It is hard to fathom that the world’s largest and most successful car manufacturer got caught red handed fudging its fuel economy certification information by altering software and hardware on 11 million diesel equipped cars.

The company only came clean on its deceptive practice of programming its cars to conform to emission standards only while being tested after U.S. authorities threatening to deny certifying 2016 models.

It is one thing for a company like General Motors to face a crisis like the faulty ignition switches that claimed multiple lives and cost the company $900 Million in fines. It’s quite another thing when a company creates its own crisis.

VW now faces fines up to $18 billion in the U.S. alone on top of multiple lawsuits. The company has withdrawn its affected diesel cars from sale here in Canada. Company management in Wolfsburg has warned employees of job cuts as the car sales nose dive and the company sets aside billions of Euros in a war chest.

The CEO of the company took days before he fell on his sword and resigned.

The company was slow to follow basic crisis management: Mess Up. Fess Up. Dress Up.

Key messages from the new CEO were week and predictable:

• We are committed to fixing the problems ASAP
• The affected vehicles are safe to drive
• We are developing a remedy that will meet emissions standards

The world is watching the biggest automaker as it struggles with one of the biggest breaches of public confidence in automotive history.

Volkswagen’s fall from grace has been sudden and staggering. If the company has a crisis communications plan calling for timely and meaningful communications with the public, it has not been put into effective use.

Tags: crisis communications, crisis management, Volkswagen scandal

Harbour Air Group, consisting of Harbour Air Seaplanes, Westcoast Air and Whistler Air, has become the largest all-seaplane company in the world. Harbour Air has been in business for over 30 years and has more than 40 aircrafts.

Client objective

Harbour Air came to Peak in 2013 originally for media training, and soon realized the benefit that pro-active media relations and crisis preparation could bring.

The goal of the PR program was two-fold:

• Prepare for issues and ensure communications to stakeholders were effectively and efficiently executed
• Increase brand exposure in the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island

Campaign

Peak works with Harbour Air to provide communications support in several key areas:

• Identify and share newsworthy stories with media
• Provide counsel on issues management
• Assist in partnership relations
• Social media campaign support

Key results

Peak has successfully provided crisis council on various issues and aided the company in increasing its already strong brand recognition.

Since 2013 over 100 pieces of print, TV, radio, trade and online coverage have been achieved. Highlights include:

• Securing stories on the front page of the business section of the Vancouver Sun and Times Colonist several times
• Coverage in every traditional print publication in every market they operate
• Nearly 40 million impressions across the Lower Mainland

Peak still works with Harbour Air today.

Specialization

Media training, media relations, issues and crisis communications, video production

Career background

Newspaper and TV reporter for 30 years, followed by 18 years in PR

Education

Bachelor of Arts in English from York University

Volunteer experience

Director and Chair of the Communications Committee for the Boys and Girls Clubs of South Coast B.C.

If you wrote an autobiography, what would you call it?

I didn’t do it all but I sure tried

Furthest flung city you’ve lived in?

Toronto

Favourite part of Peak life

The team attitude that delivers amazing results

Career highlights

Starting Peak with my two co-partners and winning the PR Daily Award for crisis management

PR role model and why

The late Tom Butler was a master of the PR stunt. He once organized a tourism promotion tour through California with a beaver from the Stanley Park Zoo. It created front-page headlines across the state, and I covered it for Global TV at the time

Favourite B.C. pastime

Restoring classic cars, and writing about them too

Favourite social media site

I keep in touch with friends and relations through Facebook

Secret talent

If people can make it, I can fix it!

Client Objective

Mission Public Schools, the school district in Mission managing K – 12, engaged Peak in 2009 to help manage its public reputation. Peak acted as the communications department for the school district to help develop the district’s reputation as a stable, well-run school district, during a time of challenging budget cutbacks, school closures, staff layoffs and the implementation of a controversial middle school program.

Campaign

Due to budget cuts, the school district had laid off unionized staff. In addition, the school district had sent 30 staff to a conference that would prepare it for the organization’s next step – embedding middle schools into high schools. The decision to send staff to the conference was criticized in light of the layoffs.

Peak trained spokespeople for Mission Public Schools, managed the issues around the conference and layoffs and celebrated the school district’s successes by garnering positive media coverage focusing on a number of positive education initiatives.

Key Results

• Thanks to the media preparation Peak provided, the school district was able to act on short notice to answer media questions about the conference and layoffs clearly and strongly, resulting in balanced news coverage on one day  that  was not followed up on by media
• Peak generated 17 pieces of media coverage that told positive stories about Mission Public Schools

Specialization

Crisis communications, strategic consulting, media training and campaign management

Sector experience

Oil and gas, energy and utilities, mining, retail, automotive, real estate, environmental and hospitality

Education

Diploma of Applied Arts in Broadcast Journalism (SAIT), B.A. History  (University of Calgary)

Volunteer experience

Numerous not for profits including UNICEF,  Dragon Boat Foundation, HKCBA, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Calgary Interfaith Food Bank, Boy Scouts of Canada, Royal Alberta United Services Institute, politics and campaigns

If you were going to write an autobiography, what would it be called?

