PR in times of cholera
How do PR professionals, companies, organisations or plain individuals cut through the noise in the era of social media? This will be one of the key questions in 2018, and even more so at a time when ideas and opinions are so easily misconstrued and a simple misthought phrase can lead to Trumpian noise and fury on Twitter or, indeed, elsewhere.
It would seem that this is not a time for pushing boundaries. A simple mis-step and you have a full blown global brand identity crisis. Yet somehow brands need to differentiate themselves and make themselves stand up above mediocrity and reflect something their audiences want to hear.
Step into the fray Virgin Trains, which this week performed some marvellous 'virtue signalling' by banning free copies of the Daily Mail for its First Class Passengers. This led to some to notice the irony of this occuring just at a time when this publication had been criticising the poor service quality of the British privatised rail service. In any event, The Guardian had also reflected similar opinions and had not been censored. Does that make Virgin more progressive than Great Western? Who knows? At least it seems Meghan Markle has been spared the challenge of persuading Her Majesty from banning King Comb Over himself from Buckingham Palace. The Donald has decided to suspend his planned visit anyway. Why bother cutting the ribbon at a new US Embassy when the building costs so much and has has in any case been erected in a 'shithole', much too far from Kensington and Chelsea for the cost saving entrepreneur's liking?
Whatever the method, be they brands, politicians or just ordinary people, new ways will be sought to engage with our audiences and to build an emotional narrative that appeals to certain segments of the population. Could this ultimately lead to a "you can't win'em all" mentality, in which consumers fall behind different brands in much the way that they do behind political parties. Guerrilla marketing could be a buzz word this year, given the benefits to be sought from taking up one cause, even if it is at the expense of another. Clearly if this is the case we will not have seen the end to such controversies for some time. I nevertheless can't stop feeling that each time the media pick up one of these 'scandals' or 'gaffes', they are not being a trifle disingenuous. Most of the time, there is a strategy behind everything. The challenge for the PR guys is in picking the right one. And the media's goal should be to dig deep and uncover what's behind it, rather than just feigning shock and horror, very much to the benefit of the ones doing the offending or signalling their virtue.
It would seem that this is not a time for pushing boundaries. A simple mis-step and you have a full blown global brand identity crisis. Yet somehow brands need to differentiate themselves and make themselves stand up above mediocrity and reflect something their audiences want to hear.
Step into the fray Virgin Trains, which this week performed some marvellous 'virtue signalling' by banning free copies of the Daily Mail for its First Class Passengers. This led to some to notice the irony of this occuring just at a time when this publication had been criticising the poor service quality of the British privatised rail service. In any event, The Guardian had also reflected similar opinions and had not been censored. Does that make Virgin more progressive than Great Western? Who knows? At least it seems Meghan Markle has been spared the challenge of persuading Her Majesty from banning King Comb Over himself from Buckingham Palace. The Donald has decided to suspend his planned visit anyway. Why bother cutting the ribbon at a new US Embassy when the building costs so much and has has in any case been erected in a 'shithole', much too far from Kensington and Chelsea for the cost saving entrepreneur's liking?
Whatever the method, be they brands, politicians or just ordinary people, new ways will be sought to engage with our audiences and to build an emotional narrative that appeals to certain segments of the population. Could this ultimately lead to a "you can't win'em all" mentality, in which consumers fall behind different brands in much the way that they do behind political parties. Guerrilla marketing could be a buzz word this year, given the benefits to be sought from taking up one cause, even if it is at the expense of another. Clearly if this is the case we will not have seen the end to such controversies for some time. I nevertheless can't stop feeling that each time the media pick up one of these 'scandals' or 'gaffes', they are not being a trifle disingenuous. Most of the time, there is a strategy behind everything. The challenge for the PR guys is in picking the right one. And the media's goal should be to dig deep and uncover what's behind it, rather than just feigning shock and horror, very much to the benefit of the ones doing the offending or signalling their virtue.