Double gold for Weber Shandwick

Weber Shandwick won two golds last night at the Northern Ireland PRide Awards.

Our campaign to increase voter registration for the Electoral Commission won gold in media relations. Our Uganda Schools Project for Rushmere shopping Centre also took the top prize in CSR.

Woooo Hoooo!

This is a bit of trumpet blowing but it is great to work for a company at the top of its game.

Last night the UK Public Relations Consultants Association named Weber Shandwick International Agency of the Year and Weber Shandwick Technology as Specialist Consultancy of the Year. Weber Shandwick Financial won the PRCA’s Best Financial PR Campaign award.  

Just a fortnight ago PR Week named us International Agency of the Year – a double whammy that is a first for us or any other agency in our business.

More than online or offline – the future is INLINE

Describing communications that draw no distinction between the media used, be it online, offline or experiential, INLINE is a methodology developed by Weber Shandwick to maximise the effectiveness of PR spend and ensure a 360° conversation with audiences. We launched it in Europe last week.

This new thinking is based on a major analysis of communications trends and behaviours. The research was commissioned in August 2009 from almost 5,000 European consumers and focused on which communications channels carry the most influence on consumer purchasing decisions. The data returned turns traditional PR thinking and planning on its head.

When it comes to influencing purchase decisions, online advocacy carries the most influence of all communications channels.

• Young European consumers are more influenced by the traditional media than their older counterparts.
• Over half of European consumers under the age of 35 expressed a desire to interact with brands via social networks.
• Newspapers and magazines are more influential to French and UK&IRL consumers than those in other European markets.
• Advertising is cited as having the least influence on Europeans’ purchase decisions.
• Many European consumers do not wholly accept what they read online until they have checked the facts in mainstream, traditional media.
• INLINE Profiles are consistent across all European markets.

Chris Brown makes PR Week rising stars list

Chris Brown, the head of our public affairs practice in Belfast, has been named one of the top 29 under 29 by PR Week. He is the only Irish based practitioner to make this year’s listing.

From this weeks PR week:

Every year PRWeek identifies the brightest young talent in the UK PR industry. Nominations are invited from agencies and comms teams, then put to a panel of independent judges to choose their favourites. The result is the PRWeek 29 under 29, the ultimate showcase of the industry’s rising stars who are aged under 29 years old on 30 May 2009.

This year PRWeek was swamped with nominations, but as you will see from these pages, the 29 young PR professionals selected encompass the energy, creativity and drive needed to shine in a very competitive field.

Its a great recognition for Chris and I am very glad to have nominated him. He is a great colleague and a good friend. It’s a recognition of quality of Northern PR agencies and the home grown talent we have working in our region and across the island. I’m just not looking forward to next years pay negotiations!

Cleantech opportunity being missed

Poor quality communication from suppliers is impeding the growth of the European cleantech market, according to a study conducted by Weber Shandwick with KRC Research.

Despite finding that eight out of ten large organisations in Europe have specific cleantech purchasing policies in place, the research highlights a lack of information from suppliers to help customers rationalise making cleantech choices.

High quality information that enables customers to properly evaluate cleantech products and services is critical, as half of the organisations surveyed perceive cost to be a barrier to making cleantech investments. Of 400 senior purchasing decision-makers surveyed across France, Germany, Spain and the UK nearly a third currently receive no information at all from cleantech companies (29 per cent). An additional quarter of respondents (26 per cent) say that they don’t get enough information from suppliers, while one in ten (11 per cent) feel the information they do receive is too complicated. Significant opportunities exist however for companies that can deliver effective communications to cleantech buyers.

The Weber Shandwick report shows that 60 per cent of European organisations are placing the same level of importance on green procurement as they did before the economic downturn. In fact 25 per cent expect to put more emphasis on green procurement, with only 14 per cent planning to make it a lower priority.

The research highlights significant differences between key European markets around clean and green products and services: • Nearly three-quarters of organisations in Germany have cleantech policies in place, compared to little more than half of UK respondents

• Two-thirds of respondents in France see cost as the key barrier to cleantech adoption – less than 40 per cent of Germans feel the same
• Less than a third of French respondents feel that they receive enough information about suppliers’ green credentials – by contrast, half of the German respondents we spoke to were happy with the amount of information available to them
• 83 per cent of German and Spanish organisations measure the environmental credentials of suppliers. Less than 50 per cent of French organisations do so
• As a result of the recession, Spain and France expect to place more importance on green procurement in the future (37 per cent and 28 per cent); the UK and Germany the least (17 per cent and 16 per cent).

 Full details of the research are available in Weber Shandwick’s Come Clean report, available at: http://www.webershandwick.co.uk/cleantech.

