Senior Washington DC practitioner to head Social@Ogilvy in Australia
May 16, 2013 by KatrinaOKane
Filed under News
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.
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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.
Should CEOs and executives tweet?
While most in the business community would readily say yes, few if any put this in to practice.
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:
- Understand the landscape – who is your audience, where are they and what are they saying
- 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
- 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
Building international relations
March 22, 2013 by admin
Filed under Austrade, Austrade, Business to business, Case studies, Social@Ogilvy
Challenge: Australia Unlimited is a national brand developed by Austrade in response to global research that demonstrated Australia’s global reputation was based more on our physical attributes than our intellectual ones.
While Australia has a very strong international reputation, regularly ranking among the top countries in global studies, Australia Unlimited was tasked with promoting Australia’s credentials in business, technology, creative industries and science to overseas markets.
In an effort to draw attention to the depth and breadth of Australian talent around the world, Australia Unlimited was preparing to launch its Global 50 list comprising of expat Australians who are not household names, but who are doing work that deserves to be recognised.
Strategy: With a million Australians offshore at any one time and many more involved in international work, they are a ready-made corps of promotional ambassadors for the nation. Our people are the best evidence we have that Australia today is a creative, clever and globally engaged nation.
As part of this content driven campaign, Social@Ogilvy identified a list of 32 influential Australian expats living in the key markets of US, UK, Europe and Asia, so that Australia Unlimited could target them to build relationships with these key influencers while also sharing their international success stories and portray a contemporary Australia through its people.
In order to drive awareness of Australia Unlimited’s Global 50 list and mobile apps, and maintain conversation in the lead up to and throughout the Australia Day weekend, Social@Ogilvy developed a strategy encompassing content creation, influencer outreach, and conversation management, drawing new stakeholders to the Australia Unlimited brand.
Results: The integrated digital and social campaign was successful in driving traffic to Australia Unlimited’s website, with social media the top driver of referral traffic, and building key relationships with international influencers.
More than 2.174m Twitter accounts reached
80 retweets representing a 515% increase on the previous week and 100+ mentions over the campaign
8% increase in Twitter followers
70% of all traffic to the website referred from social media channels
184% increase in application subscribers
Ogilvy PR Launches Digital Influence Offering for Today’s B2B Buyer Journey
New Offering Integrates B2B Communications, Social Media and Sales Enablement Expertise to Initiate and Influence the B2B Sales Process
SYDNEY, February 4, 2013 – Ogilvy Public Relations (Ogilvy PR) today announced the launch of a new global digital influence service called Digital Influence for B2B, designed to help business-to-business (B2B) companies adapt to the changes that have occurred in how B2B buyers are seeking information and opinions of others when considering a purchase.
The new service for driving awareness and sales consideration is led by an integrated, global team of specialists including:
- B2B communications experts
- Social media experts
- Sales enablement experts
“B2B companies, especially B2B technology companies, are inherently sales-driven organisations. Social media has undeniably changed the B2B buying process as much as it has impacted the B2C process,” said Graham White, Managing Director of Howorth, the Australian technology specialist agency at Ogilvy PR.
“Globally, we saw a need to evolve and expand our existing B2B social media efforts into an integrated offering that reflects today’s B2B buyer behaviors and puts brands in the best possible position to be considered at a variety of touch-points along the customer journey.”
The Digital Influence for B2B buyer journey-based service launches with six solutions:
- Content driven thought leadership
- Search and content optimisation
- Socially enabled sales force
- Community marketing
- Influencer engagement and activation
- Social product marketing
“We know that B2B buyers are seeking information, opinions and the experiences of others before they initiate contact with sales teams. With today’s B2B buyer journey it is critical that communications, sales and marketing come together and use innovative social practices to build profitable customer relationships,” said John Bell, Global Managing Director, Social@Ogilvy. “With our new, integrated B2B social communications team, we have methods and tools to effectively connect socially-enabled communications with meaningful sales-related goals.”
