Digital Vision

REVOLUTION SOCIAL MEDIA 360

CONTENTS

Introduction riding the revolution planning the revolution A revolution sweeping new frontiers Working together in a revolution Creating a revolution the pace of the revolution now we are all revolutionaries marketing a revolution communicating a revolution how social media has revolutionized my role US perspectives on the revolution EMEA perspectives on the revolution APAC perspectives on the revolution recruiting revolutionaries Revolutionary growth Global offices REVOLUTIONARY THINKERS

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SOCIAL MEDIA 360 | DECEMBER 2009 | 1

if the Internet were a car... ...the year would be 1930. We are still at the beginning of the impact that social media will have on the business world.

It has already become impossible to manage crisis communications without an understanding of technologies like YouTube, Twitter and RSS. This trend will accelerate, making the public relations industry faster, more global and more technical.

The revolution in technology will also change the audiences for PR. As the media fragments, competition for audiences will become fiercer. This will cause news reporting to trend towards the sensationalist. The mundane truth may become a luxury people are forced to pay for.

Few will bother when lies are more entertaining. This may have profound implications for all institutions.

These audiences will also no longer unquestioningly accept the broadcast message. They will want a conversation. Organizations will need to adjust not just what they say, but how they say it. The audiences will cross over and merge into one community that knows everything and nothing.

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Like many revolutions, its implications are exciting and frightening at the same time. Some organizations will exploit the trends. Others will be engulfed by them.

Social media started with a new generation. For those old enough to remember, personal computers started in the same way. Then, teenagers took PC technology from bedrooms to boardrooms in thirty years. It’s happening again. Only this time, it will be at the speed of light.

This book is a report on a year of change from our perspective - from around the world and across different functions of the group.

SOCIAL MEDIA 360 | DECEMBER 2009 | 3

riding the revolution

Chris Lewis CEO & FOUNDER 4 | DIGITAL VISION | ISSUE 01

In order for companies to be successful, they must be different.

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irstly, deep in our DNA is the international instinct. In little over a decade, our global team has established nearly 40 offices worldwide. That’s why the company is proving so resilient through this recession. Not only is it surviving, it’s prospering.

In the year to July 2009, it grew another 11% and we’re laying the plans for further growth in 2010.

We’re privileged to work with many great clients that share the vision of the potential of global markets. The technology revolution is making these markets more accessible and providing an opportunity to dislocate incumbents and provide opportunities for challengers. This is just the beginning of the social media revolution. In years to come, the Internet will change radio and TV and the way consumers interact with them. This change will allow social media companies that understand technology to take opportunities in new vertical sectors.

This is the new stuff. The old stuff will be familiar to all successful companies – determination, hard work, a sense of the absurd and a recognition that we must never, ever, follow the crowd.

Much of this original thinking comes from our media heritage.

Half of our senior team have news backgrounds. Journalists measure careers on exclusives and on being first to tell the story. The culture created is that of a fast-moving, hard-working, dedicated and ambitious global team. This in-built imperative is a critical factor in the transition to social media. The defining characteristic of the new environment is speed.

The future environment for news will be so fast and fluid, that only those with a grasp of these systems will thrive.

When the upswing comes, this business will be positioned for the most exciting phase – the roll out of social media across all industries and all geographies to propel it on its upward path.

SOCIAL MEDIA 360 | DECEMBER 2009 | 5

planning the revolution

Lucy Allen SVP, global account servicing 6 | DIGITAL VISION | ISSUE 01

Revolutions, by their nature, are unpredictable. As recently as a year ago, social media and digital PR were considered separate services, delivered by separate teams, within most agencies.

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oday, however, campaigns are far more integrated, with social channels considered a critical element of any communications program.

This has several implications for PR agencies. Firstly, the fundamental skills of the profession are changing. We now work in video, audio, pictures, and interactive applications as well as words.

We now think about how content can be optimized, how it will be shared and augmented.

We’re using a far wider range of tools to communicate, listen and evaluate.

That said, many traditional skills remain essential today, as ever. The ability to create compelling content is one. Without content that people want to engage with and share, no social media campaign can succeed. At the heart of our proposition is the journalistic heritage of the agency and the ability of its people to build a story.

To equip our staff with the latest skills we have implemented a major internal training exercise, including a global roadshow of every office in the

network, a best practice wiki, video seminars and more. In addition, we’ve also hired and partnered to bring to market a full range of digital PR services.

