Weighing in on Jenny Craig's sponsorship faux pas
Weight loss brand Jenny Craig was publicly criticised last week for advertising on 2Day FM’s Kyle & Jackie O Show.
The brand misjudged the depth of the public’s opinion of shock jock Kyle Sandilands, who last year prompted an outcry for calling a News Limited journalist a “fat slag”.
The lack of research into this advertising opportunity with 2DayFM sparked a media backlash and offended a lot of people, including Jenny Craig customers. As a result, Jenny Craig backed out of the deal, acknowledging that Sandilands was not the right fit for their brand.
The lesson to be learnt here is to be strategic about who and what you associate your brand with and never underestimate the impact these associations can have on your brand’s reputation.
Here are some tips for sourcing quality sponsorship and advertising deals:
- 1. Research media outlets and ambassadors thoroughly, including recent and past activities and public perceptions
- 2. Ensure the values of your brand, ambassadors and the media outlet align
- 3. Analyse the risks associated with entering into the sponsorship or advertising contract – how could the deal backfire?
- 4. Prepare an action plan in case your brand’s reputation comes under threat
- 5. Monitor public perception and actions of the media outlet and ambassadors throughout the relationship to ensure your values continue to be in sync
Word up, OED style
A 2011 conversation…
A: “How was your weekend? What did you get up to?”
B: “I got totally trolleyed and I was hanging out with this group of onliners who would’ve got lots of good bloggable information about my bromance – totally TMI. What about you?”
A: “Well, TBH, prolly the most exciting thing I got up to was going out to nom nom on an awesome sammich.”
Ummm… what?
Have no idea what that was about? Well, then it’s time to school up! The Oxford English Dictionary added a heap of new words this year.
From common vernacular to the downright bastardised terms, what’s your take on these new words?
Bloggable
Adjective
Suitable or sufficiently interesting as a topic for a blog (e.g. “I started subscribing to the journal in the hope of finding bloggable material in there”)
Onliner
Noun
A person who is online; an Internet user (e.g. “How do you prevent altered ‘facts’ from being presented to young onliners as the gospel truth?”)
Trolleyed
Adjective
British term for being extremely drunk (e.g. “They decided to get really trolleyed to celebrate”)
Bromance
Noun
A close but non-sexual relationship between two men
TBH
Abbreviation
To be honest (e.g. "I don’t know how I feel about this, TBH")
Nom nom
Exclamation
Used to express pleasure at eating, or at the prospect of eating, delicious food (e.g. "Chilli and cornbread for dinner, nom nom!")
Sammich
Noun
A sandwich (e.g. "Jonesing for a pastrami sammich")
Prolly
Adverb
Probably (e.g. "You prolly know this already. I am prolly the last person he should be asking for advice")
TMI
Abbreviation
Too much information. Used to indicate that someone has revealed personal information of an embarrassing nature (e.g. "Each cough was having a rather disastrous effect on my bladder - sorry, TMI!")
Is the dictionary progressive or have we become language-lazy? What do you think?
*Source: Oxford Dictionaries
- Briar Standing, Senior Consultant
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QR coded animal graffiti unlocks music gems
I came across a very cool and creative QR code campaign from Hong Kong recently, and it just made me realise how much more potential there is within social media to really interact with the public. The campaign was developed by Leo Burnett Hong Kong to promote alternative music shop Zoo Records.
What’s a QR code?
QR stands for Quick Response and the codes can be read by smartphone cameras and are then transformed into data, like a website, a flyer or voucher.
It usually looks something like this:
Zoo Records campaign
QR codes, in the form of animals, were placed on buildings around the city, attracting the attention of curious by-passers.
People scanning the images were able to access information about the band, stream new music directly to their smartphones, buy any songs they liked and share it on their Facebook pages and other social media channels.
Outcome
The campaign became a platform for 14 Indie bands to promote their music and raise their profile in a market dominated by pop culture. The campaign saw very strong support from the public - from scanning of the QR ‘animals’ to talking about the campaign on personal blogs. Within one week, half of the bands had sold out of albums.
QR in marketing
QR codes are already being used for a whole range of marketing activities to create buzz around a brand and engage with target audiences. Real estate agents place QR codes on ‘for sale’ signs, so potential buyers can take a virtual tour of the house and access all relevant information.
As part of communikate et al’s current project with Para Vista Shopping Centre, QR codes are used on full page adverts to promote one of the Centre’s traders, Paper Flourish, and drive traffic to their website.
In a world where we are constantly bombarded with messages and adverts, I think this form of consumer engagement will become increasingly popular because it engages with us rather than just shout a message at us. Where traditional advertising sometimes fails to create curiosity, QR codes perform strongly – don’t you want to know what’s behind the funny looking square when you see one?
- Silvia Knoppien, Senior Consultant
0 commentsInterning... time to put study into practice
Working for communikate et al for almost two years as media monitor, it was time to learn more about the PR world, as I headed into my final stage of the Bachelor of Public Relations degree. This involved me embarking on a three month internship at communikate et al, learning and absorbing more about the exciting and always changing world of marketing communications.
With only a month to go, I can say it has been the most enjoyable part of the degree. Working in a consultancy provides such diversity, as you manage different clients and their needs, always with the notion of unpredictability as you never know how the day will unfold; there is never a moment to get bored or complacent. I’ve learnt that flexibility and the ability to multi-task are key skills to have when working in a public relations consultancy and they’re things the team has down pat.
The most interesting aspect of my intern experience at communikate et al was working as part of the Credit Union Christmas Pageant team, helping write media releases, contacting journalists, attending media calls, client meetings and photo shoots – all of which reinforces my skill set, as well as starting at 9am instead of my usual 7am start!
My pointers for other university graduates is be a sponge, absorb everything from those around you, ask plenty of questions and don’t be afraid of making mistakes or seeking opportunities. Without a doubt, this internship has provided me with an understanding of my strengths and weaknesses and skills to head into the real world.
In a nutshell, my intern experience has been brilliant one. I can’t speak more highly of the team at communikate et al - they are unique, friendly and inspiring. They are committed to achieving the best result for their clients, which can be shown through the remarkable results they achieve daily. The team has provided me with great hands on experience, with the opportunity to contribute where I can and achieve my goals and grow dramatically over the past three months.
Thanks a bunch communikate et al!
- Melanie Wellington, Media Monitor
0 commentsCulture club
In this information age, emails are regularly circulated around the communikate et al office sharing the latest news, information and ideas. One that recently caught my eye was Smart Company’s 25 Best Business Blogs in Australia, where I came across an inspiring blog: Culture is Everything. The blog is written by Tristan White, founder of The Physio Co, recently rated as one of Australia’s best places to work by BRW magazine.
Tristan shares his insights into what makes a workplace tick, how to promote effective leadership and getting the most out of your team. Some snippets of my favourite recent posts include:
Ideas
"Listening to new ideas is an absolute pleasure. Think about them, talk about them, learn to love them!"
Learning
"Nothing is more important. Growing businesses need growing people. The reason: if a business is to grow, the people within it all need to be continually learning, improving and growing."
Challenges
"One thing we did for the first time yesterday was to share the challenges that exist in our fast growing business with our physio team. Instead of protecting our physios from the people, financial and logistical issues that our leaders deal with every day, we asked for their help."
Here at communikate et al we are passionate about providing a happy, flexible and productive workplace for our staff, and are always on the lookout for ways to improve as the business shifts and grows. Tristan’s daily tips provide us with fresh, simple ideas, or may reinforce ideas we already have, and hopefully they can help your business too.
- Holly Sparrow, Business Support Manager
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