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ICYMI: Sustainability in the Age of AI

Welcome toICYMI– a weekly snapshot of European news stories that have given me pause for thought. ICYMI is a chance for you to go beyond the front-page headlines and find out what other stories may be worthy of your attention.

Sustainability is a major topic in 2024. Most people associate sustainability with the environment, but this issue goes beyond that. How do we sustain the integrity of our elections? How do we sustain our health and wellbeing? How do we ensure our businesses are sustainable? And what role can technology play in sustainability?

A few stories from the past week highlighted the varying aspects of sustainability. The first concerns artificial intelligence and its impact on the environment.

According to a report in Le Figaro, the creation and training of AI emits a significant amount of CO2, equivalent to hundreds of transcontinental flights or several cars over their lifespan. AI models that generate images consume 60 times more energy than ones that generate text: the example given in the article claims that generating text for 1,000 requests is equivalent to 16% of a smartphone recharge, but asking an AI to generate 1,000 images is equivalent to simultaneously and fully recharging 950 smartphones.

The report raises crucial environmental concerns associated with the increasing use of AI and highlights the importance of considering the carbon footprint of developing an AI. From a PR perspective, any clients who may want to talk about cutting their emissions and becoming more environmentally friendly, while also adopting or pursuing AI initiatives, will need to consider how to reconcile these potentially opposing objectives.

How many apps is too many?

In a related story, the American tech company Okta published a report on what apps we’re using the most in our offices, based on a survey of eight countries including France, Germany, The Netherlands and the UK.

According to the report, companies are using 93 apps on average. Larger companies (those with more than 2,000 employees) have a much high average at 231, while smaller companies only use 69. Surprisingly, tech startups use just 47 apps on average.

The report found app usage differs radically from country to country. Companies in The Netherlands use the most apps, with an average of 108. The fastest growing app in the UK is password manager 1Password, while in The Netherlands it is Google Workspace.

It’s worth considering the sustainability aspect of using so many apps. How many are essential, and how many are costly and redundant? The story also underlines just how essential digital skills are in today’s workplace to enable people to work effectively.

Combatting misinformation in the Age of AI

As we discussed previously, 2024 is a big year for politics. Given the power of AI, the risks from AI-generated fake news and misinformation are greater than ever, so it is worth paying attention to news that the EU is set to impose new election safeguards on tech companies.

According to the FT, the EU is preparing new guidelines requiring social media platforms such as X and TikTok to combat election disinformation. Failing to prevent the spread of misinformation could lead to fines of up to 6% of global turnover.

In such an important election year, protecting the integrity and credibility of elections is likely to be a major topic in the media. PRs should consider how their tech clients can help (or hinder) the fight against misinformation.

Cybersecurity in the healthcare sector

How safe is your medical data? According to a recent story in Heise, it may not be well protected. Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security, BSI, conducted two studies into the IT security of the country’s medical practices. The first, a survey of 1,600 practices, found that only one third of respondents had fully implemented protective measures, while one in ten reported that had already been a victim of an IT security incident.

A second study looked at 16 practices in detail, and the BSI identified serious security flaws, including inadequate protection against malware, poor patch management and lack of backups. None of the practices used disk encryption to protect sensitive patient data.

Given how the threat of cyberattacks continues to rise, the story is sobering. Clearly more needs to be done to improve cybersecurity in our vital – and vulnerable – sectors.

The beauty of hindsight: The CEO guide to what advice successful leaders would give to their younger selves

Building a successful business requires blood, sweat, and tears. Building a unicorn company worth over $1 billion requires an even greater level of effort and heartache. But the years of hard work mean that the CEOs and founders of these companies possess a wealth of experience. If they could turn back time, what pearls of wisdom would they offer to their younger selves?

That’s the question we posed to over 30 tech entrepreneurs as part of our Unicorn CEO interview series for our Without Borders podcast. We’ve collected the key pieces of advice these tech leaders would give to themselves and other entrepreneurs in our new Tech CEO Communications Playbook: Winning strategies for success, a free resource for any CEO, tech marketer, or entrepreneur to access. Here are some of the highlights from the guide in this series entitled The beauty of hindsight.

