Boycotts, public outcry, and a tarnished reputation - some of the lasting side-effects of one of the worst oil spills in history. Despite having significant resources, BP has made one crisis communications mistake after another. Could it happen to you if a major disaster were to derail your best-laid plans? Dr. Robert Chandler, renowned crisis communication expert, dissects the missteps of BP's messaging and tell us how to avoid a guilty verdict in the court of public opinion.

1. BP: What NOT to Do
When the World is Watching
Robert Chandler, PhD
Director, Nicholson School of Communication
University of Central Florida

2. About Everbridge
• Leader in incident notification
systems
• Fast-growing global company
with more than 1,000 clients in
more than 100 countries
• Serve the Global 2000, federal
government organizations,
healthcare systems, state and
local government, military,
financial services firms, and
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• 100% focused on incident
notification solutions that merge
technology and expertise
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3. Agenda
Part 1: Presentation
• Crisis communications mistakes and missteps
• What to say to mitigate public outcry during a crisis
• How to clean up your reputation after a crisis
Part 2: Q&A

4. Q&A Slides are currently
available to everyone on
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5. Bracing for the 2010
Hurricane Season to Do
BP: What NOT
When the World is Watching
Dr. Robert Chandler
University of Central Florida

6. No one is worried about braking anymore…

7. Toyota’s braking woes quickly subsided as Tony Hayward
and the BP crisis captured our attention 3 months ago

8. The oil spill timeline

9. A timeline of mistakes

10. What not to do:
BP’s lessons learned
• Don’t take too long to respond to the crisis
• Do not shift the blame – take/accept responsibility
• Actions should fulfill promises made
• Don’t drag your feet
• Don’t make unrealistic promises
• Don’t lose sight of your audience and critics
• Don’t fail to understand all facets of the situation

11. Advance planning
• All too frequently, there is a lack of adequate advance
planning and preparedness to communicate effective
messages – or even understanding that various types of
message options exist.
• Most managers have little training in what to say to best
protect their image or help repair it when it has been
tarnished.

12. Script out your communication beforehand
There is no substitute for carefully preparing communication in a crisis
to prevent the blunders and missteps we have seen with BP
• Prepare messaging in advance
• Focus on a set of key messages that need to be delivered
• Each phase of the crisis should be well scripted and practiced
• Keep comments respectful to all parties involved
• If you expect to speak in front of a camera, practice beforehand
• Avoid sounding scripted
• You will be more comfortable when unexpected events occur
“There’s no one who wants this thing
over more than I do. I’d like my life back.”
- Tony Hayward, CEO, BP

13. Don’t stray from your plan
Practice your crisis communication plan early and often to
prevent swaying from key messaging. In two distinct instances,
Hayward’s message has contradicted BP’s oil spill disaster plan.
• Media statement: Promised that BP would clean up every
drop of oil and “restore the shoreline to its original state”.
• National TV commercial: Pledges "We will make this right.”
"No statement shall be made containing any of
the following: promises that property, ecology
or anything else will be restored to normal."
-BP’s oil disaster plan
filed with the federal government in 2009

14. Every stage of the crisis dictates your audience’s
information requirements and your response
BP

15. Stage 4: Management
• The crisis either moves toward resolution or gets worse with
deepening layers of complexity.
• Organizations must provide regular status updates to their various
audiences, change or add to previous instructions, control rumors,
and conference with leadership and responder teams.
• Course-correction may be needed to respond to changes in the
situation.

16. Stage 5: Resolution
• The crisis has been resolved and is drawing to conclusion.
• Communicate resolution in the form of all-clear alerts and
messages of reassurance.
• Recall or demobilize emergency response or management
protocols and procedures.
• Change (transfer) of command authority or structure.
• Indicate status of return to “normalcy”.
• Indicate transition to “recovery”.
• Provide closure.

