BMW Gets Bitten by a PR Cold Snap

Literally chilling in this wintry weather brought my attention to a story about a PR campaign gone awry that’s also an object lesson in the unintended consequences of creative PR ideas.

It seems that those crazy German (meteorologists)let the general public and companies name high and low pressure weather fronts with male or female names respectively. Notwithstanding the sexism of associating a lesser band of cloud with a woman, it turns out that a marketing agency working for BMW has been booking the names of several weather fronts to support a new marketing campaign for the Mini. Problem is that these are the same weather fronts that have brought near artic weather conditions to Germany and the rest of continental Europe and led to a rising number of deaths.  So there’s been quite a bit of backtracking and apologies made.

PR people are always been urged to be more creative and suggest concepts that cut through the blizzard (pun intended) of information and ideas. But, as this example illustrates, to spend even more time on really kicking the tyres of a big bright idea and consider all of the angles that might make it fly or crash horribly and back fire. Whether you can enough foresight to see an unitended outsomce or not, at the very least be prepared for something to go off key and have a Plan B in your back pocket.

Are Digital Magazines Taking Off?

Good magazines are being closed down a rapid rate. Many are going to pure online versions or ending entirely like the venerable Police Review.

But some are exploring the digital magazine option and leveraging the iPad zeitgeist.  So far there’s been little reader research published on how these digital magazines are faring. Until now.

An article in Ars Technica reports on a study by the US Association of Magazine Media into the reading habits of 1000 digital magazine readers. A healthy number of these claim that they read more magazine content in the digital format than they did with the physical format. Whether this is simply to do with the novelty of it all isn’t questioned but the survey does point out some areas for improvement that highlight the current shortcomings of the digital magazine movement.

For example, respondents reveal that they would like to be able to make purchases from the display ads featured in the digital magazine. Why this hasn’t before is odd except when you consider how much digital magazines seem to be straightforward flatform PDF copies rather than an actual new form of media.

Nonetheless, this research suggests that the digital magazine format has a greater potential than is currently being exploited and the popularity of iPad and perhaps the new Kindle Fire will fuel new developments.

Is the Blackberry Squashed? Maybe Not (Yet)

I’m not a user but I have been shocked by how badly Blackberry’s reputation has been damaged by recent mistakes (the outage, censorship issues in Middle East) and the consumerization of IT that’s seen the brand overwhelmed by Apple (though not helped by how badly the Playbook’s been received) 

Growth has slowed down to a point where people predict a case of the Nokias or worse, the Palms. 

So, this articlewas a good reality check especially for those who predict Apple is the de facto for mobilising enterprises on a grander scale than previously seen.

Ansd my personal barometer of what my fellow commuters on the 7.12 from Dover  use suggests the battle isn’t lost just yet. Yes, they stroke their Apple devices but – as the City draws closer the Blackberrys come out en masse  for the essential emailing …

So perhaps don’t right them off yet but shouldn’t their PR machine go back to the basics of communicatinf the Blackberry as the best possible  mobile business machine?

Social media and the Media Mix Like Oil & Water?

A recent media furore in the US caught my attention today.  The venerable TV news organisation CBS News has been burnt by its close association with a news blogger when they ran a tweet about Steve Jobs death. The story was utterly wrong but the tweet went out from CBS News because of content deal. As a result, CBS has ended its relationship with the blogger who didn’t help matters with her initial flippant apology.

When Twitter and other social media are often cited as the place where stories are broken (think the Hudson River air crash), this recent case illustrates the risks of embedding a social media news feed that has none of the checks and balances of traditional journalism inside a traditional media organisation like CBS.

Professional media clearly is turning to social media and citizen journalists for content but this incident shows more thought needs to be invested in how the two sides interface without causing discord.

The London Riots and the ensuing blame game

2011 is proving to be the year of extreme news events that explode either without or seemingly without warning in rapid succession. Think of how the New Zealand earthquake was followed by the Arab Spring and then Japanese tsunami and nuclear leak. Most recently we’ve experienced Hackgate followed by the Riots.

One interesting common feature of all these stories has been how the media – and sometimes the PR industry – has become fixated on putting  the biggest tech brands at the heart of the story. So we have seen Twitter and other social media praised for helping coordinate the Arab Spring uprisings, but criticised for helping the country’s looters play cat and mouse with the police.   And opportunities to redeem the same social media have arisen as Twitter, Facebook et al are praised for helping to coordinate community clean-ups by the Riot Wombles. But then might those same Riot Wombles turn into tomorrow’s Twitter vigilantes? And so the news and PR agenda swings the other way.

Actually, the role of mobile technology and social media in recent events is less interesting than we realise. I liked what a London Evening Standard columnist said recently about how blaming mobile phones and Twitter for the London 2011 riots is as ridiculous as blaming the Brixton 1980s riots on the push button telephone. Similarly, social media supported the Arab uprisings but the reasons for its’ momentum and success have very little to do with Twitter or Facebook when you consider the importance of protesters’ personal bravery or the unwillingness of some state organisations to hold back from doing their governments’ dirty work.

Quite obviously such technology is useful for criminality and rioting – as is it for more usual law abiding uses – but it does not give us much insight into why these events occurred. It is lazy politics and journalism to heap much significance on how restricting social media will stop riots recurring.