Public Engagement

in the Conversation Age

Content
Don’t Lose the Thought 3
Foreword

Confidence and Trust 4

The Currency for Recovery

Trust Me, I’m a Banker 5

The State of Financial Services

The Fall and Rise of the C Word 6

The Future of PR

Citizen Smith 8
The Rise of Consumer Politics

A Cloudy Future 9
Cloud Computing and the Future of Technology

Re-Humanising Business
Next Generation Digital Communications
10
About
Edelman
Crowd Surfing 12
Thriving in the Age of Consumer Empowerment

Thinking Our Way Out of the Crunch 14

Could the Creative Industries Hold the Solution?
Think Bravery Before Budgets 15
Creativity and Brand Bravery
Engaging with Health Citizens 16
Health in the Conversation Age
Medical Communications in
the Conversation Age 18
Where Next with Health Care Professionals?
Alive and Kicking 19
Trust and the Beating Heart of Media
Without Content There is No Conversation 20
Content, Conversation and Collaboration
Edelman is the world’s largest independently-
owned PR agency, employing over 3,200
people in 54 offices around the world – 260
of whom are in London. We work across
all areas of the Communications spectrum,
delivering award-winning campaigns in
media old and new.
We are retained by some of the world’s
largest multi-national companies and leading
brands, some of which are mentioned in this
publication – including, but not exclusively
the Department for Culture, Media and
Sport; Microsoft; AstraZeneca.

Soft Power to the People 22 For more information about Edelman,

Into 2009 and Beyond please visit:
www.edelman.com / www.edelman.co.uk
Coming soon... 23 www.goodpurposecommunity.com
Trust Barometer 2009 www.edelman.co.uk/trustbarometer

page 2 Public Engagement in the Conversation Age

Don’t
Lose The
Thought
We live in remarkable times. We have
reached a crossroads in our economic
history and stand at the threshold of
potentially momentous change in the
global political landscape. Trust in Business
and Government (of which Edelman
has been an avid student for the best
part of a decade) has oscillated with
random fury, while the inexorable march
towards universal Digital Democracy and
empowerment continues apace.
Communications has reached a tipping
point. Increasingly confronted by calls for
an Economics of Less, we are witnessing a
noticeable shift away from ‘consumption’
and towards active citizenship and good
purpose instead. PR now finds itself in an
accelerated state of evolution – moving
towards a hyper-connected model of
Public Engagement that converges and
transcends all existing marketing and
communications disciplines.
Too many organisations retreat
and retrench in recessionary times.
Entrepreneurial spirit and thought
leadership are often sadly and falsely
sacrificed on the altar of commercial
imperative. Our contention is that Thinking
costs nothing and yet remains a key
point of competitive advantage for firms,
whether they are selling ‘stuff’ or stories.
None of us can afford to lose the Thought
if we take our businesses (and those of our
customers and clients) seriously.
2008 has been a year in which we have
seen the collapse of free market models
and the unexpected emergence of a
new fashion for regulation; the rise of
Consumer Politics and a parallel, global
resurgence of interest in politics, per se;
an Olympic Games that was mired first in
controversy and then in tragedy – with
human rights and human triumphs as
occasional, if odd, bedfellows; more talk
about The Cloud of Technology and all
that it will bring; and, finally, a growing
understanding of what it really means
(and needs) to be Green – only to see
this threatened by those who will use the
economy to escape their environmental
responsibilities.
This series of essays, each written by a
senior member of the Edelman team, sets
out to capture what our Communications
world looks like today and what it might
look like tomorrow. These are not essays
on the theme of Recession – yet they are
each, in their own way, contextualised by
today’s harsher economic reality. They are
designed to provoke thought, stimulate
debate and provide content. They sit within
the exciting and compelling framework
of multi-lateral, multi-stakeholder
engagement. They speak directly to The
Conversation Economy. They hopefully
illustrate that PR can – and should – be at
the vanguard of change.
December 2008
Robert Phillips
UK CEO Edelman
robert.phillips@edelman.com
page 3
Who could have imagined the changes that
have turned the financial markets and the
banking world upside down? Every day has
seemed to have been yet another voyage
into the unknown as great names crash,
burn or start pleading for bail-out support.
Freddie Mac, Bank of America, Fannie Mae,
Northern Rock, Ford, and General Motors
– the list goes on and on.
Ever since the spectacular crash of Lehman
Brothers in September and against the
looming clouds of recession, all eyes have
been turned upon national banks and
regulators, governments and political leaders
as investors, shareholders, house owners
and consumers sought leadership and
reassurance. But that comfort was slow in
coming, if at all.
The first, knee jerk reaction of presidents,
prime ministers and their banking leaders
was to claim that their national strategies
and budget plans had equipped their
economies to withstand any recessionary
shocks that might arrive. In a single day,
we heard the same message from President
Bush, Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the
Spanish Government: “We want to reaffirm
the strength of our economy to overcome
the current situation”.
Confidence and Trust
– The Currency for Recovery
Against these cataclysmic changes, it is too
easy to claim now that governments acted
too slowly or stayed silent for far too long.
But it is difficult to see how they should or
could have acted and communicated as they
struggled to comprehend the scale of the
changes.
A defining moment was thought to come
when US Treasury Secretary, Henry Paulson,
triggered a series of stock market roller
coaster rides in announcing plans to set
aside US$700 billion to purchase the “toxic”
derivative instruments. The US Congress
demonstrated their politic priorities as they
haggled over the initial Bill and the debate
descended into a battle between saving Wall
Street and Main Street.
As all these critical steps were being taken
in an attempt to wrest back some kind
of control over the crisis in the financial
markets and the freeze-up of banking credit,
the Presidential Election race played out
- at times almost as a side show beside
the main drama. Suddenly, against these
extraordinary circumstances, electors and
page 4
political observers got to hear endlessly
about “ordinary people”, “working families”
and even “Joe the Plumber”, who became the
US equivalent of the ‘Man on the Clapham
Omnibus’.
Strip away the drama and the frightening
speed of change of the last few months
and then it can be seen that this global
crisis has always been about confidence and
trust.
As was seen in the aftermath of the 9/11
attacks, these essential ingredients of business
are fragile and vulnerable to the damaging
and corrosive effects of negative rumour
and doomsday forecasting, compounded in
today’s crisis since trust is key to financial
markets. Over recent months, political
leaders have been perceived to be stumbling
and defensive in their responses. In a brief
Mike Seymour is International
moment of optimism, commentators claimed
Director, Crisis & Issues Management,
that history might take the view that, like
for Edelman worldwide and has
New York Mayor Rudi Giuliani after 9/11,
extensive experience working alongside
Henry Paulson would be seen to have seized
multinational commercial and
the moment with his multi-billion lifeline
government organisations, involved in
to financial institutions. But that hope
complex international issues, crises and
quickly oozed away as the scramble began in
emergencies.
Congress to claim back favours, brokered for
votes in various pork barrel deals. mike.seymour@edelman.com
of these problems were beyond the scope
of normal regulatory or political experience,
which in part explained the silence or
shallow responses that were quickly
perceived as defensive and hollow.
In any times of national or financial
While the scale of the credit crunch and the
uncertainty, leadership is demanded to
banking freeze may be unprecedented, many
reassure the general public that matters
of the contributory factors are commonplace
are being brought under control and being
in daily emergencies. When any crisis
managed. When problems escalate to crisis
breaks, the first victims are always the truth
levels, such leaders need to demonstrate
and facts. No-one can be sure what has
confidence through bold statements,
happened or the root causes.
backed up by far sighted and robust plans
that can withstand the escalating chaos of
In our world of 24/7 news and constant
threatening events.
online chatter, information is quickly
shot around the world. There is never
Now international bankers, the G8 and G20
any shortage of commentators, critics
have met and deliberated. International
and ‘experts’ that will be quick to offer
plans have been debated and agreed,
their opinions or ideas. But in responding
which promise survival of a recession that
to recent events, even economists of
has arrived and is daily biting deeper. In
international standing have declared
the UK, the government has announced
themselves to be bewildered by the speed
a series of radical measures. Time will
and extent of the course of events. In this
tell whether the impact of this array of
global crisis, confidence has been further
unprecedented measures will survive to
undermined by the dissonance and lack of
provide the injection of confidence which
consensus within the forest of theories.
must underpin any slowdown in the progress
of the current crisis. But true change and
When financial, banking and mortgage
sustained recovery will only be possible once
markets came under pressure as the credit
confidence and trust start to return.
crunch took hold, the resulting effects had
potential impact for every stockholder, house
owner, saver and consumer. The magnitude
Public Engagement in the Conversation Age
Trust me, i’m a banker
– The State of Financial Services
No industry has felt the cold blast of the
credit crunch more than the Financial
Services sector. Whilst the turmoil and
upheaval in the global Banking system has
dominated recent newspaper headlines,
the industry in general is experiencing a
collective collapse in Trust and confidence
which has also affected Insurance
companies, Asset Managers and Hedge Funds
in equal measure. Having gradually reduced
to no more than a ‘hygiene factor’, suddenly
Trust is once again a commodity to be
cherished, protected and preserved.
To some extent the ‘sudden’ collapse of
Trust in the Banking system - and indeed
in our established Financial Institutions
generally – has been long coming. For the
last decade, Edelman’s Trust Barometer has
tracked the growth in credibility of peer-to-
peer Communications at the expense of the
top-down, CEO-led programme and, what we
see today, is merely a practical application
of that trend. What is beyond dispute is
that Trust in the Banking industry has all but
melted away – not just amongst Consumers
but most damagingly (and most tellingly)
within the market itself.
Paul Lockstone, Managing Director,
has extensive experience in
financial communications, both in
agency and in-house. He is also a
frustrated rock star. His blog –
www.worldshutyourmouth.com – is an
attempt to combine his professional
and personal life and interests.
paul.lockstone@edelman.com
This collapse in Trust has coincided with
– indeed perhaps even been caused and/or
exacerbated by – the new Digital Democracy
we reference elsewhere. With the internet
placing power in the hands of the Citizen as
never before, this is the first recession of the
true Digital Age. The challenge the industry
now faces is to overcome the current
negative perceptions and re-build Trust.
The first lesson that needs to be heeded is
that life, as we have always known it for the
banks, has changed forever. So far as the
media is concerned, every pound the banks
spend comes out of ‘our’ pockets – in the
current climate the normal rules of Business
no longer apply and the banks’ usual licence
to operate has, effectively, been suspended.
Events which were fully justifiable in the past
(and can arguably still be justified now) have
to be considered in the light of a new reality
– that ‘our’ money is paying for them.
HBoS saw this principle in action in early
November when it was fiercely criticised
in the media for hosting two staff events.
The reality is that the banks do still need
to motivate and reward their staff. But
the perception of massed ranks of bankers
indulging in lavish celebrations as we head
into a recession, and as the taxpayer digs
deep to bail them out, is one that the banks
have to take great care not to foster.
What of the rest of the Financial Services
industry? Sitting next to the banks on
the naughty step, and finding itself cast
in the unwelcome role of chief scapegoat
for the collapse of the Financial world as
we previously knew it, is the Hedge Fund
industry. Now most informed observers
recognise that Hedge Funds play an
important role in the Financial Markets.
Furthermore, the leading participants in the
industry are some of the UK’s most active
philanthropists, contributing substantial
sums to charities in both the UK and globally.
But with a few notable exceptions, the
industry has on the whole been poor at
engaging with a wider group of external
stakeholders. This has allowed prejudice to
become accepted fact, with the result that
the industry now finds itself short of friends
when they are most needed. There is a clear
risk of an excessive regulatory response to
recent issues, borne of the ’something must
be done’ school of policymaking, that could
curtail the activities of one of our most
innovative financial industries. Once again,
negative perceptions lead reality.
Set alongside the Banking sector and the
Hedge Fund industry, the insurers have - with
the very notable exception of AIG in the US
- largely managed to avoid the most visible
impact, and consequently the high profile
fallout, of the Credit Crunch. The impact of
the collapse in equities will undoubtedly feed
through into the pensions sector but, again,
to date this industry has managed to remain
largely - though not exclusively - on the
periphery of the debate.
The Financial Services industry finds itself at
a key point in its continuing development.
There is little doubt that the next twelve
months are going to present major
challenges to Communicators in the sector
but this is not the time to adopt a bunker
mentality. It is clear that stakeholders will
be asking searching questions of our banks,
Insurers and those that manage the wealth
of the nation.
The organisations that emerge strongest from
the economic downturn will be those that
are most able to reach out to, and empathise
with, the man or woman in the street. They
will recognise the role of the internet and
social media and adapt their Communications
strategies to address these channels effectively.
And they will embrace the changing nature of
Communications and take advantage of the
collapse in traditional hierarchies.
The restoration of Trust between Financial
Institutions and their customers is not
something that can be achieved overnight.
Management must be prepared to invest not
only financially but in particular in devoting
time to repairing relationships. It is well known
that ‘nature abhors a vacuum’ and, in the
absence of any engagement from the industry
or individual firms, our new breed of Citizen
Consumers will draw their own conclusions.
Further reading
• Peston’s Picks: the blog of Robert
Peston, the BBC’s business editor
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/
thereporters/robertpeston/)
• The Bank of England Financial Stability
Review, October 2008 (http://www.
bankofengland.co.uk/publications/
fsr/2008/index.htm)
• FT.com and WSJ.com: the websites
of the world’s two leading business
newspapers
page 5
 The future of PR belongs to the Citizen.
The Consumer Age, as we know it, is
coming to an end. Corporate Reputation
and Brand Marketing are converging. In
tomorrow’s world, constructive dialogue,
engagement and a new tripartite
contract between Citizens, Businesses
and Government will shape and drive the
Communications agenda.

