FUMBLE - RIM PLAYS TURTLE

I live in Waterloo, run a Toronto PR firm and own RIM stock. That makes me either the most conflicted or the best qualified person to weigh in on the recent communications plays of the beleaguered tech giant. Sadly, these days it feels more like piling-on than weighing-in. But it simply can't be helped. In football terms, watching RIM (and say it isn't so) RIM's agency handle PR matters of late is a lot like watching an endless loop of Brett Favre game video. On the heels of widespread media criticism about the tone taken in the analyst call and even following my colleague Joe Chidley's well-intentioned advice here last week, it continues to look like Fumble after Fumble. Recently, according to a report from a local Waterloo radio station, RIM issued 200 pink slips on Monday. Neither RIM nor their PR agency responded to media inquiries when the story broke, according to Canada's two top news outlets. The CP story that ran the following day suggested RIM wouldn't comment and quoted their agency as having no details about the lay-offs. In the same news cycle, the departure of a senior marketing official who jumped ship for Samsung was covered. How did that story get told, you might ask? Apparently through Samsung and the departing employee's personal tweet. Again, nothing from RIM. I'll hazard an educated guess that there has never been a successful crisis communications strategy based on the "turtle" approach, which it seems RIM has adopted here. As we repeat in this column ad nauseam, the simplest of rules in corporate communications and particularly in crisis communications is "control the message". If you don't, someone else will. The risk is high in this case, where failing to manage the message also gives the impression that things simply may be out of control - a bad impression to leave leading into a critical shareholder vote. These are complicated and difficult times for the organization, but proactive, clear communications has proven time and again to be the only way companies come out the other end of crisis with the least bruises. RIM is a global leader and an iconic Canadian brand. We all want them to do just that.

A veteran of communications and politics, Beverly Hammond is the President and CEO of Veritas Communications.

FUMBLE – FORD SHOULD HAVE SEEN PRIDE PARADE FLAP COMING

This week's perspective from Bob Reid: The ideal damage control strategy is not to suffer any damage in the first place. Toronto Mayor Rob Ford and those around him should have seen this one coming. Since confirming that he would not attend the upcoming Pride Parade on the Canada Day weekend, Ford has taken no end of heat from gay and lesbian organizations and editorial columns alike, criticizing him for failing to continue what has now become tradition for mayors of this city. Taking part in the parade is a gesture which communicates volumes, a lesson well-known by Ford’s predecessors and others in positions of authority in the community such as the chief of police. Refusing to show up for not only the parade but ANY of the numerous Pride-related events taking place over the entire week has given Ford’s critics an opportunity which they have leveraged in the media to huge success. Putting at least one Pride event on his sked – and saying the right things about the importance of the event to the city and Toronto’s values of inclusiveness, tolerance and respect – would have given Ford something to point to and would have taken away the communications weapon he has handed to gay and lesbian community leaders, his critics, and media pundits.

TOUCHDOWN – TUMBLR EMPLOYEE 'STICKS IT' TO THE MEDIA

One of the biggest social media stories of this past week was blogging platform Tumblr surpassing veteran Wordpress in user numbers, despite having been around for only half the time of its competitor. Tumblr has been praised for allowing users to share pithy content and easily link posts to other social media sites. Its gain on Wordpress is particularly impressive considering social media giants like Facebook are seeing significantly slower adoption rates in Canada and the US, allowing experts to speculate about opportunities for emerging social media tools like Tumblr. Tumblr Director/Media Evangelist, Mark Coatney, created a very ‘sticky’ quote this past week when he interviewed with National Public Radio (NPR) in the US. In describing Tumblr, he said, "It's more almost like an email experience in a way," he said. "You'll dash off an email or do a tweet because it's quick and easy, so it's taking that thinking and applying it to blogging.“ By comparing Tumblr’s blogging platform to email, Coatney created a simple and highly-relatable analogy. The quote showed up in PC World, Mashable, The Atlantic, Media Bistro, Poynter, and a number of other credible social media blogs.  As we often highlight in our Veritas Media Coaching sessions, using a simple, concrete, and unexpected analogy for interviews or news release quotes creates clarity for your audience, paints a picture in their minds, and ultimately will increase your chances for media traction.

