Archive for July, 2009
Badvocacy can turn into good business if enough attention and the right person locks in. A software program called Auto-Tune helps engineers correct the voice of a singer. Obviously, if you use the wrong settings, a holy mess can occur. Distortion galore. In protest, Jay-Z, the super popular American hip hop artist, just produced a single called D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tone). Jay-Z was badvocating the new program, especially when he heard it was used in a commerical. Over 1,000 people watched the video. See the YouTube video. Turns out that his celebrity anger has turned into nice jingles at the cash register. Sales are up according to the Auto-Tune company. [Read about this on our Weber Shandwick Yammer web site which was linked to a New York Times article]
Tags: Badvocacy, Weber Shandwick, Yammer
I thought I should remind everyone who reads this blog to take a look at our mini-book, The Good Book of Badvocacy. Since I am forever ranking everything and anything, I noticed that the number of search mentions of “badvocacy” has steadily risen. Just a couple of months ago, the number of Google mentions was 17,500. Now we are at 25,500. And remember, we started from zero since the term did not exist before we launched our thought leadership focus on advocacy. So the term is gaining currency which is good . The mini-book is about how companies need to address their badvocates and can combat badvocacy before it is too late.
As I searched around this afternoon, there were several kind reviews of our inaugural book worth sharing. A big thanks to everyone for advocating on behalf of The Good Book. Thank you!
“Each step has tips on how to achieve it. With the nice graphics, easy readable style (you can read it in 5 minutes) and relevant insights, The Good Book of Badvocacy should be a must-read for every corporate executive.” Blog
“Global public relations and communications leader Weber Shandwick began a series of short publications on topics they believe industries of all kinds could benefit from reading. The first of the series is called “The Good Book of Badvocacy”. It deals with the still pretty new sensation of customers being capable of drastic sway, particularly negative, on how companies and products use the internet and other recent technologies. “ Blog
“For expansion on the topic and steps read the book. To read quickly it won’t even take 20 or 30 minutes, and it is very entertaining. The format is original and exciting.” Blog
“ I found these tips to be extremely straight-forward and impactful in a media world where badvocacy is imminent. To read more visit Weber Shandwick’s site and download this very handy mini-book, The Good Book of Badvocacy. “ Blog
“I just finished reading The Good Book of Badvocacy by Weber Shandwick. I felt that it was a very relevant and insightful book in this day and age of viral marketing. Anybody connected with PR, advertising, marketing, or really any kind of business should give this book a read.” Blog
Tags: Advocacy, Badvocacy, The Good Book of Badvocacy
As a follow-up to Leslie’s Pay Dirt post - about how important it is for organizations to know, understand and engage their advocates and badvocates - I thought I’d share some data from our Risky Business: Reputations Online survey we conducted with the Economist Intelligence Unit.
Our study suggests that executives are taking on the job of advocacy intelligence. In the 30 days prior to taking our survey, one-quarter of global executives searched online for information about their supporters and/or detractors. While this is not a majority level, it is a rather large proportion when you consider how busy a typical executive’s life has been during the past year and how much pressure he or she is under to just “make the numbers.” The finding that one-in-four found it an important enough task to take time to do an advocate/badvocate search underscores the recognition of the opportunities and risks.
Adding to the import of the activity is our finding that it’s not a task delegated to junior staff: 29% of CEOs/Chairs took it upon themselves to do such a search. With CEO approval ratings at rock-bottom levels and badvocates piling up, these top executives are finding it critical to know who their friends and foes are.
Not bad at all. In fact, really good. Weber Shandwick’s advocacy initiative appears #8 on Google’s first page when I searched for “advocacy.” We appear after Small Business Advocacy and before Juvenile Diabetes Advocacy. In my book, mention on the first page of Google is ownership (or near ownership).
We thought deeply about this thought leadership initiative and how the world has radically changed when it comes to what people really care about and what motivates them to support brands, companies, people, ideas and governments. We identified the likes and dislikes of Advocates and Badvocates who are willing to stand up and be heard or counted on what they believe is ethical, just and the right thing to do. Read more about what Advocacy means for you and your company. Sounds like a commercial but it’s just me being excited.
Tags: Advocacy, advocates, Badvocates, Google, Weber Shandwick
If this sounds familiar, well, it should. “The future ain’t what it used to be” is one of the all-time great malapropisms of the all-time baseball great Yogi Berra. Marketers should heed these words today, now more than ever, in light of the sustained global recession.
