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January 30, 2008
Davos Brain Dump
I have just returned from four days at the World Economic Forum. It was the most interesting WEF in my ten years of going to Davos, because the world stock markets had just plunged; the Societe Generale debacle was uncovered; the Federal Reserve Bank had reduced the discount rate by ¾ of a point; and the attendees were confused about the implications for the coming year.
On the first day, the consensus was that the US was already in a recession, which would deepen and take the rest of the world with it. This view was widely promoted by former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, who talked about the US “getting its comeuppance”, being only halfway through its period of trouble, a position echoed by financial services titans such as John Thain, formerly of the NY Stock Exchange, now CEO of Merrill Lynch. Meanwhile, CEOs of major companies in technology, marketing and consumer products quietly disagreed, noting that their business was continuing to move ahead, albeit a bit more slowly. By the end of the week, the viewpoints of the two sides converged, agreeing that the US was in a real slowdown (but not recession) for the next two to three quarters, to be followed by Japan now and Europe later in the year, but that the rest of the world, especially Brazil, China, India and Russia would move ahead smartly.
Rather than my usual tome on the twenty sessions I attended, I will give you my top ten Davos moments:
1) Evolution of Advertising—David Kenny, CEO of Digitas, said that advertising is moving from impressions to engagement, to serve the consumer by entertaining, informing, offering value or a way to express yourself. “The PC will know who you are, reading the patterns of where you travel or what you buy, then pulling the right ad from the air, actually dynamic advertising.” Paul Sagan, CEO of Akamai, talked about “contextual sidebars” which offer more information about products on line and a product in test at Microsoft known as AURA which allows a consumer to point a mobile phone at a product in store and find out whether it is green enough. Mark Read of WPP said that interactive advertising in the UK will be larger than TV advertising in 2009.
2) Challenge to Media—“We are trading mainstream media dollars for digital pennies,” said Jeff Zucker, CEO of NBC Universal. Sagan added that, “The subsidy for content is now decoupled, especially as classified ads evaporate from newspapers. He said that a newspaper needs 50-100 digital customers to make up for one print subscriber.” Geoff Sands of McKinsey reported that younger consumers of news are “promiscuous on brands,” relying on 12-16 news sources, half of them on line, with an emphasis on convenience as opposed to quality. The real issue is how to maintain high quality news coverage, especially investigative news, which is expensive and difficult to do. Good journalism used to mean good business; now it is not clear this is so.
3) Scariest Statistic—Did you know that half of the fuel that is imported to the US goes via the Port of Los Angeles (also 40% of the containers)? Or that per capita energy consumption in China is now only 16% of the US and 30% of Japan? Or that the consumer spending accounts for 71% of US Gross Domestic Product, while in China it is only 39%? Or that China spends 8% of GDP on infrastructure, the US only .2%? Or that the switch from a vegetarian to a red meat based diet means five times the consumption of wheat (demand for feed up 1-2% per year), at the same time as biofuels are being pushed as an alternative to hydrocarbons?
4) A Most Impressive Mind—Prime Minister Gordon Brown of the United Kingdom may not be as charismatic as his predecessor, Tony Blair, but his analysis on the intersection of business and government was incisive; he warned in particular against protectionism and heavy handed regulation. He asked the United Nations to expel “failed states” such as Zimbabwe, while calling for a revision of the charter of the World Bank (to fund environmental projects not just development) and demanding the International Monetary Fund act as a early warning system.
5) Best Speaker, Most Controversial Content—US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is passionate, funny and inspirational. Her defense of the Bush Doctrine was incredibly articulate. She argued that American realism “does not accept a difference between our principles/ideals and our interests,” advocated a “just model of economic development” and that “human imperfection makes democracy even more important.” The crowd began to titter in opposition as she asked, “Is a democratic Middle East just a dream? Is it worse than the Syrian occupation of Lebanon…the violent forces of reaction must be defeated.”
