Interel Global Public Affairs Survey 2016

An interview with Fredrik Lofthagen, CEO of Interel

Each year Interel surveys the CEOs of independent public affairs consultancies in 60 markets to gauge the health of the industry. Fredrik Lofthagen talks about the outcomes of this year’s survey and shares his thoughts on the future of public affairs.

 

What do you think the key takeaways from this year’s survey are?

Our clients around the world are increasingly concerned about political risk – and that’s no surprise given the recent UK vote to leave the EU and the instability that’s causing in Europe.

Further afield, the US elections are also catching the world’s attention as we grapple with what all this means and how businesses can secure a sustainable future for their customers and employees. China continues to develop as an economic and political power, but it’s a political and social culture that businesses can struggle to understand. Combine that with instability in the Middle East, North Africa, Turkey…and the conclusion can only be that political risk is the biggest worry of today. Business hates uncertainty and we certainly have plenty of that at the moment.

We’re not alone in identifying political risk as a major concern for business at the moment. PWC runs an annual CEO survey and geopolitical concern was the number two worry for respondents after over-regulation.

Of course political risk is good for business for us in public affairs, but on the whole, we find that business is not matching these concerns with spending. Spending on public affairs is still a fraction of what businesses spend on marketing for example, which I find strange, given that protecting the business and shaping the operating environment are hot topics which are keeping CEOs awake at night.

What’s your take on what the public affairs profession can do to alleviate concerns about political risk?

My take on it is that we need to do a better job of explaining the potential positive impact on a business’s bottom line of taking a proactive approach to public affairs.

Often the public affairs guys in a business are viewed as risk managers – fighting legislative proposals when they might have an adverse impact on the business. But in reality, the role of the public affairs professional is so much more than that.

Given their deep understanding of the political landscape and their ability to predict what’s coming down the line, they can, and should, play a strategic role in business. Our goal is to position the profession as strategic business partners. In many enlightened companies, that’s already the case, but we’re working to make it the case across the board.

Anticipating change and helping clients to proactively engage were highlighted by the survey as critical to success – can you give us some examples?

We often help clients to avoid legislation altogether, by being part of the discussion with civil servants and politicians, and working as partners in finding solutions that work for business, consumers and society as a whole. If legislation is imposed on you, it’s likely that the costs of compliance will be high. But if you work with legislators to find solutions that meet everyone’s objectives, then the cost burden for business is likely to be less.

We often help clients to form coalitions with other businesses in their sector, to go to legislators with solutions which address the legislators’ concerns and are workable for business. Often these solutions are accepted and legislation is avoided as a result.

We also work with our clients to identify issues which are winning public support and form coalitions around those issues. This was the case with the European Kidney Health Alliance for example, where we brought together all interest groups working on kidney disease, worked for the formation of an MEP group on kidney health and in the end, secured €1million in the EU budget for more research into and support for the disease.

Your survey found that building long term relationships with stakeholders is the strategy which has the most impact? Can you explain a bit more about the benefits of that approach?

Government doesn’t work in a vacuum and needs facts and figures, and business experience to make good law. What works for our clients is to engage regularly with those with an influence over the future of their businesses. We don’t just engage when we’ve got a problem, but build trust by sharing information which helps politicians and regulators to fully understand the business environment and the potential impact of their policy options. We firmly believe that business should be part of the democratic debate.

Social media is having more and more influence on policy makers according to your survey. What role can social media play in a public affairs campaign?

Because of social media, public opinion, and therefore government opinion, can shift in a very short space of time. Most policy makers are on twitter and other social media platforms and closely monitor reactions to their statements and proposals.

We use many of the techniques that brands use in social media to identify influencers and trends and to target our messaging at the people who can make a difference and get messages across. We mobilise public opinion and campaign using social media, to get people to sign petitions or contact their MPs for example. But like all the tools we use, social media is just one part of our armoury and we use it as part of an integrated campaign strategy.

Have you learned any tricks from the PR profession about getting a public affairs message across?

