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All ABout BrandsTRANSCRIPT
Visionary Urban Planners Meld Future and Heritage
Abu Dhabi Rising
All About Brandsmagazine
Issue 1 Abu Dhabi edition
Brand Revival page 09
Working with Creatives page 11
Tell a Story, Win an Audience page 25
Chairman’s Letter Introducing All About Brands
magazine / 01
Brands The Ins and Outs of
Brand Revival / 09
Guru Working with Creatives / 11
Online Online Advertising’s
Digital Coming of Age / 13
Crisis Sense Communicating in a Crisis / 15
Work: How to Work Better
with Clients / 17
Social Networks Social Networking
Goes Mainstream / 19
Workforce It’s About Attitude.
Not Age / 21
Lazy Lexicon “Leader” and “Exclusive” / 23
Cover Story Jean-Philippe Coulaud:
Branding The Vision / 02
All About Brands magazine
Abu Dhabi edition
Contents
ll About Brands is a group of
international companies collectively dedicated
to building business value for clients through the
effective development and management of their
brands. We believe that in today’s fast-moving
environment, organisations must continually
evolve to stay ahead of the game and that brands
drive commercial performance better than any
other corporate asset. We therefore seek to bring
an innovative approach to value creation in all
aspects of a brand’s life and whenever it impacts
business or people performance.
All About Brands is also a holding company that
acts as an incubator for creative entrepreneurs.
We provide funding, management support
and expertise to allow the next generation of
creatives and marketeers to establish tomorrow’s
leading agencies. In a whirlwind four years, we
have established, backed and developed some of
Abu Dhabi’s most successful agencies.
We have undergone a steep learning curve on
how to do business successfully in Abu Dhabi.
In this and future issues, we hope to share
some of our insights into the business culture,
the bureaucracy and the key learnings and
experience we have acquired.
This publication is not really about selling
All About Brands and its fabulous group of
companies, but it would be remiss of me not to
direct you to our group website, www.aabplc.
com, where you can see for yourself the talent
we have on offer to assist you with making your
brands and your businesses more successful.
I hope you enjoy the first issue of the magazine.
If you would like to contribute an article or
opinion for a future edition, please contact us at
Alan Biggar
Chairman
“This publication is not really about selling All About Brands and its fabulous group of companies, but it would be remiss of me not to direct you to our group website, www.aabplc.com”
Welcome to the first edition of All About Brands magazine. Over the coming months and years, we hope that this publication will stimulate debate and become a vehicle for sharing best practice across the fields of marketing and communications.
Dear Readers
chairman’s letter01
A
featurebranding the vision 02
Jean-Philippe Coulaud Branding The Vision
Few branding professionals have had Jean-Philippe Coulaud’s current
career opportunity. As corporate
communications director for the Abu
Dhabi Urban Planning Council, he has not only witnessed the
branding of a visionary government initiative,
but has been intimately involved with the successful
implementation of that branding effort.
An Interview with
by Andrew Mackay
t is unusual to find governments that think of their
nations as brands, much less to find a government
with the resources and foresight to proactively plan
and implement a national rebranding effort.
For the past two years, Coulaud had devoted
his professional life to one of Abu Dhabi’s more
challenging and strategic branding exercises and to
explaing the government’s long-term vision for the
Emirate.
Until arriving in Abu Dhabi, Coulaud’s career –
apart from a year doing PR for Jacques Chirac’s
presidential campaign - was connected to the
automotive industry. The peripatetic Frenchman
worked for General Motors in France, the United
States, Germany and Switzerland, then the BMW
Group in France and Belgium, and Bentley in the
United Kingdom before moving to Ferrari Maserati
in Italy. Along the way, he held various positions in
various marketing and communication departments,
including a stint as a brand communication specialist
involved in the rebirth of venerable and prestigious
brands like Cadillac, MG, Bentley, and Maserati.
“I have always worked with brands, most notably
in the luxury car sector,” Coulaud says. “The
creation and management of brands was integral to
building success in the luxury car market, and my
expertise in this area was recognized by H.E. Falah
Al Ahbabi, general manager of the Urban Planning
Council. He tasked me with creating a branding and
communications strategy to build awareness and
support for the Vision 2030 urban master plans.”
It was the professional challenge that the
launch of Abu Dhabi Vision 2030 represents
and the opportunity to discover the Arab culture
that enticed Coulaud from the world of high-
performance cars. He also saw that the chance to
build a team from scratch: “I had the full support
of my general manager, who really gave me the
feeling – from the first time I met him - that the
communication department he was asking me to
build and the Vision 2030 branding development,
would play a vital role in the strategy he was
intending to put in place to assert the council’s
strategic role. I was also interested to go back to
the field of institutional communication, where there
were distinctive challenges.”
feature branding the vision03
I
The Vision 2030 brand needed to be aligned with the Abu Dhabi brand to ensure they worked with each other seamlessly.
feature 04
“The Vision 2030 master plans were created to
capture the government’s vision for Abu Dhabi’s
development within the context of sustainable and
controlled development policies and a resulting
positive impact on lifestyle and communities
throughout the Emirate. Alongside communicating
the overarching vision for the Emirate, we also
promoted dedicated master plans for Abu Dhabi city
and the Al Gharbia and Al Ain regions,” he said.
Along the way, Coulaud said that securing the
buy-in of communities was vital to build support
for the government planning initiatives. Abu Dhabi
is diverse in terms of both geography and culture.
Small fishing and farming communities co-exist with
bustling metropolitan environments, which in turn
have to be sensitive to the needs of delicate coastal
and desert ecologies. “At the same time, it was vital
to protect the Emirate’s heritage, traditional values
and way of life – in other words, to maintain a sense
of our national identity,” he said.
The Vision 2030 master plan identities created to capture the government’s
strategic vision for Abu Dhabi’s urban development.
branding the vision
I n a parallel initiative, the Office of the Brand of
Abu Dhabi had just created and launched a national
brand for Abu Dhabi to promote the Emirate
regionally and internationally as a tourism, cultural
and business destination.