6) Hope for the Doha Trade Round—Pascal Lamy, chief negotiator, outlined the terms for an agreement in agriculture, at present the key stumbling block for the 152 nations discussing the 60 parameters for the treaty. Subsidies in the developed world would drop by 70-80%, agricultural tariffs in developing nations would decline by 50-60% but all nations would retain some flexibility to protect politically sensitive crops (rice in Japan, for example) by quota. Susan Schwab, the US negotiator, and Peter Mandelsohn of the EU, both claimed to have sufficient political capital to get a fair deal approved.
7) The Challenge for Eco-Friendly Products—Six of ten consumers in the US and UK say they are confused about whether they are indeed buying an environmentally friendly product and 75% of the same group say they don’t know how to make a difference on environment. Timberland CEO Jeff Swartz said consumers are not willing to pay more for the “eco-label,” noting that boots made of recycled tires and organic cotton did not sell. An IPSOS study indicated that consumers are willing to pay only $46 more on a $1000 purchase to buy a green product. Professor Ariely of MIT said that consumers need “an identifiable victim,” to humanize the ecology story, to put emotion into the purchase decision by appealing to the ego and by applying peer pressure.
8) Power of Business Philanthropy—Matthew Bishop, US editor of the Economist and author of a soon to be released book on the subject, said that government does not want to support philanthropic ventures now, given other priorities, leaving it to business to innovate. He suggested a partnership of business, government and Non-Governmental Organizations as the best and most credible way forward. In fact one third of school places in Africa are now supplied by business or NGOs. Indra Nooyi, CEO of Pepsico, said that in multi-sector initiatives, business often gets frustrated by lack of a clear leader; the parties must agree on this and be accountable for progress. Business should stick close to its core competence, where it can make a distinct impact, she added. Alberto Weisser, CEO of Bunge, talked about partnering with Conservation International and the Brazilian Government, helping local farmers change how they operate, preserving biodiversity.
9) Progress in Cancer Research—Francis Collins of the National Institutes of Health and Dr. John Mendelsohn of M.D. Anderson Hospital talked about the potential for addressing somatic (mutations during lifetime) and germ line (hereditary) cancers. As part of the human genome project, by sequencing DNA in a massively parallel manner, doctors are able to isolate overproducing highly mutated cells in tumors (Gleevec first drug for this, in leukemia) rather than all fast dividing cells (chemotherapy). Cancer rates per capita are dependent on diet, environment and heredity, with more gastric cancer in Japan, head and neck cancer in China and prostate cancer in the US.
10) Saying Kaddish with Elie Wiesel—I was asked by the chief rabbi for Russia, Beryl Lazar, to join the Nobel Prize winner in saying prayers for his dead father. As you may recall, I went to Auschwitz-Birkenau this past summer, having read Wiesel’s moving story, Night, about his time in the death camp. As I watched the now elderly Wiesel, his face lined and his hair tousled under his yarmulke, I thought about Martin Becker praying before the ovens for his own parents, about my youngest daughter’s upcoming bat mitzvah and about my own father.
As always, it was my favorite four days of the year. Forget about all those tales of champagne quaffing CEOs; it is the ultimate brain dump! I would appreciate your comments on my Davos experience.
Posted by Edelman at 6:27 PM
Comments
I think we should have MORE of "Davos" as opposed to less. Those of us who engage at several levels for change, realize that experience brings wisdom which helps achieve consensus. Or at least that is what I hope.
Your report was very appreciated.
Thank you.
Posted by: carolina gallo at January 31, 2008 9:58 AM
Richard,
Interesting points re: Sec't Rice. She's done a great deal of foundation setting work this past year... but, how to keep it going?
If the Republican leadership had an ounce of sense, they'd ask Cheney to step aside on Wednesday as the pundits crown their nominee. Cheney leaving could take the war issue with him, especially if the leadership promotes Rice into the VP position. She is then an ideal VP candidate for either nominee. McCain needs her youth and she'd be a solid successor. Romney needs international savvy and a Washington pro. Either way, she could also render the Dem's gender/race card useless.