Yes, going back to what I mentioned above about informing and being part of the decision-making process, the important thing for us is to get sometimes very complicated facts across in a compelling, easy-to-understand way.

We use a lot of infographics and brochures to tell stories, show the stages in a process or share statistics. We also use a lot of video and animation.

We recently made a video for Broadcast Networks Europe using lego to tell the story of digital terrestrial television and call for more bandwidth for the service. And we also recently made an animation for a client to show how plans to deepen a quarry would work in practice and what would be done to protect the local water supply.

Attention spans are short, even in politics and it’s important to get the core of the message across in the clearest possible way and in the shortest possible time.

How do you think public affairs will evolve in the future?

I firmly believe that public affairs is going to assume more strategic importance for business. We will be more engaged with blue sky thinking about political and societal change and how that will impact on businesses, their future sustainability and their licence to operate.

We will still fight the big issues of the day on behalf of our clients in the traditional way with members of parliament and civil servants, but we will increasingly find that we and our in house colleagues spend more time preparing the C-Suite for the challenges and, importantly, opportunities which are coming down the line.

We will help businesses to shape their operating environment and will be a recognised and respected part of the democratic process. We will also become a more ‘professionalised’ discipline with transparency, codes of conduct and self-regulation by professional bodies becoming a requirement for us to engage with politicians.

 

Download the full survey

 

Communicating at the speed of culture

Written by Neil Kleiner, Head of Social Media and Content, Golin London

 

This year Golin celebrates its 60th anniversary and the celebrations of the huge achievements of our founder Al Golin are front of mind for us all.  He is truly an inspiration, especially as he still comes to work every day to our Chicago office, despite being 86 years old.

In amongst all Al’s successes, I’ve been also thinking about how the world of PR has changed over the last 60 years. From a world of type writers and hand delivered press releases when Al began, to a world of Facebook, Snapchat mobile and interactions at an unprecedented scale.  A world where, as noted psychiatrist RD Laing said “…change is so speeded up that we begin to see the present only when it is already disappearing.”

How do we keep up with the speed of culture? How can we make our brands relevant to the conversations of the day?

Every day we post 500 million tweets and upload nearly 900,000 hours of video to YouTube… how do we manage information at such unprecedented scale?

The world has become an incredibly noisy place and in social media sites marketers are more part of the problem than the solution.  For over a decade social media professionals (myself included) have turned brands into always-on publishers and in a lot of cases we’ve struggled to have something interesting to say or maintain a compelling way to say it.

We’ve just added to the noise.

Let’s be honest, there are very few people who actually look forward to seeing a promoted post on their News Feed when all they really care about is what their friends or family are up to.

This is the hegemony of advertising.  Interruption.  Taking something we care about and cutting it in half or putting up barriers.  No wonder it pisses us off.

It’s why we’ve had to wrap our messages in a creative wrapper for the last 100 years…..to buffer the blow of interruption.

But in a world transformed by infinite choice, interruption is something that audiences don’t have to tolerate any more…they just go somewhere else that doesn’t make it annoying to engage with the things they care about.

Simply put, marketers need to develop a better relationship with the noise…discovering new ways to analyse it and cut through it, rather than try and beat it.  It’s our biggest challenge but also our biggest opportunity.

If we can use technology to analyse conversations across the internet in real time, we can understand what audiences want to talk about and the things they care about.  We don’t have to interrupt.

We can listen and join in.

Add value.

Have an opinion.

Help solve problems.

Or just make people laugh.

It’s a way or pairing technology and creative specialists to ultimately create more welcome communications. Golin developed our own technologies to answer this challenge and launched The Bridge in 2011.

We’ve seen this type of strategy grow in recent years.  The social newsroom / command centre.  Social media marketing has always been about reactivity.  Real time marketing has us all looking for our “dunk in the dark” moments.

But data driven communications are not just the sole preserve of social or digital marketing.  Data should be the fuel that drives all public relations activity, because there has never been a better time to do what we do.  It’s certainly got more complex over the last 60 years but rather than fear “the noise”, we should be investing in technology and the smart people who help us understand it.