“Through their work for the Office of the Brand of
Abu Dhabi, Brand Faith had become heavily involved
in the roll out and implementation of the Abu Dhabi
brand,” Coulard said. “Their experience was
instrumental in guiding us to build and implement our
branding strategy and roll out our related brands.”
Coulaud said that the brand for the Vision 2030
plan needed to be aligned with the newly created
Abu Dhabi brand to ensure they worked with each
other seamlessly.
“The reason we chose to create a brand strategy
for these initiatives was to ensure that we
could create an emotional connection with our
diverse audiences from the outset,” he said.
“While people think about things rationally, it is
generally their emotions that move them to act or
change their behavior. Branding is a proven tool
for achieving this. By creating clear brands for
each initiative, all reinforcing and related to each
other, we were able to create the perception that
this was a series of well-conceived and robust
planning projects that would guide the future
development of the Emirate built environment for
generations, and lead people to identify with the
overall vision.”
feature05 branding the vision
The Abu Dhabi national brand which promotes the Emirate regionally and internationally as a tourism,
cultural and business destination
“Mindful that planning brings certainty, we consulted
widely with all stakeholders at every level in order to
avoid the pitfalls of piecemeal development that have
tended to characterize and define perceptions of
other Middle Eastern countries,” he said.
Coulaud said that the approach was supported by
proactively communicating key messages, including
the positive impact that long-term planning would
have on the lifestyles of residents as well as the next
generation, while protecting the national identity.
He said that planning was deeply rooted in the
need for sustainability.
“While our communications and outreach
programme were critical, what set us apart –
possibly uniquely – was Estidama. Estidama
means ‘sustainability’ in Arabic. We believed the
brand would benefit from promoting the existing
link between future planning and the principle of
sustainability, to preserve and promote Abu Dhabi’s
environmental, economic, social and cultural
heritage,” Coulaud said, adding that Estidama
gave the Urban Planning Council a powerful
communications platform that provided further
linkage to the overall Vision 2030’s guiding principles
and Abu Dhabi’s future urban environment.
“Our conscious effort to involve the community
helped to articulate the leadership’s vision and
imbued the brands with much more than the design
of some new logos,” he said. “By marketing the
brands to the community and other stakeholders
to make it more accessible, we kept everybody
engaged right from the start. We then supported
this effort with a proactive PR and media relations
campaign, which was quite unusual, and I suppose
a bit of a departure for a government department.”
The impact has been hugely positive, Coulaud says.
“It helped raise the new council’s profile by
feature 06branding the vision
While people think about things rationally, it is generally their emotions that move them to act or change their behavior. Branding is a proven tool for achieving this.
feature07
highlighting our joint role in the shaping of Abu Dhabi
and our willingness to engage,” he said. “Second, I
think we have been able to instill a sense of ownership
and therefore pride in Abu Dhabi’s future development.
The brands are now firmly established in the nation’s
psyche, with both Vision 2030 and Capital 2030
mentally connected to the overarching national brand
of Abu Dhabi. This has given the process a sense
of cohesion.”
“Finally, the rebranding has allowed Abu Dhabi to
reassert its status as the United Arab Emirates’ capital
city,” he said. “The economic downturn has shifted the
focus regionally towards issues such as sustainability
and long-term planning; this has helped the council
position the rebranding as much more than a cosmetic
marketing tool and given us the platform for a more
considered approach to what future generations want
from their city.”
Coulaud says that he hasn’t needed to modify
his approach to brand building in Abu Dhabi,
but has been influenced in the way he operates.
“Communication between people always played a vital
role in Arab culture,” he says. “The result is a certain
maturity of the communities in the way of grasping the
messages they receive. It’s all about a certain subtlety
that asks for the right ‘dosage’ of the substance
you are intending to convey. I learn a lot every day,
especially from my team.”
“I really feel comfortable in this country. To a certain
extent, it reminds me a lot of my experience in Italy,”
he said. “There was not the ‘culture shock’ some
might expect, perhaps due to my Mediterranean roots.
Especially within the Urban Planning Council team,
I feel the same warm atmosphere I shared with my
Italian friends. In fact, while working with my Emirati
colleagues, I have discovered that we often have a
similar sensitivity to interpret things and ‘Latin’ subtlety
to analyze situations and decide how to address
specific concerns.”
“Overall, I like the pioneering spirit promoted by
our general manager,” Coulaud continued. “In the
communication area, it’s important to be allowed to take
risks and develop innovative concepts. It’s the only way
to succeed in carving your own brand communication
territory and remain ahead of the game.”
Andrew Mackay is director of All About Brands.
He can be reached at [email protected]
branding the vision
feature 08branding the vision
Vision 2030 and Capital 2030 communication materials are firmly established in the nation’s psyche and mentally connect to the overarching national brand of Abu Dhabi. This gives the process a sense of cohesion
The ins and outs of brand revival. Tapping into an insight about what made a brand special or loved in the first place is critical to a successful revival – you may establish that a brand has relatively strong latent equity but unless you exploit or capitalise on it in the right way, it stands little chance in such a competitive market.
by Amy Frengley
brands09
iving in an environment where the pace of change is so
fast and the emergence of new brands and new technologies so
constant means that we are increasingly seeking out those things
that have some sort of genuine meaning to us or have marked our
lives in some way.
Against this backdrop, brands of a time past and those that
we thought were on the decline, or even dead and buried, are
enjoying the fruits of revival. Yet it takes skill to identify those
worth bringing back to life, and even greater skill to do
so successfully.
Indeed, while our growing appetite for nostalgia has been key
to fuelling this movement, there are two real markers of successful
reinvention. The first is the level of latent equity in a brand: does it
still have a meaningful and useful proposition to make?
Does it have or could it develop a strong customer base?
Does it fulfil a genuine need in today’s world? The second is
the leveraging of that equity in the right way, staying true to its
heritage but making it relevant to people’s lives today.
Tapping into an insight about what made a brand special or
loved in the first place is critical to a successful revival – you
may establish that a brand has relatively strong latent equity but
unless you exploit or capitalise on it in the right way, it stands little
chance in such a competitive market.
The jury is still out, but arguably MG’s recent foray into town
cars has seen it move away from what people loved about the
brand in the first place – a serious, sporty road car – to something
that now looks urban and metro.
