Responding to Bad Press using Video, and Video Brand Hijacking
Social Media isn’t always pretty. Sometimes things happen in the news, that hit social networks and spread at rapid pace. So fast that it forces corporations to wake up and pay attention to how the internet is connecting people at a rapid pace. I’ve noticed a pattern today in my feedreading, and although I don’t have a lot of time, I wanted to highlight what I’m seeing as a Web Strategist.
This week, KFC is is the news as this bad press hits YouTube. The president promptly responded, and even did an online video, good job Gregg and KFC. View video remarks from KFC President Gregg Dedrick (although they need a direct link to the video, I had to splice this code together in order to link to it directly). I hope they keep this open transparent dialogue going, have you read my Web Strategy on Why Online Video is good for your Corporate Executives and How to Deploy?
Brand Hijacking is when customers and the marketplace take your brand and create their own messages, experiences, and share with others. For most corporate marketers, this is scary stuff. This WalMart Watch blog is taking on Walmart Corporation as well as Edelman. They’re calling for video submissions to support their cause. Even Wikipedia has an extensive section focused on some public shortcomings.
Related: Sean’s added a comment below that really should be elevated, he’s provided some coverage of Jet Blue’s execs humble and sincere video apologies and customer bill of rights.
I’ve some other examples of some videos that were created on YouTube against Starbucks. Today, I find it interesting that Dave Winer is calling out some recent online activities. It’s disappointing to some that Dell is saying to Linux users: Not so fast. I was hoping they were on to something, the saga is still not over.
Update: I’ve had my eye on this book, Citizen Marketers I hope to get a chance to read it in the near future. They’re doing a book tour, and will be at the Customer Reference forum, where I’ll be presenting.
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good stuff, wonder what you thought of the jetblue piece. I looked at a similar issue and tried to draw comparison in approach on traditional “response management” like Turner did with their recent guerilla marketing.
http://communitygrouptherapy.com/2007/02/21/an-online-community-apologyjetblue/
Sean
Sean, that’s a great example. Thanks for sharing that one.
Just finished Citizen Marketers - great read, I think you will enjoy it. Just that by the time books come out, most examples are outdated. But anyone coming fresh into the topic will enjoy.
For some unknown reason, KFC decided to remove the link to the video so that no longer works. I couldn’t find it either on their site manually through the press center. One observation that was made over on the Influx Insights blog was why KFC decided to bury their video (when it was working) on their site instead of taking the public approach of putting it on YouTube and making it front and center like JetBlue did.
Did you get a chance to see the Sony “How to Kill a Brand” video on YouTube? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R98qC0fd_1w You know your brand is in trouble when you have such crazed users HATING not just your product but also the employees of your company. I think Sony has a deep hole to dig out of this time.
I’ve bookmarked you on my site interativedaily.com, look forward to reading more!
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The latest brand hijacking. JcPenney.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A527vngi6zo
Apparently it was never approved by JcPenney. http://www.switched.com/2008/06/25/racy-fake-youtube-commercial-makes-jc-penney-turn-in-his-grave/
[…] Brand hijacking? Elaborate PR stunt geared at going viral? Thoughts? […]