The new offering is firmly grounded in the B2B customer journey, and an appreciation of how it has changed with the advancement of digital communications and social media. One dramatic change for sales organisations is that the average B2B IT buyer needs to consume five pieces of content before they are ready to speak to sales. (source: IDG Enterprise Customer Engagement Research, 2012). This speaks to the critical nature of quality content that is optimised for organic search.
In addition, 82 per cent of B2B technology decision makers say colleagues within their organisation influence their purchase decision-making process. (source: Forrester Research, Inc., 2011 Social Technographics for Business Technology Buyers, October 2011). This highlights an untapped opportunity for many B2B organisations to expand development of advocacy programs in social media to share the opinions of employees, customers and partners.
The interdisciplinary team includes Ogilvy PR’s technology agency, Howorth, Social@Ogilvy and OgilvyOne. The team’s combined experience provides clients with unmatched understanding of the roles that content, customer sentiment and endorsement, and channel uniquely play within B2B environments.
Ogilvy’s Digital Influence for B2B service is unique and valuable to clients because it offers:
- The Social Media Engagement Approach refined by Social@Ogilvy over the last eight years.
- A Deep Understanding of the Unique B2B Marketing and SalesEnvironment honed over 25 years of work in B2B across Ogilvy PR’s Technology Practice, Howorth and OgilvyOne.
- A Global Network of Social and B2B Expertise with Ogilvy PR and Social@Ogilvy professionals.
- A Content Strategy to align marketing and sales content with customer needs along the buyer journey.
Ogilvy PR is a joint venture between WPP and STW Group, Australia’s leading marketing content and communications service group.
For further information, please contact:
Rebecca Tilly, STW PR on 0410 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. For more information, visit our Web site at www.ogilvypr.com.au or follow us on Twitter at @ogilvypraus.
Ogilvy PR and Kimberly-Clark win at FSC Australia Awards
November 29, 2012 by Claire Whyntie
Filed under News
Sydney, November 29, 2012: Kimberly-Clark Australia, along with Ogilvy PR (Pulse Communications and Social@Ogilvy), has taken the top honours at the 2012 Forest Stewardship Council of Australia’s Annual Excellence Awards for Campaign of the Year with the Kleenex® Cottonelle® “Pin to Make a Difference” campaign.
The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC®) Awards reward and recognise the best marketing and promotional campaigns to promote the FSC® certification system, the world’s most rigorous environmental and social standard for responsible forest management. The awards aim to create a marketplace that fosters environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial and the economically viable management of the world’s forests.
Deborah Bauer, General Manager Family Care, Kimberly-Clark Australia, said “We are delighted to receive this prestigious award and it is reflective of our ongoing commitment to creating sustainably sourced products. By partnering with social phenomenon Pinterest, we were able to make sustainability more meaningful for mums by making it fun and relevant by providing practical tips on what they could do.”
OgilvyEarth Managing Director, Andrew Ure, said “Winning the FSC® Campaign of the Year for “Pin to Make a Difference” is testament to Ogilvy’s reputation as the leader in digital and social media and sustainability communications. We’re incredibly proud of the team’s innovation and creative thinking in this space.”
The “Pin to Make a Difference” campaign was developed to create awareness of the Kleenex® Cottonelle® brand’s gold standard sustainability credentials as the first toilet tissue in the market to gain FSC® accreditation and Australia’s only toilet tissue brand endorsed by WWF.
Hosted by Kleenex® Cottonelle® and involving WWF and FSC®, the “Pin to Make a Difference” campaign was one of the first in Australia to leverage the social networking phenomenon, Pinterest, via an event aimed at educating mothers on making a sustainable difference in the home. It focused on driving conversations about how mums can take small steps in the home every day, like choosing sustainable products in her weekly shop, in order to make a difference and feel good about doing her bit.
The campaigned reached in excess of five million Australians across all targeted mum media channels and it increased conversations in Australia about sustainability in and around the home by 1,100%+. Social conversations about Kimberly-Clark increased by 475% and reached 1.2 million Australians via Twitter. Overall, the campaign reinforced the Kleenex® Cottonelle® brand’s loyalty with mums and the brand was lauded as a Top 10 brand using Pinterest by Marketing Magazine.
