By Garry Wynne, Strategic Director, ABT

“If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask, for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes.” Albert Einstein

That is what we do at ABT Strategic Communications. Strategy has become a loaded word in recent years with many different meanings and associations in the creative communications field. To us it simply means that we take time to understand your business issues prior to commencing work - to deliver our clients the most relevant communications solution to their business challenges - on brief, on time - every time.

The purpose of a strategic approach is to find time to “take a breath” and turn the complexity of our client communications challenge into simple, effective communications that move people to change their view of their world. We understand brands need to connect to people on an emotional level to change behaviour over time so ABT has strengthened our strategic offer over the last twelve months to include Strategic & Communications Directors.

Why have we done this? Put simply because:

• The when, the where and the how a brand can communicate to customers is now determined by the customer.

• The what and the why of how to reach, talk (yes talk and converse) and connect to customers is where ABT makes a difference.

So why is it you that is different you say?

Philosophy
We are not defined by media but by the task that needs to be achieved. We employ:

A) Brand Experience Attitude – We recognise that ownership of brands has changed and the customer is in the driving seat. We endeavour to find the right solution that connects emotionally to drive measurable changes in behaviour.

B) Inside / Out – We recognise that a brand will only connect emotionally if there is consistency across all touch points in what they see, hear, feel, felt and found as a result of engagement with the brand – across all stakeholder groups.

C) Media Passionate – Media, we love it, that is why we are constantly curious as to the best way to get across the right message to the right people at the right time – however they choose to receive it. From mobile to cinema – live to environments – online, offline, upstream, downstream, in their uptime or downtime…. That’s our turf.

D) Measurement – ROE(Return on Experience), OTT(opportunities to Talk/Touch), are now more personal and relevant measures than traditional TARPS/OTS/R &F measures

Approach & Tools
We have a box full. It is choosing the right one which is the tricky bit.

Each client receives a qualified return brief within 48 hours of engaging us on a job. This includes:

• Business objectives
• Communications objectives
• Single minded proposition development
• Key messages
• Agreed measurements
• Focus Groups
• We facilitate group insight and business think tanks and brainstorm through our qualified facilitators

Services

• Communications planning
• Workshop facilitation
• Deep dive analysis of customer requirements
• Research planning and delivery
• Creative evaluation
• Brand strategy development
• Brand architecture
• Communications planning (including media evaluation)
• Measurement and result planning
• Campaign review analysis

Our Golden Rules

• Start at the problem not “the solution”
• Preparation and planning prevents poor performance
• Open your mind to alternatives - you may be surprised
• Take a breath - it calms the nerves and clears the air
• If what we are being asked to do is the answer then have we asked all the right questions?
• Don’t promote what you cannot deliver either as a supplier or as a brand – you will be found out
• Be flexible and adaptable in execution - things change - evolve to meet challenges
• Once decided – commit to action – paralysis by analysis can kill the best strategy with poor execution
• Reactivity kills creativity
• Never stop questioning and don’t fail to plan. (You may end up planning to fail)

Peter (PJ) Fulcher-Meredith, Communications Director at ABT has a rant on how not to let your communication habits spoil the message you are trying to get across. This article first appeared in Australian Anthill, the magazine for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs. 

Full article

ABT’s launch video for Holden’s Coupe 60 concept car ran away with the ‘Best in Show’ accolade, picking up an AVPA Gold Award. 

The Australian Video Producers Association (AVPA) is Australia’s premier industry organisation for video production professionals. AVPA exists to encourage and promote excellence in all areas of video production; to guide the development and implementation of quality standards, guidelines and codes of conduct throughout the video production industry; to act as an advocate for our members to ensure fair and equitable treatment by government and the private sector; to provide our members with valuable information resources and industry networking opportunities and to provide a national forum that allows members to share knowledge and expertise.

By Gerry Breislin, Communications Director, ABT

Management’s three biggest lies: “We’re reorganising to better serve our customers”, “I have an open door policy” and “Our people are our most valuable asset.” 

The last mantra is so over used that Mark Cutifani, CEO of global mining company AngloGold Ashanti, finds it downright annoying.   

“Buildings are assets; chairs are assets; resources in the ground are assets. How can you include people with buildings and chairs? Everything we do is about people. People are the business; our business is people”

If that’ the attitude of a mining company boss what value do you place on employees in a service industry?  It’s people who answer phones, interact with customers, develop relationships and generally deliver the reliability and delight that leads to trust.  

So if People are so important, why are they often so low on the agenda?  There’s a famous Dilbert cartoon that HR managers should have pinned on their office wall.  In it a manager announces to a stunned meeting, “You know how I said that employees are our most valuable asset? Well, it turns out I was wrong. Money is our most valuable asset; employees are ninth just after photocopiers”.

