In this week's PRWeek - 2/5/08 - I was asked to supply a few words for their Financial Essays supplement, so for those of you who haven't got round to opening your copy, or have already had it stolen off your desk, here's my contribution - enjoy . . .

Power of the personal touch

What is the defining image of the Northern Rock crisis? Is it of a chief executive in calm control, clearly articulating a recovery strategy to camera? Or is it rather one of long queues of twitchy customers, snaking out of branch doors and down high streets, united in fear and concern about their savings and investments?

Without question it is the latter. The clarity of these pictures in our collective memory speaks volumes for the power of television coverage. The broadcast media went to town on the story and in the absence of a compelling response from Northern Rock, confidence in the bank was undoubtedly eroded far faster and further than would otherwise have been the case as news broke of its emergency loan from the Bank of England and criticism swelled relating to its high-risk expansion.

In Northern Rock’s case, a more focused broadcast PR strategy would not have averted the crisis but it may well have limited the damage. Of course corporations still need to communicate business stories to traditional outlets such as the Financial Times but in our age of 24/7 rolling broadcast news coverage and online video, other channels are equally effective at reaching investors and other key stakeholders.

Yet despite the capacity to deliver succinct messages backed up by strong visuals, all too often a broadcast media strategy is overlooked. Some research commissioned by markettiers4dc in 2007 found that just 3.4 per cent of companies use television to publicise their interim and annual results.

That’s a shocking finding when you consider that TV and the web – with its capability for streaming video – play such a significant part in a typical person’s daily media consumption. Investor Relations is no longer just about a few key individuals. Organisations must now be aware of how broadcast material can impact upon public confidence.

While Northern Rock foundered, US toy giant Mattel last year provided an object lesson in how to handle a crisis adroitly. Confidence in the corporation might have plummeted following a series of product recalls after safety concerns were raised about toys from Chinese suppliers.

However, Mattel tackled the adverse publicity head-on and a key part of its response was a video message from chairman and CEO Bob Eckert, carried on its website. Eckert apologised for the recalls, set out lucidly how Mattel had immediately tightened up its safety procedures and empathised with worried parents by pointing out that he was himself the father of four children. Clips from the video appeared on mainstream TV news bulletins and were spread virally across the internet.

The crisis hit profits but Mattel’s approach allowed it to see out the year in reasonably good shape. Despite being saddled with charges of approximately US $110 million related to the product recalls, Mattel achieved a minor lift in operating income for its 2007 financial year and a worldwide 6 per cent rise in net sales against 2006.

Using video messages and TV interviews can contribute strongly to bolstering corporate reputation and propping up a company’s share price. But clearly live TV interviews are more perilous than pre-recorded statements and many corporate comms teams will advise their CEOs against participating in them for fear that they will make a mistake or appear flustered, thereby undermining confidence in a brand or organisation.

Yet it is those chief executives able to perform well in front of the camera and who understand the TV medium that will prosper. For example, Sir Richard Branson is known to one and all, thanks in part to his willingness to appear before the cameras – in both good times and crises. Few CEOs can match Branson’s appetite for self-promotion but those that are prepared to engage with the broadcast media will enhance the profile of their company and arguably their own personal job security.

One current example of a company adopting such a positive approach is National Grid. Chief Executive, Steve Holliday announced National Grid is to adopt carbon budgets and reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 80%. Working alongside their retained corporate agency to drive awareness of National Grid’s pioneering stance on energy saving, markettiers4dc produced and released controlled audio and video news features of the Chief Executive to targeted broadcast media.

Of course, for the viewing public ‘live’ interviews are not necessarily watched in real time. As exemplified by technologies such as the BBC’s iPlayer, on demand viewing and listening is becoming more significant in media consumption. Rajar research earlier this year found that 4.3m people in the UK have downloaded a podcast, with 1.87m people listening to podcast once a week; while Motoral research last year found that 43 per cent of UK broadband users watch webTV.

Consequently, producing engaging video content that will work well on the web is assuming increasing importance. Video content can draw stakeholders onto corporate websites, allowing corporations to tell their side of the story eloquently. Moreover, it can provide influential input into wider debates raging across the blogosphere and social networking sites.

Businesses ignore such voices at their peril. HSBC, you may recall, was forced into a U-turn on its decision to scrap an interest free overdraft for graduates after nearly 5,000 graduates signed up to Facebook group Stop the Great HSBC Graduate Rip-Off. In this era of consumer power and investor activism, corporations cannot hope to flourish if they ignore effective communications channels and techniques.

