Much of this traces back to the current spat over net neutrality working through the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington D.C.   In August of 2008, the FCC dinged Comcast for their policy of bandwidth throttling.  In essence this is the practice of allowing certain content to flow freely from the source to the customer, while other content is given a lower priority and the delivery is slowed.  While this action by the FCC was, at the time, heralded as the pillar for the future fair-use of the internet, it seems now that it may have been outside the commission’s jurisdiction to make such a ruling.

This has further implications with the announcement last December that Comcast would eventually gain control of NBC Universal from GE. With their history of bandwidth abuse, it is sure to cause some concern as the Department of Justice review’s the deal.  Comcast will now own the pipes, the access, the content, and may have a free pass from the Court of Appeals to monitor and throttle content on their network as they see fit.  This is a dangerous amount of control especially given their other transgressions in cable TV.

As content continues its migration online from traditional outlets, companies like Comcast and Time Warner will be able to turn their customers into captive audiences delivering their own content faster than the competitions. If you’re ISP is Time Warner then perhaps the connection to NBC’s website will be suddenly slowed or USA Network will start appearing in the high hundreds on your TV dial. Meanwhile, Comcast Triple Play subscribers may find their access to HBO.com come to a crawl.

An alternative Orwellian vision of the future may include marketing partnerships that are priced for preferential treatment.  Advertising blocks purchased in packages across multiple networks and properties would include prioritized delivery as well.  Where advertisers used to wield power over the content of shows, the new paradigm may shift to seeing the networks penalize marketers for such maneuvers by blocking consumer access to product sites or network ads.

Although the future for the consumer does not have to be so bleak, there is certainly one important take away; buyer beware. It’s no longer enough to hold trust in access providers that all content is created, and delivered, equal.  And while the war being fought over the 1^st & 2^nd screens may look to be drawing to a close, the battle for the 3^rd screen is only getting started.

Libeskind‘s latest work, Zlota 44, represents a new direction for high-rise residential living in Poland. The spectacular 192 meter tall luxury residential building is being erected in the very heart of Warsaw and will give Warsaw a unique skyline profile. The design includes advanced and ecologically friendly solutions, which will offer energy and water savings.

The debate (in English) will take place on January 28 at 2pm EST/8pm CET and will be livestreamed from Daniel Libeskind Studio in NYC to Hard Rock Café in Warsaw (situated right in front of the Zlota 44 building). Besides Zlota 44, the debate will center on the further development of public space in Warsaw and Libeskind‘s vision on architecture.

To follow and participate in the online debate, visit www.live4space.com on January 28! You are also welcome to add questions beforehand on the live4space Facebook Page.

The tour kicked off on January 11 in San Francisco. The “whos who” of social media and many Bay Area supporters joined in the fun. (Thanks to @photo for capturing the event from behind the lens.)

Ben Parr, Co-Editor for Mashable said it best, “I had a great time reconnecting with old friends and meeting some new ones. This is exactly what SXSW is all about.” Maya Gura, co-founder and Vice President of Community Marketing at The Gifts Project, will get the opportunity to make new friends in Austin this year, as she was the San Francisco winner of the SXSW Interactive registration that was given away. SXSW had some great things to say about the event as well.

Boston hosted the second party on January 18th and despite the cold weather, there was a great turn out. Katie Keen was the lucky winner at Lucky’s in Boston. Make sure to look for her at SXSWi in Austin. SXSW showed some love to Boston in their recap post as well.

We’ve had 2 successful events and have a few more on the schedule. Make sure to register for your city’s event soon – registrations are filling up fast! You won’t want to miss these great celebrations and get psyched for good times in Austin in March!

Los Angles-Monday, January 25

7-9 pm at The Griffin/3000 Los Feliz Blvd. Los Angeles

Register by Jan 22 on Facebook http://bit.ly/4sDElf or here http://ow.ly/W9YK.

New York-Monday, February 1

7-9 pm at The Hifi/169 Ave A, Manhattan

Register by Jan 29 on Facebook http://bit.ly/8iUCVv or here http://ow.ly/WaHQ .

Atlanta-Monday, February 8

More details to come. Stay tuned!

Chicago-Monday, February 15

More details to come. Stay tuned!

Austin-Monday, February 22

More details to come. Stay tuned!

