Public Relations Princess

Last Time I Checked, MetaBank was Still Lame

About two months ago, I heard that something outrageous was coming! Maybe you saw the ads in the newspaper, heard them on local radio spots or watched the spots on T.V.... Some company was going to do something outrageous and they teased Iowans with what I guess is probably a $50,000 media campaign. The ads direct people to this microsite.

Usually when you spend that much on a teaser campaign the idea is to get people to talk about it, build some buzz, and generate some interest about what’s so gosh darn outrageous. I'm guessing this is probably the first time you’ve heard of it.

The outrageous thing is that the message didn’t reach audiences in the mediums that allowed them to share the campaign, and this campaign has failed to generated any momentum. I mean, when is the last time you were in your car posting a radio ad to your Facebook account? I know I don’t often share the ads I see printed in the Des Moines Register through Twitter. I guess they could have run the T.V. ads on YouTube but they didn’t.

So what is so outrageous? Well, MetaBank announced  some new checking account offers that -- on the surface -- seem pretty cool. Pretty different from the normal bank advertising we are so used to seeing. I asked my friends at Lessing-Flynn if they did this campaign. They told us that Meta Bank was no longer a client and they had nothing to do with this. Lessing-Flynn didn't know what agency was helping Meta Bank. 

It's clear that there was no ad agency directing them. No agency would have recommended $50k in teaser media without any social media initiatives. In today’s world, that would be a waste and campaign suicide. Go onto Twitter and search outrageousnow.com – you get two tweets – one from the company that built the site and another from some agency person.

What if someone had just suggested they use social media (the right way) to drive their efforts? What if someone tweeted for a month about the "outrageousness" that was coming? What if MetaBank already had a social media presence and could have increased their follow list through this kind of campaign? Metabank did use some social media chicklets on the site, but they don't have a volunteer fire department (aka, followers!) to help get the word out. What am I supposed to do with these? A Facebook icon and a url that pops into my twitter feed? Huge miss. 

My guess is that in 30 days if you search Google for “outrageous now” you will find this blog post listed higher than the actual outrageous now URL and most likely the MegaBank site. That’s not because I’m more savvy than anyone else, its just that I am the only one talking about it. Spending $50k on a teaser campaign that flops? Now that’s outrageous!

The only thing lamer than this is Banker's Trust sending me SIX generic Facebook messages asking me to be its friend when I am not a customer and I already told them that they can't use me for my followers. Get your own, dude.

What Goldman Sachs Can Learn From Bill Gates and the World Food Prize

Yesterday, Bill Gates was here in Des Moines to give the keynote address at the World Food Prize. It's a very prestigious prize, given annually to the person who meets these criteria:

The World Food Prize is awarded for a specific, exceptionally significant, individual achievement at any point along the full range of the food production and distribution chain.

This exceptionally significant achievement must be shown to have resulted in a demonstrable increase in the quantity, quality or availability of, or access to, food for a substantial number of people.

This year's honoree is Dr. Ebisa Gejeta, of Ethiopia, whose sorghum hybrids resistant to drought and the devastating Striga weed have dramatically increased the production and availability of one of the world’s five principal grains and enhanced the food supply of hundreds of millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa.

Bill and Melinda Gates, through their foundation, have committed to helping end world hunger and poverty and improve the lives of billions of people. They've donated millions to many causes that support the foundation's mission. The World Food Prize qualifies for Gates' time and money because it recognizes and rewards altruistic behavior and it "Thinks Big."

Compare that noble mission to the unofficial slogan of Goldman Sachs: "Greedy, but long-term greedy." The phrase, coined by Goldman Sachs director Gus Levy, is a conspicuous symbol of the excesses of Wall Street. Goldman has become the poster child for the bonus culture that got us into trouble earlier this year.

Goldman is mulling over giving $100 million dollars to its own charitable foundation. Here's where Goldman's leaders could borrow from Gates' playbook. Instead of handing out little dinky awards to its favorite charities, Goldman should set its sights on one protracted problem on Earth and use its considerable resources to solving it.

Here are some problems that still need solving. Goldman, take your pick:

1. Educational achievement gaps between rich and poor children
2. Lack of math and science achievement in the U.S.
3. Financial literacy in the curriculum of U.S. high schools
4. Violence in the inner cities of our largest cities
5. Opportunity to attend college for all who want to go
6. Chronic homelessness
7. Affordable daycare
8. Easing dependence on foreign oil
9. Affordable parking in Manhattan (kidding)
10. And of course...WORLD PEACE

What is Public Relations? Top 10 Things PR Can Accomplish

The number one question people ask me, bar none, is simply: What is public relations? A close second and third: What does a public relations practitioner actually do and what benefits do businesses who hire me get in return? I'm going to try to address the answers to all of these questions in one post.