Overcommunicate, overcommunicate, overcommunicate

Many founders struggle to spread their vision to others. They need to learn a crucial lesson that not everyone can necessarily see that vision or understand the goals, motivations and decisions going on in the founder’s head.

This was the experience of Zeb Evans, CEO and Founder of our client ClickUp. He says: “I think people always assume that everyone knows what’s inside of their head when they don’t.” His solution was to repeat communications regularly to everyone, including the team, partners and clients.

“If you repeat it, there’s no downside to doing that,” he adds. “You’re going to be able to get your vision across much more. If you have creative vision or marketing vision, you should continue reiterating that and repeating it as much as possible to drill it in.” 

The importance of transparency 

Is it better to try and be a perfect leader, or to show weakness and admit mistakes? Larry Gadea, CEO and Founder of the workplace platform Envoy, revealed that he tried to be a guarded leader, focused on showing that everything was going in the right direction, but over time he has learnt the power of being transparent and honest.

“I would say to myself, in the beginning, that you can tell the people that are with you more about your concerns, your fears,” he says.

Larry adds that, if he could do it all over again, he would invest heavily in building a culture of transparency and honesty right from the beginning, starting with himself and extending throughout the team. “Engage with the people on that honest front. That will be my advice to myself.”  

Make the hard decisions, quickly

The journey from start-up to success is rarely smooth sailing, and founders will face tough choices along the way. How you handle those moments can have a big impact. 

Mark Lee, co-founder of DeviceVM which later became the software provider Splashtop, shared the painful memory of having to downsize his company from 300 staff to 60 over the course of a year and half when the company experienced a tough period.

“In retrospect, it would have been better if we cut harder and faster versus extending that drive,” recalls Lee. “It was tough on our founders, too, because a lot of them considered their team almost as family members. So for them, continually letting go of new, different groups of people that we trusted and have worked with for years over an 18-month period was really rough.”  

In conclusion, the key pieces of advice leaders would want to give to their younger selves are:

  • Communicate often and regularly. Remember that the audience may have a different viewpoint or understanding to you. 
  • Be transparent and honest, especially with your team. It’s okay to lower your guard. 
  • Make tough decisions more quickly. It will reduce the pain in the long run and show leadership in challenging times. 

For more insights and advice on other crucial business objectives, check out the Tech CEO Communications Playbook homepage and download your guide today. Other topics include managing internal communications in a remote setting, how to communicate your failures and encourage a healthy error-culture, and the role of mentors in the start-up world and lessons to pass on.  

And if you are interested in listening to interviews with these and other unicorn startup leaders such as Poppy Gustafsson, CEO and Co-Founder of Darktrace, Vijay Tella of Workato, Job van der Voort of Remote, or Greg Jackson of Octopus Energy, you can do so on our Without Borders podcast.

Making remote work, work. The CEO guide to tackling internal comms while working remotely

The rising popularity of remote work has proven invaluable for start-ups who otherwise may struggle to compete with far bigger organisations in the search for talent. Employees love the flexibility it offers, while businesses can run operations far more leanly and hire the skills needed from anywhere in the world.  

But handling comms in a remote setting can be a challenge for start-ups. Operating remotely requires an entirely new way to consider your internal communications and leadership strategy.   

As part of our Unicorn CEO interview series for our Without Borders podcast, we spoke to over 30 tech leaders about their journey to success, and a major theme in those conversations was how to nail team communications in a remote setting. 

We’ve collected the best insights and advice from tech leaders on this issue and more in our new Tech CEO Communications Playbook: Winning strategies for success, a free resource for any CEO, tech marketer, or entrepreneur to access. Here are some of the highlights from the first guide in this new series, entitled Making remote work, work.  

Cultivating office culture online  

Remote working teams need to work much harder to create the bonds and culture that form organically in a shared office. Maintaining this culture is even harder as the company grows larger: “The hardest thing to scale remotely is culture and connection,” revealed Zeb Evans, CEO and Founder of ClickUp  

The advice from the CEOs we spoke to included deliberately scheduling the kinds of meetings that would have happened spontaneously in the past, and ensuring teams have regular chances to connect and form bonds, not just discuss work. Organising activities and meetings that are informal and not focused on the day-to-day are crucial to foster this sense of community and culture. 