The team at drop.io are some of the smartest entrepreneurs I know. For those of you that don’t know about drop.io, here’s a quick briefing: Their platform enables users to shares files online like documents, presentations, and videos, which are often too big to send in an email.  Using their service is as simple as going to the drop.io website, uploading your file attachment (no registration is required), and sending the custom link or “drop” to the recipient of your choice. They know how to solve problems and they do it with style.

When Steve Greenwood, VP of Business Development, and Sam Lessin, Drop.io’s CEO, came to me to discuss their new product, PressLift, I knew their problem-solving skills were at work again.  Their team came across some revealing statistics:

• 90% of PR professionals see value in including multi-media with a standard press release.
• 90% of journalists say it’s important to access multi-media easily.
• Only 10% of press releases contain multi-media because it is IT-intensive, expensive, and frustrating to upload.

Based on this information, the drop.io team developed PressLift, a multi-media sharing service that caters to communications professionals, journalists and bloggers.  With PressLift, users can rely on traditional news release formats like word documents, but enhance them with complementary multi-media files that are stored and shared in a “PressLift”.  Other key features include measuring and tracking, search engine optimization, embargo period functionality, and FTC guideline compliance.

In the coming months, we’ll be using PressLift to share news about @porternovelli activities (including the upcoming SXSW conference), as well as product information from the many clients we serve. For more information about PressLift, read the official announcement and follow them on Twitter @PressLift.

By John Orme

Partner and Executive Vice President, Porter Novelli China

President of Porter Novelli partner agency Shunya International

Next time you find yourself facing slide 42 of a really boring PowerPoint presentation, here’s something to think about: try to remember the date, the place and the look on the face of the last person who triumphantly stated: “…and our strategy is ‘Think global, act local!’” You may even have heard it just earlier in the presentation, or it may be coming up soon.  Worse still, Heaven forbid, you yourself may the person who said it most recently.

So let me break this to you brutally: the ‘TGAL’ concept has had its day, it’s way past its ‘use by’ date.  In fact, after many years of struggling with it I can say categorically that it should NEVER have even seen the light of day in the first place. It has always put the emphasis the wrong way around. It has seduced people into thinking that the world could suddenly transform itself into a single, coherent global market with local variations.  Experience has proved this to be nonsense. In too many cases, this flawed logic drove multinationals to attempt to force ‘one size fits all’ strategies into a patchwork of markets with different cultural, social and economic drivers, inevitably leading to dismal conclusions.

TGAL has led to years of wasted resources and off-the-scale frustration for legions of sales, marketing and communications teams in worthy, well-intentioned companies. Great products have been shoe-horned into markets where they never stood a chance of fitting.  Corporate reputations have been woefully damaged in countries where they could have brought great benefit.

Sometimes my working life feels as if it’s been a mission to save business from the folly of TGAL. Ten years ago, together with Porter Novelli colleagues in Europe, we worked hard at turning it into something more relevant and helpful.  We held to the principle that local planning based on a deep understanding of the market voice should always drive business strategy.  Fitting it all together, we developed a process of ‘Plan Local, Aggregate Global, Act Local,’ or PLAGAL if you will.

PLAGAL means starting by generating local market insights and knowledge.  These can then lead to national, sometimes regional, strategies that are relevant and effective. This is how impact and breakthrough are created. The ‘Aggregate Global’ element is primarily about looking for efficiencies: ensuring that commonalities are optimized by sharing best practices, templates, tool kits and other resource-saving techniques, ensuring that overlaps and wastage are stripped out of collective plans.

After working in China for the past two years, two factors have convinced me more than ever that the logic of PLAGAL is sound, but it needs to be updated.

First, China really forces you to think about distance, diversity, commonality and individuality.  It’s one country but it has more than 50 different ethnic groups spread across a land mass the size of an average continent.  A single time system spans what should be about eight normal time zones.  There’s one written language but many mutually-incomprehensible dialects using it. Marketing and media planners are driven crazy by the proliferation of consumer demographic patterns and sub-segments shaped by infrastructure and terrain as much as by culture and disposable income.