Radical Re-alignment:
Endings and Beginnings
There is a free radical somewhere deep
within me that believes that we are facing
the end of Consumerism as we know it. The
global financial meltdown has served as a
timely reminder that the death of Capitalism
may be upon us also. If this was hitherto a
personal, utopian fantasy, then it was equally
surprising to find Newsnight and others
leading on the very same subject. There are
real lessons to be learned from recent events:
consider the inconsistencies and the lack of
responsible regulation in the Financial sector
over the past decade – and think through the
implications this may have if Governments
and Citizens fail to actively intervene on an
environmental level, to properly safeguard
our planetary future.

The Free Radical believes that tomorrow’s

world is being shaped around Digital
Democracy and the Citizen power that this
brings; around the Wellbeing Imperative,
and our thirst for a happier way of being;
and around the Perfect Storm surrounding
Climate Change – the acceptance that we
cannot continue to over-consume the finite
resources of the planet. Tomorrow’s world
may yet prove that the Consumer – the one
we all grew up to know and understand
– was nothing more than a Twentieth
Century blip, a bit like Marxism. Citizenship is
more enduring.

THE FALL AND
You do not need to be an apocalyptic Green
to recognise a changing world. We are all
now learning to live within the necessary
confines of a lower consumption, lower
carbon economy – whether this is currently
driven by heightened responsibility or
by economic need. We have witnessed,
first-hand, the rise of Consumer Politics
– impacting which brands we buy and how
we buy them; in parallel, we have seen the

