PUBLIC RELATIONS AT

AMAZON OPERATIONS
(CUSTOMER FULFILLMENT)
Agenda for today 1/Introduction to EU Operations PR
2/The Challenges
3/Our Priorities
4/ Project Veritas
5/Q&A
The EU Operations
PR Team

6 COUNTRY COMMUNICATIONS LEADS

ACROSS 9 COUNTRIES

30 PEOPLE
SERVING A POTENTIAL BASE OF 367m CUSTOMERS

SUPPORTING MORE THAN 40 FULFILLMENT CENTRES

The EU Operations
PR Team

6 COUNTRY COMMUNICATIONS LEADS

ACROSS 9 COUNTRIES

30 PEOPLE
SERVING A POTENTIAL BASE OF 367m CUSTOMERS

SUPPORTING 10 SORT CENTRES

The EU Operations
PR Team

6 COUNTRY COMMUNICATIONS LEADS

ACROSS 9 COUNTRIES

30 PEOPLE
SERVING A POTENTIAL BASE OF 367m CUSTOMERS

SUPPORTING MORE THAN 50 DELIVERY STATIONS

 How the teams work together

INTERNAL
OPERATIONS FULFILLMENT TRANSPORTATION
COMMUNICATIONS

CONSUMER

CORPORATE

5
 What we do

PROMOTE
Reputation Trust & Licence to
Management Positivity operate

PROTECT
6
 The challenge

2017 2018*

POSITIVE COVERAGE (number of articles) 10,317 9,308

NEGATIVE COVERAGE (number of articles) 1,186 7,972

INACCURACIES CORRECTED 317 1,715

INACCURACIES NOT CORRECTED 21 225

7 *as at September 2018

 What’s driving the negative coverage
for Operations?

UNION BIG-TICKET
ACTIVITIES CRITICS PRETTY
MUCH
WORKING ANYTHING
CONDITIONS WE DO
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 What’s driving the negative coverage
for Operations?

BIG-TICKET
UNION CRITICS
ACTIVITIES
PRETTY
WORKING MUCH
CONDITIONS ANYTHING
WE DO
9
 What’s driving the negative coverage
for Operations?

BIG-TICKET
UNION POOR PAY CRITICS
ACTIVITIES
TARGETS &
TIME OFF TASK PRETTY
WORKING MUCH
WORKING
CONDITIONS ENVRIONMENT ANYTHING
WE DO
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 What’s driving the negative coverage
for Operations?

BIG-TICKET
UNION CRITICS
ACTIVITIES
PRETTY
WORKING MUCH
CONDITIONS ANYTHING
WE DO
12
 What’s driving the negative coverage
for Operations?

BIG-TICKET
UNION CRITICS
ACTIVITIES
PRETTY
WORKING MUCH
CONDITIONS ANYTHING
WE DO
13
 What’s driving the negative coverage
for Operations?

BIG-TICKET
UNION CRITICS
ACTIVITIES
PRETTY
WORKING MUCH
CONDITIONS ANYTHING
WE DO
14
THE PRESS OFFICE PHONE RINGS…
“I’m hearing from your employees about
the ‘exploitation of workers’ at Amazon –
claims are being made that they are
dismissed for the most minor of issues
ranging from not being able to do overtime
to taking too many bathroom breaks.”

I’m filing my story in 10 minutes …

… what’s your response?
OUR ACTUAL RESPONSE:

“We don’t recognise these allegations as an accurate

portrayal of activities in our buildings.

“As we are growing and constantly hiring more

associates, it is strongly in our interests to retain
people and no-one is ever dismissed without good
reason.

“We completely support associates working for us

and people are allowed to use the toiled whenever
needed.”
WE ARE A TARGET…

FACT: Trillion dollar

company club

FACT: World’s
richest man

PERCEPTION: Poor
working conditions,
‘secretive’ company,
tax issues, Internet giant
 So what are we doing about it?

