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Instagram for Brands: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

Patrick Coffee — Thu, 09 May 2013 15:09:59 +0000

Every brand on Earth is chomping at the bit to place official ads on the rapidly growing Instagram, but parent company Facebook continues to proceed with extreme caution.

While Mark Zuckerberg says he is very encouraged by the expansion of the image-sharing network, he clearly does not plan to open the commercial floodgates until he’s good and ready. In his own words, Instagram must first focus on “build[ing] community” before determining how best to use its considerable potential as an ad/marketing forum. We can see why Zuckerberg prefers to take low-risk baby steps, no matter how impatient advertisers may be.

In the meantime, brands and their social media teams should be quite happy to learn that they do have more promotional options on Instagram thanks to the newly introduced function “photos of you,” which allows users to tag any other existing account—be it a friend, a celebrity, a local business, or a big-name brand—in their own pics. Amateur lensmen and brand managers alike will receive notifications when others tag them, and they can then choose whether to display these images on their own public feeds.

Can you say “pre-approved user generated content?”

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In Which Your Editor Reveals His Favorite Anonymous Tips

Patrick Coffee — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 12:59:03 +0000

This blogger’s anonymous tip box is something like the “leave a penny, take a penny” jar in that it can be both used and abused. Now, I have received a couple of good story ideas via “the box.” But more than anything I’ll miss opening my email account each morning to find little nuggets of wisdom like the following list of my favorite anonymous PRNewser tips, reprinted verbatim for your amusement:

“good”

Glad you think so!

“stupid, stupid, ignorant, sophomoric, get a pizza pie in the face you”

Say hi to your mother for me!

“for dry skin ini winter, add 4 to 5 drops of lemon juice in 4 table spoon of cream mix it well and apply it on your face. now rub it gently and after 10 mins wash your face with warm water. your skin will become soft.”

Thanks! Now my skin is super soft!

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Slim-Fast’s NC-17 Ad Urges You to Get What You Really Want (In Bed)

Elizabeth S. Mitchell — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 14:50:30 +0000

On Monday morning, as I was preparing for my usual online workout routine, I pressed “play” on a video I have used several times knowing that I would have time to finish my tea while the pre-video ad played through. As I sipped the last of my tea, I half-noticed that I hadn’t seen this particular Slim-Fast spot before. I was mid-way through rolling my eyes at the obvious placement of a diet drink ad before an exercise video when I heard the words: “reverse cowgirl with the lights on.”

Whoa, what?

Unsure whether I had heard correctly, I started to pay closer attention. Sure enough, the monologue continued, “Just once when I’m twisted up like a Russian gymnast, I’d like to actually look like a Russian gymnast.” The words that display on the screen at the end of the ad say, simply, “Get What You Really Want. Slim-Fast.”

What you really want, this ad assumes, is to look good naked:

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Biggest Stories of the Week

Patrick Coffee — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 18:07:46 +0000

Sprint Manages to Run a Decent April Fools’ Campaign

Apple Releases iPlay Game Console…April Fools’!

When Should PR Pros ‘Tell Journalists How to Do Their Jobs?’

Edelman’s Content Strategist Explains the New ‘Content Marketing’ Model

How to Use Facebook’s Graph Search as a PR Tool

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Peter Shankman on His New Book: Why ‘Niceness’ Is the Best PR Strategy

Patrick Coffee — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 11:58:12 +0000

You may know Peter Shankman for his work as a commentor, strategic advisor and author of books like Can We Do That?!, an overview of crazy PR stunts that actually worked.

Shankman’s new book Nice Companies Finish First (which hits stores today!) is a little different. Its thesis holds that the big secret behind some of the most successful brands around is a decision to simply be nice or unexpectedly generous to customers on a regular basis. We spoke with him last week to figure out why:

Where did you find the inspiration for your new book?

Well, when I sold my previous venture HARO (the publicity service Help a Reporter Out) to Vocus, I realized that they were really buying my audience. I’d spent four years cultivating and building that audience and I really felt like every member of HARO was a friend, so I wasn’t going to sell it just anybody. I chose Vocus because they were our largest advertiser and, since I wrote all the ads, I believed that they understood that level of respect I had for my audience, and the level of trust my audience put into me. I knew they wouldn’t violate that.

And this realization led you to the subject of “niceness”?

Yes. I started doing research into companies and how they behave in order to see whether companies who treat their customers and investors nicely make more money. I found it to be true — companies that are doing “the little things” a little better than everyone else almost always fare better.

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Biggest Stories of the Week

Patrick Coffee — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 18:07:59 +0000

Did Oreo Win Twitter Again? (Yes, They Did.)

Why Yahoo’s Summly Acquisition Was a PR Stunt

Bud Light Jumps on the Gay Marriage Avatar Bandwagon

Charity:Water Rules Social Media on World Water Day

The Next Chapter in the ‘PR vs. Marketing vs. Advertising’ Debate Is Here

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Tutors Spellcheck Graffiti in Unique tumblr Campaign

Patrick Coffee — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 16:49:55 +0000

You know, we really don’t care whether this promo campaign qualifies as PR or marketing. It’s just really cool. The UK-based Arc firm (part of the Leo Burnett Group) came up with a unique way to promote online tutoring company The Tutor Crowd: create a tumblr page all about spellchecking London street graffiti! Here are some samples:

The idea is that parents will see the stickers around town and get the impression that The Tutor Crowd is a little hipper (and therefore more effective) than other educational services companies. There’s more on the page itself (warning: some of the language in the original tags is NSFW). We wish we’d come up with this one.

