Out of sight, out of business!

As communicators, we know that in tough times it is more important than ever to maintain, if not increase, communications with staff and stakeholders to give them confidence in the future of your business and keep them loyal and positive. 

A recent study by The Nielsen Company has given further credence to this approach, as it shows that consumers who have been exposed to ‘more’ advertising and marketing messages have more positive perceptions about the long-term health of their financial institutions; with those stakeholders who have seen ‘less’ messaging having lower levels of confidence in their institutions.

“This research shows that ‘out of sight’ can mean ‘out of business’,” said Richard Khaleel, EVP of Nielsen IAG’s Financial practice. “The current economic climate makes it more important than ever for financial institutions to bolster confidence among their clients and this study clearly demonstrates the link between advertising and confidence levels. With constant scrutiny on the industry it’s clear that taking control of the message in advertising and press can make all the difference for a brand.”

More about this AC Nielsen study >

Melitta

By | April 29th, 2009|Other resources|0 Comments

GCN lunch event wrap up

Many thanks to the over 60 participants who attended the GCN lunch event today at the Swiss Press Club. A special thanks to Liam FitzPatrick for his very interesting presentation. We will be distributing a copy of the slides to those who attended. If you want to contact Liam directly for any further queries you can reach him www.simply-goodadvice.com.

View the photos of the event on the left hand column of this page or on our Flickr page.

For those who are interested, you can read more about Liam on Swisster following an interview conducted by Marcus Berry.

As mentioned, our  next event will be another networking apero in May and one more lunch event before the summer break in June.

Patricia, Melitta, Glenn, and Vincent

By | April 24th, 2009|GCN lunch events|0 Comments

Origins and purpose of Internal Communications

With tomorrow’s GCN lunch being on the topic of Internal Communications, I thought it would be interesting to take a quick look at the origins and purpose of this discipline.

In a series of blog posts, a journalist explores what could be the first ever book published on the subject of Internal Communications called ‘Sharing Information with Employees’  – way back in 1942!  Read posts >

But if this does not satisfy your curiosity about the roots of IC; then perhaps UK agency, 44 Communications, can offer more insight in their document: ‘A Quick History of Internal Communications and its value’.

With regards to the current purpose of IC, experts and practitioners seem split, as demonstrated by a recent discussion on Melcrum’s LinkedIn Group. Russell Pearson, who started the debate, has summarised the various views on his blog.

Liam Fitzpatrick, tomorrow’s GCN speaker who also contributed to the Melcrum discussion, offered the view that while there may not be a definitive purpose for IC,  there are five main reasons why companies embark on and invest in internal communications; to:

  • make people stay with the company and feel great about staying 
  • direct people towards working harder on the right things 
  • get people to say the right things about your organisation 
  • get employees behind change, to support and see through change 
  • to remain legal and compliant.

I agree that there is no one definitive purpose – that’s why we IC professionals take so much care to align our comms strategies to the purpose and goals of the overall organisation and develop the right messages and channels for each organisation. There are no ‘one-size-fits-all’ solutions. For me, it’s this ongoing challenge that makes IC one of the most exciting and rewarding areas of communications to be involved in. 

Melitta

By | April 23rd, 2009|Other resources|0 Comments

Interesting online seminar, 29 April 11 am

Twebinar Wednesday, April 29 @ 11AM ET: Marketing Agencies & Social Media: What Marketers Expect from their Agencies

with Emily Riley, Senior Manager, Forrester Research

 

From social networks to community sites, consumers have already made the shift to social media. With social marketers starting to follow suit, now is the time for agencies to hone their social marketing offerings.

Join Emily Riley, Senior Analyst at Forrester Research, on April 29 at 11AM ET to learn about how agencies can better serve their clients with social media. This webinar will include insights from Forrester’s Social Marketer and Agency survey including what social marketers want from their agency as well as challenges facing both social marketers and agencies. It will also include case studies that provide examples of best practices of agency use of social media.

By | April 23rd, 2009|Other events|0 Comments

New jobs on our careers page

New jobs on our Careers page: 

Communications Manager – Eli Lilly, Geneva
Global Marketing Manager-Europe, Geneva
Manager Media Relations, Geneva

Good luck!

By | April 20th, 2009|Careers|0 Comments

Awards for Top Swiss Corporate Websites – correction

Contrary to my original post on 9 April, this year saw the second annual H&H Webranking Awards Ceremony, recognizing the top performing corporate websites in the 2008 H&H Webranking Switzerland survey. Sorry for any inconvenience caused by the error.