Which brings me to the second implication for agencies: the breadth of services. This year, we launched several new offerings. Our services are now based on four campaign stages: content creation (including video production, podcasts, microsites, blogs, application development and graphic design); content optimization (including a range of SEO services developed specifically to complement PR activities); engagement (including media relations, blogger relations, community communications and social media ambassadorship) and, finally, monitoring and measurement.

The third implication is the change of the traditional agency business model itself.

As we introduce a broader range of services, we enter a new competitive landscape, which includes interactive firms, advertising agencies and others. The line between advertising and PR is certainly blurring because ad agencies have typically offered the

visual design and production services associated with online marketing. However, in a true social media campaign, the emphasis is on the engagement between a brand and its customers – that’s truly an ongoing communication task that must map back to the business objectives, not a technical one designed simply to gain attention.

So what’s the right model today? One that can be fast and responsive on a global basis, as stories break and spread around the world in minutes, not days. One that can develop strategic, integrated campaigns but still implement both long-term programs and projects. One that can allocate the resources to listen and respond to conversations dayin, day-out, but also see the bigger picture when required.

It’s been a year with more intense change than ever in the agency world. At LEWIS, we’ve welcomed that change as an opportunity to push the boundaries of PR. This revolution is going to continue and we’re more than geared up for it.

SOCIAL MEDIA 360 | DECEMBER 2009 | 7

A revolution sweeping new frontiers

Morgan McLintic EVP, US & APAC 8 | DIGITAL VISION | ISSUE 01

This is a time of transition, disintermediation, crisis and opportunity. So what is this change that we’re seeing?

Well, I think we can see five main trends appearing in communications today.

1

Integration – the lines between promotional mix elements are blurring.

As companies engage in open conversations with all their audiences, strategic communications must span all marketing disciplines. PR firms are managing social media, mobile marketing, SEO/SEM, social network application development, direct marketing, web design, events and sponsorships into a holistic communications strategy based on building relationships.

2

Disintermediation – the number of channels open to organizations is expanding.

Simply put, the one-to-many broadcast model has been replaced by an ongoing conversation which goes beyond traditional channels to regularly include blogging, social networks, podcasting, video, and mobile. Knowing which to use, and how to integrate them has become core to communications campaigns.

3

Acceleration – the speed of communications has never been faster.

Communications are becoming progressively faster as blogging and micro-blogging become more influential. Crises erupt and must be addressed in realtime. This requires detailed

monitoring, strong processes and greater empowerment of the communications teams.

4

Content – it’s more than just words.

All organizations are becoming media publishers.

This means content must morph beyond the written word to become more visual and aural. Messages are also being embedded into applications which then become either the topic of conversation or the platform on which that conversation takes place.

5

Globalization – brands need a unified voice, not just across channels, but borders.

News can break anywhere in the world and proliferate rapidly online within minutes.

Companies are addressing this through global programs.

At no time has the role of public relations been more important to organizations as they navigate these seismic trends. Trends which threaten their fundamental brand and reputation, sales success, community relations, investor sentiment, employee support and customer relationships.

Rising to this challenge, in the US we’ve recorded some of our biggest successes this year.

PRWeek ranked LEWIS US in the Top 50 of all agencies, rising 24 places to 48 with 26% annual growth. This made us one of the fastest-growing agencies in the country.

The Holmes Report awarded LEWIS the prestigious position of Technology Agency of the Year 2009. O’Dwyer’s ranked LEWIS in the Top 10 of technology agencies.

PRNews named us Small Agency of the Year. Due to our social media expertise, we’re now seeing interest from clients outside the tech sector, including insurance, travel and non-profit organizations.

In Asia Pacific we grew 57%, and launched an office in Tokyo, Japan which has doubled in size since opening.

We also appointed a new head of region in Andy Oliver, SVP, winning clients such as Audi, Chevron, Pirelli and Hitachi.

Next year will see an amplification of the megatrends of communications integration, disintermediation, acceleration, content type proliferation, and globalization. Only a global, technically-leveraged and content-focused PR agency can help brands navigate those trends. That’s lucky then.

SOCIAL MEDIA 360 | DECEMBER 2009 | 9

Working together in a Revolution

Sally o’neilL VP & Head of uk 10 | DIGITAL VISION | ISSUE 01

A year ago it would have been difficult to predict just how much change the PR industry would experience in the following twelve months. Despite everything that has been thrown at us – high oil prices, banking sector in crisis, and a flu pandemic – the PR industry has proved remarkably resilient.

