Edelman: January 5th -- shows up differently
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Richard Edelman announced in his 6 A.M. blog today the launch of Edelman 's new new branding campaign
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Richard Edelman, CEO, of Edelman, has used his blog,
6 A.M., for several years as the place to break news about his global agency as well as to ruminate about trends in the integrated marketing communications sectors.
This morning, Richard blogged the announcement of Edelman's own new branding campaign:
Show Up Differently.
It is more than fair to acknowledge that Richard Edelman has been a thought leader about PR and integrated communications, as well as a successful CEO -- especially over the last decade as he prominently led Edelman in the "digital space" with authentic commitment.
Now, with the Show Up Differently brand campaign, Richard has another somewhat different perspective on what integrated communications is. He writes: "We believe that the combination of public relations, digital and research will allow us to build a new kind of marketing communications firm that can help clients both promote and protect their brands."
Note what was and wasn't said in that quotation: nothing about advertising (native or otherwise) and nothing about content marketing/generation. Nor does Richard use or focus on the word "creativity." Richard focused on two traditional concepts/categories (public relations and research) and played to Edelman's undoubted, well-developed strength in implementing digital communications that show results. He also plays to Edelman's business-model as a strength ("independence"), and he wraps up his agency's package of services and expertise in the concept of "story telling."
"Hurrahs!" are being heard far and wide from the PR research community today. For the past few years, the Edelman agency has continued to strengthen its strategic communications research capacities in research through investments into
Edelman Berland. With the Show Up Differently campaign, Edelman has put research at the top priority in a way that no other PR firm has; it will be very interesting to see how this plays out both for Edelman and for its competition.
The Show Up Differently campaign also touts the differentiation of Edelman's independence (not part of the global groups of Publicis-Omnicom, WPP, Interpublic, and Dentsu).
Here is Edelman's video on independence.
Finally, the Show Up Differently campaign describes
Edelman's Story Lab (a process? a place?) that asserts an agency expertise in helping clients create better stories, with state-of-the-art and non-traditional media, for better business results. It is significant -- and probably a very good PR tactic -- that the word "creativity" is not used in this environment when Everybody wants to be Creative.
Of course, "time will tell" -- but true to its brand (they're showing up differently in January 2014), Edelman has not sat back and let the impending close of the Publicis-Onimicom merger and other events steal all of the limelight. One way to make sure you keep your new year's resolutions is to make a public commitment: Show Up Differently is evidence that Edelman understands brand concept and brand strategic timing -- and the element of risk and potential reward.