Empathy and creating a safe space 

For remote teams, it sometimes requires more active effort for people to be courteous, provide constructive feedback promptly, and show understanding. It can also be challenging to notice when remote workers seem upset or disengaged.

Leaders of remote workforces need to create a safe space where employees can vocalise how they are feeling. One way to create such an environment is to communicate more openly, honestly and empathetically with team members.   

Larry Gadea, the Founder and CEO of the workplace platform Envoy, told us that being vulnerable and open in this way is vital to being a good leader and foster that safe space for employees to share how they are doing in an honest way. “If I make a mistake, I will always tell people about it and I will proactively tell people about it,” he said.   

Transparency and taking teams on the journey 

How do you make sure a remote team is engaged with your company’s mission? Many of the CEOs we spoke to recommended being more open and transparent about your company’s strategy and performance. Letting your people know where the company is headed, what’s going on and why certain tasks or processes are in place can help to bring employees on the company’s journey, as well as avoid unnecessary confusion. 

“I see my main job as communicating and making sure people understand what our mission is, what our purpose is, what the problems are,” says Joshua Motta, CEO and Co-Founder at Coalition. “A lot of companies don’t want to talk about their problems. It’s uncomfortable, but I very much see my job as to do almost exclusively that.” 

To summarise, leaders of remote workforces need to: 

  • be proactive and mindful in building company culture, 
  • share their mistakes to encourage teams to be more open,  
  • and communicate transparently to take people along for the journey and not lose site of the company’s end goal. 

For more insights into communicating within a remote environment, and for advice on other crucial business objectives, check out the Tech CEO Communications Playbook homepage and download your guide today. Other topics include how to communicate your failures and encourage a healthy error-culture, advice CEOs would give their younger selves, and the role of mentors in the start-up world and lessons to pass on. And if you are interested in listening to interviews with these and other unicorn startup leaders such as Vijay Tella of Workato, Job van der Voort of Remote or Greg Jackson of Octopus Energy, you can do so here. 

 

Learning from the best – Winning comms advice from tech’s brightest leaders

Unlock the secrets of successful tech leadership with the “Tech CEO Communications Playbook” series.

Imagine sitting down for coffee with more than 30 of the brightest minds in the tech start-up world. One by one, hearing their triumphs, blunders, and the hard-earned wisdom that propelled them to the top.   

If you can’t do that, the next best thing is reading our new series, “The Tech CEO Communications Playbook” – four guides compiling the best nuggets of advice from the interviewees on the Unicorn CEO series on our Without Borders podcast. In the series, we’ve put a particular focus on how these successful tech leaders have learned to polish their communications skills – both internally and externally.  

Why? Throughout the highs and lows of starting and scaling a tech startup, communication is both a constant and essential to finding and maintaining success.  

What’s in it for you?  

These guides are perfect if you are a tech leader, a new founder or CEO, or anyone working in the tech marketing and communications space. They offer practical insights, backed up with examples and anecdotes, of common communication challenges and how to avoid them. They also explore how to foster a positive internal culture and explain how mistakes can be leveraged for growth.  

A glimpse into the guides  

The four guides each cover a different topic and focus area within tech leadership:  

  • Making remote work, work. Remote work is well-loved by the tech world, bringing with it a slew of benefits in being able to hire talent across the world and cutting operational costs. But creating and managing a team remotely comes with several complexities. This guide is essential for exploring strategies to make effective internal communications in a remote setting. 
  • Making mistakes. How to communicate your failures and encourage a healthy error-culture: Every successful startup has failed at something, at some point – whether it’s a failed product strategy or a cultural misstep. This guide takes a refreshing look at how to rebrand conversations and expectations around failures. It shares advice and guidance for how leaders can embrace errors and learning opportunities and build a culture that values transparency and growth.  
  • The beauty of hindsight. Advice CEOs would give to their younger selves: Everyone has 20:20 vision in hindsight. Across the series, we asked leaders what advice they’d give their younger selves at the start of their journey, and advice to help others avoid common pitfalls.
  • Mentors and teachers. The Role of mentors in the start-up world and lessons to pass on. It’s widely known that the start-up ecosystem thrives on mentorship. In this guide, we delve deeper into the ways mentors have impacted our leaders’ journeys, as well as sharing lessons to help others seek out guidance and, in turn, become mentors to others.  

