May 16, 2008
Half Way There
Thirty years ago, on a Monday morning, I began my career at Edelman, working as an account executive in the Chicago office. I had finished classes at business school on the Friday, counting on a long vacation with a much sought after young woman through the capitals of Europe. I was informed by my father, Dan, that the firm had won the commodity futures company, ContiCommodity Services, and that I was the best qualified person to work on the business. Therefore, I was to start immediately. You can imagine the phone conversation with the jilted fellow traveler. So much for the cushy job at a family business! My father had an offer in 1978 to be acquired by DDB Advertising but preferred to carry on as an independent on the premise that I would try the business for a year. So here I am at age 53, half way through my Edelman career-- my dad is 87 and works every day-- prepared to tell a few stories.
Funniest Client Event—The Lubbock Cotton Conference for ContiCommodity where I learned about donkey baseball, where each player is riding a jackass, and each play takes five minutes. They also held the chicken fly-off, where two fowl are colored in food dye (I bet on Wild Blue Yonder, the blue entry), thrown off the roof of a barn and the one flying the farthest wins. I also met up with Rocky Mountain Oysters, the chewiest, least delectable food item ever ingested; only my honeymoon dinner of the local specialty in Southern China, civet comes close.
Most Inspiring Pitch—In our bid for Fuji Photo Film’s 1984 Summer Olympics program we were joined by featured Sports Illustrated photographer Walter Iooss, who we thought might be able to capture American athletes training for and competing in the Los Angeles Games. While Jody Quinn and I nervously waited for one of the Fuji executives to trip over the power cord for our projector in our small conference room in New York office, Walter charmed the clients and helped us win our breakthrough assignment, “Shooting for the Gold.“
Faith intervened—Our pitch to the coalition of long distance telecom companies, interrupted by a snow alert in Washington, DC, which required all buildings to close but enabling us to come back the following week with a much improved proposal; Leslie Dach and I agreed it was divine intervention.
You Get What You Pay For —With the Fuji win, we had to expand the NY office. I hired a friend’s small construction firm to help us go into the space next door. Sitting at my typewriter at 6 pm on a Friday night, I heard and then saw a sledgehammer come through the wall over my desk. Shrieking at the top of my voice in English then Spanish to no avail, I ran outside to learn that the construction crew spoke Greek. So the wall came down and we moved the furniture by ourselves.
Client Most in Denial—Walking across the hazardous waste dump at Love Canal in upstate New York with my client from Hooker Chemical, with boarded-up homes around the perimeter closed by order of the Environmental Protection Agency, he said, “It doesn’t really smell that much, does it?” This was topped by my mother’s comment that night, “You wore your galoshes when you were on the site; we don’t want mutated grandchildren.”
Proudest Achievement—Working with NY office colleagues Russell Dubner, Loretta Ucelli and Justin Blake to create LowerManhattan.info, a web site for the City of New York on the rebuilding of Ground Zero and surrounding area, within two months, so that it was ready for the first anniversary of 9/11. This web site eventually became an important destination and the primary source of facts for more than a million visitors in the first year, and 8 million in the past six.
Oddest Meeting—Michael Morley and I were summoned to a Midtown Manhattan hotel for a sit-down with two gentlemen in trench coats. They asked us about Edelman, in particular our global experience. We were convinced as we left that they were from the CIA or FBI. It turns out they were respectively chief marketing officer and global communications director for Ernst & Whinney, which intended to merge with Arthur Young to create Ernst & Young, the largest professional services firm in the world. We worked in secret quarters for six weeks, making excuses to fellow staffers and spouses alike, to prepare this announcement.
I have led a charmed life. I was fortunate to have several mentors, including the late John Scanlon who taught me so much about crisis management; Dick Aurelio who turned me into an adequate writer; Michael Morley who convinced me that there was a big world to consider; the late Michael Deaver who informed my executive style and commitment to excellence; Leslie Dach who taught me how to put doing good for society at the center of a corporation’s purpose; my partner from the beginning, Pam Talbot who showed me how a powerful creative idea could change everything; and my father, Dan Edelman, who gave me the chance to run the New York office well before my time and stood by me as I learned to be regional manager of Europe, then CEO of the company. I am so grateful to our clients and to my colleagues who have made this possible. Now it is on to the next thirty years.
