filter by author: Mark Malinowski
Since when did brands get a personality?
Just like people, the perception of a brand is everything. Brands can be warm, standoffish, happy, elitist and even confused. And thanks to social media, everyone has the power to influence and “humanize” brands – for better or for worse.
One brand falling victim to such influence is Abercrombie & Fitch, who publicly declared its young adult brand would pay “Jersey Shore” cast member Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino not to wear its clothes. Not only did this stunt draw widespread media attention (social and otherwise) and stir quite a debate, it also provided a real glimpse into the brand’s personality. Loud and clear, Abercrombie & Fitch was letting it be known that it is a brand that wants to only associate itself with a certain group of “aspirational” young people. The whole situation (pun intended) seemed to be like high-school dynamics playing out on the public stage. Thanks to the influence of consumers using social media, it also affected business. After it asked The Situation to stop wearing its brand, its stock plummeted nine percent.
On the flip side, there are brands approaching middle age that seem to be a bit lonely and confused. Having lost its focus and market share, Burger King announced it is dropping its irreverent “The King” mascot in favor of a new campaign that would be focused on healthier product options. Whether you liked The King or not, the campaign penetrated pop culture for years and consumers identified Burger King with The King. To avoid confusion, it seems the brand quickly needs to find its personality footing since the drastic change conveys a schizophrenic message. If it doesn’t, it will become harder to emotionally connect with consumers and stand out from the more defined brand personalities of McDonald’s and even Wendy’s.
So what does brand humanization ultimately mean for today’s marketers? Figure out your brand DNA and personality quickly. If you don’t have a personality, get one and stick with it. Consumers are watching and waiting with their thoughts and opinions.
--Mark Malinowski, Senior Vice President
Tags: socialmedia branding strategy influencer
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Celebrities raise the stakes for brands and causes, socially
As part of his worldwide “take over” and public meltdown a few weeks ago, actor Charlie Sheen opened a Twitter account and in just three days became the fastest account to reach 1 million followers. Once he secured his following, Sheen agreed to tweet on behalf of Internships.com and drew more than 1 million unique visitors to the site – proving the power of celebrity.
Thinking as a marketer, there’s no doubt about it; the social synergy between brands and celebrities is becoming more and more symbiotic. According to recent research from The Nielson Company, 64 percent of adult U.S. Internet users who follow a celebrity online also follow a brand – said another way, adults who follow celebrities are four times more likely to follow a brand than the average adult. Nielson also points out that fans are more likely to offer advice and opinions to fellow online consumers.
Sheen’s public meltdown aside, there is no doubt that celebrity partnerships for brand or cause campaigns are relevant again, thanks to social media. So why has social media changed the way we think and feel about celebrities? In the past, celebrities were largely untouchable and fans could only learn their “inner thoughts” by reading a quote or blurb in People magazine. Today, fans can follow a celebrity on Facebook or Twitter and literally know what Ashton Kutcher or Alyssa Milano are thinking – or not thinking – 24/7. To borrow a famous movie phrase, “this time it’s personal.”
In terms of doing good, a celebrity’s social strength can support relief or cause efforts with just a post or a tweet. Following the natural disaster in Japan, musicians Lady Gaga and Katy Perry both mobilized their enormous social followings and encouraged fans to donate money to help disaster victims. Gaga tweeted, “I Designed a Japan Prayer Bracelet… ALL proceeds will go to Tsunami Relief Efforts” and Perry urged fans to donate to the Red Cross. In a few days, their social calls for help raised significant funds for disaster relief. This never could have happened just a few years ago.
One thing that hasn’t changed is that celebrity partnerships for brands or cause-related efforts still need to be natural and organic. But if the right partnerships can be formed and social followers mobilized, meaningful impact for programs can be achieved like never before.
--Mark Malinowski, Senior Vice President, Cone Entertainment Marketing
To learn more about our recently launched Cone Entertainment Marketing service, please view today’s press announcement.
Tags: partnership cause cone celebrity socialmedia strategy
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Good ideas are not dead – they’re undead
You know a really good marketing/PR idea when you see one… There’s always that slight pang of envy and the “I wish I thought of that” feeling in the pit of your stomach.
Along with a healthy dose of admiration, I recently experienced these feelings when I heard about the simple, yet brilliant, idea that AMC and Fox International Channels were planning for the launch of their new zombie TV series “The Walking Dead.” Whether you’re a zombie fan or not, you have to give the folks at AMC and Fox a lot of credit for launching a show that, on paper, wasn’t the surest bet.
