Govcomms: The Future Of Government Communication

From increasing the sales of a major bread company to boosting awareness of a vitamin supplements brand, Matt Hurle is a leader of the pack when it comes to selling your brand. At the forefront of the rising industry of influencers, Matt is the Sales Director at TRIBE, a company that aims to connect multi-million-dollar brands with everyday people through micro-influencers. A micro-influencer is identified as an individual with a minimum of 3,000 followers/likes on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram who has a pre-built audience that engages regularly. As one of the newest tools in marketing, micro-influencers provide brands with a doorway into the lives of consumers by subtly endorsing products and events to their following. It’s entirely cut out the middleman and makes it easier for brands to target future customers. Unlike purchasing a time slot on TV or clipping in the paper which targets a broad audience, it’s a highly efficient process and as discussed with Matt has proven results. The idea behind this new a

Recorded during David’s time at the ASEAN PR Summit in Bali, this week’s InTransition podcast considers the importance of bridging the gap between Eastern and Western communications. Focusing on the eastern approach of listening and understanding, the potential for collaboration and economic growth among the East and West increases. Discussed in this podcast: Bridging the East and West Listening -> Understanding -> Speaking -> Dialogue The future of communications is in technology and the future of technology is in these youthful nations The quality of communications in the ASEAN region Problems facing public relations and communications Combining the philosophical differences leads to strengthening ties between nations and creating the opportunity for growth throughout the southeast Asian region. Talking to speaker Anne Gregory, professor of Corporate Communication at the University of Huddersfield, we learn insights from the conference as well as the future of communications in government. Read David's b

Social media and the digital landscape are forever changing and growing. While small brands are in a position to adapt, monolithic corporations and government agencies find it difficult to change. The other challenge is many departments are simply change adverse, or too slow. On InTransition we look at the benefit of giving your communications department more room to move. Catherine Payne, Executive Director of Digital Communications at the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning in Victoria, works towards building a strong, supportive, creative communications team and has already seen the public’s perception of her department improve in the space of 12 months. Though not an easy task, Catherine credits the success to her team. To her, all that was needed was a) for communications to be taken seriously and b) to rearrange the traditional approach to complex situations. For her this was approaching her role in a  proactive, rather than reactive manner, and by hiring people from a variety of profess

With the sheer size of the internet and the power consumers have to filter through information that appears in their social feeds it can be hard to create engagement with your audience. In the digital age there are so many options for each individual, so how do you engage them? Bouncing from our blog post looking at the importance of storytelling to capture your audience’s attention, this week on the podcast we talk to Gabrielle Dolan who has been consulting brands how to increase the ability of internal and external communications through sharing stories with your audience. Discussed in this podcast: Building a connection with your audience through storytelling to create an emotional connection, Using stories to boost engagement between yourself and the audience, Taking a story from your past to implement something for the future, It’s not the topic people tend to focus on, it’s the relatability and authenticity in your voice that will really grab people’s attention, Looking at one her past roles which tur

This week on the InTransition Podcast we discuss government communications in the digital age with the ACT’s Chief Minister Andrew Barr. Minister Barr is a well-known presence on social media and has always been an early adapter of new technology. Unsurprisingly, as Chief Minister he operates his social media accounts personally, and is known to cut out the middle man, breaking stories online himself instead of via a journalist. This week, hear the Chief Minister on: governing in a digital age, connecting with the right audience on the right social channel, how the public’s lack of faith in an unbiased media has fostered the rise of social platforms as a news source, how he deals with internet trolls, the impact of increasing polarisation in online debate, how he organises his social media calendar and strategy, and fears Australia is heading in the same direction as the US and UK with the election of Donald Trump and rise of Jeremy Corbyn.