Jess Bennett works with the Corporate and Public Affairs practice at Veritas, providing strategic counsel on digital communications strategy and execution. She is immersed in social media from blogging to exploring new trends and platforms.

FUMBLE - RIM GOING IN THE WRONG MOTION

This week's perspective from Joe Chidley: You could call this a “technical” fumble – because there’s just no way around taking a hit when you’ve got bad news to deliver, as Research in Motion did this week when it announced disappointing earnings and guidance that fell below the Street’s expectations. Next day, the stock plunged more than 20%, rounding out a horrible year for the Waterloo, Ont.-based maker of the BlackBerry. Now, we here at TD&F have great admiration for co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis, but the real test is just beginning for the dynamic duo of the Canadian tech industry. And it’s not clear that they’re up to it. In the wake of the market disappointment, they needed to communicate first that they know there’s a serious problem and second that they are going to do something about it. But the tone of their communication hasn’t made it seem like they’re fully committed. One analyst was quoted as saying the two weren’t acknowledging the scope of the challenges ahead of them, and they were “trite” in their responses during the earnings call. Meanwhile, the co-CEOs insistence that “the management structure is working” every time someone asks whether it might be time to rethink their co-CEO arrangement – and streamline the leadership structure at a crucial time – increasingly seems like an ostrich-like response. It’s OK to assure your audience that better times are ahead, but it’s not OK to look like you’re burying your head in the sand. The sad fact, as RIM’s stock plunge proves, is that investors aren’t buying the story the company is peddling. It’s time to change the conversation. But are Balsillie and Lazaridis capable of doing it?

PUNT – VANCOUVER MAYOR & POLICE CHIEF

This week's perspective from Bob Reid: In the wake of the massive riot following Wednesday night’s Stanley Cup Final in Vancouver, the city’s mayor and chief of police faced some tough questions. Mayor Gregor Robertson and Chief Jim Chu had to account for how things could have gotten so out of hand, so quickly. Both blamed a comparatively small number of anarchists who had deliberately set out to cause the riot, yet the questions remained: why weren’t police able to maintain order? Today, Chu admitted what many considered obvious: “Knowing what I know now, there's many things I would've done differently,” he said, including having more cops on the streets. Sometimes the best communications play one can make in a crisis situation is to acknowledge an obvious failure, to show you get it and preserve some credibility by calling a spade a spade. Now Chu and Robertson need to change the channel, away from the ugliness that went down, and shift the focus onto efforts to identify, arrest and prosecute those responsible. Some kind of official inquiry is inevitable, with a mandate to assess and provide recommendations to prevent a repeat. Such processes are not only valuable, but they provide a useful place to point those who will continue to ask “How could this happen?” Trouble is, that exercise has already been done: in 1994, after a similar, but smaller, outbreak of violence following the Canucks’ last NHL Championship defeat.

QUICK TD – LINE OF THE WEEK

This week's perspective from Joe Childley: Not really a full-on touchdown, but my vote for line of the week goes to Washington Post columnist Justin Moyer, in a piece called “Awkward: Eliot Spitzer covers the Anthony Weiner scandal for CNN.” Pointing out the similarities between Weiner’s exhibitionist exploits and the former New York governor’s scandal-ridden past, Moyer begins by acknowledging that inside knowledge can often lead to better-informed media commentary. “But as anyone who has squirmed while watching Eliot Spitzer discuss the latest political sex scandals on CNN knows,” Moyer adds, “there is such a thing as having too much skin in the game.” ’Nuff said.

