Twitter a.k.a Speedy Gonzalez Media

Social media, ze zijn onvermijdelijk. Geen enkel platform is weg te denken uit ons dagelijks leven. Dit betekent nieuws en informatie: overal, sneller en in grotere getalen. Je kan nu geen uitspraak meer doen en hopen dat niemand het heeft gehoord. Iedereen hoort of ziet je. Uiteindelijk hoeft het maar één enkele tweet te zijn. Het hoeft maar door één paar ogen te worden gelezen. Twitter is als Speedy Gonsalez of Rosh Runner; tweets gaan razendsnel. En of Rosaenne Barr uit de hit-serie Roseanne dat heeft geweten. Wat voor haar begon als onschuldige tweets onder, door haar beweerde, invloed is uitgelopen tot één grote crisis.  

Tyler benoemde het al in zijn blog: de crisissituatie leek onoplosbaar. Zou het ooit overwaaien? Was er een oplossing? Is er wel een goede manier om hierop te reageren? Het antwoord is in dit geval: ja, maar kijk als organisatie in een crisis altijd verder dan uw neus lang is. Tyler benoemt in zijn blog een aantal goede actiepunten vanuit ABC, maar er zijn toch een aantal opmerkingen te maken.

  

Speedy Gonzales we meet again 

In deze situatie blijkt niet alleen Twitter snel te zijn, ook ABC, onder wiens vleugel Rosaenne haar talkshow uitzond, bleek razendsnel in zijn reacties. Doordat zij direct de ochtend na de beruchte tweets hebben gereageerd met een eigen persbericht waarin zij de gehele show cancelde, is de crisis niet verder ontploft. Zoals Tyler duidelijk benadrukt, snelheid is alles in tijden van crisis (Coombs, 2012). De stakeholders verdienen een reactie en uitleg.  

Gemiste kans 

Daarnaast blijken social media de beste tools om te communiceren in tijden van crisis (Sung, & Hwang, 2014). Door als organisatie gebruik te maken van Twitter, straal je als organisatie meer medeleven en verbondenheid uit. ABC heeft een persbericht uitgebracht, maar geen tweet geplaatst. Gemiste kans volgens de huidige studies naar crisiscommunicatie (Alfonso, & Suzanne, 2008; Sung, & Hwang, 2014). De snelheid van hun reactie verminderd daarentegen deze ‘fout’.

Clipping statement ABC

This is your captain speaking 

Verder is op te merken dat ABC ervoor heeft gekozen het statement in het persbericht te laten maken door de president van ABC. Vanuit de huidige literatuur is de CEO, of in dit geval het hoofd van de organisatie, niet de aangewezen persoon om op te treden als woordvoerder in crisistijden (Bernstein, 2004). De CEO en de organisatie zijn uiteraard gelinkt aan elkaar, maar hiermee ook beiden imago’s. Een statement kan zomaar averechts werken en goede imago’s wegvagen (Denner, Heitzeler , & Koch, 2018). Een punt waar op gelet moet worden in het geval dit nog een keer gebeurd. Gelukkig, weegt de snelheid en de sterke houding die ABC aannam in deze specifieke situatie zwaarder en is het goed opgepakt door het publiek. 

Tyler, we kunnen inderdaad veel leren van de manier waarop ABC heeft gereageerd in deze situatie. Zowel goede punten als verbeterpunten. Je kunt je afvragen: zijn die er niet altijd? In ieder geval geldt voor iedereen: hou de literatuur met betrekking tot de huidige studies in de gaten. Ook zij gaan razendsnel. 

Over de blogger: Roos Mulder is een 24 jarige, inmiddels bijna afgestudeerde, Master student Persausive Communication. Op dit moment werkt zij als werkstudent bij Het PR Bureau. 

Literatuur

1. Alfonso, G., & Suzanne, S. (2008). Crisis Communications Management on the Web: How Internet-Based Technologies are Changing the Way Public Relations Professionals Handle Business Crises. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management,16(3), 143-153. doi:10.1111/j.1468-5973.2008.00543.x 

2. Bernstein, J. (2004). The 10 steps of crisis communications. Crisis Response, prevention, planning and, Training, 106. 

