Mesh and Richard Edelman
Notes from the first morning keynote as Mesh conference
The Future of Public Relations
Stuart MacDonald talks to Global CEO of Edelman Richard Edelman.
Q: what is your definition of PR:
A; it s about telling a story well, and the essence of a story is true. it should not be spin or black arts, that’s malpractice. the best PR is coming up with a strategy that helps a company do the right thing and tell the story well
Q; why is the rap so bad?
A: PR has got conflated with political relations, and in politics there are behaviours that may not be acceptable in the commercial area.
Q: is this the best or worst of times?
A it;s the best of times, new media has established a grey areas, about who’s turf is this story. PR used to be the tail on the dog, get called in at the end, to spread a story. now we are hear more at the beginning of an idea, driving the strategy. today we talk across the entire spectrum, we are braid spectrum vehicle whilst ads are a narrow, effective once there is baseline of trust.
Q; it’s about creating trust and credibility; with narrowing and politicised tradition media channels, but with a wide public discourse, how do you as a leader make sure trust and credbility lives up and down
A: every year edelman does a trust barometer. And every year a person like yourself comes top o the trust; it’;s a reflection of a lack of trust in trad institutions. you have 2 axes, horizontal and vertical. you have top down, controlled messages. the horiz access, which has emerged, is spontaneous, base don dialogue, at its basic premise based on personal stories. you have to persuade companies to give up control of the the message, for co-creation, this is not an easy message for the companies. dissonance out there gives you credibility. you have to figure out somewhere in between
Q; are clients getting this?
A: in part because they have had to. eg the Dove campaign, worked beautifully across both axis. you had a traditional media by, then the evolution video. you needed a real issue, it needed to be in the conversation and let it go
Q: is a win in clients eyes doing something online that spins into mainstream media coverage.
A; yes; but there is more. we did something for a community of families of MS patients. we had 100k people in the community. this was a real contribution by the company, they were helping manage with the disease
Q: how do you define success; how do you make money in a world when the def of success has changed
A: to do ad equivalency, I find not adequate. it’s fallacious. the power of free media is far more than purchased. it is you..it is that much more powerful. we still need to be able to quantify that effect; we do survey work pre and post campaign to see if we have changed the voice.
Q” there are people who are doing it right…and wrong.
A: many of you know about Walmart and the RV tour..I covered that in the blog posts. we took this as a challenge to educate everyone in our company about blog standards, and how we should proceed about transparency. we cannot be seen as going back towards spin r artifice. as long as properly identify the source of the funds, the purpose of the blogging etc and who we are being paid by, we need to lay out the ground rules.
Q: where does this put us? in canada we are in a different place… in trad media there are ground rules, editors, and understanding of how this stuff goes. what are the ground rules for blogs etc..how do you cover it to prevent being bitten
A: my belief that PR people have to have a higher standard for the content they are deseminating, as yo are sending stuff direct to the users of the info. you have to explain where you got source; you have to create credible place to find the info. we set up lowermanhattan.info, we put up stuff all the time, good and bad; its a central place where people can find information, fully sourced. that’s an important ad critical tool in PR, a living press kit, where people can share opinion.
The session was now opened up to questions from the audience
Q: interested in your opinion on ghost blogging. as a PR agency, we write quotes etc on behalf of the CEO and now we are being approached to blog on behalf of CEO
A: dicey. I’d rather you worked with the client to get ideas, but the real voice needs to come from the company/CEO etc
Q: is the line btw PR and ads blurring as campaigns become integrated. how do you integrate learning
A: line is definitely blurring, both comms approaches are valid; it depends on the product, whether you have news, if news, the PR should lead, otherwise ads can. Institutalising knowledge, we centralise and deseminate form central source we have 8 people who are full time communicating, learning, listening and deseminating.
Q: we have seen rise of PR budgets. is this related to decrease in investigations..companies become more in control, investigation declined do PR budgets rise?