The shows’ Halloween premiere was preceded the week before by a series of perfectly orchestrated “zombie attacks” in 26 cities across the globe. Starting at daybreak in Taipei and Hong Kong, hundreds of extras in zombie makeup began roaming landmarks in major cities across the globe, with all of the “attacks” taking place during a 24-hour period. After the first attacks, the market-by-market news started to appear in social and traditional media, making the story a Yahoo! trending topic by the time zombies crossed the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan.
Wisely leveraging the zombie content, the AMC/Fox marketing team used the show’s Facebook page to post zombie attack photos and videos from each city as they were happening around the world. Both the media and consumers kept Twitter buzzing about “The Walking Dead” for days. It truly turned into a media and pop culture take-over that was nothing short of the hype and hysteria Orson Welles conjured during his 1938 War of the Worlds radio broadcast.
As a result of all the hype (and good reviews), the series premiered to record cable ratings – AMC renewed the series for the season after just two episodes. It’s a great show that would have attracted loyal fans of the comic books, but the marketing team managed to get a huge new audience, along with the built-in fan base.
--Mark Malinowski, Vice President
Tags: campaigns promotion PR event
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The Old Spice Guy was just the beginning
Remember how you felt about computers from the ‘80s or cell phones from the ‘90s? You thought of them as ground-breaking, big ideas. Eventually, us marketers will start to feel that way about the recent “Old Spice Guy” media stunt, too.
You all know the story by now. During the Super Bowl, the Old Spice Guy sprung to life via a very creative series of commercials by ad agency Wieden + Kennedy. They featured a sexy, charismatic character – along with great writing and execution – that got people talking. The commercials became so popular that the character has gone on to develop a huge following on YouTube, Reddit, Facebook and Twitter.
So what was the agency and brand team to do with a commercial character that obviously struck a pop culture nerve? They did a simple and brilliant thing – they took the traditional, advertising format of a static, network commercial and turned it on its head by giving the campaign the appearance of being tailored for the consumer and the moment. They did this by hiring actor Isaiah Mustafa for two days to directly respond, in character, to select consumer, media and celebrity social media requests through a series of “almost live” mini commercials. From one studio location, the commercials were written, shot, edited and distributed in almost real time, allowing the agency and brand team to break through the preverbal “third wall.” Alyssa Milano, Demi Moore and George Stephanopoulos took the bait, and the Old Spice Guy ran with it.
The results were enormous. Old Spice body products’ sales rose 107 percent during the past month, the brand’s YouTube channels were viewed by more than 58 million people and Isaiah just signed on to appear in a movie starring Jennifer Anniston. But the big question for marketers is, “Where do we go from here?” It will be difficult for other brands to replicate this execution exactly since the stars truly aligned for Old Spice. It had a great commercial concept, a pop culture-friendly character and a developed social media fan base that responded to him.
So take a cue from the Old Spice Guy. It’s important for brands to think about media convergence now. A brand directly communicating to consumers in real time is a practice that has been happening for a while and continues to evolve. However, the big challenge will be transforming traditional marketing platforms, such as television commercials, and making what the Old Spice Guy did in two days, happen every minute, every-day.
How brands and marketers will exactly meet this emerging consumer interest in a tailored, real-time approach depends not only on technology but how creatively we use it.
-- Mark Malinowski, Vice President
Tags: campaigns marketing socialmedia advertising
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A community relations hero comes out in the rain
Anyone living in the Northeast during the last month knows it was a month of non-stop rain reaching unprecedented proportions. Two storms brought record amounts of rain and flooding within weeks of each other, dumping water that not only flooded basements but brought heart-breaking destruction to New England.
So how does this natural disaster bring to mind a public/private community relations case study? In my opinion, it does in the form of an unlikely community relations hero – The Boston Duck Tours Company.
The best public/private community relations efforts are exemplified when a company creatively uses its resources to help those around it versus solely throwing money at a particular situation. During the last two storms, the Boston Duck Tours Company did exactly that.
Iconic to Boston since they were introduced in 1994, the amphibious boats (first used in World War II) have long shuttled tourists and Bostonians through the historic streets of the city only to then plunge into the waters of the Charles River. They have become so synonymous with the city that even the Celtics rode the boats during their 2008 victory parade down Boylston Street.
So how did Duck Boats become the community hero during the storm of the century? As the waters were rising around homes, and the desperate request for help came from trapped area residents during both storms, the Boston Duck Tours Company answered the call-to-action and used its vehicles to reach and rescue trapped residents.
