Recall that Statement! Toyota Crisis Driving Some Talking Heads Off Track

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Posted on February 4, 2010 
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We can thank Toyota for giving the PR community so many things to write and talk about since it announced the recall of millions of its cars due to faulty accelerators.  The general consensus is that Toyota is going through a major crisis and only time will tell if it can get its once-sterling reputation back. Meanwhile, over on Capitol Hill, we have some very poor media training going on, care of  Ray LaHood, transportation secretary. During a Congressional panel yesterday to discuss the recalls, LaHood mouthed 3 words that he instantly regretted. When asked what Toyota owners affected by the recall should do, he said: “if anybody owns one of these vehicles, stop driving it.”  So, “stop driving it” were the three words he instantly apologized for saying out loud, calling it a “misstatement.” While his communications and other aides should have prepped him better for the Q&A portion, it is disappointing that a senior official would so hastily make such as statement. Clearly that is what he thinks (“stop driving it”) and soon enough he realized that his public statements and private sentiments clashed.  In a way, it is refreshing when a politician or any public figure says exactly what s/he feels.  But it is a poor reflection on the person and his/her staff when such statements wreak havoc on an already escalating crisis in which millions of Toyota owners have already stopped driving their vehicles — except to get those cars to the repair shop.  The Toyota crisis is an interesting case study in media training, reputation management and back-tracking.

- Diane Schwartz

No Laughing Matter: ‘Everybody Tells Jokes, But We Still Need Comedians’

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Posted on February 1, 2010 
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At the Conference Board corporate image and branding conference in New York last week, there was a lot of talk about how to control your brand while allowing your customers (and others) to participate in the conversation, particularly online.  From crowd-sourcing to riding what Edelman svp of “insights”  Steve Rubel calls the “age of streams,” it’s no longer about controlling the message with a press release, a spiffy online newsroom and one eloquent corporate spokesman.  There are now thousands if not millions of spokespeople for your brand. And they are not media trained nor are their eyes on the corporate earnings report or the employee manual, page whatever, that outlines what you can and can’t say in public.  This age of streams, with new trends splashing at us at dizzying speed, is not necessarily comforting to the traditional communicators who are afraid of giving up control. Linda Rutherford of Southwest Airlines spoke about how they’ve used social networks to converse with their customers with the four-fold goals of enabling, inspiring, influencing or engaging with their stakeholders.  Check out their Nuts about Southwest blog and  you’ll see how they’re riding the streams. Most of the conversations at the Conference Board corporate image and branding conference revolved around social media and digital communications and in my hallway discussion with attendees, it was clear that nothing is clear right now. That many of them don’t know how much time and money to spend on social media, how to engage in meaningful dialogue with customers, how to motivate employees to be brand ambassadors, and, by the way, if they give up control, where will there jobs be tomorrow? Journalists are facing the same identity crisis, as user generated content and crowd-sourcing allows media companies to provide content and engagement at much lower costs.  But, quality is quality. Experience matters. Relationships bear fruit. So, going back to the title of this blog entry, a quote from Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales: “Everybody tells jokes, but we still need comedians.”  PR and marketing are still relevant…So don’t get caught in the punchline — start riding the age of streams and you’ll be amazed at how much you’ll learn about your brand, your product and your ability to steer its success.

– Diane Schwartz

Employees Will Drive Your Recovery

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Posted on January 29, 2010 
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Internal communications is an art and science.  You can do monthly polls gauging employee satisfaction. You can hold birthday and anniversary celebrations. You can publish a company newsletter, a Facebook fan page and have an employee of the month program.  But one thing you can’t do is tell your employees that they are going to be alright, that they have job security, that they should go ahead and buy that new house or car because a year from now, they’ll have had their salary increase (and their job).  You can’t even tell yourself that.  The feeling of job security and satisfaction comes from the everyday respect, recognition and empowerment that employees feel.  And the feeling that they are helping their company dig out of the economic hole so many organizations find themselves in.  So it was very satisfying to hear a CEO talk about employee communications during a keynote address at the SIIA conference in New York this week. Michael Hansen, head of Elsevier Health Sciences, has a healthy respect for internal communications and intellectual capital.  He advised attendees to make sure they are laying the foundation to succeed in the recovery.  Look no further than your employees and best customers.  Your recovery, says Hansen, “will depend on the loyalty of customers and employees and how you treat them in down times.” He continued with advice on being bold and creating innovative products.  All of which takes a workforce that feels they are treated like drivers in the recovery.