Tell Me More  

Furthest flung city you’ve lived in?

Lethbridge, Alberta

Favourite part of Peak life

Working with great people on great projects.

Career highlight

Documentary production in remote exotic locations including India, China and the NWT

PR role model and why

Peter Lougheed – He was a great leader and campaigner.

Favourite social media site

YouTube

Languages

English, a little French, Spanish, Hebrew, and Yiddish

Secret talents

Remembering lyrics from obscure songs

Random fact

Ate Muktuk with Inuvialuit trappers north of Tuktoyuktuk NWT

Specialization

Crisis management, media training, media relations and being a media spokesperson.

Sector experience

Mining, manufacturing, real estate, education, not-for-profit, tourism and recreation, small business, associations, government (Premier’s office).

Career background

Thirty years in radio and TV. Press secretary to Premier Christy Clark.

Education

Bachelor of Commerce from UBC.

If you were going to write an autobiography, what would it be called?

On Your Side.

Favourite part of Peak life

The excitement of getting a positive story in the news through the efforts of everyone on the team.

Career highlight

Creating my own brand in TV, ‘Olsen on Your Side,’ and helping thousands of consumers make better decisions in their lives.

Favourite B.C. pastime

Boating on Okanagan Lake.

Random fact

Originally I was a play-by-play sports broadcaster and rock-and-roll disc jockey, and was with the group at UBC which gave CiTR 101.9 FM (student radio) its name.

Specializations

Media relations, crisis management, internal communications and event management

SECTOR EXPERIENCE

Technology, health, environment, retail, non-profit

Career background

10 years of agency experience in the UK and Canada

EDUCATION

MA in Postcolonial Literature from Leeds University

VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCE

Currently the Communications Director at the Canadian Public Relations Society in Vancouver

IF YOU WERE GOING TO WRITE AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY, WHAT WOULD IT BE CALLED?

Ticking off the ‘To Do’ List

FURTHEST FLUNG CITY YOU’VE LIVED IN?

London, UK

FAVOURITE PART OF PEAK LIFE

Ringing the bell to celebrate a new client joining our ranks

CAREER HIGHLIGHT

Managing a client’s communications during the UK’s infamous phone hijacking scandal that resulted in the country’s most long standing newspaper closing down

FAVOURITE BC PASTIME

Hiking, skiing and surfing – the outdoor life in BC is an adventurer’s playground

RANDOM FACT

Charlotte was recognized as one of Canada’s 30 Under 30 PRs by PR in Canada in 2014

An unexpected issue can be daunting and damaging. Demonstrating leadership during a crisis is critical, and how the situation is handled can often be as important to your reputation as the issue itself.

Prepare for a crisis in advance. Ensure your team is ready to react should an incident occur, whether that’s a product recall, an accident, a cyber-attack, forced downsizing or other issue.

Implement a comprehensive plan in the case of a crisis that includes simple steps for managing communications, along with templates that can be customized for any situation.

We can work with you to create a custom crisis plan to suit your needs. Peak won an international award for crisis communications in 2013 and we have the team to back it up, with three crisis experts on staff, including Alyn Edwards, an award-winning TV journalist and Ross Sullivan to meet all your communications needs.

Let us help you develop a crisis response plan before an incident happens. If you are currently in the midst of a crisis situation, do not worry – we can manage the communication from start to finish with services including the following:

• Develop a strategic response
• Provide real-time counsel
• Craft materials and messaging for all audiences, including employees and media
• Manage the media and interview requests
• Media train spokespeople and provide guidance through interviews
• Monitor reactions in the media and on social media in real-time
• Analyze media and social media responses

Let’s chat about your communications needs. Call us at 604-802-7139.

“What we’ve got here is failure to communicate,” is the famous line from the 1967 Paul Newman movie Cool Hand Luke.   It best sums up the Marathassa – Burrard Inlet oil spill and points to a critical failure we often see in a crisis. In planning for a crisis, organizations forget the importance of communication, not only in dealing with the crisis, but also when informing the public.  They plan how to deploy resources and deal with the crisis internally, while often forgetting what exists outside of their organization.

A timeline in the Globe and Mail  shows several communications failures that lead to delays in calling out cleanup and containment crews in the Marathassa spill.  Once deployed, the Western Canada Marine Response Corporation (WCMRC) teams did an excellent job, cleaning up 80 per cent of the oil in 20 hours, but the communication delays turned what might have been a minor incident into a major event.  Those internal communication failures were then compounded by a failure to inform the City of Vancouver until 12 hours after the spill was first reported.  This turned it into a major story.

