While reading through Joel Makower’s Strategies for the Green Economy tonight, I came upon an interesting chapter on PR that rang a “I feel you on that one” inside me. The topic was public relations in a growing green/sustainable marketplace.
I subscribe to quite a few green pr wires, news sites, and blogs through RSS and check them daily. In the last couple months though, I’ve noticed a marked increase in personal fatigue in going through them. For one, the number of stories has increased dramatically. Second, it’s getting harder to find the ‘meat’ of the story…the actual interesting substance going on that grabs me.
The major PR firms have all added or expanded divisions related to sustainability, as more companies are becoming eager and willing to tell their green stories. Joel brought up this important question:
Do the increased number of releases indicate New or Pre-Existing company initiatives?
That answer doesn’t imply that companies are necessarily pushing older news. Many efforts that were traditionally tucked away in annual reports as continuous operational/product improvements, are now being pushed out through PR as “Hey look at what we’re doing!” green stories. For big corporations, those extra stories can help improve the public image. Conversely for small to mid-size firms, these improvement or eco-initiative stories don’t add much value.
The risk that Joel sees (I do as well), is that with the increased number of releases there’s a growing number of me-too stories that just become boring and undifferentiated. For example, now you’ll often see announcements on LEED building certifications and energy reduction goals that by themselves at this point, are becoming yawn material since everybody’s doing them.
Here’s the challenge that Joel gives to PR pros: “Will you steer your clients beyond short-term media hits to create longer-term value by counseling them to aim high, to make bold, even audacious commitments in order to stand out from the crowd?”
In essence, what makes a story “good enough”?
To be fair, many smaller stories do have relevance for niche audiences. But we must question the effectiveness of the message’s crafting, its benefit to readers, and the channels its distributed. No company is perfect and small steps do deserve acknowledgment. But for messages to be sticky, it’s best if the company is portrayed as being a bit humble about their progress, but the improvements (product, process, other) are substantial. To go further we can also add the Made To Stick SUCCES attributes of: Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, and Stories.
Allow me to stress Benefits and Credibility. Green by itself is really just an attribute. It’s the whole value proposition that needs to be sold. And any claims or initiatives you’re making need to be aligned with or better than industry benchmarks, higher than regulatory requirements, and will be third party certified.
What do YOU think?
Thanks, Mario. You’ve raised some good points. As I’ve tried to make clear in the book, we need to modulate between the hype and reality of green. One big problem is simply, imho, the lack of creativity on the part of the PR community in promoting companies’ green actions, products, and services. They assume that each incremental change is a major story and will help “save the earth.” As a reporter — and, thus, a consumer of all this PR output — I continually roll my eyes at the lack of forethought, context, or perspective these releases offer. And if I see one more release with a headline or lead sentence with some version of Kermit’s 1970(!) lyric about it is (or isn’t) easy being green . . . well, don’t get me started.
Joel Makower, Executive Editor, GreenBiz.com
Author, “Strategies for the Green Economy”
I hear you. In assuming each incremental change is a major story and will “save the earth”, part of the injustice is that some people will really believe these actions are unique and substantial, when similar initiatives are being performed across the industry. Part of the responsibility then lies on reporters to provide context in the larger scheme of things (in relation to the company’s whole supply chain or industry benchmarks), or make a rounded story from multiple parties’. This is best carried out from media outlets (or a division thereof) focused on environmental management.
And on creativity in messaging, it’s an art indeed. But like you pointed out, writers need to consider competitive and similar stories so that a degree of freshness is maintained. Giving reporters a bit of comparative value also helps them frame why your story stands out.
I agree there is a lot of green noise out there. I read Adrian Gonzalez’s blog today (ARC analyst) about a report just released by the Carbon Disclosure Project and he makes a really good related point. Research about what companies are REALLY doing and focusing on related to climate change indicates that we are still in an early adopter phase…despite all the green “news.” http://logisticsviewpoints.com/2009/03/06/more-green-supply-chain-news-and-asteroids-too/
Hi Cindy, thanks for stopping by.
Indeed the green news out there can seem like the world is truly becoming a better place. But these are just best practices from a selected few out of an entire industrial landscape that has a long way to go. To make journalism better, there should be more stories on how things “really are”.
I think audiences and the media are getting tired of the “10 Easy Ways to Go Green” pitch. The challenge for media professionals now is to come up with creative and engaging ways of telling and retelling the sustainability story. It has to be made relevant to the current economic environment and appeal to an audience that may not see global warming and sustainability as a priority issue.
I saw a video on Siemens’ website that showed how a small mid-Western town was going to be transformed by the opening of a wind turbine factory. It had interviews with the mayor, shop owners and regular folks on Main Street about how this was going to change their lives. The video humanized the company’s sustainability story and showed how it was creating what this community needed the most… jobs.