Action PR Group » Comms Campaigns

Forty Years of Action!

Tony Christodoulou — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 12:29:30 +0000

In this week when we celebrate our 40th anniversary, I look back to 1971 when I set up Action PR. At that time the world was a very different place; no internet, no mobile phones and certainly no iPad! Times were challenging but exciting and my vision was to build a business that was to become the first full service public relations consultancy in the emerging markets. Now those same emerging markets are not only the focus of global attention but also drive the global economy. As the company grew we found that, while we offered our clients effective communications combined with strong local knowledge, we also had to help educate local media and other influencers to understand the value of what we were doing. At first and in some countries this was quite a struggle, especially with highly regulated, even censored, local media. Now digital communications and social media have cut through these obstacles taking us into a new world of openness and change. There are still challenges to be faced, some of a very different kind to those we faced 40 years ago. But the difference now is that the Action team of professionals in over 40 countries have never been more effective, more professional or more committed. We should be proud of what we have achieved over the last 40 years, proud of our long standing client relationships and proud that we work with some of the world’s leading brands and organisations. I salute all the Action team whether you are working in the heat of the Middle East, the cosmopolitan cities of Eastern Europe or the heady political world of Brussels. Here’s to the next 40 years of Action!

Whatever the personality traits of your boss, making the most of their internal communications abilities can be complicated.

Nick Chaloner — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 05:26:16 +0000

Companies are built in the image of their leaders. It is as true of Virgin’s cheeky Richard Branson-inspired persona, as of a Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) that, under Sir Fred Goodwin, believed it could do no wrong.

Determining how to make the most of your leader’s qualities is an important task for internal communicators. In difficult times, leaders have to set the company’s agenda, raise and maintain morale and chart a path forward – all at once.

Here are the six most common leadership styles. So which one is your boss?

Barack Obama

Key personality traits: The classic rock-star CEO sets the big picture, moving people towards a shared vision. Superb public speaker with an abiding fondness of the limelight.

Internal comms advice: Visionaries work well when they have a day or weekend to explain their vision and allow the interchange of ideas. Webcasts also provide the perfect vehicle for visionaries to reach beyond national boundaries. Regular communication in the form of picture-led newspaper-style updates is also a great way for them to reach employees.

Angela Merkel

Key personality traits: The type of leader who also wants to be your friend. A collaborative figure who focuses on emotional needs and is most likely to say ‘how are you?’.

Internal comms advice: These are often very effective senior managers, but they need to find a way to show steel. Accordingly, getting back to the shop floor can work well with this leader’s collaborative qualities, while also demonstrating that they are not afraid of rolling up their sleeves. Regular ‘health check’ team meetings to discuss company progress are an opportunity to share constructive feedback in a group setting, which the affiliative leader will find more comfortable. Feedback from external sources, such as customer satisfaction surveys, will address any reluctance from the leader to communicate anything other than positive points.

Dr Who

Key personality traits: Holds long conversations that often reach beyond the work place. Good at helping staffers find strengths and weaknesses and tying these to career aspirations.

Internal comms advice: This style is useful in intimate sessions and small groups,

It is important, therefore, that day-to-day comms requirements do not become the focus. Specify a senior manager who can handle these, leaving the leader to focus on the bigger picture, and the one-to-one coaching at which they excel.

Lord Sebastian Coe

Key personality traits: Listening, often at the expense of immediate action. ‘What do you think?’ is the obvious catchphrase for this leader, who likes to show the way without pushing people through it.

Internal comms advice: A democratic leader likes to involve people and provide opportunity for feedback, in which case, workshops, online forums or a blog allow them to manage downwards to the team. It is vital that the democratic leader is able to communicate decisiveness. Create a forum on an intranet – this will enable a democratic culture to thrive.

Margaret Thatcher

Key personality traits: Most likely to say ‘copy me’, a back-breaking workhorse who leads by example and never shirks a challenge. Expects employees to automatically get the picture.

