Sometimes communications teams just need to step away from the brand and think objectively on the implications of their ideas. At the recent BrightonSEO conference, Catherine Warrilow of Oxford-based Seriously PR outlined to delegates how to avoid PR own goals. I caught up with her to discuss further.
Catherine Warrilow, Seriously PR
The recent “Boaty McBoatface” incident was the latest high-profile PR own goal from an organisation. The invitation to the public to rename the ship was made in good faith, but the mechanism in which to do that – a free-for-all on name suggestions – was too tempting for many in the Great British public to resist.
After all, it’s not as if there weren’t precedents to look at: British Gas or Ryanair’s Twitter Q&As, for example.
Likewise, when brands produce pink things “for girls” most of us can anticipate the inevitable public reaction. Yet it continues to happen, as Catherine Warrilow of travel PR specialists Seriously PR highlighted in her speech at BrightonSEO last week.
I managed to grab five minutes with Catherine to get her views on why this own goal culture persists and what the PR industry needs to do about it.
To learn how to prepare for online crises, be sure to join my Social Media Crisis Communications training webinar on 10 June.