PR in the Service of the Public

Leanne Glenny from the University of South Australia is completing a PhD on public sector communication and public relations ethics.

Recently Leanne addressed a an IABC Canberra audience (mainly Australian Public Service communications professionals) on her work and the extensive research behind it.

Leanne has met with public servants, journalists and advocacy groups and analysed three government communications case studies in detail. And while her work is yet to be completed it is throwing up interesting insights including:

• Government communication is often viewed as something the government ‘does’ to people rather than an exchange of information.
• There is no single model for government communications ... rather approaches and strategies continually change as personalities and politics dictate the communications mix.
  
• Public servants who are not communicators tend to see PR mainly in media terms and as ways to push information out to persuade.
• On the other hand, public sector communicators are often looking for a broader and richer engagement with their audiences.

She suggests public sector management needs a more detailed understanding and acceptance of PR principles and communications ethics, rather than view PR merely as a technical tool.

Marketing Challenges for Not For Profits

From time to time we do work for social services and community groups. So a recently released US report on not for profit marketing caught our eye.

The State of Nonprofit Marketing: A Report On Priorities, Spending, Measurement and The Challenges Ahead, produced by Lipman Hearne and the American Marketing Association (AMA), contains fascinating insights. Australian not for profits will recognise many similarities in the American findings.

• Building awareness, generating revenue, branding and acquiring and keeping members were key marketing objectives for US not for profits.
• Public relations, community relations and customer and member relations are considered the most effective strategies to build awareness and visibility.
• “Being mentioned in the media is priceless, because it gains nonprofit organizations attention as well as third-party endorsement of their work."
• Word of mouth marketing is important for donors, government agencies and other key audiences. The Report notes these groups need specific evidence from not for profits on how they are making an impact.

It seems that US not for profits find measuring their marketing efforts a tough ask:

• The most measured marketing activity is events followed by revenue raising.
  
• But evaluating the effectiveness of websites, media coverage and print advertising is not particularly well handled.

42% of organisations surveyed had only one person doing their marketing and even then the marketing area often shares responsibilities with other parts of the organisation.

And the biggest future challenges for US not for profits?

• Building awareness/visibility.
• Revenue generation.
• Positioning/branding.

Sound familiar? And not just for community sector. We think many businesses would recognise these challenges.

Consulting Communities

Recently we have been helping out a client with community consultations in regional Australia on a major environmental issue. People were asked their views on future investment priorities.

We were both surprised and delighted with the response.

• A six question survey was sent to around 1700 people. And over 520 were returned. A great result for a mail-out survey.
• Consultation forums in six regional areas were all well attended.
• Contributions at these forums were considered, articulate and positive.
  

The take-out: People are deeply interested in environmental issues and, when asked, only too willing to come forward with constructive ideas.

Getting the Right Headline

Getting a catchy name for a campaign or the right headline for a media release can be tough but does it have to be this difficult?

Check out this US Congressional Committee struggling to find the right name. (Video per courtesy of www.ragan.com).

PR of World Youth Day

We know good PR when we see it ... so we take our hats off to the team organising World Youth Day.

The event management was superb ... hundreds of thousands of young people (often a tough audience) attending multiple mega-events over seven days. Things apparently running smoothly, no-one getting lost and activities synching in on time. And the most important indicator: people leaving events enthused by their involvement.
Event Management: A+ rating.

Media coverage was huge ...we know that sometimes these types of events gather a natural momentum and just take off. But you could detect someone's guiding hand (or was it divine intervention?) in the media relations planning ...every day a batch of freshly cooked stories, young and articulate clerics on hand as spokespersons and colour, sound and drama in abundance for the cameras and photographers.

Media Monitors reports 42,277 media items reporting the Pope's time in Sydney:

14,581 TV items
14,592 Radio items
11,301 Internet items
1803 Newspaper stories

Media relations for the visit: A+ rating.

And issues management ... well this one scores a C. The subject of sexual abuse by clergy was always going to be a key issue. Yet throughout the week while the Catholic hierarchy expressed regret for past transgressions, the apologies seemed wooden and at times unconvincing. Certainly aggrieved families and individuals who talked to the media regarded these efforts as less than genuine.

Without trivializing the deeply serious issue of sexual abuse and the Church, the rather average management of this issue marred a week of very good PR practice.