Posted by: Edw3rd at February 3, 2008 2:13 PM
Well, at least they're taking the ecological aspect a little more seriously now. Although they don't really know how to go about it yet, the fact that they're addressing the environment and its impact on the economy seems like a positive thing.
Posted by: Julie, writer surefirewealth.com at February 4, 2008 8:24 AM
Very interesting and useful article. Thanks. 'Impressions to engagement' - I agree with this. However, I certainly think that creative advertising / emotional engagement will always be important (just look at the success of virals such as Cadbury's Gorilla, and so on).
Posted by: Eamon at February 4, 2008 4:58 PM
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| TrackBackJanuary 22, 2008
TRUST 2008
I am on my way up to Davos for my favorite four days of the year at the World Economic Forum. We will be unveiling the ninth edition of the Edelman Trust Barometer tomorrow morning. We expanded this year’s study to include -- for the first time -- 25-to-34 year old opinion leaders in 12 countries, sampled concurrently with the 35-to-64-year-old group in 18 countries.
Here are the key findings from this year's study:
First – Business has opportunity to take on dual mandate of making money while addressing major societal issues: Trust in business is much higher than trust in government in 14 of the 18 countries where we conducted the survey. The gap is highest since we began the survey and especially wide in the US and the developing world except in China.
Second – Consider heritage: Trust in companies is linked to national origin, industry sector and specific events. We find a trust advantage for Canadian, Swedish and German companies and discount for Chinese, Russian, Mexican and Indian companies. Big American brands, such as McDonalds, continue to operate with a trust discount in Europe. The technology and biotech sectors are most trusted, the insurance and banking least trusted, with pharmaceuticals and energy trending up. Events of past weeks have taken a substantial toll on financial service brands such as Citigroup and Merrill Lynch. As of a week ago, less than a quarter (24%) of adult Americans trusted Citigroup to do what is right and the equivalent trust for Merrill Lynch was 35%.
Third – Communicate peer-to-peer, as well as top-down: There is highest trust in ‘people like me’ and experts such as ‘academics’, ‘doctors’ and ‘financial analysts.’ Trust in CEOs remains mired at around 20%, same as for past five years. In contrast, trust in an ‘average employee’ is twice as high as trust in a CEO, indicating that CEOs need others to reinforce their communications to stakeholders.
Fourth – Align corporate reputation with consumer brands: The four drivers of business trust globally, in this order, are: Customer (quality of products, service, value), reputation (social & environmental record, place to work), leadership (financial, CEO, industry), and local familiarity (local presence, someone you trust works at the firm).
Fifth – Media is more important today than ever: Mainstream media continues to be the most credible source of information about companies, particularly business magazines, followed by analyst reports with newspapers and TV. Trust in media as an institution is at a high point in the study’s history, with marked increases over past year standings in the U.K., Germany, the United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, and India. The definition of media is expanded to include social media.
Sixth – Corporate communications must incorporate social media: As you might expect, social media matters most to the 25 to 34 age group. For instance, Wikipedia is listed as the #2 most credible source of information about companies in the US, after business magazines. Google—which aggregates news - is cited as one of only three global media sources listed in every market we survey. The other two are CNN and BBC. Also, use of social media for company information is generally highest in BRIC countries.
Seventh — Engage the info-ential generation to build a beachhead: The 25-to-34 year old group is more trusting of business, less xenophobic and more reliant on multiple sources of information than their older counterparts.
In conclusion, as we seem to be heading toward recession, the goal for business should be to maintain their license to operate. This depends on banking trust capital by running a good business, taking on large societal issues in the context of profit making opportunities and presenting the business case in a transparent and convincing manner.
I will be blogging during the week. Hope to hear from you.
Richard
Click here for a copy of the press release.
Click here for the Financial Times' review of the findings.
The 2008 Trust Barometer Report will be published on Thursday, January 24.