Anything else is just guessing.

 

17 interviews in the Cannes

Blog post by Russell Goldsmith, Director, Conversis Corporate

 

There are a number of ways to ‘do’ Cannes Lions – attending presentations in the Festival Hall, networking on the beach drinking plenty of rosé, having meetings in the posh hotels, or if you’re really lucky, partying on the private yachts listening to Take That play an exclusive gig (sadly that wasn’t me!).

My experience was slightly different, as I spent most of my time in ICCOs Cabana, aptly named the House of PR, where I was recording interviews for my csuitepodcast series.  However, what this allowed me to do was get an incredible perspective of what was happening across a whole range of aspects of the event, as in the three shows I recorded, I interviewed 17 guests that included Award Judges and Winners, CEOs, Creative experts, Data experts and even a spoken word artist who is now working with brands as a Social Influencer (and yes, I had to look up what a spoken word artist was too before I met him).

What this meant however, was that through my podcasts, I gained a wealth of insight as to what different people look to take away from Cannes, plus I got to chat in depth about some truly creative campaigns that you can only have the utmost respect for the individuals who come up with them – I mean seriously, someone, somewhere in a brainstorm, said, “I’ve got a cracking idea.  Why don’t we send kids who have broken their arms a transfer of their x-ray for them to stick on their cast, which can have a bar code, so that whilst their arm is healing, they can go into a supermarket, scan the bar code, and get free calcium rich milk” – by the way, someone must have said that at some point because that was a Gold winning campaign in the Health Lions for Anchor Milk in New Zealand by Fonterra and Colenso BBDO.

There is, without doubt some amazing creativity on show throughout the week and you cannot be anything but be inspired by it all.  There was, however, one stand out theme that seemed to run through a lot of what I saw, and that was Virtual Reality, an example of which was a winning campaign by DDB Remedy for Excedrin®, an OTC migraine treatment in the US, which helped to address the issue that people often respond to someone with a migraine by just saying that it’s nothing more than a headache and not serious!   DDB built a simulated VR experience and mobile app using insight from migraine sufferers so that they could personalise their migraine and share it with friends and family to gain their empathy.

Given I was sitting doing my interviews in the House of PR, it was no surprise that, whilst I was being wowed by all this creativity, a lot of the talk around me in the Cabana was why weren’t the PR agencies leading this work, submitting more entries for the awards, and even winning in their own category – only five of 84 PR Lions were awarded to PR agencies.

It’s clearly an area that needs to be addressed and talking to the likes of Richard Millar, CEO for H+K Strategies UK and Regional President for Europe, he is doing something about it in the talent he is recruiting.  Richard even said that he couldn’t remember the last time he interviewed someone with a typical PR background and that H+K are now hiring data scientists and more craft-led creatives, although essentially, he sees his agency as a canvass for a multitude of different skills and passions that they can bring to the benefit of the client who needs to engage with the public.

One observation I did make though, when I finally got out of the House of PR and had a wander around, was that as grateful as I was for all the free food and drink I consumed at the Facebook and YouTube beaches, where was Weibo and WeChat? It’s something I pay far more attentional to now I work for translation agency, Conversis, as a lot of our time is spent looking into cultural understanding, something that’s essential when localising content for international marketing, and it’s an area that has fascinated me since working for the company.  A lot of our agency clients would have been at Cannes, and so that was the other reason I was there – it wasn’t all about chatting to industry experts whilst sipping wine overlooking the beach!  However, for an International Festival of Creativity that spent a lot of time talking about social influence, it felt like a huge chunk of the online population wasn’t represented – (Free) Food (from Facebook and YouTube) for Thought perhaps for next year?