- Diane Schwartz

Facebook Frenzy?

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Posted on January 26, 2010 
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As you may have noticed, we cover social media comprehensively in PR News. I don’t know about you, but I can’t help feeling the excitement that flows from hearing about  a great integrated campaign with a successful social media result—the Aflac Facebook effort that I wrote about in the Jan. 25th issue that garnered $1.2 million for charity, for instance. I even peppered the article with great stats on Facebook: 350 million active users! Then, an article in Monday’s New York Post (because I get all my “real” news from the Post) brought me down to earth. With the lead, “Facebook ‘friending’ may fry your brain,” the story went on to say that a study finds there is no way the human mind can handle 5,000 friends—it’s more like 150 tops. Sure, 150 friends is still a pretty big number, but not near the Facebook numbers we’ve been accustomed to hearing about. Which got me thinking, am I too jazzed up over Facebook? Are people within Facebook really conversing—and comprehending—in such great numbers? Have we gone slightly overboard with enthusiasm for this tool?

What’s your take?

–Scott Van Camp

How Can PR Help the People of Haiti?

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Posted on January 15, 2010 
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As I read about the death and destruction in Haiti, like many people around the world, I’m wondering what I can do to help. On that end, there a many options, but one is Wyclef Jean’s Web site, Yele.org, which is devoted to helping the people of Haiti. A text message “YELE” to 501501 will automatically donate $5.00 to the relief fund.

But I’m also wondering about another relief front: PR’s role in helping Haiti. We recently posted the list of our 2009 CSR Award nominees on our site, and it’s filled with impressive campaigns and achievements.  The dire situation in Haiti calls for similar efforts, but multiplied in scope and actions.

As word spreads (by PR) about large corporate donations for the relief, what  can PR executives do to give meaningful help to the people of Haiti? We welcome your ideas.

–Scott Van Camp

Apology Accepted?

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Posted on January 13, 2010 
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I grew up in the Bay Area and as a kid attended many Oakland A’s games featuring the Bash Brothers—Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire. My, were they physical specimens! Those Popeye arms and gargantuan legs really stood out, and we’ve known the reason why for  quite some time. The Bashes eventually went their separate ways, and chose to handle their secrets in different ways. Canseco wrote a tell-all book about steroids in baseball that made him extremely unpopular with fellow players and much of the general public. McGwire chose to remain silent, even under questioning in front of a Congressional committee five years ago—until this week.

McGwire apologized on Monday, but the apology rings extremely hollow to me. He waited years to come clean, as the rumors kept building and building—and only after he wanted to get back into baseball as a hitting coach.  That makes his sobbing statement hard to take.  The content of the apology also rings disingenuous. True, the “I used drugs to help me recover from injuries” excuse worked for Andy Pettitte, but not for a guy who hit 70 home runs in 1998! In post-apology interviews, McGwire said he could have done just as well without taking drugs. Now that’s believable! Much has been said in public relations of the importance of an apology, but this one was flawed. Who is giving McGwire advice?

What do you think of Mark McGwire’s apology?

-Scott Van Camp

‘Talk Forever and Say Nothing’: Is This The Best Advice?

