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Anadarko Petroleum starts ‘image ad’ campaign Company is positioning itself as a North Slope operator in the event BP Amoco’s takeover of ARCO goes through T.A. Badger Associated Press Writer
Houston, Texas-based Anadarko Petroleum Corp. is doing something to make itself a recognized name among Alaskans. It’s started an advertising campaign aimed at casting itself as an up-and-coming company with the smarts and grit to succeed in the Arctic.
The campaign started in Anchorage Sept. 10 with a stylized 60-second spot that Anadarko considers a first handshake.
Serious about Alaska “It’s to let people know we’re serious about Alaska, and to let people know who we are,” said Mark Hanley, Anadarko’s public affairs manager for the state. “It’s hard to tell people what you want to do until people know who you are.”
Anadarko has been aggressively moving on the North Slope and in Cook Inlet in recent years. The $4.7 billion company holds a 22 percent stake in the Alpine oil field, which contains more than 400 million barrels, and is involved in an oil and gas joint venture with ARCO Alaska Inc. in the Inlet.
Hanley said the ad campaign is also intended to position Anadarko as a North Slope operator in the event BP Amoco’s proposed takeover of Atlantic Richfield Co. goes through. BP and ARCO are now the only field operators on the Slope.
Gov. Tony Knowles has said he won’t bless the BP-ARCO deal unless BP sells a sizable chunk of the combined assets to encourage Slope competition. Anadarko hasn’t been bashful about saying it is interested in being that competitor.
Set to a soaring musical score, the ad is a video montage that begins by stringing together clips set far from Alaska — African sand dunes, Gulf of Mexico oil platforms and a man on a horse galloping across southwestern scrublands.
The risk-takers Key image words emerge and fade – “explorers,” “innovators,” “independent,” “determination.”
“We found billions of barrels of oil in the Sahara after others had come and gone,” the narrator says soothingly. “We’re risk-takers. We found oil in the Gulf of Mexico after others had given up.”
Message for Alaskans: other companies may not see much life left on the North Slope, but we sure do.
Anadarko demonstrated that faith last year by leasing 3.3 million acres in the Brooks Range foothills from Arctic Slope Regional Corp. That acreage has been moribund as an oil prospect for more than 30 years. The company was also active in this year’s lease sale in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
The second half of the company’s ad heads north. It speaks of boundless optimism for the future and informs viewers that it holds more exploration acreage than anyone else. The big finish has the narrator repeat the corporate slogan – “We believe in Alaska” — as the video transitions from black to a rose-hued portrait of Mount McKinley.
Kevin Bruce, who heads Northwest Strategies, an Anchorage public relations company, said such ads are good economics and good politics.
“Obviously you want to establish and maintain a positive relationship with the people of the state as a way of maintaining a positive relationship with the government those people elect,” Bruce said. “A lot of the cost to oil companies is government take — taxes, royalties and regulations.”
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