Trevor Young - PR Warrior | Where PR meets social media meets content marketing

Is This the Boldest PR Campaign Ever?

I'm a sucker for simple PR ideas brilliantly executed, and if the idea is a creative one, if it's bold and daring but still strategically sound, then so much the better.

But every now and then you get a campaign that not only ticks all the above boxes but then takes the concept of 'bold' - sticks it in an innovation blender and out pops something that really is uniquely 'crazy-sexy-cool'.

Let's face it, most major brands and organisations are pretty conservative and for whom the definition of 'bold' means a slight change in the PMS colour of their logo. 

All of which puts this campaign for Slovakia's Union Insurance into a box marked 'Extra Special'.

It cut through with the public and media alike and generated tremendous buzz which, for a low interest product such as insurance, is no mean feat. 

The Brief: To launch Union Insurance as the tenth car insurance company on the market of mandatory car insurance.

The Challenge: Engage people and attract their attention towards the brand while being in a low involvement category in which the price of the product is the main differentiator.

The Execution: First part of the campaign was the creation of a 'secret organization' that took justice on the roads into its own hands - the 'The Pink Squad' was a movement against irresponsibility on the road. Within no time The Pink Squad and its actions became known nationwide; it was at this point the organization was connected with Union Insurance and its products. 

Oh, by the way, this PR campaign was devised by an ad agency - WiktorLeoBurnett.

BELOW: Case study featuring results from The Pink Squad campaign - click to enlarge.

Social Media are Tools, Real-Time is a Mindset

US author David Meerman Scott has hit a home-run with his new book Real-Time Marketing & PR (How to Instantly Engage Your Market, Connect with Customers, and Create Products that Grow Your Business Now).

The newly-released title makes an ideal companion piece to its best-selling predecessor The New Rules of Marketing & PR.  

In between 'New Rules' and 'Real-Time' Scott released a couple of interesting 'quick read' high-concept marketing books - World Wide Rave and Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead - but with this new release he has returned to form with a trend-defining book that documents the effect the ever-changing media landscape is having on the marketplace and how business can position itself to capitalise on the opportunities as they unfold in real-time.

Importantly, he addresses the situation the business world finds itself in ("the emerging real-time business environment", as he calls it) and the types of things companies, organisations and individuals can do in order gain a competitive advantage e.g.

• developing a business culture that encourages speed over sloth;
• reading buying signals as people interact with online information
• crowdsourcing product development, naming, and even marketing materials such as online videos;
• engaging reporters to shape stories as they are being written;
• commanding premium prices by delivering products at speed;
• deploying technology to listen in on millions of online discussions and instantly engaging with customers and buyers.

"Now, more than any time in history, speed and agility are decisive competitive advantages", writes Scott.

"Gone are the days when you could plan out your marketing and public relations programs well in advance and release them on your timetable. It’s a real-time world now, and if you’re not engaged, then you’re on your way to marketplace irrelevance."

Scott argues that brands need to engage in real-time with customers, media and other stakeholders, and supports his theory with case studies and up-to-the-minute examples.

Real-Time Marketing & PR from David Meerman Scott on Vimeo.

United Breaks Guitars

Scott kicks off the book with the story of musician Dave Carroll whose Taylor guitar was broken by United Airlines baggage handlers. After getting no joy from United, Carroll wrote and performed a song ("United Breaks Guitars") and popped it on YouTube. Needless to say, it went viral in no time attracting literally millions of views while at the same time damaging United's reputation.

This story is well-worn and the PR industry would be well aware of it, particularly those involved in crisis and issues management practice.

However, Scott takes us further into the United saga and devotes nearly a whole chapter to how the story unfolded ('Evolution of a Real-Time Media Explosion'); he also examines how Taylor Guitars responded to Carroll's plight via YouTube and shows us the speed with which guitar case manufacturer Calton Cases pounced on the opportunity to create a special edition 'Dave Carroll Signature' case.

Interestingly, while Taylor and Calton responded in real-time, United stood by and did...nothing (can you believe that?).

Other examples include:

• General Motors ran a campaign for the Chevrolet Volt using social media to leverage its sponsorship of the influential South-by-Southwest (SXSW) conference - the goal was to stimulate real-time conversation in advance of the release of the new electric car. 

• Chris Reimer's Rizzo Tees thrives on real-time interaction with customers and is big on tapping the crowd for their views on t-shirt designs.

• H&R Block monitors Twitter in real-time enabling it to respond to customer questions (as well as 'nipping in the bud' potential issues caused by employees - more here).  

