Posts Tagged ‘public relations’

1. Media relationships – it’s important to make them work

   Published on Thursday, January 19th, 2012
   The Press has accused EQC of being unprofessional in its portrayal of two of its reporters – one as “schizophrenic in his writing” and another as a “rogue reporter”.

   The background to this is the EQC’s presentation to field staff on Monday reminding them of the organisation’s responsibilities to the media and that media enquiries should be referred to the designated media contact person.

   This story is evidence of natural tensions between an organisation in the spotlight (and even under siege) and the legitimate role of the media – a fact acknowledged by EQC.

   Any organisation that’s dealt with the media on sensitive issues will have some sympathy for the frustrations of the EQC at this time.  No matter how brilliantly they respond to many claims, some people will remain disaffected and will take their complaints to the media, because they feel that is the only power they have.  Whether these complaints are legitimate or not, the EQC has to accept this.

   If the EQC made a mistake in it presentation to staff, it was in overtly personalising its concerns with individual reporters and preference for others.  For its part the newspaper has over-reacted to this. I suspect there’ve been instances when its own reporters have privately characterised some of the EQC’s personnel in less than flattering terms. That’s just human nature.

   It should not be forgotten that contacts between reporters and organisations are complex human relationships.  In pressure situations there can be an added edge, and what the reporter sees as relatively straight forward is often not so, and the relationship can become prickly.

   There is a long way to go in the repair and re-establishment of Christchurch.  The Press and the EQC are two organisations critical to a successful outcome, and it is vital that they take stock of their respective roles and make the relationship work for everyone.

   For any business, dealing with reporters can sometimes be a fraught experience – never more so than in higher-stake situations such as this.  Getting professional advice is often the best course.

2. The spirit of communicating

   Published on Wednesday, December 21st, 2011
   St Matthew-in-the-City sees the Christmas season as an opportunity to spark thought and conversation in the community.  They’ve put up their Christmas billboard portraying Mary, Jesus’ mother, looking at a home pregnancy test kit revealing that she is pregnant.

   In much less dramatic ways, on one level many of us use the Christmas season to express thanks to our clients or customers, business partners and colleagues using small gifts, cards or a timely call.  It is a time for thinking about and acknowledging others.

   On a more personal level, we are out buying for those near and dear, and preparing for the occasion that is Christmas.

   All this shows that with the right imperative, we are all very good communicators.  Our challenge is to push that spirit of good communication deeper and deeper into New Year. Right?

3. Food for the nation

   Published on Tuesday, December 13th, 2011
   During the next four weeks New Zealanders’ combined spending on food, beverages and other grocery items is likely to once again break records.  Even though purse strings are tighter, people will over-compensate for fear of being caught short.

   Budget pressures aside, we forget how fortunate we are to have access to such an impressive choice of products, particularly as our Christmas falls in the summer season.  It’s a reminder of the critical role the food and grocery industry plays in NZ on many different levels, domestically and in exports.

   These important contributions were recognised at last month’s Food & Grocery Council Annual Conference, opened with a brief televised message from PM John Key.  The PM stressed the importance of the food and beverage sector to New Zealand. Now, he would say that wouldn’t he? But in fact the stature of our food industry has been recognised in a special way by the past two governments.

   When in office, Labour initiated a food and beverage taskforce chaired by Tony Nowell. Research undertaken by the taskforce started to crystallise for politicians the industry’s importance and opportunities.  This has continued under National, no doubt assisted by the foreign earnings’ contributions of food exports that are impossible to ignore in the world’s troubled economic environment.

   Our Government has set a target of tripling the country’s food and beverage exports over the next 15 years, meaning that the food and beverage sector will remain the linchpin of the New Zealand economy for many years to come.

   In its food industry, New Zealand has an enviable strategic advantage and we should celebrate our food heroes, big and small.  In the next month we’ll have every chance to do just that.

   What’s on your food and beverage agenda this Christmas?

4. Mayor Parker and Ballantynes show us how it can be done

   Published on Thursday, December 8th, 2011
   As President of the Public Relations Institute of NZ (PRINZ), I was privileged late last week to present Bob Parker, Mayor of Christchurch with the Institute’s Communicator of the Year award in Christchurch.  It is an annual award bestowed by the College of Fellows, so the selection of Mayor Parker is not simply one of popularity due to level of profile.  It was hard earned and well deserved.

   The word resilience is one I have heard a lot lately and it aptly describes the quality that has been evident across Christchurch as people adapted to these new circumstances.

   Earlier in the year I heard it suggested by one expert commentator that New Zealanders were perhaps less resilient to situations like this because we had, by international standards, such an easy life.  Mayor Parker showed that to be wrong when, as the public face of his city, he consistently demonstrated how resilient they really were (and still are). His wife who was never far from his side and who also carried a significant workload did the same.

   What has emerged is a strong and purposeful community consistently showing resilience in circumstances that none of us dreamt of dealing with.  I would also add: resourceful and proud. Recently we saw this exemplified in the containerised new City Mall that sprung to life and the reopening of Ballantynes, that symbol of classic Christchurch.

