What’s Happening

Messaging around the birds and the bees

With TopTV’s CEO, Vino Govender being abruptly removed this week from office after pressure was placed on the board on TopTV’s umbrella company, On Digital Media, the fall-out of poorly handled messaging – particularly in times of a crisis - can never be underestimated.

I personally have no issue with a television channel that offers adult content. As a journalist with 27 years of experience in the mainstream print and broadcast media, I am a fervent believer in freedom of expression – a concept our government cannot seem to wrap its head around.

Anything less than freedom of expression will result in this country heading down the same slippery slope that we found ourselves in when I was a reporter in the 80's. And that is something not even worth thinking about.

There is undoubtedly a strong business case for adult content on television – whether the Mother Grundy's out there like it or not. And to create some sort of vague link between pornography and violent sexual crimes is nothing short of ridiculous. I spent years as a crime reporter interviewing some of the country's most diabolical serial killers, and not one of them ever alluded to the belief that pornography made them into what they had become.

Janine gets political on Media@SAfm!

Tune in on Sunday, 22 January at 10:30 a.m. to 104-107 FM nationwide and catch the popular Media@SAfm show with Ashraf Garda, when Janine will have lots to say about Political Communication, and how politicians communicate.

Don’t miss it: get the gab!

When the paw paw hits the fan

The magic in lazy end-of-year holidays - for me, at least - is in the simple deliciousness of being bone idle. Alarm clocks that are strictly verboten allowing for late lie-ins, scrumptious brunches and cat naps afterwards with your favourite read left half open on your happily bloated stomach.

But I have never quite been able to divorce myself entirely from what is happening around me. Newspapers are a must, as is catching up on the plethora of thriller movies I’ve spent the year meticulously recording.

What never takes a holiday are the inevitable crises that beset our troubled world, from overwhelming natural disasters to the unspeakably terrible road death toll figures, and the poignantly painful stories of people who seem to suffer more the louder the Christmas jingle bells chime.

Then there are the stories of the odd corporate hiccup and inevitable eyebrow-raising statements made – generally too late - by stand-in spokespeople who have never had the pleasure nor the pain of dealing with an interrogative reporter.

The one unfortunate incident that left a rather sour taste in my mouth was when a blind woman was chased out of McDonalds on Christmas Day because she brought her guide dog inside.

Granted the MD of the burger chain didn’t take too long to offer his grovelling apologies,pointing out that the incident took place over a busy period – but hastily adding that this served as no excuse. But clearly a worker had not been coached on why singing from the same hymn sheet as her boss is generally a good idea.

No sooner had Sanet Gouws, her mother Tienkels, and her sister, Susan Botes, sat down and ordered milkshakes at an outlet in Mayville, Pretoria, with Sanet’s two-year-old black Labrador sitting patiently to one side, when a worker became “fidgety.”

According to the family, the worker said it was against the chain’s policy to allow dogs in the restaurant and became less interested the more the blind woman explained that Grover was a guide dog.

Apparently the special harness that the guide dog had been wearing oddly didn’t provide any clues...

At some stage, a media crisis is inevitable in the life of most organisations which is why reputation management and mitigating the potential of negative publicity prior to it hitting crisis mode are fundamental strategies that all companies should have in place.

The steps and processes involved are simple and logical, yet companies still fail to manage media communications in troubled times, with the result that they come out looking far worse than they should have.

Tips of the trade

Here are a few pointers on pre-empting fiascos:

1. Be Proactive. Know what is going on in your industry

One of the most basic principles to follow in minimising media risk is to adopt a proactive approach. Companies need a forward-thinking mindset. They need to keep a close eye on trends and issues in their own industries and competitors.

Never become complacent and think that it could never happen to you.

2. The strength of your communications team makes or breaks the company

Establish the team well in advance, ensure they are well trained, and that a clear strategy is in place. This may seem obvious - but for some reason, it is rarely the case. This approach needs to start at the top with concise messages communicated right through the various channels,

Being effectively armed to manage media interest involves far more than preparing a few what the industry terms as ‘holding statements’ that ill-prepared staff have been briefed to issue to the press when the dramas begin to unfold.

Reputational management is all about balance, preparation, being open and amenable. Staff members have to be trained and skilled in this approach. Making it up as the drama unfolds is a sure way to see your shareholders abandon chips, market scandal risking the company’s future, and competitors taking advantage of the opportunity.

3. The United Divisions of Voice

Identify the right spokespeople who will be responsible for communicating with the media. This policy should be clearly communicated to all affected staff right down to the secretaries, the receptionists and the switchboard operators.

