The selling of the G-20 summit's message
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In some ways, the Obama administration already has pulled off a marketing coup in hosting its first G-20 summit of key world financial leaders.
The team scored merely by choosing a quirky city perched on the East Coast/Midwest divide to host it.
Instead of images of the Washington Monument or the Statue of Liberty, cameras will be serving up shots of PPG Place and PNC Park to be seen around the world.
The not-your-father's-summit site selection triggered a host of news stories, blog items, Tweets and probably a bit of MapQuesting (where is it again?) among those who typically fly over the midsection of the nation.
Pittsburghers, too, sat up in their high-tech cubicles -- don't we all work at green, tech companies or health care businesses? -- and wondered what a G-20 is. Is that a car or a party? Does it mean riots or just friendly screaming in the streets like after a Super Bowl win?
Both the interest and incredulity were valuable.
"Holding it in Washington, nobody would even notice," said Robert E. Hunter, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO and now senior adviser for the Rand Corp. who admired the decision..
With that, the Obama administration sent a message. "It's not being held in a place that's a symbol of problems; it's a place that's a sign of promise," Mr. Hunter said.
By comparison, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi invited world leaders recently to meet in a region that had been hit by a destructive earthquake.
"He wanted them to see the devastation as well as the rebuilding going on," said Don Baer, a former White House communications and strategic planning director who is now worldwide vice chairman of public relations and marketing firm Burson-Marsteller.
In a way, the president also is marketing to the American people by bringing the Group of Twenty into what Mr. Hunter described as the productive heartland of the nation.
He's saying he's proud to show world leaders the core of the country, and he's trying to convince them that what happens at these summits has an impact on a worker in Pittsburgh who might never visit Moscow or Jakarta.
But setting the stage is just the beginning. The modern marketer knows controlling the message isn't easy, and it can be even more challenging when one organization's marketing platform also is lots of other groups' publicity opportunity.
If the leaders of 19 key nations and the European Union are gathering to discuss global economic issues, it's a certainty that climate change activists and peace protestors and even T-shirt salesmen also will make a play for the attention of hundreds of media representatives.
Guerrilla marketers waving homemade signs can trump dreary scenes of closed doors or sterile document signings.
"The press wants to try and capture those images," noted David Reibstein, professor of marketing, University of Pennsylvania Wharton business school. "It's more sensational than two guys shaking hands."
The official organizers and the anti-organization organizers have one issue in common. They both need a portion of the populace to understand what the G-20 is and why it matters.
Once the basics are understood, the summit organizers must battle the idea that this is a gathering of the elite who oppress the poor.
Consider a few messages sent out on micro-blog site Twitter in late August. From futurevisionari: "I would love to go to G-20 summit, In this world we live in to day I cant I'm not a president of a country, This is for the rich and powerful."
Then there's this from StirringTrouble: "Breaking news: G20 leaders deny that they have T-shirts with the sign: 'Little people? [expletive] 'em!"
The gathering is meant to be more inclusive than G-8 meetings limited to just eight powerful countries, noted Mr. Hunter. "This is the first time at least some of the middle guys have at least had a chance to get into the country club."
That message needs to be promoted, he said, even if it won't deter the passionate opposition.
Maybe the biggest challenge for the Obama team is bringing into comprehensible and compelling terms issues that the summit participants will debate.
"They need some bumper stickers. They need some headlines. They need some visibles," summed up Mr. Hunter.
The planned visit by the top leaders to the Phipps Conservatory? A move to infuse color into the green development discussion and even more color into the nightly news seen in Brazil and China and Turkey.
Talking about clean water? Show it. Promoting technology as a job-creation tool? Get some cool robots out at Carnegie Mellon University or visit one of the firms that's created a hot gizmo.
"Don't be vague. Be as specific as possible," advised Mr. Baer.
G-20 promoters should follow good brand building practices: Figure out a message, repeat it often, create appealing images and info to reinforce it.
"They want to talk about the benefits," said Mr. Reibstein.
Many of the competing marketing messages will have merit, too, and their purveyors will use similar techniques to try to provide camera-ready images. And if at first the mainstream media don't show, they'll have their own video to put up on the Internet.
If the summit organizers somehow manage to deliver a message that they're working together through the sour economic problems to improve the lot of the folks back home, then that will be something.
As Mr. Hunter said, "This needs to be a 'lemonade moment.'"
First Published September 22, 2009 12:00 am
