1. Which industries/markets are booming at the moment in United Arab Emirates?

Ever since the economic crisis hit in 2008 there has a been a major shift in the market dynamics from a boom in real estate and construction towards consumer retail and IT as it was believed that people won’t stop buying consumer goods and investing in IT infrastructure. However, people since the crisis have become more financially conscious about their spending which pushed retailers to offer more promotions and discounts to encourage people to buy. Today and with the Arab spring rising in key tourism markets like Egypt, Syria and the likes, we see a boom in the travel and hospitality sectors in the UAE. Most of the Arab tourists in general from the neighboring Gulf countries are pouring into Dubai to spend their holidays and making use of the increasing offers on consumer and shopping promotions taking place during peak seasons of Dubai Shopping Festival in winter and Dubai Summer Surprises in summer.

2. What makes UAE currently so interesting for this industry?

Being a metropolitan country, and at the intersection of Asia and Africa and Europe, UAE is considered a major trade hub hosting over 150 nationalities. It is considered most advanced, modern and open of its Gulf neighbors offering a luxurious and modern lifestyle for its citizens and residents. Also having been on a serious construction boom before the financial crisis, UAE has managed to attract tourists to visit it man-made wonders such as the tallest tower in the world “Burj Khalifa” and the famous man-made islands of Palm Jumeirah, The World, and others. The influx of tourists visiting from neighboring Arab countries, Asia, Russia and Europe has offered the country a strong platform to boost its trade and “shopping” sector heavily especially during the peak shopping festivals.

3. Why should companies from these industries start doing Public Relations in UAE?

Companies from these industries need to do Public Relations to enhance their reputations and further attract target customers and audiences. They need to stand out from the competition and highlight their unique selling points to attract their customers. Today Public Relation is viewed as the most cost effective and impactful marketing tool to ensure their messages are carried across nonetheless being the most credible than classical advertising campaigns. Public Relations companies today stand a good chance with a recovering economy that is seeking to enhance the reputation and image of the country and its key industries to quickly overcome the setbacks from the economic crisis.

Although it started as a way to engage and share stories about the fast food chain, suppliers and staff, the hashtag instead brought out consumers making fun of and negatively commenting about McDonald’s. (The Huffington Post has a slideshow with some examples of the Twitter backlash.)

Plus, adding more fuel to the fire, McDonald’s and PETA had a back-and-forth about meat allegations at the very same time. And unfortunately, this is not the first time the fast food chain has sparked controversy on Twitter.

Emma Hutchings of PSFK said it well: “This goes to show that Twitter is one platform where companies have yet to achieve full control and their campaigns can go in the opposite direction to what they intended. Consumers have a lot of power on this medium, and hashtags can be used by anyone to make negative comments as well as positive ones.

What do you think? Is there anything McDonald’s could have done differently to prevent its well-intended promotion from going horribly wrong?

This post was first published by Beth Brenner on March Communications’ blog, PR Nonsense, and may be viewed here.

1. Which industries/markets are booming at the moment in Poland?

Currently we have several sectors that are booming in Poland. The first one is our energy industry as a few years ago the Polish government decided to open this market and allow private companies to enter it. People can now choose their energy supplier so we can see big marketing campaigns in this sector. There is also a quite big boom in lifestyle industries, especially in the beauty products sector, and many companies are launching new brands especially for women. Some other areas where we can see the significant market increase are telecommunications, legal, tourism and outsourcing sectors. Polish telecommunication companies are spreading their activities and entering foreign markets – usually young eastern markets such as the Ukraine. Poland becomes more and more attractive for outsourcing services in many branches. We can also say that public-private partnerships can be a potential boom area in Poland but there are still not enough of such initiatives although there is certainly a market for this sector. Last but not least is the healthcare sector which is growing very fast in Poland as more public health centers (or its selected services) are being privatized. So many international healthcare companies are entering this market.

