Best of the Month: When PR gurus go rogue (from the archive)

Some months, finding inspiration and writing BOTM is a bit of a struggle. September is one of those. Not that it’s been a quiet news cycle or anything.  

I mean in the last few weeks we’ve seen a global changing of the creative guard at BBH, former TBWA exec Stuart Mills being sentenced to a week in prison for punching a security guard in Singapore and Havas changing its reporting lines so that the Europe and United States HQs have a stronger grip on the Asia-Pacific offices (sorry, but nobody is buying the agency PR line that this was not about the E-Pay racism omnishambles in Singapore). On top of all that, we saw former Dentsu China CEO Susana Tsui taking the reins at Tickled Media – having become disillusioned with agency life.

Not to mention TBWA finally wrestling Ikea’s South East Asia account away from BBH, Singapore Airlines going all Seattle on us, MullenLowe rebooting, Alibaba finding its social conscience and Singapore-based influencer agency Gushcloud raising a staggering US $11 million in funding.

And then in terms of long-form content, there was Bob Hoffman’s important opinion piece titled The ad industry ‘conspiracy of silence’ on digital media: Agencies either ‘stupid’ or ‘keeping their mouths shut’ and a candid article on the doom and gloom permeating the Spikes Asia festival. As well as that, there were some great deep-dive articles from our Mumbrella Asia editor Ravi Balakrishnan on Interpublic Group CEO Michael Roth’s view on 'clients', the reticence of PR firms to promote Brand Hong Kong during such troubled times and Procter & Gamble Asia-Pacific chief marketing officer Kainaz Gazder tackling stereotypes.

No, my personal lack of bounce is more down to the fact that I am neck-deep in organising our flagship Mumbrella360 Asia conference (you can read about my lack of sleep during the process here). And, at the same, it being one of the most frustrating months ever in terms of relations with public relations gurus gone rogue.

How many times do you think Ravi and I get phone calls from PRs each month asking us to take down a story because someone said something in a public forum, or interview, that they want to take back afterwards – or because information was released before being signed off by all the stakeholders? In a normal four-week period, the number is actually very low. In fact, it’s pretty rare to be honest and the majority of PR people are great assets to their organisations. This month, however, I’ve lost count of the number of times it happened.

Not only that, some of the requests started to veer into otherworldly absurdity – to the point where I was just embarrassed for the person on the other end of the request. A small number of PR execs will demand a story is taking down or else. Some will helpfully offer you an alternative headline "you should really use instead" (and here’s the rub, it normally aligns with the one on the press release they sent). Or they will ask for a quote to retrospectively be replaced with another quote of their making (usually hashed up by a committee and consisting of words no human would ever utter). 

Others will hit you with the ‘sensationalist reporting’ stick when you don’t comply with said demands. By sensationalist reporting, what they really mean is journalism (rather than propaganda), but hey-ho.

In one surreal instance, I’ve even experienced the regional marcomms director of a global ad agency network tell me that they “don’t like to see punctuation in headlines because it suggests something negative”. The offending incident related to speech marks being used in a headline in relation to a quote that led the press release said marcoms guru had sent out. I kid you not. So much for respecting the freedom of the press. 

I really thought I had seen the worst of the dark arts and unchecked egos during the period in my career when I was a political journalist for a number of years. Strangely enough, I got that wrong. Some say that George Orwell once said: “Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed; everything else is public relations.” Whether he said it or not, the words still ring true.

Thankfully though, the large majority of PR execs are professional, eager to help with access and information (here’s a tip that is in your interest, tell a journalist either on or off the record as much as you realistically can and the end result will be reporting that is more balanced and better informed) – and understanding of the fact that Mumbrella has a job to do as a critical friend to the industry. 

By the way, on that note, what a great result for S4 Capital to get Deepa Balji onboard as its APAC marketing and communications director. As a former journalist (erstwhile hacks always make for the best PRs), she is a great example of someone who respects the fundamentals of journalism. There are many more like Deepa, but there are also a select few who could learn a thing or two from her. As soon as I heard Deepa was leaving Publicis, I told Ravi I thought she would end up at Martin Sorrell’s new vehicle. Good luck to them both, we wish them well.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. Sometimes, of course, a news story might by default be of a negative nature – say if a business closes or someone loses their job, or worse (see Stuart Mills here). But we at least try to balance this out by shining the light on best practice too, through our events and through our long-form editorial. For me, I love nothing more than to see a great feature on the website from our Industry heroes, How I got here, Favourite ad of all time, My media habits or 24 hours with… series. They often show the industry at its best, producing real gems of insight.