Internal comms advice: They need help in consideration, listening to people’s problems, caring for those less able and managing egos. Therefore, focus on building a more inclusive approach, and advise this leader to take some time to understand team needs. This can be addressed by implementing a recognition programme that celebrates team wins at all levels of the organisation.

Montgomery Burns

Key personality traits: Typical catchphrase is ‘do this’. An old-school taskmaster who brings playground dynamics to the boardroom. Refuses to consider an alternative message.

Internal comms advice: The key to successful comms as a commanding leader is in ensuring you always communicate the why as well as the what. Expecting employees to jump when you ask them to is more likely to result in people digging their heels in. Commanding leaders can breed distrust, and a sense that internal opinions do not matter. People therefore need a channel to communicate that gives them their voice safely and without fear of intimidation. Look at newsletters, blogs, surveys and feedback forms. Also, work on the non-verbal comms aspects, all that frowning, posturing and glaring can speak volumes and rapidly disenchant a workforce.

What’s the next big thing in social media marketing?

Meredith Tuqan — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 09:38:56 +0000

The dawn of a new year also heralds the dawn of thousands of social media experts trying to outdo each other with their hit predictions on what the next big thing is for social media marketing.

It’s one month in and already we’ve heard and seen a number of opinions, ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous. On the side of sublime – check out Quora, a social Q&A site which allows users to post and answer questions about nearly anything. It’s already gaining traction, in particular with journalists and tech enthusiasts – both vocal and influential groups within the digital space.

Group buying in the Middle East, via sites such as GoNabit! and Cobone are beginning to go great guns, destroying the old prejudice that “ecommerce does not work in the Middle East.”

There’s also Qwiki, which is an entirely new way of presenting searched-for information, turning search into a potentially impactful experience.

Leaning more towards the ridiculous – more and more buzzwords and “social media gurus” are on the scene. Brands beware – there are snake oil salespeople out there confusing everyone and each other by concocting acronym and buzzword campaigns, in order to claim some kind of social authority. It’s entirely counterproductive.

Here’s our tip for what we see as the next big thing in social media marketing: organisations will become more educated and finally realise that social media engagement is not about a campaign, it’s about a dedicated, ongoing digital communications programme; it’s becoming the price of entry to doing business in the modern world.

It means auditing and monitoring your online presence, dedicating resources to observe and engage with the conversation in a respectful and conversational tone, whilst measuring the impact on your organisation or brand’s reputation.

Organisations will look to spend their money more effectively by evaluating the right social media outlets to engage with, premised on where their audience is and where the organisation’s being spoken about; and that it’s not about spending money on the latest and greatest new social media network, simply because it exists.

Lastly, we believe we’ll also see a marked clampdown on social media brand activities which contravene the terms of the sites they operate in. We’re seeing some worrying instances of brands buying fans and creating fake fans on Facebook, for example. In doing so they are risking their ability to continue on Facebook; pages will be shut down. This really beggars belief – it’s about the quality and relevance of an audience – not the sheer number of fans. So please stay abreast of the guidelines across all your social media channels – the Facebook guidelines were updated as recently as December 2010.

Wishing you all a successful and engaging new year!

It’s Good to Work for a Good Cause – OMV’s Dyslexia Project in Romania (Part 2)

Florentina Chichita — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 11:02:49 +0000

When I first wrote about this project, I thought the title embodied perfectly how we all felt in the agency – it’s just so rewarding to work for a good cause! Fast forward three months and with campaign results in, I’ll say it’s more than good; it’s fantastic to work for a good cause!

Thanks to OMV’s customers, no less than 23,000 Euro was raised for the dyslexic community through the OMV Move & Help – Moving on With Reading programme.

Since the campaign started at the end of April, almost 28,000 postcards were sold in OMV filling stations across the country, with the proceeds going to the project partner, the Romanian Association for Dyslexic Children. The Association will now be printing more educational materials for dyslexic children, including an Abecedary, and will support parents and teachers alike through seminars and advice.

A small ceremony took place last week at the OMV Romania HQ and a Social Media News Release (SMNR) on this occasion was distributed.

