Fri, 05 Jul 2002 13:17:35 GMT

An open letter to the PR people at Apple: Think Different…
When it comes to scoring own goals, no company is more accomplished than Apple Computer.

I have always had a soft spot for Apple and their brilliantly designed hardware and software and of course their carefully cultivated and managed ‘wacky’ image. I have in previous lives been an Apple user and still think their laptops are second to none – though I’m a Windows user by profession.

So why is it that Apple continually chose to alienate the very people who have kept the company alive through the dark and miserable Scully, Spindler and Amelio years? Why do they upset the very people who have bought into their ‘Think Different’ theme?

Whilst other companies spend huge amounts of time and money on building, nurturing and protecting their customer relationships, Apple seems happy to screw the very people who fight hardest on their behalf.

Communications and PR seems to be at the root of a number of their problems. The company for some reason dislikes the Apple rumor sites on the Internet. I’m from the school that believes no (or very little) news is bad news. These passionate people create and maintain these sites ’cause they love Apple. Their readers read these sites because they want to find out more about Apple and ahead of time. Now maybe I’m missing the point, but from where I’m standing any company in the world would give their right arm for that kind of passionate following. But not Apple.

Apple continues to try and strangle these sites – rather than maximize their appeal and reach – that’s a major mistake. Let’s cut to the chase, Apple is a very small player in the PC world. Any assistance, third party or otherwise should be embraced.

There is a furore on at the moment over the purported Apple-sponsored move to revoke or refuse press passes to the authors of many ‘amatuer’ Mac-sites to MacWorld as reported in Wired.

This is only the latest in a series of PR mishaps. Matthew Rothernberg has a very interesting piece on EWeek on this subject.

Only last year Apple’s PR firm was in the midst of a famous Weblog row which could have been resolved both quickly and easily but instead grew into a major firefight.

It seems Apple’s PR people aren’t thinking differently at all. Rather than harness the goodwill and entusiasm of all these online users, they set out to frustrate them. Has no-one at Apple heard that good communications is essential with all your audiences? Have they missed the Internet, newsgroups and weblogs?

Apple, accept some free PR counsel. Work with these people, harness the goodwill that’s out there and make the Mac platform relevant once more. Kicking your own people has never worked for dictators in the past, learn from history, think different – or the switch you’ve been promoting recently might be quickening in the opposite direction. [Comment]

Thu, 04 Jul 2002 07:38:37 GMT

Happy July 4th!

The world’s most phenomenal PR machine keeps rolling….
Yesterday I gave a small example of how blogging can be used as a PR tactic. Today I found a great example of how the world’s best PR machine is already targeting and influencing blogs. If you had any misapprehensions about the role of blogging and PR then they should be evaporating as you read.

Microsoft has one of the slickest PR teams/operations in the business. The company recognized PR early on as a key element for success in the IT business. Since its early days Microsoft has built, grown and refined its PR team and its results have been staggering.

In response to a negative entry about Palladium on Dave Winer’s weblog, the Microsoft PR machine were on to him in a flash. You may agree or disagree about the power of the blog, but while you’re debating it, others are influencing and contributing to blogs all over the Internet. Get going… [Comments]

Wed, 03 Jul 2002 07:31:46 GMT

Utilizing the power of the blog….
Phil Gomes recently recieved feedback on his ExpertPR article on blogging asking has he ever actually used blogging for clients.

Well here’s an example of successful PR blogging. A couple of months ago, Google released the APIs to their search engine as a Web Service. Obviously this was very interesting to our company as a Web Services vendor. Some guys in marketing came up with an application for the Google API using Web Services… they created Googlemail 🙂 Now you can send an e-mail to google@capeclear.com with your search terms in the subject line and it will send you back the top ten results from Google.

Whilst not exactly changing the direction of the industry, it’s a nice example of how easily you can create useful Web Services and it actually has some useful applications such as the ability to store searches, access searches from handhelds etc. We promoted Googlemail through relevant weblogs and have had over 30,000 different people using it. It’s also generated quite a bit of ink. The fact that we contacted bloggers with an interest in this area, opened it to their readers and to other bloggers and quite quickly the word spread. It was an interesting and worthwhile exercise. Furthermore, some purists didn’t appreciate it and this created some excellent educated debate on the whole area.

Here’s a recent story from UNIX Insider that appeared on Googlemail.

So there’ s no question that in the networked world within which we live you can use weblogs to promote a product or message, however be careful. Your message must be relevant, your product must be relevant, you should be upfront about your agenda and you should know and understand a blogger’s interests BEFORE you get in touch. Do these guidelines sound familiar at all? Good PR practice is good PR practice regardless of the medium or the message.

[Comments?]

Tue, 02 Jul 2002 09:59:12 GMT

Brunswick Group get busy in TV land….
The WSJ also reports (guess who has been catching up on his reading!) that troubled celebrity Martha Stewart has turned to the Brunswick Group for assistance in her current stock scandal, and while that’s keeping their New York office busy, their UK office is helping the BBC in a bidding war for the now defunct ITV digital station.

Tue, 02 Jul 2002 08:52:41 GMT

PR and the national agenda…
The Wall Street Journal reports that Estonia is preparing for its inclusion in the Europe Union by launching “a slick but confusing public relations campaign called Brand Estonia. Created with the aid of London-based PR firm Interbrand, Brand Estonia includes such selling points as…numerous natural marshes [and] morasses.” The campaign also seeks to distance Estonia from the Soviets. Other key messages in the Estonia PR onslaght is “If you like your blondes abundant — but you know that Scandinavians can just be so boring and clinical, come see what a healthy dose of quirkiness, irony and experimentation in Estonia will do for you.”

Thu, 27 Jun 2002 10:21:14 GMT

When good analysis turns bad…and costs you your job….
Story today from the Register about how Apple’s Australian PR Manager has been fired for sending out favorable Gartner research on the superior usability of the Apple over Wintel-based PCs. Seemingly Gartner hadn’t approved the release and when the story got picked up world-wide they hit the roof….be careful out there!

Wed, 26 Jun 2002 01:39:34 GMT

The poor misunderstood press release….
It seems that everyone has decided that the poor unloved press release needs a good kicking. This is the latest rant from MarketingProfs. But while this article is billed as ‘standing up against the press release’ it’s not, it’s an article about the need for a rounded Public Relations program. That is good, but the press release is not the source of all evil.

I don’t mean to teach anyone to suck eggs but surely this is common sense to everyone and has very little to do with the usefulness of otherwise of a press release?

Of course PR is more than press releases. Of course spamming press releases with no news content is bad. But please don’t forget that today we live in a multi-dimensional media environment. A well written, targeted and relevant press release still has a lot of value to offer – not on its own – but as part of a program.

Smearing the press release is wrong. It’s a PR tool that sits alongside a wide variety of other tools that are valuable when used correctly. All this anti-press release stuff I’m reading recently is a little OTT. Watch the baby there….