1 British Petroleum and Chevron in the Public Eye Case Study McCown Bridges Professor Tom Klipstine Integrated Marketing Communications 705 November 11, 2010 2 “What the hell did we do to deserve this?” asked Tony Hayward, CEO of British Petroleum after the biggest oil spill in history claimed the lives of oil rig workers, countless sea animals and almost halted life on the Gulf Coast (The BP Quote Hall of Fame, 2010). The brands of British Petroleum and Chevron oil companies have been forever changed after the significant year of 2010 brought more crises and opportunities to rebrand their companies in order to move forward. This paper looks at two global oil companies, British Petroleum and Chevron, and how they dealt with their crises of 2010, through their advertising, social media and public relations, with or without using Integrated Marketing Communications. The new idea of “stealing” a company’s name and creating a false website, Twitter account or press release wreaked havoc on the brands of British Petroleum and then, later, Chevron. The American Marketing Association describes a brand as a “name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them, intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors.” When the corporation no longer controls its brand image, the brand name is not as solid. Now globally (in)famous, British Petroleum (BP) is a oil company operational in 30 countries that “provide[s] its customers with fuel for transportation, energy for heat and light, retail services and petrochemicals products for everyday items” (BP at a Glance, 2010). The company, headquartered in London, is the third largest oil company in the world and the seventh largest company in the world. The global corporation obtained worldwide attention beginning in April 2010 when an oil pipe owned by BP burst in the Gulf of Mexico (How the Gulf Spill Happened, 2010). British Petroleum quickly became the target for backlash as news surfaced 3 that BP could have prevented the disaster, but was too concerned with bottom-line profits to use extra precautionary methods. The explosion occurred when a surge burst the cement surrounding a new well. Even the blowout preventer attached to the pipe could not stop the pressure, and the oil rig, Deepwater Horizon, sank (The Gulf of Mexico Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill: Some Background, 2010), beginning the problems that BP would face for the next months. After immediately making headline news, BP’s CEO, Tony Hayward’s response in one of his first interviews was, “How could the hell could this happen?” [sic] (Gulf Oil Spill: BP CEO Hayward Just Can’t Help Blaming Someone Else, 2010). Then, he promptly blamed the drilling rig company, Transocean. Eventually, BP had to accept most of the blame, and the company hired Bob Dudley, an American, to replace Hayward as the “public face of the response” to the oil spill catastrophe (Gulf Oil Spill: Swift Reaction to BP’s ouster of Hayward from Spill Response, 2010). Regardless, the response to the oil spill was criticized by 80 percent of Americans (BP Oil Spill Response rated worse than Katrina, 2010), who believed that the British company should have done more and reacted better in the first days of the spill. Although hiring Mr. Dudley as its public face was making progress, BP failed in reassuring its publics that it was tirelessly working on cleaning up the oil spill. Disgruntled citizens wanted to find out more about the disaster, and many were going to Social Media site, Twitter, to find the most recent news on the oil spill. Unfortunately, in May, news spread that BP had a fake Twitter account: “@BP Global PR,” was not really updated by officials at BP, but instead created to mock the company’s reactions to the oil spill. Tweets from the fake account included, “Negative people view the ocean as half empty of oil. We are dedicated to making it half full. Stay positive America!” (BP’s Latest Woe: Its Fake Twitter Stream Has Twice the 4 Followers of the Real Thing, 2010). These impostors, unhappy with the oil company’s real responses, were making up responses of their own, but in the name of BP itself. Unsuspecting Twitterers followed the fake account, and, in May 2010, nearly quadrupled the number of followers of the actual BP Twitter account (Fake BP Twitter Account Mocks Oil Spill PR Efforts, 2010). Eventually, however, the fake Twitter account was no longer headline news, and the imposters lost their 15 minutes of fame. BP learned that things could always get worse: even when dealing with a globally-recognized oil spill, they must also learn to deal with imposters pretending to be representing the company to the media. BP continued to update its own, real account of the oil spill on Twitter, hoping that its publics would soon recognize the difference between the accurate and false accounts. BP also began a huge campaign to repair the damage, both in the Gulf and of its own reputation, which was suffering all around the globe. BP quickly bought space on Google so that when visitors to the search engine typed any phrases related to the oil spill, the first choices to appear on Google were websites owned by BP. Though the oil company received some negative feedback accusing the corporation of propaganda, BP acknowledged that it had paid Google for the space and stated that it wanted its publics to receive news from a reliable source when searching for updates on the oil spill, as well as be able to contact the company directly for claims (BP’s Latest PR Tactic, 2010). On its main website, BP created a new tab, easily identifiable, leading to the most recent news of the oil spill. Instead of trying to blame others, such as Transocean, for the disaster, the oil company took responsibility for the spill and began making promises of how to “make it right.” On the 5 website, visitors can view the number of people currently employed by BP to work on the oil spill, the