Musings on public relations, media and advertising
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Everybody wins
Here’s a great story about why newspapers matter and how a mayor can solve a problem reporters bring to the public’s attention.
During the dark, rainy days of June, the Boston Globe spotlighted how the city was failing school sports programs. Shoddy playing fields, shabby equipment and a lack of resources added up to an embarrassment for Mayor Tom Menino.
The journalism was top notch—even for a paper which has endured a series of editorial staff cuts and buyouts. The death of newspapers is already old news. Decimated ad revenues and debt-ridden corporate owners have forced many newspapers to abandon real, investigative journalism. In its absence we look to citizen journalists and their blogs hopeful they will provide information newspapers can’t. But skeptics say the kind of investigative work that uncovers corruption and the highlights the failure of institutions we trust will be a victim of the reset in the newspaper industry.
The Globe’s series on the state of sports in city schools is one of those stories people appreciate. As a result of the series, Mayor Menino said “he would create a nonprofit charitable foundation spearheaded by former athletes and business leaders to transform the trouble sports system into a source of urban pride,” the paper reported Sunday (June 28, 2009). Menino told the Globe he “has received received a preliminary commitment from one Boston professional sports team to help launch the foundation and is optimistic others will join the effort.”
What a brilliant strategy; if there’s one thing Tom Menino has learned in his 16 years in City Hall, it’s how to use the power of public relations. Immediately the Mayor changed the conversation from “What can be done to fix the school sports programs?” to “How will the Red Sox, the Patriots, the Celtics, the Bruins step up?”
Menino should be able to leverage the people and teams that have made Boston “Title Town USA”. He should also receive corporate support from Boston’s biggest corporations like State Street, Raytheon and Staples. And why not sign up to provide funding to improve sports fields, hire coaches and upgrade equipment? It’s a great way to support children and improve Boston’s reputation.
Good publicity awaits any and all comers which is why this strategy will probably succeed. Score one for the Globe and score one for Tom Menino.
In the past couple of weeks two well known brands have been critically damaged by circumstances totally beyond their control. First Domino’s fell victim to a video hoax which has set the bar for bad taste. Then, a woman offering services on Craigslist was murdered spawning the new tabloid term “Craigslist Killer”.
Now, while Domino’s and Craigslist scramble to repair their reputations, we can examine these cases as cautionary tales and examples of how crisis communications should work. What’s important to remember here is that unlike a crisis of your own creation (like the auto company execs flying to Washington on corporate jets to ask Congress for handouts) it’s much more challenging to manage a situation that is created by someone else.
Before we look closely at the Domino’s and Craigslist cases, it’s worthwhile to look back at a classic case involving product liability. In 1982, Tylenol was a top-seller for Johnson & Johnson; its reputation as a safe, effective pain reliever was impeccable. Then news broke that bottles of Tylenol capsules were laced with cyanide. Seven people died.
J&J’s response was swift and effective. The company got in front of the crisis, spending over $100 million to recall every single bottle of Tylenol capsules. Its strategy was to use the media to tell the public that the Tylenol on store shelves may not be safe. Don’t use it. J&J recalled all capsules and replaced them with safer caplets; J&J instituted new, tamper-proof containers and embarked on a massive, new advertising campaign.
27 years later, this case still exemplifies how to best control a crisis and use it to the company’s advantage. Richard Levick writes in his crisis management reference, “Stop the Presses”, “The crisis was transformed into a positive marketing opportunity that actually strengthened the corporate brand.”
Tylenol survived as a brand and J&J was able to recoup its market share within a year of the incident.
But the Tylenol case happened before the internet, before YouTube and before the proliferation of blogs. So can Domino’s and Craigslist emerge from their crises in tact?
The short answer is yes but it depends on how well they execute their strategy.
Domino’s, for example, saw the potential for disaster immediately and responded within hours of the video’s appearance on YouTube. Posts appeared on Twitter and on the website Consumerist. Domino’s CEO Patrick Boyle appeared in a YouTube video to emphasize the company’s commitment to producing quality food. The bottom line: They were engaged before the media came calling.
