The Olympic Games “PR Nightmare”

It ain’t a nightmare, I exaggerated it to highlight the massive efforts to keep the Olympic Games going smoothly. While managing the Olympic Games is a dream to most, some will be thankful they have nothing to do with it. It’s, nevertheless, an honor should anyone get that far. To have the words “Olympic Games” flashed across your portfolio, you can almost be sure your future is secured. If you don’t mess it up post-games that is.

I wonder when does the PR begin for the various hosts over the years. From the time they decide to throw in their bid? From the day they are officiated to host the Olympic Games? Truth be told, even when events are unleashed amid the games, the PR team behind Olympics Beijing must be suppressing their nerves. For, the PR required now is even tighter than it was needed before the games opened.

First, the blue screen of death (I didn’t know this term until a friend shared the story with me) appeared during the opening ceremony of Olympic Games. While this remained primarily a tech issue, to have such a technical glitch before the eyes of the world is still going to create a negative talking point. Obviously, it has sparked off the conversation in the prominent sites I linked, isn’t it? How will it impact Windows as the world’s most widely used operating system? Will this incident pose an indirect hit on Lenovo’s image, even if the crippled CPU isn’t from Lenovo but some other manufacturers?

Another story was quickly shared, of how Olympic screensavers may potentially contain malwares. Thankfully, I am usually not a big fan of screensavers. However, the eventual “investigation” reduced greatly the possibility and I am sure many of those who downloaded will go phewwwwwww. Again, negative stories with intentions more malicious than trojans themselves. As a fair shot, this negativity has already begun before the opening.

Latest in the internet, Youtube has pulled out a video upon the notice of IOC. Ironically, it made its way into Vimeo and now I wonder what can IOC do about that. The video featured Free Tibet propaganda and was beamed onto the wall of the Chinese Consulate in NYC. This article is not here to discuss if China’s policy towards Tibet is right or wrong, but this latest incident added on to the various factors surrounding Olympic Beijing. Heck, which Olympic Games in history has not been clouded with controversies? If only my dear friend Kloudiia can have her message across…

You can’t insert just anyone to manage all these negavities even if you boast your professorship accreditation. The choice of people in this team can potentially become a talking point whipping back at the IOC as much.

Too many commercial PR practitioners will eventually lead the Olympic Games into a battle of the brands. At this point, I am glad to see commercial PR practitioners being sidelined to manage their own clients and the respective events of commercial interest. That’s about it, and I hope it stays this way. Considering the nature of the Olympic Games, the last thing we hope to see is a commercialized Olympic. The millions of dollars involved in broadcast and advertising is already paving the way towards that direction.

Having said that, political PR practitioners should be kept faraway. I meant, those who represent, monitor and manage PR activities for government agencies and political figures. Try putting a whole bulk of these people in, I bet the first question would be - is Olympic Beijing a (political) propaganda machine?

Will China’s flag still fly high after the games have ended? That remains to be seen.

August 14, 2008 | Filed Under Public Relations

4 Comments

Is Ping really sorry?

I wrote out strongly against Ping’s unjustified banning of critics against the community manager here, and also businesses that “appeared” to “support” or “endorse” the shady issue. On a personal level, the community manager saw herself losing many “friends” because she was caught red-handed far too many times.

As fellow blogger wrote, there are always lessons to be learnt. However, putting down the ego and admitting one’s mishandling is often the hardest thing to do. By chance, I recalled this article in my Google Feed Reader and nobody could have said it better than Heather Yaxley had. Her last two paragraphs were enough to sum it up for Ping’s community manager’s arrogance with DVD and her “supposed” apology.

PR should also counsel against the non-apology (as seen frequently in US election campaigns) - which basically says we are sorry if you’ve been offended/affected… rather than actually apologising for the organisation’s actions. I always feel this adds insult to injury as not only has someone been impacted, but they are made to feel guilty for recognising this.

However, as with the political apology, perhaps it is not surprising that there are many strategies conceived by which you can say sorry without perhaps really meaning it. In my experience that’s a skill accomplished by many 4 year olds, so perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised if either lawyers or PR practitioners counsel the ambiguous apology either.

You can read the full article here.

Perhaps the inexperience behind the team contributed to the saga, and it’s a good lesson for companies wishing to engage bloggers. You will need a lot more transparency, sincerity and justifiable actions than you previously thought.

So to my question… I hope they are.

