Sydney – May 16, 2013: Yianni Konstantopoulos, former strategy and business development leader at  Washington DC agency Blue State Digital, will join Ogilvy Public Relations (PR) Australia in the newly-created role of Group Managing Director for social@Ogilvy in July 2013.

The appointment follows an extensive international search for one of the most sought-after social and digital media positions in Australia. Yianni joins Ogilvy PR from Blue State Digital, which is one of the world’s leading digital strategy agencies with clients across nonprofits, brands and campaigns to build communities that take action.

Ogilvy PR/Australia CEO Kieran Moore said the appointment followed an exhaustive process.

“It was vital that we got the right person to fill this position. The digital space is one which has changed and grown enormously over the past few years and we wanted to ensure that social@Ogilvy continued to lead Australia. Yianni is well-suited to help our clients fully leverage social media to build their businesses – from marketing, communications, CRM, sales enablement and shopper marketing,” Moore said.

“We needed someone who could work with a client list that includes many of the world’s biggest brands and lead and inspire our outstanding team. Yianni’s career shows he is that person and we’re absolutely delighted to welcome him to Ogilvy PR.  We look forward to him not only continuing the great work that Social@Ogilvy is doing but to really shaking up the digital space in Australia,” she continued.

Konstantopoulos will work with the wider Ogilvy & Mather family to provide world leading social media solutions, including social consulting, social listening, social media marketing and communications, measurement, social shopping, social care and social selling.

“Ogilvy PR already has some of the world’s and Australia’s biggest brands among its client roster and I’m looking to using our collective digital expertise to create innovative campaigns that excite the public and align with clients’ business and communication objectives,” said Yianni . “At the end of the day, it’s about engagement and impact and I’m thrilled to join the Ogilvy PR team who share that perspective.”

Before joining Blue State Digital, Yianni held senior positions at Washington creative design studio, Avendi Media and international executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles.  He has also consulted to both the World Bank and the United Nations.

social@Ogilvy is part of Ogilvy PR Australia, a joint venture between WPP and STW Group, Australia’s leading marketing content and communications group.

Ends.

For more information contact: Sandra Renowden STW Group

Ph: +61 403 823 218

About social@Ogilvy:

social@Ogilvy is the largest social media marketing communications network in the world. Named 2011 Global Digital/Social Consultancy of the Year by The Holmes Report, the practice leverages social media expertise across all Ogilvy & Mather disciplines, offering an extensive list of services within the foundational business solutions – Listening and Analytics; Social Business Solutions; Social Media Marketing and Communications; Social Shopping; Social CRM; Social Care; and Conversation Impact. For more information, visit social.ogilvy.com and connect with us at www.facebook.com/socialogilvy, www.twitter.com/socialogilvy, www.slideshare.com/socialogilvy or visit our Twitter profile @socialogilvyau

About Ogilvy Public Relations

­­­­­­­­­­­Ogilvy Public Relations (Ogilvy PR) is a global, multi-disciplinary communications leader operating in more than 85 offices across six continents. In 2012, Ogilvy was named Cannes Lions Network of the Year and Most Effective Agency Network by the Effie Global Effectiveness Index, named Public Affairs Consultancy of the Year by the Holmes Report, won Consumer Consultancy of the Year in Asia Pacific (Holmes Report), and won the WPP global, top award (WPPed Cream, Crème de la Crème) for the fifth time in six 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), and one of the largest marketing communications companies in the world.  For more information, visit our website at www.ogilvypr.com or follow us on Twitter at @ogilvypr.

Treasurer Wayne Swan’s sixth and quite possibly last budget was structured to protect as many of the Government’s landmark policies as possible: by setting out the decade-long costs of some of the Government’s initiatives he has made it that much harder for a likely Treasurer Joe Hockey to cut treasured reforms like DisabilityCare Australia and the education funding changes named for a prominent Sydney businessman; by attaching $24 billion in infrastructure investment to projects voters and Liberal premiers actually want Swan is building a legacy for himself and the PM that is unlikely to be dismantled in any substantial way.

