Archive for the ‘Brilliant Counsel’ Category

The Power of PR (or lack of PR) to Move Opinion, Drive Change

Monday, January 30th, 2012

Posted by Tom Gable

The head of a large information technology company forwarded a link to a CNN Money story on “Millions of SOPA lobbying bucks gone to waste” and provided a pithy editorial comment:

“The power of PR!”

Definitely. Smart PR strategists can mobilize public opinion through social and traditional media to make statements, move public opinion and change behaviors. In the case of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), CNN reported that “The controversial anti-piracy bills that attracted tens of millions of dollars of lobbying for and against the proposed laws ironically were killed by free publicity.”

The story noted:

“Old media companies spent huge sums of money in support of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA). Those opposed — Internet and “new media” companies — lobbied hard and spent gobs too, though far less than their more organized rivals. But Silicon Valley had a trick up its sleeve that trumped the millions of dollars more in lobbying muscle and the more established Washington presence of the old media guard: They reached out directly to their users for free.”

The story goes on to cover how Wikipedia shut down for 24 hours and Google blacked out its logo in protest of the bill. The public upheaval forced Congress to drop the bills, at least for now.

On the flip, side, corporations can be overwhelmed by a lack of PR strategic thinking when they launch a new business initiative with properly considering the consequences of their actions. Two recent examples: Bank of America and its $5 ATM charge and Netflix changing its business model.

NPR nailed the issue the day BofA made its announcement:

“JEFFREY BROWN: Big banks and the question of their profits have been the source of plenty of public anger since the beginning of the financial crisis. Now new fees for consumers are putting them in the spotlight again.”

The Los Angeles Times covered local protests, including the occupation of a branch by protesters. Its story offered a keen observation:

“This frankly is just an incredible marketing and PR debacle,” said Bert Ely, an independent banking analyst. “They roll this thing out with no testing, make it nationwide, it’s higher than anybody else. What kind of reaction do they expect?”

Huffington Post and others covered BofA rolling back the fees, with recalcitrant quotes.

For Netflix, as covered by Gable PR earlier, it started by raising prices by 60 percent and came back two months later to apologize while announcing the split of the company into two. They failed from a strategic planning and PR perspective to think about image as a part of corporate strategy, especially when one has built such a strong brand. They need to do things right and also do the right things.

Bottom line: The power of PR and its flip side – lack of strategic PR thinking – are essential for consideration in any action that can impact brand image and reputation.

 

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Posted in Authentic PR, Brilliant Counsel, Client Service Results, Crisis PR, News and Media, Social Media | No Comments »

Worst of Breed — PR Plans, Crisis PR, Releases and More

Thursday, January 5th, 2012

 

Image Meltdown

Posted by Tom Gable

In reviewing many recent roundups of PR successes and failures from 2011, including egregious abuses of the language, it appeared a new category of analysis might be tried: Worst of Breed.

The concept is to delve into corporate, institutional or other failures to communicate well and identify if their fatal or near-fatal faults are one-time occurrences or could reside in their DNA, to be passed on to future generations. It could be one bad gene, such as at Penn State, or something that may have metastasized, as with the upper echelons at Tokyo Electric Power. Beyond simply covering the big events, can we also ask for help in shining the light of journalistic verisimilitude on other WOB examples in writing, social media, news releases and other communications driving by PR?

This leads to a two minute survey created to seek broad input on WOB examples for future articles in PRSA Tactics and elsewhere and blog posts. Please click through to take the survey, which offers opportunities to provide your own candidates and links to their transgressions.  This includes nominations for the coveted WOB Lifetime Achievement Award.

Thanks, in advance, for the help, and here’s to a super 2012 for the PR profession!

 

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Posted in Authentic PR, Brilliant Counsel, Client Service Results, Crisis PR, Hype Free PR, jargon, News and Media, Social Media | Comments Off

The Essential Word List for Lazy PR Writers

Saturday, December 17th, 2011

Words of Wisdom

Posted by Tom Gable

Media and PR gurus, news organizations, universities, social media sites and others are honing their annual reports on words most hated by the media in PR news releases and words that should be banned in 2012. Rather than wait, Gable PR compiled the following list from many sources including Inc., David Meerman Scott, Ragan, Lake Superior State University and others.