A common mistake is that companies only appoint one spokesperson to provide media statements. There should definitely be more than one well-briefed senior spokesperson from each business unit, which includes support staff members when senior spokespeople are not available.

4. To centralise or not to centralise…that is the question

Another challenge in the strategies of local companies is that communications are too centralised. Business divisions are not empowered, authorised or trained to take responsibility for their own media liaison.

The group CEO is not always available and does not always have the technical knowledge or expertise on the issue in the spotlight. If divisional staff have been well trained in media strategy, they should be able to run with the matter and not have to wait for head office to respond.

While there seems to be a trend – albeit a slow-moving one - of blue-chip companies moving to a decentralised media approach, government remains highly centralised and therefore often ineffective in their communications.

In the US and the UK, nine out of 10 executives who interface with the media, undergo intensive media training. In South Africa, there is still a noticeable communication gap in the centralised method in which the government interfaces with the media.

A decentralised approach, if managed appropriately and with risk procedures in place, can work successfully. The model of one or two very senior executives clinging onto this domain is something that must be strictly relegated to the past.

5. The power of now

While it may be impossible for a company to mitigate or neutralise all crises, the best approach is to be accessible and proactive. A company should not be evasive on an issue. The media will soon catch on to any duck-and-dive tactics. Immediately communicate the message, take the corrective steps and, if possible, use a historical and positive track record to demonstrate that this issue is the exception rather than the rule.

The fact is that someone has to speak to the media. Being unavailable, for hours or even days at a time, is simply unforgivable.

6. The Bullet Proof Vest

Interfacing effectively with the media means following some fundamental basics. Never claim ignorance and never lie. Deceit will eventually be uncovered and the reputational damage from lying to the media will be far worse than the damage resulting from the underlying issue itself. Never make sweeping or unsubstantiated comments.

Once you say something, it’s out there and can’t be taken back.

It stands to reason then that I’m strongly in favour of a strategy of intensive media training for staff in the firing line. You can get two extremes in a company: those officials who are terrified of the media and so come across as push-overs, and those who believe they can easily deal with the crisis and as a result, come across as aggressive, overly confident and condescending. Neither approach works.

7. “Fat-Free” Reputation Success

A ‘fat-free’ approach to communications is vital to successful communication. Less is more. People should know when to stop communicating.

Investment in credible Media Training ensures that your communication teams and spokespeople are prepared and comfortable enough to make their words count and effectively manage media engagement.

Spokespeople are a brand extension of the company. How they present themselves is a direct indication of the strength or weakness of the company. Media training may be the best investment your budget has ever offered return on.

Communication Cop-out

The 17^th United Nations conference on climate change is coming to an end in Durban, with arguments having been thrashed out to breaking point around the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

But against the backdrop of successful negotiations that took place in Mexico last year, what has COP17 really meant to the man on the South African street?

People at the annual conference have used just about anything to get their message across – from a rich array of T-shirts, to multi-coloured buttons and stickers and a motley of posters. Evocative statements have been made with fashionable tees in support of the Kyoto Protocol, humungous ice blocks slowly melting, and with a bevy of fliers calling out to go green and save the planet.

During a writing skills course I’ve been facilitating this week for government and corporate communicators, one of the delegates present made a moot observation – made more startling by the fact that she works for the Department of Environmental Affairs: Go outside, she said, and ask anyone walking down the street if they know about the conference and what it actually means to them.

We all sadly know what the answer is. And even given the fact we may understand the serious impact climate change has on health, natural resources, infrastructure and food production, has President Jacob Zuma’s message to “save tomorrow today” been relayed in a context that is accessible to all South Africans?

It’s a frightening fact that carbon pollution reached record levels last year, that thousands of people die each day due to climate induced disasters, and that if a deal at COP17 isn’t reached, climate change could destroy two thirds of farmland in Africa.

But are these facts communicated in news people can use?

So much money has been spent on the hosting of this mammoth event, but so little has been done to convey its aims and objectives in a user-friendly manner. The question that should have been asked before thousands of people descended on our shores is what it means to us.

Most communiqués advocate for more action – but sadly, not much more than that. Advocacy, stakeholder mobilization, capacity building and knowledge sharing sounds all very noble, but if your audience doesn’t get it, your message hasn’t successfully served its purpose.

Tips of the trade

While on the subject of COP17 and conference messages that make sense to the man in the street, try banning the following tired words and phrases from your communication:

• Synergy

A synergy occurs when two or more parties are greater than the sum of its parts. Find a new word. Please.

• Thinking outside the box

This knackered phrase needs to die a terrible death.

• For all intents and purposes

Do you mean in a practical sense? Then say so.

• Literally

Literally means word for word, or without exaggeration. So why use it if you really mean something?

