Open Road

Hot Topic: ‘Digital Britain’

March 11th 2009

The Question Will plans for ‘next-generation’ broadband trigger a lobbying bonanza?

Lord Carter’s Digital Britain interim report, launched at a Downing Street reception, outlined plans for the government to make broadband ubiquitous across the UK (among other targets). We asked four consultancies to explore the PA territory surrounding the report

Martin Le Jeune: Director, Open Road

Stephen Carter has breathed life into the ‘digital Britain’ agenda. After his rather unhappy time at Number 10, he has taken on his ministerial role with something to prove. The Digital Britain report was, however, unsatisfactory. It was criticised for its lack of clear decisions, although that could be excused – it was an interim report. More curiously, it failed to demonstrate any clarity about the opportunities and risks of major public-sector investment in next-generation networks.
This can be attributed to an unresolved dilemma within government.
Major public spending on superfast networks is not yet accepted among ministers. The Caio Report concluded that ‘in the short term the case for a major government intervention [in next generation access] is weak’. Although both Caio and Digital Britain dressed up that conclusion in a variety of ways, talking about government leadership and co-ordination, the role of Ofcom and other platitudes, the lack of substance was patent.
That picture may have changed. The downturn has shifted debate about public expenditure – not for the better, if you are sceptical about the return on investment generally secured. But companies and individuals who prefer a market solution to comms issues need to lobby hard now to demonstrate the progress that has been made through competition and innovation. They have a chance to keep the government on the straight and narrow if they do.
Martin Le Jeune’s clients at Open Road include Orange and Sky.

PR Week Thought Leadership Article, Public Affairs - A new tone for new times?

March 2nd 2009

Different messages and sensitivity are the keys to influencing policy-makers in the slump

Bank bail outs, nationalisations, wildcat strikes, recession and cash for amendments - at a time of exceptional economic and political turbulence is it time for a different approach to public affairs?

With the UK in the deepest recession since the early 80s and the financial markets in unprecedented turmoil, 2009 will be hugely challenging year for all sectors of the economy.

Politics is every bit as volatile as economics.  The UK is at a political turning point, with the prospect of an election that could be the closest since those of 1992 or 1974.  The EU will see a new European parliament in June and a new European Commission in November.  As for the US, well one or two changes have arrived there too.

In these times, some things have to be done differently.

As a business, it is no good any more relying on your size and financial strength to guarantee that policy makers will take you seriously.  Not when the likes of Lehman, Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, Bank of America, AIG, RBS, HBOS and the giants of the US auto industry have either been bailed out by governments or rescued by others.

You also have to get the tone of your broader communications right for your public affairs to be effective.  The most extreme example of getting this wrong was the CEOs of America’s big three car makers flying to Washington in their private jets to plead for a bail out.  They were sent packing by Congress and returned driving small hybrid cars.  The medium can be the message and the message has to be right for troubled times.

Corporate responsibility has to remain at the core of companies’ DNA.  A lot of people have suggested that CSR will wither in the recession.  They’re badly wrong.  CSR budgets will come under pressure as will every heading of expenditure.  But now more than ever when companies and financial institutions are being blamed for the current crisis, sound businesses need to remind government and the public that they are a force for good.

Corporate responsibility will be crucial in a range of other ways, and without it, companies will not be taken seriously by policy makers.  When customers are struggling to pay their bills and their mortgages, sensitivity about arrears and about packages for vulnerable groups are particularly important.  Similarly, environmental responsibility will save companies money through energy efficiency savings and provide new business opportunities through green products and services.  And if your corporate commitment to the environment is junked at the sign of the first economic downturn, nobody will believe your commitments in the future.

The recession means that Government and Opposition are particularly attuned to the needs of business and of employers to survive and avoid unnecessary job losses.  A range of sectors – not just business, as this applies to the public and voluntary sectors too - are making the case for sensible reforms to reduce burdens on them to help them make it through.

With the political position in such flux, engaging effectively with the Opposition as well as the Government has never been more crucial.  Labour will respond to every major Tory (and to a lesser extent lib Dem) initiative.  They will either reject and attack them, or – and this is now increasingly likely – they will steal them and claim them as their own.  Paradoxically, persuading the Opposition may lead to your ideas becoming Government policy more quickly than solely trying to persuade the Government.

So, are exceptional measures and a new approach to public affairs required?

Yes and no.  A new tone, new messages and sensitivity are required.  But all the same principles of effective public affairs still apply: building your credibility; building coalitions; campaigning imaginatively both offline and online; developing a strong evidence supported by independent third parties; stressing the broader public benefit; being sensitive to the context and agenda of government; and, now more than ever, conducting your public affairs ethically and responsibly.

Views in Brief

Name one little-known MP who you believe will become influential. Why?

