Strategic Public Relations

Blogger Blocks the Bad Pitch Blog

Last week there was a snafu at Blogger and a robot mistakenly identified a lot of blogs as being spam. Blogger claims to have fixed that problem.

Then on Monday, the Bad Pitch blog was locked out. Nearly a week later, we’re still waiting to get access. Somehow it’s fitting I’m alerting you via my Typepad blog.

PR Week Competition
One of the first posts we need to publish will congratulate Vove Nation for their win in the PR Week blog competition. Both of our blogs had more votes than anyone in the first round of competition (A and B) so far. It's hard to be anything but thankful for all of the folks who voted for us. And losing to folks like Josh Hallett and Mike Manuel at Voce Nation is easy to accept.

Nothing is Free
It’s hard being patient waiting for a human at Blogger to correct a robot’s mistake. And it’s been impossible for me to find a phone number or email to an actual Blogger employee. In the meantime, Blogger has our data…our posts, our code – everything.

Find us on Facebook
While we figure out our next move, we created a fan page for the Bad Pitch blog on Facebook to keep in touch with folks.

tags | public relations | PR | media relations | media | bad pitch blog

Brand Merger Baby Steps | Goofus and Gallant

FedEx just announced it’s dropping the Kinko’s from its name and becoming FedEx Office to "describe the wide range of services available at its retail centers."

FedEx purchased Kinko’s in 2004. Waiting four years to drop the name might seem odd for a company specializing in overnight delivery, but it’s not.

FedEx was also adding a service by extending their brand to the uber-copy shop. This takes time to get organized internally and externally. Regardless of customer loyalty when the acquisition was announced, FedEx Kinko’s has now established itself as a successfully merged brand.

FedEx gets the Gallant on how to merge brand names -- by taking baby steps. Macy’s took a similar approach locally when they purchased they were still known as Federated Deparrment Stores and switched Lazarus Department Stores over to the Macy's nameplate.

Who gets the Goofus for showing us how NOT to merge brands? AT&T.

After several convoluted business deals, AT&T owned Cingular Wireless. It took about $4 billion and six years, but Cingular was a hot brand with its orange jumping jack logo. Cool enough to land exclusivity around the iPhone introduction.

AT&T flipped a switch in May of last year and what was once orange became blue.

Tossing some hard-earned gravitas out the window is bad enough, but it sends an even worse message to customers. It implies that the new brand is trying to gloss over the change. The subtext reads that AT&T is an arrogant alpha brand.

The instant enterprise-wide consistency might make integrated marketers squeal with glee, but this is messy stuff. The more AT&T tried to establish the new brand, the tougher it made the transition.

tags | advertising | marketing | branding | brand

Is Your Brand Sticky or Slippery Online?

As information disperses wildly/widely through personal channels, marketers must revert from “sticky” mentality to “slippery.” Sticky websites require lures and hooks to get people to our sites and then lock them in. Slippery ideas enable wide distribution of our brand into daily life (Originally articulated by Mark Earls via Fallon’s Aki Spicer).

A client, er, someone might ask -- why create profiles on video/photo sharing sites and social networks when you have a perfectly good website?

The answer to this question is the Jeep Experience site. The Jeep brand planted its flag on Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Flickr over time. Rather than a heavy-handed approach, Jeep merely facilitates online fan gatherings and consumer-generated Jeep content.

Jeep now aggregates all of this content at the Jeep Experience. It brilliantly illustrates the slippery over sticky approach. Back in the (dot com) day, a brand would try and build the Jeep Experience site and spend tons of money attracting eyeballs. It would cost you twice as much and be half as effective. This is generous math if you consider Bud.TV as a more recent example of a sticky content play.

Even more recently, Tommy Hilfiger launched TommyTV. Music is being used to sell everything from coffee to deodorant, so why not clothes as well?

TommyTV has the right goal -- to make an emotional connection with its customers. But the execution still feels like a brand hoping the sticky approach works instead of giving up control. TommyTV has a YouTube presence, but it’s downplayed on the site.

So clean up your act online and go from sticky to slippery like Jeep (who gets the Gallant). For trying to have its cake and eat it too/2.0, TommyTV gets the Goofus.

Bubble Rain uploaded by jurvetson
tags | Jeep | TommyTV | Bud.TV | advertising | marketing | consumer-generated media | brand

Scrabble, Target Fumble; JCPenney, M&Ms Recover and Score

Here are two Goofus and Gallants in one post as marketers continue to demonstrate how to and how not to.