After all, Yogi knew something about challenging times: he not only was a member of 13 World Series championship teams between 1948-1962; he was part of the generation here in the US that grew up in the Great Depression. So today’s recession may just be “deja vu all over again” for this Yankee hall-of-famer. Just keep in mind that he also said things like “you should always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise, they won’t come to yours,” “when you come to a fork in the road, take it,” and “baseball is ninety percent mental; the other half is physical.” OK, Sun Tzu it’s not. But ignore him at your own risk.
Why? Because research continues to suggest the recession is having a deep impact on consumer behavior, creating what look to be long-term changes that affect everything from brand loyalty to the way marketers reach their audiences. This recent report from Initiative (our sister agency), based on a May survey of 3,200 consumers in the U.S., western Europe and China, provides more evidence why.
Of note, the study found a significant drop in trust in established marketing channels and a conversely sharp rise in people’s trust of individuals, including those who comment about brands online. For example, 43 percent reported far greater trust in online consumer content such as blogs, review sites and forums, while 48 percent said they trusted “expert opinion.” They also found that 76 percent of consumers said they trusted the opinions of those closest to them, the word of mouth of family and friends. Like the blog title says: it’s all about advocacy, now more than ever.
I like how Sue Moseley, who lead the study for Initiative, put it: That established brands can no longer rely on being accepted on faith because they’ve been around for a long time. Instead, they need to step up to the times to provide consumers with something authentic, tangible, transparent, real… and the means to evaluate it from independent sources online. The implication: the need for a new marketing model and approach to communications, on that puts igniting advocacy at the heart.
Yes, the future is certainly not what it used to be for marketing anymore. Come to think of it, it isn’t for baseball or music or the media business and I could go on. Maybe it’s just like the wise catcher said: “a nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.” But being an optimist by nature, I’d like to think this other cautionary Yogism is the one that applies for our field: “if you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.” True, so very very true. Thanks, Yogi.
Image source
OK, full disclosure. I probably have seen Zack Snyder’s “300″ approaching 300 times now (including last night when somehow I got my wife to watch). So I’m likely to jump at the chance to use a pic like this in a post no matter how threadbare the tie to advocacy.
But the Gods must have been smiling upon me this morning when I saw this just published article in the Journal of Marketing called “Are Women More Loyal Customers Than Men? Gender Differences in Loyalty to Firms and Individual Service Providers.” Now while that clearly sounds like it has a lot to do with advocacy, it doesn’t exactly scream “Thermopylae,” the ancient battle site where the Greeks, 300 Spartans and their allies, held off masses of invading Persians in 480 BC. Or does it?
What our present authors have seemed to confirm here is something I’m told is called the “male warrior hypothesis,” which states that men are actually more loyal to groups, an orientation shaped by evolution to increase a tribe’s chances of survival. Well, if the suicidal battle of King Leonidas and 300 Spartans against some 800,000 invaders of Xerxes’ armies isn’t the most epic case of ultimate group loyalty I don’t know what is. Especially when it looks so amazingly cool and vibrant thanks to the magic of CG technology. I don’t know about you, but I know lots of guys who would be OK with this kind of loyalty “hypothesis.”
So what about the other half, all those Xenas out there? Are women not the equivalent of a Lucy Lawless warrior princess when it comes to their customer loyalty? Apparently not, according to the authors, because women’s loyalty tends to take a more personal and less tribal form. More specifically, they found that women are more loyal to individuals as opposed to the collective. This is something of a reversal, as the conventional wisdom has held that women are more loyal customers in general than men. And, therefore, better advocates in turn perhaps.
So who do marketers want on their side? A customer phalanx of men or women? Who is more likely to “die for” their favorite brand or company? The answer not surprisingly is that it all depends. It also may matter whether you consider brand loyalty to be more akin to sticking by an entire group vs. by the side of an individual. On this question the authors are silent (for now). But one thing is for sure. The research is yet another example of how if you simply assume the conventional wisdom about loyalty is right you can get it heroically wrong. Herodotus and Hollywood notwithstanding.
Thought I’d share another finding about advocacy from our study with the Economist Intelligence Unit - Risky Business: Reputations Online. This research snippet is about where Badvocacy meets Web 2.0.
Although global executives identify major media as the most threatening to company reputation (84%), plenty of executives (42%) recognize the damage new media can impose. Blogs and discussion forums are the most feared with online videos, comments on social networking sites, Wikipedia entries, and online pictures compounding potential destruction. Considering that fast-rising Web 2.0 new media and social networking tools can literally rally advocates and badvocates overnight, more executives should be concerned about new media as a reputation killer. Here’s how each of these rank in terms of global executive fear:
While the blog is considered the king of Web 2.0 badvocacy risk now, it will be interesting to see how the other technologies evolve as badvocacy threats.
