The 3-day “Iowa-PHMSA Pipeline Safety Education Conference” in West Des Moine was hosted by Iowa Utilities Board.

Ron’s presentation – “Public Awareness in 2010; Effective, affordable & easy communications strategies” – outlined message development for the pipeline industry, and the integration of public relations, Email, social media and more.

Questions? Call Ron at 515-224-1086 or email to rhanser@hanser.com.

Today, the Telly is one of the most sought-after awards by industry leaders, from large international firms to local production companies and ad agencies. With over 200 categories, more organizations than ever are eligible to participate.

Click on the following link for more information and to view a list of winners by category: http://www.tellyawards.com/winners/

First, do the right thing. Act as required to fix problems quickly. Take the additional actions required to mitigate damages. Do yet more work to ensure that the problem will not happen again.

Then, talk about it. Sure, communicate while acting, but communicate in support of action. Efforts to distract, distort or do anything other than directly and contritely fix it will fail.

Reputation is often forged by crisis – behavior in the face of adversity. Communication is important, but people want to see actions.

Instead, we’re seeing ineffective action *and* poor communication.

Consider that BP’s response plan has been denounced as ’severely flawed’ and says “No statement shall be made containing … promises that property, ecology or anything else will be restored to normal…” (note the recent national advertising promising to ‘make this right’). And the company is restricting access and buying attention. Meanwhile, the scope of the problem continues to grow — 55 days and counting today.

What do you think of BP’s action and communication in the wake of the spill? How would you handle it?

We can cut this data for your industry/company, too. Just ask!

Awards received include:

1)    Megabus.com “Planes, Trains… and Buses” (Award of Excellence in Newspaper Placement category)

2)    Megabus.com “Mega Hot Sale” (Award of Distinction in Low Budget Video category)

3)    Metalcraft  “RFID Case Study” (Award of Distinction in Other category)

The Awards of Excellence, the highest honor, is given to entries whose ability to communicate put them among the best in the field.  The Award of Distinction is presented for projects that exceed industry standards in quality and achievement.

The Communicator Awards is sanctioned and judged by the International Academy of the Visual Arts, an invitation-only body consisting of top-tier professionals from a “Who’s Who” of acclaimed media, communications, advertising, creative and marketing firms.

Check out this year’s winners at www.communicatorawards.com.

Lee Levitt, a visionary champion of the public relations profession for more than 50 years, passed away May 19 at the age of 80.

He was a student (and “professor”) of the history of public relations.  For example, he often stated that one of the earliest successful PR campaigns was implemented by Roman emperor Alexander the Great, whose rise to power was fueled by assuring that news of his far-flung military victories reached “headquarters” and was disseminated throughout the Roman Empire.

Lee started a PR firm in the early 1950s.

With the advent of business computing, he saw the opportunity for the “new tool” to revolutionize the placement of press releases.  In 1957, Lee co-founded PR Aids (later rebranded as PRA) which offered a new concept for mass distribution of press releases. PRA became one of the world’s largest PR service organizations.

Following the advent of laptop computers, he was never without his trademark shoulder bag, making him one of the first to demonstrate the advantages of using portable technology.

Lee also became one of the top experts on forging productive international (he used the term “transnational”) business relationships through PR campaigns.

More info in PRWeek

This week the public relations profession – and industry – pause for a moment to remember Betsy Plank, one of the trailblazers and pillars of our profession. She passed away yesterday (May 23) at the age of 86, after mentored hundreds of fellow PR professionals.

I met Betsy 20 years ago at a national Public Relations Society of America conference when she was an energetic 65-year-old; we discussed education/internships for the next generation of PR professionals. 

During Betsy’s six decades in PR, she marked many “firsts” including roles as:

- Co-chair (in 1967) of a national commission to develop guidelines for the undergraduate public relations curriculum.

- First woman exec to head a division of Illinois Bell (AT&T).

- First woman elected national president of PRSA.   

In her 2002 acceptance remarks upon becoming the first woman to receive the Institute for Public Relations’ Alexander Hamilton Award, Betsy said,

“In my philosophy, public relations is fundamental to a democratic society where people make decisions in the workplace, marketplace, the community and the voting booth.  Its primary mission is to forge responsible relationships of understanding, trust and respect among groups and individuals – even when they disagree!”

More info recognizing Betsy’s achievements is posted on the PRSA website.

Hanser & Associates won three Awards for their efforts.
• “2009 Des Moines Home & Garden Show” in Public Relations Campaign category (2nd Place)
• “Smashburger Grand Opening Celebration in Iowa” in Special Event/Conference category (2nd Place)
• “Smashburger Grand Opening Celebration in Iowa” in Integrated Campaign category (3rd Place)
Submissions were judged on five criteria — objectives, campaign budget, strategy, tactics, and results. Results are triple weighted. A panel of marketing professionals from the Minnesota chapter of the American Marketing Association served as judges and chose this year’s winners.

The Des Moines Register posted a few photos from the social hour at: http://bit.ly/b52QwX

During the economic recovery, adapting Joseph P. Kennedy’s inspiration is good guidance to American CEOs (and their PR counselors) for two reasons…

Going gets tough…

Turnover among American CEOs is up in 2010. According to a report by global outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas (CG&C), 441 CEOs departed January-April, 14 percent more than during the same period in 2009. 

Resignations and retirements were the most common reasons for departure.

CG&G’s John Challenger said he expects to see increased chief executive turnover in the coming months. “Companies are making the transition from recession to recovery, and with that usually comes a transition in leadership.” 

Good CEOs get innovative…

In tough and good times, the most innovative CEOs come up with their insights by spending more time practicing five specific skills than do their counterparts, according to a six-year study by several business scholars.

The skills surfaced during interviews with leaders such as Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Dell’s Michael Dell and were reported in the Harvard Business Review (HBR) January–February 2010 issue.  Editors at The Strategist, published by Public Relations Society of America, summarized HBR’s findings in the Winter 2010 issue in an article fittingly entitled “The Five Things Great CEOs Do”…

1-QUESTION: Challenge assumptions; ask “Why?”, “Why not” and “What if?” to spur creative thinking.

2-OBSERVE: Watch your customers experience your product/service, while focusing on what’s different from what you expected.

3-EXPERIMENT: Get training outside your expertise or examine a product/service just to see how it works.

4-NETWORK: “Contact the five most creative people you know and ask them to share what they do to stimulate creative thinking.” 

5-ASSOCIATE: Connect seemingly unrelated questions and ideas to bring all of the others together.

We won the top award for a nationwide social media program created for our client, Chicago-based megabus.com. 
 
The photo of several of our staff was posted on PR Newswire’s “jumbotron” in Times Square during the days following the April 29 ceremony.

 
New York City’s Times Square! Awesome!