Chinese ‘junk’ car industry in need of PR help June 4, 2008
Posted by paulprdixon in : Crisis Communications, Media Focus, PR in the PRC , add a commentIn April Beijing welcomed the world to its international Auto Show; a show where Chinese models - of the breathing kind - drew more admiration from western visitors than what local manufacturers had to offer with four wheels.
The Chinese auto industry’s often charismatic CEOs vociferously state international aspirations to sell cars from Gettysburg to Greenwich, but one has to wonder how they are going to achieve this when its high-end brands, such as Brilliance, spectacularly fail North American and European safety tests. Brilliance’s head-on collision with six feet of concrete was so bad that the video made its way onto YouTube (below) for car aficionados - and potential buyers - to mock. The fact Brilliance aptly names its range as the ‘BS’ series only added to the fodder, proving, if proof were needed, that Chinese companies going global have a lot to learn about branding.
Below: Briliance’s ‘BS’ series spectacularly fails crash test
As far as the perception of Chinese cars goes in the West, the theme du jour is one of safety. Consumers don’t care how cheap a Chinese car branded ‘Great Wall’ is when the name seems to originate from the wall that crumpled it in a crash test. And the western media lap it up, with headlines ranging from Chinese cars not too crash hot to Crash Course in Quality for Chinese Cars. (more…)
No 10 Embraces Digital PR May 5, 2008
Posted by paulprdixon in : PR in the UK, PRandom , add a commentBritish Prime Minister Gordon Brown took a hammering in the UK local elections last Thursday. Not only was it the Labour Party’s worst performance in over 40 years, the eccentric Conservative Party candidate and former editor of The Spectator, Boris Johnston, was victorious in his campaign to be elected as London Mayor.
‘The multitudes have spoken,’ proclaimed the former Etonian in his victory speech. And from within Brown’s inner-circle, a Labour cabinet member said: ‘We have been given an almighty yellow card with bright red lights flashing at the edges.’ A bit of a strange quotable-quote that one. Perhaps the cabinet member (on the tail-end of an election all-nighter) was supposed to say that Brown better sort the mess out before the UK electorate reaches for the red card.
But even if Labour does get the red card in the next general election, one cannot say it’s because Downing Street hasn’t been playing its PR card effectively. (more…)
Putting The PR Into F1 March 20, 2008
Posted by paulprdixon in : PRandom, Sport PR , add a commentAs some of you know, I have been a big F1 fan since I was young lad. So when my article, “Putting The PR Into F1″, was published this week in the features section of leading F1 news portal, PlanetF1, you can imagine I was pretty happy.
To read the story, click below. Cheers.
Thaksin: A Football Crazy PR Pro March 14, 2008
Posted by paulprdixon in : PR in the UK, PRandom , add a comment* This post was originally written for ‘Off The Record’ - AC Capital Strategic Public Relations’ blog
Thaksin Shinawatra - the deposed Thai Prime Minister - is not someone I particularly like. Ask any fellow Manchester United aficionado if they agree and your answer will be a definitive yes; following the telecoms tycoon’s ousting in a 2006 military coup he decided to throw his Baht at Manchester United’s local rival, Manchester City. And then he recruited former England manager Sven Goran-Eriksson, who has done a fantastic job, as team manager.
The Thai and the Swede share a turn-around in fortunes. Where one has recently returned to Thailand (kissing the Bangkok tarmac on his arrival) with the blessing of the newly elected Prime Minister from the pro-Thaksin People’s Power Party, the other (also deposed from office) has undergone a transformation himself, at least on the football field.
But this is where the similarities end. ‘Slippery Sven’ made himself tabloid-fodder (and still is) during his tumultuous England reign for scoring off-the-field more than on it. Thaksin, on the other hand, has been described as a ‘PR genius’. I don’t like what Thaksin has achieved at Manchester City. But with my PR hat on, I agree that this guy is in the Champions League spot when it comes to public relations
His record, home and away, is outstanding. Effectively harnessing the media to build his power base amongst the villages and factories, Thaksin’s successful populist campaign propelled him to victory in the 2002 Thai elections. Known to have a hat-trick of quotable quotes up his sleeve, in 2007 the ousted Thai PM famously told CNN: “I don’t believe that this can happen again in the 21st century”. In the British media almost all his photos show a goal-post-wide smiling Thaksin proudly wearing the famous sky-blue Manchester City scarf.
And now back in Thailand, he is using Manchester City as an effective tool to prop up his own image in a country which shows live Premier League games in its cinemas. On his return home a few weeks ago, not only did Thaksin kiss the tarmac in front of the assembled press, flanking him were two Manchester City players here ‘to coach Thai children’. This is PR PHD stuff.
