Strategic Public Relations

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

Typepad Spam Blitz...CAPTCHA is Useless

For the past week, this blog has been blitzed by comment spam. I diligently delete it all and block as many ISPs as I can...despite CAPTCHA being turned on the whole time.

Sometimes I appreciate trackback and comment spam just to know that the two features still work (cue world's smallest violin). But this is crazy. And CAPTCHA appears completely useless.

So a Typepad ID is now required to leave comments. This eliminates the spam, but deters my Mom from leaving comments (despite the regular checks I send her to ensure a steady flow of conversation on this blog).

I'm beginning to understand why there's been a mass defect from Typepad to Wordpress. You break links, spill Google Juice and lose some feed subscribers, but perhaps you lose spam too? Maybe I should move this party elsewhere.

We'll see.

Until then, Typepad gets the Goofus and Wordpress gets the Gallant.

tags | typepad vs wordpress | captcha sucks | comment spam | blog spam

lonelygirl15's Real Identity is Ferreted Out

It would appear that lonelygirl15 is not so lonely. Futurelab brings us the scoop that she is actually the brainchild of several folks:

LonelyGirl15 is crafted by a group of filmmakers as an art project.

Here's their letter to their fans: “With your help we believe we are witnessing the birth of a new art form. Our intention from the outset has been to tell a story-- A story that could only be told using the medium of video blogs and the distribution power of the internet. A story that is interactive and constantly evolving with the audience. *SNIP*

Lonelygirl15 is a reflection of everyone. She is no more real or fictitious than the portions of our personalities that we choose to show (or hide) when we interact with the people around us. Regardless, there are deeper mysteries buried within the plot, dialogue, and background of the Lonelygirl15 videos, and many of our tireless and dedicated fans have unearthed some of these. There are many more to come.

The LA Times details the “YouTube drama” here.

Does lonelygirl15 hang with Strumpette? Cat Fight!

So today's Goofus & Gallant is brought to you by the letter “M” for meritocracy.

If you build something to attract attention online—you might just get it. But you better be for real or it won't last for long.

lonelygirl15 gets the Goofus.

zefrank gets the Gallant. Even though he is not even half as cute as Bree, he is for real. He is pretty brilliant too.

tags | public relations | PR | lonelygirl15 | Bree | YouTube | Creative Artists Agency | zefrank | blog | consumer-generated media

Beauty Blogs Get Ugly

Drama! Pierce Mattie management instructed its employees to post comments anonymously on client/industry-related blogs.

Pierce Mattie got caught.

Pierce Mattie diligently posted its lengthy response noting a junior publicist made the error. This merely fanned the flames between Pierce Mattie’s Steve Hultgren and Jack and Hill’s Jackie Danicki.

Their heated exchange across several blogs could bring coComment to its knees. Perhaps they should take it offline and have a sit down?

We’re seeing a lot of young, well-intended employees and interns get companies that should know better into online trouble. Since it’s Friday, and I’m feeling charitable, I will accept this phenomena at face value.

Just remember that whether it’s an intern, junior staffer or the company mascot—if their mischief takes place via your company’s IP address, your brand takes the hit.

And remember that there are no "get rich quick 2.0" schemes when it comes to generating word of mouth, catching a viral or creating awareness in social media. It's a meritocracy which means you're playing by someone else's rules and you have to take the time to learn the rules to get the results or you will suffer the consequences.

In a highly-networked, search-friendly world, the consequences have escalated. One post goes a long way.

Drama is contagious.

ANDY IN DRAG uploaded by defekto

tags | public relations | PR | social media relations | blog | Pierce Mattie | astroturfing

Goofus and Gallant: Creative Advertising

CBS is printing promos for its new season on eggs. Who’s the target audience? I’m guessing it’s The New York Times and mainstream media. CBS is hoping to get news coverage, and Google Juice, out of this stunt, er, promotional effort.

Mission accomplished.

