Weber Shandwick leads from front in fast-moving market, says its chief

Disrupted by the wave of digital transformation coursing through industry, gone are the days when public relations professionals could solely focus on helping a client navigate a steady course within a predictable set of known business challenges.

But Andy Polansky, chief executive officer of Weber Shandwick, said his profession has never been needed more — or held in higher regard — and for very good reason.

Marketers nowadays face a dazzling pace of change and ever-shifting and variable situations, where a single tweet can easily threaten a business reputation that’s been decades in the making. But it is such uncertainty that makes offering solutions and strategic advice for brands more valuable than ever before.

With a history of 20 years in China, Weber Shandwick does not position itself as a traditional PR firm, distributing press releases and organizing media conferences. Polansky said it is instead a combination of designers, strategists, conversation-starters and storytellers, enabling homegrown brands and multinational corporations to grow a business or establish an international presence in the digital age.

Helping to serve the Olympics project in Beijing and the World Expo in Shanghai, Polansky’s team knows intimately the complex dynamics of the Chinese market. He is launching what he says are some of the group’s most pioneering programs in China before rolling them out to other markets.

The following are edited excerpts of the interview with Polansky:

What do you see as the major changes of the PR industry today?

First of all, social media is becoming a more serious business. The days of simply using it as a general content and conversational channel are over. But rather, platforms are a means to material ends, shifting coverage agendas, breaking news, micro-targeting ads, etc.

Second, brands lacking a business-driven, digital content strategy, and the data driven operations behind it will stumble, losing out to their competitors.

What are the emerging trends among Chinese brands on the PR front?

One thing for sure is that mobile will continue to drive plenty of conversation and investment. China is at the forefront of the whole mobile transformation, so there have been demands for multi-platform campaigns. So we coined a term called 3C: establish content suitable for mobile platforms, identify the right community to engage with them and then close what we call the commerce loop.

For instance, we helped a coffee brand establish a presence in China, not through traditional advertising. We opened a WeChat store first. We add creative content through the WeChat posts and build a strong fan base, so that when they think of buying coffee machines they can think of the brand and shop online.

What are the initiatives you first created in China and then used for the rest of the world?

Apart from 3C we also unveiled a key opinion leader network called Kloud, an influencer management tool, first in China, to engage leaders in the digital landscape. It’s an in-house database of around 20,000 key opinion leaders.

With millions of social media followers in China and around the world, many Chinese influencers wield enormous power in the market. Yet brands in China have found it challenging to manage the large number of influencers in varied categories in a strategic, concerted way.

So we created this influencer engagement tool that assists organizations overcome this challenge, by identifying and tapping into relevant key opinion leaders, and using big data to spot passion points, topics, and trends as they emerge.

Andy Polansky,

What is your competitive edge over your rivals?

Our strategy is to be a highperforming company and win market share, and that’s not just within the realms of traditional public relations companies. I see Weber Shandwick CV

Age: Nationality: Career:

as a major player in the broader marketing services industry. So we are thinking about digital and social media and look for opportunities to extend beyond the public relations sector.

Another strength we have is deep specialization. If you look at different industry sectors — like healthcare, technology, financial services — what

2012 onwards: Global CEO of Weber Shandwick

2004 – 12: Global President of Weber Shandwick

2001 – 04: President, North America of Weber Shandwick and Chair, Global Practices

1998 – 2001: President, North America of BSMG Worldwide

1983 – 98: General manager/other leadership positions at Bozell PR and Bozell Sawyer Miller Group

1982-83: Business writer for the Princeton Packet in Princeton, New Jersey

1981-82: Part-time municipal reporter for the Bucks County

makes our business distinctive is that we have people who come from these industries. We have PhDs from the pharmaceutical industry, we have people who were working for