PepperDigital

“Chicken Snuff Movies? Aisle Seven, Madam”

By Carl Foster, PepperDigital

British supermarket chain ASDA is making a bid for greater transparency with its customers. According to Marketing Magazine, the concept of empowering the consumer is the trend of 2009, with examples of Vodafone and Yahoo! cited. As ASDA follows this trend it has some good tactics in place already, for example the 18,000 strong ‘Pulse of the Nation’ shopper panel that comments on new retail lines. However, some of the proposed new tactics seem a little odd, such as replacing walls with glass inside supermarkets, like some kind of executive fish bowl meeting room for the shop floor.

But it is the new media transparency tools that raise the most questions. Apparently buyers at ASDA HQ will be posting regular updates to the Aisle Spy blog about where food and other products are being sourced from. There are also two webcams, one trained on cows in a Scottish dairy and one at a vegetable processing factory. ASDA chief executive Andy Bond says, "the ambition is to reach a point where customers can trace the journey of every ASDA product: from farm to fork or warehouse to wardrobe." For me, this is where the whole concept breaks down for the ASDA brand. 

ASDA has come a long way since it was Associated Scottish Dairies; it now dominates the ‘pile it high, sell it cheap’ end of the British supermarket spectrum. Since it was acquired by Wal-Mart several years ago that brand position has been reinforced. But in Britain, a country where celebrity TV chefs launch campaigns to stop the suffering of cheap, mass-produced battery farm chickens, ASDA has set itself on conflicting paths where it is committed to providing cheap food but also transparency in how it reaches our table. It would be easy to envisage Waitrose, which occupies the premium end of the British supermarket spectrum, conducting such an experiment. Its customer base typically has the financial wherewithal to worry about where their food is sourced and would be more likely to pay more to know the chickens are free range and killed humanly. 

But are ASDA customers going to have the same concerns? Or do they want to put dinner on the table for the lowest price possible? There will either be a 24/7 poultry snuff webcam coming to ASDA’s website soon, or the price of its chickens is about to go up, or we’ll learn that transparency has its limits. If it’s the later, it would have been better to have not launched the transparency concept with such fanfare in the first place. 

Museum Of Idiots

By Jackie Kolek, PepperDigital

Mistakes happen; it’s a fact of life.  Whether it’s an organization or an individual representing that organization, wherever humans are involved, human error will occur.   Most reasonable people can accept that and are willing to make allowances.  An organization can’t prevent mistakes from happening 100 percent of the time, but they can control how they handle those situations.  How they manage those moments and deal with the people affected ultimately leaves more of a lasting impression than the gaffe itself.

Yesterday, I took my kids to New York’s famed Museum of Natural History to see a free concert by alternative rock band They Might Be Giants. TMBG has what you might call a very “loyal” fan base -- from fans like myself who loved them in college and now rock out with my kids to their Grammy-winning children’s albums, to Grateful Dead-like devotees who travel hours to get to the band’s “Family Shows” (despite the fact they have no families and look rather odd at a children’s concert without any children of their own).   

 

So, when I saw they were doing a free family show under the giant blue whale at the Museum of Natural History, I simply had to go.  I was, however, prepared.  I’ve been to several of the band’s shows (okay, I admit it:  this was my forth one this year), and I knew there would be tons of people and long lines.  I’d packed plenty of snacks and toys for the kids; we left the house early and had several discussions with the kids about the need for lots and lots of patience.  The instructions were simple: the museum opens at 10 AM:  buy your admission, and then you’ll be directed downstairs to wait in line for tickets to the show.  Tickets were to be handed out at 10:15 AM on a first-come, first-serve basis to the first 300 people.  I was ready.

We arrived at the museum about 9:00 AM, and I was pleasantly surprised.  About two dozen people were milling around on the front steps, only a few of them without a toddler in tow.  At about 9:30, everyone began to line up by the front doors, and I thought, “Okay, this won’t be so bad.”  Then, about 9:55 AM, a security guard emerged and told us that everyone had to go downstairs to a different entrance in order to get concert tickets.   

