The Jury is Out: Debate this: Is it better to come clean quickly when your brand is under fire or resist saying and doing anything until forced? Last week brought examples of both strategies. There’s Chipotle, which moved relatively quickly on its crisis. It’s been a long road back, and there’s a lot more to go, but the burrito maker was able recently to report a recovery in same-store sales (up 18%) for the first time since its crisis hit during Halloween 2016. Q1 profits were up, too, as were shares. And say what you will about United’s initial blunder—and plenty has been said and deserved—but once it admitted its faults, the airline has moved quickly to try to extinguish its crisis. Yes, CEO Oscar Munoz took heat on Capitol Hill last week, yet it might have been a full-on fire had United not come clean quickly. Fox is taking the other route. It’s said and done relatively little re issues underlying the summer ouster of Fox News Channel founder/chief Roger Ailes. And the 1,000 cuts keeping happening. It’s had to absorb losing top-rated talent Bill O’Reilly on charges similar to those that potted Ailes. And last week one of Ailes’ replacements, co-president Bill Shine, departed under the same dark cloud. Numerous reports allege Shine reluctantly accepted Ailes’ culture that allowed O’Reilly to keep his job. A few days after Shine’s exit last week, word came of a lawsuit accusing Fox News of gender discrimination. And more: A woman who accused O’Reilly of harassment says she will appear in front of a British regulator looking at 21st Century Fox’s takeover of satellite TV megabrand Sky.The cherry on top of the cake: The NY Times reports a federal investigation into Fox News continues. The inquiry began in September, the Times says. Of course, Fox is far from alone in terms of remaining relatively tacet in a transparent era. Last Monday, AXA, the French parent of asset manager AllianceBernstein, fired AllianceBernstein’s CEO and ousted nine board members. Thing is, it did so via the small print of a securities filing. The financial media’s response, needless to say, was a collective “Huh?” Just days earlier, on Apr. 27, the firm and subsequently ousted CEO Peter Kraus met media to announce quarterly financials; they mentioned nothing about imminent leadership changes. Oh, AXA agreed to buy $99 million in stock from Kraus. Guess that’s an incentive to stay quiet. Still, at a time when investors dislike having the wool pulled over their eyes, was AXA’s a prudent course? Consider unwell health-tech firm Theranos. Last week it settled out of court 2 suits with hedge fund Partner Fund Management. Partner alleged Theranos duped it into investing some $96 million. And these are far from the only suits Theranos has had to settle recently. You might recall Theranos’ centerpiece blood-testing tech turned out to be a bust. Yet Theranos admitted this was the case agonizingly slowly.
Anticipation:Does the smell of pizza trigger something in you? Relax. A brand has the science to prove you’re normal, at least if you live in NY. DiGiorno used 40 high-res cameras and emotion-reading software to measure the effect pizza had on the moods of 3 groups of partygoers in NY. Chris Brody, DiGiorno’s marketing diretor, tells us, “Camera footage was analyzed to identify patterns in emotion at 5-second intervals…patterns were calculated using Google’s Vision API on a 0-4 interval.” The findings show changes in emotions were at their highest, ie, people were happiest, when they smelled pizza baking ( not when they were eating it). DiGiorno is using the findings to inform messaging in its Rise to the Occasion marketing platform, Brody says. What will the next experiment be? “DiGiorno always is looking for interesting new ways to connect with consumers and pizza lovers,” he says...”and...we’d consider expanding on [this] or executing [it] in a similar fashion again.” PRNews Pro staff hopes to be part of future experiments.
CCO Headaches: Institute for PR is planning a report on challenges facing CCOs, including: the CCO’s expanding role into marketing; the “chaotic communications-marketing structure;” how to draw insight from digital data; how to lead a brand on culture; and dealing with shrinking budgets as responsibilities increase. Should be a good read.
People: CommCore added former Department of Homeland Security advisor Gregory Michaelidis to its roster as a cybersecurity communications specialist. He’ll focus on assessing the communications readiness of brands to anticipate and respond to cybersecurity attacks, data breaches and other security incidents. -- Infinite Global named Cameron Webb a director and head of branding and creative. Previous stops included head of brand for KPMG UK. -- Phil Riggins joined Leidar as a partner to strengthen its brand and reputation insight practice. He joins from Brunswick where advised on reputation, brand and issues management. -- Susana Gonzalez Edmond joined Ek, Sunkin, Klink & Bail. She’s a former aide to Long Beach, CA, mayor Robert Garcia.