Influencer Relations ¦ Duncan Chapple on analyst value

A key challenge for headquarters communications teams is how to manage national public relations agencies. Few companies with really global business are able to manage their communications with total centralisations, and none do that successfully. The challenge for companies is to develop really effective co-ordination, not only on the technical level but also in terms of managing consistent stories. In this podcast, PR agency veterans Gillie Tennant, an international public relations service leader, and Duncan Chapple, a B2B marketing communications consultant, discuss the challenges, especially for US companies reaching out into the EMEA market, and the different options for dealing with challenges. The wide ranging discussion discusses a number of strategic issues and tactical experiences, including the choices between direct management of all agencies, choosing one EMEA agency office (typically the UK one) as the lead agency, or working with an international agency network. A major challenge is to find the right sort of local agency: a strong local partner which has deep local roots but also is familiar enough with the challenge of international business that it's able to connect to (and coach) in-country sales teams, source the essential local customer-as-hero story and offer strategic guidance to EMEA and global marketing communications. Tennant and Chapple pull on their common experience working with Ominicom's Brodeur Worldwide business (what is now Brodeur Partners and Ketchum Pleon) during the dot-com boom on brands like Cable & Wireless and Research in Motion to also go into the different types of local networks. They speak candidly about the reality of working with one-brand global agencies, where local offices are often very uneven in their experience and rootedness: a network is only as strong as the weakest agency in the network. They discuss the new opportunities for working with more flexible networks, in which best-in-country agencies form a common network similarly strong agencies. These strong affiliate groups can develop stronger links because of the greater precision arising from strong national offices. Agency groups also have the advantage of flexibility that they can have two agencies in some countries, allowing client conflicts and personality incompatibilities to be avoided. Agency groups can replace one national agency with another when necessary, when clients of one-brand agencies cannot replace an ineffective local PR agency office: they need to either drop the whole global agency, or pay for a second, effective agency alongside the incumbent. They also discuss how one-brand agencies might have less integration, in terms of collaboration and process, than a strongly-allied group of independent agencies: it really is a choice where the buyer must beware. The podcast explains that the organisational differences flow also from cross-cultural differences in each national culture. The scale of differences requires an open mind and a tolerance for difference in both national cultures and the media landscape in each country.

Using insights from the Analyst Value Survey, survey director Duncan Chapple explains trends in analyst industry, and how these trends can be used to the advantage of research buyers, of high-technology users, and of the analyst firms themselves. The fundamental shift is a long-term one: the growth of 'freemium' analyst firms means that most analyst value is accessed outside subscriptions. Professionals are using more analyst firms than ever before.  To find out more about the Analyst Value Survey, which is conducted by the Analyst Observatory at the University of Edinburgh, visit AnalystValueSurvey.com Note: This is a recording of a live webinar in 2018. The survey includes some responses to participants' questions. Five or six minutes in, there's a detour in the webinar when some participants reported sound issues.

Immunologist Emily Almond, Influencer Relations' expert on life science research firms, has just completed the Influencer Quadrant for life science firms. The study reviews around ten thousand data points about analyst research about life science topics. In this webinar, Almond discusses the life sciences IQ with Duncan Chapple, who directs all the Influencer Quadrant studies using data from the Analyst Observatory at the Univerity of Edinburgh Business School.  

Welcome to my new podcast series. After a break, I'm restarting with Philip Carter (Chief Analyst, IDC Europe). Our conversation is part of the Influencer Insights series I run for Kea Company. One of the main topics discussed on the podcast will be digital transformation and what role analyst firms need to play in helping organizations to develop a different sort of user of the sorts of services, the valuable insight that analysts firms are producing. As an EMEA chief analyst, Philip has a challenging role, where it is important to think outsight the box and beyond the borders. Some of the questions we've been discussing include: “Do organizations in Europe behave in different ways from organizations in Asia or the America?”  “How does IDC help its clients to understand what their global opportunities can be?”,  “How can clients take a step in a more auspicious future?”   These and more questions will be answered by Philip. Enjoy listening!

Companies in many markets are able to accelerate their sales pipeline and improve their sales conversion rates by ensuring that influencer relations professionals are enabling their sales teams. That was the powerful message that David Taylor gave to the Analyst Relations Forum in London in October 2014.  Taylor is one of Europe's most respected experts on the topic. Vodafone just appointing David to a senior communications role after a year in which he's led Kea Company's sales enablement work. For 15 years he held leadership roles at Cisco, running market intelligence and then analysts relations in EMEA and emerging markets.  The presentation is available as both a podcast at http://lighthousear.podbean.com and as a downloadable PDF at slideshare.net/dchapple.

Here's the recording of the November 14th webinar where Ian Scott and Duncan Chapple talk over the Analyst Value Index. 

In a recent webinar David Taylor, Cisco's former head of analyst relations and marketing intelligence in EMEA, talks over the realities of analyst relations and what AR professionals and do to develop the value of AR. In this 28 minute recording, you can hear David explain what an effective sales enablement process looks like, and answer questions about the way forward.

In this twelve minute podcast Kevin Lucas shares his view on how AR managers can help to raise analysts' levels of influence from their natural levels. For more than seven years, following a career as an AR manager, Kevin has led Forrester's research into analyst relations.  At a panel of working beyond best practise at the AR Forum on October 3rd, Kevin is able to propose a strong model for influence: that AR is not just influencing analysts (how far that is possible), but also understanding that little or no business value arises until the analysts' ideas are out in the market place where they can influence vendors.

NelsonHall's built an astonishingly strong reputation over more than a decade of research into BPO and strategic sourcing. At the AR Forum on October 3rd, John will give a case study presentation to show how they are responding to the challenge of changes in the way that users are consuming research. For some of the same reasons my colleagues and reviewed in the B2Buyology research, John's colleagues have found the opportunity to help their clients make better decisions by using their time more strategically. They key to that is a new technology platform that allows people to find more relevant research more easily.