Internet Failure on Two Continents

How often have you said, "what did we do before the Internet?"

Well, tens of millions of people found out today when Internet services across Asia, the Middle East and North Africa went down and India's bandwidth was cut in half as a result of problems with underwater transatlantic cables. Apparently the issue began on Tuesday when two major cables connecting the UK and US experienced problems. WebUser reports that one of the cables has been faulty for about three weeks, but it was a second link that caused the most damage. Because its an undersea problem, it's not an easy fix.

Not only are many businesses in the area at a standstill, telecommunications down, television broadcasts gone to black and air traffic halted, but think about the millions of call centers operating out of India coming to a halt and the "billion a second" financial transactions out of Dubai stopping flat.

I expect this will cause PR problems for companies around the world who house much of their public services (customer and financial) in the region.

UPDATE: Quick thinking minimizes fall out. Indian telecom operators divert traffic over alternate routes. Internet is up, but will continue to be slow and affect IT-BPO firms for 10 to 15 days. Links to other stories here.

Taco Bell to WGA: Wanna Write for Food?

Time and time again Cohn & Wolfe has executed flawless PR campaigns for the world’s top brands. I’ve always been impressed with their ability to provide tangible results – generating real numbers for measurable success.

Today Cohn & Wolfe announced their client, Taco Bell, is “supporting the WGA” by offering striking writers the chance to win $260 worth of free food for 10 clever quips to be printed on sauce packets. (i.e. "Use your stomach, nacho mind.")

Normally, I love campaigns that allow customers to personally interact with a brand. But, this feels like such an obvious attempt to milk WGA publicity. I wouldn’t be so bothered by the idea of paying writers in food if it weren’t for the faux altruism behind it.

In the press release, Chief Marketing Officer for Taco Bell, David Ovens, says, “The writer's strike is now in its second month, and Taco Bell wanted to show its support for the thousands of creative minds itching to press pen to paper, or in our case, Border Sauce packets."

Both an insult to the writers and to advertising copy writers everywhere.

Many brands have secured a little publicity by having food delivered to the picket lines – Taco Bell among them. I certainly think that’s a good move and one likely to be appreciated by the writers for a long time to come. But it just feels wrong to pretend that giving writers the chance to win free burritos for a fast food pun is anything but a publicity stunt .

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I'm also not clear what this will really do for Taco Bell's bottom line. It seems to be a stunt purely for the sake of general publicity. Most stunts center around attracting new customers, capturing customer information, or creating a buzz for a new product launch. All this does (for me) is demonstrate corporate greed with Taco Bell paying $260 for ad copy while piggy-backing a union's publicity.

Who knows, maybe this will be a huge success for Taco Bell. If it is, I will enjoy a big slice of humble pie right here in front of you all. But, for my money, this falls flat.

-- my two cents

image courtesy of www.defamer.com

Target Tells Bloggers to Buzz Off

Today the New York Times reported a PR pro from Target told a Blogger the company does not respond to non-traditional media outlets. The story goes something like this:

1. Last week someone from Shaping Youth, a Blog that covers the impact of marketing on children, emailed Target’s PR team about a current ad.

2. The PR pro brushed off the Blogger saying they only talk to “traditional publications that reach our core guests.” The Blogger ran the story/editorial about the ad, along with Target's non-comment comment.

3. A Blogstorm quickly followed and continued throughout the weekend. Bloggers spread the word: Target doesn’t like Bloggers; Bloggers aren’t Target’s customer-base; Target is living in 1997.

4. Today, Monday morning, Target was forced to address both issues: the original concern about the ad and what they said about Bloggers when the New York Times picked up the story, which has been syndicated through the Associated Press.

The official Target spokeswoman, Amy von Walter, told the Times, “We do not work with Bloggers currently. Target’s policy is to focus limited resources on the big media outlets, like television stations and newspapers, which reach large numbers of shoppers. With a small public relations team, we want to make sure we are making an educated decision and we live up to any promises we make, in terms of service.”

Anyone who believes that Bloggers do not reach a large number of shoppers need only recall Dell Hell, a blog that became so popular it cost Dell its place as market leader. To this day, the company is still trying to rebuild its customer service image.

There is simply no more immediate way to spread information than the Blogger. Every one Blog is linked to other Blogs, which are linked to other Blogs, and like the old shampoo commercial goes…and so on ... and so on.

In fact, companies that embrace Bloggers (and PR pros who pitch them) often see a loyalty not found in a lot of traditional media. Bloggers have the luxury of writing what they want and they can be your most vocal advocate if you invite them in.