Rather than being praised for its response, the Coast Guard faced a storm of criticism for an inadequate response and cleanup effort.  The public was unhappy. Local politicians were unhappy.  The Provincial Government was unhappy.  This could not come at a worse time for proponents of expanded crude oil shipments out of the Port of Vancouver.  Oil spill prevention and a world-class response are central to gaining public support.  Public and political sentiment is that this was not world-class. Poor communications lead to a slow response, which let the crisis get out of hand.

The Coast Guard’s prime stakeholder in a crisis situation is not the Federal Government or Coast Guard management in Ottawa.  The Coast Guard’s number one stakeholder in a crisis is the public who they are charged with protecting and that includes local governments who represent all of us.  That stakeholder was forgotten.

So how do you avoid making the same mistakes in your crisis?  Here are seven things to think about:

1) Have a crisis communications plan. Crisis planning is not complete without a crisis communications plan. Who to call (or tweet), when to call (or post on Facebook), what to say, and how to best get your message out.  To be seen to be effectively responding, you have to tell someone about it

2) Alert your communications team right away. Don’t wait until the story is out of control—get the communications team working on the crisis from the outset.   Bringing in heavy hitters from Ottawa didn’t save the Coast Guard’s reputation, nor change the public perception of the crisis.  By then the story was written by the public, the media, and the critics.  The story was “clean up was a failure,” “world-class spill response was anything but” and “Coast Guard cuts made the problems worse.”

3) Prepare your statements in advance. Have fill-in-the-blanks templates for media advisories, statements and news releases for predicted events so you can get those out to the public quickly.  It should include social media channels and your website as well.

4) First out with the information controls the message. The first voices set the narrative, the tone of the story.  It’s your crisis so you know the most and you know first.  Use that to your advantage.  Become the source of accurate information.  Media and the public go to who can provide the best information.  In an information vacuum, they go to who screams the loudest.

5) Know who your stakeholders really are.  Make a list.  Make a list and have it as a key element of your crisis communications plan.  Who they are and how to reach them.  If the public isn’t on the list, they need to be there and the best way to reach them is through the media: both social media and traditional.

6) Define each potential crisis in advance. You should have a list of potential crises, each given a crisis rating based on seriousness and a planned response for each level of crisis.  That way in the heat of the moment you can just follow the plan and effectively manage crisis communications.

7) Exercise the plan often. The worst thing you can do is create a plan and never practice it.  If you regularly deal with minor events, get in the habit of pulling out the plan, assessing the seriousness and whether to call in the communications team.  It’s free practice! Follow the same steps until they become routine.  Use the templates mentioned above.  It should become second nature so when a major crisis happens you know what to do.  If you don’t have regular minor occurrences, then you need to do formal practice until you are confident in your ability in a crisis.

Look at the oil spill and relate it to a crisis your organization could face.  Would you do better or make the same mistakes? If you don’t have a crisis communications plan, or if you have a plan but don’t know how to use it or where it is or who to contact and how to do that, then expect bad news.  A crisis defines your organization.   Your response to a serious event is revealing.

Tags: communications vancouver, crisis communications Vancouver, crisis management, issues management, Media relations vancouver, Vancouver PR

Bell Media CEO Kevin Crull has to go. Wendy Freeman, president of CTV News, must go too.

How can viewers of Canada’s largest private broadcaster have confidence in this news source when the owner dictates how news is covered and the head of news allowed it fearing for her job? In an unprecedented statement from Canada’s broadcast regulator, the CEO of Bell Media which owns CTV was lambasted for meddling in news coverage.

Crull has apologized for interfering in CTV’s coverage of the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission’s decision to allow less expensive cable and satellite TV ‘pick and pay’ options which could impact Bell Media’s bottom line.

An obviously enraged Crull banned CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais from all CTV news coverage after he saw him interviewed on Bell-owned BNN, a business television channel.

Fearing for the loss of her job, CTV News chief Wendy Freeman caved in and allowed the manipulation until more ballsy news people in her organization gathered ranks and put Blais on the late news. But Freeman’s waffling and giving up editorial control under pressure let down all those who work in CTV newsrooms across the country.

Real reporters put their jobs on the line when told how to cover news or to leave out elements that balance coverage. They push back harder when their own management tries to influence what should be fair and objective news coverage for commercial interests.

Crull’s weak mea culpa explanation of how he was merely suggesting coverage that showed the impact of the CRTC decision, apparently without the CRTC chairman’s input, is not enough.

Enlightened Canadians will wonder what other news stories have been ‘shaped’ by CTV’s ownership. What credibility does CTV News have now?

Years ago, I was one of three reporters who strongly protested a decision by the television station president who blocked coverage of a lawsuit launched by disgruntled contestants of a game show produced there.

We told him this could never happen again and pointed out the damage that could be done to the station’s reputation as well as our professional reputations. To my knowledge, there was no further meddling.

That was immediate action with a strong statement to maintain independence and objectivity in reporting news. Bell Media and CTV also have to make the strongest statement possible to regain and retain credibility. That can only be done with the removal of those who don’t uphold these principles.

Tags: Bell Media, Canada, CTV, news coverage, newsroom, reporters, telecommunications