page 6 Public Engagement in the Conversation Age

 emergence of single-issue consumerist
movements and campaigns whose aims are
to encourage (Government) action to address
perceived business bad practice. Nowhere is
this more evident than in the ‘hot’ issue areas
of food, packaging, waste, fuel, energy and
transport. Consumer Politics is now a very real
consideration in any piece of communication.
Businesses and brands are no longer in
control. Fuelled by the immediacy and
transparency of the web, power has passed
to the people. Citizens hold businesses’
license to operate at their fingertips.
The Client Community is embracing this shift.
While we are not yet seeing comprehensive
‘Citizen Briefs’, the number of pure consumer
plays seems to be on the wane. There is an
increasing acknowledgment that consumer
brands need the added protection of Public
Affairs or Corporate counsel (and often in
a global context). Brand marketers can no
longer just sell – let alone spin – without
a true appreciation of the impact this may
have on their company’s license to operate.
Likewise, major corporations are finding the
brand link and working the same thinking in
reverse. Never before have Brand Marketing
and Corporate Reputation been closer
bedfellows. The implications for agency
structures and client org. charts are self-evident.
Towards Public Engagement
A new Communications model is emerging
– one that we, as Edelman, are broadly
calling Public Engagement. To understand
the model, we need to accept five Truths:
First, we should recognise that the
Consumer as we knew him or her is dead. To
paraphrase Python, he is no longer; he has
ceased to be. The hard sell of consumerism
just won’t cut it, in a more responsible,
more thoughtful, more constrained world of
limited resource and lower spend.
D RISE OF THE C WORD
Second, the Citizen is emergent, if not
resurgent. We are all re-discovering the
Citizen in ourselves – recognising our real
authority and our personal ability and
responsibility to effect change; to hold
businesses and brands, Governments and
institutions, to account. We are driving a new
democracy at breakneck speed.
Third, Corporate Reputation must now be
properly understood within the context of
active citizenship and Consumer Politics.
Old hierarchies have been denuded and
demolished; pyramids of authority have
collapsed and have been replaced by a
new sphere of cross-information, in which
everyone has a say – regardless of age or
status, gender or experience. Just ask the
Road Petitioners.
Fourth, everyone means everyone. NGOs,
Governments, Businesses, Brands, Employees
and, yes, the Citizenship can now have
an equal say. A new system of checks and
balances is now in place – together with
a new accountability that will clearly limit
some of the more unpleasant excesses and
poor practices of the past.
Fifth, we are learning to live with this
Robert Phillips is the UK CEO of
new equality; this new equilibrium. This is
Edelman and the co-author of a new
the Tripartite Contract referenced above.
Wiki Book, which can be found at
Within this, constructive dialogue – real
www.citizenrenaissance.com
engagement – will prevail. And PR agencies
– appreciating the Government agenda as robert.phillips@edelman.com
well as the business agenda, the needs of
the NGOs as well as the demands of Citizen has always aspired towards and promised.
Consumers, are uniquely placed to deliver. We will have only ourselves to blame if we
cannot now make this final step. We need
Seeking Primacy. a culture shift of our own to match the
Opportunities and Challenges societal shift that has, accidentally perhaps,
Our time has finally come. PR can now thrust us forwards. If we can be held to
claim a legitimate primacy among all the account for some of the excesses and the
marketing disciplines – properly understood darkness of the past, then we can now be
within the context of the Tripartite architects of a better future.
Contract and the concept of genuine Public
Engagement. Conventional advertising,
already constrained by its inability to escape Further reading
from a world of monologue and the 30 • Britain Since 1928: The Strange Career
second spot, may well have its long-term of British Democracy, David Marquand
decline accelerated, as it recognises that it is • Bring Home the Revolution, Jonathan
fundamentally ill-equipped to cope with the Freedland
wider communications demands of Public • www.citizenreanaissance.com
Engagement. • www.crowdsurfing.net
• www.goodpurposecommunity.com
– The Future of PR
And yet, the challenge facing PR is equally
great. Agencies and practitioners need to
elevate strategy and strategic thinking.
Insight must be properly understood
and always quantified. Spin needs to be
denounced and the shallow world of
celebrity rebuffed. A higher standard of
ethics is needed, backed by more rigour,
more discipline, more content expertise. PR
stands at the threshold of achieving what it
page 7
Over the past 20 years, the climate in
which business operates has changed
fundamentally and nowhere more so than
in the UK. It is a change that has seen some
of the world’s most successful companies
brought to heel by a single front page article
that criticises supposed corporate bad
practice, or being named and shamed by a
media savvy NGO, or being mentioned in
Parliament by an ambitious MP out to make
their name.
The changing climate has its roots in the
demise of traditional political discourse
and the rise of what we have termed
‘Consumer Politics’ – where business and
brands are placed centre-stage, facing
increased scrutiny and an ever-greater
burden of customer, stakeholder and media
expectation.
Consumer Politics has risen as the old Left-
versus-Right political ideological battles of
the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s have given way to a
new consensus over the parameters of the
political debate and the fight for the precious
centre ground - in which today’s political
parties fight to prove their managerial
competence to run the country, and the
economy, slightly better than the other lot.
citizen smith
– The Rise of Consumer Politics
Consumer Politics is the rise of consumerist
movements and campaigns whose aims
are to encourage Government action
– which is usually code for new or increased
regulation – to address what they perceive
to be corporate bad practice. This usually
involves seeking to curb a company’s licence
to operate – be it in the manufacture and
sale of foods high in fat, sugar or salt;
the promotion and selling of alcohol; a
company’s green (or not so green) footprint;
or how a business operates around the
world.
With the rise of new technology and the
freedom and power that the internet
brings, these groups no longer just rely on
a simple letter-writing campaign to the
local paper. As we mention elsewhere in
this publication, one locally based individual
can now easily turn into an internet based
global coalition containing advocates
against a company and its products. One
only need look at Nestlé and the campaign
page 8
waged against it on the infant formula
issue – a campaign that celebrates its
20th Anniversary this year – to show how
a small but committed media-savvy and
technology-literate consumerist campaign
can make such an impact.
Political parties and the media have not
taken long to understand the power and
influence of these groups and the issues they
highlight.
For the media, they provide endless copy
to fill the ever expanding appetite for
content. Harnessing and supporting certain
campaigns gives individual papers and
broadcasters the opportunity to define
themselves in an increasingly crowded media
market by championing their readers’/
viewers’ perceived concerns.
For political parties, the rise of Consumer Alex Bigg is Managing Director and
Politics is a way of engaging a disengaged leads Edelman’s award winning Public
electorate and reaching out to key electoral Affairs practice
groups. One only needs to re-read (if alex.bigg@edelman.com
anybody bothered in the first place) all
three political parties’ 2005 General Election
The rise of Consumer Politics means that
Manifestos to understand and witness the
business and brands now live by a new set of
rise of Consumer Politics and their electoral
rules, created by a new generation of closely
importance.
inter-connected stakeholders, consumers
and influencers, who have been energised
and incentivised by the accessibility and
immediacy of the web.
It is a set of rules that demands
accountability and a meaningful and
transparent conversation. Businesses ignore
these rules at their peril.
Today’s Communications and consumer
landscape means that a business has to be
Other recent examples include Tony Blair’s
seen and heard for sure – but must, more
Big Conversation initiative, which was an
importantly, be seen to listen, to learn and
attempt to identify and respond to such
to act.
consumerist concerns, or David Cameron’s
social action and social responsibility
platform that placed heavy emphasis on the
Further reading
corporate sector’s role in addressing widely
• Microtrends, Mark Penn
held social concerns.
• http://www.demos.co.uk/publications/
manufacturingdissentbook
Against this backdrop, no business can
assume its licence to operate is safe.
Consumerist groups, political parties, citizens
and the media all have expectations of
responsible and appropriate brand and
business behaviour – and will call to account
any organisation that is perceived to have
fallen short. Certain industries – such as
Food, Energy, Waste, Alcohol and Transport
– have already witnessed the power of the
consumer, but they are not the only ones.
Today, an organisation’s licence to operate is
affected by the behaviours and perceptions
of everything it touches – including its brand,
employees, supply chain, carbon footprint.
Public Engagement in the Conversation Age
A Cloudy Future
– Cloud Computing and the Future of Technology
In Technology, a common request is to
predict what’s next. Today, looking into the
crystal ball, the view is definitely cloudy – or
to be more precise a complete cloud obscures
the view. This is not just financial meltdown
angst but more importantly the future of
computing - Cloud Computing.
Much is already written on the subject of the
Cloud and much confusion reigns as to what
it is precisely, as well as the issues it raises
around personal data security and privacy
– hence the cloudiness of the Cloud.
For the non-geek, the Cloud is essentially
made from the combination of datacentres
acting as computing factories that use
wireless networks to connect people to
software being delivered as an online
service. The Economist quotes Lutz Heuser,
Head of Research at SAP, who refers to it
as an “Internet of services” but adds that
the cloud metaphor is probably more adpt.
But despite this complexity, the Cloud will
pervade economies transforming behaviours,
societies and most importantly the way we
communicate.
Here are five headlines describing how
communicators can respond to this change:
1. Understand Everything Will Connect:
Through the Cloud, information will
increasingly become connected to
sources, related comment, opinions and
disagreements in a seamless way. This will
make the connectivity of Web 2.0 seem
tame. Internet users will have to become
navigators of connections, understanding
everything has a back story, some of
it spurious but all of it trackable. As
professionals we will live in a digital world
that we must understand in tremendous
depth and detail. Context will become king
and we will have to be masters of context.
2. Focus On Making It Real: The danger
of this cloudy world is that everything is
shaped digitally but it becomes ethereal.
Consumers or Citizens will look to make
it real by building tangible connections
between digital and the real world. Our
success will be shaped by how we make
the Cloud tangible for our audiences
– understanding the interface will be the
key to success.
To quote a comment businessweek.com:
“It should allow people to make real
things, assemble real things and have real Cloud? As with previous generations of new
experiences and deliver real services. Go Technology, the industry will need to create
beyond sharing photos and share reality.” technologies and protocols to solve these
challenges.
3. Develop Influence: In the increasingly
vast interconnected web, understanding Clearly, Businesses will need to be acutely
who influences (at a global and micro aware of the Public Relations pitfalls of
level) and how influence spreads will entering the cloudy future. Yet in the post
replace the traditional need for control. credit crunch world, the need to get more
It will be communicators who can work out of less, communicate more efficiently
with influencers to create new ideas and create new business models - all of
that will achieve powerful relationships. which are benefits of the Cloud – will mean
Understanding the nodes that create many firms have no choice.
influence, who then amplifies an idea and
how conversations and stories spread and
Further reading
gain momentum will be at the heart of
• The Economist, Cloud Computing
communications strategy – not just for
Supplement, Technology Quarterly,
traditional Public Relations approaches
Autumn 2008
but truly conversational Brand strategies.
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_
computing
4. Use Embedded Brains: An extension of
• http://www.youtube.com/
the Cloud will be the ability for embedded
watch?v=6PNuQHUiV3Q
computing to allow objects to talk to one
• Cloud computing: A catchphrase
another. A car part will tell the garage
in puberty (www.theregister.
via an ip address when it is going to
co.uk/2008/08/25/cloud_dziuba/)
breakdown. How we build strategies to
• Cloud Computing: Are there dangers
support this interaction between the real
to having information infrastructure,
and digital will become a key measure
software and services hosted on
of success. How Business harnesses and
the internet rather than on our own
exploits this transparency will be a key
personal computers?, The Times Online,
marketing differentiator transforming
5 May 2008
customer service and expectations.
5. Exploit Mobile Mania: In the Cloud, Jonathan Hargreaves is European
computing will become more and more Managing Director. A committed
disembodied and so be consumed armchair Rugby follower, he is hoping
where it is needed. Consumers will be that developments in cloud computing
able to access it at anytime through create even greater opportunities to
mobile devices. As a result, mobile engage with the sport in the near future.
communications will take another jonathan.hargreaves@edelman.com
leap forward and become even more
sophisticated. The communicators that
master the immediacy and human nature
of this new model will be the ones that
work best in the cloudy future.
Amid these headline opportunities, there
is also a dark side to the Cloud. Questions
are raised about how it will be made secure
and, importantly, what happens to privacy
and an individual’s rights to access their
own information when so much personal
data is held by the companies that maintain
the Cloud. One obvious bug bear is who
will control a person’s ability to store and
access information kept within the Cloud.
Does a Business have the right to turn
off your personal data stored within the
page 9
 Re-hum
– Next Generation Digital Communicatio
Blogs, social networks, online communities
and the other elements that together
comprise what some have defined as Web
2.0 have really only been around for a few
years. But already, the term has become
passé, as the always-looking-for-something-
new crowd, with their collective gnat-like
attention span, looks for the Next Big Thing.

