1. Opportunities
and Challenges
of Public Relations
in Russia
ANDREY BARANNIKOV
CEO of SPN Ogilvy,
Chairman of AKOS-ICCO,
Vice President of the Russian Public Relations Association
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2. SPN Ogilvy at a glance
“A MARKET AND THOUGHT LEADER IN RUSSIA”
• Founded in
• Over
1990 – one of the biggest and oldest agencies in Russia and CIS.
200 employees in 3
offices: Moscow, St Petersburg and Kyiv.
• An Ogilvy PR Worldwide affiliate since
• Over
2005.
4000 large-scale projects for more than 300 Russian and international companies:
• The most internationally awarded PR agency in Russia and CIS:
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3. The challenges and opportunities of working in Russia
•
Vast spaces
•
Richest natural resources
•
Huge gap between the
capitals and the regions
•
Lots of skilled specialists
•
Good telecommunications
infrastructure
•
Dynamic economic
development in numerous
regions and industries
(including IT)
•
Unique cultural heritage
•
Excellent education system
•
Problems with
infrastructure
•
Bureaucracy
•
Corruption
•
International image leaves
much to be desired
•
Left-overs of the Soviet
system
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4. Working across 1/7 of the land
•
9 time zones
•
83 regions
•
143 million people
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5. “The parallel worlds”…
…in the sense of the infrastructure and the mentality
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6. “The Matryoshka Effect”: Russia’s face within and without
The challenges and perspectives of building city, regional and country image for
attracting tourists and investors and promoting brands
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7. Russia in the eyes of the rest of the world…
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8. The Travel & Tourism
Competitiveness
Report 2013
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9. Kazan
Vladivostok
Novosibirsk
Yekaterinburg
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10. 10

11. Eurovision 2009: Welcome to Russia!
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12. The French biathlete
called Sochi
‘the ghost city’
…and the reply of the Russian customs officials:
“Actually, we would have had to send them home. But, for
their benefit, we processed their guns manually, as quickly
as we could…”
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14. The Russian PR industry
• Very young (exists as an industry since
1990s)
• Still ‘enjoys’ notorious reputation
• Lack of structure and system
• Lack of transparency
• Huge differences between federal and
regional agencies in quality and pricing
• Technological gap (especially in Digital
& Social Media)
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15. Raising the industry standards
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16. Which stories should we tell about ourselves?
The most attractive features of the Russian economy in the eyes of
foreign investors
Russia’s domestic market
75%
Telecommunication infrastructure
69%
Labour costs
69%
Local labour skills level
Possibility of increasing my company’s productivity in
Russia
Russia’s culture and language
68%
67%
67%
* Foreign Investment Advisory Council’s ‘Russia’s Investment Climate 2012 –
Survey of Current and Potential Investors’, 2012
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17. St. Petersburg International Economic Forum
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18. RUSSIA CALLING: business speaks for the country
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19. Which stories should we tell about ourselves?
The Calvert Gallery & Journal
- “a guide to creative Russia”
The Ru.branding project
- Russian folk art in modern
design
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20. Skolkovo: building trust in Russian innovations
(with some help from Finnish celebrities)
•
Changing perception of Skolkovo – from a
“money pump” to an intellectual leader.
•
Strategy: owning the media conversation and
DEMONSTRATING REAL RESULTS – making
Skolkovo residents and investors speak for
themselves.
•
Integration into key Russian and international
business and innovation events, including the St
Petersburg International Economic Forum, Sochi
International Investment Forum, Pioneers
Festival (Austria) and SLUSH (Finland).
RESULTS for 2012:
•
Volume of negative coverage dropped 30%
•
Positive changes in the opinion of key TA
(residents, international investors etc.)
•
For the year 2012, Skolkovo got:
-
57% of all its residents (450 of the 783);
-
64% of all applications to become a Skolkovo
resident it has received since 2010 (2500 of
3890);
-
49 contracts with venture foundations for 19.6
billion rubles (approx. 490 million EUR).