Sharing mistakes to share success 

The most compelling theme that emerged from the conversations we had with tech CEOs was how valuable sharing those moments of failure is, not just what drove success. Insights into what went wrong and, crucially, how this was communicated (for better or for worse!) is what has brought so much value to the podcast series and ultimately informed these guides.  

Joshua Motta, co-founder of Coalition, a leading cyber insurance and security provider, had some interesting thoughts on this topic that touch on why this series is so uniquely valuable: “A lot of companies don’t want to talk about their problems. It’s uncomfortable. But I very much see my job as to do almost exclusively that.” 

And to underscore just how crucial communication is, he adds: “At some level, I feel like almost all problems in humanity are communications problems.”

Curious to read more? Download the full series of guides here.

2023 Tyto Tech 500: Journalists overtake business leaders for tech industry influence for the first time

In 2017, we launched the Tyto Tech 500 to identify the most influential figures within the UK technology sector and understand what truly creates influence. We included Germany in our analysis in 2019 and added France the year after, to give us greater insight into Europe’s three largest economies. 

As Tyto’s grown as a business, the Tech 500 has too. This year, we’re adding objective, data-driven insights from the Netherlands and Sweden to provide a pan-European view of changes in the technology landscape. So, what does the seventh Tyto Tech 500 report reveal?  

Key trends for tech influence in 2023 

  1. Journalists reign among the elite of European tech influence: Nearly 40% of the most influential personalities in the pan-European Tech 500 are journalists, knocking business leaders out of the top spot for industry influence for the first time. Journalists featured in the list of the top 20 most influential individuals include François Sorel, Broadcaster for BFM Business; Sarah Butler, Retail Correspondent at The Guardian; and Jonathan Amos, Science Correspondent at the BBC. The number of journalists placed in the pan-European Tech 500 ranking has risen by 38% since 2021 and now makes up 198 of the 500 most influential individuals in the list.  
  2. Influence in the European tech industry is heavily weighted towards the private sector:  37% of the most influential figures in the pan-European tech industry are business leaders although the group has relinquished its longstanding grip on first place to journalists. At a country level, business leaders make up 51% of the most influential in the UK, 70% in France, 64% in Germany, 62% in Sweden and 25% in the Netherlands. For the second consecutive year, Richard Branson, British business magnate, investor and founder of the Virgin Group is identified as the most influential person in the European technology sector.  
  3. The gender gap narrows as the number of women in tech continues to grow: Female representation in the pan-European Tech 500 has increased from 22% in 2021 to 27% in 2023. Most female influencers belong to the business leader and journalist categories, accounting for 78% of women in the pan-European top 500. The UK leads the way for female representation as 30% of the country’s top tech influencers are female, closely followed by Germany (28%), France (23%), Sweden (21%) and the Netherlands (15%). Individuals featured in the pan-European top 50 include Annalena Baerbock, Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs of Germany; Helen Dickinson, CEO of the British Retail Consortium; Sarah Butler, Retail Correspondent at The Guardian, Caroline Lucas, Member of Parliament, UK, and Parmy Olson, Technology Columnist at Bloomberg LP. 
  4. Changes in tech sector rankings highlight the dynamic nature of the European tech landscape: The Tyto Tech 500 reveals that influential figures predominantly come from four major tech sectors: General Tech, EnterpriseTech, FinTech, and ConsumerTech. This collectively constitutes over half (53%) of the total influencers ranked in the Tyto Tech 500 and mirrors the previous year, where these sectors similarly commanded the top positions, accounting for 51% of all influencers in the ranking. The fastest-growing sectors this year were ConsumerTech, General Tech and –unsurprisingly- AI & Data Science. In parallel, HealthTech, MarTech and BioTech have seen notable decreases. 
  5. EnterpriseTech is a focus for new markets analysed in the report: B2B technology is a huge focus in the Netherlands and Sweden where over 11% of the most influential figures in each country belong to the EnterpriseTech sector, being a tech sector in the top 3 position in each of this country rankings. EnterpriseTech is the Netherlands’ third most influential sector, compared to its sixth position in the pan-European ranking. Börje Ekholm, CEO of Ericsson is a top name in Sweden while Job van der Voort, CEO of Remote, is the highest ranked EnterpriseTech influencer in the Netherlands.  
  6. SpaceTech and Cybersecurity gain prominence on the European stage: The SpaceTech and Cybersecurity sectors have demonstrated remarkable growth in influence in recent years. In two years, the number of influencers in the pan-European Tech 500 related to SpaceTech has risen by 350% and Cybersecurity by 43%. The huge growth rates reflect ongoing investments in space exploration and the protection of digital systems. 

