An employee who completely 100% gets customer service, so much so that it’s been reposted online – and Sainsbury’s will reap the reputation benefits as I have no doubt this will get re-shared and liked many more times over the coming days.

In our world of employee engagement two things struck me. One is organisations must now start to trust their employees to have the brains to do the right thing when customers (of any ages) want to interact with them and secondly it highlights just how powerful tailored communication can be. While this is just a cute story, it really shows Sainsbury’s has really got it right and not only engaged its customer service team, but is showing strength and authenticity of brand in communicating like this.

And now thanks to social media, we’ve been able to share it too. Just imagine if your organisation was brave enough to empower the front line to communicate online in this way. A true army of passionate employee ambassadors – just so powerful.

In the meantime, I’m off to find some giraffe bread.

Tam Sandeman
aged 41 10/12ths (but wishing she was still 3)

The CLIO Awards is an international advertising, design and communications competition which recognises and rewards creative excellence in the industry. Richard

Beckman, CEO of Prometheus Global Media, parent company of the CLIOs, said “ The CLIO Awards has forged its reputation as the world’s most influential advertising competition thanks in large part to the calibre of our jurors and the integrity of our judging process.

These jurors represent the very top talent in their respective fields and will bring the highest standards of excellence to the CLIOs.”

This year’s CLIO Awards will be held in May at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Kieran will be joined by Whitney Foard Small, the Ford Motor Company; Professor Jim Macnamara, University of Technology Sydney; Eddie Chau, Brandtology; Mike Daniels, Report International; John Croll, Media Monitors; David B. Rockland, Ketchum Pleon Change and Global Research; Nandini Chatterjee, PricewaterhouseCoopers and; Cecilia Chan, Lenovo Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea.

In 2011, Ogilvy PR Australia announced it was abandoning AVEs as a measurement tool. Following on from this announcement, Kieran’s session ‘Chasing Magic Silver Bullets’ will discuss what she has learnt and her plans for Australia’s largest PR consultancy.

Kieran Moore said, “Measurement is the biggest challenge facing the public relations industry. There’s a new world of accountability out there. CEOs are challenging their CMOs and Communications Directors, as never before, to prove the financial effectiveness of PR and the impact on the bottom line. We need to be confident in how we measure; confident that a client examination of how we assess ROI will only show enlightenment, not shadows.”

The APAC Cup is a Canon technician’s version of the football grand final, but instead of battling it out on the footy field, they’re troubleshooting business imaging equipment. It’s a highly skilled and very competitive series of practical and theoretical tests.

It’s also a way for Canon to provide its technicians with opportunities to build their skills by sharing ‘tricks of the trade’ with colleagues from around the world.

Howorth spotted an opportunity to get involved in the hype that surrounded the Rugby World Cup – from one international sporting event to another.

What started as an internal competition in Australia caught the imagination of the media and became one of Canon’s biggest corporate stories for 2011. In total there were 23 pieces across Australia of coverage around the APAC cup including The Today Show, Herald Sun, News.com, MX, ABC 720 Perth, 2GB Sydney, 4KQ Brisbane and Adelaide Now.

The Daily Telegraph even made this online video to accompany its story about the competition.

“Forget Cadel Evans, forget Sam Stosur and forget that guy who won the Nobel Prize for discovering what the universe was made of – Australia has a new hero.” –The Daily Telegraph

“Got a paper jam? Can’t get your printer working? Mt Gravatt based technician Daniel Leong is the man who knows how to solve your printing woes.” – Southern Star

“O’Brien is a paper jam’s worst enemy.” – The Daily Telegraph

“Newing, a specialist senior engineer with Canon, earned his spot in the four-man Aussie squad to compete at the Canon Asia Pacific Cup.” – MX

Shane McClelland, marketing and communication manager of Canon Australia, said it was great to be able to recognise the technicians for all their hard work and enthusiasm.

“We were very pleased with the coverage we received around the APAC Cup and the media hype was fantastic for the finalists – Paul O’Brien even mentioned that he was stopped on the street once and asked if he was “the Canon technician from the TV?,” said Shane.

The Canon APAC Cup showed that the right story angle can make a niche story go a long way.

Did they bring home the cup? Although the four-man Australian squad wasn’t successful in bringing home the APAC Cup – they did prove that good old Aussie sportsmanship is alive and well – on and off the footy field.

Charged with helping to further build the 360˚ DI business in Australia, which has seen rapid and consistent growth since launching several years ago, Christie was most recently Head of Digital at Sefiani Communications.

He will join the team at the end of January and begin work immediately on developing and delivering  B2B social media strategies for a range clients.

Director of Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence Australia Brian Giesen said:  “The addition of Roger confirms Ogilvy’s commitment to strengthening our social media capabilities off of the back of a highly-successful 2011,” he explained.

“Having someone with Roger’s experience and entrepreneurial drive joining the Ogilvy social media team in Australia is a major win for our business and we’re excited to have him on board.”

