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Communication Opportunities Emerge
With Specifics on Healthcare Reform

June 30, 2010  |  No Comments

Communication around healthcare reform reached a fever pitch in March when Congress passed the controversial reform bill. But those were certainly not the last words on the subject.

In the past three months, backers and critics have geared up to battle over the specific rules of the reform. The federal law has been challenged in court by 20 state governments.

And in the workplace, business leaders are trying to define the impact of the new law on their employees and shareholders.

While this is a period of frustrating uncertainty for anyone involved with communicating about healthcare reform, it’s also a time of tremendous opportunity.

There’s nothing like change to drive demand for strategic, clear and concise communication, and healthcare reform will bring major change.

Don’t just wait for specifics to emerge

As far as the specific impact of healthcare reform, there are certainly many questions that cannot yet be answered.

But there is work to do now on the communications front, and here are some steps communications leaders can be taking.

• Sharpen the communications channels. This may finally be the time to update the website, finalize the email version of the newsletter, clean up the bugs in the employee portal or start those regular brown-bag lunch meetings. Is two-way communication a reality yet?
• Learn the primary concerns of your publics. What do they want to know or need to know? Maybe it’s time to get moving on that survey software you’ve put in a file for the right time. At some point, it will be too late for surveys.
• Get familiar with the new concepts the law will introduce, like insurance exchanges and grandfathering. The White House has an extensive FAQ online, and various activists and consultants have posted information as well. But much of it is slanted, generic or both, and not in the least customized to your key publics.
• If you work in an advisory capacity, have a point of view. Some law firms are posting observations about the reform on their blogs, as are some accounting firms. This is a time when companies will need counsel, and proactive advisers will have a lot to gain.

If you’re involved with any other communications strategies that advance understanding of the impending reform, or have a point of view about it, your comments are welcome.

Promoters Cloak Bike Race in Green,
Seek More Volunteers for July Event

June 28, 2010  |  No Comments

In the heart of the industrial Midwest, where smoke-belching steel and auto factories have put bread on the table for generations, one might not expect much fervor for ”green” initiatives.

But promoters of the Tour of the Valley, a three-day bicycle racing event opening July 9, are unabashedly leveraging messages about cleaner air and a greener planet as they seek participants and volunteers.

“Carbon Racing rides for purpose,” blared a recent Vindicator headline about the bicycling concern owned by Dan and Erin Quinlan of Greenford. The outfit is the promoter of the July event in the Youngstown area, and also a team of top-shelf cyclers who compete in similar events across the eastern United States.

Leaning green in Ohio

The Quinlans named their company “Carbon Racing” to draw attention to the concept that Americans can reduce carbon emissions by riding bikes instead of driving cars. One of the team’s members, Shawn Adams, an Akron firefighter, told The Vindicator he bikes eight miles to work and back instead of driving his car.

He also told the paper that he joined this particular team because of Dan Quinlan’s green leanings. ”I like his vision for the team, which is to develop younger riders and also push the environmental issue to make cycling a clean sport — to get people to stop driving so much and ride their bikes more; to get people involved in their community.”

Like the Carbon Racing website, the Quinlans talk a lot about being “carbon neutral,” or avoiding activities (like driving) that add carbon to the atmosphere.

Commuting to work by bike

Commuting by bike is almost impossible in the Mahoning Valley, where several excellent trails lack connections to the downtown area, and where bike-storage facilities are hard to find.

Still, some do it. Alan Wenger, a lawyer from North Lima, cycles to Harrington Hoppe & Mitchell in downtown Youngstown on weekends, when road traffic is lighter and the dress is more casual.

He and Quinlan think more Youngstowners would leave their cars at home if there were safer bike routes and secure places to store a bike and shower before walking into work.

“I would love to see it,” Quinlan said.

Added Wenger, “Many cities, particularly ones rediscovering themselves, make significant efforts to accommodate and encourage cyclists.”

Larger field of cyclists

The local cycling community may be larger than one would think. As of Monday, some 175 had signed up for the Tour, with 11 days before the deadline, compared to 145 pre-registrants at the deadline last year, Quinlan said. She expects 250 or more by race day, compared to 190 last year.

