Financial Times: Private equity must get web aware

EXTRACT: This is just one example of the use of video to make a case. The commercial currently running on Shell’s home page (www.shell.com) is another, even though it uses actors. So if private equity companies can scrape a few pennies together to do something, just something, they may find the return on investment in terms of increased goodwill is startling.

By David Bowen

David Bowen is a website effectiveness consultant for Bowen Craggs & Co (www.bowencraggs.com). [email protected]

*Comment by John Donovan: I note that Mr Bowen continues to use his FT Column to promote Shell without declaring that Shell is a client.

THE ARTICLE

Private equity companies may be run by clever people, but they don’t seem to know much about the web. Either that, or they have not noticed that they have some dodgy reputation issues. I suggest that they look at the site belonging to a man who is acutely aware of his reputation, Nicolas Sarkozy, to pick up a few tips (www.sarkozy.fr).

The FT this week carried a supplement on private equity, which carried (twice) an already well-used photo of Damon Buffini, managing partner of Permira, trying to ignore placards waved by supporters of the GMB union. They were particularly keen to contrast redundancies made by Permira-owned Birds Eye with the money earned by Mr Buffini and his mates.

I turned to the Permira website (www.permira.com) to see if it had anything to say to the placard wavers, or perhaps to the curious onlooker who wanted to understand the group’s side of the argument. It does not. The site wears a dark pinstriped suit both in its design and in its absolute focus on business. It is talking to business partners, in business language, not to the rest of the world.

The only possibly relevant document I found was a downloadable publication called ‘Economic and Social Impact of venture Capital and Private Equity in Spain’. It was funded by the industry, and contains the conclusion that financing of this sort ‘grew much more quickly and in a more solid way than those who had not seen such backing.’

This is depressing. In the old days (and I’m talking last century), corporations with ‘reputation issues’ would ignore them on their websites. They would transfer the brochures they handed to their clients onto their websites, and think that the job was done. Then they discovered that their websites were being visited not only by their customers, but also by a great array of people who wanted to know about their attitude to life, and why they were being beastly to us here, or trying to poison us there. Look at any oil company for its views on the environment; or to a pharmaceutical site for thoughts on animal testing. Online reputation management is big.

Why is Permira not joining in? Maybe because none of its competitors is. The grand-daddy of the industry, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, has a simple and cleanly designed site (www.kkr.com) that advertises its global reach, explains its ‘value creation’ philosophy, and lists its investments. It has a press release archive, a couple of speeches and a partner log-in, to a password-protected areas of the site. That’s all.

Blackstone (www.blackstone.com) has the same formula, albeit with a rather chirpier tone of voice. Carlyle Group (www.thecarlylegroup.com) has a well organised portfolio, and also a careers section, but otherwise nothing distinctive. I cannot think of anything to say about Texas Pacific (www.texaspacificgroup.com), Providence Equity (www.provequity.com), GS Capital Partners (part of Goldman Sachs, www.gs.com), Apollo Investment (www.apolloic.com), except that they are more of the same. Some are slicker (Apollo), some are less (Providence), but they all have the same basic elements. None of the private equity sites I looked at made any attempt to talk to anyone but a business-focused visitor.

I can see why. There would be peer discomfort if one of the companies did break ranks and started using its site to talk to the outside world. Maybe it would seem wimpish, and it would certainly make the others wonder if they must do the same. But it seems to me that any company that does seize the reputation bull by its horns will in the end be doing the whole group a favour. Private equity companies are not immune from the glare of publicity, however private they are – you just have to count the column inches in the press to see that – and I suspect they care more about their reputations than they would like to admit. So what should they do?

Well, there are many ways to state your case online. A simple one is to carry a question & answer section. Coca-Cola (www.thecoca-colacompany.com) has a ‘Myths & rumors’ section on its Contact page, where it tackles statements such as ‘Coca-Cola contributes profits to Israel’ and ‘Soft drinks cause kidney failure’. The CIA (www.cia.gov) has Frequently Asked Questions that include ‘Does the CIA spy on Americans?’Néstle has a complete site dedicated to defending attacks over its baby milk (www.babymilk.nestle.com). And as I have said, oil and pharma companies use their sites to state their cases in detail.

But if they want to leapfrog the corporates, and use a medium that is both effective and state of the art, may I suggest video à la Sarko. Nicolas Sarkozy has a site built round NS TV – you can probably guess what the initials stand for. The battery of videos include Débattre/Participer, which show French voters debating and participating by asking questions to camera such as ‘What are you going to do to let us work more?’, ‘What do you think of polygamy?’, ‘Who is going to pay for my parents’ retirement?’. M Sarkozy then answers them, also to camera, though in a different place. It works well because the video allows him to inject a degree of emotion that would be impossible with text. It helps of course that he is a practised speaker, but the mere fact that he is there looking at the camera is, gives, it seems to me, weight to his arguments.

This is just one example of the use of video to make a case. The commercial currently running on Shell’s home page (www.shell.com) is another, even though it uses actors. So if private equity companies can scrape a few pennies together to do something, just something, they may find the return on investment in terms of increased goodwill is startling.

David Bowen is a website effectiveness consultant for Bowen Craggs & Co (www.bowencraggs.com). [email protected]

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007

Published: April 30 2007 11:26 | Last updated: April 30 2007 11:26

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.