Last week, McDonald’s came under a great deal of fire for airing a radio ad which claimed that trying one of their new menu items was less risky than, among other things, petting a stray Pit Bull:

Knowing that KolbeCo is an office full of dog lovers (and as a disclaimer, yes, we do have Pit Bulls who are a bunch of the most friendly, loving dogs I know), some of our staff immediately began receiving calls and emails from friends outraged by the ad. Although most hadn’t heard it firsthand, rumors of it were all over the internet and social media. KolbeCo Art Director and Stray Rescue of St. Louis Foster Parent Erin Celuch was on the case, working to find out if the rumored ad was truly out there, and to find a copy of it. In the meantime, outrage was building among rescue groups, Pit Bull owners, and dog advocacy groups.

While we certainly have our opinions about the ad itself, I’d like to focus on why this created such a PR firestorm for McDonald’s:

1. Research (and not a lot of it) would have uncovered that there are legions of people out there who are passionate about Pit Bulls and rescue dogs in general. The attempt at humor alienated a sizable audience.
2. These groups tend to be connected on social media – and are very active. Once the nerve was touched, anti-McDonald’s campaigns quickly mobilized.
3. The claim of menu items not being “risky” gave folks even more fodder.  Hello, McDonald’s, you’re not exactly known for your healthy food. Not only were the dog advocacy folks decrying the portrayal of Pit Bulls, they began digging up and sharing articles about people dying and suffering health problems due to eating their food.

November 7^th 2011 started a new chapter in my life – a “real job.” After 18 years of being a stay at home mom with two kids, one in high school and one in college, who now only see me  as an ATM and a pain in the butt, I decided that it was time for me to go back to work.

I knew that this was going to be a big adjustment for me, and I also wondered how the transition would be for me. I was always used to the chaos of kids, homework, sports, trips to the store for that project my son forgot about, AGAIN. The last piece of an outfit my daughter had to have or she would look like a total dork and everyone at school will laugh at her, (teenage girls’ melt-downs are not fun or pretty to watch.)

As I arrive to work my first day I am warmly welcomed by not only by my two legged friends but my new and wonderful four legged friends. When Danieal told me that KolbeCo was a pet friendly environment, she was not kidding! I had to count twice just make sure I got the total right – yup, there are six dogs here, sometimes more when we have fosters! What’s awesome is that they don’t talk back to me and ask me for money. What’s even funnier is that they are actually better behaved and quieter than my own kids. I’m really going to like my job!

Question: So what happens when you have a culture at KolbeCo that really embraces helping dogs in need?

Answer: People ask for help when their dogs are lost.

A friend of ours called Saturday afternoon, very worried because his son had lost his dog, Bailey, at nearby Quail Ridge Park in Wentzville. Knowing how involved we are with dog and rescue groups, he asked: “Can you help?”  I immediately said that we would, and asked what he would like us to do.  He asked if we could share a picture and his phone number with our dog friends.

We knew where to take this request – social media.

We uploaded the picture in this post and started sharing it on some private and public Facebook Dog Rescue Groups, as well as our own Facebook profiles. We also put out some pleas for help on Twitter.

Within a couple hours the picture had been shared at over 50 sites and profiles in the St. Louis metro area. As of Saturday at 5 PM we had people searching the area.

Most of the people we have never met, but they saw the pleas and were concerned about this lost dog, and set out to help find poor Bailey. By Sunday morning, I received a message on Facebook from someone that I went to high school with. She had seen Bailey in her neighborhood! Around noon Sunday, we received the call we had all been waiting for – Bailey was home! Our friend was very thankful to us, and grateful to our amazing network of dog loving friends. Well, at KolbeCo we do have some amazing social media friends, but we also know how to get the message out quickly through social media.

So the job was not over yet. We then went back to everyone that helped us spread the word and thanked them for their help. We had to let them know that Bailey had been found. We all celebrated together, online, at the very happy ending for for a dog that wandered over 4 miles away.

The St. Louis Rams are once again fishing for a head coach and there is no bigger catch than former Tennessee Titans coach Jeff Fisher. (pun intended) The woeful Rams have been playing their cards correctly up to this point, being described by nearly every media outlet as the favorite to land the coveted coach.

