John Studdert appointed to Holmes Report Sabre Awards judging panel

Ogilvy Public Relations Executive Chairman and Regional Director, John Studdert, has been appointed to the judging panel for the 2011 Holmes Report Asia Pacific Sabre Awards. The Sabre Awards are returning to the Asia Pacific region after a three year break and recognise excellence in reputation and branding in the public relations industry. This year will see the Sabre Awards host its first ever Asia Pacific awards dinner in Hong Kong in August and for the first time winners will automatically be entered in to the global competition which will identify the 25 best of the best PR programmes worldwide.

Ogilvy PR is the largest and most awarded public relations consultancy in Australia. We place a great emphasis on entering and winning awards to maintain this title and celebrate the great client work and successes of our teams.

John Studdert, said “I’m honoured and excited to be invited to join the judging panel for this years’ Sabre Awards. It’s incredibly important to recognise and share the work we’re doing with our industry peers to maintain a high standard of work and raise the profile of the role of public relations. I’m looking forward to seeing some great work from across the Asia Pacific region and taking the experience back to Ogilvy PR to challenge my team even further.”

The Sabre Awards are now open for entry Holmes Report Sabre Awards 2011

New leadership at Ogilvy PR Australia

Sydney, December 9, 2010: Ogilvy Public Relations Australia, a joint venture between Ogilvy PR Worldwide and STW Group, has announced a leadership change, appointing Kieran Moore as Chief Executive Officer of its Australian operation. Current CEO, John Studdert, will become Executive Chairman of Ogilvy Public Relations Australia, in addition to his growing role as a Regional Director of Ogilvy Public Relations Asia Pacific.

Ogilvy PR Australia includes Howorth, Pulse Communications, Impact Employee Communications, Parker& Partners and Ogilvy PR Health. It has offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra and more than 120 employees.

Both appointments are effective from January 1, 2011. Moore is currently the Joint Managing Director of Howorth where she has been for almost eight years.

“Kieran has been an instrumental player in the growth of Howorth and has been an active driver of Ogilvy PR’s marketing, business and leadership development. She is a sought after practitioner and delivers some of the most awarded work in the country,” Studdert said.

“I can think of no one better to lead Ogilvy PR Australia coming in to its 10th year.”

Studdert’s increasing regional focus follows international recognition of his successful leadership of Ogilvy PR Australia during the past three years. Under his helm, Ogilvy PR has grown revenue and reputation, opened an office in Melbourne and launched a number of very successful specialist areas including Australia’s leading communications sustainability practice, OgilvyEarth, 360 Digital Influence, Ogilvy Social Marketing and research arm, Ogilvy Illumination.

In his new role as Executive Chairman, Studdert will continue to support Ogilvy PR Australia through longer term business-building initiatives. In his regional role, he will work with Steve Dahllof, President and CEO, Asia Pacific, Ogilvy Public Relations to help drive innovation and growth across the Asia Pacific region.

Steve Dahllof, President and CEO, Asia Pacific, Ogilvy Public Relations, said: “These changes come on the back of an incredibly strong year for Ogilvy PR Australia. During the course of 2010, it has successfully identified opportunities and converted these into revenue streams through the creation of exciting new specialist practice areas.”

Graham White, current Joint Managing Director of Howorth will become the sole Managing Director of Howorth Communications. He will continue to lead and drive Australia’s number one technology agency and focus on the growth of Howorth’s ever-expanding business to business and lifestyle practices. In addition to his role at Howorth, White leads Ogilvy PR Australia’s Digital Influence practice, 360 DI which today boasts eight staff and is experiencing revenue growth of 300% year on year.

Ogilvy PR is the largest and most awarded public relations agency in Australia, winning more than 50 Australian and global awards including the top honour for all WPP-owned PR agencies worldwide in the last two years.

For more information contact:

Rebecca Tilly

STW Group

Ph: +61 410 501 043

Ogilvy PR Leads Australian Agencies in Asia-Pacific PR Awards

Ogilvy PR Australia was the most awarded PR agency in Australia at this week’s Asia-Pacific PR Awards with recognition in eight categories including winning Young PR Professional of the Year and Environmental Campaign of the year.

Ogilvy PR Australia is home to Howorth, Pulse Communications, Impact Employee Communications, Parker& Partners, Ogilvy PR Health, OgilvyEarth and Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence.

Jacquie Fegent-McGeachie, Practice Director, Pulse Communications, took out Young PR Professional of the Year and Impact and OgilvyEarth won the Environmental Campaign of the Year for Bayer Australia.

Certificates of excellence were awarded for:

• Technology Campaign of the Year, Howorth – Microsoft Australia: Citizen Mayors of Sydney Unite
• Employee Communications Campaign of the Year, Impact & OgilvyEarth – Bayer Australia
• Crisis or Issues Management Campaign of the Year, Pulse & 360 DI – LG Electronics: LG Australia Refrigerator & DVD Recall

Honourable mentions were presented for:

• Product Brand Development Campaign of the Year, Howorth – Ancestry.com.au: Australia – Who do you think you really are?
• Consumer Launch Campaign of the Year, Howorth – Ancestry.com.au: Australia – Who do you think you really are?
• Business-to-Business Campaign of the Year, Howorth – Telstra: Powerful PR addresses the productivity gap

John Studdert, Managing Director for Ogilvy PR Australia, said: “It is a great achievement to be recognised and rewarded for great work in a highly competitive awards programme. It’s particularly gratifying when we are awarded for both our client work and our people development,” he said.

