The coming intelligence explosion in communications

October 9th, 2011 / 12:13 am

In the decades to come, we should see the advent of ultra-intelligent, super-targeted marketing enabled by technology that amplifies our brain power and applies artificial intelligence.

The rise of ‘social operating systems’ like Facebook and Weibo makes it possible to share more information with infinitely large communities, but at the same time the sheer size of our expanding social networks is making it more difficult to communicate with individuals in a genuinely personal and customised manner. Nowadays communication must consist of listening as well as talking and given the broad scale yet atomized sensibility demanded by digital, in the future we will need the new thinking and augmented capacities we currently lack.

Public relations professionals have always been intelligent agents of information-sharing, knowing how to, where to, and when to share information with which people in different sequences so that they do or think things achieving intended communications and commercial outcomes. It used to be that we would need to have relationships with dozens of journalists and communicate through them with a mass audience via story placement.

Now we need to ‘know’ vast numbers of people – be they elite opinion-makers or average citizens – and maintain active and customized relationships with hundreds, thousands, even multi-millions. The dead reckoning of today’s PR minds won’t be enough to handle all this and there’s no canvas large enough where we can paint the far more sophisticated plans that will be required. So I think it is inevitable that we will need to delegate more and more power to super-smart systems that will help us communicate in what is becoming an unbelievably complex environment.

We need technology to help us simplify exponential complexity and today’s best algorithms aren’t solving the problems of scale and sensibility that are getting bigger than our current capability to address. This trend may become most evident in Asia, where we need to apply new technology to communicate effortlessly across diverse cultural and linguistic boundaries as never before.

Categories: technology
comments(1) Tags: complexity, future, intelligence, technology

Anna Hazare, India’s new PR superstar

September 3rd, 2011 / 5:43 am

by Bob Pickard

Last week when I was travelling to India, one story totally commanded the news: the hunger strike of social activist Anna Hazare, who was fasting to force pressure on the Indian government to enact a tough new anti-corruption law.

Day after day, every newspaper front page was dominated by coverage of the Anna protest, and in channel-surfing India’s many all-news TV networks, you would think there was nothing else going on in the world.

The Anna story received such massive publicity, to the extent that one can reasonably ask whether the media was just covering a phenomenon or actually also helping to create one for commercial purposes.

Certainly there were many conditions conducive for a craze, starting with a vast audience of consumers coveted by media organizations in a hyper-competitive news market (media of all kinds – including traditional and new – is growing in India).

As a country with a rising middle class that’s become increasingly fed-up with the negative consequences of corruption in society, India is surely ripe territory for such a popular protest. The middle class already numbers 160 million people and a study by India’s National Council for Applied Economic Research predicts it will explode in size to 267 million within five years (still a minority of India’s 1.2 billion people it should be noted).

Following the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, Anna’s emphasis on nonviolent methods struck a chord and he seemingly achieved ‘societal alignment’ with communications content that resonated with popular sensibilities. His approach recalled the passion and success of storied protests from India’s independence movement (Indian Independence Day’s arrival on August 15^th was a timely milestone).

Conflict and contrast help drive the most vivid news coverage, and the government’s handling of the situation provided both for this story. Conflict: Anna was arrested at one point, which supplied grist for the media mill. Contrast: The fact that Anna shares in common with the Prime Minister an older age (both are in their 70s) provided ample opportunity for media to portray Anna as being vivified by ‘people power’ with the PM seeming wan and remote in comparison.

Momentum perceptions played a key role in the Anna story. Large and animated crowds were always in the backdrop, and later on as the hunger strike progressed, so were what seemed a bigger and bigger team of doctors tending to Anna. As the hero of the story became weaker, the apparent popular sentiment became stronger and larger at the same time owing to a classic ‘bandwagon effect.’

This created an audience-grabbing suspense; the question was: ‘will the government give in before Anna passes the point of no return?’ The prospect of a brave death draws a crowd in the media, especially if it is going to be on principle in support of a cause so many believe in.