17. Stage 6: Recovery
• Convert this turning point into opportunity.
• Revolve all communication around post-crisis counseling
and return to pre-crisis policies and operations.
• Offer relief, celebration, and acknowledgement for getting
through the crisis.
• Evaluate, modify, and execute planned recovery strategies.
• Examine damages, losses, and costs.
• Acknowledge any shortcomings and how they will be
rectified in the future.

18. Deliver messages the right way
BP’s lessons learned
• Speak clearly, simply, and calmly.
• Convey compassion, conviction, and optimism.
• Recognize and acknowledge anger, frustration, fear,
outrage, or concern.
• Indicate that you genuinely share your audience’s
concerns.
• Provide 3 or more positive points to counter negative
information.
• Gain trust by admitting there are things you don’t know.
• Accept and involve the public and the media as
legitimate partners.

19. Responding to rumors and inaccuracies
• Move quickly to correct. • If a rumor is confined to a small
• Keep the level of response audience—correct it within that
appropriate to the level of the group, don’t create a major public
problem. event.
• Overreacting to an isolated • If a rumor is widely known and
mistake attracts attention to the spreading—move aggressively
problem you’re trying to correct. and publicly to correct it.
• Under-reacting to widely reported • When squelching a rumor,
information that is not correct will anticipate how the rumor might
compound the error.
evolve in response to your efforts.
• Be careful that your comments Be as thorough as you can in
don’t leave the wrong impression closing off avenues for future
and that they are not open to rumors.
interpretation.

20. BP’s reputation repair
BP should take these steps immediately to repair
its stained reputation:
• Bolstering
• Mitigation efforts
• Speed up compensation efforts
• Take immediate corrective action
• Take responsibility – make a public apology
for the entire situation

21. The basics of reputation repair
• Companies can (and will) be faulted or blamed for various
crises and disasters.
• In some cases, this threat to reputation and brand pose far greater
risks than the physical catastrophes.
• In every critical situation, image and brand management are
increasingly important in the wake of dollars lost due to reputation
and brand erosion as well as declining stakeholder confidence due
to such scandals.

22. The basics of reputation repair
Communication activities involved in responding to a reputation-
damaging crisis include determining:
• Optimal timing
• Message or thematic priorities
• Specific messages to be conveyed to the public and media
• Specific messages to be conveyed to targeted individuals
• Source(s) of messages
• Priorities for communication
• Optimal delivery channels

23. Incident Notification
Linda Souza
Director of Strategic Marketing, Everbridge

24. Incident notification solutions address common
communication challenges
• Communicate quickly, easily, and • Reduce miscommunications and
efficiently with large numbers of control rumors with accurate,
people in minutes, not hours, consistent messages (3P = 1N)
making sure that information about
your disaster exercise is conveyed • Free key personnel to perform
critical tasks by automating manual,
• Use all contact paths especially time-intensive, error-prone processes
when sending crucial in-exercise
communication • Satisfy regulatory requirements
with extensive and complete reporting
• Ensure two-way communications of delivery attempts and two-way
to know what parts of your exercise acknowledgements from recipients
are working and which parts need
your attention

25. Key evaluation criteria for an
incident notification system
• Experience and expertise
• Ease of use
• Ability to reach all contact paths,
including voice, email, native SMS
(over SMPP and SMTP), IM, and more
• Ease of integration
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26. Missed anything?
Q&A Slides are currently
available on
blog.everbridge.com
Use the Q&A
function to
submit your
questions.

27. Hear more from Dr. Chandler on EBtv
Find two-minute video clips featuring Dr. Chandler on EBtv:
youtube.com/user/everbridge
Who would you
rather be: the CEO
of BP or President
Obama?

28. Communication resources
Contact information White papers, literature, case studies
everbridge.com/resources
Upcoming webinar:
Linda Souza System Demonstration - August 12
everbridge.com/webinars
linda.souza@everbridge.com
Follow us:
1-818-230-9700
blog.everbridge.com
twitter.com/everbridge
facebook.com/everbridgeinc
Robert C. Chandler, PhD youtube.com/user/everbridge
rcchandl@mail.ucf.edu
1-407-823-2683
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