These are the most influential individuals in European tech  

Holding his number one spot from last year, Richard Branson is the top technology influencer across Europe and the UK. French BFM Business anchor, François Sorel, keeps his place as France’s most influential tech personality and comes second in the pan-European rankings. George Freeman, the UK’s Minister for Science, Research, Technology and Innovation, is second in the UK and third across Europe.  

Focus on the Netherlands and Sweden 

New to the Tyto Tech 500, Pieter Zwart CEO of Coolblue is the Netherlands’ top influencer, while politician Micky Adriaansens comes second and Takeaway.com CEO Jitse Groen ranks third. In Sweden, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek is number one, with Nothing CEO Carl Pei in second place and journalist Henrik Ek at third. Congratulations to Europe’s most relevant tech personalities featured in our Tech 500! 

The Tyto Tech 500 was created by assessing an individual’s traditional earned media and online influence. To read about these trends in more detail, download the full report here. In the report, you can also find lists of the top 100 tech influencers in the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands and Sweden and the ranking of the top 100 most influential individuals across all five countries.  

Navigating the Nordics: Insights into launching PR and Comms in Scandinavia

The Nordic countries have always marched to the beat of their own drum – and if you take a closer look, you’ll see alI the unique flavours of the region become more apparent. From design and pickled fish to diplomacy, the Nordics have certainly distinguished themselves from the crowd on the global stage. And in the world of public relations and communications, this desire to be different is the same. With the rising influence of technology companies in this region, understanding the unique culture and communications landscape of the Nordics becomes even more crucial for tech brands looking to enter the market.   

Here are five observations of how to navigate the terrain, especially in contrast to the broader European market. 

  1.  Cultural nuances, transparency and direct communication

The Nordic cultures are in varied forms known for their directness; however, openness and authenticity are common characteristics. While PR campaigns in many European countries might focus on persuasive storytelling or emotional appeal, Nordic audiences appreciate a straightforward, honest, and fact-based approach.  

Emphasising transparency and authenticity goes a long way in building trust across the region. In other words, it might be in your interest to not present overly-curated and emotive narratives but instead provide clear, concise information with context. You’ll build stronger relationships with journalists and your Nordic target customers in this way.  

  1. The importance of localisation

Although Scandinavians usually don’t shy away from showing off their exceptional language skills – with a general high proficiency across the Nordics – campaigns that are localised to native languages (Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, or Swedish) tend to resonate far more deeply.  

In contrast, many European PR efforts can often rely solely on English language content, especially in tech circles. But for a more profound engagement in the Nordics, companies need to consider local language outreach. It’s a crucial factor since most journalists don’t have the time to localise themselves and will most probably glance over your material before moving on.  

It’s also important to know that the Nordic languages might have their similarities. However, they’re vastly different and the media logic varies profoundly between each market. To really make an impact, you need to take a per-country approach.  

  1. Sustainability and ethical dilemmas 

The Nordic region has been at the forefront of sustainability, social responsibility, and ethical practices for a long time. Companies that want to make a mark in these countries need to genuinely embed these values into their DNA.  

While corporate social responsibility (CSR) is becoming a global trend, in the Nordics, it’s almost a prerequisite. Not only do companies need to talk about it, but they also need to walk the talk – which can be a challenge. 

Stories that emphasise sustainability are a welcome perspective, however it’s easy to come off as disingenuous or opportunistic. That kind of shortsightedness is detrimental in building trust and fundamentally, it’s inauthentic. Tolerance for ‘greenwashing’ or ‘purposewashing’ is low and can even be detrimental to your business if your messages are perceived in that way, so avoid putting out messages just because your competitor has and focus on what change you are actually driving as a business. 