An exaggeration perhaps but Michael Henderson, Corporate Anthropologist, has identified that over 90% of organisations have a business plan or strategy.  But less than 5% have a culture plan.  This makes most organisations vulnerable to strategic sabotage from their own organisational culture!  

”Employee engagement” has been the buzz phrase capturing the attention of HR managers and executives for several years now, but how many can articulate what it  actually means, let alone implement solutions to address the issue?   And isn’t it an indictment on management that we actually need the results of the latest Employee Engagement Survey (EES) or culture survey to tell us something’s not right.

An AAP report dated 1 April 2005 estimated that “Disengaged workers are costing Australia’s economy about $31.5 billion a year.  A new Gallup Australia study found nearly 20 per cent of employees were ‘actively disengaged’ at work, costing the country billions of dollars…..Employees who are actively disengaged are less productive, profitable, loyal, less likely to provide excellent customer service and are often disruptive.”

To say that effective communication is a mandatory for employee engagement is a no-brainer.  What needs more consideration is the differentiation between communication and information. 

Using traditional channels like e.mail, newsletters and the Intranet can be an effective way to create awareness.  But if your communication is around a major change issue these channels are unlikely to result in actual changes in attitudes and behaviour.

That’s because most of these formal communication channels are a one way street.  Sure there’s the Q&A session with the leadership team but when did that last get a 100%  ‘Excellent’ rating on the post conference evaluation sheet.   

Let’s face it, nobody really likes ‘formal’ communication.  Executives aren’t usually very good at it, and most people are more likely to change their attitude and behaviours once they’ve talked things through with people who they’ve developed a long and trusting relationship, like family, colleagues and their immediate manager.

A 2006 report into employee engagement research, published by The Conference Board in New York (conference-board.org), concluded that in all studies, in all locations and within all age groups, it was agreed that the strongest driver (for employee engagement) was “the direct relationship with ones’ manager”. 

So if the key to effective communication is to establish meaningful conversations between leaders and managers, between managers and their direct reports and between groups of individuals, shouldn’t we be looking at how and where lots of conversations are taking place right now?

Example 1: My kids (13 & 15) have grown up talking to ‘friends’ on line.  My son wants to buy a new spear gun but so far he hasn’t been to any shops.  He has however spent hours on chat lines asking questions and watching videos up loaded by other users.  

Example 2: I’ve just got a new iphone (my daughter says it’s wasted on me!).  I’ve discovered there are thousands of applications I can download straight on to my phone from the Apps Store. (Over 3,000 at last count, 600 of which are free). Some are really useful business tools and some are just cute ways of showing how cool your iphone is.  The interesting thing is that on the App Store, along with developer’s blurb, there’s a list of reviews (good and bad) from people who’ve already used the applications. 

Imagine this sort of feedback in a corporate context.  Imagine getting staff to share their thoughts on the latest corporate strategy or initiative!  Or better still get them to collaborate and share ideas that would drive the business forward.  It may surprise you to hear that most of the senior leadership of IBM are frequent users of Social Networking software and they’ve had a VP of Social Computing Software for two years.

The world of Web 2.0 and the Social Networking phenomena is certainly an area worth exploring and those traditional channels will still be part of the mix, but perhaps the best way to sum up is in the words of Jack Welch, former chairman of General Electric.  

“It’s not a speech … or a videotape.  It’s not a newsletter. Real communication is an attitude, an environment. It requires countless hours of eyeball-to-eyeball back and forth. It’s a constant, interactive process aimed at creating consensus.” 

We all know employee engagement is a key to unlock profitability of an organisation.  But with a myriad of personalities, motivations and core values, a one size fits all policy to employee engagement is not going to work.  You need to ask yourself; is your goal to get the most out of people or the best out of people?  You typically can’t get both.

ABT’s China arm, ABT Creative, was featured in an article profiling the recent growth of the Snickers brand in China in the lead up to the Beijing Olympics. According to the Wall Street Journal, the buzz created around the ‘Snickers Street Olympics’ has paid dividends, with an increase in Snickers sales of 75% in the first quarter of 2008, compared with the same time last year. Snickers is now the No. 2 brand in China’s US$438 million chocolate market.

The Wall Street Journal quotes ABT Creative’s CEO Peter Grose in relation to the strategy in positioning Snickers as an on-the-go snack, ‘Right now, people would go have some noodles if they got hungry during the day, but we want to suggest that Snickers is a little more convenient.’

ABT has announced two staff appointments for its interactive and marketing teams. Steven Skrekovski joins ABT as Art Director - Interactive, while Claire Kowarsky steps up as Marketing Manager with responsibility for ABT’s offices in Melbourne, Sydney and Beijing.

