Occupy Wall Street Hong Kong edition

Sometimes I think I pay too much attention to Hong Kong politics. However, I just cannot let go. I was born there. I spent the first 15 years of my life there, then I left, came back and spent more than 10 years in the city before I left for Canada. I love Hong Kong, but I am sure Hong Kong does not love me. Not even a tiny bit.

Anyway, there has been talk about a Occupy Wall Street Hong Kong version for ages. Now it is set to happen within 2013. Unlike Occupy Wall Street, the Hong Kong version is entirely about democray. That's right, there is no democracy in Hong Kong.

Every year on July 1, we take to the street to show the government how disappointed we are but we have been ignored for more than a decade - we were ignored even when half a million people took to the street and NOTHING broke. Have you ever heard of a demonstration in that scale that is so peaceful?

However, the Occupy Wall Street Hong Kong version is way too frightening for the Hong Kong government. They say peaceful demonstration can be illegal. You have no idea how many people are prepared to go to jail just because by protesting peacefully. Sounds crazy right? That's how Hong Kong is run these days. It is run by a incompetent head of government (this guy said "no comment" for seven times in a 4-minute interview!!!) with a bunch of his friends (who are equally incompetent and greedy).

Wish me luck, I must get a job so that Alice can grow up in a wonderful country. I think Alice deserves better, and I hope you agree.

10 reasons why Snowden has chosen to hide in Hong Kong from the NSA

As a native Hongkonger, perhaps I can add some insights into why Edward Snowden has chosen Hong Kong as his hiding place. Just in case you did not know, this gentleman is involved in this massive NSA scandal. Here are some possible reasons that I can think of. 

1. Prepaid phone cards: Hong Kong is one of the cities where you can buy prepaid phone cards without any identity check. You do not even need to call the phone company before start using a phone card, you can use it as soon as you pay for it. You can literally buy hundreds of prepaid phone cards without raising any suspicion in certain areas in Hong Kong (Apliu Street is the actual location, check it out in person!).

2. Wifi signal: being one of the most densely populated cities it means you can pick up wifi signals virtually EVERYWHERE. For Snowden, it also means he can use the internet to make a quick phone call, and use another wifi signal and make another phone call just by using the wifi signals of the others (internet security is not exactly common sense in Hong Kong). By doing that, it is more difficult to trace his where-about.

3. Language: you can still get by in Hong Kong using just English, most people speak a bit of English there. In fact, many of my English friends cannot even speak one sentence in Cantonese after having spent over a decade in Hong Kong.

4. The weird status of Hong Kong: we all know Hong Kong is part of China, but it also means Hong Kong does not have a foreign office – so extradition can be a tricky issue between the US and Hong Kong. However, the useless Chief Executive in Hong Kong does not have the gut to decide on anything, so it is really up to Beijing to make the call. If you do not believe, watch this interview with Bloomberg. You will think Rob Ford is the best politician in the entire universe afterwards. Watch the video here: No comment is NEVER your key message. 

5. Freedom of information (as of today): yes, you can use Facebook in Hong Kong even though it is part of China. Yes, you can get your subscription of the Financial Times REGARDLESS of the coverage. Hong Kong can be bearable as long as you do not read the Chinese media.

6. Not so corrupted yet: another fun fact about Hong Kong is that in general civil servants in Hong Kong are not corrupted because they are paid very well – the head of government in Hong Kong earns more than Obama, despite the size of the country and population is not even comparable to any one states. The conclusion is that these not-so-corrupted civil servants will not sell Snowden for the price of a new car.

7. Time difference: maybe Snowden wants his ex-colleagues from NSA to work 24 hours a day? Hong Kong is 12 hours ahead of DC!

8. Invisibility: there are too many Caucasians in Hong Kong. To an average Chinese, most Caucasians look the same (probably the same other way round, someone shouted “Go back to Japan” a while back), hence it is somewhat easy to remain invisible in this city.

9. “Let Hongkongers decide my fate”: come on Snowden, we cannot even decide our fate (if we could, I think we would hire a contract killer to get rid of the Chief Executive in the city first). If you expect us to decide your fate, then it will never happen – you can stay in Hong Kong until the end of time!