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nlike previous recessions, PR has fared better than its marketing mix counterparts.

This year we’ve seen greater innovation, intelligence and initiative than ever before. This leads to greater opportunities.

Not least, the unprecedented growth social media has experienced – quickly bridging the B2B and B2C worlds, as well as personal and work lives.

For clients it means greater opportunities to reach wider, yet better segmented, audiences. It offers alternative, and lucrative, sales channels and competitive advantage. Nevertheless, it also brings faster decision-making – often based on fewer facts – and therefore reduced control.

Our clients are at different stages in the life cycle, and their needs vary. Some are looking for help to understand how they can get involved in social media to build communities and integrate it into their comms plans. We’re running training and workshops to expand understanding. Others need advice handling questions about how to react to negative comments or potential crises through social media and the

impact of less control. We’re helping others to use social media tools as part of a fully integrated PR campaign, combining traditional and social media, and then measuring and monitoring its impact.

As social media is inherently global, online and fast, we’re seeing most take-up from our international clients. It can be a real competitive advantage, helping to spot breaking stories, identify competitor weaknesses and build groups of international followers and communities.

As global lead agency for Lexmark, we’ve run its first Twitter campaign this year, as well as a series of videocasts highlighting expertise. This is a great example of using global tools handled by local teams on-the-ground, with an appreciation and understanding of local culture and current media stories to make them relevant to local audiences.

Managing the EMEA campaign for Avanade, we launched its Microsoft Surface solution via a video news release, created in English, but shared with media in over ten countries via Twitter and YouTube.

This year we’ve added companies like Absolute Software and Avid to our international roster, expanded clients like Citrix and Lexmark into new markets and retained long-term clients like Avanade, Kroll Ontrack and Progress Software. Having a dedicated international team that coordinates campaigns across markets continues to bring clients many benefits, not least an extended team.

One project I’ve enjoyed being involved in is the launch of our Global Client Advisory Board (GCAB). This exclusive group is a collection of some of our most respected and trusted clients and agency contacts. Currently meeting twice a year in the US and Europe, this Advisory Board offers the opportunity for us to learn more about industry opinions, ambitions, needs and internal pressures and how we can adapt our business to help them. It has brought us a wealth of information and I know will continue to be a very valuable element of our business as we continue to grow.

SOCIAL MEDIA 360 | DECEMBER 2009 | 11

Creating a Revolution

Jutta schausten managing director, Munich 12 | DIGITAL VISION | ISSUE 01

With less then a decade of professional experience, it is difficult to talk about the ‘old times’. Still, in comparison to let’s say, 2004, the face of our business changed dramatically through the convergence of digital marketing with PR.

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lients used to be nervous when confronted with social networking and interactive media as a messaging tool.

Gradually they are beginning to embrace them as new and innovative channels of mass communication.

However, we were well prepared for the push into digital and, to be honest, often the ones doing the pushing.

Our dedicated web, content and social media experts have found themselves at the forefront of the digital revolution.

For us, digital has always meant more than adding a few bloggers to a media list or pinging our releases out over the online newswires. It means a fundamental shift in how people – specifically our clients’ customers – find information.

Some of our most fascinating and immediately measurable work in the last year has been online. Here are a few examples: • We set up a successful Twitter channel for Lexmark across Europe

• Citrix customer stories from the UK and Ireland became powerful podcasts • Firefox’s market share in Spain received a boost following our blogger party • A viral game spread a valuable message about public spending in Germany and was played more than 131,000 times • 20,000 people across Eastern Europe watched our 50th anniversary LEGO video This year has also been seen us pool our worldwide resources in content, design, web and social media to create LEWIS Creative & Digital, a key division within LEWIS to educate, implement and execute digital strategy across the company. Our first job as a new team was to redevelop the agency blog – www.lewis360. com – and fill it with dynamic content, video and images.

worldwide. Our Online Reporting Tools (ORTs) are making measurement of large, internationally distributed campaigns far simpler. There are more apps on the horizon too – from automated RSS dashboards and sentiment monitoring, to our recently launched LEWIS news 360 iPhone app.

All in all, it has been a revolutionary year for PR, with all corners of our industry being touched by the seismic shift brought on by digital acceptance.

We’re now at another critical flashpoint – where the benefits of the tactics are starting to be scrutinized by businesses taking longer-term decisions over their PR and marketing budgets.

As the squeeze on the economy begins to show signs of relaxing, those who have proven they can move quickly and innovate in the tough times are going to be in the strongest position.

