Smoking Gun PR shots Clever Campaign

Smoking Gun has just launched (November 2012) a smoking hot integrated campaign for the Kennel Club. 

The core elements are the competition ‘Crufts Factor’, which aims to find Britain’s most talented dog and is supported by Britain’s Got Talent Winner and Young Kennel Club member Ashleigh Butler, and the Discover Dogs event.

Dog owners who think their pooch has the Crufts Factor, can upload a video of their star through a Facebook app. The audience will have the chance to vote and elect three finalists. The three lucky doggies, together with a wildcard entry, will then show their talent at the event in Earl’s Court. The final winner will finally perform on the global stage at Crufts in March 2013.

MY OPINION

I might be slightly biased because of my love for dogs (my favourite pet), but I think this campaign will be extremely successful. We could say that there is a celebrity endorsement element in this campaign, which will definitely help its success. However, I think that the competition and the extremely shareable UGC will ultimately be its X (= winning) factor.

What do you think? Am I too biased?

** Apologies for the rare updates - I am working 9-5 and have no access to the Internet at home, which makes things complicated. It will all go back to normal in a few weeks.

Facebook's Bad PR

Let's talk about some bad PR, for a change.

In the last few days some rumors about Facebook private messages being published on users' timelines were spread online. 

Users raised concerns to Facebook's staff about this phenomenon; however Facebook denied repeatedly.

They declared:

“A small number of users raised concerns after what they mistakenly believed to be private messages appeared on their Timeline. Our engineers investigated these reports and found that the messages were older wall posts that had always been visible on the users' profile pages” (Taken from here).

As a Facebook user, I can say with no doubt that that some of my private messages were published as posts at the beginning of my timeline. These were private messages from a year and a few months ago - I deleted them promptly, of course.

Why is this bad PR?

I think that denying everything was a great mistake. Not only because I am sure that the rumors were true, but also because it is never good to minimise an issue that several users reported. All the users who complained have a network of friendships on Facebook (and offline), so the news spread quickly. I saw various statuses changing into warning messages for other users to read. I couldn't really give an estimate, but I believe quite a lot of Facebook users know about the leak.This is demonstrated by the fact that some users cancelled their accounts and Facebook's share price fell 9.1 per cent. As I previously highlighted here on the blog, denial is never a good PR technique in the age of social media.

What do you think? Is this is an example of bad PR? Why?

Chick-Fil-A and a BIG PR Disaster

What is worse than getting your reputation ruined? Trying to restore it by creating a fake Facebook account, of course!

Chick-fil-A is an American fast food chain. A few weeks ago (July 2012) the company's reputation was affected by CEO Dan Cathy's anti-gay marriage allegations. Just a few days later, Chick-fil-A declared it withdrew kid's meal toys produced by the Jim Hendson Company, as these were defective. 

The outbreak started when a Facebook user publicly invited the company to avoid pretense of coincidence. At this point, a new user called Abby Farle advocated Chick-fil-A claiming to know for certain that the toy manufacturer had ended the contract much earlier than the CEO's anti-gay marriage stance became public.

(taken from here)

It was then discovered that Abby Farle became a Facebook user just hours before the discussion started and that images of a girl who looked exactly the same as her were available on Shutterstock. What a coincidence, huh?

The company denied its involvement in the Facebook discussion and invited its fans to spread this version of the story online. 55,000 people liked the post; however the mayors of Boston and Chicago have declared they wish to deny the chain licence to open new shops in their cities. 

MY COMMENT

How many coincidences! 

I think this is a typical example of a 'social media suicide'. Denial is an approach to crisis and issue management that I do not like, at all. I think that it is the worst response to a crisis in a highly connected world like the one we live in now. People talk, bloggers have a great influence, and common Facebook users can become revolutionists. Lying is not affordable anymore and companies should just accept it. Stakeholders prefer an organisation that admits its faults, apologises, and learn from its mistakes. I think denial is the worst move Chick-fil-A could have made. And the fake Facebook user is simply a no-no in PR! In this case, restoring the reputation would have been challenging because of the homophobic allegations alone. However, now the task will be even tougher, as it will be difficult to regain the trust of the publics and customers.

Life. Live it.

There are a lot of smart and good campaigns launched by the Red Cross, many of which are focused on educating the target audience in order to empower it - a common strategy in health promotion.

Life. Live it. was launched in 2011 to educate children and teenagers the basics of first aid.

THE CAMPAIGN

The key message of the campaign is: some very easy procedures can save the life of a friend.

Tactics:

° A mini-website filled with resources that help teach children aged 5 to 11 some basic notions;

° A kit that teachers can  use to educate 11 to 16 year-olds;

° A Facebook page;

° A contest that gives the chance to win 1 to 3 'Pushover' frisbees signed by the Bombay Bicycle club. Contestants needed to share the Facebook status of the Facebook page;

° A Twitter account. 

MY OPINION

I believe this campaign has not much of creativity, but it is effective and to the point. Many health promotion or public information campaigns need to be direct and aim for concrete results. On the Facebook page you can read: 'if your friend had too much to drink and passed out - would you know what do to?' Simple and to the point, just like the campaign.