3. Coombs, W. T., & Holladay, J. S. (2012). The paracrisis: The challenges created by publicly managing crisis prevention. Public Relations Review,38(3), 408-415. doi:10.1016/j.pubrev.2012.04.004 

4. Denner, N., Heitzler, N., & Koch, T. (2018). Presentation of CEOs in the media: A framing analysis. European Journal of Communication, 33(3), 271-289. 

5 Sung, M., & Hwang, J. S. (2014). Who drives a crisis? The diffusion of an issue through social networks. Computers in Human Behavior, 36, 246-257

“You can’t pick your family” – The ‘Brill’ negative ad

By Nikki Gommers

For link to quote headline: click here 

“I’m not going to break bread with a racist”. You wouldn’t expect people to say this about you. Especially not your own brother. And on the public stage no less, ending up in media all over the world. But this is exactly what happened in the 2018 Arizona midterm campaign between Paul Gosar and David Brill. We know that US election campaigns can get dirty, but this ad was next level.

If this is new to you, it’s best to just watch the video below.

Source: Brill for Congress, via YouTube

The initial reaction of many was: how is this going to play out? Nathalie Enderle explored the same question in her blog. We are two weeks on from the video’s release, and one can start answering the question: was the ‘PR stunt’ effective?

Why did he do it?

Negative advertising is common in US elections, but why did candidate Brill go for such a provocative ad? His political strategy to ‘go negative’ fits within a wider trend.

Firstly, Paul Gosar is the incumbent and David Brill is his challenger. Both for online and televised ads, it is the trend that challengers are more likely to produce negative ads than incumbents (Druckman, Kifer & Parkin, 2010). Decades of research shows that incumbents have an advantage over their challengers, for example because they can promote their achievements. Often one of the few options the challenger has is to attack the opponent (Nai & Sciarini, 2015). 

Paul Gosar's response on Twitter

Secondly, Brill was behind in the race, which is often an incentive to adopt negative advertising to scare off the opponent’s voters. Losing candidates have very little to risk and more to gain by going negative, regardless of potential backlash (Nai & Sciarini, 2015).

So going negative made sense for Brill, in the face of a strongly Republican state. 

But, did it work?

One thing is for sure, David Brill managed to get a lot of attention for his ad. Within both corporate and political communication, something becomes more newsworthy if it contains conflict and surprise (Schafraad, Van Zoonen & Verhoeven, 2017), which Brill’s ad did.

Also, multiple research shows that the more negative an ad is, the more media attention it receives (Ridout & Smith, 2008; Fowler & Ridout, 2009). This high level of media coverage of negative ads, in return, motivates candidates to go negative (Geer, 2012). Probably a consideration Brill also had in mind when he decided to develop this ad.

Source: OH Predictive Insights

But was it effective? That question can of course only be fully answered on election day, but so far it looks like Brill didn't create much of a change. A poll by OH Predictive Insights shows that to 58% of the people the ad made no difference. Among Gosar's supporters this number is even higher with 63% (click here for detailed results). 

So, it seems that Brill didn’t succeed in scaring away the voters from Gosar. Incredulously, among the Gosar supporters, 32% is now more likely to vote for him. But I wouldn’t say that Brill made a bad PR choice. He had nothing to lose, and in this case, you miss every shot you don’t take.

Nikki Gommers is a political communication student at the University of Amsterdam. She obtained her bachelor’s degree in Political Science at Leiden University and has worked for several campaigns of the PvdA (Dutch Labour Party), as well as she is a keen advocate for a less-divided society. 

A Sharp-Tongued CEO, An Asset Or A Ticking Time-bomb?

“If this is such a Siberian salt mine and I am such an ogre, then why are they still working for the airline? If any of our fellas aren't happy with the current arrangement then they're free to go….”

"We use our own biros and I tell the staff not to buy them, just pick them up from hotels, legal offices, wherever..”