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For more information contact: Rebecca Tilly, STW PR, ph: +61 410 501 043
About OgilvyEarth
OgilvyEarth is Australia’s leading sustainability communications practice and is part of Ogilvy PR Australia. OgilvyEarth brings together the art and science of effective communication to help build the business case for sustainability.
OgilvyEarth works with multi-national and local companies, NGOs, and governments to showcase their sustainability credentials. OgilvyEarth helps organizations articulate their role in the community and demonstrate the value of their social and environmental activities to customers, employees, investors and other stakeholders. OgilvyEarth believes that doing good, is good business.
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. For more information, visit our website at www.ogilvypr.com.au or follow us on Twitter at @ ogilvypraus.
Background information
About the Love Your Forests Campaign http://loveyourforests.org/
- In the past 10 years more than 1.3 million square kilometres of the world’s forests have been destroyed – an area roughly the size of Tasmania every six months. Most of these forests were biologically-rich tropical forests and home to such animals as orang-utans, tigers, and gorillas. Some of this logging is also illegal – it has been estimated that Australia imports more than $400 million worth of illegal timber and wood products each year.
- Love Your Forests is a way to help consumers choose products with FSC® Certification to help stop this destruction.
About FSC® Certification www.FSC®australia.org
- FSC® certificationis internationally recognised as the world’s most rigorous environmental and social standard for responsible forest management.
- The wood sourced to produce Kleenex Cottonelle is from forests responsibly managed so they don’t destroy the habitats of protected species
About Kimberly-Clark
- Kimberly-Clark is a global leader in “Essentials for a better life” in Consumer, B2B and Health Care markets.
- Kimberly-Clark Australia (KCA) is headquartered at Milsons Point, Sydney NSW.
- The company markets leading brands including KLEENEX® products, HUGGIES® products, the KOTEX® , POISE® and DEPEND® ranges, and VIVA® paper towel.
- Kimberly-Clark Professional and Kimberly-Clark Health Care represent the company’s B2B businesses.
- KCA employs over 1500 employees in Australia and operations include:
- Millicent & Mill: Kleenex® Tissue, Kleenex® Cottonelle® Bath Tissue, and Viva® Products
- Albury Mill: Nonwoven products, eg used in Huggies® Nappies
- Ingleburn Mill: Huggies® Nappies
- Distribution centres and sales offices in major capital centres
- For further information visit www.kca.com.au
- Pinterest http://pinterest.com/klnxcottonelle/
® Registered trademark Kimberly-Clark Worldwide, inc.
Social@Ogilvy wins at 2012 Digital PR Awards
Sydney: October 5, 2012: In the same week as winning gold at the SABREs, Ogilvy Australia’s social media division, Social@Ogilvy has achieved global recognition at the 2012 Digital PR Awards winning a Digital Marketing Award for its Kleenex Cottonelle: Pin to Make A Difference campaign.
Social@Ogilvy was also awarded an Honourable Mention in the Social Networking Category for the same campaign.
“We are extremely proud to win this prestigious award,” said Kieran Moore, CEO Ogilvy Public Relations Australia. “As clients continue to place social media campaigns at the forefront of their marketing and PR activity, Social@Ogilvy responds with break though campaigns such as Pin to Make a Difference achieving truly measurable client results.”
“The Award is reflective of Ogilvy’s continued dominance in the digital and social media space.”
Pin to Make Difference was one of the first campaigns in Australia to leverage social networking phenomenon, Pinterest, via an event aimed at educating mothers on making a sustainable difference in the home.
The campaign centered around a branded ‘Pin to Make a Difference’ event, inviting Australia’s most influential mum bloggers to pin and share their ‘make a difference’ sustainability tips, and take part in Australia’s first and fastest pinning competition.
The PR Week Awards often touted as the most influential global PR Awards were announced in New York earlier this week.
Ogilvy Public Relations is a joint venture between WPP and STW Group, Australia’s leading marketing content and communication services group.