Sadly, some of the profession needs to be put into the slow class since the same words keep showing up (and have since 1999!). The list is in alphabetical order. The words receiving the most mentions over the years are in bold for easy reference. As noted here before, some words such as solutions and leading provider get dropped into news releases unconsciously, somewhat of a verbal tic. Lazy writers tend to rely on industry jargon and hackneyed phrases rather than striving to characterize a company, organization or individual in new ways that go beyond the ordinary.

During a Media Relations Summit several years ago in New York City, a panel of editors from The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s and other publications noted that many releases from companies in the same industry have a sad sameness to the language. They suggested that they could take many news releases and pitches received and do a global search-and-replace of one company’s name with that of a competitor and no one would know the difference. Whew.

How to avoid sounding alike? Think solid differentiation and positioning and compelling ideas. Then, run a search for the following words for deletion (and please add your own as comments!):

  • best-of-breed
  • customer-centric
  • cutting edge
  • end-to-end
  • epic
  • excited
  • first mover
  • flexible
  • innovate
  • leader
  • leading
  • leading edge
  • leading provider
  • leverage
  • market leading
  • mission critical
  • new and improved
  • new paradigm
  • next generation
  • outside the box
  • robust
  • scalable
  • seamless
  • solutions
  • state-of-the-art
  • synergy
  • thrilled
  • turnkey
  • unique
  • value-add
  • well-positioned
  • world class

 

 

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Real values, mission, organizational culture drive crisis PR – a collection of case histories

Thursday, November 17th, 2011

New Road Ahead

Posted by Tom Gable

The Wall Street Journal covered the Penn State crisis and Jason Gay, who usually lights up the fun side of sports, writes that they are dealing with much deeper institutional issues than simply getting on the gridiron and starting the healing process. Questions remain. He asks for answers. But beyond that discovery process, any institution, individual or organization under fire needs to speak to evoking change, what it will look like in the future and how it will make a difference in all that it does.

This brief preamble leads to providing links to six posts in the past 18 months on different elements of crisis PR, case histories and a few recommendations on steps to take at every level – from the corporate suite to the Twittersphere and blogosphere. As noted in the headline: real values, mission, organizational culture drive crisis PR. Get it right internally, then tell the world.

 

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Posted in Authentic PR, Brilliant Counsel, Client Service Results, Crisis PR, Horizon Management, News and Media, Social Media | Comments Off

Social Media, PR, Clients and Disclosure: Tips for Keeping on the Right Side of the Law

Sunday, October 30th, 2011

Fully Disclosed

Posted by Tom Gable

PR firms are often the driving force behind helping clients build buzz, brand identity and even sales volume through promotional blogging and tweeting, Facebook pages, product reviews, restaurant and hotel tips and more. Beyond advancing the art of social media, firms need to ensure that they are equally up to speed on FTC guidelines or face possible legal action, according to two lawyers from Davis & Gilbert, New York, during a presentation to a quarterly meeting of IPREX recently in Toronto.

The lawyers, Michael Lasky and Gary Kibel, told the PR pros from more than 40 firms on three continents that the FTC has continued to update its guidelines about bloggers and others being truthful and reliable.

“And this isn’t just a feel good; it’s a legal requirement,” said Lasky, who chairs the PR practice at D&G. He provided a handout that summarized the FTC guidelines, including this summary:

“The Guides have been updated to ensure truth in all media, including blogs, social networking sites, and other new media. The basic principles of the Guides remain the same — endorsements must be truthful and not misleading and if there is a connection between the endorser and the marketer that would affect how people evaluate the endorsement, that connection should be disclosed.”

Clients and their PR firms can be held liable for unsubstantiated claims, so Lasky and Kibel stressed that PR firms need policies and procedures about expectations for proper behavior on both the agency and client side of the equation. This includes working with third parties, such as hiring people to blog and tweet about a company and its stock price, services or products, or take negative shots at its competition as well.