This week on InTransition we talk to Osama Saeed Bhutta, Director of Communications at Amnesty International and former Head of Communications at Al Jazeera. Osama started out as a volunteer organiser and press officer for the Stop the War movement in the UK, which later landed him a position with the Scottish National Party as a media and research officer. Fast forward a decade and a remarkable career with news organisation Al Jazeera, Osama is now the Head of Communications for Amnesty International. His role is to unite and mobilise the world against ever worsening humanitarian crises, widening gaps in wealth, education and equality and more refugees than ever before in the history of the world. “The other side make very emotionally laden arguments,” he said of the difficulty in presenting an engaging, rational opposition to many of today’s issues. “When you’re trying to get into people’s hearts, that kind of fact based approach, which has historically been the approach of NGOs, is less successful, and at

This week on InTransition we speak with Petra Masinova, an international communications professional with two decades of experience spanning seven countries. David explores Petra’s childhood under a communist regime and the joy she felt when travel bans were lifted and she crossed her first international border. Since then, Petra has represented her home country before the European Union and worked as the Global CEO for Newton Media, a multinational media monitoring and analysis company. Tune in to learn more about Petra’s work in international government communications and why she’s excited to be contentgroup’s new Chief Strategy and Business Development Officer.

This week on InTransition we will listen to a speech made by Gavin Slater, the new CEO of the Digital Transformation Agency, held by the Institute of Public Administration Australia at the National Gallery of Australia.  Mr Slater spent the last seven years at the National Australia Bank (NAB) focused on driving a widespread digital transformation agenda and leading initiatives to overhaul NAB's technology. Mr Slater is known for driving transformational change and responding to digital disruption having 30 years’ experience working in the private Financial Services sector. In this speech, he discusses: Challenges in improving the government’s service delivery; The Senate probe into the government’s $10bn IT spend; and His vision for the future, including more transparency and website consolidation. Content communication is a strategic, measurable, and accountable business process that relies on the creation, curation, and distribution of useful, relevant, and consistent content. The purpose is to engage an

This week on InTransition we speak with Alison Wright, Assistant Director of the National Gallery of Australia and all-round strategic marketing and communications guru. Join us in this funny and frank account of her career and lessons learned as Alison delves into how she’s navigated turbulent times at the NGA, and why her straight-shooting style works. "I think that we deploy enormous filters [in our professional lives], I see it every day, and I've seen it all throughout my career. I do not do is deploy those filters... I'm simply not interested in the filter because it's cutting out a lot of time, but also, it doesn't enable a truth telling environment.” Alison’s career spans 20 years, from working as a journalist in regional Australia to leading the ABC’s Sydney newsroom, embracing PR in China and starting as the Head of Communication at the peak of an international scandal at the NGA. Alison talks managing the message, why permission to fail is a must, the switch from journalism to “the dark side” and h

This week on the InTransition Podcast David talks to a ‘legend of the communications business’ Angela Sinickas who has been the in the field since 1974. Labelled as a pioneer of organisational communications measurement and measuring effectiveness Angela is quite renowned amongst publications such as Harvard Business Review, the Journal of Communication Management and Communication World. Now the CEO of Sinickas Communications she is a consultant for brands all around the world including Barclays, CISCO, Ergon, Verizon and ING Bank with a reputation for making a promise and sticking to it. Discussed in this podcast: The importance of measurement in communications Her history in the field – from journalism to avoid maths to pioneering data analysis for communications Turning communication into numbers Problems faced in the field and tips to counteract them How to stay afloat in a fast-growing industry

This week for the InTransition Podcast we're delving into the archives and revisiting our interview with David Rawlings, a social media professional starting his online career in 1996. With his background knowledge in the field, David P and David R discuss challenges facing the government in getting started with content marketing and the endless opportunities the government has to publish engaging content upholding the responsibility of explaining policy and programs to the public. Discussed in this edition: Using skills learnt in one area communications (PR or journalism) and applying it to another (social media) Governments learning social media engagement comes from quality and consistency, not one or the other How to keep things interesting and curating information to cater for your audience

This week on InTransition David speaks with Kanchan Dutt, Director of Media, Digital and Design Communications at the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Originally from the UK and with a background in journalism, Kanchan has been in the Australian public service for around a decade now, moving from the ACT government and community services into the federal statistics agency. As a self-described "dutiful public servant", Kanchan's experience has equipped him with insights he shares with David in this episode of InTransition, such as: * The growing importance of story telling; * Why meeting people face-to-face is the key to communication success; * How to effectively reach reporters and relay the story you want told; and * That ABS census debacle.   Tune in for the whole chat.

