Howorth named Microsoft’s Best PR Agency

Following several successful years of continuously great results, Howorth is the first agency to be named Microsoft’s Best PR Agency in Asia Pacific during Microsoft’s 2011 PR Strategy Summit in Singapore. Howorth won the award against stiff competition from 11 agencies across APAC.

Howorth works on strategy-lead projects across the breadth of Microsoft’s business groups including consumer, enterprise, education, small business and citizenship. Recent successful projects have showcased Microsoft products and services through major consumer product launches, integrated multimedia campaigns and leading edge social media activities.

Howorth works directly with Microsoft’s partners and customers to showcase how Microsoft technologies or involvement in Microsoft-led community programs help them ‘be what’s next’. Examples of partner and customer collaborations include the Lync launch, Dynamics CRM Online launch and Cloud Computing briefings.

Howorth develops media relations campaigns that achieve maximum impact and message cut-through, while positioning Microsoft as a major enabler of the technology ecosystem and as a leading corporate citizen. The launch of Windows Phone 7 into a market dominated by competitors is an example of a high-impact campaign that Howorth managed for Microsoft, which witnessed IT media touting the event as Microsoft’s ‘comeback into the smartphone market’.

Howorth and Microsoft have developed a long term relationship, which has led to a deep mutual understanding of Microsoft’s business. The staff at Howorth have kept a consistent and insightful team working closely with Microsoft’s business in Australia.  The team reacts quickly to unforeseen issues and last minute developments, using their knowledge of the business to mobilise and craft solutions to whatever event, launch, issue, media or social media enquiry has arisen.

World Bloggers’ Day

Theme: How social media is changing corporate and Government communication. How you can use Facebook, blogging, micro-blogging and online engagement to reach and influence your stakeholders.

Go to http://wbd-sydney.eventbrite.com/ to secure your place.

The New MySpace

MySpace was my first memory of social media; a place on the net that you could call your own, a place where you could collaborate, share and converse with your online friends. Then along came Facebook, and with that came the mass exodus of MySpace.

Facebook was the new kid on the block; the capabilities were better and the structure was cleaner. The ability to share digital photo albums was a big draw card for users of all demographics. Facebook grew and so too did its functionalities. Today9.1 million Australians visit Facebook each month and spend an average of 8.1 hours on the site. We are officially the most Facebook-addicted nation in the world.

One would think the days of MySpace are well and truly over. According to MySpace, they’re not giving up yet! Late last month the “new MySpace” was launched. The revamp focuses on music and entertainment and the social network has a whole new look.

Presenting the new Myspace

Myspace | Myspace Video

Video is featured heavily in all areas of the network. After the re-launch this month, subscribers will be offered tailored recommendations for video content and live music performances, and the site will push further into areas such as movies, TV and celebrity news. This is one thing they have nailed over Facebook. According to the latest Nielsen Social  Media report, online video consumption is one of the fastest growing statics in social media:

• 57% watched an online video involving a product or service they were thinking of buying
• 51% downloaded and/or streamed video – two in three of these people viewed amateur video clips
• 40% shared video online

MySpace president , Mike Jones revealed that “the goal is to be relevant to 13- to 34-year-olds and help them discover new people and new content”. MySpace are carving out a new identity and ensuring they are not seen as a rival to Facebook, but in fact, a platform that provides a different experience to Facebook and answers a different set of user needs.

Will I go and create a new MySpace profile? Probably not. Will I go to a MySpace page to find information on an artist? Definitely. Will I consider using MySpace as part of a social media strategy for a client? Quite possibly.

What do you think about the new MySpace?

Ogilvy PR’s Melbourne office continues to grow

Ogilvy PR today announced the appointed Marissa Tree as Senior Account Director in its fast-growing Melbourne office.

Tree joins the Ogilvy PR team to work on a range of consumer and social marketing clients, and take on a leadership role in social media campaign work for the agency. She brings around eight years experience in senior agency and in-house roles.

Most recently Tree headed the Brisbane office for Red Agency, where she drove the agency’s business growth and campaign development for clients including The Coffee Club, Lenard’s, PPQ, Parrot and Vapiano Australia.

Lelde McCoy, Managing Director for Ogilvy PR in Melbourne said: “Marissa’s corporate and consumer brand experience and passion and active involvement in social media will boost our existing capabilities in this area.”

“Marissa will add another level of knowledge and experience to our team,” she continued. “Her mix of traditional and digital PR experience will be extremely valuable for our clients and a key factor in the future direction of the business. Each week we are doing more in the social media space and we’re excited to have her on board.”

Tree has also been a lecturer and tutor at Queensland University of Technology’s School of Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations in Brisbane.

Social media on the red carpet

A recent article in smh online made me think about the most cohesive approach to social media. Should brands be maintaining complete control of their social media activities by managing in-house, or should they hand the reins to a third party?

The beauty of social media for consumers is that it allows them direct contact with brands. So what happens if the person behind the screen at the other end is actually a third party contracted to manage the brand’s social media strategy? Does that make the message and communication any less authentic?

