Keeping secret or not, that's the question

I have been working like journalism for almost 8 years.  Personally I never had to face a big dilemma about heard or learn “secret information” that becomes known to me and perhaps I could release to the public. Nevertheless, everyday reporters, editors journalism and PR professionals has to deal with that kind of challenges.

 Often, when you face dilemmas, like everything in life, you have multiple choices. Decisions, decisions, decisions. The big difference about dilemmas, like reveal or not secret information that could cause harm for some people, is that sometimes all choices look wrong. It does seem like either one or another possible solution could be a mistake for someone else. The problem with ethics decisions is that often is not about find the right answer, in contrast is more about ask the correct questions, like Plaisance  argued: 

“People are frustrated because, by its nature, ethics is more about questions that is about answers. More specifically, ethics is about getting good at asking the right questions, which in turn clarify the problem and enable us to explore effectively possible solutions or acceptable compromises”.

I read the case of CNN and Eason Jordan and I really felt identified with him in some ways. Jordan was the chief news executive for CNN during the 1990’s. At that time CNN had access to Saddam Hussein’s government. They could report from Baghdad like anyone else. But that access came with a price. They could not report the “reality” of the awful and horrible things that they saw and heard. Jordan said that when news made the government unhappy, the regimen threat them, some journalism were ejected from the country, a cameraman was abducted and torture, and if Iraqi citizen spoke to reporters they later disappeared. After the war, Jordan reveled all that and argued that he did the right thing.

 In Venezuela is not a war or anything like that. However, more than 130 citizens die every weekend in the capital, Caracas. That fact is reveal for some fragment of the media. Other portion of newspaper, radio station or TV Channels, don’t cover that kind of information which could make the government unhappy. I am not talking just about the official media, also private media that have been threatened by the government for years.

Some private media enterprise  did not do the same thing. But some of them were shutdown by the regimen.  I worked for a broadcasting TV station, RCTV, that was one of the more important TV stations of Venezuela. The fought the government and report the bad things. Finally, were closed, arguing that its concession to use the airwaves had expired. More than 2000 persons lost their job.

Consequences of telling truths that made the government  unhappy

Also radio station were shut down.

What would you do if you were the owner or Chief next executive of RCTV at that time? Some people in my country argue that they should do the same thing that Jordan did with CNN during the Irak War. Others think that they did the right thing, because RCTV could not avoid journalistic values such as truth telling, access, and independence. It’s a tough call indeed. They might change their editorial line a little be, keep broadcasting, and perhaps RCTV could get out some news , about the situation of Venezuela to the world, and no news at all.

I lost my job, I was threat for some government supporters during my work as a reporter. Some colleagues were even beaten for people who supported the regime. And perhaps that was one of the reason that I decided to travel abroad to study and trying to find another life. However, I think that RCTV did the right thing, report and tell the truth, no matter what.

In that case, I had a conflict between my personal and professional values. I might prioritize one value to keep working and reporting the truth no matter the consequences. But that decision to uphold one value doesn't necessarily mean that I abandoned the personal site. When we have to face dilemmas, and our personal or professional life, we are constantly required to evaluate our "value systems".

Telling the truth

I always wanted to work in the communication world. First I studied advertising, and I liked it. I started to work like copywriter for an Advertising Agency, and I never thought about ethical scenarios at that time. I wrote slogan, scripts , storyboard about that product or those companies, without any regard or moral conflict. Then I had the chance to start to study my real passion, journalism. After 5 years in college, and even before my graduation, I started to work like reporter, photographer, and producer in different types of media such as television, news Web sites and newspapers.  At that moment I realized about how powerful could be media, also some teachers told us about our responsibility, for been guardians of the truth. But what truth.

I never had a real dilemma or ethical scenario until a few weeks ago. It was not a wikileaks case or a Pentagon secret, but certainty that put me in a difficult situation.

I heard about one worker who was fired for a furniture store, and the owner never paid her some money.   I read about that case in the news and I started to try to talk with that person. Also I did some research about the store. For me surprise that business was a client of the newspaper where I was trying to work and do my internship. I talked about that case with  the news editor, and after one minute he told that I should not do that story because we did not know if the worker was saying the truth and the newspaper could face a lawsuit.

I didn’t write the story. Until now I think that the real reason of the advice of my editor was because the store is a client (they buy ad to the newspaper). However, I didn´t know if that worker was telling the truth. Also I could lost the opportunity of do my internship in that paper.  I don’t feel 100 % happy about my decision, but I think that even if I had written the story, the newspaper probably would not have published it.  

