Giving things away has always been great marketing and I just saw another great example on Ellen DeGeneres’ mother’s day episode of her talk show. Ellen read a letter from a woman who said her sister is pregnant with twins and her husband just got laid off. The mother tried to get tickets for the show but couldn’t. Ellen then ran into the audience where the expectant mother and sister were sitting after having been given tickets. After interviewing them Ellen told the mother-to-be that some companies had heard her story had donated some things for her. Ellen then presented the woman with over $10,000 worth of baby products from companies who she named and whose logos were prominently displayed.
Great for the mother. Great for the companies. Great for Ellen.
Well, it’s great for the companies if they’re sincere. And that’s where social media comes in….
When companies give away things like this there is an unspoken assumption that “they care”. If it is revealed, through other things they’re doing, that they don’t care then they could deservedly face a PR nightmare. And in a connected world it is harder for companies to be nice in one place and nasty in another – and not have folks find out. And that’s good.
An excellent example of this is the Dove Evolution/Onslaught campaign put out by Unilever which also makes Axe. People accused Unilever of hypocrisy since the Dove campaign preached self-esteem to women while the Axe ads reduced them to man-hunting sex objects. Now, the thing about the online criticism is that some of it is very sophisticated and – just a Google away. While writing this post I wanted to include an example of the criticism, so I Googled “dove evolution axe uniliever” and got a website that not only clearly laid out the issues but also provided links to both Dove videos and an amazing parody of the Onslaught video. In fact, this parody is so intelligently done I am going to do my part to make it viral.
The lesson is the same: if you’re gonna be naked you better be buff.
Posted in Corporate giving, Video |
