Big, foreign companies are hopeless at PR. That’s a rule of thumb based on endless experience.
Think of a big European bank with a London presence, or a foreign energy giant that’s big over here, and assume their press relations are terrible.
Partly that’s just a function of the parent company being overseas. But there is more to it than that I think.
There’s a cultural resistance to talking openly to the press. They seem terrified of what we might write and are reluctant to go beyond issued statements, an approach that has the obvious effect of making the coverage worse, since we haven’t been told the mitigating context that would soften bad news.
In fairness, and to my surprise, EDF talked well today about the latest Hinkley developments.
I was genuinely surprised that they even returned my phone call.
There must be an opportunity here for agency PRs. Foreign companies operating in the UK need you.