  1. Mix digital and traditional medias

The Nordics boast some of the world’s most advanced digital infrastructures, making them a hotbed for tech companies. With a robust digital infrastructure, the Nordics has an abundance of influential online media platforms, blogs, influencers, and tech-focused e-publications. However, the tech-savvy population still holds traditional media in high esteem – so a mix of digital and traditional methods is the way to go.

  1. Timing and respecting boundaries

Given the Nordics’ emphasis on work-life balance, it’s crucial to time your media pitches and interactions wisely. Avoid reaching out during late hours, extended holiday seasons like the summer ‘cottage season’ in Finland and Sweden, or other national holidays. This respect for personal time is more pronounced in the Nordics than in some European nations where media might operate on a more 24/7 cycle. 

By understanding these media-specific nuances of the Nordics, PR professionals can foster stronger relationships with journalists, ensure their stories are told in the most impactful way, and navigate the region’s evolving media landscape effectively. 

Beyond AI: The key topics captivating Europe’s most influential tech community

It’s been a year since we launched the Tyto Relevance Index™ – a proprietary data-driven insights service that helps us identify the most important issues and themes being discussed among Europe’s most influential tech experts. We’ve shared these findings monthly and summarised insights every quarter on this blog and in our LinkedIn newsletter. And now 12 months on we wanted to share how the Index is a valuable tool for identifying technology and socio-economic trends across Europe.

With a year’s worth of data under our belts from France, Germany, and the UK, this is the first time we’ve really been able to take a longer-term view to identify any patterns that may be emerging. Let’s take a look at what the Index reveals from the past year.

AI has taken over the world of tech

AI & machine learning was the Index’s top tech topic even before the explosive arrival of Large Language Models into the public consciousness in November last year, claiming 24.56% of the online conversation in September 2022. At that time, it was only 8.95 percentage points (pp) ahead of Data economy in second place. However, from November, its share shot up each month to a peak of 40.58% in May of this year, an unprecedented 27.08 pp ahead of second place.

It’s a little too soon to tell where and when this topic will find its new baseline, but it has seemingly started to stabilise at around the 35% mark and approximately 20 – 21 pp ahead of the second placed topic. Time will tell if this holds for the long term but even so, it’s without doubt the most relevant topic among Europe’s most influential tech experts, and we can expect this to continue for quite some time.

We’ve been seeing competition in this area heat up in the market over the last year too, as established businesses and start-ups alike made a priority of convincing people of the effectiveness of their approaches, technologies, and business models. With the competition so fierce, many have found that the biggest opportunity technology has presented to businesses in decades is simultaneously one of its biggest challenges.

How do you possibly cut through all that noise? How do you stay relevant in such a rapidly changing landscape? And how do you convince people on the potential of the technology for your business while managing stakeholder expectations? These are the questions businesses and comms professionals will need to get right with AI set to continue to claim so much of the conversation.

Share of social posts in the pan-European region in the past twelve months 

Climate change keeps ‘peaking’ interest

Whereas tech conversations were dominated by a single topic, it was much more of a two-horse race when it comes to socio-economic issues. Climate change and Geopolitical conflict & instability started in the top positions and traded places several times over the course of the year. They accounted for 19% (Climate change) and 16% (Geopolitical conflict & instability) of all social posts in this category in the past twelve months.

Interestingly though, the conversation around climate change saw two large peaks in the year. The first and largest of these was in November 2022 when COP27 was in full flow for most of the month, seeing the topic claim 22.22% of the conversation across all socio-economic issues we track. The topic settled down to more normal levels of 15-18% following this but peaked again with a 21.54% share in July 2023, as news broke that it was the world’s hottest month on record and scientists agreeing that the extra heat was mainly linked to use of fossil fuels.

As organisations look to persuade people on how to tackle climate change, and to promote their initiatives and technologies effectively, there are clear (and perhaps obvious) moments in time that capture people and the media’s interest. With the right planning, these moments can be targeted – and even created – to maximise the impact of their comms and marketing.

Share of social posts in the pan-European region in the past twelve months 

The fastest rising topics – when will GreenTech’s bubble burst?