   Ballantynes is another brilliant example of the Christchurch resilience. It has shone as a beacon of hope and normality for people. From the start Ballantynes adopted a ‘business as usual’ attitude – even though their iconic store was in the red zone and their own staff were seriously affected – no workplace and in some cases no home themselves.

   It has been a remarkable story of how managing director Mary Devine and her team worked to remain accessible to customers throughout eight months of closure. Their website (online store), household mailers and special customer events held at venues around the city helped maintain precious contact.

   In receiving his award, Mayor Parker said he was not the only one who deserved this acknowledgement as a communicator. That’s undoubtedly true, but leadership through communication sets the path for others and that is what he did. Congratulations to Mayor Parker and his entire crew on being inspiring communicators.

5. New iPads for MPs

   Published on Thursday, December 1st, 2011
   On arriving for their first day at Parliament yesterday, MPs were given a goodie bag with pen and notebook, iPad 2 and iPhone or Blackberry. The iPads were preloaded with key information new members could refer to during their induction programme.

   No doubt there will be some of the usual criticisms leveled at our public servants receiving anything more than the basic tools of the trade, but in reality, issuing iPads makes perfect sense and the substantial benefits will be shared by taxpayers in many different ways.

   While Danish and German parliaments have already announced their adoption of iPads, our own New Zealand Parliamentary Services are just as forward thinking and these modern tools of the trade have been sitting in Bowen House for some time ready for their new users.

   We’ve moved a long way from the desktop computer and mobile phone to a range of items that might include a laptop, smart phone and iPad.  Excessive for some, but basic essentials for others.  Schools too are making iPads essential, and while many may balk at the cost in comparison to some prior technology innovations, it isn’t as bad as we might think.

   Particularly when you bear in mind the cost of the ear-thumping stereo systems or the latest DVD player or flat screen TV – more expensive and probably a lot less essential and multi-purpose.  Even so, here’s hoping those prices continue to lower as these almost essential life tools become as commonplace as televisions and telephones.

   It’s all about the Personal Communication Mixology; the personal customisation of information, communication and technology tools and techniques we each adopt both consciously and unconsciously. This of course is influenced by individual access and ability combined with their learning and communication style.  It’s a complex space that communication specialists like Network are constantly exploring and working in on behalf of clients.

   For MPs, where the volume of reports and information around the house could probably keep a convoy of paper trucks busy, the ability to share and access information on a small device is an opportunity we would be mad to miss.

   But we know that the opportunity is far more than this.  It would therefore be fascinating to study the use of those two items provided in the goodie bags for each MP.  Perhaps someone will do this.  Meanwhile I love my iPad, iPhone and Macbook Pro which I liberally interchange depending on circumstances.  But I am also rarely without a pen and paper.

6. Never mind policy, what’s on the tape?

   Published on Tuesday, November 15th, 2011
   

   It is hard not to feel that that the 2011 General Election has descended into farce.  We’re now ten days out from the Election, and for nigh on three days our politicians aided and abetted by the national media have given us a diet of irrelevancy about a tape of a private conversation.

   The PM raised a matter of principle about being secretly recorded in conversation over a cup of tea with the aspiring MP for Epsom, but before long our media are excusing the blatancy of this illegality and claiming the PM has something to hide if he’s not prepared to reveal what’s on the tape.  In climbing into this matter,  two of the other main parties, while tut-tutting at the secret recording, have been lavishly proffering public relations advice about what the PM should do because it “doesn’t look good” to have a private conversation and keep it that way.

   It is a sign that politicians are now more interested in doing what “looks good” than explaining the social and economic measures that will advance our wellbeing over the next years.  Is this because they judge us to be totally facile?  Are they right, and is this what we want?  Is it also a sign of the media is more interested in feeding us a diet of gossip and innuendo because they understand  people are so disinterested in policy unless it is to directly affect them?

   Surely it’s time to drop this nonsense of the tape and get back to debating the issues that matter so that we can have some substance on which to cast our votes.  This goes for the lot of them.

7. A Time for Self Reflection

   Published on Friday, September 23rd, 2011
   With Parliament set to rise in a couple of weeks ahead of November’s general election we are about to head into the valedictory speech season. The last ‘hurrah’ for those MPs that have decided not to stand for re-election.  This time around there will be 14 of them starting on 27th September with Green MP Sue Kedgley and finishing on October 5th with Simon Power.

   I strongly encourage you to catch as many of these speeches as you can. All will be streaming live on the Parliament website or on Sky TV.

   They will offer personal insights from our national leaders that we rarely see, regrettably due to the nature of the political game.

   Based on a very quick estimate there is more than 200 years of collective parliamentary service departing over the next few weeks. In anyone’s book that represents a phenomenal amount of parliament experience and insight into the machineries of government.