But CBS gets the Goofus, in part, for doing nothing more than dusting off last year’s questionable approach. CBS promotes its new seasons by planting its logo in annoying, er, unexpected and even controversial places.

Assuming its approach to the 2007 season is a rerun, CBS might festoon some mausoleums, and a coffin or two at well-placed (read: high-traffic) graveyards to bring CSI buzz back to life. Or, go for the earliest adopters, and make sure the next diaper I strap on my son has the evil eye logo staring back at me.

Consumerist rants on a semi-related topic (in a way only a Gawker site can). My point is that intrusive might ensure consumer awareness, but it does not correlate directly with consumer engagement.

McDonalds gets the Gallant for approving this bright billboard concept from Leo Burnett. With hat tip to Adverblog.

Think about it. A billboard has tight parameters to accomplish its goal. This mature medium has seen it all. But raw creativity shows us that simple sells and takes the prize for showing how to do it.

tags | public relations | PR | media relations | media | CBS | CSI | McDonalds| Consumerist | advertising | marketing

Goofus & Gallant: Business Ideas

Seth Godin’s book, Free Prize Inside, looks at creating "ideas that make our products and services remarkable." This Goofus & Gallant unwraps a free prize and a booby prize.

Free Prize, Free Coffee  As Starbucks grows exponentially, their cool factor is being called into question and Dunkin’ Donuts and McDonald’s are taking aim at the Jolly Green Siren.

To keep things interesting, the highly-caffeinated brand held a National Coffee Break. For two hours, Starbucks served free coffee. Did this win over new customers? Did this increase sales? Dunno, but the buzz keeps "brand fans" excited, reinforces a Starbuck’s experience and differentiates them from competitors. They've since announced other efforts with similar goals in mind.

Into the Black, $15 at a Time?   The airline industry is hemorrhaging money. Chief among the bleeders is bankrupt Northwest Airlines. They’re "testing a $15 fee for customers who want to reserve aisle and exit-row seats on U.S. flights…to increase revenue."

Which employee of the month decided to start charging customers for something that’s always been free? You can change customer habits, Delta’s self-check in kiosks are a blessing, even though they make you do the work. It’s a small trade off to avoid the line hassle, making this small use of smart technology a big plus for time-starved business travelers. But Northwest isn't testing a trade off here, they're testing a turn off.

If the only idea Northwest has to emerge from bankruptcy is finding ways to charge us more money, they're sunk. Northwest takes home the Goofus, but we’re charging a new fee for the award. Great idea, huh?

tags | public relations | PR | Starbucks | Northwest Airlines | Free Prize Inside | Seth Godin | marketing | brand

Goofus & Gallant: Content vs. Context

Our latest installment of Goofus & Gallant tries to answer the question: "is it the medium or the message?" Strategic Public Relations thinks it’s both. Trying to pick one over the other reminds us of the joke about bodily organs arguing which one is in charge (hint: the winner is a pain in the ass).

Goofus: Seth Godin and AdFreak bring us two examples of how NOT to place an ad.

Pepperidge Farm’s online ad is served up next to an eating disorder article. This is unfortunate for any food brand, but especially one famous for its line of comfort food. There are plenty more examples of this phenomenon as many online ads are served up based on keywords.

The Sony ad pictured here tells consumers to go take a running jump. This would be fine if the ad were not placed in a subway station.

• Gallant: Kellogg's All-Bran Plus cereal gets the Gallant by showing us the “impact” context can have on an ad. Kellogg's chose bathroom humor to get their point across very effectively. This example also, somehow, proves out the above punch line.

tags: | media | advertising | marketing

McDonald's Moves from Fake to Real Blog

What a difference a year makes. Last year we wondered if the Golden Arches had been forever tarnished by the fake Lincolnfry blog that debuted during the Super Bowl.

A year later we are lauding McDonald's for their new blog, Open for Discussion. In doing so, the company moves from Goofus to Gallant which is the bigger story.

