Hill & Knowlton
During this period, Hill & Knowlton continued to extend its geographic reach, opening an office in Chengdu, and adding to existing operations in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, and launching a Colombian office.
Transnational assignments now account for more than 60 per cent of H&K’s global revenues, and four out of ten clients are transnational. In recognition of this the firm launched a major new training programme ‘Better Connected’ to improve its global transnational client service.
The agency also launched ‘Project December’, a training programme designed to encourage staff engagement with digital channels.
It won business from American Airlines, Tourism New Zealand and the General Authority for Investment (GAFI), and its biggest clients are still well-known multinationals such as Deloitte, HP, Merck, P&G and Yahoo!
It was a good year for awards, most notably at the PR Week Awards 2009 where it picked up Multicultural Campaign of the Year for World Sport Chicago.
Q&A – Paul Taaffe, chairman and CEO, Hill & Knowlton
How has the economic climate changed the way you work?
The economic climate is different in different parts of the world, presenting its own opportunities and challenges. We have seen an acceleration of existing trends such as the move to digital, and in buoyant markets such as the Brazil, Russia, India and China and N11, there has been an acceleration in the emergence of new brands.
We have therefore redoubled our efforts in both of these areas: in digital, especially social media, and in our services for emerging markets and their brands.
What has not changed is our continued focus on delivering real, measureable business impacts for our clients, which can never be underplayed - whatever the market conditions.
Which three offices have been experiencing the greatest growth over the 12 months to July 31 2010? Why?
The resource economies of the Middle East and Canada China, as the fastest growing emerging market.
What were your agency’s three highlights of the past year?
- We continued to extend our geographic footprint. We marked our 25th anniversary of setting up in mainland China by opening an office in Chengdu, adding to existing operations in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, and enhanced our presence in Latin America by adding an office in Colombia. Trans-national assignments now account from more than 60% of our global revenues.
- In the area of sustainability, we were selected as official media partner for the UN conference on Climate Change COP15 in Copenhagen, which enabled us to understand better the drivers of this debate, and connect clients directly with the influencers who are driving the agenda. We also celebrated H&K ‘Green Day’ â?? a global day of H&K network environmental action on 22 September 2009.
- We continued to put quality training at the top of our agenda, including a global training programme to improve our transnational client service, and another to help drive engagement with digital channels.
We continued with senior level client service training with our First Chair and Maestro programmes. Additionally, our new performance review system ‘PERFORM’ will ensure that all staff are given appropriate performance feedback.
Tell us about one account for which your agency is producing creative and effective digital work
Our ‘Your Big Break’ campaign for Tourism New Zealand used digital channels to engage potential travellers to New Zealand through the power of film and storytelling.
Our strategy was to recapture the ‘Lord of the Ring’s travel boom by tapping the connection between New Zealand and the world of film. TNZ launched the “Your Big Break” global film competition, supported by Peter Jackson, to find the new filmmaker who best captured the spirit of “The Youngest Country on the Earth”. The campaign received 1,075 submissions, 18,000 votes and over 4 million views, and the winning film aired on IFC. See www.nzt.strutta.com.
What are the most effective ways of encouraging more collaborative working between global sister agencies?
Clients want us to make this work and we participate in many cross-agency teams across the group, especially in areas such as digital. Collaboration allows us to pool our insights and skills in the most cost and time efficient manner. Ultimately collaboration is driven by client demand, and the willingness and desire of the agencies themselves. In order for this to work, there need to be practical systems in place to allow the free exchange of people and ideas between naturally competitive agencies. We’re not new to this: WPP companies work for the majority of the Fortune Global 500; Nearly 700 group clients are served in three disciplines, and more than 440 are served in four.
What was your best decision over the past year?
Our best decision has been to redouble our efforts in client service, by committing to investing in professional development and new ways to improve our offer to clients. Providing good quality training for our people through programmes such as Maestro and First Chair enable us to deliver against that commitment.
What will successful global PR agencies be doing in 2011?
Successful agencies will be actively addressing the role of PR in a world where every person and every brand is a publisher, and those who seek to understand and provide the best counsel to clients in an ever more connected world. Successful agencies will also be those who understand the client benefits that can be gained from the convergence of communications disciplines, which is being accelerated primarily by the transformation being brought about by the digital age.
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Key Information:
Website address www.hillandknowlton.com
Parent company of agency WPP
Global HQ address and telephone
825 Third Avenue
New York, NY 10022
United States
+1 212 885 0300
CEO
Paul Taaffe, Chairman and CEO
Direct Line: +1 212 885 0459
Mobile: 917 495 8727
Fax: +1 718 228 8802
paul.taaffe@hillandknowlton.com
Global new business contact
Tony Burgess-Webb
CMO
+44 207 413 3031
Regional contacts
US
Mary Lee Sachs
Chairman, USA
+1 212 885 0363
Europe, Middle East & Africa
Sally Costerton
Chairman & CEO, Europe, Middle East & Africa
+44 207 413 3000
Asia Pacific
Vivian Lines
President & COO, Asia Pacific
+65 6338 2881
Latin America
Mark Thorne
Acting Director, Latin America
+1 212 885 0405
Canada
Mike Coates
President & CEO, Canada
+1 416 413 1218
Key global clients Amgen, Deloitte, Dolby, Haier, Hewlett-Packard, ITIDA, Merck & Co / MSD, Nordstream, Procter & Gamble, Qualcomm, SABIC, Statoil, Tata Communications, Yahoo!
No. of wholly-owned offices 79
No. of affiliates 51