   There is no standard format for a valedictory speech other than conformance with the House standing orders. MPs are therefore free to dwell on their successes or otherwise and their musings on public life. Many with experience in the government benches reminisce about legislative triumphs, others who have spent their whole parliamentary career in the opposition benches will reflect on how they have tried to make New Zealand a better place. Some like to leave with a bang while others prefer to slip out quietly.

   The topics and tone, the highlights and lowlights will be fascinating to observe over the coming weeks.

8. Success Never Comes Easy

   Published on Monday, May 30th, 2011
   Many have a rather jaundiced view of industry awards, seeing them as no more than self congratulatory back slapping.

   My personal view is rather different.

   Having been in the PR industry for most of my working life, I know just how fiercely competitive and hard it is to win PR awards in New Zealand.

   At first hand I’ve experienced situations where work we have done has won international acclaim, but it has failed to impress New Zealand judges. I’ve always taken that verdict as a reflection of the high calibre of PR work produced here.

   It therefore gave me great pleasure when our name was called out four times at Friday’s 2011 PR Awards function in Rotorua.

   There is a real sense of satisfaction in having your peers and competitors judge and acknowledge the quality of your work.

   As I’ve said on more than one occasion, ‘when you get great clients working with great PR people, then you’re not surprised when you get great outcomes’.

   For the record, our successes were

   • ChildFund New Zealand, Spinning a Yarn – promoting Gifts That Grow

   Marketing category, Clare England and Megan Green

   • National Heart Foundation, HeartSAFE – Reducing New Zealanders’ Sodium Footprint

   Not for Profit category, Emma Davidson and Donnell Alexander

   • New Zealand Blood Service, Celebrating World Blood Donor Day 2007-2010

   Sustained category, Paul Hayes, Megan Green

   • The Hyperfactory, Strategic sale of the business to the USA

   Corporate category, Clare England

9. Earning A Place For PR At The Board Table

   Published on Monday, November 8th, 2010
   A fundamental tenant of public relations advice is the need to be in ‘the circle’ when key decisions are being discussed and made. It is easier to convince others to your viewpoint before the decision is made rather than get people to reverse a decision already made.

   Professor Anne Gregory, who lectures on public relations at Leeds University and is a board member of the prestigious Global Alliance, an umbrella organisation that links PR professionals world wide, turned that argument on the profession itself when she addressed a small gathering at Network PR last week.

   Anne, who was passing through New Zealand on her way home after addressing a world-wide PR forum in Melbourne, laid down the challenge for PR practitioners to earn the right to sit at the corporate board table.

   She contended that to earn that right required PR professionals to be more than experts in communication. They needed to understand the language of business – in short be able to read a balance sheet and discuss the financials as equals.

   Once at the decision making table, once accepted as a peer, then the PR professional had the ability to influence a range of decisions made by boards that impacted on the organisation’s corporate reputation.

   As traditionally public relations has drawn its practitioners from the language end of the education spectrum, with the minority having an interest in, or understanding of, accounting or economics, PR practitioners may be few and far between at the board table for some time to come.

   It is a message that the teaching institutions should take on board, as well as those in PR with the ambition to get to the very top of their profession.

10. Are PR professionals worth the money?

    Published on Thursday, July 8th, 2010
    Naturally as the GM of a major PR consultancy my response is yes. The range of PR services available in New Zealand are as wide and varied as the needs of the individuals and organisations who procure these services. Anyone who spends money on PR rightly expects a meaningful communication outcome. I was therefore intrigued to find out more about a DIY PR programme and service which claimed to be a ‘threat’ to PR.

    Presumably the claim, made in a media statement that PR consultancies are under threat, was designed to get attention, as was the statement suggesting that companies currently pay exorbitant amounts of money to generate publicity.  For what is apparently a much lower fee, organisations can learn how to do it themselves and save money in the process.  ‘All it takes’ is an understanding of the publicity process and you can ‘do your own’ PR.

    An interesting proposition, and let me make it clear,  I am not criticising the premise of people doing their own PR, nor deriding the author of this media statement who might  offer a good service for the right people. 

    There are a good number of people who drive their own publicity and others who, if they had the knowledge and inclination, could also do so. But there are some who should not and plenty more who, while willing and possibly able, will simply never get around to it.  

    The DIY advocate focuses on the common misconception that PR is simply about generating publicity via the media. Today, PR is about building strong relationships with publics; effective, authentic and mutually beneficial relationships. Thus the term: PUBLIC RELATIONS.
     
    One of the key benefits brought to a company by an external agency is the third eye and an independent perspective. We are experts in the PR business while the client is the expert in their business. 

    Sound PR, focused on building relationships, is most certainly worth the investment and will contribute to long-term success. 

    Even positive publicity does not necessarily build great relationships or add value to your business. It can, but simply looking to generate publicity for the sake of column inches is not always good PR.   

    Whether you DIY, or engage experts – internally or externally – at the forefront of your mind should be an understanding of the needs of all target audiences. Great PR people will develop strategies that ensure a company addresses all audiences, and will help develop a programme that is genuinely mutually beneficial to all.