Earth Day Buzz

It’s Earth Day and everyone from NBC to Google is going green. Some companies are even taking this opportunity to educate consumers and promote awareness of Earth-friendly initiatives.

One example is the ‘Haagen-Dazs Loves Honey Bees’ campaign. The interactive site has information on the bee crisis and how this crisis will effect consumers' favorite foods (such as Haagen-Dazs ice cream). Visitors can help spread the buzz by creating a bee to send to family and friends. Haagen-Dazs has a sister-site for college consumers. Yesterday, on campuses across the country, the company gave out free ice cream and buttons to promote awareness, drive students to the campusbuzz Web site, and hopefully pollinate the Web with dancing bee videos.

Haagen-Dazs has also involved other companies. Anthropologie's initiative brings the message to where the consumers are. The company has an interactive learning tool on its homepage. The tool provides bee facts, links to resources, and a link to the Haagen-Dazs bee site. The bee awareness initiative extends to the in-store experience with bee awareness facts and displays incorporated into each store and photos of the displays accessible on Flicker.

Do you have a favorite Earth Day or green campaign? If so, please share by adding a comment!

--Marina Molenda

Amazon Steps on Its Own Tail

Amazon.com is a prime example of using the Long Tail theory as a business model. Amazon sells a lot of unique products to niche markets instead of focusing on selling a few popular products to the masses. However, recently the company stepped on its (long) tail when books categorized as "adult material" (including LGBT themed books) were removed from sales rankings and search results. Whether an unfortunate decision or accidental 'glitch,' Amazon's blunder incited outrage that spread like wildfire across the internet.

While Amazon is icing its tail, marketers should take this as a lesson learned and as a reminder to never underestimate the power of the consumer. Consumer communities and social media can escalate an issue before you've even had time to blink. Prevent situations like this by listening to your customers and being proactive. If they are taking time to report issues to you directly, these issues should be investigated and addressed quickly to prevent discontentment. Slow action and sub-par responses infuriate customers. In Amazon's case, one blogger encountered the issue as early as February and posted a timeline of his effort to get the issue resolved.

You can't always expect customers to come to you with issues. Therefore, you must be proactive and monitor Web chatter about your company. Consumers are more forgiving to companies that are trustworthy and authentic. If you uncover an issue and can't fix it immediately, be honest and open with customers and let them know what you're doing to control the situation.

What are your ideas and best practices handling issues and complaints in a social media world?

--Marina Molenda

IMC in the (White) House

Last week AIGA Chicago hosted “Designing Obama” where Sol Sender and Scott Thomas (SimpleScott) discussed the creation and evolution of the Obama logo and Web sites.

The break from traditional design and tactics used in political marketing truly set the campaign apart from competitors and predecessors. While the logo development process was interesting, the most fascinating aspect was the successful use of IMC principles.

A strong focus on the consumers (supporters) led to the “we” instead of “he” philosophy and drove marketing tactics.

The logo was a tangible way for supporters to connect with the campaign. Everyone became manipulators of the logo. It was easily recreated, transferred, and transformed allowing consumers to express their individuality as well as their support for Obama—and supporters took full advantage of it. The campaign Web site even provided the logo and downloads for assisting with creating items such as t-shirts and promotional materials.

The campaign effectively used the Web and social media to not only connect with supporters, but to empower supporters and connect them to each other. The BarakObama.com Web site provided value added content for supporters including educational materials and tools for becoming involved. My.BarakObama.com was a social network site where supporters created profiles, accessed resources, create personalized fundraising pages and blogs, and utilized simple tools for connecting with other supporters. Other social media tools such as Myspace, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Twitter were also utilized.

Additionally, analytics were used to track performance and refine the Web sites. This data uncovered design preferences and usability issues and were used to enhance the sites. Analytics are key to the success of any IMC campaign and the Obama team clearly illustrated that.

For those of you that missed the presentation and are lucky enough to be at SXSW, SimpleScott will be on the panel “Designing Change in America” on March 17.

--Marina Molenda

Don't Be A Patsy

I was reading Sunday’s edition of the New York Times when I came across the following ad:


The first line reads, “You may have heard about Patsy and her anti-drug campaign. Her homemade videos posted on various popular websites seem to be gaining quite a following.” The ad goes on to say that although Patsy might have good intentions, parents should seek out more thorough and tested advice through the Partnership for a Drug-Free America’s Web site.
Further investigation revealed a multitude of Pasty’s videos on sites such as YouTube and hundreds of personal blogs. The videos show Patsy, a seemingly typical suburban mom, employing extremely atypical methods of testing her children for drug use: frisking her children, using drug sniffing dogs and taking all labels off pill bottles in the medicine cabinet to prevent prescription drug abuse.

While the original New York Times ad paints Patsy as a renegade video blogger who is disseminating bad advice to keep kids off drugs, the videos are actually created by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. All videos end with the line, “Don’t be a Patsy” and a link to the Partnership’s Web site, where parents can find advice on preventing youth drug use.

The most interesting element about the Partnership’s campaign is its deliberate creation of this conflict as a platform to engage consumer interest. The last line of the Times ad reads, “And to Patsy herself, we would like to say one thing: maybe it’s time to put down the video camera.” By writing about a “renegade” blogger, the Partnership is acknowledging the blogosphere’s influence, but also using this influence as a strategy to forward its own agenda.

Check out some of Patsy’s videos and let us know what you think.

--Guest Contributor: Matt McLeod, IMC Graduate Student