Charter for Compassion

Today the Charter for Compassion was unveiled to the world. To help raise awareness of this event, we have created a video about what compassion means to Australians. Please show your support for this worthwhile cause by blogging and tweeting!

Can Radian6 be used to prevent suicides and murders?

I’ve been thinking lately that we could potentially use social media monitoring tools to prevent suicides and mass murders. The idea struck me as I was working with some clients on a couple of issues / crisis management projects lately.

In the midst of the hurley burley of crisis mode, a news story caught my eye­. Killer George Sodini went berserk in a Pennsylvania gym and killed three, wounding nine before turning the gun on himself. The thing about it is, he blogged about doing it. That’s when the idea sparked.

So I did some digging

It’s not the first time, that social media was used by a killer or a suicide victim to declare their intentions. With a quick search, I found Paul Zolezzi, a model who declared he was going to kill himself on Facebook and did. More interestingly though, I found Hsu Yu-sheng.

Hsu Yu-sheng

Hsu is a gay and lesbian rights activist in Taiwan, who on August 6 wrote a farewell note on his blog in English. After seeing the note, readers of his blog, launched a full scale effort to save him. Friends and strangers alike, thousands of people banded together, to try to track him down and others posted kind comments to his blog.

Police arrived at Hsu’s place just in time and saved his life.

The idea

We use social media monitoring tools such as Radian6 to listen to conversations on the blogosphere and elsewhere to protect brands. It’s not a stretch to deploy these tools to protect people.

How it would work

1.       Radian6 set up to listen for a list of keywords

2.       Suspect posts are parsed through to a heuristic analysis engine to further determine the sentiment of the post. Radian6 is has a automatic Sentiment engine built in, but we need one that would be tuned to suicidal/homicidal sentiments

3.       Results that come up positive there are alerted to the on duty psychiatrist for an assessment and to alert the relevant authorities

There would be many issues that would have to be dealt with to make the system viable, feasible and workable and even then it would never be a certainty. What it would be is another tool in kitbag to tackle an extremely complex and difficult problem.

Christopher Graves named new CEO of Ogilvy PR Worldwide

NEW YORK, NY, June 11, 2009 – Christopher Graves, President and Regional CEO of Ogilvy Public Relations Asia Pacific, has been appointed global CEO of Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, a global, multi-disciplinary communications leader, succeeding Marcia Silverman who has led the company for seven years.  Marcia will become Chair of Ogilvy PR. Both appointments become effective January 1, 2010.

Since joining Ogilvy PR in 2005, Christopher Graves, 50, has roughly doubled the agency’s size in Asia Pacific, growing the network into the industry leader in the world’s fastest-growing region by any measure, from size, to client roster, to specialist offerings, to awards and accolades.  Under his leadership, Ogilvy PR has seen phenomenal development in scale and creativity across all marketing disciplines.  He has crafted clear goals and made investments to grow the network into the future and built a strong leadership team in Asia Pacific across 15 countries, dominating in major markets such as China and Australia.  Graves collaborates closely with staff and agency leaders around the world and flourishes in the 360-degree marketing communications environment with partner Ogilvy & Mather.

Graves has cultivated relationships with leading such organizations as The World Economic Forum, authored papers and spoken on emerging trends in social media, recession marketing, shifting demographics, and the changing dynamics of influence.  He has also created intellectual properties for Ogilvy PR such as immersive workshops on: crisis management; business model disruption; and effective storytelling for business outcomes.

In making the announcement, Ogilvy & Mather CEO Miles Young, said, “Marcia has done an outstanding job of securing Ogilvy PR’s reputation as a premier, integrated communications agency built on strong client service.  She has earned extraordinary affection inside and outside the business.  Marcia has gathered together a strong and harmonious global management team, and driven new innovations in the critical social media space.  She will be an exceedingly hard act to follow and are delighted that she will become Chair of Ogilvy PR to further develop client relationships and shape the agency’s global strategy.”

Regarding Graves, Young added, “In Chris, we have a successor who will take the work forward with flair and elan.  He is driven by clients and content, and is an embodiment of the pervasive creativity and outward focus which will push Ogilvy PR forward in its resolve to become the best public relations network.  He is truly a citizen of the world; he knows all the issues, and relishes being at the leading most edge, articulating and influencing them.  We are incredibly fortunate to have both Marcia and Chris at the helm of Ogilvy PR.”

Commenting on her successor, Silverman stated, “Chris has an exceptional track record of building business and providing superior client service.  I’m certain he will bring the same focus on quality and success to our global organization.”

The Ogilvy PR and Ogilvy & Mather senior leadership will work to secure a successor to the Asia Pacific regional CEO position of Ogilvy PR between now and the end of 2009.

Graves joined Ogilvy PR in 2005 after 23 years in business news, most recently with Dow Jones and Wall Street Journal.  Chris was one of the founders of Wall Street Journal Television, managing editor of Asia Business News, vice president of news and programming for CNBC Asia, vice president of news and programming for CNBC Europe, managing director of business development (EMEA & Asia) for Dow Jones Consumer Electronic Publishing (WSJ.com) and managing director of Far Eastern Economic Review. Chris’s accolades include an EMMY nomination, the 2007 PR Professional of the Year by PRWeek Asia, as well as a number of awards from Asia PR Awards, The New York Film and Television Festivals and the Asian Television Awards for programming made under his supervision.

Graves graduated from Wesleyan University with a degree in English, and from Phillips Exeter Academy.  He and his wife of 23 years, JoAnn Ward, have two daughters and have resided in Hong Kong since 2002.

F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin

Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment’s  F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin  launched as one of the most highly anticipated  and successful games of the year. Howorth developed an extensive public relations program with a key focus on media relations work included:

• Scheduling media interviews with the game’s developer
• Managing reviews program
• Scheduling promotional giveaways and
• Planning the media event.

The media event was the focus of the media relations campaign by providing pre-release access to the title. We approached specialist gaming media with the offer to meet with Dave Matthews, a leading producer of the project, as well as an opportunity for exclusive game play and a behind-the-scenes look into the game weeks before the scheduled release. Journalists were able to experience the intensity of the F.E.A.R 2:Project Origin and gain a deeper understanding into the game development process.

Howorth worked to secure over 150 pieces of coverage were secured, including:

• A review and interview on Good Game, ABC
• Video reviews and interviews on CNET, My360, MyPS3 and Games.on.net
• Daily coverage on Nova 96.9 radio and online as part of a promotional giveaway.
• Two articles, including a double page spread in Zoo Weekly
• Alpha
• The Sydney Morning Herald
• News.com.au
• Herald Sun
• MX
• iTWire
• Official Playstation Magazine
• Official Xbox Magazine
• Sea FM and syndications across the Macquarie Radio network
• PC Powerplay
• A number of online gaming websites

Insights

F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin was predicted not live up to its predecessor. Although there was much hype around the game’s release, much of this was plagued with issues ranging for naming rights and classification issues to competition from other first-person-shooter releases at the time.  Howorth was able to overcome this and generate media interest in the title through extensive outreach

Summary

Howorth helped to successfully launched F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin by generating enough media interest to secure over 150 pieces of coverage. The fact that coverage continues to surface 3 months after the game’s release is testament to the success of the media outreach plan.