This is a brief for a PR agency which I created for BP in relation to its upcoming partnerships in Cultural Olympiad 2012. To get more insight visit: http://realmofpr.blogspot.com/

1. 5th of April, 2011
London, UK
BRIEF FOR THE PR AGENCY
CLIENT NAME: BP
1. WHERE ARE WE NOW
BP is a British gas and oil company, which operates in over 80 countries and is one of the
largest energy companies in the world. It is active in every area of the oil and gas industry,
including exploration, production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power
generation and trading. It also has major renewable energy activities, including in biofuels,
hydrogen, solar and wind power.
In July 2008, as one of the biggest British companies, BP signed the Ł50mln contract for
being an official oil and gas partner for London 2012, providing fuelling facilities for the
vehicles used during the Games, as well as being a 'premier partner' of the London 2012
Cultural Olympiad.
Unfortunately, due to the Deepwater Horizon accident in Gulf of Mexico in April 2010, our
company faced a major crisis and BP’s image and reputation were substantially damaged. Our
brand had been and up to now happens to be boycotted on the global scale by environmental
and activists groups and the ordinary people. Our shares dropped and we were de-listed from
the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and the FTSE4Good Index.
Form one side, we see our participation in London 2012 Olympic Games as a great
opportunity for restoring the perception of our brand, but from the other side we are also
aware that it may arise a criticism from various activists groups, which will only worsen our
situation and could negatively impact the whole Olympiad.
Therefore we are seeking for a skillful PR agency, which will take command of
communicating our business objectives on the occasion of our London 2012 partnerships.

2. 2. WHERE DO WE WANT TO BE?
BP wants to use its Olympic partnerships as part of a brand recovery process. We are aware
that it would not completely restore our battered image, but we believe that we have to use
that opportunity as much as we can to improve the perception of our brand.
We are also cautious how negatively our art sponsorships after the Deepwater Horizon
accident were received by artists, activists groups and ordinary people, who are considering
our actions as nothing else as greenwashing.
Moreover we are concerned of a good reputation of Olympic Games 2012 itself. Back in time
the CEO of London 2012 was referring to the Olympic sponsors as “the best of British
Companies”. Now we feel like the weakest link in the whole Olympiad ceremony and we
want to avoid shading the negative light on the event because of our presence.
Therefore BP seeks to hire an experienced PR agency which will be responsible for creating a
public relations campaign able to achieve the subsequent goals and objectives:
THE GOALS:
1. To improve BP’s image and brand reputation among its external audience (customers).
2. To build strong relationships with its core internal stakeholders and activists groups.
THE OBJECTIVES:
1. To move away BP image from solely an oil company by generating positive media
coverage related to topics on our activities during the Cultural Olympiad.
2. To build good relationships with artists, activists groups and other communities that
we will deal with during the Cultural Olympiad.
3. To create new CSR activities for certain groups of our stakeholders.
4. To mitigate potential voices of criticism of greenwashing our image.
5. To outnumber the bad news existing in the internet about us with good news.
6. To get media coverage on what we do to restore the damaged environment.
7. To reduce the online social media communities boycotting us on the internet.

3. 3. WHO DO WE NEED TO TALK TO?
In the first place we need to establish good and strong relationships with those groups which
object the most against BP and supposedly will also criticize BP’s 2012 Olympiad
sponsorships, as being a new greenwashing activity. These groups are activists and artists
groups who are specialized in making spectacular boycotting stunts, which attract traditional
news media, but also they operate skillfully in the internet by means of social media.
We also need to maintain good relationships with traditional broadcasting and printed media,
so that we will be able to get our message across to the mass audience of ordinary people (our
customers). We should also be able to get media coverage not only on Cultural Olympiad -
related topics, but on what we do to restore the damaged environment of Gulf of Mexico.
We also need to make sure that our employees take the advantage from our participation in
the 2012 Olympiad, so that their satisfaction will give us additional brand advocates.
When the above groups give a positive account on our activities, it will have a positive
influence on our customers’ perception of BP brand. Accordingly our shareholders will be
satisfied and BP stock price will increase.
4. DELIVERABLES
We will know if the campaign was successful when:
1. In all types of media (national and local, broadcasts, printed, radio, online) will appear
substantial media coverage on:
- how does BP restore the environment in Gulf of Mexico and how does it help its
local communities and governments.
- how does BP involve in support for culture, art and education, which will highlight
both its participation in Cultural Olympiad 2012 and its 20 year long record of art
sponsorships (the Royal Opera House, Tate Galleries, British Museum and the
National Portrait Gallery).
2. There will not occur any major boycotts of invents hosted by BP during the Olympiad.
3. On the first three Google pages the number of positive posts about BP will outnumber
the amount of negative posts.

4. 4. Our annual brand health survey will indicate the improvement of BP’s consumers
perceptions of BP’s reputation.
5. Boycotting us on the internet, social media groups will decline in number of members.
6. After one year of the London 2012 Olympic Games there will not be cases of
boycotting our art sponsorships or the venues accepting our sponsorship.
7. Our stakeholder groups will be satisfied with newly implemented CSR programmes.
8. The BP share price will moderately increase and will maintain on a stable, steadily
increasing level.
5. TIMELINE
The campaign is due to start four months before the London 2012 Olympic Games begins,
and finish one year after the event. After the event the PR agency will be responsible for the
constant contact with the activists and artists groups.
6. THE BUDGET
The budget of a campaign is estimated for Ł5mln.