Scrabble and Target Go Goofus
Scrabble finds out it has a huge following on Facebook through an application that “pays homage” to Scrabble. Tapping into this fan base would be a double-word score for the game’s owners Mattel and Hasbro. Hint: Send them all a coupon for the handheld game?! Instead, they’re calling in legal to piss off thousands of potential customers.

Target has tapped into the power of Facebook.This makes their recent blogger relations move all the more puzzling.

PRNewser tells us “a Target PR rep sent the following message to a blogger questioning a recent ad campaign:”

Thank you for contacting Target; unfortunately we are unable to respond to your inquiry because Target does not participate with non-traditional media outlets. This practice is in place to allow us to focus on publications that reach our core guest. Once again thank you for your interest, and have a nice day.

Target deals with non-traditional media outlets. They just don’t deal with the Z-Lister that reached out to them.

JCPenney Thinks Link, M&Ms Goes Green
JCPenney created what Ad Age calls “organic search equity” by aggregating blog content into a branded Fall Shopping Guide. As bloggers connected their readers to the content and people Stumble(d)Upon it, the Google Juice started flowing.

Now the site “shows up as No. 5 of 13 million results for the search term 'fall shopping' and second out of more than 4 million results for 'fall shopping guide.'"

M&Ms cashed in on the urban myth equity around its green candy to stand out amongst a sea of red and pink packaging. The end result? Buzz.

tags | public relations | PR

Best Buy’s PR Smarts and ChargeCarte’s Customer Disservice

It’s been so long since I’ve done a Goofus and Gallant post that I’ll remind everyone we point to marketing and PR stories that demonstrate how to and how not to.

Best Buy’s High-Definition PR
Best Buy starts us out with some smart public relations. A few people have listened to me talk about Best Buy’s HD strategy – from creating HD awareness to ceasing analog TV sales across the chain.

Consider how many customers will call foul over the retailer that sold them an analog set a few months before the switch to HD.

Now we quickly digress from taking something away from customers (and getting high marks) to offering a new service to customers (and getting points off).

ChargeCarte’s Nickel and Dime Strategy
The concept sounds good...get your phone or iPod charged at the airport twice as fast as your own charger can do it.

But charging me for electricity seems more opportunistic than helpful – especially at $3 for 30 minutes for only a 50 percent charge.

This ChargeCarte is located in baggage claim – where all you want to do is exit the airport.

There’s also only one small bench located next to it. If more than one or two people use this at a time, you'll have to hover and make sure no one walks off with your phone/iPod.

ChargeCarte should have taken this technology upstream. How much would you pay for an adapter that allows you to charge your phone faster?

Something tells me I’m not the target customer.

Charge Carte?! uploaded by prblog
tags | public relations | PR | media relations | Best Buy | Goofus and Gallant | marketing | design

PR Drops Seven Balls Seven Times

wtf? The luckiest day ever to land on a calendar hits and the story of the day tied to it was about the record number of the weddings taking place?

My industry let me down.

Maybe my expectations are high. July is a big month for me. In addition to being born in July, my wedding anniversary is in July and this blog's birthday is in July (stay tuned for more on that milestone).

This was supposed to be a glorious post detailing all of the publicity, promotions and events taking place on this once-in-a-lifetime alignment of the PR stars. But aside from one story on the bride's big day -- spun several thousand different ways -- I only found this news on the Seven Wonders of the World.

Gallant    So I'm giving seven Gallants to the New Seven Wonders for unveiling today what may become their much-contested results (Latin America now claims three of the world's seven wonders).

Goofus    The Goofus goes to the uncola, 7-Up. I mean if not them, then who?

Redentor Christ statue (Christ the Redeemer) uploaded by carrie j
tags | public relations | PR | media relations | marketing | 7 Wonders of the World | 7-Up | 07.07.07

My Favorite JetBlue Posts?

People focusing less on the trees and more on the forest are providing the most interesting take on JetBlue, IMHO.

OK, some of the snark reads well too. It's fascinating how quickly we tear down what we build up.

JetBlue may be different from other airlines, that doesn't mean they're infallible.

jetBlue gets voice uploaded by fraying

tags | JetBlue

Friday Flickr Fix – 02.01.07 – Mooninite Fright

And I was wondering what I could possibly add to the "Boston Cartoon Network Scare" discussion. Wow. What a week for Boston, marketing and Turner Broadcasting System.

