CIPR National Conference: rebuilding trust during uncertain times

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Nora Senior, hon. immediate past president at British Chambers of Commerce, told the CIPR National Conference 2016 yesterday how CEO reputation is key to rebuilding trust in the current UK business environment. 

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Nora Senior

Prior to the EU Referendum, Senior said, the majority of big businesses expressed a wish to remain in the EU, while smaller businesses, on the whole, wanted to leave. Many major businesses, therefore, regarded the leave vote as a loss and, more pertinently for the communications industry, were, “actively positioned as part of the problem,” she said.

Senior said: “Many individuals feel that business is something that needs to be fixed.” This lack of trust leads to an inability to communicate effectively.

Senior argued that the CEO is key to rebuilding trust. The recession damaged CEO reputation, she said, and since then, businesses have been fully-engaged in rebuilding their businesses, not their reputations.

However, the benefits of a strong CEO reputation include the ability to attract investors and generate positive media coverage: “For a company to be highly regarded, its CEO needs to be visibly engaged with its many audiences. Keeping a low profile is not going to work any more.”

She added: “Humble CEOs are being noticed.” The types of CEOs who are noticed in the current climate are those who engage with their employees, who engage with the media, and who are on social media. “Practice humility,” she suggested.

Senior also recommended that businesses invest in media training, and concluded: “Over a 10-year period, CEO reputation will drive the company’s reputation.”

CIPR National Conference: communicating in a ‘post-truth’ digital age

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Colin Byrne, CEO, UK & EMEA at Weber Shandwick, says the stakes have been raised for communicators in the ‘post-truth’ digital age.

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Colin Byrne

For communicators, Byrne said, at the CIPR National Conference yesterday (November 22), the consequence of working in the current environment is that reputation has never been so valuable, nor so easily lost.

He cited the example of a viral image that claimed to show what was inside of a McDonald’s chicken nugget, yet had no connection to the brand or its food. According to Byrne, the McDonald’s comms team handled the issue well, but that didn’t prevent the image from being shared online.

Over the course of 2016, the term ‘post-truth’ has become widely used, propelled by news stories such as the recent claim that ‘post-truth’ is Oxford Dictionaries’ word of the year. A claim which, Byrne said,  has since, ironically, been found to be untrue.

Untruth, has become acceptable, and more widespread, he said: “The dismissal of experts and facts is a real challenge for our business.”

Citing a quote from MP Michael Gove, Byrne explained how, traditionally, PRs have provided expert opinion. Yet today, a general lack of trust in authority, including politicians and corporations, means that people are most likely to trust their peers.

The 2016 Edelman Trust Barometer shows that the average person is two times more likely to trust the average man in the street than a business leader. “Brands are in the dock until proven innocent,” Byrne said.

Byrne also spoke about the fake news phenomenon, which epitomises the tendency of digital media to prioritise ‘clicks’ and advertising revenue over truth: “Fake news is worth a lot of money…  let’s not underestimate the continuing power of media [to our industry].” Broadcast, as well as social media, is still important, and PRs now have the means to engage directly with their audiences.

In order to rebuild trust, Byrne recommended that businesses compile and share valuable data and analytics. CEO visibility also builds trust in a brand, he added.

 

Why Black Friday 2016 is different and what it means for PR

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The concept of Black Friday has grown from a one-day, in-store, shopping event to a longer sales period running across the pre-Christmas season. While some might question its PR relevance, comms pros from Frank PR and PHA Media highlight how creativity can provide PR opportunity. 

This year’s Black Friday may look and feel a little different. The event, imported from the US as a single day of slashed retail prices post-Thanksgiving celebrations, is a more flexible and fluid concept in the UK.

Firstly, the occasion is no longer a single day event. Amazon itself, the brand that brought the concept of Black Friday to the UK in 2010, began its sale two weeks early joining the likes of Currys PC World and Argos.

And gone are the days of in-store brawls, like the well-known scene in Asda in 2014. Last year’s event marked the first time online sales exceeded the £1 billion mark in one day, with a total of £1.1 billion spent by consumers and it is expected that this year’s sales will be largely digitally driven. The Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG) forecasting that £1.27 billion will be spent this year.

So, with looser definitions of the event and a stretched cultural relevance for the UK in the first place, should PRs still take part? Comms pros from Love the Sales, PHA Media and Frank PR say they should.

Stuart McClure, founder and CMO at Love the Sales, says that when it comes to retail branding the power is in the hands of the consumers.

