Various Approaches to Online Corporate Reputation Campaigns

July 12, 2007 12:37 PM | Written by Yan Shikhvarger

This is such a large topic that perhaps it is better to focus on a few examples in a single industry. A good example would be the recent intense debate around the energy industry and the campaigns that launched as a result. That brings us to two example campaigns...

1) "ExxonMobil Challenges" takes a very standard approach to such a campaign. The website serves as a destination for print and online ads that run on "decision maker" pubs such as The Economist, etc... The website is structured to deliver key messages around obvious Exxon issues.

The website actually does not deliver a lot of content but sticks to quick facts and headlines, and that does not work when talking about issues that should not be oversimplified. There is no real motivation to interact with the website or dig deeper into the content. The whole thing does not feel transparent.

And that leads into the next campaign....

2) "Shell Dialogues" a campaign that is nearly the opposite of Exxon's and actually borrows on social media concepts. Instead of simply presenting key messages, the campaign is perceived to genuinely invite dialogue over key issues rather than cramming key messages into visitors' heads. Web visitors raised many controversial questions and Shell did a great job delivering on the promise to answer all questions and something like that definitely gets its messaging out there, shows transparency, and increases favorability - usually the whole point of running such a campaign.

More companies can develop campaigns such as this that borrow on social media concepts if it can do a good job presenting its positions. (Of course it would be great to look at tracking studies on the effects of both campaigns but that data is not available)

Sample Dialogue #1

Q: "I need more specific information on how you treat communities, in particular in Nigeria..,"

A: "In 2006, we awarded 2,600 secondary school and 850 university scholarships, to give a couple of examples. Some 130 university scholarships were awarded to the physically challenged. At any one time a total of 13,000 secondary school students and 2,350 university students in Nigeria are Shell scholars."

Sample Dialogue #2

Q: "The 2006 performance data on Pg 36 [Sustainability Report] shows that Shell's waste has increased by 40% since 2005. What are the reasons for this increase?"

A: "Thanks for raising this point. In fact, the increase is mainly due to the disposal of non-hazardous waste following the destruction wreaked by hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico in 2005. This sudden rise was caused mainly by the hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico...."

See all questions

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