No, this isn’t the latest crossover movie.

What happened is that Bavaria NV successfully pulled a marketing stunt at FIFA.

Short version:

• Barvaria NV paid over 30 women to go in with their trademark orange dresses + logo tag, hidden under red and white fan’s garments.
• The women then tossed the disguise.
• FIFA officials escorted them out and held them for several hours of questioning.

Bavaria NV is a Dutch brewer.  FIFA’s offical beer is Budwiser.  The Yahoo! article quotes “When Bavaria’s orange mini-dress brigade showed up at Monday’s game, FIFA was ready.”

No FIFA, you weren’t.

If you WERE ready:

• You would have planned for a stunt.
• You would have realized that by responding to the disturbance you just got it more media attention.
• You would have instructed your media personelle that the moment they saw a stunt go off, pull the cameras away from it.
• You would have figured out the legalities if such a stunt occurred, and quietly take action after-the-fact.

No, it’s not nice that Bavaria NV pulled a stunt when they know Budwiser is an exclusive advertiser.  It wasn’t nice when Starbucks had to deal with a brand hijacking but they knew that the more attention they gave the worse it would get.

Escorting 34 women in bright orange dresses is not something that’s done subtly, so of course the media will pick it up.  Bavaria NV got all the advertising they wanted and more.

Now, it wasn’t free advertising by any stretch:  “Bavaria NV gave them an all-expenses-paid trip to South Africa” according to one source.  And FIFA is looking into “legal remedies” AKA “wants to sue the pants off Bavaria NV”, so the final costs have yet to be determined.

But no matter what happens, FIFA has already lost.

Whether this is “So Bad It’s Good” or “So Bad It’s Horrible” depends on who you are, courtesy of meemojaded:  (who claims it was banned)

One would think that this sort of ad would never see the light of day again unless it was modified to be satire, or had a sort of twist added to it.  Of course, the problem with satire is that it’s not always clear you’re trying to be satirical.

(The above link leads to a video which is either a satirical stab at old values, a failed satire, sexist and demeaning, or all of the above — depending on who you are)

I’m not for one moment suggesting your marketing campaign be bland or humourless (that is death).  What I am suggesting is that certain things are more difficult than others to do, and even when done right are open to interpretation.

The solution is simply be open and communicate.  If you do create an ad that is horribly received, instead of trying to duck and cover, try just talking to people in a real but polite way.  It won’t magically wash everything away but it makes it clear that your company is made of imperfect humans that make mistakes like everyone else.  It’s far easier to hate a faceless company than it is the people in it.  (And don’t forget to talk to people if your ad is really well received too — it’s just putting good on good!)

Itsy (www.itsy.ca) is a charitable organization that supports St. Joseph’s Hospital’s Neo-natal Intensive Care Unit, and one of our staff was involved with their November 20th event to raise funds.  The event was a success, raising over $13,200.

Ironically, shortly after the event he wound up needing the very same services he helped to raise money for when his baby girl was born prematurely.  She’s now in good health and a happy little baby, and he couldn’t stress enough how helpful and supportive the staff were in helping his family adjust for the birth.

“It’s pretty ironic that we were at the ISTY event on a Friday night and a week later we’re in the NICU at St. Joe’s being taken care of by the nurses and staff we just ran the event for. What are the odds?! But we can say from firsthand experience that this is a cause worth supporting, as the NICU is truly a place where they make miracles happen for families in SW Ontario each and every day.”

No joke, but April 1st there will be a wearable art fashion show, “Futuristic”, where all proceeds will be donated to Itsy.  Tickets are just $20.  If you’re a Fanshawe student, show some support for your peers!  If you’re not, support a great cause and some great students!

