RepMan

I highly recommend it

Public relations is in the midst of unprecedented change. Traditional media relations, while still important, has been equaled, if not surpassed by social media. Indeed, we’re seeing more and more clients ask about word-of-mouth. How does one inspire, motivate and encourage a prospective or current customer to ‘recommend’ an organization’s product or service to a peer? The answer  to that single question contains the key to the future of marketing communications.

 

Like many forward-looking organizations, we’re grappling with how one goes about ‘encouraging’ or ‘enabling’ recommendations. We don’t know the full answer, but we have some ideas. In the spirit of openness and transparency, we’d like to get your perspective as well.

So, if you don’t mind, click the survey link below and let me know what you think. I promise to share the findings in a future blog that, I hope, you’ll highly recommend to others.

Check out the survey here.

Because I said so, that’s why.

Guest Post by Maggie O’Neill

Because I said so, that’s why. An iconic Mom-phrase that resonates with most of us but is taking on new meaning in the marketing world today.  The power of what Mom says – and even the word Mom itself - is quickly becoming the industry’s hottest new ticket, despite the fact that Moms have been around and influencing purchasing since the beginning of time. Eve…Apple?

From terms like Mamaste to Momosphere, the Power Moms, identified by Nielsen  as ages 25-54 with at least one child, have a voice that is $2 trillion dollars strong for US brands* and make up  20 percent of today’s  online population.  And the group itself is becoming more diverse year after year, demanding targeted marketing to their definition of “mom.”

With all this buzz and promise, a misstep or two by the marketing industry and we could be headed for a “mom-com” bust.  One mom told me that she complained about the benefits of a face care product online.  She got an email back and a Tweet apologizing that they fell short and that they were sending her a free sample of the exact same product.  Great opportunity, completely blown. 

Why?  The almost automated response and one way conversation from the company , plus the fact that they sent what the mom considered a bad product back to her, not only pushed her away, but you know she told a million people about it by now.  What should they have done?   The face care company had a perfect opportunity to engage this mom in a dialogue and find out what the issues were and if another product might make more sense for her.  Did her friends have similar issues?  Could they provide another recommendation, coupons to one of their other product lines for her family?  Simply asking what they could do rather than pushing back a bad solution would have helped them not only win back this mom, but remain a recommended brand to her network and influencers.

Spotted: Peppercom AE devouring the latest episode of Gossip Girl on Metro North…

Guest Post by Laura Mills.

Yes, at 25 (old enough to have an SAT score graded on the 1600 scale) I watch the CW’s Gossip Girl. Fortunately, I’m not alone.  Millions share an obsession with the high school teens of Manhattan’s elite, anticipating each scandalous episode, narrated by an enigmatic blogger against the backdrop of New York’s trendiest hot spots.  On paper the concept sounds ridiculous.  Yet, while pausing an episode on my iPod to arrive at a Connecticut train station, it occurs to me how progressive Gossip Girl really is.

A recent New York magazine article reports that new episodes of Gossip Girl pulled in an average of 2.5 million viewers before the writers strike, an atrocious number, considering the 23.6 million tuned into last week’s American Idol.  Traditionally, this measurement should lead to quick cancellation.  Yet, the new show thrived.  As New York points out, new episodes regularly rotate at the top of iTunes’ most downloaded list, while hundreds of thousands watch free episodes from the network’s Web site.  Personally, I think a television show revolving around a blog should have its own life online, but while Web components and a Second Life presence don’t independently make Gossip Girl a digital standout, the fact that it is the first television show to find primary traction online is a significant development in the media landscape.

Gossip Girl viewers adapt to new technology faster and use it in more ways than ever.  They have at least one iPod and communicate via text message, IM and Facebook 24 hours a day.  Diaries are no longer hidden under mattresses, but documented with password access through LiveJournal.  They can’t comprehend a time when a handwritten middle school assignment was acceptable, and therefore naturally identify with the integration of new media social issues with classic teenage archetypes.  This generation is our future. 

