MID EXAM 5TH Semester

Communication & Public Affair

Carmenita Wati – 2301872186

1a) Explain in your own words the different between containment strategies and engagement
strategies? You can use related data or sources to cover your argument (10%)

Containment strategy seeks to restrict the power of prospective adversaries, with the
goal of preventing any emerging issue from escalating to the next issue life cycle stage, when
it gains media coverage and public awareness. Engagement strategy, on the other hand, entails in
the building relationships with interest groups and the stakeholders they represent. It means
that the corporation deals with interest groups by acknowledging their legitimacy and cooperating
with them for mutual gain. Although the company still seek to cover the issue from the media,
they are not reluclant for any covarage as long as the company can still be portrayed in a rather
positive spotlight.

To understand the main difference of both strategies, the practice of it must be

comprehended. Lerbinger (2016) stated that Containment Strategy has 3 varied tactic; oppose the
interest group, weaken antagonist, and foster offsetting interest group. Opposing the interest group
usually parcticed by SLAPP or Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation that intended to only
silencing the opponent. Weaken antagonist sometimes employed by the company by creating
obstacle to membership drives or even removing the funding sources, and foster offsetting interest
group tactic can be practiced by forming coalitions with existing interest groups on specific issues.
Meanwhile, company who practicing engagement strategy usually monitor the activities
associated with issues management that focused on concerns and demands of specific interest
groups through focus groups, formal opinion research, informal contact, social audits,
communication & performance strategy, etc (Ohaka, 2020).
b) Give example of the corporation that use containment strategies, what kind of issues that
being raised? (15%)

Greenpeace has been accusing Energy Transfer Partner, one of America's largest energy
companies for its poor environmental record around pipeline spill. A few environmentalists from
Greenpeace also distributed posters in support of the boycott in various ETP properties. In
response, the ETP filed a SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) complaint
to Greenpeace. According to ETP lawsuit files, Greenpeace has defamed the corporation,
blocked pipeline assets, and participated in a criminal conspiracy to harm crucial business and
financial partnerships. They also claimed that Greenpeace misrepresented the route's violation of
tribal treaty land.

The ETP's action is one example of a containment strategy that employs opposing
group methods to address the issue. When issue that has the potential to harm the company
arise, they swiftly take legal action to prevent the issue from escalating into a public crisis. As a
response, the ETP exerts 'pressure' on Greenpeace as its advocacy group. ETP expects that by
taking this action, the issue between ETP and Greenpeace may be settled and the accusations made
by Greenpeace against ETP can be put to rest. Furthermore, delivering the necessary lawsuit when
this issue first appears will avoid too many people being exposed to information that could damage
ETP's reputation.

According to the life cycle issue stages by Lerbinger (2008), this kind of issue can be
positioned in a early stage of Public Involvement. At this stage, the issue is being brought to the
attention of the bigger public, for example, just like the issue above-is by spreading advocacy
advertising in a form of poster.

c) Give example of the corporation that use engagement strategies (15%)

Oxfam, a British NGO, accused Starbucks of financially harming Ethiopian coffee farmers
by breaking Fairtrade agreements. Oxfam said that Starbucks was depriving Ethiopian farmers of
$88 million per year by denying the government's authority to trademark its local coffee beans.
Starbucks responded to the allegations by claiming that Oxfam's statements were misleading.
In addressing the issue, Starbucks publicly offered to assist the EIPO (Ethiopian Intellectual
Property Office), the National Coffee Association (NCA), and Oxam itself in establishing a
national system of certification marks to allow farmers marketing their coffee as "robust"
registered trademarks. This is confirmed as a stakeholder Focus Group Discussion to find the
best possible solution.

Starbucks' approach can be characterized as an engagement strategy since they are

cooperating to solve the problem with the opposing group. Starbucks used focus group
discussions to collaborate with them in a mutually beneficial manner. At the end, all parties would
be satisfied, and the outcome of the discussion would prevent the issue from escalating into a
public crisis that could harm the brand image.

