CorpComms Magazine

One of BP's senior PR advisers is reported to have said of the Gulf oil spill: 'It's not a public relations disaster. It's just a disaster.' Well, yes - and no. There is, of course, a simple truth that certain events are simply immune to the benefits of first class communications.

At first blush, the Deepwater Horizon incident falls squarely into this category. The death of 11 men in a tragic industrial accident; an oil spill of apocalyptic proportions; a series of failed attempts to plug the leak. All these were elements in the disaster. And all of this took place under the glare of an international media circus and a pretty unforgiving political class, led by a rattled and angry Barack Obama.

So I am not underplaying the truly terrible nature of these events or that, in the end, BP was always going to be judged by its actions and not by its words.

But there is a 'but'. In my view this WAS a public relations disaster, too.  And BP now knows it was. Just take a look at the company's 2010 Summary Review. There, in his open letter to stakeholders, BP's chief executive Bob Dudley commits the following thought to paper:

'I have heard people ask Does BP 'get it'? Residents of the Gulf, our employees and investors, governments, industry partners and people around the world all want to know whether we understand that a return to business as usual is not an option. We may not have communicated it enough at times (author's emphasis), but yes, we get it.'

Nine little words that say it all. So what were the public relations failures - and what are the lessons? 

First, leadership.  Having a boss who is prepared to lead from the front during a major crisis is a rare and commendable thing. So full marks to BP's then chief executive Tony Hayward for doing exactly that. But this is only half the equation. During my 20 years on the corporate and political campaign trail, the other crucial component is to ensure that your leader can take the public relations advice he or she is given, deliver agreed messages in a controlled campaign, and that they keep out of trouble at the height of the crisis. As a trained engineer and BP lifer, Hayward did not look at all comfortable as the 'front man' for the campaign: he delivered several awful gaffes and compounded it all with the famously misjudged sail around the Isle of Wight on a large yacht.

What's the lesson? Well, if your chief executive is ill-equipped to deal with this kind of public relations challenge, however good he or she is at the day job, then as communications advisers we are obligated to talk them down - and find somebody else to front the campaign, or at least share the burden. It's not the received wisdom. But it is a fact of life that a leader ill-equipped to front a campaign is a liability.

Second, recognise a PR problem when you see one. Not long after the Deepwater Horizon disaster, I was told by someone at BP that 'we don't have a PR problem in the UK' and that media and political stakeholders were actually very supportive of the company's position. I think this is an entirely understandable reaction from a company that had gone through such a terrible trauma. But it was  way off beam.  BP's problem in Britain and around the world was - in part - a PR disaster, and should have been identified as such from the very outset.

By denying the problem, the company also failed to deliver an effective solution, which in this case would have been a form of 'permanent campaigning': a technique whereby the organisation in crisis sets up the corporate equivalent of an election campaigning unit, with everything from a defensive 'rebuttal unit' through to a pro-active publicity team and a strategic stakeholder and coalition building effort - all delivered through the iron discipline of a proper campaign plan.

I know this sounds very 1990s, but the point is that it works. And it would have worked for BP last year, but for the fact that - at the time - they didn't see PR as 'the problem'.

Third, and finally, whatever the mistakes and misdiagnoses of the past, it is never too late to turn things around. As that comment from Bob Dudley signals, BP does now recognise that it needs to communicate better than it has done. Not that long ago I was in its London head office and picked up a copy of a staff publication setting out the company's epic $20 billion response to Deepwater. It set out the efforts of the 48,000 people and 6,500 vessels involved in the clean-up operation. And - crucially - it acknowledges the appalling impact that the accident had on communities up and down the Gulf Coast.

It was an example of brilliant communications, but tailored to an internal rather an external audience. I asked whether something similar had at that point been sent to media and political stakeholders - here and overseas. Too soon came the reply. If not now, when? should be BP's watch words for the year ahead.

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