For further information, please contact:
Sandra Renowden, STW PR on 0403 823 218
Note to Editiors:
PRNews Digital PR Awards 2012
Winners
Cause Marketing/CSR: Ogilvy PR Australia – Kleenex Cottonelle: Pin to Make a Difference Digital Marketing Campaign – $100K and under: Ogilvy PR Australia – Kleenex Cottonelle: Pin to Make a Difference
Honorable Mentions
Social Networking Campaign: Ogilvy PR Australia – Kleenex Cottonelle: Pin to Make a Difference
2012 SABRE Awards
Practice Sector Award – Best Campaign in Special Audience/Marketing to Women
Campaign: Kleenex Cottonelle Pin to Make a Difference
Client: Kleenex Cottonelle
Agency: Pulse Communications Australia and Ogilvy Public Relations Company with Social@Ogilvy
Ogilvy Public Relations Australia shines at the 2012 Sabre Awards
Sydney: September 29, 2012: Pulse Communications and Social@Ogilvy, part of the Ogilvy Public Relations Australia network have taken top honours at the 2012 Sabre Awards, winning respectively the Practice Sector Division for Best Campaign in Media Relations/Corporate Relations (Ford Australia Goes Speed Dating) and Best Campaign in Special Audience/Marketing to Women (Kleenex Cottonelle’s Pin to Make a Difference).
Across the Asia Pacific Region, Ogilvy Public Relations was highly recognised for its effective communications programs receiving 5 Gold and 5 Silver SABRE Awards and Consumer Consultancy of the Year, more than any other agency network in Asia Pacific.
“It’s always gratifying to have the creativity of our work recognised by industry peers and I want to congratulate our teams for their outstanding efforts and leading the world in creating inspirational public relations programs,” said Kieran Moore, CEO, and Ogilvy Public Relations Australia. “Winning gold for Social@Ogilvy’s Pin to Make a Difference campaign underscores Ogilvy’s dominance in digital and social media and is serious recognition in a genuine field of world class communications work.”
Social@Ogilvy’s Pin to Make Difference initiative was one of the first campaigns in Australia to leverage social networking phenomenon, Pinterest, via an event aimed at educating mothers on making a sustainable difference in the home.
The campaign centered around a branded ‘Pin to Make a Difference’ event, inviting Australia’s most influential mum bloggers to pin and share their ‘make a difference’ sustainability tips, and take part in Australia’s first and fastest pinning competition.
Pulse Communications’ “Ford Australia Goes Speed Dating” campaign played on the familiar concept of ‘speed dating’ and generated a fun, fast and slightly tongue-in-cheek way to make the Ford brand relevant to lifestyle and general news media.
“We knew we had created a uniquely creative campaign when the results were shown across media as diverse as business, lifestyle and TV news,” said Moore. “Our team is excited to continue to deliver creative thinking like this, in partnership with our client Ford Australia, to have people think a bit differently about Ford.”
“Achieving business results for our clients is the most important measure and both campaigns significantly exceeded the KPIs and client expectations,” said Moore. “We are very proud of both Pulse and Social@Ogilvy’s creativity and achievements.”
Ogilvy Public Relations is a joint venture between WPP and STW Group, Australia’s leading marketing content and communication services group.
For further information, please contact:
Sandra Renowden, STW PR on 0403 823 218
Note to Editors:
A full list of Ogilvy Public Relations Sabre Award winners is detailed below.
2012 SABRE Awards Won by Ogilvy PR Asia Pacific
BEST CONSUMER CONSULTANCY OF THE YEAR – Ogilvy PR, Asia Pacific Region
INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD – Scott Kronick
GOLD AWARDS
Industry Sector Award – Best Campaign in Public Sector/Government
Campaign: Taiwan, Rice Up!