10. I can’t think of the 10th, thanks for reading!!!

 

 

 

PR case studies: Canadian Payday Loan Association

The Canadian Payday Loan Association (CPLA) represents Canada’s retail payday lending industry. Payday loan operators provide short term, unsecured loans averaging $280 per transaction over a ten-day period. The industry, however, was the only unregulated segment in Canada’s financial services sector. To address growing criticism that the payday loan industry should be regulated, FH was retained by CPLA to mount a comprehensive nation-wide campaign to seek legislative change that would enable regulation. The cornerstone for this initiative was to convince the federal government to amend s. 347 of the Criminal Code (Criminal Rates of Interest) so that provinces could be given the authority to set rates for payday loans and, in so doing, provide real protection for consumers. Over the course of eighteen months beginning in early 2005, FH led a strategic media relations and government relations campaign, supplemented by grass-roots and stakeholder relations, targeting key media and key political and bureaucratic decision makers at the provincial and federal levels of government. A multi-level, multi-party government relations exercise was pursued, supplemented by a focused and highly successful national and provincial media campaign. In early 2006, a number of provincial governments began signaling their support for provincial regulation of the payday loans industry and were encouraging the federal Justice Minister to introduce the required criminal code amendment. At the same time, several national, provincial and media press stories were generated which added to a growing momentum for regulatory change. With sustained effort, in May of 2007 the federal government gave Royal Assent to legislation which gives authority to the provinces to regulate the payday loan industry through consumer protection mechanisms that set a clear maximum on the cost of borrowing. Through FH’s country-wide media and government relations efforts, eight provinces have already moved to regulate the industry, providing both consumer protection and continued access to payday loans.
 

1. What is/are the relevant issue(s) in the case?

The issue here for the Canadian Payday Loan Association (CPLA), which represented about 40 percent of companies in the payday loan and cheque cashing industry (Payday loans not just for low-income earners, 2007), was the growing concern from the public regarding the interest rate charged to payday loan and cheque cashing users – which could actually be more than 1,000 per cent per annum. In some cases, the interest could be as much as 15,000 percent per annum (Kitching & Starky, 2006). Despite the ridiculous amount of interest rate and service fees, the payday loan market was growing rapidly at the beginning of the 21st century. For example, Rentcash’s revenue grew by 250 percent in 2005 comparing to the year before (Rentcash, 2005). In addition to the criticism about the charges, many believed payday loan companies literally drained income from the lower-income families and created a vicious circle for those who are less fortunate. Moreover, the class action cases against these unregulated financial institutions at a time attracted a lot of media attention, such as the case in Alberta filed in 2005 (Class-action suit filed against payday loan company, 2005) and the case in Ontario filed in 2003 (Payday loan victims get $100 million, 2009).  

The industry’s growth was alarming – it lent some $1 billion a year to two million Canadians per year (Payday-loan paralysis, 2007). Given the negative media coverage of the payday loan, compounded with the number of people used payday loan services at a time, CPLA realized it was in its best interest to seek regulation that would improve the public image of the industry, while preserving a very lucrative business model (charging from $17 to $25 to borrow $100 in different provinces in Canada (Payday Loans: an Expensive way to borrow, 2012)).

2. Based on Grunig & Hunt’s models of PR (p.53,Think Public Relations, 2013), which model is the organization using? Provide examples.

I believe the organization used the two-way asymmetric model. First of all, it hired FleishmanHillard (FH) to run an extensive public relations campaign, which has offices in more than 100 cities around the world (Offices, 2013). The power that CPLA had, especially in monetary terms, was massive. 

Secondly, the campaign that FH ran for CPLA was extensive – it ran from 2005 to 2007. The length of the campaign indicates that the amount of work that CPLA and FH put into in order to effect the changes that they wanted to create.

In addition, CPLA was very active in promoting the legitimacy of the industry. For example, the President of CPLA wrote letters to the editor to rebute the negative coverage regularly (Payday loans not just for low-income earners, 2007).

3. Describe the publics of the organization and what message(s) the organization is communicating with these publics.

 

Publics	Messages
Members of CPLA (allies)	We have to work together and lobby to the government in order to preserve the industry.
Government – federal and provincial (allies)	We want to effect legislation that would ensure the industry offers a service that helps those who need it, as well as to ensure the industry is viable.
Consumer Protection Office (allies)	We want to protect the rights of consumers and operate a viable business.
Consumers (allies)	We are fulfilling the needs for those who choose a payday loan over other forms of credit. We are working with the government to introduce legislation to put a cap on the interest rate on payday loan.
Financial Consumer Agency of Canada  (allies)	We want regulations, we want to protect consumers, and we want to operate a viable business.
ACORN (adversaries)	We are here to provide a service needed by Canadians, and consumers choose payday loan service over other credit options deliberately.

4. For at least one press release, compare how the press release appears in the organization’s online newsroom to how the story appeared when it was published in the media.