The lesson, especially in the world of immediate, on-demand information is that you have to act quickly and you have to put out the right messages. Had Boyle’s video been simply a denial of blame, Domino’s would have taken a greater hit. But, the video was sincere and convincing. It played to people’s common sense that, of course, this kind of thing is not acceptable and is not indicative of how they run their business. It’s unfair to gauge Domino’s success simply by reading the comments posted on YouTube and the various blogs since most people who post tend to be critical not complimentary.
Going forward, Domino’s needs to dispel any notions that its food is anything less than Grade A. That means implementing even better quality control and communicating to the public that stringent food safety rules are being followed. Domino’s could set up a special website where results of regular kitchen tests are posted for all to see. When a company has been victimized the way Domino’s was it has to go to extremes to rebuild trust with the public.
The Craigslist case presents a different challenge. Here, the company has no significant connection to the tragic murder of one woman or to the other victims who had advertised services on the list much like others advertise in the backs of the Boston Phoenix or the Village Voice. The media branding of the case “The Craigslist Killer” is really more about alliteration than anything else but it still leaves Craigslist in a precarious position.
Since Craigslist derives revenue from sex ads there are those who claim the company deserves the blame for enabling a predator. As a result, the best PR strategy may not be in line with the company’s best business strategy—that is refusing to accept any kinds of ads for massages, dates or anything else that could be construed as sex.
Craigslist founder Craig Newmark should be commended for his openness with the media. Yet, what we see in his recent interview with Martin Bashir at ABC News is his frustration over the incidents as much his sadness at the crimes. “My first reaction is sympathy, I mean I feel pretty bad for the victims and their families. I don't like it at all. Beyond that, well, how would you feel if ... the bad guy watched what you do on TV and started calling [you] the 'ABC Killer?'”
So what can Newmark do? Any action needs to demonstrate genuine concern and a willingness to protect the well being of the people who use his site and, often times, find themselves conducting business with total strangers. Allocating a portion of revenue to a fund for the families of the victims is a good start. He could also consider providing capital for schools in the communities in which the victims grew up. Maybe with more educational opportunities women can find safer employment alternatives than those the victims fell into.
As we learned in the Tylenol case, repairing a damaged brand is expensive. But, if faced with a crisis of consumer confidence, companies have little choice if they plan to stay in business. As the old TV commercial for Fram auto parts so succinctly put it, “You can pay me now, or you can pay me later,” a stark reality especially in today’s economic climate.
I talked to another client today about how the economy is affecting business and how PR fits in with the plan. In an effort to curb expenses he is changing our relationship from a retainer-model to a project-based model. He is not the only one in our stable that is being forced to consider the value of an ongoing relationship with a PR firm, which includes daily access to an executive level resource and ongoing pitches to the media, versus a reduced effort which only focuses PR on specific events or in the event of a crisis. 2009 is going to be a challenging year—no matter what business you’re in. At Ellis Strategies we aggressively promote the fact that we offer Affordable, Effective PR http://www.ellisstrategies.com/ because many small to medium sized businesses just can’t afford to allocate $10,000 a month to pay an industry-standard retainer with a PR firm. The Public Relations Society recently posted an article titled “Economic downturn should not stop companies from being inventive”, which points out that in a bad economy companies that remain creative and innovative will prosper. The article is valuable for all business people—especially for PR firms. To survive in this market we have to summon all our strategic and creative thinking to bring more value to our clients. Here are three initiatives we’re focusing on: 1-Developing pitches the media will respond to 2-Promoting additional services like media training, crisis planning and video production which clients can use to strengthen their businesses 3-Better integrating with the client’s overall marketing efforts to maximize their investment
We see the opportunities in project work and look forward to filling the needs of current and future clients.
Bank of America has just launched its online community for small businesses, http://www.smallbusinessonlinecommunity.bankofamerica.com. It is a fantastic way for business leaders to connect and access the brainpower of experts. On June 16 Jon Kaplan from Google will lead a discussion of how to maximize SEO. Could you think of a better resource for your small business?
