Author: Betty Egan

On September 18, 2015, the EPA broke the painful news that Volkswagen had cheated emissions tests on 500,000 diesel vehicles sold in the U.S. since 2009 and millions more worldwide. The findings revealed that, in order to pass strict environmental standards, VW had rigged engine management software in certain diesel cars (my 2013 Golf TDI among them) to turn on emission controls only during testing. The cars passed the tests, but they emit up to 40 times more harmful pollutants than EPA limits.

In its observations on the “implosion of a brand,” the Union Metrics blog noted the first tweet about the “Dieselgate” scandal came at 8:49 am PDT on September 18th from @davidshepardson, the Detroit News bureau chief. Prior to that, the number of daily tweets about Volkswagen hovered at about 10,000. On September 18th, there were over 53,000 tweets. And by the following Monday, Twitter lit up like Times Square, averaging 8,000 new tweets per hour and over 1.3 million in the ensuing week.

#VolkswagenScandal

Needless to say, the news sent shock waves through the VW community. In the first week after David Shepardson’s initial tweet, VW owners, workers and dealers alike openly shared their feelings of anger, betrayal, shame and outright vengeance all over social media, especially on Twitter. Someone even started a special Twitter account called #VolkswagenScandal. Among the hundreds of thousands of #VolkswagenScandal tweets since the story first broke was the news that Leonardo DiCaprio’s production company is making a movie about it. There were also several scary tweets last week flaunting #VolkswagenScandal Halloween costumes.

Meanwhile, Volkswagen issued a press release on September 22nd, but didn’t utter a single tweet until September 25th. Since then, however, CEO of Volkswagen Matthias Müller promised employees that “we can and we will overcome this crisis,” and employees have started to tweet back their messages of loyalty and support. By October 30th, Volkswagen was back to tweeting reminders to get the snow tires on, followed the next day by Halloween greetings from a crackling VW jack-o-lantern.

Radical Honesty

When a crisis like this occurs, drama is bound to follow and a mega-corporation like Volkswagen needs time to decide how they’ll handle it, not to mention how much information they’re willing to share. However, as Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones stated so eloquently in a Harvard Business Review article on October 28th, “the Freedom of Information acts and social media have created a radically different world, in which reputational capital is more important and more fragile than ever before.”

In our transparent, social media-driven world, the authors go on to assert, corporate leaders need to become “compelling communicators” and adopt a position of “radical honesty,” or they risk destroying their community’s trust. The HBR article offers the following guidelines:

• Straight and fast. Tell the truth and tell it quick – there’s always less time than you think.
• Flood the zone. Exploit every channel possible to connect with stakeholders of every generation, gender, cultural background and communication preference.
• Stay open. Foster honest conversation with your stakeholders. Don’t edit out the bad news. Let people say it all – good, bad and ugly.
• Keep it simple. Keep communication direct, relevant and devoid of irrelevant data.
• Repeat. Reiterate the message and create feedback loops to build trust. Keep in mind that trust fades when the message stops – or people get contradictory data.

Clearly, the Volkswagen scandal is an extreme case that points to the need for quick response and radical honesty. Heads of corporations would be wise to follow the pointers from Harvard Business Review. Because it’s not a matter of whether a crisis like this will happen again. It’s merely a matter of when.

How would you use social media if you worked for VW? What would you do if you drove one?

Have I mentioned I have a daughter? Why am I mentioning it now? Because she’s 14, going on 16. My blog is about driving. And my daughter cannot. Wait. To drive. This summer when we were on vacation in Maine at my mother’s lake house, my husband and I gave our daughter unofficial driving lessons. We were relaxed, we were in the right location (a quiet lakeside community in a rural area of Maine) and we had time.

So we let her get behind the wheel of our 2010 Volvo station wagon, with my husband riding shotgun. She drove down a one-mile stretch of dirt road and back. That was it, but she was thrilled. And much to my delight, she did pretty well.

However, like many parents of teenagers on the cusp of becoming teen drivers, the thought of our daughter actually driving on real backroads and real highways terrifies me. And it’s not just because car crashes are the number one killer of teens. Or that teens have the highest crash and auto insurance rates in the nation. It’s the distractions.

In a landmark study of 1,700 crash videos involving 16- to 19-year-old drivers, the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found that distracted driving plays a part in 58 percent of teen car crashes, four times previous estimates from state police. The study, which was conducted from August 2007 to July 2013 in eight states, documented a half-dozen causes of distraction, from interacting with other passengers (15 percent of crashes) and cellphone use (12 percent) to reaching for an object (6 percent).

According to a story in the Los Angeles Times last March, the study used videos from an in-car system triggered by braking hard, cornering too fast or receiving major impact. Based on the findings, AAA launched a nationwide initiative called KEYS2DRIVE, which promotes teen awareness and parental involvement in training teen drivers. It also calls on states to tighten up rules in “graduated licensing programs designed to give new drivers experience in stages, from learner to full privilege,” the article reported.

KEYS2DRIVE makes use of a variety of social media tools, including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, to build awareness and promote dialogue, although engagement seems low across the board. The most significant impact of AAA’s efforts seems to be the influence they’ve had on state legislation around teen driving. In the time since the Keys2Drive program kicked off, AAA has helped push graduated driver licensing (GDL) laws nationwide. Today, 33 states have laws that prevent cell phone use for teens and 18 states have passenger restrictions.

Meanwhile, in November 2014, Toyota and digital ad agency 360i launched their own comprehensive initiative called TeenDrive365, reportedly the largest teen driver safety campaign to date. The TeenDrive365 campaign has a lot of marketing muscle behind it, including national radio; online video; display, mobile and paid social advertising; and high-profile sponsorships. The centerpiece of the program is a slick digital hub with a plethora of online tools and expert advice, but social media plays a big supporting role. The campaign makes optimum use of YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and a blog filled with custom content.

According to the program’s blog, TeenDrive365 targets parents based on the insight that “parents are the number one influence on how their teenager will behave behind the wheel – and while parents may think their teens aren’t paying attention to them when on the road, the truth is in fact the exact opposite.”

The Toyota program incorporates a variety of tactics to engage parents of teens, including:

• a video titled, “Parents Who Drive Bad Anonymous,” which pokes fun at parents’ bad driving habits as they commit to shaping up for their teens
• a “Masters of the Wheel” video series, in which race car driving legends discuss the influential role parents play in teen driver safety
• an online pledge for parents to set a good example for their teens
• animated GIFs and picture-based riddles designed for parents and teens to share safety tips on social media

In the first year of the TeenDrive365 program, over one million people have visited the website and over 22,000 people have committed to signing Toyota’s safe driving pledge. The results are a testament to the power of great creative and smart social media-based marketing. As 360i states on its website, “Good work doesn’t just get noticed. It starts a conversation.”

As a parent of a teen on the cusp of becoming a driver, I’m more than ready to join this conversation and, frankly, humbled by the work Toyota’s doing. While AAA should be applauded for pushing safe driving legislation, Toyota’s initiative is engaging and undeniably effective. What do you think?