Leading Brussels agency presents proprietary research into media habits of European policymakers and consumers at exclusive lunch debate.
Brussels, Tuesday 13 October 2009 — Weber Shandwick today presented the findings of its exclusive research into the media habits of European policymakers and consumers during a lunch debate on the changing landscape of political communications. The global communications consultancy’s EU policy specialists demonstrated through their proprietary research how communications in the policy arena are going “INLINE”.
The research examined the media habits of 4,692 consumers in six major European markets (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) and 63 of the newly-elected members of the European Parliament. The major finding of the research was that policymakers and consumers alike today rely on a plurality of media not just to form opinions but also to influence one another.
A guest panel invited to discuss the findings featured, amongst others: Judith Merkies, MEP; Christiane Hohmann, Spokeswoman for Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, and Colin Byrne, CEO of Weber Shandwick in Europe and former Chief Press Officer for the UK Labour Party and Communications Director for the Prince of Wales Business Leaders Forum. The debate was hosted by Mark MacGann, CEO Weber Shandwick Brussels.
Panellists debated the changing media habits of policy-makers in the EU arena, in terms of both where and how they source their information, as well as the media tools they use to reach out to their own stakeholders and constituents. A user of Hives, Twitpic, YouTube, and Linkedin, Merkies provided examples on how she had integrated online and offline tools in her own communications to constituents, particularly referencing the ‘Red Vespa’ YouTube campaign as a quirky and engaging way of getting a story across. “It’s not enough just to think about the channel”, she said. “You need to be creative in developing stories that are going to be simple to understand but will grab people’s attention”. Hohmann provided a European Commission perspective on the growing impact of social media on Commission work. “With social media any policy statement will be spread across the world in seconds and can impact our foreign relations”, she said, but she also recognised the importance of social media as an effective source for understanding grassroots opinion from across the world.
Commenting on the importance of the new research, Colin Byrne said: “The maturing of Web 2.0 has dramatically changed the communications landscape. Our research demonstrates that anyone seeking to influence policy debate can no longer afford to view online and offline separately, or indeed online tools as a mere add-on to traditional PR campaigns: businesses now need to integrate all channels into a holistic communications approach to create advocates who will carry their message—something we call INLINE communications.”
For more information, please email europeinline@webershandwick.com.