The decision to offload a brand onto someone else can often
come down simply to profit and size. What’s not a viable
proposition for a larger company can be quite the opposite for a
small company. Indeed, when evaluating the merits of retaining
Angel Delight, Kraft determined it to be not worthwhile – however
its sizeable profits and nostalgic quotient made it an appealing
purchase for its buyer, Premier Ambient. Revival may also be
propelled by the simple power of protest. Cadbury Wispa and
BBC Radio 6 demonstrated beautifully that mobilising popular
public opinion and taking a grassroots approach to saving a
brand is not to be underestimated. That said, the same efforts
were attempted with the Asian Network and ultimately failed. This
underscores that that successful revival is ultimately about the
commercial imperative – if the audience is falling, if it’s not a viable
proposition for its owner, or the investment can’t be justified on the
P&L, a brand is not going to represent a great target for revival, no
matter how much it reminds us of good times past.
We can conclude then that the future of an ‘old’ brand can
generally be determined by four key elements: the product has to
be right; some equity must remain; one shouldn’t stray too far from
what made the brand great initially; and it must be contemporised
in the right way.
A final reminder of the interplay of these principles can be seen
in the example of Woolworths. Having hit the wall two years ago,
Woolies recognised that retail had all but gone online, but that it still
had a useful proposition to make, albeit to a more defined market
– so it became more targeted on younger families, re-formed as an
MG’s senior management noted that the union with Rover meant
that while there is a shareholder imperative to achieve volume,
care needs to be taken to ensure that the heart of the brand is not
compromised.
By contrast, Mini, and to an extent the Volkswagen Beetle, serve
as examples of perfectly executed brand revival. Both correctly
identified what was great about the brand in its original form: zippy,
small, easily manoeuvrable, a great town car. Then they showed
that these attributes were equally relevant today, if not more so, by
delivering a style makeover and increasing internal space to create
a model bang up to date for contemporary urban life.
It’s worth remembering that one business’ albatross may be
another’s golden goose.
online business, focused its offer on the core areas of need for their
audience, established the right price point, and hauled itself into the
21st century. Digital, fresher, brighter, better.
A revival success story? We hope.
Amy Frengley is brand strategy director at All About Brands.
She can be contacted at [email protected]
“The product has to be right; some equity must remain; one shouldn’t stray too far from what made the brand great initially; and it must be contemporised”
Lbrands 10
We have all had to deal with them – they’re the art directors, designers, writers and marketing consultants who have their own ideas about how everything should be done. Think child genius with a petulant streak, and you’re not far off the mark. They call themselves Creatives, and you have the job of bringing the best out of them.
S
Working with creatives
ure, they’ll listen to you, but you can tell that they secretly think you’re an idiot. If you insist on them doing things your way, they get upset and pout to the point that you want to throw them out of the window.
Creative people are also experts in the art of time wasting. They are curious by nature and are easily distracted from the task in hand. In my ex-perience this is something you have to live with. Trying to manage creatives like you manage other members of your team will just not work.
Over the years, I’ve worked with a whole range of talented creative people and I’ve learned how to work with them rather than against them. If you get it right it can actually be an enjoyable experience.
Work with the cleverest people. If you’re putting together a team, don’t be afraid to be the dumbest person in the room. I have regularly been the dumbest person in the room and actually felt completely undaunted. Great creatives aren’t just good at coming up with brilliant ideas. They’re good at explaining them, debating them, and also seeing other people’s points of view.
The creatives who give you the most headaches tend to be the ones with limited talent who can’t string a sentence together to back up their thinking. They tend to sulk at the slightest challenge to their creative genius.
My advice: Shoot them!There is also another advantage to being the
dumbest person in the room: I usually find that smart people don’t have as much common sense as I do. They come up with great ideas and can debate the brilliance of their ideas for hours, but at some stage you are going to need to create a practical plan. Suddenly, you will find all eyes turning to you for direction.
The trick is to let them exhaust themselves of ideas and burn themselves out in debate. This is the stage when they become compliant and obedient, and you can easily bend them to your will.
guru11
by Mark Rollinson
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Great creatives aren’t just good at coming up with brilliant ideas. They’re good at explaining them, debating them, and also seeing other peoples’ points of view
No such thing as a bad idea. Rule Number One of brainstorming is, “there is no such thing as a bad idea.” No notion should be too far out, and no idea too crazy. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve participated in brain-storming sessions where someone blurted out a crazy idea, and someone else followed the thread until it led to the idea we all decided to imple-ment. Occasionally getting the dumb ideas out of the way serves to clear our minds so that a really great idea can come bursting forth. And some-times one stupid notion becomes the inspiration for an innovative, groundbreaking plan.
This kind of thinking can only happen in an environment where all ideas are welcome. Bear in mind that ideas are fragile at birth, so let them breathe a while and avoid shooting them down when they are first born, no matter how outrageous they sound.
Work as a team, not individuals. If you’ve handled the brainstorming right, you end up with a long list of concepts to explore. Some are hopeless, but others may be diamonds in the rough. It may be tempting to decide on your own which concepts to develop. Don’t do it.
The trick is to let the whole group decide what’s useable and what’s not. It will take a bit more time and there may even be some heated arguments, but commit to coming to a consen-sus and you will be better off. Your end product will be stronger because of the range of ideas you’ve brought together, and most importantly your creative teams’ egos will still be intact. They’ll feel valued and respected.
Look for the positives. This is sometimes harder than it sounds. You’re looking at the creative output that the team has placed in front of you. Allegedly it’s based on the brainstorm you were part of. Try as you might, you don’t recognize it. At this point it is quite easy to lose your temper and throw your toys out of the pram. Don’t do it.
Search for something positive you can say at first, even if it’s the colour, the typeface chosen or even the paper. You need just one small positive comment and then you can really lay into the rest of the concept. This small crumb of comfort is key to preventing your creative team from either punching you or bursting into tears. It’s sometimes useful to repeat the positive at the end of the meeting, “I love the paper you used to draw that on.”