The second announcement in a fortnight from Mattel for the recall of toys due to safety concerns has had to create global awareness of the problems instantly while trying to avoid mass panic amongst their consumers. In addition to taking out full page ads in the national press Mattel also took the opportunity to video their Chairman & CEO Bob Eckert making an impassioned statement on behalf of the company.

If anyone had any doubts about the increasing use and value of video through the Web than this is another fine example of how a brand can communicate to the media and its audience simultaneously. With an anticipated 18.5m products recalled globally (2m in the UK alone), the need for a swift response from Mattel has been essential to avoid long term damage to the company’s reputation. Showing the compassion of Eckert, a like-minded concerned parent, through the video shows an individual who is prepared to face up to errors and explain how they are overcoming them. The video personalises the issues and looks to build empathy and trust with the viewer. The footage from the Mattel website has subsequently been featured on traditional TV news bulletins such as the ITV news at 22.30. By their swift response and acknowledging the benefit of the Internet to deliver their message in a personal and timely fashion, Mattel may live to fight, or play, another day.

Last week I attended two conferences, which should not have been linked in the traditional sense, one in the world of Football at Soccerex 07 London at the New Wembley, and the other at Media 360 at Celtic Manor. However the one thing both had in common was media convergence and the issues and challenges to both.

Richard Scudamore the CEO of the Premier league has just returned from the USA where they had issued a lawsuit against YouTube for showing clips of the Premier League, and when challenged as to what he expected as the outcome, was less than convincing, and as an observer one may suggest it was the opening shot in a new set of 'Rights' to be sold! Whilst he kept focusing on the importance of attendances and fans and making sure the experience of going to Premier League football could compete with going to the shops or other social competition, one couldn’t help but question whether their primary focus is maximising 'TV' revenues, no matter which media platform they be delivered on.

At Media 360, whilst, it was good to see many of the movers and shakers in the media world, and listen to their debates on the media landscape, the title of the conference said it all 'Converging Media - Emerging Value'. I was pleased to see that we produced the latest episode of MediaWeek.tv from the conference as it was putting in to practise in front of the delegates just one of the techniques open to the media world. I do hope, however, that the media agency world does embrace the new opportunities for brands, as otherwise one could suggest that also Media 360 does what it says on the tin, in that it just keeps going round in circles!

The number of printed publications investing in their online exploits is continuing to rise, with growing numbers of magazines and news papers going the full hog, and converting to ‘online only’ format.

The world's oldest newspaper have stopped printing their publications and focused on publishing online. The newspaper, Sweden’s tongue twisting “Post-och Inrikes Tidningar”, may have been founded in the late 17th century, but seems to be embracing the online world with both wrinkly hands. The newspaper will be joining the likes of the US editions of FHM and ElleGirl, which both jumped shipped to online only formats at the tail end of last year due to a perceived lack of future ad growth.

The following quote from www.foliomag.com http://www.foliomag.com covers the major issue that faces these publications in the online arena:

“Part of the problem is that magazine publishers need to cope with the new experience of being a small fish in a big pond. Sites such as TeenPeople.com and ElleGirl.com post impressive traffic relative to print circulations but lag far behind other sites that cater to their audience, such as Myspace. Sports Illustrated is the dominant print sports brand and SI.com is an extremely successful Web entity, yet it is about the fifth largest sports Web site by traffic”

The backlash against fake corporate bloggers continues, with brands being ‘named and shamed’ if they try to generate interest online by posting fake ‘personal’ comments on blogs and forums.

At the start of Jan, Wikipedia warned PR agencies that it would be taking steps to stop them writing about companies they represent in the popular online encyclopaedia. Now The Times has reported that new UK laws (to come in force from next December) will be brought in to ‘name and shame’ PR agencies/brands posing as innocent bloggers.

The new regulations also will apply to authors who praise their own books under a fake identity on websites such as Amazon. See the below article for more details and some interesting case studies - like the owner of a restaurant/hotel near Loch Ness who got caught out littering travel blogs with over flattering reviews of his business under a fake alias!!

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article1361968.ece

There seems to be some sort of desperation going on where brands make a scramble to try to control everything that's said about them online, instead of spending their time creating genuinely new and interesting online content.