360 DI is part of Ogilvy PR Australia, a joint venture between Ogilvy Public Relations and STW Group, Australia’s leading marketing content and communications services group.

Ends.

For more information contact:

Rebecca Tilly, STW Group

Ph: +61 410 501 043

About Ogilvy Public Relations

­­­­­­­­­­­Ogilvy Public Relations (Ogilvy PR) is a global, multi-disciplinary communications leader operating in more than 80 offices across six continents. In 2011, Ogilvy won more Cannes PR Lions than any other agency worldwide, was named Global Digital/Social Consultancy of the Year by the Holmes Report, won Specialist Agency of the Year in Asia Pacific (Campaign Asia), and won the WPP global, top award (WPPed Cream, Crème de la Crème) for the fourth time in five years. Ogilvy PR integrates deeply with all Ogilvy & Mather disciplines (advertising, direct marketing, activation, promotional, digital and entertainment) through the proprietary Ogilvy Fusion™ approach to delivering comprehensive, business solutions through content creation, community building, and communications with measurable results. Ogilvy PR is a unit of Ogilvy & Mather, a WPP company (NASDAQ: WPPGY), one of the world’s largest communications services groups.  For more information, visit our Web site at www.ogilvypr.com or follow us on Twitter at @ogilvypr.

Challenge: With the opinion polls indicating a landslide victory for the NSW Liberal-National Opposition, many stakeholder groups were seeking to elevate their issues with the Opposition Leader, Barry O’Farrell, and his shadow ministers and candidates. P&P needed to make CMRI’s case stand out in this contested space.

Insight: Western Sydney is the home of a number of marginal electorates, as well as an expanding region and a target area for economic growth in NSW.

Creative Idea: Given the importance of Western Sydney to all political parties, we created a good opportunity for them to bolster their marginal seat campaign by funding CMRI’s redevelopment, and its economic and social benefits.

Campaign: The campaign involved first building the case for the benefits of the redevelopment, followed by direct engagement with party leaders, ministers and shadow ministers, as well as candidates in the seat of Parramatta, where the CMRI is based. Tours and the facility were held and decision-makers were taken through the redevelopment plans.

Outcome:

On 21 February, just over one month before the election was held, the Liberal-National coalition announced a $20 million funding commitment for CMRI’s redevelopment. The announcement was made by the now Premier Barry O’Farrell and the now Health Minister Jillian Skinner.

“This commitment from the NSW Liberals & Nationals is a huge boost to children’s health and medical research as well as the economic and social infrastructure of Western Sydney.”

Professor Roger Reddel, Lorimer Dods Professor and CMRI Director.

But you can’t delegate leadership. In fact, especially in 2012, you shouldn’t be running a business where leaders deflect responsibility.

It’s impossible to plan for 2012 – there’s game changing carbon legislation in July, dangerous surf conditions for our manufacturing and retail sectors and the wild rodeo ride of mining. And yet, everything hinges of China and Europe behaving well.

Wherever you are in Australia’s two-speed economy, your leaders need to be ready to engage employees to improve productivity and deliver exceptional customer service in the face of disappointing business results, or ready to reward and retain employees in strong performing industries. The Australian Financial Review (6 January 2012) reported recently that leadership is moving from the old concept of command and control to more intelligent leadership. Leaders need to learn and exhibit skills that include:

• Conflict in the workplace
• Cross-cultural communication
• Presentation and plain language communication
• Managing through change and uncertainty
• Working with a global, dispersed workforce
• Communicating with employees in a digital world

From our experience in employee engagement consulting and advice over the years, we sense that more than half of those in middle management and senior leadership positions are exceptional business managers, and have been promoted for those skills – rather than the inspirational and important employee engagement and internal communication skills required at that level to engage employees to be advocates, strive for performance and retain the best performers. So more than half your leaders are not fulfilling the basic requirements of their role – and you, and they, may not even know it.

All it takes is three steps to turn this around:

1. Benchmark what your people think about their leaders’ communication competency; how well they articulate and contextualise company goals and strategy; how they give and receive feedback that changes business outcomes.
2. Determine the gaps between your leaders’ competency and ideal leadership skills
3. Invest in leadership communication skills training

In 2009, Howorth worked with Hitachi Data Systems to develop a public relations campaign that would provide a first perspective on the ‘Information Glut’, in a report which underlined how many organisations had been choked or rendered inflexible by the sharp growth in information.

Two years on, Howorth and Hitachi Data Systems revisited the subject to analyse whether the information glut was still a growing concern for businesses in Australia and New Zealand. In order to better understand the macro economic effects of the problem, Deloitte Access Economics was also commissioned to assess the extent to which information glut was impeding business productivity, and the benefit of improved information management on performance and the broader economy.

The Great Information Glut 2011: key findings

Hitachi Data Systems commissioned an independent study conducted by AMR, which found that 40% of organisations in Australian and New Zealand are suffering from too much information, up 5% from 2009. Almost every respondent (95%) admitted they experienced some degree of glut, with a quarter reporting significant impact on organisational performance.