The lawyers provided an example in one of their publications about complaints being filed against Ann Taylor for giving gifts to bloggers and asking them to blog about an event. The FTC found that several bloggers posted about the event without disclosing the gifts. No action was taken because Ann Taylor had created a written policy stating that it would not issue gifts to bloggers without first instructing them they must disclose the gifts. There was a sign at the event instructing bloggers to disclose the gifts if they posted about the event. Case closed.

Lasky and Kibel outlined several top blogging practices clients and their PR firms should follow:

  1. Have a policy.
  2. For bloggers, be forthright — disclose any material connection.
  3. For clients and their agencies, monitor their bloggers to make sure they make the necessary disclosures. If you see something misleading, unsubstantiated or not reported accurately, take action.
  4. In hiring a blog service, companies and their agencies must provide guidance and training about the necessary disclosure.
  5. Employees of the marketing or its PR firms should clearly disclose relationships. Such as PR firms blogging about a product from a client.
  6. Even street team members who get consideration (reward points, etc.) for their work must disclose the details.
  7. When celebrities are paid, they must disclose (Lasky and Kibel provided the example of Armstrong Williams, commentator, who was hired by a PR firm to promote the “No Child Left Behind” program on CNN).
  8. Have spokespeople go through extensive media training to ensure they understand the disclosures.
  9. On level of disclosure, analyze the audience.
  10. You don’t know it all. Seek legal assistance.

In another case, an agency was hired to endorse a client’s gaming application. Its people gave the game high ratings. The agency failed to disclose that it received a percentage of sales of the games as compensation.

Disclosure can be as simple as adding parenthetical notes in the copy (“Company X gave me this product to try.” “Product Y was sent to me by the manufacturer.” “Wineries whose names are preceded by an asterisk * provided samples.” “Agency Z is providing blogging and other services for Client A.”).

Some use hash tags in their tweets and Facebook posts, such as #ad, #paid and #sponsored.

Bottom line: disclose, and have the disclosure displayed where it can be easily found. The lawyers said trouble awaits when the disclosure is buried three levels deep on a website.

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Eight Easy Ways to Damage Your Brand Image, Lose 1 Million Customers and $8 Billion in Market Cap the Netflix Way

Monday, September 26th, 2011

Blowing up the Brand

Posted by Tom Gable

Recent analysts reports, coverage in the major media and the Twittersphere are being less than kind to Netflix and its two recent corporate announcements: raising prices by 60 percent; and coming back two months later to apologize while announcing the split of the company into two (Netflix and Qwikster). In looking at it from a strategic planning and PR perspective, the best companies incorporate image as a part of corporate strategy, especially when one has built such a strong brand. They do things right and also do the right things. Netflix appears to have advanced toward bursting its own brand bubble through eight easy steps:

  • Raised prices seemingly without much consideration for the existing customer base, its needs, wants, expectations
  • Went for a big number rather than incremental increases
  • Provided a rationale that didn’t ring true and made many long-term customers feel betrayed by the brand
  • Did it all top down and one-way in a CEO voice rather than human voice
  • Didn’t join the conversation; didn’t use social media to actively engage its many audiences
  • Waited a couple of months to apologize and then do it with an amazing lack of sincerity
  • Seemingly as an afterthought, changed a successful business model to confuse customers, analysts, and the stock market
  • Gave competitors openings to attack, reposition the company, declare pricing advantages

And if you are really successful, here’s what you can expect: 50 percent drop in stock price and market capitalization, enmity versus admiration, lack of support in the financial community (buy and sell side analysts), a zillion Twitter and Facebook comments, a Hitler meme or two, and confusion among consumers on how to order and from whom when you split the company, create a new brand name and dilute the brand image.