A: total consumption of media is rising, but mix is changing. t he average well informed american has 7 sources of information. i don;t believe that investigation is declining, in fact more bloggers are doing it; but the dispersion is increasing. there is the need for that kind of critical eye and there is a different set of people doing it
Q: is the industry prepared for the changed/
A: some are. some are still in the older mindset. it is now a harder job as you have to talk to more people. you have to deal with bloggers differently to journalists, more a relationship of equals not a sales pitch.
Q: in light of walmart, what changes did you institute in education of employees, new policies in place? so how does it work.
A: we have 2700 people; the immediate tendency may to restrict who does social media. I reject that hypothesis as everyone needs to do social media and understand. we train, we pass around best practices, we have a 24 hour hotline. we train, we all do it. I;d rather be there than behind and maybe get some things wrong. that’s the mantra.
Q: Dove evolution was good, it generated parodies…so what if you lose control like chevy tahoe.
A: these are judgement issues. tahoe benefited form not putting fist down and stifling conversation. you had to let the humour run its course and have tolerance for disent/discussions. but you need to think ahead …its smarter! if you are in trouble, putting the fist down would have multiplied the reaction.
Q: it sounds, hard, farm more work than a press release, what about reaching numbers? how do you qual vs quan dance.
A: i feel convinced the virtuous circle for our business is to charge more, say you can do better, make you people do more. I think this horiz access is ours to play in. when I cam into the business, the PR business was flat. I always aspired to be in a business where we could be a the table and that is where we are today; we should be charging fees that is commensurate with the importance with the work. this is invaluable with the company, it is something they cannot buy.
Q: would you council not engaging in a SM campaign as the community may be too hostile?
A: i can see situations where you would proceed cautiously. PETA would be an un-reconcilable NGO - they are at one end. KFC still have to deal with them…to leave the horiz conversation to the antis is a bad mistake - never leave an empty chair is PR 101. the chair is online now.
Q: first or right? thoughts?
A: the race to be first is a human instinct. we all want to be first. the greatest temptation for a PR person is to put out stuff first,; you need to qualify - here’s what we know, don;t know and path to get to knowledge. if you find an erroneous report you have to be reactive in getting it corrected, put up your take and links and stories. challenge it, be aggressive about it.
Q: success in c level in paying attention to new media?
A: C level to blog - modest success. it’s time, skills, and a risk issue. it is perceived as a little scary. eg CEo of Pitney Bowes, will be blogging on health system. He wants to be a voice. it;s a thin space though. not sure if will change over time. for myself, it;s satisfying, 9k people read me a week.
Q: what do recommend to a client to approach this?
A: Robert Scoble is an constructive example. he was seen as more real than the boss. midlevels could be the best place to start. let them criticise their employer as well. To allow a guy the freedom of action that Scoble got was great; it persuaded them that MS was not the Darth Vader of tech.
Q: at what point did you recognise that this was more than a fad, that this was the direction you would take edleman.
A: Summer of 2004. my cousin, Linda Stone, an evangelist at microsoft, writing a book at CPA. it occurred to me that this is the world so how do we play in this world? I convinced myself to start blogging, decided we need this crew of real aficionados and we had to push our clients. we also have clients who are in this space. i became this momentum; some people in the company though it was another crazy Richard thing, just let it blow over.
Q: where does spin play a role in PR
A: thw word spin has no place in our company. I think it originates in political PR; it is the single thing that is the most undermining in the future of our industry.
Q: with the blurring line bwt ads and PR..is the space between agencies becoming more competitive. the reality is probably more co-operative, but there is a lot of competitions, we don;t pretend we are in the paid media business; but if we have an interesting idea we will go to the other agencies. - ie virtual Red Ribbons for AIDS day last year.
Q: 3 things that people here should do?
A: make your stories visual. don’t be defeated by setback. don;t let clients say ‘here is your little box’ there’s this grey areas, clients struggle with these new conditions, be aggressive and just do it - play in the space.
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