Posted by Edelman at 2:22 PM
Comments
Regarding people's lack of trust in governments (finding #1) and the higher degree of trust that people place in "people like me" and the "average employee" (finding #3), it is apparent to me that the US Government efforts in Strategic Communications and Public Diplomacy would greatly benefit from enabling government officials to engage key audiences via new and traditional media in their area of expertise and within the purview of their position.
In short, government officials should be enabled to "blog at their paygrade."
Posted by: Charlie at January 23, 2008 1:11 AM
Have a good time! I´ll be 'listening' to you.
Benito Castro, from Sevilla, Spain.
Posted by: Benito Castro at January 23, 2008 2:18 AM
Greetings from Copenhagen, Richard. I am a former Edelman employee (New York) and am now living in Denmark. I saw your interview with Richard Quest on CNN yesterday. You are looking well. Congratulations on getting the word out about the survey. Best regards, Laura Stadler-Jensen
Posted by: Laura Stadler-Jensen at January 24, 2008 3:54 AM
In a study that limits itself to people who are college-educated,
and report a household income in the top quartile of their country are the most likely beneficiaries of the ideals and practices of the Business sector. This study proves conclusively that people who do well in business trust Business. Remarkable.
Adding the younger people whose income is in the top quartile of their country further skews the results, because younger business people have had fewer negatives in their experiences with Business.
Just thought I'd share my point of view.
Posted by: Ruth Ayres at January 25, 2008 11:26 AM
Greeting from South Korea!!
Hello, Iam Smreo from Korea. I am a student studying mass communication and management.
I think that WEF in Davos has became world wide big event. The Swinniess PR idea is great! Now we can say 'Davos in world around.'
Posted by: smreo at January 30, 2008 11:54 AM
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| TrackBackJanuary 17, 2008
It Could Happen To You
It began as an all so normal Tuesday, and then an email flashed across my screen from my colleague and fellow blogger, David Brain, in London. On his RSS feed from FT.com, he received an article titled, “Companies Warned on Social Reports,” written by the Financial Times’ hedge fund reporter, James Mackintosh.
The journalist reported on a special report from the UK-based investor group, Morley, which stated that 78 listed companies and 904 companies overall are “breaching pledges” to the United Nations Global Compact by “failing to produce the updates required by the scheme.” Among the companies named in the article were: Standard Chartered Bank; Premier Oil; Bouygues Telecom; and Edelman. The head of engagement at the Morley fund, Steve Waygood, goes on to suggest that the Global Compact needs this compliance mechanism requiring regular communication updates to “protect the credibility” of the initiative.
I nearly fell out of my chair because Edelman was one of the first companies to join the Global Compact and for years was one of only five American companies on the Global Compact. Edelman has regularly provided updates to the Global Compact including our CSR report and we have recommended the Global Compact to many of our clients.
Our first call was to the reporter at the FT, who acknowledged that he had not reached out to us but said that he was relying on the UN Global Compact database and the Morley report. He said that he planned to do no further reporting on the subject.
Our second call was to the Global Compact. We found to our dismay that in fact the UN did not have our CSR report on file and that therefore we were technically in violation. The UN official said, “This is just a yellow card for companies (using a football match analogy) to encourage them to get with the program.” I was frustrated that we had not made certain that the UN had our Report, but also I was pretty vehement, suggesting the UN could have a bit more affirmative program for checking on regular members’ compliance and keeping better files. We immediately produced evidence of our missive to the UN in mid 2006, which included our first CSR report, and asked that we be removed from the list of offenders. This was accomplished by Tuesday evening. I received a letter of apology from Georg Kell, director of the Global Compact, on Wednesday morning.
Our third call was to the trade media, especially to PRWeek in the UK, which was onto the story from midday on Tuesday. We gave them our evidence of compliance with the communications requirement of the Global Compact. They decided not to file a story.