amount of money BP has used for clean-up and the number of barrels of oil taken from the ocean water. Visitors can view pictures and video of the clean-up, as well as contact BP directly about the oil spill (BP.com, 2010). BP also launched a live webcam feed for viewers to see the clean-up while it happened, allowing viewers to have a first-hand look at what the company was doing to fix its mistake (BP Launches Live Webcam of Riser Flow, 2010). While the reaction from the global oil company began slowly, it quickly picked up its pace and began releasing much more than press releases about the disaster which impacted the world. Another global oil company, Chevron is based in San Ramon, California. The energy company “explores for, produces and transports crude oil and natural gas; refines, markets and distributes transportation fuels and other energy products; manufactures and sells petrochemical products; generates power and produces geothermal energy; provides energy efficiency solutions; and develops the energy resources of the future, including bio-fuels” (Chevron Launches New Global Advertising Campaign: ‘We Agree’, 2010). Perhaps in an effort to differentiate itself from the more newsworthy oil company facing environmental backlash, Chevron launched a global campaign, titled “Power of Human Energy,” highlighting its goodwill toward the environment in the fall of 2010 in an effort to show its publics that it was embracing its communities and helping the small businesses (Chevron Announces New Global ‘Human Energy’ Advertising Campaign, 2010). Taking out full-page color advertisements in newspapers such as The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, and running compelling television commercials, 6 Chevron was determined not to let the new environmental campaign of British Petroleum get ahead (Critics spoof new Chevron ads promoting responsibility, 2010). The advertisements focus on five key aspects that the company believes it has in common with its publics: growth and jobs, renewable energy, technology, small business and community development (Chevron Launches New Global Advertising Campaign: ‘We Agree’, 2010). The campaign focuses on the issues that Chevron can help the communities with, such as more renewable resources and compassion for the small businesses. The advertisements feature statements that most of its publics believe big oil companies do not care about coupled with the tagline, “we agree.” “It’s time oil companies get behind the development of renewable energy. We agree.” “Oil companies should put their profits to good use. We agree.” “Oil companies need to get real. We agree” (Chevron.com/weagree, 2010). Chevron has incorporated many ideas of Integrated Marketing Communication into this global campaign. Although much of the focus of the campaign has been the television commercials and print advertisements, press releases make sure to note that commercials are available to be seen on youtube.com and advertisements can be viewed on Chevron.com (Chevron Launches New Global Advertising Campaign: ‘We Agree,’ 2010). Furthermore, interactive stories are available through the company’s main website, and the website created in 2005, www.willyoujoinus.com, is still running to interest the nearly 2 million visitors from all over the world to help Chevron with its cause (Chevron Announces New Global ‘Human Energy’ Advertising Campaign, 2010). The problem with Chevron’s new environmentally-friendly campaign was that Chevron, according to many accounts, was not exactly environmentally-friendly. Beginning in 1972, 7 Texaco (now known as Chevron) extracted oil from fields in Ecuador. The company released over 18 billion gallons of toxic water into the rainforest, polluting the surrounding rainforest as well as making residents of the area sick. Chevron is still in Ecuadorian court battling this dispute. According to Chevron, the Ecuadorian government’s allegations are false and Texaco had already paid all remediation to the Latin American government at the time of the incident (Ecuador Lawsuit: A Meritless Case¸2010). The new Fall 2010 campaign employed Integrated Marketing Communications through the interactive websites as well as through Energyville, a game allowing visitors to the website to play, which ultimately teaches them the effect of their energy choices (Chevron Announces New Global ‘Human Energy’ Advertising Campaign¸2010). However, most of the campaign’s online counterparts which normally augment commercials and print advertisements actually debilitated the “Power of Human Energy.” An activist group called “The Yes Men” found out about the campaign a few days early and began an online spoof mimicking the company’s promise to remember small businesses and encourage renewable energy. The activists, angry about Chevron’s issues in Ecuador, created a fake website, www.chevron-weagree.com, and posted similar advertisements that read, “Oil companies should stop endangering life” (Critics spoof new Chevron ads promoting responsibility¸2010). The Yes Men describe themselves as “impersonating big-time criminals in order to publicly humiliate them. Our targets are leaders and big corporations who put profits ahead of anything else” (The Yes Men, 2010). Determined to point out that Chevron was not as ecologically-aware as their advertisements illustrated, The Yes Men, together with Amazon Watch and Rainforest Action Network, displayed pictures of the environmental damage made by Chevron in Ecuador. Although Chevron decided to go 8 ahead with their advertising campaign, The Yes Men and its cooperating activists groups quickly gained the upper hand in publicizing the environmental issues that Chevron had tried to gloss over. Using Integrated Marketing Communication to their benefit, the activist groups quickly gained media attention – so much so that the media even believed that the fake websites were really from Chevron. BP’s image was in no way improved by