News-Release
How Exxon Plays Dodgeball PR
New Strategy Map Reveals Oil Giant''s Methods for Blunting, Bending Public Criticism'
Second in a Series of Media Microscope™ Studies
Washington, D.C., Oct. 30, 2008 – The Playmaker’s Standard, LLC, today released an illustrated analysis of strategies employed by ExxonMobil as the oil giant responds to persistent criticism of its corporate and environmental policies, notably by skeptical environmental groups, financial analysts, hostile foreign governments, and shareholder activists. (Click here for report.)
Based on The Playmaker’s Table™, a first-of-a-kind classification framework of 25 irreducibly complex influence strategies, the independent study shows how the Texas-based oil giant blunts and bends the agendas of its most dogged detractors to preserve and propel its preferred reputation and brand. Principal findings of the study:
- To manage public dialog and commentary, Exxon exhibits considerable strategic range across the playmaker’s spectrum, from evasive diverting plays, such as the Deflect and Red Herring, to provocative Call Outs and Preempts (see p. 6 of study for a glossary of terms).
- An exception is that Exxon relies on no luring plays to challenge or bait its critics, an indication of the company’s aversion to direct engagement of negative public issues.
- Two of every three moves by Exxon opponents are supported by high-interaction plays, particularly the Challenge and Call Out stratagems, which are typically employed to pressure an opposing market player.
- Exxon''s opponents are slow to employ high-profile surrogates to reinforce their claims – a delay that suggests comparably poorer command and control of their public campaigns.
- Exxon marketing campaigns tend not to involve the CEO, suggesting a strategy to insulate and de-couple executive leadership from public scrutiny of the company.
The map was created on StrategyMapper™, a patent-pending web-tool that illustrates patterns, sequences and trends of influence strategies in a defined marketplace. The result: unparalleled insight into the means and methods that corporations, the media, activists, politicians, governments and others employ to drive agendas, manage conversations and counter criticism. Data are aggregated using StrategySnapshot™.
The Playmaker’s Standard, LLC, based in the Washington, D.C. metro area, is a management consulting and web software services firm specializing in communication and competitive strategy. The company’s work is based on The Elements of Influence, a landmark book by CEO and founder Alan Kelly, which details The Playmaker’s Table, the first periodic table of influence strategy. Kelly writes two blogs: Playmaker’s Forum, a regular deconstruction of spin and strategy in business and pop-culture, and Plays for the Presidency, a non-partisan analysis and XM POTUS 08 iTunes podcast of the moves and counter-moves of the 2008 Presidential Election.
John Koval Associate, The Playmaker’s Standard
t: (330) 727-2223
Playmakers Announce New Pricing for StrategyMapper™
14-Day Trial of Online Strategy Mapping Tool Available at $29
Washington, D.C., Oct. 27, 2008 – The Playmaker’s Standard, LLC, today announced three-tier pricing for its signature web-based software, StrategyMapper™ (formerly known as Play Action Whiteboard™).
- 14-day trial subscription for $29.00
- 6-month student/faculty subscription for $99.00
- 1-year single-user professional subscription for $399.00, reduced from $575.00
StrategyMapper™ is an easy-to-use market intelligence tool that shortens the “time-to-influence” of decision-makers, particularly of mainstream and social media, by illustrating the underlying influence strategies of competitive marketplaces. Resulting maps help CEOs, marketers, communications and public affairs professionals, salespeople, advertising executives, scholars and politicos depict and predict the patterns, sequences, trends and tendencies of both competitors and collaborators. The result: unparalleled insight into the means and methods that corporations, the media, activists, politicians and governments and others employ to drive agendas, manage conversations and counter criticism. New additions to The Playmaker’s Standard website, www.plays2run.com, also include:
- Play of the Day at-a-glance feature of influence strategies in business, politics and pop culture.
- Playmaker’s Glossary defines the plays, classes, subclasses, and surrogates of the playmaker’s lexicon in an easy-to-print PDF-form.
- Strategy Map Library is an online repository of Influence Strategy Maps™ of seminal moments in influence strategy history, from Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream Speech” to General Motors’ use of influence strategies to revive its corporate reputation and promote the Chevy Volt.
- Improved Playmaker’s blogs, including Playmaker’s Forum, an analysis of the influence strategies of business, politics and pop-culture; and Plays for the Presidency, a non-partisan analysis with XM Radio podcasts of the 2008 Presidential Election.
