360PR Blog

By Rob Bratskeir

One of Saturday Night Live’s sharpest jabs in recent memory never even made it to air last weekend.  (Lorne, anybody home?)  The bit featured Jason Sudekis deftly sending up Reed Hastings’s now infamous mea culpa, alongside a perfect Fred Armisen aping that other Netflix (um, Qwikster) guy.  Lucky for us SNL’s dress rehearsals are taped.  Watch the bit, then talk amongst yourselves.  And thank 360’s own Caitlin McNamara for the clip.

Plenty of water cooler-able stuff there.  But what got me most wasn’t any one line, but the duo’s compulsion to keep apologizing: once, twice, thrice.  It’s exactly where the real Reed went off the rails.  He didn’t know how to quit when behind.   After all the talk of corporate hubris, price gouging and flanker brands  – after all the prognosticating over why Netflix did it, and what still may be up their bright red sleeves — I simply fail to understand what went through Hastings’s mind in choosing to broadcast himself, when he had exactly zero to offer in restitution.  We probably would have settled for straight talk.  By then, many believed the price hike on DVDs was taken to subsidize the company’s high-growth, but higher-cost streaming future. Done. Move on.

Hastings’s timing was equally puzzling.  Just as the negative chatter over the original price hike announcement was waning, there he was dousing the embers with gas. Would you ever advise a client to “go twice” with the same bad news?  It leaves me convinced Hastings convened a meeting of one in hatching the plan and pulling the trigger.

There is a more troubling scenario – troubling for those who do what we do for a living.  Suppose Hastings did actually seek the counsel of someone he deeply trusted, and whose advice he would have taken.  What if that person, sensing Hastings’s enthusiasm for the idea, just bit their tongue and nodded yes.  It wouldn’t be my recco, but the guy’s had a lousy couple of weeks.  Maybe this will get him past it.  People love Reed, so yeah, maybe be can sell it.  Still…

OK, maybe a little out there.  Still, I’ll take it as a cautionary tale, and pledge to pull no punches when the stakes are highest — no matter who’s on the receiving end of our counsel.

Filed under: Internet, YouTube by Admin - 1 Comment →

…they were all topics discussed in yesterday’s 360PR Tweets & Sweets meeting! The 360PR crew gathered around bowls of delectable spring-themed candy and salty snacks to chat about interesting social media and digital case studies from recent weeks. I took note of three trends based on the discussion:

- Late Night Social: PR people and brands aren’t the only ones integrating social media into communications efforts. TV producer’s have been getting creative with ways to keep audiences engaged via Facebook and Twitter. For example, Conan O’Brien recently live-posted on Facebook during an episode of his show, conducting hilarious video Q&As with fans during the program. The videos led to tons of engagement on the Facebook page. In addition, Jimmy Fallon has integrated social media within his show with the popular “Late Night Hastag” segment, which garners thousands of tweets surrounding each segment.

- Social Election 2012: The 2012 presidential election is right around the corner, believe it or not. And following President Obama’s heavy social media campaigning in 2008, candidates for the 2012 race are getting out in front with social media communications. For example, Mitt Romney released a video on Monday on YouTube announcing his entrance into the race. It has received over 80K views thus far. And, following Obama’s announcement on Twitter, Romney quickly tweeted back saying “@barackobama I look forward to hearing details on your jobs plan, as are 14m unemployed Americans.” This will be an interesting race to watch!

- Social Coupons: Some brands are taking advantage of the social couponing craze on Facebook, including Healthy Choice and Pretzel Crisps. Healthy Choice launched a “progressive” coupon on Facebook and the value of it increased the more people “liked” the brand’s page. The campaign was supported with a Facebook ad buy and “likes” jumped from about 6,000 to 60,000! In addition, Pretzel Crisps (a snack food favorite here at 360) has also gotten some positive attention lately, for their Facebook coupons. With a couple simple coupons, and Facebook’s viral nature, Pretzel Crisps was able to double their Facebook “likes” in about 36 hours!

Filed under: 360 Public Relations, Digital PR, FaceBook, Interactive Marketing, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Networking, YouTube by EliciaBasoli - No Comments →

You may remember 360 Social’s round-up of 2009 social media moments from last year. Well, in 2010, we turned the proverbial mic over to Lindsay Durr and Skye McIntyre. In this video, Lindsay and Skye recap some of the top moments from this year including everything from the Old Spice campaign and the surge in group deal sites, to the trend of “underage and online” and TIME’s “Person of the Year,” Mark Zuckerberg. Check it out!

Did we miss anything? Share in the comments…

Filed under: 360 Public Relations, FaceBook, Internet, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Networking, YouTube by EliciaBasoli - 2 Comments →

We’ve told you about our 360 “Tweet and Eat” lunches before. But, this month we put a different spin on it – instead of the middle of the day, we gathered in the conference room at the end of the day, so we could all enjoy a cocktail or two while sharing some interesting case studies around the use of social media. Here are just a few highlights:

Ford Explorer Facebook Reveal – Earlier this year, Ford took a risk by revealing the new Explorer with an online and Facebook-central campaign, something that other auto-makers have never done. They revealed the new Explorer for the first time on Facebook, instead of at a big auto show. In the first day it surpassed its goal of 30K fans and, as a result, gave a free Explorer to one random fan. In addition all of the components of the campaign on Facebook, Ford heavily invested in ad buys as well to drive people to Facebook and to encourage engagement. This is a great example of a fully integrated online campaign. Check out the full case study on Mashable.