Stroke them. It’s important for creative types to feel wanted and valued. You will find you have to praise them more than you scold them. Creatives don’t really like being told off. They like a nice secure, stable environment. The only chaos they like is in their own heads. Make sure they feel valued and make sure no matter how small a role they may play, they feel like they have contributed and that their contribution is valued.
Follow these rules and you may find that mad world of the creative helps you and your business thrive.
Mark Rollinson is board member of All About Brands. He can be reached at [email protected]
guru 12
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Advertising’s digital coming of age
he economic environment has penalised the marketing services sector, knocking advertising particularly hard. But online marketing is bucking the trend and quite significantly.
Spending on internet advertising in the UK topped GBP 35 billion in 2009, and for the first time outstripped television adspend. It was a first not only in the UK but internationally. And this capped an extraordinary decade when in 2000, internet adspend topped GBP 153 million. In other words, online advertising grew by 2,200%.
What does this mean for businesses? Well, the simple truth is your money goes a lot further, and you’re able to target audiences more precisely through online advertising than other more traditional means of advertising. It’s certainly no coincidence that we’re seeing a significant uptake in online campaigns for our clients, especially in a straitened economic times when digital campaigns can provide better return on investment. If nothing else, this recession, like others before, is helping to sort the chaff from the grain. The demise of established, but struggling, brands is one impact. Another is the unleashing of technology.
This is the first recession of the digital age and the solid increase in internet adspend tells us that some quarters of the media arena are holding up. This has not been a transition that traditional marketing agencies and media players have managed well, let alone businesses and clients who turn to agencies to help navigate them through the marketing landscape.
Those who were slow to understand and respond to the changing technologies and consumer habits are being punished severely.
Take Britain’s ITV, for example: ITV is a truly great brand, and it made a play in the new digital world by buying Friends Reunited, but it failed to have a compelling vision for the social networking site and sold it on in 2009 after just four years, losing a cool GBP 100 million in the process.
Adam Crozier faces an enormous challenge in trying to turn around the fortunes of ITV as it prepares for the fight of its life. While his tenure at the Royal Mail was controversial, if anyone can do it, he may be the man.
He no doubt has a pretty strong understanding of the media landscape having started his rapid rise at Saatchis before dealing with the prickly issue of broadcasting rights at the Football Association. Internet adspend is only set to increase. Those who have been skittish about apportioning their advertising budgets will now become much bolder in chosing the web over other channels.
This will put into long-term jeopardy traditional marketing agencies and media providers, like ITV. The internet has truly come of age.
Graham Anderson is a director of All About Brands. He can be reached at [email protected]
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By Graham Anderson
Five golden rules on how to communicate in a crisis
s a communications specialist, i have had a career of stepping in to help clients in crisis. That experience spans a spectrum of sectors and issues and includes working with corporates which include equitable life, dow, altria and unilever. So here are my five golden rules on how to get a grip on a crisis and how you communicate.
Acknowledge The problem And TAke ownerShip.
in the first few hours after a crisis, a huge amount of misinformation can appear. A friend of mine in one of the world’s leading mining companies tells me that in the event of an incident at one of their operations, the company has a policy of issuing a statement within the first two hours. That was the view internally of how quickly news could carry – especially in high risk industries such as extractives. So the rule here is to communicate early and often. equally, it is important that you are sure of your facts before you do begin communicating. For example, it’s better to acknowledge that you don’t have all the facts than to try and adopt a message which is unfounded.
be Sincere And demonSTrATe underSTAnding.
if your industry is affected by a crisis – whether or not it’s your company’s fault – you need to acknowledge the impact at a human level and express empathy quickly. i have seen many big corporates resistant to communicating at an early stage of an incident or crisis in fear that it implies culpability or liability on their part. To not express sympathy, opens you and your business to accusations of being uncaring or unconcerned and silence is often read as guilt. but your first and overriding message must be to share your thoughts with those impacted by the incident (internal or external stakeholders) and you will lend every effort to the authorities in addressing the problem. if the fault clearly lies at your hands, acknowledge and accept that as soon as is possible.
TrAnSpArenT And AcceSSible.
honesty pays, even if you don’t have all the best-in-class systems in place. being transparent demonstrates confidence in you, your leadership team, your product and your manufacturing and distribution methods. Following a crisis, the spotlight will fall on the way you operate and it is better that your business is allowed to be scrutinised than for the media or other interest groups to tell the story for you. You can control how that probing might be conducted, but make yourself open and accessible. it is critical to the process of rebuilding your reputation.
leAderShip in communicATionS.
You need to appoint someone to serve as the public face of the company in the crisis, who is equipped to deal with the challenges that might involve. if you don’t provide a public face early on, the media and other stakeholders will decide on one for you – and who may not be the best placed person to help you. ideally the public face will either be your most senior manager or someone from the leadership team. She or he will need to accept the role of taking the flak and be prepared to face the ire of stakeholders – which may not be a comfortable role.
prepAre, prepAre, prepAre.
it is no good having a public face of the company, if that individual is untrained for the role. equally your communications team need to be prepared. if there is one thing that can be guaranteed, your business will face an issue or crisis at some point – and the only way to know how to deal with it, is to prepare and train in advance. That way, you’ll see where your team can deal with an issue, and where they can’t; where communications worked, and where it didn’t; who performed well and who didn’t (and there’ll be some people on your team who simply don’t have the strengths to deal with crisis situations). Those are all lessons you want to learn before a crisis and not during one.
Allan Biggar is Chairman of All About Brands in London. He can be reached at [email protected]
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crisis sense15
Some of the UK’s biggest and best known businesses have faced crises and major reputational issues this year, including BP, British Airways and British Telecom. Reflecting on a career of helping clients to communicate in crises, Allan Biggar, chairman of All About Brands, shares his five golden rules on what to do in a crisis.
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by Allan biggar
Six ways to combat rumors
ithin the universe of rumors, there
exist bothersome, but harmless, gossip tales,
little white lies ferried forth by clothesline
conversation, and the whopper of a fib that can
land a genuine crisis on a company’s doorstep.
How is a company to deal with them?
Common sense is a good start.