Client: Taiwan Council of Agriculture
Agency: Ogilvy Public Relations, Taiwan
Practice Sector Award – Best Campaign in Marketing Communications/Business-to-Business Marketing
Campaign: Mr. Bao: A Virtual Sales Champion for IBM China
Client: IBM China
Agency: Ogilvy Public Relations, Beijing
Practice Sector Award – Best Campaign in Corporate Reputation/Corporate Image
Campaign: Mr. Bao: A Virtual Sales Champion for IBM China
Client: IBM China
Agency: Ogilvy Public Relations, Beijing
Practice Sector Award – Best Campaign in Media Relations/Corporate Media Relations
Campaign: Ford Australia Goes Speed Dating
Client: Ford Australia
Agency: Pulse Communications Australia, an Ogilvy Public Relations Company
Practice Sector Award – Best Campaign in Special Audience/Marketing to Women
Campaign: Kleenex Cottonelle Pin to Make a Difference
Client: Kleenex Cottonelle
Agency: Pulse Communications Australia, an Ogilvy Public Relations Company with Social@Ogilvy
SILVER AWARDS
Best Campaign in Earned Media/Digital Placement
Campaign: Step Zero
Client: Huggies (Kimberly Clark)
Agency: Social@Ogilvy
Best Campaign in Earned Media/Blog
Campaign: Mr. Bao: A Virtual Sales Champion for IBM China
Client: IBM China
Agency: Ogilvy Public Relations, Beijing
Best Campaign in Earned Media/Website
Campaign: Loving The Moment
Client: Shangri-La International
Agency: Social@Ogilvy
Best Campaign in Creative Production/Advertising
Campaign: Step Zero
Client: Huggies (Kimberly Clark)
Agency: Social@Ogilvy
Best Campaign in Digital Content/Widget or Mobile App
Campaign: Step Zero
Client: Huggies (Kimberly Clark)
Agency: Social@Ogilvy
2012 SABRE Awards Won by Team WPP (Ogilvy PR, Burson-Marsteller and Hill & Knowlton)
Industry Sector Award – Best Campaign in Consumer Goods/Automotive
Campaign: Ford Global Ranger Challenge
Client: Ford Motor Company Asia Pacific
Practice Sector Award – Best Campaign in Geographic/Indian Sub-Continent
Campaign: Ford EcoSport Global Reveal
Client: Ford Motor Company Asia Pacific and Africa
Three times finalist in Digital PR Awards
Ogilvy PR Australia received the very exciting news this week, that we are finalists in three categories in the PR News Digital PR Awards.
The Kleenex Cottonelle “Pin to Make a Difference” campaign, by Social@Ogilvy and Pulse Communications, has been shortlisted in the Social Networking Campaign, Digital Marketing Campaign and Cause Marketing/CSR categories. The team was briefed to drive high-impact awareness and talkability among Australian mums of Kleenex Cottonelle’s sustainability credentials and show how, as a premium and environmentally responsible toilet paper, Kleenex Cottonelle was worth investing in. Overall, the campaign succeeded in making the brand relevant and meaningful to mums by telling the biggest and most high-impact sustainability-in-the-home story of the year, positioning itself as a pioneering leader and brand champion of everyday ‘social good’ and easy, everyday sustainability in the home.
The PR News Digital PR Awards honour the top digital PR initiatives and teams globally and set the standard for excellence across digital PR. The winners will be announced on October 1 in New York City.
Congratulations to the Kleenex team and good luck!
Big dogs, yes. Old dogs, definitely not.
July 23, 2012 by JustineTaylor
Filed under Featured, News
Six of the STW Network’s most influential and entertaining people speak to the Young Turks about their past, present and future.
The conversation as to who would write a wrap of the Young Turks, Big Dogs panel discussion on Wednesday evening coincidentally took place around my desk an hour before it was due to commence. No hands immediately went up. Not even my own. In fact, I tried my hardest to keep my head down and avoid the conversation as to not get assigned the job.
It’s not that I didn’t have the time or that I don’t enjoy writing. The honest truth is, I couldn’t think of anything more intimidating than composing a creative piece reporting back on the past, present and future careers of – as we were most fervently reminded over the course of the evening – the most creative and celebrated minds in our industry.
As luck would have it however, my name was thrown amidst the conversation, unwilling eye contact was made and ten minutes later I was begrudgingly heading down to the conference clad with pen and paper to take notes for my impending piece.
