Gamechangers and Rockstar games' resentment towards the BBC

The BBC docu-drama 'Gamechangers' has been receiving countless negative reviews and has created substantial PR around the Rockstar Games brand and the infamous video game 'Grand Theft Auto'. The film is "based on true events" surrounding the story of Devin Moore who killed three police officers, who some believe was due to him continually playing the violent video game.

It's well-worth a watch despite the reviews, I was intrigued to learn about the brand and the story as a whole, especially as it is partly-factual. Grand Theft Auto (GTA) is the best-selling entertainment product ever made and has caused controversy in the past for its violent and graphic nature. The creators- Rockstar Games are a British company who have received multiple awards for their gaming creativity and continue to sell millions of copies upon every release- despite the heightened press coverage surrounding the violent nature of the games. Their is a huge debate within the media as to whether violent video games lead their players to conduct violent acts and this is a key topic explored in the docu-drama.

Rockstar Games filed a lawsuit against the BBC as they felt the film did not show the brand nor the events that took place in a true light. Of course, Rockstar games would be against a film which a) painted them in a negative light and b) a piece of PR which they had no sort of say or control over.

The company reacted strongly to the film once it had ended, publishing this tweet:

@BBC Was Basil Brush busy? What exactly is this random, made up bollocks?

— Rockstar Games (@RockstarGames) September 15, 2015

At first, you would have thought this might be a potential PR crisis for the brand, but in fact, judging by twitter, TV reviews, blog posts and news articles- consumers seem to be siding with Rockstar Games over the BBC:

The gaming industry as a whole is very protective over its makers and they gain a lot of respect by their fans. GTA is also one of Britain's most successful exports and therefore people are very protective over it, especially those who enjoy playing it. Ultimately, if anything, this has painted the BBC in a negative light.

It is interesting to see how something which may be a potential crisis for a brand, can actually leave their customers feeling closer and more positively towards it. Docu-dramas/ documentaries about brands and companies do not usually provide this result- as is the case with Blackfish, the documentary on Sea World which has lead to their profits downfalling ever since. Consumers' morals are so important within marketing and can often erase any sort of positive associations one has with a brand, Sea World was once so loved and had really strong, positive brand associations surrounding family, love, protection and care for animals and what Blackfish has done is detrimental to all of the above. 

However, GTA lovers seem to disagree with what has been presented to them in terms of a moral argument. Perhaps their needs to be further evidence or, sadly, another disaster which can be linked to playing the games, until consumers will react negatively towards them. 

Did Alton Towers use crisis management successfully?

We've all heard about the devastating crash on the 2nd June in which an Alton Towers rollercoaster crashed, causing 4 people to be seriously injured, with one even having to have her legs amputated. There has been incalculable media coverage and the Merlin brand is in absolute tatters. This of course is a crisis that not many brands ever have to deal with, however can Alton Towers ever recover from this tragedy and operate as the brand they used to be?

I think, from a branding perspective, due to what the Alton Towers brand used to stand for- fun, happiness, family-friendly and exhilarating. It is going to be phenomenally difficult for Alton Towers to ever build this image back in people's minds due to the instant association to the crash that the brand will acquire.

However, it's not as though we haven't seen brands cause tragedies previously and recover their brand successfully and with the right crisis management strategy in place- it can be done.

Quick reaction

Public relations absolutely is the key to any brand reform or crisis and other brands like Tesco and BP have made huge errors in the past by not reacting publicly to situations soon enough. However, Alton Towers were very efficient in releasing statements and keeping the public informed.

The park updated their Facebook and Twitter pages soon after the event and gave information and messages consistent with those they gave to the press, this meant messages across all channels were clear and not conflicting one another. They were quick with announcing that the park would be closed and then being open and honest about their investigations in to the accident etc.

Senior executives at the heart of the issues

Nick Varney, CEO of Merlin, headed to Alton Towers soon after the event and gave live television interviews and was at the heart of any decisions being made. This demonstrated the severity of the incident and how serious Alton Towers were taking it. He was able to give accurate and well prepared statements and take hold of the situation.

He also demonstrated his compassion, understanding and concern for those involved as well as outlining the immediate steps the business was taking which made him come across a lot more positive.

