A recent study has shown taht  only 50 Non-execs within the entire FTSE350 have substantive Marketing experience and that marketeers still often rely on hunches and experience to inform their insights and decisions. These two pieces are very much related as marketing, despite its importance, still struggles to compete against other ‘serious’ disciplines like finance, due to a lack of financial understanding and an inability to offer the board tangible, evidence based business analysis, decision-making and proof of impact.

This week on Edelman Editions Stephen Cheliotis, head of brand and creative meets with JT, UK managing director, Edelman Berland and Erica Buckley, senior manager of insights and strategy, Edelman Digital to talk about the role of marketing in the bigger business picture and the importance of measurement and insights. The discuss why marketeers need to base strategic and tactical recommendations on evidence and to undertake effective measurement to prove real cause and effect on brand equity and underlying business success.

If you’d like to talk to Edelman about any of the points discussed in the podcast above please contact edelmanuk@edelman.com

Unlike other ‘technology festivals’ such as CES and Mobile World Congress, SXSW has long been about the business of selling ideas rather than devices – the emotional benefits of technology rather than the functional. This year it seems there has been a shift, with more and more ‘product ‘ being at the heart of the innovation. The New York Times suggests that this shift is because the likes of Kickstarter, the crowdsourced start-up investment platform, have made is easier to get funding for product proto-types. Certainly the advent of  affordable 3D printing (this indexed very highly at SXSW this year) and low cost functional products like Berg’s Little Printer have made producing high quality media and components possible.

Each year there are multiple talking points to come out of the festival – not necessarily ground-breaking new advancements in tech, but quite often big brands/ agencies looking to use technology in a new way to drive some talkability or kudos amongst the early adopters.

Last year, controversy was caused by ad agency BBH Labs making mobile WiFi hotspots out of the local homeless people. Members of the public could identify their locations, approach them and hook up to their WiFi signal to use apps or download information – all for a small contribution to the host carrier.

This year, so far there doesn’t seem to be a stand-out moment, but here’s a round up of some of the more notable, or peculiar, things to have happened:

CUTEST ANIMAL: Cats have been all the rage of the internet over the last couple of years, and this SXSW was no exception. Behold Grumpy Cat, who took up residence in the Mashable Tent on the first day and managed to travel across the internet (again)as people had their picture taken with him. Grumpy Cat started life as an internet meme on the meme-incubator Reddit, so his appearacne at SXSW was something of a red carpet moment

BEST USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA:  Word from ‘South by’ veterans tells that the only way to get around the festival is by bike. Hence Razorfish’s deployment of a small fleet of Tweeting Bikes seems to have been a shrewd move. The bikes were left around the campus and were free to use. Using the hashtag #UseMeLeaveMe the bikes automatically tweeted their location to festival-goers who were then allowed to use the bikes to complete their onward journey before leaving it for someone else.

MOST RANDOM VENTURE CAPITALIST: In the same vein as stars like Will.I.am muscling in on the tech world, ex-NBA superstar Shaq O’Neal announced he would be patrolling SXSW looking for a cool idea to plough his money into. Ambitious ideas on basketball boots that tweeted when the ball was coming, a fuelband that vibrated to remind you to take your growth hormones and an app that generated random urban hip-hop names to name your kids were allegedly all turned down. In fairness to Shaq, he does have a good record of investments and his use of social media is exemplary: “The way I use it [Twitter] is 60 percent to make you laugh, 30 percent to inspire you, and 10 percent to sell product and promote myself.” ROLF.

BEST LONDON BOROUGH TO MAKE AN APPEARANCE: God Bless Hackney. Ever since Silicon Roundabout landed on its doorstep, it has had an ego boost. This year it took its experiential outfit, Hackney House (last seen during the Olympics), to Austin to promote its reputation as a creative hub. Hackney youths and ‘hoodies’ were decided not best representative of London so were left at customs.

ODDEST CONCEPT: This one goes to Doritos, who created the #BoldStage, a seeming attempt to cram as many zeitgeist ideas into one concept. It’s a huge vending machine, that acts as a stage showcasing cool urban musical acts, that also allows consumers to control the content, pyrotechnics and visuals via Twitter. But it doesn’t dispense massive bags of Doritos. #Fail?

Tip of the hat to the Guardian newspaper in the UK who, having identified that hipsters in London all live in Dalston, now decided that the hipsters at SXSW needed to feel the wrath of their irony. They created this Hot Phrase Generator to  coin the next big thing in phrasology. It’s actually quite good.