Five minutes into the panel discussion, I was more stressed than ever – and we were merely being introduced to the Panel: Brett Howlett, Executive Creative Director, Ogilvy Australia; Anouk Darling, CEO, Moon Communications; Gerry Cyron, Head of Brand Planning; Ogilvy Australia, Jonathan Pease, Managing Partner and Executive Ideas Director, Tongue; Brian Giesen, Director, Social@Ogilvy; and Kieran Moore, Chief Executive Officer, Ogilvy Public Relations, Australia.
As I listened, phrases such as “won countless Effies”; “recognised and awarded in Cannes”; and – my favourite – “Kieran Moore, one of Australia’s top ten most influential women in media in 2011”, were flanked by mentions of the most recognisable brand names in the world. Throwing a quick glance over my shoulder I could see that awe had been slapped across the faces of the other thirty or so other Young Turks in the room. To us there was no doubt: here before us sat a panel of media heroes.
The ‘Big Dogs’, who had literally been placed on pedestals before us, kicked off the discussion with a simple question: who inspires you most? The collective answer could possibly have been a world first to have self-made billionaire Warren Buffett, Advertising legend Dan Wieden, renown blogger Leo Babauta and charitable investment banker Richard Blum named in the same sentence. Although it turns out they have a lot in common. Entrepreneurial to the core, each leader was renowned for their innovation, creativity and ability to look beyond the bottom dollar to contribute their influence and talent to better society. By the time film director Quentin Tarantino and film producer Ridley Scott had rounded off the list for their “awesome story telling” ability to “stuff as many ideas into an hour and a half as possible on no budget”; I realised that my head was slightly nodding in agreement. After all, what are PR and advertising professionals if not storytellers?
By the second question: What was your first role in the industry, my head was shaking in disbelief. It came as – perhaps too much – of a surprise that such successful careers stemmed from humble beginnings. At Jonathan Pease’s answer, I literally dropped my pen. “My first job was actually in dispatch,” said Jonathan, a man credited for helping to bring Australia’s Next Top Model to my lounge room and not for distributing packages from a corporate mail room. “It was the kind of job where just turning up some days was a challenge,” he said with a laugh. To a room of Young Turks, this was top quality reassurance that we are on the right track.
By the third question: what were the biggest mistakes you ever made, it was clear that here before us sat not only the most influential people in the industry, but possibly the most entertaining. I found it necessary to remind myself that the following comments came from the same group of people responsible for launching one of Australia’s most recognisable budget airlines, the Share-a-Coke Campaign and for the first use of foursquare and a blog in commercial campaigns.
“Oh man there’s just been so many” was followed up with “I forgot to make sure my phone was on mute before going on a full rant about certain people’s incompetencies during a conference call” and “there was this one time when I accidentally CC’d a client into a group email that complained about how difficult they were.”
After wiping away my tears of laughter, I wrote the following as a key learning on my note pad: it is fine, if not expected to make mistakes. “You will learn more from your failures than your successes,” summarised Anouk Darling. “You will mess up a lot but learn through your adversity, keep putting yourself out there and stay hungry.”
Suddenly, the pedestal didn’t seem so high. It is not that by admitting their faults, the panel leaders had suddenly sunk to my level. It was that I had subconsciously sat up straighter in my own chair, as I sponged in what the panel had to say. Including this pearl from Gerry Cyron: “Your career and, actually life in general is just like Angry Birds. You see your target, take aim and you throw everything you have at it. If you miss, you just readjust and try again.” As easy as it is to laugh off the mistakes of others and hope they don’t happen to you; success only comes to those who seek success out and keep evolving their tactics in order to reach it.
“While this industry used to be about knowledge, now it is about the willingness to evolve and the drive to become an expert,” said Anouk. Put your hand up for everything, come up with another creative idea every time one gets shot down and love your work beyond the dollar sign.