Inmigrant worker denied pay check

 

I studied about ethic in high school and also throughout my associate and bachelor in college. But if learned something about taking tough decision is that any dilemma has a black and white answer.  I really enjoyed read the first chapter of Media Ethics Issues & Cases by Patterson and Wilkins. I learned that ethics decision is not just about follow a set of rules, it´s more about built skills to analyze any difficult case that we, like communicators, could face down the line throughout our professional career.

I would like to discuss in class about current cases of ethical decision. Not just big cases, like the wikileaks that is a really big deal right now. Perhaps I would love to talk about those scenarios that we really will face in a newspaper, TV station, Public relation agency, and so on.  For instance, do a public discussion like Sissela Bok propose in her book, Lying, Moral Choice in Public and Private Life.  I agree with her about the idea that we must have empathy for the people involved in ethical decisions. It’s a really hard task, and you always going to receive critics by some party involve.

Crisis Time

   Adidas Group has a clear goal, lead the sporting goods industry, but at the same time understand their consumers and customers. They know that it’s necessary to reach these goals. On other hand, if we talk about reach investors, another important part of the Stakeholders, the group developed a Investor Relations link in the corporate web site where the shareholders can find information about    the company strategies, targets and investment cases, key financial data, share and bonds, annual reports, corporate governance and contacts information of the Investor Relation Team. 

    Also Adidas group offer investment propositions on their IR Web site. They mention specific reasons to invest in the company, and current and future strategies for continued growth. For example, they stated that “Adidas Group is one of the leaders in the sporting goods industry; that they have a clear market positioning: Performance-oriented brands target distinct consumer segments; also the claim that have a strong medium-term sales and profitability outlook due to expanding leading market positions around the world, exceptional growth potential in emerging markets and own-retail opportunities” , and so on.

    For that and others reason, the IR Global Ranking gave the award of The Best Content to Adidas Group IR web site a few years ago.  I think that since the economic worldwide crises, investor environment is more fragile and instable than ever. People do not trust in corporation and government, so companies have to be as transparent as possible about their financial situation. That can preserver their reputation and bring more investor.

    To reach governments Adidas is helping them to promote active lifestyle to fight obesity and cardiovascular disease. Governments and non-governmental organizations are increasing their efforts to promote a healthy lifestyle and encourage sports participation.

      One of the strategies of Adidas to reach communities is works in tandem with association to give hope and entertainment to people throughout sports. For example, Adidas US works with soccer affiliated organizations and athlete partners to promote access to practice soccer for disadvantaged, at-risk youth and kids.  Also Adidas demonstrate CSR when they introduced their Environmental Strategy 2015 “ a five-year plan to re-engineer the company’s approach to environmental management by focusing on significant improvements along the entire value chain” . Adidas became a green company in 2008 and the final goal is become a zero-emissions company. The company is embedding environmental best practice in everything they do, also Adidas is maximizing environmental efficiency gains and they are supporting and harnessing they people’s passion for a greener planet.

     When a company faces a crisis is difficult to establish which one is the most important strategy, because a crisis´s plan should be adapted to the characteristics of the company and the market in which they operate. However, the first thing that should be taken during the crisis management is to know what are the risks and opportunities, and try to visualize which will be the impact of crisis between its stakeholders. During the crisis, the company should make a crisis´s committee, in charge of generating communication and action’s strategies needed to minimize crisis´s effects and protect the image of the company.

   It is essential act with immediacy, in order to avoid rumors or tension between the stakeholders. On the other hand, the company must address with honesty and responsibility, thus building trust and credibility.

    When crisis´s period have finished, company should asses all damage in terms of profitability and image, to redesign the company's strategies.

    In my opinion, the most important aspect to successfully overcome a crisis is to periodically planning financial, marketing and communication strategies for the purpose of being able to anticipate change and act more precisely in times of conflict.

Professor Adidas

In my last blog, I commented that Adidas launched last November 17. The objective of the blog is to show a new image of the company, a more personal picture behind the brands. The want to show how is adidas from the point of view of their employees. The main idea is that people from all departments, such as Marketing, Operations, Sales and HR tells their stories, what they do, projects they are working on, in brief, explain their experience about be part of The Adidas Group´s Team.

But the company also provides a course about social media, no just blogs. Twitter, how share videos and pictures, and so on.   The group explains their social media guidelines in two different ways.

The first one, the traditional way, in a PDF document the group explain how be involve in the new blog, They encourages their employees to tell their thoughts , share their passion, explain how is their life inside the adidas walls . But also they tell them about some guidelines to avoid any problem or misunderstandings.   

For example, they employees must identify with their name and role in adidas when they discuss any topic related to the group on the Internet, and they are responsible for the comments or content of their blogs, wikis, etc.  They can´t comment on work-related legal matters, unless they are an official spokesperson, theu have to respect their audience, always respect copyright,  Don't cite or reference clients, partners or suppliers without their approval, and of course they have to do their daily job too.

