PR Project Proposal

PR PROJECT PROPOSAL (BP OIL SPILL DEEP WATER HORIZON)
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Executive summary
Beyond Petroleum commonly referred to as BP is one of the largest companies in the natural resources industry, with an annual turnover that goes beyond the $13 billion dollar mark. Ironically, while their slogan reads, ‘better people, better products, big picture’, the company has been dogged by one of the greatest disasters that has ever faced any one single company. The Deepwater Horizon disaster was a blast of an offshore oil rig, which resulted in the death of 11 people, injured 170 people, affected more than 16000 miles of coastline and killed more than 8,000 marine animals after more than 3.19 million worth of crude oil leaked into the ocean.
The PR campaign seeks to regain the lost reputation of the company by using the two-way symmetrical communication method. This means that the campaign aims at communicating with the public and assessing their requirements, relative to providing the necessary payouts and satisfying other needs that they may have and working closely with the official leaders and the governments.
Some of the mistakes that the company did include running ads on the local newspapers with apologies, focusing on the legal end of the crisis, poor identification of the spokesperson and preparation, downplaying the disaster and not collaborating with the media. The main objectives of the campaign to reverse the negative image created with be based on five objectives. The objectives in this case will include addressing the affected publics including the environmental groups, stakeholders, fishermen and local landowners, governments and the employees.
The campaign strategies will include an immediate response to the crisis by the company. In this case the company will take the full responsibility of the disaster and the implications of the same, in a bid to maintain the company’s credibility in the face of the crisis. It is also going to be apparent that a good representative of the company is chosen, who will keep their personal feeling to themselves unless offering empathy. The company will also use an online platform in form a website with forums, which will allow the public to bring out their views without the company stemming the information flow. The campaign will also use the power of the social media which will broadcast messages unregulated by any contemporary media. The campaign will also work closely with international organizations and governments to regulate environmental degradation. At the same time working with the communities in an effort to rehabilitate affected areas to regain their fauna and flora.
Evaluation
To evaluate the success of campaign, the team will first establish a baseline before the campaign by conducting brand image analysis within the market alongside the implications of the set out strategies in environmental rehabilitation, financial analysis and social implications. This will be in an effort to set the stage for assessment of the outputs and the outtakes. The team will the...