• Leverage

Business speak is peppered with the word leverage in lieu of use or benefit from. That’s not what leverage means. Use it properly - or not at all.

• Real-time

Real-time was a groovy concept a decade ago. It just isn’t cool anymore.

• Nice

Nice is about as blah as adjectives get. Don’t use it. Ever.

On Janine’s Mind

It’s not often that I find newspaper headlines that grab my attention. More often than not, they don’t live up to the stories beneath them. So when I saw a postage stamp-sized article tucked at the bottom of a page headlined: ‘Dog shoots man,’ I immediately stopped what I was doing to read it.

Turns out that a bird hunter was shot in the rear end after his dog stepped on a shotgun laid across the bow of a boat. The 46-year-old Utah man was duck hunting when he climbed out of his boat to move decoys. The man’s dog inadvertently stepped on his owner’s 12-guage shotgun, causing it to fire 27 pellets of birdshot straight into Potter’s buttocks.

Why do I hear the sound of ducks chortling with glee…??

It's only a kiss

Never has a kiss achieved more media coverage than when Rhett Butler locked lips with Scarlett O’Hara as he swept her up the stairs in Gone with the Wind. But the manipulated images of world leaders locked in passionate embraces, conjured up by Italian fashion firm Benetton, wins all kissing contests hands down.

Over the top or not, the controversial Unhate advertising campaign featuring Pope Benedict XV1 kissing Sheikh Ahmed Mohamed El-Tayeb, imam of the al-Azhar Mosque in Cairo, had the clerics of the Vatican spitting up their morning cornflakes.

But it wasn’t only the image of the pontiff that seemed to offend sensibilities. The White House also slammed the image of US President Barack Obama embracing China’s President Hu Jintao, while locally, the doctored portrait of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leaning down to smooch his arch rival, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, had both sides of the fence frothing at the mouth.

I must admit to being hooked onto the flurry of comments about the campaign made on Twitter this weekend. In fact, I’ve barely managed to keep up with the barrage of emotions spewing forth. Well, the ones written in English, at least…

Tweets ranging from salacious to disillusioned, and cynical to downright sour, the people are talking. And if Benetton wanted to provoke debate through its shock-vertising campaign intended to “exclusively fight the culture of hate in every form,” it certainly has achieved that – and so much more.

I’m still sitting on the fence on this one, although I must admit to inadvertently swaying towards the side of the kiss. A simple embrace used to promote tolerance and combat hate is a strong argument about kissing wars goodbye. And isn’t such defiance the stuff that revolutions are made of?

Unhate. Now there’s a word worth wrapping our heads around.

Snippets

• Ok, now I’ve heard everything. It’s not enough that ambulances are not exempt from being hijacked – there is obviously also a market out there for hearses.

Last week, two armed men hijacked a hearse in Mthatha in the Eastern Cape as it stopped at a traffic light. The same men then made their way to the undertaker’s premises, overpowered a guard, and took another hearse – this one with no less than 13 devices for loading coffins.

Crack (!) police work has determined that someone operating a funeral parlour is behind this hijacking. “It is unusual to hijack a hearse,” the police spokesman said. Really…?

• You can’t keep a scandal-plagued man down. Italy’s flamboyant former prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, has more than a penchant for17-year-old girls, soccer clubs and up market chain stores. The 75-year-old billionaire with unnaturally jet black hair, released an album of – you guessed it – love songs on his last day in office last week.

The sensual Neapolitan songs tell of tormented love, and of “another day of wind and rain, another night without you.”

• Ok, now I’ve heard everything. It’s not enough that ambulances are not exempt from being hijacked – there is obviously also a market out there for hearses.Last week, two armed men hijacked a hearse in Mthatha in the Eastern Cape as it stopped at a traffic light. The same men then made their way to the undertaker’s premises, overpowered a guard, and took another hearse – this one with no less than 13 devices for loading coffins.Crack (!) police work has determined that someone operating a funeral parlour is behind this hijacking. “It is unusual to hijack a hearse,” the police spokesman said. Really…?

• You can’t keep a scandal-plagued man down. Italy’s flamboyant former prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, has more than a penchant for17-year-old girls, soccer clubs and up market chain stores. The 75-year-old billionaire with unnaturally jet black hair, released an album of – you guessed it – love songs on his last day in office last week.The sensual Neapolitan songs tell of tormented love, and of “another day of wind and rain, another night without you.”

What’s Happening

Messaging around the birds and the bees

Janine gets political on Media@SAfm!

Don’t miss it: get the gab!

When the paw paw hits the fan

Tips of the trade

Communication Cop-out

Tips of the trade

On Janine’s Mind

It's only a kiss

Snippets

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