As marketers, we will be targeting these plugged in, socially networked, skeptically over-stimulated viewers.  In fact, companies are already cashing in on the show’s success through product placement and integrated Web promotions, including Verizon and Victoria’s Secret, as well as a plethora of fashion designers and retailers.  So, while it’s just a mere teenage drama, Gossip Girl shatters the glass ceiling to reach viewers via multiple platforms and keeps them coming back for more.  Perhaps the high school characters aren’t the only ones who should be taking notes?

Mentos: Everybody's Intern or Nobody's Fool?

Mentos recently launched a microsite that caught my attention. MentosIntern.com is a live video feed of Trevor, a 19-year-old intern working out of the Mentos HQ for the summer. In typical intern fashion, Trevor is bombarded with a multitude of tasks throughout the day. The catch is that all of his tasks are submitted by visitors to the site.

At the moment, Trevor is getting hit with random assignments from strangers via phone, IM, and email. The site says "he'll order you lunch, customize your music playlists, sing on command, and even prank call your colleagues."

Clever stunt for sure and it's a good example of how brands are continuing to push the envelope in terms of participatory marketing. Mentos certainly knows the benefits of consumer engagement with last year's surge of diet coke geyser experiments. Will it help sell more Mentos though? Who knows. Interesting and well-executed concept at least. It will be fun to watch as the summer progresses. I'm expecting a Trevor meltdown any day now.

Ad industry should do its homework first before asking PR: why can't we all just get along?

I'm reading more and more articles in the ad trades about PR's growing importance and its seeming 'encroachment' into such 'traditional' advertising domains as word-of-mouth.

This week's Ad Age contains an interesting piece by Noelle Weaver that asks, in effect, why we can't all just get along. Alongside it, though, is a telling list of comments from various readers, that explain, in part, why the disconnect continues.

One observation from an integrated marketing agency executive inadvertently nails the 'problem' on the head. Intending to illustrate how each discipline contributes thinking to the other, he writes, '.....PR people often identify the Big Idea and write great headlines and taglines, and the ad creatives come up with great promotions, events and story placement ideas.' And, therein lies the problem.

Ad people still think of PR as being limited solely to stunts, press releases and media relations. It isn't. And, it hasn't been for some time. The best PR is being leveraged to create new, and serious, dialogues with a rapidly-changing end user landscape, and ranges from viral and digital initiatives to thought leadership and strategic partnerships. As long as advertising types continue to see us as stuntmen and women, they'll continue scratching their heads wondering why we can't all just get along (and continue to lose more and more of the client's overall marketing budget).

Civility on the web? Fuggedaboudit!

Tim O'Reilly's well-intentioned, but incredibly naïve, suggestion to create a set of guidelines to shape online discussion and, ultimately, bring civility and manners to the web has about as much chance of success as the proverbial snowball in hell. (Click for article in NY Times.)

O'Reilly, along with Wikipedia Founder, Jimmy Wales, are asking bloggers to, among other things ban anonymous comments left by visitors to their pages and delete threatening or libelous comments without facing cries of censorship.

Had this dynamic duo suggested such a set of guidelines say, two or three years ago, I'd give it a better than 50-50 chance of success. But, with 60 million-plus bloggers around the world doing and saying whatever they please, the chance of even a small percentage playing by Messrs. O'Reilly and Wales' new rules is slim to none.

The genie is out of the bottle as far as online boorishness, poor manners and inappropriate postings. In fact, the Blogosphere reminds me of the Old West where lawlessness reigned supreme and the quickest gun (or, in the Blogosphere's case, the quickest typepad) won the day. So, hats off to O'Reilly and Wales, but the guys with the Black hats can't and won't be controlled.

The right ingredients...

