Marketing Safari

How to Respond When Crisis Scare Tourists Away

 
A positive response to the situation in Egypt. Source unknown.

Egypt is in all the news these days because of protests that started in Cairo and have been spreading out the country. We see pictures of riot police, fires and hear that over 90 people have been killed. Yesterday the Internet and the mobile networks were shut down and this morning the government resigned. The protests are still going on and people are not satisfied, they want president Mubarak to step down as well. 

A friend of mine, Jane Akshar, runs holiday apartments in Luxor in Egypt and wrote on her blog Luxor News on Thursday about the average man in Luxor:

"His priority is earning a living and the only living in Luxor is servicing tourists and he knows if they are scared, they will stay away and he and his family will suffer." 

They have been there before and know how important it is not to scare away the tourists, specially where a big part of the economy is based on tourism. 

Here in Iceland we were facing crisis in the travel industry last year as Eyjafjallajokull started spewing ash all over Europe closing down airports. People got scared and travel companies started getting cancellations. We also saw the news on channels like FOX news where they warned people about going to Iceland because of violent riots following the economic crash in 2008 which I thought was absurd as the protest was limited to one square in down town Reykjavik and was non-violent with one exception, and none lethal. 

The protests in Iceland didn't cause any cancellations as far as I know but the eruption in Eyjafjallajokull did. People saw pictures in the news from farmers below the mountain where the ash was so thick you could barely see your own hands. At the same time I was living only 100 km away and had seen no signs of the eruption, air quality was just as good as normal, the international airport was open and the eruption wasn't affecting us in any way. Still, many tourists were scared away from visiting Iceland.

 Scary thing, that volcano in Iceland. Image from the Icelandic Coast Guard.

 

Information is the antidote to fear.

It was interesting to hear tour operators talk about the effect the eruption had on bookings. Those who reacted immediately by sending out updates to all their clients telling them how the situation was in reality got in general no cancellations at all. Preventing decline in new bookings was harder as the direct relationship had not been establish but the same medicine is used there - enlightment - the distribution of correct information about the situation.

Social media is crucial for this kind of reaction. I started by writing a blog post on my travel blog called "Is it safe to travel to Iceland?" which immediately became one of the top results on Google for that question. There I provided realistic information about the danger of traveling to Iceland (or the lack of thereof) and what was in fact dangerous and what not. The Icelandic tourist board also started a new online campaign called Inspired by Iceland which was quite a big success in certain circles.

The most important reaction is for ALL tour operators to inform about the situation via their blogs, email lists, travel agencies, airlines, twitter accounts, facebook, youtube, search engines and other communication channels. The search engines are a vital factor making sure that the correct information floats to the top when people search for information about the situation. In the case of Egypt it would be what pops up when people search for phrases and questions like:

security in Egypt
is it safe to travel to Egypt
tourist safety in Egypt
am I safe in Egypt
how are the protests affecting tourism in Egypt 
where are the riots in Egypt
what places to avoid in Egypt
etc.  

Monitor questions about travel in your area on LinkedIn, Yahoo Answers, Quora, thorntree, tripadvisor and other chat boards and forums and provide good and accurate information in the answers and keep in mind that being unrealistically optimistic is not credible. For credibility you have to admit where there is a real problem or danger and rather provide information on how to avoid them.

A situation like we had in Iceland, and like Tunisia, Egypt and more countries are facing at the moment, needs a fast and well syndicated reaction to minimize the damage to the travel industry. Remember that some say "bad publicity is better than no publicity". This is also an opportunity to increase interest in the country or the destination. Look for those opportunities and make the most of them. I admit that it's much easier to do with a raging volcano than a raging population and not really comparable, but how to react is pretty much the same. This year, Iceland is on the top destination lists of many of the biggest publications. Hopefully the turmoil in Egypt and North Africa now will bring reform, prosperity and security in near future that can boost the travel industry, as well as other aspects of society.

Good luck!

Hjörtur

ps. if you want to know more about how Jane Akshar is dealing with it from Luxor in Egypt I recommend following her blog. Even though she still has no access to the Internet her friends in the UK are talking to her regularly via telephone and updating her social profiles.

- Here's information on how to bypass the internet blockage in Egypt

Destination Marketing: How Would You Spend 3 Million Dollars on Publicity?