Everything seemed to be falling into place, the stars were coming into alignment….but then.…da da daaa Yahoo Sports reported that Fisher was leaning towards the Miami Dolphins! And even worse, he wasn’t sold on franchise quarterback Sam Bradford. You could almost hear the red alert being issued at Rams Park.

The ensuing buzz of media chatter was deafening and suddenly Fisher was holding all the cards in this high stakes game. But how did this all happen? Things were looking up for our Rams!

There are only two words to describe what happened, public relations. It seems that the crafty old coach was able to flip the script on the Rams by utilizing a trusted “confidant” at Yahoo. In the end, it came down to Fisher leveraging a key media relationship.

As of today, it appears that Fisher will be promised the moon and the stars, not to mention a mega coaching contract, from not one but two teams. That is the power of PR and its ability to change the entire conversation. It will be interesting to see how the Rams respond. Will they also be able change public opinion by pulling an ace out of their own sleeve?

Only time will tell. Go Rams!

My train of thought was directed to Facebook for my blog this time around. It always amazes me that many of us don’t utilize the space we are given when setting up our images on our Facebook pages, and now that there is ANOTHER “new Facebook layout” (the timeline) lurking around the corner I want to take the opportunity to remind you business savvy people to prepare yourself on the front end this time and use that space to your advantage!

The new upcoming “cover image” on your Facebook page is a decent sized space for you to utilize whether it be advertising a special, getting out contact information, or telling a visual story about you or your business. You can manipulate a picture, or you can create a custom page sized to 850px by 315px pixels and create some pretty cool messaging ideas. You can get some great ideas from Mashable here. Carpe diem!

Rarely does a night go by that I don’t lie in bed, staring at my iPhone. It used to be Twitter that had my heart, but recently I’ve been pretty obsessed with Pinterest.

Pinterest is virtual bulletin boards where you can collect the things you love. Imagine if you had unlimited virtual cork boards separated by theme like style, home, food, anything really – and over time you could collect and “pin” items to these boards as you came across them on the internet. That is Pinterest.

Not only can you “pin” items you find or create, you can follow others and “repin” their items as well. Have a friend who has great personal style? Follow her boards. Covet someone’s interior design sense? Follow their boards and learn about their inspiration and aesthetic.

Pinterest obviously has some great business applications; everyone from wedding consultants to interior designers and photographers have boards where they pin their creations and allow others to repin them, socially spreading their goods.

And if all this great stuff wasn’t enough, I found a recipe for mini-lasagnas via Pinterest…if that isn’t motivation, I don’t know what is.

Follow me on Pinterest here.

Domain Names & Protecting Your Brand

This recent case is interesting. French fashion giant, Chanel sued a company that was selling counterfeit knock-offs of their high-end products and the judge penalized the counterfeiters in a unique way.

Ultimately, in this case someone is trying to leach onto an established brand. The folks at Chanel recognize how powerful their brand is and rightfully chose to protect it. What is very interesting is that the judge ruled that mainstream social media platforms and search engines must de-index the counterfeit sites. This is the part that I found very surprising about the case. When I asked local attorneys their opinion – they said this is a pretty bold step for a judge. What possible implications could this have for marketers? Based on this case, a judge could potentially ask someone to change their domain name because it is too close to an established brand.  Maybe next time you are coming up with a brand, focus on becoming the next Pappy’s (St. Louis reference) and not McDowell’s (Coming to America Movie Reference).

So, what does this all mean to the small business owner or VP of Marketing? It means do the right thing and build your own brand. While you may be able to beat the system for a period of time, in the end building your own brand with its own story is the only thing that will be sustainable. Trying to leverage another brand will just get you in court or out of business.

If you want to sell perfume could you appeal to someone that would like Chanel but couldn’t afford it? Sure. What emotion could you play into from a product and positioning perspective that might make someone feel better about a unique product? Could you give $1 from each sale to a cause? Would that have more impact than counterfeiting a product?

The folks leveraging the Chanel brand – instead of taking the “easy” way out when it comes to launching a website – think about how you can be different and not a rip-off product. All of that energy could have been put to good use instead of being shut down.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/11/us-judge-orders-hundreds-of-sites-de-indexed-from-google-twitter-bing-facebook.ars