Wednesday 11 August 2010

How far will companies go to keep up with the youth market?

After Dr. Pepper managed to post a mention of a porn film on a teenage girl’s Facebook profile last month, we have been pondering the boundaries that come with social media promotions and how far they are being pushed in relation to the youth market.


A Facebook app launched as part of the Dr. Pepper’s ‘What’s the worst that could happen?’ social media campaign saw a fourteen year old girl’s profile being hijacked with a comment that referenced a pornography film posted on her page (http://bit.ly/93ANaw). Being in an age where information is never more than a mouse click away, the young girl decided to take a look at the streamed film. Fortunately, internet security kicked in, but not before her mother spotted her search and subsequently launched a campaign to get the app banned. It was swiftly removed and an apology issued from the Coca Cola brand, with a promise they will look into how appropriate their future promotions are.

In essence the ‘What’s the worst that could happen?’ app, which saw 160,000 people sign up, was clever and fitted well with the youthful, edgy brand but the inappropriate content left Dr. Pepper open for censure. The immediacy of social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube etc can get a brand name out to a target audience that are more open to persuasive online brand messages and do not access other forms of media as regularly. The lesson to be learnt from Coca Cola is to assess how appropriate the campaign is to the online youth market you are targeting. What might be acceptable for an 18 year old boy is not as suitable for a 13 year old girl.

The campaign generated a considerable amount of coverage for the Coca Cola brand, perhaps more than if the application had continued to run on Facebook. The controversy surrounding the story, which was widely posted on sites such as Twitter and Facebook, created a huge number of people accessing the app before it was removed. But it raised questions for both Coca Cola as a brand and Facebook apps in general and how tight the regulations are now going to become for social media promotions aimed at young people.

Fortunately for us, we don’t have any controversial campaigns featuring inappropriate content lined up any time soon. But it has left us thinking, what’s the worst that could happen?

Monday 5 July 2010

Crowdsourcing - one question, a million answers

The Ward Lovett PR team has been immersed in social marketing this week. As with all things internet, changes and trends develop as quickly as the terminology to describe them.
PMs, tweets and status updates are now part of our everyday language - but thanks to the BBC for a great article on crowdsourcing http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8788780.stm - well work a look if you want to better understand one of the grass roots trends of the online world.
It may also be worth asking the online community if they want to see the 25% cuts in BBC spending coming from the online budget - as many believe it is one of the best online resources in the world.

Wednesday 30 June 2010

Christmas on the cards at Ward Lovett

The sun is out, Wimbledon has started and the World Cup is in full flow, but for some of our clients Christmas is on the cards!


Conference Aston has just finalised it’s Christmas party package offering a black and white masquerade theme and is already taking bookings for the festive season.

And at www.lovethedogs.co.uk, greyhound fans can book a great Christmas night out for greyhound tracks including Oxford, Perry Barr and Hall Green.

Our clients may be very organised but no one at Ward Lovett has started their Christmas shopping.

Ward Lovett’s Kate goes international at Ascot

Congratulations to our very own Kate Sherratt, who has been popping up in the most unlikely places since she appeared in a show stopping hat at Royal Ascot this week.


Kate has been seen on the websites of Hello Magazine, the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph as well as in papers in Australia and Canada, after she volunteered to model a hat for ‘Who Wants to be a Mill-naire’ entrant Vladimir Straticiuc.

Barcelona based Vladimir was runner up in the competition to celebrate National Hat Day on June 16 with an amazing lime green hat which turned heads at Ascot.

Kate has only just recovered from being ‘papped’ by Reuters, Associated Press and Getty Images, to name just a few.

Global not local in radio changes

The face of local radio seems set to change again, with the announcement that Global Radio is to half the number of its Heart stations, shedding up to 200 staff in the process.


Four stations in Devon will be merged into one, with a further four in Wales and the North West becoming a single station.

Breakfast and drive time shows on the 15 new superstations will stay at a station level, but the rest of the radio content will be networked out of London, as is currently the case.

The challenge of reaching listeners at a local level via regional radio stations is set to become harder and more expensive for Heart advertisers.

What value PR – or how to measure good will and coverage

Advertising value equivalent has long been seen as a poor measurement of PR coverage and with the advent of social media, a rate per column inch is fast becoming a valueless measurement.


However a recent convention in Barcelona attending by PR professionals from across the world has agreed new principles to measure the impact of PR.

The seven principles agreed were:

1. Goal setting and measurement are fundamental aspects of any PR programmes.

2. Media measurement requires quantity and quality: cuttings in themselves are not enough.

3. Advertising Value Equivalents (AVEs) do not measure the value of PR and do not inform future activity.

4. Social media can and should be measured.

5. Measuring outcomes is preferred to measuring media results.

6. Business results can and should be measured where possible.

7. Transparency and replicability are paramount to sound measurement.

The principles are a good starting point for any PR campaign – agree the outcomes at the beginning, whether it’s more cars sold, bums on seats or hits to a website.

Then measure against the agreed KPIs using all the tools available on and off line. The message is becoming far clearer to clients and marketers – joined up digital and PR team are essential for the delivery of great campaigns, delivering measurable results.

Sponsors have the World Cup sewn up – or do they?

Mention the phrase World Cup in any advertising at the moment and risk the wrath of FIFA, who have trademarked every possible phrase related to the tournament.


And they and their sponsors, who have paid millions for the privilege, are on the lookout for anyone jumping on the football bandwagon.

Mars is already considering action against Nestle for allegedly passing off its Kit Kat campaign – Keep your fingers crossed for 23 English and an Italian – as a World Cup endorsed product.

But the innovators of guerrilla marketing have scored with the recent Bavaria Beer stunt, which saw 26 blond models attending the Holland vs Denmark game.

The girls, sporting orange dresses featuring QR codes, were ejected at half time and the company may now face legal action from FIFA, despite the fact the logos worn on the dresses were less than two inches long.

But the guerrilla tactics have delivered a winning campaign for the Dutch brewery with coverage appearing across the world.

Pity the poor baby who has just been named FIFA.