Out of Scope Issue 94: Corporate Comms is Like Trust - Hard to Build, Easy to Destroy
Plus: Is 2023 the year of ChatGPT?
Happy New Year! 2023 will bring a host of unexpected events, but some things never change - like trust being the cornerstone of your brand. This year started with a lesson in crisis communications. Hirsch Leatherwood examines how Southwest Airlines has been dealing with public outcry after mass flight cancellations during the peak holiday season. While the airline provides a comms case study, the impact of corporate decisions in response to significant delays and cancellations will continue to play out over the coming weeks.
đĄON OUR MINDS: Corporate Comms is Like Trust - Hard to Build, Easy to DestroyÂ
After a dismal holiday season, Southwest must find a way to repair the serious damage to its image. The largest domestic airline carrier canceled over 15,000 flights during the holiday season (spilling over into 2023), prompting public outrage, government scrutiny, and a price tag of nearly half a billion dollars. Trust is crucial for a business's long-term success. So when it's broken, even with a company like Southwest known for its strong reputation, how do you rebuild it? Â
The first steps are acknowledgment and accountability - and here Southwest was criticized for its initial stance. The airline has blamed weather conditions and pledged to cover "reasonable expenses" and revamp its internal tech systems, but lawmakers and the public seem to think much was left unsaid.Â
Southwest's CEO Bob Jordan took a step in the right direction by acknowledging the failure and adding greater specificity to how they plan to make amends: giving 25,000 frequent flier bonus points (about $300) to customers with flights "canceled or delayed more than three hours between Christmas Eve and January 2."Â
In addition to acknowledging specific areas of the business that must improve, Southwest will face months of scrutiny from the public and the U.S. Department of Transportation. Southwest spent decades garnering goodwill, and it'll likely take more than reimbursements and frequent flier points to regain it. Because once trust is gone, it's an uphill battle to get it back.Â
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Between a trailer practically made for TikTok, personalized YouTube ads, and an ingenious marketing campaign thatâs seen animatronic dolls pop up across major cities (think performing at an LA Chargers game and riding the NYC subway amongst commuters), the lead-up to M3GANâs premiere is a model of how to create inescapable hype in the digital age. As Angela Watercutter argued in Wired last month, M3GAN fits squarely into the âInternet Movieâ archetype â having been âborn of some piece of internet discourse or designed to be a part of it.â Described as campy, flawless, and, of course, âyaasified,â M3GANâs marketing campaign has done what few can accomplish in this fast-paced attention economy: create sustained interest and a cult following before its debut (to a 96% Rotten Tomatoes score, nonetheless).Â
Football fans watched in horror as Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest during Monday nightâs game. Medics administered CPR to Hamlin before he was taken to the hospital and intubated. It took the NFL over an hour to postpone the game. Reports suggest that coaches and players, not the League, led the charge to delay the game. The NFLâs lack of action feels on brand for their historically poor handling of player safety. Meanwhile, many fans have donated to Hamlinâs foundation Chasing Mâs, a toy drive dedicated to children affected by the pandemic. As of Thursday, Hamlin has begun to show signs of recovery.  Â
ChatGPT is hot right now, but will it truly vault Bing back into meaningful competition with Google Search? Will it take the jobs of writers, researchers, authors, and academics? Will failure to double check its work devastatingly impact corporate reputations? Will it have the most impact in business? In academia? In government? In communications? In society? These are all fair questions with news of OpenAI tender offer talks at a valuation of $29 billionâa whole lot of $$$ for a fresh tech tool with oversized, but unproven potential.Â
đ„QUICK HITS:Â
In case you missed these stories this week.
Equinox decided to ban new member sign-ups in January. The resulting optics are bad. The impact on new member sign-ups once the ban ends could be worse.
January is always the month of far-swinging forecasts and trend predictions, but if marketers read one this month, it should be Pinterestâs â who needs to read minds when you can see into vision boards?
Nonprofit Ocean Cleanup installed a barrier in Los Angelesâ Ballona Creek that stopped 35,000 pounds of trash from entering the ocean during a recent storm. Â
Wishing you a successful and productive 2023,
HL
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