The LMG response - a media relations analysis

[TheRealVaiden]

Let's talk reframing, us against the Community and disappearing CEOs.

 

Looking at the first wave of responses it is clear that LMG faces challenges conveying a clear, coherent message. Both in an ad-hoc and (surprisingly) scripted forms.

 

We can all agree that the initial Linus post was horrendous (as admitted by LMG itself) and the video released later presented a fragmented, contradicting, buffet of statements.  

 

A literal bunch of talking "heads" is a big no-no, so for the next video, it is very clear that LMG has spent time consulting with (or even commissioning) someone with a crysis management background.

 

In this light, the post hiatus video is crysis response 101. A textbook example. 

 

The proposition: when a proof of an immediate remedy is unattainable, the next best thing to offer to the public is a promise of a process. In some cases it is even the first choice. A process buys time to the company. It reframes the conversation and breaks down future responses into fragmented conversation that each can be better managed. 

 

And ooh boy did we get a "process". Here is a promise of a process, and a diagram of one, and a video of a process being undertaken, and graphs and numbers and timelines and KPIs. LMG is busy busy busy. 

 

This is not a judgmental statement but rather a factual one. 

 

Reframing the conversation: the next part of the message presents a new entity called "the Community". There was never a GamersNexus or a Madison or mislead viewers. The Community acted and LMG now reacts. No need to go into specific details, no need to argue points. This is in stark contrast to before the alleged consultation, where LMG has refered to Madison by name. 

 

This is a very popular trick used by red handed politicians and corporates alike. A Community is an abstract figure. It has no face. It has both bad and good actors, and it allows us to play on the "it's us against them" notion. We can easily play the victim of the Community without the need to actually argue points with anyone specific. 

 

Again - no judgement here. Believe me. 

 

Up until this point LMG has followed the brief diligently. So much so that when LMG diviates, it all breaks at the seams. Let's look at two eye-pokers. 

 

"We are all here for you" is clearly the core of the message. Unifying, generic, trust inducing. But leading up to it by promising employee churn and hinting of layoffs? Really? This LMG doing LMG again. 

 

And then there is the disappearing leader. Has LMG wanted to get Mr. Tong in front of a green screen, it would have. The technology is available wherever in the world he currently is. 

 

Hiding Tarren is a deliberate decision. This is not because he is "off site". 

 

What is your take on the communication relations lessons to be learnt here?

 

(Please forgive my time if it comes out nit a chill one. English is nit my first language and I'm typing this while in transit)

[kurangak]

what exactly do you want then?

for linus to say ''yea we fckkd up. LMG no longer in business as of today. see yall" ??

[TheRealVaiden]

5 minutes ago, kurangak said:

what exactly do you want then?

for linus to say ''yea we fckkd up. LMG no longer in business as of today. see yall" ??

I have to reiterate. No judgement intended at all. I don't expect LMG to do anything and do not think LMG done anything wrong. 

 

LMG has followed the beaten path, per my humble analysis at least, and I find it very fulfilling to locate the places they have not and speculate on the reason why. 

[Guest]

While I understand what you are trying to say, I do think you are making some assumptions about certain aspects with out providing evidence.

 

38 minutes ago, TheRealVaiden said:

Reframing the conversation: the next part of the message presents a new entity called "the Community". There was never a GamersNexus or a Madison or mislead viewers. The Community acted and LMG now reacts. No need to go into specific details, no need to argue points. 

 

This is a very popular trick used by red handed politicians and corporates alike. A Community is an abstract figure. It has no face. It has both bad and good actors, and it allows us to play on the "it's us against them" notion. We can easily play the victim of the Community without the need to actually argue points with anyone specific. 

 

Again - no judgement here. Believe me. 

 

 

The community it is vague because it wasn't just GN and Madison. The community is what keeps LMG in business and without them LMG would cease to exist. With the exception of Madison, many of the issues that were brought forward by GN were things that have been pointed out by people in the community for a while now. GN didn't just find it all of a sudden, these were issues brought forward well before, all GN did was package it all up in a video.

