A few years ago, a coworker of mine asked me about a card that I carried around in my wallet. It was a miniature brochure about overfishing that I picked up during a visit to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
You see, much of the seafood that we buy everyday in restaurants and grocery stores is overfished to the point that some species may never recover. It was an issue that I had a growing interest in, and the little guide, printed as part of the Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program, was an essential memory aid about what seafood was sustainable.
Time passed. My colleague and I went our separate ways. I moved to London. She went to work for Discovery Communications.
And yesterday, she sent me an e-mail with a link to this: It’s a Consumer Guide to Overfishing that she wrote and published.
Now, I have no idea how many people visit discovery.com. (Quantcast says it gets 6.7 million visitors and 52 million page views per month.) And even less idea how many will see my friend’s excellent page. Certainly it will be more than a few. Hopefully, some of those who visit the page will change their behavior as a result.
But it’s so exciting to see how small interactions can have big impacts thanks to word of mouth and the potent platform that the Internet provides.
Honestly, I don’t really remember the conversation (though I still carry the guide in my wallet), but my friend did. Full credit to her for remembering the chat, and then having the creativity and the passion to do something about it.
What’s the takeaway? Value every interaction. You never know which one will really make a difference.
And BTW, if you want a copy of my little card for yourself, the 2009 edition has just been released.
Publicity, Stories, Conversation and Chaos
Edelman’s Rick Murray recently circulated a great blog post from Seth Godin.
The post outlines how Storytelling is the art that elevated our role from publicists to great public relations practitioners. The jist of the comment is that essentially through a story we can create a mythology and perception that has lasting resonance as opposed to a release of information that generates a headline or newsletter article or comment.
Luke’s post on the ability for video to tell stories got me thinking about what elements of storytelling shape a mental picture that endures. My thoughts were that the story should cover some of the points below (your thoughts on any additional points welcome) :
1. Narrative – beginning, middle and end
2. Resolves a mystery, paradox, moral dilemma
3. Characters/organization who go through a journey
4. Illuminates a specific setting, back drop or world view
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This is a somewhat unapologetic plug for Edelman London’s latest win to provide Global Communications support for Visit London.
Those of us who live and work in London are proud of the rich culture and diversity we all experience every day. London is the most visited city in the world and we are exceptionally proud to be chosen to help Visit London build on that success. We will be working closely with our colleagues in the US, France, Germany , Spain and Italy to promote the latest news from London.
Patience Wheatcroft is Non-Executive Director, Barclays Bank, and former editor, Sunday Telegraph. She chaired Edelman’s Gazing into the Crystal Ball: The Outlook for 2009 in December 2008.
There were few optimists to be found in the audience last December when Edelman persuaded four brave individuals to gaze into their crystal balls and divine what 2009 might hold. Yet it is now clear that the pessimism quotient was far too low. Talk then was of whether the ‘R’ word might be applicable. How quickly the tenor of debate has moved on, through recession to depression and on to the length of the protracted slump into which we now appear to be heading.
While some political and business leaders – as well as the media – have talked of downturns, perhaps a more useful economic observation from a US businessman came from Steve Ballmer, the chief executive of Microsoft, who said recently that ‘What we now have is a fundamental economic reset’.
Not only does that sound rather less miserable than depression or slump, it encapsulates the need for more radical thinking than we are currently seeing to deal with the effects of the financial melt-down now reverberating around most of the world and that can, at least in part, be traced to the collapse of the sub-prime housing market in the United States.
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Good news from our colleagues across the pond. Last week, Edelman was named PRWeek’s 2009 Agency of the Year and – for the third time in the last four years – PRWeek’s Large Agency of the Year.
In its write up (which you can read here), PRWeek wrote: “Edelman’s continued strength in the areas of financial performance, innovation and client relationships is what convinced this year’s judges it should receive the very highest agency honour…Edelman’s position of thought leadership in the industry is arguably unrivaled by any other agency of any other size. As one judge put it, “Edelman continues to evolve and lead.””
While this accolade has been awarded by US PR Week, it speaks very much to the qualities we aspire to in the UK too. As the only global independent agency, we can invest directly in our clients and our people – fostering innovation, talent, quality and insights (like the Trust Barometer).
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Michael Burrell, Chair of Edelman’s Public Affairs practice in Europe and former Chairman of the APPC (Association of Professional Political Consultants) has written an interesting piece on the prospects of regulation for political lobbyists (the industry currently self-regulates under APPC membership). Despite the feeling that “a new statutory system would be bureaucratic overkill”, it seems that regulation could become a reality before long – it is, after all, back in fashion as the apparent solution to our political and economic woes.
Michael’s thoughts can be read on SixtySecondView.
I know that some people find my obsessive compulsive behaviour around tidiness somewhat strange. I am of course enormously proud of the office space we have created – it is an integral part of delivering our reputation ambition for the UK business. For those of you who haven’t read the plaudits, check out The FT, Mix Interiors (for a copy of the article, please email us) and, most recently (and possibly destined for a Have I Got News You slot), Facilities Management Excellence magazine.
Buried within these articles are some really interesting statistics about how the working environment is making a numerical difference to our business: on cross-practice wins; on sick days; and on staff retention. Cynics may of course argue that these stats. are merely the accidental offspring of Recessionary Times – but I think not. Design is a strategy, as well as an aesthetic need.
In the Mix article, there is one particular figure of note. Ahead of our move, we conducted an extensive Filing Audit and calculated that we did not need 40% of our filing space. This equates to £80,000 per annum in (saved) Property Costs – or, expressed otherwise, the equivalent of two Account Managers salaries. Efficient and effective working comes in many different forms – keeping the paperwork down (and out) needs to be part of responsible business governance as well as demonstrating environmental respect for clients and colleagues alike.
For those of you who are not avid readers of my Citizen Renaissance blog (!!!), I wanted to share an abridged transcript of a recent keynote I presented to the We Are Names Not Numbers symposium in Portmeirion. Rishi Bhattacharya joined me for the 48 hours in North Wales last month – where we mingled with the great and the good of the UK Commentariat, together a heady mix of Business Leaders and Academics. Public Engagement & The New Civic Responsibility attempts to frame Richard’s Public Engagement thinking within an historical perspective, as well as offer some extended thinking on how PE plays within the environmental agenda. It is also a rallying cry for those of us in the Communications industries – together with our colleagues in the media – to stand up and be counted as Catalyst Citizens. Arabella Bakker, together with Rishi, has kindly offered to consider how we, as a UK business, can bring our Catalyst roles to life. More to follow on this subject.