Back in ‘traditional’ PR, however, things have also continued to develop quickly.

Our LEWIS Wire service, a fully-hosted platform for delivery of web-optimized client news, is being used

SOCIAL MEDIA 360 | DECEMBER 2009 | 13

the pace of the revolution

Jorge L贸pez Martinez-Conde vp, southern europe 14 | DIGITAL VISION | ISSUE 01

This year has seen some of the most significant change in the media industry, with obvious knock-on effects on the world of PR. We have witnessed a dramatic decline in the sales of print media. Around the world many titles have closed. Others are on the brink.

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adly, much of this demise is selfperpetuating. Poor sales and falling advertising revenues unfortunately equate to the need for staff cuts. In Spain alone, over 3,000 journalists lost their jobs in the past year (according to the Federation of Spanish Press Associations, FAPE). That’s 10% of the industry. This is no different to the situation in other markets.

Overall, consumers read, watch and listen to more content than ever. Thanks to the Internet, new devices such as iPhones, netbooks and Kindles, to name just a few, and the proliferation of social networks, content can be found everywhere.

And ‘Twitter’ was the most popular English word in 2009, ranking higher than ‘recession’.

It’s indicative of the speed of growth of these new channels.

The problem is that consumers are finding their own sources and journalists are shrinking both in number and importance.

The job cuts in the media industry inevitably play a major role in the falling standards of journalism, evidenced across much of the industry.

A lack of must-read content equates to falling sales and advertising revenue. Media conglomerates are waking up to the fact that they either need to charge for online content, or they should be supported in some way by public institutions. But neither of these solutions seems to be able to save journalism.

The current media paradigm has fewer journalists, charged with producing even more copy, which results in a greater reliance upon PRs for material.

This may be good in the short term, but who feeds the new channels that consumers look to for news? Who is going to lead the way in influencing them?

And what is the new, acceptable methodology for doing so?

We need to realize social media is no longer about simply pushing content. Listening

and engaging will be vital.

As will understanding what these new channels mean for the traditional media.

PR will have to do what it should have been doing since the beginning: it needs to engage.

We just need to understand the changing nature of engagement.

Analysts, consumers, influencers, journalists, stakeholders and our own clients and competitors are all plugged in to social media. Conversations exist in thousands of different permutations and directions.

Often it is complementary to traditional media, but it can be a direct route to information that bypasses editorial departments.

So there may be seismic change, new tools and new channels, but a common sense approach to understanding what clients do and why that is of interest to different audiences will never go out of fashion. That is at the heart of what LEWIS does.

That should be the core of PR.

SOCIAL MEDIA 360 | DECEMBER 2009 | 15

now we are all revolutionaries

Andres Wittermann EVP, emea 16 | DIGITAL VISION | ISSUE 01

One of Germany’s most famous politicians, Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898), once said if he knew the end of the world was near, he would go to Mecklenburg, a country in North-East Germany – “ because everything happens there 200 years later”.

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n terms of online, digital and social media PR you could certainly say something similar about Europe as a whole. If you think of blogs, social networks, Internet TV or whatever the latest digital trend is – Europe almost certainly always lags behind the U.S. by around two years.

The map below illustrates that today the UK, U.S. and Canada are leaders in regional interest in ‘social media PR’ – showing the Rest of Europe relatively on par with countries like Morocco and Brazil. But 2009 is the year of the breakthrough, even in the EMEA region.

Driven by companies trying to reduce the costs, or at least improve the value of their marketing spend, PR budgets have moved online and increasingly into social media related activities.

Not surprisingly in EMEA this development started and is most prevalent in the UK. But other countries are catching up as can be seen on the following graph.

In total, over 210 million Europeans are members of social networks – a massive target group for any PR campaign. This means that 75% of the total number of Internet users is already active in one

Search volume index

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100

Source: Google Insight for Search SOCIAL MEDIA 360 | DECEMBER 2009 | 17

european social networking: visits by country

Total Unique Visitors Unique visitors to social networking category.

Source: comScore World Metrix, 2009.

Total Europe aged 15+, home and work locations (excluding traffic from public computers or access from mobile devices and PDAs).

Ireland Norway Finland Austria Denmark Portugal Switzerland Belgium Sweden Netherlands Spain Italy Russia France Germany UK

millions

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15

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or many social networks. And it is not all just Facebook or LinkedIn – there are some very strong local players like Xing (with 6 million business users in the German-speaking markets), Hyves (Dutch network with 8 million users), Nasza-klasa (Poland, 12 million users) or Skyrock (French, 22 million users). So local expertise is still valuable.