 

In terms of Madison LMG should NOT be saying anything in regards to the situation until all the investigations wrap up. Making comments now on this issue will only make their situation far worse. They are doing the right thing by doing the investigations and they need to let the process play out before they can comment.

 

50 minutes ago, TheRealVaiden said:

Reframing the conversation: the next part of the message presents a new entity called "the Community". There was never a GamersNexus or a

 

 

"We are all here for you" is clearly the core of the message. Unifying, generic, trust inducing. But leading up to it by promising employee churn and hinting of layoffs? Really? This LMG doing LMG again.

Well to be fair if employees are not a fit, then they are not a fit.That doesn't mean they just swing the layoff hammer at every opportunity, but the way I see it is that he's just acknowledging that as the company grows, this is inevitable/normal and not necessarily a bad thing.

 

57 minutes ago, TheRealVaiden said:

And then there is the disappearing leader. Has LMG wanted to get Mr. Tong in front of a green screen, it would have. The technology is available wherever in the world he currently is. 

 

Hiding Tarren is a deliberate decision. This is not because he is "off site".

To be fair you do no know (nor do any of us knows) the reason as to why he was offsite. There could be a very good reason for him being away (could be a personal thing he needs to deal with) and is not just in hiding. No one should be making assumptions without having any evidence to back it up. At the end of the day Linus is still the owner and has been CEO really up until this point, so I think the majority of people wanted to hear it straight from Linus and no one else to be honest.

[xAcid9]

58 minutes ago, kurangak said:

what exactly do you want then?

for linus to say ''yea we fckkd up. LMG no longer in business as of today. see yall" ??

Don't bother, even they don't know what they want. 

[TempestCatto]

I understood maybe half that. More like a quarter of that. There's no perfect response to a situation like this. They responded in a pretty good way I think. They told us what they were gonna do, showed us how they were gonna do it, and now when the next "normal" video is uploaded we'll get to see for ourselves. Don't be a middle school English teacher, don't look too deeply into everything. Sometimes it's okay to take something at face value. 

[Dominik W]

2 hours ago, TheRealVaiden said:

And then there is the disappearing leader. Has LMG wanted to get Mr. Tong in front of a green screen, it would have. The technology is available wherever in the world he currently is. 

 

Hiding Tarren is a deliberate decision. This is not because he is "off site". 

 

What is your take on the communication relations lessons to be learnt here?

 

(Please forgive my time if it comes out nit a chill one. English is nit my first language and I'm typing this while in transit)

I don't think it is a deliberate decision, they have mentioned that there are many immigration issues considering he is a US citizen and they are located in BC. Heck, Jon (TechQuikie writer) works from NC now.

[Faer-Anne]

On 8/27/2023 at 9:09 AM, TheRealVaiden said:

And then there is the disappearing leader. Has LMG wanted to get Mr. Tong in front of a green screen, it would have. The technology is available wherever in the world he currently is. 

 

Hiding Tarren is a deliberate decision. This is not because he is "off site". 

I don't think this is a decision to "hide" him, so much as a "He's not comfortable infront of a camera as a personality, so we're not gonna force him."  From what I understand, Terren has worked before from behind a pen, rather than from in front of a camera, and probably needs a while before he will change that stance.  And tbf, Terren isn't the person people wanna see, Linus is.  Even if it's not his job anymore to be the head, he's still the figure head.

[Arika]

On 8/27/2023 at 11:21 PM, TheRealVaiden said:

have to reiterate. No judgement intended at all

You keep saying this, but you sure are making a hell of a lot of random accusations that you seem to have decided they are already guilty of.

[Erioch]

On 8/27/2023 at 7:09 AM, TheRealVaiden said:

someone with a crysis management background.

Usual I just turn the settings down a little bit for better framerates in Crysis.

 

[Darth Xaim]

On 8/27/2023 at 9:09 PM, TheRealVaiden said:

Hiding Tarren is a deliberate decision. This is not because he is "off site". 

Honestly, if Terren was doing the video, people would say Hiding Linus is a deliberate decision instead. This is always gonna be a Lose Lose situation.