In emerging markets due to the black art of
even blacker PR, competitors often crank up
rumors to gain a competitive advantage. Most
stay in the brackish backwater of localism, never
gaining steam. However, others can lead to the
loss of money, jobs, reputations and more.
We have our own formula for
staying one step ahead of the
commercial gossip mongers:
Inoculate your company by having sound
media monitoring in place.
Media monitoring serves as a second line
of defense to squelch rumors early. The first
line of defense? The company employees
who can serve as rumor scouts.
Stay ahead of rumors by acting
on them early.
Don’t let a rumor that has the consistency
of gelatin explode into a full grown crisis.
Take the pulse of the rumor, and make
decisions on the potential danger to the
company if the rumor were to spread.
Don’t overreact, but don’t
underreact, either.
A rumor is not a crisis – though it can be a crisis-
in-waiting. If it has an immediate possibility of
having a significant business impact, the decision
to react quickly and strongly is imperative.
However, if it is the proverbial tempest
in a teapot, don’t risk spreading the rumor
further and creating a genuine crisis.
Information is vital. Determine if the
rumor has the potential to spread.
If it is localized and has been contained,
don’t cast your response to the entire
country. By definition, a rumor can be a
falsehood, a half-truth or reality. Attempt to
source the rumor, and then to isolate it.
If there is a need to respond, make
sure it is a measured response.
Don’t kill an ant with a sledgehammer.
However, if it is a monster rumor with the
danger of spreading and causing a business
catastrophe, haul out the communications’
equivalent of a nuclear weapon.
Finally (and this might be the most
important of our six rules), consider
whether the rumor is based in truth.
It could be about something that really
happened or something that could happen.
The best way to abolish the rumor is to
fix the problem. Then, be honest with your
constituencies (the public, press, employees,
government, and others). Admit that you
had a problem, but explain that it has been
fixed. Show evidence of the remediation.
In other words, combating rumors takes
judgment and its cousin, common sense,
along with a strong dose of finesse. Combating
rumors can be challenging, but the alternative
– doing nothing – can be disastrous.
Roman Diukarev is president of Willard
Public Relations in Moscow. He can be
reached at [email protected]
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crisis sense 16
By Roman Diukarev
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f course, the rolling stones sing it the other way: “You can’t always get what you want.” However, talking about advertising agencies, we should forget this rule. They believe in other things. Agencies believe they actually can reach
the desired goals.
In the ad business, getting what the client wants is not only a nice
motto for a corporate mission, but a daily routine. To ensure that
the advertiser’s message is properly perceived by the customers is the
agency’s job.
An advertisement message is information your audience will get in the
half minute they’ll spend on your ad.
So, a good advertising idea should be represented clearly, briefly and
elegantly. The main principle is as plain as a pikestaff. If you’ve drawn an
apple and someone recognizes that it actually is an apple, you’re on the
right path. But if you’ve drawn an apple but everybody says it is a sliced
alligator pear, something has gone wrong.
The result of an advertising campaign should be relevant to your
intentions and actions. An agency and a client need to coordinate with
each other in order to reach this. In this case, the agency CAN get what
they (clients) want. But how can you promote the coordination? Here
are some tips.
work17
how to work
better with
clients
By Victor NIKOLENKO
O
Evaluate The Project From The “Final Product” Point Of View.
And bear in mind that the consumers will not find everything that the
advertiser likes appealing. Have the courage to tell the client about
this and explain the possible consequences of such actions. Companies
and consumers always find themselves on opposite banks. Agencies are
like bridges between them. Therefore, make sure that you are open for
both sides.
Anticipate Each Other.
Do not turn work like a game of table-tennis, with documents, briefs and
comments playing the role of a ball. Always remember that you and your
client are on the same side of the table. External activity doesn’t always
mean productivity.
Make your joint meetings as effective as possible: prepare a list of
questions, which you would like to discuss.
APPRECIATE
Establishing a close cooperation with your client is very important for
developing a successful advertising campaign. Therefore, appreciate the
client’s efforts. Every advertising agency constantly tells its success story.
Everybody is happy to show their portfolio. Everybody boasts of the
names of their clients. And very few are really proud of them. Remember:
you not only sell your skills to the clients, you also gain experience
with them. And since you work side by side, victories in the field of
advertisements should be split at least among the two.
Lee Iacocca, one of the most successful managers the automobile
industry has ever seen, made the representatives of the advertising
agency members of the Chrysler marketing department not long after
his arrival at this company. It was a clever decision, which is, however,
not always possible and appropriate. The main thing that one should
remember: cooperation between the agency and its clients is the most
important thing. Since both of you are in the same boat, it is necessary
to row in the same direction together. The opposite will take you down
the stream, toward the waterfalls.
Viktor Nikolenko is senior copywriter at Willard in Kyiv. He can be reached
UNDERSTAND
First of all, ascertain the aim of a campaign accurately. You should do
it during the first stage of your work on the project. Go slow. Try to
understand your client:
Clarify The Rules Of The Game.
Define the goals a client wants to reach with his ads. State these aims
precisely and even write them down. Using first the client’s task brief,
create a basic document that will outline the direction of your work.
You should follow the document’s instructions when making any
decisions concerning the project. Introduce this guideline document
to each member of a creative team – the more information you give
them, the more effective feedback you’ll get. This is the basis of all
further development.
Find Out More Information About Your Client.
Make sure you properly understand the positioning of the company
you work with. It is a rare occasion to advertise a company from the
ground up. Most of the clients already have some history of promoting
their products. Analyze it thoroughly in order to be aware of advertising
traditions and preferred work methods.
Set Up You Priorities For Certain.
Never pursue your own creative or business goals which could be
detrimental to the client’s interests.. If you’re simply more interested in
getting piles of awards for yourself, you’d better switch to charity. There
you’ll bring more benefit and sooner satisfy your desire.
Don’t Skip The Preparation Work.
Even though it looks unnecessary, it will help you save lots of effort in
the long run.
COOPERATE
In you have chosen the direction for the advertising campaign, make sure
that there would be no problems along the way. Therefore, cooperate
with your client:
Listen Carefully To The Client At The Early Project Stage.
