Articles published in April, 2010

1. Rewriting the crisis management template

   Published on Friday, April 30th, 2010
   Corporations not convinced of the role that social media can play in crisis or issues management communication need only study its role during the recent Iceland volcanic eruption to change their position totally.

   As you read this, the template for managing a crisis is being rewritten.

   In the recent airline crisis, experienced as a result of the Icelandic volcano eruption, twitter proved itself a frontline communication tool, sitting alongside the more traditional first responses such as call centres, hotlines and websites.

   According to Mashable, The Social Media Guide, the use of twitter during the crisis started as a self help tool among stranded travellers.

   Also immediately, airline communicators picked up on what was happening, and started to update flight status and provide service information on twitter through hashtags (devices for tracking specific topics). This initiative alone was credited with taking a significant level of pressure off call centres that were close to being overwhelmed.

   The more innovative airlines extended their initiatives down into their Facebook pages, providing general information and also engaging in one-on-one real-time conversations with customers, including seeking to re-book stranded passengers on alternative flights.

   Meanwhile, back on twitter the public started to lend a hand to stranded travellers – offering rides, places to stay and food.

   If you want a more detailed overview of social media’s role in the crisis please click here.

   The key learning to emerge from this for those involved in crisis management is the need to include in the management plan an important role for social media.

   A significant proportion of the public instinctively look to twitter and Facebook for information, and as communicators we need to reach out to our audiences, rather than require them to come to us.

   Posted in Crisis Communications, Journalism, Media landscape, PR Matters, Social Media, Technology

2. The fashion of rebranding

   Published on Wednesday, April 28th, 2010
   I read in the Waikato Times yesterday that fashion designer Annah Stretton has changed her brand.  That wasn’t exactly how the story was portrayed, but that was its essence.  Not so long ago, Stretton’s designs were picketed by animal rights activists and she’d done some other non-PC stuff with a taxidermied boar’s head.  Now she’s taking a summer collection titled Stop the Slaughter to a fashion show in Australia. We are told this is inspired by her protest against the way animals are farmed.

   Of course, it has become something of a fashion itself for celebs to latch on to causes, which was evidenced again by a photo of a couple of our leading actresses standing in a West Coast riverbed to give their views on its proposed damming.  Don’t dam it, I say. Let’s find out where these actresses live, and build a wind farm adjacent. Wouldn’t work though, because they are possibly well enough healed to find a new neighbourhood, and then leave the visual clutter and noise for others to endure.

   Never mind being a protesting vegan like Brigette Bardot and that strange woman McCartney married and divorced, there is another class of people who are re-branding themselves, and they have me worried.  These are the criminal classes who re-brand for the court appearances with a make-over.  The worst thugs inevitably appear in the dock clean shaven, short-back and side and sporting a collar and tie!   As an habitual business tie-wearer, this is beginning to leave me isolated, so maybe its time to re-brand myself by dressing down and following the fashion.

   Posted in Brand, Media landscape, PR Matters

3. The Oprah Effect – the media princess of our times makes an indelible mark

   Published on Wednesday, April 21st, 2010
   Every so often there comes an individual whose unique impact on our cultural psyche is profound and lasting and Oprah Winfrey is one such person. 

   Her ability to influence the beliefs and behaviours of her followers, usually female, is such they will strongly defend their heroine’s stance on an issue and actively share their new learning with others so they can also reap the benefit or avoid the risks.  In turn these views are shared via other mainstream and social media networks, exponentially spreading the information. 

   For those in the know, the goal of producing a daily s-shaped stool is one such example.  Thanks to Oprah many millions, possibly even billions of people now know that producing an s-shaped stool is an indication of good digestive health.  To be fair it is not her words exactly.  But the power of her seal of approval on the experts on her show or magazine means they may as well be her words.

   The Oprah Effect is a term we ourselves use when beliefs that have been firmly established by popular media sources are contradictory to recognised expert opinion.  Being specialist communicators in the health and nutrition space it is something we experience with increasing frequency.

   More recently another Oprah Effect has been felt, this time by the media themselves.  With the release of a new unauthorised biography (by infamous biographer Kitty Kelley) few, if any, of the mainstream talk shows are said to be willing to interview the author.  As one wag said, “It’s one book guaranteed to not make Oprah’s Book Club.” This Oprah Effect has created a fear amongst media of losing privileged access or experiencing a withdrawal of her (powerful) approval. One Oprah story now is not worth banishment forever.

