Proof that spoofs aren't all goofs...

Last week Nick Clegg took to YouTube to apologise to students, parents and voters over the LibDems backtracking on an election pledge to oppose university tuition fees. His heartfelt apology used a medium associated with youth, and accessible to more than if it were buried in a newspaper article: a calculated move to connect with those disillusioned with the LibDems' role in the coalition.

However, as with anything released on social media, releasing the video is like releasing a small monkey into a supermarket: unpredictable but sometimes amusing and something that people will talk about for a long time after... While some spoofed the speech to vent their anger at Clegg and his party, others) helped to soften the reputational damage around the party's decisions with videos that reached many more people than the original apology would have ever done alone. The Poke satirical website were quick to release an autotune spoof of the speech, with Clegg's approval, as a charity single and YouTube hit:

Spoofs can be the ultimate form of accolade and perpetuate a campaign long beyond its otherwise serious shelf life. This spoof took debate around Clegg's message beyind the usual traditional press and across social media. See this PRWeek article for more discussion on the value of spoofs in this instance and if you'd like to see the original, click here - however the most interesting aspect of this will be seeing how many more spoofs are spoofing the spoof...

Is any publicity good publicity?

Waitrose's bright idea to embrace Twitter and encourage customers to tweet 'I shop at Waitrose because...' with the #WaitroseReasons hashtag sparked way more publicity than the brand anticipated - not all of it good... Twitter was awash with tweets lampooning the brand for its upper middle class credentials, products and customers, such as “I also shop at Waitrose because I was once in the Holloway Road brand and heard a dad say ‘Put the papaya down Orlando!”.

As PR watchers such as Marketing Week and Marketing magazine debate the old adage 'is any publicity good publicity?' the question is probably more about social media and lack of control. If you unleash a social media PR strategy it WILL, at some point, backfire. Non-users, or even active opponents, of the brand have as much access to a medium such as Twitter as loyal customers. In which case, you need a crisis plan, you need to monitor activity and you need to be actively and imaginatively engaged in the debate.

Waitrose attempted to tackle the tweets with their own tweet, however it fell short - "Thanks for all the genuine and funny #WaitroseReasons tweets. We always like to hear what you think and enjoyed reading most of them." Perhaps talking the consumers' own language, with humour and tongue in cheek, may have been more appropriate...and a one off tweet just won't cut it. 

Brand + trend = creative ideas

Great PR unites your brand with the most exciting new trends to create something  innovative and original that will generate buzz - so you need to keep your ear to the ground for what's happening out there. This website, trendwatching.com is a great resource, feeding through trends in the consumer world. For instance, these 12 minitrends spark all kinds of ideas and show how some brands are a step ahead. Check out Uniqlo's app that wakes users up with a gentle update on the weather and music to suit in line with the 'tech domestics' trend. Or the 'one touch' trend exemplified by Red Tomato's fridge magnet that allows you to order your favourite pizza at the touch of a button. Many of these trends could lead to your own ideas for your own brands - for instance how could you mimic 'artificial scarcity' with special editions or limited daily runs of low involvement products, like the Doughnut Vault, or could you develop a super-eco version of your brand? Or how can you unite virtual and real worlds in 'real world liking' like C&A in Brazil? Take these trends - put them together with your brand - and see what happens...

Christmas has come early - very early

Designed to hit at the end of the summer's 'silly season' (a time of year when the UK parliament is in recession and there is very little 'actual' news) Asda have stolen the march on other superstores by starting their Christmas promotion early...4 months early. They have opened 17 grottos, complete with Santas, across their 540 stores, just as we head into a predicted heatwave. Reported in newspapers as diverse as the Guardian, the Daily Mail, and the Daily Star, and in many local papers, the news is designed to encourage shoppers to use the Asda Christmas savings card.

The articles also show another PR tactic, of using 'research' to promote coverage, as they declare more mums are worried about the costs of Christmas this year than in 2011.

Complex media habits = complex PR campaigns

As we warm up for the new term and I start prepping lectures, it's a good time to see how the world of media is changing. Ericsson's ConsumerLab survey confirms that 'old media' is still the backbone of media activity, with an overall increase of consumer spend on television viewing BUT there are emerging trends in how we watch TV. More of us, across the age groups, are sitting with a tablet, laptop or phone - or maybe a selection of these - while watching television. Anecdotally, the Olympics was a fine example as people Facebooked and texted their emotions with friends, perhaps also watching two sports simultaneously or using the red button on the TV, and while googling obscure sports on their tablets (how does the 'kierin' cycling work anyway? Why is there an old guy seemingly pedalling very slowly and holding them all up?). These complex media consumption habits require complex PR campaigns, designed to provoke dialogue across media, in real time. This presents new challenges in how to engage consumers, monitor ongoing discussions, handle discussions that get out of control and evaluate the impact of PR across so many media.

When a local council banned 9 year old Martha Payne from photographing her school meals, scoring them on a 'Food-o-meter' scale for healthiness, and posting to her blog they thought they were averting a PR scandal. Instead, as New Statesman put it, in "swerving to avoid a PR disaster molehill, have just crashed full speed into a PR disaster mountain".  
The resulting publicity about the banned blog did more to raise awareness of the inadequacies of school meals in Argyll and Bute than any single blog could have done. Once again, power to the citizen journalist, even the 9 year olds.

Public relations-hips...on Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is always a PR bonanza and this little blog by Umpf keeps us up to date with 2012's offerings here in the UK.

Sometimes it's creating a new product - from this 'recession proof' card from Asda with a humourous angle ('My love for you is priceless!') for just 7p (an extra 7p for the envelope) to the $10,010 Pizza Hut proposal pack: including ruby ring, limousine servicem flowers, fireworks and...a $10 pizza and breadstick meal.

Or there are the surveys: according to a Travelodge survey British men spend twice as much as women on Valentine's and as a country we spend £880m on the day...and in the Lovehearts factory there are 61 couples amongst the 500 staff, that's a quarter of all staff in the loved up factory.

And there are the stunts: Agent Provocateur with live models in their New York window, Britain's oldest couple tweeting on behalf of wedding video company 'Shoot it Yourself', and Dove inviting people to tweet what they love most about their Valentine at London's Victoria Station, while handing out white tulips.

Well, we did say PR is all about relationships...