Category: News

 Having just passed the classic January PR moment, Blue Monday, we can acknowledge that many of the things we were going to give up, either didn’t happen or haven’t made us happy. So, what can we, as communications professionals, do more of moving forward that will set us up for success in 2023? Here are five easy things we can all start doing more of today. 

1. Listen: clients need our ears right now. They need us to understand the environments they’re operating in (whether internal, competitive, regulatory or political), their challenges, audiences, channels, sometimes their colleagues, other times their hopes, fears or personal circumstances. Listening is how we build relationships, how we show we care, how we understand and it is what leads to conversations that count. Take the time to listen to what your clients need to say. If you’d like to know more about the power of a great listener, listen to this.
2. Laugh: now is the time to bring the joy. We should bring our sense of humour to work, daily. My colleagues know that I love the phrase, “it’s PR, not ER”. If you can’t find lightness and joy in your daily working life, something’s wrong. Every relationship benefits from the presence of humour and that includes our client and colleague relationships. Bring joy to brainstorms, to the client calls, to the office kitchen and the team zoom. Check out HBR for more on the benefits of fun at work. 
3. Question: for me, curiosity is a comms professional’s best friend. It is at the heart of creativity. It propels us to innovate, to iterate, to build and to grow. And in this era of misinformation and disinformation, there’s no better time to question the source of the information you’re consuming. So let’s question our beliefs, our assumptions, our experiences and see what a different perspective might unlock. Need help? Check this out.
4. Replenish: we all need to build our resilience. Another phrase I love, “you can’t pour out of an empty cup”. Much has been written about the state of exhaustion that people are in right now following the whirlwind that was 2022. This is going to be a tough year professionally and personally for many, emotionally and financially. Take the time to fill your cup – do what rejuvenates you. Book your time off, take the time off and recharge. Your creativity, patience, listening skills and humour will thank you for it. Some useful tips on how to build resilience here.
5. Serve: we’re in client service so let’s think about how we serve – both our clients and our colleagues. It means focusing on the needs of others, before you consider your own. Acknowledging other people’s perspectives. Giving people the support they need to meet their work and personal goals, involving them in decisions where appropriate, and building a sense of community. Happy outcomes include higher engagement, more trust, and stronger relationships. If you’re interested in knowing more about servant leadership, read this. 

Welcome to Citizen Insider, a monthly blog where you’ll get a chance to hear from one of our Citizens. Today, Toronto Account Director Nancy D’Souza shares her ex-pat holiday reflections.

The holiday season always makes me reflect on everything that I’m grateful for.

Last month marked my one-year anniversary since moving to Canada. It’s been a fantastic, eventful year, made even better in the last six months since joining the team at Citizen.

My husband and I packed up our lives in Dubai into 12 big boxes, we sold our car, canceled our phone lines/bank/hydro accounts and moved 11,000kms to the other side of the world. We’re not the only ones to do so – Canada welcomes millions of immigrants each year – and yet this experience was so overwhelming for me, and straight-up paralyzing.

Ever since I was in my early 20s, I grappled with the question of “where is home”? Is it a place? The streets where I grew up? Or is it a feeling? Where you are always welcomed, no matter what.

I was born and raised in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) with an Indian passport. Since 20 years or so, the city has become well known for many superlatives – like the biggest, largest, tallest, fastest. It has most recently been in the spotlight for TV shows like the Real Housewives franchise and Dubai Bling. Many people have asked me: Is it really like that over there? Yes AND No. Yes, it’s extravagant, the beach clubs and brunches, with gold faucets and luxury cars being the norm. On the flip side, it also has a simple, hardworking people that come from all races and socio economic backgrounds – much like Toronto, which the shows do a terrible job of not showing. Growing up there, I was exposed to so many cultures, and it was the most fun, fulfilling 30-something years of my life. So why leave, and why now?

For the many things that are wonderful about Dubai (like no income tax – yet!), the downside is that the country doesn’t grant permanent residence or citizenship, even to those who were born there and have lived there their whole lives. Like my parents who moved to Dubai from India to live and work in their 20s had to leave when they retired at the age of 65. Can you imagine what that’s like? It’s not great. There’s a whole generation of “third-culture kids” from the UAE. Those of us who were born in one country, have the passport of another, and are in search of somewhere to call home.