[Leksi T]

As far as manufacturing "The Community" entity, it would be mentally inefficient to do so, unless done by a PR writer not already familiar with the landscape.  The reason being, is that before this video, GN, LMG, and even most of "The Community" referred to it as such. While it is correct that using the concept of the community can allow abstraction, that's a political weapon that can be used by all parties at any time, as demonstrated especially by GNs words and actions.  And by using the same terminology of community as GN, it doesn't sidestep or reframe so much as tackle head-on.  In contrast to that, in the most recent video, by stating that certain people who used methods of harassment and such were not viewed by Linus and LMG as part of the community, they chose to clarify and segregate, instead of abstract that particular issue.  And they did not take a stance against the community, they chose to take a verbal stance that can and, I imagine, will be used against them in the future if issues arise again. That being that they are beholden to this abstract entity, and that they consider the outliers that have taken unreasonable action not part of that definition.

 

I agree that they purposefully did not address the specific issues of GN or Madison.  I believe this is a good move at this time.  With Madison, they have little to no choice, mostly by Canadian law, but also a confusing variety of other reasons that make LMG talking about that directly a horrendous move.  In fact, addressing their HR practices publicly at all right now has a good possibility of negative legal consequences, if any of their employees decide to take legal action.  With GN, it's not so clear, but it's hard to imagine any benefit anyone would have by LMG addressing GN at this point, unless you assume GN is a bad actor in this case, at which point LMG would have less reason to address them.  I do believe that there should be clarifications soon or later down the line of where the two companies stand with each other, or people in general will make assumptions that lean heavily in the negative. And that could create PR issues, if not nightmares of it's own in the future. Personally I think the ball is in GN's court right now in this regard.  I guess, under an assumption that LMG is choosing to view GN as a hostile entity, you could say that by not addressing GN directly, it leaves GN with uncertain footing to take further action against LMG.

 

So I believe "reframing" to not be a good term to use in this respect.  While it's obvious that LMG is trying to take control of the narrative, they're hardly having to put much of a spin on things in regards to who they are addressing. 

 

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Anything regarding Terren, I think is probably speculation any way you look at it.  While mentioning the fact that he isn't there in the video might have drawn attention to the fact, there could be any number of reasons he wasn't in the video, including a possibility, though being skeptical, a very small possibility, that he was off site and it would have been impractical to include him.

 

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The hinting at layoffs is confusing.  From a PR perspective, it's nonsensical, unless it is part of some master plan kinda thing.  I heavily doubt that, coming from LMG.  From an internal business perspective, it's a move that only sends a message that "something" is wrong, "someone" is angry, so watch out. If that message was leaked internally, it could mean that all employees need to fall in line immediately, but as a public statement, that meaning would only cause more damage the higher up the chain someone was.  Stretching a bit, that could be interpreted that it's people in management positions are under fire right now. Maybe that's how they hope it will be interpreted by the public? It's hard to say. In any case it's confusing, vague, and as such, people will pick it apart and usually make the worst of it.

 

---

 

As far as the proposition, I think I'm mostly on the same page as OP. There is no immediate remedy for most of the issues presented, or at least there will be no evidence of such available right away.  Breaking all the issues down to addressable parts is a good move publicly and internally for LMG.  Now, whether they "manage" the issues, or actually manage the issues, will be something everyone needs to keep an eye on moving forward.

Edited August 29, 2023 by Leksi T
Small clarifications, and expansion of ideas and points.

[RobGMun]

On 8/27/2023 at 2:15 PM, kurangak said:

what exactly do you want then?

for linus to say ''yea we fckkd up. LMG no longer in business as of today. see yall" ??

No, I wanted what we got in the end, "yea we fckkd up. Here's what we'll do to be better" but boy did they have to be dragged by the ears through a mile of gravel to eventually get it right!!

 

All the extra fckk ups along the way, no sarcastic wormy text from Linus, no trying to monetize your own apology video, no crass jokes about sponsors when you're trying to take yourself seriously. No apology to GN or HUB for trying to say you were better than them even though you were wrong about their methodology. They lurched from one disaster to another and all of it self-inflected. Trust has been damaged for a lot of people. 