After last year announcing four years of surpluses, a statement which he has since had to go back on, the Treasurer this year has charted a “a pathway to surplus” that will see a deficit in the current financial year, the budget year and the year after, a balanced budget in 2015-16, and a budget written in black ink only in 2016-17. Justifying this, he says the European way, the way of austerity is “not the Australian way”.

But despite that sentiment this is not the usual pre-election budget of tax cuts, assorted ‘bonuses’ and pension increases. There are tax increases – most notably the already announced ½ per cent increase to the Medicare levy to pay for DisabilityCare Australia, and a crackdown on corporate tax loopholes that not many voters will worry about – but only modest overall spending increases.

Peter Costello’s baby bonus is to be abolished and replaced with a much smaller allowance under Family Tax Benefit A, which will provide a tax break of just $2,000 following the birth of a first child and $1,000 for any further children, which might be considered a brave decision in an election year. These “structural changes” as the Treasury calls them are part of a steady unwinding of the Howard-Costello era entitlements – some voters might be angry to see them go but Hockey will be secretly pleased, making his probable job post 14 September that much easier.

But perhaps the bravest decision of this budget is that to introduce paid parking to all Australian Government owned car parks on National Land in the ACT suburbs of Parkes, Barton, Russell and Acton, which is estimated to bring in $73.3 million over three years. The outrage in Canberra has already begun.

In the recent edition of Boss Magazine in the AFR an article entitled ‘How to avoid social media death’ explored the reticence behind social media adoption and provided a few handy tips on getting started and mastering the art of social communication in the digital age.

According to the article, only four of the top 100 ASX listed companies had CEO or MDs who had an active Twitter presence – News Corp’s Rupert Murdoch, Wesfarmer’s Richard Goyder, Bank of Queensland’s Stuart Grimshaw and Atlas Iron’s Ken Brinsden.

As the article rightly points out, social media isn’t just about brand awareness stating that “those who get involved in Twitter and other social media will reap intangible but real benefits from being closer to their customers base and ahead of the curve on emerging trends. They will also have the chance to elevate their personal brand and their company’s reputation by displaying a human face”.

So, why such unwillingness amongst Australia’s key business decision makers? The single biggest obstacle for executives looking to become more socially savvy is having the appropriate social media knowledge, time or technical skills. Too often executives will simply put social media in the too hard basket – “it’s not for me”, “there isn’t any value in it”, “I just don’t have the time to tweet”, “people don’t want to know when I’m brushing my teeth”.

A degree of reluctance is understandable. Social media is not the easiest medium to understand not least of all because of constant state of change, new and emerging tools and the omnipresent risk of doing significant organisational and personal brand damage.

As a Queensland recruiting executive recently found out, it is very difficult to divorce a personal account from your professional career. The recruiter posted abusive messages on Twitter directed at radio personality Wendy Harmer. The executive was forced to publicly apologise and his online ‘spat’ resulted in news coverage across a variety of online outlets.

Through knowledge sharing, training and a companywide adoption, CEOs can ingrain social media into their everyday business thinking and activities.

Social media training should be a mandatory requirement for executives and senior management. It does not necessarily need to be a precursor to establishing a presence but at the very least it will give those who are charged with critical decision making the basic knowledge on how social media can affect a business from sales to thought leadership and everything in between.

Those executives who have mastered the art of social media communication have usually undertaken some form of training or digital eminence course.

Executives can undertake a simple three pronged approach to better understand and utilise social media tools:

1. Understand the landscape – who is your audience, where are they and what are they saying
2. Create content that is relevant to the audience – what insight can I provide that will add value to the audience and properly reflect my business and position
3. Begin to engage with the audience through informed and friendly dialogue, providing personal experience and business insight

Social media is not the natural domain of Australia’s business elite. But those who master it sooner, undertake the necessary training and seek to readily engage with the community, will quickly find a competitive advantage and some very addictive tools!

