When bad things happen to good brands

If you kept up with the news over the weekend, you are surely aware of the sudden resignation of Sunflower Markets CEO Michael Gilliland following allegations of child prostitution. As the old saying goes, it takes a lifetime to build a reputation and only hours to tear it down – and this case is no different. One of GroundFloor Media's crisis experts, Gil Rudawsky, sat down to outline some of the lessons learned from this situation, including some of the following highlights:

• Revisit your crisis communication plan
• If you don't have a plan – it's a great time to get a crisis communication plan in place
• While planning, brainstorm the unimaginable. As you can tell from the headlines in the paper, the unimaginable happens more than you might think.

Connected Thinking, Globally.

GroundFloor Media (GFM) is one of more than 40 public relations agencies worldwide that are part of the invitation-only Public Relations Global Network (PRGN). Comprised of agency owners and industry veterans, PRGN agencies are selected for being one of the premier agencies in their market and therefore providing the background and intelligence for clients looking to create traction in a particular region or industry.

From Denver across the United States and beyond to its newest members in India and Russia, the benefits of PRGN membership are extensive, including learning from each others’ experiences and providing clients with exclusive access to a wealth of resources, specialized capabilities and local connections. Many of GFM’s national clients have harnessed the power of our PRGN colleagues to quickly reach additional markets across the globe with a consistent approach and messaging.

But enough about “why” PRGN is valuable, it’s much more fun to know about “what” our partners have been up to lately.

On Jan. 26, PRGN distributed the first edition of its newsletter with a focus on providing mini case studies from member agencies. Natalie Price of Seattle public relations agency, The Fearey Group, wrote about a topic that’s near and dear to our hearts here at GFM – social media for the health care industry. The Fearey Group recently worked with Swedish Medical Center, the largest nonprofit health system in the Puget Sound region, to create two new innovative social media campaigns.

• The first effort helped to raise awareness for sleep disorders. Swedish’s Sleep Medicine Center hosted the first-ever “sleep up” – an all-night live stream following a patient undergoing sleep disorder testing. The campaign reached more than five million people and gained national media coverage, including online bellwether Mashable.com.
• The second program caught more than media attention. Did you see Grey’s Anatomy last week? Yes, surgeons really do live tweet from the operating room and Seattle’s Swedish Medical center was one of the first in the country to do so. The live-tweeted surgery reached more than 83,000 people on Twitter.
  

The success of these campaigns offers valuable insights for all PRGN partners and our clients. We look forward to bringing this information to you in regular posts about PRGN on our blog.

Click here to subscribe to the PRGN newsletter or stay up-to-date on the latest news and information from across the network at Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Great Story Telling: When it Makes a Difference

We’ve all had good clients and clients that were not quite the right fit. I believe that a good client is made up of not only the chemistry of the teams but also the sense of partnership in the bigger picture. There is nothing better for an agency than having a passion and mission for telling a client’s story. I’ve been working with GroundFloor Media’s (GFM) health care practice for several years and work with many amazing organizations that are fighting the good fight against obesity. It has been and will continue to be a great story to tell because the risks are enormous and consequences deadly. This issue makes pitching traditional and nontraditional media exciting because I truly believe this story needs to be told and because telling it will hopefully make a difference, start a dialogue, educate one more person, or create/support a movement.

And speaking of movements, I can’t believe today is the anniversary of The First Lady’s groundbreaking Let’s Move! Campaign, focused on childhood obesity. We’ve seen the movement impact schools and communities across the nation and give GFM’s health care clients including LiveWell Colorado, the Colorado Health Foundation (TCHF) and The Children’s Hospital support on the local levels. Nationally, we’ve seen celebrity chefs and Walmart get their game on too. Now there is a challenge sweeping the quick service restaurant industry for healthier kids meal options (see resource link and article below) and thankfully our client Qdoba Mexican Grill has always offered healthy options. Every industry should choose to be positive players in fighting this growing epidemic.

On the local front, we need to remember that more than a quarter of Colorado’s children are overweight or obese. I’d like to call out the Colorado organizations that are renewing their own commitment and collaborative efforts to bring healthy eating and active living strategies to children and families across the state. A group of Colorado organizations including LiveWell Colorado and TCHF, Kaiser Permanente and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), are partnering in an effort stop the obesity epidemic in Colorado. These organizations have engaged hundreds of Colorado communities, schools, families and children to make policy, environmental and behavior changes that address obesity. Every time an article, broadcast segment or blog comes out about these programs we have a sense of pride knowing that just possibly the needle is moving.

I’d also like to highlight one of our non-profit clients that often sits behind-the-scenes that is making big differences in our communities through supporting community gardens, agriburbia, food banks and horticulture programs across the state, Colorado Garden Show, Inc. They do this from proceeds generated from the annual Colorado Garden & Home Show (coming up Feb. 12 – 20, 2011) and the Colorado Fall Home Show. For some this may be an unlikely partner in the fight against obesity.

Last week, the organization awarded a $100,000 grant to Westminster High School and a $25,000 grant to Concerts for Kids. The Westminster High School grant specifically supports the construction of a greenhouse for the school’s horticulture program. The Concerts for Kids grant will support two of the organization’s projects – a community garden and greenhouse at the Serenity Learning Center (for children with autism) in Centennial, Colo., and an organic community vegetable garden at one Denver Public Schools elementary school.

Do you have a client that you are passionate about telling their story? What are you most proud of working on this week?


Resource Articles:
• Eatocrazy on CNN “Walmart Joins Michelle Obamas Let’s Move Campaign”
• Kids Health Eating Focus of Let’s Move Campaign in QSR Magazine “Time to Move”
• LiveWell Colorado in the news
• Colorado Garden Show, Inc. “Garden Show grants $100,000 to Westy Horticulture Program”

GroundFloor Media launches crisis communication blog, formalizes service line

The news cycle never sleeps, and the bar for what is considered “news” continues to be lowered. One negative article, blog or tweet can snowball, and company reputations that have taken years to build can crumble instantly.

Understanding this changing media landscape, where news can be contained in 140 characters or less, is half the battle. With this emerging dynamic in mind, GroundFloor Media launched a new issues management/crisis communications blog covering topics related to social media, news media, media training and reputation management. So far, we’ve taken a closer look at a variety of topics, including Toyota’s PR plan during the latest recall; Bank of America using Twitter to inform customers of an online outage; how to prevent and prepare your online reputation; and top PR blunders from 2010.

The new blog is the newest component in GroundFloor Media’s crisis communication and issues management service line. Our team’s seasoned professionals have extensive real-world, first-hand experience working with our clients to manage issues such as litigation (e.g., criminal, civil, class action, bankruptcy, etc.), layoffs, ethical and/or data breaches, customer satisfaction issues, internal communications concerns, social media attacks and blunders, natural disasters and school shootings, just to name a few. We also conduct media training, develop crisis plans and social media response plans, conduct table-top crisis simulations, and offer strategic counsel. Find out more.

~Gil Rudawsky