Insights for Leaders Navigating
Visibility, Credibility, and Growth.
From media strategy to reputation management, we explore the trends shaping public perception and share the approaches that drive measurable results for growing brands.
When our clients announce new products or services, they also consider whether to make the announcement on a global scale or keep it to the U.S. This was especially true for one of our clients who wanted to make an announcement at the recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. In order to ensure they were reaching as broad an audience as possible, they enlisted the support of a European agency to complement our efforts on the U.S. side.
While we do provide services to our clients that span all geographical industry lines, this client felt it would be beneficial to have representation from an agency in the same time zone as the show. Having multiple agencies work on the same project takes thoughtful planning and management to ensure the roles are clear and there is no overlap in activity.
If your company is considering employing a similar, dual-agency communication strategy, here are a few tips for you to help assure the entire campaign runs smoothly:
- Introduce the team leads – During this introduction, it might be helpful to recap the goals of the project so that each team is clear on the objectives. By ensuring everyone is familiar with each other, your communication teams can work out the minutia together, without using you as a middleman.
- Clearly define roles – It’s critical that each team knows what their role is within the project. For example, for the Mobile World Congress announcement, we were the lead agency responsible for materials creation, while the European agency tackled localized outreach within Europe. Clearly defining roles helps make certain that no one does duplicative work.
- Share materials and outreach lists – Reporters hate getting pitched twice. To avoid this, it’s important to make sure both agencies have shared their contact lists and reviewed them to avoid any duplication. Any messaging or branding materials should also be shared and utilized because it’s important that everyone communicate the same messages throughout all materials and outreach.
While these steps seem simple and straightforward, it’s important to employ them to alleviate any confusion or duplication of work. Coordinated outreach and the distribution of announcements takes a lot of time and effort behind the scenes, but all a consumer or journalist sees is the end product. Employing an open, cohesive communication strategy is key to achieving a smart, successful and seamless product launch. Additionally, with smooth collaboration between agencies, communication professionals can ensure they are getting the most value for their money.
One of the things I love about my job doing PR is working with companies with whom I feel a personal connection, and with the recent cold spell in Seattle, I could not be more pleased to have had the opportunity to work with management team of Triple T Trading and its Northside brand. The company makes affordable, high-quality footwear – including winter boots – for families. Northside’s reasonably-priced shoes are sold by many retailers, such as Fred Meyer and Amazon.com.
Last September, we met with Triple T Trading President Jack Wolfin, and brothers Bob and Jeff Thayer. Bob is vice president of design, development and sourcing, and Jeff is vice president of sales, operations and systems. We were impressed with their vision for the Northside brand as well as their commitment to customers and retailers alike. After learning more about their specific business and communication objectives, including the revamping of their brand, we developed our communication plan and began work to help them unveil the new brand at the Outdoor Retailer Winter Meeting (ORWM) in Salt Lake City.
Journalists were eager to share news about the company’s rebranding activities, preview the fall 2011 collection of shoes and boots, and understand the teams’ perspective about manufacturing costs. As a result of our outreach, Northside was featured in local and trade publications including:
- Outdoor USA, “Triple T Trading Invests in its Northside Brand: The Affordable Footwear Company Offers Families ‘More for the Adventure.’”
- Footwear Plus, “Snow Bunnies: Designers Tie in Warm and Fuzzy Feminine Details to Utilitarian Boots.”
- Seattle Times, “Raising Prices Coming Back in Fashion” by Amy Martinez
In addition to helping them secure this editorial coverage, we also helped them get started on Facebook. If you have a minute, we’d encourage you to check out the company’s fan page. They have a small, but growing group of loyal supporters.
We anticipate the company will continue to see strong demand for its footwear as consumers remain price conscious and continue to look for opportunities to economize on clothes, gasoline, food and many other goods or services. Northside provides average families with significant value by making quality, comfortable footwear, which is fashionable to boot. It was an honor to have had the opportunity to support the company in its recent PR activities.
Earlier this year I read Paul Kimmage’s interview of Floyd Landis, a retired cyclist. I had watched Landis win the Tour de France in 2006 and followed the subsequent doping controversy, which included him being stripped of his Tour de France win. So I was interested to learn about the chronology of events and actions that kept the controversy in the media for roughly four years.
