O’Conall Street

The decision by the GardaCommissioner and supported by the Republic’s Minister for Integration not to allow a Sikh Garda Reserve trainee to wear a turban as part of his uniform has triggered a new and very important debate about multiculturalism in Ireland. It has also, not unsurprisingly, become a big news story across the island and indeed globally.

Today O’Conall Street takes a closer look at the PR and PA implications of this decision as well as the particular challenge multicultural communication presents for organisations.

Conor Lenihan, the South’s Minister for Integration, gave a significant number of media interviews earlier this week defending the decision. Mr Lenihan, a former journalist, failed to convince the Sikh community globally of the Irish government’s commitment to multiculturalism, claiming that because Ireland was a republic it would be inappropriate to distinguish between one officer and another. With hindsight, this appears to have been a mistake. The fact that the South is indeed a republic does not automatically imply it is secular and Sikh’s living in France, Egypt and the US know there are very many types of republic, some religious, some not. I have sympathy for the Minister in this regard. In Ireland we have traditionally seen our republic in the French (secular) model. It is however a tightrope message for any member of the Irish Government given the continued involvement of the Catholic Church in education and health-care, something the electorate generally has no problem with, but which does jar with the idea of a ’secular’ republic. A further argument was that the wearing of a turban could affect the operational effectiveness of an officer. 

PR observation one - Never make a claim you cannot stand over and always test your messages against their impact on every audience, at home and abroad. When dealing with multicultural and diverse audiences, special care needs to be taken to ensure your message reaches them in a way which can be understood and accepted.

Within a day the world’s biggest Indian expat website the Hindustan Times was reporting the story, as was the Times of India, Corrier International, Panthic Weekly, Earth Times as well as every newspaper and broadcast outlet on the island of Ireland. The Sikh Council of Ireland, serving Sikh police officers globally as well as at least one TD, Ciaran Cuffe - from the government coalition partners, the Green Party, called for a further debate on the issue, and raised questions the Garda Siochana is yet to answer. Not only were they disagreeing with the Garda decision in principal but they were also challenging many of the arguments being made in support of the decision.

PR observation two - always have rebuttals prepared for every counter-argument which could be made. For example the Garda are yet to give a good explanation of how a turban would affect the operational effectiveness of an officer.  

So where to from here? The Garda and the government need to start communicating their argument much more clearly and concisely. They also need to consider their communications channels more carefully. Megaphone (media) communications are often the worst way of getting around an issue like this. An evidence based approach to policy making  and by extension communications, is always best where the issue is complex and has the potential to trigger ‘national’ or even international debates.

 At Weber Shandwick we have been looking at multi cultural communications for some time. Last year we established a dedicated practice to work with organisations and companies wishing to target different ethnic groups. It’s called MCC and has published some fascinating insights into the different consumer trends of ethic groups in Britain.

 Over the coming days it will be interesting to see whether a campaign builds up in support of the trainee Sikh reservist. It will be test for the Irish republic and the Garda Siochana as well as a challenge for politics as the issues raised question some big assumptions which have been comfortably held since the thirties. Unionism will also follow this debate closely looking for signs that the South is not in the words of the former First Minister and UUP Leader (Lord) David Trimble, a “pathetic, sectarian, mono-cultural and mono-ethnic state”.

His words. Trust me. Not mine!   

Feminists of the world rejoice. The lad mag is dead!

So claimed Belfast radio station U105 last week. The report suggested lad mags relied on two things to fly off the shelves. Scantily clad celebrity babes and news on scantly clad celebrity babes. Sure, what red blooded male wouldn’t cough up a few quid for a good old drool over Big Brother’s Chanelle and then rejoice on the gory details of Chanelle’s latest fling. It’s a story as old as life itself. Gossip sells and juicy gossip sells even faster. In fact, our appetite for it appears pretty insatiable. And therein according to the morning drive-time radio report lies the lad mag’s problem. They just cannot keep up with the Internet for celebrity news and cannot offer the choice of naked celebrity cyberspace that specifically YouTube can. Bad news for the magazines and feminists too for it appears lads want more of what the lad mags sold and faster and they will go anywhere to get it!

