The Federal Reserve’s recent move to remove “reputation risk” as a formal element of bank supervision caught a lot of people by surprise. For years, reputation was an implicit factor in how institutions were examined. Now regulators appear to be stepping back from risks they consider harder to define or quantify. Recent research reinforces why leaders shouldn’t confuse regulatory definitions with market reality. The Burson Global Reputation Economy Study found that companies with strong reputations generated an average 4.78% in additional unexpected annual shareholder returns not explained by traditional financial metrics. Applied globally, the study estimates reputation represents roughly $7 trillion in economic value. In other words, reputation may be hard to supervise, but it is far from intangible. Regulators may call reputation risk subjective. Markets clearly don’t. On paper, the Fed’s shift reflects a broader effort to narrow supervisory …
What trust repair actually looks like in practice. Quick note: this is Part 2 of a two-part series. Part 1 was the diagnosis. Part 2 is what to do about it. Part 1 made the argument that some leaders treat unwanted scrutiny as an image problem. They dismiss critics, assume bad faith, and hand the whole thing to communications to clean up: tighten the message, line up the spokesperson, and push harder. Trust problems don’t work that way. When trust is the issue, the public wants proof that leadership is willing to change. That’s the work. The rest is packaging. The question leadership avoids is the one that matters Before you ask, “What should we say?” ask something harder: what are people reacting to that we’re not seeing clearly? Sometimes the answer is obvious. Other times it’s a pattern the …
Don't let myths cloud your understanding of PR measurement. Instead, leverage PR as a powerful tool to drive your organization's success. Public relations is often shrouded in the myth that measuring outcomes is elusive if not impossible. This misconception stems from the belief that the primary result of PR activities is the mere generation of publicity. While publicity indeed provides value, its true significance is unlocked when it aligns seamlessly with your organization's overarching strategies and business objectives. It's imperative for organizations to hold their public relations initiatives accountable for achieving well-defined and quantifiable goals that truly matter. In many instances, the same metrics used to gauge the effectiveness of advertising can be applied to evaluate the impact of PR. Public relations outcomes typically fall into three distinct categories. We can educate. We can persuade. And we can mobilize. Put …
It's common for corporate communications to inundate their audiences with countless messages, often saying the wrong things to the wrong people.
While a lot of attention has understandably been focused on the Senate Impeachment Trial of President Trump, we learned that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control confirmed the first case of the novel Wuhan coronavirus. The patient involved was described as having a history of traveling to China and started to show symptoms four days after arriving from China in the U.S. Images of health workers in full protective gear and the announcement that travelers from Wuhan – a city of 11 million people – to the U.S. will be required to undergo health screenings immediately brought back memories of the Ebola outbreak in Dallas in the fall of 2014. As The Dallas Morning News reported, in the story, ‘Looking back, Dallas Ebola crisis showed cost of fear, value of leadership,’ “We learned that the buffering protection of the two …
Do the Hard Work to Ensure the Vote is Secure First and Voter Trust Will Follow I was interested to read about the state of Wisconsin’s Election Commission’s plan to launch a PR campaign aimed at building public confidence in election security. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that I am a big believer in government transparency when it comes to one of its most important functions: operating free and fair elections. And when government takes action to protect our elections from nefarious forces such as military-grade cyber-attacks, the public should be kept informed. But here’s the thing that concerns me after reading about Wisconsin’s PR initiative: the money to fund the PR push is coming from a federal grant intended to bolster the state’s election security. That isn’t really a big deal in itself, but the fact that the federal …
A version of this article, "IPR Report Finds Americans Bombarded with Disinformation," was featured by the Institute for Public Relations on June 24, 2019. As communicators who work on behalf of a range of organizations to educate, engage and mobilize individuals and communities, trust matters a lot to us. Trust is something that is earned over years and decades. It is invaluable. Without trust, the relationships we strive to build and strengthen lack a foundation. In this context, we are posting today about the 2019 Institute for Public Relations Disinformation in Society Report published by the Institute for Public Relations (https://instituteforpr.org). Not surprisingly, the study found that Americans believe disinformation -- deliberately misleading or biased information -- is a problem. In fact, just seven percent of the 2,200 American adults who were surveyed said disinformation is not a problem. While …
Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita have provided a rare opportunity for all organizations to learn from the experiences of others as they responded to extraordinary circumstances. These 10 principals can serve as a checklist for crisis response or as guiding principles for your organization''s crisis communications philosophy.
Best of Silver Anvil Winning Program Builds Support for Human Space Exploration DPK Public Relations has a long relationship with NASA - Johnson Space Center that goes back to the Space Shuttle era, and we were proud to assist the Human Research Program's efforts to communicate about the science behind Astronaut Scott Kelly's Year in Space. The concept was simple: Kelly is an identical twin, so NASA seized the opportunity to monitor the impact of this prolonged exposure to zero gravity and compare those physiological and psychological measurements with those of his brother, Mark Kelly, who also is an astronaut. The challenge for any organization involved in science, technology or medicine -- or really anything that is complex -- is getting the smart people who are involved comfortable speaking in plane English about it. Making complicated information relatable isn't something …
Access to Accurate Information Will Help Decision Makers Stop a Crisis Plenty has been written about how digital media has changed crisis communications. That makes sense, because the pace of scrutiny has accelerated with everyone carrying devices that can instantly broadcast video to a worldwide audience. What’s more, digital media creates a platform for people to express outrage, and that backlash can really sting. That said, the core fundamentals of crisis communications remain unchanged from when I entered public relations more than 20 years ago – and they go back a lot further than that. Crisis communications is sometimes portrayed as a way to deflect responsibility or explain away a problem. In reality, crisis PR’s most important role is to aid in stopping human suffering and the potential for harm to the community as quickly as possible. Crisis communications does …