News Archive
BP MUST TIDY THE GULF, AND ITS IMAGE
Publication: The News-Press
Date: Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Author: Bob Rathgeber
Company spends millions on aggressive media blitz
BP, the British-based oil company at the center of the largest oil spill to hit American waters, is using an aggressive advertising blitz and online social networking to try to patch up its image.
Half-page ads began appearing this week in newspapers from its U.S. base in Houston to up and down the coasts of Florida. The company has spent millions to sharpen its public relations image, including about $17,000 with The News-Press for ads Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
Company officials said they had spent more than $350 million, which includes cost of the immediate response, containment, relief well drilling, commitments to the Gulf Coast states and settlements, federal costs and public relations.
But, advertising and public relations experts say, it’s going to take a lot more than advertising, Tweets and Facebook postings to win back the public’s trust.
“There has been a history of safety problems and that is going to hurt,” said Otis Wragg, founder of the Miami-based Wragg & Casas public relations firm, which has an office in Bonita Springs. “But I think they have done a decent job in a totally impossible situation.
“Getting there quickly and making sure that you are on the job from day one is absolutely essential,” Wragg said, “and there is evidence that BP tried to do that.”
Tony Salt, a BP public relations spokesman, said the advertising campaign was one way the company is trying to get out the message. The company also is using social networks to tell its story.
“Twitter, Facebook,” Salt said. “We are doing what we can to keep the public informed.”
Wragg said social networking sites such as Twitter have become essential in dealing with a crisis.
“More and more clients are requiring it,” Wragg said. “It is so prolific. Millions are plugged in. It’s an audience you have to pay attention to.”
Toyota learned that earlier this year during a recall crisis.
Anti-Toyota news spread virally, thousands of tweets an hour railing against the company.
Toyota eventually captured that same crowd in a positive way, however, via a branded channel on Twitter’s TweetMeme. That service aggregated and organized Twitter conversations about Toyota.
BP, which is responsible and liable for the oil cleanup, has hired Brunswick Group, a crisis management public relations company, to get out its message.
“We’re really focused on the response and what’s going on,” BP’s executive vice president and top lobbyist David Nagel said Monday.
An early P.R. gaffe came when BP officials tried to get fishermen to sign waivers holding the company harmless from certain cleanup claims, paying them $5,000.
“We’ve assured fishermen’s associations that fishermen offering services are not required to sign a waiver. Any signed won’t be enforced,” the tweet said.
This, though, hasn’t been enough for Harlan Loeb, the U.S. director of crisis and issues management at public relations firm Edelman, which has 52 offices worldwide.
“This kind of event should clearly have been contemplated in their crisis simulations,” Loeb told Advertising Age magazine. “BP is an enormous actor in offshore drilling and exploration and the fact that this kind of event took place, while tragic and horrible, should not leave BP looking totally unprepared.”
In 2000, BP launched a “Beyond Petroleum” campaign, its mission statement for the future.
It was lauded by the P.R. industry but mocked by environmentalists who called it “greenwashing.”
Now, in the midst of this disaster, BP is using new ways to deliver its message.
Whatever the way, Wragg said, the company must make certain it communicates good information to quickly assure the public it knows it can get the job done.
“That can make or break your company,” he said.