Interestingly the ladies haven’t fallen foul of the same circumstance. Quality women’s magazines actually have good articles and attract a serious readership and for the gossip craving girls there are the cheap and cheerful weekly rags to keep the Coronation Street blues at bay which are also available online.

So ‘Nuts’ has been cracked and according to my local radio station FHM will need a lot more rpm with sales reportedly falling across the sector. The solution may lie online and on mobile where the red tops are rapidly becoming players. Lads do like their page three mobile and their desktop footie. But then it’s a woman calling the shots at ‘The Sun’ these days.

This presents the PR industry with a new challenge and leaves advertisers with access issues to this lucrative market. Getting to this historically hard to reach sector - the Lad mag reader - may just have got a little more difficult. Will new media marketing now be the route into our boy’s heads and wallets or will a new type of traditional publication emerge to fill the gap?

Or….. as Mark Twain once sort of suggested and Chanelle fan’s will hope - rumors of their demise may be greatly exaggerated!  

Or….. as she who sometimes is obeyed likes to say ’Ill be a post feminist in post patriarchy’!!

It is a pain getting a job and even worse when the competition for the job you want is so tough. If you are just out of college and reading this then you might be thinking of a career in PR. Take your first step now and visit the passion for PR website. You won’t regret it!

I mentioned last week that Weber Shandwick was adopting the new tag line ‘Advocacy Starts Here’.  Below is an article which appears in the current edition of Business Eye and which I have adapted from work by colleagues in the US. Its a good introduction to advocacy. Hope you enjoy.

Public Relations and Public Affairs in Ireland are evolving. Weber Shandwick has led the way in the development of new communications techniques for its many clients globally. Now as one of the few major companies with strong offices in Dublin and Belfast, Northern Ireland MD, Conall McDevitt, offers an insight into the future of Public Relations and Public Affairs in Ireland.
It’s a story as old as innovation itself: Change is evolutionary, not revolutionary at first.

The first cars went where horses did, only quicker. The first word processors did what typewriters did, only easier. And the first wave of digital communications technology did what print and broadcast media had already done - share information - only faster and farther.

At first, in other words, new technologies usually enhance the performance of existing tasks  no small feat, but not a revolutionary one, either. The real revolution comes when people use the new technologies, not to improve existing tasks, but to create new possibilities.

Public relations caught the first wave, the adoption of new technology to spread information. We showed how it no longer makes sense to send a message to the many to persuade the few. But that first wave, sharing information with more segmented audiences, is cresting. A new one, a fundamental transformation of communication from information to advocacy, is rising.

For the first time, individuals looking for news, information and cues are relying less on institutions and more on each other. The technology may accelerate, but the human scale transforms. And personal interaction is a place where values and responsibility matter more. Three drivers show why:

First, the news media aren’t dictating the “news” anymore. Instead of merely accepting what’s presented on traditional media from conventional sources, people increasingly are turning to each other for information and validation. Top US market researchers used a simple Google search on the world’s 20 largest brands to prove the point: Less than 20 percent of search results were linked to the companies themselves. About half were related to experts, the media and other sources. The remaining and growing 26 percent came from consumer generated sources such as blogs and product reviews, which are playing an increasing role in what the public learns and thinks about current affairs.

As individuals take control, they’re demanding more, which brings us to the second driver: “Pull” now trumps “push.” Amid information overload, pushing messages is not enough. We need to pull people toward the ideas we want to convey in a true exchange. What’s required is engagement. Individuals the world over are increasingly striving to fulfill higher needs, if not more actively shape their own futures. As consumers, they’re looking for deeper total experiences delivered by companies that share their values. And values are something only personal engagement can convey.