TOUCHDOWN – SORRY, TWEEPS: STINTZ

This week's perspective from Bob Reid: Karen Stintz gets it. The Toronto city councilor and TTC Chair knows full well the frustration of commuters when the system bogs down and makes their commute even tougher. So when lightning strikes messed up the signaling system at the Wilson yard on Wednesday, snarling efforts to get trains into service on the Yonge-University-Spadina line for the morning rush, Stintz not only knew about it, she was caught in it as well. We know this because she sent several dispatches out via her Twitter account @TTCchair, explaining the cause of the problem, noting that even though no one can prevent a lightning strike she was still meeting with senior staff to see how they might deal with them more smoothly, and in a later message praising TTC and EMS staff who responded quickly to help a woman who fainted on the train Stintz happened to be riding on. She walks her talk, rides the rocket, and uses Twitter to let all her fellow riders know what happened when things go wrong, and what she’s doing to try and prevent a repeat.

TOUCHDOWN – TELUS’S WELL-TIMED PRICE CUT

This week's perspective from Joe Chidley: Just about everybody thinks they pay too much for those nasty and largely inexplicable roaming charges that kick in every time they step off the plane or cross the border and check their mobile phones. Earlier this week, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) lent credence to that gripe, with a report that suggested Canadians pay more for roaming fees than any other nation in the developed world. In media reports, most of the telecom players responded with standard lines about competitive pricing, higher costs, and so on. But not Telus, which jumped on the bandwagon by completely agreeing with the OECD – and vowing to do something about it. Brent Johnston, vice-president of mobility marketing for the third largest wireless company in Canada, said that Telus planned to cut roaming charges by more than half in the coming days as part of “an entirely new and dramatically simpler pricing framework for international roaming.” To our way of thinking, this move and message displays a textbook degree of responsiveness. If you can find a way to communicate not only your sympathy for customers’ problems, but also your plan to fix it, then you have hit on a golden opportunity for effective PR. By jumping quickly on the widely reported OECD survey, Telus managed just that.

FUMBLE – WEINER GRILLED

This week's perspective from Bob Reid: The punch lines have all been made, so aside from that headline, I shall attempt to keep focused on the communications play Rep. Anthony Weiner made on Monday, when he fessed up that yep, not only did he tweet a boxer-shot of his privates out to the world, it was actually a sneak peek into the kind of online cavorting he had been doing with half a dozen women for several years now. We’ve seen this kind of thing before – with, for some reason, shocking frequency involving New York State officials – and so it was surprising indeed to see Weiner deviate from the standard mea culpa news conference. The first part was pro forma: a statement of admission and apology, with appropriate levels of emotion, concern for impact on family and full acceptance of responsibility. It was when he took questions afterward that the “you’ve got to be kidding!” comments started around our offices. At first, Weiner actually looked pretty good: he made no excuses, and was actually quite pointed in saying he was absolutely in no way blaming any one or any thing besides his own foibles and bad judgment for the pickle he was in. He apologized without reservation to every reporter and other individual to whom he had lied. He was obviously ready to make these kinds of statements and admissions. But then about half-way through, inevitably, the reporters started probing into details he wasn’t prepared to have to deal with: did he have phone sex with these women? And how did he know, given the anonymity of the internet, that they really were adults and not possibly underage girls? “She’s young enough to be your daughter!” one female reporter exclaimed, in reference to one identified as being 21 years old. Weiner was left reeling, forced to acknowledge that one can never know for sure exactly with whom one is communicating online … but that he was nonetheless sure they were all adults. Yeesh. As if the whole bald-faced series of lies – and his refusal to resign his seat in Congress – weren’t enough, Weiner took a nightmare crisis communications situation and made it even worse that it already was.