Analysis by Deloitte also found that information glut is affecting Australia and New Zealand’s GDP and therefore their global competitiveness – estimating mismanagement of information is costing Australia’s economy at least $3bn per year and New Zealand $400m per year.

Hitachi is calling for businesses to start acting in order to manage the growth of the glut, stressing that Australia can no longer afford to be a nation of business bystanders. This ‘information intervention’ requires organisations to take a big picture look at existing systems and strategically align information management with business imperatives.

Howorth devised a media strategy that would maximise the reach of this news, conducting a series of embargoed media briefings with business and technology media to amplify the amount of quality media coverage. Following the briefings, a general news release was distributed.

The launch of the report received significant media coverage, with more than 40 pieces of traditional print and online media coverage.

Highlights included:

• Neville Vincent, VP and general manager, was interviewed by ABC Lateline Business on launch day, outlining the key findings from the report. A six minute interview with Neville was also broadcast on Sky Business News’ Tech Report programme.
• 40+ articles appeared in titles such as AAP, News.com.au, Herald Sun, Daily Telegraph, Technology Spectator, iTWire, Computerworld, Computerworld NZ, Computer Daily News, Channel News and The Channel, more than doubling 2009’s coverage.

You can download a copy of the Great Information Glut 2011 report here

A very big congratulations to the winners for this quarter:

Martine L’Eveille – Partnership, nominated by Tam Sandeman

“Martine has been at Ogilvy PR for almost seven years and in that time put her energy and passion to a number of Ogilvy initiatives, but never in that time has she been client-facing. Martine rose to the challenge for Ogilvy Impact when the team was faced with a last minute, but large employee event for a client. Embracing the challenge head on, Martine delivered exceptionally. Her story is about pushing herself professionally and living our partnership value absolutely outstandingly!”

Jacqui Teurlings – Learn & Grow, nominated by Tam Sandeman

“Jacqui personifies Learn & Grow, day in day out. Since day one Jacqui has a thirst for learning.  Jacqui always puts her hand up. What drives this? For Jacqui every day is about stretching herself and professional growth; this not only includes client work but Ogilvy Impact business initiatives too.  She continue to be in the fast lane when it comes to learning and growing every day.”

Melinda Varley – One Step Ahead, nominated by Lelde McCoy

“The usual dictionary definition of “one step ahead” is ‘slightly better prepared or more successful than someone else’. In Melinda Varley’s case she is usually ‘several leaps ahead’ in her approach to solving a client’s PR issue, contributing to a team event or embracing professional development opportunities.”

We look forward to congratulating more trumpet winners in 2012.

Sydney, December 16, 2011:

The appointment from January next year, will see specialists from Ogilvy PR’s business-to-business consultancy Howorth and sister consumer and brand agency, Pulse work together to develop and implement a national PR campaign for Veda.

Howorth and Pulse will be supported by Ogilvy’s 360 Digital Influence teams to ensure social and traditional media integration. Ogilvy PR will also work closely with Veda’s communications team to grow brand awareness of the company, with a particular focus on its Commercial Credit Risk and Consumer Credit Risk (B2C fraud identity and credit file) markets.

A leader in credit reporting, analytical tools and marketing services, Veda serves a diverse range of markets including large financial institutions, small to medium sized enterprises, and consumers.  It provides services in Consumer Credit Risk, Commercial Credit Risk, Credit Analytics, Data Solutions, Fraud and Electronic Verification, Insurance, Automotive, Customer Location Services and Commercial Information Brokerage.

Kieran Moore, Ogilvy PR Australia’s Chief Executive Officer, said the win reaffirms Ogilvy PR Australia’s ability to offer highly specialised services tailored specifically to meet a client’s business needs.

“The grouping of expertise from multiple agencies and practices is a key strength within the Ogilvy PR offering in Australia and one which enables us to meet the diversity of client’s requirements   within very specialised areas,” she explained.  “We are also finding the demand for this approach is increasing within the current climate and having our deep expertise under one roof facilitates a tailored response that can address complex requirements.  We are excited about the prospect of putting this deep specialisation to work for an outstanding market leader such as Veda.”

Veda’s Marketing Communications Manager, Katherine Craig, said: “Veda is undergoing an exciting period of growth and change and we needed a PR agency with a track record in delivering successful campaigns. We were very impressed by Ogilvy PR’s understanding of the challenges and opportunities in our market, and in their ability to offer a depth and breadth of expertise. Ogilvy PR’s approach and philosophy matched well with ours, and we look forward to working with the team to make 2012 a successful year.”

Ogilvy PR Australia is a joint venture between Ogilvy PR Worldwide and STW Group, Australia’s leading marketing content and communications services group.  Veda is Australasia’s leading provider of commercial and consumer data intelligence and insights and has been at the forefront of the information services industry for many decades.

Ends.  For more information contact Rebecca Tilly, STW Group, Ph: +61 410 501 043