I believe that the answer isn’t one or the other, rather a collaborative approach between the brand and social media experts.

I like to think of it like a winning Emmys outfit. A fabulous stylist will take their client’s personal style and brand into account when designing an A-lister outfit. They need to choose a dress that fits the celeb perfectly, that flatters and accentuates their assets, and that improves their less positive areas. A stylist will help them pair the dress with shiny accessories, killer shoes and amazing makeup and hair. At the end of the day however, it is the celebrity’s job to approve the complete look and make sure it is representative of their style and personality. It is up to them to strut down the red carpet, pose for the cameras and give witty, endearing answers to the interviewer’s questions. They are the ones who will appear on the best and worst dressed list and it is their image which is at stake.

This relationship is a perfect example of working collaboratively to achieve a successful result.

Social media is still a very new area for a lot of brands, so it is only natural for them to turn to their trusted advisors for guidance. Clients need to be confident in their agency’s understanding of the brand and messages to be able follow their advice on how to present themselves online.

At the same time I believe brands need to hold on to some control, by staying involved in the process and understanding the rules to maintain the integrity of their communication with their consumers. Just like the celebrity, it is the brand’s image and reputation that is out there when taking the leap in to social media, not the stylist agency behind it.

Ogilvy expands social media practice

Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence Recruits Three Key Hires

Sydney, 13 August, 2010: Ogilvy 360 Degree Digital Influence has further expanded its social media capability with the recruitment of three new specialists into its practice.

In response to increasing client demand, Lucille Snape and Annie Hammel join the Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence team as Digital Strategists and Koby Geddes as a Digital Analyst. Lucille previously worked at Euro RSCG, Koby at OMD Australia and Annie at Hachette Filipacchi Media in the US.

The appointments come just 12 months after award-winning strategist Brian Giesen moved from Ogilvy’s 360 Digital Influence in Washington DC to head up the Australian operation, and help manage the Asia Pacific practice.

“Since the appointment of Brian our team has quickly grown to six specialists who are full-time social media practitioners,” said Graham White, Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence’s Managing Director in Australia.  “This reflects the growth, adoption and opportunity for social media in our clients’ communications programs.

“There is no doubt that Australian organisations, both public and private sector, are rushing to embrace social media,” he added.

Brian Giesen, Regional Director, Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence, said: “Social media is not just a new channel. It represents a fundamental consumer behavioural shift that requires marketers to change how they market, how they are organised and importantly how they measure success.

“Consumers get social media. But companies, by contrast, have been playing catch up,” Giesen said.  “The good news is they’re learning fast that it’s not optional and that a comprehensive strategic approach to integrate social media is essential.

“For Ogilvy, it’s of critical importance to have an expert team to guide them through it. The addition of Lucille, Annie and Koby to our existing team will further strengthen Ogilvy’s social media capabilities and our ability to deliver successful, strategic campaigns for our clients,” he said.

“We anticipate further hires in the near future,” he added.

Ogilvy PR is part of STW Group, Australia’s leading marketing content and communications services group. Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence is Ogilvy’s word of mouth marketing discipline that integrates the power of social media with digital marketing.

For more information contact:

Graham White

Managing Director, 360 Digital Influence

T: 02 8281 3810 / 0404 840 533

Foursquare for Business

Social Media has changed the way businesses are operating across Australia, with consumers spending an increasing amount of their time on Twitter, Blogs, Facebook and other forms of Social Media.

Companies can no longer afford to ignore discussions online about their brand. Working in partnership with The Wall Street Journal, Ogilvy’s specialized Social Media team has created a series of tutorials to help companies take those first steps.

The latest in the series, “Foursquare for Business”, will take place on August 19 at 1PM Sydney time.

Foursquare is the hottest new social media platform that is taking Australia and APAC by storm.

Part game, part social network, Foursquare allows people to “check in” wherever they are via their mobile devices, become “Mayor” of their favourite locations, and earn fun “badges” along the way.

Foursquare presents some tremendous opportunities to brands and businesses of every size. From Microsoft’s launch of Office 2010 via a Foursquare Mayor Meetup in Australia to Dominos Pizza seeing an increase in profit through a Foursquare program, this new social media platform is proving it’s worth its weight in ROI.

Join Ogilvy’s award-winning Asia-Pacific Social Media team, including Brian Giesen and Thomas Crampton for a free 30-minute online seminar powered by Citrix GoToWebinar.

Attend this live, interactive Webinar to learn:

1. What is Foursquare and why is it so addictive?
2. How do you use Foursquare to achieve a communications or business objective?
3. How should you assemble a strategy?
4. What NOT to do with Foursquare?

Space is limited for this 30-minute Webinar* and registration is required.

Sign up here http://www.asiadigitalmap.com/2010/08/foursquare-for-busines/

The Red Chair Series, an interview with John Bell

Go to the Ogilvy PR YouTube channel.

Melcrum Social Media Conference for Internal Communications – Day two

The standard of the content, presentations and debate on the second day of Melcrum’s Social Media conference for Internal Communications was very high overall. I was madly scribbling notes all the way through. Meanwhile, others were tweeting madly to share the gems they were picking up, with a prize being given to the person who tweeted the most throughout the day.

