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Scoop.it!
Andrew Mason’s resignation letter last week reflected the best of storytelling in business communications.
With this in mind, I tried to track down Mr. Mason to take us behind the curtain in how the letter came about.
Unfortunately, he proved elusive.
If Mason had agreed to an interview, I suspect the exchange would have gone something like this:... 
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The two Australian DJs who made the prank call to Prince Edward hospital have broken their silence with an explanatory interview with Australian media.
Solemn and deeply apologetic, Michael Christian and Mel Greig, the two DJs behind the Kate Middleton-related hospital prank call that led to the suicide of the nurse who put them through, say they are “incredibly sorry” for what transpired. Speaking on behalf of the pair, Christian said both were “gutted, shattered, heartbroken.” The fourteen-minute interview covered the predictable: Whose idea was it? Was this terrible outcome ever anticipated? What was their reaction on hearing about the suicide? And what happens now? At every turn, both gave a good interview. Prank calls have been around for years, they said, and they had no idea how this could happen. The call was meant to be nothing more than a funny routine prank. And, of course, they said they were very sorry....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
A forthright apology helps in a sad situation but this tragic case is not yet over for all involved.
Tom George's comment,
December 11, 2012 4:59 PM
I didn't follow the story, but it sounds tragic. What did they say in the prank, if you don't mind me asking
Jeff Domansky's comment,
December 11, 2012 7:10 PM
Prank call to hospital nurse where Princess Kate was for morning sickness. Nurse later committed suicide
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Felix Baumgartner-and the Red Bull logo--in training. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife) Ask an ad guy: In this cynical, media-soaked age it's tough to get anyone's attention anymore. What it takes to really break through: authenticity.
...In the apex of the age of consumerism, we’re just drowning in pitches to buy.
Then comes today, with Red Bull. Yeah, as one friend just said to me, “I thought it was just some stunt,” — and it was. But what a stunt. Jumping from a balloon in near-space to fall more than 23 miles while breaking the sound barrier, risking his life, setting records, Heroic Stuff! The Right Stuff! And all brought to you by Red Bull.
In this new age of attempted authenticity (just act natural! CEOs Tweeting! People Like my new product!) they just absolutely killed it by being absolutely, totally, truly, over-the-top authentic. They backed a guy in an insanely risky, old-school kind of venture that was elegantly simple in its principles (go higher than anyone else, jump, live) yet so hair-raisingly sophisticated in its execution (pressure suit, capsule, hours of countdown, etc.) that it grabbed the world’s attention and kept a good part of it on pins and needles for a week, and talking about their brand. Why’d we watch, why’d we care? ‘Cause it was, in the words of Van Morrisson circa 1971, really, really, really, real (Lord have mercy).
You can’t tell immediately how many views this live stream of the jump on their site pulled in, but over on the YouTube live stream, at the peak of coverage, there were 8 million concurrent viewers from around the world watching. The walkup videos in the months ahead of today pulled in more than 5 million views, and got shared, of course, like crazy. Red Bull hasn’t said what all this cost, and it couldn’t have been cheap, but it certainly would be in line with a couple minute spots on the Super Bowl....
[Good insight into Red Bull's marketing grand slam ~ Jeff]
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I recently stumbled across the Infographic of Who’s Who of Social Influence Measurement and while it’s no surprise to see the social influencer industry growing, it’s a little worrisome....
No influencer app can ever accurately measure sentiment by running keywords through a program, because it can’t account for the different contexts of human conversations. Only a human being can do that. And heck, that can even be challenging for humans to determine when they are solely reading words and aren't able to see people’s facial expressions and body language as they speak.
But as organizations try and continue to justify the ROI of social media, there is a lot of pressure to produce lengthy reports to illustrate how they are preforming – thus the growth of influencer apps and products. My advice? Take influencer scores and reports by Klout, Kred, Twitalyzer, etc. with a grain of salt. If you are really engaged with your community, you will manually see how influential you are within your niche community....
[Good reminder that apps can't do it all -JD]
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A new Corporate Executive Board survey of 7,000 consumers showed that less than one in five have a relationship with a brand.