Prepare a few conceptions and let the advertiser decide which one to
take. Let him know what you think about each one to make his choice
easier. This way, you’ll create foundations of trust for the future work and
help the client to understand his needs better. Many clients don’t know
clearly what they want, so help them make up their mind.
Combine Your Knowledge And Skills.
Advertisers have the most insight into their own product. Take advantage
of that: try to get as much information as possible. It may help you find
some creative solution. On the other hand, you have a broad knowledge
of advertising techniques. So use it
Keep Focused.
There is a temptation to start working on a number of concepts at
once. Clients always have a lot to tell about themselves. Nevertheless,
the message that consumers receive, should be effective and easy to
understand. Therefore, do not let the discussion deviate substantially
from the chosen direction.
work 18
a good advertising idea should be represented clearly, briefly and elegantly
social networks19
Social networking goes mainstream
social networks 20
S with most trends, on-line social
networking for businesses started in the tech
field. The tech side simply better understood the
concept and how it could work for their brands.
But that was so yesterday.
More advertisers of everyday household goods
are adding social media like Facebook, Twitter
and YouTube to the tactics they use to reach
current and potential customers.
As familiarity with the social media becomes
more mainstream, companies like Coca-
Cola, Kraft Foods, PepsiCo and Procter &
Gamble have added a new dimension to their
marketing arsenal.
For example, a company called Land O’Frost
has established an online community called
Land O’Moms. It’s housed on a website where
consumers can exchange recipes and parenting
advice, download coupons, read articles from
women’s magazines and communicate with
popular mommy bloggers. They also have
presences on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
“It’s a whole revolution,” David Van Eekeren,
president at Land O’Frost in Lansing, Ill., says of
the social media. “We need to be part
of it, obviously.”
This was quite a leap for Land O’Frost. Started
by Van Eekeren’s grandfather, the company only
decided two years ago to venture into television.
But with its “prime consumers, moms,”
increasingly devoted to the social media, he adds,
it was time for Land O’Frost to figure out how to
join in.
In discussions with executives at Henson
Consulting, a public relations agency, in Wheaton,
Ill., “they told us we should be tying all we’re
doing” to a single Web site, Van Eekeren says,
where mothers “can come and spend time and
we can engage them on a different level.”
The idea, he adds, is “to be a resource” to them
and “not a sales pitch,” the better to “build loyalty
from a product perspective.”
That “takes a little swallowing,” Van Eekeren
acknowledges, recalling that when he looked at
an early version of the Land O’Moms Web site “I
said, ‘Where’s Land O’Frost?’ ”
Van Eekeren soon realized he didn’t want
his company “to be a commercial splashed in
someone’s face.”
Is mobile marketing turning the corner?
Could it be that the promise of mobile marketing
is catching up to the hype?
Every year a few trendy forecasters declare that
advertising on mobile devices is poised to become
the next big thing in marketing. But every year,
the results point to a belly flop. But maybe times
are changing.
This year, with technology powerhouses like
Apple and Google introducing whole new mobile
devices and buying up ad firms specializing in the
small screen, the forecasts may finally be right.
The sales pitch is a familiar one: The mobile
phone offers advertisers all the benefits of
traditional Internet ads, including the ability to
track their effectiveness. It also lets marketers
reach consumers on the go, on a gadget they
clutch intimately.
However, the fact is, according to Juniper
Research conducted worldwide, spending on
mobile advertising amounted last year to only $1.4
billion. That’s less than one third of one percent of
total ad revenue!
Some marketers remain wary about trying it,
for fear of annoying consumers by intruding on
their personal space. A technical toolbox poorly
equipped to work with small screens has also hurt;
after all, banner ads the size of thumbnails don’t
make a big impression.
However, industry analysts say that now, with
the introduction of Apple’s iPad tablet, an entirely
new approach to mobile ads could be near.
This is because the iPad, a cross between a
laptop and an iPhone, looks more like an iPhone
from an ad perspective. It does not support
Adobe Flash, the software used for much PC-
based advertising. So, to make their ads available
to iPad users, marketers may have to develop new
kinds of ads, rather than simply adapting existing
web ads.
“It’s a pretty exciting time for the market,”
said Oliver Roxburgh, managing director of the
British operations of YOC, a mobile ad agency. “It’s
starting to grow up a little.”
Mr. Roxburgh’s enthusiasm has been buoyed by
the efforts of Apple and Google and is shared by a
growing chorus of industry experts.
Indeed, Windsor Holden, a principal analyst
at Juniper Research, predicts that mobile ad
spending worldwide will more than quadruple, to
$6 billion, by 2014. And he does not shrink from
the prediction.
A
More advertisers of everyday household goods are adding social media like facebook,
twitter and youtube to the tactics they use to
reach current and potential customers.
S
workforce21
urviving professionally after 50 is all about attitude, not age. But sometimes it is hard to convince the 35-year-old boss in the corner office whose historic frame of reference is Aerosmith – not Elvis.
When I was in my 20s, I looked at someone approaching 35 as middle-aged, slightly mildewed; someone at 50 as definitely over the hill and someone my age, close now to mid-60s, as a fellow who plays checkers all day and waits for the Grim Reaper’s visit.
These days, if you are looking for a job at 60, you have about the same chance of landing one as being caught in the crossfire of a terrorist attack.
It’s not easy out there. I think the same perception – versus the reality
– carries over to older professionals who have jobs in advertising and public relations. There is a feeling they have lost a step, and probably need to retire or take a less challenging or less creative job in the agency.
This stereotype is sometimes reinforced by people in the industry, such as Sir Martin Sorrell of WPP, or even business philosophers like Charles Handy.
Sorrell, himself 65, recently said that ad agency management is too old to really understand new or digital media. Business philosopher Charles Handy, nearly 80, once wrote that creative directors are less creative as they grow older. This is nonsense.
The great architect Frank Lloyd Wright did his best work after 60; world-renowned heart surgeon Michael DeBakey helped oversee Boris Yeltsin’s bypass surgery in his 90s, and the famous fried chicken man, Col Harland Sanders created a fast-food empire, Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), when he was a pensioner.
