Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

By Kathy Van Looy

Last week we said goodbye to a great social media intern (aka Lab Rat), Shastri Gayatri. She sent us a really inspiring, sweet and terribly praising goodbye mail (which we will not publish because you would never believe we are such terrific colleagues:-)), but we do want to share the last part:

If a picture speaks a thousand words, Infographic speaks millions. So, I’ve captured the awesomeness of Porter Novelli Brussels with this one (click on the image to enlarge):

Thanks Sasha!

By Kathy Van Looy

This week is SP&R (Strategic Planning & Research) Week at Porter Novelli Brussels! If you are not a Porter Novelli citizen, you are probably wondering what on earth that means… so let me explain

Our strength at Porter Novelli lies in our consistent and systematic approach to providing insight-based solutions that differentiate us and our clients in the marketplace. We get there through Compass, our approach to communications planning. Compass empowers us to uncover underlying assumptions about our clients’ needs, identify target audiences we hope to influence and generate the Big Idea that will motivate them to change. And, ultimately, create value – both for our clients and for ourselves.

So what will we be doing exactly?

• On Tuesday 31 August the PN colleagues will be split into three groups, and each group will be running a PNPoint Insights® session on a specific project for a client. During the session, we develop specific insights about what drives the target group to think and behave in a certain way. The PNPoints Insights® process is our proprietary approach to uncover the key motivators for the target group to help us understand why our target audience does what they do today, in order to help us change what they think/feel/do tomorrow.

• On Thursday 2 September, the three groups will be running Big It Up sessions during which they will brainstorm and in the end develop “The Big Idea”: a novel, compelling expression of the insight-based strategy that helps us activate the “change” we want in the target’s beliefs and behaviours.

The results of each group will be presented at the next staff meeting in September.

Interested to know more? Email us!

Inge.boets@porternovelli.be

kathy.vanlooy@porternovelli.be



By Danny Devriendt

Dabbing my toe left and right in the stormy waters of Social Media, I bumped into a fascinating quote from Google big boss Eric Schmidt (Google him, it’s impressive ). He said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal: “I don’t believe society understands what happens when everything is available, knowable and recorded by everyone all the time… I mean we really have to think about these things as a society… Young people may one day have to change their names in order to escape their previous online activity.” This is a concern I have voiced for a long time now. Do people really know what they are sharing? Do people really want to tell every last detail of their most private lives online, for Google to index? Do people realize that that very cute picture in that minuscule teenie weenie yellow polka dot bikini is available for their future boss? What about the massive tagging of pictures taken by smartphones in the dark of a hen night? Do people realize Tweets are indexed and kept, long after their authors have deleted and forgotten them? Schmidt has a point. Digital citizens should be more aware of the digital traces they leave behind. Some social auto-responsibility is required, indeed. Some social clean up even: map your real friends. Find a circle where sharing is mutual and well defined. Un-friend and un-follow the shady ones. Be online street-smart. And we need more e-netiquette. The freedom of waving your digital camera around ends where someone else’s freedom (for privacy) begins. An opt-in/opt-out for tagging? We all can become social-digital smarter. But we’ve all been young. We’ve all partied. We’ve all made big, social mistakes. Luckily, for my generation, the memories of those mistakes have been blissfully eroded by the softening hand of time. Should we now be merciless on youngsters that made that one drunken mistake online? Should we continue to judge that one girl for loving the wrong guy just a bit too much, and ending up tagged on exgirlfriends.com? Maybe Eric Schmidt and his all-powerful Google have a responsibility here: can you get a second chance from Google? Imagine, mister Schmidt, if a youngster made that one online mistake, and motivates why he/she would like to see it blown into –permanent- oblivion. Could you alter your logarithm, and give the kid the rest of his/her life back? Would that not be easier, more respectful, and more educative than just offering future generations the possibility to change their names? But I do not want to put the entire burden on Eric Schmidt’s shoulders, I agree with online consultant Suw Charman-Anderson who said somewhere: “As a society, we are just going to have to become a bit more forgiving of the follies of youth.”

By Kathy Van Looy

Last weekend, my very own colleague Marta Majewska was quoted in Het Laatste Nieuws on Doodle. Doodle? Huh? I cannot help but see images of very ugly dogs and I don’t know what on earth she is talking about, but since she is our Digital Media Expert, it is not that strange that I am (again) on another planet. However, when I start talking about it in the office, it looks like 70% of my colleagues are using it. OMG. How did that happen?

