PR’s Top Pros Talk… Reflecting on 2023 and Planning for 2024

Jamie Dowd, North America Health Lead at Weber Shandwick, discusses the impact of misinformation and shares how brands can address it with empathy. Jamie talks about her passion for supporting female leaders in PR. Jamie also shares the importance of maintaining momentum for female-driven campaigns.

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TRANSCRIPT:

DOUG: You’re really upbeat person, but there are specific reasons you’re optimistic about what 2024 will bring to the business.

JAMIE: Yeah, I have a lot of optimism for what 2024 will bring us. I think we saw at Weber Shandwick Health we’ve had a significant year of growth for a variety of reasons across all of our major areas of business product communications, corporate communications, public health and corporate health. And I think as we look to next year, we really see the momentum continuing. We’re seeing several new opportunities coming in and not just assignments that previous agencies had supported, but actually net new assignments that clients are looking to introduce new products into the market, new corporate reputation assignments. So, we’re really feeling optimistic about what we will see and what clients that will be able to work with as we head into 2024.

DOUG: So, you’re seeing in these new business opportunities, not just clients looking to change agencies because of dissatisfaction, but new opportunities.

JAMIE: Yeah, we’ve seen more new opportunities, frankly, than clients looking to change from other agencies, which to me just reflects where science and innovation have taken us into new spaces with new medicines that are at the point in their life cycle where clients are looking to retain communications agencies. And luckily, with Weber Shandwick and our practice being such a large health care team, we’re able to take on a variety of assignments at various levels of the products life cycle in order to introduce that into the market and work across the various stakeholders that the clients would like to reach.

DOUG: Yeah, and one of the challenges that do you feel is likely to continue is the problem of misinformation. On one level, that actually makes PR more important, but it’s still a challenge.

JAMIE: Yeah, it’s a huge challenge and honestly, it’s a great question. And I think it’s going to get more severe before it gets better. And there’s a lot of companies and organizations obviously doing everything they can to fight that. But just to kind of untangle what I started off with, I think there this is the biggest issue at the intersection of business and society and politics and science. And that’s where obviously my line of work is really impacted. And that’s why Weber Shandwick in the last few years has been so on top of what we can do to confront it. And I think there’s a variety of reasons, even looking back at 2018, when really the conversation about stakeholder capitalism really rose to a peak, we learned how much we have to do to really think about what issues are impacting and then what is fueling them because of the pace of social and how quickly a topic can truly be out in the world. And misinformation is not a new thing. You know, we’ve all been facing this information for years and we will, you know, we knew we would continue, but certain topics have just been so controversial and the politicization and the proliferation of how we think about those topics is really what has drastically changed.

DOUG: That’s a really unique insight. You’ve had the idea that misinformation, it’s not a new problem. What’s new is the impact it’s been having. So how can you as an advisor to brands and brands themselves, combat it?

JAMIE: I think that’s where every company has to look and analyze. And that’s been the importance of our partnership with Blackbird, which has been one of the leading organizations really evaluating and helping companies understand what is the nature of the conversation around the misinformation, who is spreading the misinformation? And those two pieces really then can advise exactly what we do. And when we’re thinking about a client issue, we’re really thinking about, okay, what do we need to do to combat whatever is being stated? These are usually, again, to my point of, you know, the politics that have gone into particularly into the science realm and what we saw during the Covid pandemic, these are very emotional issues, and you can’t enter the conversation and try to one by one, you know, advise against what the person might be saying because of that emotional nature of the conversation. What we typically recommend is that first of all, push out the information that is reputable, credible information to the audiences that you want to reach, and then take that analysis that you’ve done about what is not the correct information, and really think about what do I need to do to help educate people and understand. And most importantly, how do I do that with empathy? And I think that’s the biggest piece of counsel that we’ve been giving our clients in the last couple of years is there was an automatic, reflexive nature to try to combat. We really think about it now as we want to have. We want to build that empathy with an audience so that we can enter it and try to give the right information and resources to be able to change it. The number one thing that we’ve learned working with Blackford at Weber Shandwick is that we have to understand where the misinformation starts, but also understand that it is not always done in a malicious nature. There are people out there searching for information, and they might find a piece of information that they are starting to spread just to start a conversation, as they look for support and that kind of information and the way that you would approach what you would view is misinformation has to obviously be handled very differently than anything that is not factual. And we saw this a lot in the vaccine conversation because we had L.A. consumers reviewing clinical data because it was such a topic of conversation in our world. But that lay view of a clinical study then took hold on social and had a whole different conclusion than, say, a scientist or a physician or clinical investigator would have.

DOUG: Jamie, we’ve been talking about misinformation. Are you concerned that AI could have an outside role and really pushing it forward?

JAMIE: Yeah, I think that the biggest trend that we may see in misinformation is actually AI, and not just that it’s artificially generated content, but honestly, the fact that it just exists. I think we’ve all seen the role that algorithms can play in really getting that content to take on a life of its own. And as I mentioned earlier that news often spreads much faster than the news that we would consider to be true. So, we’ve really got to think about and work together across social media companies, government, private organizations, and really think about how do we combat this to a place where we can understand and believe and really use AI in the way that is really created to be.

DOUG: I’d like to switch gears because another topic I know you believe strongly, and that’s also been a trend in health communications, is an increased focus on women’s health. What do you feel is sort of finally driving it, if you want to call it an equalization of it? And where do we go from here?

