• by Kelly Samardak , October 20, 2009

Hold onto your rears, people, I've done something today that I haven't been able to do in months, maybe even years.  I got up early and made it to a breakfast event not only on time, but EARLY.  Mind you, I have no problem getting up at 4 a.m to go fishing, yet it takes the will of 80 million eyelid elves to rouse me for a panel on corporate communications.  I used to be a corporate comms girl myself in one of many forms, usually as an encouraging dissenter and snarkball (hi, IBM Blog Central!), but always as someone who wanted people to be as excited about the good stuff as me, never mind the corporate-ese.  Thus, I rallied for the Weber Shandwick Second Annual VOICEBOX Executive Roundtable featuring GM, Samsung, Unilever, Seimens US, and of course, Weber Shandwick.

The moderator was Poppy Harlow of CNN, who up-talked when she announced the event's hashtag, "So, I guess I'm supposed to say hash? Voiceboxx?  ... I don't tweet yet" which made me cringe.  No,  I do not think everyone and his monkey needs to be on Twitter.  I'm not a "YOU WILL FAIL AS A BRAND IF YOU DON'T TWEET OMG!" person.  It's not natural for some, and not aligned with brand/image for others.  It's not a make or breaker, just another opportunity to engage (when done RIGHT)(grammar be damned!) However, moderating a panel on "The Reinvention Economy: Re-casting Communications as a Critical Corporate Innovator" where social media communications opportunities are a keen focus requires the  moderator's awareness of what those opportunities are, like Twitter, and the common uses within them, like hashtags.

Moving on.

The bulk of the panel was buzzword bingo.  Alert the press, Corporate America has a mean grasp on the use of social media buzzwords -- including such crowd-pleasing favorites as "transparency" "passion" and even buzzphrases like "It's not just about broadcasting, it's about listening."  I should stuff my cynic hat in a sack and just be glad that big corporations aren't ignorant of the communication deluge that they can either dance or drown in.  So how about some snippets from the event?

Jack Leslie of Weber Shandwick understands the power of trusted recommendation. "People are listening to each other rather than institutions," which is why they create brand advocates in the marketplace that know a brand's entire story and can communicate it clearly. And they're not just talking and walking away, they're listening.

Poppy Harlow addressed the recession, budgets, and how the panel's brands are allocating resources on the communications side.

Anita Larsen of Unilever uses the plethora of communication tools where "we're able to amplify our brands."  She believes in focusing on innovating to solve existing problems: "In terms of innovation, we know that there are places in India [where]  there is a tremendous issue with water... so in terms of innovation, to be able to invent soap suds that clean with two less buckets of water" is huge.

Poppy reminded Jim Whaley of Siemens US that no one knows what they do, so how are they communicating their intangibles -- like that they generate about 36 patents a day? They've launched a campaign strictly in the U.S. highlighting how everything they're doing is aligned with the stimulus bill, with city ambassadors in place to spread the word locally.  "In order to tell our story in the U.S. we have to do it in a way that's passionate and has relevance." Passion and relevance, ding ding ding!

Chris Preuss of GM was painfully honest about how communication through social media has been, and will continue to be, powerful in the way GM is perceived going forward.   Regarding the bailout, he matter-of-factly offered, "When you take billions of dollars of the people's money, you have to be on the overt side of transparent." He has seen social media as "a great way to reconnect with a lot of ticked-off people."

Poppy later addressed GM, asking if being on the offensive rather than the defensive communications-wise is a strategy of the "New GM."

"Words cannot explain the emotional and physical toll that the bankruptcy took on the company and the PR teams," Chris Preuss solemnly uttered in a way that told me this was a bruised crew.  "It should be a Harvard case study... the way we managed through."  He concluded that "acting like a business that's rebuilding, not deconstructing" is a challenge. 

How has social media changed Samsung?  The only quip of the day was delivered by David Steel: "There's a rumor going around that everything in this space has to go in the end." But seriously folks, seriously, Samsung has embraced the ability to actually listen to what the customers want while they're creating the next big electrotoy.  "When you listen to consumers, you can incorporate what they see as 'next' more cohesively."

As someone who has finally stepped over the line to generics, I was interested to hear the answer to Poppy's question of sustaining brand loyalty when people are overlooking the brand and checking the price tag first.

Anita Larsen's solution is "communicating the value proposition" of the Dove product, for example, so they'll stay with that over the store brand.   Hmm...  That is a challenge indeed.

Large photos on Flickr !

Send invitations to kelly@mediapost.com