The CPLA issued a press release in November 2007 after United Way issued a report on poverty in Toronto. According to the report issued by United Way, it believed the growing number of payday loan stores as a warning sign as to why many in the city were becoming poorer. It urged the Ontario government to regulate the industry, and the government should set an interest rate cap and limits on fees. The report was mainly based on past studies on fringe financing, and the United Way also conducted an audit of Toronto payday and cheque cashing outlets in 2006. According to the United Way, they counted 317, up from 39 locations in 1995 (Rankin, 2007).

The CPLA then issued a survey about 500 payday loan borrowers in Ontario (which was conducted by Pollara, a public opinion survey company). The survey issued by CPLA somewhat contradicted the finding of the United Way’s report. It claimed its clients were generally educated and had access to other financial institutions such as banks. To report indicates that the payday loan customers chose payday loan service over other credit options deliberately.

The CPLA’s survey did go into the Toronto Star article published on 26 November 2007. Though it did not quote the President of CPLA, the numbers were quoted – such as 60 percent of payday loan customers had a savings account, and about half had a major credit card. The data included in the news article helped CPLA to send its message to the public (United Way Poverty Report Doesn't Reflect Reality of Payday Borrowers, 2007).

5. Provide analysis of how the organization uses and benefits from (or could benefit from) social media. Provide links to all major social media accounts for the organization, if available.

Given the nature of the industry and based on the demographic of its market segment (male, aged between 18 and 34, urban residents with some post-secondary education (Kitching & Starky, 2006)), I believe CPLA and its members can benefit from using Facebook and Twitter.

First of all using these social media platforms could help CPLA to reach its target customers. Moreover, Facebook and Twitter have many female users, CPLA could consider using these platforms to reach a new target group.

In addition, these platforms can help CPLA to engage with customers and potential customers. It would allow CPLA to explain its stance, the practice of the industry, and even share stories of customers (such as the success stories where people who need short-term credit benefit from payday loan service for urgent issues, as payday loan stores tend to have longer business hours).

My conclusion for the case is that a PR campaign is not the end goal – it is work in progress. This is especially true when you look at recent articles concerning the industry (Payday lenders' lines of credit questioned in Manitoba, 2013) – even though legislation has been put in place, the industry came up with creative ways to charge the customers. The Cash Store and Instaloans are facing a proposed class-action lawsuit about overcharges even after payday loan laws have been introduced (Payday lenders' lines of credit questioned in Manitoba, 2013). PR is not a magic bullet to replace unethical business practice, PR is supposed to be here to help business to get the message across for its excellent products and services. 

Bibliography

 

Class-action suit filed against payday loan company. (2005, 4 27). Retrieved 6 1, 2013, from CBC: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2005/04/26/payday-loan-050426.html

Payday loans not just for low-income earners. (2007, 5 15). Retrieved 6 2, 2013, from CPLA: http://www.cpla-acps.ca/english/clippings_2007_10.php

Payday-loan paralysis. (2007, 1 8). Retrieved 6 2, 2013, from CLPA: http://www.cpla-acps.ca/english/clippings_2007_2.php

United Way Poverty Report Doesn't Reflect Reality of Payday Borrowers. (2007, 11 26). Retrieved 6 3, 2013, from CLPA: http://www.cpla-acps.ca/english/pr_2007_12.php

Payday loan victims get $100 million. (2009, 6 10). Retrieved 6 1, 2013, from Toronto Star: http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/2009/06/10/payday_loan_victims_get_100_million.html

(2012). Payday Loans: an Expensive way to borrow. Ottawa: Financial Consumer Agency of Canada.

Offices. (2013). Retrieved 6 2, 2013, from Fleishmanhillard: http://fleishmanhillard.com/offices/

Payday lenders' lines of credit questioned in Manitoba. (2013, 2 7). Retrieved 6 3, 2013, from CBC: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/story/2013/02/07/mb-payday-loan-line-credit-manitoba.html

Kitching, A., & Starky, S. (2006). Payday Loan Companies in Canada: Determining the Public Interest. Ottawa: Library of Parliament.

Rankin, J. (2007, 11 26). Proliferation of lending stores a signal people are poorer. Retrieved 6 3, 2013, from CPLA: http://www.cpla-acps.ca/english/clippings_2007_18.php

Rentcash. (2005). Annual Report. Edmonton: Rentcash.

 

 

 

An interview with Liz Peters

Liz Peters is the Public and Government Affairs Manager for CAA Manitoba. Before she joined CAA Manitoba, she used to work for the Official Opposition of Manitoba as the Director of Media Relations.  Liz is an alumnus of the PR & Marketing Management Diploma Program at the University of Winnipeg, but she is now a part-time instructor of the same program.