 Iceland has got enormous publicity in the last weeks, and pretty much all of it negative. Beside the financial difficulties and disputes with the UK and the Netherlands, the Eyjafjallajokull eruption caught the eye of the world by grounding all air traffic in Europe - outside of Iceland (yes, believe it or not, while Europe was shut down all airports where open in Iceland).

The president gave some interviews warning authorities and airlines abroad that this was not a unique event and a much larger volcano was expected to erupt any time. This is true, but this is not nearly as dangerous or as much of a catastrophe as the media tend to put it. Even though the mountain is bigger it may have much less impact on air traffic, and it is definitely not the end of the world as some media has been indicating (named after a small dog-like animal).

 So the government of Iceland had a meeting this morning and decided to dedicate some 3 million dollars to restore Iceland's image and get back all the lost bookings - and more! People seem to fear coming to Iceland now, thinking they will be in immediate danger of exploding or risk being stranded in Iceland. The truth is, there's no risk except you are just by the volcano and since the mountain is located in Iceland, at least one of four international airports will always be open. The ash can only blow one direction at the time ;) You're therefore much more likely to be stranded in Europe than in Iceland in case of an eruption.

The government plans to spend the 3 million dollars on not only traditional advertising, but also online advertising - even social media. My thought is that we should not spend but maybe a tiny little fraction on advertising. We should rather spend it on events, initiatives and different kind of publicity. Something like a science project contest between 8. grade classes in the UK where one class gets an all-inclusive science expedition to Iceland. Or inviting 10 travel bloggers on a trip of a lifetime. So I'm asking you, if you had 3 million dollars to spend on publicity for a small country with a big bad name, what would YOU do?

Hjörtur

Free Media Coverage Using HARO (Help a Reporter Out)

Guest post by Derek Vaughan. 

In addition to registering a domain name, actually creating a website design, writing the content and maintaining your site - the greatest challenge facing website owners is how to promote the site. There are the obvious ways: try to get listed well in search engines, buy advertising, issue press releases. Then there are the less obvious ways. The ways that really work wonders. I came across one of those golden gems while conducting research for reseller hosting company 34SP.com. It's a great opportunity for exposure if you do it right. The service is called HARO or 'Help a Reporter Out'.

So exactly what is HARO and how does it work? HARO is the acronym for the website: http://www.helpareporter.com. If you are interested in gaining free publicity for yourself as an expert, or your website as an expert source, you've hit pay dirt. Help a Reporter is a service which puts together reporters who are looking for sources to add credibility to their new articles and subject matter experts who are willing to share their expertise with reporters and their readers. The home page of the HARO website brags, ''From The New York Times, to ABC News, to HuffingtonPost.com and everyone in between, nearly 30,000 members of the media have quoted HARO sources in their stories.'' 

So how does one get started with HARO and have a chance to be published as an expert in major publications? It is very easy to get started. You simply go to the signup page here:http://helpareporter.com/sources and insert your email and choose a password. From that point forward you will receive ''HAROs'' via email. HAROs are brief summaries of the material needed by the reporter to create the article.

Here are some snippets of a few recent HARO requests:

''I need info on how to get discount promo fares that cut the cost of passenger jet flights. The more relevant your background the better. Pls just state credentials first...''

''I’m working on a story about the mother of the bride, and I’d love to hear from recent brides about your most memorable moments with Mom at your wedding or leading up to your wedding- these can be funny or sentimental. Please share what happened and include your name, age and city/state (ex.: Betty D., 32, Columbus, OH.)''

''Looking for experts in growing Hops, Malts, and Brewing Herbs who are willing to answer questions about their experience.''

There are many queries that come up in the course of a week ranging from the general to the very specific. To submit your availability you generally email back a summary of your credentials and what you think you can contribute. Additionally, the media outlets requesting the experts range from smaller, online-only publications to the national media. There is also a Twitter feed which has urgent requests posted as soon as they are identified at : http://twitter.com/helpareporter.

If you are interested in promoting yourself or your website brand, I suggest signing up for the HAROs and looking them over for a few days to get a feel of what's being requested. If you work at it and apply to those requests that fit your expertise you stand a good chance of getting some free media coverage. Who knows? You may even end up on USA Today or the Huffington Post.

Derek Vaughan is a web hosting industry veteran, marketing consultant and writer. Mr. Vaughan has architected the marketing growth of several prominent web hosting success stories leading to acquisition including Affinity Internet, Inc., Aplus.Net and HostMySite.com. Prior to his entry into the web hosting industry, Mr. Vaughan was responsible for online marketing at The Walt Disney Company where he marketed ecommerce for the ESPN.com and NASCAR.com brands. Mr. Vaughan received his M.B.A. from Vanderbilt University and currently serves on the HostingCon Advisory Board. 