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May 8, 2008
The Candy Bombers
On my way to Seattle today, I picked up a new book by Andrei Cherny, The Candy Bombers, the story of the Anglo-American airlift of supplies to Berlin in 1948-9, that thwarted the Russian blockade of the German capital. Interwoven between high-stakes diplomatic and military maneuvering by the Cold War antagonists is the story of individual charity and heroism by American pilot Hal Halvorsen, the legendary Candy Bomber. How the American high command managed the most unusual behavior of this pilot provides a guide for business executives seeking to connect with stakeholders.
Lieutenant Halvorsen, wandering around Tempelhof Airfield in Berlin after making a delivery of flour to the embattled city, finds a group of German kids standing at the fence. He gives them his two remaining sticks of Wrigley Doublemint Gum, tearing each in half so four kids could have a treat. He said, “The expressions on their faces were incredulous, full of awe. If I brought back thirty cents of candy, I could put these guys on Easy Street,” he said. So he promised the children that he would drop candy down to them; they would know his plane because “it will be the one that wiggles its wings.” On his return to his base in Frankfurt, he and two friends bought their weekly allotment of gum and candy, then found junk twine and an extra handkerchief “to fashion a miniature parachute.” Good to his word, he made his “candy delivery” the following day, then twice more. Within days, a stack of mail appeared at Tempelhof, envelopes addressed in crayon to the “Onkel Wackelflugel (Uncle Wiggly Wings) or “Schokoladen Flieger” (The Chocolate Flyer).
About two weeks later, Halvorsen is ushered into the office of the US Commanding General Tunner, anticipating a court-martial or other discipline. Cherny writes, “Tunner beckoned him forward, and rather than giving him a court-martial, he offered his congratulations. He had realized immediately the enormous psychic boost the candy drops could have on Berliners. In this new kind of war they were fighting, a battle for allegiance and affections as much as for territory…Tunner did not send him to the brig, he sent him to go speak to the press.” Halvorsen coined the phrase, “Operation Little Vittles” to describe his one man kids’ campaign. From Associated Press to ABC News, the media made Halvorsen a military hero, “the public face of the otherwise anonymous pilots flying the airlift…representing a larger idea, the moral responsibility to help humans caught in a struggle.” Then Halvorsen was sent back to New York City in September, 1948 for a media tour, including an appearance on CBS’ “We the People” show. On his return to Germany, he found over 800 pounds of candy and hundreds of handkerchiefs donated by viewers of the program, which were delivered by 30 other pilots. Cherny states that, “Hal Halvorsen and the Airlift had showed that for democracy to take root it required a change in hearts and minds more than in economic conditions, that America’s strength is not just military muscle but an undisputedly moral voice.”
What are the lessons in this for business? Grassroots sentiment is best changed by spontaneous actions of individuals prompted by strong convictions. These acts may stray outside of the corporate codes of conduct but the nobility of purpose overwhelms the technical violation. This applies both to employees and to those outside, including communities and civil society. Business is best served by being open to these types of entrepreneurial acts, recognizing that brands are expected to have a broader social purpose. To harness this energy, business will need to be open to change and to compromise, to co-creation of a better mutual end point. The benefits in brand sales and corporate reputation make this the wise course. I would appreciate your comments as always.
Posted by Edelman at 10:14 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
May 1, 2008
Chicago 1968
I was walking through Lincoln Park on Sunday en route to the Chicago Historical Society and came upon an old water trough on the bridal path, used by equestrians for their horses. It also was the watering hole for the Chicago Latin football team circa 1968 as we struggled back from our summer practice sessions in 90 degree heat. As I passed through the Society’s new exhibit on the history of Chicago, I watched a video on the two riots in 1968, one in April provoked by the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, the other during the Democratic Convention in August. There was Mayor Richard J. Daley, defiantly ordering his police department to “shoot to kill arsonists, shoot to maim looters,” during the April upheaval, and again in August defending the police action against protestors seeking to upstage the Convention. I will never forget our football coach, formerly a professional with the San Diego Chargers, telling us, “Gentlemen, strap on your helmets. We are going to go onto the field through these hippies.” We subsequently ran wind sprints with tear gas hanging in the air and the chants of, “Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh, Ho Chi Minh is going to win,” in our ears from the activists storming police positions.