Finally - here is day two of SXSW in numbers -an infographic that shows the breakdown metrics of the festival. Any surprise that most mentioned food was ‘BBQ,  Beer, Tacos’?

Orginally posted on jcprsays.com

Podcast participants:

Writer: Paul McEntee, Associate Director, JCPR As a creative media publicist, Paul is adept at taking client briefs and creating talking points for them in the media. Paul’s speciality is dissecting a story and making it travel across broadcast, print, online and social media. Recent examples include launching Xbox Kinect to the world’s media with Leona Lewis and winning distinct share of voice for retail client Covent Garden during the busy Christmas period.

SOMETHING went down at the club, because he promptly tweeted an ambiguous “worst birthday” to his 35 million fans.  The post was in reference to, depending on who you ask, his ‘underage friends being turned away from the club’ or ‘paparazzi being paparazzi all up in his face’.  Either way, it became the third most retweeted post of all time (pro tip: read that last part in Kanye-voice).

Justin is no stranger to social media: his super active personal Twitter account ranks #1 in followers, and even his less active Facebook fan page carries 51+ million.  As many celeb Twitter accounts tend to be, it’s somewhat of a stream-of-consciousness dumping ground, but that particular tweet bore the coverage and mockery of news sources and blogs around the world.

Then there was his show at the O2.  Starting 2 hours late without explanation incited borderline rage from his fans and led to an outpouring of unhappy Beliebers taking to Twitter to vent their fury.  Some described the showing as “disgusting” and complained about being up late on a school night (sidebar: that was the best thing ever when I was a kid, but maybe times have changed).

There was the obligatory social media apology that followed, but the social posts still prompted news coverage globally.

Moral of the story: Justin’s fan base sits squarely between ‘powerful example of celebrity fandom’ and ‘army of fans who collectively wield more influence than you do’. Instant dialogue via social media can be both positive and negative, depending on which way they sway.  Watch your step, Justin, because they are.

Originally posted on JCPRSays

Featureflash / Shutterstock.com

“Let him have it, Chris.”

Shoot him.

That’s what he said.

Or did he?

Was he, as the jury found, giving his friend the instruction to fire? Or was he, in fact, encouraging him to follow Miles’ request that he hand over the weapon?

“Let him have it, Chris.”

Give him the gun.

Now given Bentley was hanged in 1953, we’ll never really know the truth but his family have long argued that what he said was not an act of murder. Successfully, too, as he was posthumously pardoned in 1998 on the grounds that the meaning was unclear.

“Let him have it, Chris.”

A simple sentence with two very different interpretations, one of which ultimately cost Bentley and Miles their lives.

Now, thankfully, our industry is rarely a matter of life and death but that doesn’t mean we should underestimate the power of saying something properly. In fact, in communications, words and, more importantly, how they are interpreted by your audience, can make or break you.

Just ask Nike, whose ‘Just Do It’ slogan looks great when Rory McIlroy sinks a major-winning putt or Kobe Bryant drops another three-pointer for the Lakers. But it takes on a whole different sheen when applied to some of Nike’s other sponsored stars. Think Tiger, Lance and Oscar….

The fact is that, as Nike have found, there will always be someone to wilfully misinterpret what a brand says – and even knock up a nifty little Jpeg in their spare time too. There will always be room for ambiguity.

But, as communications professionals it’s our job to mitigate this risk by using words wisely. They are our means to protect reputation or enhance it, particularly in a world of social media and citizen journalism where effective brand storytelling is more important, complex and rewarding than ever.

These days, stories represent a way to reach a truly international, inter-connected audience but with that comes a problem. Namely, as a message spreads further away from its source, passing through multiple people and platforms, the context is often lost and the threat of misinterpretation increases.

So what, then, can we do about it?

Simply put: we can be clear. Clear about what we’re saying. Clear about why we’re saying it. And clear about who we’re saying it to.

We can limit the scope for ambiguity.

So next time you to write a press release, a blog or even a tweet about something they are doing or planning, think carefully about the words you use. How will they be construed by your audience and how might they be interpreted by the time they reach a teenage consumer in India or an elderly Republican in deepest, darkest Alabama?

And once you are confident that you have developed something that will work long-term for him, his audiences and his brand…

Let him have it.

Originally posted on JCPRSays

This was highlighted in the second appearance of ‘The Apartment’. Launched by Fashion bloggerAbimarvel for London Fashion Week last September, the idea behind The Apartment is to bring together a variety of brands to create a fun and relaxed environment for fashion and beauty bloggers to work in, while browsing the clothing racks and having their hair and make-up done by professionals.