Google Zeitgeist Video - Google has compiled a video, with the help of Whirled Creative, showing how the world searched online in 2010. Over 1.5 million views on YouTube thus far! The most brilliant part of this video is that it subtly shows off some new Google features that launched this year, such as Google Instant. We highly suggest checking out the video – well done, Google!

“Rent is Too Damn UP” Spoof Video – By coincidence, another examples highlighted by staff also came from Whirled Creative. If you haven’t heard of Jimmy McMillan he ran for office in NY earlier this fall and named his political party the “Rent is too damn high” party. Really, that was the name of his party. The eccentric McMillan appeared during a televised debate and the video garnered millions of views on YouTube. Whirled Creative created a spoof mash-up, overlaying the voices from the debate onto a scene from the Pixar movie “UP” which has received over 300,000 views. Perfect example of a “viral” video leveraging current events to garner views.

Happy Holidays!

Filed under: 360 Public Relations, Digital PR, FaceBook, Internet, Social Media, Social Networking, YouTube by EliciaBasoli - 1 Comment →

Bloggers felt the embrace of brands who planned out involving and playful interactions for them at BlogHer10. There was every manner of entertainment at the show, from happy mascots and hi-energy dance floors, to coloring stations and full-on hair salons!

At this year’s event in particular, I was struck by how many bloggers were turned into brand “spokespeople” right in front of my very eyes through highly creative and video-worthy stunts and campaigns.

In a nutshell, putting bloggers on camera talking passionately about a particular topic led to a whole lot of third-party endorsements for brands. On the flip side, bloggers didn’t seem to mind their starring role in the brand videos; in fact they seemed to welcome the opportunity to be on camera, bringing to mind the possibility of a future BlogHer Reality TV series?

Please read my short letters to the brands to learn why they were the video stand-outs, extending their brand through video in the most distinctive ways.

Dear Walmart,

You are very bright.

I applaud your focus on selling products that sustain people and the environment, and I admire that you knew it would be the perfect theme for BlogHer. I like how you took a page from the Grammy’s playbook by inviting bloggers who are passionate about the quality of life on our planet to tweet their “bright” ideas for creating a sustainable future, and then feeding their tweets in real time on the giant video screen at your booth for everyone to see.

You were also genius to offer a professional video booth for bloggers to record their ideas and share them on your YouTube page and sustainability site. Having dozens of female bloggers raving about sustainability on your website is an endorsement that means way more than any paid advertising. But you already knew that. It also didn’t hurt that you had super knowledgeable folks staffing your exhibit – they were all brilliant.

Sincerely,

Cindy

Hello Jimmy Dean,

You brought a lot of sunshine to BlogHer.

Apart from the fact that I love sausage breakfast sandwiches, who wouldn’t love meeting the “hot” celebrity from your famous Jimmy Dean commercials? As if that weren’t enough, having the chance to star in a video with the “Sun” was a marketing move that really made me melt.

In the other part of your booth galaxy, I enjoyed talking to the friendly Hillshire Farms Chef who happily took the time to make me a custom, savory sandwich. She also gave me the 411 on the “Fresh Taste Challenge Sandwich Showdown” hosted by Padma Lakshmi that had 16 bloggers competing Top Chef-style to become the champion. The really great twist in my opinion was inviting three elementary school kids to judge the goods and decide the winners (they loved the sandwich ka-bob!). Talk about great content for the Hillshire Farms YouTube site, not to mention that the 16 bloggers have most likely already streamed the video on their own blogs.

All the best,

Cindy

Dearest Yahoo! Shine,

You inspire me.

It’s really good news that you are dedicated to offering online advice and information to women, and you were very clever to extend your “You. Reinvented” brand campaign to BlogHer10. After all, what’s more inspiring than stories of women who are reinventing their lives?

I was spell-bound by your fashion news-room set-up where you invited bloggers to share their “reinvention” stories on camera. I was so enamored with the idea, that I decided that I must reinvent myself in time to participate in your video show at BlogHer11.

Good for you for not only curating the blogger videos on Yahoo!, you also smartly gave embeddable videos to each of the participating bloggers so they could easily share on their blogs too. The idea that one woman’s voice on one lone blog may not change the world–but together, they wield quite a bit of power with other women is very classy.

As ever,

Cindy

P.S. I would be remiss to not offer a shout-out to the Tempur-Pedic folks for being cheeky and dressing up in pajamas, and also for jumping on the video content bandwagon with their “Ask Me” professional photography booth.

That’s a wrap.

Filed under: 360 Public Relations, Blogger Relations, Consumer Marketing, Digital PR, Events and Conferences, Green Marketing, Internet, Marketing to Moms, Social Marketing, Social Media, YouTube by Admin - 2 Comments →