This gripping drama, easy to follow and relentlessly repeated in the media, transfixed India and achieved world attention as few stories do (amplified and accelerated by social networks).

I don’t know if there was a public relations strategy devised and implemented by ‘Team Anna.’ If there was, I would give it high marks for results, because it looks like the Anna phenomenon is poised to effect political reforms and changes for the better.

Notes:

1. Thanks to Prema Sagar and Rahul Sharma for sharing their insights on this topic…both brilliant observers of the India public affairs scene.

2. I was already working on my Anna article when I saw this Reuters blog and thought the headline was perfect and so have repurposed it here in this post’s title.

Categories: blog
comments(0) Tags: celebrity, india, media, PR, sensationalism

PR firms tap global expertise

August 21st, 2011 / 11:35 pm

Recently Burson-Marsteller announced that Professional Public Relations would be joining its global network as exclusive New Zealand affiliate partner. Click here for the news release and see the article below from National Business Review:

Categories: Burson-Marsteller
comments(0) Tags: b-m, new zealand, ppr, PR, trans-tasman

Asia-Pacific social media infographics e-booklet

August 18th, 2011 / 4:30 am

B-M Asia-Pacific social media infographics e-booklet

View more documents from Robert Pickard.

Categories: Asia, digital
comments(0) Tags: asia-pacific, digital, infographics, PR

Weibo and the Chinese social media dynamic

August 10th, 2011 / 2:47 am

Last week when I was in China, there was one word that seemed to be on everyone’s lips: Weibo, which is the Chinese microblogging platform that’s analogous to Twitter (but it should be noted that you can get more across in 140 spaces using Chinese characters compared to the Roman alphabet).

After a terrible train crash on the country’s celebrated new high-speed rail system, there was a tremendous outpouring of emotion from millions of people in China who were expressing their sadness over the loss of life, disbelief at the official reports, and anger at why the accident happened and what seemed to be an inadequate explanation afterwards.

Among other things, Weibo appears to have become an easy way for people to vent about things in a country where, while the mainstream media is relatively freewheeling covering the commercial sector, it is much more circumspect when it comes to the government domain. Even if Weibo is a way to sound off, I was told that there are certain taboo comments that are blocked when one tries to post them, and that censors will delete impermissible comments after they have been posted.

This train crash incident is the latest one I’ve noticed where anger is amplified so quickly online, with riots of rage breaking out on social networks especially in jurisdictions where there are people who have felt politically or economically constrained. In many parts of Asia, fitting in with the group harmony rather than standing out can be the governing dynamic, but social networks may be changing this cultural assumption.

I think we saw this most recently in the Japanese social media reaction in Japan and China last September, when Japan accused a Chinese fishing boat of deliberately ramming two patrol vessels near disputed islands in the East China Sea, causing a massive digital diplomatic row between the two countries.

What happened on social networks after this incident and after the recent train crash shows how the emotions of millions can be experienced as a community’s collective consciousness…like a national nervous system. I reckon there can be positive mass manifestation of strong sentiment, but sometimes there’s an ugly side to it as well. What I find intriguing is the speed and intensity with which anger can cycle up into outrage online.

Even if microblogs can play a useful role protecting the record and holding institutions to account, sometimes troubling is the lack of hard information possessed by those making summary judgments who often overrate what they know as the basis for forming opinions. Then there is the apparent digital reduction of empathy for other people, ironic inasmuch as the technology offers so many new ways to bring us together as never before.

Despite the bold and fearless talk on Weibo, during the nine media interviews I did in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, while all of the journalists evidenced intense interest regarding digital crisis communications in general, none of them asked about the train incident in particular.

I asked all of the reporters if they use Weibo themselves, and they all replied in the affirmative. Some said they use it for work. Others declared that they use it exclusively for personal purposes. Some declared that they use it for both.

