Tick the box marketing

It is the same old story – can I have two of the latest fads for my marketing mix please sir. The amount of times clients, and marketers in general, want to jump on the newest bandwagon that is going through town to feel that they are at the cutting edge of marketing is unreal. Over the last couple of years it has been Green/eco-marketing, Cause Related Marketing or social marketing. Without really understanding the tools or thinking about how it can sit in their mix, marketers just lump it in and feel that they are driving their brands forward. When done well it is very effective, when done poorly or for the sake of it, it is transparent and fake – which are criticisms launched at marketers too often and usually for the right reasons.

I am all for including new tools but only when the rationale is correct. The reason for this post/rant is an article I read this morning from Steve Rubel (Director of Insights with Edelman and all around Mr. Online Marketing). Steve makes some valid points about using blogs and social marketing in your PR plans and it is well worth the read and also a moment or two to think about it.

To Pander or to Pounce!

We currently have a client who is going through a standard bureaucratic process. It all seemed to be going smoothly until the inevitable happened and those in the public sector jumped in with their two big feet.

What does he do – drag the story into the public domain and expose it for the nonsense that it is? All the PR advice is no, he needs to go through the process and deal with things one by one. It doesnt matter that this will cost him more money and delay his project – you can’t upset or argue with those in authority.

I don’t claim or want to be Michael O’Leary’s biggest fan but he is someone that is focused and committed to what he believes in. During the recent radar fiasco at Dublin airport, O’Leary and Dermon Mannion (CEO Aer Lingus ) were interviewed on the radio. Mannion pandered – said that the Dublin Airport Authority were doing all they could, thanked them for their hard work (even tho they knew about the problem for 5 weeks before it brought the airport to a near stand still and delayed hundred of thousands of passangers). O’Leary said it for what it was – a disaster and the DAA just sat on their hands and waited…while the passangers waited, planes sat on the runways and companies lost millions as a result (O’Leary stated (pinch of salt time) that Ryanair were losing a million euro a day because of the issue).

So who faired better – Mannion or O’Leary? I dont know but Aer Lingus hope to break even this year while Ryanair will be in profit. And in 5 years, will Aer Lingus still be here? O’Leary says no but Ryaniar will be.

To come back to our client, maybe he should draw out the issue intp the public, highlight the bureaucracy and mentality of the public service that is attempting to stall any development or growth in our stagnating economy.

What has he to lose – maybe making a slow process slower, what has he to win – getting a stalled ship moving and giving two fingers to narrow minded authorities…what to do.