July 22, 2008 | Filed Under Blogging, Public Relations

2 Comments

Social media is for everyone

Jason has just written a fantastic article behind his philosophy of social media, I read in awe. It was very enlightening how he sees social media as the core responsibility of PR. I don’t feel he’s wrong, but my slight deviation in beliefs is too long for a comment. So sit tight, I’ll try to be as explanatory as possible.

While Jason emphasized that PR should be the fateful social media adopters, it left me to wonder about the marketers and customer service cohort. I gathered that these three are the most in touch with customers, compared to any other departments in corporate companies. Of course, support engineers etc do as well but not as much. Hence, Jason’s classic question… Where exactly should social media fall in the organizational structure?

Jason gave a brief definition of social media, which is precisely what I believe in and had been preaching.

Social media is a method of communications.

Social media tools facilitate these communications.

Evidently, the most appropriate people to adopt social media are not IT developers but rather, corporate departments that deal directly with consumers. The kink that I do not agree with mainly resides in the fact that modern marketers and customer service departments handle customers equally much. It is easy for us to think that only PR maintain relationships, but the fact is, marketers and customer service reps are much in the loop too. They are, afterall, the faces of the companies that customers see.

Yet, it’s not restricted to only the three above. Even R&D and senior management can get rolling with customers. As we have seen, more corporate blogs are being launched as the days go. With the technological shift focusing on interactive web, anyone and everyone can get online for a piece of the action. Can I consider that a good evidence of how social media applies beyond PR?

As some of us have experienced (allow me to restrict it to Singapore where I am), IT developers are sometimes the last people we want to be talking business with. I have pointed out countless times in my blogs and private dinners, a Web 2.0 website is only as good as a piece of online art without the human factor and interaction. Many IT departments can come up with some really fantastic ideas but it just doesn’t sink into the rest of the company. It is difficult to make them see that we do not need just another fanciful solution, but one that complement the environment equally well. Not change it to something it is not.

However though, Jason said that all-important thing about social media efforts.

What is most telling in your social media efforts is the message. And that is most likely already being supplied by your public relations or communications arm.

I wrote once in my now-dysfunc blog that through social media, there are always messages contained within social media’s interaction. I was met with objections, ranging from a social media “guru” (associated with Social Media Breakfast Singapore) to even PR professionals that social media is all about establishing relationships without all the marketing messages. Today, I hold firm my beliefs… there IS a message in every bit of communication we direct at consumers.

I think we are a little naive to think that companies are inviting social networks and bloggers to publicity events without a good reason. The quality of coverage is another issue, so I shall not go into it at this point. Like I said previously, there are no free meals in this world. Companies that deny this, I say it’s an outright lie. Not wanting to sidetrack from the topic, every exchange of opinions and complaints line up the infrastructure of the message. Is this a company that listens to customers? Is this a company that is willing to invest time to share knowledge with customers? Is this company giving enough to empower customers to provide assistance for one another? Is the product designer digesting the feedbacks when rolling out a new gadget for customers?

Everything, is telling the customer something.

It also led me to self-question if there is even “social media marketing”. It is a direct contradiction to the objections I received earlier this year, that social media is all about relationships. My take is, there isn’t really a process or technique called “social media marketing”. I felt more compelled to believe that social media changes the way marketers work with consumers (at best), in comparison to pushy product campaigns that have been done before the Dot Com Bubble Burst.

How did I end up with that? With the empowering of customers opinions, they often become the marketing mouths of various products. These unofficial product endorsements in social media engage the prospects through the sharing of experiences. Looking at it from another angle, you can almost say the workload of marketers are being shared by the average public.

At this point, you would have realized everyone in this viral cycle cannot be dismissed and should not be. While most social media efforts are typically driven by IT services now, it will require them to dabble with marketing knowledge in order to produce a system that will drive marketing and PR efforts. It isn’t just about marketers and PR adapting to the Web 2.0 environment. And the greatest mistake of all, IT developers’ attempts to convert marketers and PR into geeks. The website can’t talk (literally), it takes the participants behind the consoles to whip up an active conversation.

Instead of watching social media heavily centered around PR, I am more aligned to the school of thoughts that it will infiltrate other corporate functions in years to come. The IT department designs and builds it, PR starts the ball rolling, marketers adopt it to engage, customer service use it to support and finally, customers use it to respond or share.

It takes two hands to clap, and a team to click.

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