To say bedlam ensued is putting it mildly.  Families ran as if a nuclear bomb had been dropped off at the front door.  There was a mad rush to the lower entrance, where another, longer line awaited us.  Then, to add insult to injury, we were informed that you could not buy admission to the museum from that entrance and had to go back upstairs, buy admission, then come back and get on an even longer line to get into the concert.  People were screaming, kids were crying and those of us with a toddler in risk of losing out on a ticket broke into a cold sweat.   

As it turned out, Mr. Security Guard made a mistake. We were in the right place all along.  People who waited patiently by the front doors lost their place in line and now faced missing out on the “extremely limited” tickets.  

My husband ran back upstairs to purchase admission tickets.  However, at that point, the printers broke, and he was unable to get the admission tickets.  Downstairs, in the chaos, I got in line with the kids to get concert tickets.  However, when I got to the front, I was told I could not get into the concert until I had my admission tickets.  I explained the situation to the guard, who looked oddly like Judah Freidlander in 30 Rock.  I’d waited in line, been told to go to some other line (which turned out to be the wrong place) and then couldn’t even get admission to the museum.  His response was stunning: “Yeah, we made a mistake, but there is nothing I can do about it.”  

“Nothing I can do?”  I was shocked and appalled.  They made the mistake, yet there was a complete lack of concern and even awareness as to what they had set in motion.  In this economy, people are scaling back on these types of outings and museums, and educational destinations have been decimated by budget cuts and curtailed spending.  Ironically, my favorite TMBG song came to mind:  “Museum of Idiots.”  These institutions need to bend over backwards to bring in visitors and ensure they go away with a positive feeling that makes them want to come back.

The Natural History Museum should learn a lesson from our friends at the Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk. This past summer, the aquarium launched a new program called Penguins on the Loose, where visitors got to get up-close with a live African Penguin. It was a new and innovative idea designed to bring in more visitors.  The aquarium had never done anything like it before and was completely unprepared for just how popular the show would be.  Aquarium staff quickly realized that they had some angry visitors on their hands, those who waited in line and never got to see the show.  They moved swiftly to address the situation: they brought in risers, added additional staff to manage crowds, gave free passes to disgruntled customers and stationed greeters along the lines to continually update people on what they needed to do.   

As part of our work with the aquarium, we conducted a sentiment monitoring audit to determine what people were saying about the event and how the aquarium staff managed the situation.  Overall, the sentiment was very positive, and a large majority of online voices felt that the aquarium had done a great job addressing the problem and making people feel cared for. As a result, the Maritime Aquarium had the second most successful summer in its history, even in the face of the worst economic recession in decades.

As for the TMBG situation, I finally tracked down a supervisor who knew what had happened and took steps to address the mistake.  She gave me complimentary admission and personally escorted me and my kids over to the concert.  The concert was awesome. Confetti guns under the blue whale were amazing, and a great time was had by all.  Thanks to the supervisor, my family spent the day at the museum, dropping lots of cash at the restaurant and gift shop rather than leaving in an angry huff.   

As for the Judah look-a-like, he belongs upstairs in the hall of apes. Customer service is the first line of building a reputation and how those interactions are managed ultimately determine what people say about your brand to others and whether they emerge as recommenders or detractors.

Campaigns: An Outdated Way of Thinking?

By: Sam Ford, PepperDigital

George Carlin had his "seven dirty words" routine, but I am beginning to see quite a few "dirty words" circulating when it comes to the social media space as well. For me, the word I focus on is "viral." As those of you who have heard me speak or lead a workshop in the past few months know, I have a bit of a hang-up about how language shapes how we think about issues. In social media, making a video or blog post or podcast "go viral" leads companies to still think they can be broadcasters in a social space and that people turn into impressions because of something in the content that makes them not be able to help but share it. (See more here.)

When I was participating in the Advertising Research Foundation's inaugural launch of its Social Media Council last week, I had the chance to rail on a few of this issue. And one of my panel colleagues, Chris Andrew from Digitas (Twitter feed here), had a dirty word of his own: campaign.