Nation branding: Icesave, the referendum and the brand Iceland

It's been an interesting weekend in Iceland, with the first referendum since Iceland got independence from Denmark in 1944. After heated discussions about the importance, or non-importance of the referendum, and what the people of the world will think of Iceland after all of this Icesave talk, I'm now leaving all that behind heading for new adventures. I'm sitting on a plane with a fantastic view over snow capped mountains, frozen lakes and deep narrow fjords of Norway, heading to the PhocusWright conference at ITB Berlin. But lets wrap up first.

Icesave is a dispute between Iceland on the one hand and UK and the Netherlands on the other about Iceland paying back the money those countries used to bail out depositors in their countries because of the bankruptcy of an Icelandic bank operating there. I'm not going to tire you with arguments about what would be just, Iceland to pay or not, and under what conditions.  My focus is on the effect this case has on the brand Iceland.

When the Icelandic president vetoed the law confirming an agreement that those countries had made, it made headlines all around Europe. It was a very unusual act by the president but over 56.000 people, about 23% of registered voters, had signed a petition to the president to do so because they felt Iceland was being forced into a deal it could never withhold, a debt prison where every man, woman and child in the country was being forced to pay back 12.000 Euros per person to UK and NL, plus interest. The veto meant that the law should be put up for a vote by the Icelandic nation.

The referendum was last saturday and the question was simple: should the law confirming the agreement be accepted or denied. The message was clear, 93,2% voted for NO, 1,8% voted for yes and the rest were blank votes, mainly protesting that there was a referendum when a better deal was already in the making. This again got media attention in Europe and the US. Both when the president vetoed the law and after the referendum, the articles and the media coverage was mixed, some saying Iceland would be outcasted because she would not pay, while others said it was the right thing to do because Iceland was getting unfair treatment forced to pay back the debts of a private company abroad - and that anyone could be next.

All the criticism Iceland got abroad, has got many people here in Iceland worried about the brand Iceland. They are worried that it is now ruined. That is based on the incorrect assumption that negative publicity always has a negative effect on a brand. We should all know that those who always try to please everyone usually don't get much respect and usually have an unclear image as they are likely to change their behaviour to please someone else. On the other hand, those who are true to their believes and opinions and are consistent in their behaviour tend to strengthen their brand and image, whether they are pleasing people or not.

Icelanders have been proud of being hard-working, independent and stubborn people who are willing to go along way to protect their newly gained independence and interests. Proud of being the nation that has never had an army of its own but still conquered Britain in three wars in the last century. The veto and the result of the referendum is consistent with the image Iceland earned last century and is only strengthening that. That is a good thing for the Icelandic brand.

In 2009 there was a 5.5% decrease in tourism in Europe. In Iceland the government cut the marketing budget for Iceland as a destination by 20%. Additional to that, Iceland got a lot of negative publicity because of the collapse of the banking sector and grim economic prospects. One could expect this to have a devastating effect on the tourist industry in Iceland. But guess what. Iceland had an increase in tourism in 2009 despite all this. Now,  popularity as a tourist destination is NOT the same as a nation brand, though some correlation can be expected. It would be interesting to see what effect all this has on Iceland in Anholt's Nation Brand Index, but my guess is that participation in that research is one of the post that have been cut down. There are three main factors that can be pointed out to explain the increase in tourism in Iceland:

1. Good negative publicity

2. Fall of the Icelandic krona making the country more affordable for foreigners

3. Better use of the marketing budget, shifting focus more to the core markets, cutting down the less efficient marketing channels and the overhead

This of course doesn't mean that ALL negative publicity is positive. But it is a reminder that negative publicity isn't neccesseraly negative for your brand. It can be a reinforcement of it. Besides, the smaller your brand is, the less you have to lose and more you have to gain. Just think Borat. Before Borat noone knew anything about Kazakhstan. Now people know at least that there is a country named Kazakhstan they know nothing about. That's the first step.

The lights on my left are shaped like Copenhagen. That's good. It's getting dark and the trolls are probobaly about to wake up in the Norwegian mountains. Better be out of their way.

See you at ITB Berlin
Hjörtur

The Dos and Don'ts of Pitching a Travel Blogger

This is a guest post written by Christine Gilbert, author of the almostfearless.com travel blog.