Sophia Toslma, who is BofA's Small Business eCommerce guru invited me to hold a forum on public relations. That will be held at 1pm on July 11. I hope you can join in the conversation and tap my expertise on how you can maximize your opportunities with the media.
You could argue the recent PR stunt for Turner Broadcasting's Cartoon Network program Aqua Teen Hunger Force was a huge failure. CN hired a hip and cool guerilla marketing group in New York to get some buzz for the late night cartoon featuring a meatblob, a bag of fries and a shake. The plan was to inconspicuously plant battery-powered light boards around 11 U.S. cities. For some reason, Boston was the only place where the lite-brite type boards were mistaken for bombs.
The stunt shut the city down and got the goat of Mayor Tom Menino, who blamed the whole episode on "corporate greed". The news was a breaking story on all the cable channels and caused a scramble in newsrooms across Boston. From a marketing perspective the early results point to a flop. According to Neilsen Media Research, the audience of 18-24 y-o's tuned to Aqua Teen Hunger Force was virtually the same the week after the stunt as it was the week before. But we're not here to look at why this hip and cool brand of marketing didn't drive viewers. Instead, we want to look at how Turner handled the whole thing because it really is a textbook example of good crisis management.
In a world where things come in threes, let's lexamine the three steps Turner's parent company, Time Warner, took to quell the uproar over a stunt-gone-too-far.
First: The Apology. It didn't take long for Turner to issue an apology to the citizens of Boston and their lovable Mayor. Turner made the calls to the right people, spoke personally to the City's leaders and then paid for a full-page ad in the Boston Globe to express its remorse.Check one. The company does a mea culpa.
Second: The Payoff. In the world of network advertising two million bucks doesn't go that far. But, a cool two mill was more than enough to quiet the crowd of Boston's unhappy municipal and public safety officials who were demanding Turner do the right thing. The company not only did the right thing by making the payoff available immediately so as to shorten the news cycle, it also made sure the offering would be enough to cover the actual and emotional costs incurred by the City. As importantly, it released Turner from any criminal or civil cases and made it look like a good corporate citizen.
Check two: The company protects its image.
Third: The Sacrifice. Every one needs someone to blame. In this case it's Cartoon Network General Manager Jim Samples. He became the fall guy for Time Warner by offering his resignation and releasing an apologetic statement in which he said he "deeply regret[s] the negative publicity and expense caused to our company as a result of this campaign." And, the timing here couldn't have been better. Not only did the news break late on a Friday, prime-time for flying under the radar, it also came when the death of Anna Nicole Smith was driving cable news. On Saturday morning, when the fewest newspapers are read, the Boston Globe ran the story as the lead item on page one but the New York Times didn't; they ran it on A-11, too far in for most people to even notice.
Check three: The company has a scapegoat and the story cycle is over!
Few television executives had the knack for marketing and branding that Ted Turner had when he created the Turner Network. Old Ted's out of the picture now but you have to imagine even he was impressed at how the guys who run his former company handled this thing.Textbook crisis management, if only the stunt which led to all this had actually worked, then it would have really been something.
A recent edition of the Improper Bostonian magazine featured a cover showing 49 previous covers designed to celebrate the mag’s 15th anniversary. Inside there were quotes, pictures and features designed to remind readers of all the fabulous things the Improper has published since 1991. It even compared how many Dunkin’ Donuts stores there were 15 years ago compared to now.
Anniversaries are among the best ways to generate publicity. They offer a chance to be the story; to self congratulate and self promote. You don’t have to be a household name to seize these opportunities.
Any business or non-profit organization can take advantage of an anniversary to remind the media that they exist and highlight their accomplishments.From a reporter’s perspective, the anniversary is a natural hook into a story. It’s a reason to interview the CEO or Director, profile an interesting employee or examine the industry you’re in.
If you’re going to try and pitch your anniversary to the press for a feature story don’t expect the event will be enough to get the reporters calling you. Like all story pitches you’ve got to identify what it is about you that will be of interest to a mass audience. Does the anniversary coincide with your best revenue year to date? Does it show your staying power in a chaotic industry? Is it an opportunity to connect with an emerging trend or pop-culture phenomenon?
