Good and Bad PR: Ryanair’s bag bonus, Wildlife Photographer OTY pics released and Anthea Turner gets a badge

It feels like it has been a rollercoaster seven days in the media. In the final week before our darling kids go back to school, there have been plenty of stories for me to choose from. Once again, massive thanks to Alan S Morrison for his eagle-eyed support in spotting the biggest sinners and winners.

I am going to start with a few good PR gongs that, on first glance, look quite negative, but if you dig into the comms side, they are a PR win.

Drax gets probed but shuts down its biggest critic

Long time readers will know that I believe energy company Drax to be one of the best examples of how to manage crisis communications situations. This week was no different.

If you want to see a masterclass of how to manage a constant barrage of criticism, then dig into its comms machine. This is not written in jest; I am in awe. This week it was the turn of a disgruntled employee (the most common PIA for corporates) to trigger an investigation by the FCA into some of its alleged practices.

I won’t comment on the accusations, but as someone who has worked in that industry there has to be an element of accepting that a certain level of criticism comes with the territory.

What I found really interesting was the silence from BBC, which has been its loudest, and most consistent critic.

Just because I am that kind of person, last year I started digging into BBCs obsession with Drax. By my count, BBC has published 10 negative stories in just over two years.

That is quite the amount. It did also write positive stories, but the longer you look back through the news headline history, the more you can see they are negative. As a keen follower of brands with a cracking crisis comms team, I just notice these things.

Well done to the Drax comms team for handling the story so well and especially for whatever they may or may not have done to trigger the deafening BBC silence on the latest allegations.

Ryanair leans into its panto villain rep

Another brand story that was sent to me a few times as a negative is Ryanair announcing it was upping the bonus for its oversize baggage staff-snitchers. I don’t think it is bad for the brand though.

It has got the message across perfectly and delivered it in a loud and brash way, as is the norm for the Ryanair playbook. CEO Michael O’Leary accused those who sneak bags onboard as “scamming the system” and it was clear he was not messing about.

The message about the bonus increase was not leaked but instead shouted about by Ryanair and the resulting coverage shows that it did the trick. I fully expect the brand to announce the number of muggles falling foul of the penalty has massively dropped in around a year’s time. The story that keeps on giving. Good PR by the Ryanair comms team.

ANZ needs to go back to the comms ABC

Australian bank ANZ deserved and received all the media pain this week.

It accidentally emailed certain staff to ask for their IT equipment back before they had been formally told they were getting the Spanish Archer (El Bow). A horrible experience for the staff, and comms messaging made it worse in my eyes.

In a statement it said, “we are committed to treating every colleague with dignity and respect”. Not a line the bank should have used so soon in a defensive statement, given the lack of respect and dignity it had actually showed to the affected staff.

In a double whammy, the defensive statement didn’t come from the new CEO, but an acting division head. I am not sure what crisis comms training has gone on over there.

A car crash incident that was handled very badly in every way and my first bad PR of the week.

Natural History Museum scores a massive hit with its snapper of the year competition

In the same way that I love the annual PR gift of London Zoo’s animal weighing day that received good PR last week, the same can be said for the Natural History Museum and its photographer of the year campaign.

Every year I am blown away by the pictures and in awe of the coverage that they rightly receive. In a week where I was trying to explain the nuances between earned and paid coverage to a friend (I left it with “earned is achieved because your story is just so damn good that it can’t be ignored”), I feel these awards are the epitome of that mantra.

A hornet on the back of a caterpillar, an overhead picture of an elephant walking through a waste site and… ok, a bit sinister, three cheetah cubs holding a deer in their mouth (let’s move on), they were simply stunning. The Natural History Museum comms team basically just have to send the images out, wait for the coverage and media interview requests to come rolling in and then sit back and bask in the glory.

I salute the Natural History Museum for wowing me every year and for achieving fantastic levels of coverage.

And Anthea said “don’t be blue, Peter”

This week Anthea Turner finally received a gold Blue Peter badge because of her services to the TV show (basically creating that Tracy Island craft project that our siblings tried and failed to copy whilst our parents looked on aghast).

But, her comment included the line, “I have coveted the golden Blue Peter badge for so many years and never got one, and now they’ve put this right”. A feeling of entitlement? Maybe… was she more deserving than some other recipients, I am not so sure.

It feels very similar to the Beckham Knighthood saga. Maybe the Blue Peter bosses just enjoyed winding her up. Still, great coverage for the BBC and Blue Peter.