Listening to the Listeners: PR repeatedly counsels executives and brands to listen to the conversation on social media and elsewhere. It’s better when PR can set an example. FleishmanHillard provides one. There are myriad ways FH could have commemorated its 70th anniversary. To come up with an acceptable option FH listened to its staff in 30 countries. “I heard from staff, particularly younger people, questions about whether or not the firm has a purpose beyond doing great client work…do we do something for society?” FH CEO/president John Saunders tells us. As a result of what staff said, FH chose to devote additional hours to philanthropic projects. The news release (more on that later) says the firm will perform $2 million worth of pro bono work from July 1 through year’s end in celebration of its 70th. In fact, though, Saunders says, “We think by the end it will be a lot more than that...we are not putting a restriction on it. But we had to have a decent stab at it” so FH’s financial staff crunched numbers and came up with the figure. The $ 2 million is in addition to existing pro bono work, which last year was nearly $4 million. Many of its 80+ offices have long-standing relationships with causes. The native of Ireland points with pride to the Dublin office’s support of Special Olympics, for example. For the anniversary, each office will take on projects related to the concept of social inclusion in its local community. What projects will be chosen? “Education and literacy” will be among the themes, Saunders predicts, and he sees areas of “significant urban deprivation” being addressed. About the aforementioned press release, Saunders had concerns. He didn’t want FH to blow its horn loudly. Philanthropic work “might have been seen in bygone days as nice-to-do…but I think it’s something we ought to do…[and staff] really wants to do.” Still, the decision to announce the effort was reached after much thought. It was meant as “a clarion call for staff...I wanted to get this right.” He did.
Study Hall: More than 2 billion people will be watching video on mobile phones and tablets by the end of 2022, more than twice today’s number. This will represent a 36% penetration of global mobile users. The growth in users will push the global mobile video market’s value to $30 billion, roughly double today’s figure. Those are the conclusions of a report from Strategy Analytics of Boston. The major impetus for growth will be ad-funded video plus more subscription-based streaming services, Strategy Analytics says. Nitesh Patel, director, Strategy Analytics, says, “Advertiser expenditure on mobile video has yet to catch-up with” growth in use. He also says live streaming platforms like Periscope and Facebook Live “are focused on building audience before revenue.” Social networks are counting on live video to “increase user engagement and extend the time spent by users while inside of social networks, but we expect direct monetization to follow.” At the moment, the most efficient spend is on tablets. While the number of tablet users is 25% of those on mobile phones, the average value of a tablet user is 2.5 times that of a mobile phone user, it says.
Shoe Drops: The long-anticipated 2-year federal ban against Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes running a laboratory became real July 7 ( PRN, May 23). Ironically, the blood-testing company, which had refused comment for months, announced the sanctions. “We accept full responsibility for the issues...and have already worked to undertake comprehensive remedial actions,” Holmes said in a statement. The sanctions also ban Theranos from receiving Medicare and Medicaid payments. Can this once-thriving brand survive?
Platform Prater: Smile: controlling your brand’s message on Snapchat just became a bit easier. While at least one third-party app exists to help users save and re-deploy Snapchat content ( PRN, June 13), Snapchat July 6 introduced a feature it calls Memories to do the same thing. Memories will remove the need for communicators to constantly be live streaming Snapchat content.
People: 4A’s president/CEO Nancy Hill will depart the group after 9 years next June, it said July 6. The ad agency trade group’s first woman CEO, Hill has been a staunch advocate for social inclusion as well as transparency during her tenure. – Turner named Bloomberg’s Michael Marinello its SVP of corporate communications. At Bloomberg Marinello was global head of communications, technology, brand and sustainability. In addition, he was senior adviser and chief spokesman at Bloomberg Philanthropies. He’d been at Microsoft Office prior to Bloomberg.-- Music streamer Deezer named Julia HerdVP of communications. Herd formerly was VP of communications at tech firm HTC and had been at Weber Shandwick.