   Oprah is potentially the most powerful media person of our time.  She’s credited with helping put Obama in the Whitehouse.  I must confess to being in awe of her. I am not necessarily a fan but I am fascinated by her effect.

   Oprah Winfrey is the classic case of the right person at the right time having established her global dominance at a pace similar to the globalisation of media itself. Twenty years earlier and she might have languished in Chicago, which might now be known as the city of super-healthy digestive systems.

   It now remains to be seen how the Oprah Effect will manifest itself in the future.

   Posted in Brand, Media landscape, PR Matters

4. Polish authorities recover quickly from disaster to reaffirm control

   Published on Wednesday, April 14th, 2010
   The Polish administration has to be admired for getting its crisis management plan into action quickly following the tragic crash of the aeroplane carrying that country’s top political, civil and military leaders.

   It has reaffirmed steady hands remain on the tiller of State.

   The Acting President has appointed acting heads of institutions such as the National Bank, Chief of Security, and the heads of the air force, navy and land forces.

   It has moved to counter the ‘conspiracy theorists’ who are seeking to find the hand of Russian involvement in the tragedy by talking up the “emotional breakthrough” created by the “two nations grieving together”.

   And today it announced it was bringing forward the planned Presidential elections.

   News that Poland is to ‘review’ travel rules for senior officials is again a move by the administration to show it has matters ‘in hand’.
    
   However, for those of us who spend our lives in issues management planning the real question is: Why were so many travelling on the same aircraft in the first place?

   It is fundamental of disaster prevention to require people important to a country’s political and economic stability to be split into separate groups when travelling to the same event.

   What possessed Polish decision makers to ignore such a common sense requirement?

   Most large corporations have rules about senior executives travelling separately, and Coca-Cola has made the issue part of their corporate folk lore (you’ve heard the story, only a few executives know the secret formulae, and they are never allowed to travel on the same plane together).

   Human nature being what it is, there is often little enthusiasm for disaster planning. It often gets bumped to the back of the queue time after time while more pressing issues are dealt with.

   Perhaps the Polish tragedy will be a timely reminder to those in decision making roles that they need to ensure their disaster planning is on a firm footing.

   Posted in Crisis Communications, Media landscape, Politics, PR Matters

5. There was no Sunrise today at my place

   Published on Tuesday, April 13th, 2010
   The end of Sunrise highlights the challenges media will always face when they enter an established market and aim to grab a slice of the national media pie.

   Even in its category of breakfast TV it was always going to be David up against Goliath (TV1’s Breakfast).  When you add in the other competitors for morning audiences, multiple options from online, print and radio, Sunrise faced a major scrap winning a commercial share.

   Full credit to TV3, as it gave it more than a fighting chance. The quality of the product was first class, and it was delivered by a great team.

   Regrettably for Sunrise we live in commercially difficult times, and things have to pay their way.  For Sunrise, ultimately the numbers did not stack up.
    
   I had always thought it was a safe bet that it would remain an essential in the TV3 line-up.  How wrong I was and, to paraphrase Paul Henry – it’s sad to see it go. 

   Despite our scale, New Zealand offers excellent, possibly world class, media options and there’s simply not enough time to take in everything, no matter how good it is. 

   While there will always be the loyalists who are the backbone of media ratings charts, increasingly people are becoming promiscuous – looking, listening and reading around. In our intensely busy lives we are not inclined to spend our precious time on things we don’t have a high level of interest in, and this is reflected in modern media habits.  For example, how many families sit down and watch shows together.  More likely different people watch different items at different times

   Breakfast TV as a medium, only launched in the UK in 1983, is likely to continue to face major problems in attracting and holding an audience at potentially the most time critical part of most people’s day.  

   So what does Sunrise’s demise mean for the public relations sector, working to tell its clients’ stories via television? The options have just shrunk by half for stories that are great for morning television, and lots of them are. The visual element, a bit of entertainment, some ‘nice to know’ information and perhaps add in a worthwhile cause and we’re onto a winner.

   It’s a shame that now the (admittedly small) viewing public of Sunrise may not get to hear about it.

   Posted in Brand, Journalism, Media landscape, PR Matters