2. What makes Poland currently so interesting for these industries?

Poland is a stable market with no significant warning from any international rating agencies. Moreover, for the first time since end of communist regime we have the same government serving a second term. The crisis that is running through Europe is somehow passing round Poland as both the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and people’s level of life are growing. We have still EU funds in use for programs connected e.g. to innovations and technologies, investments, public infrastructure and education. Moreover, Polish citizens’ level of buying goods is stable or even rising while in some European countries is going down. Polish workers are well known among Europe or even US as good and trustful subcontractors, employees or specialists and managers. Poland has still many institutions or even whole sectors that are not using a professional IT infrastructure. This is one of the reasons for a boom in cloud computing right now. Last but not least – Poland has just finished its EU-Presidency and is now preparing for the EURO 2012 football games. So the international spotlight on our country has been lighted since last July and will probably last till end of football championships.

3. Why should companies from these industries start doing Public Relations in Poland?

Poland’s Public Relations market has quickly adapted to the international standards by implementing new ways of communications, e.g. via all digital channels, and looking for new and effective tools of verifying PR services by its effects. As I said before the market itself is stable so by combining these two factors you can receive good and effective way of communication to build a strong position in Poland and gain customer’s loyalty. Giving an example of such trends I will focus on our business at Planet PR. Last year we have started building a unique PR product that meets the requirements of international PR trends (e.g. AMEC Conference in Barcelona about effectiveness in PR). We could see the first effects of these initiatives as we have received very positive feedback from our clients. This year we will focus on implementing a new brand (Lexplanet) which will fill a significant gap of Litigation PR services in Poland. So by only our example you can see a more and more professional way to provide unique and effective services for companies and to follow new trends in worldwide PR. Moreover, Poland’s PR campaigns can now be seen more often in international PR contest receiving awards not only for creativeness but also for effectiveness.

In The Innovator’s DNA, authors Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen, and Clayton M. Christensen say everyone has the capacity for creativity. After studying psychological tests, they found that the ability to generate ideas is closely related to things people learn and do, and only 20 to 40 percent of performance is genetically based. The key is learning how to change our behaviors and  bring out this innovation. They say ideas occur when people are engaged in the following activities:

1. Associating — Connecting ideas, disciplines, and problems that are seemingly unrelated.

2. Questioning — Playing the devil’s advocate and challenging what most people are saying.

3. Observing — People watching and reading news on a variety of topics.

4. Networking — Talking to people with different views and opinions.

5. Experimenting — Taking apart a product, service, process or idea, then putting it back together. Exploring new activities and learning new skills.

In public relations, creativity is an essential skill needed to implement fresh ideas that will drive growth for our clients. It’s easy to list off five tips that help create ideas, but it’s another thing to actually put these tips into action. At March Communications, we have innovation embedded in our culture. Our office is an open environment (with new yoga balls!) where we’re encouraged to associate, question, observe, network, and experiment on a daily basis. How do you encourage personal creativity, and what do you think makes an innovative company?

*Image via Google Images

This post was first published by Rachel Leamon on March Communications’ blog, PR Nonsense, and may be viewed here.

1. Which industries/markets are booming at the moment in Slovenia?

The market in Slovenia is still recovering from the financial and government crisis and companies, which have strong relations to foreign markets, or they are dealing with new technologies or mobile communications are most successful at the moment. There are e.g. successful IT start-ups, which have managed to gain foreign capital for their development. Traditionally we have strong domestic pharmaceutical companies and national owned banks and insurances. In addition there are innovative companies in the design and technology market, which have managed to build a brand internationally, or had a strong brand even before crisis.

2. What makes Slovenia currently so interesting for this industry?

Slovenia has a very high level of knowledge and expertise in natural sciences; it also offers very prosperous employment opportunities for young people coming from the SE region countries, which have not joined EU yet. So Slovenia offers a good qualitative labor force for a reasonable price in an EU environment. The know-how in IT is also appreciated at the international competitions like the Microsoft’s. Foreign investments are rare because of the restrictive policy of the government until now and depend mostly from the ambitions of the companies which managed to gain foreign investors capital.

3. Why should companies from these industries start doing Public Relations in Slovenia?

I think the companies can profit from investing into public relations as PR specialist can help them to deliver the right content and understanding to all target groups and stakeholders. In that way we can cooperate on different projects for our clients with IT and web experts, experts in mobile applications and design very well. The PR agencies themselves have also strongly reorganized and rebranded to adapt to the digital era and the market challenges. Sustainability development projects and CSR are another area of expertise on which PR agencies will focus and specialize in the next month and years. The more traditional ways of advertising are not as effective any more and companies are looking for new ways to spend their marketing budget more effectively. PR agencies are the ones who can follow trends and educate their clients about creative investment of their money to build customer’s loyalty.