But Thaksin does have his PR critics and has been accused of failing PR 101: to communicate effectively with all your key audiences whilst being consistent to your brand i.e. don’t lie and make promises you can’t keep. But the guy isn’t a John Rendon, Thaksin is a politician and politicians don’t always care about passing their PR mid-terms.
Now back in Thailand and ostensibly claiming that he is done with politics, Thaksin faces corruption charges; but it’s a formality that he will be cleared. Critics fear that his return is a calculated step towards regaining power. From a PR perspective, this certainly seems the case; he knows more than most that perception management is a key facet in his political rehabilitation.
As for the somewhat rehabilitated ‘Slippery Sven’, he will be hoping some more of Thaksin’s billions of Baht will be coming Manchester City’s way. I however will be hoping that Thaksin takes his eye off the football for a while, and be spared the laughable ‘Blues can dominate the world’ headlines that have become ubiquitous in local Manchester media over the last year. Come on You Reds.
Beijing Olympics: Clooney sets Omega Alarm Bells Ringing March 12, 2008
Posted by paulprdixon in : Crisis Communications, Media Focus, PR in the PRC , 1 comment so farGeorge Clooney, the Hollywood superstar turned celebrity diplomat for the day, is making the headlines for pressuring Omega – a Beijing Olympics sponsor – to speak out about China’s willingness to exchange crates of weapons for barrels of Sudanese oil regardless of the Darfur genocide.
All cheers, but for how long?
Clooney, who is on Omega’s celebrity endorsement list, set the watchmaker’s alarm bells ringing by stating to the BBC: “I have talked with Omega (about China) for over a year and will continue to talk to Omega. I have and will go to the places I and China do business and ask for help.”
Omega, part of Switzerland’s Swatch Group, demonstrated its timekeeping and communications credentials with a fast and effective response; clearly Omega (whose logo appears on Beijing’s Olympic countdown clock in Tiananmen Square) is doing its homework on the PR time-bomb ticking away as the ‘Genocide Olympics’ draws closer.
Its response, from Swatch Group chief executive Nick Hayek, delivered all the elements necessary for a successful media hose-down. As this blog has said before, employing the CAP principle (Concern, Action, and Perspective) is what gets you out of trouble with the media – not a provocative hand in the camera accompanied by a ‘no comment’ that seems to work so well in Hollywood movies. (more…)
Embrace social media for effective crisis management March 3, 2008
Posted by paulprdixon in : Crisis Communications , add a comment* This post was originally written for ‘Off The Record’ - AC Capital Strategic Public Relations’ blog
For effective crisis management, companies and organizations susceptible to crises involving human injury and loss of life should have already set-up a ‘dark site’ - a previously hidden page displaying key contact information for relatives and friends of the victims and to provide key data and information to the media. A dark site should be set up so that it can be made instantly available when a crisis strikes.
Last month, I was saddened to learn that a Venezuelan passenger plane, operated by local carrier Santa Barbara Airlines, slammed into a steep mountainside in the Andes - killing all 46 people on board.
With my PR hat on, I visited the Santa Barbara Airlines’ website curious to see if the Venezuelan airline was running a sophisticated crisis communications response – at least in terms of using the Internet as a tool in crisis management.
As the page loaded, I didn’t see a holding statement or contact number; instead my eyes saw an image of a snow-capped mountain with the slogan, “Tenerife is even closer too”, wrapped around its peaks. Geography lesson: Venezuela is as mountainous as Holland is flat. And at Merida airport, where the plane took off from before crashing, pilots are specially trained how to navigate through the local
Andes terrain. (more…)
Darfur: China’s sophisticated, and not so sophisticated PR Strategy February 15, 2008
Posted by paulprdixon in : Crisis Communications, PR in the PRC , add a commentStephen Spielberg has been making the headlines this week over his decision to quit as an artistic advisor to the Beijing Olympics. The multi-award winning director announced his decision on Tuesday, after almost a year of unsuccessfully prodding China to do more in ending Sudan’s attacks in the Darfur region.
Prodding not having the desired effect on Hu Jintao, Spielberg delivered a hammer blow to Beijing through the public way he announced his decision – forcing the Chinese government to respond on an issue it doesn’t want to talk about.
I don’t recommend wearing the T-shirt in Tiananmen Square
By Wednesday, a spokesperson at the Chinese Embassy in Washington said, “As the Darfur issue is neither an internal issue of China nor is it caused by China, it is completely unreasonable, irresponsible and unfair to link the two as one.” But as the International Herald Tribune notes, Beijing had yet to respond to requests for comment on Spielberg’s decision.
