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…)
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…)
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.
Brown got Carter, I got to learn about FPR January 11, 2008
Posted by paulprdixon in : Career Focus, Media Focus, PR in the UK, PRandom , add a commentYou know what it was like when you learnt to drive. Fellow learners were suddenly everywhere, often to your annoyance in flashier, faster cars than the aptly named 0-60 in 60 seconds Nissan Micra you somehow got lumbered with. At least that’s what happened with me. And it’s the same with PR – you begin working with a new client, and then, out of the blue, there is the client’s logo, the client’s product, as you go about your life outside the office. It’s relentless and is only replaced when you start, as I like to say, ‘entering the zone’, with the next client.
Over a festive dinner with my twin sister and her fiancée the seeds were planted for a similar experience. They told me their friend works in Brunswick’s New York office and would be interested in hearing about my life in Beijing. I had never heard of Brunswick. At that point I was dying to get onto Google and begin delving into a corner of the PR world I had yet to enter: Financial PR.
So I did. But not before I came back to Beijing last week – adhering to a rule I set for my own ‘12 days of Christmas’ back in the UK: No ‘electronic’ information. For 12 days I was all about the British newspapers – in print. And it felt great, washing the ink off the tips of my fingers after my early morning read, and walk with the dog to the local newsagent, was, weirdly, a joy.
Being back in Beijing means I am more likely to have sore eyes rather than darkened finger tips; my eyes are already glued to blogs, vlogs, wikis and of course the on-line editions of the same British newspapers I read during my 12 days of Christmas back in the UK.
Before I even had the chance to Google Brunswick, the name was already appearing thanks to Gordon Brown appointing Brunswick’s now former Chief Executive, Stephen Carter, as his new ‘Chief advisor chief of strategy and principal adviser to the Prime Minister’, i.e. Spinbuster. And I have since learnt that Brunswick’s founder, Alan Parker - described as the ‘great conduit’ between Whitehall and the City - played a pivotal role in developing the financial PR industry into what we see today.
Brown watched Get Carter on Boxing Day
I hope in 2008 I will continue to learn more about PR through being inquisitive and curious about the PR world outside of my client work. Though I am not that sad, being able to return home on a wintry Beijing evening without seeing a client’s advertisement pasted in my apartment building’s elevator, as is the case now, would be nice…
Capello to see red from the tabloids December 19, 2007
Posted by paulprdixon in : Media Focus, PR in the UK, PRandom , add a commentOn the pitch, the imperious Fabio Capello will have to get England dribbling its way back to the dizzying heights last seen in ‘66. Off the pitch, the 61 year old Roman general will have to contend with a British tabloid press that has its own way of unleashing hell.
The British broadsheets are somewhat more forgiving and tend not to plaster their front pages with turnip heads (The Sun, Graham Taylor), or with “Wally in the brolly” headlines like the one found more recently in the dying moments of the last England manager’s tumultuous reign (Daily Mail, Steve McClaren). Instead, the broadsheets all decided this week to discuss the wounds Capello is likely to suffer in the merciless hands of the red-tops – and his best line of defense against them (nothing to do with four at the back of course).
Capello’s key message to the tabloids in 2010? 
First blood has been drawn. The Sun is already lambasting the latest
England manager’s command of the English language – mocking him for saying “honou-ra-ra-ble” - in what was his first English sentence during this week’s press conference at the Royal Lancaster Hotel. (more…)
‘PR isn’t rocket science, but it is’ November 30, 2007
Posted by paulprdixon in : Media Focus, PR in the PRC , add a commentOriginally posted on 11 September 2007
Newly appointed Chinese Health Minister, Chen Zhu, whilst concluding his media debut last week received a rare round of applause from the assembled journalists. Lauded as being part of a new generation of media-savvy Chinese leaders, the minister has received praise that includes his avoidance of using ‘no comment’. Instead, questions were met with a warm smile and a gentle persona.
For a journalist looking for a story, not necessarily a negative one, there is nothing more frustrating than hearing a ‘no comment’. For PR folks, it is equally disappointing when opportune moments present themselves for key messages to be delivered – only for them to be wasted. ‘Was not available for comment’ changes a story with the potential to be positive into one that leaves the negative image of a tall well-dressed faceless man, when confronted by a reporter armed with a voice recorder, swiftly making a bee-line for the revolving-door.