The Playmaker’s Standard, LLC, based in the Washington, D.C. metro area, is a management consulting and web software services firm specializing in communication and competitive strategy. The company’s work is based on The Elements of Influence, a landmark book by CEO and founder Alan Kelly, which details The Playmaker’s Table, the first periodic table of influence strategy. Kelly writes two blogs: Playmaker’s Forum, a regular deconstruction of spin and strategy in business and pop-culture, and Plays for the Presidency, a non-partisan analysis and XM POTUS 08 iTunes podcast of the moves and counter-moves of the 2008 Presidential Election.
Inquiries:
John Koval Associate, The Playmaker’s Standard
t: (330) 727-2223
GM Runs Unconventional Plays to Drive Hybrid Agenda
Independent Analysis and Strategy Map Show How Auto Giant is Building Competitive Advantage Through the Media
First in a Series of Media Microscope™ Studies
Washington, D.C., October 10, 2008 – The Playmaker’s Standard, LLC, today released an illustrated analysis of the media strategies employed by Detroit-based General Motors Corporation. The independent study reveals how GM is using communications and media to build competitive advantage in the coveted hybrid electric vehicle market and generate interest in its much-anticipated Chevy Volt.
Media Microscope™ Study: GM Runs Unconventional Plays to Fuel Chevy Volt
Based on The Playmaker’s Table™, a classification framework of 25 irreducibly unique stratagems or plays, the analysis demonstrates how GM has recently portrayed new products and programs to both recast its embattled brand and counter detractors, notably skeptical environmental groups, financial analysts, and industry watchers. Principal findings of the study include:
- GM employs a diversity of influence stratagems (12 of 25 plays), reflecting considerable mastery by the automaker of influence and public opinion.
- GM executives, notably Bob Lutz, freely admit failure and fault, atypical of most large-company play-it-safe media practices.
- To that end, GM uses counter-intuitive strategies, defined in the playmaker system as the Disco, Bear Hug and Lantern. These high-risk plays have helped the car giant buy time in the hybrid electric market and re-earn the public’s trust and interest in its new-generation initiatives.
The analysis and companion PDF-printable map was created on StrategyMapper™, a patent-pending web-tool that illustrates patterns, sequences and trends of influence strategies in a defined marketplace. Data were aggregated using StrategySnapshot™.
The Playmaker’s Standard, LLC, based in the Washington, D.C. metro area, is a management consulting and web software services firm specializing in communication and competitive strategy. CEO and Founder, Alan Kelly, is a visionary business strategist, political commentator, and award-winning Silicon Valley CEO. He is the author of The Elements of Influence, the landmark book which details The Playmaker’s Table, the first periodic table of influence strategy. Kelly writes two blogs: Playmaker’s Forum, a regular deconstruction of spin and strategy in business and pop-culture, and Plays for the Presidency, a non-partisan analysis and XM POTUS 08 iTunes podcast of the moves and counter-moves of the 2008 Presidential Election.
Inquiries:
John Koval
t: (330) 727-2223
Plays for the Presidency on XM Radio POTUS 08 Available on iTunes
Scholars Tap First Periodic Table of Politics to Break Down Candidate Strategy and Spin
Washington, DC, August 4, 2008 ? Was it Preempts or Recasts that Barack Obama employed to beat the Clintons? Did Hillary toss a Red Herring to sidestep her Yes-On-Iraq vote? Is it a Crazy Ivan that John McCain has run in his VP-pick of Sarah Palin? For two talk radio commentators, the answers are obvious. They?re all standard strategies. And now they?re on iTunes.
Plays for the Presidency, a non-partisan news feature on XM Satellite Radio?s POTUS ?08 channel 130, is the co-creation of entrepreneur and author Alan Kelly and political scholar and consultant Michael Cornfield. Each week on the air, and now, available on iTunes, Kelly and Cornfield break down the underlying influence strategies?a.k.a. plays?of the 2008 presidential race. Their secret? The Playmaker?s Table, a first-of-its-kind classification system of 25 irreducibly unique stratagems of business, politics and popular culture and the subject of Kelly?s recently published book, The Elements of Influence.
Launched online in 2007 at Politico.com and brought this year to POTUS ?08, Plays for the Presidency is supported by an interactive blog that decodes the science of campaign spin through self-help web tools.
Alan Kelly, an award-winning Silicon Valley entrepreneur, is CEO of The Playmaker?s Standard, LLC, a DC-area strategy consulting firm. He is the author of the ground-breaking book, The Elements of Influence: The New Essential System for Managing Competition, Reputation, Brand and Buzz, and an adjunct professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication.
