Woolworth CEO’s interview car crash was an avoidable PR disaster
Welcome to a midweek update from Unmade: Today: Woolworths’ CEO commits a PR blunder, and the Unmade Index crawls back over 600 points.
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How Banducci’s Four Corners walkout became the story
So how on earth did that happen?
The CEO of Woolworths Brad Banducci lost his cool, walked out on his interview with Four Corners with a terse “I think I’m done, guys” and provided the ABC with the perfect teaser for what might otherwise have been the dry topic of supermarket pricing power.
As a result, Monday night’s episode of Four Corners was bigger than Seven’s Australian Idol and Ten’s Australian Survivor, with an average national viewing number of 916,000 and reach of 1.377m. That’s a rare number for an ABC show.
What’s mystifying is how it happened.
The ABC’s investigation into allegations of price gouging by Woolworths and Coles turned up some solid evidence of the contribution both supermarkets have made to fuel the cost of living by using inflation as an excuse to boost margins. But there was no smoking gun.
With politicians circling, both Banducci and his counterpart at Coles, Leah Weckert, agreed to sit down interviews with the ABC. This was no doorstep gotcha.
Neither one of them came across particularly well. Weckert’s approach was cold and aloof, minimally answering questions in a style which would have worked well in a court setting, to fend off questions in an aggressive courtroom cross examination, but less so where there were viewers to win over.
But her lack of warmth was nothing to Banducci’s loss of cool.
I’d love to see the full footage, as there were clearly edits, but what was obvious was that Banducci was not prepared for the forthright line of questioning from Angus Grigg. It wasn’t rude, but it was forceful.
It’s an indictment on the commercial media that this sort of interview was not simply business as usual for Banducci. When you’re one of the biggest advertisers in the country, you don’t have to squirm in too many interviews.
Nonetheless, Banducci should have been properly prepared for a hostile interview. The PR team had clearly put some thought into the encounter, dressing Banducci in Woolies uniform, complete with “Brad” name badge.
No doubt, the likely questions – and answers – had been workshopped. But it looks like Banducci had not done the practice of experiencing a hostile interview.
As Grigg pushed back on the prepared lines, you could see Banducci thinking “How dare he?”
Grigg challenged Banducci’s contention that former ACCC boss Rod Sims wasn’t qualified to comment on competition because he’d retired (less than two years ago).
The way Banducci talked to the journo suggested he was used to getting his own way. “Okay, let’s… can we take that out? Is that okay?” His face became thunderous as Grigg stood his ground and reminded him he was on the record.
For journos, that’s the only approach you can take, and you have to do it straight away.
Then, in an interview intended to counteract claims that Woolworths is a bully, Banducci followed up with something that sounded rather like a veiled threat.
“Are we going to leave it in there? If we are…” He certainly sounded like somebody used to using his power to get what he wanted.
Then he followed through. As Banducci rose out of his seat, a PR handler came partly into shot, his face not quite visible. His Woolworths name badge said “Peter”; my guess is it was head of corporate communications Peter O’Sullivan, once an ABC journalist himself.
Eventually, during what looks like another edit point, Banducci calmed down and retook his seat – presumably on. the advice of his PR colleagues, but by then the damage was done.
Watch the confrontation:
While the stakes were lower than former Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin’s job ending performance during the company’s outage last year, it was another example of a boss failing at what should have been a core competency. The clip will always be a part of Banducci’s carrer story
Set piece interviews, particularly on the ABC, demand preparation.
Soon Banducci will have to face the even more hostile environment of the senate inquiry into price gouging. That doesn’t give him long to learn how to seem humble.
Unmade Index back above 600
The Unmade Index snuck back above the 600 point ceiling on Tuesday, rising by 0.24% to 600.2 points.
The best performer of the larger stocks was Ooh Media which rose by another 3.03% as the market digested yesterday’s solid full year results.
Agency group Enero also had a strong day, rising by 5.28%. And Pureprofile bounced by 4%.
Meanwhile Nine sank below a $3bn market capitalisation after losing 0.54%. The company will report its half year results tomorrow.
Time to leave you to your Wednesday. By the time this drops into your inbox, I’ll be on the road to Sydney ahead of tonight’s Hubbl launch from Foxtel Group. More on that in the coming days.
Have a great day.
Toodlepip…
Tim Burrowes
Publisher – Unmade
tim@unmade.media
