By Odile Cronje

At the 15th Annual Conference of the IABC, Barbara Jensen, head of communication and marketing of the Gautrain, presented a case study on the highly controversial project. She described it as a project which stimulates economic growth and creates more work for hundreds of people, therefore actively contributing to job creation, and creating investor confidence in the emerging South African financial market.

The Gautrain is designed to restructure urban areas, and reduce travel distances, time and cost, while improving cities sustainability, said Jensen. She added that this will promote transport in South Africa, and will stimulate and promote small, macro and micro enterprise development, as well as the development of broad-based black economic empowerment. It will also promote tourism and business developments within South Africa, resulting in investor confidence and economic growth. Jensen identified various role players within the development of the Gautrain, namely: SARCC, SANRAL, Government departments and metropolitan authorities.

Jensen identified the challenges faced while constructing the Gautrain project as follows:
*She noted that much was said about South Africa as a developing country, where Government resources have to be implemented in support of the common good of the development of South Africa, and in pursuing social-economic objectives that will produce economic growth, create jobs and alleviate poverty in accordance with job creation. This is what the Gautrain is designed to achieve.
*Local skeptics did not believe that the project was feasible, and it received extremely negative publicity from the local media and the general South African public.
*This was a greenfields project which was constructed from scratch, as it was not the remodeling or redesigning of an existing system or product.
*The fact that tax payers" money was spent in developing the project did not bode well with the public.
*Inter-modal competition in terms of international transport systems which are more advanced and developed, fed the fears that investors would veer away from the project, as there are more advanced transport systems elsewhere.
*NIMBY stands for "good to look at, but Not In My Back Yard".

Strategic processes

Jensen mentioned that within the strategic process of communicating about the Gautrain, the listening campaign was implemented in terms of obtaining information from other sources about the development of the Gautrain, and the entire strategic process is governed by research. This is done via monthly media analysis, and monitoring the media to analyse the extent of the publicity received - whether negative or positive - and devising a strategic plan according to the information received. It also includes quarterly web research to monitor what attention is being given to the development of the Gautrain on the internet, and ad hoc research on new tools that are being planned for implementation.

Media management

Jensen stated that since 2005, the Gautrain project has faced extreme criticism. It received extremely negative publicity in the latter half of 2005 and 2006, as numerous people expressed opposition to the project. The emphasis of its media management was local, national, regional and international, as the project objective was abroad.

Thinking process

According to Jensen, in the thinking process of communicating about the Gautrain, the team ensured that communication conveyed to the media was transparent, and that any question could be answered smartly by not revealing too much about the project, while giving information on progress on the developments of the project, and ensuring that the communication message was not ambiguous or irrelevant.

Target public groups:
*Youths – these individuals largely make use of the public transport system. This will increase with the implementation of a safer means of transport in South Africa’s transport arena, and will enhance the image of public transport in South Africa among the youth.
*Air travellers – these individuals will make use of this system as it has been strategically and conveniently planned to be constructed at the airport, giving travellers faster access to the city from the airport.
*Motor car travellers.
*Tourism industry – this advanced transport system will bode well with the tourism industry as it can boost the tourism flow in South Africa, and for tourists to commute conveniently and safely around the largest city in the country.

The communication process:
*As part of the process of communicating about the Gautrain, media releases were sent out to inform the general public about the project.
*This was an attempt to educate the public on the Gautrain, and the benefits which this project will provide for them.
*Jensen mentions that the main activities of the process included: personal contacts and conducting personal interviews with the media; and constantly presenting a sense of accessibility.
*Holding media briefings on the developments of the Gautrain.
*Conducting educational media briefing tours to better educate the media, to get a clearer perspective on the objectives and operations of the Gautrain. This in turn created a relationship between the two bodies, which later bettered the publicity which received.

Difficulties
Jensen mentions that the team experienced difficulty with the excitement and developments of the Soccer World Cup 2010, as people perceived the Gautrain to be part of the 2010 Soccer World Cup. People therefore criticised the slow progress of the system and its state of readiness for the tournament. Jensen added that crisis communication kicked in after the ground collapsed in Oxford Road leaving a hole in the road which heavily hindered traffic. The team solved this by turning to action immediately in an honest manner.

In conclusion, Jensen stated that the lessons learnt from communicating about the Gautrain through various difficulties and threats, is that communication takes place by design and not by default, and she adds that communication was involved in this project from its genesis.