Whenever I’m asked what brings me to Toronto, I pass it off as saying “I moved for greener pastures”, or that “I moved here to work and make a living”. But reality is I’m an immigrant, just like the 400,000 others who moved here in 2021.

And I feel so lucky to have been welcomed by all.

I’m daily in awe of the many conversations we have at Citizen about inclusion. I’m inspired by the eagerness of colleagues to understand and educate themselves on the advantages of having a certain passport, or the privileges that come with being a certain race. It’s hard to imagine why someone would pick up and leave behind their family and friends, work, everything they know and love, for a one-way ticket to the unknown. And yet here we are!

One year in, I’m happy to say that the journey has been wonderful. Not a day goes by when I’m not ooh-ing and aah-ing at the simple pleasures here that many might take for granted. Like clean air, nature, walking, and snow. Yes! Even the snow. It’s been a real joy exploring the city, building a life, and trying to find my tribe. Assimilating to the local culture (GO Raps!), learning the nuances, and sharing some of mine. Any interactions I’ve had, big or small, have been rewarding in more ways than one. And for that, I’m grateful.

If home is where the heart is, in the most literal sense, if it’s how a place makes you feel, then I feel welcomed, and blessed, and I’m so glad I’ve found a new place to call home.

We’re thrilled to be selected for The Message’s “Top Of The Year” lists for 2022 and are the only agency to be featured twice – a perfect way to wrap up this last year!

Two of our campaigns were featured in:

The Message Mighty List: Our Favourite Creative of 2022 – Cheetle in Cheadle for Cheetos

The Message Mighty List: Our Favourite Causes of 2022 – ReclaimYourName.dic for Elimin8Hate

Both these campaigns embody what Citizen stands for all while pushing the boundaries of creativity. We’re incredibly proud of this work and the teams that made it come to life. 

As seen in The Message. Click on the links below for the original articles:

The Mighty List: Our Favorite 2022 Creative

The Mighty List: Our Favorite People and Causes of 2022

The movement following the events of 2020 shone a bright light on structural racism and inequity that  systematically excluded groups experience daily. Citizen has a long track record of celebrating diversity in our communities but until 2020 we didn’t look closely at what was happening within our agency. Our equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) survey and conversations through our EDI Council and Committees indicates that we are passionate about this topic, and that we also need to do more as an agency if we are striving to create an environment where all Citizens can feel a sense of belonging.

We want every Citizen to develop, grow and shape their own legacy while moving this agency into the future. That means we need many role models at all levels of the company and leaders who are willing to step into uncomfortable conversations. Just as exclusion has been deliberately orchestrated, inclusion must also be deliberately embedded, righting wrongs and reaching those who have not been considered before. It will not happen by accident. If we aren’t actively working to create an equitable and just work environment for all then we are complicit in it being perpetuated. That is truest inside our own agency.

Our very first EDI Report is a reflection of our commitment to be transparent when communicating our EDI progress. We are addressing EDI like we would any business opportunity: analysis, listening, learning and a strategy along with metrics to track our progress. You will find more information on our strategy in the report. 

We identified a number of concrete action steps we will take, but real, lasting, structural change will take time. Our commitment to reporting our results annually is one way to keep ourselves accountable so that we continue to make meaningful progress. EDI is not separate from, or in addition to what we’re doing on the business side. It’s integrated into everything we are doing now.

This EDI Report serves as a blueprint – a guide to how we’re laying the foundation for a more equitable and better future by building an agency worthy of every Citizen here, now, and in the future.

Note: The header image was made using Open AI’s DALL-E-2 using the prompt “Create digital art of Don Draper from Mad Men meeting Hal from 2001: A Space Odyssey.”

Is AI the way forward?

For the past decade, there has been a lot of hype surrounding the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to revolutionise advertising and communications. There’s been no shortage of speculation about the jobs that might be lost, the ways AI will outperform humans, and the generally bleak Skynet-like future AI might be advancing us towards. The reality of most of what has come to market for consumers though, from Siri to customer service chatbots, has felt less like the polished 50’s version of the future imagined in the Jetson’s and more like getting stuck at a long line at the DMV run by the characters in Futurama.