In my view, Picasso, Matisse, and certainly Monet, did their best work after age 60. And then there is Harold Burson, PRWeek’s Man of the Century a decade ago. His creative and strategic advice is still sought by Fortune 500 companies. He’s 88.
But what I find is that many older professionals simply don’t know how to handle themselves, whether in job interview or even when approaching potential clients who just might be younger than their children.
For this reason, I put together my list of pointers for professionals who have already journeyed into what some of us call the “yellow leaf” period of our lives and careers:
Remember – tattoo it on your arm or somewhere – survival in the business world is about attitude and not age. Steve Jobs will, we all hope, one day be 65. My guess is that no one will think Spanish moss is hanging on his persona.
Live in the present. Corporate war stories are great around the bar but make you sound stale in a job interview or when being interviewed by a perspective client about your agency’s services.
Don’t get into the “been there, done that” syndrome. In most businesses, particularly the ad and PR business, it isn’t about what you have done but what you know you can do in the future. Give the person sitting before you a glimpse of how you are going to increase his or her business.
It’s about attitude.Not age. By Michael Willard
workforce 22
Don’t be tone deaf to current culture. Yes, I watch MTV and VH1 on occasion and subscribed most years to Rolling Stone magazine. This doesn’t mean one is trying to re-capture youth. It does mean that one’s frame of reference is something other than the 1960s.
Bring different dimensions of your personal brand to the table. In other words, continually add to your professional portfolio new talents – talents that will impress a job interviewer or a potential new client. We’re not talking about the ability to do magic tricks here.
We live in a technical world. Introduce yourself to it if you haven’t already. Don’t brag that you once stood in front of the printer waiting for a fax to come out, or that you are lost in any other computer program than “word”. As a corollary of the foregoing, be technically social. We once heard of an agency in New York not being hired because those making the pitch were not on Facebook. Be familiar with social networks, and use them.
Don’t be yourself. Be your re-invented self. This goes contrary to a lot of business wisdom out there. However, if you are consistently adding to your portfolios, you will be an interesting subject for a job interview or a client interview.
What can we say? It’s a jungle out there and getting tougher. You need to learn to play the game with finesse, or settle for an under-funded retirement and a shuffleboard court in Sun City.
Michael Willard is chairman of Willard and international vice-chairman of All About Brands. He can be reached at [email protected]
Whether the challenge is an economic downturn, growing competitive pressure or merely a seasonal lull in business, every business faces slow times occasionally. It may not be as important to analyze what caused the slump in sales as it is to address the issue of recovery.
Here are six solid suggestions that should stimulate turnaround thinking:
1. Take chances. While others are hunkering down, take strategic risks that have a reasonable chance of success.
2. Let the cream rise to the top. Stretch your people. If you can’t motivate them to work harder now to put food on their table in a downturn, they are probably not keepers in the long run.
3. Emphasize service. Service can be a great differentiator. People want to work with people who appreciate their business. Don’t just say that you offer great service, go the extra mile for client and they’ll do the talking for you.
4. Get noticed. If you are an advertiser, advertise and promote. If you are an agency, advertise and promote. When others are in retreat, digging in and ‘saving money’ – that’s when the marketplace will hear your message most clearly. Charge!
5. Think long term. Eventually, the storm clouds will pass. Now is the time you want to position yourself for future growth.
6. Learn new things. You have the time. This is not the time to take a long vacation. It is the time to think seriously about your company, your product, your agency.
6 Tips For Thrivingin Tight Markets
Remember – tattoo it on your arm or somewhere – survival in the business world is about attitude and not age.
We occasionally examine the words used, misused and abused by the advertising, marketing and public relations business. In our “Lazy Lexicon” feature, we highlight a word that more often than not doesn’t mean what it says.
By giving one reporter favorable treatment, there is a possibility that other reporters covering the same
beat will feel slighted
“Exclusive”
dictionary23
Lazy Lexicon
E XCLUSIVE is one of the most misunderstood words in the business. In a media context, an ‘exclusive’ can be a story developed by an enterprising reporter that no one else has, or it can be an exclusive interview given to a particular journalist or publication that appears nowhere else. Every journalist, of course, would prefer that all of his or her stories flowed from brilliant investigative work and developed from information that competing reporters either couldn’t ferret out or simply did not pursue.
In the PR business, it is common for a company, politician or institution to feel that there will be better, more complete coverage of a story if the facts are handed over exclusively to a single publication or broadcast outlet. And, to be honest, companies that give exclusive stories feel that this will ensure more favorable treatment, particularly if a PR professional is guiding the story. Exclusives can be dangerous, though.
By giving one reporter favorable treatment, there is a possibility that other reporters covering the same beat will feel slighted. There is also a good chance – if the story is not a real bell-ringer – that other media outlets will ignore the story once it is out.
On the other hand, most publications are sufficiently mature to know that exclusives are given from time to time, and that the PR professional probably had a specific reason for letting one journalist know a story before releasing it to others. One scenario that should be avoided, however, is releasing information as an exclusive when, in fact, the news value does not rate “exclusive” status, and is merely a common, garden-variety story.
Many journalists, on the other hand, aren’t too concerned about how exclusive the story really is. Often, they equate a private, one-on-one interview with exclusivity – even if the interview is one in an assembly line of such interviews being conducted on the same topic and on the same day.
“Leader”
dictionary 24
Q uick, what company do you associate with this statement: “We are a leader in the nation’s mobile phone sector.” Are you thinking T-Mobile? Orange? Etisalat?
If you named any company at all, you’d be right. The fact is that any one of these companies would have occasion to lay claim to the ‘L-word’ in some regard, but mobile phone companies aren’t alone. Every business refers to itself as a ‘leader’ in one way or another.
So, what’s the problem? The sad fact is that we can’t all be leaders. To lead, there must be followers. If nobody’s following, nobody’s leading. Worse than that, ‘leader’ has become a weasel word, a lazy way to claim you’re number one, even when you are quite aware that you are not.
It would be preferable to state that “Ajax Chemical sold
more agricultural defoliants last year than all other companies combined.” That’s an accurate and defensible statement. It’s specific, while the bare assertion that “We’re the leader” is a barren boast, devoid of value to the inquiring consumer.