If last September was the trial run, this February The Apartment was set to wow with a variety of big brands eager to get involved, including Lavazza coffee, Vitamin Water, Popchips, Windows Phone, Russell and Bromley and Superdry amongst many others. Some brands decided to go further, withRimmel hosting a make-up bar with make-up artists on hand to apply the looks straight from the catwalk and John Frieda, hosting a hair salon for the fashion and beauty bloggers to try the latest hair trends.

Not only was this a great example of successful blogger engagement, but in turn The Apartment and Abimarvel received a huge amount of digital exposure with their hashtag #lfwaptmt receiving over 3 million impressions over the four days of London Fashion Week.

Maybe it’s time JC launched their own version of The Apartment for PR’s to relax in…

Originally posted on JCPRSays

Featureflash / Shutterstock.com

In 2012 Gangnam style exemplified the power of social media. This heady mix of music, dance  and the downright bizarre was quickly picked up by a wave of online communities and rode its way into the forefront of global popular culture, leaving a trail of parody and video content in its wake.

As the tide of Gangnam ebb’s away, a new beast is lurking in the deep, enter “the Harlem Shake”.The formula is simple (and familiar), music (courtesy of Baauer), dance (of course ridiculous) and a touch of the unexpected. The catalyst,  Harlem Shake v1 was posted on YouTube over the weekend quickly gaining traction on online communities like Reddit. Fast forward and a string of videos featuring Firemen, entire offices and Couture fashion has whipped online communities into a frenzy quickly labelling the Harlem Shake as the first super meme of the year.

Could 2013 be the year of the ‘super meme’, probably. Will the genre be milked to within an inch of its life, almost certainly. My message to marketers in pursuit of viral glory – beware, the internet can be a cynical home.

Originally posted on JCPRSays.com

On back of the closures of both HMV and Blockbuster in 2013, this week on Edelman Editions Stefan Stern, director of strategy meets with, Nick Barron, deputy MD of Edelman’s Corporate & Financial practice, Winston Eavis, associate director, JCPR and Tom Waller, senior account executive from Edelman’s Technology team to talk about the death of the highstreet and how it can save itself.

In support of this week’s podcast, Tom Waller has summarised his thoughts on the demise of the high street and what the necessary steps are to move forward.

The High Street hasn’t reacted to the new invention of ‘The Internet’

Several weeks ago, His Masters Voice (HMV) and Blockbuster suffered daggers to the heart in the same week as the administrators were called in. Many took to Facebook and Twitter and blamed themselves for not visiting these stores more often and making purchases, however in my opinion it’s the boards of these companies (as well as the others who have fallen into administration) that need to take a long, hard look at themselves.

Internet shopping has been mainstream for over five years and the likes of HMV and Blockbuster have had plenty of time to adapt their business models to fit into consumer habits like, Lovefilm, NetFlix and iTunes, however they have stood still and simply hoped for the best, everybody saw this coming, so why didn’t they? Arguably, brand or shop loyalty doesn’t really exist on the high street, and if a consumer has the option to buy something more quickly and cheaply online (and save a trip to a shop that might be out of stock of the item you want) they will take that option. Ultimately, consumers care about saving money where possible, so why should they pay more to keep HMV alive?

What isn’t in doubt is that shops need to offer consumers something that they can’t do online; an experience. HMV and Blockbuster failed because their stores were purely transactional, which is essentially what the internet offers, and does more effectively.

The next generation of the high street is really interesting, and we will begin to see more shops that include an experience rather than just a transaction. Coffee shops cover the high street which illustrates how people like to meet and discuss, so we may begin to see more shops that integrate a coffee shop into their store and we will also see more shops that are specialist and are tailored for specific interests. For example if you have a passion for photography you will be able to walk into a shop dedicated to photography, meet like-minded people, make purchases, learn about new technologies, look at the work of others whilst having a coffee.

So after a few dark years, there may well be light at the end of the high street.