Accepting fault

In crisis management, accepting responsibility can make the difference between gaining the publics' trust and losing it. Alton Towers never tried to shift the blame or deny wrongdoing, which is where many brands have gone wrong when dealing with crises in the past (e.g. Thomas Cook).

Alton Towers must now reassure the public of their commitment to safety and work to improve on whatever they find to be the fault of their mistakes that clearly caused this disaster. I would also work to consider taking legal action/ investigation to the designers/ engineers of the ride.



All in all, I believe that Alton Towers initial management of the crisis was good and they built the foundations to restore their brand image, regain customer trust and convey their safety and integrity. However, the Merlin share price is dramatically low and therefore they must continue to work hard to make sure they stay on track.

Steph

The BEST and WORST of April Fools Day marketing campaigns

There isn't an event in the calender that marketers can't highjack nowadays and April Fools Day was no exception. This April 1st (before 12pm of course) swarms of marketing teams launched their clever tricks on to their consumers, attempting to catch them out and all in all gaining some coverage of their brands. Here are a few of my personal favourites from this year's jokers:

Playstation Flow

Playstation released this video launching their new Flow product:


I am going to be the first to shamefully admit I only realised it was a wind-up about 30 seconds in after I'd been cringing at the ladies over cheesy tone-of-voice! The video was funny, in line with their brand without being too out there or tacky and presented some great characters! Playstation even created a website surrounding the hoax product here which actually indicates the Flow was a joke- however a great new virtual reality product titled 'Project Morpheus' is actually in production! What a great way to create a buzz around the product and display Playstation's innovation without showing off- also a great way to get traffic to their website! Hats off Playstation! Microsoft Lumia Microsoft came up with this video announcing their new phone will go back to their original operating system: MS DOS a.k.a the operating system we all knew from those ancient PCs we had in the 90's that took ten minutes to boot up....
I'm not sure who Microsoft were trying to amuse here, but I doubt I'm the only one who didn't find this funny. The video wasn't easy to watch nor do I believe it will appeal to all of Microsoft's target audience- I'm not even sure the majority of them will get it. Are Microsoft just trying to make techys laugh here? If so- OK.... but therefore it can't really be considered as a mass marketing campaign. I'm just not sure about the whole thing! Microsoft's marketing annoys me full stop- sorry but I think it's crap despite actually liking the brand! They don't indicate their own capabilities and display any competitive advantage despite them losing customers to competitors on a daily basis! Up your game please MS!! Carlsberg Drone
How many guys wish this one wasn't an April Fool's Day joke? Really simple, yet funny and made every guy who watched dream of a beer drone I reckon!? I really like the video and I actually think it will have caught some people out! However, what I don't understand is why Carlsberg teamed up with the Northampton Chronicle to deliver them a bit of PR? A slightly ludicrous article which I'm not sure fits in with the Carlsberg brand whatsoever! I would love to have seen a bit of experiential marketing to coincide with the ad- something really low budget- maybe some surprised customers unexpectedly receiving their Carlsbergs! The ad almost looks as though it was thrown together a bit last minute and there's a lot more the brand could have done in extending the reach of the campaign.   Costa and a Kip
I don't know about you but I really want an ostrich pillow! Costa released this April Fools video announcing their new napping pillows to be trialed in store:
Costa are one of the last brands I would have expected to bring out such a humorous video- which is maybe why this prank works so well! I almost see the brand as slightly pretentious and therefore this shows a much lighter side to Costa and I think it works really well! The video is super short and therefore leaves you with a really puzzled look on your face! 
I don't think I've seen much Costa advertising before- but I would love to see more from you Costa!
Tweet me with more of your favourite April Fools marketing campaigns and let me know what you think of mine!
Stephanie

Penguin books #YourMum twitter backlash!

We all love a good Twitter highjacking story! However, this time the brand highjacked is a little surprising... Penguin Books- the publishing company we all remember from childhood, attempted to get #YourMum trending on twitter based on books their mum would like to receive for Mothers' Day.

In principal, it's a pretty simple campaign with not much potential and is almost a bit dull and samey...however, the campaign took an interesting twist...

We all remember Your Mama jokes from the playground... and it seemed the Twitter community found it hilarious to relive their youth and tweet Penguin with endless jokes, totally hijacking Penguin's lovely intentions with crude jokes.