According to CEB researchers, consumers reserve the word relationship for friends, family and colleagues (and, in my case, dogs). One typical response opined, “It's just a brand, not a member of my family.” Yes but, truth be told, I have a better relationship with BMW than with some members of my extended family.
To make matters worse, brands are exacerbating the dating and mating game by totally overwhelming us with their nonsensical messaging (aka advertising). CEB spokespeople say the survey's overarching message is this: stop bombarding consumers who DON'T want relationships “…through endless emails or complex loyalty programs.” Amen, brothers and sisters....
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The Economist, the global establishment’s weekly dose of instant insights, has fired one of its occasional dirty spoiler shots.
A few years ago, the magazine sent the whole CSR world into fits of righteous indignation when it said corporations should eschew any ambitions for social purpose beyond a focus on decent governance, good products and services, perhaps laced with a dose of philanthropy.
Now, with essentially the same argument, The Economist’s Schumpeter column http://www.economist.com/node/21553033 says it is wrong for companies to aim at leveraging its reputation – or even to regard reputation as a corporate asset....
WRONG!
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When you browse the aisles of your grocery store, fill up your tank at the gas station, or book a flight online, chances are, when you make a decision to choose one brand over another, you're influenced more by the company's reputation than by any particular product it offers.
...In the first quarter of 2012, Reputation Institute conducted an online study among 10,198 consumers. It measured consumers’ perceptions of those companies among the 150 largest in the U.S. that they were “somewhat” or “very” familiar with. Each company earned a “RepTrak Pulse” score of 0 to 100, representing an average measure of people’s feelings–or reputation–for a company. The scores were statistically derived from four emotional indicators: trust, esteem, admiration, and good feeling.
Reputation Institute then analyzed what it calls the seven dimensions of corporate reputation. That’s where it found that perceptions of the enterprise (workplace, governance, citizenship, financial performance and leadership) trumped product perceptions (products and services plus innovation) in driving behaviors....
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Does the public relations industry have a trust and reputation issue? Lord Bell, head of Bell Pottinger, thinks so, saying that PR has become a lightning rod of mistrust.
...Lord Bell sees “no solution to [the] issue,” of public relations’ reputation challenges, he tells The Holmes Report’s Arun Sudhaman, believing that “We [have] become the lightning rod for that mistrust. It is something we have to learn to live with. That makes us an easy target for the media.”
Lord Bell would know. As we have pointed out in this blog and in other forums, he and his firm have a way of attracting unwanted attention. Last March, PRSA wrote in The London Evening Standard that Lord Bell’s assertion that “everyone is entitled to representation so long as it does not involve doing anything illegal” should be placed in further context — that a public relations professional’s work also must not involve doing anything unethical....
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Mondelez International is the new name of Kraft’s global snack company, and it has its share of critics. What do you think of the rebranding effort?
What’s the reaction?
Business Insider called it “an act of madness.” A Twitter user referred to the new name as “beyond awful.” Pat Kiernan, the NY1 news anchor, called it the “WTF of the Day.” Others on Twitter said it reminds them of Vandelay Industries, the fictional company where George Costanza on “Seinfeld” claimed to work....
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I recently asked a practitioner his thoughts on PR as reputation management. I was rather surprised when he told me that because reputation is something he takes incredibly seriously, he has before now turned away potential clients due to bad press they may have had.
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Everyone my age has an opinion about Lana Del Ray and maybe you should too. Insights from Capstrat Intern Elizabeth Monnett.
...The issue here doesn’t seem to be her music, nor the fact that she seems remarkably blasé about the whole experience. Critics and hipsters alike seem to think that Del Rey is perpetuating what is, essentially, fraud. Is that how she has always dressed? Does she really write her songs? Most people who dislike her seem to view her as a Barbie that has been dressed up and put on stage to perform and generate record sales. Take Lady Gaga – her sartorial insanity is acceptable because people believe that she herself is at the center of these choices.
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One of the points I had hoped to emphasize in my last post was that Twitter, blogging, Facebook and Google+ offer an even more controlled communications environment than what a fastidiously prepped/messaged executive might face in a media interview....
This week, we're witness to another example of this "command(er) and control" approach to making one's POV heard in a less fettered manner. Our President participated in a Google+ Hangout....
