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Wolverine vs. Star Trek

Cari — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 02:44:11 +0000

: Image by ℑ Monja · con · patines ℑ via Flickr

I’ve been meaning to talk about the Wolverine leak but for some reason, I haven’t. So this is the lucky day because I found something interesting about it.

So we all know it leaked. Whether it was on accident or not is still to be decided, despite the fact that they say the FBI is hot on the case. But call me crazy, there’s going to be way more buzz about the much awaited X-Men movie if the leak was on “accident.”

: Image via Wikipedia

Anyway, Ad Age is predicting that Wolverine will make $100 million opening weekend, which is twice as much what they are predicting for the new Star Trek movie. Both movies have had a lot of buzz but with the leak, Wolverine has had a lot more. So the prediction makes sense when only considering the amount of buzz.

: Image via Wikipedia

The predictions don’t make as much sense when you consider the reviews for the movies. Star Trek fans have been going crazy for the new movie and the reviews from trekkies who got a sneak peak have been crazy good. On the other hand, online reviews for Wolverine have been really crappy.

So I guess we’ll find out in a few weeks who wins: buzz or quality?

Motrin Ad makes moms uncomfortable

Josh Carr Superstar — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 17:39:26 +0000

I am sure everyone and their mother has heard about the Motrin drama. Motrin launched an online ad campaign targeting “babywearing” moms that was supposed to empathize with the pain associated with carrying your baby in a sling.

The reaction was less than positive. Moms were mad, real mad. Tweets, blogs, and youtube videos were popping up like crazy about the offense taken from the ad.

For those of you who thought that ad was pulled quickly enough that a spoof couldn’t be made, I am about to put your minds at ease. This is our favorite response video

Obviously, J&J should have tested the ad before the launch. That was their big mistake. Although they are still getting a ton of negative fallout from it they handled the reaction well. They immediately apologized and pulled the ad; it was launched on Friday and by Monday, the ad had been pulled. The buzz about the ad continued throughout the week and mostly fizzled by Friday.

The Motrin story is becoming an instant case study for how influential social media is on brands today. It also proves that there are huge opportunities to use social media to improve your brand image.

Even though there was negative buzz about Motrin, the good thing is that the fact that people were tweeting and blogging about it proves that there is some level of passion for the brand. Now Motrin’s challenge is to take that passion and make it positive.

So you might ask “what would buzz.io have done differently?” Well as you have heard us preach so many times from this pulpit it is about the conversations with your customers. Don’t wait until a crisis to start talking. Have you seen Motrin contact the offended mothers and apologize? they probably lost some moms forever because of this but by having a conversation they might have turned some anger into excitement because they are a brand that cares.

It isn’t too late for your brand – get out to the conversations and start talking!

Creating Buzz like Celebs

eddie — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 01:48:08 +0000

Do you think celebrities think about building buzz? Or are their actions totally spontaneous and it just so happens that they create buzz? Call me crazy, but I’m guessing celebrities aren’t thinking. Buzz just forms around them because of the stupid things they do and then they are branded by their actions.

It would be great if creating big buzz around your brand were that easy. But it’s not. Building buzz online is kind of the opposite of building celebrity buzz. While their buzz stems from a lack of thinking and common sense, online buzz comes as a result of careful planning and strategy. And even then, there’s no guarantee that we will be successful.

Perhaps we can learn some things from our buzz-friendly celebs:

1. Do something ridiculous/interesting. Some people have opted for the “jumping on couches” or DUI approach. Both are great approaches that get a lot of buzz. In the marketing world this is what we would call the message. This is what you are trying to communicate to your audience about your product or service; what is going to get them talking. But make it good – preferably something that doesn’t involve scandal.

2. Have an Avenue. You need a place that allows everything you do to be attributed back to you. Celebs don’t really have their own avenues. Lots of them have their own websites, but everything that is said about them can rarely be traced back to one central location. Hopefully you won’t be the focus of any gossip columns, so you will just need a website or a blog. You want to make sure you can monitor clicks, visitors, revenue, etc. on your own domain.

3. Find your loyal readers to spread your message. Us, People, Perez Hilton and E! News are extremely loyal to our misguided celebs. They are on the ball when it comes to getting information first and spreading the news as quickly as possible. Find your loyal online readers.

4. Unlike celebrities, we have to be prepared to fail. Everyone will always read about celebrities and their slip-ups, but not everyone will care about your new product or service. I know nobody likes to think about the possibility of failure but, unlike celebrities, we have to be realistic. Who knows, there’s also the possibility of being pleasantly surprised by your results.

Our New Logo – Final this time

Josh Carr Superstar — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 04:36:14 +0000

Here is our logo – we like it a lot.

Building a Kick-A Network

eddie — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 00:48:19 +0000

When I think about building networks, I automatically think of the battles associated with looking for a new job. First, you find yourself in need of a new job. Then you think of every person you have ever known in your life and figure out if their experience and connections are useful to you in your job search.

You find yourself talking to people you haven’t talked to in years. You casually ask, “Hey, what have you been up to? Where are you working now?….” Despite your superb performance of the guy who just wants to catch up with an old friend, it doesn’t take long for them to find out the real reason you called.

If you ever feel guilty doing this, maybe you should. But hey, we all do it. (For advice on building your network, who better than Monster?)

Just like you need to network in order to get a job, you need huge online networks in order to create buzz about yourself and company. This is when schmoozing on a large scale takes place.

Large scale schmoozing is best done with online tools. They allow you to have instant access to a huge number of people that are interested in your industry and product or service. Then once you’ve found them, you can start talking to them. Let the networking begin!

Social networks are a great way to find people that match your target. They also make it easier to get involved in relevant communities. Just think about your first few days on Facebook (assuming you have one, because any self-respecting person living in the 2Gs should have one). Almost instantly, you had people from elementary school asking to be your friend and suggesting other friends and telling you to join all kinds of groups. Then before you knew it, you had over one hundred friends and you felt more popular then ever before.

It is, however, a little different building a network for your business, but we can help you with that.

Online PR – how can you extend the reach of your public relations with almost no budget?

eddie — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 00:38:20 +0000

What is public relations? Advertising without any money. So what is online PR? Dirt cheap.

The internet has made it a million times easier to monitor your brand reputation and find out what people are saying about you. And let’s be serious, the only way to manage your brand reputation is to know what people are already saying.

The main difference between online and offline PR is, obviously, one is dependent on online media outlets while the other is dependent on “real life” venues. Because of the nature of online media, it means that you have to constantly be aware what is being said about you and then quickly respond. To show you how crazy fast news can spread on the internet, check out Managing Public Relations in Real Time.

Fisher-Price apparently did not subscribe to this whole online PR thing when the story got out about them using lead paint on their toys. When a story is released that you – a company that makes toys for little children – are using a poisonous substance to make your products, you better say something …. quick.

We’re all about saying things quick. We are able to track what people are saying about you in real time, which allows us to respond in a timely manner.

But the aspect of online PR that is probably more applicable to most companies – those that aren’t killing children – is building relationships. Heck, it’s right there in the name. You should be constantly checking relevant blogs, message boards, forums, etc., to get to know your customers and potential customers. Then you can respond to them in a meaningful way, therefore creating relationships.

We’re all about relationships. It makes it a lot easier to spread buzz if people like and trust you. So we make sure we are talking to the right people about the right things in the right way at the right time.