Edelman changes website; Richard Edelman launches blog

Keith O'Brien 01-Oct-04

Edelman made a number of changes to its website today, including the launch of a blog authored by CEO Richard Edelman.

Other plans include a firmwide message board that Edelman hopes to launch by mid-October, which will serve as a place for its staff to communicate and share with the public what they deem important. The changes coincide with Edelman's 52nd anniversary.

The website, still at the URL www.Edelman.com, is now branded "independent thinking" and features a rotating flash with videos highlighting client successes.

"We want to reiterate our independence and underline this notion of independent thinking," CEO Richard Edelman told PRWeek. "We're going to be [able to take] market share from the ad agencies, grow the footprint of PR, and grab more of the pie."

He added: "We want to say to clients, think of us differently - we're not just media relations."

Edelman's blog, titled 6 am, also went live today.

"This is the first shot at blogging by this CEO," he wrote in his first post on September 29. "My intention is share trends in communications, the issues, lessons and insights I gather from traveling and managing this firm."

He also wrote: "Why 6 am? -- because I wake up early and hope to get you some useful insights as you come in to work."

Edelman told PRWeek that if the firm was targeting with peer-to-peer communications, "I should walk the talk."

He said the website would still feature his other communications, like his speeches, but "I don't have to wait to give a speech to have a point of view."

He expects the blog to feature less news about the firm and more about the future of communications.

"I hope I can continue to provide intellectual capital," he said.

Plans are for the blog to be updated weekly.

In other news, the Edelman agency will air a TV ad on CNBC Europe four to five times a day. The advertisement features a corporate message that gets garbled as it is passed from one individual in a chain to another. The tagline is "Be Understood."