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Who can you Trust? - Lee Laurence, Porter Novelli
INSIGHT ARTICLE
Laurence Lee is director of media at Porter Novelli
More people watched the final of Britain's Got Talent than turned out at the 2009 European elections. There's a joke in there somewhere, and it would be funny if it wasn't so serious. What we've been witnessing over the last few weeks constitutes the most extraordinary event in modern British political history, and we should start thinking very seriously indeed about what it means for anyone involved in the business of communicating with the public in future.
Many people, me included, have been talking for months about a deficit of trust in society. If you wanted to, you could probably trace its roots back to the invasion of Iraq, but you can certainly see it coming to a head when the banks screwed up and the taxpayers stumped up the cash to keep them afloat. At the time, you could feel the mood on the streets as you came into work; it was a kind of blind fury that not only were people bailing out the people who'd caused the problems, but - and here's the kicker - that people had no choice but to keep dealing with them in the future.
As the recession kicked in, you could see the PR or marketing campaigns which worked - they were all bold and either offered a solution to a problem or put the company on the side of the people (free flights/car rental/office space for struggling small businesses, for instance) or - just occasionally - found a way out for us. The best campaign of this year so far has been the Queensland Tourist Board's ‘best job in the world' competition. Don't take my word for it, just look at the coverage. In the depths of our new winter of discontent, you could see people dreaming about earning £70,000 for sitting on a beach and getting away from the cynicism of modern life in Britain.
Despite the general feeling of discontent, we were just starting to accept the challenges of the recession and journalists even started complaining that they were short of a big story. But then the MP's expenses scandal happened, and it has changed absolutely everything. For a start, unlike the banking crisis we DO have a choice. We DON'T have to deal with these people if we don't need to.
For years now, the political class has been increasingly derided and become more remote from the people who elect them. Now it turns out they had so little respect for us that they actually got to a point when they didn't think they were doing anything wrong by (whisper it, heaven forbid the police might get involved) fraud and theft. How many of those MPs who didn't milk the system were prepared to stand up and act as a whistleblower against it, in the way that many are prepared to do against the gravy train that is the European parliament? Er, none.
There hasn't been a single interview that I've seen with an MP who was able to say ‘I told you so'. That mesmerising edition of Question Time set the tone, in which stalwarts of the Commons like Menzies Campbell and Margaret Beckett were put to shame by a suit from McDonalds who absolutely nailed them by simply speaking quietly and dispassionately about how life is in the real world.
You can see how they're trying to address the problem now, but it's still like pushing water up a hill. Brown's frantic attempts to restore confidence look very much like a man not waving but drowning. Cameron's doing better, with a more astute observation that there's a need to move away from the era of the professional politician and to a place where people from society stand up to be counted and represent their communities.
But you can see where the danger lies for the political class. If enough independents start to emerge then what happens to the Commons, and the decision making process? Do we become Italy? Cameron is trying to address this by persuading independents to come under the Conservative ticket and replace the Wintertons and their ilk. Does it seem a bit disingenuous, or cynical? It's hard to say, when the public is now so entirely disenfranchised.
So here's my big question: if you're a member of the great British public, then who can you trust any more, if not the banks, or the people who guide our lives? Who is going to step in and take control? Who is going to offer us a new way of living our lives, in partnership with authority, and perhaps with a new model attached to it? Who has those brilliant ideas for how industry should be communicating and doing deals with the public to persuade people that they are in the business of fair dealing? And who's really, truly, and after stress-testing, genuinely going to mean it? Because that's what's going to count.
Up until this point (and I've persuaded a few companies myself to do things like this) it's all been on the level of individual campaigns to resolve a problem in the short term, like reaching out to the unemployed or lowering prices. But from now on the rules are not the same. From now on it's about who you are, what you mean to people and what you represent in society than about quick fixes.
If politicians aren't up to it, then there's no reason why business people shouldn't be the champions for the public and come up with offer the products, services and support ordinary people need. In terms of marketing, a little honesty and openness is needed to rebuild trust and confidence and you only have to look at brands like Virgin, Tesco and First Direct to see the loyalty they engender and the impact it has on their bottom lines.
