In this presentation, Bob Pickard, President and CEO of Burson-Marsteller in Asia-Pacific, discusses the crafting and co-creation of persuasive narratives, digital storytelling through the newsfeed with stakeholders, producing and packaging content for the new public mind, and how the art of PR is becoming more of a science.

1. Image & Reputation in the Age of Digital Communication Bob Pickard presentation to AmCham Singapore

2. Sweet Smell of Success (1957) A publicist pitching a journalist

4. There was attention span & focused thinking

5. Analogue methods

6. Primitive technology

7. Deliberate and slow

8. Text was King

9. Ample time for stories

11. Sigmund Freud had an American nephew

12. Bernays has been called the ‘Father of Modern PR’

13. Public relations has ‘scientific’ roots Bernays defined a PR professional as a “practicing social scientist” whose “competence is like that of the industrial engineer, the management engineer, or the investment counselor in their respective fields.” He said that to assist clients, public relations counselors use and apply their understanding of behavioral sciences such as anthropology, history, social psychology, and sociology.

16. E-relationships

17. Digital methods

18. No attention span; distraction is a constant

19. People continuously online

20. Technology massively propagates pictures, videos and ephemera

21. ‘Content’ is King

22. Scant time for stories

25. ...what we want them to do or think

26. know of the company

27. feel favourable towards its brand

28. recommend its products to others

29. invest in the stock

30. make positive comments online

32. Stories tap into the unconscious mind It is unconscious thoughts, feelings, and desires that drive purchasing decisions we make each and every day of our lives People tend to remember products when they are woven into the narrative of media content They tend not to remember brands that don’t play an integral role in the story because people can see them as being ‘just ads’

33. We’re wired for stories “Stories have such a powerful and universal appeal that the neurological roots of both telling tales and enjoying them are probably tied to crucial parts of our social cognition.” Scientific American Mind (August/September 2008) Source: Hoffman

34. So we should communicate in story terms Source: Hoffman

36. Because people can readily identify ads when they see them – and we tend to think that ads are supposed to be present during times and places we expect them to be – they attach less credibility to their claims.

38. News product has been produced by standards-based journalism that is supposed to be:

39. motivated by the pursuit of truth

40. resourceful in the use of research

41. informed by facts

42. governed by standards and edited with balance

44. As a result of lower quality, people trust media stories less than they did before:

45. there are fewer good reporters around, and not as many exacting editors

46. battles about editorial ethics versus just going with what a company hands you for content are less frequent

47. money is the only thing that seems to matter

49. Therefore, there are fewer eyeballs reading a shrinking number of trusted news media stories.

51. ...then what do PR people do if there are fewer trusted news sources producing a reduced number of stories that will be credible enough to have commercial impact even if we ‘earn’ coverage successfully?

53. Trust for those with no conflict of interest

54. Persuasion 1.0 Going back to Dale Carnegie in 1936, we know that making people feel important is the precursor to persuasion Once PR-driven interactions make people feel important (‘someone is listening to me’), then stories are sold as conversations Much of this is designed with the objective of getting people to commit themselves in writing to a brand online (i.e. publicly, in front of others) “Make the other person feel important and do it sincerely.”

55. Persuasion 2.0 According to Robert Cialdini’s research, we know that when people commit themselves in public to something, they have created a new ‘image template’ of themselves e.g. ‘as the kind of cutting-edge person who uses this cool product’ – which they will advocate to others within their personal networks of trust – Trojan Horse-like – as a credible peer People will do and say whatever is necessary to conform with their new public image (including aping a brand’s PR-devised story), and to evidence complete consistency with what they’ve said in ‘conversations’ online This is what Cialdini calls “the principle of consistency”

58. Where the two meet allows persuasion marketers to tap into the massive PR power of metaphor.

59. Conversation communication enables the easy application of metaphors used in everyday language for the development of marketing narrative – e.g. ‘word pictures’ – to convince consumers about a product brand with story ‘frames’ that already exist in their unconscious minds.

61. Metaphor elicitation Research is key, asking people before starting a PR campaign things like: When you think about [company], what is the first thing that comes to mind? What do you feel when you see this [product] image? Can you share some of your past experience in dealing with [area where product offers some benefit]?

63. The ‘natural language’ words people are using to search can be discovered, the results of which can be used to tailor a narrative’s messaging elements.

64. Keywords can be crafted as metaphors, which can be integrated into media relations messaging, news releases, speech content, ‘elevator pitch,’ etc.

66. Listen & learn

67. Go peer-to-peer ONE-WAY MONOLOGUE ACTIVE “They must listen and I will be heard” C O N T R O L C O N V E R S A T I O N TWO-WAY DIALOGUE PRO-SUMERS “They can’t hear me and I feel insignificant” PASSIVE CON-SUMERS

68. Focus on the 1%

69. Use digital storytelling

70. Every company a media company? IF a declining media business can no longer generate an ample supply of compelling story content... IF, owing to its resource constraints, media is becoming an automated and uncritical B2C conveyor of pre-packaged marketing information passed to them by PR people... THEN why can’t corporations fill the void themselves and communicate stories directly to the public.?

71. Joining the conversation

72. Creating repurposable content Microsites Streams Blogs http://media.opel.com

73. Everything that famously goes wrong is now called a ‘PR disaster’ the BP oil spill the Toyota recall the Tiger Woods spectacle

75. Advertising claims

76. Greenwashing

77. Marketing conduct

79. Speed

80. PRotecting reputation #1 – Corporate rhetoric must meet reality #2 – Expect the unexpected #3 – Prepare assiduously and rehearse disaster #4 – Move fast – first mover advantage #5 – Be responsive and look to listen #6 – Admit mistakes and accept responsibility #7 – Don’t get into fights where critics tend to win #8 – Don’t be heavy-handed or arrogant

81. Be prepared to apologize – sincerely!

82. Thank you! Bob Pickard President & CEO | Asia-Pacific +65 8126-2767 bob.pickard@bm.com www.bobpickard.com Talk to B-M online: www.burson-marsteller.asia