The second factor is the extraordinary way in which digital and mobile technologies have infiltrated and transformed the life of many Chinese - certainly most of the relatively affluent Chinese that international marketers care about. As with most Chinese phenomena, the statistics are mind-boggling. China has already overtaken the U.S. for the number of people online, with more than 200 million Chinese ‘netizens’. Yet even now Internet penetration in China is only around 20 percent of the total population. That means a lot more would-be consumers are still yearning to sit in front of persuasive screens.

Now put those two factors together – a highly diverse nation embracing interactive communications technologies with a phenomenal and rapidly adaptive appetite. What do you get? Perhaps surprisingly for a Communist state, you get the rise of individuals: individual consumers with 3G mobile phones and laptops with broadband access. Unless marketers can really get their heads into the lives, motivation, ambitions, influencers and behavioural triggers that shape these individuals who defy normal demographic segmentation, they will continue to shoot wide of the target. Personal is the new local.

Enlightened, persistent marketers such as P&G tend to get it, and spend much time and effort working out how to reach and talk to individual mothers in a Tier 4 town (deep in China’s central and western hinterland) who still wash the family’s clothes on a rock in a stream. They know their brands have to be about access and availability as well as product performance and consumer benefits.

So please forget the dreaded ‘Thing global, act local’. Even our clumsy ‘Plan local, aggregate global, act local’ is out of date. The new thinking must start ‘Plan Personal……’

By Barbara DeBuono, M.D., MPH

Chief Medical Officer

Global Director, Public Health and Social Marketing

Porter Novelli

Over the past several months, I have watched the health reform debate descend into confusion, miscommunication and dysfunction—often the very words patients use to describe the health care system itself. This relationship is often fueled by low health literacy and a failure of the health system, health providers and insurers to effectively communicate with patients. I am convinced that low health literacy is now systemic and has morphed into low health reform literacy.  It has spread out from the nation’s patient-provider encounters to this summer’s town hall meetings, all the way to the floors of Congress and the White House. At nearly all levels of interaction, low health literacy is pervasive and so is low health reform literacy.

What exactly is health literacy? It is the ability to read, understand, internalize and act on health information in one’s own best interest. Low health literacy impairs a patient’s ability to follow a doctor’s instructions, manage a chronic illness and adhere to medication as directed. According to the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL), almost 45 percent of the United States population—93 million Americans—have only basic or below basic literacy skills. “Below basic” is defined as the ability to perform only the simplest acts of literacy—signing a form, adding amounts on a bank deposit slip or searching a simple text for instructions. “Basic” is categorized as the ability to perform everyday activities like using a TV guide, comparing ticket prices for two events or reading and understanding the information in a pamphlet.

Patients with low health literacy are hospitalized for two days longer on average, their HgA1Cs (the measure used to gauge adequate diabetes control in a patient) are higher, their blood pressures are more often poorly managed and most importantly, they lack the skills needed to navigate a health care system in which the majority of information is written at a 12^th grade reading level. Low health literacy pervades all race, education and class lines and adds tens of billions of dollars each year to health care costs.

This now applies to the health reform discussion. A lack of understanding and clear communication of basic issues—metastasized by politics, special interests, the 24-hour news cycle and genuine fear and pain—has fueled illogical and at times irrational behavior. Citizens take to the streets to question or confront political representatives, many fighting for or against things they can’t even define. What is a mandate? What is a public option—and how is it different from single-payer, or health co-ops? How does the system we have in the United States compare with Canada, much less Switzerland, the UK or Australia? To complicate matters even more, the majority of Americans are getting their information from increasingly sensational television coverage, opinion-driven talk radio and neighbors and colleagues who don’t understand the reform options either. Low health reform literacy is threatening to derail the much-needed overhaul of a health care system that leaves millions of Americans with no health coverage, at risk of bankruptcy and economic ruin, and millions more feeling dissatisfied with the coverage they have and are terrified to lose, no matter how poorly it works for them.

But just as low health literacy is not the sole responsibility of the patient, blame for low health reform literacy cannot be laid solely at the feet of a frustrated public. Congressional and White House leaders, like many health professionals, have done a poor job explaining what the problem is, what we need to do and why. Bitterly divided along partisan lines, our political representatives are intensifying low health reform literacy. They have allowed the very real and very necessary conversation about health reform in America to get obliterated by culture war issues and political grandstanding.