Shameless Companies Trying to Tap the “Blogging Community”

Since the New Year, seems like every Marketing Associate, PR Manager and Community Relationship Builder has been emailing me. Is everyone’s New Year resolution to finally “get into” that whole “blogging” thing?

So I get these emails. They just *love* my site. And they would *love* it, if I would take a look at their site and talk about it on my blog.

Yes, I’m sure you would *love* that. Ain’t happening.

Don’t be Stupid. What Not to Do:

1. Your product has nothing to do with my audience or it’s so similar to an already well known and established service that there is nothing to talk about. What do you think I’m actually going bore my audience (and watch them flee never to return) with your mediocre product? And you can’t work the numbers on this one. If you send it to 10,000 bloggers, you’re not increasing your odds, you’re just wasting everyone’s time.

2. You addressed me as “Dear Blogger”. Or worse your mail merge failed and it literally says: {insert name}. Listen I get that you’re busy, but YOU ARE ASKING ME TO DO SEVERAL THINGS: read your email, review your product, and write something winning about it. If you can’t be bothered to write a personal email to me, then why on earth would I spend my valuable time doing you favors? Because I’m a dedicated journalist who can’t pass up a scoop? First I’m not, and second if it was news, I would have written about it already.

3. Offering to write a post for me, is like offering to act in your own movie, if only someone would greenlight it. It’s not that I can’t be bothered to write my own content– it’s that your product sucks. So instead of fixing that problem, let’s hire some freelance writers to churn out cookie cutter posts, and then I can put my name on it. Are you following this yet? See why this is not only NOT HELPFUL but the most retarded suggestion you could make? (Also, if your content is so good, why don’t you just start your own blog?)

4. Don’t tell me you want a partnership, if you really just want me to shill your product. Since when is a partnership defined as you paying me $100 to write a glowing review of your product? We’re not partners. You want to buy advertising. Just say that. It’s not dirty. We’re adults. Just spit it out and get it over with. What you think I haven’t been approached by other companies? Think you’re get me into bed with a little partnership-talk foreplay? Ha. Just be honest. I still won’t do it, but at least I’ll respect you in the morning.

5. Don’t contact me asking me to contact you. What is this 3rd grade? Don’t want to get rejected? Too late, just deleted your email. I have never had anyone use this approach and then respond with something earth shattering. It’s always, “Thanks for responding, can you review our product?” Um, no and you haven’t hooked me by being vague, you’ve just annoyed me. Good job.

I have done reviews for certain products. Usually I find them on my own, but there have been a handful of PR folks who got my attention.


Be Smart. Here’s What to Do:

1. Read my blog and become a commenter who adds value. One PR Director and I still email each other a year after he left the PR world. He wasn’t just spamming me with links to his content or worse mindlessly gushing over my writing. He read my stuff and left interesting comments over several weeks before approaching me.

2. When you do approach me, give me an idea of why you think your product is a good fit for my audience. Don’t give me boring PR copy. Don’t use superlatives. Relate it back to things I’ve already written. Know my niche well enough to give examples of what my competition is doing. Think like me– I want the best possible blog and to write about things that will get lots of traffic. If you can tell me how your product will help me do this, you’re in.

3. If it’s a tangible product, send me a sample. I’m not going to buy it just to test it. If it’s a service, give me a free account (if applicable) so that I can kick the wheels. Make it easy for me. Bloggers don’t make a ton of money, but we have plenty of influence. Seems like a fair swap for potential coverage to me.

4. Sweeten the pot. Flat out bribing me with cash isn’t going to do it. If I don’t want to write about it, a $100 bucks or even $500 isn’t going to do it. But sponsoring a contest on my blog, where you supply prizes could get you some free positive coverage. Paying my way to an industry event (which I’ll end up talking about and referencing who paid for me) could get you weeks of mentions. Give me interview access with your CEO. Invite me to the HQ. Anything you can do to give me something special to write about–well you’re that much closer to getting a “yes”.

Ugh. I’m exhausted just writing this– because the fact is, 1 out a 100 emails do it the friendly, helpful way. The rest are of varying levels of spam. Time to go clear out the 200 emails I’ve gotten overnight. Yes, PR folks, I’m about to delete your crap… aren’t you glad you paid for that email list?

Christine Gilbert

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Ryan Air's Social Media Strategy - Insanely Brave or Incredibly Stupid?