• Hewlett Packard and Heineken have both successfully run contests for young videomakers to create ads for their respective brands (for more detail see Scott's blog here).

• Recruitment agency Hollister engages job candidates through multiple networking communities on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

• Punk rock cabaret solo artist Amanda Palmer (below) connects in real-time with her fan base via Twitter (she has some half a million followers) Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and her blog.

• Telstra also cracks a mention for its creation of real-time communication guidelines - Telstra 3Rs of Social Media Engagement (of Telstra's effort, Scott says: "Creating interesting ways to get the message home is worth the effort").

Image from Amanda Palmer's Twitpic

David Meerman Scott writes with authority combined with a healthy dose of pragmatism. 

While threads of this book are super-relevant to PR people - i.e. the need to respond to emerging issues in real-time before they become crisis material - having such a well-researched overview of the current hyper-connected marketplace in action is extremely beneficial when developing marketing communications strategy.

And then there's the broader need for business to be quick to capitalise on opportunities as they arise because if you don't, a competitor most certainly will.

As Scott says: "Social media are tools...real-time is a mindset".

So Ya Wanna Make a Viral Video? Good Luck With That!

I tend to roll my eyes when companies and brands - generally through their advertising or digital agencies - proudly proclaim they're producing a 'viral video' and expect it's going to be watched by millions.

Now, there's nothing wrong with producing cool videos (or games) for the internet. Often it can be a good tactic (BMW did it successfully years ago - remember 'The Hire'?). But the number of times I've seen companies waste money on videos that quite frankly are pretty self-indulgent, well, let's just say it doesn't make sense.

Rarely can anyone predict what will 'go viral' (obviously you can 'tick the boxes' of humour/sex/controversy etc and hope for the best) - but usually, the videos that take off in a big do so because they engage the public in some way. Quite often they're raw and authentic.

Here are two examples of videos that have hit the big time in recent times. One has been a slow-burner, taking months and months to hit the tipping point while the other became an instant global hit within a matter of days.

A Lion Called Christian

The 'Christian the Lion' video was produced in 1971 but somehow bubbled to the surface some 38 years later and gone gangbusters, fueling sales of a book that was first published in the early 70s. 

In short it's about two young Aussie guys living in London who bought a lion cub ('Christian') from Harrods and raised it in their home for a year before releasing it into the wild. 

They returned a year later to Africa to visit Christian. Check out the video to see what happens next.

Susan Boyle - Britain's Got Talent

Then there is the Susan Boyle phenomenon. 

The 47-year-old unemployed woman got through the first round of Britain's Got Talent in stunning fashion and subsequently has won hearts around the world for her performance on the show.

You've probably seen the video by now - it certainly cut a swathe through Twitter the other day! I can't include the video here because YouTube, for some inextricable reason, has disabled the embedding code - is this the work of the TV network, and if so, why? It's fantastic publicity for the show. Duh!

Like Paul Potts before her, Susan's video went viral extremely quickly, and then the media picked up on the story in turn driving even more interest.

The PR Warrior Loves These Blogs. You Will Too!

What's caught the PR Warrior's eye this week? PLENTY!

There's so much great stuff floating around the moment in the broad arena of public relations, marketing communications, brand reputation, social media and customer engagement.

If you're working in this space and not taking advantage of the plethora of insights, knowledge and ideas that are freely available, let's just say you're missing out big time!

Here are a number of blogs I've been reading of late which are well worth having on your radar, if not in your Google Reader!

• First up we have Mumbrella. This is a staple diet of the PR Warrior. Mumbrella is the blog of Tim Burrowes, former editor of B&T magazine and he's built a strong following in a short space of time. If you're into media and marketing news and views Australian-style, be sure to check out Mumbrella, and/or follow Tim on Twitter (@mumbrella). 

• Duncan Riley's Blogging is Not a Spectator Sport is another local product worth having on your radar. Here he gets stuck into Aussie PR practitioners who don't get the blogosphere.

• Lois Kelly always provides plenty of food for thought on her Foghound blog. Kelly, author of the excellent book Beyond Buzz, is an expert in word of mouth and conversational marketing. A recent post that caught my eye was 'Finding 8 Patterns in Social Media EcoSystems' - according to Kelly: "My conclusion after reading thousands of posts/tweets last week: most marketing and PR content hasn't evolved for a social media world". 

