Page 34 - CCCA Magazine Summer 2014

{ sPotligHt oN… } protectIng your Brand In real-tIme By Yves Faguy Corporations invest a tremendous amount of time and energy in Before long though, Loblaw faced an developing their brand and managing their reputation. But these efforts even greater PR threat. In April 2013, a garment factory collapsed in Bangladesh, can be destroyed in a matter of seconds, often without warning. killing 1,129 and injuring thousands of others. Loblaw had been sourcing cloth- ing from the Rana Plaza factories for its n today’s digital world, ignoring the pow- a frozen yogurt company that was suing Joe Fresh line. Media—especially social er and infuence of word-of-mouth— it for $20 million. YoPRO, a family busi- media—coverage of the event was exten- Iparticularly when things go wrong—is ness co-founded by Amanda House and sive, with hundreds of thousands of peo- hardly an option. It was also the topic of husband Chris Delaney, was alleging that ple on Twitter forwarding pictures of Joe an education session at CCCA’s National Loblaw had erred in not properly show- Fresh’s garment tag in the rubble. Conference in April. casing its products in stores, thereby caus- Loblaw got in front of the story quick- “Twenty years ago, a crisis could hap- ing losses in sales. ly. Weston was once again the face of the pen, and frankly, not many people would House posted a YouTube video making organization, stating that the company be aware of it,” said Jason Hatcher, manag- an emotional plea for help to Loblaw’s ex- would investigate the matter carefully ing principal at Navigator Ltd., a commu- ecutive chairman Galen Weston Jr., even and produce a compensation plan for the nications frm. “Events would appear in going so far as to suggest that the stress victims, the details of which would be re- the next day’s news and would not change surrounding the legal dispute had caused vealed a few months later. until the following day’s news cycle. The her husband to collapse and be taken to The key lesson according to Morshead? same content was used in the morning pa- hospital. The clip went viral, receiving “We have to embrace social media. That’s pers that then drove the evening telecasts, over 200,000 views, and Loblaw found it- very diffcult for lawyers because that and this gave companies and individuals self in the middle of a PR crisis. means loss of control to a large degree. Also, time to develop a calculated response. If “We had not at this point actually so- you have to act quickly but you can’t over- they were smart, they would do this on lidifed our social media policy,” Mors- react. As lawyers, we really need to have an the advice of legal counsel.” head told session attendees. understanding of the social media world in That was then, this is now. According Complicating matters, lawyers are gen- order to advise in this area, especially when to the speakers, 90% of people today get erally uncomfortable with acting swiftly the matter is actually in litigation.” their news from the Internet, and 43% when lacking information. “Our response When it comes to managing reputa- receive it from social media platforms— always is to not to say too much and we are tions in the digital age, there really are a fgure that is higher among younger de- trained not to speak when we don’t have all no easy answers, as crises tend to be un- mographic groups. the facts,” said Morshead. “And that’s some- predictable. Still, the key is to know how And it is not just the big headlines that thing that we actually need to change in this to act quickly. Being prepared can save a require close attention. A minor client day and age, especially when it becomes this company from permanent damage. complaint broadcast on Twitter or Face- common in social media context.” “Every organization should have a pub- book could go viral and badly harm a In the end, Loblaw did move quickly. lic relations communications plan in their company’s reputation. Four days after House published her You- back pocket,” advised Hatcher. “If you’re This presents a major challenge to law- Tube video, Weston met with Amanda going to spend the frst couple of hours, the yers, according to Hatcher, as they struggle House to talk. The company received high lone couple of days, in a crisis deciding who to reconcile how to balance the legal risks marks for handling the situation effective- needs to speak to whom, who has frst-line for a company with its public reputation ly and with tact even though little could responsibilities for any particular part of risk: “The world of information will not be said given the pending litigation. dealing with the crisis, you are going to be wait for a measured response regardless of House posted a second video in Janu- already defned. And I can tell you that re- your client’s risk tolerance and approach ary 2013 alleging that Loblaw had delib- branding a situation or rebranding a com- to disclosure.” erately destroyed sensitive emails between pany is much more diffcult and, frankly, This was precisely the dilemma facing the parties. However, by then, interest in much more expensive and time consuming Deborah Morshead, senior vice-president the story had died down—with the ex- than branding in the frst place.” ❚ and legal counsel at Loblaw Companies ception of some persistent bloggers who Ltd. in December 2012 when the grocery raised concerns about what they consid- Yves Faguy is the senior and online editor of CBA’s giant was caught up in litigation involving ered holes in House’s story. National Magazine. 34 CCCa Magazine | suMMer 2014 été