Today, we are finally starting to see a fundamental shift in what AI is capable of though and the potential for how it can be integrated into marketing. In just five days, ChatGPT has reached one million users, making it the fastest-growing AI tool of all time. To put this into perspective, it took Twitter twenty-four months, Facebook ten, and Instagram three to reach the million user milestone. This rapid adoption highlights the incredible potential and interest in AI and natural language processing (NLP) and why the marketing and communications industry needs to be closely paying attention.

So what is it? 

ChatGPT is designed to generate human-like text responses in a conversation when given a prompt in natural language. It was developed by OpenAI, a leading research institute focused on creating and promoting AI and democratising access to it. It can be used for a variety of applications, including chatbots, automated customer service agents, and language translation systems. It can also be used to generate personalised responses to user input in real-time, making it a powerful tool for natural language understanding and generation.

When it comes to how this could be used by agencies, ChatGPT can assist with everything from the creation of engaging content, such as pitches, articles, and social media posts – and can draft these in natural sounding content in only seconds, to drafting research, analysis and insights on targeted audiences to help optimise campaign performance. The results aren’t always consistent, and it can take on some of these roles better than others, but even in this early beta version you can start to see the enormous potential this might have to save time and resources, allowing communications professionals to focus on more high-level tasks.

Could it displace jobs and make clients more inclined to keep work in house? Maybe, but from the experiments we have been running with it, it seems much more powerful as a tool to augment creativity and human thinking than to replace it. 

Rather than displacing agencies, ChatGPT has massive potential to increase the speed of the work agencies do, the number of clients they can work with – and open up time to focus on creativity and strategy in ways they never could before. Tedious tasks like creating multiple drafts of ad copy, editing glitches in code for an app, or summarising a document could be offloaded – while time spent coming up with creative new ways to reach an audience, developing compelling news hooks for a PR pitch or experimenting with entirely new approaches can become the norm.

Before jumping in, there are also some important issues that both clients and agencies will need to be quickly thinking about when it comes to using AI and NLP.

• The technology has leaped far ahead of any ethical framework for using it. Get ready for an arms race with agencies and clients clamouring for access to the best AI engines – think about how and when it would be legitimate to use this technology and what limitations should be placed on it. 
• Beware of skewed or inaccurate results. The potential for bias in AI algorithms is enormous – carefully evaluate the AI tools agencies use and ensure transparency in how they use them.
• Context still matters. While the facts might be technically correct, AI systems don’t always understand the context or don’t fully capture the complexity of a situation. The result could be content that damages a brand’s reputation without the right oversight.

To get ahead of these issues, it’s critical to ensure that AI systems are trained on high-quality and reliable data, and that the information they provide is properly validated and verified. Additionally,ensure users are educated about the limitations of AI technology and encourage them to critically evaluate the information it provides.

Despite these challenges, the potential of AI and NLP in the marketing and communications industry is undeniable. Tools like ChatGPT and DALL-E- 2 will make it easier and more efficient for communications professionals to create, manage, and optimise their work. Those that are able to most quickly adapt, and who can see the potential to take advantage of these technologies will thrive in the AI age.

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The article above was written by David Brodie, Global Vice President, Innovation & Growth, at global communication agency Citizen Relations, with contributions and augmentation by Open AI’s ChatGPT. Approximately 30% of the content was generated by ChatGPT, showcasing the early potential of this technology in assisting with tasks such as content creation and research analysis. This article has also been illustrated by images using Open AI’s DALL-E-2. This integration of AI and human writing showcases the potential for AI to augment human thinking and increase the efficiency of work in the communications industry.

Citizen Relations US was officially selected as one of PRWeek’s Best Places to Work 2022 [Mid-Sized Agency]. Highlighting some of the most prominent and progressive agencies in the PR industry, the Best Places to Work winners show how successful employers listen to and empower their staff, and help drive the collaboration necessary to take their workplace culture to a whole new level. PRWeek’s panel of judges recognizes Citizen for its commitment to work-life balance, recognition of employee excellence, and effective and inspirational leadership.

