26TH MAY 2011

AS FINANCIAL, BUSINESS, CONSUMER AND DIGITAL MARKETS STRUGGLE TO COME TO TERMS WITH THE RAPIDLY CHANGING BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT LEADING THINKERS INCLUDING PAUL HOLMES FROM THE HOLMES REPORT / TOM GLOVER FROM THE FT.COM / IAN MACDONALD FROM AUTO TRADER / DAVID MACDONALD FROM L’OREAL / MELISSA DAVIS FROM TRUE BRANDING AND CHARLES DAVIS FROM THE CEBR SHARE THEIR EXPERIENCES ON INNOVATION AND ITS ROLE IN THE COMMUNICATIONS LANDSCAPE.

WWW.HOTWIREPR.COM WWW.SKYWRITEPR.COM WWW.33-DIGITAL.COM

INNOVATION IN COMMUNICATIONS CONFERENCEEVENTS SCHEDULE AND TRENDS PAPER

THURSDAY 26TH MAY 13:00 - 13:30REGISTRATION AND REFRESHMENTS

OPENING ADDRESS 13:30 - 13:40OPENINGBRENDON CRAIGIE,HOTWIRE, SKYWRITE AND 33 DIGITAL

SESSION ONE 13:40 - 14:10WHO’S IN CHARGE?PAUL HOLMES, HOLMES REPORTTOM GLOVER, FT NOT MANY COMMS DIRECTORS ARE ON COMPANY BOARDS. WE LOOK AT THE AUTHORITY AND RESPONSIBILITY AFFORDED PR, ADVERTISING, MARKETING AND DIGITAL MEDIA SPECIALISATIONS. WHAT ARE THE KEY TRENDS? WHAT DO THE MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES DO?

SESSION TWO 14:10 -14:40REPUTATION IN A NANOSECONDDAVID MACDONALD, L’OREAL

WE WILL DISCUSS HOW OR IF YOU ‘DO’ LOCAL TO COMPLEMENT GLOBAL. CAN YOU DO IT, DO YOU NEED TO TODAY? CAN YOU CONTROL INFORMATION WHEN IT IS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD IN A NANOSECOND?

BREAK 14:40 -15:00BREAKHOTWIRE, SKYWRITE AND 33 DIGITAL

SESSION THREE 15:00 - 15:20BUSINESS TO PEOPLEIAN MACDONALD, AUTOTRADER

ARE B2B AND B2C DEAD? WITH THE INFORMATION GLUT AND THE COMMS TOOLS THAT ARE AVAILABLE TO ALL IS IT NOW ALL ABOUT BUSINESS 2 PEOPLE?

SESSION FOUR 15:20 - 15:40THE NEW CSRMELISSA DAVIS, TRUE BRANDING WE LOOK AT THE BLEEDING EDGE OF CSR. WE ALSO EXAMINE SOME UNCOMFORTABLE TRUTHS SUCH AS DO WE ALL FEEL COMFORTABLE PORTRAYING OUR EMPLOYERS AS SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE?

SESSION FIVE 15:40 - 16:00AUSTERITY AND THE CONSUMERCHARLES DAVIS, CEBR ACROSS THE GLOBE, CONSUMERS HAVE BEEN FORCED TO TIGHTEN THEIR PURSE STRINGS AS DISPOSABLE INCOME HAS SHRUNK. HOW HAVE PR AND COMMUNICATIONS TEAMS HAD TO CHANGE THEIR APPROACHES AND CAMPAIGNS IN THE FACE OF THIS AUSTERITY?

RECEPTION 16:00 - 17:00 DRINKS AND CANAPES

2011 EVENT AGENDA

WHO’S IN CHARGE?

ON RESPONSIBILITY AFFORDED PR

PAUL HOLMES & TOM GLOVER

About Paul HolmesPaul Holmes founded The Holmes Group in 2000 and is Editor-in-Chief and CEO. Paul has more than two decades of experience writing about and evaluating the public relations industry and consulting with both public relations firms and their clients.

The Holmes Group delivers against its mission by providing the most sophisticated reporting and analysis on public relations trends and issues.

