This month The Reputation Group launched a national campaign for DrinkWise Australia.

The campaign – KIDS AND ALCOHOL DON’T MIX - aims to reverse the trend among teenagers today who are drinking at increasingly young ages. The campaign will help Australian parents to delay the age at which their teenagers first drink alcohol and offers practical solutions on how to parent their teens through the issue.

Launched at the Sydney Children’s Hospital by Susie O’Neill OAM, Olympic dual gold medallist, mother of two and Sport Australia Hall of Fame DrinkWise Ambassador, guests were treated to a sneak peak into the multi-faceted campaign.

Managing Director, Lelde McCoy, recently presented at a Public Relations Institute of Australia full day workshop in Canberra; ‘New Campaign Techniques, Use of Social Media and Emotional Intelligence for Advertising Success’.

Lelde conducted an interactive workshop session focused on strategy development and campaign implementation. By reviewing successful national and international campaigns with attendees, she presented tips on how to make a campaign effective. A number of different communication needs were considered including the task of engaging multiple stakeholders, raising public awareness of a social issue or influencing behavioural change.

The Reputation Group welcomes a new Account Director to its growing team, Hinda Smith. Hinda joins us after returning from five years working in London where she worked on a range of leading brands covering the new media, marketing, mobile, technology and financial services sectors.

After withstanding the cold and lack of sunshine in England, Hinda travelled South America before deciding to settle in Melbourne. With over six years' strategic communications experience, Hinda’s extensive project management, strategy planning and

media relations skills will be utilized on a variety of consumer and government clients. Hinda has a Bachelor of Communications degree from Edith Cowan University.

Talking of the new hire, Managing Director Lelde McCoy said, “As we grow as an agency, it’s important to grow the team to ensure we have a full set of capabilities to offer our clients. Hinda’s experience in managing global and Pan-European campaigns and utilising interactive communications will be invaluable for our client work. Social media is becoming an increasingly important component of any PR campaign, so Hinda’s appointment will enhance The Reputation Group's expertise in the digital space. Welcome aboard Hinda!”

Managing Director, Lelde McCoy, was recently a panel member at the Australian Institute of Management (AIM) ‘Life inside the Recession’
seminar.

Held in Melbourne, Lelde joined a panel of industry experts including Simon Rich, Director of Planning at Grey, and David Hoath, Sales and Marketing Director, Melbourne Publishing, Fairfax Media. Addressing a crowd of senior marketers, the panel discussed how the current recessionary environment is impacting consumers and brands.

According to Simon Rich, Director of Planning at Grey, the real impact of the recession has been the negative sentiment rather than the tangible effects on consumers.

“For most Australians life is still ok, interest rates are low, petrol is cheaper and at the moment, most of us still have our jobs. We can see in the media the stories of doom and gloom so we are worried about the future, but while the average consumer might be cutting back on expenses they are still remaining positive,” he said.

Lelde McCoy said that the global financial crisis has compelled people to critically evaluate consumerism and spending beyond one’s needs, and as a result a more educated consumer has emerged.

“Women especially are taking more control over their purchasing decisions. The Eye on Australia survey showed that when it comes to spending 61% of women have been checking supermarket prices more in the last 12 months than previously.

“In addition, consumers are actively seeking information to ensure that they are getting a good deal. They are looking at product reviews, surfing the

web for recommendations and discussing purchase decisions with friends and family. Word of mouth is more powerful than ever before.”

When asked how marketers should weather the crisis, Lelde said that different times call for different ways of communicating.

“Instead of cutting back on our communications efforts, marketers should be looking to open and regular communications with customers to build trust, so a shift from product driven marketing to consumer focused marketing is necessary.

“Marketers need to demonstrate an honest and genuine concern towards consumers and remember that consumers, now more than ever, will react to brands that are their friend – brands that provide helpful and practical advice, show understanding and act in a socially responsible way. “

Responding to a question as to whether the recession has affected all brands similarly, Lelde said that due to conspicuous consumption being on the way out and consumers looking for better value, lower priced and discount brands as well as brand outlet stores are capturing consumer dollars.

“Although the younger generations are questioning their expenses, this re-evaluative stance will only have a lasting impact on their consumption behaviour if the crisis lasts for a prolonged period of time.”

Lelde McCoy called for marketers and brands to reposition their messages to emphasise value and to communicate in a genuine and open manner.