The article is quite extensive and details how ill-prepared Landis was to handle the crisis. Many journalists and bloggers will focus on the doping itself, however, as a communication professional what fascinated me was how poorly the communication was handled and as a result extended the crisis, further damaging Landis’ credibility.
There were many missteps in how Landis responded to his failure of a drug test in 2006. These gaffes illustrate the importance of crisis communication planning. Consider the impact of the following lapses:
- Failure to plan. Like most companies that fail to plan for a crisis, Landis knew there was always the potential for his doping to be discovered. Yet, he never thought through the basic steps he would take or even who he would look to for counsel if his actions were discovered. When the crisis hit, Landis was physically and emotionally exhausted, and was ill-prepared to handle communication with the media. At a minimum, in advance of a crisis, companies should define potential types of crises, outline the communication objectives, and identify the crisis communication team.
- Lack of experienced counsel. When faced with a crisis, and ideally in advance of a crisis, it is important to secure seasoned, professional communication counsel to develop a crisis communication plan and help execute that plan. As a result of Landis’ failure to plan, he had not sought out or identified experienced crisis communication counsel. In the heat of the moment, Landis was referred to Spanish lawyers, who then led his communication activity – apparently without a thoughtful strategy or plan. While Landis may have needed legal counsel, they should not have been driving the communication strategy. Instead his legal team should have been part of his crisis management team, working hand-in-hand with one another.
- Lying to the media. One key to successful communication is to be truthful and not misleading or evasive. Landis responded to a reporter’s question about whether he had ever taken performance enhancing drugs by stating, “I’ll say no….” His response came across as disingenuous and dishonest. Landis then went on to lead a campaign based on a lie. This set Landis up for the next crisis – when that underlying lie was uncovered – further damaging Landis’ reputation.
Clearly, the best approach to crisis communication is to anticipate potential crises and take steps to prevent those situations from materializing. While not all crises can be prevented, it is important to be as prepared as possible. Obviously Floyd Landis could have prevented this crisis by not doping in the first place. Furthermore, he should have been aware his doping could be discovered, and prepared for that possibility.
In retrospect it appears Landis’ judgment was flawed and perhaps he was naïve enough to believe he wouldn’t get caught, that his actions were justified or simply, that the rules were for everyone else. Regardless he made a series of decisions that ultimately ruined his career.
While most companies follow the laws and try to act with more integrity than Landis, there may be areas where they operate in a similar state of denial. A few simple steps in preparation can help ensure your company is ready when the crisis does hit. With the right planning, companies can effectively mitigate a crisis and perhaps even prevent a potential crisis from developing.
Below are links to previous blog posts regarding crisis communication:
- “Crisis Communication Planning and the Impact of Social Media”
- “So You Made a Mistake? Now What?”
- “Social Media & Damage Control”
- “Crisis Experts Share Perspective on Tiger Woods”
If we can be of assistance as you develop a crisis communication plan for your organization, please contact us at info@communiquepr.com.
Last night Colleen Moffitt, Jennifer Gehrt, Jeanine Dellinger and I attended the Washington Technology Industry Association’s (WTIA) Industry Achievement Awards at the Showbox SODO in Seattle. The annual event recognizes the accomplishments of companies, individuals and students within the vibrant technology community in Washington state.
The finalists in categories ranging from best early-stage company and technology innovator of the year recognized some of the region’s most innovative and successful companies including Isilon Systems (a Communiqué PR client), Concur, Swype and newcomer SPARQCode. Click here for a complete list of winners.
New to this year’s awards, the WTIA recognized teachers from the state who were nominated for the National Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST) Awards. The PAEMST honors outstanding teachers of mathematics and science from around the country. The honorees included Barbara Franz, Moses Lake School District; Nancy Pfaff, Lake Washington School District; Debra Strong, Everett School District; and Dawn Sparks, Thorp School District.
Overall this was one of the best WTIA award events in recent memory and it was a great opportunity to network and catch up with current and past clients and former colleagues including Laurie Myer, Marty Roberts, Kevin Hartz and Jim Herd. We also enjoyed the opportunity to make new connections, such as Sean Macleod and Rebecca Dawson with Stratos and Greg Bannick of Kimball Electronics Group.