According to the Flickr Photo Page, "the guy on the right found out somewhere online where all the mooninites had been placed (i think it was a google maps mashup), and sent his girlfriend out on the trail (he was working late). She found one still intact (kendall sq. i think?), beating the press and the police and everyone else on the hunt."

The explosive speed with which a story can hurtle across the globe, and the variety of bizarre turns it takes along the way, really, er, blows me away.

Church of the Customer has some good insight into the whole kerfuffle.

"If you already have a show or a product with a cultish following, why try to go mainstream? The mainstream will never try to understand the cult or its symbols. It'll just frighten the mainstream."

BOO! Hope your weekend's not too scary.

mooninite men uploaded by pierre lascott

tags | public relations | PR | media relations | media | mooninite | Cartoon Network | advertising | marketing | guerilla marketing

Mountain Dew Customer Service Follows Up, Follows Through

Terri Maini from PepsiCo consumer relations responded to my recent post on PepsiCo’s customer response loop.

Hi Kevin,
I wanted to take a moment to thank you for your candid feedback about my e-mail to you. I misunderstood your request and I apologize because my response wasn't very helpful.

We agree that Sue Teller is quite a character and everyone seems to love her. And please know that I did pass the "Tonight Show" information onto our Public Relations department as well as our Brand Team and I know they are following up on the inquiry.

Thank you for being such a great Dew fan and for having such a good sense of humor!

Regards,
Terri
Consumer Relations

Terri, no need to apologize. I will still do the Dew (but I prefer to sip the Starbucks).

E-mail follow up like this between a company and a customer goes a long way to clearing up any misunderstanding. Whether they have arrows or accolades for a brand, consumers usually just want their voice to be heard.

Since I’m helping put their spokesperson onto two different national TV programs, I’m surprised the PR and brand folks have not gotten involved at some level in an obvious fashion. So when it comes to customer service, Mountain Dew gets the Goofus and PepsiCo’s Terri Maini gets the Gallant.

Mountain Dew clearly offers several methods for customers to provide input, ask questions and give feedback. They are also responsive and are monitoring relevant brand conversations online. Connecting with the customer is the final step.

It may be tough for some companies to decide whether or not to jump into the conversation. But the brand that hesitates in an effort to avoid another misstep may merely make it worse. I reference corporate personality a lot while others chant the mantras of authenticity and transparency. But it all boils down to just being yourself. If you do this you are allowed to make mistakes. By simply following up with a personal e-mail, Terri Maini turned a misunderstanding into an opportunity.

Mountain Dew Sign uploaded by Silfverduk

tags | public relations | PR | PepsiCo | Mountain Dew | Sue Teller | advertising | marketing | brand

Will Edelman Walk the Talk?

John Wagner points us to a MediaPost article detailing how the Wal-Marting Across America blog was exposed

“as a promotional tactic engineered by Working Families for Wal-Mart (WFWM), an organization launched by Wal-Mart's public relations firm Edelman. WFWM paid for the RV and all travel expenses, rerouted the trip's original plan, and plastered a logo on the RV's side. Although the blog featured a link to WFWM, it did not identify the organization as a paid sponsor."

On top of that, one of the contributors to the blog turns out to be a photographer for The Washington Post.

This is the second time Edelman has been exposed for opaque social media relations on behalf of its client, Wal-Mart.

Joe Jaffe levels the following question at Edelman, “please explain why, as a so-called leader in this field, this is the second time you've (how shall I put this) acted like an advertising agency?”

As a non-agency guy, I’m also asking it. The folks at Edelman know that by embracing transparency we gain the permission to make mistakes…as long as we fess up quickly. So now’s your chance.

In the meantime I’m giving Edelman the Goofus and the Gallant on furthering the use of social media in the public relations industry. This tactic could have worked using full disclosure, just interview the customers and get their stories. It might not have resulted in effusive praise for the giant smiley face, but it would have been interesting nonetheless.

Hard to believe Edelman’s leviathan efforts in hiring the right team and investing the time and money to take a leadership role in social media could be thwarted so easily. But it very well could.

UPDATE: Biz Hack is tracking the issue here. Based on my referers, I KNOW Edelman is monitoring the situation. Based on the additional referers from Technorati, it would seem a lot of folks are. I'm linking to Biz Hack to show how quickly issues can unfold online. Left unchecked, problems escalate in a flash. This snowballs with more questions, assumptions and asserstions.

tags | public relations | PR | social media relations | Edelman | Walmarting Across America | Wal-Mart | fake blog