By Thomas Tudehope social@ogilvy

A RECENT article in The Australian’s Media section spoke of how entry-level salaries in the advertising industry were paying no more than they did a decade ago, failing to keep pace with inflation and driving young talent to other industries.

Fortunately, things are somewhat better in public relations.

While most in the advertising and public relations industries would agree that things are relatively tough out there, the smart agencies decided many years ago that salaries were only one element to having an engaged team.

Paying below par is crazy – firstly, because you don’t attract the best and brightest and, secondly, if you do manage to attract them they disappear pretty quickly. Once the word gets around, you find the people you have spent time and money nurturing and teaching will be lured off by big money offers as fully, or at least partly, formed practitioners.

The old adage “pay peanuts and you get monkeys” still remains true.

The smart move is to benchmark salaries against industry norms and offer a good salary commensurate with the person’s experience.

It’s an exciting time to be in the industry. The digital landscape changes on an almost daily basis. With the rise of mobile, digital and social media public relations practitioners are an integral part of marketing strategies on every level. We expect even our entry level starters to have a skill set which wasn’t invented a few short years ago. It’s simply short-sighted to expect highly skilled and smart operators to come with a low price tag.

High turnover is costly, both in monetary and morale terms, and most smart organisations realise it’s the quickest way to the bottom.

But I am also firmly of the view that the people who work only for the money are usually the ones that you are generally happiest to wave goodbye. Sure, they have to be paid in line with their peers but experience has shown that it is other, less tangible, things that keep the good ones working harder than I sometimes think we have a right to ask.

If you aspire to attract the best and the brightest and expect a lot of your people, then start offering a lot. But, and I think this is crux of the issue, I suspect the best and the brightest also want to know that there’s some sort of a deal going on: we expect them to perform and they expect us to do more than just pay them. Most people want to be challenged and to be allowed to challenge. They want to be trained and mentored from when they start and even as they move up the ranks. They want to work bloody hard but still have plenty of fun.

Recently I was involved in some research on Gen Ys – the group born after 1980 who people decry as being commitment phobic – and found that when asked which factors would put them off a potential employer, the top deal-breaker, with 88.4 per cent, was if a company didn’t offer a competitive salary but in second and third were if the company did not make an effort to be environmentally responsible (77.5 per cent) and if the company did not make an effort to engage with the community (64.5 per cent).

Respondents were also asked if they would consider changing employers if they discovered the company they worked for was being socially or environmentally irresponsible, to which 68.8 per cent answered “yes”.

The research is far from definitive but backs up the findings of other researchers who have consistently found that younger workers are looking for more than just cash.

In my opinion, I believe the best and the brightest also relish the opportunity to work on the biggest brands and the most exciting campaigns. And when they leave – and some of them do, and sometimes for big money offers – they want to know that they are much better off for the experience. And, if we are lucky, they come back with more experience and a broader outlook on life.

The corporates call it an Employee Value Proposition – but really, it is just good business.

Kieran Moore is the Australian chief executive of Ogilvy Public Relations

Moore unveiled the company’s EVP on Tuesday (April 23), explaining to the Ogilvy PR team that it was seen as the way to inform current and prospective employees of the values and expectations that Ogilvy PR had of its employees and of what values and benefits the employees could expect in return – the give and the get.

“It’s how we position ourselves as an employer so we continue to attract, engage and retain the best people,” Moore said. “It’s at the heart of what makes us stand out among PR consultancies in Australia. It’s supported by our values and our vision and it clearly calls out the kind of people who will thrive and enjoy their time here.”

Moore also unveiled an Employee Benefits Booklet which outlined the “get” part of the deal and stressed to staff that the EVP was a “living policy” designed to be updated and improved through on-going feedback.

Ogilvy PR is currently aligning all its processes and actions with the four pillars of the EVP: Grow, Know, Mojo and Show.

‘Grow’ outlines to employees the opportunities for learning and professional growth within the company – opportunities which come from fellow employees, from the international Ogilvy network, from clients and from the organisation’s regular lunchtime lecture program.