 

So @PenguinUKBooks is using the hashtag #YourMum for their Mother's Day campaign. It's almost too easy. Much like #YourMum
— Dan Northcote-Smith (@D_NS) March 10, 2015

And then more brands jumped on the bandwagon!

Give #YourMum a break. Get the #pizza in tonight. pic.twitter.com/y0crdfeAwX
— Domino's Pizza UK (@Dominos_UK) March 9, 2015

@PenguinUKBooks You're braver than we are, Penguin.
— Waterstones (@Waterstones) March 9, 2015

 However, despite the totally highjacking of the campaign- I actually believe Penguin did a great job and spread much faster than had the campaign not gone viral- even if the reason behind doing so wasn't their original intention. Everyone was talking about Penguin and it got the Twitter community talking about literature- a great result for Penguin in my opinion!

 

As much as I loved @PenguinUKBooks #YourMum, I think I would have gone with #WordToYourMother...
— Daisy Buchanan (@NotRollergirl) March 10, 2015

 Penguin handled their response to the highjacking excellently, remaining calm, professional and taking it lightheartedly, which actually made some question whether that was their intention all along! I don't believe Penguin could have predicted that reaction, nor could anyone else. However, it is a lesson to brands in the future who need to be extremely careful when selecting hashtags and content which has the potential to go viral for the wrong reasons.

 

I think overall the campaign was great PR for the brand and has shown their personality slightly more than I have ever seen!

 

Steph



PR Comedy!

Usually, I blog about huge brands with vast marketing and PR budgets and some of the industry's most talented and experienced talent! However, marketing isn't about who can spend the biggest budget or who can create a viral campaign with no reasonable purpose or intention. Sometimes, marketing can be about thinking on your feet and reacting in real-time with wit and initiative.

Check out this customer complaint from Baluga Bar & Club, local to my hometown of Preston:

Of course, this complaint was sent to the completely wrong Facebook account- the bar in question doesn't even serve food!! 

Now, the managers at Baluga, Preston had two options in this situation, reply to the message apologising for the mistake in the confusion and suggest that Bianca seek the correct restaurant OR, to use this opportunity to create some great PR and to reply to the comment with humour..... which is exactly what they did:

I think Baluga did a great job- they then shared this great response with their social media. As it was a lighthearted joke I'm sure Bianca and Baluga's REAL clientele found it funny! 

The great thing that Baluga managed was crisis aversion, by producing a humorous response to something unexpected, they managed to produce a great piece of PR!

Awesome work! :-)

Inside Rolls-Royce

I've been watching the 'Inside...' series on 4OD, a must-watch if you are interested in the luxury goods market!
I especially loved the Rolls-Royce episode which gave an insight into the companies head office and the sales tactics used with high profile customers. Rolls-Royce were creating the Celestial Phantom- their most expensive model ever, containing hundreds of diamonds and documentary shows the rigorous process which is undertaken at the factory and during the design process. Clearly for such a prestigious brand, their cars sell themselves due to the status and authority that comes from owning one of the cars.

However, I was interested to see the types of marketing strategies that Rolls-Royce use in order to target such a highly regarded audience. The typical Rolls-Royce customer may be spending well over £50,000 and almost as much on optional extras to add to the car, therefore the customer service they recieve is fundamental to their loyalty to the brand.

The documentary displayed that most Rolls-Royce customers own 4 or 5 vehicles and therefore retaining such customers is a key priority in their marketing strategy. The salesmen in the car showrooms are highly trained, just as with any car show room, however it is their personal connection with the Rolls-Royce brand that means their passion is revealed and hopefully passed on the customer.

One of the key PR strategies used by the company, is the opportunity for key members of the press, celebrities and other senior influencers to test out the vehicles on a race track, in the hopes that they may write a review/speak about the experience and even that they may be potential buyers... this is classic 'try before you buy' but also an example of getting opinion leaders to form their own recommendations of products. They are also attracting a new selection of young, cool, hip customers which is important to help the brand progress in the future.

The fact that Rolls-Royce are perfectionists when it comes to product design and quality means that they are renowned for providing a consistently impeccable product- there are no reports of one-off disaster products or bad customer experiences as the product checking and factory processes are so strict that it simply doesn't happen at Rolls-Royce! This in itself is a fantastic example of PR!!