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Research: Corporate Reputations Suffering from Lack of Citizenship Efforts...
The Index is based on a point system that evaluates companies and corporations based on performance and citizenship. A big difference in the scores in these two categories show that reputation is suffering from a lack of citizenship and, therefore, trustworthiness....
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I’m often asked by companies who have hired us for Social media consulting “should we use something like Kred or Klout in our hiring process?” This question makes me cringe and my answer is always: absolutely not. But, and yes, there’s a but, you can use them to gain some insight as to what someone is about. It has always amazed me how quickly social media managers, HR managers and even CTO’s jump to adopt new measurement tools, analytics and data, just because someone comes out with it.
A brief look at a couple of the most well-known social media influence measurement tools and my opinion....
Jeff Domansky's insight:
Influence or insouciance?
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CEOs are often the face of a company, but having a visible, or even well liked, CEO may not help a company’s reputation in all situations.
This is a topic I explored over the summer with PRIME Research thanks to the Grunig PRIME Fellowship. Specifically, I looked at how the tone and visibility of CEO media coverage is related to the tone and visibility of overall organization coverage.
The first big takeaway is not all publicity is good publicity. Most public relations practitioners know this already, but if your CEO happens to be getting a ton of news coverage, it is probably a bad thing. CEOs often become visible during a crisis or because they say something particularly stupid. For example, Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary gained some visibility recently by saying “seatbelts don’t matter.” If he had said something reasonable like, “safety first,” media outlets probably wouldn’t have jumped on the story. Of course, these are just general relationships and there are exceptions to every rule.
The next takeaway is simply that there is a strong relationship between CEO media tone and overall company media tone. Public relations practitioners working for an organization where the CEO gains mostly negative media coverage would likely find it difficult to earn mostly positive coverage for the organization in general. The opposite is also true, if an organization is regularly bashed in the media, its CEO would likely struggle to maintain a positive reputation....
[Reputation research and reputation management dilemmas ~ Jeff]
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The culture of risk-taking started early on for company, and is reflected in the personality of the billionaire behind Red Bull.
In one death-defying, record-shattering jump by Felix Baumgartner, Red Bull showed the world that corporate marketing can go well beyond normal, conservative advertising buys—in fact it can go to the stratosphere and beyond. But that culture of risk-taking started early on for company, and is reflected in the personality of the billionaire behind Red Bull.
You won’t be surprised to learn that Red Bull was founded by a former marketing executive. Austrian Dietrich Mateschitz graduated with a marketing degree from the University of Commerce in Vienna at age 28. Subsequently, he worked for Unilever and Germany’s Jacobs Coffeee, before becoming the international marketing director for Blendax, a German company (later bought by Procter & Gamble) that sold toothpaste, skin creams, and shampoo.
Mateschitz, who traveled around the world for his job, told Forbes’ Kerry Dolan in 2005 that it was on one of those trips to Thailand that he discovered a jet lag-cure in a type of syrupy tonic drink that was already successful across Asia. In 1984, Mateschitz quit his job and teamed up with Chaleo Yoovidhya, who owned a drink company in Thailand. Each invested $500,000 into the new business and took a 49% stake (plus 2% for Yoovidhya’s son Chalerm)....
[Interesting marketing profile in Forbes. ~ Jeff ]
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Today’s generation is more obsessed with materialism and consumerism than ever before. This much, we know - it’s one of the truisms of our age, not least because of the unquestioning way the media parrots this very message on a regular basis. See, for example, the Daily Mail, July 23rd...
Of course, regular readers would have spotted that the ‘study’ was conducted by savviloans.co.uk - a personal loans company, who you might argue have a strong commercial incentive to emphasise the importance of keeping up with our neighbours, and buying things we can’t afford. A quick google for ‘savviloans.co.uk press release’ finds us the source of the story - it really is that simple....
[Ah yes, churnalism. Arghhhhh - JD]
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While more than 77% financial industry communications professionals feel their company’s reputation will improve this year, many challenges remain, according to a survey of 150 communications executives at leading financial institutions.
