Embracing social media

Following on from last week’s blog post on the power of social media, another excellent example has caught our eye – www.embracethis.co.uk  This short advert, created for Sussex Safer Roads Partnership (SSRP) to encourage people to always wear a seatbelt, has received over 260,000 hits on You Tube from a total of 89 countries – all this is just 2 weeks. 

The pulling power of this advert is remarkable – for so long the temptation has been to ‘scare’ people into wearing seatbelts, focusing on negative outcomes.  This advert turns that idea on its head with a very emotional but positive message that quickly communicates why you should always wear a seatbelt. The film features no voice over, just music helping it to appeal to a wider audience.

The success of the film comes not only from its original content but from the way it has been marketed.  You Tube hits continue to rocket, while one impressed fan started her own Facebook page, which to date has 918 members, the campaign has been discussed on blog sites, motoring forums and links posted across the internet, all driving traffic back to the SSRP website.  SSRP have also joined the conversations with its communication manager thanking viewers for positive comments, responding to blog posts and updating the Facebook page with the latest successes. 

Last night BBC South Today covered the campaign and its success as well as showing a segment of the film, all helping to get the safety message across.

Graffiti wall posters promoting the www.embracethis.co.uk link have also been displayed in prominent sites around the region. 

A job well done!

Poster protest shows power of social media

Any doubts you may still have about the power of social media, such as Facebook, Bebo and Twitter, should be dispelled with the success of a recent online protest.

Nearly 4,000 people joined a Facebook group to protest at billboard advertising for a dating service which encouraged extra-marital affairs. Over a very few days, they rang the company to complain, wrote to the Advertising Standards Authority, e-mailed the people who own the poster sites. Most importantly, they kept telling their friends to get involved so the group’s membership spiralled.

As a result, the company very quickly told their ad agency they were ‘changing their advertising strategy’ – http://tinyurl.com/yevaujo

In the end, it does not really matter whether the impact was created by the group itself or because its actions were picked up by newspapers and broadcasters. The simple facts are that companies cannot ignore organised groups of consumers and that social media makes it much easier for such groups to organise themselves and spread their messages.

The upside of this for your company is that, if you offer something popular and engaging, it is also much easier for you to spread your message widely by using the same techniques. It takes ‘word of mouth’ into another dimension.

If you are looking to protect and enhance your reputation, an engaged and responsive relationship with social media sites should be a key part of your strategy.

Get thee behind me, Bishop!

With his comments on the Taliban in the Telegraph today, The Rt Rev Stephen Venner has demonstrated a weakness of purpose and at the heart of the Chuch of England’s liberal establishment.

He has obviously listened to his PR’s advice that ‘repentance and a plea for forgiveness’ is the right response to his faux pas, but that doesn’t address the real issue.

One of the fundamentals of a faith-based perspective is an appreciation of the difference between right and wrong, particularly when the wrong is carried out in the name of religion. In a multi-faith society, it is absolutely correct for Christians not to spend all their time criticising those who hold other beliefs. However, some things are just plain evil.

Jesus reserved some of his most vituperative confrontation for those who used religion as an excuse to pursue their own political or social agenda, to encourage exclusivity or elitism and to oppress their own people, particularly the poor.  It’s not hard to see how the Taliban (and some Christian groups, unfortunately) fall foul of all three.

The Pharisees were a ‘brood of vipers’ (Matthew 3:7) I wonder what he would have made of modern clerics’ shilly-shallying.

Would He now recognise the error of His ways and amend his language?  “I may not personally agree with the Pharisees’ obsessive legalism and self-righteousness, through which they puff themselves up at the expense of others in society, but you have to acknowledge their personal piety and all that washing means they have an admirable lack of body odour. And we really should be grateful for their charitable giving out of the profits they make by fleecing the rest of us.”

I think not.

Just let your yes be yes and your no be no. It is not naivety of media wiles that causes senior churchmen to get themselves into such pickles, it is a lack of clarity in their own spiritual understanding.

Recycling incentives are a real carrot – or potatoes, coffee or cereal, take your pick

At last, recycling is to be encouraged not delivered under threat of criminality. George Osborne’s announcement today took me back nearly 20 years, to when I was PR adviser to the first attempt to incentivise better recycling practice through supermarket vouchers. The scheme envisaged trailers in car parks, staffed by people endlessly sorting the rubbish shoppers brought back and rewarding them with store vouchers. It was the early days of the barcode (revolutionary technology then which made the idea possible). It seemed hugely ambitious, thoroughly unwieldy and years ahead of its time. After all, most people’s idea of recycling was still limited to the bottle bank at the end of the road.  Then came store cards and the ‘voucher’ incentive died a death. Eventually, the supermarkets did their own thing, with reverse vending machines giving storecard points. But most people now want to recycle from home, under the auspices of their local council – kerbside collection is convenient and, if properly sorted, should give us the best quality recyclate.

So, where Windsor and Maidenhead residents lead, we might all follow. The voucher is back; a potent symbol for cash strapped Britain. And why not? Demographic evidence shows that those households who are most reluctant to get the recycling habit are also the ones most likely to benefit from and use shopping vouchers. Some may say, go the whole hog and give money off the council tax; that has its merit as well – the important thing is that those who create the public benefit reap the private benefit.

