360DigitalInfluence

Wow. Pat and I just had a great time learning from Chris Graves, President & CEO, Asia Pacific, Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide. That’s a pretty big role, if you consider that my position is somewhere really low in the food chain. But you know what’s the best thing? Chris doesn’t behave like that.. He embraces you and talks to you as a person, and that translates into the way he talks to his clients, journalists, bloggers and colleagues.

There’s just something about the way he engages you and tells you stories.

I think it’s a culture thing, and something within Ogilvy to embrace storytelling. Storytelling is a truly wonderful tool for any communicator. It allows you to paint beautiful pictures with words, and it conveys your ideas much clearer because the person you’re communicating with, sees it too.

Despite all the buzz about ’social media’, ‘analytics’, reports, trends, facts and figures.. they all feed into what we do in the communications industry. Whether you’re a journalist, blogger, advertiser, content producer or PR practitioner.. we’re in the communications business of distilling complex ideas and making them simpler so that more people can understand them.

Do you think you’re an effective communicator? If not, why not give storytelling a shot? Be curious, ask questions, find insightful nuggets that set your story apart from someone else. Even if you have no story to tell.. that’s a story to tell! Why are you so quiet? Did something make you feel this way? What happened?

It’s not fluff. You help people understand! That’s a truly remarkable skill when we’re talking about imparting knowledge, helping to shed light on problems and conveying great solutions that can help society.

I’ll leave it that today, but be on the lookout for the videos we interviewed of Chris today. He answered some great questions from the blogosphere.. and just pick out the way he says things, how he conveys his message. There’s so much to learn, and I hope you’ll get something out of it. Look out for it after the weekend -)

Hi everyone,

Christopher Graves, our President & CEO of Ogilvy PR Asia Pacific is currently in town! We are taking this opportunity to invite everyone, and anyone to ask him any questions they may have pertaining to Social Media. We will be interviewing him on video, of which will be shared with everyone on The Open Room.

Just a bit about Christopher for your information:

1. Before joining Ogilvy in January 2005, he worked for 25 years in business news.

2. 18 years was spent with Dow Jones on both editorial and business sides.

3. He was one of the founders of Wall Street Journal Television.

4. He was also the Managing Editor of Asia Business News (ABN), Vice President of News and Programming for CNBC Asia, Vice President of News and Programming for CNBC Europe, Managing Director of Business Development (EMEA & Asia) for Dow Jones Consumer Electronic Publishing (WSJ.com), and Managing Director of Far Eastern Economic Review.

5. Far Eastern Economic Review, a 60-year old magazine, won magazine of the year in Asia twice during his tenure.

6. He is a frequent public speaker and moderator, appearing at such events as the World Economic Forum (Davos and Asia), Global Entrepolis @ Singapore, World Islamic Economic Forum, and the Boao Forum for Asia.

7. He has interviewed leaders in public—most recently former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, Philippines President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, former Prime Minister of Singapore Goh Chok Tong, Singapore founding father Lee Kuan Yew, India’s Minister of Trade Kamal Nath and China’s Minister of Science & Technology Wan Gang.

8. He once played a guitar in high school so bad, his band had to wear helmets because the audience threw stuff at them.

Instead of having us, the Digital Influence team, craft questions for his video interview which we’ve squeezed in tomorrow for recording, we thought we’d leave the questions to you, the creators, curators and consumers of Social Media. The people who matter.

Please email either Brian or myself (Pat Law) at brian.koh@ogilvy.com or patricia.law@ogilvy.com by 12 midnight today with the following details:

1. Name:

2. URL (if any):

3. Email address:

Hurry along now!