Um…You ARE responsible for spills.

A quick look at how to handle the micro level of Crisis response to the oil spill for destinations.

45 days and counting.

Thousands of destinations on alert.

24.5 Million Search Results for Oil Spill.

And, at the end of the day, we (agencies and destinations) are responsible for how we handle this on a micro level.  However our common denominators, this is the time to seek the unique – our voice, our message and our response to each community.

I’m not going to pontificate political or otherwise on the missed efforts, the government response, or the like.  These, for any of us are just opinions on things that we cannot control and have no say over.  What we can do is start to think on the micro level.  It will take each of us quick thinking, smart and truthful marketing and a little ol fashioned ingenuity to tell each of our stories and protect our assets, better inform tourists and leverage the things that make us …well, us.

“Worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum…”

This is not the first time, and certainly not the last that our industry is faced with many unknown factors and the response of the public.  Like a crisis that arises in your life, and to quote Baz Lurhman (Everybody’s Free (to wear sunscreen) class speech remix, 99.)

“The real troubles in your life are apt to be those that have never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.”

We all have crisis communications plans in place for those natural disasters that may hit any of our destinations on a regular basis (Hurricane being the most prominent).  Can these be adapted to something unprecedented? Yes and No.  How you respond might be similar – but what you respond to, leaves a thousand choices for us to work through at lightning speed.  The Oil Crisis is officially 45 days and counting.  During those days, a lot of us have been “.. go .. no wait….ok ..now GO .. no, wait.”  Kinda hard to know when and how to respond to a disaster both natural and manmade, and certainly we can’t predict the impact and when (and if) the oil will hit certain areas.  Like one of the clients I had worked with in the past, received calls for Leaf Peeping (What time and day do the leaves change color?)  Even with our positive assets – no way to predict the path that Mother Nature guides anything. This is a day by day situation that needs attention and tweaking as it evolves, or devolves in so many ways.

How do you handle a crisis online with unknown variables like this?  When will it hit?  Will it hit?  What’s the local impact, what’s the civic duty, etc.  Here are some of our tips for how to handle the Oil Spill crisis with grace, ease and doing your damndest to get out real, true information to those who are tainted by media uproar.

1. Hyper-Responsive and INFORMED

• This is a no-brainer.  Don’t sit back to see what happens.  Consider information as fast as it’s available and work with your teams to provide several planning opportunities to know what is going on where, when and how.

2. Plant seeds and WORK your fan base

• If you are a beach destination, you already have raving fans, memories in them from warm days and happy times.  Talk to them via your social efforts on a real person-to-person basis, ask them to spread the REAL word about the impact or lack thereof.  They want those memories preserved, unspoiled and will help you do what it takes to make sure future and past visitors know the skinny.

3. Consider ALL angles, leave no stone unturned, and no one offended.

• Who are the affected parties in a situation like this?  Locals, Businesses, Tourists, environmental groups, etc.  Consider how any of these parties might view your marketing messages, how does it positively emotionally impact them?  Then seek out their chatter, where are they talking online?  What are they sounding off about? Also of each group, are there micro groups to be considered? Group Planners, Foodie Tourism, etc.  Keep mining as long as your time allows.  Thank goodness for Google, finding these with the right keywords should be easy.

4. Show n Tell

• I know a lot of destinations who have turned on web cams .. and some who have turned them right back off.  Better to SHOW in a realistic way what is up, than leave it to the media to show the “carnage” for ratings.

5. Place media where the uninformed articles show up

• Sometimes media goes dark in a crisis and that’s the right thing to do.  You also don’t want your message to appear to be “tacky” during a calamity. But one of the tricks of our trade is to use contextual advertising to tell your story in a positive way if possible.  Keep tourism up as much as you can.  Consider mining out places where these discussions are happening and reuse your fan comments on why you are still good, and people should continue and make travel plans.  Beside the articles that prey on the headlines, be truthful and stay in front of those readine.

6. DO NOT take advantage of the situation at the expense of any other market.

• If your neighbor is affected, please don’t be anything but supportive from a regional approach.  Remember this might be you, and not only is it in poor taste.  It turns off tourists.

7. Agency beware:  don’t call on non-clients hoping for a piece of the action.

• All the articles are coming out at record speed about how much additional dollars destinations are getting to help market the message and retain tourism, jobs and the like.  If it’s not your account.  Keep your phone down.  If they need you and know about your ability, they will call.  Don’t prey.

8. Don’t make assumptions on anything you have no control over.

• You cannot promise anything at this point about your beach or the next.  Many well-informed scientists have that job – stick to yours.  If you are quoting predictions, source it.  If you don’t you will be sorry when you are holding the bag for reckless assumptions.

9. Remember you are more than the sum of your parts.

• The town, the community is more than the beach.  There is a vibe, a personality a reverberating memory of a special wedding, a family reunion, a much needed family vacation.  Coming off of a (debatable) recession and all of us working (on average 55+ hour) work weeks.  We need off.  Cater to our emotional and time starved triggers, and you can market the assets of your city besides that that may be affected with unknown impact, etc

10. Give Back.

• Nuff Said.

What JB Inc is doing for oil crisis clients.  We have a few new scopes of work for some of the affected destinations.  We are doing a few things to make this both an actionable marketing plan and also do our duty as PART of this industry, and not apart from it.  Kristen has reduced our commission on oil spill related media buys, negotiating better rates with participating (thank you!) partners, Drew and Hannah are working on firming up the charities we can work with to help with clean up, if necessary and preserving the jobs and industry that depend on clean water and wildlife.  And we are here, talking to others that are dealing with the same, listening to the states, the media and the horses mouth.  At the end of the day, though – we are working to empower our clients and provide johnny-on-the spot advice from every angle our experience and our knowledge can suggest.  Certainly hope these tips helped out.   But, regardless of extra funding or not – it is our job to take care of our own.  Focus on the micro and those that believe in you, worked of mouth is more important than ever since the media is also so much under scrutiny.  It’s ask a friend.  The spill is for all of us to clean up.  One thought, one campaign, one volunteer effort and one concentration on mitigating loss and concentrating on the positive truth at a time.

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