Our fourth call was to the Morley Fund, to explain the mistake and to request that we be removed from the list of offending enterprises. We did the same to the FT.com, which has complied with our request.
There are a few lessons for companies in this contretemps. First, make sure that you do not take your friends in civil society for granted. We should have followed up our 2006 mailing with a phone call to make sure it was received and was sufficient. We could have been doing a better job of continuous updating, specifically our appointment of a global environmental procurement officer in the past few months. Second, you have to deal with a problem at the source, in our case at the Global Compact. Both Morley Fund and the FT were reporting on facts provided by the NGO. Third, do all of this with speed. From the moment the story was posted on Tuesday, we were on the case with all stakeholders, from our trade media to our internal constituency, with details of our commitment to the UN Global Compact posted on Edelman.com within five hours.
I hope the above proves thought provoking and is helpful as you confront your own challenges. I would appreciate your own stories via comment on this post.
Posted by Edelman at 11:28 AM
Comments
Well at least it proves that Edelman eats its own dog food when it comes to reputation management.
Posted by: Ged Carroll at January 17, 2008 1:40 PM
Hi, It's my first time signing your blog although I've been reading it for sometime now. I just looked through your New Media Summit Agenda. I'm quite surprised that in this digital age, you haven't actually invited the one's who are truly leading this revolution: the youth.
For the panel, "Enabling the digital revolution," you have invited professors and authors - but not a single youth! A little ironic, don't you think? How could you represent a true debate without their voices?
Although I graduated college in 05 (And I studied journalism) I know I have quite a few opinions about how enabled my digital generation is. Richard, I think you should invite me and my friends to come represent the youth at that panel. I'm afraid, without our voices, you won't be presenting a balanced point of view.
What are your thoughts? I'd like to hear them.
Posted by: Jinal Shah at January 22, 2008 10:42 AM
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| TrackBackJanuary 11, 2008
Out From Behind the Wall
Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal editorial page ran a story titled “WSJ.com/opinion” with a sub-head “A free editorial page lunch.” In short, the Journal’s editorial page is coming out from behind the wall, through the merging of OpinionJournal.com and WSJ.com/opinion.
At lunch today with Gordon Crovitz, who stepped down recently as publisher of The Wall Street Journal but will continue to write a column for the editorial page, I learned that WSJ.com has 10 million unique visitors a month. They are going to the public home page which offers short story blurbs, to the 20 vertical blogs on law, health, real estate and careers and to feature content such as the Juggle on managing a career and a family. One of the most popular spots on WSJ.com is James Taranto’s Best of the Web Today, now in its sixth year, which comments on and aggregates news.
I learned from my discussions with beat reporters at the Journal that 70% of the time is spent on reporting, about 30% on writing, 10% on recording video and 20% on blogging. These numbers add up to more than 100% because there is some overlap, between content creation and dissemination.
The key question is how public relations must change alongside the evolution of mainstream media. We can still do the time-honored media relations, in which we propose stories, arrange interviews with clients and third party experts. But we can also now point mainstream media to important posts by bloggers or to content posted by companies that is high quality and easily accessed (such as video).
So let’s say that you are at a PR firm representing a diabetes drug. The mainstream media has been reluctant to cover the category. You come across this interesting blog written by Amy Tenderich, a Bay Area resident and a Type One Diabetes patient, called DiabetesMine.com. You see that she wrote a letter to Steve Jobs which sparked the design of a next generation diabetes measurement gadget. You learn that it attracts 30,000 unique visitors a month. So you offer Amy an interview with the doctor running the important clinical trial with a human interest angle with a few of the patients who have benefited. Amy posts and you are off and running in the long tail. Note a few recent posts: http://www.diabetesmine.com/2007/09/where-healthcar.html and http://www.diabetesmine.com/2007/09/health-20-a-mov.html. Scott Hensley, the WSJ health blogger, picks up on the story for his blog and you are working in a new media-eco system.
