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BP: This year saw brand giants like BP, HP and DBS steer into crisis mode and lose control. What went wrong in their disaster relief efforts and how could public relations have saved the day? Elizabeth Low reports.

Branding agency Interbrand recently announced its 2010 annual global 100 top brands. Not surprisingly, public enemy BP was nowhere on the list. (Last year it was 84.) To be fair, BP's not alone in the unofficial hall of shame. HP and Tiger Woods were also there, both with sordid sex scandals.

Locally, the Development Bank of Singapore was the black sheep this year with its nationwide

power outage of its entire IT system causing an uproar with the Singaporean public.

The bank was criiicised by The Business Times as the cause of "national embarrassment" to Singapore's ambition to be a financial hub.

Arguably, none of the above crises would have been easy to handle, but that's where good PR should have stepped in.

Gregor HaM, associate professor of

corporate communication practice at the' Singapore. Management University, says: 'A good PR professional manages the relationships between the company and its public; an excellent PR person can foresee what the public expects from the company."

Which begs the question with these suffering brands: why were they not better prepared?

Halff believes BP should have invested in good PR practices a long time ago.

"Good PR would have counselled BP for at least a decade to invest more in safety. Good PR prepares CEOs for the rules of stardom, unfair as they may be.

"Why did that not happen? Well, do you follow your dentist's advice and floss your teeth every day? The counselled need to be as willing as the counsellor."

JUST WHAT THE (SPIN) DOCTOR ORDERED The recent disasters only highlight the urgent call for good PR. Post-recession, marketers are realising the importance of this once undervalued marketing function.

In May, Oghy PR's president and CEO for APAC Steven Dahllof told Marketing Ogilvy PR was flat in operating profit in 2009, but this year had begun to rebuild with the biggest growth

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coming from China and Australia along with "Business is under huge pressure to become many other ASEAN countries. more accountable. This has three causes: a

He also forecast 10% revenue growth each year from 201 1 onwards for the next five years.

better educated public, the financial crisis ~deiman's then APAC president Alan and digital media. PR has therefore never

VandeMolen echoed the same sentiments, been in higher demand, but it has also never projecting revenue growth for his company this been more complicated. Once a company year to be 20% and a compounded organic growth of 23% in Asia in the next five years. has a name, a product pipeline and decent sales, its next

havenst besn this excited about the challenges can only be met with PR, not marketing." in a long time," Vanderfvlolen said.

He went on to predict how PR would play a much more strategic role in brand-building.

"Brands are no longer in the hands of the company anymore, but with all stakeholders. PR has the power to influence those siakeholders '

and will therefore grow its share of the marketing pie. I expect to see it taking 5-13% of the marketing spend differing in markets and across sectors."

PR FOR BRANDING Looking at the top 100 sunrey, perhaps the best example of good PR is Coca-Cola - top again for the 1 1 th consecutive year. This year its brand value increased by 2%; now worth US$70.5 million.

lnterbrand says: "Coca-Cola gets almost everything right. Its brand promise of fun, freedom, spirit and refreshment resonates

Gregor Ham - associate professor of corporate communication practice at the Singapore Management University

the world over and it excels at keeping the brand fresh and always evolving. For such a large brand, it operates quickly, flexibly and innovatively, tailoring itself to local markets without tarnishing its legacy.

"This includes different flavour profiles in each country and shrewd distribution models in fast-developing world markets (for example, carts in India). '

"It has adapted quickly to social media with 11 million fans on Facebook and 96,385 followers on Twitter as of August 2010.

"The brand is likely to face challenges as customers grow more health conscious in the coming years, and soda is increasingly taxed in the US. However, it is already thinking ahead with aggressive targeting of fast-developing

markets and programmes such as Healthy Active Living which addresses this criticism head-on."

Julian Barrans, managing director of lnterbrand Singapore, says: "Once a brand has determined the ideal positioning and strategy that will create relevant and potentially profitable differentiation in the marketplace, it must then determine how to bring that to life through customer touch-points.

'PR is able to create an important customer touch-point opportunity, whether for a B2B or B2C brand.

'The more creative the approach, the more impact and effectiveness it has as a customer touch-point opportunity.

"The people at Coke are masters at the use

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Qood relations: Good PR can help maJor brands stay Inathe @ood boob with the publk cwrm when problenur arise.

of PR and it is one of the communication tools it uses to keep the brand top of mind throughout the world."

June Kong-Dhanabalan, director of public affairs and communications at Coca-Cola Singapore, views the PR rote as not only being the link between the company and the world, but an integral role in influencing leadership and providing a "reality check" of the business and its reputation as seen by the public.

folks - come together and talk about what works best."

She talks about Coke's "Open Happiness" campaign as one example where PR in social media was used to communicate most of the components of the drive: its music, the above- the-line campaign and its "biggest sing-along" lVC recording.

Philip Ho, head of marketing at Burger King Singapore, explains why PR is vital to its brand-building process, especially in making the American brand relevant to Singaporean consumers. .