2. a) Please find one example of advocacy advertising that raising go green campaign and explain
their objectives (10%)

One of the advocacy advertising that carries the theme of going green or sustainability is an
advertisement from Wall's United Kingdom:
 As a company that is committed to maintaining the sustainability of the earth, Wall's often
carries out campaigns that invite consumers to be aware of the importance of protecting the
environment. The ads above is a part of Wall's United Kingdom Corporate Social Responsibility
Campaign to commemorate World Earth Day. In their official website, Wall's explains that as
one of the largest FnB companies in the world, they are responsible for creating an
environmentally friendly business ecosystem.

Lorbenger (2008) divided the objective of advocacy advertising into four; correct media
errors & distorsion, attract public attention & support for an issue neglected by the media, stimulate
news coverage, and attract the attention & inform the legislature. Analyzing the campaign, the
advocacy advertisement mentioned mostly fulfilled the correct media errors & distorsion,
attract public attention & support, and stimulate news coverage objectives.

Specifically, issue that being brought by Wall’s is global warming. Renegade Conservatory
Research has revealed that 72% of news coverage includes a skeptic viewpoint or denies man-
made warming. It has been proven that media coverage misrepresent scientific understanding of
global warming at the foremost. By making this campaign, it is believed that Wall’s intended to
end the mass of misrepresent on global warming by medias. Unlike the media, Wall’s are
determined to tell the public that global warming is true and it is slowly happening right at
the moment.

Moreover, by spreading the advocacy advertising via their website and media social also
indicates that Wall’s are aiming to attract the public attention and support on this issue,
specifically their customers. The advocacy advertising is also very creative. At first, the viewers
is being made curious on why the advertisement displayed an empty ice cream container. After
that, the viewer is made startled by the text written. The copywriting touch on the viewer’s
emotional level, and makes the viewer emphatize on the global warming issue.

Last but not the least, the objective sought by Wall’s is to stimulate news coverage. They
are promoting the campaign as a CSR initiatives at World Earth Day. As the international
celebration day, there will be a lot of media coverage on surrounding sustainibility or go green
topics. Earth Hour 2021 report stated that “Earth Day” is being a trending topic on Twitter and
Google at 42 countries on the World Earth Day. Therefore, it is highly possible for Wall’s to get
free media coverage for their campaign, particularly on the creative advocacy advetisement
they posted.

b) Break down the stakeholders that involved in the campaign. (10%)

Stakeholder mapping model for public affairs purposes as depicted in Lorbenger (2008) is
constructed by a socio-political environment which also contains key economic stakeholders
sectors. Analyzing the campaign, the stakeholders involved within it are:

Socio-Political Environment

Media: This campaign involves both online and offline media. This is due to the fact that the media
aids in the spread of the campaign, which is performed through media coverage. Because the
campaign was held in the United States, numerous prominent media players who were involved
could include the BBC News, Media PR UK, The Guardian, and Cision PR Newswire.
Moreover, since the campaign topic focuses on sustainability, various media outlets that specialize
on reporting on similar topics, such as Business Green and Environment Media UK become
stakeholders with high interest and influence.

Government: In this case, the government of the United Kingdom is a stakeholder in the
sustainability of the campaign. If the campaign is found to be in violation of government
regulations, there will be severe consequences for the company. Therefore, despite having low
interest, the government of the United Kingdom has a high influence.

Interest Group: Interest group is one of the stakeholders that must be considered because they
are a group that gives a rather high concern to the company activities. They need to be managed
closely by the public affairs team to ensure that there is no issue regarding the campaign that could
make the interest group transforming into the pressure group. Several interest groups relevant to
this campaign includes the Customer Brands Association, Society for Environmental UK, and
The Food Industry Association.
Key Economic Stakeholders

Employee: Without human resources, a company will not be able to operate. Employees from
Wall's are also stakeholders in this campaign because they are also the audience of the campaign.
It is necessary to ensure that employees can be monitored in terms of their support or participation
in the campaign.

Investors: A company will experience large financial losses if there are issues with the investors.
Despite having low interest, investors of Wall’s United Kingdom have high influence in this
campaign.

Customer: As the main target audience of this campaign, Wall's customers are stakeholders with
high interest and influence. They need to be managed closely in order for the company to fulfill
its objective.