If their search focuses on a technology,

they will inevitably go astray.

Technology will, of course, continue to evolve

and advance. Perhaps the web will grow
more semantically sensitive and serve us
better by anticipating our needs. The move
towards Cloud Computing – as described in
Jonathan Hargreaves’s article, where all of
our own information is accessible to us from
anywhere at anytime – will certainly change
how we work, play and preserve those
experiences. Improvements in mobile devices
may soon eliminate the need for desktop,
laptop and notebook computers.

These are all interesting and impactful

technological changes.

However, they pale in comparison with the

social change that technology has already
wrought. And it is this social change that
Businesses and other institutions have
yet to fully grasp and incorporate into
their management and Communications
practices. The changes centre around new or
exponentially improved capabilities:

page 10 Public Engagement in the Conversation Age

 • Easy and convenient access to a massive
trove of information
• The ability to quickly form groups around
a mutual interest, even a micro one
• The solution to massive problems or the
completion of previously overwhelming
tasks with no management structures
whatsoever
• The mobilisation of disorganised,
disparate individuals into an impactful
movement
Access to information drives scepticism
and is the primary force behind falling
public Trust in institutions across the board.
No longer must we take anyone’s word
for it. With a click or two, any claim or
assertion can be confirmed or shown to be
incomplete, exaggerated or even false. Too
To be sure, many of these are no longer
new ideas and, even so, it will take most
Businesses many years to fully grasp them.
As a result, any contemplative CEO or Brand
leader could be forgiven for thinking that
the future looks bleak. Over the coming year,
stakeholders will increasingly be the masters
of their relationships with Business. Troubled
times and the inevitable poor performances
will make people even more skeptical and
cynical of Business voices.
Therefore, the imperative to embrace change
and re-humanise both Communications and
broader Business practices will become an
even stronger imperative. At a time when
Consumers are more carefully weighing
purchasing decisions, shareholders are
examining the implications of every trade,
relationships, Communicators become the
facilitators and conscience of the Business
itself. For now, this is the realm of specialist
Digital Communications experts, but that will
certainly change in the coming years.
The move towards this new construct
sets the stage for a hopeful future
where Businesses are more responsible,
transparent, engaged and successful, with
Communications at the centre, making the
dialogue happen.
Further reading
• Here Comes Everybody, Clay Shirky
• Army of Davids, Glen Reynolds
• TED: Ideas Worth Spreading
(www.ted.com)

manising Business
ons

often, Business has fallen short in clear and
transparent Communications.
As a result of that scepticism, people are
reverting to instinct and, instinctively, we
all have an innate ability to evaluate other
people. Here again, technology plays an
important role. By facilitating interactions
between people of similar interest,
perspective or background, technology has
created an alternate information resource,
and one that we find easier to evaluate, trust
and rely on. Viewed from that perspective, it
is unsurprising that Trust in ‘people like me’
is consistently on the rise.
And it is here that Businesses have an
opportunity. It starts with re-humanising:
• Empowering the ‘people like me’ that
make up every Business to interact
more freely with internal and external
stakeholders and to do so without fear
• Being more honest and transparent in
Business practices. Doing so requires,
not coincidentally, being a better, more
responsible Business
• Admitting faults and failings. After all, no
human being is perfect and no Business
can credibly claim to be
• Building relationships with stakeholders
on the basis of mutual gain. This requires
listening and willingness to be responsive
to stakeholder input
and policy-makers are deliberating who to
prop up, the ramifications of whether – and
how quickly – a Business moves forward
could be extreme.
Indeed, as more and more Businesses begin
to embrace the new (old) qualities, the ones
that are slower to do so aren’t simply sitting
still. They are falling behind. The Businesses
that are embracing change are on a journey.
And for them, Digital Technology now
returns to the picture in the crucial role of
facilitator.
Social networks, blogs, and online
communities like Flickr and YouTube are
now revealed as vital venues for dialogue
and interaction with stakeholders rather
than mere websites. Google search Marshall Manson is Edelman’s
results for Brand-related terms provide Director of Digital Strategy
a critical perspective on reputation and (but he still prefers golf to Facebook).
Brand standing, as well as a pathway to marshall.manson@edelman.com
information.
We can take heart that much of what is to
come mirrors what is passed. Like the High
Street shopkeeper of yore, Business will
increasingly rely on Trust and relationships
formed on the basis of dialogue and mutual
respect. It is only the technology facilitating
that dialogue that has changed.
In this, Communicators have a key role to
play: by understanding the technology and
advising people at all levels within Business on
how best it can help them facilitate essential

page 11

David Brain is CEO of Edelman Europe
and co-author of Crowd Surfing and
finds it difficult to wipe the smile from
his face at the moment because his 40
plus year obsession with Manchester
City has been rewarded with Abu Dhabi
millions... and he is handling their PR
account for Edelman. Personally. In
fact no-one else is getting much of a
look-in.
david.brain@edelman.com
page 12
As far as I can make out, the first Crowd
Surfers in the rock and roll sense were either
Iggy Pop or Jim Morrison... no one seems to
know for sure. Now of course, pretty much
every pop star with pretensions will at some
time launch themselves off the stage in the
hope and expectation that their fans will
break their fall, take their weight and pass
them hand over hand around the arena and
eventually put them back on the stage. The
metaphor for Business is a slightly crude one
I admit, but today voluntarily or otherwise,
more and more Brands and companies are
having to get used to the idea that they are
no longer in control like they used to be and
that at times they are even at the mercy
of their crowds. And they are discovering
that that means having to do some things
differently and occasionally being dumped
on their head in the mosh pit (as it were).
Forrester have research that shows that 80%
of a Brand’s online Communication is not
by the Brand itself; it is from Consumers,
commentators and media. Edelman’s Trust
Barometer shows that the most trusted
source of information on a company is
‘people like me’ (true also in the UK, as well
as globally by the way). The CEO is the
seventh most trusted source. And so not
only do Consumers now do much (if not
most) of the communicating about Brands
and companies, they are also the most
trusted communicators.
It seems inevitable therefore that the
old command-and-control style of
media (advertising, direct marketing and
promotions) are going to be less effective
than they were. Many companies recognise
this and are indeed changing their
Communication mix, but it also requires a
new mindset.
Some companies like Dell come to this
realisation because a “raging mob with
pitchforks” attacks them. In Dell’s case this
was inspired by one blogger, Jeff Jarvis, but
quickly became a movement that at times
almost overwhelmed Dell’s online presence
with negative comment in the form of the
www.ihatedell.neet web site. In our book,
Crowd Surfing, we (my co-author Martin
Thomas and I) interviewed Dell managers
on the experience of having to enter into
conversation with an angry crowd and
they described how they started to respond
to people’s anger and frustration at bad
products and service and how now they
even institutionalise the sourcing of new
product and service ideas from the crowd via
www.dellideastorm.com, a kind of on-line
Consumer suggestion box. Michael Dell
says that giving up control by entering into
the conversation that was going on anyway
meant that in effect the “customer walks
the halls” at Dell. And that means better
products, services and a Brand that has
come down from the mountain and is now
much more approachable and accessible.
They still advertise and use direct marketing,
but they now also enter into pretty real
and demanding relationships with their
customers and stakeholders.
Other companies like New Zealand Vodka
brand 42Below do it because they are
(or were) small and have little money to
compete for attention in the usual marketing
ways. One of their YouTube commercials,
which was made for just a few hundred
dollars became one of the online hits of 2006
and was passed around from blog to blog
and via email links and Facebook groups.
Consumers as the media channel (if you
can entertain them enough for them to be
willing to play with you) can very quickly
get to scale and of course they carry with
them the implied endorsement of the most
important person to any Brand or company
– the person like me.
Crowd
– 925 words, so you don’t have to re
The trick for managers and leaders now
is to migrate their companies and Brands
from the old ways of managing marketing
and communications to a much messier,
more difficult to quantify, trial-and-error
approach where they sacrifice control for
the credibility that comes with participation,
conversation and dialogue. As Proximo said
in the movie Gladiator, “Win the crowd and
you will win your freedom”. Crowd Surfing is
designed to help people with real jobs in real
companies do just that.
And it’s not like the phenomena of the
empowered Consumer is going to go away
anytime soon. As described elsewhere in
this publication, the rocket fuel of Consumer
empowerment is technology (social or 2.0
and mobile particularly) and it has only just
started to combust. Consider this: Both my
children started using a mouse to navigate
web sites like Club Penguin at around the age
of three, about the same time they realised
they could play the games or look at the
photos on my mobile phone. I have spoken
to enough parents to know that we are not
a family of total freaks in this. The internet
became a Consumer friendly/ useful thing at
about 1993-4. The first generation then that
Public Engagement in the Conversation Age
 grew up using these technologies as soon as
their grubby little fingers would allow them
to were born in about 1990. They are now
18, going on 19 and are going to University
and entering the workforce for the first time.
They are the first true digital generation and
if Brands and companies think that all this
new stuff has been disruptive so far, then
they better hold on to their hats, because we
have only just begun. It is the companies
and managers that learn to crowd surf that
will survive and thrive in this new Consumer
empowered age.

