As the New Year dawned and people were firming up their lists of resolutions for 2013, a small community in southern Tasmania became the centre of the country’s – and the world’s – attention.
Almost all of Dunalley was burnt to a cinder in Tasmania’s worst bushfires in more than 40 years.
In thinking about the fires and the response in the days afterwards, I realised marketing was at work, even in this dark time.
Here are three PR lessons that came from these terrible bushfires.
1. Stories connect us.
Tim and Tammy Holmes and their grandchildren became the unlikely media stars of the Dunalley bushfire drama because people were amazed they survived. They told ABC TV how they ran from the flames and took refuge in the water under a jetty, sheltering their grandchildren from bursts of flames. Their mother had been in Hobart and could not return home due to road closures and their father was bushwalking, unaware of the fires and out of mobile phone range.
PR Lesson: If you want customers to connect with you and your business, tell your story with all the passion you have.
2. We want to help.
People across Tasmania and Australia rallied to find food, clothing, tools, building materials and accommodation within hours of the fire gutting Dunalley because as helpless as they felt, there were still small tokens they could contribute to rebuilding the community. Fullers Bookshop set up a donation box in its Hobart and Launceston stores so people could leave books for the Dunalley Primary School library. Staff were featured in The Mercury sorting through piles of books and had to close off donations a week later due to the volume received.
PR Lesson: It is human nature to want to help those in crisis and your good deeds can generate good PR for your business.
3. Social media spreads news like wildfire.
The bushfires spread along Tasmania’s southern and eastern coastlines at such a rate that the media couldn’t keep up. Those wanting to know what was happening relied on news generated by people on the ground who were in the middle of the affected areas. The #tasbushfires hashtag was the easiest way to spread information en masse.
PR Lesson: Never underestimate the power of social media to get news out to your network (and their networks and so on) at a rate of knots.