For the first time, our data enable us to look at year-on-year (YoY) trends, revealing how the landscape may be changing and which issues are becoming more, or less, relevant across the three markets analysed. The fastest growing tech topic will be no surprise given how we’ve already discussed how AI came to dominate tech conversations online. It grew its share by 12.05 pp YoY – by far and away the fastest rising topic of the last 12 months across technology and socioeconomic issues.

GreenTech was the second fastest growing tech topic, rising 2.76 pp YoY. Unlike its related socioeconomic issue, Climate Change, the last 12 months were not characterised by large peaks. Instead, it saw a steady if slightly bumpy rise from a 6.65% share in September 2022 to 9.41% in September 2023. Last month was the biggest share of conversation that Greentech has seen so far, and we’ll be monitoring whether this marks a peak or continues to rise over the coming months. It’s definitely one to watch.

Privacy & data governance completes the top three rising topics, having grown its share of conversation by 2.05 pp YoY. It followed a similar trajectory to Greentech, starting off its climb from a 4.99% share and steadily growing to 7.04%. However, unlike GreenTech which looks like it could rise further still, Privacy & data governance has dropped slightly from a high of 7.48% in July.

However, with much of the conversation coinciding with major EU legislation agreements – notably with the US on a data privacy framework, and on how industrial data is shared, stored and processed – there is a lot of scope for scrutiny as businesses and privacy groups pore over the details, and get a stronger sense of what this will mean in practice.

In the socioeconomic space, Climate change was the fastest growing topic at 5.7 pp YoY, followed by Transportation at 2.85 pp YoY and Trust at 2.17 pp YoY. Transportation was the fifth most talked about topic when our Index launched last September, but ended this September in third, a position it has held consistently for the last 6 months. Trust had a far more steady track record, typically moving between the tenth and eleventh spots… until last month where it shot up to seventh. We’ll keep an eye on whether this was a one-off or the start of something bigger.  

The fastest falling topics – are we getting over the recession?

Virtualisation fell in relevancy quite significantly over the last year – down 6.81 pp from its relatively high starting position of 10.82% in September 2022. It fell sharply from being the fourth most talked about tech topic in September 2022 to the seventh, as of last month.

DLT & Blockchain was the second biggest faller in the tech space, losing 3.58 pp of its share of conversation YoY. This is interesting by itself but the fact that Crypto was the top falling topic in the socioeconomic space, losing 5.96 pp of its share of the conversation, suggests a bigger trend. Crypto and blockchain are no strangers to waning public interest, but the data suggests we are most certainly in a trough… for now at least.

Another noteworthy fall from relevancy in the socioeconomic category is Recession. The looming threat of which – and technicalities over whether we are experiencing one or not – seems to have dominated our lives and media coverage for what seems like an eternity. Nobody will be sad to see the topic losing relevancy, as it has done from a 7.44% share of conversation in September 2022 to 4.33% in September 2023 (-3.11 pp). We may be done with talk of a recession, but is the recession done with us?

As ever, if you would like to dig into the data yourself, you can access the Tyto Relevance Index™ here. By subscribing, you will be able to view the data and receive our monthly newsletter with the previous month’s highlights in your inbox. We believe that data is an important tool to inform communications campaigns, and the Tyto Relevance Index™ is an excellent way to find out what topics are dominating the social media conversation of hundreds of highly influential tech personalities in Europe.

Tyto acquires It’s A Rep – extending PRWithoutBorders™ in the Netherlands

PRWithoutBorders™: Reach Further

One of our favourite expressions at Tyto is ‘creativity loves constraint’. It stands for the idea that creativity is often inspired by a necessity to work with constraints. Sometimes, the creativity that is needed is not an idea but it is about finding a creative way of executing your communications programme that allows you to Reach Further. For many of our clients Reach Further means being able to address audiences in more countries. But, Reach Further can also mean extending the influence of a PR programme into broader demand generation activities. 

That ability to Reach Further is one of the main benefits of Tyto’s highly efficient PRWithoutBorders model for European PR campaigns. 

We recognise that Europe is a uniquely challenging environment to build and manage reputations due to its complex demands with multiple languages and countries. To address this we invented a new PR agency operating model, PRWithoutBorders, and through this built one fully integrated multinational team that spans the UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands. 