PRWeek’s Best Places to Work initiative, launched in 2013, invites agencies to explore what keeps employees truly invested in their work and satisfied with their workplace. Participating agencies distribute a link to our survey questionnaire to their employees. After collating the scores and narrowing down a shortlist, PRWeek convenes a panel of staff and external judges — experts in talent recruitment within the public relations sector — to pick the winners. 

“The competition for agency talent, and especially young talent, is tougher than ever as agencies and corporations compete against traditional rivals, new types of firms and each other for the most talented staffers,” said Frank Washkuch, PRWeek’s executive editor. “PRWeek’s Best Places to Work truly shows off the best of the best in terms of creativity and innovative and progressive work environments.” 

Citizen is a global communications agency built by and for the Modern Citizen. We wake up each morning inspired to make every conversation count, partnering with clients to grow their brands and positively impact culture. Across offices and disciplines, this is our single-minded mission. 

We know our name comes with a responsibility – to our fellow Citizens inside our walls and around the globe. We live by the values of the Modern Citizen; one who is courageous, builds up rather than breaks down, and puts their efforts towards conversations that count. Conversations that inform, educate, or make life easier for our fellow citizens. We champion equity. We set the standard. We do what’s right. We believe that conversation leads to action, and action leads to impact.

You can read more about PRWeek’s Best Places To Work here. 

While the value of influencer marketing is clear, many companies have struggled to build relationships with both ethnically diverse customers and ethnically diverse influencers, risking criticism for inauthentic and tokenistic displays of diversity. When we looked at the research available today on this topic, we were frustrated at the lack of data on how ethnically diverse communities connect with a brand’s marketing – there just isn’t enough data to inform how to do things differently.

We wanted to connect the dots between consumer, content creator, and brand to provide insights that lead to creating inclusivity from behind and in front of the camera. To do that, Citizen Relations established the Citizen Inclusive Influencer Index which surveyed nearly 2500 ethnically diverse consumers in 2022 and led focus groups with ethnically diverse influencers in the US and Canada. 

Our research revealed four cornerstones of creating trust-centered, authentic, inclusive influencer marketing:

• connections
• channels
• content
• commitment

The findings of this study have the potential to change how we think about inclusivity in the realm of influencer marketing, and we are eager to get to work. We hope you are too.

Global communications agency announces new identity and position, transforming its operating model to offer consumer & corporate campaign services across digital, creative and strategy.

Global communications agency, Citizen Relations, announces refreshed brand design in conjunction with the significant growth the agency has seen over the past two years. This rebrand reflects the evolution of Citizen Relations, having completely transformed its operating model to grow a team of experts who build, protect and drive reputation and results through innovative communications strategies.

“The rebrand does a wonderful job of representing both the agency we are today and the agency we want to be in the future,” says Nick Cowling, CEO. 

Under Cowling’s leadership, Citizen has seen incredible performance over the last two years, having adjusted to the realities of new ways of working with the onset of the pandemic across their eight global offices (New York, Los Angeles, Orange County, London, Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and Quebec City). Citizen Relations emerged from this period with over 20% growth in 2021, and projects to grow another 20+% this year. Nick Cowling says:

By focusing on our mission and living our values, we’ve been able to improve in every area of our business – our talented people, our client satisfaction and success, our work and our growth.

To maintain Citizen’s momentum there has been a number of recent promotions across the leadership team:

• Laura Bremer has been named President, U.S. With Citizen since 2010, Bremer has driven significant growth by pushing the boundaries of earned and influencer marketing. In her new role, Bremer will continue to lead with a people-centric philosophy to drive further expansion and global integration.
• David Brodie has been named Global Vice President,  Innovation and Growth. Brodie has led award-winning campaigns with Citizen Relations for the past 17 years and is now responsible for the development of new and enhanced service offerings in addition to new business development worldwide.
• Jenn Duggan has been named the President, Ontario and West at Citizen. With Citizen since 2018, Duggan has led multiple award-winning programs and will now oversee the offices in Toronto and Vancouver, building on the exceptional regional expertise and fueling strong national collaboration.
• Erin Georgieff has been named Managing Partner, U.S. Growth & West Coast Operations. Georgieff has been with Citizen for over 20 years, leading the strategy for some of the agency’s leading brand partners. Georgieff will oversee day-to-day operations of the West Coast offices with a focus on US growth.
• Sue Jackman joins Citizen Relations as the Senior Vice President of Marketing, leading the brand marketing and communications for Citizen Relations globally. She joins Citizen from Intact Financial where she served as the Director of Marketing and Communications.
• Heidi Mamer has been named Senior Vice President, Global Operations. Over the past 6 years, Mamer has been a key consultant for clients and internal teams across the spectrum of the integrated marketing mix and will now focus on streamlining global business operations across offices and centralized teams for continued growth.

