Partnering to achieve business success in the digital era

Today’s dynamic operating environment for businesses and other organisations is characterised by rapid change, technological development, disruptive innovation, as well as increasing hyper-connectivity.

To achieve success in this turbulent environment, companies need to partner with the right strategic communications firm in order to create ideas that carry messages across new and traditional channels to reach the right audiences. In addition, they need a partner that can develop crisis response strategies that keep pace with news at the speed of now.

A credible communications partner will be able to meet the client’s expectations from the onset as well as the demands of the new era, guided by a clear strategy.

Realistic expectations to prevent overpromising and under delivering

Often, a gap is created between the client and its agency as a result of unrealistic expectations or overpromising on the part of the agency. Some of these include:

• “Make this piece of content go viral” – While this request isn’t quite up there with bringing about global peace or coming up with a solution to ozone depletion, it isn’t that far off either. Every company or brand wants their images, articles, campaigns and concepts to be shared across the Internet. However, the reality is that quite often it occurs accidently and any agency that says it can guarantee your content will go viral is setting itself up for probable failure.
• “We want to be the first company listed on the first page of Google’s search results” – Hear it directly from the horse’s mouth: “Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings, allege a ‘special relationship’ with Google, or advertise a ‘priority submit’ to Google. There is no priority submit for Google.”

The power of truth

In South Africa, FleishmanHillard provides counsel grounded in reality: telling it like it is. We provide a worldview, as a result of our truly connected global network of colleagues with deep knowledge of cultures and social implications.

We leverage research and analytics to reveal business-defining insights that will help drive change. We push beyond the obvious to arrive at creative and fully-integrated ideas that help move minds, affect perceptions and change behaviours.

In the end, you need to choose the right company to partner with your business and help you find the right communication solutions that will help your business achieve success.