Organization: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Timeframe: June 2009 - Present
At the end of June 2009, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) had 11 public affairs specialists in Iraq. As activities in the country began to wind down, it was important to continue to carry out the Corps’ public affairs mission, while addressing critical staffing issues that were bound to arise. Scott Harris, then the public affairs chief in the Gulf Region District of Iraq, spells out the team’s specific objectives set for July 2009 to the present:
• Continue to reach out to the Iraqi people with news of the Corps’ efforts to rebuild roads and sewer systems.
• Promote an environment of goodwill, trust and cooperation among concerned local citizens, law enforcement and Iraqi security forces to ensure the Corps would not be fired upon when it came on a scene to do its work.
• Communicate USACE mission-related success stories to soldiers and their families, the people of Iraq and the American public.
• Develop and promote hiring of local nationals (local Iraqi citizens) through the integration of local nationals to ensure the reconstruction story continues to be told long after U.S. forces have withdrawn.
DAUNTING CHALLENGES
As one might imagine, the challenges in meeting those objectives are many and varied—beginning with the real threat of getting blown up. “The stories and the photo opps are in places that you can’t get to safely,” says Harris, now public affairs specialist for military and international programs at the Corps’ headquarters in Washington, D.C.
So to effectively practice PR in a war zone, forethought is everything. “You have to plan for days in advance,” says Harris. “You can’t just decide one day that you want to go to a site. You have to think about how you are going to get there, because you don’t want to make any movements the bad guys can plan for,” Harris said.
Consequently, Harris set some interesting PR ground rules for his staff to follow:
• Safety is paramount: The story will not get out if you don’t.
• Don’t interview anyone on site: Get the subject in a car and keep moving.
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| The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers uses releases such as these to trumpet infrastructure gains made in Iraq. (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Photo) |
• Local nationals are key. Rely on their knowledge.
• If you have to use digital bandwidth, do it at night when Internet usage is lower.
With those edicts firmly in mind, Harris and his team set about executing the following tactics:
â–¶ Create a new branding and safety symbol: This logo included the number “35,” which was used by non-combatant security escorts; around that number was the USACE’s signature castle, draped with the Iraqi national colors. “We needed something to distinguish us,” Harris said. “To the Iraqis, we look just like everybody other soldier there, but we’re not. We are out building schools and power plants.”
â–¶ Produce public information spots: These spots, produced by local contractors and broadcast on local TV, proved especially useful when the Corps started tearing up the streets of Fallujah in order to repair the sewer system.
“Digging up the street was impacting the people. We wanted people to understand why we were doing that,” says Col. Dionysios Anninos. As commander of the U.S. Army Corps Gulf Region District, he has direct oversight of the PR effort.
â–¶ Appeal directly to the citizens: To confirm the message was hitting the mark, the team circulated around the region. “We went and talked to them on the ground,” Anninos says. “We solicited their feedback so we knew they understood what we were doing and why.” That effort also included cold weather clothing giveaways and other handouts bearing the new symbol, and the mass distribution of flyers with the emblems and the strategic message prominently displayed.
â–¶ Reach the hometown media: A program called “Postcards from Iraq” encouraged USACE soldiers and civilians to periodically write about their experiences in Iraq, and send along a couple of photos, too. That material was then turned into a media postcard and marketed back to local hometown news organizations, posted on the District Web site, printed in the District newsletter and finally posted on the official District Facebook page.
â–¶ Leverage social media: The District launched the first USACE Facebook page ever in a war zone. It was carefully vetted through the military’s top brass, and served as a model and training platform for Districts in southern Iraq and Afghanistan.
â–¶ Keep video rolling: The creation of videos distributed on YouTube and the Armed Forces Network (AFN) was aggressively pursued as a communication tactic. When the Division was discontinued in September of 2009, the remaining videographers and broadcasters in Iraq were curtailed. This meant new video skills had to be learned by those remaining.
LEVERAGING LOCALS
The use of local nationals proved a key element in the ongoing public affairs work as the original team drew down. Over a period of a few months, Harris hired three locals, seeking them out through word of mouth among Iraqis who work at the base. “You don’t just put an ad in the Baghdad Times,” muses Harris.
“They have a sensitivity, they know the culture, they know the media, and they know the stakeholders we don’t know,” Harris said. In addition, a local group of communicators could help ensure the Corps’ message would continue to be broadcast even after the American force had been withdrawn.
