No doubt in my mind that another slew of awards will follow the launch of the most on brand, site specific app I’ve seen (probably ever). Whopper Sacrifice is such a fun, fresh concept it makes me want to go actually buy a burger in tribute.
"What would you do for a free WHOPPPER? Now is the time to put your fair-weather web friendships to the test. Install WHOPPER Sacrifice on your Facebook profile, and we'll reward you with a free flame-broiled WHOPPER when you sacrifice 10 of your friends."
As one of the 736 friends of the agency’s popular interactive ECD, I fully expect to be axed. Jeff, just remember we knew each other way back when online advertising was all about optimizing gifs. This app is so clearly spot on and wicked funny that it is even getting what I’d call *real* PR, meaning mass coverage well beyond the expected marketing rags and ranty ad blogs. Way to make your client famous. This story’s everywhere, from the HuffPost to the NY Daily News.
Plus, crossposted on Brand Street.
Okay amigos, delete me on Facebook, but please follow me on twitter
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Have you seen this? I am totally loving this spot-on simple concept. Kraft’s Stove Top Stuffing brand is heating 10 bus shelters in Chicago to literally warm up consumers this December.
This is such an on-brand idea it is almost amazing it hasn’t been done before. As the NY Times quotes, “Stove Top as a brand has a great equity in the area of warmth,” said Ellen Thompson, brand manager…”
What a great way to prove your brand values, rather than just promise them. (And get some nice bonus PR well beyond the marketing blogs.) Chilly commuters will be both surprised and delighted. Credits and kudos to Kraft, JCDecaux, and Draft FCB.
Seeing this really reminded me of how powerful a brand message can be when it is of tangible benefit to the user and not merely a passive advert. I was reminded of an old boss, G.M. O'Connell founder of Modem Media, who’s oft quoted goal was to do "advertising so good that people will embrace it as a service.” (Check the date on that link btw.) As old as that idea is, I think it couldn’t be more relevent in today’s (chilly) climate.
Join me on twitter where customer service trumps brand advertising
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One of the best things about the twitterverse is that new apps pop up to fill needs that the main system doesn’t cover. For client-centric agency types — especially those who grok the warning of the Motrin twitterstorm —manually monitoring twitter (via the search tool formerly know as Summize) has become part of our day. Now you can use Twilert, in much the same way you use Google Alerts.
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Seems almost mandatory for me to write about the Motrin twitterstorm. (Dan has a good post here.) This is a perfect example of a gulf between a brand image (that ad) and what became a reputation crisis. Of course, agencies pushing out ads that the target audience doesn't find half as clever as the copywriter does, is tired news. The fascinating freshness, imho, is the power of the Hashtag.
"Hashtags are a community-driven convention for adding additional context and metadata to your tweets. They're like tags on Flickr, only added inline to your post. You create a hashtag simply by prefixing a word with a hash symbol: #hashtag."
By adding the hashtag #motrinmoms to their tweets, irate bloggers found each other and created a strong, searchable voice that outweighed its actual size. They got to the top of the "trending topics" on twitter (which is how the rest of us found them). Then, their blog posts feed mainstream media, and the results are history. Results literally, as in on Google for a long, long time to come.
It doesn’t matter exactly how many moms were angry enough to contribute. Or that other tag along bloggers (mostly the non baby wearing , male skewed demo, btw) thought they over reacted. The lesson here for our client brands is Hashtags. Keywords you can’t buy. Sounds like mandatory place to be.
Follow my hashtagging trail on twitter
Wow, here I am in San Francisco. Epicenter of technology. And progressive tech fueled activism. Home! I used to find it a conflict that this conference happens on or around Election Day. This year it all ties together. Get ready for endless new media marketing lessons about the Obama campaign, even though many of us have always picked up on 2.0 communication innovations (like Meetup.com) via grassroots netroots politics.
For us marketers, a fun fact is that the phrase Web 2.0 was actually coined for this conference. And therefore they get to define it. (Talk about a catch phrase going viral; a copywriter’s dream.)
This year, the conference is organized around the theme “Web Meets World”. Which means “...how the Web...might be tapped to address the world's most pressing limits. Or...its most pressing opportunities.” Well I certainly agree that it is the interwebs to the rescue, or rather people using 2.0 technologies, that can change the world. There are some cool start-ups here that I’ll link to in next post. Lots of reporters too. The organizers rock at PR.
More on the conference live (PST) on twitter. Or just follow twitter newbie, Al Gore.
For many of you frequent fliers out there this no doubt is old hat. For me, a happy surprise from a brand. Yesterday I got a nice mail pack announcing I was now a Silver member of the BA Executive Club. Whoo-hoo.
It was an unexpected upgrade. Although I love me some miles, tracking how many I need for status levels in the different airline systems was never a priority. So this made me think about how much the surprise part adds to the delight.
For a piece of member comms, it was quite upscale in design and paper weight. Plus, they include two extra cards with straps to go on your luggage. That's the magic part because now I can swan through the fast track check in or hang in the lounge in spite of my lowly coach ticket. Well done BA. Sure I earned it, but it feels like a gift. I am quite fond of Virgin, but between my BA Amex card* and my new Silver specialness, this classic mileage junky is falling for the loyalty scheme that shows me the most love.