“Know” represents the need for employees to work hard, to challenge themselves, to be creative and curious, to question and collaborate.

“Mojo” is the buzz and benefits of working for a family of boutique agencies under the umbrella of a national and international network, while “Show” represents the time taken to nurture relationships with colleagues, clients and the community, along with the recognition and excitement that comes from great work.

As Moore says: “At Ogilvy PR we take our work seriously, but we don’t take ourselves too seriously.”

Mr Smith, the Chair of the Australia-China Council, spoke about emerging opportunities in Asia, and what Australian businesses can and should be doing to take advantage of the growth in our region and on our doorstep. The event also marked David Bell’s first week with Ogilvy. David joined Australia’s largest public relations company as Group Managing Director – Corporate after a long career in banking and telecommunications, including heading up the Australian Bankers Association.

Ogilvy Public Relations is a proud and long-time sponsor of the lunch series, which invites speakers from a broad range of fields and backgrounds to address an audience of corporate affairs professionals from Australia’s largest and only truly global city. The topic was one that is very appropriate for Ogilvy, the first international marketing and PR firm to open in China, and the first to open an office in Myanmar.

Ogilvy Public Relations Australia works with its partner agencies across the region on behalf of international and Australian organisations looking to undertake cross-border activity that requires communications, public affairs and public relations support. For more information about our work in Australia and Asia please contact David Bell on 02 8281 3200.

“Established in 1981 and ever evolving to keep pace with the PR and communication industry, I am delighted to announce that chair Kieran Moore, Ogilvy PR Australia, Tracy Jones, Creative Territory (NT) and Adam Thomson, Leverage PR (SA) have joined forces to reinvigorate our Awards” said Terri-Helen Gaynor, National President, PRIA.

In consultation with a number of the industry’s best, some significant changes have been made to the Award categories, entry process and the length of entries. The changes have come about to ensure that the GTA’s continue to reflect the constant changes within the PR and communication industry.

The number of sector categories has been reduced from 16 to 11 with some categories redefined to better reflect the nature of the work and campaigns within the Australian PR industry.   This year’s GTAs will introduce a number of new “Best Of” categories including Young PR Professional of the Year, PR Consultancy of the Year and In-House PR Professional/Team of the Year.   Another new category, Best Use of Analytics, recognises the value of research and insight in creating compelling, audience and insight-led campaigns.

Entry for the awards has been simplified, with a single entry replacing the previous two-step process.  The entry word length has been halved from 2000 words to 1000 words and the Awards have been pushed to quarter three of this year with entries opening on July 1, 2013.

“The Awards which have a long history of recognising PR excellence have been revamped to reflect the dynamic nature of the PR and communications industry. We believe these changes will give the Awards an injection of excitement and energy. We are really excited about the changes and believe that they will generate a great platform to celebrate the great work of many great PR practitioners in Australia” said Kieran Moore, Chair of the Golden Target Awards Committee.

For Full Category Descriptions Click Here

For Further Comment:

Terri-Helen Gaynor MPRIA

National President

Public Relations Institute of Australia

Ph: 0409 870 022

E: THGaynor@reputation.net.au

Before undertaking my internship with Ogilvy Public Relations (PR), I thought it would be a good idea to find out more about the man behind the name. Naturally, I was shocked to read the above sentence, as Ogilvy PR is one of the worlds most recognised and respected communication brands, which made the lead up to my internship both daunting and exciting.

“I admire people with gentle manners who treat other people as human beings.”

Walking off Christie Street into Ogilvy House was quite an experience in its own right. The sheer size and scale was overwhelming, but the friendly smiles of the team at Howorth Communications and Social@Ogilvy quickly changed all that.

“I admire people who build up subordinates.”

Something that makes the Ogilvy PR Internship experience unique is its structure. One day I was creating media lists, drafting pitches and compiling research, and the next day I was involved in brainstorms, helped prepare events, and attended company-training sessions. Every single second of my day at Howorth was organised as I came to grips with using media monitoring platforms, assemble coverage reports and learnt about the importance of strategic messaging. Whilst this certainly challenged my time management skills, the tasks and the mentorship provided really helped me to further develop and apply my skills.

