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The Marcellus and Utica shale have changed the landscape of the domestic energy and petrochemical industries, providing abundant natural gas, an insurgence of family-sustaining jobs and opportunities, a rebirth of manufacturing and a growing need for pipeline infrastructure. Consequently, a fundamental shift in the communications landscape regarding energy and petrochemical firms, and how they deal with the public, now demands new communications approaches.
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Traditionally, the energy industry, and to some extent the petrochemical industry, has faced scrutiny from various public and private sectors — the press, politicians, regulatory agencies, environmental groups and the consuming public. And the emergence of the Marcellus and Utica shales has further amplified opposition — giving rise to localized opposition groups, anti-fossil fuel and pipeline non-government organizations and other obstacles that energy firms are facing daily.
The rapid pace of natural gas development exposed an energy industry-wide challenge — well production quickly outpaced available pipeline infrastructure. The lack of infrastructure continues to slow production as wells are not fully maximized and hungry markets cannot obtain needed resources. The lack of pipeline infrastructure has sent the industry on a pipeline-building boom: Although Pennsylvania has about 6,800 miles of existing pipelines, it could see construction of up to 25,000 miles of gathering lines and 5,000 miles of midstream and transmission pipelines in the next 10 years. Much of it is in the works as we speak.
That’s a significant amount of proposed pipeline construction. A public that was indifferent at best or demonstrated and directed their opposition solely on drilling and fracking operations suddenly is aware and vehemently opposed to pipeline companies. They don’t want their land disturbed. They don’t want to rely on fossil fuels. They don’t want U.S. energy exported.
The industry is finding that traditional communications tactics are insufficient to move these pipeline projects forward. A more comprehensive communications approach — network advocacy — is key to managing pipeline projects, opposition outreach and messaging, and other project-related needs.
If companies are to successfully build out the pipeline infrastructure needed, they need to adopt a high-touch approach that couples traditional communication techniques with sophisticated research and digital tools — and that does so swiftly.
As Bravo Group works with several of the largest pipeline projects in the eastern U.S., we’ve learned much about how to get that done.
The construction of a pipeline often traverses multiple communities and along that line each community has a distinct personality and culture. Successful pipeline companies take the time to learn each town’s opinions and concerns and build relationships with all the stakeholders in each community.
To accomplish that requires thoughtful research that goes beyond basic focus groups. It needs to plumb the thoughts and feelings of the community on the industry, the specific company and pipelines in general. It’s important to know how each community views the oil and gas industry as a whole, the pipeline company specifically and the words they use to describe those views.
Good research serves as a foundational tool that helps to develop messaging that explains the process and benefits of infrastructure investment. This leads to tactical efforts that will resonate with constituents across an entire pipeline. Are local constituents reading newspapers or meeting at coffee shops? Is this community online and, if so, which channels does it use? What messages are the users consuming and at what times?
The answers will drive the strategy, message, tactics and the delivery for each town along the pipeline route. It’s certainly different from a top-down, one-message-fits-all approach. It takes a highly capable team, moving quickly, to win.
No matter what tactics are used, it’s imperative to have an informed “boots on the ground” operation in every segment of a pipeline project — siting, construction, restoring the site and actual operations.
It’s important to hold frequent face-to-face meetings with community members and not necessarily technical PowerPoint meetings. Always have a team member available to interact with the community. That team member will be the go-to face of the company, so it’s imperative he or she be well-versed in the makeup of each community.
Equally as important is transparency in those relationships and in all communications, whether it’s in direct mail pieces detailing the pipeline process, a handout on corporate social responsibility, a project update to local officials or a blog about a local charity event involving the pipeline company. Information presented must be consistent. Outreach efficacy, and ultimately success, must meet the expectations of the constituency you are targeting, in the format(s) they prefer.
This is a complex but important issue, where everyone won’t agree. However, that doesn’t mean that all concerns should go unanswered, even if the answers don’t change some minds.
Mindset and approach are important. It takes flexibility to be able to pivot from town to town and platform to platform to address the issues specific to each community on the route, but if a solid network advocacy foundation is in place, the relationships can be built and so can a pipeline, on time and on budget.
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Topper Ray is President of Communications at Bravo Group, which has offices in Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Philadelphia and Dallas.
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