THE HOLMES REPORT

About Tom GloverTom has over ten years experience in the PR industry and is currently deputy director of global communications at the FT. He is also head of digital communications, reflecting the FT’s recognition of the importance of leveraging social networks and digital communities to drive its audience, brand and engagement. Prior to his current role, Tom spent a year as the acting global director of communications at the FT (maternity cover), worked at Orange for four years and started his career at Weber Shandwick where he worked for a range of international technology brands including Microsoft, Monster, Computer Associates and Adobe.

WWW.HOLMESREPORT.COM

FINANCIAL TIMES

WWW.FT.COM

Key findings

With only a small number of comms directors on company boards there has long been discussion among organisations and PR professionals alike as to where PR and its broad strategic capabilities fit into the management scope.

41% v 59% Hotwire’s recent international study of senior communica-tions professionals was conducted in conjunction with the Holmes Report and interestingly found that among respondents only 41% stated that PR sat on the senior management board compared to 59% who did not.

Furthermore when assessing how much influence marketing, communications, PR and Ops/HR had on corporate reputation it was found that on average communications teams had the most influence, closely followed by the PR team. Marketing was also perceived to have a good deal of influence with Ops/HR teams also having some input. Interestingly, when looking at how these respective departments influenced brand and product marketing, com-munications was again found to have significant input but the marketing team held the most influence which indicates an exact responsibility swap across the two areas.

While from the above PR appears to still be struggling to get on the corporate agenda in its entirety according to the research findings it has firmly taken responsibility for social media management. 46% of respondents indicated that responsibility fell with the PR department compared to 35% who stated it was managed by marketing and 8% by customer relations.

Whether brought about by the increase in social media or a rise in reputation and brand management a significant proportion (22% of respondents) con-firmed that their communications budgets had been raised between 10% and 20% over the past year, 17% stated that their budgets had been raised but by less than 10% and 8% had their budgets raised by 20% or above.

COMPANY BOARDS

BUDGET

SOCIAL MEDIA

REPUTATION IN A NANOSECONDON COMBINING GLOBAL AND LOCAL

DAVID MACDONALD & DREW BENVIE

About David MacDonaldDavid Macdonald manages the UK and Ireland corporate communications operations for the L’Oréal group. He and his team build and protect L’Oréal’s corporate reputation with the media and a range of stakeholders. He also manages the company’s CSR and internal communications programmes.

He joined L’Oréal from Orange in 2008 where he was a company spokesperson and man-aged brand and corporate media relations.

L’OREAL

About Drew BenvieDrew Benvie is managing director of our digital division, 33 Digital. Drew is responsible for driving our expertise in social media and digital PR programmes across international clients.

Prior to joining Hotwire in 2007, Drew was an associate director at Lewis PR. Other client experience includes Lexmark, the Conservative Party and Pret a Manger.

Drew is a high profile expert on social media and a frequent speaker and blogger.

WWW.LOREAL.CO.UK

33 DIGITAL

WWW.33-DIGITAL.COM

Key findings

There is an industry wide acknowledgement amongst PR professionals that 21st century campaigns must be global. Technology and the rapid growth of social media has enabled companies to target, connect with and respond to global audiences with the click of a button. But are companies willing to adopt a global approach? Is there a risk that adopting a global approach will jeopardise the effectiveness of the local elements of campaigns?

Though the scope of activities that can be included in communications campaigns has changed exponentially with the growth of digital expertise, over 30% of respondents have not seen an increase in their overall communications budgets. This indicates that existing budgets are being allocated in a greater number of areas providing more scope for larger and further reaching campaigns.

A breakdown of how communications budgets are divided showed digital and social media advertising and experiential marketing to be increasingly important elements within global campaigns.

But is the widening scope of campaigns causing local activity to fall by the wayside? Over half of the respondents to our survey have seen no change in the balance between central and local control of communications, with only 17% seeing an increase in local activity. With almost a quarter of respondents noting an increase in centralised activity it seems that some organisations are at risk of underestimating the importance of understanding local culture.