Click here to see the old way to show the Social Media Guidelines: OLD SCHOOL

But in the beginning of 2011, the company reinvented their SMG, by showing more content and a creative way, through a cartoon story.  In addition to providing more details  about the use of social media externally and their  internal social software, the new SMG show a cartoon couple Sue Social and Media Man.  That´s a amazing way to get employees involve with the new blog, but also with the new social media. Its like a small tutorial about blogs, twitter, wikis, facebook and so on. A brilliant way to explain that indeed.

My advice, take a look of the new SMG of adidas group. I learned a couple of thinks about social media. Media Man and Sue Social

Adidas traditional media vs New media

Adidas became in one of the most important sport supplies companies in the world. That is not a big news. I have been talking about that for a couples of weeks, or post. But Since I was surfing the adidas web page, looking for their relation with the “Traditional Media”, I found out that they have an remarkable Web News Room.

In the adidas newsroom journalism can find contact information of the PR and editorial person as well, basic Fact about the company, financial information, easy downloadable images for their stories and so on.

Also, adidas newsroom offers advance interactive cyber tools. Recently, November 17,  the company launched their official corporate blog:  http://blog.adidas-group.com . In the web page the company explain “ The overall objective of the adidas Group blog is to paint a personal and authentic picture of the company behind the brands. The adidas Group blog will provide insights into the adidas Group’s business and its company culture, which is based on a shared passion for sport and a sporting lifestyle. Employees from various departments within the adidas Group such as HR, Operations, Marketing, Social and Environmental Affairs and IT will tell stories about their daily tasks, projects they work on and their experience of being part of the adidas Group’s team…”

In my last blog I didn’t mention about the blogs in the adidas world and that would be a critic for these one, but Adidas launch just in time their blog, so move on. In addition, the organization web site provide with Really Simple Syndication Feeds RSS and social media News Releases.  For those reason I believe that adidas Newsroom is pretty good and It’s adapting for old and new media or journalism.

But I want to share something about new strategies for promote their product, that was use by adidas a few years ago. The contracted an Advertising Agency: TBWA, London. The challenge was reach the active soccer kids fans ( males, 14-19 years old) , whose  according to some research that target ( at UK ) was notoriously hard to engage and impress though standard media channels. Some research shows that kids  aren’t sitting in from of their TVs as they used to be. Now they use their computers, smart phones, iPads and so on.

What they do

The agency brought the world’s most famous football player, Barcelona’s Lionel Messi, to one city in UK. With only four hours allotted, they avoided a TV spot endorsement idea and unleashed him to the public via an adidas-branded helicopter. In the weeks leading up to his arrival, we seeded content and cryptic messages online, hinting where Messi would be.

Fans were able to trade in their old boots for new F50 adizeros while they  shaking hands and had really good time with their favorite player Messi. Those kids took thousands photos and videos and shared it throughout the web. The company  hit 250,000 Facebook feeds, 368,000 tweets, 3.5 million kids and 41% of the UK. And, all this with zero paid-for media.

Results:

• 250,000 Facebook feeds

• 368,000 tweets

• 3 blog sites led to 195,264 visitors to adidas & Messi sites

• Strong feature on key social networks – Facebook, YouTube & Twitter

• 93% of all traditional media coverage was positive

• Coverage in traditional media Television, Newspapers & News Websites

• The BBC News website featured a photo report of the event

• Covered in 25 countries around the world

• Facebook and video demographics indicated that those most interested and engaged in the event were our core target audience, 91% Male, 43% aged 13-17 yrs

• 3.5 million young football fans saw the activity through TV & press

The company presented Lionel Messi, to his fans in a way that created a  huge ‘social buzz’, talk and news. The funny part was that they didn’t use any traditional media to promotes the event. The results were amazing and the whole strategy was executed in the cyber world.

Adidas in the social network

The Adidas´s target and perhaps stakeholders use social networking all the time.  So adidas page has a good deal of links that guide you to their facebook page,  twitter , and also their Youtube channel.  But no just adidas as a whole. The three adidas production lines , adidas performances, originals and Styles show various options including:

FOLLOW US ON 

 

FOLLOW US ON  

WATCH US ON   

adidas BUZZ

BLOG ROLL

FOLLOW US VIA RSS

CONTACT US

If you click it, you can find in just one page the latest News stream of Adidas. News, Facebook updates, latest videos and campaigns, twitters and also you are able to download Adidas´s videos in HD. In addition, the organization uses a link to share photos from their advertising, products, sponsorships athletes and so on.

Adidas Global

Adidas site provide an interactive toolbar function that allow to their customer to surf the website in the global option, ( English ) or to choose their country. France, Italy, Bulgaria, Japan, South America ( Spanish ), South America, ( Portuguese ) , South Africa,  Poland, New Zeland, Germany, Japan, China, Romania, Russia, Turkey, Greece, Spain, UK and US. That tools provide a worldwide brand like adidas the channel to reach their consumers in the whole world.