The Asia-Pacific PR Awards recognise the best work in the communications industry. Now in their 10^th year of competition, the awards are dedicated to celebrating outstanding work and across the region.

The Social Side of Marketing

Ogilvy PR Managing Director John Studdert set the scene and jogged a few memories with his opening remarks: “Life. Be In it; Slip, Slop, Slap; Click, clack, front and back; Arrive alive – don’t drink and drive . . . these are all memorable campaigns that raised awareness, shaped or changed opinion and impacted our behaviour.”

Studdert was speaking at the third in a continuing series of Ogilvy PR breakfast events designed to inform and stimulate a select group of guests.

This week’s topic was Ogilvy On…Profit vs Public Good with the subject being the value of social marketing.

Held in Sydney’s Establishment Ballroom, the 80 invited guests were treated to a lively panel debate, moderated in his usual entertaining, forthright style by Tony Jones, the host of ABC TV’s Q&A program.

On the panel were Peter Ritchie, the former chief executive and chairman of McDonald’s Australia, Dr Christine Bennett, the chief medical officer and director of healthcare leadership at Bupa Australia Group, Tim Gartrell, the CEO of newly launched not-for-profit group GenerationOne which aims to alleviate indigenous disadvantage, Tony Thirlwell, the CEO of the Heart Foundation of NSW, the NSW Shadow Treasurer Mike Baird, Tom Beall, the managing director of Ogilvy PR Worldwide’s global social marketing practice, and Greg Sam, the joint managing director of Parker & Partners, Australia’s leading bi-partisan public affairs company and a member of the Ogilvy group.

The discussion started with a debate about the definition of social marketing. Most thought it boiled down to promoting change for social and public good, without profit being a motive. Beall, while agreeing with that definition, recalled that 25 years ago when he was invited to join Ogilvy from the public sector to set up the social marketing practice in Washington he was assured that he would be “working on the side of the angels”. Ritchie, however, saw it as an organisation adopting a continuing positive social role within its community so that the organisation actually lived that role and came to be seen in a positive light.

Thirlwell related the concern within some parts of the Heart Foundation when they allowed McDonald’s to carry the foundation’s tick of approval on some of its products. Some were outraged at the charity being associated with a fast food outlet but Thirlwell said the reality was that an enormous number of people ate fast food on a regular basis so it made sense to try and encourage the industry to have healthy options on offer.

The talk around fast food led to a discussion of obesity levels, with Bennett, who also was chair of the Federal Government’s National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission, pointing out that 50 per cent of our health burden relates to how we live our life.

The problem, of course, is how to change people’s behaviour. Gartrell said the difficulty GenerationOne faced was that there was widespread awareness of the disadvantages faced by Australia’s indigenous population – which meant that awareness campaigns were not needed – but attitudinal change by white Australians was essential before real change could occur.

Beall said the object of most social marketing campaigns was behavioural change and cited the Heart Truth campaign which he ran in the US. The campaign started seven years ago and its aim was to raise awareness of heart disease among American women.

At the time, even though heart disease was the No 1 killer of women, it was largely seen as a man’s disease.

The campaign, which is still running strong, has been shown to have raised both the awareness of heart disease and of the symptoms and has markedly decreased the female rates of death from the disease.

And, just in case you were thinking about it, the consensus was that fear campaigns generally don’t work.

After the panel session, Beall gave his top five tips for any organisation considering engaging in social marketing.

1. Be audience-centric. Know who you are talking to.
2. The importance of research. Research the market, but also know what other competitive forces are out there.
3. Talk to other stakeholders. Extend your reach to other interested groups in the field and get them involved early on in the planning stages.
4. Don’t depend on just one communication channel. Audiences hear messages in wide variety of places and media and it is important to have a presence in all those places.
5. Assess what you are doing as it goes on and be open to change if the evidence suggest it’s not working as well as you thought it would.

What’s Keeping Australians Up at Night

The What’s Keeping Australians Up at Night research is an exploration of the issues that Australians feel they face day to day. The study uncovered a spectrum of concern spanning relationships, juggling work and life, ageing, health and wellbeing, technology, food, finances, security and government. As a nation it’s the concerns closest to our daily lives that we have in common.

“We’ve coined the term one kilometre phenomenon – we read the headlines and know what’s happening on a global and national scale, but it’s those issues that are closest to us – people in the street and our community – that’s keeping more of us awake at night. It’s interesting these concerns are equally high across the demographics. Even younger generations feel concern about damage to public property and the lack of personal respect,” said John Studdert, managing director of Ogilvy PR.

Read the full report here.