One of the things that we communications professionals miss (too) often is an evaluation of a project’s impact, beyond media coverage analysis of course. And with this programme, we are in for a treat. We knew the campaign worked, as ultimately a lot of money was raised, but we were thrilled to find out that OMV was the 4^th most visible retail brand in Romanian social media during May, according to a study by Zelist.ro.

We’re also pleased that…

500 campaign support materials were displayed in filling stations

approx. 350,000 educational materials were distributed to OMV customers

the media covered the campaign in 63 stories in print, online and radio

2 TV stations announced the campaign with stories on primetime news

the Facebook cause to support fund raising counts 280 members while the Facebook page of the Romanian Association for Dyslexic Children is slowly growing as well

30 “I read better” Guidebooks were ordered online at www.dislexic.ro

Numbers aside, the feedback from the dyslexic community was great. More teachers and parents are now better informed and the first database of speech therapists in Romania is taking shape.

Of course, there’s always room for improvement. And with dyslexia being such a low-profile topic in Romania, there is a long way to go. But with 1 in 10 children being affected by it in the world – we know that every step counts!

As they say, in every end there is a beginning. At this time, OMV is looking past the pilot project and into potentially creating more opportunities for children to have access to equal education. As for me and my team, we are getting ready to do more of that good cause.

Fit or Fat?

Dina Fouad — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 15:02:58 +0000

I’ve been working in Action UAE for two and half years now, mostly on sports events like the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship, Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge and many more.

The last time I went to the gym was three months ago and the maximum work out I get on a daily basis is taking a walk to McDonalds to get myself a rewarding cheeseburger! However, I do enjoy working on these events more than those organised for our travel & tourism and business clients. The rush you get from being around athletes and seeing them race and compete fills you with so much excitement that you promise yourself that tomorrow onwards you will start working out and eating healthy, its always tomorrow!

We finished working on the Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge and it has been an absolute delight. It’s a gruelling, six-day, multi-discipline, 428km cross-emirate endurance competition that 40 teams from 20 countries competed in this year. Being down there at the start line just gave me the brilliant idea of maybe participating next year! Hmmm…got to get working on my brittle bones!

We’ve created a fan page for the event on Facebook and it has been buzzing since the event started, check it out on the Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge Facebook Fan Page.

The world's top athletes battle it out for the 3rd Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge

Speaking to the competitors before the start made me realise how little I’ve been doing to stay fit and healthy. Most of them had full time jobs, families and still managed to work out for an infinite number of hours each day. If that’s not inspiration I don’t know what is! Catherine Todd, a competitor from a UAE-based team, is a computer science professor at a University and has exercised hard for this event for the past six months plus. Just talking to her about it made me feel like a complete muffin-top!

I’ve finally decided that ‘tomorrow’ I will be rejoining the gym and getting into some sort of shape… and, no… not the shape that is the result of clogged arteries. Amen!

Save the Boobs

Aideen Doherty — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 11:17:15 +0000

Many times, as a PR Professional, I find myself imagining all the creative, wacky and controversial tactics my clients could employ to communicate their message and get their product/ service/ brand whatever it may be noticed – I MEAN REALLY NOTICED. But, yes there is always a but, reality soon shows its ugly head and I find myself back at my desk with a bump drafting PR plans with a rather conservative approach. This way everyone is happy, right?

Wrong. I was thrilled almost excited to read about the rather unusual Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign for October’s Awareness Month.

Ok I admit, they have definitely dipped their toe into the deep end and I imagine some of you will object to their rather “voluptuous” approach. But I believe it has worked - we are all talking about it aren’t we? As a PR Professional and as a woman I think this campaign has brought visibility to an extremely concerning issue, no women is invincible, young or old and that message is portrayed despite what some “buttoned up” people might say. Although this campaign is humorous, to say the least, it touches on reality and that’s what I admire. I am not saying all campaigns should take such an approach, but the time has come for old-school PR to be morphed into something much more creative and edgy. The question is…who is ready?

Websites for Publishing Press Releases

Rossitza Donkova — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 11:04:16 +0000

While surfing I happened to stumble upon an interesting discussion on a blog post about free sites for publishing press releases.