 It would be an absolute dream to work in the marketing department at Rolls-Royce, the staff seem to have an extreme passion and love for the brand and their marketing strategy is unique, admirable and seems to work to target customers who enjoy the extremely finer things in life!!

You can watch the show on 4OD- let me know your thoughts!

Steph

Sponsored Tweets and ANOTHER bad example of PR

Saw a very interesting article on the Daily Mail website today which you can read here...
The article tells of an angry British Airways customer who has paid for a sponsored tweet in order to express his frustration of losing a bag on the airline:

The tweet below followed which details the impressions and coverage the original sponsored tweet received:

Final Stats pic.twitter.com/adNW4JMTAL
—  (@HVSVN) September 3, 2013

 Clearly his anger at the airline and his desire to gain some notice, sympathy and for the airline to resolve the issue must have been strong for him to pay $1000 for a sponsored tweet, yet the press coverage and extending twitter discussions lead to more than notice from BA.

As a big virgin fan which you may have noticed from previous posts- this thrills me as British Airways dirty tactics have been evident in the past. But reiterating what I have said a million times bad PR can be avoided with the RIGHT RESPONSE to customer complaints (evident in the bodyform blog post).

British Airways took 24 hours to reply to the tweet- and told @HVSVN to contact them through private messaging. Have they not learnt from Tesco's mistake? Instant responses can avert disaster! Clearly the situation did get out of hand and has erupted to world wide media....

With simple planning in place alongside a dedicated customer service social media team who operate constantly- this could have been avoided. Clearly- with the negative publicity of an organisation, the competition steps in, see this tweet from the CMO of Marketing at JetBlue:

Interesting; a disgruntled customer is buying a promoted tweet slamming a brand where they had a bad experience. That's a new trend itself!
— Marty St. George (@martysg) September 3, 2013

 @HVSVN has clearly caused a world of marketing and social media experts to question their own PR strategy and rethink the use of sponsored tweets!

On the other hand-  a fantastic use of PR from my old favourite Virgin Atlantic- when a similar complaint from an airline customer arised in the form of a letter complaining about the food on board which you can read here, Richard Branson the CEO of Virgin actually rang the customer and offered for the customer to come and help design the new menu onboard!

Take note British Airways!!

Clearly the press/customers are going to make a comparison and in the tough world it is as much about how you deal with the aftermath of bad customer service as much as delivering good customer service in the first place.

Steph

Why you may be paying way more for your coffee or your train.... (unique target pricing)

Recently, I saw a controversy on facebook regarding thetrainline.com’s use of cookies in determining ticket prices online. This meant they were using consumer’s browser history in order to determine train prices and charge a premium price to customers who had used the service before or those who were frequent users of the website. Clearly when consumers found out there was an outrage and a number of disappointed posts on their facebook and website pages. I feel as though their public relations department dealt terribly with the situation- not issuing a formal apology and even DELETING negative posts. However, I am not concerned with the public relations in this case (see previous blog post), yet the fact that as this has just come to light- consumers are astonished to find this kind of technology in place. Yet it has been used SO many times before, not just online.

 

This sort of exploitation is called ‘unique target’ pricing strategy also referred to as ‘first degree pricing discrimination’ and uses simple economics. Amazon hit the spotlight for using the method a number of years ago, when two customers were charged different prices for the same products when based on their previous purchases. However when cookies were deleted the prices dropped and once consumers realised this there was an outcry, which resulted in Amazon having to change their pricing strategy and stop using the ‘unique target’ approach.

Yet, outside of the online retailers world this careful analysis of a unique customer who is willing to pay a higher premium on a product is in action constantly. A good salesperson can put a higher premium on a car or a house, simply by analysis their customer and determining the price they are prepared to pay for it. Think of when you go to buy a coffee at starbucks for example, a cappuccino might cost you £3 or a hot chocolate £3.20, yet a caffé mocha for £3.40 is just mixing the two together. You can then increase the sizes for an extra 50p, or add caramel for an extra 30p etc.

The fact is- the cost to add extra chocolate powder, caramel sauce or a bigger cup is very minimal is terms of Starbuck’s variable costs, maybe a few pence- yet the higher mark-up transferred to the customer is considerably more. This reflects the fact that people who are willing to pay more for their cup of coffee will choose these extras to bump up the cost- rather than those who are looking for a budget drink who choose to pay for the bare minimum product.