We heard from several people that their companies are growing and are looking to fill numerous positions. Swype’s CEO even took time when accepting his award to mention that the company is hiring. Despite the economic conditions that have plagued every industry over the past couple of years, it’s wonderful to see that technology innovation is surviving and thriving in Washington.
A few weeks ago I read an article on TechCrunch surrounding a new stealth company called Hipster and how it has managed to gain significant traction without even unveiling what the company does. As a PR firm we work with a variety of companies in various stages, including stealth mode, so I was intrigued to learn how Hipster has created such a splash without revealing any information.
According to TechCrunch reporter Alexia Tsotsis, Hipster, which is rumored to be a location-based Q&A site akin to Yelp or Quora, has secured “more than 14,000 people [that] have already signed up with little information about the site’s purpose, the first 10K in two days after it launched its sign up landing page.” In addition, the company has received coverage in publications such as the Washington Post, Portfolio.com and Hipster Runoff, and rumors are swirling over a potential purchase from Groupon.
That’s pretty impressive for a stealth company. What makes Hipster different from the thousands of soon-to-be-launched companies in the U.S.? In an email to TechCrunch, Hipster’s CEO Doug Ludlow said, “the service has tapped into some sort of startup zeitgeist.” He adds, “The fact that despite not knowing what we do, people are talking about Hipster being something great for their city means that a lot of people really WANT something that will help them connect with their community.”
So, how did Hipster do it? They took a unique, creative approach to launching a stealth company, which has proven to be extremely effective in building buzz. Hipster tied the name of the company, which is synonymous with ‘being in the know,’ with a vague landing page to help create mystery surrounding the product. Clearly this intrigued people enough to sign up for an unknown service.
Savvy startups are thinking beyond traditional press releases and embargoed media briefings, and leveraging social media to build buzz and increase Facebook fans and Twitter followers ahead of an official launch. That in turn can help build the business (i.e. signups, feedback from beta users, website traffic, etc.).
We often counsel our clients in taking a tiered approach when it comes to launches – pre, official and post. We outline the objectives and goals for each tier and then build a strategy and timeline that map to these goals.
I admit out of sheer curiosity I signed up for Hipster. Regardless of whether I use the service or not, the buzz surrounding the company is driving people to take action. It will be interesting to see how Hipster fares, and if they can live up to expectations, once it cuts the ribbon.
There are frequent conversations about how communication has changed with the adoption of the Internet and more specifically social media. We have published several posts on our blog on topics related to these changes including Mastering the Nine Second Sound Bite and Staying Ahead of the New-Media Curve. And while it is true the landscape has changed, communicators can still gather valuable lessons from the past – prior to the digital revolution.
It is fascinating to look back at the communications that spurred broad and significant changes. Last month, in conjunction with the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and a new book from speech writer, Clarence Jones, we were reminded of how galvanizing King’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech was for the civil rights movement. In celebration of its 50th anniversary, media also recently revisited John F. Kennedy’s momentous state of the union speech from 1961, which inspired many of that generation to consider public service.
While these were momentous speeches in the more recent history of the United States, now one can easily access and read more historical speeches and letters from all of the past U.S. presidents and learn from these seasoned communicators. One of our clients, Bookbyte, recently published a digital collection of speeches and letters from U.S. presidents.
This new eBook, Words of the Presidents: Speeches and Letters from 1776 to 2011, captures the most important, powerful and fascinating statements from the pens and podiums of the United States presidents since the country was first founded. From the unforgettable to the obscure, Words of the Presidents reflects on the historically and socially significant moments in American history including Gettysburg and Berlin to the Monroe Doctrine and the military-industrial complex.
As a dynamic collection of works, new content will be added to future editions of Words of the Presidents, which will be available as free updates to readers who have previously downloaded the eBook. The eBook is now available via Apple’s iBooks, Amazon’s Kindle Store and Barnes and Noble’s Nook Store for $1.99. Although it will be available for free during President’s Day weekend, Fri., Feb. 18 through Mon., Feb. 21, 2011, via iBooks.
With the upcoming President’s Day weekend, Words of the Presidents is a great example of fusing the past with the future. Our reading and communication behaviors may have evolved with technology; however, there are still important lessons that can be found in our history.