Deepwater Horizon: analysis of a crisis

Today’s post on Measurement Matters has been written by Gorkana Group‘s Nick Thorpe and published earlier today on Gorkana’s consumer PR News channel.  Gorkana publishes daily consumer PR News as well as daily financial PR news which is read by over 25,000 PR professionals.  I hope you enjoy the post, and if you’re not signed up to the Gorkana daily news alerts, please do consider joining the 25,000 other PRs around the country who count on it for their news and analysis. — Richard.

Gorkana Group’s PR measurement and reputation management specialist Metrica reveals how the US media covered the Deepwater Horizon disaster last year and what crisis comms lessons PRs can learn.

In 2010 an environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico turned into a public relations crisis for BP. The largest oil spill in modern history resulted in 11 fatalities and 4.9m barrels of oil polluting an area of up to 68,000 sq miles.

BP set up a $20 billion fund to compensate victims of the oil spill and has since paid out more than $4.8bn in claims. The accident was a PR disaster for the energy giant, with CEO Tony Hayward coming in for the most criticism after infamously being pictured sailing at Cowes Week during the height of the crisis.

More than one year on, and this week Shell has been battling a crisis of its own after an oil spill below its Gannet Alpha platform in the North Sea. The leak has so far released 1,300 barrels of oil at the time of writing, making it the most significant spill in the last 10 years.

At a time when Prime Minister David Cameron is threatening to clamp down on social media usage following the recent riots, has the emergence of social media changed the environment in which crisis communications takes place? What are the wider lessons of the media’s approach to the Deepwater spill and how can crisis comms professionals integrate them into their future work for clients?

Gorkana Group’s PR measurement and reputation management specialist Metrica has authored a comprehensive study into the mainstream and social media response to the BP crisis that identifies issues for all corporate communications professionals that are as relevant now as a year ago. The Metrica team analysed a sample of 2,194 mainstream media articles and 125,906 social media pieces.

A selection of the 10 lessons in the report are summarised below and a full copy can be downloaded for free here.

The link between social and traditional media

Throughout the Deepwater Horizon crisis there was a very close link between the levels of coverage in the mainstream media and the social media. If a pattern can be discerned then it is that the majority of major events are reflected first by a spike in mainstream media and followed within 24 hours by a spike in social media. This suggests that, despite the potential immediacy of social channels to report on-the-scene and from-the-hip, the majority of impetus for discussion is driven by PR and consumption of mainstream media.

Messaging

Metrica research indicates that communicating more than six messages can lead to considerable message dilution. Keeping the message set small helps control the agenda. Despite clear messaging, coverage delivered more negative variants of most messages. Only “BP puts safety / environmental impact first” was picked up more effectively than the negative variant “BP does not put safety / environmental impact first”.

Focus of discussion

Although social media focused slightly more on the litigation and legislative issues of the Deepwater disaster than the mainstream press in absolute terms, on a relative basis there is a far more pronounced difference. The mainstream media was more likely to take a broad approach, addressing a number of different issues in each report. Social media, on the other hand, tended towards a narrower view, focusing on just one issue. This shows how the mainstream media still sees its role to explain, whereas social media is often utilised for single issue interests.

Reputational influences

The effectiveness of BP’s public relations was of far greater interest to the mainstream media, and among social media it only registered where people shared links to mainstream articles on the topic. Similarly the expected debate about BP’s Britishness rarely featured in social media conversations despite the mainstream media interest in the issue. Mainstream media still leads the way in the scrutiny of intangible factors such as reputation. Analysis is a core function of the newspaper market so expect all claims and statistics to be thoroughly scrutinised in the forum.

PRs can download a free copy of the report from Gorkana Group’s PR measurement and reputation management specialist Metrica here.

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