I discovered an excellent book on this period at the Society’s book store, called Chicago 68 by David Farber. The author lays out a fascinating theory of public relations as practiced by Abbie Hoffman, founder of the Yippies (Youth International Party), the key protagonists during the Democratic Convention. Farber writes, “The changing form of the mass media changed the way people perceived and thus made their way through reality. Because of radio, people over fifty have to hear it to believe it; because of TV, people thirty to fifty have to see it to believe it; and because of the fact that people under thirty had grown up hip to the ways TV manufactured images, in order to get them to believe in something they needed to do more than just hear it or see it—they have to feel it to believe it and that means inventing a whole new medium that begins with and depends on involvement and participation, that defines reality through immediacy rather than through passivity, that replaces explanation with actualization.” So Hoffman changed his language from “well reasoned, polished graduate school rhetoric to a hip patois, redolent with ‘you knows, groovy, cool.’ He also developed a new kind of “public happening, street theater, focused absurdity, startling put-ons,” inspired by performance art that breaks down the barrier between actor and audience and by the live comedies of the TV Golden Age, Farber contends. In Hoffman’s words, “Myth must create a participation mystique. It must have a high element of risk, drama, excitement and bullshit.”
In 1969, both my mother and I had our own experiences with Abbie Hoffman, then on trial as part of the famous Chicago 8, including Rennie Davis, Jerry Rubin and the Black Panther Bobby Seale whose mouth was taped shut before every court session because he shouted to interrupt the proceedings. Somehow my mother was friendly with Judge Julius Hoffman, a Mr. Magoo look alike who was presiding over the court. She went to the visitors’ gallery with two of her friends for a day, only to be lampooned in a New York Times article by famed journalist Tony Lukas as “Judge Hoffman’s Gold Coast Chicago socialite girlfriends.” During Christmas vacation, I also went to court and was harassed by Abbie Hoffman, sticking out his tongue and wildly waving his hands in my face. But the man saw the future and brought it to bear in Chicago forty years ago. Hoffman was working at all levels of consciousness, from in person experiences leading to word of mouth, to creating visual images appealing to mass media. In our present communications world, it is the intersection of mass media based on interpretation by experts and personal media premised on individual involvement. I would appreciate your comments as always.
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April 25, 2008
Alliance of Belief
I attended the annual dinner of the Atlantic Council of the United States on Monday night in Washington, DC. Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, delivered the keynote address. His central thesis was that the world needs to move beyond alliances based on interests to an Alliance of Belief. He argued that there are certain universal values that are common to humanity and key to governance in the 21st century. Among these are freedom and justice, which must be the foundation for our way of life. Mr. Blair went on to say that these values need to be accepted as universal rather than Western, particularly by those in the Middle East. “We are in a battle of ideas,” the former Prime Minister said. “We must explain what we stand for and why, to address concerns so that we forge an alliance of conviction.” He added, “The idea that the West suppresses Muslims and Muslim culture is absurd. We must confront this myth and persuade Muslims of our acceptance of diversity.” He went on to espouse a combination of force and attraction, going beyond the minimum needs of security toward a better mutual understanding.
The next day, I heard Dr. Henry Kissinger, former US Secretary of State, describe a quite different theory of governance, one premised on balance of power. He suggested that as Asia is emerging as the new center of gravity, there is the potential for a 19th century system of interlocking alliances (think of Metternich’s Europe post Napoleon). The interests of the world “should be to prevent the emergence of an Asian bloc,” he said, by maintaining close connections between US, Europe and the three key nations of China, India and Japan. Dr. Kissinger did acknowledge a gap between the economic organization of the world which embraces globalization and the political organization which resists this logic in favor of preserving the status quo via protectionism and nationalism. He agreed that there are issues such as environment and energy that can only be solved on a global basis. But his basis approach is one of interaction of elites in business and government, establishing rules to be followed by others, a classic application of the pyramid of influence.