At least are 2.762.431 stakeholders who like Adidas´s Facebook site, and  29.970 were talking about it ( November 13 ).  The company offer a store locator, share photos and videos, promote the values of the company and the same time they are able to receive a feedback from their clients. The company has a link to ask questions about their promotional videos. “Who from the video most caught your eye? David Beckham, Leo Messi, Derrick Rose”, and  3,819 people voted.

Become a fan on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/adidas

Im a really huge fan of the Adidas commercials.  If you want to find any of the remarkable ( in my opinion ), campaigns of Adidas in the YouTube Adidas channel . That link offers a variety of videos, including a  Lionel Messi telling you about how they became a winners, even with the growing problem that He had when Lionel was a little kid. Also, you can see a the latest MVP in the NBA, Derek Rose, showing his skills with the basketball, and with his shoes of course.

I think that Adidas create a stronger relationship with the young clients throughout the social´s sites. The Adidas brand is available in every place in the world, but also you can buy any product in their website.  A site which is really dynamic, colorful and reflect the passion and values of the company for the sport world. At the same time, the content is accurate, useful and reflect a professional Adidas appearance,  in an user-friendly environment.

In brief, Adidas is everywhere; I find this phrase from the organization site, which summarizes this statement. “ We give everything we've got, then go back for more. No doubts, no holding back, no giving in. From the court to the catwalk, the stadium to the street; whatever the game, we play the same way: Heart over head. Inclusion over ego. United by passion, we go all in".

Adidas more than sports

The company adidas started has a sports manufacturer in Germany, now it’s the largest sportswear company in Europe and the second biggest in the world. But How that happened. The three stripes are part of our culture, its an icon, its unique.  

But not just in the sport world, also in music, fashion, show business and so on.

Adidas has personality, a big group of  stakeholders feel passion about their brand. You can read that all over the adidas group website . If we analyze adidas throughout  the UAT Filter (The unique, authentic and talkable filter ) it easy to find stunt marketer that build adidas’ s personality. For instead, In the 1980s, Adidas sponsored rap group Run-D.M.C., a breakthrough idea. Many people knew about adidas because Run-D.M.C. People who might not like sports. Be can think , well that was great, unique, that marketing move make a big impression at that time. Now , 30 years after, that stunt become part of a large meaning. Seeing videos of  adidas Original advertising campaigns , you can notice that Adidas has become more than a sports brand.

Beyond that kind of stunts adidas became unique when in 50’s  Adi Dassler designed boots which for the first time feature removable studs. Adidas created a twist. A revolutionary footwear which helped Germany to won the Soccer World Cup in 1954.   In addition,  adidas showed be authentic , not just for their heritage, also they have values that their customers and stakeholders share.

How to be authentic, well have a credible and vast heritage. Adidas have enough story to built perhaps two personalities. If you read the history of the company in the website, you are able to know where the company comes from. For example, did you know that Dassler was the first business CEO to use sports promotion in order to make the public aware of his innovations.

In this point, I have to refer about the third filter in terms of defining your brand personality, be talkable.  In our time a  large group of sport companies use well-know athletes to advertise their product, that it’s the perfect way to promote footwear.   Now I am talking about more than 50 years ago when Dassler used athletes such as Jesse Owens ( Atletism ), Muhammad Ali ( Boxing  ), Max Schemeling ( Boxing ), Sepp Herberger ( soccer coach ) and Franz Beckenbauer ( Soccer ), that was a great hook to make people to talk and share the adidas’s message with friends and family.

Another strong point that I found about adidas their positioning throughout the branding details. Adidas creates an emotional bond with consumers through the mixture of elements such as image, name, logos , slogans. My last blog I mentioned about the adidas’s slogan impossible is nothing. In this one I want to focus in the adidas logo.

Adidas has changed their logo a couple of times, but every single logo have became in part of one line of product of the company. Perhaps , the old style adidas logo, the trefoil (flower) logo design which was adopted like the adidas official logo in 1972, now its use only on the adidas original line. But the signature of adidas is the three parallel stripes. That sign is in every adidas  product and its part of their heritage.

The adidas’s logo has become in synonymous of dedication, passion and hard work to produce high-quality product to help professional or regular athletes to reach a better performance.

 In brief, the adidas personality is one of the stronger signature of the company. The positioning of the brand is worldwide, and not just in the sports world. Adidas is more than just a name, a company, or logo. The company has become in a icon of sports, fashion and even a pop culture.

 Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adidas

http://www.adidas-group.com/en/home/Welcome.aspx

Bhargava-UAT A signature is not enought