sub36 awards will take place at the Park Hall Hotel on Friday 16 October. Good luck to all of the candidates.

A university had an industrial dispute, and their strategy was textbook: they agreed a careful, uncritical statement, sent it straight to a journalist, and kept it off their own website to avoid stoking the story. The union did the opposite and shared their side of the story on LinkedIn, their website, and through multiple media outlets. However, when AI models were asked about the dispute, they found one citation for the university's side and eight or nine for the union. As Stuart Bruce puts it on the latest episode of PR in the Real World: "If your crisis communications plan doesn't include AI as a stakeholder, it's more of a wish list." It’s this view that is reshaping how we approach crisis comms. Catch our latest on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts: https://linktr.ee/vivapr

Action-packed and full of lessons. That’s how Martha Hulme summed up her two weeks at Viva as part of our NextGen 2026 programme. From writing press releases, planning social media content, and meeting clients, Martha got the full experience of working in the fast-paced environment of an award-winning agency. You can read more about her experience by reading her blog below: https://lnkd.in/eS9mPy99

Stuart Bruce, the ‘PR Futurist’, has become known as one of the industry’s leading experts on AI. As the industry is finding ways to influence what LLMs say, Stuart argues that getting under the skin of how they interpret information can help PRs better understand which sources they prioritise. On the latest episode of PR in the Real World, Stuart shares some insightful views into the current state of AI and, more specifically, the importance of understanding why and how it speaks about us and our clients. Make sure you tune in: https://linktr.ee/vivapr

A year or so ago, during an endlessly fascinating AI training session with Ben Verinder, he posited a thought. The idea that we could decide as an agency not to totally embrace AI. In fact, actively positioning yourself as the one that puts the human mind and endeavor front and central. Now, I should say that Mr V wasn’t advocating this stance, just pointing out that it was legitimately available to us should we decide to take it. On a sunny balcony in Croatia I found myself pondering that notion. It’s fair to say that in the intervening months we’ve actively embraced AI tools across our workflows. It’s been a fascinating period. And in some ways our agency has been transformed. Powered by our conversations with industry leaders like Darryl Pilling, Stuart Bruce and Stephen Waddington we have been able to shape our approach with clarity and best practice in mind. Sometimes, exhilarating, and sometimes it has been like a runaway train. Anne Gregory’s line l, the phrase that worries her most is Human in the Loop, it should be Human at the Helm has also lodged at the front of my mind But from my sunny distance, I decided to reconsider Ben’s suggestion. Call it, a taking stock moment. What might we gain (and lose) should we take a strategic U-turn. And then is it even possible now. Here’s where I have got to. Some reasons to throw off the AI chains that bind: 1 Atrophy: am I the only one who feels like some of the skills we have built up are in danger of being cast away, amid a tidal wave of AI ‘support’. And add to this Learning your Craft. How can junior members of the team learn the fundamentals of the trade without doing and learning. 2 Thinking through writing: I’ve penned this, warts and all, and as I have sharpened each line of text I have had to think about you dear reader and whether my scribbles still make sense. You take a thought, commit it to paper (screen) and consider it. If AI use means this process happens less, then it means my work is less thoughtfully prepared. OK my thoughts might be gibberish but they are mine. 3 A Distinctive Voice/Style: one of the first self help business books I leaned on when I started Viva was Seth Godin’s Purple Cow marketing. Not an instruction to name a brand with a strange colour animal construction, rather a point that in a crowded market to stand out you need a point of difference. Not just AN Other agency. The danger with over reliance on AI is that you tack to the average. You get the same result as everyone else. 4 AI gains are often an illusion: time spent reading and rewriting AI slop and reintroducing the human is a real cost. The AI drug is powerful but the results often deceive. They look good on first sight but lack the energy and power that humans can bring. Even with our flaws. So what to do? Challenge everyone and everything. Is this helping or hurting us. Bring back the ‘em dash’ into OUR writing and make sure we keep our brains engaged by using them more. Thanks Ben

We've been on decorating duties, with quality control from Cooper ✔️ It's not just a lick of paint - we're levelling up the setup behind our podcast, PR in the Real World, with a new studio that's being built to take it even further. We're 67 episodes in now with no plans to stop, as we continue to have honest conversations about PR with people who know the sectors we work in. From crisis comms to AI and everything in between, there's an episode for wherever your curiosity takes you. Catch up on any of the 67 so far by watching or listening wherever you get your podcasts (link in comments) 🔗