Archive for February, 2007
When marketing stunts go wrong…
February 27th, 2007
It appears someone in Boston has upset the marketing Gods.
You probably saw the terrorism scare caused by Cartoon Network’s marketing stunt earlier this year, which involved blinking promotional signs dotted around Boston. The result was criminal charges, closed highways and bridges, and a resignation from the head of Cartoon Network, as overviewed in Time.
Well, now Cadbury Schweppes has done its best to upset the residents of Boston by launching a treasure hunt as part of a Dr Pepper promotion. Seems harmless, until it was discovered part of the challenge was to dig up the 347-year-old Granary Burying Ground, final resting place of historic figures such as John Hancock, Paul Revere and Samuel Adams.
Why would anyone do it? Well for money of course. Up to £760,000 to be exact, for anyone who found one of the gold coins that Cadbury’s marketing agency had buried there.
The Independent has the full story.
Apparently The city’s authorities only found out about the competition when contestants started complaining that the graveyard was closed because of icy paths.
An official from the marketing firm retrieved the coin and no damage was done…Well except to the reputations of Cadbury Schweppes, Dr Pepper, the marketing company, and perhaps the loss of a few jobs.
February 26th, 2007
The Oscars may be a little outside of our agency’s remit, but nonetheless it’s been impossible to ignore the level of media coverage that the event has received.
A spin-off story, reported on Sky Showbiz, has tickled my sense of humour, and highlighted the importance of getting your PR-line confirmed ahead of events of this scale.
Following recent showbiz speculation around whether or not Australian actress Naomi Watts is pregnant (with her publicist vehemently denying all rumours), Escada decided to release the following statement about the Oscar dress they designed for her:
“The Escada gown set off her most precious new asset - the baby she is expecting with long-time boyfriend Liev Schreiber.”
Whoops.
A quick lesson in why third-party sign-off is so important!
CIPR social media guidelines published
February 23rd, 2007
The CIPR has issued its Social Media Guidelines, although the ‘guidelines’ seem to be more of a code of conduct, which have received mixed reviews from the likes of: Simon Collister, Daryl Wilcox and TWL. Okay, what I meant by mixed - was bad.
In my opinion, the document is a little lacking in substance. It’s more of an introduction to social media, which is certainly required for the PR industry as a whole, but there needs to be more depth to make it a set of guidelines. I had also hoped this document might help to bridge the gap between those PRs that do understand and use social media tactics, and those that don’t, but it falls a little short.
The CIPR has been slow to get itself up to speed on this very important communications medium, and if this document is a reflection of the progress, it still has some way to go.
Oh, and just in case you didn’t see the CIPR President’s post on the launch of the guidelines, with the now infamous quote:”So blog away like billy-o, and work those wikis. But keep it real, and keep it honest!” You can find it here. Ouch!
February 22nd, 2007
News has just broken that an Egyptian blogger has been sentenced to four years in jail for writing posts that insulted both Islam and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
Abdel Karim Suleiman, a 22-year-old former law student, was the first blogger to stand trial in Egypt for his freedom of speech on the web.
Jon Snow will be highlighting the case on Channel 4 News tonight - a report that will be well worth watching I suspect.
Internet reflects Society…straight from the Cerf
February 21st, 2007
Words of wisdom? I’ll let you decide.
According to Google’s vice president and chief Internet evangelist, Vinton Cerf, The Internet is a mirror of the population that uses it.
He continued: “If you stand in front of a mirror and you don’t like what you see, it does not help to fix the mirror.”
This comment came from Cerf’s address in Bangalore, India, where Google’s Orkut social networking site has come in for criticism after users ran campaigns against India and Indian historical figures.
I believe he’s right, but what’s more interesting is Cerf confirmed that mobile will become increasingly important as the Internet revolution continues. Something that the US market is now recognising.
“The mobile phone has become an important factor in the Internet revolution. There are 2.5 billion mobile users worldwide and the numbers are expected to increase rapidly in developing countries such as India and China.”
The mobile industry has long been a fascinating one, not only due to the speed of development, but also because of the differing user and technology demands in the major territories.
It seems the Internet will be the medium that can unify these disparate markets, as the one application that is, or will be, in demand from everyone.
If we could just sort out the screen size, interoperability and usability issues now…