“Boeing had their chance. Eventually you lose interest, dealing with a bunch of idiots who can’t make a decision…”

The above-mentioned three quotes are not from a disgruntled manager at an organization, nor are they from someone who’s had a little too much to drink the night before. These ‘pearls of wisdom’ or ‘shotgun blasts of nastiness’ are from the CEO of one of Europe’s most profitable airline. Yes, Michael O’Leary built up a business that is wildly successful, but at the same time, ratcheted up his nastiness with each Ryanair flight that took off.

Source - corporate.ryanair.com

Now, you wouldn’t expect a well-heeled CEO heading a game-changer of an organization in the transportation industry to mouth such inanity, would you? But then you wouldn’t expect him to also register a Mercedes Benz S500 as a taxi just so that he could speed up by using Dublin’s bus lanes in order to get past pesky traffic! Michael O’Leary is a fascinating character. An ace businessman, a financial wizard, but is he also the CEO who’s actually detrimental to the health of his own organization? My colleague Vivenne Raaijmaker asked whether O’Leary’s verbal bazookas had hurt Ryanair’s image and whether any apology from the Irishman would simply do nothing to heal the Airline’s battered reputation? I take this further, shedding light on how being perceived as offensive or arrogant, especially when a CEO is seen to be adopting that stance, can hurt corporate reputation. 

Source - campaignlive.co.uk

Humility goes a long way

According to Denner, Heitzler, and Koch (2018), a CEO’s image is closely linked to that of his organization. Thus, purely by association, it is not a stretch to imagine that Ryanair is cavalier, irresponsible, and arrogant, just like it’s top boss. Zhang, Ou, Tsui, and Wang (2017) argue that humility on part of the CEO can actually be beneficial to the organization’s image, helping it to project itself as being ‘innovative’ and ‘productive’. It also allows stakeholders and the general public to evaluate the organization in complimentary light. Now, there are a lot of people who consider a humble CEO to be a myth. But even a veneer of humility is at times enough to help project a positive image. Take the case of Delta Airlines’ CEO Ed Bastian who recently directed all executives of the Organization to fly economy class for flights under three hours. Bastian, himself ‘squeezes’ into an economy class seat when he travels on business and this has been well-publicized by the Airline. Delta’s current reputation seems to firmly lie in the ‘favourable’ camp and the CEO’s image of being ‘just another passenger who flies coach’ is definitely helping.

Source - The Washington Post

Losing the arrogance doesn't hurt

Henderson (1997) submits that it is essential that CEOs drop arrogance in favour of a more approachable style especially when dealing with stakeholders during and in the aftermath of a crisis (in this case most of Ryanair’s pilots being forced to go on leave due to a rostering error) in order for their organization and its activities to be perceived positively.  O’Leary’s rather limp apology, his subsequent scramble to construct weak alibis (blaming the weather), and his bizarre utterances in the media, have all led to Ryanair being caught in an almost-unending spiral of bad publicity and a battered reputation.

Source - The Guardian

Being CEO is tough, O'Leary makes it tougher

Airline CEO's are supposed to have one of the toughest jobs in the world. Making a success of an airline is no mean feat, but is financial success the only indicator of favourable reputation for an organization? Creating a likeable persona, a reassuring environment where customers/stakeholders/publics feel like they are being listened to is a key driver of organizational reputation. Ryanair and Mr. O'Leary seem to have gotten it horribly wrong. The Airline was one of the last to establish a social media presence, doing so only in 2013. To top it, they put the famously offensive O'Leary on Twitter for a chat session. What ensued were more pyrotechnics, a lot of swearing, and another deep cut to the Organization's reputation stunningly by the Man who is entrusted with safeguarding it!

About the author - Chinmay is a Master's student at the University of Amsterdam. Having served as a journalist with one of India's leading English dailies, he has also driven communications for two of India's leading conglomerates' sports divisions. He is passionate about sports, cinema, and communication. 

References

Denner, N., Heitzler, N., & Koch, T. (2018). Presentation of CEOs in the media: A framing analysis. European Journal of Communication, 33(3), 271-289.