Listen to the csuite podcasts:

Show 24 – Cannes Lions I

Show 25 – Cannes Lions II

Show 26 – Cannes Lions III

www.conversis.com

PR In Africa: Changing The Narrative

 

Article by Yomi Badejo-Okusanya, President of the African Public Relations Association (APRA)

 

Many years ago, The Economist magazine carried a cover story describing Africa as a ‘hopeless continent’. Several years later, The Economist reversed itself by coming out with another cover titled ‘ Rising Africa’. There lies the paradox that is Africa- it’s in its narrative! Undisputedly the next frontier in global development, Africa has witnessed impressive growth from foreign direct investment compared to other parts of the world. The disadvantage of our infrastructure deficit has resulted in massive funds injection, which presents significant opportunities for public relations practitioners on the continent.

The origins of Public Relations practice in Africa are somewhat hazy. What is clear though, is that  a substantial dose of public relations was used in Africa during the Second World War not just to encourage Africans to enlist in the home armies of their various colonial masters, but also to keep the war propaganda machine going on the continent. During periods of colonial rule, European trading companies like the United African Company (UAC) engaged public relations, perhaps for the very first time, in the area of private sector business. Many government organisations and agencies soon caught on and appointed PR executives. The first set of PR professionals were mostly media and Information Officers of government organisations.

The 1960’s and 70’s were characterised by struggles for, and the attainment of political independence. The effect was the entrenchment of one form of democratic rule or the other across the continent. In these nascent democracies public communication, especially public relations, was an imperative but this new found opportunity was rather short-lived as many African nations soon fell under the jackboot of military coups. A failure of public relations perhaps? Whatever the reason, military takeovers severely stunted the growth and development of public relations practice. Happily, the late 1980’s and 90’s brought about a resurgence of democratic rule in Africa, with an attendant rise in the engagement of public relations.

PR in Africa had hitherto been largely media-centric because the pioneers of the profession were journalists and broadcasters. But over time, its further application in solving marketing and brand challenges, has led to the deepening of the profession across board. Such tools include Strategy, Corporate Social Responsibility, content development & management, reputation management  and creativity.

Key PR practice centres on the continent are South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and Egypt, with South Africa taking the lead. These countries are located in southern, eastern, western and northern Africa respectively.  South Africa’s leading role is understandable considering that most public relations networks and global corporate giants have headquartered their African operations in South Africa. The biggest consumers of public relations are telecommunications companies, with banks, retailers, the entertainment industry and IT also gaining a fair share of the market. Naturally, PR consulting practices have grown over the years in line with demand. However, with the exception of South Africa, most practices have remained sole proprietorships or partnerships.

As public relations has developed on the continent, so also has the establishment and operations of professional public relations associations. The first association was founded in 1956 in South Africa followed by the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations  in 1963.  The Public Relations Society of Kenya was inaugurated in 1971. The umbrella body for public relations associations- the Federation of African Public Relations Associations, was established in 1975 with the sole mandate of developing PR as a tool for selling Africa’s positive image. FAPRA became APRA in 2008 and began to admit individual members in addition to national associations.

In spite of the considerable gains, there is still a lot of ground to cover. For instance the lack of clarity about the value that public relations brings to the table remains an issue. Perhaps because its value is difficult to measure, lack of appreciation for the practice of PR as a profession in its own right is also an issue. Measurement and evaluation continue to be a challenge, as is the dearth of data across the continent. PR also suffers from the intrusion of its twin cousin-professions- journalism and advertising. Today, many markets see PR as little more than an extension of journalism, thus denying PR of its much needed professional and financial regard.

If the narrative must change, it must change from within so that we can take advantage of the significant opportunities that ‘Rising Africa’ presents. Whether the conversation is about the continent or the practice, there is a glaring need to change the narrative.

Yomi Badejo-Okusanya is the current President of the African Public Relations Association (APRA), a Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations and Chief Executive of CMC Connect Burston Marsteller, Lagos, Nigeria.

Crystal Balling the Cannes Festival of Creativity by Karen Strauss

Article by Karen Strauss, Partner, Chief Creative & Strategy Officer at Ketchum. 

 

When the wise people at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity put together 8 days of inspiring content for the international creative elite, they are curating workshops and sessions to hit the big issues keeping creative leaders up at night.