 Gosh. I realise that all of this is probably getting a bit too ‘Inside Baseball’ for some of you out there. So let’s move on. Something else – beyond 360 and those unreasonable PRs who are in the minority – has been on my mind this month. That is the buzz phrase of the year, otherwise known as ‘customer experience’. 

I must hear the words come out of the mouths of at least three different people every day. I myself probably use it just as many times daily in my conversations with industry folk. And I always wonder, if we all are only just starting to focus on the customer journey now – then what on earth were we doing with our time before?

It seems almost like the marketing world has suddenly woken up to the fact that it can no longer be an ‘industry of fireworks’ – Dave Droga’s words, not mine – alone. Now, due to online peer reviews, every single touchpoint must be considered a marketing exercise. From the consumer experience relating to delivery times and supply chains all the way through to customer-facing interactions with chatbots and the quality of product aftercare. 

Actually, this month, on my reading list was a great book by David Butler (Coca-Cola vice-president of innovation and entrepreneurship) and Linda Tischler (the former, and now sadly departed, Fast Company magazine editor). It is titled ‘Design to Grow: How Coca-Cola Learned to Combine Scale & Agility’. Although the word ‘design’ is the shorthand used, it’s actually a fascinating account of how Coke retooled the customer experience on an epic scale. Definitely a recommended read for our times and a great example of how marketing is no longer just marketing.

No wonder the job title CMO is losing its relevance. What will replace it – some are betting on chief growth officer – is not yet clear, although the discussion is now more than a cerebral debate.

Speaking of cerebral debates, thank you to the 300 plus people who came along to our Finance Marketing Summit in Singapore recently. Great speakers, great topics, great audience, great discussions and great sponsors. The positive feedback afterwards was overwhelming and much appreciated. No wonder it was standing room only for much of the day.

If you missed it, check out some of Ravi’s reporting from the event below:

• ‘We are very lucky to have a CFO who believes in brand building’ – Visa’s Vivian Pan
• Lessons from the ‘catastrophically bad’ Singapore Ministry of Finance influencer campaign
• ‘We have traditionally made our product too complicated’ – Prudential’s Harish Agarwal

And before I go, a couple of housekeeping bits from me. First, I want to wish those who are shortlisted in the Mumbrella Asia Awards good luck for when they go before the jurors to present, and take questions, at the ‘live judging’ at Maxwell Chambers here in Singapore on October 8 and 9. A number of those shortlisted have told me they are nervous. Don't be. It will be a fun coming together of the whole media and marketing community. Believe it or not, the judges even smile on occasion (it's not a pitch-type atmosphere) so there is absolutely no need to be scared. See you there.

Finally, I just wanted to let everyone know that we have introduced some new ticket classifications for Mumbrella360 Asia. Industry professionals aged under 30 and students will be able to buy concession tickets. In addition, those not able to attend for the full three days can buy a single-day ticket here. Alternatively, the normal ticket price is $999 for the full three-day pass (this is also transferable so you can share it with colleagues, if you can’t make it to the event every day).

As I said when we launched the new tickets, we always get the C-suite attending our events and that’s what we want. However, we thought it was about time we made our conferences more accessible for the younger people in the industry and the students who might be looking to join the industry soon. And we wanted to make it easier for those who just want to come along for one specific day, rather than all three.

With the 150 speakers across 75 sessions, great thought leadership and networking plus local, regional and global leaders – it would be a shame for the next generation to be outside the tent. These new ticket types should bring the event in reach for tomorrow’s industry leaders. And with that said, here’s just a taste of those who will be speaking at 360:

• Nikki Mendon?a, global president, Accenture Interactive Operations
• Laurent Ezekiel, global chief marketing and growth officer, WPP
• Nicole McMillan, AMEA vice-president of marketing, Mars Wrigley
• Megan Yulga, regional senior campaign manager, Circles.Life
• Michelle Yip, Singapore chief marketing officer, Lazada
• Mark Britt, co-founder and CEO, iflix
• Deidre Smalls-Landau, United States chief marketing officer and global head of culture, UM Worldwide
• Lynette Ang, chief marketing officer, Sentosa Development Corporation
• Jyoti Jain, Asia-Pacific head of consumer and business intelligence – health, Johnson & Johnson
• Chris Riley, Singapore CEO, Ogilvy
• Joon-Nie Lau, Asia director, World Association of News Publishers
• Tarun Deo, managing director for Singapore and South East Asia, Golin
• Chatri Sityodtong, the founder and CEO of One Championship
• Dominique Touchaud, Asia integrated communications leader, Procter & Gamble
• Pat Law, founder and CEO, Goodstuph
• Nandu Madhava, South East Asia general manager, Twitch
• Avery Akkineni, Singapore vice-president, VaynerMedia
• David Dahan, CEO, WPP@Unilever
• Helen Duffy, Asia managing partner, Grace Blue
• Hosi Simon, executive managing director and head of international, Vice Media 
• Barbara Guerpillon, Director, Unilever Foundry Asia
• Leigh Terry, Asia-Pacific CEO, IPG Mediabrands
• David Angell, APAC chief commercial officer, Havas Group
• Siew Ting Foo, APAC and Japan regional chief marketing officer, Hewlett-Packard
• Chris Stephenson, Asia-Pacific head of strategy and planning, PHD
• Kamil Yadallee, South East Asia marketing manager, Netflix
• David Tse, global eSports director, Razer
• Andrew Au, executive director, Eight Inc. 
• Ashutosh Srivastava, chairman and CEO of AMEA and Russia/CIS, Mindshare
• Norio Ichikawa, creative director of the X Design Centre, TikTok
• Erica Kerner, senior adviser, One Championship (and Marketing Society Asia chairwoman)
• Georgina Zhou, APAC head of marketing, Herman Miller
• Clare Woodford, APAC director of consumer and digital communications, Hilton
• Susana Tsui, CEO, Tickled Media
• Kristy Castleton, founder and chief memory maker, Rebel & Soul
• Nicola Eliot, APAC director, BBC StoryWorks
• Wendy Walker, APAC marketing director, Salesforce
• Scott Munday, director of media sales for South East Asia and Pacific, The Economist
• Robert Simons, head of channel partner and developer marketing – international markets, PayPal
• Piotr Jakibowski, brand and marketing consultant (and former Gojek chief marketing officer)
• Michael Toedman, APAC regional CEO of the media division, Kantar
• Jacqui Lim, Singapore CEO, Havas Media
• Jacob Wright, chief strategy officer, BBH Singapore
• Tony Harradine, APAC CEO, Omnicom Media Group
• Ian Loon, Singapore managing director, Starcom
• Elsie Cheung, chief operating officer, South China Morning Post
• Shahid Nizami, APAC Managing Director, HubSpot
• Hari Shankar, CEO, Singapore Media Exchange
• Vivek Misra, director of strategic initiatives, AnyMind Group
• Felicia Li-Gaillard, APAC marketing director, Integral Ad Science 
• Gavin Buxton, Asia managing director, SpotX
• Ryan Pestano, APAC general manager, Iponweb
• Jo?o Flores, head of creative, Dentsu X Singapore
• Justin Peyton, APAC chief strategy and transformation officer, Wunderman Thompson
• Rohit Dadwal, APAC managing director, Mobile Marketing Association
• Emma Scales, APAC managing director, Publicis Sapient 
• Kate Ferguson, Australia chief client and operations officer, Edelman
• Kiri Sinclair, founder and CEO, SInclair
• Michelle Eve A. De Guzman, marketing campaigns and content manager, Cebu Pacific Air

Now if that array of industry leaders doesn’t whet your appetite, then I don’t know what will. And do check out the entire programme here.

I hope to see you there. That will make the lack of sleep worthwhile. For while I have to admit that, yes, 360 is a business – it’s also a community and one we hope will be as inclusive as possible. 

Catch you at Marina Bay Sands (the 360 venue) in November (5-7). It is going to be quite something. Be sure to get there or you might spend the rest of the year regretting what you missed out on. There will even be some sessions on effective public relations – for those of you looking to upskill in that particular department. Hint. Hint.

So thanks for reading such a long piece on a Sunday morning. As ever, please do send me your feeedback on 360, BOTM or anything else on your mind to [email protected]

Until next time.

Dean Carroll

Mumbrella – Asia general manager