There is a “rule of three” in health literacy circles. A focus on three messages, clearly articulated in a culturally and linguistically sensitive way, has proven effective at fostering an understanding of complex health information and ensuring action. As a physician, I have seen this simple strategy do wonders to raise health literacy on the patient level. I believe it can also be applied to the health reform debate to get it back on track.

By encouraging patients to diligently ask the following three questions, I have seen dramatic improvements in the way they manage their own care: What is the main problem? What do I need to do? Why should I do it? Imagine if we asked these three basic questions about health reform at the town halls, congressional debates and press conferences that are devoted to this topic.

What is the problem we are trying to solve?  Lack of access to affordable insurance, high insurance premiums with substandard coverage, runaway costs and cost ineffectiveness? What are the solutions? State-based insurance purchasing pools, a government-run single-payer system, national regulatory standards for state-administered insurance? Why is this important? Here there is no question: millions of uninsured and underinsured Americans, skyrocketing co-pays and deductibles, lack of portability, pre-existing conditions and an erosion of trust in a confusing system that’s not really a system at all.

It’s time to move past the summer’s angry confusion. Let’s work to improve our health reform literacy and apply the “rule of three” to the health reform conversation. If we can get back to basics, it really will be about health reform, and it really will be a conversation.

Some people are using “Climate Gate’”, i.e., the disclosure of private e-mails by some climate change scientists, to claim that global warming is a hoax or wildly overstated. I do believe that the facts and the science provide evidence that greenhouse gas emissions are a serious problem threatening the planet and the future for generations to come.

However, even if you believe that the threat of global warming is overstated, it is hard to find sound arguments for not reducing greenhouse gasses, for not advancing renewable energy sources and not improving energy efficiency.

Many people are looking for world leaders to come to Copenhagen to make decisions about how to address global warming and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

We should not leave it to politicians to determine the future of our planet. Our future. We should all step up to the plate and engage in the conversation about climate change and aim to directly influence the outcome of COP15.

Ispeakearth, the campaign that the Copenhagen Climate Council and Porter Novelli launched on November 25, is an opportunity for you to let your voice be heard. Ispeakearth.com is a social media campaign that was launched through a video narrated by actress and environmental activist Cate Blanchett.

We should all speak earth. Go to www.ispeakearth.com and let your voice be heard.

According to longtime industry professional Jack O’Dwyer, “PR people are communications experts and should only communicate with other professionals, namely experts in the press, reporters and editors… they should not ‘hit on’ average public persons.” 

These sentiments encapsulate the shift we’re seeing within the world of communications today and the divide that exists amongst the traditional and the progressive.  For individuals like Jack who refuse to accept the power of citizen journalism or the impact and influence of blog publications like the Huffington Post or TechCrunch, the story here is simple: change is inevitable.

Social media is a driving force within the realm of communications today; It’s not some fad or over-hyped trend. Fortune 500 companies are increasingly more present in social media channels, traditional publications like CNN and the NYTimes are investing in their websites, and to date, at least 2/3 of the world’s online population visits at least one social network. 

To dismiss social media is to dismiss change.  Consequently, organizations must learn, explore, and adapt in order to remain relevant in today’s world.

I could harp on O’Dwyer’s sentiments more, but I’m using this as an opportunity to introduce the type of mindset that I’m trying to promote at Porter Novelli, one that is in complete contrast to O’Dwyer’s sentiments above.

Relaunching “Intelligent Dialogue” 

The digital and social media teams are currently undergoing a tremendous effort to do the following at the agency:

1. Train all global employees to increase proficiency on social networking tools
2. Create scalable, effective social media/digital strategies for clients
3. Establish ourselves as a truly social organization

Items one and two I’ll discuss in another post, but for now, I want to share what exactly this third item entails.  In order to truly “get social media”, it is imperative that we as an agency communicate to the public in a way that is authentic, transparent, and of course, social. 

We’ve already taken great strides to do so (this blog was built over a year ago with this same purpose) and hope to do an even better job in the months to come.  With the help of our digital team, we plan on redesigning this blog into an online platform that showcases our thoughtleaders’ voices, but also allows us to have a more open dialogue with the public – partners, clients, employees, and the general public – a true community. 

We’ll also be launching a new interview series on BlogTalk radio and hopefully have more events at our offices where we can learn from local influencers and leaders. 