The hottest trend though is Twitter. Today there is no day without a major news story which originally broke on this channel. Memorable examples are the Turkish Airlines crash at Amsterdam Schiphol or results of the election of the German Head of State, Horst Koehler, leaking long before the official

announcement. Twitter so far is still more popular amongst English-speakers. But other markets are catching up quickly and today all LEWIS EMEA PR campaigns involve Twitter either as an outward or inward information channel.

The fact that many of today’s social networks are global, means that PR is becoming more international itself.

This trend will be supported by the increasingly visual content of the Internet, like videos, pictures, vodcasts, Flash-based games or visually entertaining virals.

Members of LEWIS today are speaking at more conferences, seminars and trade shows about

international PR, social media and trends in PR than ever before. Our experience allows us to roll out social media PR campaigns across the seventeen EMEA countries in which LEWIS is present today. Major EMEA clients like Lexmark and Siemens and smaller challenger brands alike, benefit from the targeted approach to influencers and end-users.

Around 10 per cent of today’s revenues originate in this area.

The goal for the next financial year is to double this proportion and to position LEWIS as a key player in social media campaigns across the EMEA region and beyond.

Regional interest for twitter Philippines South Africa Norway SIngapore New Zealand Australia Canada UK

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100

Ireland US

SOCIAL MEDIA 360 | DECEMBER 2009 | 19

Marketing a revolution

Ilona Hitel SVP, global marketing 20 | DIGITAL VISION | ISSUE 01

Social media has provided a catalyst for our brand to become multi-disciplinary. Whilst technology will continue to be a mainstay, we will (and have already started to) branch out into other practice areas.

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f course, this will take time, but there are already some areas, such as crisis, which are no longer possible without social media. That has significant implications for the marketing of our brand and dictates how not just we, but also our clients, will need to shift their sales and marketing processes online.

According to Forrester earlier this year (‘The Down Economy Pushes B2B Digital Tactics Ahead’, April 2009) the recession will continue to alter a company’s marketing mix through using less expensive channels. Digital marketing creates much more direct engagement and interactivity, cutting out some of the traditionally high-cost, faceto-face marketing tactics. It’s the obvious route to connect with web-savvy buyers.

We need to promote many more products and services that serve these needs; from SEO to drive traffic to online sites, to creating compelling content itself, through eBooks, mailers, YouTube channels and microsites. As we offer these services to clients, we will of course be practising what we preach. Hence the revamp of www.lewis360.com, the creation of our own Twitter feeds across multiple countries,

the launch of our own LinkedIn Social Media group, application development (iPhone and Twitter) and the production of a range of content that supports the shift to social media.

Given the rapid developments in social media, we want to offer guidance and answers to the questions PR professionals are asking. The development of collateral like our ‘How to build or break a brand with social media’ sets out to do just that. The book is a basic guide on how to engage in the new environment. Our ‘Quick Crisis Control’ information card and workflow supplements the book, providing advice and round-the-clock support if a corporate reputation emergency should happen.

More traditional channels used by marketers have become dramatically less expensive and therefore viable again.

Traditional direct mail can now stand out above email marketing campaigns. TV advertising or large-scale sponsorship is now more available to small business.

This is why we have chosen to sponsor some of the industry’s largest scale events and rolled out advertising campaigns across a variety of media, including PRNoticas, Brand Republic, PRWeek, The Holmes Report, ZDNet and eWeek.com.

Face-to-face stays one of the most powerful persuaders which is why we are speaking at many more industry events. We have been Gold sponsors of the Social Media Networking Forum in Singapore and the US this year.

We also continue to run our own Summits, in conjunction with names such as 3, IBM, Omniture and Salesforce.com.

Our last London event played host to the UK launch of Shel Israel’s book, ‘Twittervillle’.

This year also saw the launch of our ‘Digital Dinners’, informal evenings hosted by LEWIS with key journalists and industry marketing professionals, discussing the evolution of media and online communications.

These have already taken place across our network including Eindhoven, London, Madrid, Milan, Munich, San Francisco and Sydney.

In 2010 we will continue to invest heavily in marketing, through a variety of channels, both old and new. We are armed with a stronger program of content and thought leadership than ever before. As the company continues to grow we will see new services and talented people continue to emerge, which means the industry recognition and awards should continue to take care of themselves.