We are operating in a world of the Venn diagram, the intersection of circles, where patients are bloggers and prominent media taps into the vox populi. The walled gardens are crumbling but great media brands still matter, especially when they open the way for consumer generated content as part of the discussion. I would appreciate your input as always.
Posted by Edelman at 4:03 PM
Comments
For anyone like myself that attended CES this past week, they will be the first people to tell you how important blogs and new media is today. I'd say more than 50% of the journalists at the event were bloggers, but also many of the mainstream representatives from top-tier publications also noted at various times how they had seen information on such and such a product written about on X blog or X Web site. We as an industry really need to think of ways to better explore this medium and communicate with our clients the importance of blogs. It really is to our benefit to explore these opportunities in addition to traditional media outlets.
Best regards,
Andrew
PR Exec (NYC)
Posted by: Andrew at January 14, 2008 5:13 PM
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| TrackBackJanuary 4, 2008
A Few Things to Watch For In 2008
Every other pundit is making his or her list for the coming year. Here is my forecast for the PR business for 2008.
1) Ever closer link between corporate reputation and brands. Over the past five years, there has been a growing recognition among PR executives that corporate image cannot stand apart from brand marketing. In fact, companies such as Procter & Gamble which had previously emphasized brands (Tide, Crest) to the consumer and downplayed the corporate brand have changed their policy. Now smart companies are taking on big issues such as environment, living wage and education, often with brands taking a leading role. Brand managers are concerned about issues that go beyond traditional marketing and sales, including production methods, sustainable inputs and packaging, because they want to reflect good values as well as value to customers.
2) Financial services companies will be in a long term reputation re-building mode and will require serious investment in PR. The benefits of innovation in this sector are clear but the lack of transparency and now loss of trust mean that this sector can no longer simply speak substantively to opinion leaders while selling to customers. One idea for bankers is to emulate the pharmaceutical industry in offering affordable product to those most in need (restructuring of sub-prime loans is the place to start).
3) Sovereign wealth funds such as Singapore’s Temasek will be this year’s private equity poster boys for greed unless fast action is taken. You can be sure that difficult economic circumstances in the US, UK and Europe will provoke politicians such as John Edwards to grab the issue of rapacious foreigners swooping in to buy distressed assets. PR can play a vital role in explaining the rationale for overseas investment and the ultimate use of funds in home markets for education, infrastructure and environmental improvements.
4) The digital aspect of public relations will continue to develop apace, but we need to focus on those aspects of Web 2.0 where we have comparative advantage. Ideas with a public service element, facilitating dialogue with third parties, creating authoritative content linked to credible primary sources, and campaigns asking for stakeholder expertise and experience are the sweet spot. We can compete with digital firms and ad agencies but let’s do it from strength. Let’s also recognize that our biggest job is to convert our account staff into Web 2.0 players, to assure that they are sufficiently broad in their reading/viewing habits, incorporating video content into their work and committed to transparency and quality in content provided to the community. PR is a true growth industry because we rely on dialogue, shareholder engagement and relationships, but only if we truly embrace digital.
5) China will be an even bigger focus for news in the coming year, given the Beijing Olympics, trade, electoral politics in the US, environment and product quality issues. As per my last post, the Chinese Government is committed to change in its communications policy. The trade-off between economic growth and environment is so evident. Investment in infrastructure is struggling to keep up with development. According to economist Richard Sandor, nine new subway lines will open in Beijing just in time for the Olympics so that cars can come off of the roads and air quality can improve.
6) The value of real people as spokesmen is only growing. Fred Krupp, director of Environmental Defense, is writing a book due out in March on why there is hope for environmental change. He focuses on stories of individuals, such as an entrepreneur in Alaska who is determined to build an ice hotel, despite global warming. The businessman finds a low energy cooler from United Technologies, which then enables him to succeed at low cost and reduced energy consumption.