His point about moving clients away from talking about campaigns really resonated with me because of how often it has come up with clients. I liken it to fictional television content: there are shows that are episodic, which come at regular intervals but in which one episode has little or no relationship to those that came before. So, in the most traditional example of all, Lucy tries to find a way to become part of Ricky's show in almost every episode, and it fails. In the next episode, she starts all over again. On the other end of the spectrum are serialized television shows, where "previously on..." becomes crucial, and each episode picks up where the previous one left off. Soap operas have traditionally been that content, and most of the more critically acclaimed dramas today fall into this mold (from Dexter to Friday Night Lights to Ugly Betty).

In short, a brand is a storyteller, and that story has to be larger than any particular one-off campaign. As Joel Rubinson of the ARF says, maintaining a social media presence is not a campaign at all; "it is on-going and self-perpetuating."

The conversation also provided a few aspects of online communication that should NOT be treated as dirty words. Mark Studness from Verizon talked about the importance of customer service in social media spaces and Verizon's experiences with managing an online forum for their customers to share advice with one another and draw on their collective intelligence to solve problems, with Verizon being amongst but not driving the conversation (and then was surprised with customer service questions directly from the crowd during the Q&A, reminding us all that marketers aren't just marketers...they're customers, too.) Meanwhile, General Mills' Heather Maxwell spoke about how online research is not a dirty word and the importance and value in connecting customers in communities and gaining customer insights from facilitating and listening to their conversations.

All in all, it was a fantastic session, and a reminder not only at the many ways advertising, marketing, public relations, customer service, and research are all converging but also how many kindred spirits there are in so-called other industries. And I'm glad I'm not the only one who wants to add "campaign" to the dirty words list...although I still don't know if I can get others on board for doing away with "consumers."

Industrial Breakthrough, Brought To You By...Netflix?

By Dawn Lauer, PepperDigital

We may have Netflix’s brilliant contest idea to thank for the future cure for cancer, advances in genomics, biofuels, etc.  In its third year, the $1 million contest to improve Netflix’ usability  has taken the concept of “open source” to a new level.  The contest is open to anyone across the globe, and the winning team was announced Monday.  Made up of Ph.D.s, statisticians and computer engineers, the multi-national team used a database of hundreds of millions to provide a superior solution to improve Netflix’s movie recommendations system.  

From a  pure PR standpoint, it is a brilliant move that not only invites corporate interactivity and heightens awareness for its value but also gains access to the best and brightest minds around the world--all highly motivated to solve a Netflix business challenge.  The money is actually an afterthought when you consider the true brilliance behind Netflix’s supply-and-demand approach.  As The New York Times points out, data sets of Netflix’s magnitude are hard to come by, and Netflix counted on the fact that many research and modeling companies would jump at the chance to work with them.

The winning team combined different models using a crowd-sourcing approach to clinch the $1 million, but the real prize is the ability for entire industries to apply these models to solve some of the world’s biggest challenges.  

(Jason Kempin/Getty Images)

Netflix has clearly accomplished more than a PR stunt.  It’s blazing a trail for how we use the Internet and digital tools to constantly innovate.   

I wonder if we could apply the same model at this agency, perhaps at the next company brainstorm?  One thing’s for sure . . .a one million dollar prize would certainly solve the biggest challenge . . .getting people to come!

Facebook Wispa Heard Loud And Clear

By Carl Foster

Last year I wrote about one of the most successful social media campaigns in the UK, the relaunch of the Cadbury Wispa chocolate bar. This year Cadbury is back with the relaunch of the much missed Wispa Gold bar, which is basically a Wispa bar with  a layer of caramel on top.

Like last time, Cadbury has listened to social media sites, notably Facebook, where 22,683 users have signed up to the ‘Bring Back Cadbury’s Wispa Gold’ group. It has also invited visitors to the Cadbury website to sign up to an email list to be the first to hear about details of the relaunch. Publicity for the relaunch has included inviting the administrator of the Facebook group to push the start button on the Wispa Gold production line. It has also seen Spandau Ballet’s Tony Hadley delivering the world’s most expensive chocolate bar to Selfridges – expensive because it was covered in edible gold leaf and wrapped in more gold leaf.

