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…
Murphy's Law 