The document discusses challenges and opportunities in corporate communications in today's hyperconnected world. It notes the loss of control over messaging due to the speed of the news cycle and rise of social media. Complexity is introduced by new channels, communities and technologies that allow targeted sharing but make genuine personal connections more difficult. Data and measurability are increasingly important but hands-on understanding is still needed. Storytelling, listening, creativity and conveying meaning are emphasized as ways for public relations to navigate these changes.

1. Bob Pickard Kia Motors Global PR Conference @ Seoul

2. Speed
Chaos
Complexity
Visualization
Hyperconnectivity
Data
Listening
Egomania
Storytelling
Creativity
Design
Psychology
Asymmetry
Retro
Meaning
Apology

3. Speed!

5. Speed to command the news cycle

6. How does the news curve look now?

7. Chaos!

9. You tell me…
§ where does internal communication stop and external
communication begin these days?
§ what ever happened to the old wall between editorial
and advertising?
§ has the line blurred between advertising and PR – not
to mention customer service and HR?
§ how much you do actually control your company’s
reputation compared to people on social media?

10. We keep losing control
§ of our time
§ of our privacy
§ of our own reputation
§ of the conversation topic
§ of the corporate communications narrative
We receive 5x more information today than in 1986

11. What’s going on here?

12. Complexity

14. Channels, communities, technology
§ the rise of ‘social operating systems’ makes it possible to share
more targeted information with infinitely large communities
§ yet the sheer size of our networks is making it more difficult to
communicate with people in a genuinely personal manner
§ now we need to ‘know’ vast numbers of individuals and
maintain customized relationships with even multi-millions
§ 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 to achieve intended
communications and commercial outcomes

15. What Sir Martin Sorrell says:
§ “Facebook to my mind is
not an advertising
medium. It is a branding
medium.”
§ “I think [Twitter] is a PR
medium…it’s very
effective word-of-mouth.”
Harvard Business Review
March 2013

16. Communicating crowdsourcing

17. Hyperconnectivity

18. Plugged-in constantly
§ 24 x 7 and ‘always on’ with smartphones
§ more and more customized private information
surfaces, fewer common public ones
§ who needs to remember anything anymore when
Google will do it for us?
§ so much harder for PR to indelibly engrave
§ snippety fragments and partial attention
§ perceptions shift and tides turn in the blink of an
eye so momentum marketing is key

20. Data

22. Data
§ digital by its very definition is about numbers
§ relationship artistry must be – or be seen as –
a measurable science
§ decision-makers are often engineers
§ every campaign needs a pretty dashboard
§ measurability has always been manipulated
and massaged for ‘political’ purposes
§ yet hands-on humans must make sense of it all

23. Design

25. Communications by design

26. Listening

27. ‘Listening’
“Talk to someone about themselves
and they’ll listen for hours.”
§ keep in mind that ‘listen’ and ‘silent’
are made from the same letters
§ start with talking, and you tune people
out and often annoy them
§ social media creates new mechanisms
for listening and also the greater
insistence upon being heard
“Make the other person feel
important and do it sincerely”

28. These are emotional times
§ Whether or not there is listening, of course social
media increases the demand to be heard,
regardless of merit
§ [Ironic that those demanding to be heard can often
seem least interested in listening!]
§ ‘Me’ and ‘I’ narcissism, lack of attention span,
rampant impatience, toxic anger and abuse
abounds
§ Crowdsourcing intelligence versus mob rule?

29. The seven deadly digital sins
1. Lust ‘I want this’
2. Greed ‘I need this’
3. Gluttony ‘I must have more’
4. Sloth ‘I haven’t thought about it’
5. Wrath ‘I am angry about this’
6. Envy ‘I want what s/he’s got; I am worth it’
7. Pride ‘I am better; I deserve this’

30. Egomania

32. Communication is selfish
“You are important to us”
“We need your opinions to help inform our actions”
§ clicking ‘like’ generates ‘likes’
§ know-it-all-ism online; the RT = true expertise?
§ ‘sharing’ can be selfish (‘what makes you look good’)
§ there are many emotions in play which PR has to
deal with today as never before

33. The death of deference

34. Storytelling

35. Stories tap into the unconscious mind
§ People tend to remember products
when they are woven into the
narrative of media content
§ They tend not to remember brands
that don’t play an integral role in the
story because people can see them as
being ‘just ads’

36. Stories have ‘ups’ and ‘downs’

39. We’re wired for stories
Scientific American Mind
Source: Hoffman (August/September 2008)

40. Visualization

42. Information + Graphics

43. Social media is visual media

44. Social media is visual media

45. Creativity

47. Psychology

50. Metaphor elicitation
§ Research is key, asking people before starting a PR
campaign things like:
• When you think about [company], what is the first
thing that comes to mind?
• What do you feel when you see this [product]
image?
• Can you share some of your past experience in
dealing with [area where product offers some
benefit]?

51. Asymmetry

53. So one-sided it’s not funny
§ corporate communicators have become story
catalysts, content creators and conveyors
§ journalists are now outnumbered 5:1 by PR
people, and make only about two-thirds of
the money
§ media are bombarded with story ideas and
need content that’s ready-to-roll

55. What Richard Edelman says:
“Every company is
a media company”
ZDNet
February 13th 2013

56. Corporate content factories

57. Native advertising/brand journalism

59. Retro

61. The forgotten power of analog
§ the impact of handwritten notes
§ using phones to make actual voice calls
(and landlines for audio quality)
§ scanning newspapers and magazines for
story ideas for social
§ posting print placements on social
platforms

62. Riepl’s Law

63. Meaning

65. Meaning
§ articulating what the company stands for
§ the role the community plays in the
mission
§ everyone’s mouthing purpose rhetoric
§ ‘communication with a conscience’ is
nothing new, but it is more important than
ever…

66. What Harold Burson says:
§ “PR is often regarded as synonymous
with communication, but
communication is actually only one
facet of the art of public relations”
§ “The task of PR is actually to
improve ‘relationships with society’”
§ “PR’s key role is to advise top officials
of companies or organizations about
how to act in an ethical or socially
correct manner when making a
decision on a course of action. In a
sense, PR acts as an organization's
‘conscience’”
Asahi Shimbun
January 29th 2012

67. Communicate ‘the golden circle’

68. AAppoolologyg yco mmunications…

70. What Lord Chadlington says:
§ “Because PR people are, in
general, poorly read they fail in
one other important regard.
Thinking. If you read a lot then
you will learn to think. Thinking -
staying abreast of how to think -
is what clients pay us to do. So
often, even our best consultants,
repeat what they have done for
others and fail to reflect on what
a client needs because they do
not think...think...think”
PR Week
October 11th 2013

71. Bob Pickard Kia Motors Global PR Conference @ Seoul