Political Communication and Campaigning- how to make a brand out of a politician?

We,as people directly connected with PR, always speak about branding.

But brand is not just a product. The person itself can be a powerful brand.

That happened with Barack Obama- 44th American president.

Actually, the Obama preelctoral and electoral campaigns were so huge and so powerful, that just sweeped away the concurents.

But that happened not accidently. A huge PR machine worked (and I'm sure still works) for Barack Obama.

PRofs of the American president banked on the social media, and though many critics predicted the fail,they proved critics wrong.

Obviously, every future president wants his electoral campaign become the most fantastic,colorful,bright and memorable. In this case Barack Obama's was even better than many were expecting. The key factor (exept usual actions like speeches,debates,merchendise and others) was to engage as many voters as possible and make them a part of the future presidential elections. 

PRofs made a good step and played on peoples' desire to be a part of something big and significant.

Barack Obama was everywhere-on almost every social platform, the ringtones with his voice were downloadable , his website opened the doors for the users.

The idea worked perfectly fine.

Note: Barack Obama Facebook

Barack Obama on Twitter

Barack Obama Official page

However taking the same route doesn't lead you to the same result.

David Cameron in his election campaign tried to take pretty similar steps as Obama did. However,it is obvious that Britons and Americans have absolutely different mentality.

That's why to please the British public you have to be really smart and persuasive. David Cameron, creating buzz through Twitter,Facebook and e-mails , just annoyed the british public.

His bank on the same messages of "HOPE" and "CHANGE" failed as the audience revealed the absolute similarity between his and Obama's mottos.

And definately Social Media creates a risk if used incorrectly. That also happened with David Cameron when his posters appeared in the internet. He became a laughingstock and the ground for numerous internet memes.

At this point I would like to say about the Russian ex-president Vladimir Putin. I'm Russian so you'll get a direct view.

While Obama and Cameron were fighting for voters in the social media, Putin came to power when there was no Facebook or Twitter.

However his PRofs made him a cult. While officially we have Dmitriy Medvedev, every Russian understands that we now have 2 presidents.

According to statistics, just 10-12% of Russian population uses Internet. Yes we are huge,so it takes time for technologies to come to every corner of Russia. However, about 90% have an access to the TV, so it becomes the place for political battles. 

One of the main PR actions of Putin are the live transmissions.Thus people can ask the questions live. Though the cencorship works here, many strange,funny,explicit and dangerous questions are allowed to appear. That is not made accidently-thus Putin can show that he is not afraid of difficulties, that he can react quickly,that he has a sence of humour and thus he becomes closer to the ordinary public. As well as he creates the food for thought and speeches of Russian public.

Putin apperas on the TV almost everyday (to be honest almost everyone is tired of that). There are many Internet mems now that also shows the popularity of him.

The other PR action for Putin promotion includes his way of speech. I mean not the speed or tone, but the words he uses. To say a sharp and close-to-public sentence is a normal practice. People are happy (oh look-he is just like us), Putin gains popularity.

The so-called "exhibition galas" are in huge practice these days. Appearance in a usual shop or tube station without warning the public is a normal practice. Thus the idea is to catch people unawares and show how Putin fights the injustice officially. 

(a case in one of the Moscow Food Supermarkets: 

Putin:"Why pork is so expensive? You think 120% bigger than the everage price is normal?"

Vendor(frightened): "Oh, sorry, Mr.Putin - we'll change the prices right now").

People are happy (Did u see how he fought those self-conceited vendors? Ha-ha! He showed them awht was what!). Putin gains popularity.

Even to scold the highest rank officials in public is not a problem for Putin. Everything for PR.

Here is the example of Putin shames the high-up politicians:

Russian audience was just happy,Putin was a national hero.

However after so many years of his power, Russian public began to understand that they were fed with stories and Putin is a tyrant (hope the KGB won't read my blog).

The conclusion is that PR proffesionals can make an amazing job and make people beleive and vote. However in some time people begin to look with clear eyes on what is happening around them. And the goal of PR practitioners and politians is not to disappoint the public.