I guess Ryan Air is the buzzing brand of the week, getting a lot of attention from bloggers and Twitters. It started when Jason Roe, a freelance programmer, blogged about an error in Ryan Air's booking engine (read the comments as well). He had discovered a way to book a flight for 0.00 pounds. The reaction he got from Ryan Air is what got the buzz started.

Travolution got it confirmed that this comment and others claimed to be from Ryan Air staff, indeed did trace back to the Ryan Air HQ in Ireland. And Kevin May did get a confirmation from Stephen McNamara of Ryan Air that said:

"Ryanair can confirm that a Ryanair staff member did engage in a blog discussion.

It is Ryanair policy not to waste time and energy corresponding with idiot bloggers and Ryanair can confirm that it won't be happening again.

Lunatic bloggers can have the blog sphere all to themselves as our people are far too busy driving down the cost of air travel".

This really got the buzz going getting coverage in many major media outlets. And they didn't stop there. To follow up, they started a Twitter account on @ryanaironline where they kept going in the same voice, shocking people as a Travolution reader Paul Dawson commented:

Are you serious? Can't believe they'd go this far...

Agressive, sexist, offensive to customers... Some recent tweets from @ryanaironline:

"Just reminiscing about the time a guest had terrible, offensive, flatulence. You know that seat right by the loo? Sucks to be you idiots."

"About 2 weeks till the big guy's bday, yeah? It's time to boogie down. Short skirts at the office, ladies."

"Look... it isn't like we aren't meant to have fun here. This is a world we not only don't get, we simply don't care about it."

"that lady actually blackmailed my friend near the end of a flight. She was a tactless bird. Apologies to be sure."

 At first, people thought this was a fake, someone trying to get attention based on Ryan Air's reputation. Then Kevin May of Travolution got Dara Brady head of Marketing at Ryan Air to confirm it was their Twitter account. Later it was withdrawn and now the account has been suspended. It's hard to say if it was real or not, if they chickened out on their strategy.

But it is clear that shocking people is the PR strategy Ryan Air is following. Will Clement of the Bloggers Guide explains how it works for Ryan Air:

"That's the important point here - Ryanair have once again hammered the message home that "our people are far too busy driving down the cost of air travel.

A few years ago I met a non executive director of Ryanair, an experienced and respected businessman who was also a non exec of many other companies. He told me that board meetings at Ryanair were colossally different to any other company he worked with. Other companies focus was entirely on customer satisfaction whereas at board level Ryanair's official strategy is "f*ck the customer, if we give them the flights cheap enough, they'll keep coming back no matter how bad we treat them."

All publicity is good publicity is sometimes said. For a noname - this is usually true. But as a continuous strategy, I doubt it. Surely enough, Ryan Air has it's branding clear - being the cheapest. The service people is complaining about is exactly what you're not paying for. But how good of a strategy is flaming your customers just to get publicity and word-of-mouth in the long run? What do you think?

Hjörtur

Whaling in Iceland - Bad PR?

My Sunday steak used to be a mink whale when I was growing up in the NW of Iceland. Until whaling was banned in 1986. Whaling started again in 2006 despite protests from the tourism industry in Iceland. They were afraid that the negative publicity would seriously damaged tourism in Iceland. Today the minister of fisheries in Iceland announced that he has issued a permit for whaling in Iceland for the next 5 years.

The Internation Fund for Animal Welfare, IFAW, protested immediately saying that they had been helping Icelanders build a profitable tourist industry around whale watching over the last years, work that now is being jeopardized.

As you may have heard, the Icelandic economy collapsed in October and so did the government last Monday. So Iceland has been on the news a lot lately, and it's not all been good. Actually, it's mostly been negative news. Still, we got some positive statistics from the travel industry today:
- Number of foreign tourists in October and November were up 30% from 2007.
- Number of foreign tourists in December was up 43% from 2007.
- Tax refund to foreign tourists was up 400% in December.

The message tourists got was that since the currency had collapsed, Iceland had suddenly become a cheap destination. Something Iceland has never been before. Even beer is fairly priced now. If you're a foreigner.

How to turn negative publicity into a positive thing
When Iceland took up whaling again in 2006 the government didn't do anything to grab the attention Iceland was getting and turn into something positive. Most likely, they won't do that this time either. That's bad PR. Last time, there were protests and demonstration and boycotts of Icelandic products. It didn't last long though.