All sites from the links listed below are giving you the opportunity to publish your press information for free after you register and agree with certain terms and conditions. They promise that they are able to distribute your press release within a certain timeframe (normally up to two days after submission) to all major search engines across the world. However, almost no one from the list below gives opportunities for links while using the “free of charge” option. No need to explain here why links are so important and although this option is envisaged against payment of a certain amount, I am not quite convinced that the price is always worthy.

While trying to understand more, I have noticed that the majority of the listed sites are based in the USA where obviously this service is already very popular and therefore I cannot comment either on the significance of the information published there, nore on the effectiveness. However it was interesting to note that pressrelease365.com for example promises to syndicate your news to the thousands of websites who use their content and to get you included in Google News. Some of the sites below are giving you the opportunity to publish your information and have it browsed by category, include it in a blogging toolbar and provide opportunities for RSS feeds.

I just wonder how professional and useful this could be, as for example both of the websites available in Bulgaria for Bulgarian press information pressfactory.org and pr-bg.com have paid for services only and, more importantly, are not offering enough reliable information on how their mechanism works exactly in order to reach any media or target audience.

Even though this obviously cannot be a PR panacea and by trying to benefit from the opportunities offered by these sites, we certainly have to consider how advanced the market we operate in is, language and the type of industry news you would like to communicate. …it is just another opportunity that is probably worth looking into and evaluating…

List of free Press Release distribution sites:

PR in Cyprus

Chris Christodoulou — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 11:53:23 +0000

I was recently invited to participate at a roundtable discussion of the 7th Communications Conference in Nicosia, Cyprus, organised by IMH, one of the largest conference organisers in the country.

For the first time in its seven-year history, the conference was dedicated to public relations and, ultimately, the importance of this industry within the Cyprus market.

As with many conferences of this type some presentations included theory and interesting methodologies (sometimes not applicable in real life) and some consisted of interesting examples of theory in practice (again not so relevant to different markets).

The roundtable in which I participated bought together some of the talent from the PR world in Cyprus, including advertising agencies that have PR departments, clients (that have corp. comm. divisions), journalists and a standalone independent PR agency (Action).

For those who came to find out about what PR is and what it can do for them in Cyprus, I fear they may left the conference feeling somewhat confused. Perhaps too many people sharing too many views. On the whole, though, it was a good effort in identifying various pitfalls and opportunities within the Cyprus PR industry.

One comment which raised a few eyebrows was that PR wasn’t defined as sharply as it could be and that it covers too many topics…. . For those who want an example of a clearly defined, independent answer, check out the Public Relations Consultants Association’s (PRCA’s) here. The PRCA also has an excellent series of Best Practice guides for those considering the use of PR agencies.

Images from the Conference:

Participants of the conference

Action’s own, David Baker, Country Manager UAE, who was one of the presenters at the conference.

Part of the speakers panel, including yours truly.

If I had done PR for Cory Aquino

Albert Alba — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:01:10 +0000

I was still a student back when Corazon ‘Cory’ Cojuangco Aquino was sworn in as president of the Republic of the Philippines, after the world’s first bloodless revolt against the dictatorial regime of Ferdinand Marcos. Admittedly, Cory Aquino might not have seemed the wisest choice but was indeed the strongest emotional choice for Filipinos who got sick and tired of the Marcoses and their allies and cronies who not only took away basic rights and freedoms of the citizenry, but also plundered the country of hard-earned taxpayers’ money.

Source: http://nmagz.wordpress.com

By 1987, I had begun my career as a journalist. Prior to this, I may not have thought of being one due to the strict censorship of Filipino media by the Marcos machinery – not only from the pertinent government authority handling the media, but also from the police and military. As such, for the restoration of the freedom of expression and the media alone, I am already grateful to Mrs. Aquino because having moved to PR a year ago, my foundation as a journalist has quite a lot to do with it.