The biggest surprise of all came with one of the most standard questions asked in a work environment: Where do you see yourself in five years? “Geez, I have no idea,” was the resounding response from the panel. The catalyst for such uncertainty can be attributed to technology which is causing everything to shift and change at such a rapid rate that the panel experts such as Brian Giesen believe that speed is the key to remain competitive in media moving forward. Media agencies will also need to be smart and come forward with big ideas, not big numbers of staff to win new business in the future.
“Technology is set to blow our minds and for that reason, I see the industry moving to a hub and spoke approach,” said Kieran Moore. “It is a commercial imperative for media groups to work together and integrate their offering or they will get left behind.”
This blog piece is testament to the insight and inspiration provided by the six media experts on the Young Turks ‘Big Dog’ panel. From now on, I will not stress about making mistakes, I will strive to keep evolving and most importantly, I will put my hand up first.
Key quotes:
- “Do not confuse the ‘alpha’ with the ‘leader’. Leadership is not a popularity contest.”
- “Be confident, but not so much that you become a [censored word].”
- “It’s imperative to have a tight plan in life, but to live it as loosely as possible.”
- “The great distinction between creative people and non-creative people is that the former will always come back with another idea.”
- “You never know what your clients are thinking so don’t take shortcuts.”
- “Listen to that little voice inside your head and never be compromised.”
- “When negotiating, silence can be powerful.”
- “The biggest pitfall is taking yourself too seriously.”
- “Look to learn more from your failures than from your successes.”
- “Love your work beyond the dollar sign.”
Recommended reading list:
- The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, Sogyal Rinpoche (1992)
- The Art of War, Sun Tzu
- Life’s a Pitch, Stephen Bayley and Roger Mavity
- Blue Ocean Strategy, Professor W. Chan Kim and Professor Renee Mauborgne
- Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, Malcolm Gladwell.
- Imagine, Jonah Lehrer
Suggested reading:
- Good old fairy-tale stories (namely, The Jungle Book)
- Anything written by Charles Bukowski
- Anything the Harvard Business Review suggests
NOTE: If you’ve ticked all these boxes, Anouk Darling’s personal reading list is available. Alternatively, turn on the television.
The Ogilvy PR Experience
The word internship is often associated with terms such as making coffees, photocopying and stamp-licking. Thankfully for me this was not the case when I joined the Social@Ogilvy team for two weeks. Hard yet rewarding work, incredible advice, teamwork and great people, are in my eyes, the terms accompanying an Ogilvy internship.
Before even stepping into the Ogilvy building, I was made to feel welcome with warm greetings via LinkedIn, anticipating my arrival come the following Monday. With an abundance of great people working around and with me, my understanding of what it takes to be a part of the biggest social team in Australia quickly became clear. From the get go I was given real life experience as my short-term and long-term goals were shifted into overdrive. I had the opportunity to participate in brainstorming sessions for a nationwide campaign, client meetings entailing development of B2B social platforms and research for brands.
I was introduced to ‘Radian6’, an online data collecting tool, a great asset to add to my resume when on the hunt for jobs! I was also given the opportunity to be included in the presentation of the research findings, which showcased how important research is to every task involved with a client. I Working on the development of competitions and community management allowed university theory to transform into physical practice and gifted me further skills which I will utilise upon my return next semester. Joining conference calls to international and local clients, enabled me to learn and grasp how PR practitioners search for insights in all aspects of business to develop the most appropriate strategy to solve a problem.
Always made to feel a part of the team, I was invited to client meetings in the CBD, the annual costume themed David Ogilvy party and learnt how to construct a pitch. Being part of a production piece for David Ogilvy’s birthday celebrations was another highlight of my time at Ogilvy. Not only was the Social@Ogilvy team great, I was invited to a Pulse Communications brainstorm and everyone in the in the building was always extremely helpful and friendly.
Interning at Ogilvy taught me four important aspects to succeed in my chosen industry:
- Research is essential
- Work fast
- Work creatively
- Effectively communicate
Upon completion of my internship I walk away gaining expert knowledge, priceless experience and having met some great people that hopefully one day, I will work with again. Thank you Ogilvy for making the 5:30am starts and two hour train rides worth it!
By Joel West.