TOUCHDOWN - CONVENIENCE STORES ASSOCIATION SCORES WITH SECRET SHOPPER STUDY

This week's perspective from Bob Reid: The research-driven earned media story – whether anchored around credible polling data or some other factual data – is a time tested PR tactic. Add in smokes, booze and a whiff of scandal, and you’ve got a winner, as was the case for the Ontario Convenience Stores Association this week. They hired a research firm to send underage kids into both convenience stores and LCBO outlets, trying to buy tobacco and alcohol, respectively. According to the trials, more of the kids successfully got booze than cigarettes – and a story was born. The association scheduled a mid-day Monday news conference but wasted no time in leaking it to the morning papers, which ensured it got huge play on morning radio and TV, all the while reinforcing the groups position that convenience store operators do a fine job at keeping restricted items out of the hands of minors, whether it might be tobacco or, say, anything else in the future … (hint, hint). Touchdown.

FUMBLE - O BROTHER, WHY ART THOU TALKING?

This week's perspective from Joe Chidley: When Doug Ford, Toronto city councillor and brother of Mayor Rob Ford, showed up this week at an event announcing that the 2012 Grey Cup – the annual three-downer championship’s 100th anniversary – was to be held in Toronto, it would have been easy for the always-outspoken Doug to simply say what an honour it was to have the big game coming to the Fords’ hometown. Instead, he chose a Canadian Football League event as the place to reiterate his and his brother’s desire to attract a National Football League team to Hogtown, in no uncertain terms – never mind that the arrival of an NFL team could well commit the Grey Cup to the dustbin of history. In short, Doug Ford’s remarks were inappropriate. And as the Toronto Sun pointed out in an editorial suggesting he start holding his tongue, this wasn’t the first time the mayor’s brother “shot first and aimed later.” Now, for political leaders, there is often a valid communications role for a reliable “loose cannon.” For instance, he can float trial balloons in the policy sphere – taking the blame if they fail, and giving credit to the leader if they succeed. In a fight with political opponents, he can say the nasty, inappropriate but effective things the leader often can’t. And in general he can talk with the frankness and partisanship that leaders, once they’re in power anyway, typically eschew; he can speak to and maintain core supporters while the leader makes the political concessions necessary to holding office. (Think of how Dick Cheney played the hard line for George Dubya.) But when it comes to Doug Ford, we just don’t see any usefulness in remarks like the ones he made this week. Aggressively supporting your brother and your leader is fine; embarrassing your hosts and being rude aren’t. And they certainly don’t improve Toronto’s chances of attracting an NFL team under the Fords’ watch.

FUMBLE - “WEINERGATE” OR THE BROTHERS JOHNSON

This week's perspective from Bob Reid:  Is it even within the realm of mathematical possibility that two different politicians in two different countries would, within a couple of days, find themselves embroiled in scandal for possibly having Tweeted pictures of their privates? It was New York State’s oh-so-perfectly named Rep. Anthony Weiner (as he himself says, he has been hearing the jokes since he was five) who was in the hottest water, after a shot of someone’s bulging boxers was sent out from his Twitter account. An awkward situation to be sure, but one made way worse by Weiner’s combative, defensive, abrasive encounter with reporters afterward. Expressing disbelief that this was the only issue they wanted to discuss, Weiner went so far as to call one scribe a “jackass” while in the midst of failing to have a clear answer to the only questions that mattered: was it his picture, and did he put it up? Later, Weiner tried a more gentle, tempered media availability, but the damage was done. He would have been far better to have made a direct and clear statement regarding the situation (he says his account was hacked and he was the victim of a prank) and then literally have laughed it off, to show how NOT a big deal he was taking it to be. Instead, he did pretty much the opposite. Here at home, Niagara Falls PC Candidate George Lepp had pretty much the same situation on the go late last Sunday. He says his Blackberry got stolen and, like Weiner, someone punked him by sending out the pic. But initial reportage quoting a party spokesperson as saying Lepp inadvertently pocket-shot the photo and then it inadvertently got uploaded to Twitter was as confusing as it was preposterous, and put a Fumble on what was otherwise a fairly clean “can you believe what somebody did to me” story.