Chief among the issues they face: negative public perception, which was cited by nearly eight in ten (78%). This is most likely the result of the lingering aftermath of the financial meltdown in 2008, which led to “The Great Recession.” This is borne out by the fact that nearly all of our respondents (96%) said that financial services companies invited negative public perception because of their actions or inactions.
I noted with interest that 74% of those we polled believe that increased regulations of the financial services industry will help their firms improve reputations and trust with customers faster....
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...PR and marketing types alike dream of the influencer, the person who will trigger an online contagion (a.k.a. viral event). They desperately look for that powerful personality who will become their brand hero.
Finding the ultimate influencer eludes marketers in spite of modern theory. Regardless of measurable influence tools like Klout or the not so revolutionary definition of the influencer as someone who inspires action, today’s influencer theories and approaches still fail to identify the online bezerker....
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At the other end of the credibility scale from Encyclopedia Britannica is Wikipedia.org, which apparently has never had editors but rather administrators with enough latitude on their own for personal bias, anger, ignorance and lack of knowledge to influence decisions over what appears and what does not.
Worse yet, the administrators for Wikipedia.org have no journalistic or editorial training! But, they are the decision-makers for information that goes online that we – you and I – are supposed to assume is accurate. Are we being conned?...
[Cautionary post about trusting Wikipedia - JD]
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Public relations encompasses a multitude of skills: audience analysis, persuasive communication, business savvy. There are those who do all of these things poorly.
These are the PR Dummies. The dumbest of the dumb, every week.
How do acquisitions for companies worth hundreds of millions of dollars get done? Generally not through unsolicited emails to the "tips" line of one of that company's media properties. Although you never know....
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You may think that your personal social networks should serve as a safe haven from your employer where anything goes, but that line of thinking will ultimately lead to trouble.
If you post disparaging remarks about your boss on your Facebook page, he or she finds out and you are suddenly faced with repercussions, there is no one to blame but yourself.
I know, I know, it's your PERSONAL Facebook page, right? And they have no right to judge you on what you post and are way out of line for actually calling you on it or taking any kind of action, right?
WRONG!...
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Guess what iconographic villain of greed and wretched excess may be seeing the light of day as soon as this August? None other than Prisoner 05A4820 himself! What's that, the number doesn’t ring a bell?
Then, try this on for size: Dennis Kozlowski, or ‘Koz’ as his fellow inmates call him, may soon be reentering mainstream society.
Next to Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling (a.k.a. the Hitler & Goebbels of corporate greed), Dennis Kozlowski was the poster child for living large and milking a company dry. To refresh your memory, Kozlowski was convicted in 2005 of grand larceny, conspiracy and fraud for, as The New York Times put it, ‘…essentially using Tyco as his own piggy bank, replete with outsized bonuses.’
Koz was the guy who reigned supreme from a palatial, 13-room palace at 980 Fifth Avenue that featured a $6,000 shower curtain, a $15,000 umbrella stand and the occasional Monet or Renoir painting. He’s also the dude who feted his wife to a truly bacchanalian, Roman orgy-type of birthday party on a Greek Island (all at company expense, thank you very much)....
Assuming this real life Gordon Gekko of greed does see the light of day, how would you help him rehabilitate his tattered image?...
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We're pleased to feature a guest blog today from Matthew Yeomans, a leading expert on social media in the area of sustainability and CSR. We asked him to tell us a little more about the Social Media Sustainability Index, an impressive report that he recently authored on the state of social media sustainability communication among major international companies. Read what he has to say, and then download the free report in full over at the SMI website. It's full of practical tips on how to communicate effectively about sustainability using social media - and of course there's a top 100 list to pore over at your leisure....
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Digital Discussions with Aedhmar. Aedhmar Hynes, CEO of Text 100, discusses some of her takeaways from a recent PR Week roundtable hosted in NYC.
As these leaders looked ahead to the future of the industry, they all agreed – the road ahead is paved for success, not just because of the way social media and digital tools have evolved the way we build relationships, but because of the changes happening in society. A corporation’s greatest asset is its reputation – and in a world where transparency is of utmost importance to the social consumer and other stakeholders, communications is in a strong position to lead the way....
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Lou Hoffman shares a very creative "what if" interview and story.