The report includes specific recommendations for communications professionals to use to help shape their strategic plans. Weber Shandwick has built a specialist team of cleantech experts across Europe and works with clients ranging from the biggest corporations through to the newest start-ups. The team’s experience spans a huge variety of specific industries including energy efficiency, clean energy, biofuels, green IT, smart building and advanced transportation.

Weber Shandwick tops global agency rankings

Weber Shandwick has won gold in the first PRWeek Global Agency Report Card 2009.

The report tracks performance over the last 12 months for 24 global agency networks against four key criteria: business development, people, network initiatives and cohesion, and external recognition. Weber Shandwick was recognized in particular for its strong 12-month performance, impressive new business record across multiple markets, and its innovative and award-winning work for clients.

Pig win for Weber Shandwick

Weber Shandwick has scooped a top prize at the prestigious Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival this week.

The ‘Pigs Are Worth It!’ campaign for the public body representing pig farmers in England (BPEX) has won a Best PR-led Integrated Campaign award.  The initiative was executed by a truly integrated team of agencies: Good Relations (consumer PR), Weber Shandwick (public affairs), HD Communications (trade PR) and DDB (advertising).

The creative campaign succeeded in encouraging supermarkets to raise the price of pork paid to farmers in crisis, effectively saving the British pig industry.

“The Cannes Lions Festival recognising public relations excellence for the first time is a great step forward for PR professionals and we are delighted to be part of this first ever Cannes Lions public relations win,” said Colin Byrne, CEO, Weber Shandwick UK & Europe.

CEO reputations in the gutter

Today, CEOs of Microsoft, Ford, Delta and other major corporations will begin their National Summit in Detroit, an attempt (some say late) to show some leadership on the broader issues facing the economy. It may also be a first step in repairing their own low reputations.

Even among business people CEOs aren’t thought of so highly at the moment. A study by Weber Shandwick, found only 14% of executives surveyed reported a positive opinion of CEOs.

Does that matter? Yes, says Weber Shandwick’s Chief Reputation Strategist, Leslie Gaines-Ross, a creator of the survey. “We absolutely need the best people to take on the CEO positions. It’s critical for our success, for our competitiveness, for employees and for the US to get out of this economic downturn we’re in. We’re dependent on these people.” Corporate leaders, she says, are going to have to stop looking just at their own problems, and apply some of their brainpower to the bigger picture.

We put that and a few other questions to Gaines-Ross. An edited exchange follows. But she is happy to answer your questions about this research, the importance of reputation to leadership, building a reputation in the digital age, or other topics. So post them and she’ll respond.

BW: Bank of America’s Ken Lewis and the CEO class of 2008-2009 aren’t the first to find themselves in the dog house. Worldcom’s Bernie Ebbers and Tyco’s Dennis Kozlowski are in jail. So is it really news that CEOs aren’t so well regarded?

Gaines-Ross: I’ve been in this world of studying CEO reputations for a good 10 to 15 years. There definitely have been peaks and valleys. Now, in light of what’s happened over the last 12-18 months, is a good time to reinvestigate how CEOs are viewed. Especially because so many companies are looking for CEOs. There’s a big shuffle.

BW: But there’s been a surprisingly low rate of CEO turnover in the past year. CEOs were far more likely to hang on to their jobs than their workers were.

Gaines-Ross: I think in 2009, when we look a year from now, we’ll see a rise again. Once the dust settles, and companies realize they need to really start competing at full speed and restore their reputations, I think we’ll see greater CEO turnover. Plus the burnout factor must be incredible. I think everyone’s burnt out top to bottom right now.

BW: What can a CEO do to fix this?

Gaines-Ross: Communicating frequently with their employees. Certainly with their customers too, but not to forget their employees. At a time of uncertainty employees are hungry for information. CEOs need to take responsibility. Apologize if they are wrong. If they don’t know the answer, say they don’t know. We are just starting to see CEOs really being the face of the company.

BW: Surprisingly after their corporate jet fiasco, you have good things to say about the leadership of the Big 3 Auto Companies.

Gaines-Ross: They are being very transparent and accessible whether on social media, or in the general media, giving interviews, etc.. You see a lot stepping up and coming up with solutions. GM has done a good job with their FastLane blog where they have different executives go on. They’re pretty straightforward. They’re out there. I expect tech companies to make the best use of social media, but when you see manufacturers making use of it, that is different.

(CEO Fritz Henderson will be on FastLane tomorrow answering reporters’ questions, then twittering with consumers after.)

BW: Besides being MIA are there other reasons for CEOs’ poor showing?

Gaines-Ross: There is a lot of anger and lack of trust about CEO compensation and I think also there’s a sense that CEOs in some sectors were not prepared and looking for the early warning signs they should have, the signs that could have helped prevent this financial crisis. So many employees have lost their jobs, so many families affected.