So here is the contrast between the new and old worlds on government or business management, between soft power and hard power, the multiple stakeholder model of Blair versus the realpolitik of Kissinger. A traditional approach to issues management for business is to create an alliance of interested parties who can bring special influence to bear on the legislative process, often times aimed at slowing regulation. I am reminded of the incredibly humorous section of "Thank You for Smoking" novel by Christopher Buckley, in which he describes a regular meeting of the alcohol, firearms and tobacco lobbyists, who describe themselves as the Merchants of Death. This was the period of the “inside game” when the right connections in Washington, often shaped by political contributions, helped business to shape the political agenda. In the new world of transparency and wisdom of crowds, companies have to be prepared to make their case to the outside world. There will need to be different sorts of alliances, with civil society and communities, with employees and passionate consumers. Without an informed debate, politicians will bow to the path of least resistance and will remove business’ license to operate at the first sign of problems. Our job as PR people must be to introduce the views of the non-traditional stakeholders, to sit at the policy-making table to shape outcomes not just communication.
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April 17, 2008
Local Newspapers Reboot
I spent an hour yesterday morning with Brian Tierney, former PR man, now publisher of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News. Earlier this week, at an Edelman University class, I moderated a discussion with three senior journalists, John Fund of the Wall Street Journal (a national paper), Ellis Henican of Newsday and Robert George of the NY Post. Here are a few of the most important trends:
1) Newspapers remain “the best way to get ideas across,” according to Henican. Most bloggers are linking to stories that originate in mainstream media, he added. But Henican acknowledged that “newspapers are no longer a sufficient platform for journalists who want a voice in the public conversation.” He appears on Fox (as George does on CNN and Fund on Sunday morning public affairs TV) because “people think I am a better writer when they see me on TV battling Bill O’Reilly (a conservative anchorman on Fox) “You cannot have a career on the talent side of idea-driven media without being on multiple platforms.” Fund especially likes going on radio because “you have to listen to the content; people are more likely to retain the key facts.”
2) Newspapers see themselves as offering news analysis. Fund noted that, “In almost every story that has a headline, the facts are already known. We add the interpretation. We are no longer in the Olympian objective authority role.” Mr. George suggested that this trend was “back to the future” in that 19th century American journalism was highly opinionated. “Hearst even got America into the Spanish American War,” he noted.
3) Newspapers are finding new ways to make money on the advertising side, to fill the large hole left by the demise of classified employment ads. An example is the sponsorship of the PhillyInc column, a gossipy take on business, by Citizens Bank or the Inquirer Express back page summary of the news sponsored by Commerce Bank. In both cases, these were new editorial products.
4) Publishers are following the example of their magazine brethren in developing campaigns for advertisers. An example is an upcoming promotion for Miller Beer in which the Inquirer Media Lab did the creative work, Tierney said. Advertising revenue from auto dealers, retailers, real estate and cinema is somewhat diminished from peak levels of year 2000 but not significantly so.
5) There is still large pass-along readership so that the true numbers for the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News total audience is 1.2 million (about 2.5 multiple on the 370,000 Inquirer circulation and 3 multiple on the 150,000 Daily News circulation). One important statistic to remember: 52% of Americans pick up a newspaper every day, about 70% of those over age 18, even more on Sunday (Inquirer circulation is twice as large on Sunday)
6) Within 18 months, there will be printers on the market that will allow a bound personal version of a newspaper, according to Mr. Fund. “People love the idea of choice; your newspaper, with the stories you want at the length you want them.”
7) The web versions of local newspapers are seeking to create micro-communities (Tierney is particularly excited by the potential of Philly.com, which offers content from both of his papers but also consumer generated content) around music, food and health.
This emphasizes to me that media plans should be anchored by local media. My father, Dan Edelman, recognized the power of local media by creating the media tour in the early 50s, taking the show “on the road” by booking spokespeople in markets around the US. In fact, many of the local columnists are seeking stories that are national in importance but have a local angle (note my interview with Cheryl Hall of the Dallas Morning News on the Edelman Trust Barometer from earlier this week). I would appreciate your comments as always.
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