JAMIE: It’s really exciting to see the focus on women’s health that we’ve seen in the last few years. I think my view is that, you know, the unmet needs that have been raised can obviously be real innovation for women. And I think that’s only been possible because there’s been many voices and many of them being very high profile, that can no longer be silenced. And I think that’s the key. Those voices being out there and being heard is what has triggered us to really realize and companies to realize that they need to act and innovate for women in a new way because of that growing voice. And I think that’s been a really exciting thing to see in the last few years. Obviously as a woman and as a mom of three little children, um, you know, health and women’s health decisions, um, and one of my children, will be a woman, and she I think that’s where I’m passionate about what can come from the conversation that’s now been surfaced, because I still think we’re in our infancy of exactly what brands and companies are really going to do about it.

DOUG: You’re also a very passionate about supporting female leaders like yourself in the PR industry. What can communicators of all genders do to really help advance women’s careers?

JAMIE: I’m really proud of what Weber Shandwick has done to really help women, so I’ll start there. I think we’ve seen this year you know, several of our female leadership positions be elevated, many others in the company be promoted. We have, um, expanded our family leave policy, which is much more accommodating for people, both moms and dads who are taking time off from adoption or birth of a baby and really seeing them come back and being at the company almost 19 years, really seeing them come back and their ability to come ease back in, but also feel as if they’re out of stage with their new child where they really feel ready. So, watching that has been, um, has been great. I think that, as we’ve seen this year and, you know, we are such a large healthcare communications practice, um, in North America, really seeing our clients now paying attention to what’s happening in the women’s health arena, I think has been a huge change and a huge shift. And I think there’s a variety of reasons for that. I think there’s, um, a discussion about several things that used to be. Taboo, you know, sexual health, pain, anxiety, hot flashes, anything related to menopause. I think this year menopause has had such a moment. There’s so much conversation and discussion. And part of that is to my comment earlier of these voices finally feeling like they are loud, and they can be heard, and they’re being acted on. And I think that’s a really critical moment for all companies to think about. How do we how do we do this differently? I think for us to think about what we do next. I think we have to continue to provide the focus and flexibility and opportunity to elevate within a company for women to truly grow to where we want them to be. And I think we’re seeing just as a general trend, many women like we saw during the pandemic, many women left the workforce. We’ve seen a growing number of women enter the workforce, but for them to stay there is going to require companies to really pay attention and frankly, customize what that work life balance really needs to be. And we have thankfully, I think at Weber Shandwick, we’ve been able to do that really well. And even far before the pandemic, I felt like it’s actually one of the main reasons that I’ve stayed with the company just for the flexibility as I was, you know, getting married and looking to be a mom and really feeling like we could address those issues. And that I could do both. I could do the job that I wanted to be as I grew through the organization. But I could also be with my family and be at my school events and do the things that matter to me in terms of my children’s education. So, I think we have to continue to mentor and support. I think there’s a lot of organizations that have been created to really help. I’m a member of the Women’s business Leaders in health Care. There are a lot of outlets online in terms of, you know, really understanding and letting women have that community in a different way because you can have a community in your own company, but I think to have a community outside of your company really brings a new perspective as to, you know, how do we support our the gender overall, not just within your own organization?

DOUG: I think that’s really important because I know for us as a boutique sized agency ourselves, you know? Wait, how many subgroups can we have when we’re a company of roughly 20 people? It doesn’t really make a lot of sense because they’re speaking to each other pretty regularly. But if you can create that connection outside, that’s really great. It’s also interesting how in some ways, for those who were fortunate to be okay during the Covid pandemic, the necessity to be able to work from home and the growth and the technology at that key point really increased the acceptance of work flexibility, though there is some backsliding. Are there any final points you’d like to leave us with? There’s been so much thoughtful content from you. It’s really appreciated.

JAMIE: As it relates to women’s advancement. I think just this year has brought so much focus on what women what is possible for women. And I think there’s I was reading an article this weekend and it really struck me when the author was talking so much about the female economy and how particularly this year with Barbie, which Weber Shandwick has been a huge part of Mattel’s Barbie innovation story in the last ten years. I actually presented on Barbie when I did my son’s career day a few weeks ago, because I felt like it was something people would really understand. But watching that story of Barbie and really what it became this year. And then you have, you know, many other examples of just the World Cup and Beyonce and so much conversation that’s really been led, because of females and albeit, you know, high profile females. But still, I think it’s signifying to the world just what is the power of the woman. One of the important things of just our Weber Shandwick health team is thinking about how do we continue to do that and how do we address clients needs and stay, you know, in culture on the conversation that really exists with women and what is driving that conversation? And that’s one of the key pieces of what we’ve done. One of the programs that we actually launched several years ago, which is won a lot of awards you may have heard of. It is a program called For Annovera, which is a birth control ring. And it we worked with Whitney Cummings, who just had a baby the other day actually, but while she was on the birth control ring, we worked with her to talk, and the whole premise of the campaign was about how women are so apologetic for their reproductive health, and that really holds them back from being in control. Annovera is a flexible option where you can remove and insert yourself, which is a rare introduction, and doing it in a in a much more modern way. So, we actually worked with her to bring some humor and working within the Whitney Cummings style and really think about it and the results is why that it was such an award winner. The results were phenomenal in terms of the conversation that it surfaced and women really feeling like they can go out there and talk about something much more comfortably. So, I think that it’s more programs like that and things that are messaging that is willing to surface some of the challenges that women have faced.

DOUG: Yeah. Well, I’ll award you appear as PR’s Top Pros Talk award winner based on this conversation. Thanks so much for participating.

JAMIE: Thank you.