Strategic Public Relations

AMP, #PepsiFail and staying on brand

There's been lots of discussion around the iPhone App "AMP UP Before You Score" from Pepsi's AMP Energy Drink. Let me see if I can sum it up.

The Issue: The AMP app profiles 24 types of women, from "Cougar" and "Athlete" to "Out of Your League" and "Married."

Each profile provides unfortunate content including pickup lines and other information to help the user "score." It also has a brag function which allows users to promote and share their efforts via email, Facebook or Twitter. The app states: "Get lucky? Add her to your Brag List. You can include a name, date and whatever details you remember."

The Outrage: Needless to say, the immature, chauvinistic app has Twitter frothing. The vitriol is understandable. It even elicited an apology from AMP.

"Our app tried 2 show the humorous lengths guys go 2 pick up women. We apologize if it’s in bad taste & appreciate your feedback. #pepsifail"

Whether or not it's a genuine apology, it's smart because it:
* acknowledges the issue
* addresses the issue where the conversation is taking place vs. on the company's web site
* uses the #pepsifail tag to ensure the apology reaches the right people on Twitter. While some feel they should distance themselves from Pepsi, I highly doubt that's even remotely possible.

But AMP has done nothing else. And by not removing the app from the iTunes store, the amount of ill will for the AMP brand and for Pepsi has snowballed.

The Brand: It's obvious and understandable why people are offended by this app. I downloaded it to write this post and will be removing it promptly. But it bears noting that, if nothing else, it appears to be on brand. I'm not the target audience. Disclosure: Starbucks is the only energy drink I consume and have been happily married for more than 11 years.

But the site, including the Yo Mamma Slam and extreme sports sponsorships, seems to be geared to the same target audience. While AMP takes a slightly different approach, it reminds me of the positioning around Axe grooming products. 

The Strategy: The brand claims the app is a lighthearted attempt at humor vs. a misogynistic tool. But the concept and a variety of details in the app are a bit over the top. AMP knew it was competing with 76,000 other apps in the iTunes store. It even created a YouTube video riffing off the Apple "There's an app for that" commercials to promote it. AMP knew it needed to push the envelope to stand out. Perhaps they planned for controversy to fuel that promotion. Mission accomplished.

The Hypocrisy: If AMP had pulled the app, I can already see pundits like myself saying that AMP over-reacted to a Twitter mob mentality. Motrin received a similar rap when it responded quickly to a negative response one of its ads received online. AMP acknowledged the situation, something other brands don't always do, and they moved on.

We criticize brands for not responding online. Do we also get to criticize them when we feel they haven't responded to the degree of our expectations or even exceeded those expectations? Every "social media expert" shaking their head to the affirmative as they read this might also want to consider the cost to develop an iPhone app and then shelve it.

The Bottom Line: Does Motrin Moms set up the expectation that brands must instantly go to extremes when negative conversations first pop up? Perhaps, but I think Motrin Moms did so because its target audience was up in arms – the very consumers they’re trying to get buy their product. And, while I agree that the app is in poor taste, this does not appear to be a similar case.

I'm impressed by brands that use Twitter to monitor the conversation and respond as quickly as possible. But at the risk of increasing ire, I'm not sure AMP should remove the app. I think this is a new wrinkle. Brands might not be able to do everything we want. Or they simply might not be willing to do everything we want -- when we're not the target consumer.

We’re certainly reinforcing AMPs stance by drawing even more attention and Google juice to the application. That’s the real energy drink fueling this conversation.

AMP assumed its app would be ignored during the concepting stage. They designed it to get attention. Perhaps the lesson is that the proper response from Twitter, and consumers like me, is to do the exact opposite of our reaction up to this point. We should move from outrage to silence.

Bombastic ≠ Strategic

We all know the challenge of standing out at big events like BlogHer, ComicCon and (back in the day) leviathans like Comdex.

Electronic Arts is learning about that challenge right now as their "Sin to Win" promotion is doing more than standing out at ComicCon. It's pissing people off.

I've gotten notes from PRSA and a colleague attending BlogHer wondering "wtf?!"

Evidently the promotion revolved around their new Dante's Inferno game. People were being encouraged to have their pictures taken while committing acts of lust with booth babes. Electronic Arts has since apologized and some are wondering if this was a planned strategy.

Evidently Electronics Arts even faked a protest over the same game earlier this summer. Whenever something stupid like this happens, the media wonder if it was planned to generate more ink.