SOCIAL MEDIA 360 | DECEMBER 2009 | 21

Communicating a Revolution

lewis 360 blog www.lewis360.com

find out what's happening

LEWIS news 360 Website and iPhone app http://news360.lewispr.com

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social media book www.lewispr.com/usingsocialmedia

Awards Best Companies accreditation 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 Bulldog Reporter Best Technology Campaign Award Winner, 2008

SC Magazine Europe PR Company of the Year Finalist, 2009

Computing Excellence Awards IT PR Company of the Year Winner, 2008 European Excellence Awards Finalists, 2009

PR News Small Agency of the Year Winner, 2009

Investors in People accreditation 2009 – 2012 The Holmes Report Technology Agency of the Year Winner, 2009

SOCIAL MEDIA 360 | DECEMBER 2009 | 23

How Social Media Has revolutionized My Role

Paul Charles In October 2009, Paul was appointed as COO at LEWIS PR. He starts this role in January 2010.

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The world of the communications chief has been thrown upside down. Gone are the days when a journalist would ring you at ten o’clock in the morning, give you until the end of the day to offer a reply and then print the story the following morning. Now, it’s about hourly deadlines, says Virgin Atlantic’s Director of Communications.

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ournalists now work in real-time. Their work patterns have changed enormously. Their priority is increasingly to break news via 24-hour news channels or website versions of their newspaper or magazine.

Time waits for no one. Every reporter is effectively a wire journalist, seeking to scoop their rivals by the hour. The long lunches have disappeared with their expense claims.

On a recent press trip, I briefed six reporters on one of our aircraft flying to New York about a story. As soon as we landed, they switched on their Blackberries and all filed their stories that they’d written in-flight. They weren’t able to wait until their next print deadline. They all knew that they had to get their story online as soon as possible.

This means that communications directors are always on-call. Whether their business is 24/7, consumerfacing or not, journalists covering their sector will want

instant reaction and comment.

So, press offices now need to be structured for social media.

At least one person in the comms or agency team has to be responsible for Twittering and updating Facebook.

You can have enormous impact by announcing something via Twitter these days. It may only be a minute earlier than an official press release, but it has huge impact among an audience that believes it’s being favoured above others.

Not to mention the hundreds of blogs which can appear about your product or company. I believe blogs which raise a question about your business should be answered as quickly as possible. This means you have to have pre-determined, agreed responses to key issues so that you, your in-house team or your agency can quickly send off a comment online. Every outlet or social media channel needs to be taken advantage of.

Every announcement we make now has a social media strategy to it. If we’re setting up a photo call for print media, then how do we do the same for social media? Can we re-version videos used at press conferences for our Facebook site? Can we ensure there is enough resource checking online outlets after we’ve announced a story, so that we can respond to any feedback.

Social media is making PR cheaper. It costs nothing to write a comment, reply to a blog or a newspaper’s online website. This is good news for comms chiefs who are trying to reduce their costs during the toughest recession ever.

Good comms heads will be diverting their time, effort and money into social media.

Online channels are desperate for content as they have so many pages to create and fill.

If you have the content, you’re pushing at an open door.

Make sure you go through it as quickly as possible.

If it’s cheaper, then it will grow quickly as a preferred channel.

SOCIAL MEDIA 360 | DECEMBER 2009 | 25

US perspectives on the revolution

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Leaders that see more frequent and speedier interaction as an immense opportunity rather than as a source of annoyance will be the ones to thrive in the next decade. Those who listen thoughtfully to the feedback will build stronger offerings. Those who hide from it will permanently lose their voices. More than ever, organizations must earnestly engage with the individuals that comprise their audiences.

New realities of individual access and reach dictate that companies must deploy messages that resonate from the boardroom, straight through the employee ranks, and to even the fringes of their markets. This requires not just know-how, but also frankness, creativity and grace – a blend that the best PR professionals have spent their careers perfecting.

Ian Lipner General Manager Washington, DC

Far from sounding a death knell for the PR industry, social media has re-energized it, particularly here in the US. After all, this is where many of the best-known social media channels were incubated, and where some of its most vocal proponents are based.

The growth in social media has given all of us an opportunity to extend our skills, connect with new people in a more intuitive way, and become content creators and evangelists in our own right. It’s a fabulous platform for learning and growth, and every day brings new discoveries.

Professionally, this evolution has led to some amazing opportunities, where we’re helping bring well-known brands much closer to the public.

