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Digital Marketing Strategy, PR and Messaging

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Media Relations and P&G’s What-If Plan

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Today’s post is a compendium of news about Fortune 100 crises. If you’ve watched this space, you’ll recognize these names – Nestle, BP, and Proctor & Gamble. Don’t know the crisis each is managing? Then perhaps you’ve not been consuming social and traditional media, for these corporations are in the news several times a day of late due to rain forests, oil and diapers.

To bring you up to speed, here’s the Soulati-‘TUDE! Nestle post. This week, my “Got a What If Plan?” oriented to the oil debacle paved the way for the next day’s post on diapers, rash and Procter & Gamble.

So great to see a sequential flow, and the only reason I re-introduced this content here is as a foreword to this article in Advertising Age “Inside P&G’s PR playbook: How Pampers Battled Diaper Debacle” about a behind-the-scenes look at the public relations machine for Proctor & Gamble. The internal team and its agency kicked into high gear at the onset of mommy complaints that the new Pampers Dry Max caused diaper rash and “chemical burns” on babies’ behinds.

For anyone in corporate or agency public relations, I strongly encourage you read this piece. It is a fascinating unfolding of a public relations machine in synch with product marketing, corporate strategy, and internal response to a brewing external crisis.

The story was written by Jack Neff after Advertising Age was granted an insider view of the marketing public relations team in action. He followed them for half a day to watch strategy and execution. I’ve not seen a story of this nature delivered smack in the middle of a crisis. If I were a stakeholder, you can bet my concerns would be alleviated after reading this piece.

In companies the world over, there is crisis. Social media has elevated these issues beyond comprehension and presented them to the consuming public on a silver platter. This trifecta is a textbook case for students, and I hope academicians and volunteer public relations professors are watching these three situations closely. There’s no better way to teach than by real-world example, and none of us are too old to keep learning.

Only one word of counsel for today:

It’s more critical than ever to shore up external messaging. When social media comes calling, one word gone awry can upset the entire apple cart.

When Are You You?

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Was combing Google Reader last night for content to help me with today’s topic. I really had nothing to write about, or so I thought.I zeroed in on Charlene Li, co-author of the best-selling Groundswell, and her free webinar series on open leadership.You can register for number three happening TODAY at 10 a.m. PDT on Finding and Supporting Your Open Leaders.

But, that’s not what I want to write about…

I noticed Charlene had launched a new personal Web site that is home to her blogs, calendar of travels, book info and more. While she did not leave Altimeter Group, she said her company is her work. She wanted a chance to speak about her children  without compromising her work content or professionalism. I can vouch for that.

Also tonight, I had a discussion with a colleague about Twitter IDs and whether to keep it professional or personal. When I tweet now, I think twice before posting about whether the content is professional enough. There are too many opportunities to be regarded offensive with an off-hand remark.

Does your professional life control your social media identity? Are you finding it challenging to always be “on” and to carefully and thoughtfuly craft the message? Yes, yes, yes.

Social media, social networking and SEM have made the world open. Just like Charlene suggests – open leadership requires transparency. It’s a push-me/pull-you sort of thing. If you want to play ball in the majors, we all need to let go of a little privacy and adopt a bit of celebrity.

So, when are you you?

 
 

PepsiCo And Its Earth Day Trifecta

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Had another post all ready to go, and then I opened today’s Wall Street Journal which changed everything.

PepsiCo (and Waste Management) announced yesterday a recycling program called Dream Machine with kiosks that reward users. I didn’t know this until just now. Back track to earlier this morning when I was scanning the morning paper:

Full-Page Advertisement

PepsiCo announced a new recycling program today that I first learned about in a full-page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal in section one.

  • The ad appealed to me because our family voraciously recycles down to a worry about #4 plastics and how we can properly dispose of them.
  • I wondered how I could participate, get a dream machine for me, and whether I had to drink Pepsi to be on board (no pop consumed in my home).
  • The ad piqued my interest on the first viewing; great stats for ROI.

Social Media

The link in the ad referred me to the Dream Machine Facebook page. I tore the page to reference the url later. (I just visited the page and became a fan; 355 members to date — not too many, but enough, considering the program launched April 21. The page is incredibly well done with multi-media.)

