CEC Insider

I am embarrassed to say that I watched “Out of Africa” for the first time just a few days ago. There’s no doubt I have a soft spot in my heart for Africa—I’ve spent close to a combined three months in Uganda and Kenya, I was in South Africa  for the World Cup two weeks ago (it’s Ayoba time!), and I’ve even visited the Nairobi farm of Karen Blixen, the author of “Out of Africa.” But I’d never gotten around to actually watch Meryl Streep fall in love with Robert Redford in the film.

When I finally curled up on the couch to watch it in my London flat last Monday, I was swept away by the beautiful scenery and passionate romance. But I was also encapsulated by another aspect of the movie—the importance of storytelling.

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Did you know that Celine Dion is the youngest of 14 children?
Did you know that Justin Bieber likes white toast more than wheat?
Did you know your stakeholders don’t care about the same things you do?

If the CEC had a MTV Diary episode (motto: “You think you know…but you have no idea”), you’d probably be surprised by the look inside our yearly quantitative findings.

As most of you are aware of by now (being loyal readers of the CEC Insider), we’re in the middle of our biggest research initiative of the year, taking a look at how some the smartest communicators are Influencing Stakeholders in a Networked Environment.  Alongside our 100s of conversations with CEC members, industry experts, academics, journalists, and vendors, we’re also analyzing hard data about what drives stakeholder support of companies.

First, it won’t come as a surprise to Comms that people are more likely to support organizations that seem to share their interests and values. And on that front, most communicators are confident that they know what their stakeholders care about—a belief that doesn’t seem all that far-fetched. (I mean, that’s our job, right?)
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A big thank you to the 100+ Heads of Communications and staff who responded to our 2010 quick-poll, sharing their current strategies for external stakeholder engagement.  Were the responses interesting? Yes.  Did they make me feel warm and fuzzy about the state of Communications? Not especially.

Let me explain why. On the one side, it’s great that communicators are focused on proactively engaging stakeholders in the current climate—not just attempting to manage negativity. It’s more of their approach that worries me.  Here are some of the poll highlights:

I’ll add some quick thoughts on a few of the data points that stood out for me:

• Communicators are on the offensive—49% of communicators say that differentiating their company is their primary objective for 2010, and 39% are focused on directly supporting sales and marketing efforts.  This strikes me as Communications taking positive steps to help their companies get ahead in the ever-aggressive battle for stakeholder support and market share.  We’ve heard a lot of our members facing real pressure to get closer to the bottom line as budget and scrutiny tightens, which seems to be playing out here. Read More »

One of the best lines I’ve heard from a CEC member lately was a quote about brand guidelines from their CEO:

“I don’t care what they call us, as long as they call us.” 

It’s not a bad sentiment from executives focused on quarterly profits, but it’s questionable for communicators trying build the long-term value of the brand.

Two issues immediately arise: 1) what’s the point of brand guidelines as long as they “call us”? and 2) if we agree that the brand guidelines have value, then what can Communications do to enforce them—particularly in relatively decentralized organizations?

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According to Time, the best single guarantee of sales success—of any sort—is to get yourself booked on the Oprah Winfrey Show. Communicators will tend to agree, as they’ve spent years building relationships with their own Oprahs: journalists, industry experts, you name it. This approach made total sense in the old world of communication.   But I’m increasingly convinced that it’s not that cut and dry in today’s communication environment. Here’s why:

We live in a highly networked information environment—audiences can now seek out multiple opinions at the touch of a button before they make their own mind up, and they’re increasingly likely to believe “someone like them.”  Both trends we’ve seen for a few years in the Edelman Trust data.

In the past, our job has been to make sure the top of the communication hierarchy gets the right information.  In a network you can’t stop there—it’s all about enabling information “flows”—and that appears to have a whole different set of rules. Read More »

I do not feel old.

I can’t predict the weather based on whether my joints hurt.  I can eat a hunk of jalapeno cornbread on my way upstairs to bed, and still fall fast asleep.  I’ve never been to The Scooter Store (although I have been to a taping of The Price Is Right—twice, actually).

But when I think about how different the communications landscape is today—compared to when I started my career—it’s scary to think of how old I really am. Read More »

It’s not often that you hear the words “banjo” and “communications” in the same sentence.  I think most CEOs would be hesitant to put the boy banjo player from Deliverance up on a podium, much less put him in charge of their reputations!  As silly as the concept sounds, in many ways we have become a fish out of water in our own field, and it turns out that a banjo-player is the exemplar for learning how to adapt.

In the recent documentary, Throw Down Your Heart, a favorite musician of mine, banjo player Béla Fleck, journeys to several countries in Africa to play the banjo with local musicians—rare collaborations that produce a whole new type of music.  In taking this journey, Béla hoped to challenge his own abilities and grow as a musician as well as dissociate the banjo from stigma and reveal its ancestry as a descendant of African instruments.  His journey as a “stranger in a strange land” parallels recent sentiments I’ve heard from communicators’ less voluntary journeys, and I think we can only hope to emulate his success in adapting to a changing environment. Read More »

By Lisa Schievelbein

I spent my winter break at a yoga retreat in Oahu, Hawaii—a mere 10-minute beach stroll to Barack Obama’s vacation getaway. (Or at least, that’s how long it took to walk to the literal line in the sand drawn by the Secret Service, clad in Hawaiian shirts.) Though I was intent on unplugging from all thoughts of Corporate Communications on this trip, Obama’s brush with crisis communication (re: the airline terror attempt on Christmas Day) did call to mind the many communication challenges that Comms and POTUS share.

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I hate TV commercials. When we first got a DVR (greatest feature = the “skip ahead 30 seconds” button), I vowed to reduce my intake of commercials by 100%. Nothing gives me more giddy joy than watching a full hour of American Idol in 42 minutes. I feel like I’m getting away with something (gotta say, I do love that feeling!).

But despite my heavy-handed imposition of a “zero tolerance policy” at home, a few TV commercials do slip in from time-to-time (mostly when another family member is commanding the remote). Good thing, actually. Cause one I have seen recently is the new Domino’s Pizza ad campaign. Have you seen it?

Essentially, their message covers five points:

• We’ve been asking you what you think of our product.
• You say it sucks (crust like cardboard, sauce like ketchup).
• And you know what? We agree.
• So, we’ve used your input to reinvent our product. Thank you.
• We hope you like the changes. Again, thank you.

What Domino’s is communicating, (in the most publicly naked way ever!) is a magical quality that virtually all of the world’s great companies share. Humility. Read More »