MELBOURNE: Marketers need to be wary of possible backlash to their ad campaigns, because not all publicity is good publicity.
That’s the word according to independent public relations analyst Gerry McCusker who reckons some of the country’s biggest brands spent 2006 ducking for cover after their marketing campaigns morphed into public relations disasters.
McDonald’s, Tourism Australia and cruise liner giant P&O are among those Melbourne-based McCusker claims suffered most last year. His advice? Take more care when designing your marketing campaigns.
McCusker, the author of 2005’s PR Disasters, analyses the biggest public relations nightmares from across the globe, and seeks public comment about the worst on his website (prdisasters.com).
“Advertising campaigns are having the piss taken out of them left, right and centre, and companies need to realise that it’s hard to play catch-up once the damage has been done to a brand,” McCusker said.
A case in point, he said, is the Tourism Australia “Bloody” campaign. While the tourism body received positive press after the campaign’s launch, the brand suffered some damage after failing to predict the international backlash that would result from such a controversial campaign.
“I think it was a tremendously bold campaign, but not all publicity it received was good publicity,” McCusker said.
However, then Tourism Australia MD Scott Morrison would beg to differ. Morrison told an Advertising Marketing & Media summit held in Melbourne after the campaign launched that the ad’s subsequent ban from UK television was a “PR dream”.
“Some countries don’t know what ‘bloody hell’ means, and to be honest, that doesn’t bloody matter,” Morrison said. “They understand they have had a warm invitation extended to them to visit Australia, and that’s what matters.”
Not surprisingly, McCusker gives PR practitioners a plug, suggesting ad agencies should seek a PR perspective on a campaign execution before it launches.
“With the rise of the internet, and hate and spoof websites, people and companies can be misrepresented at huge cost to them. A PR practitioner can suggest the different audiences that may take exception to the campaign.”
McCusker said sponsorship deals can also spell trouble, and marketers need to be careful about who they get into bed with.
The Traffic Accident Commission of Victoria had a PR calamity on its hands in 2005 when an AFL club it sponsored admitted one of its players had been caught speeding and drink driving. The TAC said it had no choice but to strip the club of the deal to ensure its brand message wasn’t diluted.
“Many of these sponsorship deals include a clause to release a company from a deal if someone acts inappropriately, but often the damage is already done,” McCusker said.
PR DISASTERS?
* Tourism Australia’s “Where the bloody hell are you” was slated for failing to translate linguistically, and was the subject of a spoof ad viewed over 30,000 times on YouTube.
* Digital agency Clear Blue Day hijacked McDonald’s “Make Up Your Own Mind” campaign by buying a similar web domain name and redirecting it to an anti-McDonald’s site.
* Cruise liner P&O was forced to apologise over a DM campaign prior to the inquest into Diane Brimble’s death aboard a P&O cruise. The postcard showed tanned bikini-clad women with the slogan “Seamen Wanted”.
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