the fake Twitter account pretending to be BP’s Public Relations; in fact, BP only received bad press because of the attention drawn to BP’s alleged failure to react properly. Instead of asking Twitter to remove the fake account, BP instead fought the battle against the imposters by telling its side of the story through its true Twitter account (@BP_America), its Facebook page, its Flickr account and its Youtube channel, some of these created solely for the response to the oil spill. Even though the British Petroleum brand was meeting negative press from every direction, it stayed the course by presenting its own story, its own fact and its own figures to its publics. Admittedly, all of these actions could never erase the bad publicity from the oil spill, but BP moved to “rebrand” its image in an effort to persuade its publics that BP cared for the environment and was working to fix the mistake it had made. Similarly, Chevron also moved ahead with its own campaign even after the “Power of Human Energy” campaign was high-jacked days before it debuted. The Yes Men tried to sabotage the large corporation by alerting the public to the company’s hand in the destruction of the rainforest and illness of indigenous residents in Ecuador, all while it put on an environmentally-friendly face for the American public. Instead of halting the campaign and hiding from the imposters, Chevron decided to continue its campaign even with the fake 9 campaign running simultaneously. Chevron insisted that its part in the Ecuador crisis was innocent and the corporation had nothing to hide. If Chevron had retracted its advertisements, it would have wasted millions of advertising dollars and, more damaging, allowed the small, activist group to win, indirectly conceding that Chevron was wrong. By continuing with its “Power of Human Energy” campaign, the oil company tried to make sure that its publics saw the company as it wanted to be seen, and not as The Yes Men wanted it portrayed. A brand represents the corporation’s attitude and promise to the consumer, and when imposters pretend to represent a corporation, sending mixed signals to the publics, the brand is inevitably weakened, as witnessed by BP and Chevron. Satire and spoofing have become almost emblematic of our times, increasing confusion when the publics want to find out the truth. British Petroleum’s false Twitter account surprised the company just as it surprised the media and its publics. However, instead of demanding that Twitter shut down the fake account, a spokesperson from BP announced that everyone is entitled to his or her view and BP would not try to end the false account’s Twittering. Even with fake feeds such as, “The ocean looks just a bit slimmer today. Dressing it in black really did the trick,” BP opted to ignore, for the most part, the 140-character phrases and continue posting its own Tweets on @BPAmerica (BP May Not Shut Down Fake Twitter Feed @BPGlobalPR, 2010). Not wanting to draw any more attention to imposters and their antics, BP continued to work on cleaning up the oil spill without loudly and publicly fighting with Twitter and the imposter. Perhaps adhering to the idea that any acknowledgement of bad behavior encourages it, BP chose to do little to combat the issue except to move ahead. 10 Chevron did not just have a fake Twitter account – false press releases were written, posted to a false website, false quotes were written and even a false Advertising Age website was created to host the false reports. Not only were the publics confused, but even media were not sure what was happening. Chevron had to reassign employees to watch online activity to make sure that no more fake websites or news stories were created. Chevron, though it chose to continue with its campaign, was no longer as environmentally friendly as their advertisements wanted the publics to believe. Even though the commercials stated that Chevron helped small businesses and gave back to its communities, it was soon common knowledge, because of The Yes Men, that Chevron was simultaneously fighting to win a law suit based on the poor treatment of the environment and its communities in Ecuador. Whether or not Chevron was actually at fault made no difference – the fact that the public knew that it was involved in the law suit claiming that Chevron had mistreated the residents and their environment hurt the reputation of the “different-kind-of-oil-company” (Marketing: Pranksters Highjack Chevron Corporate-PR Efforts, 2010). Chevron, in response to the hoax, released a statement saying, "Chevron's new advertising campaign is meant to identify and highlight common ground on key energy issues so we can move forward safely, intelligently and collaboratively. Unfortunately, there are some that are not interested in engaging in a constructive dialogue, and instead have resorted to rhetoric and stunts. Today, activist groups have attempted to interrupt the conversation by issuing a fake press release and establishing a counterfeit website, which are not affiliated with Chevron" (Yes Men Pull a Double Fake on Chevron, 2010). 