Through PRWithoutBorders™ we help today’s fastest growing enterprises scale faster and 25-30% more efficiently than traditional pan-European PR agency models that operate in separate country silos.

Without exception every new client at Tyto experiences the ability to ‘Reach Further’ with their budget than they would otherwise be able to with a traditional agency set up. Hypothetically, if you’ve got a single market programme, we can scale this into two countries for a small incremental cost. If you are already operating in two countries, we can probably scale this into three for the same investment you are making into two. 

To Reach Further is more exciting and rewarding because you get to see all your hard work on creative campaign planning reach more audiences in more countries. But to Reach Further is also about accelerating the growth of your reputation. Just like interest on a savings account, I believe there is a compound interest impact on your reputation. 

Although we all must work with constraints, don’t sell yourself short with your campaign execution when the creative execution model (PRWithoutBorders) already exists for you to build and run your European communications programme much more efficiently so that you can Reach Further into more countries for the same investment. 

Inflation busting European PR

I was at a friend’s BBQ recently and I couldn’t help but notice the huge pile of groceries stacked up in his garage. When I asked if he was prepping, they explained they were buying in bulk to offset inflation. Knowing the almost infinite appetites of my teenage children I’m not sure this would work for me, but there you go. 

Fortunately, in the world of European public relations there are alternative ways to finding efficiencies that do not depend on bulk buying. If fact, these strategies are all about achieving more with less. Just as greater speed and agility can be achieved through shedding unnecessary weight in a sports car, the same can be achieved through your PR programme in Europe if you take the right steps. 

One of our favourite expressions at Tyto is ‘creativity loves constraint’ and this is unquestionably true when it comes to how you structure your pan-European communications. If you run a pan-European PR campaign, you will immediately recognise some of the inherent inefficiencies in the traditional pan-European approach.

That traditional approach will usually centre around working with a traditional pan-European agency with offices in different countries or it will involve working with multiple local agencies that you coordinate. However, because even traditional pan-European agencies are structured and organised around separate country teams, what you will be experiencing in both cases is an unnecessarily rigid and siloed model that equates to waste, sluggishness, and lots of painful budget conversations. I should know, I spent 17 years creating one of the market leaders in the traditional international agency model. 

Duplication in agency management, duplication in office infrastructure, duplication in campaign strategy, creative, project management and reporting are just some of the obvious inefficiencies in this legacy model. Duplication is bad in and of itself, but it also highlights a lack of collaboration. Finally, because agency leaders in these models are measured on local financial performance, their personal priorities will often run into conflict with your business needs. Which, when you think about it, is both irrational and a bit perverse given who is paying the bills.  

When we created Tyto we wanted to create a model that delivered greater results and output for the same budget for clients with pan-European agency needs. We achieved this through our proprietary PRWithoutBorders™ operating model which involved Tyto being built from the ground up as one fully integrated team working as one across borders. We have in-country experts, but we don’t have separate country teams. Tyto has only one team, enriched from all the people we employ from across Europe. 

The benefit of this model is that it means we can build fully integrated multinational account teams for clients spanning multiple countries. You need a PR team for UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands? No problem. 

In Tyto’s model, client accounts are led, planned and strategised by one leadership group working in tandem with our content, media and influencer experts in different countries. This integrated model not only means that we can deliver between 25-30% more value for the same investment, but it also means we are far more considered and nuanced in how we design campaigns with relevance to all target countries. This contrasts to the traditional agency model which is often very UK focused. 

When you build a business around countries you inevitably get siloed interests fuelled by local incentives structures. Unpicking these is difficult as a legacy agency. Fortunately, we have been able to build Tyto in a very mindful way so that our PRWithoutBorders™ is woven through everything we do. For example, we only work with clients who need multi market PR because then this helps to bind our team together and continually hone our pan-European expertise. The proof in our model is that we had 99% client retention in 2021, and the one client who parted ways with us in November returned to Tyto in February this year.

The financial pressures brought about by inflation and a potential recession will inevitably force us all to consider how we can accomplish more with less. I’m pleased to tell you that as far as multi market pan-European PR campaigns are concerned, less can in fact equate to even more value, results, creativity, and a richer agency partnership.