Forward Podcast 39 is a conversation with Bruce Brodoff, recently named Assistant Vice President of Marketing and Communications for the Alliance for Downtown New York. Bruce Brodoff is a multiple-award winning communications professional who has extensive experience in communications, public affairs, marketing and advertising, and television news writing and production.

Bruce, formerly the Director of Public Affairs for the Alliance, started his career in Los Angeles seeking fame and fortune, but his interests and skills eventually led him to the communication field through many trials by fire. He worked for the Giuliani administration in New York City as the Director of Public Relations for the Mayor’s Office of Emergency Management. He transferred to the Economic Development Corporation’s marketing and advertising division, where he created advertising and marketing plans and materials that helped attract and retain companies in New York City as well as promoted City property, markets, and business assistance programs and services. Bruce was Director of Communications for the American Red Cross September 11 Recovery Program and subsequently worked as a Public Affairs Officer for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s FEMA Region II office during the Hurricane Katrina crisis.

Bruce keeps an excellent online portfolio (hint, this is a great idea folks) of his current projects, past experiences, job history, successes and contact information. You should spend some time reading more about him, his case studies and learning from this brilliant man and this site.

Show Notes

00:13: Intro by Luke Armour

01:00: Welcoming Bruce Brodoff

01:14: Who is Bruce?

03:12: The Alliance for Downtown New York

05:00: News Junkie heads to Hollywood

07:40: Trial by fire: Office of Emergency Management in New York

08:17: Writing skills are important?!

09:28: 2 years later – economic development corporation

10:42: Coming to communications from other disciplines

13:24: Networking

16:07: Personal Branding - Get an online porfolio

17:24: A News Junkie in 2008

21:00: Ideas from the unlikeliest of places

24:27: Setting yourself apart

26:08: Success Tips!

30:35: Crisis communication, “it’s cool”

35:33: Front seat to the greatest show on earth

37:37: Wrap up
Bruce has agreed to answer questions left in the comments here or you may feel free to contact him directly through his site. Thanks for listening to Forward Podcast 39.

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In what is described as being pulled right from a spy-thriller novel, British Airways this week mobilized an impressive response to the news that three of their planes contained low traces of a radioactive substance, polonium 210, that killed former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko. The airline was contacted Tuesday night by the British government and, in less than ten hours it seems, put their crisis communications plan into high-gear. The task of warning nearly 33,000 passengers that they may have been exposed to a highly-lethal radioactive substance while trying to calm fears and communicate their real risk was low is no easy task. Immediately, the airline pulled the three planes out of service, put a statement on the wire and made information easy to find on their Web site home page. The airline wasted no time in divulging what they knew, not speculating and setting up hot lines for both media inquiries and consumer concerns.

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Think back to the long, hot days of summer. Remember the biggest talking point in PR blogging? It was a double-barrelled fusillade launched from the Australian winter - the claim that ‘Astroturfing is evil’. My link is to Trevor Cook’s blog, but the inspiration for this campaign came from Forward’s own Paull Young.

And who could disagree with them? Of course we all believe in what we do, and want to believe that the public relations we practice is respectable, legitimate, open and ethical. So why not distance our brand of professional PR from the disreputable end of the business? How hard can that be?

I like Paull; I admire Trevor. Yet I only felt able to lend lukewarm support to their campaign (my comment on Trevor’s post hints at some reservations, though my defence of a royal walkabout was perhaps not universally compelling.)

Now Edelman stands indicted of this great evil. (Edelman, remember, is the global cheerleader for ‘the new PR’ and an active headhunter of the best blogging talent including the UK’s Stephen Davies and Forward’s managing editor Erin Caldwell.) Ashley Imsand has already commented at Forward on the Wal-Mart blogging furore.

So where do I now stand on astroturfing and on the crucial issue of transparency?

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It’s been widely reported (also see here for Washington Post story) this week that the Pentagon is seeking a PR firm to improve their communications about the war in Iraq. The winner of the $20 million, two year contract will perform global media monitoring, analysis and briefings, translate a key government web site into Arabic and provide other tactical and strategic public relations activities.

In my opinion, the AP’s story headline, “Pentagon Moves Toward Monitoring Media,” is a little odd and a bit dramatic, and the last line of the piece, “Pentagon officials have defended the (PR) program as a necessary tool in the war on terror. But critics have said it contradicts American values of freedom of the press,” is strangely placed. Monitoring media is a fancy way of saying that you’re reading the newspapers, watching TV and listening to the radio. It certainly isn’t against freedom of the press for a government to read the news. In fact, the better media monitoring you have, the better you are able to understand why people are saying the things they’re saying about you, and the better you can create messages that clearly articulate what you’re trying to say so people understand your point of view. So, why is this such a big deal?

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One of the most interesting e-mails I get comes in the form of the Crisis Manager Newsletter from Jonathan Bernstein at his firm, Bernstein Crisis Management. I stumbled upon his site while researching the PR industry after changing majors in college. So, for roughly two years now, I’ve been getting my twice-monthly Crisis Manager Newsletter. It is full of interesting tips, commentary and analysis about crisis and issues management. Jonathan is incredibly insightful, informative and has a great sense of humor that he infuses into each issue. In fact, it was his newsletters that actually got me interested in crisis management in the first place!

This week, Jonathan announced that he has started a blog! This is something I - and I’m sure his thousands of his other subscribers - had been hoping would happen for quite some time. If you are interested in public relations, the Crisis Manager Newsletter and companion blog should be on your must-read list.

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For the fifth Forward Podcast one of our principal contributors, Josh Morton, interviews Bryan Specht, his boss at Weber Shandwick Chicago.