“In the current environment marketers need to take the opportunity to develop strong relationships with consumers so that they retain their loyalty post the crisis.”

The Reputation Group launches
Eye on Australia 2009

The Reputation Group recently worked with marketing communications agency Grey to launch their annual Eye on Australia report. Now in its 18th year, the Eye on Australia report, conducted by Grey in association with Sweeney Research, tracks consumer attitudes across metropolitan and regional areas and provides insights into how Australians are

Heartfelt messages over lunch

As more than 140 women and a few brave men entered Zinc, all wearing a touch of red, it was clear that the Women in PR ‘Finger on the Pulse’ luncheon was going to be something special. And that it was.

We gathered on Friday 12 June, resplendent in red shoes, dresses, scarves, bows, ribbons, stockings and other accessories, to hear from a number of inspirational women. Hosted by Editor of Australian Women’s Health Magazine, Felicity Percival, our speakers included Managing Director of Tiger Airways, Shelley Roberts, and Founder and Executive Chairman of Fernwood Women’s Health Clubs, Diana Williams. Both are successful businesswomen and community leaders, and both shared with us the secrets of their success.

To cap off the day, we were privileged to hear a moving and inspirational story from Kathryn Taranto, a marathon runner and heart disease patient. Kathryn’s success is made all the more remarkable by the fact that she achieves it with the assistance of her fifth cardiac pacemaker.

RMIT's Adam Welch was also inspirational in his gracious acceptance of the Merle Howard Student Prize which is awarded each year for the most outstanding thesis of a final year student completing the Bachelor or Communications (Public Relations).

PRIA President, Paul Crisp congratulated Adam on his award with his timely thesis which examined and identified obstacles to becoming environmentally responsible in corporate Australia.

If red symbolises generosity it was certainly in the air that day, as communicators bid with their hearts for auction items, raising money for two worthy causes: the Heart Foundation’s research and education initiatives (Friday 12 June was ‘Go Red for Women Day’), and to the Merle Howard Prize for most outstanding research project by a final year PR student at RMIT.

Women in PR would also like to thank our sponsors, House Communications and Femail.com. Without them we would not have been able to sit back and listen to the speakers from the banks of the Yarra, or support the causes we did.

The Reputation Group working with the City of Melbourne to ‘tell’ Melbourne’s story

In partnership with RMIT’s Global Cities Institute, The Reputation Group is working on an exciting project to ‘tell’ the story of Melbourne’s cultural precincts. Melbourne’s cultural precincts – Chinatown, Italian Lygon Street and Greek Lonsdale Street – make an immeasurable contribution to the Melbourne community and the City of Melbourne wants to preserve their histories as well as the stories of the many characters who have contributed to their development.

The project will create a policy framework for preserving the cultural precincts, investigate the stories and the histories of each precinct and recommend mediums, installations and other avenues through which to share these histories with visitors, traders and the local community.

The project will also include an overall marketing plan to encourage local and international visitors to take another look at what is on offer in each precinct. The project is scheduled for completion in November 2009.

“Don’t be a Tosser” campaign wins ‘best of the best’ global award in IABC Gold Quill Awards and a National PRIA Golden Target Award, 2008.

The Reputation Group has been recognised with a win at the prestigious International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Gold Quill Awards in New York and the Victorian and National PRIA Golden Target Awards, 2008 for our work on Sustainability Victoria’s “Don’t Be a Tosser, Bin Your Butts” campaign.

This campaign was developed in response to an expected increase in cigarette butt litter following the introduction of the July 1, 2007 Victorian Government ban on smoking inside licensed venues.

More than 1,000 entries from 30 countries were received for the IABC Award and the campaign was nominated by the IABC judges as the “best of the best” – an honour given to only a few of the winners. To read more about the campaign see the November/December edition of IABC’s Communication World or visit our portfolio.

Managing Director, Lelde McCoy, has been invited to be part of the Blue Ribbon Panel
to perform final-tier judging for this year's Gold Quill Awards in San Francisco in March, 2009 where she will help judge the world’s best communications campaigns.

PR text book Australia Public Relations: Theory and Practice has just released its third edition with an updated chapter on ethics written by Lelde McCoy.

This text is used extensively in universities Australia-wide as the leading and most comprehensive introduction to public relations theory and practice.

Edited by Jane Johnston and Carla Zawawi and published by Allen & Unwin, the book has a prestigious list of contributors from the Australian public relations industry, including both practitioners and lecturers.