Two prospective parliamentary candidates in safe seats. Chuka Umunna, in Streatham for Labour and Shaun Bailey in Hammersmith for the Tories. Chuka is articulate and well-liked. Shaun is close to Cameron and good on social policy.

Your yacht is morred off Corfu but Mandelson, Osborne, Rothschild and Deripaska aren’t available. Who is on your fantasy guest list?

Barack Obama, Ken Clarke, Vladimir Putin, Lucy Kellaway, George Soros, Martin Wolf, Joe Klein, Nicolas Sarkozy and of course Keira Knightley.

By Graham McMillan, chief executive of Open Road Feb 2009

Will the government act?

February 16th 2009

How seriously will the government take the recommendations in the PASC report? Ian Hall asks the question on everyone’s lips

When the long-awaited lobbying report was released by the public administration select committee (PASC) on 5 January, it set the clock ticking for the government to respond.
The department responsible for cross-government policy on lobbying is the Cabinet Office, and Tom Watson, a minister there, is leading on the report. He has said in his regular PAN column that he plans to let his Labour MP colleague Tony Wright and the rest of the PASC know what the government plans to do within two months. Watson intends to report back to the committee before anyone else gets a sniff of what the government thinks of it.

The killer question
Select committee reports are churned out regularly in Westminster – some gather dust, rarely to be heard of again, while others’ recommendations are embraced wholeheartedly, and implemented, by the government of the day.
Alex Bigg, UK public affairs MD at global public relations firm Edelman, explains: “Throughout Whitehall one can imagine piles of select committee reports gathering dust. But that measure of a select committee’s influence is, to many intents and purposes, false. Where they do play a significant role – one that can lead to policy change – is in choosing high-profile issues to investigate, which then generate significant media coverage.”
Bigg cites inquiries into the Rural Payments Agency, and the fiasco over Standard Assessment Tests (SATs) in schools, as two examples of where a committee’s determination to shine a light on bureaucratic incompetence led to action.
The killer question for public affairs professionals is: where does PASC’s lobbying report fit? Most of those canvassed for this article believe the bulk of the report (but not all of it) is towards the ‘gathering dust’ end of the spectrum, although a minority disagree. Alex Challoner of the consultancy Cavendish Communications is one such dissenter from the majority view, saying: “Select committee report recommendations tend to be implemented if they are easy to implement and non-controversial. PASC’s recommendations are fairly neutral in terms of politics and easily implemented, so I think they will be implemented.”
And Tim Fallon, who oversees the UK public affairs team at global PR giant Hill & Knowlton, points out: “A surefire way to prompt action is to publicly claim ‘it’ll never happen’ or ‘it’ll gather dust’!”

Manifesto commitments likely
Few lobbyists know the ins and outs of parliamentary procedure as well as Lionel Zetter, author of the recently published book Lobbying: The Art of Political Persuasion, who tells PAN: “Select committees have no power – only influence.
Despite the fact that they have an in-built government party majority, their recommendations are often in conflict with government policies – and priorities. In fact, select committees are simply lobbyists, seeking to inform and influence the agenda of government, but with no real power to do so.”
Asked how seriously he feels the PASC report into lobbying could be taken, Zetter says: “I don’t think that there is time in this Parliament to introduce a ‘Regulation of the Lobbying Industry Bill’ and push it through, even if the current government is minded to do so. Nor do I think that the recommendation that contacts between lobbyists and politicians and civil servants should be noted and minuted will ever be implemented, because they are impracticable.”
But he warns: “I think that it is quite likely that proposals to regulate lobbying will appear in all three of the main parties’ manifestos – in which case, statutory regulation is now pretty well inevitable in the next Parliament. Like most people in the industry I do not believe that there is a real problem, but if the people who we are trying to lobby – MPs – think that there is a problem, then there is indeed a problem.”
Graham McMillan of the public affairs and comms consultancy Open Road agrees with the consensus that – as recommended in one of the report’s less controversial passages – imminent reform of the advisory committee on business appointments (Acoba) is likely, as well as action on the ‘revolving door’ between politics and business. He adds that last month’s scandal in the Lords means that reform there is “almost certain”.
But in respect of the PASC report, McMillan cautions: “I don’t think the government will want to use political capital in forcing a new regulator and a new
code when the widespread view persists that there isn’t much of a problem here to require such a big and costly solution.”
Placing the PASC lobbying report in the context of other inquiries, he says: “There are a huge number of select committee reports produced and in many cases the government fobs them off with a long list of what the government is already doing on a given subject and says it will ‘consider’ the other recommendations.
“The exceptions to this are when you have a powerful select committee chairman who is well-connected and supported in government – for example, John McFall of the Treasury select committee. Then people really do listen to what the report has to say and some reports are really important in shaping policy.”
‘Not very topical’
Jon McLeod, chairman of UK corporate communications and public affairs at Weber Shandwick, questions whether the political climate is ripe for getting genuinely stuck in to implementing PASC’s suggested reforms. He says: “Tom Watson is very politically astute, I’m not sure he would see any political advantage in committing time to this. There is no clear benefit to either party in committing to any reform of lobbying. I don’t think lobbying is a hot political issue – unlike in the US.
“The inquiry itself was a bit slow, not very topical and seemed to be rather low priority. The recent issues in the Lords are a matter of Peers’ conduct rather than that of lobbyists.”
Pete Digger, head of government relations and external affairs at AstraZeneca, partly shares McLeod’s view, saying: “One got the impression that this was not a high-priority inquiry given the length of time and lack of urgency that surrounded it. The recent reports regarding the Lords may change this. Labour will be keen to nip in the bud the sort of sleaze allegations that engulfed John Major’s administration and may now legislate rapidly. We will also be looking for a sensible industry response.”
Local Government Information Unit (LGiU) chief executive Andy Sawford, who describes the report as “drawing bold conclusions based on a fairly flawed process”, says: “The minister [Tom Watson] will have to be persuaded that this is the right way forward. And then, in terms of legislation, the leader of the House and the chief whip would have to be persuaded that this is more important than, say, criminal justice reform or legislation that aids economic recovery. I think that is unlikely, although the recent allegations surrounding members of the House of Lords has created a fresh impetus for the debate, and will heighten media interest in lobbying for the foreseeable future.”
Sawford continues: “My instinct, though, is that ministers will take a ‘holding position’ on the report, either just saying that the issues it raises will be ‘kept under review’, or announcing further consultation.”
Hill & Knowlton’s Fallon has a similar opinion. He says: “I am fairly sceptical about either a full implementation of the report, or a speedy one. There are too many other issues happening in the world that need attention. I don’t think we’re [lobbyists] that important – despite the protestations of certain industry representatives.”
He adds: “I guess the only bit that might have more immediate resonance with legislators is the ‘revolving doors’ issue, particularly regarding ex-ministers – for ‘public consumption’, this is the one that will do most to paint a picture of greater transparency.”

