Christopher Graves named new CEO of Ogilvy PR Worldwide
June 14, 2009 by Jonathan Nguyen
Filed under News
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
June 5, 2009 by Jonathan Nguyen
Filed under Case studies, Digital Lifestyle, Featured Content
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.
Steely thought leadership and stakeholder engagement
June 5, 2009 by Lucy Craven
Filed under B2B, Case studies, Featured Content
Steel is strong, yet Australia’s leading steel company, BlueScope Steel, had a less-than-acceptable media presence in vertical industry media. That is before Howorth designed a public relations program built around a thought leadership and stakeholder engagement strategy.
Part of Howorth’s public relations program was a campaign that resulted in over 50 media clippings over a six month period to promote BlueScope’s XLERPLATE®brand.
The importance of this media presence is underlined by key factors:
- All of the coverage was in-depth, rather than merely BlueScope or XLERPLATE® brand ‘mentions’
- The company’s credibility was enhanced through extensive use of technical education and thought leadership articles authored by its staff
- 3rd party endorsement of BlueScope was communicated through the use of case studies, where numerous industry partners and customers were featured and quoted.
Howorth’s public relations campaign successfully enhanced BlueScope’s industry leadership credentials across the vertical industrial sectors of most importance to it: mining, engineering and construction.
Howorth did this by discussing issues of importance to Australia’s steel-using community in the media and value-adding to stakeholders’ knowledge and expertise.
Content generated for media was also used in an upgraded direct mail customer newsletter, which was revamped with stronger, more valuable content. This delivered additional ROI for BlueScope and resulted in an integrated communication program, leading to a more pronounced impact on stakeholders than would have otherwise occurred.
The content was customised to users’ interests, adopted a hard-nosed journalistic approach and featured the perspectives of multiple stakeholders.
As such, the newsletter had more of an industry, as opposed to a purely BlueScope-oriented, perspective. This embracing of different perspectives and partnering with different stakeholders reinforced BlueScope’s collaborative approach to business and its inherent importance and value to the industries it is involved in.
Content developed for the newsletter was of such a high standard that the media embraced and used the copy. Examples of publications that featured coverage were Manufacturer’s Monthly, Mining Monthly, Materials Australia and Building Contractor. Other examples of media coverage included:
The campaign has generated a considerable degree of momentum with the media’s appetite for BlueScope content being stimulated and stakeholder awareness and advocacy on the rise.
