The Jet Blues and Social Media

February 22, 2007 | PR

The media — new and old — have been all over the JetBlue story for the last week, so I won’t rehash it all here. Short story: bad snowstorm in Northeast, JetBlue stunningly fails to meet passenger expectations, but does a pretty decent job of actually apologizing afterwards (how refreshing is that), including a YouTube video by founder and CEO David Neeleman, a JetBlue Customer Bill of Rights, emails to customers and frequent fliers (I got one) and full page apologies in the newspapers.

Commentary: Shel Holtz, Todd Defren, BL Ochman, Mack Collier, Tom Biro, Chip Griffin, Peter Himler, JetBlue on Technorati.

I’ll join with my pr and marketing colleagues in giving props to the company for effectively using social media in its crisis communications.

Marketing diva Toby Bloomberg asks the follow-on question: if JetBlue had had a social media marketing strategy before the crisis, would it have made a difference? My opinion: it might have alleviated some of the frustration had there been additional channels of communication for stranded passengers, like an RSS feed with information on cancelled flights, but the flaws in the JetBlue infrastructure that caused the situation would not have been fixed with better communication about them.

What really makes a difference isn’t the media we use. It is the "social" part — caring about your customers, delivering on the promises you make, and when you fall down, for whatever reason, doing what it takes to make it right. 

Sure, social media — blogs, YouTube, email and so forth — help us respond and communicate faster. But one of the best examples of crisis communications of all time happened well before the Internet  - Johnson & Johnson and the Tylenol scare in 1982.

J&J sincerely cared about its customers. It stepped up and did all the right things.  Which is why confidence in the product, and market share, rebounded pretty quickly.

To its credit, JetBlue seems to understand this. Neeleman was clearly sincere in his promise to never let this happen again, and because the airline DOES have a pretty good reputation, by and large we believe him. He’s also putting his money where his mouth is; costs to reimburse affected passengers and prevent future problems will run the airline $20-30 million.

Of course, it is not what you say or how you say it.  It’s what you do.

Customers don’t want empty promises. They want to see the company live up to them. JetBlue has done a decent job in responding to this crisis, and gets full credit for using all the media tools available to it. Now, we’ll be watching to see if it follows through. My bet is that it will.

Tags: JetBlue, social media,  David Neeleman, crisis management

This and that, and Battlestar Galactica too

February 16, 2007 | Blogging, Marketing

Okay, folks, it is 9pm on a Friday of an amazingly busy week. Here’s some random stuff I’ve been thinking about.

Mary Schmidt has been on fire lately. Do yourself a favor and check out her blog if you haven’t already. One topic she covered this week was Blog or Website or both . Lately, I have been recommending that small businesses use blog development platforms like Wordpress for their Web sites, as it lets them have a simple Web site with the option/flexibility of easily adding a blog to the site.

Meankids.org. Hhhm. I sense the fine hand of Chris Locke, once again (remember Kat Herding), and being a bit of a Rage Boy fan girl, I am enjoying the  irreverence. I can’t help it, folks. The language is profane, the subject matter often gross, but I love it when someone sticks pins in folks who take themselves way too frakking seriously.

Speaking of frakking, Battlestar Galactica got renewed.

Amen.

So say we all. 

Tags: mary schmidt, meankids, chris locke, rage boy, battlestar galactica

New Comm Forum and BlogHer

February 14, 2007 | BlogHer Business, Marketing

As I’ve mentioned, I am speaking at New Communications Forum and BlogHer Business next month. Both conferences encourage their speakers to share discount codes for the conference with friends and colleagues.

New Comm Forum, March 7-9, Venetian Hotel, Las Vegas.

$200 discount. Use code 612SHN. Register at  www.newcommforum.com

BlogHer Business, March 22-23, Affinia Hotel, New York City

$100 discount off the $699 registration fee  for the full 2-day conference. Use code BHBAC-DSC. Register at  http://www.acteva.com/go/blogher

Hope to see you at one or both conferences!

Tags: BlogHer Business, New Communications Forum

Reva Watches Westminster

Douglas/Dogs

Reva (Ch. Blueberry’s Best Served Cold) watches the Terrier Group.

Tags: scottish terrier, Westminster

Boston “Bomb Scare” Resolution

February 6, 2007 | Viral Marketing

"We understand now that in today’s post-Sept. 11 environment, it was reasonable and appropriate for citizens and law enforcement officials to take any perceived threat posed by our light boards very seriously and to respond as they did." - Turner Broadcasting Statement

Katie Paine has a post this morning summing up the resolution of the whole Turner/Interference/Aqua Teen mess as "Boston 2 Aqua Teen 1 Turner 0"  — Boston gets $2million in the settlement from Turner and Interference, more people have heard of the show, and Turner will come out fine.She’s less sure about Interference, the agency that came up with the idea, but she thinks even they might come out okay in the end.