Because I worked for a foreign media news bureau (a Japanese TV agency), I was immediately thrust into covering issues of international significance, and among them was the presidential beat. Thus, although I never had the chance to exclusively interview Mrs. Aquino, I did have the chance and the privilege to see her face-to-face and witness first-hand how, in spite of her being an inexperienced politician, she relied on her courage, dedication, commitment, sincerity, honesty and credibility to withstand all the challenges of being president of a republic still very much fragmented due to the turbulent years of martial rule under the Marcos administration.

So, if I were not a journalist then and was immediately tasked to do PR for Cory Aquino, what could I have done? Well, firstly, trying to get media attention would definitely be amongst the least of my concerns. Pitching for interviews would be unnecessary and almost nil. And getting her in the front pages or covers of every daily or magazine, both local and international, could be done with the least amount of effort.

The real problem would actually have been how to contain all the media outfits, both local and international, wanting to get exclusive interviews. In short, it would be more of a problem of selecting, and to a certain extent, discriminating against media outfits who may not necessarily serve the purpose of getting her messages across to the wider audience. After all, she may not necessarily have all the time in the world to accommodate all interview requests as she did have an entire nation to run.

Key messages? Well, Cory Aquino herself. The decision and the act she made to run against Ferdinand Marcos is already in itself the key message that was unavoidably built-in to her personality – which is that of the restoration of democracy and all the rights, freedoms and privileges that every citizen of a democratic republic should have. Together with her pronouncements that her role was simply to serve as transition president from a dictatorship to that of a newly-restored democracy, it would be ill-advised for anyone to suddenly turn her into a statesman of the likes of Kennedy or Churchill.

On the one hand, the actual day-to-day tasks of running the country and all other decision-making processes rested on the cabinet and other executive officials who are expected to provide her with the wisest advice that they could possibly provide. In the end, after hearing and heeding all the advice, when Cory Aquino makes an announcement the only task would be for her to portray herself as having made such a decision with the same amount of sincerity and honesty in believing that this is the decision she thinks is best for the nation. The rest of the task would be to disseminate such information (which again would not exactly be a problem as every local and international news agency would be asking for it – the main task really is being logistically prepared to face such demands) and provide for opportunities for the appropriate officials to do the explaining about the decision. Going into details of any decision simply no longer falls under the office she represents.

As far as crisis communications and issues management is concerned, well, it is also widely known that Cory Aquino’s term as president was marked with several coup attempts (seven to be exact) that were all meant to remove her from the presidency. Thus, having the Office of the President as a client may have its very distinct disadvantages and advantages. First is that it would always be the primary target for any criticism, unrest or rebellion, but at the same time also possess a distinct PR machinery that involves having a duly appointed spokesperson as well as all the top executive, police and military officials at your disposal.

Therefore, in such a situation, one simply has to make sure that as the president addresses the public (which should be done in a swift yet well-calculated manner so as not to create any doubts as to whether the seat of power has been taken over) regarding her being in control and on top of the situation, such a statement must be well coordinated with all pertinent authorities (especially national security, defence, police, military, the legislative and the judiciary) stating and conveying a consistent key message that the chain-of-command is intact and that such officials must be constantly seen and heard in public (especially the broadcast media such as TV and radio) conveying such message. This is apparently the reason why during such coup attempts, broadcast and print media entities were amongst the primary targets of ‘rebels’ due to the importance and significance of communication during an eventuality.

In terms of preparing her for any press conference or scrutiny of a very free and inquisitive media, I can only guess that the only advice I would probably give her is to be herself – sincere, unpretentious, honest, yet a bit cautious especially on issues that involve national security. And despite her inexperience as a politician and public servant, she did surprise a lot of people with the intelligence and frankness she displayed in handling even difficult situations and questions from the media. Therefore, there was really nothing much to advise her as she somehow knew how not to get herself into trouble – in her own frank and honest yet very tactful way. She may not have necessarily undergone any media training but her sincerity, honesty and credibility, combined with her confidence and intelligence and popular support, provided her enough leeway to get away from tough situations.

