Lessons from the Battlefield

The latest issue of The Public Relations Strategist focuses on crisis managment. The entire issue looks at various crisis situations and how they were managed; the deadly campus shooting at Virginia Tech, Jet Blue's meltdown last February and others. The pub also revisits the Tylenol cyanide tampering deaths credited with the birth of crisis communications.

The lead article is about the campus shooting at Virginia Tech last April. Quick flashback, it was the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history. During the course of two shooting sprees over several hours, the gunman murdered 32 students and faculty members, and injured 25 others before he killed himself. The ensuing media onslaught was massive.

The mag published excerpts from an interview with Larry G. Hincker, associate vice president of the Office of University Relations. My favorite quote from Hincker is his reponse to the question: What have you learned about crisis communications?

"One of the first things you learn is, you have to have a plan in place. It doesn't matter whether it's sophisticated or simple - you've got to have one. Frankly, the simpler the plan, the better."

Everyone who has a stake in an organization's public relations efforts should read the article. If you think your little college or hospital or business doesn't really need a crisis communications plan... you are WRONG. I can't put it any more simpler than that.

Disaster can strike at any time. The most vital asset to any company or organization is its reputation. It's not money. It's not assets. It's what people think of you... your reputation. Reputation is your lifeblood. Without it you cannot survive. Building up a good and lasting reputation is extensive and time-consuming. You risk losing it rapidly, even overnight, because you haven't planned for a disaster striking your organization.

Viriginia Tech took a hit in the media because of the perception that officials didn't respond quickly enough in alerting students of the danger after the first shooting spree. But the university preserved its reputation by facing the questions and responding to the media.

Crisis communications 101 - tell it all, tell it fast and tell the truth. Hincker was so successful that the encamped media gave him a standing ovation at the last of 10 press conferences.

Stunt Bad for Marketing

BRANDWEEK did a follow-up story the other day about the infamous stunt pulled by Cartoon Network to promote its Aqua Teen Hunger Force. The pub wanted to see what impact, if any, the bomb hoax had on the business of guerrilla marketing.

Early reports after the Jan. 31 hysteria had many speculating marketers would seer clear of this big-bang/small bucks school of buzz building. After all, Cartoon Network gm/evp Jim Samples resigned; parent company Turner Broadcasting and guerrilla agency Interference agreed to pay $1 million in compensation to Massachusetts and another $1 million to support federal homeland security.

"The smarter clients I spoke to [realized] that a $2 million fine equals $120 million in publicity," said Peter Shankman, president of New York-based pr/marketing agency The Geek Factory. "They said, 'Just get the damn permits first!'"

Drew Neisser, president of the New York integrated marketing agency Renegade Marketing, said the incident "really heightened awareness of nontraditional marketing. The irony was people were saying, 'I want that.'"

The stunt and subsequent negative publicity may very well have created some short-term gains and heightened awareness of the power of guerrilla marketing. But it pissed off an entire city and touched a nerve with politicos. I still contend it was incredibly stupid considering post-9/11 America.

Several months after circuit boards with LED lights in the shape of a Mooninite caused the closing of major subway lines and roadways in Boston, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass. co-wrote and introduced the "Terrorist Hoax Improvements Act of 2007." The bill will amend the federal criminal code to include a number of new clauses meant to up the ante on wasting government resources. Provisions in the bill would allow the government to take civil action against parties involved in perceived hoaxes if they fail to "promptly and reasonably inform one or more parties... of the actual nature of the activity" once they learn about investigative action taking place. In the case of Boston, this means that everyone involved could be sued for not immediately informing the police of the campaign upon receiving news of the emergency reaction.

Talk about making an impact on the guerrilla marketing world. Not exactly what Interference had in mind I bet.

Bad Behavior = PR Problems

We have yet another example of bad personal behavior influencing business decision. Chris Albrecht resigned as chairman and CEO of HBO, parent company Time Warner (TW) said, three days after he was arrested and charged with assaulting his girlfriend outside MGM Grand Casino in Las Vegas.

HBO's Chris Albrecht was arrested Sunday on suspicion of assault. (Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Via Associated Press)

AdWeek has the story.

Sources say TW had become increasingly concerned about the distraction Albrecht's PR nightmare was causing especially after a Los Angeles Times report Wednesday citing allegations in 1991 Albrecht had been involved in a physical altercation with a female employee at HBO, which was forced to pay a $400,000 settlement.

On Tuesday, TW chairman Richard Parsons said the company would "monitor this situation closely." On Wednesday, he changed sentiments.

"(TW president and COO) Jeff Bewkes and I believe that this is the right decision for the company," Parsons said, commenting on Albrecht's departure.

