Archive for May, 2009

According to the recent Future of Communications survey Ruder Finn conducted, the answer is yes… though eventually and incredibly cautiously.

The ‘cautiously’ part is hardly surprising - in the regulatory environment that surrounds healthcare communications, especially prescription products, caution prevails.  Facilitating greater dialogue around prescription medicines raises a whole host of issues from the interpretation of promotion versus non-promotion through to complications around adverse risk reporting.  This cautious attitude is further amplified by the nature of the regulations surrounding digital communications. Although some regulatory bodies, like the ABPI in the UK, have taken steps to try and set down rules governing digital media, they are still peppered with ‘grey areas’.  Where some industries have already taken the plunge and are happily doing backstroke, the healthcare sector has only just rolled up a trouser leg and dipped a toe in the water.

It is important of course to exercise caution, but the ‘eventually’ bit of my answer is also important.  Not only must healthcare companies start to embrace digital communications in order to stay relevant, but if this does not happen, it will miss out on a consistently growing audience and medium with which to reach them.

Market research tells us that patients, carers and healthcare professionals use the internet more and more for health information.  In fact at a nurse advisory board I recently attended, the majority of the room stated that they often go online during consultations with patients to look up queries.  They of course had some favoured, trusted sources, but they were Googled nonetheless.  I also think of myself and my family - I’ll often consult the internet prior to consulting a GP and older members of my family have carried out extensive research on their conditions to find out more about their treatment options.

Information is out there, whether pharma companies want it to be or not, and people are accessing it.

The healthcare industry is full of intelligent and sophisticated marketeers who recognise this ‘evolution’ is taking place and want to be part of it. Our own experience tells us that some pharma companies are doing great work monitoring social media and reacting to issues. But the key word is ‘reacting’. It is the proactive work that is difficult and the bottom line is nobody wants to be first to run a big digital campaign.  But proactivity doesn’t have to mean taking risks. Healthcare will eventually fully embrace the digital age but it won’t be done in great leaps but small incremental steps.  Only by doing these small steps will regulatory departments, who are key to this change ever occuring, come on board.

So what do we mean by small steps? It’s doing a few simple things well.  Maybe that is sponsored links on google to ensure responsible web sites appear at the top of searchs when people look for counterfeit products. How about non-branded educational videos on Youtube, more of these are starting to appear now. Holding online advisory boards on secure networks, which are far more cost effective and allow flexibility for the participants. We could go on.

The way patients and healthcare professionals search for information and interact with each other has changed.  Therefore it stands to reason that how healthcare companies communicate with these audiences also has to change. This will happen and, to a certain extent, is already happening but it will take time and it will take a lot of small steps.

When I joined Ruder Finn, I was asked to put together a number of images that would be used for the backs of my business cards.

These images had to fall into a number of buckets:

1. A picture of you when you were younger
2. Something cultural
3. Something funny
4. Your favourite place
5. Your favourite picture
6. A pet or offspring

I used five images in the end:

My favourite place is the Central and Admiralty districts of Hong Kong island. I’ve been there a number of times now and love it to bits. It makes even London feel a bit provincial in comparison and is not quite as overwhelming as central Tokyo.

My cultural picture was of a buddhist ceremony. I took it because of the composition and the warm colours.

My favourite picture is of Liu Yumei. I took this on a foot bridge in the Central district of Hong Kong island outside the Standard Chartered Bank building. It was an overcast yet boiling hot August day which provided bright diffused lighting. I couldn’t have lit it better myself in a studio.

The younger picture of me is from my passport, the green markings are from the security laminate printed with Irish harps which holds the picture to the passport back.

The closest I had to a funny picture was of me hanging out with Beijing Olympic mascot Jing Jing in Time Square shopping centre at Causeway Bay on Hong Kong island.

At our team kick-off team meeting in January, we decided that the pictures on our new Moo cards should be personal to us rather than business focused to reflect the diversity of our team. We were given a pretty open remit, so we wanted to provide a few insights into the snaps that we chose.

A favourite place pic
In 2007, I was lucky enough to spend three months on secondment to our New York office. It was a truly amazing experience both for my career and personally. This was taken from the top of the Rockefeller Centre soon after I arrived. The big apple is definitely one of my favourite places in the world.

Two home pics
Home for me is Southend-on-Sea in Essex. Nick, our Managing Director, doesn’t believe that these snaps are taken on the beach by my house but its true - they are! Now you know why the Eastenders crowd come to Southend for their summer holidays; long sweeping beaches (a few stones and a bit of seaweed never hurt anyone) and a beautiful sunset - all only an hour’s train journey from London. It works for me!

A kid pic
Loving my 80s retro reins and pink jump suit, which I’m sure my mum still has somewhere in the loft. Look at my sticking-out little ears.  I’m still growing into them.

A pet pic
A rather sweet shot of my cat Amanda when she was a little kitten. Her brother Charles wouldn’t sit still for long enough to let me take a picture so he missed out. They are the most ridiculous and spoilt cats in the world.

A fav pic
I am not really known for my photography skills but have always loved this picture. It was taken a few years ago somewhere in Majorca in late March. This was one of the only times that it stopped raining during the week we were there. You can just about see the rain clouds threatening above. I’m a sucker for a sunset.

At 1.06 am on Monday morning the British Geological Survey stations in Herefordshire, Aberdeen and Devon suddenly began registering a tremor at magnitude five on the Richter scale. These tremors did not occur along a fault line and did not have the complex mix of P-waves and shear waves that are the tell-tale sign of an earthquake. Instead the tremors seemed to be caused by an explosion, which had its epicentre in the county of Kilju, deep in the mountains of north-eastern North Korea - the home of the P’unggye-yok nuclear test site.

South Korea stated immediately that these readings were probably caused by an underground atomic explosion by the North Koreans - an explosion the size of Hiroshima.

Suddenly Douglas Hogg’s moat; Jacqui Smith’s adult films and Damian McBride’s puerile emails, which have ruled the media in the last 2 months, are thrown into relief as the world is plunged into a serious, deep crisis. It is one of those challenges like the Bosnian war, the Suez Crisis and the Rwandan Genocide where you cannot help thinking that the UN looks feeble. Realistically what can the UN do to stop North Korea’s nuclear ambitions? They have the power of sanctions and the threat of isolation for the aggressor nation. For the UK during the Suez Crisis of 1956 these measures were enough to force the UK to back down over its intervention in Egypt. These measures designed and condoned by the US, Europe and the UK are effective against similar countries because they all want to be at the centre of the western world and genuinely fear being cast out by the international community.

But, for nations outside the western world, with a history of antagonism towards Europe and the US - do sanctions or the fear of UN condemnation court influence? I say no. North Korea has strong links with China and Russia - the two megaliths of Asia. With these alliances Kim Jong-Il can laugh in the face of UN pressure, as he has the support of two of the largest energy producers manufacturers and exporters in the world and permanent members of the UN Security Council. Also, which countries around the world would really stand in North Korea’s way if they further developed their nuclear ambitions? It is clear that despite having nuclear capability and strong armed forces the UK would do almost anything rather than use force against North Korea, because as Iraq and Vietnam show - foreign wars lose popularity very quickly. The world’s policing system, therefore, is almost solely confined to diplomatic measures.

In the last 5 years this crisis has developed and has shown the world’s inability to stop North Korea’s march towards developing a nuclear arsenal. In 2004 North Korea carried out its first nuclear test; in 2007 under multilateral pressure North Korea agreed to shut down its leading uranium enrichment site, but in April 2009 it seems these promises were empty as they fired a multistage rocket and vowed to start up the site once again. A month later and this latest nuclear test is recorded.

This is a dangerous situation - even more so since it must be asked why is North Korea absolutely determined to develop nuclear weapons? Are they really prepared to fire or is it, as one commentator suggested, just a means of making President Obama stand to attention. I hope it is political manoeuvring because for anyone who has read Nevil Shute’s On The Beach - the thought that North Korea might actually use its nuclear technology harbours up images of ghost towns, tumble weeds and nuclear fallout on a worldwide scale.

Hopefully the North Koreans are aware of the stake as well, because as has always been the case the principle of Mutually Assured Destruction is the best mean of ensuring nuclear safety. Hopefully Kim Jong-Il is aware and afraid of the nuclear backlash if he ever uses nuclear weapons. But that is a leap of faith and since it is evident that the western world can do little to stop the North Koreans if they have their mind set on gaining and using nuclear weapons the situation is suite terrifying, when you think about it. It seems like 20 years since the Berlin Wall fell we still have to place all of our faith in North Korea not using its technology. Personally relying on Mutually Assured Destruction, knowing that the West is powerless to do much more, is not particularly reassuring.

The morning routine: Come into the office, grab some cereal, sit down in front of the computer, log on and check your…..Email? Facebook? Twitter? Netvibes? The list goes on…..
 
Only a couple of years ago that would have been a stupid question with the obvious answer being email but nowadays the choice is much less clear. With internet users now having so many different accounts which do they check first? And more importantly which should they check first?
 
According to an article published last week in the New York Times, Nielsen’s latest study into internet use reports that ‘time spent on social networks surpassed that for e-mail for the first time in February, signalling a paradigm shift in consumer engagement with the Internet’. Of the social networks Facebook accounted for 12.7% of the share of total internet time last month – a staggering one in every eight minutes, making it the most used web brand in the UK. [link]
 
Ruder Finn is working with many of our clients at the moment to grow their online presence and increase the number of online channels they are utilising. As we continue to stress to them the importance of fully utilising all the opportunities online it is good to see statistics like this backing us up.

It is coming up to that time again.  Dissertations are in, final exams are looming and the prospect of leaving the fun university life that has been a reality for the past few years is becoming more and more real.

But, given the current financial climate™ what are the prospects for today’s graduates?

Rather than come up with a flimsy list of tips (that is the next post) I thought I’d speak to an expert.  Tony Byng used to work with me at The Weber Group before pursuing a career as a lecturer.  He is currently the programme Director for Leeds University Business School’s MA in corporate communications and PR. I asked him what he thought of the industry today and how tough it was for Grads:

… from what I gather, the market is still relatively open for those students who are prepared to ‘put themselves about’ or who have garnered some real experience during their summer vacations. Having said that, we have seen an increase in applications for our marketing-related Masters programmes of between 20-40%… suggesting many are hoping to ride out the economic storm by spending another year in education - if they can afford it!

We have a large Careers Service at Leeds and the University has a very good track record of graduate employment. While the ‘Milk Run’ is rather a sparse affair these days, Leeds is still targeted by many corporate employers - partly due to the quality of its education, but also down to the quality and background of the students we accept.

The issue with PR specifically, is that both agencies and in-house departments appear to be pretty poor at graduate recruitment. I have rarely come across agencies who start a recruitment drive in, say, November… interview in the spring with a view to employing in August/September. Most of them don’t seem to be able to plan that far ahead! And, it’s not just PR - most marketing agencies are the same, apart from the some of the larger ones. Of course, a lack of experience tends to shut the door pretty quickly as well.

I asked Tony what his advice is for this year’s graduates:

So, my advice to students considering a move in to PR is, perhaps, a little old-fashioned. I tell them to surf the web, read Guardian Media and PR Week, talk to anyone with even the slightest association with PR and encourage them to identify agencies they would like to work for (based on awards, client list, positioning, etc.) and then get on the phone… looking to find out who’s hiring, when they may be hiring and generally selling themselves and trying to get a network going. I even encourage them to ask for internships - even a day shadowing an account team. It’s difficult to say no to someone who appears keen and bright when they offer themselves for free! If they think this sounds too much like hard work, then they’re probably not cut out for the industry anyway!

How does the Uni help PR grads find work?

In terms of the University, I recommend that students look to the careers service for advice on preparing CVs, interview skills and using resources for researching target agencies. I also advise students to look at their whole CV and find something that differentiates them - not a just a rounded CV balancing work and play but something genuinely interesting to talk about. It is difficult for the education sector to do too much more when the industry appears to be less than organised. I would be delighted if you proved me wrong on this last point

I would also add a whole online dimension when targeting employers.  Many grads (see Jed and Michael to name but two) over the past couple of years have had success through building a digital network through twitter and blogging and this has really augmented the real life meetings they’ve had during the job hunting process.

To help prove Tony wrong, I will be speaking to PR students at Leeds over the coming few months and we’re also reviewing  how we promote the graduate scheme at Ruder Finn.

N.B. Cross posted on my blog

The countdown is on to the second bank holiday of the month and it seems that everyone has advice on what we should or shouldn’t be doing.

Paramedics in the East of England want people to think before they dial 999, meanwhile people in Grimsby are being advised to think before they drink.

You could have a forties style bank holiday at Bletchley Park, look for treasure in Scarborough , join the recycling rush in Loughborough or be part of the exodus abroad.

Whatever you do and wherever you are, be sure to catch some sunshine, it might just make you more effective when you return to work on Tuesday!

No matter how much work you do behind the scenes, as a junior PR consultant, a client will never know who you are or why they are paying for your time unless you take an active role in meetings. Getting started with this can be tough for many people, especially when there is a large team of more senior folks in the room.

Here are my tips:

1. Agree a role with your manager before you go in
2. Own a bit of the agenda to run through / update on
3. Keep something special to tell the client - a hit you got, an opportunity you secured or a new industry thing they might be interested in
4. Ask questions….think of something before you go in
5. Check their news daily - you won’t learn and feel confident offering an opinion if you don’t read
6. Look at the headlines before every meeting - any customer or competitor been written about that day?
7. Check the stock price, it’ll help you know what their focus is before the meeting
8. Introduce yourself and explain your role on the account
9. Listen in to as many calls as you can - good way of learning before you speak
10. Listen in to media briefings - helps you know the ropes before you host them yourself
11. Remember the client is paying for your time, always think about demonstrating value to them by making a contribution

Anything I missed?

This is cross posted with my own blog

Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard makes his opinion clear

This is more of a point of interest than anything else, but I’ve had a number of long chats with colleagues and friends about the benefits of the Australian Political system that I grew up with and first acquired my love for the cut and thrust of politics - although, to be fair, in Australia, it is more like the punch and head-butt of politics.

But I noticed this article in the Rupert Murdoch owned paper, The Australian, which was published overnight UK time. Essentially, the article describes how “Austalia’s politicians are more accountable than Britain’s”. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25513653-16382,00.html

It goes onto to make a number of key points about the differences in accountability and transparency between the British Westminster system and the Australian Washminster system - a mix between the British and American systems.

Interesting article, enjoy.

Whether this was intentional or not, very cleverly, the Speaker was made to be the fall-guy.

Effectively, the Speaker is the CEO of the House and the buck stops with him when it comes to rules and guidelines of the House. With the downfall of the Speaker on that basis, the story has been deflected away from the MPs to the need for change within Parliament.

Unfortunatly for the MPs, the story has refocuesed itself back onto them, with revelations that more MPs have claimed for mortgages that didn’t exist, claimed for flood damage when they could have used their insurance, or built duck islands, all on expenses.

But surely, there is still lots more to come. Even with 25 journalists working on this story day and night, they can’t have gone through every single receipt and every single backbencher yet. Now that the Speaker has fallen, the Parliamentary smokescreen been blown away, opening the door for the Telegraph to publish more stories about wayward MPs?

If you knew the expenses details of Morely, Chaytor and Hogg, would you hold onto that story until the public was already demanding blood, or would you have released them earlier before stories on the higher profile Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet MPS, which were interesting but ultimately less tantalising?

Will an MP talk to the Telegraph again? Obviously, but its reputation of being in the pockets of the Tories has now clearly gone and they have led the pack of attack dogs that is the media in this situation.

But, as a former member of the fourth estate, I’m on their side. I’ve heard people say the media has gone too far etc. but this is what the media is here to do. It is part of their remit nay, responsibility to stir up the establishment and right wrongs. This is journalism that hasn’t been seen in Britain for a long time - proper hard muckraking, designed to bring the seemingly unaccountable to account.