However, engagement with the community of fans (or marketing foot-soldiers, as they could be described) will be the center of the marketing campaign for the relaunch, according to an email sent out yesterday. Cadbury has bought thousands of billboards around the UK and Ireland and is inviting Wispa Gold fans to submit designs to www.wispagoldmessages.com to fill the advertising space. Designs and messages can be anything you want (so long as it is legal) and you can specify your preferred location. It’s not clear how many different designs will be printed, but the best 15 designs will be shown in the most sought after locations.

This campaign promises to be very successful, with the coil of demand being tightly wound before the product hits the shelves. The relaunch of the Wispa boosted Cadbuy’s UK sales by 11%, which is pretty significant seeing as Wispa is just one chocolate bar in a vast product line. The relaunch of the Wispa Gold, sub brand would do well to create similar results – but regardless of that, this is another case study in successful social media marketing from Cadbury.

BBC Twitter Interview

By Carl Foster

It seems Britain’s ruling elite are not too comfortable with social media. Back in February I wrote about Baroness Greenfield’s assessment of the risk social networking poses to children. On Sunday, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster wrote in The Sunday Telegraph that social networking was leading to dangerous “transient relationships", is "dehumanising" community life and, as a consequence, we are "losing social skills".

It was in this context that Kirsty Wark of the BBC’s excellent Newsnight programme conducted the first British TV interview with Twitter co-founder, Evan Williams. The interview told us some things we already knew (that the State Department had asked Twitter to push back some maintenance work during the Iranian protests) and some things we didn’t (that London is the top Twitter city in the world). You can tell from watching the interview here that Williams hasn’t conducted a huge number of TV interviews as he didn’t seem totally at ease.

But the main thing about the interview was his surprise at some of the questioning, particularly with regards to the dehumanising comments of the Archbishop, comments that Williams was not aware of. This section of the transcript is taken from the Guardian Technology Blog:

KW: But are you aware that the archbishop Vincent Nichols is very concerned that Twitter dehumanises a very important part of our social life?
EW: I wasn't aware of that, I think it's kind of silly, I would say that anyone who says that isn't really familiar with the service, because it's about humans connecting with each other, and often in ways that they couldn't otherwise. It's the opposite of dehumanising as far as I'm concerned.

The interview is worth watching but I got the impression that the interviewer and interviewee did not really have the same thing in mind going into it.

76% Unhappy With Agency Online PR

by Carl Foster

Last Thursday I attended PR Week’s PR and the New Media Conference in London. It was, on the whole, very informative. But the event was always going to be challenged by the mixed 100+ person audience and their different levels of knowledge. This was best illustrated by the vote response to one question about Twitter. When the delegates were asked how often they used Twitter 31% said everyday, 31% said they had never used it and the rest were somewhere in between.

Now, while that response was interesting, the result of another one of the votes was positively alarming. When delegates were asked if their PR agency did as good a job in the online sphere as in the offline sphere, a clear 76% said no. What?! Haven’t PR agencies spent the last five years or more espousing the benefits of blogging, podcasts and Twitter? Haven’t we all been at conferences and seminars learning how we can deliver value through these new and developing channels? Aren’t we, in fact, supposed to be leading this field and taking this space from marketing types? I’m sure the answer for many is yes, but it is clear that we haven’t, as an industry, been doing a very good job.

I’m not sure if PR Week is planning content around the results of the votes (I hope so), but if there was one takeaway from the conference for the agency world it is that there is a huge gap between what clients want and are expecting and what agencies are delivering. In times of recession and prized new business leads, delivering results orientated online PR campaigns is something that we should all be focused on.