Michael Cornfield is vice president for research and media strategy at 720 Strategies, a Washington, D.C.-based public persuasion firm. An accomplished political scientist, Cornfield is the author of two books about the Internet and American politics: Politics Moves Online: Campaigning and the Internet and The Civic Web: Online Politics and Democratic Values, co-edited with David M. Anderson. He is an adjunct professor at The Graduate School of Political Management at The George Washington University.
Plays for the Presidency can be heard on XM Satellite Radio?s POTUS ?08 (President of the United States ) channel 130 on ?1600 with Rebecca Roberts,? Fridays at 5:30 p.m. EST.
Inquiries:
John Koval
Associate, The Playmaker?s Standard
t: (330) 727-2223
jkoval@plays2run.com
Before a Crowd of 200,000 in Berlin, Obama Uses Ten Distinct Influence Strategies from Five Sub-Classes a Total of 64 Times to Drive His Agenda
Washington, DC, July 25, 2008 - The Playmaker''s Standard, LLC, today released a detailed deconstruction of Senator Barack Obama''s "The World Will Stand As One" speech delivered yesterday in Berlin, Germany.
The map is designed to demonstrate the manner by which Obama drives his agenda through his speeches. Presented as a visual map, the analysis reveals the specific influence strategies employed by Obama, complete with a mathematical representation that quantifies the exact percentage of influence strategies utilized by Obama.
Available as a two-part PDF, it can be downloaded from the Plays for the Presidency blog or at these two permalinks:
Part I - Obama Speech: http://www.plays2run.com/pdf/Obama_Part_I.pdf
Part II - Obama Speech: http://www.plays2run.com/pdf/Obama_Part_II.pdf
Major findings from the speech are as follows:
- Obama primarily employed a set of stratagems from the Frame and Lure sub-classes - two of eight subclasses of The Playmaker''s Table, a "periodic table" of influence strategies consisting of 25 irreducibly simple maneuvers called "plays."
- In the Making His Case portion of the speech, Obama employed the Challenge play in 45 percent of the analyzed stratagems.
- In the Building His Case portion of the speech, Obama relied heavily upon a play called the Screen, using the play as 32 percent of this portion. He also made use of the Recast and Label plays, using these plays as 21 percent and 16 percent in this portion, respectively.
- Obama made careful use of counter-intuitive stratagems, such as the Lantern and Disco plays, only using them as strategic transitions to make or support his broader agenda.
The speech was mapped on StrategyMapper™:, a patent-pending web-tool that illustrates the patterns, sequences and trends of influence strategies.
The Playmaker''s Standard, LLC, based in the Washington, D.C. metro area, is a management consulting and web software services firm specializing in communication and competitive strategy. CEO and Founder, Alan Kelly, is co-creator and co-host of Plays for the Presidency, a weekly non-partisan radio show that analyzes the moves and counter-moves of the 2008 presidential candidates based on his landmark book, The Elements of Influence. The show airs on XM P.O.T.U.S., Channel 130, and is also available as a podcast through iTunes and at the Plays for the Presidency blog.
The Playmaker''s Standard Homepage: http://www.plays2run.com/index.php
The Playmaker''s Table: http://www.plays2run.com/toolkit/table.php
Plays for the Presidency Blog: http://www.plays2run.com/blog/blog.php?blog_title_id=3
USC ANNENBERG ANNOUNCES FIRST-EVER COURSE FOR PLANNING AND MAPPING COMMUNICATION STRATEGY
Frontier Graduate Course Taps Distance Learning
USC ANNENBERG ANNOUNCES FIRST-EVER COURSE FOR PLANNING AND MAPPING COMMUNICATION STRATEGY
Students Will Use ?Periodic Table of Influence? and Web Tools to Break Down and Prescribe Campaigns of Businesses, Politicians and Pop Stars
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 7, 2008 ? Who will win the 2008 U.S. Presidential race and what plays will they run to get there? How will the next embattled corporation fight off the next blogger attack and what moves will it make that protect or peel away its reputation? By what creative genius will a Hollywood production stunt its way to fame and fortune and what strategies will ensure its popular success?
For USC graduate students in the 2007 spring semester, these are questions to which there are specific answers. Chemists have the periodic table and, now, students of communication have one too.
The USC Annenberg School for Communication today announced the adoption of a frontier graduate course, Strategies of Influence: Managing Message, Reputation, Brand and Buzz. Based on a landmark classification system and the critically acclaimed book, The Elements of Influence, JOUR 599 will be taught through a combination of on-site and virtual lectures as part of USC?s pioneering distance learning initiative.
