Live feeds – do they let people make up their own minds?

100 days into the BP oil disaster, there is no doubt that the company handled the PR around the incident appallingly – as mentioned by my colleague Colm O'Callaghan in an earlier blog post. Ironically, perhaps the biggest PR gain from the ordeal was being forced to open up its live feed from the remotely operated vehicles.

Since then, BP has built an entire web site around the "initiative." Whether you are of the conspiracy bent and think it is all a cover up, or a believer that the spill footage is accurate, the hit rate on BP's and other sites, says a lot about people's desire to know – a quick Google search finds 9 million pages of "BP live feed" and YouTube users have created a further 1600 entries (admittedly many of them are from people with "proof" of the conspiracy.)

Perhaps the interest stems from BP's initial closed-lip policy, which left most wondering what they were trying to hide. Perhaps the chance to see for themselves, rather than rely on the corporate spin machine, was the motivation. As one blogger, Amy Judd summed it up in mid-July: "Many are looking at the live feed link to make sure no oil can be seen leaking in to the water."

Interestingly, once the feed was in the public domain, the online backlash against BP started to turn (well, a little bit). Instead of blanket condemnation, commentators started talking about the "extraordinary" lengths BP was taking. Public comments in response to CNN and BBC articles moved from indignant outrage at the corporate machine to cautious optimism that a solution was just around the corner.

Obviously, this will not counteract the bad publicity around the world's worst oil spill, but it has certainly put a "cap" on it.

A similar phenomenon was seen during the height of the Iceland volcano eruptions. PR was obviously not an issue here – I don't think the volcano was overly concerned about public backlash – but there was a similar amount of gloom and doom in the opening days; travelers stranded, airlines losing massive revenue, tourism destroyed, whole economies suffering.

But with the ash cloud on again/off again, people turned to the live feed from the volcano itself for "accurate" information. One friend traveling from the UK told me she checked the footage herself the morning of the flight to decide whether it was worth making the taxi ride to the airport.

Link: the original live feed site (obviously without a feed now). It's worth making the journey just to play the Volcanic Airways game!

Michelle Walkden

Communications consultant

So, who’s JG Communication? We’re Sweden’s largest and, we think, ‘leading’ communications agency in Sweden. We help our clients have conversations with the people that matter most to them using the tools that matter most to us, words, sound and vision


Andra bloggar om: kommunikation, företagskommunikation

Elefantspaning

Apple rapporteras ha sålt 1,7 miljoner iPhone 4 på bara tre dagar när den efterlängtade luren släpptes förra veckan. Men det har inte varit problemfritt - beroende på hur man håller telefonen kan täckningen gå förlorad och nu spekuleras det om masstämning i USA. Det är i sammanhanget tveksamt om Steve Jobs uppmaning att hålla telefonen rätt kommer att få någon effekt...

Facebook må kännas som en standard i vår del av världen, men i exempelvis Sydamerika och Asien är det helt andra sociala nätverk som regerar. Men därmed tänker icke Facebook låta sig nöja utan satsar offensivt på bland annat Asien. Ett led i satsningen är etablerandet av ett kontor i Hyderabad, Indien, där 500 personer är tänkta att jobba.

En annan av elefanterna är Google, företaget som ju hotade lämna Kina i våras - bland annat efter anklagelser om cyberattacker mot företaget. Nu verkar det som att Google ändrar sig - om det är krassa ekonomiska motiv eller andra som ligger bakom är okänt.

Att Google upplevt Facebook som ett hot råder det inget tvivel om. Lanseringen av Google Wave och Buzz var försök att flytta in på Facebooks planhalva, men nu kommer rykten om en mer helhjärtad satsning från Googles sida.

Tallink kvalar kanske inte in i elefant-klassen, men BP gör det definitivt. Dagens Tallink-annons i bland annat Metro skojar förstås med Carl-Henric Svanbergs numer berömda uttalande och i mitt tycke är det i all stillhet lite roligt. Bilden är lånad från resume.se för övrigt.





Andreas Andersson

Andreas Andersson är kommunikationskonsult på JG Communication, och arbetar främst med affärsutveckling och kundrelationer.

JG Communication är Sveriges största och, tycker vi, ledande kommunikationsbyrå. Vi hjälper våra kunder att skapa relevant dialog med de som betyder mest för dem. Vi gör det genom att använda de verktyg som betyder mest för oss: ord, ljud och bild.


Andra bloggar om: kommunikation, företagskommunikation

I care about the small people too

Could the media handling of the BP oil spill get worse?

Most media-management and crisis management books (particularly in the US) highlight the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill as a textbook example of how not to do it. For twenty years media schools have been telling their students that when a crisis hits ignore the lawyers because the lawyers in the US are scared of litigation and will recommend silence as the best response.

But of course it's actually the worst response so the media books will tell you to acknowledge the problem, apologize immediately, admit fault and show that you're doing everything you can to fix it.

When the Exxon Valdez oil tanker ran aground in 1989 spilling thousands of barrels of oil into Prince William Sound, the company was criticized for doing too little, too late. The measures being taken were shown not to be working and the Chairman of Exxon was noticeably absent from the media during the crisis.

Sounds familiar? Add to the fact that in today's environment people talk with more people in more places and at a frenetic pace.

BP's chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg usually does a pretty good job when he's handling the media but the "we care about the small people," quote is going to haunt him and I'm not really sure that the 'lost in translation' excuse was so good either. A direct translation into Swedish would not be suitable for a Swedish audience either.

And during all this time, more than 5 million people have been watching this recently released parody on YouTube and a mash-up has been done which shows you how the oil spill would affect your part of the world.

If it was imperative to ignore the lawyers, admit fault, be visible and act immediately back in 1989, then the need for acting fast in 2010 is business critical.

The BP Communications team has a big job ahead. The spill alone was a PR disaster. The handling itself is now turning into another one. Ideas anyone?

Colm O'Callaghan is JG Communication’s Head of Operations so when he’s not blogging he’s looking after the day to day business at this wonderful communicaitons agency.
So, who’s JG Communication? We’re Sweden’s largest and, we think, ‘leading’ communications agency in Sweden. We help our clients have conversations with the people that matter most to them using the tools that matter most to us, words, sound and vision.



Andra bloggar om: kommunikation, företagskommunikation