On the flip side, disrespecting Bloggers is the quickest way to invite their wrath, which Target has most assuredly done because, once again, Bloggers have the luxury of writing what they want.

The fact is: media are everywhere and they take all forms. The first thing I say on my web site is:

The Internet has democratized our media landscape. Through blogs, webzines, social networking and more, your customer now has a voice as loud as any traditional channel—perhaps even louder. In today’s world, your customer is the media. That’s why it’s never been more important to “speak media” fluently in terms of strategy, message and delivery.

And, as I’ve said before on this blog—a great number of Bloggers work for traditional media outlets, in addition to writing their own blog. This is part of the one-two punch in pitching a Blogger; you can get your story in front of two media channels at once. Similarly, in this day of 24/7 news, a lot of media search Blogs for leads, as we’ve seen with today’s New York Times.

So, let the lesson be loud and clear: Bloggers are media too! In fact, they are fast-becoming the most important media Target out there (pun intended).

-- my two cents

Finally, Good Movie Viral Marketing!

I've been quite disappointed with the lack of creativity in viral movie marketing since the brilliance of the Blair Witch campaign.

The new Diane Lane thriller "Untraceable" about a killer who uses a web site to get his kicks is a good example of why. I went to the site expecting a great viral campaign -- especially since it was created to appear as if it belongs to the murderer in the film -- only to find it offers nothing more than memory games and word games like hangman.

However, I'm excited that the new movie campaign for "Cloverfield" has really come through! Last year, as I sat in a theater waiting for "Transformers" to begin, a trailer played bearing no movie title, no actors' names. Nothing. All it said was "JJ Abrams" and "1.18.08." That's it.

Trends Reporting for July 2007 (when that first trailer aired) shows that Google searches for "JJ Abrams" and "1.18.08" spiked sharply in the early part of the month. I admit, I was one of those curious Googlers.

Shortly after that title-less trailer aired, cryptic messages and seemingly random images began appearing on targeted movie message boards so fans (and film nerds like myself) would try to decode clues about the movie's plot and title. Over the course of the next six months speculation about the film ran rampant on blogs and boards. A few years back I had a lot of fun and success conducting a similar movie campaign -- I found the less information I put out there, the more conversation I could spark online.

One of the things I like so much about the Cloverfield campaign is that like, Blair Witch, the clues blended fiction and reality. Fake news clips began appearing on YouTube and sites popped up claiming the story is real, often providing "proof" in the form of more clues which kept people engaged and guessing.

Now, Cloverfield has opened at #1 (breaking Titanic's record for biggest January opening). So, a great big kudos to these folks for a truly creative and effective campaign.

On a sad note, I'm sure you've all heard about the tragic death of the talented young actor, Heath Ledger. I've read that the promoters of the upcoming Batman movie, The Dark Knight were supposed to kick off a spectacular viral campaign involving direct communication from Heath's character, the Joker. My pals in the Hollywood marketing world are telling me the strategy was completely original and would, as one of them said "really knock my socks off." But, with Heath's tragic death, there is talk of scrapping the planned campaign. We'll see what happens with that. (Be sure to visit the Dark Knight link above in case they take it down to go in a different direction.) On a side note, the poster for this movie is one of the best I've ever seen. While I understand moving the campaign's focus away from Heath's character, man o man do I love that poster!

-- my two cents

Trends in Product Placement

Apologies for not posting for a while; I was laid up with the flu and am just now back to my ol’ opinionated self. So here goes: I wanted to take a moment to talk about product placement.

During the holidays I watched (for the first time) the original Miracle on 34th Street. If you haven’t seen the film, I highly recommend it. Without too many spoilers, the story centers around a Macy’s Santa Claus who claims to be the real thing. During the movie, we see children asking for presents that have sold out. Although the Macy’s manager gives Santa a list of alternate toys to recommend, Santa, instead, sends the kids/parents to other stores carrying the toys. At first management is appalled. But, the goodwill Santa creates for Macy’s wins out and soon Macy’s is milking the publicity of their “Christmas spirit.”

Well, after watching this, I was intrigued. Was this the first recorded case of product placement in film?

According to this NY Times article , Macy’s did not pay for the product placement as that was simply was unheard of in 1947. But, this film is widely considered to be the "godfather" of placement to come as Alan G. Millstein says in this article, the film "has probably brought Macy's more good will and publicity than tons of their advertising over the years."

