Response to Comments Made by Rockys Bru Blog Post on Edelman

October 16, 2012 (Tuesday)

The recent blog post on Edelman posted by blogger Rockys Bru generated a lively debate among various interest groups. In reply to various comments made, Edelman has posted their response directly on Rockys Bru blog as well as The Mole (subject to moderator approval). The full response here: The Edelman Trust Barometer is a Proprietary study on what drives Trust in the four key institutions of state (Government, Media, Business and NGO). This is a global survey conducted by StrategyOne (Edelman Berland), a global market research institute, consistently over the past 12 years and encompasses 30,000 respondents in 25 key markets throughout the world. In Malaysia, Edelman launched this study for the first time in 2012, fully aware that Trust forms the basis of any lasting relationship. The study obtained feedback from 1000 Malaysians (general public) and has an overlay of 200 informed public (college educated, media savvy, urbanites) calculated to reflect the general population of Malaysia. This is a first-of-its-kind study for Malaysians by Malaysians. The data for our initial year reflects how Malaysians rate trust in the four institutions measured. The results, in a nutshell, place Malaysia in a neutral Trust zone, with trust in government here very much in line with global results. It will be useful to see how Malaysians perceive Trust as related to these institutions in the upcoming surveys. What we hope to achieve is intelligent, apolitical discourse on how and where trust can be earned by listening to the feedback of our fellow Malaysians. This is not about anyone preaching, but solely listening to what the sampled Malaysians are saying. Our hypothesis on what the data means remains our professional opinion. Nothing more. The data that will be collated from the 2013 edition which will be the 2nd study for Malaysia - due for release in early 2013, and years following, would certainly prove interesting as we can now track the baseline on all the metrics measured. The global results are presented at the WEF at Davos by Richard Edelman every year. Rocky had commented on the monopoly on Government contracts. Fact is, Edelman has been invited to and won business against other multinational and local PR firms solely on merit. To be absolutely clear, there are no recommendations. We strive to go in with insight and research-based strategies and strong understanding of the clients requirements. My humble opinion - three government clients hardly constitute a monopoly. Let me tell you we have lost a few too, but thats the prerogative of the client to decide. This is a firm that is focused on recruiting and training bright young Malaysians in the field of strategic communications, providing professional and cross-cultural experience that is incomparable. To knock these hard working young Malaysians, who make up 90% of our current team of 35, would be to unfairly dismiss the professional PR talent pool that we are working to cultivate.

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I invite anyone who feels aggrieved or heard from sources to email raymond.siva@edelman.com and I guarantee a personal response. Provide name and contact details, so we can respond accordingly with context and transparency. Edelman has been in Malaysia since 1984, and we are proud to play our part to upskill and develop the PR services sector in Malaysia to international standards, in partnership with fellow professionals in the media. On that note, I am more than happy to engage and discuss the results of our inaugural survey with you and anyone else who is interested to provide constructive feedback. Raymond Siva Managing Director Edelman Malaysia

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