The conference was opened by international keynote speaker Euan Semple, with his entertaining mixture of dry Scottish wit and insightful observations. These included the need for organisations, and particularly leaders, to think less in terms of justifying ROI when it comes to social media and more in terms of justifying COI, i.e. Cost of Inaction – that is, not allowing it to happen.

The first case study was from a high profile professional services firm who is using social media to successfully encourage innovation and sharing of ideas by employees through an ‘Idea Zone’ on their internal website. It also turns out that this organisation has the largest Yammer community worldwide with 3,000 employee members. Their governance approach includes a social media steering committee and also a social media response team.

Next we heard from Robin Crumby, Managing Director of Melcrum who flew in from the UK to speak. He took us through some of the key findings of Melcrum’s 2010 global research into social media adoption internally by large corporations. It was interesting to hear that half of the 2,600 respondents (19% from the Asia-Pacific region) feel that the business case for social media is clear while the other half feel it is not clear. It seems the business world is still completely divided on this point. The research revealed what communicators believe to be the three most effective uses of social media internally:

1. Getting employees to talk, share information and collaborate
2. Building communities
3. Connecting to and learning from Generation Y employees.

After lunch, Lizzy Geremia, Brand Strategy Manager at NAB talked us through a very interesting case study on the use of online event technology to engage employees in the Personal Banking part of the business in the new brand promise. Using an easy to navigate and visually interesting online conference platform, employees were able to listen and watch a recording of the business head talking in an auditorium about the brand promise and then wander through to other booths to listen to other leaders’ ‘talking heads’. Employees were able to put questions to leaders via chat functionality, as well as talk to each other, and also provide online feedback. The results were great with the event reaching nearly 50% of the population and 95% of those who completed the feedback saying they had a better understanding of NAB’s brand focus as a result.

A final highlight of the day was the case study presented by a large banking, insurance and investing services organisation. I particularly liked how they measured the levels of employee engagement with social media tools and were able to group them into champions, advisors, members or just ‘missing’. The organisation identified the need to be more collaborative and grouped their communication tools under four groupings:

Connect – online portal

Share – video channel for employees to use

Discuss – Yammer and Microsoft Office Communicator

Innovate – Magazine

A lively panel debate closed what has been an interesting and engaging conference. Perhaps the next one will take place in a virtual setting?

Melcrum Social Media Conference for Internal Communications – Day one

The two-day Melcrum Social Media conference for Internal Communications started today. So far, the most interesting thing I have got out of it is the reinforcement in my mind that appetite for social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter, or Yammer – the internal version,  is a personal thing. There’s no right or wrong, good or bad about it.

It was also encouraging to hear fellow internal communicators voicing what we already know: the more you learn about what the different tools can be useful for, the less afraid you are to use them.

The focus of the afternoon session by UK-based presenter, Euan Semple, was essentially about understanding the opportunities for harnessing the way employees are now communicating online, both inside and outside the organisation.

The session reinforced some important things:

• It’s about conversations: We emphasise all the time that great employee communication is conversation-driven. And unsurprisingly, it’s the same with social media. Social media tools are not terribly complicated. They’re really just a way of having more person to person conversations.

• Control to influence: He reinforced what we’ve also found, that one of the fears organisations have about using social media tools internally is that they appear to be disorganised and lacking in control systems – yet this is actually what makes them user-friendly. Because they are created and evolve organically, based on what the employees are interested in and want to talk about. This also means the business has more, not less, opportunity to influence what is happening. The internal communications team can tap into existing successful employee-led forums to seed questions and topics of discussion, rather than trying to push a ‘corporate’ version.

• Ask for forgiveness, not permission: Again, supporting our counsel that piloting tools and giving them a go is advisable for companies wanting to dip their toe in the social media pool. Rather than feeling that it’s absolutely necessary to first build a social media strategy and get buy-in from the whole senior team before launching a new tool, sometimes it’s just best to go out there and try it. Get a few people involved who you know are interested, for instance in a wiki or an online discussion forum, and then see how it grows. If there’s appetite for it and it turns out to be popular, it becomes a hugely useful source of knowledge and information for the organisation.

• Risk v reward: One of the things we know is top of mind for our clients when it comes to using social media is the perception that inappropriate conversations could pose a risk to the organisation’s reputation. Particularly if sensitive or damaging information gets out. And who has the resource to monitor all of this? It’s worth remembering that a) emails are not screened, yet they too can be damaging, and b) if you don’t trust your workforce, then you have a management issue, not a communication issue. Meanwhile, encouraging free and open discussion (based on a good social media policy and user guidelines) can only help to demonstrate the trust you do have in them.

• It’s not just the young who are interested: Statistics seem to show that the level of interest you may or may not have in using social media is not based on your age at all, but simply on your way of thinking. For instance, a large proportion of Facebook users are women over 30, not the typical twenty-something Gen Y-er we all might imagine.

I’m looking forward to hearing and sharing more tomorrow.

« Previous Page — Next Page »