rowd Surfing
ead the 60,000 in the book

Further reading
• www.sixtysecondview.com
• www.crowdsurfing.net
• www.dellideastorm.com

page 13
Newspapers make for depressing reading,
with alarming headlines such as “UK faces
worst of global recession” (FT); “Deep and
lengthy recession takes shape as UK output
figures shrink” (The Times); “Recession to
hit Britain hardest among Europe’s leading
economies” (The Guardian); “Employers
gloomy on job creation” (BBC News)… and, it
would be fair to say, worse will follow. While
some pundits debate that such headlines and
resultant coverage have served to exacerbate
the situation, one cannot disagree that we
find ourselves at the mercy of turbulent
financial markets which will have a deep
rooted and long lasting effect on us all.
So as we attempt to plot a course back to
economic stability and renewed prosperity in
its truest sense, should we be looking beyond
the faltering Financial sector to the Creative
Industries and ask, can they provide us with a
way forward and the hope of bolstering the
crunch? Could they drive potential growth
for the future?
The impact of the Creative Industries as a key
driver of GDP in the UK is rapidly emerging
and transforming the perception that these
businesses play a Cinderella role in the
economy, sitting on the outskirts of true
Business. Why? Well it is hard to argue with
the facts. The Creative Industries grew by an
average of 6% per annum between 1997 and
2005 (which is twice as fast as the rest of
the economy) and in 2005 accounted for £60
billion or 7.3% of Gross Value Added (GVA).
Total creative employment increased from
1.6 million in 1997 to 1.9 million in 2006,
representing an average of 2% per annum,
compared with 1% for the whole of the
economy over this period. Moreover, the UK
Creative Industries outperform every other
European state and have moved to centre
stage of the economy.
Of course the Creative Industries will face
the same challenges as every other industry
– including securing investment, debt
management and access to private equity
– but could it be that they are better placed
to survive the crunch and display the most
promising trends for potential growth?
Successful Business has always been
dependent on firstly predicting market
trends and in turn possessing the flexibility
and confidence to respond to them. This
has never been more poignant than for
the world of Business today. However, it is
arguably more difficult than ever to achieve.
The highly innovative nature of the Creative
sector would suggest they are better able to
diversify their products and services. They
are also more likely than the average firm to
user wider innovation, which is an important
page 14
driver of productivity as innovative products
account for a greater share of turnover.
Further, as we move towards a predominantly
knowledge based economy, the fact that
the Creative Industries’ workforce (the
sector employs over 1.8 million people,
including those working in related creative
occupations) is highly qualified with over
49% of employees having at least a degree
level qualification (compared with an
economy wide average of 31%) surely points
to a trend for growth? The Work Foundation
describes the knowledge economy as the
story of new technologies combining with
human brain power to transform the basis
of economic activity; CEO, Will Hutton,
believes that the knowledge economy, the
central tenet of the Creative Industries is
increasingly important to the UK’s financial
performance.
The Birmingham Post recently ran an
interesting byline article on the future of the
Creative sector (Creative Industries Well-
placed to Beat Credit Crunch, 31 August
2008) by Lara Ratnaraja, Sector Development
Director of Creative, Cultural and Digital at
Business Link in the West Midlands, who
made the point that: “Companies, which
can show a strong yield on investment,
will still have room to grow as long as they
can evidence that their knowledge-based
services are in demand from consumers and
clients. In a nutshell, companies that exploit
their intellectual property fully will emerge
from the crunch as market leaders.”
Thinking Our Way Out
of the Crunch
– Could The Creative Industries Hold The Solution?
Innovation plays a key role and, between
1995 and 2005, start-up companies
accounted for 48% of turnover growth with
software and computer games contributing
the most. A recent report from Cass Business
School and Microsoft, Unlocking the
Potential of the UK’s Innovators, predicts that
we could add £9 billion to the UK economy
simply by unlocking the talent of the hidden
entrepreneurs.
Another critical factor will be investment in
skills to ensure we have the right people with
the right skills to meet the demand and drive
growth. The Department for Culture, Media
and Sport is doing just that, as evidenced
in a recent report, From the Margins to the
Mainstream – Government Unveils New
Action Plan for the Creative Industries. The
report sets out a number of new initiatives to
help the UK’s Creative Industries to flourish,
including 5,000 new apprenticeships to
help people from all backgrounds make the
most of their creative skills, and the creation
of C&binet, the Creativity and Business
International Network, a new forum that will
bring together Creative and Business leaders.
Unlocking the potential of the Creative
Industries cannot be ignored as we look to
plot a course back to economic stability –
and it will be essential for both Government
and Business to work in partnership to
maintain and create the most favourable
conditions in order to stimulate innovation,
creativity and dynamism.
Further reading
• Staying Ahead: The Economic
Performance of the UK’s Creative
Industry, Will Hutton and the Work
Foundation on behalf of the Dept.
for Culture, Media and Sport
• From the Margins to the Mainstream
– Government Unveils New Action Plan
for the Creative Industries, Dept. for
Culture, Media and Sport
• Unlocking the Potential of the UK’s
Innovators, Cass Business School and
Microsoft
• Creative Industries Well-placed to Beat
Credit Crunch, Lara Ratnaraja, Sector
Development Director of Creative,
Cultural and Digital at Business Link,
Birmingham Post, 31 August 2008
Pamela Fieldhouse is Managing
Director of Edelman’s Corporate
Reputation team. She has been
passionate about understanding how
the human mind works and how to
influence behaviour change since
studying psychology at university.
pamela.fieldhouse@edelman.com
Public Engagement in the Conversation Age
Think bravery
Before budgets
– Creativity and Brand Bravery
One of the most talked about opportunities
that the changing economic climate will
telegraph for Communications is a greater
emphasis on innovation. Agencies will
be expected to make more from less. It
is anticipated that this will encourage
stronger and clearer focus on creativity, and
higher creative expectations from Brands.
This is a good thing. Higher creative
expectations are what our industry needs.
Great ideas should always be the heartbeat
of PR campaigns no matter what the
channels or who the editors are.
But is this emphasis on creative primacy
going to pose a significantly changed
working or business environment?
Don’t we always need to be creatively
outstanding and doesn’t every pound of
marketing budget spent need to deliver
maximum return anyway, and should this
not always be the case?
Marketers are used to working with limited
resources and should always work on the
principle that the best ideas, campaigns
and stories are not always the most
expensive. Take the seminal 1994 and 2008
JCPR Wonderbra campaigns as examples of
huge and powerful campaigns delivered on
small budgets. We do not need to invent
new ways of working for these changing
times. The best agencies should always
relish the challenge to produce exceptional
work – whatever the financial resource and
whatever the financial context.
We have read much about the Economics
of Less, the Rise of Consumer Politics,
and the Conversation Age. In the new
rules of Consumer Engagement, less means
more. The perceived new creative dawn
should look to define itself in parallel with
these principles and seize the opportunity
for less to mean creatively more, not
just from a spend perspective but from
a thought perspective. As Brands bravely
embrace the world after the 30 second
spot, they should seek to consolidate with
courageous, simple, uncluttered thought.
But belief in the simple and the new has
always required robust single minded
conviction and pioneering spirit which, in
turn, represents accelerated risk.
It is the willingness of Brands to take risks
that has always had the most significant
impact in getting creative ideas off the
page. The real elephant in the room is
not the need for greater or consolidated
creativity or the confidence in, and
understanding of, new authors and new
channels – but the climate and tolerance
for risk, as guaranteeing KPIs and ROIs
becomes increasingly pivotal in getting
campaigns that vital rubber stamp. The real
challenge is not Budgets, its Brand Bravery.
Creativity could easily be forced to play
second fiddle to ROI as Brands seek water
tight solutions. As the tussle for spend
morphs into a battleground between the
strength and vision of an idea and the
commitment and comfort of guaranteed
delivery – the safe way to do things versus
the risky, Brand Marketers should lead the
march by showing and making Brands feel
that they can have both their cake and eat it.
We all know that PR is unique in its ability
to stretch and engage audiences across a
multitude of channels, to influence and
shape culture and deliver 360Brand-owned
campaigns. We truly now have the power
to Think Big.
But do we have the ability to responsibly
and impressively convince Brands of
this? Do we need to better interrogate
and articulate how we demonstrate and
communicate ideas to help Brands show
value and ultimately give them what they
need to make a great idea fly?
The war on mediocre but safe solutions
can only be won if Marketers can establish
and develop a dynamic framework to
demonstrate the Business value and stretch
of an idea – beyond traditional expectations,
traditional routes, traditional results and,
most importantly traditional, channels.
Four Ways to Better Communicate Ideas
and Influence Decisions:
Build Cultural Relevance - root ideas in the
cultural Zeitgeist. Stay current and grow
the potential of the idea by harnessing
and realizing the power of a strong brand
story to contribute to culture. Collaborate
with cultural institutions to build brand
experiences and engage new audiences.
Demonstrate Power and Critical Mass
– with ideas that work across a multitude
of channels, avoid thinking simply of
Consumer PR t, everyone is a consumer
now, show and understand integrated
platforms.
Show Robust Business Nous – that you
know how to track and demonstrate
measurable results, crucially, illustrate how
the idea can effect sales.
Integrate and Collaborate - Consumer,
Corporate, Digital, PA, the best solutions will
offer every service that the Brand needs.
These are all obvious considerations, and
that is ultimately the point. In the age of
decision by committee and fear of waste
(money, time or otherwise), the onus is on
us to work more effectively with Brands to
deliver visionary creative campaigns that
telegraph a robust success narrative from
inception to completion.
Further reading
• Juicing the Orange: How to Turn
Creativity into a Powerful Business
Advantage by Pat Fallon, Fred Senn
• Branding Only Works on Cattle: The
New Way to Get Known by Jonathan
Salem Baskin
Ruth Warder is a Director at JCPR and
has been integrating brands with culture
and entertainment for the past eight years.
ruth_warder@jcpr.com
page 15