Are you ready to be a PR practitioner?

Getting aquainted with the PR profession I asked myself a very simple question-What are the qualities of a PR-specialist? Do I personally have them to get success? Today,listening to the Depeche Mode "Try walking in my shoes" song, I came back to that question.

Well, at first glance, the answer is simple:

• ability to get on well with people
• openness
• readiness
• self-discipline
• high intelligence and defiantely
• sense of humor.

PR-experts always communicate with people of different professions and different temperaments, so we are required to keep ourselves up, be prepared for unconventional solutions and instantaneous change of tactics.
But there are "hidden rocks"  as well. PR is not a funny "fluffy"job. This is routine, difficult, very stressful and rigorous activity with irregular working time. And often the qualities like

• calmness
• moderation
• perseverance come to the foreground.

Not to be lost in the cycle of constant calls and letters, articles and press releases, interviews and press conferences emotions must fall aside. So how to develop these qualities?

What I think is :

• First of all, the very main point is to love your profession and to respect the people with whom you have to communicate during the work-time.

• Secondly,in conflict situations try "walking in other person's shoes" and maintain a constant open dialogue,be empathic and judicial.

NGO's and the rise of activism

The definition "third sector" is a synonym to the NGO's. 

Not going very deep into details (I hope the Wikipedia link will answer most of the questions) i just can say thet this sector is one of the largest.

For example only in Russia there are 277,000. 

All of them play important roles:some more,some less.

There are bright examples of International NGO's that operate globally like UNESCO or World Health Orhanisation.

Their aims to maintain good relationships through all the countries in terms of public health and culture.

However NGO's do not limit their responsibilities just in one field.

There are many examples of NGO organisations that operate in terms of other global issues like energy and other resources consumption, food consumption, environmental issues and protection, distribution of  resources among different nations.

It's not a surprise that holding significant power in their hands NGO's pay huge loads of attention to the PR.  They now hire good PR practitioners to help them achieve their goals.

Actions can be different: stunts,flash-mobs.polls,surveys,celebrity participation and many more.

In this case PRofs in the organisations should always be all there.

With the rise of the NGO's activism and people's trust in NGO's power big corporations (and not only just big ones,and not only corporations)  PR practitioners should create special plans or actions in case NGO's try to hit on the organisation.

Reading the Russian Laws when I was writing this post I came up with thoughts that Russia has  so  many NGO's,but they actually cannot really influence the Government and it's policies.

First of all, Russian law concerning the NGO's was adopted not such a long time ago.

Secondly, Russia is an "amazing" king of country, where the Government is everything-"its Tzar and the God and all the Saints" in one body.

What I came up with reading the law, is that it is constructed in a very tricky way (as usualy Russian Government does). It depicts all the do's and don't of NGO's in Russia, providing them ephemeral freedom-however if we look deeper in the law it makes so many obstacles (oficially supported by Consitution) that none of the NGO's will ever affect any body or member of the Government.

At least not the international ones.

Actually, during my not so long (but actually not so short) life I've never heard of any case when NGO's succeded in reaching it's goals fully if there is Russian Government on the way.

Yes,we have no freedom here.

Again.

Sad.

Here is a short video about NGO's

Crisis: danger or opportunity?

Crisis is an event that happens in every sphere. The development of the world is impossible without striking situations that can affect the industry or even destroy the business. But luckily people try to  learn from mistakes.

However,a proverb says "it  is easier to preclude, than to cure", many actions on crisis PR and management are taken after the strike happened. These actions are taken to destroy the effects that already exist.

However these days much attention is paid to the preventive measures and actions in the first hours/days of crisis.

There can be 2 ways out of the situation-if use the crisis correctly and do everything wisely, crisis can become a friend,not a foe.

After the Pepsi "syringe crisis" it has been reported that actually Pepsi bacame even more  recognisable trademark than before,the sales of Pepsi after the crisis went up rapidly and it left rival Coca-Cola behind.