We relaunched our official @porternovelli Twiter handle and converted it from a static RSS feed into an actual voice.  You’ll also see that on a weekly basis, we’re adding more and more employees to our roster at twitter.porternovelli.com.

There is clearly a lot of work that goes into all of this, but changing the way we communicate as an organization is a project that I am incredibly passionate about.  Change is slow and change is difficult, but when leaders are successful in changing a culture from within – it can be a catalyst for great things.

From the global financial crisis to the meteoric rise of social media, the past eight months have been a season of unprecedented change. As there are some signs that the crisis may be easing, it seems a good time to assess what happened. Over the course of a comprehensive and wide-ranging conversation, Porter Novelli’s CEO Gary Stockman and Global President and CFO Anthony Viceroy offer insights and analysis on how the agency managed to not only weather the turbulent times, but also find the inherent possibilities in the crisis and emerge stronger than ever.

In the final part of this interview series (read part one here, part two here and part three here), Stockman and Viceroy discuss the dramatic convergence of public relations, communications and marketing, and what they found most inspiring throughout the economic crisis.

From the global financial crisis to the meteoric rise of social media, the past eight months have been a season of unprecedented change. As there are some signs that the crisis may be easing, it seems a good time to assess what happened. Over the course of a comprehensive and wide-ranging conversation, Porter Novelli’s CEO Gary Stockman and President, Global Business Operations and CFO Anthony Viceroy offer insights and analysis on how the agency managed to not only weather the turbulent times, but also find the inherent possibilities in the crisis and emerge stronger than ever.

In part three of this four-part series (read part one here and part two here), Stockman and Viceroy focus on the needs of clients—how some needs have changed and others have intensified—and how some brands’ ability to connect with consumers during the crisis created tremendous opportunities.

So, shifting to a more external focus: What is the primary concern of clients during turbulent times?

GS: I think it really comes down to three words, “measurable results now.” And if you can achieve those results at a lower cost, that’s even better [laughs]. I think that’s the mantra these days. Every client’s business is getting the same level of scrutiny and feeling similar pressures to perform. It really is about who can help deliver tangible, measurable results and do it this quarter, next quarter and beyond.

Some would argue that would drive a mindset of safe bets and short passes. How do you address these very real client concerns while still inspiring confidence and bold action?

GS: It could indeed drive people to short passes and safe bets. But what I would prefer—and what I am seeing, actually—is people thinking more creatively and more innovatively about how you deliver measurable results now. Because, as we were talking about earlier, there are new weapons at our fingertips that did not exist during the last downturn—digital and social media and other approaches that we can use to reach and motivate stakeholders to take action. The question is, how do we leverage those weapons innovatively? If necessity is the mother of invention, I think turbulent times should be the mother of innovation in communications.

AV: The concern of clients today is no different than it was five years ago. It has just been magnified. Clients are looking for the greatest value—growing their brands in a cost-effective manner. Our clients are asking the same question that we have asked of ourselves—do you view this economic downturn as a crisis or as an opportunity? And many of them, like us, are viewing it as an opportunity. Of course budgets are tight, but they do understand that this is a golden opportunity to spend smartly in key areas that will help their brands gain market share. One day we are going to come out of this, and when we do, we will all need to ask, how much brand value and market share have we gained?

Is there a point where it is more prudent for a client to pull back and weather the storm?

GS: There are cases for which that’s the right recommendation; particularly when continuing to push a brand would actually weaken it or damage it. Some approaches and some campaign concepts that seemed terrific a year ago seem anachronistic now. I think there are luxury brands that have to be particularly careful about being out of touch in the way they communicate.

AV: And you have to look at the individual situation. What’s more important to you, market share or cash flow? Provided you are not in a cash flow situation, my personal belief is that you should always be trying to gain market share. And the time to do it is when opportunities present themselves. So, looking at your competitive landscape—when everyone else is zigging, maybe you should be zagging. Again, this is a true philosophical difference between what we believe here at Porter Novelli and other firms. We have not viewed this once as a crisis. We have really seen it as an opportunity to make strategic hires, to talk directly to our clients about what they need and explain to them what should be keeping them up at night. Not everyone is doing every single project with us, but I think this is really how you build relationships in this type of period. Clients really respect the fact that you’re putting their brand first.

