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Advocacy Sub Group IV

Practical Techniques:A Toolkit for Advocacy

Advocacy is one of the roles of a competition authority, yet my guess is that very few of you were appointed to your jobs because of your outstanding advocacy or communications abilities. But there are a number of tools you can learn which will help you advocate more efficiently. And they are definitely not as complex as the intricacies of dead weight loss!

Our sub group was created to develop a toolkit to help you spread the gospel of competition.

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• Overview of the Toolkit• Speaker: David Lawsky• Panel on innovative techniques• Questions and Answers

Our final product is an online Toolkit for Effective Advocacy, which we hope you will find useful.

I’m going to start by giving you a brief overview of the toolkit, before introducing the guest speaker, David Lawsky, and our panel participants, Gina Talamona, Amelia Torres and George Lipimile.

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http://www.internationalcompetitionnetwork.org/

toolkit_intro.html

You will find the toolkit we produced on the ICN web site at www.internationalcompetitionnetwork.org

We have divided the page into 7 sections: Mechanisms to promote competition, Educating decision makers, Media relations, Plain language, Internal Communications, Extending the Reach of a Web site, and Research and consultation methods.

In each, we have included tips for different ways to promote competition and templates and examples for you to download and use.

Given our time constraints, I will elaborate on only a few of these tools.

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Educating Decision Makers

• Work with policy-makers in other governmental bodies

• Work with stakeholders • Participate in opportunities to promote

competition

Educating decision-makers

Educating decision-makers is important as it ensures that those who make resource allocation decisions are aware of the benefit of competition work to consumers and businesses.

Sometimes competition policy is viewed as an obstacle because the theory behind it is not widely understood and because our messages are frequently “negative” or “don’t do it.”

By regularly meeting with decision makers, presenting seminars to members of legislative assemblies, writing letters and attending events and conferences, we can ensure issues related to competition stay at the forefront and are well-understood.

This section links to sample letters to government officials and presentations given by different authorities to various decision making bodies, which have been very effective.

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Plain language

• Plain language essential for communicating

• Avoid “economese” and “legalese”• Review all documents

for plain language

Plain language

How can we ensure that our messages are well-understood and get out to a large audience? By using clear, straightforward language.

Economists and lawyers are trained and rewarded for using what I call economese and legalese.

The toolkit provides you with links to guides on plain writing and writing news releases.

To illustrate how important plain language is, I’m going to read to you a technical news release, compared to one that is more likely to be understood by reporters.

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Not so plainCOMPETITION BUREAU INVESTIGATION LEADS TO

FEDERAL COURT ORDER PROHIBITING REAL ESTATE BROKER FROM PURSUING ANTICOMPETITIVE SALES

COMMISSION POLICY

OTTAWA, February XX, 2003 - The Federal Court of Canada today issued a “Consent Prohibition Order” against the three independently owned Re/Max franchises operating in Canada, prohibiting them from adopting policies which forbid Re/Max brokers and their Sales associates from setting commission rates independently and from advertising those rates.

Listen to this:

The Federal Court of Canada today issued a “Consent Prohibition Order” against the three independently owned Re/Max franchises operating in Canada, prohibiting them from adopting policies which forbid Re/Max brokers and their Sales associates from setting commission ratesindependently and from advertising those rates.

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Much better!

COMPETITION BUREAU SETTLES REAL ESTATE CASE INVOLVING CANADIAN RE/MAX FRANCHISEES

OTTAWA, February 17, 2003 - The Competition Bureau announced today that it has settled a price maintenance case involving Re/Max Ontario-Atlantic Canada Inc. (Re/Max Ontario), Re/Max of Western Canada (1998) (Re/Max Western) and Re/Max International Inc. The settlement will enhance competition for real estate brokerage services and benefit Canadian consumers by allowing Re/Max franchisees to advertise commission rates or fees to the public.

Compare that to this:

The Competition Bureau announced today that it has settled a price maintenance case involving Re/Max. The settlement will enhance competition for real estate brokerage services and benefit Canadian consumers by allowing Re/Max franchisees to advertise commission rates or fees to the public.

You can see and hear how much shorter and punchier your writing becomes with plain language.

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Punchy quotes

“The issue boils down to one question: When is a bargain really a bargain?”

Quotes in news releases are written as emphatically as possible so that journalists can lift the quotes directly out of the release instead of calling for their own interview.

Here are some recent examples:

“Buying a home is perhaps the most expensive purchase most people will ever make. The steps we have taken in this case will help ensure that all Canadians benefit from competitive real estate brokerage services.”

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“The issue boils down to one question: When is a bargain really a bargain?”

OR

"The Competition Act recognizes that regular price claims have a powerful effect on consumers. Consumers lose when the information they receive from retailers is not trustworthy."

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Media Relations

Finally, the largest section in the toolkit is Media Relations. The rest of our subgroup session will focus on Media Relations.

In Canada, we find that well-written news releases are automatically picked up by reporters. Using the media is an effective way to educate the public. If people see the benefits of competition authorities' actions in the media, they will gain a better understanding of the role competition policy plays. Dealing with journalists requires special skills and an awareness of how the media work. You also have to remember that broadcast stories differ from print ones. Radio and TV stories need to be short and visually appealing.

That’s why the toolkit brings together the media relations practices of various competition authorities. The sections of the site include Dealing with the Media, Attracting the attention of Broadcast media, Writing an effective news release.

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Media Relations

All of the pages in the Media Relations section contain links to guides, templates and examples to assist you in your media relations activities. Other pages under this section are:

Planning a Media Event, News Conference Tips, Communications Planning, Guidance for Spokespeople, (next slide)

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Media Relations

Media Lines, and examples of Media advisories and Press guidance

I’m sure that you will be able to learn a lot from seeing how other authorities carry out their media relations activities. In fact, in our panel a little bit later, you’ll hear Gina Talamona talk about how the US Department of Justice has come up with an innovative way to bring together reporters and antitrust officials.

You’ll also hear Amelia Torres from the European Commission talking about a system they have developed for broadcasting.

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David LawskyReuters journalist based in Brussels

Guest Speaker

Now we can hear about how are efforts are making an impact on the reporters we are targeting, from our guest speaker David Lawsky.

David Lawsky has reported on competition policy for Reuters on both sides of the Atlantic. He has been in Brussels since 2001, when he transferred from the Reuters Washington bureau, so he has experience dealing with different competition authorities. In Washington, Lawsky covered antitrust for four years, including the Microsoft trial, the Staples trial and a dispute with the EU over Boeing's purchase of McDonnell Douglas.

David is a seasoned reporter, who has held numerous reporting jobs in the U.S.

But he has also worked on our side of the fence, serving as a Senate press secretary.

Let’s give a warm welcome to David.

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Panel

George LipimileZambia Competition Commission

Gina TalamonaU.S. Department of Justice

Amelia TorresEuropean Commission

Thanks David for sharing your experiences. I hope now you have a better understanding of how to reach out to the media.

Now I’d like to introduce our international panel on innovative techniques, who will be sharing their expertise.

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Questions and Answers

Questions:

(For Gina)

What do you do when national or international events occupy most of the media’s attention and space? Is there a way to still get press coverage? If so, how?

(For Amelia)

How do logistics for the Midday Briefing in the EU work? And what does the EU offer in terms of daily information in competition field?

Conclusion:

As I noted earlier, one of the key functions of any competition agency is to plant pro-competitive seeds in the fertile imagination of the public. By using the kind of advocacy techniques highlighted in the toolkit, hopefully those seeds blossom into a very vibrant competition culture.