Mike Kan is Managing Director of
Health for Edelman in Europe. He is also
passionate about design. He is obsessed
by its role in shaping physical, social and
literary constructions of everyday life
from the 1840s to the 1930s.
mike.kan@edelman.com
Steven Spurr is Managing Director,
Health. He read Economics at the
LSE and it was here that he became
fascinated with the concept of perfect
information and its role in resource
allocation.
steven.spurr@edelman.com
page 16
A paradox is in play at the heart of today’s
society. As individuals, we can consider
ourselves more independent than ever
before, yet the opinions we hold and the
actions we take are increasingly driven by
a sense of the wider societal context and
consequence. The big issues, in politics, the
environment and the economy sit at the
centre of individual concerns, influencing
many of our daily decisions.
engaging wit
– Health in the Conversation Age
As we describe earlier, the most significant
catalyst for change has been the
digital revolution, which has effectively
democratised dialogue, debate, opinion
and ultimately, actions and procedures.
Individuals are invited - and are inviting
themselves - to participate in conversations
at all levels on issues of all magnitude.
We are now active citizens, not passive
consumers, and we are recognising how the
digital channel gives us the authority and
ability to realise the responsibility of being
the change we want to see.
Almost every facet of society that
communicated in the traditional ‘top-
down’ pyramidal system is finding success
by letting the citizen in. Barack Obama’s
overwhelming presidential victory, for
example, was driven by a desire to “speak
directly to his supporters” in the words of his
chief strategist, and allow them to become
involved and empowered in the campaign.
Initiatives such as myBarackObama.com, the
social networking site with approximately
1.5 million active users, were “the central
nervous system of the campaign,” according
to Julie Germany, director of the Institute
for Politics Democracy at the George
Washington University. The success is
reflected in the contrast between Democrat
and Republican levels of engagement, as
evidenced by Obama supporters turning up
at rallies sporting lovingly home-made t-
shirts and banners, while McCain supporters
usually wielded the homogeneous, party-
made placards and printed-out badges.
So why is it that some elements of the
health sector – pharmaceutical companies in
particular – are struggling to countenance
dialogue with the emerging Digital
Democracy? In one regard, it is tempting
to excuse them from the new world order
due to the legal and ethical constraints
placed upon their interactions with their
lay and patient audiences. On the other
hand, the world is moving on regardless;
and not just the world at large but their
world too – people, patients, doctors and
advocacy groups are all becoming more
engaged, demanding and democratised in
their information-sharing and expectation of
dialogue.
According to the Health Engagement
Barometer – a new study by Edelman of
5,000 people (1,000 in the UK) – more than
half of adults (55%) in the UK say they are
becoming more actively engaged in health
issues, with conversations about health more
important to them now than in the past.
The Health Engagement Barometer also
confirms that pharmaceutical companies
must embrace the digital revolution. Seventy
nine percent of UK respondents regularly
turn to online sources when seeking
information about a health issue, and 16%
regularly turn to blogs for information.
But engagement goes beyond what people
want – it is what they expect and demand
of companies in today’s world – and is the
fundamental driver of Trust. Seventy percent
of people say Trust is the most important
factor with health companies, yet only 8%
of people in the UK strongly trust health
companies. Meanwhile, those who are more
engaged in health are more trusting of health
companies overall (60% vs. 53%) and more
likely to be an advocate for them (68% vs. 48%).
So how can the pharmaceutical industry
engage its stakeholders? The digital space
cannot be ignored – 51% of UK respondents
in the Health Engagement Barometer said
online methods are their preferred method
of communication with companies and
organisations involved in health. While it is
a difficult step for any major corporation to
‘let go’ and cede the control they have been
used to (and this is particularly true in such
a regulated and potentially litigious world as
health), the pharmaceutical industry must be
braver and overcome perceptions of Digital
Communications as something to be feared,
mistrusted and that, if ignored, might just go
away.
Public Engagement in the Conversation Age
 Ultimately, while the world of health is
complex and multifarious, it has a simple
requirement at heart: people who require
healthcare want the right treatment and
advice from people they trust at the right time
and for the right ‘cost’ (whether in sterling or
side effects). Engaging with this requirement
is in the interest of all stakeholders in health,
and finds its expression in conversations
around access to medicine.

th health citizens
The stakes are high and the time is right for
the pharmaceutical industry to be braver.
While regulatory and resource constraints
are very real, there is significant scope for
companies to prioritise their engagement
in this conversation and to build Trust with
their citizen stakeholders to secure their
continued licence to operate.

Ensuring appropriate access to medicine

is a complex and fragmented process, and
often too narrowly understood. Stakeholders
in health are often found working in silos
and sometimes to their own detriment.
Communications specialists are uniquely
positioned to weave these strands together:
linking health economics, medical, media
relations, pricing, reimbursement, advocacy,
policy and disease awareness functions
within pharmaceutical companies to
facilitate consistent, transparent and
multi-directional dialogue with the citizen
stakeholders that determine their success.
The engagement is essential across all
channels and we know the stakeholders are
increasingly online. It’s no longer an option.
To secure the future, the pharmaceutical
industry must take a deep breath, embrace
this new channel and enter the brave new
world of Public Engagement.

Further reading
• Edelman Health Engagement Barometer:
www.engageinhealth.com

Page 17
Medical Communications and Medical
Education are often used as synonymous
terms – and in part that is quite correct. All
the efforts of a Medical Communications
agency are directed at educating their
audiences, who are primarily practicing
Health Care Professionals (HCPs). Education
takes on a different onus, however, when
this is officially recognised as a Continuing
Medical Education (CME) or Continuing
Professional Development (CPD) programme.
In this respect, different rules and regulations
apply than in the broader Medical
Communications perspective. The focus of
this article is on Medical Communications.
Although Medical Communications is a
highly regulated environment – with the
majority of the Communications targeted at
HCPs and not appropriate (or permitted) for
Consumer audiences – the time has come
for pharmaceutical companies to embrace
the same principles of engagement and
conversation as other industries. This is all
the more important as the pharmaceutical
product development landscape is changing
rapidly – with fewer blockbuster drugs,
companies need to find more compelling
ways to communicate the benefits of their
products in real clinical practice.
Acambis. However, this consolidation alone
is unlikely to address the need for late
stage products, as most of the pipelines
acquired in this way still require significant
development time. This is also compounded
by the fact that some of those biotechnology
based drugs that have reached market will
be facing patent expiry, and the spectre
of so-called ‘biosimilars’ (the term used to
describe generic biologics) is looming large.
Pharmaceutical companies will need to
ensure that their R&D pipelines are not too
narrow in order to maintain the flow and
momentum of getting products to market,
although undoubtedly some will run the risk
of cutting back on R&D during the current
financial crisis.
Against this background, there is no doubt
that pharmaceutical companies will be
guarding their relationships with their HCP
advocates with great care. Strong advocates
at the developmental stage of a drug’s
lifecycle are critical to safeguard its long
Medical
with their stakeholders about their drugs
in development. Successful Medical
Communications is more business critical
than ever. Those companies who embrace
a more open dialogue about their drugs
in development in innovative and more
compelling ways with those professionals
who are ultimately at the forefront of
treating patients, will reap the rewards of the
new terms of engagement.
Further Reading
• Edelman Trust Barometer:
www.edelman.co.uk/trustbarometer
• PharmaFocus
• SCRIP