“Retailers are constantly striving to drive up spend and if they don’t go with the flow, they stand a major chance of missing out on revenue. Unless you have exceptional brand strength and loyalty, customers can be fickle. As a result, Black Friday is unlikely to go away unless consumers get bored, or retailers find a new way of driving pre-Christmas spending,” he adds.

PRs must be more creative 

While Black Friday has presented some PR challenges, PHA Media’s senior PR director Nick Braund says there are still opportunities around the event but PRs must be more creative.

“When Black Friday first launched in the UK, the media buzz was of excitement and intrigue at this new American phenomenon and thus, there was a massive opportunity for PRs to position their clients as pioneers in the space. Unfortunately, by 2016, it has become a bit jaded with the general opinion that the period is getting longer and the deals aren’t that special.

“PRs need to challenge their clients to provide the best possible deals and offers that go beyond just appearing to slash prices. Even though it isn’t as newsworthy as before, there are still hundreds of opportunities created by the event that all lend themselves to PRs generating coverage for their clients.”

As a response to the event’s changes Frank PR helped MyVoucherCodes create a parody video showing Gary ‘Chopper Shopper’ Sykes prepare for a ‘strenuous’ day of online shopping. The video aims to demonstrate the reality of the event and respect consumer knowledge.

Andrew Bloch, founder and group managing director at Frank PR, says: “Black Friday’s transition from an in-store event to a multifaceted online, one-week, one-month long consumer bundle is a bit like the transition from the traditional print media to online media, so of course PR people have to be adaptable in their approach.

“The public has ‘cottoned on’ to Black Friday and that’s what inspired the MyVoucherCodes parody. In America, the day after Thanksgiving is a bank holiday for most of the country, so it makes sense to have this moment here. In the UK, it’s just a Friday that’s been rebranded to create a consumer melee.”

With this is mind, Frank wanted to highlight the prevailing thought that people are ‘willing victims’ and use Black Friday as a reason to justify a little spending spree.

“We’re all in on the joke about how ridiculous people can become when savings are announced, so we wanted to demonstrate that knowledge of the consumer whilst also highlighting the truth – if you’re going to get involved, you may as well do it online because the deals are better…and you don’t have to leave the house and bump into Gary ‘Chopper Shopper’ Sykes!,” explains Bloch.

Lexis wins global Chivas Brothers brief

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Lexis has been appointed by Chivas Brothers, the Scotch whisky and premium gin business of Pernod Ricard, to deliver its global corporate and trade PR programmes.

Pernod Ricard

Chivas Brothers is the Scotch whisky and premium gin business of Pernod Ricard

Lexis’ remit will include corporate brand campaigns, business and portfolio communications, global drinks trade engagement, digital and social, and trade support for individual brand campaigns.

In each of these areas the emphasis will be on creative and ‘quality’ engagement.

Lexis will take over the complete retained corporate and trade briefs from December 1 with some projects being delivered in the remaining days of November.

Jennie Norrish, head of comms for Chivas Brothers, said: “We’re a modern, dynamic company and our approach to communications needs to be just as forward-looking. After an extensive review we decided that Lexis has the right experience, skills and quality of counsel to come on the journey with us.”

Toby Conlon, head of corporate at Lexis, who led the pitch, added: “Chivas Brothers is a fantastic business – deep heritage, strong brands and a respected name. We’ll be bringing to bear our extensive trade and corporate campaigning heritage to help it build on this foundation even further.”

FRC hires public affairs specialist

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The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has appointed David Banks as public affairs manager in its communications team.

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David Banks

Banks will manage the FRC’s political engagement and promote understanding of its role in corporate governance, audit regulation and corporate reporting. He will report to Peter Timberlake, head of communications at the FRC.

Most recently, Banks held an external affairs executive role at the Money Advice Service (MAS), where he led the organisation’s constituency engagement programme across England and the devolved nations, and focused on engagement relating to HM Treasury’s review of public financial guidance.

Previously, Banks held a public affairs officer role on the Crossrail project, leading on apprenticeships and skills, employment relations and environment public affairs work-streams, and worked on policy areas including corporate governance, executive pay, organisational culture and values at the CIPD.

Tangerine appoints B2B deputy MD

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Susan Milne-Bennett, a former MD of Ogilvy PR and Hill+Knowlton in New Zealand, has joined Tangerine in the UK as deputy MD of its B2B team, with a brief to support ambitious growth plans.