The full credit graduate course will be taught by lead instructor Alan Kelly, a veteran technology consultant and strategist based in the Washington, D.C. area, via two-way and interactive web technologies. Professor Jerry Swerling, director of public relations studies at USC Annenberg, will provide on-site instruction and support.
Designed for pre-professional masters track students in public relations, communication, and journalism as well as marketing and political science, the 16-week-semester syllabus is based on a groundbreaking framework and lexicon of influence theory, researched and tested by Kelly, which presents the first practical and in-depth classification system ? a kind of periodic table ? for breaking down and predicting moves and countermoves of organizations and people in business, politics and entertainment.
Using case-based analysis, strategy mapping exercises, and game-based teaching techniques, students will hone their abilities to analyze public relations programs, marketing promotions, sales initiatives, political campaigns and even information warfare, as well as to predict their consequences.
?This is another first for USC Annenberg,? said Swerling. ?The Annenberg tradition is to advance the science of communication and its professional applications the world over. We live in a world dominated by media and influence and one of our first duties is to demystify that process and its effects. Alan Kelly?s general theory of strategy cracks an elusive and intangible code and gives grounding to appropriate and ethical practices in advocacy and journalism.?
About the Instructors
Lead instructor: Alan Kelly is a visionary business strategist, political commentator, and award-winning Silicon Valley public relations agency CEO. In 2006, he authored the book on which JOUR 599 will be based: The Elements of Influence: The New Essential System for Managing Competition, Reputation, Brand, and Buzz (Dutton 2006 and Plume 2007). Last year, Kelly founded The Playmaker?s Standard, LLC, a management consulting and software services firm specializing in communication and competitive strategy. The firm?s web tools will also be used in JOUR 599. A 1981 graduate of USC?s School of Journalism and public relations sequence, Kelly, 50, is co-creator and co-host of Plays for the Presidency, a news feature at www.politico.com and XM satellite ratio, P.O.T.U.S. channel 130. He is well known for his founding and leadership of Applied Communications Group, a Bay Area-based public relations and research firm that earned numerous best-in-class recognitions for its work from 1992 to 2003 with companies such as Oracle, Hewlett-Packard, Cisco, Sun Microsystems, Genentech, VeriSign, Veritas Software, BEA Systems, TechNet and Informatica. He is a member of the Arthur W. Page Society and serves on the board of trustees of The Institute for Public Relations. Kelly, who also holds an M.A. in Communication Research from Stanford University, is based in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
Supporting instructor: Jerry Swerling is professor and director of public relations studies at USC Annenberg. He directs the USC Annenberg Strategic Public Relations Center, which publishes the PR Generally Accepted Practices (GAP) Study. In 2000, Swerling was named ?Public Relations Person of the Year? by the Los Angeles Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and has more than 36 years of experience as a senior-level communications professional and educator. He maintains a PR management consultancy which has served such clients as General Motors, Cisco Systems, Home Depot, Intuit, Honda, Michelin, State Farm Insurance, Hyundai, Dairy Management, Inc., Toyota, and others. Swerling is past president of the Counselors Section of PRSA-LA and is a member of the Arthur W. Page Society, the educators and counselors sections of PRSA, the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), and the Public Relations Section of AEJMC. He holds a B.A. in English from the University of Massachusetts and an M.S. in Communication from Boston University.
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Note: Course syllabus, electronic logos and photos for USC Annenberg and JOUR 599 instructors are available on request.
Useful links:
- About USC Annenberg: www.annenberg.usc.edu
- About the USC Strategic Public Relations Center: www.annenberg.usc.edu/CentersandPrograms/ResearchCenters/SPRC.aspx
- About Jerry Swerling: www.annenberg.usc.edu/Faculty/Journalism/SwerlingJ.aspx
- About Alan Kelly: www.plays2run.com/about/kelly.php
- About The Playmaker?s Standard: www.plays2run.com/about/about.php
- About The Elements of Influence: www.plays2run.com/about/elements.php
- Publishable image of The Playmaker?s Table: www.plays2run.com/pdf/The_Playmakers_Table.pdf
Alan Kelly Speaks at Corporate Communication Institute
Alan Kelly, CEO & Founder of The Playmaker''s Standard, LLC runs a CCI Executive Briefing on Playmaking. See the Full Schedule at corporatecomm.org.
Don't Wait to Regulate, Develop the Science of PR
Click here to read Alan Kelly''s full Op-Ed, excerpted in PR Week on 12/11/2006.