It's a classic example of inappropriate or illegal behavior by executives creating a crisis for a company. The way Time Warner handled the situation leaves me wondering if they had a crisis communications plan in place or if they were shooting from the hip. The story in yesterday's Los Angeles Times about the $400,000 payoff means HBO knew Albrecht had issues. He allegedly choked a subordinate during a confrontation in her office. That should have them ample warning to prepare for his next violent outburst. In this case, their best crisis communications planning probably should have involved an intervention and mandatory treatment.

The amount of fall-out HBO and Time Warner will suffer is still up in the air. AdWeek contends it will invite questions about HBO's viability. Those questions have already been raised though as HBO tries to rekindle the passion of viewers who still miss Sex and the City and Six Feet Under. It won't get any better as The Sopranos ends its run next month and a slew of new series starts up.

Stay tuned.

Guerrilla Marketing Becomes PR Nightmare

BKG has a guiding principle that is reminiscent of one of the basic tenets of the the Hippocratic Oath... do no harm. That's exactly what happened yesterday in Boston when a guerrilla marketing campaign promoting the late-night Adult Swim cartoon "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" went horribly awry. Magnetic lights placed throughout Boston were seen as potential threats by authorities who called out bomb squads to explode the suspicious devices. They also shut down major roadways and subway lines to deal with the situation.

Considering the post 9/11 atmosphere in America and the very real threat of terrorism, how anyone believed this was a good idea is totally beyond me. Sure the stunt created buzz, but how damaging to Turner Broadcasting's reputation is the end result? Was it really worth it? NO!!

I contend it all could have been avoided if only the PR pros had been in the loop. I preach regularly about how critical it is for the public relations hand to know what the marketing hand is doing. The PR execs at Turner Broadcasting should have put the brakes on this bone-head marketing move. Instead, they are in crisis mode scrambling to repair th e damage. The trite apology issued yesterday incensed Boston's mayor and police commissioner. They are out for blood and will attempt to extract a pound of flesh from Turner and the responsible ad agency through the courts. Two of the creatives behind the campaign have already been arrested.

As for Interference Inc., the New York City advertising agency that came up with the hair-brain plan, they had "No Comment." And all of us PR practitioners know how that's perceived... GUILTY!

Vietnam?

We've been working with a client on drafting and implementing a crisis communications plan and we all have crisis scenarios on the brain. So it is with that in mind that a story from yesterday really stood out as an example of why it is important to prepare for a crisis and media train your people.

The AP story was the first of many filed about an explosion at a Milwaukee plant owned by the Falk Corporation. The explosion killed three people and injured many more. It was an extremely unfortunate occurrence that put the company into crisis mode.

But I'm guessing that the company was not completely thrilled with how they communicated in the aftermath of the blast. The first employee the reporter interviewed had this to say: "It sounded like I was in Vietnam, incoming mortar rounds."

If a crisis hits your company, will your employees compare it to Vietnam? Perhaps Mogadishu? Maybe it's time to draft that crisis plan and get some media training before that happens?

(AP Photo/Mark Was)

BTW, if you're looking for blogging on crisis communications, I highly recommend the excellent Crisis Manager. It's always a good read.

Smithfield takes Comms off hold...sort of

Last fall, Smithfield Foods announced that they would undertake a $100 million expansion of John Morrell, the company’s pork processing facility in Sioux Falls, S.D. Construction was supposed to start this fall...but it didn't and observers had a hard time figuring out why.

You see, when Smithfield put expansion plans on hold for the Sioux Falls plant, they put their corporate communications on hold as well. The Sioux Falls Argus Leader sent an email on July 13 asking when the company intended to finish its expansion. "Spokeswoman Keira Ullrich replied: 'Smithfield Foods Inc. does not comment on the progress of capital expansion projects. These are internal, confidential matters.'" Is this the same company that had all the politicians at their groundbreaking ceremony?

Anyway, just over three months later, the corporation broke its silence and finally admitted what everyone already knew: the expansion won't happen this year - or maybe ever. But since the company was silent for so long, no one believes the latest update. One hog supplier told the Argus Leader: I hope they will continue on, but I just don't have a whole lot of faith in that company.

To make matters worse, the company still isn't returning some (most?) calls and there hasn't been any new information on their corporate news site. Not suprisingly, state and local officials are worried and the local paper is ignoring their assurances.

Here's the lesson: Corporate communications is not something you can jump in and out of, deciding when you want to talk to your constituents and when you don't. It's not a one-time event. Sitting out of the conversation about your company doesn't stop it from happening - it simply goes on without your input. And in your absence, the worst is assumed.

In a post-Enron world people demand openness and transparency from companies and punish those that don't comply. What will be the negative impact for John Morrell? It's too early to say, but one year ago local politicians were clammoring to be on the stage with the company at its groundbreaking. Today, they're running in the other direction.

Puffin' Pusher Penance

Back in August I wrote a post about those client relationships that force advertisers to walk a thin ethical line. It was inspired by a series of vintage pharmaceutical ads that by today's standards are one part quaint, one part creepy, as in what were they thinking???