Community: The community in this campaign covers a broad aspect. Communities that become
stakeholders can consist of online communities exposed to the campaigns, communities that care
about sustainability issues, communities living around the company, and even communities from
interest groups. The Climate Alliance, Greenpeace, and even Twitter users that engage in this
issue, are just a few examples of the communities that have been influential—and influenced by
this campaign.

c) Analyse the effectiveness advocacy advertising that you pick based on hierarchy of effects.
(10%)

In accordance with the theory of herarchy of effect (Lerbinger, 2016), the effectiveness of an
advertisement can be masured on four levels which are awareness, undestanding, attitudes, and
behavior. Analyzing the advertisement above, the breakdown should be :

1. Attracting attention or creating awareness

The advertisement was published on Wall's official website as well as the @unilever
Instagram account (official corporation account). The social media account has 159k
 followers, implying that the advertisement was viewed by around 100k of the account's
followers. This signifies that most of the customer of Wall's has become aware of the
advertisement. In addition, some media such as Marketing Birds and Behance also cover
this advertising, meaning that public awareness is also formed from the media coverage
obtained by Wall's.

2. Creating understanding and comprehension

Understanding and comprehension is rather difficult to examine in the quantitative method.

However, based on the advertisement that had been designed, it can be presumed that
people who view the advertisement would comprehend the message. This is because the
concept of the advertisement is out of the box, and the copywriting within it tackles into
the viewer’s emotion.

3. Influencing attitudes

The comment of the advertisement on social media posts showed positive feedback from
the viewers. Viewers show their concern for the importance of preventing global warming.
This proves that the advertisement made by Wall's has affected the attitude of people who
see the advertisement.

4. Influencing behavior

One of the campaign's objectives is to increase media coverage of the related topic.
Unfortunately, global warming media coverage has decreased by 29 percent in 2020
globally, including in the United Kingdom. The increasing coverage of Covid-19 is
accountable for the entire drop in global warming cover. It is possible to conclude that the
advertisement has not yet met the last level of effectiveness.
3. a)Find the example of the candidates and political parties in any kind of elections that using
cyber politics in their campaign. (15%)

In the NCBI Journal, entitled "A note on internet use and the 2016 US presidential election
outcome," Clinton was perceived by the public to be the candidate whose best online
campaign. First and foremost, Hillary Clinton's official website,
https://www.hillaryclinton.com, is the primary platform containing information regarding
the election campaign and Hillary Clinton herself. On this website, all the online campaigns
that she and her team centered on were located. This website describes Clinton's vision, and it
also increases Clinton's public engagement through the online private messaging feature to
Clinton.

She also constantly uses social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook to
promote her political campaign. According to a Pew Research survey, 80 percent of Clinton's posts
featured links to her campaign pages. It was also discovered that Clinton connected her campaign
link on Facebook 60% of the time, and she began using sponsored advertising to promote it. These
data reveal that Clinton leveraged social media to reach out to the public in order to earn their
support.
b) Share your thought, what could be the most effective cyber politics campaign to attract young
generation attention? (15%)

In a complex cyber politics realm, the most effective campaign to attract the young
generation should be a campaign through social media which involves the candidate's
personal branding and positioning. Almost 65% Gen Z and 73% Gen Y use social media,
according to a survey by Sprout Social. As a result, social media has become the primary channel
through which the younger generation obtains information and communicates. In reference to Finn
Partners study, 52 percent of voters claimed social media had some influence on their voting
decision. Meaning, social media is an effective instrument for gaining support from the
younger generation.

Meanwhile, the younger generation is characterized as individuals who demonstrate

political and cultural characteristics such as being critical, knowing more about a subject, and
caring about openness and honesty. A research by Irawan and Ramli (2020) has found that the
candidate's social branding and positioning has been the highest factor towards the decision
to vote.

Acknowledging those facts, the primary strategy of cyber-based political campaigns

should be to use social media to establish trustworthy and positive personal branding and
positioning. Social media has shown to be the most successful way of reaching out to young
people. The candidate and campaign staff must be able to project a positive image on this platform.
This may not be accomplished simply through promoting the candidate's election campaign.
Candidates must also be able to demonstrate their engagement, for example, by publishing
posts that are more personal with a touch of humor, but still with the goal of developing a solid
personal image.
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