• Olivier Blanchard's Brand Builder Blog is about "building strong brands through passion, innovation, creativity and common sense. In this excellent post ('Grassroots Vs The Volcano'), Blanchard advises marketers not to fall into the 'new marketing vs old marketing' trap. He says: "You can't afford to limit yourself to being a supporter of either one camp of the other".

• Valeria Maltoni writes the popular Conversation Agent blog. Recent posts included Maltoni's 'Top 3 Digital Marketing Tactics for 2009' - by the way, they are microblogging (Twitter), corporate website and contextual advertising - plus 'You're On Twitter, Now What?', in which she looks at the evolution of the popular microblogging platform.

• David Armano's excellent Logic+Emotion blog falls into the 'must-read' category. His latest post ('Battle of the Brands') looks at the emerging trend of people building and managing their reputations online, and the potential downside of this activity as it can relate to your full-time position. He uses as an example Scott Monty, a high-profile social media expert who now works for Ford (see Monty being interviewed by Fox Business below).

  

Corporate Australia Cops a 'Bloody Nose' in Edelman's Latest 'Trust' Findings

Further to a previous post TRUST: The Elusive Commodity Worth its Weight in Gold (and then some) -- here is some more damning evidence that companies are fast losing the respect of the people who matter most to their business - consumers.

PR firm Edelman has just released the Australian results of its 2009 Edelman Trust Barometer, an annual study that takes the pulse of consumers' views of government and big business (My previous post on this subject looked at the Trust Barometer's global findings). 

Here are some interesting (scary?) snapshots of the Australian data, along with some PR Warrior commentary:

Trust in business in Australia is in decline with 74% of survey respondents indicating they trust business less than they did last year. PR WARRIOR: WTF? If these were sales figures, whole departments would be sacked - in fact, it would be too late, the company would already be out of business. Given the level of trust in a company has a considerable effect on whether a person will buy goods and services from them, this has got to be high on the agenda of marketing, PR and C-suite executives of large companies, surely?

Trust in government is high - 56% - trust in business is low - 43%. This is the largest gap in trust between government and business in the developed world. For example, in the U.S., trust in government is at 30%, and trust in business is at 36%. PR WARRIOR: This is an interesting stat. Maybe having a government that's still quite new and hasn't worn out its welcome yet might be a factor. If anything, it underscores the fact that trust in business is very low (anecdotally, you'd think governments would tend not to rate well in the trust stakes, so this is indeed a positive for Rudd & Co).

Banks, media companies and insurance companies are the least trusted in Australia - significantly less than in China where banks are among the most trusted. Technology, biotech and the food are the most trusted in Australia. PR WARRIOR: No surprises here given the global economic meltdown; interesting that technology rates high in trust. Maybe iPod-driven?

CEOs are the least trusted source of information when forming an opinion of a company. Eighty-one per cent of respondents do not trust the CEO as a source in Australia, the US and Europe. PR WARRIOR: This is a damning statistic and given we live in a hyper-connected world where openness, transparency, accountability and corporate social responsibility are expected of CEOs and corporations, you would think - hope - that Australia's business leaders see the light and start ditching the over-rehearsed, jargon-laden corporate speak and start communicating in a more 'humanistic' way with the public, indeed all stakeholders. As Barack Obama's 'digital kingmaker' Ben Self urged Australian leaders recently - it's time to drop the corporate speak and start dealing with your supporters, customers and partners like human beings.

Independence drives trust: 70% of respondents trust academic or expert opinions – this number rises to 82% among respondents aged 25-34. PR WARRIOR: No surprises here - it's a main reason public relations experts either hire, or attempt to influence, key opinion leaders within industry, academia and the community so they in turn can spread the word and reinforce credibility.

HERE'S THE KICKER ROCK STARS:

Eighty-seven per cent of Australians would refuse to buy from a company they do not trust, and 93% said they chose to buy product or services from companies they trust. PR WARRIOR: If corporate Australia continues to waste money blasting one-way messages at people (advertising) at the expense of rebuilding their declining reputations, not only will their advertising become increasingly less effective but consumers will continue to drift away, preferring to give their business to companies they perceive to be more open in their communications, more transparent in their dealings and more community-minded in their actions - indeed, more 'trustworthy'.

CLICK HERE for a comprehensive slide show on the Australian findings ("Is Trust in Business at Crisis Point in Australia").

CLICK HERE for a two-page fact sheet on the findings.

Word of Mouth Momentum Propels Teen Vampire Scribe into Tipping Point Territory

I noticed in the weekend papers that four books penned by Stephenie Meyer occupied the top four spots on the list of Australia's best-selling books (confirmed here, so I wasn't dreaming).