Guessing (and hoping!) I am not the only one who doesn’t know what it is, here’s some info about Doodle:

Doodle is an online tool that helps you to schedule group events. An example of how we use it in the office: my colleague Tim works in an international team of 4 people and he needs to arrange different teleconferences every month. How many emails does it take to set a date that suits everyone? A whole lot! And the time it takes waiting for the others to respond: it’s all just a big hassle. But not when you use Doodle: it only takes a few mouseclicks and within the hour you know who is available when. Easy!

Want to get started rightaway? Go to doodle.com. Give the name of the activity and a list of potential dates. Send your Doodle link to your invitees. The invitees receive the link by email, and when they open it, they can easily indicate what dates suit them. This way, you get a table with green and red squares, indicating what date suits most of the invitees best. Et voilà!

According to Marta, the power of Doodle lies in its simplicity. You don’t need to become a member or anything and it’s open for everyone. She uses it especially to pick dates to meet with her friends, who live all over Europe. It makes everything so much easier: in one hour they can fix a date.

So Doodle saves a huge amount of time, and a lot of email traffic. It’s becoming a very popular tool: more than 6 million users – and rising! And the best thing about it: it’s for free.

So Doodle with us

Stephanie Agresta was named to PRWeek’s “40 Under 40” list for 2010!  The annual ranking profiles those young professionals whose innovative work serves as a powerful look at the future of the industry, and who are considered “at the forefront of the race to become the next generation of CCOs, CMOs and agency CEOs.”

Congratulations to Stephanie on a great accomplishment!

Stephanie Agresta, EVP, global director of digital strategy and social media, Porter Novelli, 39

At Porter Novelli, Stephanie Agresta has built a team of social and digital media experts and strategists and driven initiatives for many high-profile clients, including Microsoft, PepsiCo, Hewlett-Packard, and Procter & Gamble. Agresta has also established strategic partnerships with Twestival, Internet Week, and Social Media Week, and was behind the effort that helped the firm win an AOR task for digital activities for Chicago-based Bel Brands USA Inc.’s The Laughing Cow Wedges and Mini Babybel brands. In 2008, she launched “Bloggers Lounge,” a networking hub for digital media influencers and cofounded “The TechSet,” a networking brand. Agresta began her career at iVillage.com. She ran her own digital media and marketing consultancy before joining Porter Novelli.

My Social Evolution from Nicole D’Alonzo on Vimeo.

We have a new colleague @Porter Novelli New York! Nicole, who works on the Digital Strategy team in NYC, will spend a portion of her time serving as a public facing community manager for the global PN presence.  Using a best-practices approach to community, she will manage the overall editorial calendar for social content and oversee submissions to our blog. She tweets from @porternovelli and serves as a liaison for our staff to integrate great content from across the network into all of our social channels.

A bit of background on Nicole:

Nicole D’Alonzo is an SAE and serves also as the Community Manager for The Laughing Cow.  She graduated from York College of Pennsylvania with a B.A. in English Literature and a minor in women’s studies.  Nicole is also an active philanthropy ambassador and video producer.

You can see her client work in action for a client at:
http://www.twitter.com/thelaughingcow
http://www.thelaughingcow.com/blog/

By Danny Devriendt

Mom tried to raise me to be an honorable citizen. Thinking of it: so did dad. Greet people. Thank them. Speak with two words. Be helpful. Pay for things you need. Get older ladies safely across busy streets.

Honestly, they succeeded quiet well.  I was managing reasonably good, trying to be mister almost perfect. And then… I bought an iPad. And my world shifted. Because mister Steve Jobs disagrees with mom. He does not want me to be a nice citizen.

My iPad has all this great tools and things. It’s a fully mobile, highly connected dog-and pony show. But to make half of the stuff work, mister Jobs wants me to cheat. I live in Belgium, and iTunes will not let me buy ebooks. ITunes will not let me buy TV-series. iTunes will not let me buy movies. No buying, no renting. God and Steve know why.

I cannot even buy my favorite stuff in another country than Belgium. iTunes will not let me. American Express and Visa ensure there is nothing wrong with my credit. There is something wrong with iTunes. There is something wrong with Steve.

Now that he pocketed a small 1000 dollars, I discover that some nice features of my iPad only will work if I rip or download illegally. Apple will not take my good money for legal entertainment on my kosher personal iPad.

Sorry mom… blame Steve. But nothing will stand between me and an iPad driven Monthy Python.

Real-time Reputation Specialty Offers Integrated Platform for Corporate Affairs

Porter Novelli today announced a new specialty created to help clients manage crises and competitive threats in the era of social media.  The agency’s Real-time Reputation Specialty is an end-to-end solution that includes everything from achieving crisis preparedness to corporate reputation repair after an incident.