This year’s line-up looks provocative, marked by a whiff of alarm around how truly difficult it’s become to cut through all the content pollution.  After poring over hundreds and hundreds of seminar titles and descriptions, here’s what I expect will be the buzz on the Riviera.

STANDING OUT HAS NEVER BEEN HARDER – The boldface speakers in Cannes will be cajoling marketing communicators to invent new ways of telling stories.  Innovator Anna Wintour will urge the industry to steal a page from “Hamilton,” which literally invented a new genre of musical theatre storytelling; Academy Award-winning director Alejandro Inarritu will advocate the kind of mould-breaking that produced “The Revenant” and “Birdman,” and Barton F. Graf founder Gerry Graf will rail against groupthink and insist that finding one original-thinking creative partner is the only path to elusive breakthroughs.

A great rallying cry for novelty.

IS VIRTUAL REALITY AND 360 VIDEO THE ANSWER? – Nobody will leave Cannes without Virtual Reality and 360 experiences, yet given the ubiquity of these technologies, one has to wonder if they’ll be stand-out strategies or instantly too commonplace.  Google is promising immersive experiences that enhance storytelling; Samsung’s VR and 360 showcase will demonstrate how to “engage culture and experience compassion”; and MOFILM will share “View From Above,” (http://viewfromabove.emirates.com/3d), its incredible aerial film project that used drones to film 18 destinations where Emirates flies, allowing travellers to experience each city with remarkable perspective.

Trailblazing immersive experiences.

IS SEX THE ANSWER? – Better connections with consumers may be as primal as plumbing their sexual desires, and this year in Cannes, sex is on stage.  My friends at Flamingo believe a generation’s sexuality is a key indicator of its drivers and values and that each generation’s approach to sex is different.  They’ll argue that recognizing sexual attitudes are a path to connecting with broader hopes and dreams.  Another panel with sex therapist Esther Perel will draw connections between online dating and brand promiscuity today, providing tips for cultivating desire in all kinds of relationships.

Sex plays to our primitive instincts.

IS HUMOUR THE ANSWER? – In winning over audiences, comedy has long been king – and thankfully in Cannes, “queen.” The female SNL trio of Cecily Strong, Aidy Bryant and Vanessa Bayer will make the case for women’s humour; Rashida Jones, a comedy writer and star of “Parks & Recreation” will reveal how humour can shine a light on important issues; and Mike McAvoy, the CEO of The Onion, will caution that “if you’re not having any fun with your brand, you’re doing it wrong.”

Laughter IS the shortest distance between two people.

DURATION & EPHEMERA MATTER – Beyond the topics, tone and technology, the length of content – and whether it’s ephemeral or not – takes on added importance in Cannes.  The Ephemeral Web is how people consume content every day, so how can brands create lasting messages when they self-destruct?  Embracing ephemerality to ignite creativity will be a hot topic.  In one session, we’ll consider whether long-form branded video content is the answer to shorter attention spans, based on new research around social media viewing habits.

Size matters, just what size is the question.

HAS CONTENT KILLED ADVERTISING? – And the mother lode – can advertising be saved?  One CCO wishes it weren’t such a dirty word, and urges her industry to not let words like content and storytelling replace “traditional” advertising in constructing brand purpose.  Conversely, a pair of advertising strategy officers will start a movement to stop advertising to save the industry. At the heart of the debate is ad blocking, and whether creativity and technology can come together to deliver digital experiences that consumers love rather than block.   Seems advertising is fighting for its life in Cannes.

Will it survive the week?

Karen is leading a panel this year titled “Content for the Ages, All of Them” that will examine age-agnostic marketing.  It is scheduled for Wednesday, June 22 at 14:30 in The Forum.

For full schedule see ICCO Guide to Cannes Lions: http://www.iccopr.com/icco-guide-to-cannes-lions/

 

Qualifications, training and CPD: the keys to PR’s recognition as a profession

Written by Adrian Wheeler FPRCA

 

We do our best to behave professionally but we are not yet regarded as a profession. Why not?

