The Oil Spill and BP's Marketing Response
posted by Lauren on June 10th, 2010
I’ve debated quite a bit over whether or not to write the following blog post. I realize what I’m going to write will certainly have a number of critics.
Let’s start with the stuff we can all agree on:
The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is heartbreaking. The few images that we’ve seen are infuriating: dolphins washed up on the beach, birds covered in oil, and sea turtles dead from ingesting oil-covered fish. Huge oil plumes are floating around thousands of feet under the surface and we still have no idea what that really means for the ecosystem. I shudder to think about what all of this could do to the Everglades – the only sawgrass marsh of its kind in the world – or the Louisiana Bayou.
And the effect on the economy of the Gulf States… The state of Florida, the place where I’ve spent most of my life, depends on revenue generated from tourism. Without their beaches there is huge trouble in store for a state that is already suffering horribly – foreclosures in so many neighborhoods, high numbers of unemployment among its citizens, a public school system in shambles forced to bump out some of its most experienced teachers because of budget cuts.
This is a catastrophe in the most serious sense of the word.
Here’s where we may start to disagree:
As much as I’d love to have somewhere to place the blame, we cannot point the finger solely at BP. Yes, they have screwed up royally time and again. Yes, I hope that Obama gives them the “ass-kicking” he’s spoken about. Yes, there were glaring violations in their safety protocols. Red flags were raised prior to the spill that were largely ignored.
But let’s face it: Drilling offshore is extremely risky and BP is the one who got caught with their hand in the cookie jar. It could just have easily been Shell or Exxon or whoever else is out there extracting this precious resource.
The real problem does not sit in any oil conglomerate’s front yard. It sits in mine and it sits in yours. As a two-person, two-car household, I’m guilty as charged. Until we decrease our dependency on oil – whether from the Middle East or from our very shores – we will allow these risks to be taken (and these wars to be fought, but I digress). If we didn’t buy it, they wouldn’t drill for it, period.
And here’s where we may really go separate ways:
Putting on my marketer hat, I’m a little surprised by the criticism from the marketing community against BP’s marketing and advertising reaction to the spill.
I’ve heard BP is paying top dollar for the keyword “oil spill” on Google, Bing and Yahoo searches. If you were on their search marketing team, wouldn’t you have recommended they make that move?
They created an advertising campaign where the CEO of BP ‘apologizes’ and explains the efforts that they are making to clean up the mess they’ve made. I’ve heard it’s a waste of their money – money that could be spent cleaning up the spill. I’m pretty sure BP can run that campaign and clean the spill. As for the ad itself, is it completely heartfelt? Who knows? But, if BP hadn’t addressed the public to apologize and detail how they’re trying to make it right, would there not have been more outrage?
I agree that the focus on the Twitter parody account @BPGlobalPR has been unjust. I don’t think any Twitter follower really thought that the account was coming from inside BP. That’s a fight they should never have picked.
So, here are my thoughts:
I know nothing about cleaning up oil spills. I know no way that BP can right this wrong. I’ve shed more than a few tears thinking about this beautiful part of the world that will never be the same.
But from a crisis control and marketing perspective, how would you have advised them differently?
Perhaps they could have studied the American Red Cross and other organizations’ response to the earthquake in Haiti – rallied the U.S. and the world to support the clean-up and submit ideas to further progress.
Maybe they could have accepted aid and manpower from the thousands of fishermen and captains who know the Gulf of Mexico like the back of their hands, like Haiti did as doctors and architects came to the island to offer their expertise. Word of mouth from that vocal group would certainly have been much more positive.
Perhaps they could better publicize their regularly updated website with information about the attempts to seal the still-leaking pipe, their progress in the clean-up, and their plans for the future. A little “taking responsibility’ copy also wouldn’t hurt. (I didn’t know about the site at all until I started writing this post.)
Maybe they could offer complete transparency to the media and complete cooperation with the U.S. government organizations that are working alongside the BP team.
Perhaps they should tape Hayward’s mouth closed so they only statements that came out were carefully written by his team of PR experts.
I am aware that this is not a complete strategy by any means, just some tactics off the top of my head. As a marketer, and solely as a marketer, what would you put together to see your client (BP) through?
June 10th, 2010 at 10:44 pm
I must say this is a great article i enjoyed reading it keep the good work
June 11th, 2010 at 12:53 am
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by LG Fisher, JONO. JONO said: RT @lgfisher: As a marketer, what would you have recommended if #BP was your client? http://bit.ly/aDwmY4 [...]
June 13th, 2010 at 12:01 pm
What a poignant article. And I agree with the points made. In times of crisis it is difficult to make amends and “fix the problem” quickly – and no matter your efforts it’s never enough in the court of public opinion. For example, the BP CEO commercial where he makes the apology and talks about the clean up efforts. As a marketer I understand the purpose of it: to offer transparency and express remorse and solidarity. Is he sincere? Who knows. But BP is now in a position of “damn if you do and damn if you don’t.”
But like you mentioned they have enough funds to pay for the clean up AND the 30 second spot.
I agree that they should offer more transparency, more updates online, admit that they are out of ideas and open it up to the public and have the person(s) compensated by BP. They have to adopt the notion that they can’t fix this themselves.
This is a national and pehaps international problem, therefore you have to engage other organizations and work in concert for the greater good. In other words, put the ego aside and work as a team.
June 15th, 2010 at 9:53 pm
Good points of view and just as good points to ponder. As all of us know, on any kind of disasters where corporations are involved, from Enron to FEMA — opinions on the appropriateness of a company’s actions and responses are always criticized by a vast majority, particularly by the uninformed or just as dangerous, the emotionally over-informed.
