Harvard’s Big Moves of the Month: June

This month, we look at what hit the headlines in June, developments in the marketing and PR industry, pick our favourite creative campaign, and ask one of our wonderful team members for her best piece of career advice.

Tech news: London Tech Week

London Tech Week (LTW) returned to its established slot in the annual calendar after a couple of strange years thanks to Covid. The first fully in-person LTW since 2019, Chancellor Rishi Sunak opened the event by celebrating the UK’s global contribution to technology innovation – noting that the country has created more tech unicorns than any other country apart from the USA and China. Sunak also committed to a 50% increase in government investment in the sector over the next few years. Meanwhile Secretary of State for the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Kwasi Kwarteng, attended Quantum Summit 2022 – using the platform to announce the formation of a national quantum strategy which will be announced this year. Investment and intrigue in quantum is gathering pace – with the MOD acquiring the first government-owned quantum computer last month.

Industry news: Media trainers of the world unite

News watchers across the UK have been mesmerised by RMT Secretary General Mick Lynch who came under fire from several high profile broadcasters for his leadership of a series of widespread rail strikes. Even many who are naturally opposed to the industrial action were impressed by Lynch’s ability to explain his position in a calm, direct, and at times humorous manner. It’s fair to say there is a new case study in town for PR consultants and media trainers who want to impart the value of answering questions directly and bridging to the key points you want to land; being totally across your brief and prepared to talk at any level of detail; and diffusing difficult exchanges by remaining calm, even using humour. If you missed Lynch’s greatest hits – you can always rely on YouTube users to put together a compilation!

Frontpage news: Roe v Wade and human rights ‘reform’

Given the UK’s strong cultural links to the USA, many were horrified by the judgment of the US Supreme Court which overturned the landmark decision of the Roe v Wade case in 1973, which determined that the Constitution of the United States generally protects a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion. The controversial decision is a blow for women all over the world, prompting businesses and pro-choice state leaders to strongly condemn the judgment and offer additional family planning support measures. From a technology perspective, there is set to be further debate around how user data is stored and shared with third parties – with fears that this could be used against women seeking an abortion. However, tech is already being used by organisations attempting to empower women such as The National Abortion Federation, which has published an online map to help users find abortion care.

Creative moves: Ogle, turn off SafeSearch

Sexual wellbeing brand Lovehoney has launched a billboard campaign to help consenting adults turn off Google SafeSearch to find its sex-positive content and products. Ogle sees the recongisable primary colours of the Google search engine alongside the copy: “Turn off SafeSearch to lay eyes on the full range.” The campaign comes after Lovehoney noted that changes to SafeSearch in 2021 meant an estimated 700,000 customers were preventing from finding the brand in the space of just two months. As well as targeting consumers the campaign looked to grab the attention of Big Tech to ask them to stop treating sexuality as something that is sinful, while allowing harmful content to slip through the next.

Making your move with… Elena Magla

I’m a Senior Marketing Executive at Harvard – the number one brand champion, on a mission to externalise and shout about the incredible work we’re doing while having loads of fun and feeling like we’re part of a big family. I had recently completely a bachelor and master’s in Psychology when marketing found me. An opportunity turned up to work in a creative agency and I never looked back. Marketing felt like the perfect outlet to express my creativity, to explore and experiment, and it continues to give me this freedom to this day. No marketer should be afraid to experiment, it’s a constant trial and error process and it’s individual for each brand, so be adventurous and open to change, have fun and allow yourself to think beyond those metrics.