In an age of corporate cynicism where folks are seemingly lying in wait for a company to make a mistake, McDonald's experiments, screws up in full view of the public, learns from it and keeps trying. They do it with their menu too. Anyone else remember when they tried to sell a pasta dish?

McDonald's launched Lincolnfry to try and cash in on a trend without understanding it. They learned from this and created Open for Discussion to support a larger corporate responsibility strategy. I'm lovin' their perseverance. After experiencing the risk of blogging, they are now reaping the reward. This should tell corporations that blogs are worth the trouble. It should also tell them that bloggers forgive transparent, authentic companies.

New USA Today & Superman Movie Blogs

USA Today's Kevin Maney and Superman Returns added blogs to the sphere recently. While neither one blazes new territory, they’re worth a quick review.

Born to Blog
Kevin Maney’s journalistic style is perfect for blogging. His blog for USA Today joins the ranks of the New York Times’ David Pogue and countless other tech journalists before him. The blog’s design is clean; I especially love the evolution of the newspaper’s color-coded sections from clunky bars on the left hand of the screen to subtle boxes at the top of the page…just in case you forgot who owned the blog. Of course, the big ad blocks also help you remember you are on MSM turf. BusinessWeek, take note!

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a blog?
I’m conflicted over the Superman Returns blog. Here’s what I like: behind the scenes video. Movie blogs serving up video should have no problem generating buzz for their film. Unless the film really stinks. Less than official movie blogs will promote this fact, having the exact opposite effect.

Super fans will dig the director’s video blog, served up on the site through an appropriate and technically impressive comic-book interface. But it goes one step further and provides “transparent clips” rather than polished, produced footage. Playing perfectly to the blog medium, they cut to director Bryan Singer staging the shot with the cameraman to give the footage a rougher, behind the scenes quality.

Goofus and Gallant
My love for the super blog stops there; the downloadables are sparse at best with only buddy icons and, yawn, wallpaper to offer. So while both blogs have their high points, the Superman Returns blog gets the Goofus and Kevin Maney’s blog gets the Gallant.

More on Movie Blogs
One of the smartest movie blogs was one of the first: Spiderman 2. Launched in April of 2003, this blog encourages its fans to start blogging, offering a “how to blog” primer and Spiderman-branded blog templates for download.

Feed a fan content and get blog traffic, teach a fan to create their own content and get box office sales.

The templates bypass the blogosphere’s promotional taboo and bloggers' ad-posting aversion. The blog was kept active after the film premiered, making sure there was a second wave of activity to coincide with the DVD release.

tags: movie blog, superman returns, blog, Kevin Maney, USA Today, marketing

Product Naming: Dogs, Smokes and Cars

This week’s Goofus and Gallant post is on product naming. The first Goofus goes to Beneful. Combining names to create a new brand or product name is risky. Beneficial and wonderful are great words to try and connect with Fido’s food, but pop culture had this name put to sleep. At least for me, the name “Bennifer” comes to mind every time I hear Beneful. And I’ve been hearing it a lot lately with a ton of online ads to support their recent appearance on The Apprentice: Martha Stewart.

The Gallant goes to Eukanuba. There is a story to this unique name and all good brands should have a story to tell. Disclaimer: The Iams Company was a client of mine many moons ago.

Other names that get the Goofus include Leganza and Altria. For the name of a car model, Leganza sounds like an aspirational attempt at confidence. It comes up short. Altria is simply a bait and switch. Philip Morris purchased Kraft Foods and did not want a direct connection between the two brands.

Tobacco companies need to switch products, not names. Philip Morris should stop selling tobacco, buy a car manufacturer and make some changes. A Marlboro Truck will sell. Virginia Slims can compete with the Mini Cooper and whatever the Kool looks like, I’m test driving it (even though Kool is not a PM brand).

For more on product naming, visit Seth Godin and Snark Hunting.

tags: product naming, marketing, branding, brand