I agree with most of your points Lauren, particularly with BP’s response in terms of ad content. It’s here where we see that marketing, and its most timely tools –Advertising and PR – come into place when they have to. Anyone with doubts on recent history, please turn to Tiger. Paraphrasing one of my favorite books on the subject, The Language of Trust, a rule of thumb is to follow 4 principles of credible communications – Personal, Plainspoken, Positive, and Plausible. A great example of ways to handle a crisis with or without this type of strategy is David Neeleman’s (CEO of Jet Blue), public apology when an ice storm stranded thousands of airline passengers on airport tarmacs for hours vs. Edward Liddy (AIG’s CEO) speech before congress on the aftermath of the financial crisis they helped create. Jet Blue understood that language (we vs. I) and apologies (“we are embarrassed”) matter. Even though Jet Blue’s is not a fit comparison in terms of scale of disasters, people always want to hear the truth (or something close to it) and what the company is doing to help its customers or audiences from now on, in lieu of what they’ve done so far to become a “trusted” company and what their professional expertise may be.
In my opinion, BP as you rightly point out, was the first one caught with the hand on the cookie jar, and sadly enough, they will not be the last. But at least they are expressing a forthcoming public apology, putting resources behind their words and mouths, as confirmed today when they announced significant progress in its half-billion dollar pledge to the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GRI), a similar incentive to what Jet Blue did creating the Jet Blue Airways Customer Bill of Rights. To be credible these days, beyond customer service, we need to see customer advocacy.
Even though I relieve BP has handled its advertising the right way, and should make sure its PR gurus keeps Hayward with a sore throat until he can walk on water, the child in me refuses to get gas in any BP station. My brain tells me that I am not hurting the company by not buying gas from them. But still, even if I know I drive an Audi Convertible because I like it and because biking for 2 hours in 100 degree weather in Miami to get to work will be as detrimental to my health as believing that someday we will have decent public transportation in the “magic city”. And still, every weekend when I run like child to feel the water of the beautiful beach in my backyard, I wonder if next weekend it will be the same, and my heart shrinks when I know it may not be. It is then when I ask a question to all of out there, why are we asking BP primarily for a solution to stop the spill if they have not been able to do so in more than a month? Would you give a staff member who screws up more than 50 days to solve a problem he caused, trust him, and keep waiting for a miracle? The ocean has no country, let’s ask for help beyond BP and ourselves, if we have not done it already.
June 15th, 2010 at 10:06 pm
@Cynthia and @Beatriz: Thank you both for your comments. I am thrilled that you commented as I admire you both as brilliant women and enlightened marketing and PR professionals.
@Cynthia: I’m with you on the thought of numerous organizations operating in concert for the greater good. We have to remember that this isn’t just a US problem – apart from the fact that BP is British-owned, the oceans are all connected and this may become a problem for our neighbors all over the world.
@Beatriz: I love the examples you cite of JetBlue’s and AIG’s responses to recent crises.
Thanks again, ladies!
June 16th, 2010 at 10:22 pm
I found this on the world list of oil spills:
The Gulf oil Spill came about by an explosion from an oil drill leased by BP Oil, operated by Transocean and the seal was constructed by Halliburton. The oil rig exploded on April 20, 2010 and is still continuing to spill millions of gallons into the Gulf of Mexico. The oil spill has spread to the coasts of Louisiana damaging the wetlands, beaches, estuaries and killing wildlife in its path.
The damages are still unknown and BP is incapable of stopping the oil leaking from the blower pipe for 41 days. This will be recorded in history as one of the largest and most damaging oil spills of the history of earth. It is estimated that BP is spilling 19,000 barrels of oil each day into the Gulf of Mexico-50 miles off the shores of Louisiana and four other states. The effects are unknown.
First- What a jaw dropping, FUBAR type of situation BP has gotten themselves into… My heart definitely goes out to all those affected by the oil spill.
Second- Being one of the largest and most damaging oil spills of the history of earth, I honestly wouldn’t know where to begin as a marketer. But I definitely agree with what I like to think of as the ‘ugly truth’- “Until we decrease our dependency on oil – whether from the Middle East or from our very shores – we will allow these risks to be taken (and these wars to be fought, but I digress). If we didn’t buy it, they wouldn’t drill for it, period.”
I recently came across this interesting cleanup plan for the Gulf oil spill by Kevin Costner http://bit.ly/costnersoilplan.
Great POV, and I commend you for “putting your neck out there.”
June 21st, 2010 at 5:22 am
Please read my article about the BP oil spill. People are breathing in toxic gases as you read this and we will not know the affects until years from now.
June 22nd, 2010 at 9:46 am
Interesting thoughts. I feel personally attached to this tragedy as well. I have many friends and former co-workers who are directly affected by the spill. BP made a total mess of their PR. I agree with you that running an ad probably doesn’t affect the money BP is putting towards the cleanup efforts. On the other hand, I believe they should have made more of an effort to contain the spill and remedy the leak before trying to improve their brand image, which will likely struggle for years to come. Had they been more diligent with the cleanup before they began trying to repair their image, I would have a little more sympathy, especially considering their history of cutting corners when it comes to safety procedures.
Sadly, it is true that this disaster could have happened to any oil company involved in deep water drilling. Ultimately, it is up to us as Americans to make a real effort to move toward greener energy resources. As long as our addiction to oil continues, these things will continue to happen.
Great post on a troubling topic.
June 23rd, 2010 at 11:36 pm
This entire oil spill with BP is chaos. The total amount of oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico jumped by 1000′s of barrels Wednesday after an submerged robot plainly struck the containment cap that has been getting petroleum from BP’s Macondo well. I wonder how much desolation this whole oil spill is going to cost the world when it’s all over.