Businessdictionary.com states that PR crisis management is a set of procedures applied in handling, containment, and resolution of an emergency in planned and coordinated steps.

Not all companies are ready for a crisis when it arrives, but when it does, they better hope they have some good PR specialists on board to help them out. It looks like Bed, Bath & Beyond does. A recent article states that some tissue holders distributed to Bed, Bath & Beyond stores were found to be contaminated with radioactive material.

This shipment was sent to 20 states across the U.S. Once Bed, Bath & Beyond found out about this harmful product, they removed it instantly from their shelves and sent it to a “safe location”. That’s the first step in crisis management-react strategically ASAP and get rid of the problem creating the crisis. The next step? Address the consumers/audience with the company’s acknowledgement of the issue and compensate for their troubles:

“Bed, Bath & Beyond Inc. said in a statement Thursday that its Dual Ridge Metal boutique tissue holder has been carried in about 200 of its stores since July. It said it was recalling all of the tissue holders and asking any customers who bought them to return them for a full refund.”

Although it was stated there was no real threat from these tissue holders, this was a great way for the store to handle this PR crisis. Whether or not they had a crisis management plan in place prior to this issue, they still took responsibility and aimed for an obtainable solution. Do you think companies should have a PR crisis management plan set in place, in case sudden problems arise?

This post was first published by Becca Crouse on March Communications’ blog, PR Nonsense, and may be viewed here.

1.Which industries/markets are booming at the moment in Denmark?

There are interesting perspectives for companies exploring possibilities within markets driven by the public sector. Denmark has got one of the relative largest public sectors in the world, and about one third of the total demand is from the public sector. Energy efficiency, welfare technology (e.g. health services, elderly care, education technologies), public-private partnerships are seen to be some of the ways of kick-starting growth again in a country like Denmark, where productivity has been under pressure for some years. The newly elected center-left wing government has stated an increased focus on these areas, setting very ambitious targets for e.g. renewable energy, giving room for sub-suppliers to the well-known energy industries to partner with public organizations in an environmentally very mature market like the Danish.

2.What makes Denmark currently so interesting for these industries?

Denmark has become the ‘wind-hub‘ of the world creating not only jobs and an environmentally right profile (half of Denmark’s traditional electricity consumption must be from wind in 2020) –  the emergence of such a powerful business adventure has made the public as well as politicians very keen on finding the next ‚‘wind-adventure‘. Hence, incentives to test (and pay for) new areas of clean tech are accepted amongst consumers and the industry as a whole. This gives room for developers of smart grids, electrical storage, green local partnerships with municipalities etc. Furthermore, the Danish EU-Presidency from January 2012 will put the spotlight on our nation, even though trying to solve the Euro crisis will probably be in focus.

3.Why should companies from these industries start doing Public Relations in Denmark?

The political agenda has been set, and the necessity to work smarter, more efficiently using less energy to secure Danish jobs and export in the tough times to come has been accepted almost everywhere in society. However foreign business players’ ability to tell their story and prove their business case in public-private partnerships is dependent upon a strong strategic and Public Relations understanding combined with a Public Affairs focus. Add to this the importance of communicating and visualizing the individual and often very specialized ideas, services or products those businesses can provide within these new areas. It takes time for consumers, the media, politicians and other key stakeholders to understand, accept and incorporate these new developments; therefore public affairs and public relations are important.

* The series is based on phone or face-to-face interviews and written input, therefore please excuse language mistakes which might reflect foreign language influences.

Earlier this week, CareerCast released its annual list of the most stressful careers and, once again, for the third straight year, public relations executives were among the top ten. Ranked at number seven, PR professionals are still considered to endure quite a bit of stress on a daily basis, but, the good news is, this is a substantial improvement from the 2011 ranking of number two, but not as “stress-free” as its 2010 ranking of number eight.