Entrants include cyclists from out of town who heard about last year’s Tour and want to be part of it, as well as local cyclists who would travel elsewhere to race if not for this event. Also new this year is a non-competitive community ride through scenic Mill Creek Park.

With the expansion in the field, Carbon Racing is looking for more volunteers — a lot more — for the event’s three days.

“Corner marshalls” are needed to stand at intersections with flags to keep pedestrians off the race course. Volunteers also set up, clean up, register riders and hand out water bottles and snacks, on all three days.

Volunteers can sign up here at the event’s website.

BP’s PR Effort Needs Focus, Not Stunts

June 15, 2010  |  7 Comments

Although BP’s recent PR gaffes suggest it may need a hand, the view from here is that the oil giant would find itself in deeper goo if it heeds any of the recommendations the AP relayed.

Here are those suggestions, along with our comments.

Putting the CEO on oil cleanup detail

Daniel Keeney, president of a Dallas PR firm, suggested putting BP CEO Tony Hayward in a hard hat and life vest, helping crews contain and clean up the spill.

“You want to get him right in the thick of things, even if he looks somewhat uncomfortable doing it,” Keeney told the AP.

This sounds like the spillover from a brainstoming session by interns. Putting Hayward in the thick of things would be viewed as a cheap publicity stunt.

Hayward needs to be seen as the champion of doing all that can be done to fix the leak. That’s a big, serious job that leaves no time for dress-up.

Discounting the price of gas at BP stations

Richard Levick, president of Levick Strategic Communications in Washington, suggested BP could have cut gas prices at its stations along the Gulf Coast in a “show of financial solidarity,” the AP reported.

Another “creative” idea, but also likely to be viewed as a stunt. No discount would be viewed as large enough, or in force long enough, to truly show solidarity with those who have lost loved ones and livelihoods. Worse, a 50-cents-a-gallon sale could run counter to claims that BP is investing all it can to stop the leak.

Every cent should go into doing whatever can be done to fix the leak. A suspension of BP’s cash dividend for that purpose would have been much more meaningful, though potentially calamitous to BP’s tens of thousands of shareholders.

Keeping Tony Hayward in England

Former Shell chairman John Hofmeister told the AP it might have been more appropriate for BP’s senior U.S. executives to take the heat on the Louisiana spill, instead of Hayward, the Englishman who runs London-based BP.

“I think it was a mistake for Tony Hayward to come and put his physical presence in the U.S.,” Hofmeister told the AP. “The U.S. has its own culture and traditions. Foreign companies can come and do business there, but they are not necessarily welcomed.”

One of those U.S. traditions is that leaders take responsibility. If Hayward were to give way to his U.S. minions, he’d be viewed as hiding in an ivory tower in a foreign country. That would send the wrong message.

A better approach

The above suggestions aim to make BP look better, for a moment. But none support BP’s pledge to do all it can to plug the leak and address the damage.

As this crisis rages on, BP needs to be single-minded in its PR efforts. We would counsel BP, or any company living such a nightmare, to:

Stick to the message. Demonstrate how the priorities of stopping the leak and cleaning the mess are being carried out. BP’s website is indeed loaded with information and video that support its activities.

We would do more with the media to convey the scope of the response, at the leak, on the beaches, in the animal clean-up facilities and in the offices with claims. Show us that you’re doing all that can be done.

Be more forthcoming, even with unfavorable information. Two upward revisions in BP’s estimates of the volume of runaway oil suggest that earlier versions were lowballs. The stonewalling on the video of the leak also looked like hiding.

If BP trains the public to doubt its portrayals of the damage, it will have no hope of convincing us that it’s doing all it can to stop the leak.

Under Circumstances, BP PR Not So Bad

May 18, 2010  |  10 Comments

We”re watching one of the most overwhelming public relations challenges in the modern history of American business unfold around the BP oil spill in Louisiana.

And under the circumstances, the team there isn’t doing half bad.

Yes, the oil is still gushing into the Gulf of Mexico at the rate of over 5,000 barrels per day. And yes, the financial and environmental damage are already devastating and will grow.

But those results were guaranteed April 20, when the disaster first made news. Even the best public relations strategy can’t change the facts.