Look for me twittering in the lounge
(*shameless former client product plug)
Everybody's buzzing about Social Media these days. Even if most companies aren't sure what to do with it.
Might be less palatable for the paid media centric among us, but it makes more sense to me to call it Social PR. Because isn't it simply about having a relationship with the public?
And the not so secret key to success is to participate the way people do. Less press release; more conversation starter. Hardly new thinking, but very hard to find brands doing it right. (If you have a favorite example, let me know.)
I've been admiring Whole Foods. They're active on twitter, which lets them talk one on one with folks, plus offer links to their group blog, flickr sets and vodcasts (a tweet link = a micro-release). When the floods hit Texas, Whole Foods HQ used twitter to tell customers what stores were closed, as well as share concern for their homes and let them know the WF staff was ok. They have won me as a brand fan and I don't even shop there.
What makes this an even better story in my eyes is that Whole Foods is also an example of a blogging faux pas. Back in the day, the CEO famously used an anonymous screen name to post comments on forums. Cleared of any financial wrong doing, he learned his lesson and the brand is now a best practice case study. Clearly a crisis PR story with a happy social ending.
Follow me on the hunt for more social brands on twitter
As my ulcer-making anxiety over this American election increases with every new twist of truth from the shameless McCain campaign, I can't help but wonder what lasting damage this neo con noise is doing to brand America. Because while repeated lies can't literally become truth, they can certainly embed into a reputation.
I had to think about this in a different way this week at work. I was preaching (as usual) the power of social media on brands, using examples like consumer review site Ciao and the inventive BrandTags.net.
But what happens, someone asked, if a competitor goes on these sites and falsely slurs our products? Sure, the answer was easy. That an online community tends to self-police; they'd out the troll or ignore an obvious plant.
And I do believe that. But it is not really that easy to protect a reputation from malevolent accusations. We are just lucky maybe that marketing is less prone to pathological liars than politics.
For more election obsession, follow me on twitter
If you love words, but (like me) are spelling-challenged, it is fun to try the Thesaurus as an extra and educational way to double spell check. (I also use Google as a spell checker, which is more common than you'd think.)
It can start an unexpected brain thread, as it did when I looked up "steward" —as in brand steward — and found these synonyms:
guardian, keeper, custodian, curator
Many agencies folks rightly consider themselves brand stewards in partnership with our clients. But what exactly does that mean?
As a brand "guardian", your job would mostly be to keep that brand safe. Virginal even. Be a Guardian Angel.The synonym "keeper" reminds one of a zoo professional, and so simply keeping your brand alive (and on a leash) ticks the box. While a "custodian" might be expected to just keep it clean.
Now, it seems to me that "curator" is the synonym to strive for. Because their job is to keep the collection interesting. Prune the mistakes. Acquire new pieces. Discover fresh talent. This is a job that sounds like fun.
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When in the course of human events it becomes obvious how painfully far a brand's reputation is from its own image, it opens itself up to criticism, scorn and heaps of interest and advice from well meaning observers.
As an American abroad, I have learned a lot about my own country from new friends and workmates here, so it seemed right to share a personal post. (And I know Gordon at least is following the drama.)
Being blessed with absentee voting status in beautiful and enlightened Sonoma County, I just got my mail-in ballot for our Nov. 4 presidential election. I mailed it right back with an equal measure of pride and prayers.
Never was there a brand more in need of a makeover than my own country tis of thee. A wise man once said that voting only gets you a C grade, so there are a bunch of other things people like me are doing. Of course this is just the part where the organization gets a new CEO. The hard work on reputation restoration comes next. Wish us luck
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Full disclosure—I am a longtime brand fan of the Guardian, long pre-dating my residence here in London. People of my progressive political persuasion use their site to get a less biased version of news in American than our own mainstream media seems inclined to provide. And imho it is a newspaper that totally gets social media.
Today, folks at the office were viraling this: Jay Rayner is ..."just starting work on a large piece examining the arguments around genetically modified foods, and I want your help...
"We'd like those of you with something to say about GM foods to tell us what you think now, at the beginning of the reporting process, so that your take on the subject can become a part of the finished article"
How cool is that? Wonder if he will get a bunch of PR folks responding too. Hope they self-identify. You have to assume both the pro and the anti GM lobbies want in on Jay's article. But it is real people's opinions Jay Rayner is seeking and I hope he gets what he needs for a great article. Knowing much less about GM food than I do about open source and social media, my opinion is simply, "Well done Jay".
To kick off this blog, I should note that I've spent many years happily producing work (mostly digital) for big brands. With the best clients, it's always a privilege to act as brand steward — helping to build a winning image for their products. In other words, I'm both fan and practitioner of advertising and other paid media, on and offline.
But as I morphed from a creative director to a planning director, it was clear how people viewed brands wasn't usually how the creative agency wanted them to. When I joined a different agency, with public relations as the lead marketing offering, I found myself among equally passionate brand stewards. Only they don't deal with image creation. Instead, they are devoted to the care and nurturing of a brand's reputation.
What's the difference? That's what this blog will explore. Fwiw, I think it's like your Google results v your TV spot. Reputation v Image.
What do you think?
candace kuss
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Member since: 03 Jun 2008
Last login: 09 Jan 2009
Total Posts: 51
