Chages is afoot in the world of government communications

The post Christmas period is a time to re-think the changes we face in the communications field, especially in government relations. I have just joined the Board of Westminster Advisers a consultancy which specialises in public affairs and the management of corporate communications. How do we see the year ahead? Certainly it will not be a case of a change here or a change there. It will be an intensification of the changes began to become apparent last year (2009).

Operating in a world where we advise clients on the best way to put across their views on policy to either the current government or the new team expected in May, is a world away from the old fashioned lobbying process where lobbyists called a few MPs, took them to lunch for a chat with the client and then repeated the process over and over again hoping changes in policy might ensue.

Three new elements are now in play, each impacting on the other.
The first is the greater transparency of government decision-making at local and national level, the second is the explosion of digital new media which means target audiences are now the world, and they can be reached in a few seconds after Tweeting, blogging or entering a Twitter and blog feed to their Website. Did you know that over 100 current MPs are registered with Twitter? There will be more after the election as the average age falls.

The third and final element is frequently missed, it is that far from there being any dumbing down in the content of government and business communications, the quality of work content is reaching ever upwards, or deeper if the truth be told. With consultancies staffed by briliant young people, often with high academic qualifications and research organisations like Demos and The Bow Group, constantly raising their standards, every policy debate is now underpinned by heavily researched facts and figures. Up-to-date facts and not those published six weeks ago. Some consultancies, like Westminster Advisers, are almost like issues research
organisations themselves such is the quality of their day to day work.

So, with a climate which combines open communications where the media can and will pick up on any action taken by clients, a sense of debating in an open playground created by the social media is worrting so many business people as higher levels of research underpinn every argument debated across many disciplines, Life in the communications industry which includeds marketing, advertising, public relations, direct mail and even design, will be nothing like the communications world many practitioners joined a decade ago.

Give me your views and I will talk more about this changing environment. I am lecturing at Leeds Met Uni to their government Masters Degree students in a few weeks and will find your comments worth hearing. They may well inform my lecture.

Lets draw in ideas on how best to mobilise what is now a multidisciplined industry and make sure the business world and the worlds of politics gain from the changes rather than become lost in a sea of new words, new technologies and new standards of issue research.

Reginald

Futurists at Tate

Despite the strike managed to reach Tate Modern by bus to Tate Britain, then boat to Tate Modern. If only we could get TfL to run a regular river bus service running say from Putney toTate Modern or bejond. on a quarter hour service (if Venice can do it on the Grand Canal why not London) people would enjoy travelling into work. Yesterday, I tried the so called regular service from Wandsworth but that is only early in the morning and the evening. If a reliable 15 minute service was set up people would use it, especially in the Spring and Summer months.

The important thing is that the Futurist Show at Tate Modern is outstanding. I had always been rude about that 1910 movement because of their naive beliefs in war and their antagonism to woman but once one sees the totality of their views and the exciting work they produed which has all the vigour of modern London or New York, one comes away from the show full of excitment, not to mention a tendency to spend more money than intended in the Tate bookshop afterwards.

Well worth a visit but take your time and use the new audio headphones that carry considerably more information than the old ones.

Reginald

Venice

I am off next week to the biggest art festival in the world: Venice. Anyone who wants to hear my views as a marketing consultant on some of the Venice activities, write in.

Reginald

Managing Art Galleries and events

Having spent the last few years advising small businesses especially creative service companies, more recently I am being called bydirectors and owners in the art world. What has suprised me is the very high level of art knowledge among owners but many have little knowledge of how to market their galleries or indeed manage them for expansion.

Many emerge with qualifications at Masters Degree level from art school administration subjects but still think that all they need do isfill their private view events with friends and relations in the art world gauging success in the`jolly'atmospsere andgood wishes from all and sundry.

Their data bases (if they have them), seem devoid of `suites', the people with enough cash to buy. Worse they believe that providing their stable of artists are of high quality buyers will find them by devine communication. "How will your potential buyers know ?" I ask.

Even if they have been lucky and acheived editorial comment the owners seem not to realise the sheer number of galleries in London, let alone in the rest of the country.

The successful ones are those who develope a marketing strategy that generates sufficient differentiation for them to build a positioning that has selective appeal.

So the battlecontunes and yet another gallery goes out of business or merges withanother gallery which seems to havegenerated sufficient working capital to carry over the first few months (or years).

Just a thought to work on during this quiet period before the economic green shoots take hold.

Reginald

New Marketing Ideas

Modern companies need modern thinking. Having spent the last ten years advising commercial and non-commercial organizations helping them strengthen their position in marketplace, my experience could help you prepare for growth when the business up-turn arrives. Success can only be achieved through a combination of management structure, improved internal and external communications and an agreement on long-term strategy.

Small organizations expand in stages. First, the founder grows the company using their specialist skills. Business comes in, usually by working hands-on all hours. It is not difficult to grow and cope, for a while.

Then stage two sets in. This is when eight out of ten companies show signs of failing.
It is a difficult period. Management skills are stretched and we see the first signs of tension. With growing pressure on time, new clients and customers demand more attention. They start saying, “I don’t see you as much as I did”. This is when serious decisions are needed for the future. Unfortunately it is a time when any shortfalls in management experience start to show.

Just when the head of the company should be concentrating on the long term, time pressures man only short-term decisions are taken and the rudder falls off the ship.

So many companies hit a ceiling at that time and either grow no further, or they attempt to expand with the wrong management structure.

This is the point when someone who has been through it all before, working alongside the owner/manager, can take the strain.

Time to call in a company adviser. Fortunately I know most of the answers from my own experience:

• As a former CEO of Burson Marsteller London, one of the largest communications and marketing consultants in the UK, I founded The Watts Group plc, I sold it and recently as a non-executive director of many smaller companies my experience has grown, especially now as we face a period of economic change.