Recession is the priority
So, many do not seem to believe the more radical suggestions in the report – for example, the suggestion that all minutes of meetings between lobbyists and the lobbied are made publicly available – will be implemented any time soon.
As was the case throughout the 18-month inquiry, most lobbyists continue to be much more concerned about the dreadful state of the economy and getting on with their day-to-day work than with fallout from the PASC inquiry.
The consensus is that the government will be, too. As Edelman’s Bigg argues: “With the UK facing its worst recession in a generation, it is hard to believe that this report – which came nowhere near to finding a smoking gun –will jump to the top of the government’s in-tray.”
Open Road’s McMillan agrees, concluding: “The overwhelming thrust of government policy this year will be dealing with the recession. One of the problems with this report is that it doesn’t fall into this category. But we shall wait and see, as there could be further surprises yet.”

IAN HALL

Bookie signs Open Road

February 3rd 2009

Bookmaker William Hill has hired Open Road to provide public affairs and strategic communications support.

The agency will work on a retained basis to educate politicians, officials and opinion-formers about the betting business. It will seek to position the industry as dynamic and innovative, while improving understanding of William Hill as a business.

It is thought William Hill did not hold a competitive pitch. The firm’s chief executive Ralph Topping said: ‘We look forward to working with Open Road to challenge the perception of our industry, and demonstrate the contribution we make to life in the UK.’

Rival firm Ladbrokes uses Bell Pottinger Public Affairs.

COI’s new breed

January 20th 2009

The recession clearly has not hit the Central Office of Information yet, with more agencies than ever on the roster. Matt Cartmell profiles some of the newcomers…

If the Central Office of Information (COI)’s latest framework is anything to go by, the Government is not planning to cut PR in 2009. With 89 agencies on the new roster compared with just 29 on the initial 2004 framework, there are enough new faces to confuse even the most knowledgeable of public sector PR professionals.

The COI oversees the outsourcing of more than 100 PR campaigns a year on behalf of government departments, and the framework is the COI’s way of managing this onerous task.

The reason for the expansion is the 2006 Public Contract Regulations that insist all suppliers are invited to compete for each piece of business. The new framework has been divided into lots to meet these requirements.

But with such a huge list, there are some agencies included that are relative unknowns in the public sector.

Here is PRWeek’s guide to some of the new faces…

Company Iris PR
Head office London
Who’s in charge? Bill McIntyre and Nick Porter (right), joint managing directors

A small agency capable of running high-profile and diverse consumer campaigns, Iris PR provides news generation, launches and stunts, experiential PR, digital and sponsorship exploitation, along with the usual media relations and press office, promotions and competitions.

Notable clients include Home Retail Group (owner of Argos), DBA (makers of Wonderbra), Finlandia Vodka and the
Movember charity.