Bombastic ≠ Strategic
Standing out at trade shows in particular can be tough. More than a decade ago, at a client's trade show, I was impressed when one exhibitor was allowing attendees to make their own tie dye t-shirts with the company's logo on it. There booth had a lot of traffic with long lines as a result of the giveaway. When I told my client about this he asked me what the company sold. It wasn't more than 10 minutes later and I couldn't remember.

Anyone can piss someone off if they try hard enough. I'm even reminded of a quote from Spinal Tap when someone objected to their album cover for Smell the Glove. "That's nothing. You should have seen the cover they wanted to publish."

A fine blend of sizzle and steak is required to stand out for the right reasons. And whether or not the Electronic Arts stunts were planned or spontaneous, fake or real, NONE of this is strategic. It's desperate.

Cross-posted to the Bad Pitch Blog.

Free Agent Nation 2.0

The news media have been making a lot of historic comparisons when serving up various economic statistics. The journalists are simply trying to depict the level of economic turmoil around us. But, more often than not, their readers are already living it.

In fact I started working four-day weeks in January. So I launched a new site promoting my consulting practice. It’s hard to believe I’ve had my vanity URL parked since March 11, 2000. But nine years later, I proudly launched kevindugan.com.

And the timing couldn’t be better for my launch. As of April 1, I became a full-time, free agent. So my silence here has been due to my full frontal consulting efforts. I’m also exploring full-time opportunities.

Powered by Ample
The site was created in Ruby on Rails by the team at Ample. Josh, Rob, Bobby, Kevin and Adam do great work and I enjoyed working with them.

Eating my own Dog Food
The site design is based around the concept of content distribution, something I’ve written about before. The definition of content has changed and, more importantly, how content can be shared and served up in new ways. Kevindugan.com serves up my content from a variety of online properties. I’ve aggregated these content streams into one site to “get credit” for all of it in one spot.

So I appreciate your patience as my reports might be a little spotty until I either settle comfortably into free agent nation or find another full-time gig. In the meantime, there’s plenty more on the concept of slippery content to dig into. Henry Jenkins calls it ”spreadable media.” Check it out, stop by my shiny new site and watch this space for (so. very. much.) more.

A Tale of Two Syndromes

The more you talk with people about the “next shiny new thing,” the more you see camps of thought evolve around it. Each camp is rapt with a unique syndrome.

One Thing Syndrome
Let’s be honest, it’s annoying when a wave of hype hits around the next shiny new thing. It’s deemed to be a “killer” of the last technology everyone had tattooed on their laptops and distracts everyone from Arrington to ZDNet.

Instead of distilling this hype and figuring out what the new technology means to them, some people learn the “one thing” about it with which they disagree. It’s one negative element that allows them to pigeonhole the entire topic, concept, technology website or even a political figure for that matter.

“Twitter asks ‘what are you doing’ and WHY would I care about what Joe had for lunch?”

And if Twitter comes up in conversation? You can see them tune out as they wait to tell you their one thing, regardless of how relevant it is, like Pavlov's pooch.

The cure for this is trying the technology out for yourself and forming your own opinion. I’m proof of this as I used to have a slight case of One Thing Syndrome. It manifested itself in this cartoon.

Everything Syndrome
At the other extreme, we have the Everything Syndrome where folks act quite the opposite of those with One Thing Syndrome.

“Twitter has changed my life and it’s changing communication as we know it. A friend of my brother’s heard Twitter healed a boy with smallpox. It cures more disease than Robitussin. It’s cleaning my oven right now.”

Everything Syndrome hits people that are more than just passionate about the next shiny new thing. In fact they’re blind with appreciation for the new topic, concept, technology website or political figure. This translates into effusive praise which gives the next shiny new thing more Google juice than any technology is worthy of receiving.

The cure for this is a mantra reminding yourself that every next shiny new thing is just one piece of a much larger puzzle. Focus on the larger puzzle before you tattoo “next shiny new” on your forearm.

To be honest, the above syndromes are completely understandable. But the truth is somewhere in the middle. So when the next shiny new technology comes up in conversation, consider if the person you’re talking to has one of these syndromes or if they have been cured with a healthy dose of pragmatism.

Let’s p0wn 09

"PR's here today and gone tomorrow. It don't mean nothing."

When I read the above quote from a 42-year public relations industry veteran upon his retirement, my jaw dropped and my blood boiled.

To be fair the 72-year old pro was pointing to a career achievement that made a positive impact and will serve as his legacy. He was saying that making a positive impact is more important than your day job – regardless of your industry. But after 42 years in the public relations industry, would you want this to be your last quote in the last graph of your last story while on the job?

