BandwidthCamp

It’s December 21st and there is not an ounce of snow on the ground. Usually at this time of year everyone is in the spirit of Christmas and we are battling what will be the start of a crazy winter. However, this is not the case and it’s because of the lack of snow I feel. It’s funny how one detail can throw everything into a world wind of chaos. People are still being rude at the malls, gift are still flying off the shelves and yet there isn’t that hint of Christmas spirit in the air.

So whether you’re launching a new product, hosting an event or building a new media list, lets remember that the little details can change everything because as the lack of snow in Toronto right now is telling us, the little things really do matter.

BusinessWeek.com has the best and worst PR of 2006, which includes Wal-Mart, Borat!, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson and Ok Go. Some of the more amusing highlights are the following:

“Wal-Marting into Controversy

Worst

Wal-Mart is the company anticorporate activists love to hate, so every PR step the giant retailer takes must be carefully thought out. Wal-Mart faltered, however, with a folksy blog called Wal-Marting Across America. The couple writing the pro-Wal-Mart blog, Jim and Laura, were real people all right—countering critics’ early suspicions that they were fakes. But their tour was receiving financial support from a group that was funded primarily by Wal-Mart. The retailer’s PR agency, Edelman, took responsibility for the misstep. CEO Richard Edelman issued a personal mea culpa, explaining that the blog was his firm’s idea.”

“Taco’s Bell-y Ache

Worst

“Yum” turned to “yikes” for Yum Brands’ Taco Bell unit in early December when the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention reported that dozens of people who had eaten at Taco Bell restaurants in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware in November and December had been sickened by E. coli bacteria. Yum shut several Taco Bell stores while the source of the contamination was investigated. As of mid-December, the offending ingredient—possibly lettuce—hadn’t been found. Taco Bell was forced into the unenviable position of taking out full-page newspaper ads to assure customers that its food is safe to eat.”

“The PR Learnings of Borat!

Best

The humor may be sophomoric and offensive, but for sheer marketing prowess, nothing in 2006 topped the launch of the movie Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, starring Sacha Baron Cohen. Interviews with Cohen in the guise of Borat were everywhere and even the international objections to the movie—including protests and a ban in the real nation of Kazakhstan and lawsuits from individuals who claim they were duped into appearing in the movie—have only fueled Borat’s success. The movie has grossed more than $100 million in the U.S. so far.”

“Branson’s Big Pledge

Best

Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, who has long had an interest in green innovation, made a splash in September when he kicked off Bill Clinton’s Global Initiative in New York, pledging to invest all future profits from Virgin’s four airlines and two train companies—an estimated $3 billion over the next decade—in renewable energy initiatives to combat global warming. It’s a publicity coup that could end up earning him a pretty penny if the alternative energy businesses take off.”

This has sure been and interesting and fun year for all of us in the PR game. I can’t wait to see what challenges and new initiatives await all of us in 2007.

The Nintendo Wii is shaping up to be the must have console of the season. Everyone from gamers to non-gamers are wanting to get their hands on one. Even violent acts that were once associated with the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 are now appearing to be Wii related. Nintendo is really working hard to promote the Wii and games like Rayman Raving Rabbits with video, social networks and literal taking it to the streets this past weekend. It’ll be interesting to see how the game performs over the next few days as reports are coming in that there will be one final Wii shipment before Christmas.

Since the summer Sony has been misstepping left and right. Their latest entry was a flog with the help of Zipatoni, which everyone (Tailrank, DigitalBattle, Joystiq, Game|Life, and EvilAvatar) was talking about this week. The flog was put up at the start of the week and by Wednesday everyone had figured out it was a flog, simply because of the Whois information. Here’s the Blog posting from All I Want For Xmas Is A PSP, after they got found out:

“Busted. Nailed. Snagged. As many of you have figured out (maybe our speech was a little too funky fresh???), Peter isn’t a real hip-hop maven and this site was actually developed by Sony. Guess we were trying to be just a little too clever. From this point forward, we will just stick to making cool products, and use this site to give you nothing but the facts on the PSP. - Sony Computer Entertainment America.”

The effort that Sony and Zipatoni put into this “campaign” reminds me of an old saying I thought up while standing in line at 4am for a Nintendo Wii. If you’re not going to try, then don’t even get started, which is exactly how I feel about this “campaign”. The absolute lowest common denominator was chosen and executed on. If this was Sony’s idea then Zipatoni should have stepped up and said something. I seriously believe their reputation was hurt by this. However, if Zipatoni brought the idea to Sony, then that’s worse because they should know better. You don’t try and be something your not and try to change the rules of online engagement. Much like an e-mail, once you put it online it’s their for life. Next-Gen did get a responce but it’s the typical “we’ve no comment” for this screw up. I’m still left with more questions then answers in this situation.

What does it say about a company who disregards the rules of online communication?

How does this reflect on our industry’s image?

What is the future of online PR?

Will the FTC actually try and regulate this matter?

Does anyone outside of the PR, marketing and media community actually care about this incident? Gamers may cry but I know all to well we have short-term memory. I’m not sure what the answers are and maybe only time will tell. However, I think things are changing so fast these days that the long-term effects won’t be felt for some time to come.

[Update 1] Now we’ve a spoof blog coming out of the wood works.

I was thinking today that with all the sites I subscribe to in my RSS feed and how there are almost to many to track for any one client. There must be an easier way. Netvibes is a great personal page creation tool. You can use it to keep track of anything (call it the ultimate RSS program for all online media). Technorati is great blog search engine.

What if you could combine them and use it to search for your client’s name, brand or product. Now, you are not just getting an influx of everything from del.icio.us, digg or your blog feeds, but a more refined search based on your criteria. You could add and delete items as you see fit as well. Then with a few clicks and some magic, it takes all your information and dumps it out in a report, online or offline, that your client can read and see all the online coverage you got for them.