This is an example when a crisis can become an opportunity.

The example of a bad crisis management is BP (BP spills oil).

Actually as the crisis is a challenge for the company,it is also a gerat challenge for PR practitioners.

Completing the role of connectors between the world and the organisation, PR profs have a lot of things to do. They have to make right decisions and right moves to overcome crisis and what is more important leave the brand audience still loyal.

It is also a great challenge for PRos to"make a credible showing" and to support the high level of professionalism.

These days PRos have such tool as Social Media. Actually it can also become a friend or a foe.

With the invent of Internet and Social Mrdia platforms,news now spread even quicker than before.

But just imagine what can happen when news is bad for your roganisation?

In this case you should be really fast in your decisions. (See the presentation of Ogilvy below)

PRos play an extremely important role-their decisions either save or kill the brand.

The Chinese sign of "crisis" comes to my mind this time

It consists of 2 concepts:danger and opprtunity. Chinese people are clever enough to understand that crisis can be both.

So it seems that Chinese sign supports my article this time and really explains a lot.

Here is the Presentation of Ogilvy: Social Media For Crisis Management

WSJ and Ogilvy: Social Media For Crisis Management 2009

View more presentations from John Bell.

Here are 2 videos from Youtube: Parodies on BP.

That is how crisis management SHOULDN'T work

The War Spin - When PR and War mix together

On the last session of our studies in the University Of Westminster we had a great opportunity to watch a BBC film on war spin.

The theme is extremely essential as "war spin" seems to appear almost in every war.

The example we saw was the story of Private Lynch, that became a war hero in the times of Iraq War.

The media widely covered the issue of a poor 19-year-old girl captured by Iraqis and saved by the US forces.

Actually when the film began I couldn't quite understand what happened on the screen: soldiers with guns were running under  the song of 50Cent. Looks weird. It all seemed like the shots from a movie,not like a real documentary. All the moves,words and actions of the army-guys seemed to be rehearesed.

Well actually it all was a fiction.

Private Lynch wasn't captured and tortured by Iraquis,she was perfectly fine in one of the Iraq hospitals,and all the personnel treated her well.

According to one of the witnesses it was a complete madness.The forces broke into the hospital and acted like heroes of an American action movie.

Actually one member of staff who helped the girl to be passed to the US army forces (while actually it wasn't allowed for him by Iraq law) was killed by the US army.

He was killed for his help!

Isn't it absolutely crazy?

Meanwhile the American journalists in Iraq covered the issues happening in Iraq at that time.

Tip here: They were passing from 12-16 hours in the depot.

Question: how could people who sit all day long in the depot,not seeing what is actually happening around write the truth?

Answer: By no means

So here is the essence: the US government used the inability of people know the truth and their lack of information of what is happening in Iraq to promote US actions as only possible, reasonable and important.

The slogan of this war is "Maximum imaginary-minimum insight".

Well, here I can say, comes the concept of PR ethics. I know that political PR has never been really ethical,bit how can it all be so dirty and unjust?

I think PR profs should fight more for their profession to be seen as ethical. Isn't it the theme of conversations held for such a long period of time?

Anyway, US PR profs and the government had an extremely distinct view of what they wanted to get as the result of their actions. They had clear tactics and strategy. And it is really hard to say that their actions were unsuccessful. The huge nation and some other countries of the world believed in the US actions.

Taking my eyes away from the problem of Iraq I can say just one thing- here PR people worked well.It's hard to deceive so many people,but the US Government and PR professionals made it. 

The got what they wanted.

I think that we as ordinary people,as well as journalists (in this case locked on the depot) should get the access to the information on a free basis, so that it is our idea whether to believe military forces and government or not.

Unfortunately, I think, it won't be realistic in future.

Here comes the power of people. Noone wants to lose it so easily. 

These days the power is in the hands of those who have the information and believe me-they won't let us bite even a tine bit of their "power" cake.

P.S. For you to think:

George W Bush succinctly explains his job- The catapult of Propaganda

Pro-War Ad