David Pogue, columnist for The New York Times, parsed the apology:

“Ah. O.K., good. We’ve seen this movie before. Corporation bumbles, apologizes, makes things right. Business schools take note. Life goes on. But this time, Mr. Hastings did not follow the formula. He only pretended to. He goes on to say that the new higher prices will stick — and, worse, Netflix is about to break off its DVD-by-mail feature into a completely separate entity, called Qwikster.”

The PR and marketing blogs offered good insights.  Mr. Media Training cited six reasons why the apology failed.  Liz Goodgold, of Redfirebranding, provided four ideas Netflix should have used before going down the primrose path to greater profits.

In summary, another NYT story delved into the reasons for raising prices (to generate more income for acquiring content from the major studies for streaming). The “self-inflicted” wounds could have been avoided with better planning for an integrated and strategic evolution of what were in actuality major change initiatives at Netflix.

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Posted in Authentic PR, Brilliant Counsel, Client Service Results, Crisis PR, Horizon Management, In the Beginning, Social Media | Comments Off

Innovative Solutions Aren’t

Monday, July 25th, 2011

Words of Wisdom

Posted by Tom Gable

In the past few months, we’ve participated in three repositioning and branding sessions – two for clients and one in a seminar by a respected branding guru. We found a common thread running through all of them and one we wish could unravel quickly: the creative types all relied on hackneyed, trite and empty phrases in trying to position or reposition a company, then promote its attributes.

PR is decidedly different from advertising and marketing. In trying to earn our media coverage, we rely on telling a good story with facts. Branding and positioning sessions are designed to create distinctive personalities and voices for an organization or institution that resonate with the multiple target audiences. The basic concept is to develop a tag line or tag lines, core values and the supporting evidence to support the brand position. All well and good, except when the attributes and supporting evidence slide into vagueness.

For journalists, PR professionals on the hunt for earned media coverage or any other students of the English language, branding exercises can be painful, particularly when the die has been cast. Good manners prevent one from chiming in when the host digresses into the new core message for the client saying that it is “a leader in the evolving XYZ industry.” Plus, the client delivers “innovative solutions” that are “at the forefront” of this “evolving” industry. With two evolvings in two sentences, it is obvious that this organization is truly leading Darwinian change in its industry.

The three brand masters promoted use of “leading” in many ways, without proof of principle. The claimed attributes include words such as unique, progressive, leading-edge, next generation, industry standard, prestigious and world class, among others. I won’t bore you with additional details. Previous screeds covered the use of leading and solutions, ad nauseum.

Big questions we can all ask in trying to position our clients or the organization we work for: can we truly differentiate against the competition, in what ways and can we provide ongoing proof of principle over the next two to three years with real stories, facts and details, not vague words? If so, you have made a major advance in branding success to the ultimate benefit of image, reputation and even achieving desired business and marketing goals.

 

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Social Media the New Sock Puppet? Or Part of a Strategic PR Tool Kit?

Thursday, June 16th, 2011

Tool Time

 

Posted by Tom Gable

The blogosphere, Twittersphere and mainstream media are waking up to the fact that the hot new item they fell in love with not too long ago is starting to remind them of infatuations of old. The packaging might be brighter, more exotic and stimulating to the senses. But this hot new item could be a time sink; with hours and days disappearing with little of value to show. Yes, the titillation has been stimulating. But could this hot item simply be distracting us all from more serious, important and strategic activities?

Sound familiar? Remember the first encounter with The World Wide Web and Mosaic (pre-Netscape)? Then came Netscape, email, Yahoo, Google and a million new websites that bragged about capturing eyeballs (but no income), ad infinitum. Many firms, Gable PR included, succumbed to the siren songs of the web. So many pretty new faces are now tired or gone. Is the hot new item – social media – heading for the same fate?

Experts seem to agree that we are seeing the evolution of the social media phenomenon into the development of a commoditized set of tools to add to the PR arsenal for strategic use as needed.

Peter Shankman, of HARO fame, wrote that he would never hire a social media expert, and neither should you.