The need for personal engagement helps explain our third driver: the law of the few. Initial forecasts said the new media would produce isolation, not interaction. As it turns out, people may not have as many close acquaintances, but they have multiple “core ties” to others they turn to and confide in. In this networked society, individuals don’t take their cues from centralised, institutionalised experts. They come from influencers, connectors, bloggers, activists and simply anyone willing to stand on top of a soapbox to voice their opinion, virtually or otherwise, anywhere in the world.

As the game changes, the public relations profession on this island must too. Rather than pushing information for our clients, we need to engage individuals as advocates. In its strongest form, advocacy forges emotional bonds and higher levels of involvement — active, vocal, proud, informed, experiential.

Public relations’ new mission must be to move people faster to this highest form of loyalty advocacy and at Weber Shandwick, we’ve adopted this goal as our own. We are researching how best to mobilise advocates early on in the decision process. We are investing in new ways to sustain and build advocates as the core foundation of any client’s ongoing marketing communications programme.

The world’s strongest brands already have grasped this potential. The opportunity now exists for companies on this island to do so too. The first technological wave, the acceleration of information, has crested. The second, the use of information to transform individuals into advocates, is rising. Our choice and that for any company or organisation selling a product or service in Ireland is simple: We can catch it, or it can crash over us. That is, of course, no choice at all. It’s a necessity and, more important, an opportunity to lead. That’s why advocacy must start here.

Football (gaelic), football (soccer) and more football (rugby). That’s what weekends are all about and the front page of Saturday’s Irish Times sports supplement is dedicated exclusively to our three magnificent codes. Now tell me another country in the world where you get such choice.

ManU are off the play City at the Temple of Doom today. Cork and Meath go head to head in the first All Ireland semifinal and it looks like the French rugby authorities are takings seriously the criminal assault on Brian O’Driscoll. I wont be seeing him in Belfast on Friday against Italy but at least he will be fit for the second game at the World Cup.

Doing BBC Radio Ulster’s, Seven Day’s programme at lunchtime. Topics include the Mattel recall, Aer Lingus, Elvis and the problems with underage drinking. A good read of the papers in order now. In PR terms Mattel seem to have done the right thing and well. Bigger issue is the quality of product coming out of China and other developing countries. Are we reaching an ethical tipping point in the west? Time will tell but I suspect low prices will outweigh ethical concerns for some time to come.  

My predictions: Man U by a goal. Meath (just about) and Ireland to take Italy even without Brian.

PR people are often asked by clients whether they should reply to something published by a news outlet. If so we go talk to the journalist and possibly agree a ‘right of reply’ or draft a letter to their editor. It all involves interaction with the ‘offending’ author or his/her bosses.

This may be about to change. Google announced earlier this month that organisations or individuals who are “participants” in a story carried on Google News can now post their comments on that story.  David Brain broke this news to me via his excellent Blog. Brain points out there are still questions about what Google means, most importantly the definition of participant. He suggests and I agree that participant is most likely anyone mentioned.

This could mark an evolution in news further merging the boundaries between publication and conversation.

On another matter its raining on the emerald isle again this morning so I am trawling some interesting Irish journalism blogs. Am adding the following intrepids to the blog roll with the help of my amazingly gorgeous princess Clara (more about her some other time).

Kevin Rafter (a fellow Dubs fan and match colleague also)

Harry Magee

Richard Delevan

Sarah Carey (who calls her blog GUBU!) 

David McWilliams

All have been writing Aer Lingus Shannon - Belfast stories. Southern journos being able to write about the northern economy. Now that’s progress! Looking for good northern equivalents and so far have hit on Slugger O’Toole, Will and Testament and the Devenport Diaries. If there is anyone else out there please let me know.

On a sad note for anyone interested in good journalism on these small windswept islands, (Lord) Bill Deedes died yesterday. Lovely piece in today’s London Times and a great column by Roy Hattersley in the Guardian. May he rest in peace and may his words live on forever. 

Or even overturn the Aer Lingus Shannon decision?

Slugger O’Toole has been monitoring the online campaign in the south west and reports over 8500 signatories to an online petition.

