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Bob Evans on the consumerisation of corporate communications(Guardian Web Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) You've been in your role for just over a year now. How are you finding it? Constant change and constant opportunities. We've only just begun to tap the potential of what can be done and the impact that we can have on our customers and on the company itself. There's a growing trend towards the world's biggest companies having comms and marketing people as members of the board, and in some cases running those companies. Why do you think this is? Not that long ago, in the buyer / seller equation, the power was tipped in the favour of the seller. Now it's firmly in the hands of the buyer. That has come through technology, through social and through more choice. So instead of companies saying, "here's what we are, here's what you'll know about us, here's how you'll do business with us, here's how we will allow you to engage with us", now it's gone the other way. In a world powered by the buyers, it's become more important than ever for companies to help those buyers understand who these companies are. This term of 'humanising' is a little overdone sometimes. I think it's more a case of personalising. It's about making one individual care about a company and that company's message. Are we good at giving them reasons to care? You need to be, whether it's through storytelling or just by being easy to do business with. Is it harder or easier to tell stories and to relate in a personalised way to a B2B audience, as opposed to a consumer audience? It's definitely a challenge to put any audience at the centre of the universe, as opposed to at the centre of your company. If you get that mixed up that's where the trouble hits. So the challenge for us, and what makes it a hard thing for us, is that we're constantly trying to ask: how would that affect readers? Why would they not care about it? Why would they care more about it? What's the right channel that we go through to meet them? We know which one is easiest and most convenient for us, but you've got to avoid that trap and remake the work we do in the image of the reader. That's hard, especially for a non-media company or a company whose main business is not interacting with its audiences through content and storytelling. But is it a recognition by the boards of these types of companies that they need to have a storyteller within the fold, and in some instances actually running the company? Larry Ellison (co-founder and CEO of Oracle) is a world class storyteller. He just has ways of putting things in a certain perspective. When he reached out to me a couple of years ago to come and work for Oracle, he explained that the company had thousands of the world's best technologists, but that it needed someone who can help tell the world who this company is and why the world should care. Someone who can help bring alive these stories of our remarkable customers and how they are remaking themselves and becoming more successful. He said let's work together to bring the fragmented voices within the company into a cohesive organisation that can tell the right stories at the right time to the right people in the right way. So from the top of the company down there is very strong support and interest in doing this right. You speak about "the consumerisation of corporate communications" - what do you mean by that? Oracle is a big company: 400,000 customers, 120,000 employees all over the world. We have a lot of different products and many of those products are hard for most people to understand. So we try to connect with people in a way that matters to them, to take some of the mystery out of this. What are the things that get us to the point where it's not about our products, it's about the impact those products can have on our customers? We do business with companies in 18 different industries. How can we help those companies not only stay afloat, but get better and thrive and move to where the new opportunities are? Storytelling from a big B2B company that makes pretty complex products – why are we doing that? It's because more and more non-tech people are getting involved in these decisions in terms of what to buy the chief human resources officer, or the chief marketing officer, or the head of sales, the head of business development. More and more of those people are saying: "my business, my job is entirely predicated on technology so I have to understand this stuff." So Oracle simultaneously has to communicate to the technological audiences we've always had but also to begin to be able to appeal to this new, non-technical business person. We can't do that using traditional means. Where do you sit on the native advertising debate? Audience and readers are smart and if you try to take something that is crass and ugly and pretend it's something sophisticated they're going to see through that. So I'm not saying that native advertising or brand publishing is dirty, I just think they should call it exactly as it is, which is: here's some content that is coming from a particular point of view on this. Where do you find the value in content for you? What are the metrics? It's a little bit of everything. Look at what the Guardian has done: it seized this extraordinary change and turmoil and said: we are going to do something different and better than what's come before. It's using that change and turmoil to connect better with people and tell stories that nobody else can tell. And I think it's a matter of companies saying, we want to talk to the world on our terms and the audiences will judge whether that's worth hearing about or not. The first thing is you have to be authentic. If you set out to do a lot of chest thumping, the right people can ignore you, some people get mad and the reaction is that you deserve to get slapped around a little bit but there's also a strong need, right? A lot of people go on Twitter to look for interesting stuff and those are the people we want to meet and talk to and you have to be very respectful of those people. We have to subordinate our self interest to what is important for our audience, otherwise it's just a colossal waste of time. Can you give any advice or tips on how to build brand voice to our audience? The balance between the buyer / seller dynamic is tipped inexorably towards the buyer. In this environment companies need to recognise that and put the customer at the centre of their universe and everything they do; from how they develop products, how they design products, how they price them, how they sell them, how they market and support them, all of that. What are you trying to say, who are you trying to reach and whose life are you going to try and make better? Who do you want to light up with an idea so that they take that and run into their colleagues office and say "look at what we could do if we tried something like this"? And that's where the best things come out and that's what I think all the hand-wringing about whether it's journalism or not is irrelevant. Are we creating content that people care about? If you've done that, you've earned a seat at the table. There are a lot of traditional media properties that are dying because they are not interesting, they're not relevant, they're not timely, they're not provocative and they deserve to die. The same applies to a brand building approach through content you do something that's important to people you can succeed. If you don't, you won't. Quick questions What time do you get up in the morning? Between 5am and 5.30am. What's the first thing that you do when you get to the office? I read to get my brain revved up a little bit before I start to write anything. How often do you check your email throughout the day? It seems to be less these days 12 to 15 times a day. What do you do to relax? I used to play a lot of basketball but I smashed up my finger so I stopped playing. Now I ride bikes and work outside. What app can't you live without? United.com I travel a lot! What device can't you live without? I'm an iPhone fan. What's your go to source for news? Apart from the Guardian, the Wall Street Journal and Google News updates. Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook? Twitter. WhatsApp or Oculus Rift? I'm not a user of either I'm afraid. I'm too old! Bob Evans is chief communications officer at Oracle Corp To get weekly news analysis, job alerts and event notifications direct to your inbox, sign up free for Media Network membership. 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