The new reputation management group provides for fully integrated reputation management and is led by an integrated team of specialists in corporate communications and social media.  The group will work with Porter Novelli’s senior corporate communicators and their clients to anticipate adverse events and move rapidly – within minutes – to manage emergencies, using an integrated approach of both on-line and off-line channels and employing both conventional and digital means to mitigate possible damage to corporate reputations.

“Recent news events have demonstrated something we have seen for some time,” said Gary Stockman, CEO of Porter Novelli.  “A world where social media can damage hard-won reputations in mere minutes requires a fundamentally different way to practice crisis communications, one that pairs the speed and reach of social media itself with the insights and judgment of seasoned crisis communications specialists.”

“Consumers have become more demanding in their opinion about companies and their products and less tolerant when something goes wrong.” says Corneel Maes, Crisis Communication Expert at Porter Novelli. “Therefore companies need to manage their reputation more actively and, in case of an incident, be prepared to respond in the traditional and the social media within a very short time frame.”

“Today, how a company responds to a crisis situation or a potential threat is getting as much attention as the event itself,” Danny Devriendt, Social Media Expert at Porter Novelli added. “Our Real-time Reputation specialty can help organizations anticipate these events and manage them to the best possible outcome – all in an environment that is as fast-moving and unforgiving as we have never seen.”

Companies interested in learning more about the new specialty can contact Corneel Maes (corneel.maes@porternovelli.be) or Danny Devriendt (danny.devriendt@porternovelli.be). You can also find us on Twitter via @pnbr5

by Marta Majewska

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June 23, 2010. The long anticipated day at the Brussels office has arrived! And it started with a visit from some unexpected attendees – the police Concerned with the smoke coming out of our famous @PNBR5 lotus, which was parked right in front of the office, two brave police officers rushed to save the day with their mini extinguisher … and were busy arranging more unexpected guests – the fire brigade!  The smoke btw, is our favorite special effect – and it’s coming from the smoking machine

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After this fair share of entertainment and with the entire office dressed up in the George Clooney/Demi Moore style (Luc definitely deserves the look-a-like award!), we were ready to welcome the attendees. Over 40 participants representing European associations, companies and media attended the event. During the seminar, Gary, John and Danny did their magic and let’s be honest here – if they didn’t manage to convince you about the importance of digital and get you excited about it, you should go back to living under a stone because there is simply no hope for you! Oh, not to forget, in the middle of the presentation we had a power cut … just like that … and trust me, getting a beamer back to work is not an easy thing, unless you have the superITman – Mohamed – who has special powers to fix just about anything!  So as you can see, it’s never boring @PNBR5

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Kathy arranged the most wonderful lunch and we were ready to connect with our attendees during the speed dating session – before anyone will misinterpret the services Porter Novelli is providing – we are talking social media speed dating here Later in the afternoon, an internal digital session took place during which John surprised everyone with his special talent – harmonica.  Yes, John plays harmonica (how awesome is that?). The day rounded up with a tweet-up and then we rushed to the airport to catch our flight to Madrid! Hasta luego!

*Kudos to Kathy, Febe, Wendy, Carolien,Evelien, Sasha, Christian and everyone who helped make this event a great success!

www.robertamsterdam.com

By Corneel Maes, Crisis Comms Specialist

BP keeps working its way through its worst nightmare, no doubt about that. I wonder whether they – or any of their competitors for all that matters – have ever been serious about preparing for the impossible, for the unconceivable. It may sound silly, but isn’t that what crisis preparedness is all about?  Never mess around with Murphy’s Law… And yet, it seems that the ultimate crisis scenario (a leaking well, completely out of control) was not in the crisis preparedness books at BP. Definitely not at the engineering level, let alone in the communications department.

What we’ve seen over the past 50 days is a crippled organization, as winged as the poor pelicans and seabirds they are accountable for. While struggling to close the leaking well in a tragic trial and error engineering process, properly communicating about it seems an even bigger challenge for BP.

The company’s inability to communicate transparently about the three key questions – What happened? What are you doing about it? How will you contain the impact? – has become the story in the digital media. Twitter took over and BP has completely lost grips on its reputation and credibility by starting crisis communications off the wrong foot. It will take their so carefully built market value and brand value to an unprecedented low for a long time.

The fake BP announcement in Dutch newspapers saying “SORRY” (with an asterisk referring to a footnote reading : “but you wanted to get cheaper oil”), shows that the brand has now been completely hacked.  The world is at war against BP – as a company, as a brand, as a member of the community.

To me, these are the top 3 management behaviors that should never be overruled in a crisis:

1. Be reassuring but only promise what you are sure you can deliver
2. Say what you do and do what you say
3. Be perceived as  part of the solution, not the problem

To date, my score for BP on each of these behaviors is below average, to say the least. It’s high time BP reviews the basic rules of crisis communications and lives up to them.