On Thursday, after a long night in Zhong Nan Hai (China’s White House meets Camp David and planted in the center of Beijing) crafting its response, Beijing did make comment. And it was actually pretty good; if today’s front page of English language government mouthpiece - the China Daily – is anything to go by.
Western media reporting on China IPR issues skewed February 15, 2008
Posted by paulprdixon in : PR in the PRC , add a commentMy employer, AC Capital Strategic Public Relations, recently launched it’s re-vamped blog: Off The Record.
Focusing on China more specifically, it offers a great insight into PR and media relations in the world’s fastest growing economy, so please visit the blog and see what’s being posted by ACC’s team whenever you can.
Below is the beginning of an article I wrote, titled: Western media reporting on China IPR issues skewed. Shamelessly hoping to direct traffic to our new blog and raise awareness, to read the full post please click here. Cheers.
A Beijing court has ruled in favour of international auction house Sotheby’s in a trademark-infringement case after a Chinese auction company used the same name in Chinese.
Home Secretary discovers how not to use quotable quotes January 22, 2008
Posted by paulprdixon in : Media Focus, PR in the UK , add a commentFear and kebabs on the streets of Peckham, a deprived area of south London, was the message that came out from Jacqui Smith earlier this week – not the best communications from a Home Secretary tasked with sorting out the hoody-hoodlums reaping havoc, and even death, on Britain’s streets.
Jacqui Smith - From Blair’s Babe to Brown’s Trumpet
Being brought up in Stockport I know all about the hoodies. During Christmas, the local Conservative (Liberal Democrats hold Stockport) opposition described the passageway from the train station to the A6 as: “A canyon of despair”, a decent quotable quote for the local papers to feed off – which they did.
The quotable quote - of the self-destructive kind - Jacqui Smith let slip in an interview with Isabel Oakeshott, Deputy Political Editor for the Sunday Times, read: “I won’t walk down a street alone at night”; the headline reading exactly the same as the quote.
But the situation was to worsen for the Home Secretary. Hours after the interview, realising Smith had just loaded a powerful firearm – with NEWS CORP delicately engraved into its sides - office aides initiated a desperate spin operation with claims that her words did not come out as intended. The aide then attempted to rebut Smith’s assertion by claiming that she had recently “bought a kebab in Peckham”; music to a smiling Oakeshott’s ears, she duly included this desperate attempt in her article.
The Jacqui Smith debacle is completed with a week that has begun with some serious negative coverage on the blogs (mine), in the magazines and published in the newspapers. The Spectator says, “Our defeatist Home Secretary”; the Guardian leads how I lead: “Fear and kebabs on the streets of Peckham”.
You do have to wonder why she took this pre-arranged interview in the first place. A quick Google search reveals a website which tracks the stories UK journalists are writing – and it seems Isabel Oakeshott hasn’t written a positive piece for quite some time. If the interview had to go ahead, then her communications aides – who haven’t exactly proved their value throughout this debacle – are also, like Smith, in need of some media training in 2008.
Scouts: We’re PRepared January 14, 2008
Posted by paulprdixon in : PR in the UK, PRandom , 2commentsThis week my “Public Relations” Google alert set alight in a way Baden Powell could have never foreseen when he decided that making fire with kindling best prepares a boy for a man’s life.
From the broadsheets (UK’s Daily Telegraph) to the red-tops (UK’s Mirror Newspaper), and doing the rounds on the blogs, the Scout Association has scored some substantial media coverage through announcing a new “PR Badge”. The new PR award is one of 42 unveiled in a major update of the Association’s merit badges.
The Scout’s New Chief Spokesboy
The Telegraph calls them “Woggle-wearing spin-doctors”; the Mirror sees it as “only fair to warn you not to panic when you first see one {a Boy Scout} wearing a PR Badge - a profession well-known for spinning the truth.”
But I am sure the Scout Association will settle for bit of tongue-in-cheek from the media when its key messages came through so clearly (and with the images of the new badges). We now know that – amongst 200 badges - Scout’s will also be able to earn badges in skateboarding, BMXing and rollerblading. We were reminded that the movement last year celebrated its centenary when 40,000 scouts from around the world joined a massive jamboree in the
UK. And we were informed that “Scouting is more relevant today than it ever has been over the last 100 years because it gives young people the opportunity to experience things they otherwise would not have the opportunity to do.”
As a former Scout – and now working in PR – it would be nice to roll back the years and earn my PR badge. But that’s not say I didn’t appreciate learning how to chop wood and tie a sheepshank. I was happy to read yet another key message come through in the media: “Purists have not been forgotten with new badges for Map Reading, Hiking and Emergency Aid.”
Let’s hope this jamboree of press coverage helps fuel the on-going resurgence in Scouting. We might also see a few more men working in the industry in the years that come.