In a nutshell, image-building could very well be the least of her PR concerns. But as in any other public office, responsiveness in a quick yet calculated manner is what counts the most. The more important PR task is to project the image that the Office of the President is very much in control, aware of and is in fact doing something about any situation that involves national interest. Beyond that, it would simply mean six years of consistently being able to logistically cope with the demand for information from the media and the public.

Of course, these are all hypothetical as Cory Aquino, the erstwhile ordinary housewife, widow and non-politician was finally laid to rest after more than a year of battle with colon cancer. And even in death, her positive image as a self-sacrificing citizen, dutiful mother and former president who was responsible for the restoration of freedom and democracy in the Philippines, was not a by-product of good PR but of a life well lived.

Social Media PR and the Politics of Persuasion

Tetiana Bulakh — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 07:00:17 +0000

More than a half-century ago, John F. Kennedy‘s Presidential campaign revolutionised electoral campaigning, by being first to use television as a powerful media channel. Last year it was

: Image via Wikipedia

Obama who proved that new online media channels can be successfully used for gaining additional votes. It clearly showed that social media tools as well as electoral technologies had changed. But does it mean that the essence of elections has also changed significantly?

With the forthcoming (Jan 2010) elections in Ukraine, everybody has been waiting to see who would be the first to adopt Obama’s methods. Due to political instability, there’s no obvious leader among the candidates. Thirty-four year old politician, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, with a good education and a successful career, suits the American dream the best. The only weakness is that he is not a big player in the Ukrainian political game.

Arseniy To Save the Country via farm3 flickr

That hot summer day, when the first promotional billboards with Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s face appeared on the streets, citizens were left in no doubt that this candidate had adopted elements of Obama’s campaigning strategy. But within a matter of hours in the online world, negative feedback in blogs (e.g. fedoriv.com, pravda.com.ua – note these are in Cyrillic) showed that Yatsenuyk’s team missed one big thing. They are working with a political figure who is different from Obama. The blogosphere was very quick to react to an unprofessional attempt to apply an American model in the Ukrainian political environment. It took very little time for the poster to get transformed into a series of caricatures, which were immediately “copy-pasted” to a number of leading blogs and circulated in cyberspace via Facebook, Twitter and Instant Messages.

*To Save Cheburashka. Gennadiy. The quote is based on a popular cartoon featuring Crocodile Gennadiy and his friend, a fluffy toy Cheburashka as the main characters, via lh5.ggpht.com

* Arseniy Beer Saves Your Country, via picthost.ru

At first it seemed like Yatsenyuk’s team did everything right – they focused on having an interesting and creative design, used Web 2.0 tools, engaged in social media and interactive communications.

One method the candidate’s campaign team used to grasp the attention of the public was by engaging potential voters on Facebook. Yatsenyuk’s team created a Facebook profile for a virtual male user “X” and posted some nice photos, supposedly of him, on his profile.

Mister X started adding female users with the purpose of making them feel flattered by receiving his attention. Then this virtual, handsome guy started inviting his female Facebook friends to register at the candidate’s political website. Obviously, this strategy generated negative feedback amongst Ukrainian Facebook users. Whoever came up with this idea missed the point that, through informal communication, female users would prefer to be treated as a woman as they were originally approached and not as a voter. It also goes against everything that social media stands for: namely that being transparent and honest are this media’s first rules of engagement.

But now the campaign is further away from the real personality of the candidate who in reality has the image of an ordinary politician. It happened that Yatsenyuk’s team, who developed his promotional campaign, came to the foreground, while putting the candidate himself in the shade. As a result, the voters are talking about the campaign, but they’re neglecting the politician himself. The campaign is labeled as the Ukrainian Obama and every next step is criticised in contrast to the American strategy.

"I'm Obama" - Really?!

Social media instruments, including social networks, can empower the candidate but they cannot create a political leader from point blank. And ready-to-use campaigns for social networks cannot be applied by disregarding the ‘product’ you want to promote which, in this case, was the candidate for a presidency.

The Ukrainian presidential election will take place in January 2010. We’ve therefore still got a chance to see whether the Ukrainian media experts succeed in creating their own Pygmalion.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2440/3677349173_1bf7726a0e.jpg