One local is an engineer trained as a photographer—Mohammed Ameer. It took an effort to assure Ameer and the others that they would be safe keeping company with the occupying forces. “They gave me a permanent residence inside Victory Base Complex. I spend three to four days there and then I go home for a few days,” says Ameer, now senior media analyst for Gulf Region District Public Affairs in Iraq. On notoriously dangerous streets, “it makes my commute less frequent,” he adds.
GETTING SCOOPED
As you could imagine, things did not always go smoothly for the public affairs team during the transition. Take, for instance, a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new school the Corps built in Sadr City, an exceptionally bad neighborhood in Baghdad. A local contractor was supposed to take a picture of the event, but didn’t grasp the timeliness factor. In short order, the insurgents had put out a release saying they had built the school.
Insurgents will post a release on a Web site for a short time, and then take the site down, explains Harris. Lesson learned: “We have since hired a local national who can get into events like this one without drawing attention,” he says. “Now we can get timely information that we can use to keep from getting scooped by ‘the competition,’” he says.
SOCIAL SAVIOR
If that weren’t enough, the public affairs pros were plagued by persistent problems with communications—of the digital variety. Cell phone coverage is sketchy, Internet connectivity is limited, and bandwidth scarce. “I spent an hour just to get a 15-second sound bite back to the States,” says Harris. Sometimes it was easier to burn a message on a CD and send it back to the U.S.
Harris found a workable solution in the Corps’ new Facebook page: he could load up graphics and video locally in a fraction of the time it took to broadcast the news via e-mail or other means. Those interested could then go to the Corps’ official Facebook page for the region and grab whatever content suited them.
GRATIFYING RESULTS
• Three local nationals (and two Americans) are now running the day-today operations at headquarters and at the area offices including daily media analysis, news clips distribution, new arrival check-ins, employee photos, awards and more.
• Much of the public affairs success has been qualitative, with signs that most of the Iraqi people appreciate the efforts of the Corps. “Children wave, smile and sometimes even salute as the convoys drive by with the Corps castle image draped in Iraqi national colors,” says Harris.
• USA Today, The New York Times, local print and broadcast outlets and bloggers have all run stories on the Corps’ accomplishments in the region.
• The Facebook page, created it October 2009, peaked with 800 fans. Sister sites based on the page are achieving similar results in southern Iraq and in Afghanistan.
The most important thing, says Harris, is the awareness that the Corps is still there and doing its rebuilding work, now in relative safety. The new team of Iraqi citizens are ensuring the PR effort continues. For PR in a war zone, that sounds like a win. PRN
CONTACT:
Scott Harris, [email protected]; Dionysios Anninos, [email protected]; Mohammad Ameer, [email protected].
Making a Military Case for the Use of Social Media
When public affairs in Iraq told the Army Corps of Engineers higher-ups that it would be using social media to get the word out about the Corps’ activities, it got some push-back from those not familiar with the in’s and out’s of the platform. But Scott Harris, then public affairs chief in the Gulf Region District of Iraq, managed to turn the top brass around. Here are some best practices from the effort:
• Name a champion: Appoint a well-respected PR executive as the controller of social media content.
• Tout the virtues of the opt-in social media audience: “Those who come to the Facebook page actually want to hear our message,” says Harris.
• Extol real-time capability: “Facebook happens right now, and there’s profound value in that, particularly in our situation,” he says.
Frontline Takeaways: PR Lessons to Be Learned
Public affairs on the ground in Iraq may seem a world away from the kind of work done by most stateside practitioners. In fact, there are some lessons that overlap, says Scott Harris, public affairs specialist for military and international programs in Washington, D.C. They include:
• Leverage success: The Army Corps touted its new schools and its vital sewer projects. If you or your client have reached a milestone or accomplished something big, let people know.
• Get live feedback: The Corps public affairs team pursued feedback the hard way: speaking directly to the people about their perceptions, despite the inherent dangers of mingling with the public. Go beyond clip counts and online polls to measure success.
• Go local: As outsiders in Iraq, the Corps relied on locals for their knowledge. Iraqis could identify potential audiences and alert them to local media trends. The same holds here, where the U.S. isn’t one big city or suburb. Seek out local or regional knowledge to guide your efforts.
• Get visual: The Corps devised a bold, simple logo as a way to keep its convoys safe. Don’t forget the power of a picture—it can tell a story more efficiently and effectively.