T OP 10 PUBLIC RELATIONS

Ogilvy PR

Edelrnan PuMk Relations

Hill 8 Knwlton

Weber Shandwick

Fulford PR

Bum-Marsteller

Text 1 W

Bang PR

Grayllns fleietrman-Hfllard

PR IN THE MARKETING SPACE Aside from the more dramatic issues of crisis management, Kong-Dhanabalan For the fast-food chain, 2010 marks a says on a regular basis, PR campaigns are turn in its marketing strategy bedause it is the

I closely interwoven with the overall marketing first time it has hired a PR agency. Under the I

I function at Coke. 'PR campaigns are not previous management of Bon Foods, the brand 1 conceived in isolation, they work when the in Singapore had no public relations agency or I

1 entire team - marketing, integrated marketing personnel. communications, the creative agency and PR It has signed on boutique agency Word of

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Sweet taste of success: wim rts promhe of fun, freedom, spirit and refreshment, --Cola continues to be a dominant player in the market.

M O U ~ ~ Communications on a retainer basis. 'The global BK brand personality is all about HO says he hasseen awareness about BK'S irreverence, youth and fun. We deploy PR as an

Promotions increasesincethecOmPmY started essential part of the marketing mix to establish incorporating PR into its marketing mix, although he did not reveal sales or revenue figures. and explain the 6K brand personality and

"me global BK brand personality is all its relevance to the local audience. PR is an about irreverence, youth and fun. We deploy im~ortant tool for us to create social currency PR as an essential part of the marketing mix to for the brand in Singapore." establish and explain the BK brand personaity and its relevance to the local audience. PR is an Philip Ho - head of marketing for Burger King Singapore important tool to create social currency for the brand in Singapore." asked to pose as a radio DJ on April Fool's Day have been achieved had we used radia as a

he talks about two PR campaigns BK to create buzz and interest among consumers. traditional advertising medium." carried out. The first was the "Angry Whopper" "This campaign allowed us to use radio as a The second was Bks "Wallet Drop" drive campaign in April where controversial former publicity platform which produced lots of word- in June where wallets were dropped in various Miss Singapore beauty contestant Ris Low was of-mouth around the promotion. This would not locations all over Singapore for consumers to

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"When someone claims to 'use social media for PR', it betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of social media. Wthout a clear perspective, it's impossible to be truly strategic and unfortunately many brands are engaged in a never-ending zero-sum game where they compete against -and for - numbers and results that are meaningless and pointless in the long term.

"Many brands start off well. They understand that they need to become more transparent, more honest and more engaging.

They understand that it's not about creating a perfect product, as much as it's about getting customers to co-create.

'At the foundation of social media are core philosophies that include crowd-sourcing and perpetual betas. But inevitably, internal pressures, wrong measurements, poor leadership and weak counsel from agencies will stray brands from the true course. As a result,

find and keep. This was done to promote the more. Or, while some may not be guilty of launch of BK's 'a4dablesm menu. Each wallet uncivilised social media behaviour, they may contained vouchers and coupons. simply not know what to do with social media.

Kong-Dhanabalan says one issue she sees THE SOCIAL NETWORK in the PR industry is professionals' knack of Then there is the rise of a social media letting the medium overwhelm the message, generation, which has changed the game for particularly in the realm of social media. PR. In the past, companies spoke to the public, "Having a Facebook page is not the not the other way round. destination, it is just a means of achieving

The rise of social media has arguably your goal. You also have to be able to have a given the public voice an equal footing with the conversation with your consumers once you corporate voice. open that two-way channel. You shouldn't shut

On one hand, while appearing to be a it down once someone says something you God-given opportunity which PR professionals don't like." would be silly to miss, this phenomenon is Melvin Yuan, dlrector of digital strategies at also a crucible, separating the intelligent PR Waggener Edstrom, sees PR as a strategic role professional from the wannabe. not just serving marketing goals.

The internet is rife with reports of brands He believes it is a function of management behaving badly on social media, mishandling and business leadership. In light of that, PR consumer comments on Facebook fan pages professionals looking to use social media or leaking sensitive company information and should be strategic in their goals.

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Hungry for success: Burger King uses PR to make its imprint in Singapore.

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New face of PR: Social media has seen consumers given a voice to talk about brands.

the true potential of social media is unrealised." Used correctly, social media can deliver. BK's Ho talks about how it used Facebook

for its "Wallet Drop" campaign. "We leveraged Facebook as a contact point

with our target audience, where we disseminated information and created opportunities for consumer participation and response.

"In fact, all our activities were conducted on a real-time basis, which promoted a sense of immediacy and urgency in our target audience to respond promptly to our roll out of activities.

"We enjoyed an overwhelming response and our fans grew from 1,200 in early June 2010 to more than 8,700 in July that year."

For Coke, visitors to its fan page on Facebook were invited to share a virtual Coca- Cola gift with someone. By doing so, it promised a $1 donation to the Boys and Girls Clubs of America and the gift-giver would also get a

"Having a Facebook page is not the destination, it is just a means of achieving your goal and you also have to be able to have a conversation with your consumers once you open that two-way channel. Not shut it down once someone says something that you don't like."

June Kong-Dhanabalan - director of public affairs and communications at Coca-Cola Singapore

sneak preview of its Superbowl commercial. "This helped remind people that whenever

they enjoy one of our beverages, they play a role in helping the company make a difference in the lives of others," Kong-Dhanabalan says.

Although there are more opportunities than ever for PR, the landscape has never been so tricky.

Ham outlines the challenge PR professionals have to address.

"Business is under huge pressure to become more accountable," he says.

"This has three causes: a better educated public, the financial crisis and digital media.

'PR has therefore never been in higher demand, but it has also neveF been more complicated.

"Once a company has a name, a product pipeline and decent sales, its next challenges can only be met with PR, not marketing."