10/03

Little did I know that a story backing my position would appear so soon.  It happened in Missouri to Senator "Kit" Bond, a Republican.  Bond, to his horror, just  learned that one of his staffers created a blog whose title was the tail number of a plane that crashed with his Democratic opponent on Oct. 16, 2000.  Bond's staffer was using the blog, called N8354N, to bash Missouri Democrats.  Bond said he had no knowledge of the blog, and he fired the staffer.  I'm sure Bond did not know because it is likely his staffer did not ask nor, for that matter, tell Bond he was writing a blog.  He just did it.

The former chief of staff for the deceased governor and senatorial candidate, Mel Carnahan, traced the blog author to Bond's staff and reported it.  Bond acted quickly, but not fast enough because the St. Louis  Post-Dispatch examined the site before it was taken down and reported in detail what it contained.  Of course, it was offensive.  The newspaper also determined that entries on the site were made during work hours.  This further embarrasses Senator Bond.

Ask yourself.  How do you know that no employee in your company has launched a Web site or blog and is using it to mock the company, its executives and employees and give away company secrets?  You don't even, if you monitor the Web closely.

You need a blog policy and that policy should state clearly the limits for blog writers employed by the company.  A blog policy need not be -- and should not be -- too restrictive, but it should make clear that proprietary information should never make its way to blog columns, that employee privacy must be respected and that it is the company's prerogative to punish anyone who abuses company data and employees.

If you haven't written such a policy yet, you are late. 

10/02

When PR is Not Enough.  No  doubt you read about the Segway recall late last week.  And, you've probably read that the innovative two-wheeled, self-balancing vehicle is not selling nearly as well as predicted. 

I saw a Segway in action for the first time last Saturday at the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, NJ.  The Center uses the vehicle to explain and demonstrate gyroscopic  principles.  There is no doubt it is a marvelous machine to watch in action.  The science demonstrator was rolling about the room in a silent glide that captured everyone's eyeballs.  When he hopped off the vehicle and it stayed upright with small movements back and forth to keep its balance, it was even more impressive. Everyone, it seemed, wanted one.  That is why it is a mystery so few have been sold.

Segway's introduction was one of the great PR successes.  Burson-Marsteller orchestrated it, I understand, and the agency did a brilliant job. 

But for all that, Segway is looking like a bust.  I even overheard the demonstrator at Liberty Science Center dismiss the product as a "solution looking for a problem."  It seems that as impressed as he is by the technology, he is at a loss why anyone would own it, or so it seemed, as he answered questions at the end of his session.

Segway might go down as exhibit A to support the statement that great PR cannot solve all problems.  PR can communicate, but it  might not persuade.  And, lack of persuasion seems to be at issue here.  There are many reasons why this could be so.  The technology is so new no one knows what to make of it. The technology was introduced at a sour time in the US.  No matter how good it is, there just isn't much consumer cash to indulge in what seems like a toy for the adventurous.  There are no compelling uses for the product even though it is being tested with the post office and with police departments.

Dean Kamen, the inventor, must toss in bed and wonder what he has to do to get the Segway to take off.  One thing is for sure.  He could not have gotten better PR than he did, but that was not nearly enough.

10/1

In Cincinnati, the Enquirer newspaper joined with television station, WCPO, to report  on one of the most hazardous bridges in the nation.  The paper did the reporting for its news columns and the TV the video for its programming.  The Web site carries both the video and newspaper stories, stats and a clickable map of danger spots on the bridge.  The package is bound together with a quiz asking readers to rate their fear factor while driving the bridge.  You can see the package for yourself here: http://www.cincinnati.com/news/bridge/ . 

In Baton Rouge, LA, WBRZ-TV is depending on a Web site, shared with a newspaper, The Advocate,  to help regain leadership in the market.  See the Web site here:  http://2theadvocate.com/ .  The TV station has announced it will  launch its first major Web-based project this month with The Advocate.  The TV station and newspaper will tour and document eroding Louisiana wetlands. The two media will share a houseboat to travel the bayous and report the story.  Video and text packages will be woven together on the Web site.  The ultimate goal is to produce multimedia presentations, streaming video, slide shows, audio feeds and text.

Convergence reporting is beyond the capabilities of most local media so teaming is the way to tackle it.  The key is that media are not talking about convergence but acting.  This means PR practitioners who want to interest media in similar projects should be thinking in the same way.  In other words, how can you package your story for the Web?  What would you  suggest to the newspaper, to the TV station?  How would you bring them together to get the job done?  If they won't cooperate, what can you do to provide materials a Web editor needs?  There is plenty of opportunity,  it seems to me, for PR practitioners who figure out how to do this integrated news packaging.

I think it fair to say that today such integration is beyond many in PR.  But it is no longer a dream in Cincinnati and Baton Rouge.
 

09/30

The Aluminum Association (AA) chose  Hill & Knowlton to run its integrated branding campaign, but  it also chose consulting firm McKinsey & Co. to "shape" the campaign so the association can achieve the maximum return on investment.  McKinsey is supposed to conduct research that determines which campaign(s) will best spotlight aluminum and help increase sales of the metal. 

I've never heard of this being done before.  That doesn't mean it's a bad idea.  It is just an offbeat and strange one.  McKinsey will review past campaigns and determine which ones were most successful before H&K launches the present effort.  According to the story, the Aluminum Association is skeptical that any campaign will work because it has seen efforts for other materials fizzle.  A difficulty is that aluminum is a metal with thousands of uses so there can't be one message to all customers.  There need to be many messages targeted to customer sets.

On the surface, it seems as if the association is being diligent by bringing the consulting firm in, but on second thoughts, I'm not sure.  McKinsey is gold-plate expensive and by time its study is completed, it is unlikely any campaign can make up for the cost of research and media.  I suppose the association believes it will pro-rate the cost of using McKinsey over campaigns in the future, but I'm not sure that makes much sense either.

Still,  give the association credit for trying to find out what works best for aluminum.  I suspect when McKinsey is through it will get the same result almost all media research has.  Some media work, and some don't, but we're not sure which is which.

I will keep an eye on the outcome of this effort and report to you as soon as I know what has happened.  Right now, I'm not sanguine.
 

09/29

What the firm also did was to commit itself to one of the most difficult brand repositioning exercises there is -- with no certainty the company will survive the move from chemical-based film to digital imaging against fierce competition.  I wonder what PR practitioners at Kodak are thinking these days?

What Eastman Kodak did to make its point was to slash its annual dividend from $1.80 to 50 cents a share -- the first cut in decades for the company.  Investors immediately knocked down the company's stock price by 11%. On Wall Street, cutting a dividend is trouble, but that shouldn't have been a surprise because Kodak has tried and failed to solve the digital conundrum for years.  The firm is slashing jobs in its film units and moving away from proprietary to contract production of film for anyone willing to pay.  In other words, it is milking its heritage while trying to create a new position and brand.  In addition, Kodak is poaching talent from the digital world to learn what it must do to compete successfully after years without making much headway.

All these moves look right to me, but what they don't answer is whether they will work, or whether Kodak is trapped in its little yellow boxes.  Kodak probably knows more about imaging than any other firm on earth, but that isn't enough to survive.  It must be disheartening to face such a major technological dislocation that almost nothing one depended on can help in the future.  Few companies face such massive shifts and live.  I'm sure Kodak knows this, and I'm also sure the CEO must be relentless in pounding the message lest employees lose a sense of urgency.

Many great brand names of yesteryear are gone, and more will go.  PR cannot protect companies against the marketplace or against themselves.  PR practitioners can serve as honest brokers of messages, but honesty sometimes doesn't pay.