Today product placement is so common, most of us don’t even notice it anymore. Although it is one of the most difficult aspects of PR to measure, I can tell you from personal experience that it works. Bear in mind, I am a PR professional who identifies product placement deals for clients and yet, while watching America’s Next Top Model, I noticed a box of Special K on the kitchen counter. I caught myself thinking, “I should get some Special K, if these skinny girls are eating it…” Never mind that Kellogg’s paid for that box to sit there. Never mind that these models exist on a diet of water and cigarettes and they’ve probably never touched the cereal, it still registered with me.

One of my favorite films in the past few years was an adaptation of my favorite author’s book, Thank You For Smoking. In the film, cigarette lobbyist, Nick Naylor craves a cigarette after seeing John Wayne light up in a movie. He then goes to Hollywood to “put the sex back in cigarettes” by finding product placement opportunities for tobacco in films. The result is a hilarious scene with Rob Lowe where they come up with a new brand of cigarettes to coincide with the film’s release. I wonder if we’re really that far from that parody.

Then, of course, there are films that are nothing but product placement; i.e. Hasbro’s Transformers. Of course the toys were there; the film is about toys. But, beyond Hasbro, this film was a masterpiece of product placement: from The Strokes tee-shirt Shia wears throughout to the Nokia phone and the discussion about who makes Nokia (the Swedes, apparently) plus Radio Shack, Apple, Sony, Coke, Visa, eBay, PayPal, and of course, Chevy, Pontiacs, Dodge and Porsche. I'll bet the entire budget plus P and A was paid in full by the placement, which makes the profit earnings even more fantastic!

People just aren’t watching commercials anymore so product placement is one of the surest ways to reach your target audience. And, if your product is pivotal to the story (ala the Fedex commercial that was Cast Away; the AOL spot that was You've Got Mail, etc.) then you can really hit the mark.

It’s not just in film and television. I’ve had much success creating placement opportunities that actually generate revenue in Second Life and many brands are leveraging video games and even pop songs. I read recently where Fergie was offering the lyrics of two songs on her next album to the highest bidder!

It's a brave new world of placement, ladies and gentlemen. Ever wonder why the American Idol judges often comment on how good the contestants look and Simon spends 5 minutes telling that hot young singer that he loves her outfit? Everything the contestants are wearing is for sale via the AI site. Not to mention, the music video/commercials the contestants make for Ford during each show and the Coke the judges drink while making their little quips. American Idol has redefined product placement!

True, placement remains one of the most expensive tactics in PR and it’s still the most difficult to prove ROI. But, measurement can be done--just look at some classic examples.

-----> 1982’s ET helped launch Hershey’s new candy Reese’s Pieces. Instead of paying Universal for the placement, Hershey’s sponsored $1 million worth of co-branded advertising for the film. The result: sales of Reese’s Pieces increased by 80%.

-----> Remember Tom Cruise drinking Red Stripe in The Firm? Yeah, okay, me neither. But, within a month of the film's release, sales of the beer had increased by more than 50% in the U.S., and Guinness Brewing Worldwide acquired a majority stake in the brewery just a few weeks later for $62 million.

So, with all this in mind, what is the future for product placement? As is the answer to just about everything these days: the Internet and CGI games.

According to Forrester, advertisers are much more interested in the $24 billion video game industry than they are in TV. Spending on in-game placement was estimated at $300 million last year, with projections of $1 billion in spending by 2010. 66% of males 18-34 own at least one game console, as do 80% of males ages 12-17. In 2006, 62.3 million game consoles were sold. Market researchers anticipate that this number grew by 26% during 2007.

Currently, there are over 148 million gamers. As gamers age, become parents and continue to play games, older demographics become more highly represented while increasing the overall reach of the video game medium.

And, according to a Nielsen study, product placement adds value to the games! 70% of gamers surveyed considered it a positive feature that increased the realism of the game. Studies have also shown that short-term recall rate of brand names in video games is upwards of 40%, with sports games taking the lead with a 54% brand recall rate.

I also anticipate that Second Life and other virtual communities are going to continue to become hot spots for PR pros. Reverse product placement is a growing trend in the world of avatars. American Apparel launched a line of jeans in Second Life several months before launching them in its real-world stores. And, last year, Starwood Hotels and Resorts launched a sub-brand called Aloft in Second Life shortly before it appeared in the real world. It will be interesting to see what kind of ROI they report on this.

Finally, with more people getting their TV fix on YouTube, I foresee plinking to get some serious attention in 08. Companies like Entertainment Media Works have pioneered the tactic and -- although it hasn't become as prolific as using video games and even virtual communities, mark my word -- plinking will be the new buzz word this year.

Let me know what kind of successes you’ve had with PP and what trends you see taking form.

-- my two cents