On a personal level, it’s inspired a wave of fresh thinking and a new level of excitement about the work that we do.

In the US, our clients are increasingly asking for advice on how to navigate the social media landscape. Many are trying to convince reluctant boards of the power of social media so that their organizations are not left behind. Trying to put a dollar value on the power of creating communities and connections is a daily challenge for all communication professionals.

Social media has unleashed a new wave of thinking and creativity and will continue to transform communications in the coming decade. Never has it been more important for brands to embrace their social side!

Claire Rowberry VP Boston

Louise Thompson Managing Director San Francisco

SOCIAL MEDIA 360 | DECEMBER 2009 | 27

EMEA perspectives on the revolution

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The Netherlands has always been on the forefront of the online revolution. One of the countries with the highest internet adoption rate, and the highest broadband availability.

People here ‘live’ online.

The massive take-off of social media use is a result of the increased speed of apps and connections but also a change in mentality. People are more open to share their private life and experiences with the world.

Companies therefore can no longer ignore them. As a PR agency we have an excellent opportunity to advise on how to deal with them and to deliver campaigns. We are not just a traditional media agency, but a true media 360 agency.

Yvonne van Bokhoven VP Western Europe Eindhoven

Unlike markets like Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary who are hungry for social media, Germany is traditionally reluctant in applying new technologies. However, 2009 witnessed the breakthrough of social media in Germany. Due to budget cuts and the crisis of print media, German companies have started to integrate services and quickly understand the advantages of digital PR: measurable results, direct channels to target audiences and unlimited chances to interact.

One of our most successful campaigns to date is a viral game for an interest group.

We developed a viral game, satirizing the massive government spending. The bloggers and communities loved the game and this massive grass root support helped us in a second step to secure coverage in daily papers such as Bild, Handelsblatt and Wirtschaftswoche.

The highlight was TV coverage on RTL. A truly integrated campaign!

The past 12 months have been seismic in shaping the long-term future of the media and PR sectors. The decline in sales of print media, particularly newspapers, has reached unprecedented lows as more readers and audiences moved online for free, more interactive content.

Despite this changing environment, we need to realize this is not a totally different world. Yes, there are new and exciting digital media tools but we need to retain a common sense approach to how and why we are using them. Our clients’ needs are still paramount even if communication channels are changing.

Most importantly, we need to realize social media is no longer about simply pushing content.

Listening and engaging are vital, both for PR consultancies and traditional news operations.

David Brown Head of Editorial London

Rafael Rahn VP Central and Eastern Europe Munich

SOCIAL MEDIA 360 | DECEMBER 2009 | 29

APAC perspectives on the revolution

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Australian companies are becoming more and more interested in communicating their messages through social media. Like many other countries, we are seeing a decline in traditional media as print titles in particular close their doors due to diminishing advertising revenues, driven by ever-shrinking audiences.

Faced with the need to still communicate with their customers, prospects, staff and other stakeholders, Australian marketers are following the global trend and switching more of their focus online, where the eyeballs are. For some companies the move online may be manifested simply as banner ads. Others are seeking to capitalise on the innate ability of the online environment to enable two-way conversations, to engage like no other medium has ever been able to.

Scott Pettet General Manager Sydney

No business today can dismiss the power of the social web, and India is no exception to that.

Indian companies have begun to leverage the power of social media to engage people, attract customers, strengthen their brands and even recruit people.

For the corporate India, the logic is simple - while Indian PC and Internet penetration rates are relatively lower than Europe and the US, the 55-million strong Internet user base in the country is still a significant one. This figure doesn’t include those who access internet through their mobile phones.

These Internet users are the most sought-after customers for any company, thanks to their high disposable incomes.

So, it is no wonder that even the most conventional Indian business is forced to come up with social media campaigns to engage with this audience.

However, so far, most businesses have used social media in a very limited way.

This is about to change as Indian companies are on the threshold of realising the true potential of social media.

The social media scene across Singapore and South East Asia is emerging but enthusiastic.

Recently, a ‘blogathon’ was held in a shopping mall. Selected bloggers typed away for 24 hours with crowds of people staring (some perplexed) at what was going on.

BlackBerry recently developed a Facebook page for Asia Pacific and it’s already attracted 40,000 fans. Our team conducted one of the first flash mob events for client Salesforce. com and its customer, Crocs.

Other clients are asking us to talk to them, their partners and customers, about how to employ social media.

And to prove the point, LEWIS PR was a lead sponsor for the first major social networking conference, Social Media World Forum Asia, which took place in Singapore in September.

