Comments on: May I Have Your Attention, Please? http://www.salle.url.edu/EuroComm/blog/2007/12/06/may-i-have-your-attention-please/ Innovation through Communication Thu, 17 May 2012 12:07:16 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.3 By: Angie Macdonald http://www.salle.url.edu/EuroComm/blog/2007/12/06/may-i-have-your-attention-please/#comment-9 Angie Macdonald Sun, 09 Dec 2007 20:04:27 +0000 http://www.salle.url.edu/EuroComm/blog/2007/12/06/may-i-have-your-attention-please/#comment-9 Thanks for this interesting real life example of the back channel, Mark. Your description of the McDonald's video was so vivid, I really want to see it now! Thanks for this interesting real life example of the back channel, Mark. Your description of the McDonald’s video was so vivid, I really want to see it now!

]]> By: Marc Wright http://www.salle.url.edu/EuroComm/blog/2007/12/06/may-i-have-your-attention-please/#comment-8 Marc Wright Sat, 08 Dec 2007 16:47:26 +0000 http://www.salle.url.edu/EuroComm/blog/2007/12/06/may-i-have-your-attention-please/#comment-8 Thanks Angie for highlighting a phenomenon that is little understood but which will have huge impact on conference presentations in the future. I used a backchat system at a conference last June on Social Media. It seemed like a good idea at the time. The conference was on the theme of the crossroads of Employee Engagement and Social Media, so we invited David Fairhurst, top People Director of McDonald's, to present on how he is using video to combat the poor opinion of their employer brand. He was assisted in this by Pete Stevenson, Creative Director of The Edge Picture Company who made the award-winning programme. The audience tended to share the public's view of McDonald's employer brand (or maybe confused it with the product brand). So they agreed with the video's title: "Is your mother embarrassed about where you work?" However, it was screening the video in its entirety that put the pickle among the mayonnaise. The film is a superbly crafted piece of emotional drama and the conference audience felt suitably manipulated. Suddenly the argument was not about saturated fats but the use of video as a propaganda tool. David Fairhurst is an old hand at facing down opposition to his employer's products, and sailed over the controversy. Indeed he was voted recently by HR Magazine as the 4th most influential HR manager in the UK (Number 3 was Charles Handy!) so he must be used to the arguments and took the brickbats (and the compliments) in his stride. But the surprise was the strength of feeling about the video itself. Pete Stevenson found himself justifying the reasons for making a professional programme (the lead was played by an actress) that was so beautifully written, shot and directed. Comments on te backchat channel included: "A much idealised view I am afraid. emotionally strong messages can still be propaganda, doesn't make it true" "McDonalds the musical" The speakers felt wounded and challenged by such instant criticism. I suspect that the audience felt rather liberated. Thanks Angie for highlighting a phenomenon that is little understood but which will have huge impact on conference presentations in the future.
I used a backchat system at a conference last June on Social Media. It seemed like a good idea at the time. The conference was on the theme of the crossroads of Employee Engagement and Social Media, so we invited David Fairhurst, top People Director of McDonald’s, to present on how he is using video to combat the poor opinion of their employer brand. He was assisted in this by Pete Stevenson, Creative Director of The Edge Picture Company who made the award-winning programme.
The audience tended to share the public’s view of McDonald’s employer brand (or maybe confused it with the product brand). So they agreed with the video’s title: “Is your mother embarrassed about where you work?”
However, it was screening the video in its entirety that put the pickle among the mayonnaise. The film is a superbly crafted piece of emotional drama and the conference audience felt suitably manipulated. Suddenly the argument was not about saturated fats but the use of video as a propaganda tool.
David Fairhurst is an old hand at facing down opposition to his employer’s products, and sailed over the controversy. Indeed he was voted recently by HR Magazine as the 4th most influential HR manager in the UK (Number 3 was Charles Handy!) so he must be used to the arguments and took the brickbats (and the compliments) in his stride.

But the surprise was the strength of feeling about the video itself. Pete Stevenson found himself justifying the reasons for making a professional programme (the lead was played by an actress) that was so beautifully written, shot and directed.
Comments on te backchat channel included:

“A much idealised view I am afraid. emotionally strong messages can still be propaganda, doesn’t make it true”

“McDonalds the musical”

The speakers felt wounded and challenged by such instant criticism. I suspect that the audience felt rather liberated.

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