The truth is, most firms probably are better at some aspect of their business than their competitors. We live in a ‘niche’ world. That’s why the so-called consumer choice awards have so many subcategories: By carving out tiny segments (“Best Uzbek-language newspaper in Poltava”) we can all be winners.
Real leaders aren’t lazy, and they are honest. Before carelessly asserting that your company is a leader in its field, think of a more accurate, more informative and more specific claim, and use it instead.
That would be showing real leadership!
The sad fact is that we can’t all be leaders. To lead, there
must be followers
the presenter25
Tell a story, win an audienceBy Scott H. Lewis
love to see people improve their speaking skills. Over the years, I learned that desire has a lot to do with eventual success, and practice is certainly an element. There is, however, a secret to delivering an interesting presentation. It’s a remarkably simple approach, and one that leaves the speaker coming across as relaxed, friendly, and above all, competent.
The secret lies in the phrase, “Tell me a story.”
If you ask me to describe how the internal combustion engine works, I’ll first have to research the topic (I’m one of the few men with little interest in, much less understanding of, mechanics). Once educated, I’ll probably still fumble around a bit in an extemporaneous presentation on the topic, because it’s an alien subject to me – one with which I have neither familiarity nor interest.
Ask me, though, for a description of my last vacation, and I’ll enthusiastically paint word pictures. I’ll provide details of the people I met and places I visited, and tell a story or two that will bring my trip to life in your mind. Perhaps it will leave you wanting to see these places as well.
As a former journalist, I know that the best way to get anyone to talk about anything is to first get them talking about themselves. I am my favorite topic of conversation, just as, probably, you are yours. Forget charges of egotism – the truth is, we like to talk about ourselves, our families, our friends, our jobs and our travels because the subject matter is both familiar and interesting to us.
I can ask about four questions to almost anyone and prime their linguistic pump. That’s usually all it takes to find that “sweet spot” or “hot button” that loosens tongues.
I
the presenter 26
Once I have a subject rattling away on a favorite subject, they become relaxed. That’s when, as a reporter, I’d start asking my ‘real’ questions – and getting answers that would normally have been guarded under mental lock and key.
Sometimes, the wrong people make presentations – or rather, the presenter doesn’t match the presentation. We see this when the head of a department presents findings developed by a group of subordinates. The people who have the expertise deliver information to the boss, who lacks an intimate (much less enthusiastic) understanding of the data. Then everyone – including the boss – is surprised when the presentation falls short of expectations.
Sometimes the mark of a leader is to introduce a subordinate, then step aside and let the person who actually worked on the project make the presentation. They will be more at ease with the information, and will make a more natural presentation.
This does not mean that if you may understand the material completely, you cannot make a bad presentation. Never underestimate our innate ability to construct roadblocks to our own success!
Our preconceived ideas as to what the audience expects, what graphs or illustrations are required, and the degree of formality necessary all work to impede creation and delivery of a great presentation.
Rather than opening Power Point and starting to build slides full of data, text, graphs, charts, and the other flotsam and jetsam of corporate presentations, go into a quiet room with a tape recorder and ask yourself this question: “So, what’s your presentation about?”
With the recorder running, tell your story, just as you would if a colleague had asked the question. You’ll find that telling someone about your project is easy, and that you automatically organize your thoughts pretty well. Also, because it’s natural to tell others about what we’re doing, there will be no stress involved. Your palms will stay dry, and your heart won’t race.
When you’re finished, review the tape. You’ll hear a confident, organized and compelling speaker – you! Transcribe the tape. It’s the bulk of your presentation. Add the necessary charts and graphs, a short introduction and a shorter conclusion.
As you practice giving the presentation (yes, you will still need to practice), you’ll find that you feel comfortable and much more confident, whether you’re speaking to a tape recorder or an audience.
After all, you’re no longer making that dreaded important presentation, you’re just telling your listeners a story – a story that you know better than anyone!
Scott H. Lewis is an executive vice president at Willard. He can be reached at [email protected]
As a former journalist, I know that the best way to get anyone to talk
about anything is to first get them talking about
themselves.
Jean-Philippe Coulaud worked on Jacques Chirac’s presidential campaign and the auto industry before joining the Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council.
The best way to combat harmful rumors, crisis expert Roman Diukarev writes, is to investigate, determine the truth and fix the problem.
Reviving a flagging brand may feed a nostalgic need, but if the product’s audience is shrinking, it probably isn’t a worthwhile idea, says Amy Frengley.
Mark Rollinson says that, when working with creatives, it’s OK not to be the smartest person in the room. Work with the cleverest minds you can find, he recommends.
Spending on internet advertising topped GBP 35 billion in 2009 – surpassing TV ad spend for the first time.
FACTFILE
Welcome, All About Brands magazine! Willard is proud to welcome All About Brands magazine to its collection of publications. As a new member of the All About Brands group of companies, we are delighted to produce this exciting and colorful new periodical.
Watch for new issues five times a year. To contribute or advertise in our Abu Dhabi, London or Mumbai editions, contact: [email protected].
All About Brands magazine, Abu Dhabi edition, is published by All About Brands PLC, 77 St. Martin’s Lane, London, WC2N 4AA, U.K. The magazine is distributed without charge to corporate executives throughout the United Arab Emirates.
The magazine is produced by Willard, a full-service advertising, public relations and publishing firm headquartered in Kyiv, Ukraine; an All About Brands Company.
Publisher: All About Brands
Chief Editor: J. Michael Willard
Editors: Scott H. Lewis, Oksana Yerofeyeva
Designer: Denis Khaibulin
Illustrator: Ruslan Brygar
Contributors: Graham Anderson, Roman Diukarev, Amy Frengley, Viktor Nikolenko, Mark Rollinson, Andrew Mackay, Michael Willard, Scott Lewis, Allan Biggar.
Please address correspondence to:
To advertise, contact:
Publication Office:
Willard, 3/4, Malozemelna Street
Kyiv 02132, Ukraine
Fax: +38 (044) 353-1026
www.twgworld.com
Printed in Ukraine. ISSN 2220-542X
Welcome, All About Brands magazine!