I agree with her assessment, but am still bothered by the ethics of the whole thing. If the goal of the campaign was to expose more people to the TV show, it had not achieved the objective until the "explosion" last Wednesday. From what I have been able to tell, folks certainly saw the critters in Boston and the other cities, but it sounds like many were taken as souvenirs. Hard to spread the word about something if people are taking the adverts back to their dorm rooms. In fact, if the goal was to reach out to the natural audience for the show, those that already recognized the character, then the logical place to put the devices would have been colleges, universities and so forth.

Not I-93. Yet, the agency specified just those sort of places — overpasses, bridges and the like. Why? Was it simply because those were visible spots, or did they perhaps have a clue of what MIGHT happen if a device was placed on a key and highly visible piece of transportation infrastructure? Or were they just stupid? We will never know for certain.

We also can’t really be sure if the agency realized what was going on in the early afternoon on Wednesday and told the performance artists who placed the signs to keep quiet. Waiting about 3 hours before informing the authorities. The young men and their friends say yes. The agency denies. At this point it doesn’t really matter.

What we do know is that the first device reported and detonated Wednesday morning was placed on Monday night, not three weeks ago. And we know that it took a public emergency in Boston for the word to start spreading.

Posts mentioning "aqua teen"

We know, or we should, that it was much better for the authorities to respond as they did, than it would have been to ignore a potentially dangerous situation. Hard as it is for me to read about  the comics making fun of Boston, I’d much rather be hearing that than reading about the deaths caused from a bomb exploding in a subway or train station. It happens.  Madrid 2004 and London 2005. Tom Menino may go over the top, but it doesn’t make the marketing campaign itself any less irresponsible.

That’s the ethical issue: what is the responsibility of a marketer to understand the potential effects of the campaign. Not just the goal we set, but the unintended consequences. Where do we draw the line between the responsibility of the marketer to understand and avoid negative effects, and the fact that the response to a marketing campaign is really out of our control. We tell a story and hope it gets the response or action we intended. But there are no guarantees, and the people have all the real control. We just think we do

In the case of Aqua Teen,  Turner and Interference should have known better. Even many folks who make fun of Boston for the level of response admit that.

If we want to be responsible marketers, we need to fully understand how our products and campaigns will affect the people exposed to them. If our campaigns will be seen by more than the intended or natural audience, we had better be sure that we are communicating clearly. It isn’t sufficient to say, well they just don’t get it, or that isn’t really for them, or whatever the excuse, if there is a potential for harm.

I leave you with the irony. Although there’s a lot of Aqua Teen buzz these days, the Globe reports:

"Though the Cartoon Network received considerable attention after the scare, there appears to have been no short-term payoff. Viewership for the first "Aqua Teen" episode to air after the incident was down 100,000 viewers, compared to the night before, then only rebounded to its average rating the following night, according to Nielsen Media Research, which monitors television viewership."

CODA (added Feb 11): Head of Cartoon Network resigns over Aqua Teen mess. (sources: Boston Globe print edition and John Cass)

Tags: boston bomb scare, Turner Broadcasting, Aqua Teen, guerilla marketing, viral marketing, Cartoon Network

A class act: Radley

February 2, 2007 | Marketing

A few years ago, when I was travelling back and forth to the UK on a regular basis, I discovered Radley bags.

Radley manufactures a line of fine leather goods, and its symbol is the Scottish Terrier, which regular readers know is the dog breed I own. Over the years, I have purchased a number of bags, wallets and accessories through the one distributor I could find that will actually ship to the US, Leathershop UK. From whom I have always received impeccable service.

A month or so ago, the company asked me to participate in a market survey. Clearly, they are thinking of coming to the US, to which I say YES! The quality of their bags matches any of the mid-price US manufacturers (Coach, Kate Spade) and I was happy to participate.

They offered a gift, which I immediately forgot about. Imagine my surprise when it arrived today and far from being a cheap trinket, it was a keychain from the regular line, retail value fifteen British pounds.

Well done, Radley. I will continue to purchase your products through Leathershop, and I hope you come to the US soon.

Tags: Radley, Scottish Terrier,  Leathershop.co.uk, Leathershop uk