Whether or not I take his quote out of context, I guess my point is that if you have passion for what you do, keep doing it…well. If you want respect for what you do, earn it and then pay it forward to those earning that same respect from you.

And at the risk of sounding like Stuart Smalley, let’s step into 2009 fully aware of what we’re facing. It will be (much) harder than years past, full of change at a minimum. But we'll come out of it stronger and smarter than before. "Do not go gentle into that good night."

For 2009 lets be “here today and better tomorrow. That means something.”

The Neo Monoliths of Chicago uploaded by Stuck in Customs
tags | public relations | PR | media relations | media | advertising | marketing

Daryl Toor is a Tool

This is being posted here while Blogger holds the Bad Pitch blog hostage.

I'll spare you the explanation of why I posted this.

But I would like to extend my sympathies  to the families of Bernie Mac and Issac Hayes.

Subject: Is Samuel Jackson Next? Death Comes in Threes…

From: Daryl Toor
Date: August 10, 2008 9:23:38 PM EDT

Yesterday, it was Bernie Mac. Today it was Isaac Hayes. Could Samuel Jackson be next?

Daryl Toor, president of Attention!, an Atlanta based publicity firm, a former music reviewer and record company executive notes:

"This photograph, taken from Isaac Hayes' official site is as eerie as the time I read a newspaper obituary on its own obituary writer…."

Daryl Toor
CEO & Chief Awareness Officer
email, phone
agency URL

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

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

Online vs. Offline Reading | Friday Flickr Fix | 08.01.08

From the “kids get off my lawn!” department:

It bugs me when people treat social media as a final destination. Social media is part of a circuit that’s completed through personal interactions. Terms like lifestreaming imply that someone’s whole life is online. And, well, it’s not.

This adds to my growing concern around online’s unintentional negative impact. Take reading for example. Part of my attachment to print media is nostalgic. And I realize that the newspaper industry’s failure to evolve its business model is bringing its current pains.

But Andy Lark points us to an article noting how we read can impact our critical thinking.

Back to my nostalgia, and the point of this post…at the Mercantile Library’s First Annual Cincinnati Blogger convention, I spoke with the library’s Executive Director, Albert Pyle, about the demise of the card catalog.

While computer tracking of the books is more efficient, card catalogs offer the reader a form of discovery and I’m told sometimes contain more information about each book than most library computer systems.

The Mercantile Library cannot afford to keep its card catalog as up to date as they would like. And as a result Pyle levels a challenge to anyone that feels passionate about the card catalog system. “If you like it so much, then use it.” Point taken.

As we lose tactile experiences like the card catalog and print media, do we lose (discovery, an extra level of information) as much as we gain (efficiency, accuracy)? Or am I just showing my age?

Card Catalog – Use it or lose it uploaded by prblog
tags | public relations | PR | media

The First Mash-Up, Circa: 1977

The AP tells us that "some retailers are giving vinyl records a spin" (get it?).

This reminded me of another long-lost recording format. As I wistfully combed the results of a Google Image search for the perfect image of an Eight Track, I found evidence of the first mash-up.

The interactive 8-track looked like the average 8-track, except at the bottom, where the Atari cartridge was connected. These 8-tracks, or "double-enders" as the music/video game fanatics called them, were an instant success and proceeded to change the music industry for at least a couple of weeks.

The double-ender was a hit. Magazines like Rolling Stone and Gamers Monthly hailed the Foghat Live 8-track as the start of the new music and video game revolution. And it was, for the next four years at least, but in the end it was not enough to save the interactive 8-track from the trash heap of nostalgia.

-- Via The Van Gogh-Gogh's

Is it me, or is that guy so beyond smiling that he looks in pain? UPDATE: Yeah, it's a joke. But a guy can dream, can't he?!

You Need Serious Play*

In lieu of a Friday Flickr Fix, I’m serving up video. Last week I won a webcam and this video is the result of my special effects test. When I watched it, the Radiohead mashup came to mind. The two complement each other (and redefine goofy in the process).

This is not my first webcam or my first video. But I’m posting the video to prove a point.

Playing around with new web sites and new gadgets can lead to some serious benefits. My presentations have improved since tuning into Flickr and using video to kick off a slide deck. So this post is to encourage and inspire – while hopefully making you laugh (with me, not at me).

Far too often, I think people want to fully understand new technologies before they start using them. But instead they should just jump in, experiment and engage in serious play. *Serious play is also a design conference and a book.