I’ll sheepishly admit that I’m not the biggest fan of obscure marketing initiatives. The Subservient Chicken bored me. I’m a landing page creator’s worst nightmare – cute, creative or otherwise, I’ll just Google the company’s name when I have a chance. However, my brand loyalty for Kettle Chips made me consider Crunch Proud, at least for a moment, that is.
I learned about Crunch Proud from AdRants, which billed the initiative as an online promotion and sweepstakes which invites people to join the loud food club. At the end of the post, a little quip caught my attention:
So if you’re a Kettle potato chip lover, this campaign’s for you. Oh wait, no it’s not. You’re already branded. So do the brand a solid and tell your Ruffles-loving friends to check out Kettle. Continue reading →
Buzz … Buzz … Buzz. What happened to sales results?
An article late last week on BNET noted that the hilarious viral videos that Old Spice put out recently in tandem with ad/marketing agency Wieden + Kennedy, showcasing The Old Spice Guy (former NFL player Isaiah Mustafa) responding to celebrity and fan tweets, e-mails and other social messages to instantly create one-hit wonder viral videos actually did very, very little in the way of boosting Old Spice’s sagging year-over-year sales. Continue reading →
While Tom Humbarger makes some good points for guidelines for corporate Tweeting under getting started and being honest, human, responsive and nice, I do think he misses the boat in his section on getting the message out. Continue reading →
Last week Old Spice made some funny videos. Maybe you’veheard about it?
Of course you have.
Now it is apparently time for you to learn from it, as you undoubtedly hope to be the next Old Spice-like thing that all the kids are talking about on the internets. But I’m going to go out on a limb and say it is very unlikely that Old Spice’s success can be replicated by you, or anyone. And I’m not saying that because I think Old Spice’s campaign was some perfect storm that wasn’t meant to take off like it did; it was clearly a well-engineered piece of awesome. And I’m not saying that we’ll never see a wildly popular campaign like this ever again; we will. But it won’t be anything like the Old Spice campaign because we’ve already seen that. Continue reading →
My near 10 years in the public relations industry has taught me a lot. Despite these constant new lessons, there is one exercise that needs a refresher every now and then – overcoming skepticism. People in corporate hierarchies are used to dealing in dollars and cents, not equated ad value or having a clip book thud.
The looks of disbelief and folks asking what we do all day is irksome. So it baffles me when I read posts and hear people talking/positioning social media in a way that will only open it up to skepticism. Things like “engagement,” “understanding the community,” “we need to be in the space” and “if we’re not there we lose ground with the competition,” are common statements. While I agree with many of them, without substance they breed skepticism. Continue reading →
When I first heard Coleman’s latest television spot, which touts the camping supply manufacturer as the inventor of the ‘original social networking site’, I thought, ‘Wow. That’s smart.’ Then I listened to it again. And again. And, I thought, ‘Wow. That’s not entirely right.’
At first blush, it seems like a great theory. The idea of building relationships with people that you may not know intimately. But, without a platform, without a mob around you, is it even similar? I just don’t think it is. Continue reading →
There once was a young maiden named Enchantra. She was a beautiful young lady with fair skin and high hopes.
Enchantra’s life was perfect. She lived atop a beautiful castle, had an adoring prince charming to keep her company and she had a cute wardrobe to boot!
The best part of Enchantra’s life however, was her job. She was a PR professional working in the King’s office as chief director of public affairs. With a college degree and years of experience, Enchantra was highly appreciated and doted on in her work life. How could she not be? Take a look at her recap of the last week’s activities: Continue reading →
As it was when people used to say The Fall of Advertising & The Rise of PR I remember, when I was doing my MBA, the advertising lecturer had mentioned that the advertising industry in India was worth INR 8000 Cr, that was 1999. Today, after the emergence of PR as another communication tool and predictions of its imminent death, the ad industry is supposed to be worth INR 40000 Cr! Quite the fall, eh? Continue reading →
Earlier this week I received a tweet, from a buddy of mine, someone that I know offline and just happens to be on Twitter. He sent me this link and asked my opinion, as someone who has worked on the web for a long time. He wanted to know if stalking via social media channels like Twitter and Foursquare was common. Until reading this post, I had heard stories, but always in a game of telephone, friend of a friend way. I hadn’t seen a first hand account until now. It puts a sobering sheen on the social media world. It isn’t all Old Spice Guys and Lol Cats anymore. We’re definitely not in Digital Kansas anymore. Continue reading →
Sitting in a Barnes & Noble recently, I came across a fascinating article in Harvard Business Reviewanalyzing social Web use around the world from a societal and cultural perspective. While the broad overview analysis offered was mostly typical of many recent “state of social media” reporters we have seen recently, what truly caught my attention was the implication this analysis has from a PR and marketing perspective: Continue reading →
I’ll sheepishly admit that I’m not the biggest fan of obscure marketing initiatives. The Subservient Chicken bored me. I’m a landing page creator’s worst nightmare – cute, creative or otherwise, I’ll just Google the company’s name when I have a chance. However, my brand loyalty for Kettle Chips made me consider Crunch Proud, at least for a moment, that is.