“I admire self-confident professionals, the craftsmen who do their jobs with superlative excellence. They always seem to respect the expertise of their colleagues.”

Howorth, like many of Ogilvy PR companies, makes a point of being creative in its work and takes pride in its office culture. There were a number of occasions where I observed staff pause to celebrate a co-workers success or mourn their departure, only to continue working tirelessly in order to not only meet, but also exceed, client expectations.

“I try to get the very best out of every man and woman in the agency.”

It is only now that I reflect and am writing about this experience that I realise just how lucky I am to have been given the opportunity to work at such a wonderful company and be surrounded by even more wonderful people. What I have taken from this internship is a huge amount of confidence in my ability, and a drive to continue learning as much as I can about being a good PR practitioner, with the hope that one day I will return.

I look at the first quote from this great man and I have a range of mixed feelings – although he lived to see Ogilvy PR come to life, it saddens me that David Ogilvy passed away not having seen the brilliant work of his team in the public relations space. However, as I flick through his book once more and look at my experience, I know that if he were still alive today he would be very, very proud.

By David Dunn

April 4, 2013:

The Ogilvy PR team from Melbourne won the Mattel account in a competitive four-way pitch and will start work immediately.

Ogilvy PR Melbourne’s Managing Director, Alexandra Kelly, said: “We are thrilled to have won such an exciting project that gives us such incredible scope to help reshape this brand. Our campaign is all about disrupting tired brand perceptions and helping Australians fall in love again with one of the most iconic and enduring brands in the last 60 plus years.”

Damian Black, Mattel Senior Brand Manager, said:  “We were really excited about Ogilvy’s fresh thinking during the pitch process – we were looking for an idea and an agency that could shake up perceptions and create new relevance for us – not simply produce traditional product based PR solutions. We’re looking forward to seeing the campaign unfold.”

The Mattel account adds to an impressive list of clients for Ogilvy PR Melbourne including BP, the Victorian Department of Health, febfast and Melbourne Airport amongst others.

Ogilvy PR Australia is a joint venture between WPP and STW Group, Australia’s leading marketing content and communications group.

Ends.

For more information contact:

Sandra Renowden

STW Group

Ph: +61 403 823 218

About Ogilvy Public Relations

­­­­­­­­­­­Ogilvy Public Relations (Ogilvy PR) is a global, multi-disciplinary communications leader operating in more than 85 offices across six continents. In 2012, Ogilvy was named Cannes Lions Network of the Year and Most Effective Agency Network by the Effie Global Effectiveness Index, named Public Affairs Consultancy of the Year by the Holmes Report, won Consumer Consultancy of the Year in Asia Pacific (Holmes Report), and won the WPP global, top award (WPPed Cream, Crème de la Crème) for the fifth time in six 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. For more information, visit our Web site at www.ogilvypr.com.au or follow us on Twitter at @ogilvypraus.

The second annual report, by executive search firm Salt & Shein, resulted from on-line surveys in December of 324 mainly-Sydney-based in-house corporate affairs professionals. There were plenty of interesting findings but what surprised me were the responses to a couple of questions.

The first was when people were asked to nominate the most significant issue they thought they would have to deal with as a communicator in 2013 and beyond. The clear leader in the concern stakes was social media, which, when variations on it were added, came to 36 per cent of responses. To give some idea of the gap, the second biggest coming concern was dealing with flat or reduced budgets and resources, and that came in at 8 per cent.

In response to another question, an overwhelming 75 per cent said they believed that the role of social media had become more important over the past year. Nothing too surprising in those findings, except when you compare those concerns with company action.

Despite the communications experts’ fears, just over 50 per cent reported that their organisations had committed no dedicated resources to social and digital media, a similar figure to last year. Of the 44 per cent who said they did have social media resources, the average team consisted of 1-2 staff.

The phrase ‘accident waiting to happen’ springs to mind.