Posted on Seasoned Posts

Berlusconi has begun to rationalise and theorise his ‘cucku’ model of public relations

I wish to inform our global professional community that, directly from the horse’s mouth, we now also have a formal definition of Berlusconi’s public relations model: la politica del cucù (pronounced cucku)! The term comes, I presume, from a recent televised joke he exposed to German Chancellor Angela Merkel when he suddenly appeared in front of her, stepping out from hiding behind a huge statue with a great smile, his two waving hands next to...

Posted on Seasoned Posts

Four Things That Only Took Me Five Years to Learn

As most of you are aware, in barely two weeks I will retire after five great years as President and CEO of the Institute for Public Relations. In several recent speaking engagements, I have taken the opportunity to reflect on the important ideas encountered and adopted. Thus the title, “Four Things That Only Took Me Five Years to Learn.” First, there is no reason to assume public relations is inferior to marketing, advertising (or many...

Posted on Seasoned Posts

Freshly squeezed takeaways from the Edelman new media academic summit in DC…

Leaving aside a fastidious reiteration of usual buzzwords such as twitter and facebook, closely followed by obama and engagement, and the conceptual thinness of some of the cases which were presented, more focussed on numbers in relative context, rather than on the why..s of selected operational tools, this event (may I call it a space, also picking up from Richard’s presentation?) was truly an intensive, delightful, warm and fire cracking learning experience. Frankly more so...

Posted on Seasoned Posts

How the auto club can protect you on social media

If you can tell a phenomenon has gone mainstream by the fact that everyone wants to be involved, then social media has arrived. When glancing at the content of the e-newsletter of the American Automobile Association (AAA) this morning, I was surprised to see headlines asking if I have coverage for saying stupid things on Facebook and if my coverage is up to par for blogging activities. (The second link went to the wrong article...

Posted on Seasoned Posts

The ethical state, social communication and public relations…

How effective are social communication campaigns, specifically when they are enacted by public institutions and their aim is to con-vince publics to modify their day-to-day behaviours? The amount of literature is overwhelming and highly contradictory. Of course governments and other public agencies or institutions, normally advised by many of our colleagues who thrive on the trade and tickle the ego of these organization’s leaderships, tend to overlook and set aside the contradictory evidence. Yet recent...

Posted on Seasoned Posts

How frequent, honest communication translates to trust in corporations and leadership

2009 Edelman Trust Barometer Executive Summary “An adherence to transparency is at the core of each of Public Engagement’s pillars. Organizations must be forthright and honest in their actions and communications. When problems arise within companies, stakeholders need to see senior executives take a visible lead in acknowledging errors, correcting mistakes, and working with employees to avoid similar problems going forward. The essence of Public Engagement is the commitment of companies to say—and do as...

Posted on Seasoned Posts

A peep through the Vatican’s public relations efforts. A major speech by Father Lombardi on social media

The relationship between the Vatican and Public Relations is, at the very least, as old as the Propaganda Fide (1622)… More recently…the first Masters program in Public Relations ever held in Italy was in 1960/61, organized for the Vatican by the Dominican Father Felix Morlion, head of the then Pro Deo University of Rome. (Today it is LUISS, a reputed Business School owned by the National Confederation of Industry.) Joaquim Navarro Vals, the Spanish lay...

Posted on Seasoned Posts

A RESET of our profession? Takeaways from Global PR directors of General Electric, Pfizer, Mastercard, Kodak, Bausch and Lomb, Swiss RE, Viacom

The day after Pfizer announced it would ensure free medicines to laid-off and non insured workers for one year, Ray Kerins, head of global pr for the big pharma company (‘we are 50 bl. dollar start up company’ he says…) told an attentive audience of colleagues representing agencies from all over the world, that the idea had not come from top management nor from him, but directly from employees who gathered around internal social networks.