Conversation is now at the heart of

any engaging Medical Communications
programme. Enabling and driving peer-to-
peer dialogue is far more powerful than
relying solely on the ‘old model’ of driving
information from the top opinion leaders
down to the broader HCP community.
Trusting the source is the cornerstone of
any successful Medical Communications
programme and, as the Edelman Trust
Barometer has shown, people are more likely
to trust ‘people like me’, so having strong
professional advocates to drive peer-to-peer
Communications is a clear advantage for
pharmaceutical companies.
In the current economic climate, engaging
in conversation with these advocates will be
increasingly important. A fairly long term
‘scare-mongering’ headline in much of the
pharmaceutical press has been focused
around the lack of robust pipelines in many
major pharmaceutical companies, with some
high profile Phase III trial failures adding fuel
to this. In the last few years, there has been
a great deal of consolidation in the industry
as pharmaceutical companies seek to
bolster their pipelines through acquisitions,
most notably of R&D driven biotechnology
companies. Roche, for example, increased
their stake in Genentech to take a controlling
share; AstraZeneca acquired MedImmune
and Cambridge Antibody Technology; and
most recently, Sanofi Pasteur acquired
Communications in
the conversation Age
– Where Next with Health Care Professionals?
term survival, and we should expect medical
communications to play an increasingly David Noble is Managing Director of
important role in maintaining these BioScience Communications - Edelman’s
relationships at a time when companies specialist Medical Communications
will be seeking to ensure that they realise Division. He has extensive experience
their ROI on their later stage compounds of the pharmaceutical industry having
in an increasingly competitive market. started out as an R&D biochemist before
Transparency continues to be the watch moving into communications.
word in developing these relationships,
david.noble@edelman.com
so taking a responsible approach and
acknowledging the independence of HCPs is
paramount. It is only by encouraging debate
that pharmaceutical companies can achieve
this with any real credibility.
While the current economic turbulence
will undoubtedly have an impact on R&D
budgets, pharmaceutical companies cannot
afford to jeopardise their long term prospects
by cutting back too severely. This would both
damage their commercial outlook and their
relationships with their key advocates in
healthcare practice.
Furthermore, in an increasingly competitive
market, pharmaceutical companies will
need to embrace a more open dialogue

page 18 Public Engagement in the Conversation Age

 Alive and
kicking – Trust and the Beating Heart of Media
The boundaries of the media landscape have
changed almost beyond recognition. As my
colleagues have already described, the rise
of the Digital Democracy has given every
individual the power to influence the News,
Political and Business agendas – it is no
longer a privilege reserved for newspaper
men on Fleet Street. Understanding the
complexities of the landscape, the drivers
of Trust, and the role that traditional media
can – and should – still play in managing
corporate reputation are imperative for any
organisation. Today, the media is no longer
just a reflection of our culture, it IS our
culture.
We have seen the extraordinary development
of blogs and the rise of the Citizen journalist,
allowing everyone to enter the debate and
get their voice heard. Media campaigns have
moved on line; viral emails have burst out of
the digital world and into the printed media;
blogs are quoted in the mainstream press.
Now more than ever, so much of what is
said, either by individuals or by companies,
is ‘published’ and can be revisited and pored
over endlessly in the digital world. Even
Facebook entries and off the cuff remarks
caught by an enthusiastic blogger can come
back to haunt the author in a way they
wouldn’t have in the past. The old newspaper
cuttings library, previously available to
chosen journalists only, is now a limitless,
digital resource and open to all, 24 hours a
day.
Good Communications have always had to
be transparent and credible but now, at every
level, they have to represent the values of
the Business or Brand in order to pass the
unprecedented scrutiny of a global audience.
In the ‘always on’ media world, Humbug will
be found out and when things go wrong
companies have to move with unaccustomed
speed to regain any sense of control.
If the ‘what’ we communicate has changed,
so has the ‘where’. For a decade or more,
audiences for traditional media have
declined while people getting news online
has surged. Print media continues to bleed
ink but, while use of mass media is declining,
it is not going away. There are more and
more niche publications and specialist
outlets. Social networking sites and blogs
are just as likely to be sources of credible
information for some. It is no longer a choice
between one or the other but which you
chose when, and how much you believe it.
Distinct groups with distinct habits of news
consumption are forming and re-forming
at alarming speed. We cannot just assume
that a piece on the evening news or in The
Times will reach our core target – a group of
Millennials on blogs might wield a mightier
media sword. Delivering the real media that
matters is the challenge we have to meet for
our clients and we have to know what they
are reading, watching and listening to all the
time.
What is emerging out of this media chaos,
however, is something rather old-fashioned
– and that is Trust. As more and more media
sources are spawned, trusted sources become
even more important. Radio 4’s Today
programme still sets the news agenda for
many and chief executives still understand Further reading
the value and power of getting into the FT. • Flat Earth News, Nick Davies
Trust is their most valuable asset, hence the • Scoop, Evelyn Waugh
BBC’s very public soul searching in recent
months around matters of poor editorial
standards and taste shown by some of their Jo Sheldon is Edelman’s Media Director
presenters and the issue of public deception and a former journalist. Her media
over the running of competition phone lines. roles have encompassed an eclectic mix
of publications from early days on the
As people’s pensions and savings are under Epsom and Ewell Advertiser to CNBC
threat and they look for answers about Europe via The Times, GMTV and the
global warming, flu pandemics and security Mail on Sunday.
of the energy supply, it is trusted sources jo.sheldon@edelman.com
that the public will turn to. After years of
erosion of respect for the British media
generally that has even opened the door
to debate about privacy laws, it will be
interesting to see in coming months whether
the media can rebuild that Trust.
Our challenge as PR professionals is to
absolutely understand who those trusted
sources are in the print, broadcast or digital
space and ensure we use our media skills to
get our messages across to the gatekeepers
of those sources – journalists or otherwise.
page 19
 We have read elsewhere in this collection
about the Economics of Less, the rise of
Consumer Politics, that shouting no longer
works, and that Brands are no longer in
control. Against this backdrop, we turn our
attention to the Content Revolution.

In the Conversation Age, an inverted

marketing model has led to a new set of
imperatives: engage and entertain audiences,
don’t interrupt them; facilitate dialogue not
monologue; ‘tell’ don’t ‘sell’. In light of such
fundamental shifts, those marketing brands
and services, faced with addressing a newly
empowered and participative Consumer,
might be justified in thinking “...so what on
earth am I going to talk about?”

Creative content is the ‘stuff’ that starts

conversation and collaboration. This branded
output may be commercial and informative
or edgy and provocative; but above all, it
has to be resonant and credible to its target,
compelling in its execution and carry an
intrinsic capacity for interaction (comment,
rating, sharing, and adaptation).

Producing collateral for social currency that

is distributed beyond the commercial space
and exploited across multiple channels is
the key to success – creating an award-
winning ad campaign or generating media
coverage is no longer enough to be heard or
cut through, or crucially, to build powerful
relationships and involvement.

The need for Brands/Services to become

producers and media channels in their
own right is a significant yet unalterable
paradigm shift - and of course an incredible
opportunity, facilitated by the options new
technologies and distribution platforms have
provided for Communication and immediate
interaction.

Without content
there is no conversation
– Content, Conversation and Collaboration

In the digitally democratized world of

direct-to-consumer engagement, there has
been a land grab from agencies across the
marketing disciplines seeking to establish
primacy of this relationship. ‘Content’

page 20 Public Engagement in the Conversation Age

 or ‘Branded Entertainment’ has become
the new Communication buzzword but is
misunderstood by marketers on many levels
and often misappropriated by agencies eager
to rescue plummeting spends. This is not
about turning an ad into a viral, a brochure
into a podcast, or news releases into a
company blog, in order to ‘digitise’ and make
more immediate corporate information - but
rather a re-evaluation of agency thinking,
propriety and silos to unlock a new creativity
for audience engagement.
The ‘flow’ from strategy and planning,
through creative development and
production, to distribution and
amplification has been the domain of ad
agencies and media buyers at particular
and defined stages - protecting sizeable
budgets in the process. Yet when a user-
generated film on YouTube can consistently
reach more engaged (and self-selecting)
Consumers than a bought 30-second spot,
you know that the model and process needs
to be reappraised.
Simultaneously, the Entertainment industry
has been undergoing its own radical
change. Channel proliferation and the
Digital Entertainment revolution have
seen huge cannibalisation of audiences
and loss of revenue from advertising and
retail sources. Across all formats from
film and music to on-line producers have
begun looking to the commercial sector
for collaborative opportunities – driven by
a series of mutually beneficial needs and
haves. The Entertainment industry has the
collateral, creativity and desirability that
Brands increasingly need to appropriate;
whilst Brands possess those two most vital
ingredients needed by the Entertainment
industry: funding and eyeballs (usually from
existing communities or databases).
Brands communicate and how production
partners work. Brands are now able to
co-operate at the development stage with
film and TV companies, finding and co-
producing scripts or new show formats. This
is not product placement or sponsorship re-
invented, rather a shared ethos and relevance.
Everything can be Brand-owned. Everything
can exist to hero the Brand, engage audiences,
and deliver new ones for both parties.
As PRs, we have always understood the
need to cooperate, co-create and layer over
our client’s news about a product launch
or new flavour variant to give interest,
relevance and credibility to a marketing
story (we called them the golden rules of
Sex, Fame, Humour and Controversy). The
understanding of the flow, coupled with real David Fine, Director of Content, has
collaborative partnership with production spent the last 12 years merging brands
and entertainment properties for ultimate with entertainment and popular culture.
Brand benefit means that PR is best placed to A trained classical actor and early
deliver outstanding content in the new age. exponent on the power of content,
he can be found in starring roles on
In an economic downturn – where advertising YouTube – if you look hard enough…
and media buying budgets are conventionally david.fine@edelman.com
reduced – the need to engage audiences
becomes vital as does the desire to have
control and guarantee of outcome against
spend. Content could finally prove itself a
marketing force to be reckoned with. It is
more cost effective and more immediately
measurable than advertising, with the
added endorsement and potency of real
entertainment credentials. The real measure of
success will be who brokers the relationships
and how well they are exploited and amplified
to ensure richer customer experiences and
consumer relationships as a result.
Further reading/viewing
• http://www.sexysciencebydita.com/
– our own recent content based
360 campaign to digitally re-launch
Wonderbra. A compelling case
study in content creation, seeding
interest, launching a product and
driving conversation. The consumer Jackie Cooper, Creative Director &
community is now participant and led Vice Chair, has spent over 25 years in
to astonishing results: immediate sell brand marketing. The Edelman Content