It’s nothing to do with the Privy Council, medieval costumes or barriers to entry.

The Cambridge English Dictionary explains: ‘any type of work that needs special training or a particular skill… often respected because it involves a high level of education’.

From nothing to £9.63bn in 50 years

We are the new kids on the block. The PRCA was established in 1969 with less than 20 members. Today it has 350; the UK PR sector is worth £9.63bn a year and employs 63,000 people. By contrast, 130,000 solicitors generate economic value of £26bn a year; the Law Society was founded in 1826.

There has never been a professional business service which has grown as rapidly as ours. There is a tide of change in international PR and it’s about qualifications, training and CPD. The PRCA and ICCO are leading this evolution: their sights are fixed on PR’s recognition as a profession.

Look and learn is not enough

Qualifications matter. Some people say that PR education is ‘look and learn’. So it is, and so is surgery. Alongside practical experience practitioners of both also need to master a body of knowledge.

There are 50 first degree courses in PR in the UK and 80 master’s programmes. In Germany there are 45 master’s degree courses. In the USA there are 480 institutions offering PR degree courses and in China 300. There are PR degree courses in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.

Training delivers ROI

Training goes hand-in-hand with working in a PR team. Beginners, executives and managers should receive three or four one-day training courses every year and should watch six or seven webinars. The PRCA and ICCO provide both and also recommend further reading and research which people can explore in their own time.

Continuing Professional Development

CPD is what distinguishes professions from other forms of commercial career. Doctors, lawyers and architects are all required to keep up to date via CPD programmes administered by their professional bodies.

It’s the same for PR. The PRCA and ICCO are encouraging members to install formal CPD systems and have a certificate/diploma-based CPD framework to support them.

If not, so what?

Does becoming a profession matter? Some eminent practitioners shrug and others snort. But they tend to be old-school. Younger people take the practice of PR very seriously indeed and want to be taken seriously by their clients and counterparts.

Professional standing is one of the factors which will help public relations become a fully-fledged boardroom priority. Beyond that, and perhaps more importantly, it is a matter of personal pride.

Qualifications, training and CPD. These will make the difference. The PRCA and ICCO have a vision: in twenty years public relations will be perceived as a profession standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the law and accountancy. No-one will remember that it was ever not so.

 

For more information about ICCO Training packages visit: http://www.iccopr.com/services/online-training/

 

Raise Your Hand! PR at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity

Written by Renee Wilson, President, PR Council

 

The marketplace is quickly transforming. That is evident. The older, more traditional forms of communications are no longer moving the needle as they once did. However, one thing is clear:  the methods, strategies and activity that have PR-thinking at the core are where the action is. It is my prediction that this year at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, we will see the majority of winners from a host of categories have PR-thinking at the core of the idea. And when attendees ask why the program was so successful, raise your hand and proudly say it was “PR-thinking that powered the strategy and the creative idea.”

This will be my sixth year going to the Festival, and I’m just as excited as ever. Nowhere else in the world can you have a professional experience that is so awe-inspiring, educational and enjoyable all in one place. I’ve had the good fortune of serving on two PR juries, once as the PR jury chair, and this year, along with two of my PR Council Members, I’ll be serving as a PR Mentor in the Cannes Young Lions Marketers Academy, along with A.G. Bevilaqua of M Booth and Ron D’Innocenzo of Golin. It’s a great opportunity to help teach and inspire about the power of PR-thinking as it’s important to help marketers of all ages understand more about the types of work we do. It’s not PR versus advertising. It’s PR and advertising, and media, and in-store, online etc.

What do I mean when I say PR-thinking? It’s strategies and ideas that involve working with influencers, third parties, experiential, content and stakeholder relationships for starters. You will find it in the winning Cannes entries.

However, if you are still on the fence as to whether or not to attend the Festival, or more importantly to care, here are three reasons:

1. Cannes Festival showcases creativity at its best. There is no other festival that brings together the greatest creative minds in the global marketing communications industry and gives you access to the best and brightest in integrated communications. Think of it like the Olympics of Marketing. We can all learn from the powerful work.

