Day: August 18, 2004

The PR Opinions Academy is delighted to announce the second winner of its prestigous PR Opinions Gorilla Marketing Award….

And the winner is…. Warner Brothers.

The company has merited this award for the spirited defense of their organization through anonymous (read: employees) postings on music websites and blogs.

According to The New York Times:

“But as is sometimes the case when marketers try to insinuate themselves into online communities, the company’s approach did not go as planned. Warner – which was part of the Time Warner media empire until February, when it was sold to a group of investors led by Edgar Bronfman Jr. – ran into a culture clash with the small world of MP3 blogs, annoying some of the very people it wanted to win over, especially after one or more people at Warner apparently posted anonymous messages to make it appear that ordinary music fans were defending the label.”

Now in fairness to Warner Bros. they deserve a lot of credit for initially attempting to promote their band through weblogs.  That is a good idea and one, I personally, give them a lot of credit for. 

However, in the aftermath of that positive initiative having staff members post anonymously on message boards in the company’s defence  has undone most of the good of the original campaign:

“But Ms. Bechtel (of Warner Bors.) said this kind of activity was not part of the Secret Machines campaign. She said the comments could have been posted independently by fans of the band who worked at the company. “We’re not sitting here typing in message boards that the band is great,” she said. “But if somebody in the building loves the band, I can see them doing it. People at record companies are also huge fans.”

 

Ladies and Gentlemen if we take Ms. Bechtel at her word – and I have no reason not to – then this is a great example for Public Relations practitioners on the importance of clear internal communication on acceptable online behaviour. If you’re posting your “personal” preference from your work computer it has repucussions for your employer.

 

Either way, they still win the award….

About the award:

The Gorilla Marketing Award was created to recognize companies whose “ham fisted attempts at Guerilla marketing should really be called “Gorilla Marketing” because of its unimaginative fumbling efforts at creating buzz (a term I’m not hugely fond of).”

Previous winner.

Update:

It looks like New Zealand travel website Ticketek could deserve a baby Gorilla award…

 Jim Horton points to a Fast Company interview with Mona Williams, VP of Corporate Communications at embattled Wal-Mart.

“First, we determine if the criticism is valid or if it’s generated by people who are simply looking out for their own self-interest. We’ve found that there is some of both. Where it is valid, we learn from it and become a better company.”

 Colin McKay has unearthed an interesting lengthy paper that looks at the changing dynamics of communication and reputation being created by the Internet – and how people are developing strategies to help them cope with information overload.

This kind of thinking is important for PR practitioners.  Online communication increasingly requires a deeper understanding of how people find, use and share information.  Furthermore, if you are truly interested in Public Relations, then your expertise will need to extend across all audiences and media, not just the traditional suspects.

“But for inbound reputation � the reputation that others form about you � there will be a shifting balance between your right to privacy and the reputation former�s right to share and collaborate with others. Those with public functions � politicians, doctors, lawyers, professors, and so forth � can expect to be more exposed in roles where others have legitimate interests. A dentist�s reputation as a dentist may be public, while the same dentist�s reputation as a debater need not be. It is easy to foresee intense debates, differing legal interpretations, and the emergence of customs on this issue, similar to existing tensions on the desirable scope of intellectual property rights.”

The authors Hassan Masum and Yi-Cheng Zhang are writing a book based on the paper called “The Reputation Society”. 

 I just came across Neville Hobson’s blog on business communication and technology.  He notes that there’s now an RSS-feed based calendar application available that enables you to share your calendar – and update it over RSS. A great example of innovative thinking.