I'm sorry, who?

Now, I shouldn't play dumb here 'cos I live with a couple of recently converted Meyer devotees so I do know a bit about her. Rather, I'm echoing the thoughts of many Australians (I took a straw poll of six people to confirm this - how's that for robust research?). 

For those unaware of Meyer, she's written a series of books - a teen vampire love saga, if you will - which has obviously struck a chord not just with teenagers but adults as well, a la Harry Potter given her massive popularity.

In what is testament to the power of consumer-generated word-of-mouth (with some help from PR activity, a web presence including MySpace and the odd retailer promotion etc), Stephenie Meyer has seemingly rocketed out of nowhere and is now blitzing it with her Twilight series - Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn.

I say seemingly because all of a sudden Meyer is 'everywhere' and selling books by the truckload. Now, obviously she's been around for ages (she's written five books and you can't do that overnight!) but, to me, this rapid trajectory is the stuff of TIPPING POINT.

In doing a little subsequent research, I discovered this is indeed the case, as illustrated by online monitoring service Hitwise (although they refer to an 'inverse' tipping point when it comes to Meyer).

Further reinforcing the word-of-mouth theory is the large number of fan-based websites that have sprung up in Meyer's honour, a sure sign of grassroots support (a necessary driver for word-of-mouth), not to mention the fact she's got over 83,300 friends on her MySpace page.

Now that Twilight is heading for the movie screens, maybe Stephenie Meyer will indeed become the next JK Rowling as predicted.

Restaurant Chain Suffers Indigestion From Playboy Model Plug

A storm in a latte glass is brewing in the US after Playboy model and reality TV star Kendra Wilkinson expressed her undying love for the Olive Garden Italian restaurant chain.

Yes folks, 23-year-old Kendra - girlfriend of Hugh Hefner (well, one of three actually) and star of the Girls Next Door TV show - has publicly heaped praise on the restaurant. Yes, praise. The blonde model hasn't criticised the brand at all, in fact she genuinely loves it! 

But all this has caused the restaurant some discomfort. You see, Olive Garden stands for family values and Wilkinson, being part of the Playboy family, is obviously not seen as a good 'fit' with the brand.

According to the Wall Street Journal:

Executives at Olive Garden declined to discuss the uninvited spokesmodel. One official says the company has tried to walk a fine line with its response, maintaining the chain's wholesome image without alienating potential customers. "I don't feel comfortable talking about this...because it is a complicated issue for the brand," says Michele Kay, executive vice president of WPP Group's Grey advertising firm, which handles the Olive Garden account.

Now, I fully understand the importance of brand values and the need to be true to the brand, but guys, lighten up a little. It ain't that complicated.

Okay, Wilkinson's authentic ravings about Olive Garden may not sit well with the restaurant's 'brand custodians' but hey, there could be worse things than having a pretty inoffensive celebrity wax lyrical about your company and its offering, surely?

I understand Olive Garden itself not commenting one way or the other - Starbucks reportedly refuses to comment in the media when celebs are photographed in the tabloid press clutching one of its coffee cups, and that's fair enough. 

Go With The Flow

But you can't fight word-of-mouth in full flight (whether positive or negative) - the best option for Olive Garden is to go with the flow, accept Wilkinson's praise for what it is - a customer genuinely giving your product a wrap - and then move on (or better still, try to ascertain if there are any opportunities for further mileage from the wave of publicity).

As Dave Balter from Boston-based word-of-mouth company BzzAgent told the Wall St Journal:

"A brand doesn't have to actively embrace someone like Kendra, but they should certainly be willing to accept the fact that she's willing to tell the world how much she loves them."

Unfortunately for Olive Garden, because the ad agency rep has got narky about the Wilkinson situation, the story seems to have turned somewhat negative.

Anyway, looking at the Olive Garden website, the brand that could do with a little spicing up. Who knows, Wilkinson's endorsement may actually increase sales by introducing the restaurant to a whole new generation of people.

Interesting to note that apart from her TV show, Wilkinson has over 730,000 'friends' on her MySpace page, so she has some potential to influence.

Ogilvy PR's Virginia Miracle - on her blog Marketing Environmentalism - provides some good advice for brands (including Olive Garden) in dealing with a 'rogue brand ambassador'.

The Word Of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) and Ragan.com's PR Junkie blog have also bought into the saga.

FOOTNOTE: Virgin boss Richard Branson obviously doesn't have an aversion with being seen with Kendra Wilkinson!