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Susan Milne-Bennett

Milne-Bennett has worked with global market leading brands in the food, financial services, manufacturing, energy and transport sectors, including Heinz, Beef & Lamb NZ, Cadbury, Netherland’s Headquartered Rabobank, BP, Veolia Transport and British Airways.

Sam Gregory, Tangerine’s B2B MD, said: “In recent years Tangerine’s B2B offering has grown to represent nearly half of all consultancy revenue and we are continuing to invest in this ongoing expansion. Sue is a pivotal addition to our 25-strong team and will be helping to grow our great portfolio of top national and international B2B brands.

“She has advised businesses across the globe at the highest level and her big brand experience, particularly in the corporate and professional services sectors, will be a huge benefit to our clients.”

Milne-Bennett added: “Tangerine’s approach of creating bold and brave strategies that help brands not just stand out, but really engage audiences in meaningful ways is very refreshing in B2B. I’ll be working together with Sam and the team on continuing to evolve our offer and keep our clients a step ahead in terms of how they use communications to deliver real business benefits.”

Brown Forman hands Jack Daniel’s retainer to Eulogy

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Jack Daniel’s, the UK’s biggest whiskey brand*, has handed a retained PR brief to Eulogy, following a competitive pitch. The agency currently works on other Brown Forman brands including Chambord Black Raspberry Liqueur and Finlandia Vodka.

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Jack Daniel’s

Eulogy will start work on a 2017/18 campaign for Jack Daniel’s immediately and develop a creative strategy to reinforce Old No. 7’s versatility across both consumer and trade media, as well as celebrate the brand’s heritage through its Taste of Tennessee platform.

Lucie Kaye, head of consumer at Eulogy, will lead the account.

Charlotte Ashburner, marketing manager for Jack Daniel’s, said: “We needed an agency who understood the potential for this heritage brand, had the creative spark to reach our target market and a team we could trust. That’s Eulogy. They delivered a knock-out pitch with creative content at its heart. They are full of passion for the brand and have a deep commitment to our business.”

Kaye added: “We’re all absolutely thrilled to have won the Jack Daniel’s retainer. Over the years we have built a strong relationship with the Brown Forman team, delivering creative, engaging content and campaigns for its brands and we can’t wait to deliver the same for this icon.”

*According to The Grocer’s annual report

PR Case Study: Mr. Men and Little Miss: 45th anniversary

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To celebrate the 45th anniversary of the Mr. Men and Little Miss children’s series, Aduro Communications created the first ever ‘Mini Museum’, designed specifically for children, with the creation of a virtual archive.

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The Mr. Men and Little Miss children’s series celebrated its 45th anniversary this year

Campaign: Mr. Men and Little Miss: 45th anniversary
Client: Mr. Men Ltd
PR Team: Aduro Communications
Timing: June – August 2016

Overview:

Aduro designed a family friendly campaign that put kids at the heart of a real-life experience, creating the first ever ‘Mini Museum’ designed specifically for children with a nostalgic element to appeal to millenials and press through the creation of a virtual archive.

The agency devised and ran an event with media angles that worked across its audiences’ most-consumed media; radio, online and print, simultaneously hitting all their touch points. Capitalising on the brand’s 45th anniversary, the team created a variety of assets to give press a strong hook to talk about the campaign.

Objectives:

  • Rebuild the Mr. Men Little Miss archive and celebrate the brand’s 45th anniversary.
  • Remind parents, grandparents and millenials how positively they feel about Mr. Men & Little Miss.

Strategy

To bring the campaign to life, Aduro:

1. Created a virtual archive

Aduro provided a platform for fans to upload pictures of their own treasured Mr. Men Little Miss memorabilia, engaging the brand’s audience to help rebuild their archive.

2. Brought the archive to life

The agency designed a news-worthy, week-long ‘Mini Museum’ to help the brand reconnect with both families and millenials. The Mini Museum, a world first exhibition designed specifically for children, was made up of rare and unusual Mr. Men Little Miss memorabilia donated by fans and held at the Oxo Gallery on South Bank.

3. Created a bank of press assets to celebrate the 45th anniversary

Offering press a variety of angles and news stories, the team created a bank of media assets from consumer research, video content and new Mr. Men and Little Miss characters, bringing the activity to life.

Results

  • 20,000 visitors to the Mini Museum over five days (double Oxo Gallery’s usual visitors in that time period).
  • 50% uplift in web traffic, attributed directly to the event.
  • Five million consumers reached via social media, resulting in more than 500 uploads to the new Mr. Men and Little Miss virtual archive in under a week.
  • The event directly drove £12,000 worth of merchandise sales.
  • 63 pieces of coverage were generated, including seven national features.
  • Video content with national online and broadcast titles were viewed over 100,000 times in under a week.
  • Additional billboard space worth £6k+ on Waterloo bridge was secured for free.