The simplicity and purity of this action by Boston Duck Tours Company is the gold standard of what the true meaning of “community relations” is all about. Making this action even more powerful, this small company did this for the right reason – to help the community that supports its business.
Spring is here, the weather is getting better and tourists are coming back to the city. Maybe it’s time to say thank you by taking a ride on the Boston Duck Tour!
--Mark Malinowski, Vice President
Tags: crisis PR local communityrelations
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What makes sensational media stories so sensational?
During the last few months, we’ve been bombarded by news coverage of purported PR “stunts” conducted by “regular folks” that have resulted in media firestorms. Whether it was the alleged White House party crashers or the Balloon Boy supposedly flying off into the great beyond, news organizations around the globe picked up these stories and ran with them. Although facing potential punishment for their actions, the people involved got what they ultimately wanted – the chance to become famous (or infamous) and a place in the popular culture Hall of Fame.
Aside from wondering how these folks actually pulled off their respective forays into the media spotlight, what is truly amazing is how quickly these stories became part of our daily lives. Now that the dust has settled a bit, we have to ask ourselves the burning question, “Why were we and the media so interested?” It seems a big part of the interest has to do with the human drama and eventual back-story tied to each stunt. As these bizarre dramas unfolded, we watched as larger-than-life stories about real people played out in real time, right in front of our eyes.
As a public relations professional, you have to wonder if there is anything to learn from all of this (aside from how far people will go to get their own reality show). It seems the big lesson is that if you surprise the media and media consumers while, at the same time, challenging societal norms (ideally somewhat tastefully and without breaking the law), you have a story that’s going to get an emotional reaction and make a big impact, good or bad. It’s the over-the-top element of surprise and the unexpected that drove these real-life human interest dramas to new heights of sensationalism. In short, they were as entertaining as any reality show or prime-time drama could ever be.
Like any good publicity stunt, it’s the element of surprise that gets the attention. Just don’t try to crash the White House or pretend that one of your family members is floating away in a make-shift balloon. It’s been done.
-- Mark Malinowski, Vice President
Tags: media celebrity PR
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The key to PR 2.0 is marketing 101
During the last few months, I have heard clients, co-workers, industry colleagues and just about every marketing professional I know state that there is a lot of jockeying for position within the social media space. Even though the idea of social media has been around for a while, it seems like everyone who works in marketing communications has just awakened from a deep sleep, all at the same time, and decided that social media is going to be the focus of his or her job.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s exciting and it’s a fresh approach to what we do. However, it doesn’t, or shouldn’t, really change things that much for marketers who care about their craft. So what if the media landscape has changed drastically within the last year? So what if consumers are getting their information from completely different places than they were just six months ago? Truth be told, when the dust settles, it still boils down to a sound strategic approach and a good idea.
Of course, we need to understand and continually adapt to the new playing field. We need to know that there is a right and wrong way to approach bloggers. We should be open to a constant, steady stream of new technologies, social networks, content creation concepts and digital partnerships from which brands can potentially benefit. But, the key thing that we, as marketers, should understand is, for the first time, we have the opportunity to establish a two-way dialogue with the very consumers we are trying to reach. That’s a great opportunity, but we won’t get the chance again if we blow it with a bad idea or approach.
So before any social and/or traditional media campaign is executed, it’s important to first think about the basics. Understand your objectives, know your target, carefully build your strategies and bring to life a creative platform and idea that truly earn valid consumer and media attention. Even though we are in the world of PR 2.0, it is important not to forget the basics of marketing 101.
-- Mark Malinowski, Vice President
Tags: blogs newmedia socialmedia PR marketing strategy
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Celebrity Engagement
The most effective brand campaigns involving celebrities are those in which the program organically matches with a theme, cause or idea that a celebrity personally cares about.
Ben & Jerry’s recently partnered with actress and noted peace activist Maggie Gyllenhaal to help promote the launch of a new flavor called Imagine Whirled Peace. Developed in partnership with the Lennon Foundation, the flavor was launched in New York's Times Square via a re-creation of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s famous “Bed-In For Peace”―an anti-war protest that took place in the late 1960s. The inspiration for a peaceful resolution to conflict during a time of war perfectly matched with what Maggie cared about; therefore, she agreed to take part in the PR launch during a very hectic time in her career—weeks before the launch of her blockbuster film “The Dark Knight Returns.”
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Tags: celebrity
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