Bridging the Gap: What research and PR professionals

need from each other

FedEx & VMS: “Collaboration & Iteration”

Angela Jeffrey, APR – Vice President Editorial Research, VMS

In a Perfect World

Global clients can have it all

• Single global provider• Comprehensive, near real-time collection• Full and accurate translation• Complex scoring in real-time• Customized dashboard modeling • Outputs linked to outcomes• Deep insightful reports• Seamless international coordination

All at a very economical price!

• What’s the goal?• For FedEx – Reputational Drivers• Accuracy and quality

• What can we contribute successfully?• Monitoring, dashboard, analysts, management• Some international reach

• What needed augmentation?• Boots on the ground globally – Report International• Additional content sources• Near real-time collection & processing worldwide

In a Real WorldRuthless Self-Assessment and Transparency

Promise the world? Or manage expectations?

Choices: Content

Measuring what Matters

• Priority countries, Tier 1 & 2 lists• Aggregated and online content as base

(Factiva, Moreover)• On-demand broadcast in top US markets• Supplemented by

• Content from FedEx offices internationally (existing clip providers in place)

• Additional direct subscriptions• Drawbacks obvious, so must remain iterative

Keeps focus on Priorities

Choices: DashboardsDazzle vs. Functionality

• Attractive, highly customizable, industrial strength, strongly functional platform

• Unlimited users, full workflow capabilities• Collaborative customization by:

• Region• Operating company• Different competitor sets regionally• Campaigns• Issues

• FedEx styling, user-defined home pages• PLUS new “real-time” tool for all media types

for conceptual search

Iterative solution, actionable data

Tony wants all the names of the sections and threads cleansed of their actual names. So maybe its Opco 1, 2, 3; Issue 1, 2, 3 and Competitor 1, 2, 3 Is that possible to do?

On this one, Tony wants the numbers gone for all the quantitative and qualitative data. I guess you could leave the descriptions – i.e. Gross Impressions, Scorecard, etc., but no results should show. Same thing with Tone. Can we do this?

This one needs to be blinded in terms of the issues, but the numbers can remain.

On all the InSight 3.1 slides, he again doesn’t want the folders to show up, and wants me to repull examples for Charts 13 and 14. I’m wondering if the easiest thing would be to create a dummy FedEx account (with their logo) and I will create some new dummy categories and pull new examples. He doesn’t want certain things to show, so I’m happy repull until I get it right.

As on slide 11

As on slide 11

Choices: Scoring

Iterative, Collaborative & Coordinated

• VMS, Ketchum, RI and FedEx huddle• Qualitative clip attributes• OTS• Messages bucketed into Reputational

Drivers• All clips scored in-country; English summaries

uploaded w/links; no translation• Near real-time scoring – digital content; manual

clips longer• Acid test: will scores correlate well to ongoing

well-known reputational surveys?

Each clip score transparent to user

How Reputation is Broken Down

FinancialPerformance

Outperforms CompetitorsRecord of Profitability

Low Risk InvestmentGrowth Prospects

WorkplaceEnvironmentRewards Employees FairlyGood Place to WorkGood Employees

Products & ServicesHigh Quality Innovative Value for MoneyStands Behind

Vision &Leadership

Market OpportunitiesExcellent Leadership

Clear Vision for the Future

SocialResponsibility

Supports Good CausesEnvironmental Responsibility

Community Responsibility

EmotionalAppeal

Feel Good AboutAdmire and Respect

Trust

Source: Harris Interactive

This one is complex. He doesn’t want to show any of the details on the scorecard, but wants to communicate that it is transparent to the users. Plus get rid of all the quant data. Let’s discuss what to do about this one. It may make more sense for me to pull a shot from our demo platform just to show how Scorecard pops up.

Choices: Reporting

Humans VS Automation

• Daily News reports at 7:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.- collaboration of VMS & FedEx Staff

• Human-generated Earnings Reports• A dozen custom formatted “on demand”

reports for day-day needs• On standby if/when FedEx needs deeper

analysis reports for special needs and issues

Empowering the User!

This one needs a complete rework. First, need to show positive stock price. Second, stories must not show anything about Brown bailout, but should show positive stories and include some foreign ones. We also want to overlay one clip as a call-out on this. Can you dummy this up?

Implementation & Herding Cats

Coordination Across the Globe

• Hands-on management structure• On site for implementation• Fulltime manager off-site• In-country managers• FedEx Implementation Team

• Buy-in and Adjustment• Listening and collaboration• Change requests, scorecard

adjustment, relationship checks• Weekly teleconferences

Becoming part of the staff!

Actionable Results for All

Formal Assessment of Relationship

• Satisfaction surveys• Quarterly on-site meetings for full

calibration• Bottom line: do the results correlate to

regular recognizable surveys?

Success = ongoing relationship!

– a Global Solution

Met Report International through IPR Commission & AMEC

Encourage you to collaborate with one another!