Podcast participants:

	Chair: Stefan Stern, Director of Strategy, Edelman Stefan has been writing and commenting on business and management for the past two decades. He wrote the Financial Times’s management column for over four years before joining Edelman in August 2010 as its new Director of Strategy. In October he was appointed Visiting Professor in management practice at the Cass business school.
	Nick Barron, Deputy Managing Director, Edelman Nick specialises in corporate reputation and public engagement for multinationals, SMEs, governments and NGOs. His clients include Syngenta, CBS Corporation, DP World and Manchester City FC. Nick established a creative industries forum for the UK government, securing 80 speakers and a further 300 CEO-level delegates in 2009. In 2010, he launched London & Partners, in 2011, he supported News Corporation in the wake of the News of the World’s closure and in 2012 launched the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering. Nick runs one of London’s leading blogs, Brockley Central and co-founded high street business Homemade London.
	Winston Eavis, Associate Director, JCPR Winston has over ten years of PR experience, incorporating work in a diverse range of different industries including motorsport, utilities, energy, food, drinks, leisure, FMCG, automotive and technology. Winston currently leads the PayPal UK team at Edelman, creating campaigns that deliver impact in consumer, finance and technology pages, and working closely with the eBay UK team to continue to develop a joined up voice for eBay Inc. in the UK. Beyond PayPal, Winston manages the Carphone Warehouse and Geek Squad teams, driving retained programs to deliver news value for these two technology brands.
	Tom Waller, Senior Account Executive, Technology Tom Waller is a member of the technology team at Edelman London, working on clients such as HP, Autonomy, Box and Motorola. Tom has strong experience in press and analyst relations across a variety of industries having executed thought leadership programmes as well as strategic media campaigns. Prior to Edelman, Tom spent 18 months at AxiCom working on the Enterprise technology team.

Rory McIlroy is the latest superstar from the world of sport to join the Nike roster after signing a five-year deal that will see the 23 year-old PGA Number One earn as much as $125 million (£78 million). The move represents a significant focus for the brand to corner more of the golfing market, with a particular focus on clubs and equipment. Prior to Nike signing Tiger Woods their market share across golf equipment was just 1%, however this rose to 15% in five years following Tiger’s success on courses all over the world.

Rory was welcomed into the Nike family by contemporaries Roger Federer, Tiger Woods and Wayne Rooney via a video message at his press conference and has also shot a campaign alongside Tiger Woods called Nike Golf: No Cup Is Safe which will be appearing on screens from Thursday. The trailer sees the PGA Number One and Two engaging in some friendly banter as they try to outdo each other on the tee.

Rory’s switch to Nike has been met with some criticism from the world of Golf, where distinguished pros have questioned the wisdom of the Northern Irishman swapping his clubs for new ones, however McIlroy remains defiant insisting: “I’m a major champion and world No 1, which I have always dreamed of being, and feel this is a company that can help me sustain that and win even more major titles.”

Nike clearly feels that McIlroy is worth such a significant investment. He’s thoroughly marketable, the PGA Number One and only 23 years old, quite simply he Mike see him as the future of Golf and key to delivering further growth in this market for Nike.

Is he worth it? A $125 million times yes.

Joe Lamb is an Account Director for Edelman’s JCPR

Originally posted on JCPR.com

Mai Techaphan / Shutterstock.com

8095®, or “eighty ninety-five” is a global benchmark study on how Millennials connect with brands, make purchasing decisions and share their opinions on products and companies with family, friends and extended networks. The study, first conducted in 2010 and updated in 2012, focused on people born between 1980 and 1995. The implications uncovered for marketers are startling – the influencer landscape favors people over brands, values are driven by world events and one in three won’t make a purchase if their friends don’t approve it.

As digital media continues to evolve and amend chunks of Millennials’ lives, they are increasingly crowdsourcing to make brand purchasing decisions. However, the number of sources used to inform a decision is decreasing from four or more sources in 2010 (52 percent) compared to one to three sources in 2012.

While Millennials share many traits and behaviors, they are more diverse ethnically, economically and socially than any other generation in history. They are more connected by being grounded in a global network with perspective and purpose. They have instant access to one another and to information. They are aware of and believe in their own voice and power. They are each a unique and powerful member of a generation that by 2025 will amount to 70 percent of the global workforce. The time to pay attention to Millennials is now.

8095 Fact Sheet

More infomation on the 8095® can be found here.

Thoroughly unconstrained by geographical boundaries and language barriers, the broadcasting, conversing and capturing of these momentous occasions gave over 4 billion participants and voyeurs a chance to be a part of the action, collectively creating and curating the experience; viewing and sharing commentary and sentiment in real time. All on a scale never seen before.

Collective, social experience is a theme you will see running through this report as we look at scalable examples from all over the world, with contributions collected from 13 countries and nearly 50 individuals from across the Edelman network who continue to share with us the happenings and events that are exciting them every day.

www.jcpr.com

Click to read the 1st & 2nd editions of The QUARTERLY