2. Young Lions Competition. For only the third time, PR is included as a category in this competition. We are proudly sending Team USA and I’m sure other regions are putting forth their bright young talent too. These future leaders definitely have a thing or two to teach us about the industry.

3. ICCO House of PR. For the second year in a row, ICCO will be hosting the House of PR. This is a great meeting place for PR professionals to gather to glean insights from the juries, points of view from thought leaders, and network with colleagues from different agencies and companies from around the world. It can’t be missed!

I hope to see you at the Cannes festival, where we can push forward the power of PR-thinking from around the world, inspire others, and be inspired!

 

For more information about the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity visit: www.iccoguidetocannes.com

Conversis launches ‘The importance of understanding language and culture when managing an international crisis’ report

Foreword by Francis Ingham, Chief Executive, ICCO

The UK and US markets lead PR. It’s a statement that I make dozens of times every year, and it’s completely right. In size, sophistication, and staff skills, it’s unquestionably true. And it’s a source of great strength and pride. But it comes with a price attached, and it brings risks. If you’re going to operate globally, and if you’re going to maximise your reach and effectiveness, then you need to be able to communicate globally too.

We simply do not invest enough time effort and – yes – money in communicating in other languages, and in understanding other cultures. The costs of that failure are never higher than when crisis hits. Both the commonalities and the differences strike me.

First, the things that are the same in the UK and the US: Basically all (99%) senior PR executives with responsibility for international crisis comms are confident that their work will take account of cultural sensitivities. And in both countries, when asked if they can respond in a timely manner and across all markets, between 40-50% of executives agree strongly.

On both sides of the Atlantic, there’s a need for support from Language Service Providers – 92% in the US, and a still very high 72% in the UK. But the differences are starker as you dig further into the data. Almost a third of UK respondents translate their campaigns into between 1 and 5 languages; the US figure is only 7%. Conversely, over half of US work is translated into 11-20 languages; compared with just a quarter in the UK.

Monitoring reveals significant differences too. Only 14% of UK companies monitor in 11 languages or more, compared with 47% that do so in the US. Surprisingly, the time taken to issue a first response holding statement shows the opposite trend. 37% of UK respondents are out there within an hour; only 17% of their US counterparts can say the same.

What is the conclusion that I draw from this incredibly valuable Conversis report? Basically, that there is a great deal more we need to do. The world’s two most developed PR markets need to embrace the world around them a little more. When crisis hits, they need to be out there responding with nuance and in local language right away. They can’t afford to be held back by lack of resource, lack of knowledge, lack of preparedness. If the UK and US markets are to continue to speak to the world, then they need to think more carefully about speaking its language: and that language quite simply isn’t always English.

A full copy of the Conversis Report can be downloaded here: http://www.conversis.com/News/April-2016/Conversis-launches-The-importance-of-understandi

 

 

 

Conversis launches 'The importance of understanding language and culture when managing an international crisis' report

Foreword by Francis Ingham, Chief Executive, ICCO

The UK and US markets lead PR. It’s a statement that I make dozens of times every year, and it’s completely right. In size, sophistication, and staff skills, it’s unquestionably true. And it’s a source of great strength and pride. But it comes with a price attached, and it brings risks. If you’re going to operate globally, and if you’re going to maximise your reach and effectiveness, then you need to be able to communicate globally too.

We simply do not invest enough time effort and – yes – money in communicating in other languages, and in understanding other cultures. The costs of that failure are never higher than when crisis hits. Both the commonalities and the differences strike me.

First, the things that are the same in the UK and the US: Basically all (99%) senior PR executives with responsibility for international crisis comms are confident that their work will take account of cultural sensitivities. And in both countries, when asked if they can respond in a timely manner and across all markets, between 40-50% of executives agree strongly.