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Posted on January 5, 2010 
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High-profile celebrities, athletes and public officials usually start out their careers saying stupid things to reporters.  It’s a given. Then they get an agent, a publicist, a PR firm to represent them, other aptly titled assistants, like a swagger coach (case in point: teen sensation Justin Bieber) and to top it off, a subscription to PR News (just kidding on the latter). So it’s no surprise that Tiger Woods, in his early 20s back in 1997, would give interviews that made  a reporter chomp at the bit. As we’ll read in the latest issue of Vanity Fair and as reported in the NY Daily News today (Jan 5):  “Woods joked about lesbian sex and the endowments of black athletes – the kind of gaffe he never repeated once he signed with super agent Mark Steinberg.”  For those in PR who are media-training their key executives or even themselves, this next thought will either make you wince or nod in agreement.  Joe Logan, a golf blogger, in the same article, said: “Tiger learned very well to talk forever and say nothing.”  Is that what we are training our clients to do? To say nothing and say it often?  Or to say practically nothing, as NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams noted about TV host Steve Allen, “the worst interview” he ever conducted. Williams told Time magazine that Allen might have been having a bad day at the time of the interview, when he gave Williams only one-word answers to his questions.  Noted Williams: “The interview felt like about a week and a half and I think it took 20 minutes.”  When it comes to speaking to the media and upholding a certain image, it should never be an all-or-nothing game plan: say nothing or reveal everything? It’s beholden on PR counselors to identify a compelling story line and teach their clients or key execs how to tell those stories and how to bridge messages so they, not the reporter, is in control of the interview. Storytelling is a lost art which, unfortunately, has never been considered part of the science of communications.  It’s time to get back to the basics, the science of PR, and give the media true, compelling and quote-worthy stories and prove one of the many values of public relations counsel.

- Diane Schwartz

PR “Pass” of the Year?

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Posted on December 23, 2009 
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Just reading some of the “PR Blunders of 2009” articles, and the usual suspects are included: Dominoes/YouTube, United Airlines/guitars, and Air Force One/NYC flyover among them.
There’s one incident this year that has intrigued me but is somehow overlooked: the Eggo waffles shortage, which has affected millions of frozen breakfast fans around the nation, including my kids. Every time I come back home from the store I get grilled about them: “Did you find the mini-waffles—did ya? did ya?” I then have to explain for the twentieth time that a big flood knocked out an Eggo plant in Atlanta, and now they can’t make as many waffles. What I don’t say is that the plant was closed due to a bacteria problem just before the flood situation and was being cleaned up. Kellogg, which owns Eggo, never really owned up to the bacteria part of the story, insisting that the flooding was responsible for the closure, even though the contamination was confirmed by the Georgia Department of Agriculture.
When the story broke, it drew lots of attention online, as Eggo fans wondered how they would cope with the shortage. But there wasn’t much talk of Kellogg sweeping the bacteria under the rug (so to speak). We all know how damaging food contamination stories can be to a brand, but in this case, I believe Kellogg and Eggo got a pass. By the way, this weekend I’m making my favorite breakfast: fresh waffles. The kids can have cereal.
What is your pick for PR Blunder of the Year?

By Scott Van Camp

I was just reading some of the “PR Blunders of 2009” articles, and the usual suspects are included: Dominoes/YouTube, United Airlines/guitars, and Air Force One/NYC flyover among them.

There’s one incident this year that has intrigued me but is somehow overlooked: the Eggo waffle shortage, which has affected millions of frozen breakfast fans around the nation, including my kids. Every time I come back home from the store I get grilled about them: “Did you find the mini-waffles—did ya? did ya?” I then have to explain for the twentieth time that a big flood knocked out an Eggo plant in Atlanta, and now they can’t make as many waffles. What I don’t say is that the plant was closed due to a bacteria problem just before the flood situation and was being cleaned up. Kellogg, which owns Eggo, never really owned up to the bacteria part of the story, insisting that the flooding was responsible for the closure, even though the contamination was confirmed by the Georgia Department of Agriculture.

When the story broke it drew lots of attention online, as Eggo fans wondered how they would cope with the shortage. But there wasn’t much talk of Kellogg sweeping the bacteria under the rug (so to speak). We all know how damaging food contamination stories can be to a brand, but in this case, I believe Kellogg and Eggo got a pass. By the way, this weekend I’m making my favorite breakfast: fresh waffles. The kids can have cereal.

What is your pick for PR Blunder (or pass) of the Year?

Is Global Warming Interest Waning?