Since then, BP has kept its executives visible, shared information with its broad constituencies and even ponied up cash to support tourist bureaus in the region.

Daily opportunities to communicate

As is always the case in a situation like this, BP has been given a daily forum in the major media. Though the company has made some mistakes, its spokespersons have used the spotlight effectively to convey the company’s commitment to clean up the mess and to demonstrate that commitment with action.

BP has portrayed the spill as the enemy, and itself as the protagonist.

Contrast its behavior with companies in previous situations, large and small, that relayed limited information and demonstrated no action. The silent approach is not safe, but creates a dangerous vacuum that sucks into the spotlight every opponent, from the credible to the crackpot.

BP is filling the vaccuum, not only by taking advantage of the media limelight but more importantly by updating regulators, members of Congress and local communities.

“It seems like almost on a daily basis somebody has sort of checked in or called or come by the office providing information, being available to answer questions,” Senator Thad Cochran, a Mississippi Republican, told Business Week (read the full article).

Signs of optimism

Last week, TheStreet.com polled its readers on whether BP would halt the catastrophic leak in time to avert a disaster as massive as the Exxon Valdez leak in 1989. Some 58 percent of respondents thought BP would.

The investing public seems more optimistic. Although BP’s stock price has declined almost daily since last month’s explosion, and closed Monday at $46.57, it’s still far above the $35 it hit early last year. That suggests the spill is less a drag on BP’s value than the 2009 economic catastrophe from which stocks have generally recovered.

The story is not over, and there’s only so much PR can do amid a disaster like this.

At least BP’s doing that.

News Value Blessed Men’s Rally PR

May 17, 2010  |  1 Comment

When it comes to pursuing the publicity that is so important for their success, many nonprofits, especially faith-based groups, fall into sin.

They tend to advance messages about their causes and their leaders ahead of information that media professionals consider newsworthy.

Fortunately, the organizers of the recent Men’s Rally in the Valley in downtown Youngstown didn’t fall into that temptation. Although their cause – building a Promise Keepers-style event that would challenge Christian men to live up to their faith – was noble enough, their approach relied on strategies and content that scored with the secular media.

As a result, the first-time event drew a huge volume of print, broadcast and online publicity en route to what organizers and the Covelli Centre considered an extraordinary success. Some 3,500 men from diverse Christian backgrounds packed the downtown arena on Saturday, May 8, for a day of challenge and commitment.

Tribune coverage the day after the event.

(Pecchia Communications led the event’s nine-month campaign, pro-bono, leveraging its own handiwork and that of five other northeast Ohio companies that also donated all their time: American Sign Co., Bob Popa Entertainment, Gregoryfilms, On the Brink Creative and Ten29 Productions).

The team effort involved capitalizing on real news hooks:

Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams. An outspoken Christian, the mayor agreed early to give the opening remarks for the May 8 event. In addition, he spoke in a compelling video (produced for free by Ten29) about what the Mahoning Valley would be like if Christian men commit to “walk the walk” of their faith. His involvement was a media magnet, and the video played in dozens of Valley churches and on YouTube.

Rally speaker Dave Dravecky. The Boardman native’s name and inspiring story are huge among sports fans and the Christian community. Dravecky’s picture in articles and on the Rally website, posters and fliers gave the event more credibility than a first-time effort typically deserves. His live interview on WYFM 95.5 The Fish in Cleveland was replayed twice.

Covelli Centre. In Youngstown, the rebounding downtown and its flagship entertainment venue are news. Far before the Rally took place, we invited media to interview event leaders in front of the arena. We secured the Covelli’s community room for a press conference four weeks ahead of the event.

Diversity. The large and diverse volunteer team that planned the Rally reflected extraordinary unity. That resonated with the media, and our handout picture of Bing Newton and Rev. David Moncrief in front of the Covelli Centre was published prominently in several papers.

The marketing effort went far beyond publicity. The team also developed a website, television commercials, radio spots, billboards, yard signs, two videos, an email newsletter and much more. It’s amazing what can be accomplished when not one, not two, but six communications companies donate heavy volumes of time.

Media publicity, though, is achieved not with time but with news value. Non-profits that can objectively apply an editor’s mindset to their activities and create that value can expect answers to their prayers.