On both sides of the Atlantic, there’s a need for support from Language Service Providers – 92% in the US, and a still very high 72% in the UK. But the differences are starker as you dig further into the data. Almost a third of UK respondents translate their campaigns into between 1 and 5 languages; the US figure is only 7%. Conversely, over half of US work is translated into 11-20 languages; compared with just a quarter in the UK.

Monitoring reveals significant differences too. Only 14% of UK companies monitor in 11 languages or more, compared with 47% that do so in the US. Surprisingly, the time taken to issue a first response holding statement shows the opposite trend. 37% of UK respondents are out there within an hour; only 17% of their US counterparts can say the same.

What is the conclusion that I draw from this incredibly valuable Conversis report? Basically, that there is a great deal more we need to do. The world’s two most developed PR markets need to embrace the world around them a little more. When crisis hits, they need to be out there responding with nuance and in local language right away. They can’t afford to be held back by lack of resource, lack of knowledge, lack of preparedness. If the UK and US markets are to continue to speak to the world, then they need to think more carefully about speaking its language: and that language quite simply isn’t always English.

A full copy of the Conversis Report can be downloaded here: http://www.conversis.com/News/April-2016/Conversis-launches-The-importance-of-understandi

 

 

 

Winning at Cannes – an Interview with Tom Beckman, Prime PR

Swedish agency Prime has received more Cannes Lions awards than any PR agency since the creation of PR Lions in 2009. Cannes Lions interviews Tom Beckman, Executive Creative Director and Senior Partner of Prime PR, about what it’s like to win and the affect on the agency.

Tell us about the foundations of Prime; where do the agency’s roots lie?

Our origin traces back to American political campaigning in the 90’s. That was probably the real birth of the channel agnostic approach – long before social media or even the internet. To build and activate a universe of communication assets under one common frame story is still a valid principle for us.

What is the philosophy of the agency?

Communications should have a value in itself beyond the product, idea or message its promotion. We try to create value that generates awareness – not create awareness that generates value.

How did you first learn about the Cannes Lions Festival?

The founder of legendary ad agency Forsman Bodenfors took us there. He introduced us to the festival and how to use the insights from the festival to grow our business. And we’ve been there ever since. For our delegates it’s all work and (almost) no play – see all the seminars, look at all the case reels, and bring home the insights.

When did you know you were ready to enter?

We started to compare our work with the best work out there from all agencies, not just PR agencies. And the only way to do that is start building your own case videos. We didn’t know if we were ready when we entered the first time – I guess you must just start somewhere and build from your experiences and learnings.

Tell us about the experience of winning your first Lion.

A shortlist is really a remarkable achievement. In fact – the way I evaluate our performance is the number of shortlists divided by the number of different campaigns entered (not multiple entries of the same campaign). That gives you a good idea of the strength of your agency. To win a Gold – that’s special of course. People don’t realize how big the audience actually is on that stage – it’s insane.

How do you choose the work to enter into Cannes?

Sometimes the clients take the initiative, sometimes it’s the team. Regardless we make sure that the work can represent us and our clients. Entering in the right category is important of course. The fact that a good case fits in a lot of categories proves how integrated the industry is today.

Since first entering in 2010 Prime has been awarded 14 PR Lions alone – what impact has this had on your business?

It has given us access to pitches we didn’t get have before. And going head to head with ad agencies forced us to up our game even more. It has led to more CMO budgets and to a ticket to play on an international arena.

How did winning influence the culture of your team?

It has changed the way clients look at us obviously. But more importantly it has created an internal culture of living up to our own requirements and expectations. We now benchmark with the best – and that’s a painful but rewarding relationship to your own work. It has helped us break free from limiting industry definitions.

What advice would you give PR agencies looking to enter work into PR Lions?

Cannes Lions is about ideas. Make sure your unique idea comes through. And then validate the relevance of that idea through engagement from stakeholders and media. Getting a lot of clippings is not enough – all decent campaigns in Cannes have that. Instead make sure to focus on the problem and the solution – what did you solve and why was it important? And show how the idea came to life and became a part of society or discussion.