“Social Media is just another facet of marketing and customer service. Say it with me. Repeat it until you know it by heart. Bind it as a sign upon your hands and upon thy gates. Social Media, by itself, will not help you. We’re making the same mistakes that we made during the dotcom era, where everyone thought that just adding the term .com to your corporate logo made you instantly credible. It didn’t. If that’s all you did, you emphasized even more strongly how pathetic your company was.”

The Sysomos blog offered this guidance:

“In simple terms, social media as a standalone activity is coming to an end. If you are a social media consultant, you need to be really, really good at providing strategic counsel, as well as have in-depth knowledge of the tools and services need to execute tactically. For everyone else, they will need to offer than just social media strategic and tactical services. Instead, they have to offer services that embrace communications, marketing and sales strategies and goals.”

Even Steve Rubel, who grew up being a social media consultant and blogger ubber alles, noted that:

“It was fun while it lasted. But I totally agree that the future is all about integration. We need more systems thinkers who can see the big picture.”

I led a workshop at the recent PRSA Counselors Academy annual spring conference where we discussed PR as the ultimate platform for building image and reputation and social media as part of the tool kit.

The metaphor was PR as the Internet of communications. PR starts with a solid, authentic foundation using traditional methods (e.g. Media relations) and then layers on new applications (websites, email), leverages off other platforms (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and connects with people from all angles to move perception and behavior in the desired direction.

The senior PR counselors attending the workshop agreed that the “start” button for authentic PR was strategic planning brilliantly synchronized to support client business and marketing goals. The strategies, tools and tactics can be far-ranging to support building reputation and driving results with multiple target audiences. The obvious basic list included internal relations, pro-active media relations, social media integration, special events, breakthrough promotions, cause marketing, community relations, trade relations, investor relations, speaking engagements, conferences, trade shows, crisis PR and issues management.

In delving deeper into the hottest topic – the social media component – the Counselors discussed media disintermediation and the rise of what was characterized as the PR Publishing House – a powerful emerging force in marketing communications and public relations. Think of PR as content developer for many communications products, all integrated within unified themes. PR pros serve as creative directors. They develop their own editorial calendars and control multiple channels that bypass traditional media filters. When done strategically, the work of the PR publishing house advances education and knowledge, building trust and credibility through authentic conversations in a human voice that build long-term relationships.

What’s next? The gurus noted the end of the social media gurus, which does have a touch of irony to it. The workshop talked about communications at the speed of light and the two-second news cycle. There will surely be new layers of digital tools that drive faster actions and forms of communications we haven’t yet imagined. And it will be up to the PR pros to manage those new tools within a brilliant strategic context.

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Posted in Authentic PR, Brilliant Counsel, Clutter Busting, Horizon Management, In the Beginning, Social Media | 4 Comments »

PRSA Counselors Academy Confab Drives Authenticity, Values; Sharp Contrast to Facebook-Google PR Fiasco

Saturday, May 14th, 2011

PR Pros

LAKE LAS VEGAS, Nevada – Senior counselors from throughout North America gathered here May 12 through 15 for the annual spring conference of the PRSA Counselors Academy, which produces a content-rich program each year aimed at sharing knowledge and setting new standards for the public relations profession.

The program was packed with sessions on the importance of PR evolving as a vital, authentic, strategic force in helping clients of all sizes build long-term images and reputation. Experts covered how to translate solid corporate values to many audiences and walk the talk with no empty claims or unethical tactics.

This was in sharp contrast to the negative coverage being given one of the larger PR firms in the country, Burson-Marsteller, for launching a whisper campaign on behalf of an unnamed client (later revealed to be Facebook) to get media to report that a Google Gmail feature ostensibly trampled the privacy of millions of Americans and violated fair trade rules. The PR fiasco soon blew up and was covered in USA Today, Media Bistro, New York Times and many other outlets.

There was concern that the Burson fiasco would be damaging to the overall image of the profession. But this dissipated as the counselors delved into the programs that demonstrated the growth of the profession in driving strategic and authentic PR programs for clients of all sizes, shapes and needs.

Yours truly was part of a workshop that included a focus on image as a part of corporate strategy. Establish strong core values – what do you stand for – and then demonstrate proof of principle over time (e.g. if you are a high-quality, community-oriented company, how do you demonstrate those values?).