Andy Oliver SVP Singapore

Arunava Khan General Manager Mumbai

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Resourcing a revolution

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The key focus this year has been the impact of social media, and its potential.

O

nline innovation has revolutionised our approach to recruitment this year, with social networking sites proving quick, cost-effective and far reaching for finding candidates.

Whether Twitter, Linkedin or even Facebook, the traditional mechanisms of recruitment have certainly been less favoured over the past year.

Our target recruitment group is primarily graduates. We want our graduates to be technically aware and innovative. Our recruitment processes reflect these skills. The team has focused on using a variety of social networking sites throughout this year and will be developing further in 2010.

Social media has also proven an invaluable tool for internal communications. With the development of both the LEWIS 360 blog and wiki-based areas on the intranet, staff have found it increasingly easier to share and access information across the group. ‘Bottomup’ collaboration tools have proven vital during this tough economic year in nurturing and supporting our creative culture.

Yammer, a microblogging tool, is an excellent example of this.

The IT team has also played an integral role in the adoption of social media. Working extremely closely with the core business, the team has ensured that the required platforms are in place to support the group-wide implementation of these new technologies.

In particular, they have been instrumental in ensuring that we have the right level of security in place to support this.

Collaboration tools have been high on their agenda this year and the in-house development of information-sharing services in HR and Finance have proven extremely successful.

The next stage in the coming year is to develop further sites for internal corporate social networking, global document storage and improved wiki sites across the group.

IT will continue to support both the process and implementation of social media technologies across the group throughout FY10. Specifically, ensuring the best IT architecture is in place to underpin and support them in a safe and secure environment.

SOCIAL MEDIA 360 | DECEMBER 2009 | 33

revolutionary growth 34 Great Queen Street, London Where LEWIS started in 1995

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The ordinary and the extraordinary There’s no doubt these are extraordinary times in the world of finance. All the more surprising then that the group has continued to deliver growth of 11%.

T

his masks a period of disciplined cost control and continued reinvestment. It’s the latter that has been the key to success.

The group has reaped the benefits of a sustained investment in the global infrastructure. Despite the recession, revenues increased by 11%, spearheaded by strong performances in Europe and Asia Pacific.

Equally the group has continued to invest for tomorrow. New markets in Eastern Europe,

Portugal and Japan have seen significant programs, which are already beginning to pay back.

United, one of Europe’s leading communications agencies headquartered in Belgium.

This year has seen economic conditions as historic as the revolution going on in the communications sector. It has been a year underlined and overshadowed by crisis, which has changed the financial industry forever.

Next year will be characterized by further investment across our international infrastructure and an exciting new phase as the investment in social media gains momentum. This will herald a movement into other vertical sectors with innovative new products and services.

Despite the macro-economic pressure, our hard work and long-term reinvestment of profits to grow the agency has paid off.

I’m pleased to be able to characterize this as the routine delivery of the extraordinary.

In October, the group made its largest acquisition ever - Leads

James Oehlcke Group Finance Director

global offices 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

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revenues 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 millions GBP

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global offices millbank tower, london lewis headquarters

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SOCIAL MEDIA 360 | DECEMBER 2009 | 37

revolutionary thinkers Social media is the biggest thing to happen in digital since search engine marketing. We just haven’t found a Google yet.

Neil Morgan, VP Marketing & Channels EMEA, Omniture

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Through social media companies are confronted with the biggest change in the history of corporate communications. Speaking becomes listening, facelessness becomes authenticity and control becomes trust.

Dr. Frank SchĂśnefeld, CTO, T-Systems Multimedia Solutions GmbH

Technology is exponentially changing the manner in which we communicate. It has now become instantaneous.

Stephen Midgley, VP, Global Marketing, Absolute Software

Digital media is taking business and personal conversations among a few and sharing it with a billion or so of your closest friends, customers, competitors and enemies.

Corey Olfert, Senior Director, Global Communications, Avanade, Inc.

In order for NorthgateArinso to be the true leader in HR Service Delivery, we need to identify, learn from and engage in conversations that are happening on an ever-increasing number of channels. Be it in the media, on the web, on Twitter, or at our customer’s coffee machine.

Social media is simply creating more chances to listen, learn and engage.

Michael Custers, VP Global Marketing, NorthgateArinso

People will soon be making, and sharing, music and movies with the same creativity and facility we associate with writing today. That is the revolution.

JP Rangaswami, Managing Director, BT Design

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