Racial Justice and the 2020 United States Election
Edelman
Edelman launched a special report of the 2020 Edelman Trust Barometer focused on “Trust and the U.S. Election.” The report features ways for employers to help their employees deal with the election.

The online survey of 1,500 respondents was conducted October 20 – 23, 2020.

Results were mixed for large companies vs. the general population as to whether companies should speak out publicly. Some of the key findings include:

  • 67% of the U.S. general population are “worried” the U.S. presidential election will not go smoothly. The top three “most concerning” possibilities include:
  • Potential for violent protests (47%)
  • Fake news and false information (42%)
  • Losing candidate’s refusal to concede (39%)
  • Among large company employees, 47% said how their employer acts will have a “significant impact on my loyalty to the organization.”
  • 38% said if they are not satisfied with their employer’s responses that they will engage in some form of weekly protests.
  • 61% of large company employees say their employer is at greater risk of alienating its employees if it issues a public statement regarding a contested or inclusive election.

Read the complete report here
The Small Effects of Political Advertising are Small Regardless of Context, Message, Sender, or Receiver
Alexander Coppock, Ph.D., Yale University; Seth J. Hill, Ph.D., University of California, San Diego; Lynn Vavreck, Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles
This summary is provided by IPR based on the original article in ScienceAdvances

Dr. Alexander Coppock and colleagues investigated the effects of 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign advertisements based on sender (candidates or groups), receiver (subject partisanship), content (attack or promotional), and context.

A series of experiments was conducted with 49 political advertisements in 59 unique experiments on 34,000 participants.

Key findings include:

  • Differences in effects due to context (time to Election Day, whether the advertisement was aired during the primary or the general election, and battleground state residency) were small.
  • Effects of advertisements were found to decline as campaigns progress.
  • Attack advertisements are about as effective at achieving their goals as promotional advertisements.
  • PAC- or SuperPAC-sponsored advertisements were no more effective than those sponsored by candidates.
  • Democratic participants responded more strongly to pro-Democratic advertisements than to pro-Republican advertisements, but Republican participants responded to pro-Democratic and pro-Republican advertisements with the same small, positive, nonsignificant effect.

Read more to learn how political advertising generally has small effects no matter the sender, receiver, content, or context.
Avoiding an Employee Election Meltdown
Peppercomm
Peppercomm has released a new report, “Avoiding an Employee Election Meltdown” that includes results from a data analysis of emotions following the 2016 election and an election and productivity playbook for the 2020 election, featuring sidebars from communication leaders.

The playbook features four phases of communications with suggested actions at-a-glance including:
  • Leading into Election Day
  • Election Day
  • Awaiting the Outcome
  • Post Decision

Click here to download the playback and read more about the Election Mindset Playbook.
How We Did It: The "Aha" Moment That Fostered the Executive Audit
Mark Weiner, IPR Trustee, Chief Insights Officer, Cision
In partnership with PR Daily, “How We Did It” is a series featuring IPR Trustees discussing a success in their public relations career. Mark Weiner is the immediate past director of the IPR Measurement Commission. November celebrates AMEC Measurement Month 2020 #AMECMM.

Early in my career as a research-based communications consultant, few people talked about public relations research and evaluation. I assumed that everyone talked about research; they simply didn’t want to talk with me about it.

Then in a conversation with an agency CEO, he commented: “We don’t measure at all. I’d gladly forgo being a proven success in exchange for never being a proven failure.”

That was my PR research "aha" moment.

I viewed research as an impartial guide used to improve performance. The PR community viewed research as a pass/fail report card to prove value.

Read the rest of Mark Weiner's blog to learn how his research "aha" moment led to a new approach to measurement.
Americans' Communication Preferences are Moving to the Personal, Hyperlocal Level
Harris Poll
Harris Poll explored Americans' purchasing preferences and trust in various information sources.

An online survey of 2,015 Americans was conducted from October 14-17, 2020.

Key findings include:

  • Americans rate Local & Small Business Owners (81%), Local TV News (75%), and Local Newspapers & Websites (71%) as more trustworthy than National TV News (64%) and National Newspapers & Websites (63%).
  • When asked to rate how much they "like" or "love" receiving information from different sources, Americans rated "in-person events in their community" highest (55%), followed by "endorsements from people in their community" (46%), and "TV advertising" (44%).
  • 78% of Americans are more likely to purchase from a company with a local presence.

Read more to learn about Americans' communications and purchasing habits.
Communications is a Team Sport: Involving Employees as Partners and Brand Advocates
Aniisu K. Verghese, Director, Corporate Communications, Sabre India

Globally, organizations struggle with bridging the reputation divide and trust deficit among employers and employees while striving to improve engagement. According to a brand credibility gap study, just 19% of employees feel aligned with their employer’s brand. Worldwide, the state of employee experience is eroding due to a multitude of factors – macroeconomic reasons, a slowdown in jobs, the increase in automation, the growing expectations on employees to do more with less and heightened cross-border trade confrontations. Likewise, employee engagement is waning across the world, and it is attributed to the slew of changes and technology interventions at the workplace. This reflects in the state of global employee engagement; just 13% of employees are engaged in the workplace. 

Read the rest of Aniisu Verghese's blog to learn how to involve employees as partners and brand advocates.
What 800 Executives Envision for the Postpandemic Workforce
McKinsey Global Institute
McKinsey Global Institute examined global executives' perceptions on the future of the workforce, especially considering changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A global survey of 800 executives was conducted in June 2020.

Key findings include:

  • 85% of companies have accelerated digitization since the start of COVID-19, and 67% of companies have accelerated automation and artificial intelligence.
  • Demand for on-site freelancers and temporary workers will likely rise over the next two years compared with levels prior to COVID-19.
  • 83% of executives anticipate that their company will hire more health and safety roles because of COVID-19, followed by technology and automation roles (68%) and digital learning roles (45%).

Read more to discover what executives think the future of work will look like due to COVID-19.
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