In this respect, whether it’s the psychology of digital networks or how individuals are sorting out their profiles and personality online, despite a very unique social media ecosystem, in these respects China shares much in common with the rest of the digital world.

Categories: China
comments(0) Tags: china, digital, social networks, weibo

Cliver

August 9th, 2011 / 4:02 am

The communications community lost one of its true greats last week with the death of Clive Hobson, a long-time client and dear friend of mine going back almost 20 years.

We met during the early 1990s, when he was in charge of public relations at the now defunct Tee-Comm Electronics, which was an early pioneer of direct-to-home satellite television in my native Canada. I was then working at Hill & Knowlton in Toronto, and he was one of the friendliest and most considerate customers I’ve ever worked with. It was then that I learned of his contagious mirth, a field of gravity that attracted people to him as a vital centre of social attention.

Indeed, even though he was earlier a journalist (in my favourite medium of radio), it was in meeting and greeting the public that I saw him truly excel. Clive was a networker extraordinaire: not the kind who coldly connects their contacts because they want something, but the sort of fellow who enjoyed the spontaneous warmth of friends just for the sheer pleasure of it all.

This is not to say that he liked everyone equally.

His spot-on critiques of the imperfections of others could be very funny and devastatingly accurate. His sense of the absurd was second to none, and he loved laughing with and at friends whom he would lampoon good-naturedly (in my case it was an alleged penchant for what he termed “shameless self-promotion”).

Nobody would tar Clive with that brush.

Quite the contrary, he was more modest than most in our profession and never took himself too seriously. Sometimes I feared if he didn’t sell himself more aggressively when he was looking for new career opportunities, he might limit his chances, but in business he kept pulling rabbits out of the hat over the years.

Certainly he helped do that for Environics Communications when, in August 1994, I was one of the co-founders of this North American PR agency. The high-flying Tee-Comm became among our first clients and soon our largest source of revenue at a critical juncture in the young life of the fledgling firm.

Clive was an unflagging champion of Environics from that point forward, and he helped grow the relationship with Tee-Comm’s Expressvu in Canada and its AlphaStar subsidiary in the United States. Inasmuch as his client-side support helped power the old firm forward, I think it’s safe to say — and I’m forever grateful for it — that his confidence and encouragement played a critical role in my career advance, especially my first international role in the New York area from 1995.

Despite his British accent and love for the rugged Canadian outdoors, Clive admired the success of America and thoroughly enjoyed his time in the United States. We travelled together to several events in the U.S. (“boondoggles” he called some of these), most memorably trade shows at Las Vegas, where the extent of his love for branded merchandise and PR tsotchkes was on ample display. Pens, coats, flashing buttons, USB keys, hats, mugs, T-shirts, and even snow globes…you name it, and he branded them with the logo of the day.

While he was no self-promoter, he excelled in the promotion of others, and of course that’s what we corporate communicators are supposed to be fundamentally good at in the first place.

Every company he served got great media coverage. His experience as a journalist going back to covering the Munich Olympics in 1972 gave him gravitas as an old pro. He lived in the present moment with an open mind and a youthful vigor; this gave him excellent connectivity with young media and he kept relentlessly up-to-date.

Despite Clive’s skepticism concerning digital media, he was appointed communications chief at Yahoo! Canada (not an easy feat for someone born in 1948) and I used to quite enjoy his boasting that he was the oldest employee in the company.

I’ve commented about Clive a lot professionally, but personally I also owe him a debt of gratitude. My life has not been without its complications and challenges, and he was always a trusted source of big brotherly advice and supportive counsel over the years at moments when it mattered most.

I’m going to miss Clive and his fire…not just for life, but actually the massive bonfires we used to build on his beloved five acres in Milton, Ontario. He called these mighty blazes “conflagrations,” and we always looked forward to these with relish.

Four seasons of the year, including on sub-zero winter nights, igniting one of these fires in the fresh Canadian air gave us pure joy and now, for me, the signature memory of our friendship.