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Posted on December 16, 2009 
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I’d like to introduce myself: I’m Scott Van Camp, the new editor of PR News. I’m going to be posting regularly on this blog so I thought I’d give you a brief bio. I have both agency and corporate communications experience and also have more than 15 years of experience as a journalist, writing for trade pubs that include Adweek, Brandweek and Technology Marketing. So I’ve been on both sides of the fence and I’m excited to be able to cover the important issues In PR News. Since I’m a news junkie, I love when current affairs and PR intersect. And with the Copenhagen Climate Conference well underway, it got me thinking about global warming and a perceived lack of enthusiasm of the public at this point to care much about it. A poll last month found that the percentage of Americans who believe in the dangers of global warming is dipping. Another survey taken this month reveals that 46% of those quizzed did not believe mankind was largely responsible for the global temperature rise. That’s bad news for proponents of the adoption of tough global warming measures. The dip could have something to do with the release of emails of top pro-global warming scientists that elude to deleting or covering up data that doesn’t jibe with their own findings and views. Or, it could be people are worried about other things, like jobs and the economy. Yesterday’s appearance of Zimbabwe strongman Robert Mugabe could put the event’s cred in serious jeopardy. In any case, the manmade global warming camp could use some heat from PR.
Do you think the global warming is now a back-burner issue with the public?

I’d like to introduce myself: I’m Scott Van Camp, the new editor of PR News. I’m going to be posting regularly on this blog so I thought I’d give you a brief bio. I have both agency and corporate communications experience and also have more than 15 years of experience as a journalist, writing for trade pubs that include Adweek, Brandweek and Technology Marketing. So I’ve been on both sides of the fence and I’m excited to be able to cover the important issues In PR News.

Since I’m a news junkie, I love when current affairs and PR intersect. And with the Copenhagen Climate Conference well underway, it got me thinking about global warming and a perceived lack of enthusiasm of the public at this point to care much about it. A poll last month found that the percentage of Americans who believe in the dangers of global warming is dipping. Another survey taken this month reveals that 46% of those quizzed did not believe mankind was largely responsible for the global temperature rise.

That’s bad news for proponents of tough global warming measures. The dip could have something to do with the release of e-mails of top pro-global warming scientists that allude to deleting or covering up data that doesn’t jibe with their own findings and views. Or, it could be people are worried about other things, like jobs and the economy. Yesterday’s appearance of Zimbabwe strongman Robert Mugabe certainly didn’t help the event’s cred. In any case, the manmade global warming camp could use some heat from PR.

Do you think the global warming is now a back-burner issue with the public?

Will Virtual Worlds Make a Comeback?

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Posted on December 14, 2009 
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Mid-December is a period of looking back and forth.  We are flooded with “year in review” stories and reminders of what went right and wrong this year – and this decade.  From a Web 2.0 perspective, Google continues to grab the headlines as the tour de force for just about every person with a computer, and soon, a phone (as it plans to launch an alternative to Apple’s iphone). I stumbled upon a story on the Daily Beast titled “The Decade Google Made You Stupid” and was surprised not by the observation from Douglas Rushkoff  that Google has changed our behaviors and that multitasking really doesn’t work (I’m in trouble).More suprising was what Rushkoff noted about Second Life and virtual realities.

Remember when we thought simulated realities was going to change PR? Companies were buying property on Second Life and then not really knowing what to do next.  Second Life is still churning out the Linden Lab dollars and the military applications of simulated technology are profound.

Turns out, with virtual realities, we could be on to something big from a business perspective. According to researchers at Stanford’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab, the experiences one has in a virtual world can be as real as the real world. In one experiement in which children were swimming with whales in a virtual reality enviornment, two weeks later half of them truly believed they swam with whales at Sea World. There are dozens of examples in which people in a simulated environment end up believing what they experienced in their minds truly occurred.  Imagine the mind-control one could do with stakeholders: you bring them to your Second Life storefront where you tell them that your service is worth the switch from a competitor and lo and behold they become your customer in the real world. That crisis your company is having? Meet your constituents in a virtual world and show them what “you’re really about.”  The implications for deal-making is what really piqued my interest. Meet up with a potential partner in a virtual world and your avatar is 5 inches taller online than in real life. During negotiations, you’re more likely to win on the big stuff (since the taller you are, apparently, the more leverage you have during negotations).  As someone 5 foot 2 and a half in real life, I am liking this new reality.

Seriously, though, it’s worth keeping an eye on developments in the virtual reality space.  But don’t get too caught up in it, as transparency can be a little suspect when you’re trolling in a Second Life or trying to operate in many different worlds. Just ask Tiger Woods, once he comes out of hiding.

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