BUSINESS TO PEOPLE

ON THE BLURRING OF B2B AND B2C

IAN MACDONALD & DREW BENVIE

About Ian MacDonaldIan is E-marketing manager for Trader Media Group (TMG), home of popular online intermediary websites such as Auto Trader and Bike Trader. Before joining Auto Trader Ian has worked for brands including Direct Line and Prudential.

AUTOTRADER

About Drew BenvieDrew Benvie is managing director of our digital division, 33 Digital. Drew is responsible for driving our expertise in social media and digital PR programmes across international clients.

Prior to joining Hotwire in 2007, Drew was an associate director at Lewis PR. Other client experience includes Lexmark, the Conservative Party and Pret a Manger.

Drew is a high profile expert on social media and a frequent speaker and blogger.

WWW.AUTOTRADER.CO.UK

33 DIGITAL

WWW.33-DIGITAL.COM

Key findings

The concept of business to people is one that was predicted at the end of 2010 by Global CMO of software giant SAP, Marty Homlish; who commented on the importance of recognising that behind every business, “B” there is in fact a person expecting a consumer-like experience and therefore there is extreme importance in engaging with customers and clients.

Hotwire’s study revealed that businesses are becoming increasingly accessible to both internal and external stakeholders.

2/3 of the respondents surveyed, over a third (69%) were in strong agreement that transparency between corporations, employees and customers is greater today than ever before reflecting the fact that an organisation’s stakeholder network is privy to more insight into the workings of a company than ever before.

This trend runs hand in hand with an increase in accessibility, with 70% of respondents being strong advocates that the growing tendency to utilise social media had impacted on the transparency of businesses. This indicates that the use of social media has allowed organisations to have more contact with audiences they may not have directly approached previously, highlighting a gradual move away from the institutions of B2B and B2C to a more people oriented approach.

INCREASING VISIBILITY

INCREASING ACCESSIBILITY

THE NEW CSR

ON INCREASING ACCOUNTABILITY

MELISSA DAVIS & GILES PEDDY

About Melissa DavisMelissa is a brand and sustainability specialist, working with companies to help them align sustainability with their brand and communication goals. Melissa set up True Branding six years ago and working with clients that include KPMG sustainability, TNT, Virgin, The Crown Estate, Cariliion and The Body Shop.

TRUE BRANDING

About Giles PeddyGiles Peddy is (interim) managing director of Hotwire’s technology practice. Giles is responsible for developing strategic campaigns and enhancing brands for a wide range of B2B technology clients internationally. He works with Hotwire’s IT&S clients on PR programmes that position them as global IT leaders. Prior to joining Hotwire, Giles managed technology campaigns for Oracle, EMC and Samsung. In 2007, Giles won the Sabre Awards Pan-European Campaign of the Year.

WWW.TRUEBRANDING.CO.UK

HOTWIRE

WWW.HOTWIREPR.COM

Key findings

The concept of being kind is universal; CSR is becoming an increasingly important consideration in business strategy and budgeting with 83% of our survey participants strongly agreeing that it is more important than ever for organisations to behave in a socially responsible manner.

The concepts of corporate social responsibility and reputation are intrinsically linked and becoming more so with the technology and social media tools available today. But is increasing accountability and transparency affecting the willingness of PR professionals to promote their employers as socially responsible?

Over half of communications professionals that took part in our research agree that the CSR activities undertaken by their employers are well aligned with the company’s mission statement and values. Furthermore, over 50% of those professionals feel comfortable promoting their company’s CSR work regardless of the platform being used.

However, 18% of respondents stated that they do not feel comfortable promoting their organisation’s CSR work on any platform, and a further almost 10% feel even less so with the introduction of social media platforms.

This highlights the fact that there is still some concern regarding the portrayal of an organisation as socially responsible, and furthermore suggests that the decision as to whether or not to portray a company as socially responsible remains a highly personal one, not dictated by who signs our pay cheques.

SOME SAY NO

BUT SOME DEFINITELY SAY YES

AUSTERITY AND THE CONSUMERON CHANGING YOUR STRATEGY TO MATCH

CHARLES DAVIS AND LAURA MACDONALD

About Charles DavisCharles Davis is a managing economist at Cebr. Charles manages the prospects service; Cebr’s macroeconomic advisory package for business and is an economic advisor. He has considerable experience in bespoke consultancy project design, management and delivery as well as client presentations.