My best answer to what public relations is: Public relations is a process by which the attributes, benefits and stories of an entity are highlighted in the news media or in other arenas.

Public relations tactics are specific actions that are taken to bring these stories to life.

I've never seen a business that does not need public relations at all. When sales are up and business is rolling in, many owners and managers see no need to spend money on PR or marketing. If fact, they say, we couldn't handle the extra business if it came our way.

This reflects a somewhat twisted view of the fundamental reasons to practice PR in business in the first place. Perhaps the most prominent role of PR in a company should be to build the reputation of the company and increase its "store of goodwill." Increased sales and monetary gains are possible outcomes of public relations execution, but in my opinion should not ever be the sole reason for a PR campaign.

The ongoing reputation management is the ultimate reward for consistent public relations efforts. Media relations campaigns are also part of the mix and should be planned on a regular basis, when there is news to tell. However, I often advise my clients work their plan, but ALSO take advantage of more on-the-spot opportunities. For example, if my client was a car dealer, I would have recommend less sales-y pitches during the "Cash for Clunkers" government rebate. I tell them to try to tie your PR efforts to a national trend when possible. And, keep your stories people-oriented, not "thing" oriented. Story telling is alive and well, and the best stories, of course, feature real people.

Here are the top ten things that PR can do for an organization.

1. Provide credibility: Using relatively non-biased third party sources
2. Promote community involvement: Prove your organization cares about others
3. Show thought leadership and expertise: Smart people with good ideas always have something valuable to share
4. Showcase corporate culture to potential employees:  Future employees use the web to research your organization
5. Praise employees: Awards, promotions, human interest stories
6. Increase sales: PR can create the atmosphere for increasing sales and creating demand for a great brand
7. Boost advertising and social media programs: PR works best in cooperation with an advertising or social media effort and (obviously) repetition creates a more lasting impression
8. Create top of mind awareness: People may not need you now, but they will think of your biz first when they do
9. Protect the organization's reputation during a crisis: This cannot be emphasized enough! Every business needs a "store of goodwill" to cushion a hard fall
10. Use storytelling to convey how the organization benefits its customers/constituents: As I tell all my clients, if you have a story about a real person and how your business helped, TELL IT!

Did I miss anything? Share your thoughts!

Hyatt Fires All Housekeepers in Boston, But Not Before They Train Replacements

In a perfect world, your company's version of events would be heard and believed more than whatever someone else has to say. In Hyatt's world (of hurt), it doesn't matter one bit what the company says. The damage is already done. How to recover from a PR debacle?

Here's what happened. Hyatt has three "properties" in Boston that were taking an economic hit from the recession. Management of the hotels decided to replace the entire housekeeping force in the hotels and hire outsourced replacements, which of course, are cheaper in the short run.

Side note: I hate the word properties. It makes it seem like such a monopoly game, with little red hotels on Park Ave. and Indiana. These are workplaces, employers and destinations. Not properties.

Before the housekeepers were let go, the replacements came in and worked side-by-side with these folks, who were also then forced to essentially train the people who were taking their jobs. But here's the kicker: At first, the workers were told that the newbies were "vacation replacements." What a sick joke.

Of course, the story has reached national proportions, caused protests, and given Hyatt a huge black eye in the public relations department. The bottom line for me is this: Paying people a dollar an hour less to clean rooms is not the kind of cost savings that will allow you to keep a hotel's doors open. It's a drop in the bucket. 

Hyatt has come back with its own version of events, which may or may not be true. But guess what? It doesn't matter. The damage has been done and Hyatt needs to go into hypermode to reverse it.

What could Hyatt have done to prevent this PR nightmare? What can they do now to recover?

To prevent the situation, Hyatt should have:

1. Negotiated a temporary wage decrease or wage freeze with the unionized hotel workers
2. Imposed a temporary surcharge on guests for the shortfall in the budget
3. Communicated with all parties involved and brought them in from day one to help come up with solutions to the problem

To solve the situation and avoid a long-term branding in the most Democratic state in the union, Hyatt should:

1. Immediately reverse course and rehire all the workers and provide bonuses, thanking them for coming back
2. Make a corporate donation to the City of Boston's emergency homeless shelter to extend its message of true hospitality to the unfortunate, and
3. Apologize for the extreme lack of judgment shown and for the unnecessary displacement of the workers

Any short-term costs will be made up ten-fold in potential business retained. As of now, the public is in no mood to forget this callous incident and Hyatt will be the hotel kingdom's poster child of bad behavior.

