Free Willy was one of my all-time favorite childhood movies. In addition to a love for MJ’s classic song “Will You Be There,” this movie established my lifelong dream to swim with the orcas. Willy was anything but “Killer,” and it’s hard to believe “Shamu” would be either.
I’ve been following the story of the recent tragic death of SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau—both due to my personal interest in the relationships between humans and animals in captivity, and my professional interest in how SeaWorld would respond to this crisis situation. As a curious millennial, the first thing I did was log on to the SeaWorld website to see what they had to say about the incident.
Day 1 after the incident, I visit the SeaWorld press room—nothing.
Day 2, I try the press room again—still nothing.
The story was all over the news and social media sites, so I knew the “word on the street”—including the praise that SeaWorld was getting for their emotional and rapid response to the situation. Yet, the company website said absolutely nothing.
Taking a closer look, I found SeaWorld’s response to the event expressed in a variety of social media channels. This included thoughtful responses from senior leaders and a tribute to the trainer on the SeaWorld blog (with several YouTube video messages), active debate about animal rights on their Facebook page, and updates of events and sentiment around the park on their Twitter account.
With all of these “official” responses popping up in disparate social media channels, it’s difficult to get a sense of the company’s overall response to the tragedy. Wouldn’t it be much easier for a journalist (or, ahem, a blogger) writing about incident to have a central hub linking these communications—and all the crowd support around it—into a cohesive company story?
This brings me to an area that I’ve been researching in depth over the last few months, corporate newsrooms. In the past, this area of the corporate website was often thought of as a place to house formal company press releases, media contacts, company FAQs/events/images, and press kits—essentially all the basics that are still important today. It wasn’t designed to be particularly dynamic, but rather to meet the “must-have” information demands of journalists. That said, in today’s networked media environment—with less specialized journalists, an “everyone is media” attitude, and messages that spread incredibly fast—the company newsroom needs to be that central hub of company news in its traditional and more modern forms.
Check out the difference between SeaWorld’s press room and Cisco’s newsroom (the 2007-2009 winner of the Bowen Craggs award for #1 corporate news site serving the media). SeaWorld may be no less active than Cisco on social media channels and may be equally dynamic in the amount of news they share about the company. But from looking at their press room, you’d never know it.
What do you think about SeaWorld’s response to this tragedy from a Corporate Communications perspective? And do you agree that it’s important for a company to have a “one-stop shop” for news—especially during a crisis?
on 11 March 2010
Respond
I think SeaWorld erred when it quickly said they would continue with the Orca show. This fanned the fires of controversy rather than taking time to “investigate” and cooling the issue. This was clearly a financial response, as were the initial police reports minimizing the incident with a cover story about her falling in.
If I was Seaworld, and I’m no Peta type, I would recognize that the era of captive Orcas is coming to a close and that they could get astounding publicity by setting free the whales and creating a new central park theme along the lines of ocean conservation, creating a draw for the next century.
As Jet Blue did with its Bill of Rights, Seaworld should seize the day. They should not just apologize but lead the cause of sea animal rights if they truly love their animals. It’s been reported that wild Orcas swim 100 miles a day. Putting them in small pools creates incidents like this. The makers of Budweiser who own the park should recognize when the party’s over and party responsibly as they tell others. That’s leadership, and the fact that it’s missing is also reflected in the press room.
on 12 March 2010
Respond
Eliot- thanks for your comment. I am definitely a “free willy” lover and would also prefer a wale watching excursion to a staged Orca show. Shifting a business model does take time. Getting a complete story to the press on a “press room,” however, should not!