Bryan Specht is a Senior Vice President and member of the Executive Leadership Team at Weber Shandwick Chicago where he specializes in global corporate reputation programs and the management of sensitive corporate issues and crises.

On 9/11, Bryan served as the on-site American Airlines communications coordinator and helped manage the airline’s command center at Dulles International Airport in response to the terrorist hijacking and crashing of Flight 77 at the Pentagon. In cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security, he was the lead developer of the Business Roundtable’s Post-9/11 Crisis Communications Toolkit.

Prior to joining Weber Shandwick, Bryan served in senior staff roles for two U.S. Senators and two Members of Congress. He has served on the staffs of three presidential campaigns, managed a victorious nationally-targeted congressional campaign and was a part of the White House and Party Leadership communications team during one of the most controversial congressional battles in U.S. history.

Bryan graduated from Ohio University with a Degree in American Ethnology and Minority Affairs, a minor in Constitutional Law and a certificate in Political Communications. He is involved in the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Europe Program and was an invited participant in the 2003 Global Issues Management Council forum at the Swiss Re Center for Global Dialogue in Ruschlikon, Switzerland. He is a member of the Public Affairs Council, the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, the United Nations Association and the Business Council for the United Nations. He has appeared on several network and cable news programs as a political strategist and issues management consultant.

For this edition of Forward Podcast, Bryan shares some stories from the early days of his career, alongside advice for young PR’s and his thoughts on mentors. He talks about his experiences as the on-site communications coordinator for American Airlines on 9/11 – a day he desribes as “life changing” while also representing a “sea change for crisis management practice”.

Show notes:

00:14: Intro from Paull Young – director of Forward Podcast
01:35: Josh introduces Bryan Specht
02:41: Bryan outlines the start of his career in politics
04:14: Bryan explains how he ended up advising President Clinton
05:34: How and why Bryan moved from politics to public relations
08:19: Bryan shares his thoughts on mentoring
10:56: Bryan desribes his role as on-site American Airlines communications coordinator on 9/11 and discusses the effect the day had on him personally and professionally
22:07: Bryan outlines some of the professional lessons he learnt from his role on 9/11
24:22: Bryan gives some advice to young practitioners - be prepared to be a pauper early in your career, but the eventual rewards are worth it
29:37: Paull wraps up, and shares some administration information about the upcoming changes to the Forward Podcast

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Here is a great example of how to handle a crisis.

Cadbury, the company that brings us Cadbury Eggs at Easter (you know, the commercials with the bunny that makes chicken noises), pulled more than one million chocolate bars from store shelves amid fears of salmonella contamination last week.

Cadbury was very up-front and thorough about the situation; it …

• Put out a detailed list of the type of bars that could be contaminated
• Communicated that the potential salmonella levels in the bars was below health problem standards
• Announced if anyone had ingested one of the contaminated bars, they did not have anything to worry about
• BUT Cadbury gave an information number and offered a full refund.

This is a great example of proactive PR. Was this situation a crisis? No. Could the company have let it slide since they knew the potential wasn’t serious? Probably. Instead, Cadbury came forward with ALL of the information for its consumers, pulled the products off of shelves, and set up an informational hotline for those who wanted it. It didn’t hold anything back or try to avoid anything, but was completely honest. This is how any potential crisis situation needs to be handled. Always present all of the information that is available, be timely, explain what has happened and have a way for those affected to get in touch with you.

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Jay-Z is not happy with Cristal, the beloved champagne he has been spitting rhymes about since 1996.

The story has the details, but a big cheese at the company that produces Cristal made some less than positive comments about the hip-hop clientelle the brand attracts. In response, Jay-Z has said he will boycott the bubbly and discontinue selling it at his 40/40 clubs.

Jay-Z is a style and trend influencer for a large segment of America’s youth, probably most affecting the echo boomers and some Gen-Xers. I’m a big fan myself. If Jay-Z strikes out on an anti-Cristal crusade, he can certainly help galvanize support from the hip-hop culture. The article mentions that Russel Simmons, former CEO of Def Jam Records, put enough pressure on Pepsi for yanking Ludacris as a spokeman, that Pepsi gave $3 million in charitable donations to the record company. Face it. Hip-hop is powerful stuff.

I doubt that the hip-hop culture impacts Cristal’s bottom line in any significant way, otherwise words might have been chosen more carefully. Apparently, Cristal isn’t marketing to that lifestyle.

But if a cultural icon like Jay-Z is upset, damage can be done. I’m curious. Is this a crisis for Cristal? Of course, there are some racial elements to this that will surface, as Jay-Z has already stated he construed the statements as racist.

What do you think? If you were Cristal, what would you do? Holla at me. As Brooklyn’s finest once said, “you can’t knock the hustle.”

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How many of us smacked our foreheads when we learned this week that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) waited two weeks before alerting the public that the personal data of 26.5 million veterans was stolen? Now, instead of educating veterans about how to protect themselves from identity theft, VA is busy trying to put out an unnecessary fire, leaving that job to the media and other third parties.

When you mess up, you still have a chance to make things right by apologizing and taking the lead in educating those affected. The only things we’ve heard from VA involve checking your credit. Besides a Web site where vets can go to learn about fraud alerts and other identity theft remedies (they’ve finally posted information on their web site), the real focus should be on a quick, timely response to the situation. This will help salvage your reputation from being completely damaged, and (most of all) it will give those affected the information they need to be confident that they are OK.

VA was honest, but waiting two weeks before telling the public, and the ensuing irresponsibility (their explanations are sounding more like excuses) will most certainly damage their reputation. When a crisis hits, come out talking immediately, show your compassion and humility, and talk candidly.

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