When you've been on the news for months because of economic crisis, inflation and skyrocketing unemployment, it will be difficult to get people to try to prevent Icelanders to use all their traditional methods for survival. It didn't chance any policies in Iceland last time and most definitely won't do it this time either.

When you manage to grab the attention of the media, even though it's because of negative publicity, you have to make the most of it to get your message through. So what Iceland should be doing now is making sure that the message people that care about whales will remember after a year, is that Iceland is the country where you have loads of all different kinds of whales, a country where the chances of seeing a whale on a whale watching trip is actually well over 97%.

A few facts that should be out there:
- We are not talking about any endangered species
- Iceland was the first nation to ban whaling in 1915 to protect the whales.
- Iceland fought Britain four times last century to get control of fish stocks within 200 miles from Iceland to be able to protect them from over-fishing.
- Iceland has been a leading nation in sustainable fisheries and protection.
- Iceland has always been dependent on nature to survive. If we don't use our resources, we don't survive. If we don't do it sustainably, we don't survive.
- The sea around Iceland is crowded with whales.
- Whale watchers and whale hunters are not on the same areas, so you will not witness whale killing while whale watching.

If you are interested in whale watching, you can check out those websites:
Whale adventures from Reykjavik harbour
Whale watching in Husavik (North-Iceland)
Whale museum in Husavik

You can read more on Wikipedia about the history of whaling in Iceland.

Hjörtur

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The Role of Reputation - Blog Action Day

When I decided to participate in the Blog Action Day, it didn’t take me long to decide what to write about. Reputation and nation branding. I believe the greatest assets any nation has is it’s reputation and that’s what poor nations should focus on. How to build a strong reputation for it’s core industries, a reputation of quality and trust, within whatever field you choose. That’s what they need to be able to strengthen their weak economies.

The “funny” thing, is that since I decided to write about this, my country’s reputation has been ruined. And so has the economy. A few bad PR mistakes at crucial moments ruined my nation’s economy and reputation over night. I never expected that. A month ago we had an excellent reputation, admired by those who knew anything about Iceland.

It takes years to build up a strong reputation. But it only takes moments to ruin it. Egypt has been having problems with their security reputation because of occasional attacks on tourists. Tourists are generally very safe there. But extreme incidents of kidnapping, bombing and attacks have made headlines across the world and that’s what people remember. China’s manufacturing reputation has been hit hard lately, with lead in children toys and poisoned milk formula for infants, we are now skeptical about anything made in any of the millions of factories in China. It’s much harder to make headlines because of something positive than something negative.

Where’s the emergency unit?
We had an earthquake last May. It was 6.3 on Richter. Houses were ruined but only minor injuries reported. Within a minute from the earthquake a reaction team was on the task, monitoring casualties and destruction, organizing help relief, setting up emergency centers, sending water supplies, tents, blankets and necessities to the epic center. It was impressive to watch. Everybody knew what to do because they had a plan.

Just like you prepare for a natural disaster with plans, teams and emergency supplies, you have to prepare for a PR disaster. Within minutes your PR emergency unit should be at the scene starting their damage control. We’re not talking about a few buildings or a single village being at risk, but a whole nations most valuable asset – it’s reputation.

In the beginning of last year I participated in workshops with Simon Anholt, a specialist in nation branding, organized by the chamber of commerce here in Iceland. One of the results of that workshop was that we had to establish an information agency of some sort which had the role of mediating correct information and prevent panic and hysteria driven by lack of information or misinformation. Since then, that plan has been going through committees and ministries, but nothing done. So when we were hit by a PR disaster, those things were not in place to react.

What happened?
It’s a series of many mistakes that resulted in the meltdown of the Icelandic economy. But the most vital mistakes in my opinion were comments made by the head of the central bank in Iceland, David Oddson in an interwiew on Icelandic television. He repeatedly stated that Iceland would not pay any foreign debts. Icelandic tax payers should not have to bleed for disordered people, calling the people running the Icelandic banks names, like arsonists. When the reporter asked him why he called them that, he said it was what he learned from his grand mother.

