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How to talk to media without getting hurt
Posted by WATATAWA on February 1, 2012
A recent blog, entitled “Your PR Efforts May Be Hurting You,” has sparked a bit of a firestorm since it appeared on the Harvard Business Review website.
The writer, former Chicago Tribune columnist Alex Goldfayn, had three basic criticisms about the type of media relations work he’s seen done by many communications consultancies.
One, that it’s a numbers game rather than a relationship initiative and that many firms think they are doing their job simply by blasting out press releases. Two, that most press releases are terrible and should never have been written or released. And, three, that many public relations professionals don’t represent their clients effectively because media relations works is generally seen as thankless “arms and legs” work; hence it is often assigned to junior personnel.
Goldfayn is not alone in his views. They are frequently echoed in interviews that Gorkana, the British PR industry website, conducts with journalists.
If only Europe could match Korea’s “gold standard”
Posted by WATATAWA on December 14, 2011
By Bill Rylance, WATATAWA Founder & CEO
A lot of ideas and opinions are flying around as the Euro zone seeks a solution to its sovereign debt crisis. One that really caught my eye was from a former IMF chief economist who wondered if there were lessons Europe could learn from Korea’s response to the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
Sadly I don’t think there are. Or at least the lessons are there but the disparate Europeans are neither structurally nor emotionally equipped to follow them.
I was living in Korea in 1997 and, indeed, our firm was retained by the government to manage a sovereign communications program. The world had often seen images of apparent polarisation when demonstrators and riot police fought pitched battles over many issues — but when the country faced its worst crisis since the Korean War, it put on an astonishing show of national unity.
Housewives lined up to donate their gold jewelry, including even their wedding rings, to help bolster the country’s reserves and pay off foreign debts. The country initiated a national job-sharing program to prevent unemployment from rising sharply. Those who did lose their jobs were served discount noodles by shopkeepers.
Wall St: It’s what you do not what you say
Posted by WATATAWA on November 1, 2011
A recent cartoon in the International Herald Tribune showed two bankers in a tumbrel being paraded through an angry crowd on Wall Street. One is on his mobile phone saying: “Morning Madge. Could you connect me with the public relations department please?”
In reality, bankers are not being led to the guillotine (yet) — but it is clear that the Occupy Wall Street movement presents the financial industry with its biggest public relations challenge since the global financial crisis erupted in 2008. And like most PR challenges, what is required is a tangible response.
In some respects, it’s surprising that such street demonstrations have not occurred sooner given the multiple instances of mismanagement and greed that have been exposed over the last three years, even as financial institutions were being rescued with taxpayer money and bankers continued to collect large bonuses. News of lavish birthday bashes by senior bankers in such financial hubs as New York and Hong Kong, along with other signs of the return of corporate excess, have not helped the industry’s image.