Clinton Parr's job, as head of people and culture at Clemenger BBDO, Australia's largest and most successful marketing communications company, is to deliver happiness. As he describes it, happy employees mean happy clients, happy clients mean happy companies, happy companies mean happy communities and happy communities mean a happy world. Keeping in mind contentgroup's mission of helping government and the public sector strengthen communities and improve the well-being of citizens, we reckon Clint is right on our level. In this week's episode of InTransition, David finds out how is Clint is helping to foster happiness in the workplace, even in these increasingly stressful, stretched and strenuous times. We're all being asked to do more with less. We've got technology, we've got change, we've got pace, we've got new channels, we've got expectations, we've got accountabilities, we've got automation, we've got artificial intelligence, we've got machine learning, and we've got to do it all. Tune in to hear how Cl

contentgroup's CEO David Pembroke calls her "one of the smartest young people in Australia" and he sure isn't wrong. Our podcast guest this week is Renee Noble, a 25-year-old computer scientist who is responsible for the algorithm behind Data61's Ribit student-employer matchmaking platform. A self-confessed lifelong "nerd" and lover of all things mathematics, Renee shares some fascinating insights into the power of data, its huge potential to do good in this world and the importance of knowing your target audience - this week on InTransition.

Tim Conway is the founder and chief executive of C-Metrics and the Asia-Pacific director of the Global Digital Foundation, a think tank and policy network that provides an interdisciplinary framework for dialogue between policymakers, stakeholders and scholars in support of an evidence-based approach to policy. He has a passionate interest in the transformational impact of ICT and the importance of ensuring that the topic is recognised and discussed on both regional and global policy stages.

In this episode of InTransition, David speaks with Paul X. McCarthy, author of Online Gravity. A leader in Australia's digital industry, Paul is an authority on the transformative nature of technology and the internet, and shares intriguing insights about what the future of online might look like and how it will shape our world and workforce.

About eight months ago, the National Innovation and Science Agenda identified the problem that small businesses and their engagement with university was a very weak part of the Australian innovation system. contentgroup was then fortunate enough to apply for and receive an Innovations Connections Funding. We are now using this grant to bolster our content communications methodology with evidence-based research and specially designed toolkits. As aprt of this, Dr Ying-Yi Chih and her team have engaged 20-plus governments from local, state, federal and multilateral levels, to test, validate and feedback on the contentgroup approach. David Pembroke speaks to Dr Ying-Yi about some of this feedback and where the project will go from here.

Heading up an organisation that represents the live export of animals such as sheep and cows has its obvious challenges, says Simon Westaway. As CEO of ALEC, Simon says he's been focusing on the framing and representation of the organisation, using skills he's acquired over a long career focused on government relations and media management. Tune in to the podcast for the full discussion.

As the CEO of the Bharti Foundation, the development arm of Bharti Enterprises, one of India's leading business groups, Vijay Chadda is responsible for initiatives such as the Satya Bharti School Programme. The scheme provides free, quality education to more than 42,000 children from marginalised communities in rural India. He says he's come to evolve into this role after a career spanning more than 45 years, which has taken in everything from military service to sitting on various tourism boards. In this episode of InTransition, David Pembroke speaks with Vijay Chadda about: The military-influenced values that continue to inform his leadership and business styles; The intrinsic Indian desire to give back, particularly among powerful conglomerates; The Indian leadership's struggle with the near-universal problem of effective government communication, and the diversity of the nation that plays a major role in it; and The prospect of a Digital India.

In the second and final installment of our chat with Liz Jakubowski, digital maestro and director of Ribit in the Data61 team at CSIRO, we discuss the foundations of and history behind Ribit. A free online matchmaking platform that connects digital and STEM students with SMEs looking to grow and compete, Ribit is helping to address skills shortages and students' employment concerns.