BW: Can you predict how long CEOs will be in low regard?

Gaines-Ross: We asked executives how long it would take for the reputation of CEOs to fully recover. They said 3.5 years. By 2013 there should be a recovery for the reputation of CEOs. That’s still far away and means they have a lot of work to do. It’s not like we’re going to forget about this in six months. There’s a long term transformation that has to happen.

Banks prefer to ignore a crisis – research

The majority of financial services companies – 66% – have been silent recently when it comes to communicating about the troublesome economy on their corporate website homepages. This is the major finding in a piece of global research we have just concluded at Weber Shandwick. We examined the homepages of 55 U.S. and European/EMEA financial services companies on a weekly basis since mid-October to determine how the sector was communicating online as economic news spiraled downward.  Surprisingly, homepage communications steadily increased from mid-October to mid-February (27% to 45%), but dropped precipitously during the last week of February for no single reason. Only two, in the US, mentioned the Bernie Madoff fraud over the five-month period.

Economic News and Strength Dominates

When financial services firms did communicate, three main messages appeared most often – general economy updates and statistics (up to 33% in February 2009 from 19% in mid-October 2008), company strength and longevity (25% from 19%) and, least frequently but arguably the most important during difficult times, direct efforts to reassure customers and other visitors about their personal financial security (12% from 15%).

Since, we examined them to determine how an industry under intense scrutiny rises to the challenge of building trust in tough times. It is not enough for leading financial services companies to communicate only in good times. Our ongoing analysis leads us to recommend to financial services companies that they use their low-cost/high-impact home pages to communicate more directly and personally with their stakeholders by acknowledging and addressing customer and investor financial concerns.

European/EMEA Firms Slightly More Communicative Early On

Despite the smaller number of European/EMEA financial services firms examined, a greater percentage of them (38%) were early communicators on their website homepages compared to U.S peers (30%).  European/EMEA financial services firms may have reacted more quickly when their banks experienced capitalisation crises in September and sought funding from the government and Middle Eastern investors.  U.S. companies, however, caught up to and surpassed their European/EMEA peers in using homepage communications over the five months of the analysis.

Securities Lead the Way

By far, securities firms are currently the most likely to communicate about the crisis on their homepages. All securities firms (100%) were doing so at the end of February. Commercial banks did not communicate via their homepages about the economic crisis as often as securities firms did in mid-October but began communicating more strongly in November.

Video Has a Way to Go

The most common messaging methods employed by the financial services firms examined are corporate statements, commentaries and reports (up to 34% in February 2009 from 19% in mid-October 2008) and videos, audio casts and Webcasts (up to 14% from 10%). The least frequently used type of homepage communications formats are press releases, newsletters and executive speeches.

CEO/Chairmen Scarce

When financial services firms addressed the economic crisis on their homepages, they sometimes linked to a message from a company executive, most likely the CEO/Chairman (up to 24% in February 2009 from 13% in mid-October 2008) although sometimes other executives were utilised. CEOs/Chairmen may have been communicating in the media to articulate their messages about the challenging economic marketplace. However, when CEOs/Chairmen were used on company homepages, they helped to humanise the economic crisis and put a face on the company.

Weber Shandwick’s Iverson concludes: “High anxiety undoubtedly causes many people to seek information about the health of the companies in which they entrust savings and investments or do business with on a regular basis. For many, the websites of these financial services companies are one of the first places that customers, investors and others go to in search of information and reassurance.”

Weber Shandwick recommends financial services companies incorporate the following on the website homepages:

• Feature useful and actionable information — a glossary of terms frequently mentioned in the media about the crisis (e.g., “TARP” or “APS” stimulus and protection packages), FAQs, hot-line numbers, contact names and pictures, description of how the stimulus package is expected to impact customer accounts/investments, etc.
• Craft messages that convey empathy about the crisis and acknowledge customers’ confusion and concerns — recognise the challenging market conditions and the potential for loss of trust and identify specific products that are safe and secure.
• Tap into effective social media tools — podcasts, webcasts, blogs and customer discussion forums can engage stakeholders and make the financial services firm relationship more personal and interactive.

Will our next election be ‘inline’?

The best thing about working for Weber Shandwick is its people, not just here in Ireland but across the globe. We have some wonderfully talented people with facintaing and diverse backgrounds working with us. Luke Akehurst and Tara Hamilton-Miller are just two of them. Luke and I go back a bit. We served together in the early nineties on the governing committee of the  European Young Socialists (ECOSY). He is now a Labour Councillor in Hackney and a popular blogger. Tara joined us a little while back from Conservative Central Office and is a regul;ar media commentator on Conservative politics and communications.

They have produced an interesting think piece on the lessons British and Irish parties could learn from the Obama Campaign’s use of social and digital media.

