A lesson in crisis management

For PR practitioners and their clients, there’s a lesson to be learnt as the huge oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico continues and I don’t just mean simply referring to it as a “leak”.

All things considered, BP probably felt its crisis management strategy was just about holding up in the blast of anger being generated in the US about the disaster.

In truth, BP is never going to win this PR battle but it, nevertheless, has effectively used a range of tools including interviews, press releases and website and video updates to defend its reputation.

And in an interesting development, well known in the crisis management industry, BP is attempting to consolidate its position on the internet. Type “oil disaster” into Google and heading the results is a sponsored link to its response website.

The company is reportedly spending large sums of money each day on Search Engine Optimisation to ensure its disaster strategy is not pushed down the ratings by news sites, protestor sites and social network media, where opinion is overwhelmingly negative.

So far, so good…ish but then came the now infamous comment from the man who has become the face of the energy giant in this disaster .

BP chief executive Tony Hayward told reporters he wanted his “life back”. PR people everywhere put their heads in their hands as it was promptly pointed out that the 11 people who died in the initial explosion would never get theirs back. And the lives of those affected by the disaster would probably never be the same again.

 His words went round the world as a classic example of corporate insensitivity. The US media  intensified its offensive and US President Obama joined the attack, talking about “ass kicking”. An apology came soon after.

Here’s the lesson. All the crisis management, reputation management and perception management can be undone in an instant by an unguarded comment. 

So get your strategy in place. Be ready to respond, be open and honest, don’t play with words, give interviews and manage the internet. But above all, keep reminding the person who is fronting it all that it is not about them.