The public relations professional is faced with a multitude of choices on how to solve clients’ problems. Some situations call for rallying people behind an issue with sweeping grassroots campaigns; others require focused online efforts that may involve reaching influencers through digital channels while others need fully integrated efforts involving multiple campaign components. For San Francisco-based PR and public affairs agency Singer Associates, it was a back-to-basics approach—media relations 101, if you will—that helped the city of San Bruno, Calif., move forward after a disaster.
On Sept. 9, 2010, San Bruno, located just south of San Francisco, was rocked by the worst natural gas explosion and fire in U.S. history. The catastrophe killed eight residents, hurt 52 others, destroyed 38 homes and damaged another 70. The U.S. Geological Survey registered the explosion and resulting shock wave as a magnitude 1.1 earthquake. The aftermath was a scene reminiscent of a war zone.
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City of San Bruno Mayor Jim Ruane addressed more than 30 members of the media at a 2012 presser that played a key role in getting restitution from PG&E following a natural gas explosion in the city.Federal investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board blamed utility provider Pacific Gas & Electric Co. (PG&E) for what one official called “baffling” mistakes that led to a gas pipeline explosion.
To start the rebuilding process, San Bruno city officials immediately entered into negotiations with PG&E, which agreed on a trust fund amount of up to $70 million to cover construction, staff support and needed services for the residents affected by the explosion. “At that point, PG&E recognized its responsibility in the rebuilding of the neighborhood,” says Connie Jackson, city manager of San Bruno.
Yet, as time went on, city officials recognized that the damage went deeper than just the physical devastation. “The entire community—not just the neighborhood—was reeling from the effects of the explosion,” Jackson says. “Over time, the damage and the effects on the community had not been recognized,” Jackson says. While individuals affected by the disaster were able to sue PG&E for pain and suffering, the city could not. So San Bruno officials began to negotiate again with PG&E. This time, however, the utility’s reaction was not so positive. After heated talks, it was clear that PG&E was not going to go above and beyond the $70 million it had already given the city.
So, some two years after the explosion, city officials, in conjunction with law firm Meyers Nave and financial consultant Prager & Co., called Singer Associates, which specializes in crisis communications. “They said ‘We’re stuck and we don’t know what to do,’” says Sam Singer, president of the agency.
Not only was the city stuck, but time was running out, as PG&E was about to get slammed with fines from state regulators over the explosion. If a settlement between San Bruno and the utility couldn’t be reached, PG&E could state that it had already paid fines for the disaster and therefore owed the city nothing.
So the question was what could Singer Associates do to help shine a light on the issue and create a groundswell of social and political pressure on the utility to “do the right thing?” as Sam Singer put it. Interestingly, up until this point, the city had not used the power of the media in a concerted or an aggressive way. “They were not used to going out and being forceful with the news media in making demands and attacking PG&E,” Singer says.
But on the counsel of Singer, San Bruno Mayor Jim Ruane, city council members and city manager Jackson agreed to take a more forceful media-relations tack. “We took Singer’s advice and ran with it,” Jackson says.
STRATEGY/EXECUTION
Singer Associates strategy was to position PG&E’s bad reputation after the pipeline explosion against the public’s natural well of empathy towards the City of San Bruno. Essentially, the message to the media was to be presented by the city in the form of a question: Why was Goliath (PG&E) walking away from David at the negotiating table when clearly Goliath had wronged David?
The objective was to demonstrate to the media and the public that PG&E was acting in bad faith and refusing to do its part to provide the restitution it promised and to help the devastated community heal and recover. The execution on that objective included:
▶ Editorial Board Visit: Singer Associates set up a meeting between the San Francisco Chronicle’s editorial board and Mayor Ruane. Ruane explained the city’s predicament, and Singer and the city waited to see if the Chronicle would cover the situation in an editorial.