This idea of building online communities of interest is something we have been looking at closely in Weber Shandwick. We have published research which suggests public relations needs to consider the role of the blogger as well as the many other advocates who day in day out shape opinions and change mindsets. This is a departure from the traditional process model. We are in introducing the tag-line, Advocacy Starts Here, to our corporate identity to reflect this.

John  Hume had a dream nearly thirty years ago that a New Ireland would be built on the common ground of trade and tolerance. He has waited a long time but he must be smiling as business lines up to take its place in the new all island economy.

Its been a long road and I have had the privilege to observe up close the political birth of what David McWilliam’s in yesterday’s Irish Independent sees as the new opportunity for business - a borderless economy. A lot of work has been put in to taking, as Mc William’s puts it, the romance out of politics. And not a day too soon. On both sides of the border we have spent too long preaching our a-la-carte nationalism without looking at the opportunity of building our economies to our mutual benefit. It may have taken Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness to get into power to accept this but does it really matter if we move on and move on quickly.

I want to pay an O’Conall Street tribute to the behind the scenes people who have worked so hard to make what Tim O’Connor, now head of Aras an Uachtarain, long time key adviser to the Irish Government on North-South issues and first Joint Secretary of the North South Ministerial Council, called the ‘third place’ a reality.     They include the dynamic Belfast boy, Liam Nellis  at Intertrade Ireland and Paul O’Toole, a Dubliner, who heads up Tourism Ireland as well as serving and retired public servants on both sides of the border who have worked tirelessly to build common ground and seize the economic opportunities co-operation creates.

The private sector big boys are in play now but before them there were many SME entrepreneurs plying their wares North and South. People like James Nicholson the Crossgar Wine Merchant and Ian Bolger the the Shannon based engineer. Both as familiar with the ‘other side’ as with their home market. Both making a living in the third place.

Government work is not done yet. The variable levels of corporation tax on the island remain a significant stumbling block and their is a vociferous lobby underway to harmonise the Northern rate with the Republic’s 12.5%. The ICAI recently published an incisive and detailed rebuttal to the British Government’s arguments against harmonisation. Its worth checking out for anyone interested in the issue.  

Off to do my bit now!

It’s definitely silly season when the ladies are out and the photographers are chasing them looking for the happy snap to make us all smile. Today’s choice pic is the Rose of Tralee contestants.

But as the BBC’s Mark Devenport points out in his Devenport Diaries yesterday, even Northern Ireland’s most serious elder statesman, David Trimble, has the seized the summer by the horns and brought a bit of Elvis back into our lives to provide some much needed relief from the monsoon. Check our the Devenport Diaries for more.

On a serious note the Aer Lingus PR situation has now reached absolute crisis point. It is very evident the company did not plan an integrated all island approach nor are they managing it as such. But as my good friend Michael McKernan points out in his article in yesterday’s Irish News. The All Island economy is a reality and where the economy goes, the media follow.

Off to buy a new brolly and maybe an Elvis CD!

I wonder have the island’s business correspondents joined the mile high club this summer. No sooner does my bum hit the office seat then Chris, our eagle eyed account manager spies from his heights a story in today’s News Letter and swoops down like the finest PR bird of prey to devour it in front of us all.

We all gathered around the remains and saw it was yet another airline story making him salivate. Not Aer Lingus this time but their arch enemies and one quarter owners Ryanair. It turns our Michael O’Leary put an ad in the paper the other day saying ‘Ryanair’s fares are so low even the British Army flew home’. Funny?. Well no actually if you are a unionist politician. It has a gaggle (my attempt to keep the avian analogy going!) up in arms. Amongst them one Michael Copeland MLA who was telling us all last week that he had recieved call up papers from the British Army twenty years after he left, claiming the budget airline will have isolated a large section of the ‘Ulster’ public. Ryanair are expected to announce their arrival at Belfast City Airport soon. Somehow I think it will be more than just British squaddies taking advantage of the good prices.

PR bubu or coup? As ever with Ryanair its not cut and dry. But one thing is for sure, they make a lot of money and keep the prices low and in a buyers market that’s not a bad thing.