No One Expected A Tornado

A crisis communication plan is probably one of the most overlooked items in an organization’s communication arsenal. Here, Seth Godin explains why it’s important:

No one expected a tornado

New York City was shut down yesterday by three inches of rain and a tornado in Brooklyn. The trains, the subways, the roads… they all stopped working. There were small boulders on the West Side Highway and rivers of water everywhere.

Millions of critical citizens were answered by officials who pointed out that they had rehearsed for all sorts of events, but a tornado in New York?

What they’re missing is this: people weren’t complaining about the trains or the roads. They were complaining about the communication of the news. Commuters spent hours on trains into the city, only to find that the subways were closed, thus wasting the ride. I spent two hours on the road going to a meeting in the city–and the radio never once mentioned what was going on. The city didn’t start telling people to stay home until after 9 am… two hours late.

Airlines screw this part up all the time. So do websites. And even pizzerias that close for vacation.

Bottom line: the first thing to rehearse is your communication strategy. You can’t predict weird events, but you can get really good at alerting people when they happen.

Social Media Releases (SMR)

I picked this up via FusionBrand blogs: SMR: The Next Generation of Press Releases?

Sample SMR (and proprietary SMR software tool) from Edelman here.

Sample SMR template from Shift Communications here.

Friendship Factor In Consumer Engagement

You must continually engage your customers or consumers!

Many brands and organizations make the mistake of ceasing communications once they’ve managed to “hook” their audiences.

But to do so is like being that “friend” who calls you out for lunch only when they want something from you.

It’s Not Flawlessness, But Responsiveness

Very interesting thought from Scott Adams of Dilbert Blog:

Experts say that the most loyal customers are not the ones who had a flawless experience, but the ones who had a problem that was resolved. I think they’re right. I would use that hotel again in a heartbeat.

The Economist: Why PR?

Earlier this year, The Economist published a story on the public relations industry (Do we have a story for you! – 19 January 2006, Print Edition). Here are some interesting thoughts from The Economist:

• For business, PR is an increasingly vital marketing tool—especially as traditional forms of advertising struggle to catch consumers’ attention.
• PR is surprisingly effective, at least according to a recent study by Procter & Gamble, the world’s biggest consumer-products group.
• In a recent internal study, P&G concluded that the return was often better from a PR campaign than from traditional forms of advertising, according to Hans Bender, the firm’s manager of external relations.
• Spending on PR in America has been growing strongly and reached some $3.7 billion last year
• Marketing PR – is also sometimes called “brand communications”

Quick Tips On Crisis Control

From BusinessWeek Online: Damage Control – A Crash Course

DO

• Prepare for the worst: Plan ahead by assembling a crisis team of credible individuals you can trust. With a plan in place, if a crisis hits, you can spend crucial time implementing the plan rather than trying to figure out where to start.
• Make sure you have the facts: Gather as much information about the situation as rapidly as possible. Investigate quickly to establish if the story is true.
• Consider your key audience: Customers, clients, shareholders, and employees should hear the facts directly from you instead of a from third party. Make sure you communicate with them on a personal basis. Show those affected by the issue that you care.
• Do the right thing: Put public interest ahead of the organization’s interest. Value people over property.

DON’T

• Lie: Instead, communicate quickly, often, and clearly. While it may sound strange, the best-case scenario is when the company in crisis reports the bad news itself. This makes for a proactive strategy that prevents your business from falling into a weakened, defensive position.
• Think it will disappear: Never try to minimize a serious problem in the hopes that no one will notice and your crisis will go away. Burying your head in the sand won’t do you any favors.
• Assume you’re bulletproof: Your reputation alone won’t save you in a crisis. The court of public opinion is often harsher than the court of law.
• Ignore the media: If you don’t supply the information, the press will look elsewhere and could get the information (perhaps inaccurately) from other sources. Answer their questions to the best of your ability.

Looks Count

It’s shallow… but it’s the truth – your looks matter. You don’t only need to brand and dress-up your products and business, you need to also brand and dress-up yourself. From BusinessWeek Online’s Dress The Part Of A Leader:

1. Look better than everyone else – Dress to impress.
2. Get the right fit – Not too tall, short, tight, loose… but just right!
3. Flatter yourself – Does this make me look…?
4. Be well-heeled – Shoes.
5. Spend more for quality – “Good thing no cheap, cheap thing no good.”
6. Steer clear of distractions – Watch out for excessive bling.
7. Be culture-appropriate – Stick out… but not like a sore thumb.
8. Give your best shot – Your photos must be consistent with your overall image.

How Can PR Capitalize On New Technology?

Very interesting questions on how PR can fully capitalize on new technology (in the very market-disruptive ways advertising has done) in this blog post: PR should take a leaf out of the advertising book at Technology PR. A few choice quotes:

What struck me… was that I don't hear much about how people are embracing technology to the same degree [as advertising] in the PR world.

["New" PR technologies] don't enable you to do something you couldn't have done before.

What if we took a leaf out of the advertising world's book and used the very same technology they are thinking about to get PR generated content into the hands of customers instead of advertisers?

So instead of a billboard sending a car a coupon, how about as you arrive at Best Buy you get sent (to either your phone or blackberry) an abstract or a podcast of a product review comparing your client's products with that of its competitors?

How about when you register your new product instead of receiving annoying offers online, you get news or feature articles relating to the product you bought? [Me: I really, really like this idea!]

Rellatio PR

There's a lot to love about this PR agency – from its positioning, to the pitch, to even its hilarious prose!

Really, you gotta love the girls at Rellatio PR – a PR agency comprising former adult film stars!

Check them out here.
Gawker write up here.

The Difference “Wow!” Makes

Here's an example of the difference "Wow!" makes to any brand or product.

Typical Tactic:

A team asked for sponsorship for their drive in a brand new Toyota Land Cruiser from Kuala Lumpur to China on normal roads.

New Straits Times Cars Bikes Trucks editor, Yamin A. Vong declared, "It was daft. What was the challenge? Trying to get people to contribute to their holiday?" ("Pave the way for leading edge technology," New Straits Times Cars Bikes Trucks Quarterly Review, Wednesday, p.2, 29 March 2006.)

"Wow!" Tactic:

A couple from England is trying to drive around the world – 29,000km by the standards of the Guiness Book of World Records – on less than 50 tanks of petrol in a standard car. If they can achieve it in 40 tank-loads, this will mean about 700km on a 45-litre tank. The car is a Volkswagen Golf FSI 1.6 and the petrol is a prototype Shell formulation that is scheduled to be launched worldwide over the next two years.

See how the typical tactic is so… typical? Didn't your eyebrows rise when you read what a challenge and clever marketing idea Volkwagen and Shell embarked on?

Not only that, the tactic also sends a great, clear and compelling message: Rising fuel prices mean nothing to the highly fuel-efficient Volkswagen and the dollar-stretching Shell petrol.

The message is so compelling it almost demands action: buy Volkswagen and Shell petrol. It's not just "Wow!" for Wow's sake (which is where I feel many great advertising efforts tend to strive for). There's no compelling message – nothing that moves me to action.

It's like that Greek saying David Ogilvy made famous (and is my motto as a CommNerd):

When Aeschines spoke, they said, "How well he speaks." But when Demosthenes spoke, they said, "Let us march against Philip."

Catching your attention and compelling you to action… now that's the difference "Wow!" should make.