PR News Blog

Google’s Chinese Dilemma

svancamp — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 13:09:09 +0000

Like a lot people, I find the technology sector fascinating to read about. Which is good because the press puts out a couple of stories an hour about Steve Jobs, Google and Microsoft—with a little dab of Larry Ellison and his thrifty ways thrown in for variety. These days the tech giants are often in the same story, as they battle each other for mobile and/or search domination. To me though, the most interesting battle involves Google and the Chinese government, who have traded words about Google’s January announcement that it may leave the country because of censorship rules. With a March deadline looming, the pressure is on Google to make a final decision. If Google does leave, its Chinese partners will be left hung out to dry, and Google customers will be without many of the search tools and features the company is famous for—censorship or not. Whatever Google’s next move is, it’s surely to affect its reputation in a major way. I’d love to be a fly on the boardroom wall as execs debate the pros and cons. From a public relations standpoint, what do you think—should Google stay in China, or go?

–Scott Van Camp

Acceptance Speeches Pushing the Envelope (in a bad way)

dschwartz — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 19:58:24 +0000

Acceptance speeches can be boring – and the Oscars on Sunday night offered no exception. Be short. Be graceful. Be sure to thank your mother. And make sure you don’t have a wardrobe malfunction. During the Oscars, when supporting actress winner Mo’Nique did a shout out to herself – noting that the Academy did the right thing by awarding performance over politics — I cringed. Was it just me, or did her speech strike you as angry and full of hubris? Did she really have to put it that way? And when producer Elinor Baker jumped on stage and pulled a “Kanye” on director Roger Ross Williams (winner for short documentary)– and took over the microphone, I thought, c’mon. When another winner (Sandy Powell, for Costume Design) gloated that “I already have two of these [oscar statues],” I thought: did she really have to say that? I admit that all this craziness made the ceremony a little more interesting and entertaining. I wonder whether the aforementioned winners scripted their acceptance speeches or went off the cuff . Either way, it’s a relief to see that even Oscar winners are not so great at public speaking…

- Diane Schwartz

Let’s Make A Deal, Please!

svancamp — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:49:48 +0000

In the movie Network, Peter Finch shouted the famous line to the world, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!” Well, that’s the way I’m feeling about the current Cablevision and ABC brouhaha. Seems ABC wants Cablevision (of which I’m a customer) to pony up millions more for the right to have the network on its cable lineup. Each side is engaged in a war of words that’s being battled through the media, online and via lots of advertising. Both ABC and Cablevision are trying to win the hearts and minds of us customers, but there’s one problem: this thing is getting old—we just got back the Food Channel and HGTV after a similar dust-up (the thought of losing Diners, Drive-ins and Dives forever DID weigh heavily on my mind). My question is, why spend so much on PR and advertising trying to reach an audience that is most likely sick and tired of hearing about it? It makes both parties look bad. ABC: I haven’t watched a show on your network since Thirtysomething. Cablevision: Many people pay over $150 per month for your services. Whatever happens with ABC, the rates will go up regardless—so stop playing the victim. There, I feel better.

—Scott Van Camp

How Do You Define Your Company and Yourself in One Sentence?

dschwartz — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:58:43 +0000

The advent and popularity of Twitter and texting should make it pretty easy to sum up, in one sentence, how we define ourselves or the company we work for. Can you define what your company or what your brand/product stands for in roughly 75 characters? An article on Harvard Business Review’s site got me thinking about this challenge and how difficult it really is. How you personally define your company is probably different than the person in the office next to you, or in the cubicle down the hall. And if you’re in a position to ask, it’d be interesting to see how your employees define their organization. We’re not talking about fancy mission statements or taglines, either.

Just how disparate those definitions are will point to whether your employee communications strategy is working and even how well your company is performing. Google’s one sentence definition is this: “We organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” Southwest’s sentence is: “We democratize the skies and give people the freedom to fly.” The HBR article author, Bill Taylor, asks: “What’s your sentence?” That’s a good question (and that’s not “my” sentence, by the way). What’s the defining sentence for your organization and to take it a step further, what’s your personal sentence? If you are having trouble with either of these questions, then it’s time to take stock of how you’re spending your day and expending your energies.