SEO + PR = Digital Media Success

By Michael Blankenship, PepperDigital

I recently had the opportunity to hear Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer speak at the Dallas Chamber of Commerce's annual State of Technology summit on the topic of the Role of Innovation in a Challenging Economy. Cost-cutting, he said, is inevitable during "the worst economic period any of us have ever seen in our lives." Despite cost reductions, he emphasized that technological innovation must continue. While Ballmer's message focused on making computers more powerful and developing more intuitive user interfaces, I couldn't help but consider how important it is for companies to capitalize on digital media.

Ballmer quipped that, in 10 years, we wouldn't know the difference between a newspaper, a TV show or a magazine. He is correct, of course, but the ever-changing landscape of digital media is happening now. Newspapers such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Dallas Morning News are already relying heavy on streaming video on their Web sites and maintaining YouTube channels to engage readers/viewers. Sometimes, the video is a standalone segment, and sometimes it is used to accompany an article. Meanwhile, just about any media outlet trying to remain viable actively uses Twitter to communicate with its audiences. The point is that traditional media continues to die a slow and painful death, and it will most likely be far less than the 10 years Ballmer predicted when it takes its last breath.

As the digital media landscape quickly evolves, too many companies continue to under use and underfund PR programs. It is time for companies to realize that, in today's environment, Web management, SEO and digital media strategies are the domain of a company's PR agency. Digital media, like everything else on the Web, starts with a search. If your PR and SEO strategies aren't aligned, you are setting yourself up for failure. SEO can drive a successful PR campaign and vice versa. Success in digital media is about standing out, and underusing and underfunding a PR program in today's world can quickly mean a death sentence.

Digital Communication: How is Your Company Fairing?

By Amelia Denson, PepperDigital

For the past few months PepperDigital has been actively updating the Digital Network Assessment to meet the ever changing environment of digital communication. When analyzing the recent results, we surprisingly found that approximately 75 percent of companies failed the Digital Network Assessment mini-quiz.

The 7-question mini DNA quiz asks communications leaders about the quality of their brand’s digital communication based on three categories: quality and quantity of Internet content, use of interactive digital tools for communication and internal resources dedicated to online initiatives.

With companies like Pizza Hut, who  recently created a Twitern that serves as the company’s social media journalist, businesses need to focus on their use of interactive digital tools. However, with 80 percent of companies who admit that they are not ready to handle a digital crisis, they also need to realize that digital raises a company’s risk.

The online quiz is an abbreviated version of PepperDigital’s Digital Network Assessment, a service designed to target internal inconsistencies surrounding how an organization’s digital initiatives are prioritized.  The full assessment takes a deep dive into how employees perceive a company’s online presence and the internal processes in place to manage these online initiatives, starting with an approximate 60-question survey. 

The Digital Network Assessment has specialty areas in sales, internal communications, intellectual property and crisis management, allowing the assessment to be tailored to the particular concerns of each client and to analyze an organization’s digital initiatives from the perspective of the audience that knows the organization’s goals best—the employees.

What is your company’s DNA?

Which Spreads Faster, The Rumors or the Virus?

By Jacqueline Kolek, PepperDigital

As the continuing spread of the Swine Flu makes headlines, businesses across the country are grappling with when and how to share information with their employees.  Whether or not an employee is suspected of infection, many feel compelled to address what they are doing to prevent the virus from spreading among employees and how they would handle things if a case should arise.  The challenge is striking the right balance between informing employees in a timely manner, while not inciting unnecessary panic and wide-spread fear.

In the digital age, employees are learning a lot more about their employers outside the company’s four walls via social networks and blogs than they do from the traditional internal memo.  In sensitive situations, such as layoffs or as in this case, a health issue, the news spreads even faster.  The digital grapevine is a challenge for many companies.  However, if leveraged properly, it also creates a tremendous opportunity for companies to manage news and information and squash potentially harmful rumors before they spread, well, like a virus.

The media’s heightened coverage of the potential Swine Flu pandemic is contributing to a great deal of unnecessary hysteria, sending people to pharmacies in droves to purchase TamiFlu and don face masks.  It’s only natural that employees will begin to question the safety of their own workplace, leading to a less productive and efficient workforce.  Here are some simple steps that companies can take to communicate to employees and calm their fears: