Many Sri Lankan companies appear unprepared for crisis situations, according to Marion McDonald, Managing Director for Strategy and Planning, Asia Pacific Region, Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide. This is because there is no preparedness plan already existing which can take effect once a disaster, man made or otherwise, strikes.
The same also applies for the practice of reputation management.
Ms. McDonald, who spoke to the Business Times during an official visit to Sri Lanka recently where she held a workshop on "The New Age of PR" for local affiliate, advertising heavyweight Phoenix Ogilvy, also suggested there was a shift, particularly in developing markets, from information being published to regular readers self-reporting stories to which they had access, a phenomenon she termed 'reader generated' content. In keeping with this, also emerging were citizen journalists who would offer up stories, reviews, video demonstrations, etc of products even before companies send out press releases announcing products. "Smart companies," advised Ms. McDonald, "get involved with citizen journalists instead of ignoring them."
She also noted that, in the wider marketing communications field, there was an increasing movement away from advertising being seen as the "hero" of marketing efforts. Public relations is now being elevated from the practice of just issuing press releases to being seen as a way to influence what consumers say about brands; far more relevant than advertising, which is what the brand says about itself. Further, consumers are making themselves more aware of a company's point of view about everything, from corporate responsibility to the environment to even women's rights, before they decide to buying its products. As an example, she highlighted a global survey where consumers in China were revealed to be more concerned with environmental sustainability and were willing to pay a premium for it than their western counterparts.
Ms. McDonald also indicated that "The New Age of PR" was more about the digital influence in communicating to create a dialogue with various publics, highlighting the statistic that more searches are done for YouTube content than any other medium. As such, she noted that there was a "re-thinking" and "re-skilling" needed in the field as it was moving away from the written word only to more video content oriented, the purview of younger consumers who do not want speeches by Chief Executives of companies but rather prefer product demonstrations. |
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