This year’s winners include:

Georg Fischer – First place overall, and one of the most improved websites in the Swiss ranking this year.
UBS – Second place overall (last year’s winners)
Swisscom – Third place overall
Nestlé – Best Social Media Initiative, for its innovative and use of Web 2.0 applications on its corporate site
Roche – Best Performer, CSR
Swatch Group – Best Improver among all Swiss websites in the survey

More than just an awards ceremony, this year’s event also included speeches from leaders in online communications including David Villa from Xing and Roberto Ferrari, Websites manager at Eni, this year’s winner of the European Webranking. There was also a presentation of new research being conducted into online CSR communications by Lundquist srl, Hallvarsson and Halvarsson’s representative in Switzerland, Italy and Austria.

Further information about t the 2008 H&H Swiss ranking >

Video summary of the event >

Melitta

By | April 17th, 2009|Other resources|0 Comments

conference: Nestlé creating shared value: Utopia or reality?

An interesting conference that may be of interest to communicators:

The MBA HEC Alumni Association Committee has the pleasure to invite you to the « 7 à 9 » Conference which is to be held on Wednesday 6th May 2009 at 19h00 at the Alpha Palmiers Hotel in Lausanne.

The theme of the conference is following: NESTLE CREATING SHARED VALUE: UTOPIA OR REALITY? The panel speakers will be:

– Christian Frutiger, Public Affairs Manager, Nestlé S.A.
– Christopher Greenwald, Director of Data Content, ASSET4 AG
– Manoj Kurian, Programme Executive for Health and Healing, WCC
– Guido Palazzo, Business and Society Professor, EMBA HEC Lausanne
– Marc Pfitzer, Managing Director, FSG Social Impact Advisors

While the world faces the current financial crisis, companies and the media speak more and more about the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) while continuing to support economic growth. How do big companies move from being purely profit oriented towards ethical business? How does Nestlé evaluate its overall corporate citizenship record, and how financial investors and NGOs evaluate Nestlé from this standpoint? What is the CSR impact on the core business and the success of the company?

Come and listen to a panel of speakers who will debate these questions. The conference will be in English and will be followed by an aperitif.

Free entrance, but the inscription is mandatory.

Please confirm your participation by sending an e-mail to the following address: julien.deperrot@leshop.ch by Tuesday 5th May at the latest.

By | April 16th, 2009|Other events|0 Comments

Help writing social media guidelines

Social Media is a fast evolving area of communications and most organisations are starting to develop and issue guidelines for staff regarding use of Corporate blogs and networks, as well as restrictions on the use of social media outside of the office to prevent any company secrets being leaked or colleagues being maligned.

If you are planning to develop such policies, then help is at hand as the CIPR has released Social Media Guidelines to help advice the communications community on how social media should be handled. 

Read the CIPR Social Media Guidelines >

Melitta

By | April 14th, 2009|Other resources|0 Comments

Awards for Top Swiss Corporate Websites

(Please see the correction to this post, published on 17 April)

The first Swiss H&H Webranking Awards Ceremony was held in Zürich earlier this month, to recognise the top performing websites in the 2007 Swiss H&H Webranking survey. 

The H&H Webranking research, published in collaboration with the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), represents Europe’s most comprehensive survey of corporate online communication. A total of 630 companies throughout Europe are considered, including the 62 largest listed companies in Switzerland.

The Winners:

3rd – Credit Suisse for its high quality content and interactive features 
2nd – Swisscom came in second place with an overall score of 77 points 
1st – UBS for the fourth time (9th overall out of all European companies surveyed)
Best Corporate Governance Section – ABB 
Best Improver – Roche 

Melitta

By | April 9th, 2009|Other resources|0 Comments

Geneva Communicators Network Seminar / Lunch – Friday 24 April 2009

We are pleased to announce our next event of 2009 on Internal Communications :

Liam FitzPatrick, renowned expert in internal communications, will speak about “why most internal communicators are wasting their time…”

Liam FitzPatrick, based in the UK, is one of the premier internal communications consultants in the industry. He’s worked with clients ranging from Philips to Maersk and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Geneva and just recently was appointed Managing Director of simplygoodadvice, the consulting arm of the Simply Group that owns www.simply-communicate.com.

Topic: Why are most internal communicators wasting their time?

Date: Friday, 24 April 2009
Time: 12h20 to 14h00
Location*: The Swiss Press Club, Route de Ferney 106, La Pastorale, 1202 Geneva (for directions, click on Map)
Fee: CHF 10.- per person for a light lunch – payable at the door.

Please register here for the Geneva Communicators Network lunch event for Friday 24 April at 12h20>>

We look forward to seeing you there!!

*Location sponsored by the International University in Geneva

By | April 6th, 2009|GCN lunch events|0 Comments