The Spark

Is nine the magic number?

Here’s a shout out to our friends at Leeds-based marketing automation platform Force 24, who recommend a nine-step email sequence.

For communicators tasked with tempting new customers via their email inboxes — who are more used to a standard six-step process — this is an interesting proposition.

This nugget is part of the team’s How to send the perfect plain text email guide, downloadable for free. If you try it, let us know how you get on!

Katie Mallinson, managing director

Scheduling stories on Instagram

Did you know you can now schedule and publish Instagram stories using third party social media management software?

Meta has announced that it has made stories an eligible media type on the Instagram Graph API meaning you can cue-up this content — up to 25 posts per day — using your favoured scheduling tool.

Rosie Holt, copywriter

The Times’ Coronation campaign 

We were keeping a close eye on campaigns around the King's Coronation this month. In the midst of British brands highlighting this historic event in their own ways, we particularly enjoyed The Times and Sunday Times’ touching tribute to the new King. 

Aimed at encouraging its readers to interact with the publication over the Coronation weekend, the campaign, named The Wait Is Over, provided readers with everything they needed to mark this special occasion — as well as drawing comparisons between the public's anticipation of the event and King Charles' 70 years in waiting for this moment.

Beth Lunt, account manager

The conversation on AI continues

We talked about AI in The Spark last month and this time it’s a listicle on the Forbes website that’s caught our attention. In it, 15 communications professionals talk about the myriad ways that AI is affecting the way they do their jobs.

One interesting point is the potential positives in terms of sustainability, given bots’ increasing power to analyse data and identify patterns. Take a look.

See also this PR Week podcast titled: AI won’t take your job but a human who knows how to use it will. Further proof of the need to engage, not ignore!

Philippa Ogden, copywriter

Making an appointment with creativity

This one’s not strictly from the communications arena but UK academic David Gauntlett, who lives and works in Canada, has recently published a lovely book called Creativity: Seven Keys To Unlock Your Creative Self. 

It’s packed with useful observations on the nature of creativity, and challenges the myth that you’ve either got it or you haven’t. It’s argued here that everyone is creative, and that creativity is something you do, rather than something you are.

One stand-out section suggests making regular appointments for yourself to be inventive, say 4pm to 7pm on Tuesdays — and honouring that commitment, as you would if it involved a meeting with someone else. 

The point is that creativity doesn’t just happen, you have to make time for it too!

Jenny Gibson, editorial excellence manager

And finally… want to be a marketing director?

Check out this recent, long list from Forbes about everything you need to be, do and know to be a successful, international marketing director. Sounds like a lot for just one person to be able to cover!

That’s one of the reasons why we at Scriba PR are launching our own Marketing Director as a Service offering. Several heads — namely, all our senior personnel — are definitely better than one for this pivotal role. 

A third of our clients now operate internationally, and our experience of communicating across cultures makes our team ideally suited to step up, collaboratively, for clients established and new.

International communications manager, Alice Kelly

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