Todd Anthony, who writes the Bullshit Observer, came clean this week with a "Mini Memoir" on his days working for Big Tobacco clients both here in the UK. As penance, he offers a link (via Ad Candy) to a cool anti-tobacco site aimed at kids called "ownyourc.com," short for 'own your choice." It's a project of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

The "host" admonsihes, "remember, every choice you make has consequences."

I'll be sending my eight-year-old son to this site for its straight talk, no-preach (no bullshit?) approach to smoking specifically and dealing with consequences in general.

Hats off to Todd for publicly dealing with consequences of his own "choices" in the biz.

His post and Own Your Choice give an intriguing example of how to fight fire — with fire. And, in this case, with new media.  In the age of interactive media and virtual worlds, how better to teach what it means to make choices, and how they effect you? As a bonus, the site connects users to bulletin board forums to connect kids with their most credible source of information. Other kids.

Campaigning for Wal-Mart

When it comes to the business of communications, I got my start in politics. That stint in public communications left me with the belief that businesses could learn a lot from politics, especially in the face of coordinated opposition. And when it comes to coordinated opposition, no business knows what that's like better than Wal-Mart.

Perhaps that's why Wal-Mart is drawing on political expertise for their latest image campaign, which is being led by former Democratic political strategist Leslie Dach. Profiled in AdAge today, Dach is running one of two simultaneous campaigns for Wal-Mart and is overseeing one of the most ambitious corporate-image makeovers ever. The other campaign is the retail marketing effort to move product.

The AdAge article refers to a :60 TV spot from Dach's camp, entitled "Sam's Dream" which you can view here.

Businesses like Wal-Mart are waking up to the realization that it's no longer good enough to simply mind your own business. Modern consumers expect their corporations to engage the community on multiple levels. It would seem that Wal-Mart is moving in the right direction, but only time will tell for sure.

Wikipedia and reputation management

It all started when someone decided to have fun with a Wikipedia entry. Nothing new, right? It happens all the time. But this entry happened to be about Stephanie Herseth, the lone member of the US House of Representatives from South Dakota.

The wiki-hacker claimed Herseth was pro-life (she's not), pregnant (she's not) and engaged to her campaign manager (she's not). The false information was taken down quickly, but not before it got a little more interesting.

Herseth is in a (very non-competitive) race for re-election this fall and her opponent's campaign manager couldn't leave the Wikipedia reference alone. He emailed it to several political bloggers...one of which happened to be the blog of the Rapid City Journal...who posted the full text of the email on the blog...and then defended their decision to do so.

As local political blogger Pat Powers noted, whoever put the false information on Wikipedia didn't do Republicans any favors. Neither did her opponent's campaign manager because now the discussion is about his email, rather than what they want to discuss. Not surprisingly the Herseth campaign has sensed the momentum in their favor on this issue and is calling for the campaign manager to be fired.

There are three important new media lessons here for anyone who cares to learn them. First, the Wisdom of Crowds is real and represents a new kind of information and fact exploration process. In the old days (only a few years ago) someone would research a story for days, weeks, months, even years before publishing the definitive account in a newspaper, magazine or book. If you wanted to respond to that account, you had to do the same thing yourself and it was very difficult to correct a story once it was published.

Today, the quest for the facts starts out in the open with a blog post or a Wikipedia entry. Everyone can read that information and respond to it. Eventually, the truth is discovered, as it was in this case, through the participation of a large group of people, like a virtual party. That's why Wikipedia is always among the most-searched topics on the net. That's also what makes blogging so difficult for most people to understand. Any one post may not be completely accurate, but is rather part of the process of getting at the accurate account. Sure, there will always be those who abuse the system, as there were in this case, but those people are typically found out and appropriately flogged.

Second, the Internet is not nearly as anonymous as you think. If I were you, I would avoid emailing anything you don't want the entire world to see. Bad email pitches can find themselves on the Bad Pitch Blog or posted on another blog that (at last count) had 80 comments. And by the way, your computer has a little thing called an "IP address" that leaves a convenient trail for people to follow. As we learned from the Cluetrain Manifesto and Adam Curry, there are no secrets, only information you don't yet have.

Third, you have to participate in the online conversation. If you don't, the party will start without you and how many of the millions of people online do you think care about your reputation? That's what I thought.

Man Bites Dog

When you start out in public relations and seasoned professionals (as well as reporters) are explaining to you that real news is the extraordinary, they usually grab for one particular metaphor: 'man bites dog.' Dogs bite men every day, the story goes, so that's really not news. But when a man bites a dog, stop the presses!

That old metaphor was the first thing that came to mind when I heard that the New York Times was searching for a p.r. expert. It seems that amid readership losses and a declining stock price, the Grey Lady wants an expert in crisis communications to help them right the ship. Man bites dog, or newspaper hires publicist. Either way, it reads the same to me.

(Hat tip to PR Machine for the link).