▶ The Press Release: Singer Associates crafted a press release that called upon PG&E to do the right thing by the community it harmed. The lead sentence of the release was blunt: “The city of San Bruno today said Pacific Gas & Electric Co. has abdicated its responsibility to the San Bruno community by stalling negotiations to settle millions of dollars in restitution for its Sept. 9, 2010, explosion that rocked this peninsula city.”
▶ The Press Conference: The date of Feb. 15, 2012, was set for a press conference. The message and intent of the press conference was much like the press release: To address how PG&E’s negligence was responsible for the biggest natural gas disaster in the nation’s history, yet the utility seemed unwilling to acknowledge the monumental damage it caused. Meanwhile, working with Meyers Nave and Prager & Co., Singer created talking points in anticipation of certain questions from reporters. Media training of Ruane, Jackson and other potential conference speakers ensued.
Sam Singer says he wasn’t worried though. “Mayor Ruane is down to earth and speaks in a straightforward manner,” he says. “His credibility is so high that the media really hangs on his every word.”
CURTAIN GOES UP
When Feb. 15 rolled around, it was show time. But an hour before the curtain went up, Jackson says there was a very good harbinger of resolution: A PG&E representative called, saying the company was ready to go back to the bargaining table. But you know what they say—the show must go on—and it did. The press conference was attended by every major daily newspaper, radio and television station in the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition, the Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal as well as other major national media covered the event, as did the leading energy trade media. As the conference began, the presser went national.
AFTERMATH
On Oct. 18, 2012, three days after the press conference, the S an Francisco Chronicle published an editorial that whole-heartedly supported San Bruno’s position.
Within one month of the press conference, PG&E agreed to pay $70 million to the City of San Bruno for compensation and restitution for the damage it had done. The initial payment of $70 million was reduced to $50 million, Jackson says.
Meanwhile, in the affected neighborhood, about a third of the 38 destroyed homes have been rebuilt, Jackson says.
Singer Associates continues to work with city officials on a variety of initiatives related to the disaster. “We’ve learned an awful lot from Sam,” Jackson says. “He encouraged us to be bold with our message, and coached us on how to articulate our experience in a way that was not inflammatory, but necessary to get public and media attention.”
Singer admits it was a gamble to rely on a press release and a press conference for such a high-stakes issue. PG&E could have walked away from negotiations with San Bruno. But the bottom line was this: It didn’t, resulting in a $70 million press conference. PRN
CONTACT:
Contact: Sam Singer, [email protected]; Connie Jackson, [email protected]; Stephanie Reichin, [email protected].
7 Tips for How To Execute the Perfect Press Conference
Call it high-stakes media relations. In 2012 the City of San Bruno hired Singer Associates to help it get restitution from utility company PG&E after a massive gas line explosion in 2010. The agency decided on a risky press conference as the centerpiece of the effort. The gamble paid off, as PG&E ponied up $70 million for the city. Stephanie Reichin, account executive at Singer, offers tips on how to execute an effective press conference.
1. Ensure the Risk is Worth the Reward: When executed correctly, press conferences can create significant impact. Before deciding to host a presser, ensure that the risk of opening up your client in a public forum is worth the potential reward.
2. Have a Message—and Stay On It: Every press conference has a purpose. Before your start, know your desired outcome and develop your messaging and tone to achieve that goal. Whoever will be speaking at the presser must be coached to stay on that message to ensure the maximum impact.
3. Practice Makes Perfect: Do a dry-run in advance of the press conference to anticipate any issues and to determine how to answer difficult questions from media.
4. Keep it Short: The duration, the speeches and the statements should all be on-point. The media are on tight deadlines—respect media reps by giving them your message in a succinct and stimulating manner.
5. Go Visual: Provide imagery that show your message visually.
6. Provide Materials: Make it easy for media reps. Provide the key remarks of speakers to them at the start of the event along with a news release and background materials that summarize the key points.
7. Don’t forget: Someone needs to be an emcee and announce each of the speakers, and spell their names correctly for reporters who are covering the conference.