Think about core values as the essential element of building any image and reputation for the long term, like carbon in the universe.

The mission of strategic PR is to delve into the heart and soul of an organization to tell its authentic, credible stories through multiple means and build reputation for the long-term. Agencies use a robust arsenal to achieve the strategic mission, which can include; changing perceptions and behaviors, positioning new companies, repositioning companies that have become stuck, launching new products and services, building brands, managing a crisis, driving value and much more. Processes, built on a foundation of solid values and corporate culture, build image over time.

Other sessions delved into: how to grow counselors, not tacticians; approaches to delivering stellar client service;, integrating new approaches into multicultural strategies; taking control of your reputation in the new stakeholder economy; and new strategies in media relations measurement.

Janet Tyler, president of Airfoil Public Relations, Detroit, conducted a session on value-driven leadership and translating personal values into brand strategies. The concept: establish core values, which are used to build vision and mission. She provide a list of 374 traits, attributes and values and asked the audience of senior PR counselors to identify 20, then prioritize to their top five. From there, she suggested that they adapt those values to the everyday operation of their firms. Her firm, a hot tech shop with some 60 on staff, listed: collaboration, accountability, learning, leadership, service and fun.

Janet said the values are then applied to three key elements for driving the firm: people, processes and performance. The values are used to differentiate and connect with clients. Airfoil also consults with clients getting their values aligned with stakeholder needs – the heart and soul of authentic PR, which was evident everywhere at Lake Las Vegas during the conference and spoke volumes about the profession.

(Search Twitter using #caprsa for running commentaries on the sessions, links to valuable information)

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Reuters DC News Editor Provides IPREX Meeting with Newsroom Insights, Tips

Friday, May 6th, 2011

Quest to be First

Posted by Tom Gable

The information-packed IPREX annual meeting in Washington, DC, drew partners from some 35 cities on three contents to learn from experts and share best practices in public relations and public affairs in closed sessions among this global brain trust. One of the early sessions featured Kristin Roberts, Washington news editor and deputy bureau chief for Reuters. The high-energy journalist started by reading a collection of bad news releases received by her bureau just this morning – several embarrassments, including for major PR firms who did go unnamed.

From there, Kristin offered some quick tips for the assembled PR pros, many of whom were ex-journalists:

  • To connect with the news media, don’t go to the bureau chief of editor. Find the person covering the beat. Do some research.
  • Be straightforward. You have news, you have background, or you have a potential resource for future background on a specific topic.
  • Be persistent if it’s a good story and you don’t get immediate responses to your voice mails or emails.
  • The daily email flow is daunting. Editors will always open email from a trusted source. For others, the subject line needs to be compelling.
  • The news cycle churns by the second. Reuters aims to be first and measures itself against Bloomberg and Dow Jones in seconds.
  • A media outlet might have only a 30-second lead in breaking a story. The great ones can sometimes hold up for a day until the other media catch up, as happened with Kristin in breaking news of the Iraq Surge under President Bush.
  • When managing coverage of the killing of Osama bin Laden, she woke correspondents up all over the world before the President’s talk. The lead writer worked from home, away from distractions. She ran to the office in her running shoes, but got called to the White House because their correspondent was solo and needed help. When asked if she went in sneakers, she said no and gave a fashion tip: she had high heels in her gym bag and kept them everywhere (office, car trunk, home).
  • When asked about Twitter: “I hate it. I am too old for Twitter (she is 36).” She said she doesn’t trust it and isn’t comfortable with it. They double check anything and everything from Twitter that might be a relevant news lead. This includes whether the Tweet is real or bogus.
  • PR is important to the news business. She was amazed that the Libyan rebels had a spokesman in one week and were issuing news releases.
  • Reuters aims to be objective in the news. Blogs are different, where it’s not the content that’s important, but the tone. She admitted to being “snarky” in her blogs, but snarky to all. She bragged that no one knows how she votes, not even her husband.

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