The crisis management experts are still getting calls to interpret BP's experience in the aftermath of the disaster. Incredible stuff, really--especially now that the House Committee on Energy and Commerce has demanded BP provide a quote for how much the company has spent on advertising since April. Word to the wise: it's looking to be around a cool $1 million weekly. Magically enough, here's Gene Grabowski, senior vice president and chair of the crisis and litigation practice at Levick Strategic Communications, on why that figure shouldn't raise any eyebrows:
"A million dollars a week is nothing. I don't know how much they're spending, but it's probably less than they would have spent on a global ad campaign to advertise the benefits of what they generally do."
So what kind of advertising is this apparently well-spent money going towards?
"In a crisis, issue-based advertising is essential. You have a relationship with your customers, and implied in that relationship in the 21st century is a conversation."
Incredible. But it still gets better. Here's the subsequent summary of Grabowski's commentary provided by CNN Money:
"Grabowski says there's a critical moment in advertising after a crisis when people are still tuned in to the product, but aren't anxious anymore. This is when companies start to release more product promotion ads to regain trust. BP isn't there yet by a long shot."
Isn't there yet? So hopefully the crisis aftermath will dissolve quietly soon, so that BP can get back to selling its core product: oil. And continue the veneer of 'doing the right thing' for consumers.
To cap it off--sorry I couldn't resist--here's what Grabowski has to say about Congressional demand for the numbers from BP:
"I'm frankly surprised that Congress would do this," Grabowski says. "I think that for executives at BP and throughout the oil industry, this might appear to be piling on."
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