Another example is tickets- OAP’s and children are usually charged less for certain tickets, not because the services provided to them cost any less. They take up the same amount of room on a bus or at a football match for example, yet offering different prices to members of these distinct groups seems reasonable? This is due to the price-sensitivity of the individual members of these groups. Adults are prepared to pay more for their tickets, as stereotypically they have a larger disposable income.

Clearly, this strategy relies on collecting a lot of information about potential customers and isn’t popular with customers who realise it is being used, yet due to the increase in the development of new technologies, it is becoming increasingly popular and provides companies with an easy way to target a number of target audiences and obtain higher profits.

A fab book which goes in to this in a lot more detail is “The undercover economist” by Tim Harford- a must read for any business student.

Public Relations disaster and success

So the big news this week was the Tesco story that horsemeat has been found in their burgers! I'm a vegetarian so this doesn't really affect me THANK GOD but I was really interested to see how Tesco's public relations department handled the crisis. Frankly, it's good news for sainsbury's, asda and morrisons who are now making claims such as 100% British beef and can use their farming as an advantage over the market dominator. Tesco deserves such revelation after cutting corners in order to stay on top.

I noticed how the Tesco twitter and facebook pages hadn't released a statement even 24 hours after the news had been released even though Tesco had been trending on twitter for hours. Eventually they did release a statement which I felt was to a certain degree reassuring however I feel the twitter page could have been used to better effect whilst the scandal was occurring, there was no posts even declaring that a statement was going to be released later on and I think that whilst Tesco's shoppers where questioning their loyalty to the company, Tesco could have been a reassuring force whilst monitoring their social media.

However last night Tesco posted this tweet:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>It's sleepy time so we're off to hit the hay! See you at 8am for more <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23TescoTweets">#TescoTweets</a></p>&mdash; Tesco Customer Care (@UKTesco) <a href="https://twitter.com/UKTesco/status/292043677897994240" data-datetime="2013-01-17T23:00:13+00:00">January 17, 2013</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
I think the humour works well on a tweet that could have backfired and it's British "laughing at ourselves" humour and gave Tesco a moment on twitter as it has thousands of retweets, rather than entirely negative publicity.

However the daily mail doesn't seem to think so: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2264394/Horse-meat-scandal-hit-Tesco-centre-Twitter-backlash-customer-care-message-told-followers-staff-hit-hay.html#ixzz2IK0VApdY interesting article!!

So in my opinion Tesco did a half hearted job and need to improve their crisis management for the future, but hit back well.

A company that handled social media crisis management extremely well were Bodyform, this happened a while back and I was going to blog about it when I heard about it but now I think is a perfect time to;

In response to the bodyform adverts this was posted on the bodyform facebook page:

 

Richard Neillposted toBodyform

8 October 2012 via Mobile

Hi , as a man I must ask why you have lied to us for all these years . As a child I watched your advertisements with interest as to how at this wonderful time of the month that the female gets to enjoy so many things ,I felt a little jealous. I mean bike riding , rollercoasters, dancing, parachuting, why couldn't I get to enjoy this time of joy and 'blue water' and wings !! Dam my penis!! Then I... got a girlfriend, was so happy and couldn't wait for this joyous adventurous time of the month to happen .....you lied !! There was no joy , no extreme sports , no blue water spilling over wings and no rocking soundtrack oh no no no. Instead I had to fight against every male urge I had to resist screaming wooaaahhhhh bodddyyyyyyfooorrrmmm bodyformed for youuuuuuu as my lady changed from the loving , gentle, normal skin coloured lady to the little girl from the exorcist with added venom and extra 360 degree head spin. Thanks for setting me up for a fall bodyform , you crafty bugger

 

The post recieved over 100,000 likes and despite his humour and attempt at hitting back at the organisation, I believe Bodyform RINSED him with this video:
 

 <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Bpy75q2DDow" width="480"></iframe>

 

I think it's genius and works because it gets people talking, displays Bodyform as a humourous, light-hearted organisation who don't take themselves to seriously and targets the individual comment which gets consumers reading more and more into the story via their facebook- in turn looking more into Bodyform, a company which usually social media users might avoid. Overall I think the Bodyform PR department handled it perfectly and provided an example to other organisations!

 

-Steph