Liz shared the CAA Manitoba Worst Roads campaign with me. This is a national campaign run by seven CAA Clubs in Canada each year. This was CAA Manitoba’s second year running the campaign in 2013, and it lasted four weeks.

Liz started by creating a complete program plan, which included considerations for all marketing materials and PR/media opportunities, such as the objective of the campaign, a list of target audience, a tactical plan, key messages, a timeline, budget, media releases, media advisories, media conference plan, promotional plans, PSA, pitches to the editors and evaluation.

Goal setting was the number one task, and the objectives for CAA Manitoba were to:

1. Get people talking about the condition of roads, as public opinion would help to persuade the government to listen and make changes.

2. Provide various levels of government with CAA Manitoba's research, so they could consider them when making their plan for infrastructure in the coming years.

3. Increase the number of votes cast throughout the four-week campaign.

Liz conducted some research for the campaign – though she already had a lot of information in-house. The major part of work came from researching what different levels of government had done in regards to infrastructure investments, as it would affect the messaging.  Liz and her team also conducted a survey that went to 50,000 members asking for their personal thoughts about the condition of the roads and highways. She used the response as a hook for the entire campaign, as well as to persuade the government using public opinion.

In terms of promotion, CAA Manitoba used online banner ads on ChrisD.ca, placed ballot boxes in their branches, and put up posters on the door at various branches, used the #mbroads hastag on Twitter, put up photos of Worst Roads received from the public on their Facebook page, and also organized a few other activities. In addition, they sent out two email blasts to its members urging them to vote. The first one was sent to everyone, and the second one was segmented (dividing those who had already voted, and those who had not). The two emails were about two weeks apart.

The next stage was evaluation. Liz and her team would monitor the media; for example, they found the story was the 8th most commented story on the Winnipeg Free Press online version the day after the campaign was launched. They also looked at the number of likes on the pictures and comments posted on Facebook, and the retweets on Twitter (such as the retweet from the Mayor of Brandon). As well as a tweet to a Brandon City Councillor which turned into the editorial caricature in the Brandon Sun. In the evaluation process, Liz also identified the unusually cold April weather with snow shifted the focus from road preparation to flood preparation. It was not something you could plan, therefore it was important to remain flexible wherever was possible – and this is an important lesson for PR professionals.

 In addition to the above, Liz also evaluated the number of votes received during the campaign - which increased by 60 percent year on year. She and her team also conducted a survey about how people found out about the campaign. It turned out more people found out about the campaign through the mass media (television, radio and newspapers) than the CAA email that the members received. The evaluation process would help Liz to formulate the same campaign in 2014.

 

May 35th

I know there is no such date on your calendar, but it is on mine. In fact, such date exists on the calendar for any Chinese who remembers what happened in 1989.

How could I explain why a government would kill thousands of unarmed students? How could I explain why a government would destroy thousands of families when they only asked for a less corrupted government? How could I explain why the death of thousands of souls cannot appear in the history textbook in China? I wish I knew the answer, but I don’t.

It started with the death of the premier Zhou in April 1989. Students then started mourning about his death in Tiananmen Square, an important landmark in Beijing. Students, particularly those studied in universities, started to comment on the government. The most general comment was the level of corruption. As the criticism began to gain momentum, the state newspapers, People’s Daily, identified such criticism as a sign of revolt. This column did not go down well with the students, and they began to camp in the area and initiated a hunger strike. Just in case you did not know, Tiananmen Square is at the centre of Beijing, which is a political landmark and tourist area.

By May 1989, the movement in Tiananmen Square started attracting international attention. Back then, I was in grade 6 and I saw a huge number of Hong Kong people protested for the first time in my life. To be precise, over one million people protested (the population was only six million in the city). Given the development of situation, we knew something bad was going to happen.

On June 4, I cried for the first time while I was watching a TV news program. At such a young age, it was beyond my comprehension that anyone would kill civilians when the whole world was watching. It was 1989, not 1914. I thought I would never see that kind of killing in my lifetime, and I thought WWII was the end of genocide in human history, but I was wrong. I could not be more wrong.

When you live in a country ruled by dictators, press freedom is nonexistence. In short, June 4 does not exist when you search on Baidu (the equivalent of Google in China). To overcome this kind of barrier, someone came up the idea of May 35. Hence, May 35 was searchable on the internet in China last year, but I do not know how long we can get away with it. After all, there are more than one million internet polices in China – you cannot hide for very long when so many Big Brothers are watching.