With a rich background in multimedia design, Skrekovski was previously Digital Group Head at sister Photon company, Belong. There his work on client accounts as varied as BMW, Elwood Jeans, Glaxo SmithKline and top four bank, NAB, covered motion graphics, interactive branding plus digital film and photography direction.  Skrekovski’s folio highlights include his MADC awarded, motion graphics work for Club NAB, a Commonwealth Games brand experience environment, plus his placing as a Best Animation Create Award finalist with a cinema film for Elwood Jeans.

Kowarsky’s new Marketing Manager role represents a logical shift from her previous work in Business Development and PR positions. In developing strategies and implementing marketing campaigns for the firm’s Australian and Chinese offices, she will work closely with ABT’s business development teams onshore and offshore. Kowarsky started her communications career with Y&R’s Brand Experience arm in Amsterdam and since then has enjoyed work for not-for-profits Open Family and SEDA (Seeing Eye Dogs Australia).

ABT CEO Antony Gowthorp welcomed these staff appointments:
”Steven and Claire really understand the strategic and integrated brand offering provided by ABT; both are big picture thinkers well able of looking outside the box for creative solutions. Claire’s appointment is testament to ABT’s ‘grow our own’ philosophy.”

ABC Radio National broadcast an interview with ABT’s Peter Grose on Friday, 14 August, getting Peter’s expert insight into successfully doing business and branding in China.

In the piece, Peter sketched out some savvy ways that businesses, cities, industries and countries could do better business in the Chinese market.

Experiencing Australia as a business brand

Peter – CEO of ABT Creative in Beijing – was interviewed by Mick O’Regan, the host of The Sports Factor. Mick was interested in ABT’s expertise in establishing corporate connections between Chinese businesses and Australian brands, particularly in the background to the Olympic Games.

Based in Beijing, Peter talked about ABT’s ‘In & Out’ strategy, which helps Australian brands and corporations better communicate and engage with stakeholders within China. ABT also offers a similar expertise to help Chinese businesses and brands break into Australian and other international markets.

Mick and Peter discussed ABT’s work for Austrade in setting up Business Club Australia: ABT conceived, constructed and is staging a huge business networking club that occupies an entire floor of the Beijing Hilton. In this networking hub, ABT’s brand experience expertise helps host discussion panels, forums and commercial presentation all within a business lounge environment.

ABT; international brand experience experts

Understanding the way that Chinese businesses and governments like to do business, Peter emphasised to Mick how the Chinese ‘way’ is to establish personal relationships first, then do business later. During their talk, Peter demonstrated ABT’s international brand and relationship marketing expertise.

All those companies and organizations planning to make their presence felt in China today, or around Beijing’s World Expo in 2010, might want to drop Peter a through our China office to ensure they present and promote themselves to best effect.

Australasian brand experience agency ABT has picked up two new pieces of competitive pitch business in the shape of Ortho Clinical Diagnostics – a Johnson & Johnson Company plus a major project for FMCG brand Campbell Arnott’s.

The Ortho Clinical Diagnostics win is significant for ABT as it marks their strategic desire to handle holistic branding work in the pharmaceuticals & pathology sector. Ortho Clinical Diagnostics are a leading provider of ‘early’ screening, diagnosis, monitoring and confirming services to help disease prevention and spread.

ABT will plan and execute elements of the Australian roll out of Ortho Clinical Dignostics new global branding campaign plus support two major new product-related launches in 2008.

In adding leading Australian FMCG company Campbell Arnott’s to its client project roster, ABT’s principal role will be to support the internal communications function to produce and stage the firm’s 2008 conference summit.

Speaking about the wins, ABT CEO Antony Gowthorp said:

“These wins reflect a welcome vote of confidence in ABT’s brand experience skills by both client companies. We’re delighted to have won the work especially in competitive pitch situations.”

ABT’s ever resourceful resource manager Beatrice Claflin shares her thoughts on what makes a candidate interview-worthy.

This article first appeared in B&T, Australasia’s highest circulating Marketing, Advertising and Media Magazine.

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You’ve seen the dance concerts, extreme sports and celeb parties. And you thought Gen X and Y consumers were a tough audience to impress. But how do you go about making your retail partners understand the key role they play in supporting your brand?

Engaging retail staff and channel partners to embrace and deliver the brand values in the retail environment is a global challenge for all retail brands, yet brand experience is a proven performer for B2B marketing, just as it is for B2C. Learn how it captures the hearts and minds of all stakeholder groups to ensure your retail partners are not only motivated to perform but also convey your brand experience at every consumer touchpoint.

In a special presentation at the Asia Pacific Experiential Marketing Summit 18-19 Sept 2008, ABT CEO, Antony Gowthorp, will joined by ex-MINI Marketing Manager Jason Miller and Honda Australia’s Marian Dekker to discuss international challenges and solutions. With seven new vehicle launches planned for Honda in 2007/8, Marian can reveal a range of topical insights. Along their journey, Antony, Jason and Marian will visit B2B brand experience marketing to the tough dealer audience and other best practice examples.

If you’d like to attend, check out the details on-line