Enbridge's uphill PR battle: Laptops, cupcakes and research centres

On Monday, as news broke about Enbridge's troubled relationship with academics at the University of Calgary, the pipeline company was in the media for another educational donation.

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TheSarniaObserver reported thatEnbridgehad donated 15 refurbished laptops to three elementary schools in the city. Teachers were happy andbeaming kids were pictured in the newspaper in front of the laptops. This may seem very distant from the $2.25 million pledged to the University of Calgary for a research centre, but it is all part of the same public relations strategy.

You know that there are people sitting around a table saying all we want is positive sentiment about our brand, how do we get this?- Scott Stratten, UnMarketing

And if you're tempted to ask whether donating used laptops to kids is part of a PR strategy? Well, it did end up in the newspaper.

It's almost impossible to overstate how boring the pipeline industry used to be and how uncontroversial.Enbridgeis probably still adjusting to its role as a national punching bag and is using something that it has a lot of money to try to bring Canadians onside. The question becomes is it working?

Enbridge'scommunity investment fund

Let's start by stating the obvious: corporations rarely spend money on a whim. Any donation or sponsorship decision is made carefully, a business case crafted, benefits calculated.Enbridgespends $15 milliona year on community investment, with money targeted to communities along its pipeline routes, or in parts of the country where it operates as energy distributor.

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Multiplefire,police and other first responderservices in central Canadahave received donations over the past few years, many along the route of Enbridge's Line 9b pipeline. An artgallery in Regina recently got $250,000 to bring art to aboriginal youth in inner-city schools.

But, where Enbridge's money goes, controversy often follows. A $44,000donation to the Hamilton police resulted in a local protest, the BC Cancer Foundation dropped Enbridge as a naming sponsor of its Ride to Conquer Cancer, a college in Terrace, B.C. declined to administerstudent bursaries on offer from the company.

"You know that there are people sitting around a table saying 'all we want is positive sentiment about our brand.How do we get this?'" said Scott Stratten, a branding expert with UnMarketing.

Road tripsand cupcakes

Part of that strategy was to launch the Life Takes Energy campaign a little over a year ago. The sense at Enbridge, as it is in much of the oilpatch, is that Canadians take energy for granted. The campaign reminded us that cupcakes, for example, cannot be baked without energy. School buses can't get kids to school and road trips can't be taken.

This is soft marketing, presumably designed toswaythe majority of Canadians who don't have strong feelings, either positiveor negative about pipelines. There is probably no changing the hearts and minds of those who protest a donation to the Hamilton police, but there are many Canadians who do not oppose pipelines, but typically only hear the name Enbridge in the context of a protest.

Itdid not take long though before Life Takes Energy got caught in activistcrosshairs. Last spring, Tim Hortons began airingLife Takes Energy ads in its restaurants. That campaignlasted about three weeks before an online petition from agroup called SumOfUs urgedTimHortons to yank the ads, accusing the company of "shilling" forthe oilsands shipper.

Tims soon ended its relationship with Enbridge,although Air Canada continues to air its ads on in-flight television.

Academic sponsorship as public relations

Corporate sponsorship of colleges and universities is perhaps an even softer form of marketing. Wellestablished in Canada, it usually follows one of three paths. The first is to donate money and have a faculty namedafter you, the second is to sponsor a research chair, staffed by a distinguished professor on a particular research track.

The third is for specific projects, which is an attractive option, but traditionally, there has been a Chinese wall between the academics and the sponsor.

"We'll give them the money," said AlanMiddleton, a marketing expert at theSchulichSchool of Business. "But it's up to them what to do. What we'll get from it is the association with a learning institution, the knowledge of some of the smart people going though it, being seen as a really good employerfor smart people."

Middletonacknowledges that there has been apush in recent years for more control over the money donated to universities.

In 2012,Middleton's own employer, York Universitywas negotiating with aprivate think-tank started by Blackberry co-founder Jim Balsillieto create a school for international law. It fell apart over questions about academic freedom.

"While you might work well with the professional schools and the science schools by giving them money, universitiesalso have very large liberal arts areas and frankly their faculties don't tend to be hugely in favour ofcommercial enterprisessetting foot in universities," he said.

That seems to be the very trap that Enbridge fell into, along with the University of Calgary.