Samenvatting

This report is concerned with the current position of CISAC (International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Creators). Surrounded by a large network of collecting societies and essentially a lobbying organization, CISAC increasingly feels pressures (at least in Europe) to respond to copyright issues especially in the digital era. However, being the international organization that defends authors' rights, there is one important stakeholder that has been largely ignored by CISAC's communications: the author. That is why this report is dedicated to seek the answer to the question, how could CISAC promote itself as an international organization working to protect authors' rights amongst authors in Europe.

The report describes clearly the common term that are used in copyright such as collecting management and authors' societies and explain how CISAC fits in the whole picture. CISAC is in fact the umbrella organization that coordinates all activities of the collecting societies. More often, the collecting management is targeted by different groups such as the European Commission and commercial users who have a poor understanding about its role in the digital era. A brief description of what role each stakeholder can play within CISAC or the collective management is also included. The analysis has revealed that CISAC can achieve more with communication if it focuses on the no less important stakeholders - authors, contrasted to the collecting societies.

The digital era has opened up many possibilities for CISAC to promote itself. A section on marketing communications trends is also incorporated showing that it is not necessary costly. After all, CISAC is still a non-profit organization with limited resources.
The marketing and communication objectives are then formed aiming at enhancing CISAC's visibility and credibility among authors. The objectives target different groups but all serve the same goal: to introduce CISAC to authors by many means such as direct contact, interactions, event. Outsourcing is also needed to organize a nice event to attract the attentions of many stakeholders. Concepts of the event therefore should be deeply investigated with different agencies and selected groups (opinion leaders).

At the end of the report, a plan of action is also described with details how to implement and monitor the tools. This control is necessary because it allows adjustments to be made when necessary or just to stop if it appears an action is not working. However, several preconditions are also mentioned when applying this plan. CISAC should be able to reach its target audience when following the recommendations in this report.