Banks find the link between communication and trust

(Photo credit: Phill Carrick)
Monday's edition of The Wall Street Journal included highlights from the Journal's annual "CEO Council," a high-profile gathering in Washington where corporate and government leaders converge to discuss solutions to the global challenges ahead.

To read the entire section, click here. You'll find plenty of good insights on the economy, education, energy, and the environment. Specific to this blog's interests, the quote below from Gail Kelly (pictured), CEO of Australian financial giant Westpac, caught our attention.

Kelly emphasized that large banks must work hard to regain the public's trust.

Doing so requires, "bankers and financiers, and others no doubt, to be talking a very clear, clear language that people understand. We tend to, as bankers, talk in quite arcane language about being intermediaries and transmission of credit and all these sorts of things that no one actually understands. And I think it's important for us to describe what our role is and how we, in fact, facilitate growth within the economy, and then stand behind our actions and through our conduct, and actually rebuild trust in the communities that we serve."

Amen. Kelly's statement is reminiscent of surveys we've written about previously that show that financial institutions enjoy better reputations when they are perceived to be communicating with clarity and consistency.

Kudos to Ms. Kelly for making a sorely-need point. Let's hope her colleagues were listening.

Marketing the recovery plan

After a detour for jury duty and other obligations, Wag the Dog is back. Let's take a look at how advocates for President Obama's stimulus plan are seeking to influence public opinion -- starting with the president himself.

1. The White House live blogged the president's townhall meeting today in Florida, just hours before the Senate adopted the $838 billion package. It was the president's second townhall meeting in as many days.

2. President Obama held a prime time news conference Monday evening, which the White House immediately posted on Youtube.com. The video had nearly 12,000 views in its first 18 hours online.

3. At the microblogging site Twitter.com, the author dubbed @obamanews kept the public up to date on the Senate debate over the stimulus. @obamanews enjoys nearly 12,000 followers.

4. Just a stone's throw from the White House, the Treasury Department launched a new website dedicated to the new financial market stability plan - a separate animal from the stimulus package - complete with fact sheets, videos, press releases, and more.

5. Treasury Secretary Geithner gave what appears to be an exclusive interview to New York Times conservative columnist David Brooks in an effort to market the stability plan. The results were mixed, but the effort to lower the temperature among critics is admirable.

6. "Organizing for America" - a new grassroots operation housed under the Democratic National Committee - has kept supporters engaged by encouraging house meeting to discuss the president's agenda. Check out this video of the president thanking his supporters and addressing the economic recovery debate on Capitol Hill. The video has 753,000 views in three days.

The strategy accounts for townhall meetings, beat reporters, thought leaders, web video, micro-blogging, grassroots engagement, vocal surrogates, and more.

What do you think? What is missing?

In the coming days and weeks, we'll also take a look at how the president's critics are getting their message out.

A call to action for 2009

Two recent commentaries drive home for me the need - and the obligation - of large companies to communicate aggressively in the coming year, as the country adjusts to new leadership in Washington and continued economic anxiety. One commentary is a call to action. The other is leadership in action.

First, the call to action: Johnson & Johnson's General Counsel, Russell Deyo, urges CEOs to speak out publicly on their companies' contributions to the economy in uncertain times. In his interview with The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel, Deyo states,

"Only by understanding the extent of those contributions can there be an appreciation by the public and the new [Obama] administration of the important role that corporations can and will play in the recovery. As the new administration formulates its economic policies, doing so against a backdrop of public distrust of business would discourage government from realizing the vital contributions that corporations can make and may, in fact, encourage governmental actions that could hamper that assistance."

Next, leadership in action: GlaxoSmithKline's Jean Stephenne puts Mr. Deyo's words into action. He penned this op-ed in The Wall Street Journal reminding the public of the virtues of his company's work. Not only does he paint a compelling portrait of GSK's malaria vaccine candidate and the lives it could save, but he also outlines the company's efforts to keep the potential drug accessible to vulnerable populations in Africa and elsewhere. In doing so, he addresses the perception that pricing often drives medicine out of reach for the poorest populations. Note Stephenne's use of the phrase "Yes, we can" - a familiar refrain of President-elect Obama's. Stephenne knows his audience - an essential trait of any good communicator.

A reader may think Deyo and Stephenne are stating the obvious, but as a communications advisor, I'm a big believer in stating the obvious. How else does the public know what an organization stands for? If we don't communicate our mission and our values, we shouldn't expect the press and the public to give us the benefit of the doubt.

So, one company has issued the call to action for 2009. Another is leading by example. Will you follow?

The "Barack Whisperer"

Today's Washington Post includes a profile of Robert Gibbs, who is expected to be named White House press secretary in the Obama Administration. The profile is an educational read for anyone interested in the tenuous relationship between journalists and communicators who perform under white hot scrutiny. Reading the profile brought back memories for me, albeit on a smaller stage, having served as press secretary to the governor of Maryland.

I recall plenty of heated discussions with reporters over their coverage of the governor, but always felt it was worthwhile when it led to more accurate reporting. I remember one instance in which a generally fair reporter wrote an article slanted heavily against the governor. The morning it appeared in the paper I printed it out, highlighted all the misleading and unfair sentences in blue, and highlighted all the accurate and fair sentences in yellow. Needless to say there was a lot of blue and very little yellow. I gave it to the reporter along with my complaints. It was clear he didn't like my approach (and I don't recommend making it a regular tactic), but it led to more accurate coverage from that reporter in the future.

There are plenty of lessons corporate communicators can take from the Gibbs profile, including the importance of addressing even the slightest inaccuracy or falsehood the moment it emerges. Reporter errors can quickly become "facts" if left unaddressed, particularly as social media and blogs become the preferred mode of communication for more and more consumers. The burden lies on us, the communicators, to nip it in the bud.

Hospitals are put on notice by journalists

Hospitals take note: two journalism societies are shining the light on what they consider "unhealthy alliances" between hospitals and news outlets.

Arrangements in which a hospital pays media to report news content written by the hospital should be avoided, according the Association for Health Care Journalists and the Society of Professional Journalists. To read their statement, click here.

The warning comes after a Maryland newspaper sold the content rights of its health section to a local hospital. The hospital drafted the content and the paper published it, without the counterveiling views readers expect in coverage. Due in part to community opposition, the arrangement was shelved after just one publication.

Newspapers aren't the only ones that risk a black eye with such arrangements. A hospital - or any other organization - may do more harm than good to its reputation if the local community finds the arrangement unsavory. In my view, deals like this should take a back seat to sustained advertising, media relations, and community outreach strategies. To learn how Womble Carlyle can help your organization's outreach efforts, click here.