11 Chevron appeared to take the same stance as BP had just taken earlier in the summer, not wanting to give any more publicity to the hoax than had already been given by the news media. Because of the huge amount of advertisements, it has become increasingly harder for an advertisement to break through the clutter and grab attention. Advertising must now be dynamic and interactive: attracting the consumer through personal and conversational techniques. Perhaps the newsworthy issues of high-jacked Twitter and false campaigns added to the buzz about British Petroleum and Chevron. British Petroleum’s Public Relations department was heavily criticized for its weak response after the oil spill. CEO Tony Hayward complained, “I’d like my life back” and the company failed to comply with its own company-created set of guidelines to follow after an oil spill (Analysis: BP’s Public Relations Make Terrible Decision Worse). The company’s Public Relations wavered and did not show control of the situation. BP made promises it could not keep, such as promising that the spill would be capped long before it really was and underestimating the extent of the total damage. After the corporation began reporting news on its Twitter account, the company’s brand lost much of what remained of its reputation when the fake Twitter account blatantly mocked the company’s decisions and actions. Chevron’s Public Relations’ campaign to distinguish the company from other environmentally-damaging oil companies exploded when The Yes Men ever so ingeniously pointed to Chevron’s own environmental damages in Ecuador. The Public Relations departed continued its campaign in an effort to show that Chevron did have a united front and would not back down from small activists groups that accused the oil giant of also damaging the 12 environment and refusing to fix it – the same characteristics that the company was trying to distinguish itself from its fellow oil companies. Social marketing has been successfully used by British Petroleum and Chevron, despite the problems that came hand-in-hand with the marketing tool. While BP and Chevron can both communicate more freely and cheaply with their publics using Facebook and Twitter, this aspect of Integrated Marketing Communication was used as sabotage for both companies. Because social media is so new in the business world, BP and Chevron were among the first corporations to find out the negative aspects of the tool. Because of the two-way conversation this tool allows, corporations must expect negative feedback when they make mistakes, such as oil spill disasters and refusing to pay $27 billion to clean up environmental damage in Ecuador. The advertising campaigns of both British Petroleum and Chevron are dynamic, interactive campaigns, reaching out to their publics and showing the personal side of the company. BP recently met negative feedback when even President Barak Obama criticized the corporation for spending billions of dollars on advertisements and campaigns promising to spend clean up the oil spill even while it has yet to pay back some claims to those who lost money because of the oil spill (BP Ad Campaign Boomerangs, 2010). Currently, BP advertisements focus on “energy diversity,” or finding energy from wind, solar and bio-fuels instead of only from oil (BP World Advertising, 2010). Perhaps BP wants to call its publics attention to the good that the oil company is working toward instead of reminding them of the oil spill yet again. While BP did not have much success with the modern way of two-way advertising because of all of the brutal criticism it received after the oil spill, if BP uses the twoway advertising to its advantage now, it can seem like it really cares about what its publics want 13 and show that it is doing its part to rebrand British Petroleum into a company that really does care about the environment as well as one that keeps its promises made to its publics. Chevron’s new advertising campaign, “We agree,” tries to find the common ground between a massive, global oil company and the small communities it services. By relating to its publics, Chevron allows visitors to its websites to choose the declarative statement they most agree with and see “What Chevron is doing” to improve in that area. Once the visitor clicks on the link to see what Chevron is doing, a video clip plays, showing Chevron workers carrying through on their promises made. Viewers are able to “Like” the page via Facebook and see the number of viewers who have already “Liked” it, as well as read a personalized message from the Vice President of Chevron, Paul K. Siegele (Chevron, We Agree, 2010). These new advertising campaigns are not just fulfilling the advertising needs of the companies, it encompasses Social Media and Public Relations, too. The principle goal of Integrated Marketing Communications is to project a consistent, unified image to the marketplace. Corporations can now use all of the new opportunities to give the same appeal to a broader market and in a more specific way. By using the functions of Integrated Marketing Communication, companies can create an integrated approach to relate more to their customers. Without Integrated Marketing Communications, a company fails to be as successful as it could be because its different departments are struggling to do-it-all themselves, instead of working together to create a more successful, unified image of the brand to its publics. The publics no longer expect to see a press release from a Public Relations department in a company that does not relate to an advertising campaign or even a Tweet. Companies, in order to be successful, must make sure that their departments can work 14 together to create a unified brand. Even facing disasters such as the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and the lawsuit over environmental damage and residents’ illness in Ecuador, the examples of British Petroleum and Chevron have proved that an Integrated Marketing Communication approach, one that encompasses all areas of marketing into one, unified theme is best when dealing with crises, and marketing in general. Even though BP and Chevron did not always apply IMC, such as BP’s Public Relations’ failure to keep its promises and appearing not to care about the loss of human and animal life and jobs, the two oil companies have incorporated more aspects of IMC and seem to be on the road to recovery from these two epic crises. 15 References Analysis: BP’s Public Relations Make Terrible Decision Worse. (2010, June 11). WWLTV.com Eyewitness News. Retrieved November 2, 2010, from http://www.wwltv.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/Analysis-BPs-public-relations-make-terriblesituation-worse-96183834.html BP. 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