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Here’s an Excellent Cleveland Clinic Promo Video

Patrick Coffee — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 18:03:03 +0000

We know that Ohio’s Cleveland Clinic earned its reputation as one of America’s best hospitals thanks to the tireless work of the many talented professionals on its staff — but there’s also a good bit of well-executed branding and PR at play. Case in point: this promotional video, released last month. A hospital is a relatively easy place to find touching stories of human perseverance in the face of adversity, but this is a real masterpiece in the “humanizing a brand” genre.

We’re not exactly sure who’s responsible for the video (though the Clinic hired Ketchum as its first AOR in 2012), but we think some credit needs to go to the institution’s communications team.

The PR lesson here: tell a story. In fact, tell several stories — especially if they’re as compelling as these.

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Biggest Stories of the Week

Patrick Coffee — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 18:35:07 +0000

Coca-Cola Says Social Media Buzz Does Not Boost Sales

Meet the World’s Greatest Vine User

5 Ways for Journalists to Build Better Relationships with PR Pros

Adventures in Marketing: Polaroid Will Make an ‘Instagram Camera’

Uh Oh: Lululemon’s Yoga Pants Are a Little Too Revealing

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Here’s Our Favorite Justin Timberlake Promo Stunt

Patrick Coffee — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 16:56:35 +0000

So Justin Timberlake released his new album The 20/20 Experience this week, and everyone’s going all out to promote it. His label allowed fans to stream the whole thing on iTunes two weeks ago, he hosted Saturday Night Live, and before all that he did this ridiculous “I’m ready” tweet thing.

Anyway, it’s Friday so we thought we’d share our favorite little JT promo stunt via our sister site AgencySpy. It’s so simple that it’s dumb — in a brilliant way. It’s called JT All Night Long, and it’s really just a quick loop from that (old) song set to different clips of Timberlake throughout his career, from the “SexyBack” video to the ramen-hair period. Just click on it before reading ahead.

Don’t you feel like you just got “Rickrolled” by Timberlake and creative agency CP+B Miami? We do — and we don’t mind at all. Say what you will about his music, but the dude has a sense of humor.

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This Fake Japanese Furby Ad Is a Little Insane

Elizabeth S. Mitchell — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 12:31:41 +0000

A writer once said, “Satire is a lesson, parody is a game.” If this is true, then we’d say the makers of this parody of a Japanese Furby commercial have won.

If you, like us, spent countless childhood sleepovers awake all night, fearing your friend’s demonic little Furby would steal your soul the moment you let your guard down, then you know that the blatant Satanism portrayed in the video is only a slight exaggeration.

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Did Oreo Win Twitter Again? (Yes, They Did)

Patrick Coffee — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 10:59:10 +0000

We missed this social media branding win last week, but when the words “Oreo” and “social media” showed up together on our Twitter feed this morning we knew we had to check it out. Seems like the team at 360i (see below)** won again in a friendly exchange between the cookie guys, sort-of rival Kit Kat and a fan who can’t get enough of either. It all started with this:

Can tell I like chocolate abit too much when I’m following @kitkat and @oreo hahahahahah

— LauraEllen (@Laura_ellenxx) March 11, 2013

Kit Kat saw an opportunity and grabbed it two days later:

The fight for @laura_ellenxx‘s affections is on. @oreo your move #haveabreak twitpic.com/cb1g84

— Kit Kat (@KITKAT) March 13, 2013

That evening, Oreo came back and killed it:

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Jon Hamm’s Publicist Defends His Manhood

Patrick Coffee — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 10:57:26 +0000

The Internet discovered some time ago that Mad Men star Jon Hamm has been blessed with some…attributes that endow him with a certain easily exploitable notoriety. The actor’s publicist, however, was not amused by the fact that the New York Daily News recently devoted a few valuable inches of its gossip column to discussing Hamm’s tendency to crowd a room with his gifts (which are apparently creating a problem on the show’s set).

An “inside source” says the extra-tight pants of Mad Men‘s upcoming sixth season, set in the late 60′s, have required AMC‘s design team to work a little Photoshop magic on promo images of Don Draper–but Hamm’s rep naturally doesn’t want to discuss this massive scandal.

The long and short of it: enough with the Dick (Whitman) jokes!

We have to say, though: We understand why Hamm’s flack is sick of reading this sort of easy click bait, but we also don’t really see how the star is getting shafted by the press. It’s all in good fun, right?

Apparently not: the very irritated rep told the Daily News that “It is ridiculous and not really funny at all. I’d appreciate you taking the high road and not resorting to something childish like this that’s been blogged about 1,000 times.”

Correction: make that 1,001.

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Broadway Publicist Makes Light of Typo in PR Win

Patrick Coffee — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 13:42:33 +0000

We all know how important copy editing and fact-checking can be to PR departments; last week we ran a story about a single error that cost New York City’s MTA a quarter of a million dollars.

But sometimes little mistakes can turn into PR wins. Case in point: When Village Voice columnist and theater expert Michael Musto attended the play Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, he noticed that the playbill incorrectly credited lead actress Sigourney Weaver with an Oscar for her role in the sci-fi classic Aliens.

After Musto posted the mistake on his Daily Musto blog, he received a perfectly phrased email apology from the show’s publicist Rick Miramontez, who works for top Broadway firm O&M Co. In explaining his error, Miramontez wrote:

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Biggest Stories of the Week

Patrick Coffee — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 18:24:25 +0000

Hack to Flack: A Former Journalist’s Guide to Better PR Pitches

The Cost of a Typo: $250,000

10 of the Best Brands on Vine

Oh Hi: We’re Throwing a Party Next Week and You’re Invited!

PR Fail: Google to Pay $7 Million for Creeping Out America

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