More people watched the final of Britain's Got Talent than turned out at the 2009 European elections. There's a joke in there somewhere, and it would be funny if it wasn't so serious. What we've been witnessing over the last few weeks constitutes the most extraordinary event in modern British political history, and we should start thinking very seriously indeed about what it means for anyone involved in the business of communicating with the public in future.
Many people, me included, have been talking for months about a deficit of trust in society. If you wanted to, you could probably trace its roots back to the invasion of Iraq, but you can certainly see it coming to a head when the banks screwed up and the taxpayers stumped up the cash to keep them afloat. At the time, you could feel the mood on the streets as you came into work; it was a kind of blind fury that not only were people bailing out the people who'd caused the problems, but - and here's the kicker - that people had no choice but to keep dealing with them in the future.
As the recession kicked in, you could see the PR or marketing campaigns which worked - they were all bold and either offered a solution to a problem or put the company on the side of the people (free flights/car rental/office space for struggling small businesses, for instance) or - just occasionally - found a way out for us. The best campaign of this year so far has been the Queensland Tourist Board's ‘best job in the world' competition. Don't take my word for it, just look at the coverage. In the depths of our new winter of discontent, you could see people dreaming about earning £70,000 for sitting on a beach and getting away from the cynicism of modern life in Britain.
Despite the general feeling of discontent, we were just starting to accept the challenges of the recession and journalists even started complaining that they were short of a big story. But then the MP's expenses scandal happened, and it has changed absolutely everything. For a start, unlike the banking crisis we DO have a choice. We DON'T have to deal with these people if we don't need to.
For years now, the political class has been increasingly derided and become more remote from the people who elect them. Now it turns out they had so little respect for us that they actually got to a point when they didn't think they were doing anything wrong by (whisper it, heaven forbid the police might get involved) fraud and theft. How many of those MPs who didn't milk the system were prepared to stand up and act as a whistleblower against it, in the way that many are prepared to do against the gravy train that is the European parliament? Er, none.
There hasn't been a single interview that I've seen with an MP who was able to say ‘I told you so'. That mesmerising edition of Question Time set the tone, in which stalwarts of the Commons like Menzies Campbell and Margaret Beckett were put to shame by a suit from McDonalds who absolutely nailed them by simply speaking quietly and dispassionately about how life is in the real world.
You can see how they're trying to address the problem now, but it's still like pushing water up a hill. Brown's frantic attempts to restore confidence look very much like a man not waving but drowning. Cameron's doing better, with a more astute observation that there's a need to move away from the era of the professional politician and to a place where people from society stand up to be counted and represent their communities.
But you can see where the danger lies for the political class. If enough independents start to emerge then what happens to the Commons, and the decision making process? Do we become Italy? Cameron is trying to address this by persuading independents to come under the Conservative ticket and replace the Wintertons and their ilk. Does it seem a bit disingenuous, or cynical? It's hard to say, when the public is now so entirely disenfranchised.
So here's my big question: if you're a member of the great British public, then who can you trust any more, if not the banks, or the people who guide our lives? Who is going to step in and take control? Who is going to offer us a new way of living our lives, in partnership with authority, and perhaps with a new model attached to it? Who has those brilliant ideas for how industry should be communicating and doing deals with the public to persuade people that they are in the business of fair dealing? And who's really, truly, and after stress-testing, genuinely going to mean it? Because that's what's going to count.
Up until this point (and I've persuaded a few companies myself to do things like this) it's all been on the level of individual campaigns to resolve a problem in the short term, like reaching out to the unemployed or lowering prices. But from now on the rules are not the same. From now on it's about who you are, what you mean to people and what you represent in society than about quick fixes.
If politicians aren't up to it, then there's no reason why business people shouldn't be the champions for the public and come up with offer the products, services and support ordinary people need. In terms of marketing, a little honesty and openness is needed to rebuild trust and confidence and you only have to look at brands like Virgin, Tesco and First Direct to see the loyalty they engender and the impact it has on their bottom lines.