Media Relations

Jump to Wall Street Journal in  “Corporate News.” Here’s the light bulb…PepsiCo in Recycling Push, a corner, above the fold story about the Fortune 50 company (along with NYSE: WM), announcing its new Dream Machine program.

  • “Up to 3,000 kiosks are to be put in high-traffic places this year, with incentives for consumers,” says the story call out.
  • “Every time you recycle with a PepsiCo dream machine, we’ll make a donation to help disabled veterans start their own businesses,” says the full-page advertisement.

Why is this significant? Take a look at timing with Earth Day. Look at the integrated marketing strategy with the blending of advertising, public relations, media relations, social media and thought leadership, among many others I’ve not discovered.

I applaud the marketing, advertising, public relations teams (corporate and agency) for their integrated and highly strategic work to launch what impresses me as a campaign exactly right for the time. Review its audiences (disabled vets, eco-conscious consumers, future consumers, Facebookers, corporate partners, stakeholders, and so many more). There’s something in this campaign that resonates with a plethora of audiences.

Nicely done, PepsiCo; nicely done.

Who Owns Blogs?

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Thought I could avoid this controversial topic of ownership, but why not further stick out the neck after blogging here that “Public Relations Drives Marketing?”

The hackles most raised by that post were those of Mr. Mark W. Schaefer, blogger extraordinaire at {grow}. Yesterday, Mark returned the favor while leading a Webinar on B2B blogging I attended.

To the question posed by the audience “Who owns blogs, public relations or marketing?” Mark prefaced his answer with “My PR friends are going to kill me…marketing owns blogs!” He suggested public relations can draft content all it wants, but marketing owns the strategy.

Because I tweeted the Webinar (can’t sit idle during those things) at #b2bblog, others weighed in. @NEMultimedia said “I see PR and Marketing as two sides of the same brain.” @X_youarehere said,” No 1 owns communications, but there are many…change own to coordinate.”

I concur with that statement Mr./Ms. X with a change from “coordinate” to “lead or direct.” We’re at a crossroads, and this ownership question continues to rear its ugly head. I report to a client’s brand marketing team, and I direct strategy and content for landing pages, blogs, social media, and more.  While I don’t own it, I certainly collaborate with marketing.

I vow, as of today, never to claim ownership of blogs, social media or other; rather, I’ll claim partnership. In Mr. Schaefer’s defense, he did respond to my tweet questioning his marketing-owns-blogs statement saying “we can agree to disagree only if he’s right.” (No way, dude, we both are! There, how’s that for starters?)

What’s your contribution to this discussion?  Let’s establish future guidelines for all of us.

Listening?

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I’m curious about this new phenomenon called “listening.”

In the April 5, 2010 Advertising Age, a sub-head of a larger story says “As social media continues to grow, marketers place more emphasis on listening to consumers instead of just asking them questions.”

In the last three years I’ve heard one of my clients tell me they listen to their corporate customers and as a result they provide better client service; really? I’ve stated that blogging makes you listen differently. (I still concur with myself.) Now this headline about marketers who listen versus ask.

Social media has adjusted the balance between marketer and consumer. Where before consumers were preached at by integrated marketers, now they are sending messages in the reverse direction. The balance of power has shifted, and listening is indeed a new phenomenon, although now a different one-way street.

Online buzz provides much of the fodder for companies and organizations to grasp the conversation via monitoring and tracking and, hence, listening. Perhaps social media defines listening as new consumer-driven positive or negative content about brands being created every minute via word-of-mouth marketing with no pattern, no campaign, no budget, and no director in charge.

Perhaps.

Although I understand the point about the need for more listening, shouldn’t this be an innate, basic skill? Isn’t success embroiled in listening?

Strategic listening requires comprehension and action. One can hear, but without full comprehension, there’s no action, and potentially failure. For a story to suggest listening is now being emphasized because consumers are armed with social media tools implies to me we’ve not been listening too well of late.

What’s your opinion about how you listen? Is social media forcing improvement of listening skills, merely pointing out how poor our skills were to begin with, or making listening temporary until another something comes along?