The criteria CareerCast used to establish these rankings are listed below:

1. Travel
2. Growth Potential (income divided by 100)
3. Deadlines
4. Working in the public eye
5. Competitiveness
6. Physical demands
7. Environmental conditions
8. Hazards encountered
9. Own life at risk
10. Life of another at risk
11. Meeting the public

The bolded items (travel, deadlines, working in the public eye, competitiveness, and meeting the public) are all typical things associated with the role of a PR professional and apparently are indicative of high stress. According to the Career Cast evaluations for the past three years of PR executives, additional factors that keep PR pros’ stress levels high, include creating and maintaining a positive image with the public for many companies at once, giving presentations and making speeches in front of large crowds, being held accountable for highly visible and tight deadlines, work quickly and creatively to meet those deadlines, and interacting with hostile members of the media.

While the above stress factors may indeed be critical components of the day to day role of a PR exec, there are definite positive elements that come with the job that make the stress seem almost insignificant. For instance, landing a feature on the front page of the Wall Street Journal or securing a speaking slot at CES for your client comes with a true sense of accomplishment – a feeling I would imagine is hard to duplicate in other fields.

Being able to watch your efforts truly impact companies’ success as they take market share away from large, incumbent vendors or become a household name among their target audience is true validation for all the late nights and stressful deadlines. Each day brings its own share of stress and success in the world of public relations, and finding ways to strike a balance between the two keeps us all coming back for more day after day!

Jan von Baumgarten-Ståhlberg from GlobalCom’s partner

After six years of non-socialist rule in Sweden, the country is now fundamentally changed. After decade upon decade of Social democrat governments, something close to a revolution has taken place.

Our finances are in order, at least from a comparative European perspective. We have a state budget in balance and a diminishing national debt. As a result of this, the Swedish krona, which is staying outside of the Eurozone, has increased in value to such an extent that our export industry is starting to suffer. Those that are paid in dollar or euro are paid too little, while products and services that can be invoiced in Swedish krona become too expensive. This is mainly the case for our manufacturing industry and our basic industries of foresting and ore.

New winds are sweeping the nation and this can be considered a revolution also from a communication perspective.

The huge process of change that we have gone through has resulted in a major increase in communication in Sweden; like PR for companies, organizations and authorities, lobbying to politicians, advertising in all kinds of media, the breakthrough of social media and also personal PR for politicians, businessmen  and other high profile players.

The media landscape has changed completely in the last five years. Social media has become an established news channel. Newspapers in print are experiencing declining circulation, while the internet is considered a natural platform for news distribution. At the same time, specialist and trade journals, lifestyle magazines and political papers have increased in number and size. So the trend is going in many different directions and on different levels.

Every summer since 1968, Almedalen in Gotland is the host of a politicians’ week that attracts a growing number of participants each year. In 2011, more than 1 300 seminars were held in seven days in the medieval hanseatic town of Visby.  Most of the seminars had purely political messages to convey – a paradise for lobbyists. And for the first time in history, the Swedish government has appointed a person responsible for communication.

Decentralized Social Media

I don’t need to stress the importance of social media to brands, because it should be obvious by now. However, the way we, as marketing professionals, view social media, is beginning to shift. Rather than a PR or social agency “owning” the management of a client’s social media channels alone, it needs to be a more integrated experience. Several departments (e.g., sales, product development, customer service, etc.) should be collaborating in the social process for it to be truly effective and represent a company accurately. Social media in a silo will become a concept of the past.

More Sophisticated Measurement

Measurement is an increasingly important part of the job that not even the smartest communications professionals always take into consideration. But as clients with budgets big and small are looking more closely at their marketing and PR spends, we must continue to prove ROI if we want a seat at the table. As clients expect more from us, we’ll continue to seek out more effective and sophisticated ways to measure traditional media metrics and social media influence.

Increasing Importance of Mobile Marketing Campaigns

With the proliferation of smartphones and connected devices and the rapid growth of the applications market, it’s important for brands to stay in tune with their customers’ evolving habits. People are using their phones more than ever to help them shop, eat, play and socialize. To stay competitive, brands need to figure out where their customers are and how to engage with them in smart, creative ways because there’s certainly no shortage of competition for consumer mindshare in the mobile space.

I’m sure there are lots more things that we should be tracking as we plan for another exciting year. What are the big topics on your mind for 2012?

This post was first published by Ashley Aruda on March Communications’ blog, PR Nonsense, and may be viewed here.