It seems there needs to be real sensitivity to the zeitgeist, and there seem to be no easy answers to anything—it just requires a lot of thinking.

GS: It does require a lot of thinking and it requires sensitivity. Take Hyundai as an example, and look at their buyback guarantee. They created an opportunity from the downturn and as a result they have picked up tremendous market share. By not only offering a financial incentive—you lose your job, we buy the car back—but also demonstrating empathy and sensitivity, they came up with something that felt right to people.

That’s a great example of something very traditional in its approach. It doesn’t have anything to do with digital or social media. Has there been a sea change in the perception of social media, where it is no longer regarded as a silver bullet or a magic trick as it was a year ago? Does it now require a much more strategic approach?

GS: Yes, I think that is a very good way of characterizing it. If there was a time when all that mattered was how you said it, today it matters more than ever what you say, whom you talk to and when you talk to them. It is not enough to use social media to spout nonsense; you have to have substance and good concepts and creativity.

AV: That’s why I view us as a client solution service. Because ultimately what we need to be thinking about is how to create sustainable value for clients and help them grow their brands and manage their brands more effectively. I think social media is another way to do exactly that, but next year there will be another medium. Porter Novelli has demonstrated that it is not about embracing one medium. It is about figuring out strategically which media will best serve clients’ needs and help them grow their brands.

My personal belief, and one that is really embedded in this organization, is that you have to be direct with clients. It’s not about selling to clients anymore. It’s about having direct talks of, “Here is what is going on; here is what you need to know.” Because clients know what they know—the real value to them today is the insight you give into what they don’t know.

Have there been any occasions where you have been surprised by the response or reaction of a client to the economic downturn?

AV: There have not been any negative surprises. We have picked up a lot of Fortune 100 company business from our competition by putting tremendous focus on our digital and social media capabilities, and on services that they felt made a difference. So again, an attitude of playing to win as opposed to playing not to lose really comes across when we are dealing with clients.

But are there types of clients who are particularly endangered by a turbulent global economy?

GS: I don’t think there is one category, but I think all clients need to look at the strategies and the messages that they have been using or are contemplating to make sure they are in line with the current zeitgeist and people’s sensitivities. I think empathy and understanding of what your target audience is going through are really vital during a down economy. And appearing insensitive and out of touch is a real danger if you are not paying attention.

AV: Truthfully in today’s news where everything is 24/7, you could argue that every client is vulnerable. You could see brand equity evaporate within seconds based on a negative story or something that gets on YouTube.

So do you think social media presents as many dangers as opportunities?

AV: Well, I think the benefits clearly outweigh any risks associated with it. But like any risk, it must be managed properly. Social media is here to stay; it is clearly being embraced by many and I would say it has been a great area of success for us. But it does get interesting sometimes [laughs]. Right now in corporate America, what we are seeing is the ability to try to understand how social media impacts brands and how to use it in a socially responsible way.

Conversely, what opportunities does a down economy present—for clients, as well as for the internal development of talent and strategy?

GS: A couple of things. One is that the economy can serve as a real catalyst for change. There’s a clarity and a focus that come from a downturn. You can’t afford to have things live in a gray area or to wait and see, so it prompts decisions to be made much more quickly and ambiguity to be resolved faster. In a lot of organizations, a downturn acts as a catalyst for changes that should already have been made. The second area is talent. During a downturn good talent can be more widely available, and smart companies will take advantage of this to add great people.

AV: The opportunities are endless. In an economic downturn, there is no better time to look at the organization from head to toe. If there ever is a time when people are going to get comfortable with change, it is in an economic downturn. Most people will not want to change when everything is going great. But in a downturn, they tend to expect and embrace change more quickly. So when you have a challenging economic environment, you have an opportunity to look and ask, Are we managing talent the right way? Do we have the right people? What further value should we be bringing to clients? How do we get great collaboration? How do we exploit the global footprint that we have? So when you start going down the list, you see many ways to think strategically, and you discover great opportunities for the company and its talent to do more.

Check back with PN.com next week for part four of this four-part series. Next week, Stockman and Viceroy discuss the dramatic convergence of public relations, communications and marketing, and what they found most inspiring throughout the economic crisis.