The beauty of this scheme is that it uses classic retail marketing techniques to benefit the environment. So, we can give special promotions and incentives depending on what is needed. If there is a shortage of clear glass in the system (as there often is) offer double reward points for clear jars and bottles – now there’s a good reason to rinse out that empty pasta sauce pot or jam jar.

It’s inherently flexible and treats the householder as a partner not a potential felon. There isn’t  a council in the land that wouldn’t gain from saying thank you to its residents. As Osborne says, “Carrots work better than sticks” – and soon you might get them more cheaply as well.

Messenger should never become the story

In a reversal of the usual ’shoot the messenger’ problem, a PR has chosen to shoot the source on the front page of trade magazine Recycling and Waste World.
Clearly considering himself to be the Max Clifford of the waste industry, Proteus PR’s Paul Davison has decided to become the story by criticising the Health Protection Agency for ‘failing to reassure a sceptcial public’.

Unfortunately for Mr Davison, that is not the HPA’s job. It was tasked with considering the pros and cons of incineration from a public health perspective and coming up with a scientifically-valid, objective conclusion.

Rough edges, nuances, caution and caveats surround all such studies and it is for others to draw conclusions. Mr Davison betrays his own agenda by saying that “what was needed was a clear and unequivocal statement the EfW is safe”.

There is a serious public health debate going on here and it helps no one if PR companies try to lead the story by lecturing public bodies. The focus lies on the spin not the substance. Indeed, the whole article only quotes pro-EfW sources; where is the balance that an environmental group or local authority may have given? I’d like to hear their views on the HPA report as well.

Nothing in industry is ever crystal clear and science is always a balance of probabilities. A certain ambiguity does the PR business no harm and treats the public with the respect it deserves.

Baby bottles and BPA controversy

Today’s news that 6 US baby bottle makers are finally to remove bisphenol A (BPA) from their plastic bottles is belated, but welcome, recognition of the widespread public concern about the effects of this chemical on infant health. While I declare an interest as the UK spokesman of the world’s leading glassmaker, I have to ask why people take any risk at all of chemicals leaching into their babies’ food and milk. Glass containers are totally inert and therefore  entirely eliminate any possibility of material leaching from the bottle into the contents. Indeed, the purity of glass has been used to preserve food and drink safely for thousands of years. Glassmakers in the US have started making baby bottles in volume again and the doors are open in the UK and Europe as well. Glass is available from online suppliers, especially the environmentally-aware mother and baby sites, but larger scale supply is a distinct possibility if the health issues over BPA lead to an upsurge of interest in glass. For more info visit Friends of Glass.

No KBB Show? Smart PR will fill the gap

With the demise (sorry, postponement) of both kitchen, bathroom and bedroom trade shows, how do manufacturers and suppliers fill the gap in their marketing schedule? The smart ones are turning their budgets towards public relations. Creating your own show might be beyond the wit (and the budget) of many, but innovative communications and events, precisely targeted, still make an impact. Step forward, Tylo, the sauna specialists, who let the UK media know of their new product launch by whisking KBB Review’s Tim Wallace off to Sweden’s Ice Hotel for a chilling experience. Targeted, Different, Effective. Just what PR should be.

How far would you go to recylce?

Observer journalist, Andrew Purvis, investigates what happens to his used cans, bottles and paper when he puts them out for recycling.  He caught up with 360’s Philip Tutt to discover where his glass bottles go.

Click here to read the full article, as published in The Observer on Sunday 25 January 2009.

Is it time for the freelance team?

Looking at PR Week and talking to colleagues in larger consultancies, it’s clear that the pressure on in-house and agency teams is growing. Redundancies and recruitment freezes are everywhere just at the time when our clients need more advice and positive coverage than ever.  Perhaps it’s time for bigger agencies to work more flexibly with their smaller brethren.

While I can freelance individually (and am doing so at present), I also have a partner with whom I make a complete account team. So we can provide the brains and the muscle if an account gets too unwieldy or demanding for the current team. Or if the client should fall out with your account handlers and you haven’t got a replacement with time on their hands. Or, let’s hope, if you win more business than your people can handle in the short term.

There must be hundreds of similar small companes around the country who can step in and work under the main consultancy’s umbrella to keep the momentum going and hand-hold the client until the proper team is built again.

A six-point plan for surviving 2009

We know businesses that market themselves through a recession come out stronger and faster, but only if that marketing is embraced by the audience and builds brand appeal. So, this year above all

1. Be honest with yourself; decide what makes your product or service stand out from the crowd
2. If you can’t think of anything, create something fast
3. Get a proper creative team to work this into a campaign spend smart not just big
4. Follow through with focused PR to create a persuasive narrative around your brand
5. Involve your retailers; they are your brand ambassadors. Ensure they understand and advocate  not just how to specify your product, but the vision you are trying to communicate
6. Know your customer they are probably more web savvy than you think, so make sure social networks are part of your promotional strategy

Our advice was used as part of a larger article,  “The shape of things to come”, written by Grahame Morrison for kbb news.