Client testimonial:
“ Our objective was to launch an online archive for our fans to interact with and to remind the British public of their ongoing love for this classic property. The outcome surpassed our expectations on a number of counts. Not only in terms of the quantity of engagement (visitors to the Oxo Tower, turnover of the pop up store, and uploads on to the archive) but raising the Mr. Men profile with existing and new partners by reinforcing the breadth and popularity of this brand and internally lighting a fire in the creative team about new (and vintage directions) we can take Mr. Men.  We are now looking at how we can build on this momentum with a regional tour in 2017.” Lisa MacDonald, vice president, Mr. Men Ltd

“It’s fantastic to see the characters displayed like this, having their own exhibition really shows that they are a modern classic.” Adam Hargreaves, Mr. Men and Little Miss illustrator and son of creator Roger Hargreaves

Got a cracking campaign – with impressive results – that you’d like to showcase? If so, please email [email protected].

Ad leader Hugh Baillie joins Weber Shandwick

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Hugh Baillie, UK CEO of FullSix and former CEO of ad firm Ogilvy & Mather, is to join Weber Shandwick as head of strategic engagement disciplines across EMEA.

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Hugh Baillie

Most recently CEO of FullSix, Baillie has extensive advertising agency experience, spanning Grey, Saatchi & Saatchi and BBH, as well as Ogilvy & Mather.

Client experience includes Unilever, American Express, Ford, Motorola, Diageo, British Airways and Gillette.

Based in London, Baillie will have oversight of a growing team of engagement specialists at Weber Shandwick, across the EMEA region.

Colin Byrne, Weber Shandwick’s UK and EMEA CEO, said: “As EMEA’s most PR award-winning and Cannes Lions-winning agency, we are delighted that someone with Hugh’s creative dynamism and experience is joining to lead our engagement work for clients.

“His experience with top global brands and multi-channel creative and engagement strategy will effectively lead our growing team of creatives and strategists from across the marketing, digital and media mix.”

The agency’s chief digital officer, Chris Perry, added: “The stakes continue to rise on fusing creative, engagement-driven ideas with new media approaches to capture attention and reach intended communities.

“As we continue to build and broaden capabilities across EMEA markets, top leadership talent like Hugh will help to shape and deliver how Weber Shandwick answers the call for clients.”

Baillie said: “Weber Shandwick has a clear expertise for delivering business results for clients no matter the communications channel. Their team understands the power of combining creativity with strategy to make an impact for brands and businesses.

“It is an incredibly exciting time to be joining the agency, and I look forward to helping the team do great work and deliver exceptional results for our clients.”

Meanwhile, Weber Shandwick Germany has appointed Bernhard Hofer as head of engagement engine operations. Based in Berlin, Hofer joins from German digital comms agency UDG.

Hilton hires ex-White House adviser as global head of corporate affairs

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Hilton LogoHilton has named former White House adviser Katie Beirne Fallon as senior vice president and global head of corporate affairs.

The hospitality company’s corporate affairs department includes communications, government relations and corporate responsibility functions for the company globally. Fallon will report to Christopher J. Nassetta, president and CEO of Hilton, and serve as a member of the executive committee.

Nassetta said: “As we continue to gain momentum and accelerate our growth around the world, finding additional ways to connect and engage with our most critical stakeholders becomes even more important. Katie is widely admired by both high-ranking Republicans and Democrats, and her unique perspective on the strategic intersection between communications and policy will help us strengthen the Hilton brand and drive value for the business. Together with the entire corporate affairs team, we are extremely well positioned to further our industry leadership and differentiate ourselves in the marketplace.”

Fallon added: “I am honoured and excited to join the Hilton team on their mission to be the world’s most hospitable company. Hilton is renowned for its exceptional customer service, its pioneering innovation in the industry and its leadership in the communities it serves. The global hospitality sector has never been more dynamic, and as Hilton continues to strengthen its competitive position around the world, I am eager to work with the team in building upon the terrific heritage and reputation of the business.”

Previously, Fallon held senior roles in policy and communications in Washington D.C. for more than a decade and, most recently, was White House director of legislative affairs and head of the White House office of legislative affairs for President Obama. Before becoming the President’s chief liaison to Members of Congress, Fallon served as his deputy communications director, responsible for his strategic communications planning.