Magna Carta Retains Standard Bank Public Relations Account

Magna Carta Retains Standard Bank Public Relations Account

Magna Carta has retained the Standard Bank public relations account, giving it the opportunity to work with the marketing and communications teams of Africa’s biggest lender in formulating their  media relations and PR strategy until the end of 2016.

The decision cements Magna Carta’s position as one of Africa’s leading reputation management consultancies and follows an intensive pitch process that began six months ago. Magna Carta, which was named African PR Consultancy of the Year in 2012 by the international Holmes Report, has managed Standard Bank’s public relations account for the past 12 years.

“We are very excited to continue our 12-year relationship with Standard Bank and are fully aware that our biggest challenge will be to continue being innovative and creative on an account that we have managed for such a long time,” said Vincent Magwenya, Chief Executive Officer of Magna Carta. “We look forward to delivering a world class public relations service to Standard Bank.”

Standard Bank’s required scope of services will see Magna Carta supporting the bank across three key pillars: Standard Bank Group, including its operations in the rest of Africa; Personal and Business Banking; and Corporate and Investment Banking.

Magna Carta is part of the TBWA\South Africa Group of marketing and communications agencies, which is in turn owned by New York-based advertising, marketing and corporate communications giant, Omnicom Group. The Johannesburg-based agency boasts a 17-country African partner network and is the exclusive Africa affiliate of Ketchum Inc., one of the world’s largest public relations groups.
ENDS

Issued by: Magna Carta
Contact Person: Hilary Macaulay
Email: [email protected]

Strategic Social Solutions drives corporates to befriend the social media trend

Strategic Social Solutions drives corporates to befriend the social media trend
Befriending the trend is taking off with a growing number of corporates that have embraced a South African public relations innovation that has the potential to break through the social media conversations and turn them into brand-building discourse.

Strategic Social Solutions (SSS) from Magna Carta, the award-winning PR agency, has become a significant contributor to the firm’s business growth and relevance on the back of proven capacity to ignite social media conversations on issues relevant to major brands.

“Early adopters of the SSS product include leading automotive, financial service, beverage, hospitality, publishing, state-owned enterprises and cellular telephony brands – primarily in South Africa, though the first implementation in sub-Saharan Africa is already under way,” says Katie Taylor, Magna Carta’s new media director.

SSS tracks and maps influencers of social media conversations relevant to corporate clients, including bloggers, websites, Facebook, Twitter, their own media and other channels. Topics generating most comment are identified, including praise or complaints around industry, company or competitor performance and fed back for intelligence.

The nature and provenance of the social commentary is established and management made aware of relevant issues and conversational opportunities. The key is the building of a relationship strategy which ensures issues and opportunities are addressed and targeted content developed. This material is primarily intended to enrich current conversations, but additionally spins off into traditional media adding further leverage to the conversations. Exposure across new and traditional media is then measured, tracked and fed back into the strategy.

Taylor notes: “Social media conversations are uncontrollable. Many corporates see chaos out there, but you can bring coherence to chaos by tracking trends and identifying the influencers of the conversation and feeding them back into an overall strategy.

“A major corporate cannot upend a trend if the issue excites social media users. But you can befriend the trend and own aspects of the conversation. On occasion you can bend the trend by including input that highlights different aspects of the subject.

“Manipulation is impossible as self-interest is rapidly spotted. But the key lies in the more strategic and proactive approach to social media that is possible. Experience to date suggests tangible brand benefits are achievable.”

The Magna Carta approach and social media innovation contains various components, mapping and strategy formulation, strategic implementation and influencer science.

“We drive the philosophy that social technology has to be measurable,” says Taylor. “With the appropriate mix of tools it is possible to carry out a searching evaluation of a company’s social and communication landscape.

“Once communities have been identified, a company can develop areas of mutual interest, ignite, join and spread conversations, host events and thank friends with significant impact on brands.

“Live newsrooms can be created on a corporate website to aggregate social channels and ensure a credible destination for content. Networking through Twitter and Facebook attracts newsroom traffic while multimedia releases can be produced for placement in any media format.”

A key positive is increased marketability of strategic services. “Billings are traditionally driven by PR implementation. SSS clients immediately recognise the value of the strategic element. Relationship strategy formulation therefore has the potential to add considerably to revenue streams while emphasising PR’s role as a strategic partner, she points out.

“To date, the majority of those buying our strategy product have moved to the implementation phase and they are reaping significant rewards.”

SSS and social media technology has also created the ‘citizen journalist’ opportunity. “SSS is best utilised by good corporate citizens offering good products and exceptional service who are open to comment and happy to engage in a permanent consumer conversation but who are following an overarching strategy in order to build their brand,” she says.

“Strong brands were the earliest adopters. For them, building a long-term relationship with the customer is first prize and they have discovered a new corporate tool in SSS to help them do just that.”
ENDS

Issued by: Magna Carta
Contact Person: Hilary Macaulay
Email: [email protected]