The details are as follows:

Futuristic, a Wearable Art Fashion Show

When:  Thursday, April 1st, 2010
Doors open 7:00 PM
Show starts 8:00 PM

Where:
The Music Hall
185 Queens Ave (between Richmond and Clarence)

Tickets:
Available at Fanshawe’s Biz Booth or contact:
Kim Ismail
M-3010 Office
519-452-4227
kismail at fanshawec dot ca

Futuristic on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=350309911378&ref=mf

Seriously ironic.

There’s so many layers of ironic, I want to take a moment to dissect them.  Some are painfully obvious, but there’s so many it’d be easy to miss a few.

• Misrepresentation of the status quo:  “Free TV” was never free.  It was always paid for by advertisers.
• A new technology being offered as a premium service.
• New technology that allowed greater access of content to places that could not otherwise access it via previously established technology.
• Said previously established institutions screamed bloody murder that the new technology would destroy them
• A mess of regulations and fees that attempted to protect existing parties which felt threatened.
• Multiple content control battles regarding content.
• Threatened monopolies of different sizes and shape.

And last but not least:

• The old status quo is long forgotten, having been replaced by the “new” technology which is now status quo, and screaming bloody murder about how the latest technology will destroy them all.

Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.

If you are a creator, or own creative works, at what point do you stop using them?

I mean really using them to generate attention or revenue.  “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “The Matrix” are two major blockbusters, and earned a tonne of revenue during peak popularity – but how many copies of the movies are being sold today?

They’re probably still making money, but not nearly as much as they used to.  They’re a little old now, the shine has gone off them, and people are moving on.  Why not lend them out?  Not physically, the licence to create works based off them.

Lending their works and trademarks to the public would allow them to keep them in the public eye as new variations are made.  Notice I said lend – they’re not giving up ownership, but allowing new creative works to be derived from their originals.

Don’t think this would work?  Take a look at Garfield Minus Garfield, or the Slap Chop Rap.  Both are not only new creations derived from the originals, but they’re support by the original’s owners.

Copyright Lending could be the next way of doing business, big or small.  The key benefit to the owner is that all-important credit (and link) to the original, which allows for recognition and retention of ownership.

This is the cool part:

Imagine if The Matrix DVD includes a link to the store where you can buy:
•    Swag like TV shirts, sunglasses and creator commentaries
•    Fan-production material like costumes, sound effects, fonts, guides and character models
•    Fan-made media like movies and  comics
•    Space your own Matrix Store where you can sell your Matrix fan-media.

Pay close attention to the last item – the creative work has become its own economy.  Tell me Warner Bros. wouldn’t like to profit off not just merchandise, but also the creation of fan-works by selling them the materials, virtual market space, and ‘taxing’ the sale of their derived works.

Consider it – and take a look at the Creative Commons while you’re at it.  Perhaps the next evolution of social media will be the social marketplace.

Seth Godin wrote about cognitive dissonance (buyer’s regret) in “Fear of Apples”.  In a tough economy, people are afraid of making mistakes because of the tightened margin for error.

The less money they have, the less mistakes they can afford to make, so even buying the ‘wrong apples’ is a concern.

Thus:

A.  Help your customers purchase the right product.  Even if it’s not yours.
B.  Help your customers feel secure about their purchase when they buy your product.
C.  Find out what the ‘experts’ think of you.

For A, what you might lose in sales you make up for in trust.  The business with the highest trust is also the one with the best risk.  Regarding recommending a product that’s not your own:  do this on a per-person basis when you know their exact needs so you don’t have to do it too often.  (If you wind up doing this more than you think you should, there may be a problem with your product)  Since Word of Mouth is far more powerful in a tough economy and spreads faster and farther thanks to social media, trust pays off the most in the short and long term.

B depends on what your product is.  If they can’t return it, consider a quick follow-up and offer to make things right if the customer isn’t satisfied.  If you made sure your customer chose the right product, making them feel good about it might not even be required – but if you don’t check up you’ll never know for sure.

C is all about locating the trusted sources of information and finding out where you stand with them.  Take their input with a grain of salt, but also get an idea of how many people they influence too.  Social media is the key player here for both locating and determining the expert’s value.