Its published in the latest edition of our European Journal and I think worth reproducing below.

For a small contribution could you be tempted by a ‘Gordon Brown polo shirt’ or a ‘David Cameron hoodie’? Even after his victory, the welcoming page of Barack Obama’s website, barackobama.com is a request for a donation and if you give $30 or more you will receive an Obama Victory T-shirt (100% cotton). It is all very informal, messages from the
White House start with “Hey” as in, “Hey, President Obama submitted his first budget to Congress on Thursday.”

Should you not wish to give cash/add to your wardrobe you are invited to hold an Economic Recovery House Meeting in your living room. An experience similar to a coffee morning or a Tupperware party but with less plastic.

Could this work here?

With a UK election possibly just months away how much influence will political parties take from Obama’s success embracing technology?

The Labour and Conservative approach to technology and it’s use has differed, though both have had slightly stop and start attempts at neon websites and podcasts. Somehow Obama and his supporters’ internet campaigning got it right. They were clever and they had the all important ingredient; humour. It has yet to be cracked here, the main bloggers
get it but the parties are far behind. Boris Johnson’s London Mayoral campaign was slick and different and used the internet with style. Not a huge amount of content but countless passionate volunteers were recruited on-line. Arguably Boris is the exception to every rule, Boris achieves because he is Boris not because some whizzo  re-pubescent teenager is an internet genius.

The official Conservative Party website has not been so successful competing with excellent websites like conservativehome.com, loyally read by party followers before they go near conservatives.com.

There was a problem when the Conservatives attempted a fundraising tactic based on the Obama blueprint to appeal to those who did not want to become a full Tory member but were interested and could show their support. The idea was that you could become a ‘Friend’ with a minimum donation of £1; the party could beef up funds with humble amounts and build a database of supporters. It was a disaster, the campaign and it’s advertising cost was not cheap, various figures are banded about but £500,000 is thought to be the loss. It is suggested that the total number of ‘Friends’ who joined was in double figures only. A spectacular waste of money.

Paramount to viral campaigning is the face behind it. John McCain could have had the same digital infrastructure as Obama but at his age anything too radical looks like an old guy getting down with the kids. It’s rotten but a cruel sign of the times that politics is becoming a young man’s (or woman’s) game.
Web Cam’, featuring Tory leader David Cameron chatting as he fills his ishwasher/drinks railway coffee/changes his Britta water filter, has been relatively well received. He’s a natural in front of the camera. Brown will have more problems with this kind of message; name one domestic chore Brown could carry out with dignity while talking about pensions and MRSA to a nervous aide with a camcorder.

The Left has been slower to engage with digital campaigning than the Tories, who dominate the UK blogosphere. Even more significant is Labour’s internal culture, developed in order to win back power in 1997 after years of internal divisions, of being ‘on message’ at all times.

It’s difficult to blog spontaneously and rapidly about unfolding events if you have been trained that you need to clear public statements with a press officer and to wait for the ‘line-to-take’ to be issued by party HQ. Labour has yet to develop individual blog stars with the readership or public profile of the Tories’ Iain Dale, or the ability to set the mainstream media agenda of Guido Fawkes. Nor is there a Labour site to equal conservative.home’s role in hosting internal party debates.

However, as with New Labour’s craze for all thinking Clinton in the ‘90s, Labour is sending party officials across the Atlantic in droves to try to harvest state-of-the-art techniques from the Obama campaign for UK use. A smaller stream of Obama advisers and digital consultants has been over here speaking to Labour MPs, campaign managers and activists – with some of the consultants hoping to pick up Labour contracts, though they may be disappointed by the small budgets in British politics.

Not everything Obama did is transferable to a parliamentary rather than presidential system, particularly as lots of Obama’s online ‘fan base’ was created by his appeal as a charismatic, insurgent personality. Nor is all of it necessary as much Obama online activity was about small-donor fundraising (Labour gets large union donations and
the UK has strict campaign spending limits) and building local grassroots campaign teams. UK parties have permanent local branches rather than having to build a volunteer base afresh for each new campaign.
 
All local levekl candidates from all sides are increasingly using social media like Facebook as a way of identifying and mobilising active supporters – with online networks driving ‘real world’ doorstep campaigning. And the Labour blogosphere has started to try to compete with the Tories with the launch of labourlist.org, though it appears to have been eclipsed by former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott who has discovered to his delight a brand new stage.

For all the digital furore and smarty-pants computer geeks claiming “it was the net what won it” Obama’s message appealed to the time; traditional speeches based on Jefferson’s dream of citizenship. It cannot be ignored that good old fashioned campaigning worked for Obama. Americans liked and craved the idea of an up-standing citizen; they were comforted by the feel of old frontier hustings, a vision, and face-to-face charm.