CEBR

About Laura MacDonaldLaura is responsible for the planning and execution of campaigns for clients and works with her team to ensure strong press coverage across the board.

Laura specialises in creating consumer campaigns for blue-chip brands such as Braun, Boots, Samsung and the Royal Bank of Scotland.

WWW.CEBR.COM

SKYWRITE

WWW.SKYWRITEPR.COM

Key findings Research from the Centre for Economics and Business Research shows that the cost of living has surged in 2011, with increased transport, heating and food and beverage costs putting the most pressure on spending power. Across the globe, consumers have been tightening their purse strings to cope with climbing interest rates and rising VAT and in many cases communications budgets have also been affected, with 32% of our respondents not seeing their budgets increase in 2011, and 18% actually seeing them decrease.

Have PR and communications teams had to change their approaches and campaigns in the face of this austerity? Our research has shown that almost a quarter of survey respondents have seen significant alterations to their campaigns following the recession. The money conscious approach that both consumers and businesses have adopted appears to have significantly impacted on comms teams; in the face of static or reduced budgets and lower disposable income campaigns have had to become more innovative in order to make them work harder and penetrate into a less receptive and more careful market.

DOES IT IMPACT?

SOHO HOTEL

INNOVATION IN COMMUNICATIONS

CONFERENCE

26TH MAY 2011

NOTES

About HotwireOver the last ten years, Hotwire has become one of the world’s leading PR agencies due to a number of clear differentiators. One differentiator is industry insight; through a practice based structure specific teams address selected industries and verticals. And, only by being as transparent and measureable as possible can Hotwire give clients the value and clarity they need to manage their PR and reputation. This has led to an approach where Hotwire looks at output/ROI, outcome and business outcome for every programme we run.

Hotwire’s international footprint is also of significance. Hotwire has offices in the major European markets and sister agencies and affiliates throughout the world. Last but not least is creativity. Creativity runs through all programmes and Hotwire’s approach to ‘practical creativity’ has led to a number of award wins.

Brendon Craigie: brendon.craigie@hotwirepr.com+44 (0) 207 608 4624

About SkywriteSkywrite provides brands with straight talking PR. We pack the creative punch to get the results you need to make a difference. Specialising in grabbing media attention for our clients, we engage with mainstream, as well as hard to reach, audiences.

Our mission is to make the brands we work with famous - we know who to talk to and how to reach them. With Skywrite, you get an honest, no-nonsense approach – combining this with our creativity, passion and enthusiasm, we ensure our work delivers real consumer impact as well as value for money.

Our campaigns are bold, yet clever and we’re totally driven by results – so much so that we’re not afraid to put our money where our mouth is.Since launching, we were a finalist for PRWeek’s New Consultancy of the Year 2008 and have been named PRWeek’s One to Watch 2009.

Laura MacDonald:laura.macdonald@skywritepr.com+44 (0) 207 608 4640

About 33 Digital33 Digital is an international agency spanning the PR and digital industries. The agency’s sole purpose is to help brands communicate effectively to digital communities.

Set up to offer specialist digital and social media PR and marketing services, 33 Digital goes a step beyond online media relations. The team is experienced in community building, web development and SEO while retaining a strong understanding of PR and comms strategy development and the kind of messaging that builds editorial media headlines. All this with an international outlook, equipped to cope with campaigns of different levels of complexity across geographies.

All of 33 Digital’s team are experienced communications professionals, as deeply entrenched in digital media as the audiences they reach out to. 33 Digital’s expertise comes from a heritage as PR and marketing consultants, with experience working on campaigns in consumer, b2b and technical industries. It means the team sees the opportunity and navigates the pitfalls while others are still learning the way.

Drew Benvie:drew.benvie@33-digital.com +44 (0) 207 608 4626

HOTWIRE

WWW.HOTWIREPR.COM

SKYWRITE

WWW.SKYWRITEPR.COM

33 DIGITAL

WWW.33-DIGITAL.COM