Will this incident make you think twice before booking a room at a Hyatt?

Goldman Sachs Flushing Its Store of Goodwill Down the Toilet

It is not often that you run into a company that has been around since 1869. This company has former officers that run government and have the president's attention. This company has tirelessly given money to causes as diverse as climate change to developing female leaders.

So why on earth, I ask you, would Goldman Sachs wad up its store of goodwill, built up over generations on the backs of its founders, and flush it down the toilet?

Goldman Sachs is planning to pay its employees HUGE bonuses, just weeks after saying it will repay the government its stimulus loan. This would technically free the firm from the limitations set by the government on bonuses. But why, at this time when the country is experiencing the worst recession in a quarter of a century, would Goldman snub its nose at the world and choose to be the poster child for Wall Street excess?

There are even conspiracy theorists out there who take it one step further. Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone Magazine wrote a scathing article just this month about Goldman's role in all of the major financial bubbles of the last few decades (Internet, housing and commodities) and focuses on Goldman's role in these debacles. I love Matt's quote in this video: "Basically, Goldman has found a way to sell crap, slap a Triple A rating on it, and sell it to a bunch of big institutional investors."

There is a time in every company that management has to sit down and intropectively decide what it wants its company's image to be. Goldman Sachs, your time is now. I hope you straighten up and fly right.

A "Store of Goodwill" for Southwest Airlines

July 14, 2009, on a Southwest Airlines jet on route from Nashville to Baltimore, passengers were horrified to see a football-sized opening appear in the passenger cabin. Oxygen masks fell from the ceiling and the cabin lost pressure.

As I watched the news break on CNN, I logged on to Twitter to watch the trending news to see when Twitter would start going nuts, talking about Southwest's safety record and seeing passengers comment as well.

Even the breaking news was strange. There was an item, about a minute long, about the breach and the fact that the plane had passed a thorough skin inspection in January. There was mention that Southwest had paid a seven million dollar fine in March for delaying inspections.

Where was the social media outrage? Why weren't there any follow-up stories in the mainstream media?

Southwest Airlines is a case study in how PROACTIVE public relations and social media serve as a buffer from a public backlash when accidents or incidents occur. A company must have a "store of goodwill" already in the bank. Southwest, it's employees and its loyal customers all work together to tell great stories about Southwest. From its friendly blog, to its singing flight attendants, to its cheeky ads, to its Twitter updates, Southwest spends money up front to build its reputation and protect its image.

When something bad happens to your company, and it's just a matter of time before it does, what's in YOUR store of goodwill?

Target Tampons on the "Up and Up"

The other day, I made my once-every-six-weeks run to Target for the basics. I made it to the "feminine hygiene" aisle and noticed a new brand of tampons on the shelf. "up and up?"

Turns out, this is Target's new in-store brand. It's just not a very appropriate name for tampons. It would be like naming a pregnancy test "Eggo."

A few years back, Storm Lake, Iowa chose a happy new logo and tagline: "Jump Right In." It refers to the lake. But they had the good sense to NOT use the tagline on their police cars. 

I took a chance on "up and up" and purchased several other items as well. We'll see if up and up lives "up" to its lofty expectations. Gosh, I crack myself up.

The Samsung Master Narrative

I saw the most amazing presentation yesterday at the Central Iowa PRSA Institute. Bret Walrath from Edelman New York described the process of telling the "master narrative" of Samsung's transformation from Sony wanna-be to global electronics powerhouse.

One the tactics they used was to create a signature event every year for business reporters and special guests. The inaugural event was at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. They invited 140 reporters and 89 actually showed up. Anyone who works with reporters knows that this is an almost unheard of turnout.

At the event, Samsung executives were allowed to talk to the media (gasp!) and then they proceeded to rollout their brand new techie "Roadshow" to introduce the new quality and reliability of the company, which was literally rebuilt from the ground up.

The Master Narrative concept is something that Edelman uses to transmit the importance of "peer to peer" communications from CEO to employee, and then out to the world. A company's Master Narrative should be able to be articulated in one sentence... also known as the "elevator pitch."

Bret's talk was so relevant and interesting. That's why those guys make the big bucks.