Myths and Misconceptions.

GRIN and bear it.

South Africa – Flying High.

Damage Control.

Publish and Be Damned?

Remaining Relevant.

Copenhagen Calling.

ISSUE THREE

WINTER ‘09

Colin Byrne

CEO, UK & Europe

Welcome to the Winter editionof our PR insights newsletter,drawing on the views andexperience of the ‘InternationalConsultancy of the Year’(UK

PRWeek

and the UK PublicRelations ConsultantsAssociation – don’t just takemy word for it!).

In this edition we cover recession,reputation and litigation, with a detourto South Africa via digital mediamythology, global consumer marketingtrends and clean technology marketing.Let me just say a quick but meaningful‘thank-you’ to all our clients, staff andfriends who have helped make this suchan amazing award-winning year forWeber Shandwick, in Europe and beyond.We appreciate it and never forget thatit is you that matters.

When planning campaigns and assemblingthe channels to best reach your audience,PR often relies too much on intuition. Wemust embrace planning and cosy-up todata. To try to right this wrong, WeberShandwick surveyed almost 5,000European consumers as part of its INLINECommunications research into how peopleare truly influenced. We asked arepresentative sample of Europeanconsumers over the age of 18 thequestion: ‘When considering purchasinggoods or services in general, howinfluential are the following sources of information in helping you make yourpurchase decision?’The results enabled us to challenge manyof the myths surrounding media andinfluence. For the purposes of this article, Iwill focus on the UK data (sample of 1,007adults). The first finding was that onlineadvocacy was cited as being the mostinfluential source of product/serviceinformation for UK consumers. By onlineadvocacy we mean ‘user reviews andrecommendations from people online youdo not know’.So, digital is ‘where it’s at’ and we canabandon the more traditional elements of communications, right? Wrong. While UKconsumers claimed that online channelswere most influential on their purchasedecisions, 43 per cent also stated theyoften didn’t believe what they read onlineuntil they had checked the facts in thetraditional mainstream media. So whileonline is clearly a critical channel forstorytelling, not backing up that storywith activity in traditional media tovalidate that story is missing a hugeopportunity. We call the need to createconsistent stories across a variety of media‘INLINECommunications’.Some more misconceptions. Youngconsumers don’t read traditional media,right? Wrong. Exactly half of UK consumersunder the age of 35 believed magazinesand newspapers to be influential. Of UKconsumers over 45, only 29 per cent madethe same claim. In fact, younger consumersare far more likely than their more elderlycompatriots to find all sources of information influential. But the myth thatthe media isn’t the best way to reachyoung adults in the UK must be destroyed.Some commonly held beliefs do seem tohold up, however. Attitudes to brandengagement within social networking sites(such as Facebook and Bebo) by UKconsumers differ markedly by age group.Almost half (49 per cent) of those aged 18to 24 said they would be interested ininteracting with their favourite brandswithin these online communities. Perhapsunsurprisingly, only 15 per cent of the over-45s were interested in the same thing.But to further confuse matters, while youngUK consumers are far more predisposed tointeracting with brands within social media,they are just as likely as the over-45s not tobelieve what they read online until theycheck the facts in the mainstreamtraditional media – 43 per cent of 18- to24-year-olds agreed they often didn’tbelieve what they read online until theyhad checked it out in the mainstreammedia, compared with 45 per cent of theover-45s.What does this tell us? That organisationsneed to tell a consistent story across avariety of channels in order to mosteffectively reach the audience they aretrying to influence. And in doing so, theyneed to challenge preconceptions andembrace fact.

Published 6 November 2009 by

PRWeek

as part of the Thought Leader series.

View the 2009 INLINE CommunicationsReport and supporting podcast

here

Digital. Yay! It’s the publicrelations industry’s Holy Grail,silver bullet, saving grace and a whole lot more besides, right? Well, no. Digital undoubtedly isa fantastic tool for PRprofessionals to do what we dobest: tell stories. But digitalalone won’t do the job for you.If you want to most effectivelytell a consistent story you needto deploy your resources acrossa variety of channels to reachyour audience.

James Warren

Chief Creative Officer, Digital

To tell a consistentstory, research thefacts and deployyour resources acrossmultiple channels.

Know whatyou don’t know.

COMMUNICATIONS

REPORT2009