Creativity & chaos freezes BMW campaign

BMW Mini are well known for their creative marketing campaigns – I drive a Mini and it’s great fun.


However, as demonstrated in its latest marketing drive, creativity can rapidly erupt into chaos and crisis management when ideas crash and burn…

Its campaign to sponsor the names of two weather fronts called ‘Minnie’ and ‘Cooper’ to promote its new Cooper Roadster backfired when the weather system’s icy temperatures caused over 100 deaths across Europe. Read my comment on the story in the Oxford Times

More forward planning of what could potentially go wrong with any campaign can help avoid disasters. A simple ‘SWOT’ analysis of a creative marketing idea (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) should help in the forming stage. Not every disaster is avoidable of course - and we can’t always predict everything that could go wrong - businesses will always need crisis communications expertise!

But it’s what you do when things go wrong that can matter even more to your brand... Are you prepared for a crisis and how do you react when one happens?

BMW did the right thing in holding their hands up immediately and apologising. Being open and honest and saying sorry is something a lot of firms could learn from! Timely communication of the appropriate message to the key audience is an important part of reputation management and can help stop negativity gathering force and keeping the story running in the public arena. People can be quick to forgive when an apology is timely and sincere.

We’ll hopefully see many more creative campaigns, perhaps on less weather-dependent themes (?) from the Mini brand.

'Your Business - Your Games!'

With the Olympics looming, I went along to an event to find out how the games will affect businesses, and how they can get benefit. Seems there are all sorts of opportunities for businesses - large and small in the build up to London 2012...

Hosted by Business Link, British triple jumper Nathan Douglas who hails from Oxfordshire spoke about his experiences as a professional athlete and hopes for 2012.

It's an Olympic fact:...'an estimated £1billion of additonal visitor expenditure will be generated in the South East as a result of the London 2012 Olympic Games.'

Even if your business is not competing to win contracts for the Games, those businesses who have won contracts may very well need help too! Contracts are advertised on websites including: http://www.contractsfinder.businesslink.gov.uk/, http://www.businessportal.southeastiep.gov.uk/ and http://www.competefor.com/


The Olympics is certainly proving a popular theme for all sorts of business activities, events and promotions in the run up to the games.

Look out for local as well as national events taking place and opportunities for regional and local businesses to get involved. For example, The Olympic Torch will visit Oxford (7 July), Reading (10 July), Southampton (14 Jul) and a series of other locations (see www.london2012.com/olympic-torch-relay) for all details. Also, in Oxfordshire the Tree of Life cultural event will be on 9 July in Stonor Park. The games are also due to be shown on big screen in public spaces across the county. Go to http://www.oxfordshiregameon.co.uk/ for a calender of local events.

NB: Of course, there are very strict guidelines surrounding all mentions of the games, key phrases to do with the games and of course logos. Full copyright guidelines are on http://www.tourism2012games.org/

Planning tips - it's necessary but not always boring!

What better use of staying indoors in the warm than thinking of your goals for the next season and beyond...

A little time spent in some strategic and creative thinking can make a huge difference to the success of your PR and marketing plans for the short and longer term. Planning cycles take different shapes depending on the type of business, its customers' requirements and seasonal pressures for example. Plans must be adaptable and allow for reactive measures as well as driving proactive strategies to make a difference to your businesses' overall goals. However, some basic principles apply to planning ahead effectively - whatever the type of business or 'season' you are in.

Now is the time to start planning ahead - here are a few tips to help get into planning mode for success in the new season:

1. Review! What worked well over the past few months/year, what didn't and why? Ask your team for their feedback and ideas. Flag any pitfalls to aviod in the new season, and re-use tactics that worked well (adapting or re-freshing as necessary).
2. Big thinking... What is your overall big idea? What are your key strategic goals for the new year/season ahead? Re-visit your business plan - have your strategic aims changed, and how can you use the many varied tools of PR and maketing to help you achieve your business aims? Think short, medium and long term.
3. Refresh your goals. Once your strategy is clarified (if needed) or re-confirmed, set clear, measureable objectives to support the strategy.
4. Hit the target. Have your target markets shifted? What changes have happened or are currently happening in your industry that you need to take account of in your planning and what changes might come into play soon that will affect your target audiences and your business? Arm yourself with up-to-date market knowledge that will help you make informed decisions.
5. Get creative! Have some fun thinking of creative ways to fulfil new goals or tackle goals yet to achieve. Involve others in some creative thinking time and reward good ideas. Make it visual - use a big board to record ideas or create a colourful 'brain map' or spider diagram of ideas flowing out of a central aim or goal. Tackle one goal or challenge at a time to think about a range of different possible solutions and ideas.
6. Resource your plans... Now you know what you want to achieve next, do you have the support and skills sets in place to get it done? Draw in experts to fill in any gaps. Also think about staffing needs as far in advance as possible to ensure you get the pick of the crop when it comes to hiring talent - whether on a temporary, freelance, contract or permanent basis.
7. Build relationships. People are important! Take a few moments to think about what relationships are important to your business and why. Do you need to review your stakeholder contacts, do you need to nurture some key relationships and are there some new contacts you should be making in order to help drive your new business plans and strategies forward?

Obviously there is a lot more to be said on this topic, and some very specific ideas to put in place in order to create an effective PR plan. Hopefully these pointers might inspire some forward planing that will help reap results. Happy plannng!

What'll make your business tick in 2010?

Whilst planning for and thinking about 2010 it's good too to reflect on the positives from the year just gone. It's so easy to forget achievements, even the smaller 'wins' and obstacles overcome.

A key highlight for me was attending the Parliamentary Awards at the House of Commons at the end of the year organised by ComRes. It was a significant event in terms of the recognition of the charities' achievements and the involvement of key MPs and businesses.

There's always highs and lows in any business's year - PR is certainly no exception! Getting results for clients is one of the things that makes me tick. I doubt I'd be in PR if it didn't!

However, some other memorable moments have been those with a particular 'feel-good' factor (e.g.the awards mentioned) and events such as securing David Cameron's support of the OX5Run at Blenheim Palace for the Oxford Children's Hospital. I'm enjoying working on that event again for sponsors Allen Associates.

Whilst the year has had a fairly quiet with the snow flurries I've thoroughly enjoyed working on the launch of my sister's year-long charity event 10 4 10 (which she's organising in her spare time outside her busy job) to raise funds for ten charities. I'll be doing the DIY Dare. Keeps me ticking!

Up for a challenge or 10 in 2010?

Do something different in 2010!

As the New Year approaches, a series of creative, fun charity challenges has been launched by adventurous friends Ilona Woodward and Laura Aktins via their new website Planet Raucous.

Called '10 4 10', the aim of the series of activities is to raise money for 10 charities whilst having fun along the way. You donate via Justgiving, register for the challenge(s) you want and then the fun really begins.

Take your pick of 10 challenges, or complete all 10 and compete for an award…

The 'mountain high' challenge will appeal to those with a love of skiing or adrenalin sports. There are plenty of others to choose from including song recording, poem writing, design or even growing the most unusual plant you can imagine in the most inventive container and place you can think of.

I'll be doing the OX5 RUN at Blenheim Palace again in April but I have the whole year to complete the 10 4 10 challenges too.

Find them of Facebook and Twitter @PlanetRaucous

Could Twitter help solve a business problem?

Twitter personalities (above) suggested by Paul Armstrong of Kindred

Another packed room recently at the CIPR HQ - all gathered to hear if Tweeting is good for business. Read Paul's presentation here.

Before using Twitter for marketing or PR purposes ask: "Why use it? What's the business problem?" It could be used, for example to help drive more people to your website or provide a 'face' to your business. An upcoming feature of Twitter is the ability to create lists of key influencers for your business.

Setting up a Twitter account is easy - it's what you use it for that needs some thought. To engage with an audience consider being a resource too, be relevant, honest and clear.

Social media takes time, so you need to define the goals for using it and allocate time wisely. Have a presence on all relevant platforms but choose carefully which ones to spend time on. 37 million Tweeters across the globe is impressive, but there's around 316 million people on Facebook.

With a digital PR strategy in place, and perhaps some training in how to use social media platforms businesses can test out the benefits of Twitter and its counterparts. Happy Tweeting!