Image & Reputation in the
Age of Digital Communication
Bob Pickard - July 22nd 2010

Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
A publicist pitching a journalist

Pre-modern analogue public relations
• Based on relationships with face-to-face key
• There was attention span & focused thinking
• Analogue methods were used to propagate information
• Primitive technology
• Deliberate and slow
• Text was King
• Ample time for stories
• We measured media

Sigmund Freud had
an American nephew

Bernays
has been called the
‘Father of Modern PR’

Bernays defined a PR professional as a
is like that of the industrial engineer, the
management engineer, or the investment
counselor
He said that to assist clients, public relations
counselors use and apply their understanding of
behavioral sciences such as anthropology,
history, social psychology, and sociology.

Modern digital public relations
• PR becoming more a science
• E-relationships
• Digital methods
• No attention span;
distraction is a constant
• People continuously online
• Technology massively
propagates pictures, videos
and ephemera
•
• Scant time for stories
• We measure impact

Image building demands storytelling
• The story is the most important things a company needs
to tell its target audiences...
so that
• Those people will do and think...
• ...what we want them to do or think
– know of the company
– feel favourable towards its brand
– recommend its products to others
– invest in the stock
– make positive comments online
– want to work there

THE NEW PUBLIC MIND

Communication is all in the mind

Stories tap into the unconscious mind
It is unconscious thoughts,
feelings, and desires that drive
purchasing decisions we make
each and every day of our lives
People tend to remember
products when they are woven
into the narrative of media
content
They tend not to remember
brands that play an
integral role in the story
because people can see them as

PR pros know about storytelling
• PR people spend their careers trying to convince
executives that they should invest more in
editorial media coverage of their brands in news stories
• Because people can readily identify ads when they see
them and we tend to think that ads are supposed to be
present during times and places we expect them to be
they attach less credibility to their claims.
• But if they see a product featured in a news narrative,
people are less likely to be suspicious and more likely to
visibly purchased.

The news is a story product
• The news is a product which media companies sell, and
people have attached a value to it with paid
subscriptions a tangible measure.
• News product has been produced by standards-based
journalism that is supposed to be:
– motivated by the pursuit of truth
– resourceful in the use of research
– informed by facts
– governed by standards and edited with balance
• News content is still big, but journalism getting smaller.

Decline of news story quality
• The economic basis of the traditional news media
business is crumbling, and so the quality of editorial
product is declining fast.
• As a result of lower quality, people trust media stories
less than they did before:
– there are fewer good reporters around, and not as
many exacting editors
– battles about editorial ethics versus just going with
what a company hands you for content are less
frequent
– money is the only thing that seems to matter
– now more than ever, speed trumps accuracy

Reduction of news story quantity
• Media companies have tried to make the news
more entertaining and opinionated (rise of
spectacle and sensation), and the result of this
• Therefore, there are fewer eyeballs reading a
shrinking number of trusted news media stories.
• Less signal, more noise: the supply of journalism-
grade news is shrinking; aggregated raw content
keeps expanding.

Where PR storytelling is shrinking
• a story is still
the best way for a product to get noticed...
• ...then what do PR people do if there are fewer
trusted news sources producing a reduced
number of stories that will be credible enough to
have commercial impact
coverage successfully?
• Where can PR communicate narratives if the
storytelling zone is shrinking?

Where PR storytelling is growing
Entertainment media, through
embedding brand narratives into the
Social media, through creating brand-
centric networks and creating

The new reality
Reduced trust in institutions
Governments seen as out of touch and able to exercise less control
- newspaper readership
More demanding citizens and consumers
Want to make up their own minds
organisations
Believe they have a voice, and more likely to use it
Wider range of influencers
NGOs, analysts, bloggers, etc
Spreading a wider range of news and views

Transparency

Accountability

Dialogue

Trust for those with no conflict of interest

Most trust in word-of-mouth in Asia

Source:
Millward Brown ACSR,
May 2009

THE NEW ART & SCIENCE
OF PERSUASION

Persuasion 1.0
Going back to Dale Carnegie in 1936,
we know that making people feel
important is the precursor to
persuasion
Once PR-driven interactions make
then stories are sold
as conversations
Much of this is designed with the
objective of getting people to commit
themselves in writing to a brand
online (i.e. publicly, in front of others)
“Make the other person feel
important and do it sincerely.”

Persuasion 2.0 According to Robert research,
we know that when people commit
themselves in public to something, they
themselves
-edge person
which
they will advocate to others within their
personal networks of trust Trojan
Horse-like as a credible peer
People will do and say whatever is
necessary to conform with their new
public image
PR-devised story), and to evidence
This is what Cialdini

Less signal, more noise
News content is still big, but journalism is getting
smaller
Journalism as spectacle and entertainment further
debases media credibility
Paying bloggers is not credible
Opportunity for organisations to become media owners
and communicate direct with their customers &
stakeholders
Co-creation is key

Modern means to build an image
#1 Listen & learn
#2 Be authentic & transparent
#3 Go peer-to-peer
#4 Focus on the 1%
#5 Be human
#6 Build relationships
#7 Commit for the long-term
#8 Use storytelling

Listen & learn

Go peer-to-peer

Focus on the 1%

Be human

Build relationships

Use digital storytelling

Every company a media company?
IF a declining media business can
no longer generate an ample
supply of compelling story
content...
IF, owing to its resource
constraints, media is becoming
an automated and uncritical B2C
conveyor of pre-packaged
marketing information passed to
them by PR people...
and communicate stories directly to the public.?

MINIMISING RISK &
MANAGING REPUTATION

Everything that famously goes wrong
the BP oil spill
the Toyota recall
the Tiger Woods spectacle

Not-so-new New, and growing
Food safety Customer service
Product safety Advertising claims
Greenwashing
Lay-offs/closures
Marketing conduct
Environment
Smart mobs
Human rights
Nationalism
Terrorism
Pandemics

Professionalism of NGOs & activists

Speed

A crisis starts when it hits the front page?

PRotecting reputation
#1 Corporate rhetoric must meet reality
#2 Expect the unexpected
#3 Prepare assiduously and rehearse disaster
#4 Move fast first mover advantage
#5 Be responsive and look to listen
#6 Admit mistakes and accept responsibility
#7
#8 -handed or arrogant

Be prepared to apologize sincerely!

Thank you!
Bob Pickard Talk to B-M online:
President & CEO, Asia-Pacific
Tel: +65 8126-2767
bob.pickard@bm.com
http://twitter.com/bobpickard http://www.burson-marsteller.asia