HENDERSON, K. (1997). CEOs on the stand: How to help your company's exec get beyond arrogance. Business Law Today,7(2), 20-23. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/23290657

Zhang, H., Ou, A., Tsui, A., & Wang, H. (2017). CEO humility, narcissism and firm innovation: A paradox perspective on CEO traits. The Leadership Quarterly, 28(5), 585-604. doi: 10.1016/j.leaqua.2017.01.003

A lack of diversity was a precursor to the crisis:
 Reiterating Doritos, Pepsi cola controversies

A central tenet of the PR-profession is dealing with an onset crisis. This for instance was a central theme of Kim’s article exploring the crisis response for Pepsi’s ad (left below). This was also the case in Esmee’s article, which explored crisis response to Dorito’s publicized marketing idea (right below). This article builds on this work of Kim and Esmee, in that it recognizes that it is relevant to study crisis. Though, the focus shifts in this article from crisis response to crisis prevention. As it is arguably also true for the PR-profession that prevention is better than cure. The perspective taken in this blog is that workplace diversity can serve as a preventive measure to crisis.

The importance of being different. A trivial blog post for serious people

Oscar  Wilde was right: “The truth is rarely pure and never simple”. So is diversity,  and so is speaking truthfully about it. In this last blog post, I elaborate on the points made by Alice Claridge (“The Diversity of Nude”), by presenting the different faces of diversity and their role in the personal care industry. I also list three points organisations should reflect upon when dealing with diversity.

Under their skin

Nubian Skin is certainly not the first brand that has drawn consumers’ attention to diversity. While its attempt was successful, the same cannot be said for other brands. The controversy that Dove unwillingly created by showing a three-second footage of a dark-skinned woman “turning into” a light-skinned one represents a vivid example.

Source: CNN Business

The problem is not the lack of diversity  in the ad - “which is something Dove is passionate about and is core to [its] beliefs” (The Guardian) - but rather the way such a diversity is sequentially presented. The original longer version of the ad also showed light-skinned models becoming dark-skinned. However, the way the video was trimmed shows that diversity is sometimes a taken-for-granted issue within organisations. Not on social media though. The negative reactions triggered by the ad were in fact numerous, and underline that social media are more responsive to social issues, than economics-related issues (Russell Neuman, Guggenheim, Mo Jang, & Young Bae, 2014).

The different faces of diversity

Diversity also concerns body-shape. The reactions to Dove recent campaign promoting body-shaped bottles show that when it comes to sensitive issues there is a fine line between “empowering women and patronising them” (The Guardian).

Source: BBC newsbeat

Additionally, a study by Hafner andTrampe (2009) showed that when consumers react to an ad on impulse, they prefer thin models; however, if they rationally process the information and engage in a less superficial analysis  (i.e. reflective process), they prefer round models.

The examples so far addressed underline three aspects:

1. Diversity is often taken for granted within organisations

2. Diversity is a sensitive issue that might lead to backfiring results

3. Diversity still requires reflective processing of information

How to deal with it then?

Three points to remember for organisations (and society)

One of the first problems related to diversity  is that, from a very young age, we think that being different means being wrong. This is not the case, as Dove“Love your Curls” campaign shows. What to do?

1. Accept diversity because it adds variety to our lives and makes us all unique.

A second problem is the lack of dialogue regarding diversity, especially within organisations (Swanson, 2018). The solution?

2. Engage in an open dialogue and include more diversity-related programmes to increase awareness about the issue.

A third and last problem is brand fit and tone of the campaign.

Source: @ysl Instagram

Yves Saint Laurent attempt to promote diversity and empower women through “porn chic” pictures  “contravened the advertising codes relating to respect for decency, dignity and those prohibiting submission, violence or dependence” (Forbes). What to learn from this?

            3. Handle diversity with extreme (Dove) care.

About Angela Bonanno | LinkedIn | Facebook

Passionate about art, sport, and music.

She would have loved to study Interior Design or Photography, but she ended up being a MSc student in Persuasive Communication at Universiteit van Amsterdam.

In the end, they are all types of communication, aren’t they?