PR Lessons learnt from the UK Elections

Well, the election furore is all over now so what can professional communicators take away as some of the big lessons?

First, even if you have media trained a client it is worth reminding them of a few practical points whenever they go afresh into the media spotlight – this includes a reminder that nowhere is ‘off limits’ if the story is big enough. You don’t say anything you don’t want broadcast until you are safely home, preferably alone and de-miked. Foot learnt this lesson many years ago over ‘off camera’ remarks on The Falklands to Robin Day but Gordon Brown was forced to learn it all over again with the Mrs Duffy remarks in the apparent haven of his car.

Second, traditional broadcast outlets are still ‘king’ when it comes to reaching large audiences in a compelling way. Television is like a strong raised stage versus the bear-pit come noisy public meeting space of the Internet. And much like the stage, broadcast is kinder to those who are physically attractive or enjoy mellifluous voices.

Toyota

A reputation for quality is a huge asset for any manufacturer but, as Toyota has found to its cost, it takes years to build and only moments to lose. And when you add in a failure to take a fast and zero tolerance approach to any threat to customer safety, you risk gaining a very unwelcome reputational replacement.

Unless Toyota wants to risk being seen as cavalier about the safety of its customers it will need to respond fast with complete transparency and the rapid firing of anyone involved in the delay of international warnings and product recalls.

This will need to be followed up, and fast, with a well communicated and financed programme to ensure reparation to anyone who has suffered and to improve future product safety and recall processes.

Toyota has failed to deliver a number of the actions essential to surviving a reputational crisis. The company was slow to respond and it failed to understand that any problem that threatens public safety will prompt strong action from third parties – in this case the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. You need to act before you are made to and to go further than you probably need to. And the top man must take public ownership of the problem from the outset.

Product recalls are common in manufacturing, and the car industry is no exception. They don’t have to be a disaster. But fail to act fast, even if this makes the remedy more costly, and you will pay a heavy price for decades to come. No-one will forgive a company seen to put money and short term discomfort ahead of safety.

Crisis Preparation needs Systems Testing

An undercover Dispatches team has just added to the woes of the Royal Mail by exposing poor security, inefficiency and possible insider thefts in its 8th February programme. Ahead of what is clearly a well promoted programme, other media piled in deliver their own damning verdicts. Only a few days earlier The Times Money team sent 100 birthday cards to 14 different addresses across the country, each containing a £1 National Lottery scratch card. Only 93 arrived with the scratch card. This is not the first time that media have tested The Royal Mail and it certainly won’t be the last.

It’s high time the Royal Mail started a process of regularly sending its own undercover agents in so they can root out bad apples and poor practices ahead of those who will, quite justifiably, air the findings in public forums. Testing systems and quality processes and acting rapidly on the findings is part and parcel of any good crisis prevention programme. You’d do well to remember that if you look after a service important to the general public.

Icesave Anniversary

Kinross + Render launched Icesave in October 2006 on behalf of Landsbanki.  It was a runaway success and the launch won us a Financial Services Forum’s PR award.

This day one year ago was a different story.  Our phones and e-mail were in overdrive as media and worried account holders sought information.  The Icelandic Financial Supervisory Authority had taken control of Landsbanki on the day before, and this blow became fatal when The UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, announced that he was taking steps to freeze the assets of Landsbanki using, in a move that still looks outrageous, anti-terrorism legislation.

In the weeks and months beforehand we were riding a roller coaster.   First, ‘briefings’ to media by external bodies suggested wrongly that Icesave account holders would not be covered by the compensation scheme – and these briefings were undoubtedly designed to undermine Icesave as they began long before its future looked in doubt.  Then, of course, banks began to tumble and Icesave’s popularity meant it was right in the firing line.  The photographs of Iceland’s beautiful geography, so useful in the launch, became iconic images for a global banking meltdown and meant, inevitably, Icesave featured strongly in copy as the next ‘possible’ victim.

Icesave’s team in London were caught between the different needs and cultures of London and Reykjavik.  They were also fighting (actually very successfully) run after run caused by public panic every time negative reports hit the front pages.  The Icesave management’s biggest concern was, and remained throughout the crisis, the welfare of their customers.

Although the team had been in crisis mode from the point other banks started to wobble, we thought Icesave would survive.  The numbers we were dealing with showed a successful set of products, great customer loyalty and all of the information on Landsbanki’s financial situation looked robust.  There was no direct exposure to the sub prime markets that had been the downfall of others and Landsbanki was solvent and had just posted good half year financial results.  But of course life is more complicated than that.  Probably the best assessment I have seen so far of the reasons for it can be found in the Buiter and Sibert report available here.  Banks from other small countries with a large, internationally exposed banking sector and its own currency should take heed.

What did we all learn?  Well the twists and turns and our responses to them followed best practice and were pretty text book.  We helped halt the runs, we stuck to known facts, were open and honest and the London management team didn’t hide.  I suppose all we learnt was that you should never under-estimate the drastic measures people will take when facing new situations, different national cultures can make a bad situation impossible, and that some disasters are un-stoppable.