Four KPIs for influence: Response, education, relationships and exploitation?
How can communications managers make the case for a more holistic approach which involves the whole story and the broad audience? UK-headquartered marketing consultants Loudhouse recently hosted an ‘innovation cafe; where a senior group of communications managers compared notes on how narrowly-focussed analyst relations programmes has broadened into influencer dialogue. Loudhouse’s consultancy director Duncan Chapple, … Read more
Lessons from managing international public relations agencies
A key challenge for headquarters communications teams is how to manage national public relations agencies. Few companies with really global business are able to manage their communications with total centralisations, and none do that successfully. The challenge for companies is to develop really effective co-ordination, not only on the technical level but also in terms … Read more
Thoughts on Success and Strategy for Agencies
A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine – who works for a major international PR agency – and I discussed what leadership will mean in 20 years from now . Imagine that it is the year 1992. A panel of marketing and public relations business leaders is asked to predict what success will … Read more
Stoic Approach Helps Businesses to Succeed Online
Explaining his new ‘Stoic’ approach to social media on December 2, Professor Ronan Gruenbaum is proposing a simple framework for businesses aiming for increase success online. Gruenbaum teaches digital marketing at the London campus of the Hult International Business School, founded in Boston, MA, as the Arthur D. Little School of Management in 1964. Ronan … Read more
Consultancies should sell solutions, not time
Selling by consultants is a key barrier to the growth of consulting firms. The business development process is a complex one, involving repeated interactions with clients over time. Many firms believe that it’s the consulting team itself that needs to lead selling. However, the repeated experience of professional services firm that is that valuable consulting … Read more
Marketing communications has to start with the brand story
In my recent interviews with many communications managers, one of the key problems that comes up is the time spent on coordination. However, a few companies seem to have a much lower communication overhead because a strong brand story allows the delegation of decision-making. As a result, organisations which invest once in a clear narrative … Read more
The mysteries of pricing
In one of our conversations, an agency head recently brought up that clients have no idea what to pay for PR and Marketing services. To quote him, “Clients have a general idea of what they want. But they will just go with any price as they have no idea about how much what costs.” On … Read more
From the Pyramid to the Anvil – The Future Shape of Communications Agencies
Since starting inzeption.org in Summer 2011 we conducted a series of interesting interviews with international and national agency leads and communication services buyers at MNCs as well as mid-cap companies. The more intelligence we gather – and we are grateful about just how willing to share insights people are – the following themes about the … Read more
Duncan Chapple
Gudrun Herrmann