It’s not particularly trustworthy for banks fighting for their reputation to get something like that from the head of the central bank. Icelanders have now learned that the central bank is no place to keep burned out politicians who learned their economics from their grand mother. But just a little to late.
The second crucial PR mistake was made by Gordon Brown, the prime minister of Britain. The morning after the interview with the head of the Icelandic central bank he was interviewed in Britain stating that no guarantees were for the deposits made to Icelandic banks, and that Iceland would not pay, using very aggressive statements regarding Iceland. Maybe understandable, considering what Mr. Oddson had said the night before, but resulted of course only in panic in the UK with people rushing to the Icelandic banks to withdraw all their savings. The banks were shut down and confiscated by the British government using anti-terrorist law. This brought a perfectly healthy bank like Kaupthing to complete isolation from all financial markets that could only be broken by being nationalized. As Richard Portes, professor of economics at London School of Economics said in an article in the Financial Times last Monday:

Kaupthing still seemed viable. But last Tuesday, Mr Oddsson made public remarks that were interpreted to mean that Iceland would not meet its obligations to UK depositors. This was politics for home consumption. So was the UK's retaliation, with an ill-considered invocation of anti-terror laws to seize the UK assets not only of Landsbanki, but also of Kaupthing. Gordon Brown's highly aggressive statement was not his best moment of the financial crisis.

In such sensitive times it’s important that the leaders of the nations try to calm things down instead of escalating them for their own personal agenda resulting in tremendous damage for the economy, both in Iceland and the UK. I think never in the 1.100 year long history of Iceland has any man caused as much damage to our nation as David Oddson did in the interview that night.
The side effects of his remarks are that all trust in Icelanders and Icelandic companies has been ruined. Everything Icelanders have to pay for in the UK and Denmark has to be paid in cash up front, credit cards and accounts of Icelanders in Denmark have been closed, transactions cancelled, credit cards confiscated. Students in Denmark have even had to beg for food because they can not get any money from their banks. The treatment Icelanders have been getting by the UK government and from Danish banks and shops has been unbelievable and very hurtful, both economically and emotionally. Those were supposed to be our closest allies.

Now what?
It’s crucial for Iceland to react calmly but fast. First of all, David Oddson has to be removed from his post ASAP. Secondly, we have to proof to the world that Icelanders stand by their words and their commitments, no matter what it means for the tax payers. If we don’t, we will not be able to regain the trust and respect we used to have, and need to have.

The eyes of the world are focused on Iceland. There are loads of reporters stationed here at the moment. Between press conferences those reporters should be invited to prosperous companies in Iceland, on sight seeing tours, to concerts. Let’s grab that attention and direct it into positive directions. Let’s show the reporters what we’re made of, what we’re capable of and where we’re going from here. That's what I did yesterday when I went down to the media center and presented IfTheWorldCouldVote to the reporters.

This post got maybe a little bit longer than it was supposed to, but it's an example of the importance of reputation for the economy of nations.

Hjörtur

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PR Rule of Thumb

Some say today it's all about PR becasue advertising is dead. Others say PR people are just adding to the noise in journalists' inboxes and burning start-up money. I guess it depends on your own skills and the skills of the "professional".

What it all comes down to, is the same as in marketing, blogging, internet marketing and actually, anything else you do. Content is king. The quality of what you do is the breaker (if you manage to get someone to look at it).

Jason Calacanis (of Mahalo) wrote an excellent post on "How to get PR for your start-up company". The unbeatable value of picking up the bill. I highly recommend that reading. In short, it's about the importance of building up your network with journalists and helping them out so that they help you out later on. The same as with social media (maybe traditional media is more social than we've realized). But I guess you do need to be a certain character to pull it of. A people's person. But if you follow Calacanis advice, you should get covered.

Seth Godin wrote another post on the "Myth of launch PR". The "Big bang" strategy is what most try to achieve. But if you don't get on the cover of Time in first try, don't despair. There's also the "long tail" of PR. If you've got the quality, the right product or service, people will notice and the word will spread, both in media and outside. Just like Apple, Linux, Google, Starbucks, Harry Potter, Wikipedia and so many others.

Now, I've never got any formal training in PR, but I am a successful link baiter. And I look at what I write from the perspective of the reader, not the company trying to get coverage. While the manager probably focuses on getting all the necessary information into the press release I use a method I picked up in anthropology. Thinking like the subject. I pick out what is interesting for the reader, not the submitter. What is it that is new, different, revolutionary as well as human and personal (and if there's nothing, create it). That's the focus of the story. The information about your new product, company or service is only like the platform or scenery for your story but not what carries it on (unless you've really got a revolutionary product). Just don't forget to keep the vital information in your press release - who, where, what, when and why and a link to more information.

To sum it up - content is king! Also in PR. People like to read interesting stories, so tell them one.

Hjörtur