Your business is involved with social media whether you like it or not, because your employees are using it. Like most of North America, they’re using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and even email to stay connected with each other, forming a massive, complex and growing network.

All this social media activity can impact your business even if you don’t allow them to access it at work.  An employee at home venting on Facebook about a lousy day on the job can put your business in a bad light.

In extreme cases, bad employees can pull bone-headed moves like the infamous Dominos video . Other times, they’re just not aware of who might be reading their tweets.

While negatives are newsworthy, there’s also a lot of good that can be done through employee social media use. Positive people with lots of good news to share or people who really care spread positive worth of mouth and make customers feel good about dealing with your business. Employees might also have critical contacts you’d love to know about.

So, do you want to know your employee networks? Yes.

Do you have any right to know? No.

Demanding to know your employee’s social media network is like demanding to be introduced to their family or friends. It’s creepy and intrusive.

Can you get access to these networks anyway? Probably, if you ask nicely.

Providing incentives to employees to help your social media efforts might work better – and I don’t mean bribing them to see their friends list or Twitter followers. For example, some sort of reward for tips on people to follow on Twitter. Just don’t pay people to spout out false praise or marketing slogans. (It defeats the purpose of social media… and it will be obvious)

Preventing mind-bogglingly bad social media moves is probably best handled simply by making sure employees know what’s inappropriate and the repercussions for showing bad judgement in what they post to the world.

Finally, it wouldn’t hurt to have a plan in place to deal with a social media disaster, just in case.

The Twitter news-stream can be more like a raging torrent depending on how much information you’re trying to take in.  Hence the Tweet round-up; a collection of tweets from the week in one location with links intact.

June 8

The war between Starbucks and Brave New Films appears to be over. http://wordpress.rgdirect.c…

June 9

RT @NanBran: RT @judybryant: Hey London…Get on the Bus!: Tourism London running free tours of double decker bus http://digg.com/u15F7M

RT @SBoSM: Today’s SBoSM Buzz: Apple’s social-media goof http://tinyurl.com/mq86nd

RT @SBoSM: RT @allenweiss: RT @michelletripp It’s official: Facebook vanity URLs announced http://tr.im/vanityURL Can’t get one until Sat

Paper Harley! http://digg.com/u15G8I Beautiful attention to detail, too cool for words!

June 11

RT @AndrewWahl: So, is Mark Laver, the Ipsos Reid pollster who put out this Twitter-related release today (http://bit.ly/vT8nr) on Twitter?

RT @SBoSM: Andy’s Answers: How to create engaging communities: http://ow.ly/dwlX

RT @SBoSM: RT @nstockard: Social media marketing gaining ground http://bit.ly/gzwRN

RT @NanBran: The “New Economy”… London Strategic Plan and Economic Development http://bit.ly/Tlixc

RT @honeylondon: The entry dealine for Beecause competition is June 30th. RT this and help out! www.beecause.ca We want your artwork!

@SteveatLFPress We’re behind you Steve! Good luck on the ride! http://tr.im/shg15

June 12

RT @AM980News: Buck-a-litre gas in London this morning for first time since Oct.08; http://is.gd/ZIgY

RT @honeylondon: RT @thetiniest RT@mashable BREAKING: Twitter Launches Verified Accounts - http://bit.ly/1Hu5E

Another excellent post by @thisissethsblog: http://digg.com/u15WdH

What kind of projects have you worked on? @thisissethsblog http://digg.com/d1tYDn

Lots of good posts today it seems! @kevinvanlierop http://digg.com/u15Wen

Show London Pride to BusRide! If you loved the Tourism London wrap, please vote for it at http://digg.com/u15WoV !

RT @SBoSM: From @scottmonty - social media crisis communications is as much an art as it is a science. You have to trust your instincts.

Excellent ideas for social media application, from @SBoSM spotlight & Convenience Store News http://digg.com/u15Y7W