7) The need to be true to your brand has never been more evident. When Columbia University President Lee Bollinger hosted Iranian President Ahmenidijad at a public meeting last spring, his caustic introductory remarks became global news. In fact, this stimulated a horrific reaction at the University, with the faculty upset by the evident lack of commitment to free speech, and throughout the Middle East where this was further proof of American bias. Bollinger was playing to the local market and was acting totally out of character given his long advocacy of civil rights.
8) Watch for a revival of mainstream media, as the Wall Street Journal on-line drops its subscription fee and broadcasters like CNN and BBC embrace consumer generated content. Trust in media is soaring according to the Edelman Trust Barometer 2008.
I would appreciate your views as always. Thanks for reading this post.
Posted by Edelman at 6:06 PM
Comments
China Investment Corporation (CIC) is the China sovereign fund of USD200 billion. It has committed to invest two thirds of total domestically, leaving around USD66 billion for foreign investments.
So far the CIC has invested in:
Morgan Stanley (USD5 billion)
Blackstone Group (USD3 billion)
The fund is to invest in U .S. Treasury securities; private equity and hedge funds; and other safe but low-return instruments.
China's Vice Minister of Finance Li Yong recently stated that CIC's investment in world financial markets would be realized gradually and in a cautious way. The CIC would not buy into overseas airlines, telecommunications or oil companies. From my experience however, only a leading foreign PR company could achieve such cautious results.
A rough calculation shows that the China Investment Corporation still has USD58 billion of potentially sensitive acquisitions to make abroad over the near future! If that isn’t the PR opportunity of a lifetime, I don’t know what is.
Posted by: Michael Jones at January 6, 2008 2:37 AM
Dear Richard,
Fully agree with item #8 of your list, on the revival of the MSM. There was a very good piece in Time magazine last month, which more or less adresses your point, albeit in a satirical way.
Time Magazine dubbed this revival "The Year of Them" (by contrast with the "YOU are person of the year" cover a year ago). Witty and smart: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1697390,00.html
On item #4, thank you for putting such excellent thoughts in so few words. I'm a PR professional by training & web 2.0 consultant by passion, and I couldn't agree more with this sentence: "Ideas with a public service element, facilitating dialogue with third parties, creating authoritative content linked to credible primary sources, and campaigns asking for stakeholder expertise and experience are the sweet spot.". Right on.
If I may indulge in a bit of self-promotion, this is exactly the thinking that drove us when we created with my agency a very unique website for the French national railroad company: no spin, no flogging, just real people from the company talking to their consumers and stakeholders, as peers. We used a digg-like format: kind of a cross between Dell IdeaStorm and Youtube-Youchoose'08.
I know you'll never hear about it or read about it on the PR blogosphere because it's not in English, but it's not half bad nonetheless, and allows the company to engage in the kind of direct, unvarnished exchange you describe.
Posted by: Stan at January 7, 2008 4:42 PM
Keep looking into the eye of the tiger! I feel like I'm looking into the future when I read your insights from China!
Posted by: Craig Klein at January 7, 2008 10:05 PM
Regarding item #5 (China's communication policy). The Chinese Communist Party may profess to be changing its communications policy, but I am concerned that they view public relations as a "smoke and mirror" campaign to obscure true intentions and actions. Their "peaceful rise" song and dance does not fit with their massive military build-up, shooting down satellites and their shenanigans regarding the USS Kitty Hawk port visit event. Their "transparency" story does not jive with massive corruption of party officials and disregard for protecting intellectual property. Their newfound "openness" is contrary to their control of the media and brutal oppression of internal minorities. Their desired image as a "responsible international actor" does not fit with their complicit dealings with African governments in places like Darfur. In short, actions STILL speak louder than words.
Posted by: Charlie at January 23, 2008 2:03 AM
I'm looking forward to more companies taking on advocacies this year. Last year, people were exposed to the green movement and more people have successfully integrated the lifestyle to their everyday life. I'm hoping those big corporations will be able to affect bigger changes as well.
Posted by: Jen, writer MembershipMillionaire.com at January 29, 2008 6:46 AM