Citizen’s new identity reflects the agency’s global mission to make every conversation count, anchored in the values of the ‘modern citizen’ – to champion equity, set the standard and do what’s right.

When it comes to sustainability and ESG, it’s not potato/potahto. There is a difference, and the difference matters.

The term ESG has been used to distinguish investment funds that, in theory, screen companies for some level of sustainability performance or advantage. But applying an ESG categorization doesn’t guide behaviour or connect to outcomes. It is an acronym, with topics that a company can choose to address.

An ESG approach can lead to compartmentalizing issues, resulting in environmental, social or governance silos. This is problematic because most issues don’t fit into neat boxes. For example, climate change impacts not only the physical environment but also human rights, including the rights to life, food, water, housing, health and work.

In contrast to ESG, sustainability makes room for a systems approach to understanding and addressing topics that overlap and intersect.

Moving beyond ESG and embracing complexity

The view that ESG is not only good for the planet and people but also good for business has gained momentum in the past five years, and really took off after Larry Fink’s 2018 letter to CEOs declaring,

To prosper over time, every company must not only deliver financial performance but also show how it makes a positive contribution to society.

While investors and heads of corporations are showing interest in ESG, activity is limited to what’s required, focusing on compliance and efficiency, and relegating innovation to a moonshot.

Companies that move beyond checking boxes aspire to fundamentally transform their businesses — to seize an opportunity. Rather than continuing to think about sustainability commitments as obligations or contributions to society — something necessary but on the periphery of the business — leading companies treat those commitments as a competitive advantage.

Unilever and IKEA have both moved their sustainability efforts far beyond what’s required, to boldly integrate sustainability (not ESG) into the heart of how they do business, and all the while disrupting the status quo.

For example, Unilever’s sustainable living plan outlines the company’s requirements for sourcing, supply chain and production. The plan includes guidelines on water and energy use, worker rights and pushing for a “circular economy” for plastic packaging.

Rigorous metrics are required to measure progress and performance on sustainability goals. However, to inspire and galvanize action, these metrics need to be pulled into a compelling narrative and emotional engagement across the organization with stakeholders. The overall approach needs to come from a place of conviction, distinctive for the brand, meaningful to stakeholders, motivating to employees, resonant in the marketplace, aligned with the business’s purpose and consistent with its values.

A company must start with purpose.

Crafting a clear and compelling purpose is essential to creating a strategy that moves the dial from compliance and efficiency, and in time lands on innovation. Purpose answers the questions:

• Why do employees come to work each morning?
• If the company disappeared tomorrow, what would the world lose?

Defining the company’s purpose isn’t a writing exercise built around peer comparison. It’s an exercise in exploration — unearthing the company’s unique strengths and taking an in-depth and wide-angle view of what the world needs from the company.

After purpose is articulated, it should be brought to life across the organization, motivating stakeholders, driving strategy and elevating the brand.

Purpose becomes a critical filter for developing a sustainability strategy that is authentic: focused, credible, distinctive and inspiring.

While a robust sustainability strategy should cover a variety of topics, it’s important that the company identify one or two areas where it can have a significant impact. Purpose lends itself to zeroing in on a set of relevant issues that the company is uniquely positioned to address. What one thing does the company want to be known for or in what area does it want to influence industry or society?

Finally, a company needs a compelling and distinctive sustainability story — a strategic narrative from which all sustainability communications flow.

The story connects stakeholders emotionally, and should be told with strong vision and commitment rooted in tangible actions.

However, beware of a self-congratulatory story about the company’s incremental progress on metrics. Substance is the most important element: a company’s sustainability story should be supported by tangible actions and transparent progress.