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21. "The Green Button": Forming a culture of energy conservation in Russia
(2012)
•
With the population of 143 mln, energy
consumption is increasing, owing to an
improvement in the well-being.
•
No economic incentives to preserve
energy due to state regulation of tariffs
being held over a long period.
•
No ‘culture’ of energy conservation, with
stereotypes about ‘the wide Russian
soul’ and the belief that Russian
resources are endless.
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22. "The Green Button": Forming a culture of energy conservation in Russia
(2012)
•
•
•
•
7 training sessions for the media
8 press tours to energy efficient
objects in the regions (e.g., Sochi
Olympic objects)
3 press conferences
Initiation of journalist investigations
Results:
•
Over 300 journalists attended
events
•
Over 7050 media hits featuring
energy efficient projects and behavior
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23. WINNER OF SABRE AWARDS 2013
“Best campaign implemented in Russia and the CIS”
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24. VoltExercise! (2011)
MAKING OUR HISTORICAL
BACKGROUND WORK TOGETHER
•
Organizing the biggest public
exercise session since the Soviet
times – 10 events in 7 cities!
•
487 media hits, 75% mentioning
the brand
•
Sales to distributors grew 36%
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25. VoltExercise! (2011)
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26. Nationwide blood donation development program (since 2008)
Strategy:
•
Building a social institution of blood
donation
•
Integrated communication campaign
of over 2,500 events
Results:
•
Over 27,000 media hits since 2008
•
Over 2 mln people participated in
events
•
Over 1 mln people donated blood
•
Donor numbers grew by 17%
nationwide
•
Every 3rd Russian says he/she is
ready to donate blood
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27. Nationwide blood donation development program (since 2008)
FIGHTING NEGATIVE MEDIA COVERAGE
•
Press tours to transfusion stations (since 2008)
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28. Nationwide blood donation development program (since 2008)
ENGAGING YOUNG PEOPLE
•
•
•
•
Nationwide music contest “MuzArteria” (2011)
Over 2000 participants
600 entries
Over 3000 media hits
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29. Nationwide blood donation development program (since 2008)
ESTABLISHING NEW TRADITIONS
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30. LG Electronics’ corporate volunteering program (since 2009)
UNFOLDING AN INTERNAL CSR INITIATIVE INTO A GLOBAL CAMPAIGN
Initial agreement:
Organizing donor days twice a year
Done since 2009:
•
•
Integration in 25 events, including the
All-Russian Youth Forum“Seliger” (2010
– 2012)
•
The campaign embraced over 2 000
LG employees in Russia
•
45 celebrity ambassadors involved,
incl. musicians, popular TV and radio
presenters, Olympic athletes
•
13 media and corporate partners –
setting a trend for a new CSR
format in Russia!
•
KOREA HERALD,
most popular Korean newspaper
52 Donor Days. Over 6 000 people
donated blood
3 RECORDS OF RUSSIA officially
registered!
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31. LG Electronics’ corporate volunteering program (since 2009)
DONOR DAYS
WITH LG AMBASSADORS
INTEGRATION INTO NATIONWIDE INITIATIVES
Donor Day of LG and Moskovsky
Komsomolets newspaper with Nikolay Valuev
•
“Train of Innovations and CSR”, April 1-11, 2012
•
RECORD OF RUSSIA as the longest blood donation relay
– 4,285 km, 8 cities for 10 days!
Donor Day of LG and Eldorado retail network
with Alexey Tikhonov and Maria Petrova
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32. The Russian PR industry
In 2012:
50%
agencies said that in over 50% tender companies
demanded an agency to provide creative work for free.
In
29%
tenders the winner was never announced.
25%
tenders were considered by the agencies unprofessional
and improperly organized.
AKOS-ICCO 2012
Research by the Committee for Tendering Policy
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33. That’s how it works sometimes…
Large construction company
•
Complicated object
•
Client insisted on a minimum retainer fee
•
For 2 months, the agency worked “for
free”
•
When asked for the payment, the
company started making claims to the
agency.
•
The company paid the amount half as
small as the agency’s estimated budget
(not enough even to cover costs)
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34. www.bprw.com
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