LISTENING DE-BUNKING SHOWCASING OPENING

TO OUR THE OUR INNOVATION THE DOORS
CRITICS MYTHS IN THE WORKPLACE EVEN WIDER:
& CONTRIBUTION TRANSPARENCY
TO COMMUNITY

4/GREAT PLACE TO WORK

1/TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION

18 2/JOB CREATION & INVESTMENT 3/AMAZON IN THE COMMUNITY

 1/Technology
& Innovation
A BRIEF CASE STUDY

19
 Technology & Innovation
We are building the program along the following narrative:
Better Tech = Better Customer Experience: we need advanced technologies to meet customer
demand and deliver the best possible experience

The Evolving Workforce: technology does not eliminate work, it changes work. With robotics and
advanced technologies, we are able to transition employees into roles where they can develop
living skills.

Future of Robotics: a future in which we are working alongside robots is an exciting one. At
Amazon, we see the opportunity these robots can bring to our partners, employees and
customers.

Golden Age of AI/ML: Advanced technologies like AI and ML are still in their infancies, which
gives us a huge opportunity to create a better future.

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 Amazon
Robotics
Media
Summit

16 journalists from Europe

2 days in Baltimore (BWI2)
3 Amazon executives
6 robotics technologies
14 miles of conveyer belts
28 football pitches in size
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22
Generating positive headlines…

Amazon puts faith in

Robots, and humans,
to pick a more
efficient path

… and media
who will tell a
balanced
story
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 2/ Job Creation
& Investment
A BRIEF CASE STUDY

24
 Launching
a new FC

We follow a playbook to make

sure we have all stakeholders on
board

Municipalities and authorities

Citizens and communities
Recruiting
Media
Amazonians!

25 2 days in Baltimore (BWI2)

Video bcn1

amazon.com confidential
 2/Job Creation & Investment
(positive economic impact)
Job Creation and building launches guarantee strong coverage – which is key when we’re under attack.

Economic investment and associated job creation are a useful avenue for positive coverage at the local level
… so we optimize opportunities by:

• Including localized economic impact language in news releases and pitches resulting in our data getting
picked up in stories announcing new buildings

• Producing economic impact studies of legacy or reputationally valuable regions

• Amplifying findings via speaking opportunities, About Amazon blog posts, third-party validators such as
local economists and reporters via exclusives

• Sharing jobs and investment figures with elected officials through tours & events
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 3/Amazon In The Community
The positive coverage from these events
is critical for our reputation and engages
our people.

In 2018, across the EU, we have delivered

over 450 events

Next year our focus will be on:

- Education: STEM/ Robotics

- Right Now Needs / Hunger
- Hyper local
- Kids with Cancer
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 4/Great Place to Work
A dialogue has developed
in social and traditional
media regarding working
conditions:

• limited access to
restrooms
• low pay (which we are
correcting!)
• poor safety record
• excessive targets and
other unfavorable
working conditions.
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AND INTRODUCING … Project Veritas
• Expanding FC Tours capacity ten-fold across EU and NA in 2019
• Launching reputational advertising campaigns featuring our associates to
humanize the brand and drive FC tour participation
• Creating FC Ambassadors to reply to allegations on social media
• Creating and amplifying more Great Place to Work stories across our own channel
and being even stronger in responding to politicians, media, other detractors

To change the narrative and recognize the skilled and dedicated people
working in our buildings
 Great • I Found the Right

2019 •
•
Tour Expansion
FC Ambassadors
Place To
Work •
Place
Career Choice

• Reputational Project Technology • Technology

Advertising • Robotics
• Online Content
Veritas & Innovation
• People
• Media Step Change

• Launches
• Hunger/ Right Now • Economic
Amazon In The Job Creation
Needs investment
Community & Investment
• STEM/ Robotics • Hiring
• Hyper Local
• Kids with Cancer

Company Confidential
Thank
you!
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Q&A