Iris PR has grown up within a marcoms group so can offer an integrated approach through its sister agencies in digital, experiential, sponsorship, direct and above-the-line disciplines.

Company Livity
Head office London
Who’s in charge? Sam Conniff and Michelle Clothier, co-founders

Livity calls itself a ‘youth communications agency with a conscience’, specialising in responsible youth-focused campaigns and content. It has a track record of engaging with young people on key issues. Clients include Teenage Cancer Trust, BBC, Lambeth Youth Service, NSPCC, National Blood Service, ChildLine, Penguin Books and the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

Livity Group also includes LIVE Futures, which publishes London’s most widely read youth-run publication, LIVE magazine, run by young people. There is also the Livity Trust, a charitable trust with the purpose of supporting young people in getting into work or education.

Company ManBitesDog
Head office Brighton
Who’s in charge? Claire Mason, managing director

ManBitesDog focuses on business-to-business and government-to-business PR, delivering thought-leadership campaigns targeting everything from micro-businesses to major corporates.

Typical audiences range from entrepreneurs to CEOs, CFOs and HR directors of FTSE 100 companies across a range of industry sectors.

ManBitesDog is also known for robust research and white papers aimed at engaging entrepreneurs and board-level decision makers.

Notable clients include WEConnect, a government-backed initiative to connect female entrepreneurs with corporate contract opportunities, plus non-public sector clients BT and Adobe.

The agency has delivered a number of campaigns to promote high-growth entrepreneurship and female entrepreneurship.

‘We also have very strong experience in promoting clients in sectors including business advisory, leadership, learning and skills,’ says Mason.

Company Mission 21
Head office London
Who’s in charge? Richard Knight, founder and creative director

The 24-strong agency, which specialises in bringing science and engineering to the masses, works for clients such as the Science Museum, London, the agency’s founding client. Other clients include the Bloodhound SSC land speed record and English Heritage.

‘We specialise in inspiring young people to get into science and engineering,’ says Knight.

‘We like to do unlikely work for serious organisations to reach a wide audience.’

The agency specialises in creating integrated programmes combining content creation, media relations, online marketing, film and event production.

The eight-year-old agency includes marketing, PR and promotions experts, film directors, TV news editors, authors, publishers, journalists, magazine editors and teachers.

Company Open Road
Head office London
Who’s in charge? Graham McMillan, chief executive

Founded in 2007, Open Road provides strategic comms, crisis management and media relations and internal comms, along with the public affairs work for which it is more commonly known.

Open Road is in the environment ‘lot’ of the COI roster, which the agency puts down to its specialism in stakeholder relations, providing focused campaigns to local communities, media and local government.

Notable clients include Royal Mail, Orange, BAE Systems, BPI and HSBC.

McMillan is a former head of public affairs at Fishburn Hedges, which was awarded Best UK Con-sultancy at the Public Affairs News Awards 2005 under his tenure.

Company Pegasus PR
Head office Worthing, West Sussex
Who’s in charge? Lisa Bradley, managing director

This agency covers healthcare with a consumer focus, and notable clients include Thornton & Ross, Sanofi Aventis and Holland & Barrett. Pegasus calls itself a comms agency that focuses on what ‘inspires consumers to make healthy decisions’. Pegasus offers a mix of consumer media relations, key opinion leader campaigns, social media programmes and creative campaigns.

Pegasus’ staff are a mixture of PR consultants, journalists, brand consultants, and digital experts. Associate director Simon Hackett said: ‘We are one of the top agencies for natural healthcare and reputation management in this area.’

Company Resource Futures
Head office Bristol
Who’s in charge? Jane Stephenson, CEO

Based in Bristol and Leeds, this agency focuses on sustainability, waste and recycling, covering everything from the development of comms campaigns, research and community engagement, down to providing kerbside collections for clients.

Clients include the Department forEnvironment, Food and Rural Affairs, for which it has delivered waste management and recycling projects to local authorities throughout England. Also, the agency delivered a resource efficiency campaign for the East Midlands Development Agency, targeting small and medium-sized enterprises.

Resource Futures is rostered to a number of Waste Resources Action Programme frameworks, working on communication, training, technical waste and monitoring/evaluation projects.
Company Vero Communications
Location of head office London
Who’s in charge Mike Lee, CEO

Vero was established in January 2006 by Mike Lee OBE, former director of comms and public affairs for London’s successful 2012 Olympic bid and a stalwart of top-level sports-related comms. Vero specialises in campaign comms and planning, media relations, brand narrative development, bid campaigns, stakeholder engagement and profile enhancement for organisations in the business of sport.

Vero’s clients include businesses that want to use sport and the 2012 landscape to help enhance their brand, domestic and international sport federations that want to develop their profile, and cities and countries bidding to host major events. These include Rio 2016, the International Paralympic Committee, Liverpool Football Club and VisitBritain.