– Diane Schwartz

Toyota’s Troubles Run Deeper Than PR

svancamp — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 16:51:23 +0000

While at the venerable National Press Club in DC yesterday, handing out our 2010 CSR Awards, I couldn’t help notice another PR event being played out two meeting rooms over—and it didn’t involve happy executives receiving kudos for their good work. No, the Press Club had the Congressional hearings on Toyota playing on the big-screen TV. I noticed quite a few people settled in to watch the train wreck. And what a wreck was. Amid Akio Toyoda’s apologies and the grilling of transportation secretary Ray LaHood, I couldn’t help thinking that Toyota’s problems run much deeper than a crisis PR strategy, especially when Toyoda admitted that the company had grown too big, too fast. Nope, what Toyota really needs is a culture change, one that puts values and transparency first; something that the CSR Awards keynoter, Kevin Moss of BT, stressed in his speech to CSR executives two doors down. More apologies or new TV ads for the Siena can’t deflect these trust and reputation problems. It’s time for Toyota to do some heavy lifting.

–Scott Van Camp

I Might Have Received Your Press Release But I’m Not Telling You

dschwartz — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 13:48:36 +0000

In the past week, I somehow entered a PR time machine taking me back 15 years to the time when agency interns and junior account reps would call reporters and ask if they’ve received the fax announcing “fill in the blank”. I received three of those calls this week after a healthy break from what is arguably an annoyance to reporters. It should be said, I’m no longer a reporter, but I will play one in this blog entry.

Ten years ago, the mode of delivery changed from fax to email but the same call lived on: “did you get the email I sent [a second ago]” about our new hire” or our new breakthrough toothbrush and fork combo? You get the point, I hope. If you are guilty of this media relations tactic, why are you wasting reporters’ time with these calls? Why are you using a leaner staff’s time forcing them to go down the list and make those calls which you know they hate to do? And should a reporter actually answer the phone (unlikely) and talk to the caller, most likely that caller is not prepared to handle the journalist’s questions. Better to deploy these lower-ranking employees on tasks that might bear fruit, like research or social media activities to spread the message.

Press releases definitely serve a purpose and despite some naysaying, they are not going away. Rather, they are morphing into highly optimized announcements that are refreshingly longer than a tweet, but too often self serving and without an apparent story idea for the recipient. But let the message speak for itself. Having someone follow up with a call is grounds for dismissal of the whole release. Makes you want to hit the delete button, because if the news is interesting and the release is well written and to the point, a reporter will follow up or even write a story without following up. Have faith that we received your release, unless of course it fell into our spam folder.

- Diane Schwartz

‘Eggs In One Basket’ Theory Strikes Again

svancamp — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 17:24:30 +0000

It happened with Tiger, now it may be happening again. I must admit my disappointment to hear that U.S. Winter Olympic figurehead Lindsey Vonn may be unable to ski in Vancouver because of a very painful bruise to her shin. Or, she may ski but the injury might prevent her from being in the running for a medal. Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you’ll know that Vonn has been at the center of the U.S. team’s promotional efforts for the Winter Games—just like swimmer Michael Phelps was for the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing. Vonn goes into Vancouver as the face of Red Bull, Rolex, Procter & Gamble, Sports Illustrated (of late) and NBC. Bottom line: if she doesn’t compete, big sponsorship dollars and TV ratings go down the drain. Now, in no way can you compare Vonn’s situation to Tiger Woods’, but I can’t help thinking of the numerous “Don’t put all you eggs in one basket” comments by PR pundits after Tiger’s troubles broke. Is making one athlete the center of a corporate campaign looking for trouble? Personally, I hope Vonn is able to beat the injury and ski well, but the pressure she’s feeling now must be immense.

–Scott Van Camp

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

dschwartz — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 14:32:22 +0000

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’

dschwartz — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 16:26:11 +0000

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

dschwartz — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 16:07:09 +0000

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