conversation
• http://www.viralchart.com/vcomad.
Therefore, the real opportunity for credible
and genuinely engaging content production
lies in the potential for co-creation
- unthinkable even five years previously
- backed-up by the recent relaxation of key
legislation. This marks a sea change in how
out, the most watched YouTube video
on launch week, with now 600,000+
views and over 1000 websites linking
to our own
php - we don’t really call this work
‘virals’ any more, but this gives an
indication of the scope and reach of
on-line branded entertainment films
- interestingly those posted tend to be
by ad agencies creating on-line edits
of their atl campaigns, but this will
change...
offer was born predominately from her
realisation that brands today need to
have a more powerful and engaging
voice... And partly from her vaguely
obsessive (Anglo American) love of
brilliant entertainment.
jackie.cooper@edelman.com
• Mediated - How the Media Shape The
World Around You - Thomas
de Zengotita
• Everything Bad is Good for You - Why
Pop Culture is Making us Smarter
- Steven Johnson

page 21
I was recently asked “What is the relationship
between ‘creativity’ and brands in 2009?”
It’s one of those questions one usually gets
from a graduate student when you agree to
address a Marketing Studies class.
This time it was from a big grown up
marketing person, working for a big FMCG
brand with an irretrievably-slashed 2009
budget and immovable expectations from
her management, her sales team’s customers
and ultimately the consumers who buy the
Brand she looks after.
I’m going to guess that the powerful creative
ideas we’ll produce at Edelman and JCPR
in the coming year will work on a principle
I’ve stolen with impunity from Dr Joseph
Nye, a professor of international relations
at Harvard University. He coined the phrase
‘soft power’.
soft power to
the people
Dr Nye reckons that the basic concept of
power is the ability to influence others to get
them to do what you want (so far, so good).
His work proposes that there are three
effective ways to do that: the first is to
threaten people with sticks and the second is
to pay them with carrots. The third – attract
them or engage them so they want what
you want – is soft power. If you can attract
others to your idea or proposition, it costs
you much less in carrots and sticks – even if
both are collected from sustainable sources.
It’s the difference between being bludgeoned
with increasingly less-effective advertising
sticks, bribed with a sales promotion carrot
or inviting a Brand to be part of your choices.
In the Edelman notion of attraction through
soft power, we believe powerful ideas in
2009 should do three things:
1. Distract not disrupt
2. Engage without promiscuity
3. Help people feel good about their choices
page 22
Distract not disrupt
The ‘idea people’ in Communications have
consumed (not spent) a ludicrous amount
of time and vast sums of money trying to
disrupt people’s lives to get attention for
Brands and Causes. The industry blamed
‘clutter’ and ‘information overload’’ for the
need to be boorish and intrusive. Guess what?
Consumers are smart enough and now
have the means to control the amount and
intensity of stimuli (media and otherwise)
they consume. Anyway, we created the
problem in the first place.
In 2009, let’s try to be a welcome distraction
for which people willingly interrupt their
lives to give us their attention. Let’s find
opportunities in places, situations and
Consumers’ lives when an encounter with our
Brand is chosen – not merely tolerated. Let’s
also talk to people because there is a shared
Need – not just because we can.
Create a Welcoming Distraction by:
• Surprising consumers and
juxtaposing things
• Giving small but meaningful bits of
extra service – physical and virtual
• Creating beauty, humour, physical
time and space
• Providing access to truly
interesting people
• Removing worry
• Entertaining
Engage without Promiscuity
Engagement with Consumers and their
online and offline networks of other
people is not an option, but we don’t have
to be promiscuous. Clever Brand owners
understand that targeting very small groups
of like-minded people can move sentiments
and markets by allowing and encouraging
them to talk to each other – and their friends
– and their friends’ friends. We don’t always
have to be there but, when we are there,
we must contribute Content (value) beyond
Brand and Product messages.
In 2009, let’s bring to life ideas that
will include us as a small part of the
conversations Consumers are having
with each other and, in turn, encourage
Consumers to talk to us.
Engage and provide value by:
• Providing new ideas even if they are
untested – ask collaborators to test,
change or create ideas with us
• Including people who we normally
wouldn’t through crowd sourcing
– listening is hard but rewarding
• Embracing controversy, having strong
opinions, defending beliefs and inviting
others into debates
• Graciously admitting our failures and
fixing problems when they occur
• Embracing pathos – storytelling with
emotion – to communicate not just what
we are and do, but who we are
– Into 2009 and beyond
Help People Feel Good About Their
Choices
George Bernard Shaw wrote, “If all
economists were laid end to end, they would
not reach a conclusion.” Still, in terms of
our creative relationship with Consumers in
2009, we’re probably looking at them having
to make new, forced choices because of the
uncertain state of the world economy.
Great Brand ideas will either recognise
people’s economic situation and the effect
on their lifestyles or take them somewhere
else that’s briefly better.
Escapism during economic downturns in our
lifetimes and those of our parents has been
measured by the increase in cinema box
office receipts and chronicled by the truly
terrible films we watched. The last time we
had ‘scary’ oil prices, in the early 1970s, we
retreated to “Earthquake” and “The Towering
Inferno” – not so fondly remembered in
Hollywood as “Shake and Bake.”
Public Engagement in the Conversation Age
 TRUST BAROMETER 2009
• Finding your loyal Consumer base and
giving them attention and affection. We Coming
hope recessions don’t last as long as a
good relationship with a Brand. Be there
now and you’re both likely meet again.
soon...
I always find December 31 to be a The 2009 Trust Barometer is being
monumental non-event. Things, people fielded at an unprecedented time
and needs don’t change just because we of uncertainty and loss.
have to remember to write a different
date on cheques. I do think that delightful The global economy is in a
distraction, new ways of selective
free-fall; iconic businesses are
engagement and being genuinely helpful to
those we want to attract will give our ideas
collapsing; and governments are
currency, saliency, soft power and a greater scrambling to stem the tide with
chance of being around in 2010. more oversight and ownership
of business. At the heart of the
credit crunch – and now recession
Further reading:
• www.goodpurposecommunity.com
– is a fundamental loss of Trust
• Presentation Zen, Garr Reynolds that is essential for business
Paul Haugen is Edelman’s Creative • The Way We’ll Be, John Zogby reputations, liquidity and survival.
Director for Europe. Although he looks • Authenticity, James H. Gilmore and B. Consequently, Trust is a ubiquitous
far too young, this is his fourth full- Joseph Pine II concern for business leaders,
blown ‘global financial correction.’ He • Portfolio Magazine, Conde Nast
wishes he saved the tee-shirts from the political decision-makers and the
Publishing
first three. • Random stuff people leave in airport
engaged public.
paul.haugen@edelman.com lounges
The 2009 Trust Barometer (now
How will Consumers seek economic and in its 10th year and launching
emotional solace in 2009? at Davos in January 2009) will
Edelman has just released the second Good explore Trust through the lens
Purpose study of Consumer sentiment of global issues, stakeholders
toward ‘mutual social responsibility’ in nine and industries. Who is trusted
major economies. It’s life beyond CSR where to be at the helm to navigate
companies actively involve Consumers and us through the financial crisis
other stakeholders in societal policies and
engagement. Nearly seven in 10 (68%)
and other pressing global
Consumers say that during a recession they issues? What now are expected
would remain loyal to a Brand if it supports a roles for Government, Business
good cause. and Advocacy Groups? How do
Businesses preserve their license
In 2009, can we show empathy and hope by to operate and begin to rebuild
being realistic and staying close to ‘real life’
Trust?
(whatever that is)? Alternatively, should we
give people perhaps welcome diversions by
creating ideas, experiences or content that The decisions and actions that
temporarily stop the worry about job security business leaders will make in the
and the mortgage? immediate future – from how to
navigate new regulatory regimes,
Help by:
how to weather closer scrutiny by
• Making the attainable accessible to more
people and making the unattainable governments and engaged publics,
accessible to a few who will talk about it to how to implement the business
to others plans required to move forward
• Providing ideas for economic and – all will depend on their ability
psychological value beyond the direct to engage meaningfully with
purchase of a product – after purchase publics to communicate: “We can
promote reuse, responsible energy
use and conservation, legal disposal,
be trusted to do the right thing.”
generational curation But, first, they need to know
• Building small victories into buying a how to get there. The 2009 Trust
Brand – what does delight look and feel Barometer will help provide that
like for our Consumer? direction.

page 23
Edelman | Southside | 105 Victoria Street | London SW1E 6QT | +44 20 3047 2000