[ForCom5]

As reformation plans go, I'd say this is a pretty solid one. As it touches on all the bases needed and yeah, it's not laptop webcam, shoot-from-the-hip, "woah wow here's what we're gonna do" but there's no way it could be. LMG has the benefit and drawbacks of being a formal company with a small-time feel to it (until quite recently, that is) - everything needing deliberation. It's kind of how companies should do. It's not easy, straightforward, and it certainly isn't fast by any means.

 

All in all, I think the company can come back better and really, in terms of the community at large, the reception is good. I think we all want the best outcome for all involved, but we have different ideas on how to get there - and I think things are heading in the right direction.

 

And this is my first forum post. Hi Mom!

[BobbyJHill]

I ain't reading all that. I'm happy for u tho. Or sorry that happened.

 

 

Seriously though, the talking heads video was an attempt to communicate to people who aren't familiar with LMG (and there were A LOT of those people suddenly showing up) that it isn't just Linus anymore.  The video wasn't effective for a lot of reasons (some valid, some nitpicky) but I don't think presenting a larger 'cast' of people behind LMG was a bad choice.  Linus alone was toxic after the forum response, so he couldn't have headed the entire video, and certainly not having him play a significant portion of the video would have been its own, potentially worse, statement, especially because a lot of people actually do like him and want him to continue being the most visible part of LTT.  I'm sure that's a shock to some, but his popularity occurred for a reason.

 

As for Tarren not being in it being deliberate; maybe. It was discussed at Tarren's hiring that he would not be at the office all the time and would be working remotely frequently for the foreseeable future, so him being off-site isn't a surprise to me.  LTT's video production standards basically require studio-grade equipment, including sound and lighting, something I doubt he wants to be laden with and probably doesn't have the skills to operate to LTT standards.  It would have been jarring to switch between Linus' super-high-quality video to Tarren quite literally "phoning it in."

 

Also I thought we were trying to avoid "a bunch of talking heads." Tarren is not intended to be an on-screen presence, nobody knows who he is yet and nobody has seen the effects of his hiring yet.  The "breach of trust" is with Linus himself (most of the examples of inaccuracies occurred before Tarren started anyway), and I think he was the exact right person to record a mostly uncut, well-written, face-to-camera mea culpua and laying out of LMG's course of action to improve.

 

The mention of "turnover" increasing was a recognition that there are still ongoing problems (the Madison thing included, which he can't talk about) and that the letting some under-preforming people (or people who contribute to toxicity) go, which is part of the solution.  Sometimes dismissal of employees is the only remaining step to fixing problems and that was an acknowledgement of that for people who are demanding to see heads roll.

[BorkBorkBork]

I posted this in other similar threads but since this one is specifically tagged “media relations” it warrants re-upping. 
 

I have no idea what your intentions are with this post, but they don’t come across as “nonjudgmental” or even helpful to an outside reader. They come across as concern-baiting at best and low effort trolling at worst. 
 

We cannot “all agree” that their responses have been “horrendous” or a “buffet of contradictions” or whatever other hyperbolic nonsense you wrote. You can’t just announce that your opinion is the right one and “everyone agrees.”
 

LMG’s initial response video was well executed, responsible, and respectful to the relative severity of the situation. I say relative because nothing in this entire debacle would ever warrant the completely deranged responses from this forum, the subreddit, and the “community.” 

Their follow up video further extends these points while making perfectly clear that they own it’s a journey and not a destination. You can call that whatever you want, but in my profession, that’s called managing expectations and being transparent. 
 

People like you crafting huge screeds of conspiracy and vague accusations with loaded language of “red handed” and the like are what have blown this nonsense so far beyond reason.
 

It’s not at all “clear” that LMG has any challenge in creating coherent messages, but it’s very clear some members of these forums do. 

Do better.

[Stahlmann]

You can never make everyone happy at the same time. Especially not once a community has reached this point of outrage. But imo this video was the best possible response they could have made.

 

Ulimately what is way more important than a PR video is seeing  how all these new processes translate into better videos. If the videos get better, the rest will die down pretty quickly. Even heavy allegations like the ones from Madison will quickly be forgotten by the public if they just to a better job at doing their job.