Blender manufacturer Blendtec recently launched a cool viral campaign called "Will it Blend?" They have a series of vids showing a guy throwing all sorts of items (marbles, wood, McDonald's Value Meal, etc) into a standard BlendTec blender to find out if the stuff will churn up.

The latest video posted on Youtube shows 3 golf balls being chewed to bits. It's only been on the site for 3 days and it already has 821,389 views. Great example of a company using viral marketing to get word out about a product.

Not only did this campaign probably cost Blendtec pennies to produce, it's much more effective than a standard paid advertisement because it's bringing consumers into the discussion. Over 1000 people have posted comments about it (mostly stuff like "I've gotta have this blender!")

Let's just hope this little experiment doesn't spin out of control with YouTubers trying things like "Will it Blend: Cat Edition."

Talk about a powerful threesome: the Web, word-of-mouth and PR are helping to make one guy's dream come true

UK-based Richard Green shares a fantasy not too dissimilar from that of many other guys around the world: he'd like to have a threesome with his girlfriend and another woman. To his surprise, though, Green's girlfriend gave him the "green" light if, and only if, he was able to create a Web site and attract 5 million hits. Strange, I know, but read on.

Thanks to a combination of word-of-mouth and public relations, Green has already attracted more than 2 million-plus visitors to Pleasemakethiswork.com.

I found out about it by listening to a newsbrief on National Public Radio this morning. According to NPR, tens of thousands of people around the world are passing the URL along to their friends, making Green and his Web site one of the hottest items on the worldwide web.

Pleasemakethiswork.com is yet another stark example of the power of the web. But, it's an even greater example of how PR and word-of-mouth in tandem can accomplish a desired goal: whether that objective is heightened awareness, creating relationships with customers in a new and different way or, as in Green's case, achieving a cherished fantasy.

Would any other marketing combination have worked as well? I doubt it. Would I have responded to direct mail, in-store promotions or, god forbid, an advertisement? Nope. But the news report gave Green's mission all the credibility it needed to pique my curiosity. You can like or dislike what he's doing, but Green's clearly a master of 21st century buzz marketing.

In this case, Coke clearly isn't it

The Wall Street Journal ran a fascinating story the other day that would be absolutely hilarious if it wasn't so sad from an image and reputation standpoint.

Here's the deal: a couple of enterprising entrepreneurs cum inventors came up with the idea of tossing Mentos tablets into bottles of Diet Coke. The immediate result is to create a geyser of fizz that skyrockets some 20-feet into the air! How cool is that? Anyway, videos of Diet Coke bottles going off like Mt. Vesuvius have been spreading around the Internet faster than the recent ear and throat infection that waylaid a large percentage of our agency's staff.

To their credit, Mentos is making the most of the buzz (fizz?) from the viral spectacle and absolutely loves the 800 or so different videos of the Mentos-Diet Coke eruption. Pete Healey, their U.S. marketing head, says the 'free publicity' is equivalent to over $10 million in advertising (note: in my book, it's worth a whole lot more than that since it's an opt-in, viral campaign that is being passed along solely by word-of-mouth).

Now, here's the downer. Diet Coke ain't happy. In fact, Coke spokeswoman Susan McDermott said, 'We would hope people would want to drink Diet Coke more than try experiments with it.' She also says the "craziness of Mentos doesn't fit with the brand personality" of Diet Coke. Gimme a break. This is potentially a huge marketing bonanza for Diet Coke if they'd only loosen the corporate sphincter muscle a little and think outside the box (the bottle?).

Mentos gets it and is about to consummate a marketing deal with the two men responsible for one of the more elaborate videos (these particular guys used 101 two-liter bottles of Diet Coke and 523 Mentos to create a dancing fountain like the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas. Here's the video:

Viral, word-of-mouth marketing is here to stay and certainly what the future will be all about. Consumers decide what's hip, cool and funny. Not marketers. Mentos gets it. Diet Coke doesn't. Maybe the latter needs to mix in a little Rum and enjoy the buzz (and subsequent sales).