Categories: friends
comments(7) Tags: cliver

Yingluck and Thailand’s chance for a new image

July 26th, 2011 / 3:27 am

Here’s my latest column as the Asia-Pacific contributor to The Holmes Report’s ThinkTank section:

Travelling in Thailand last week, most people I met were talking about the country’s new Prime Minister-elect, Yingluck Shinawatra, who just won a convincing election victory. Interest in the outcome has also been riding high overseas, and that is unsurprising because this story contains several newsworthy elements.

First, Yingluck shares her brother Thaksin’s famous surname. Second, there has been a long power struggle pitting the colour-coded ‘red shirts’ of the Shinawatra side against the ‘yellow shirts’ supporting the outgoing government and there’s nothing the news business loves more than a battle between two starkly different sides (who in this case have been fighting a closely watched pseudo civil war). Third, the prospect of election violence made media watch more closely than might otherwise be the case because there seemed an excellent chance it could erupt in the aftermath of the vote. Finally, Yingluck seems quite unlike other Thai leaders because she is a woman and this sets her apart in a country where most senior political leaders are men.

In Bangkok there is all kinds of speculation about how long Yingluck will last in office. The most frequent prediction I heard was “a year, maybe two.” This is, after all, a country where the results of democratic elections have not always determined who ends up running the country. Yet just about everyone I spoke with is hoping that Thailand’s new elected government will be given a fair chance to succeed and that the democratic process will prevail.

There has been a sad political instability in Thailand for years, holding the country back and making it seem a rickety regime and a bad bet for doing business. Now that Thailand seems to have a chance for a fresh start with a popular new government, there is an opportunity for the country to earn a new and improved reputation overseas.

The key to building a better Thailand brand is the ability to exceed expectations, for positive things to happen henceforth that are contra to the past negative or limiting stereotypes. For example, boring stability for a change would be an effective antidote to the past eventful and erratic political pattern.

Not many people know that Thailand is the second largest economy in Southeast Asia (after Indonesia), so communicating the commercial dimensions of the country will help underline why markets and media should pay closer attention.

How many famous Thai companies are there around the world? I would say most people could not name one. This limits the extent to which opinion-leaders will feel that “Thailand matters.” This lack of known national champion corporations (like LG or Hyundai in Korea) keeps Thailand confined to a national stereotype template as a terrific tourism destination but not as a serious commercial contender.

I am told that there are many Thai companies that merit external attention and engagement, but unlike conglomerates in other ASEAN countries like Malaysia and Indonesia, I don’t see any actively communicating their story through public relations on a global basis.

That’s why the fact that Yingluck is a CEO with experience as a company spokesperson may be her most significant public relations asset. She has run a business in Thailand and her ascension to high office has allowed her communications skills to flourish. I believe that this should help her help Thailand become a rising force in the world of national reputation.

Categories: blog, national brand
comments(0) Tags: asia, image, national brand, thailand

New infographic of India’s digital scene

July 9th, 2011 / 2:16 am

Categories: infographics
comments(0) Tags: digital, india, infographic, internet, media, social media

New infographic of China’s Internet landscape

July 4th, 2011 / 5:41 am

Categories: infographics
comments(0) Tags: china, digital, infographic, social media

Chinese enterprises need to proactively tell stories

July 2nd, 2011 / 4:17 am

The China Economic Herald recently interviewed Jeremy Galbraith, CEO of Burson-Marsteller in EMEA, on how China and Chinese companies should present themselves to audiences across the globe and build up healthy and sustainable communication channels with the rest of the world.

In the interview, Mr. Galbraith spoke about the general principles of building a brand image for a country and why now is a good time for China to proactively present its national image around the world.

Moreover, Mr. Galbraith shared with the reporter some specific advice to Chinese companies on “telling stories” to foreign audiences, including how to distinguish the company messaging from China’s national image, and the importance of developing long-term communication strategies and applying an evidence-based approach throughout the whole communication process.

comments(0) Categories: China