Brands at Battle

There was a lot of talk about now net media is increasingly more important to brand, and in turn, a greater risk to the brand. These notes are a combo of some on-line listening (notably TWIT) but also some examples given at NAB.

Domino’s Pizza was faced with a fierce challenge to its brand after two dufus employees put their gross hijinks on YouTube. Response – CEO of Domino’s cuts his own YouTube video and meets the challenge on the same playing field.

It wasn’t that different from the KFC employee video, but the bump for Dominos vs. KFC was the rapid response. Of course, Domino’s had the advantage of looking at the slower effort by KFC and two other notable SNW brand events.

The Motrin Mommy-Gate results from a poorly researched attempt at hip internet humor with an advertisement pitched to mothers with infants. It backfired, and the first attempt by the company was to ignore, then later to offer a tepid apology. Here's a little background.

SeaWorld found itself facing a David Letterman gag that took off on YouTube over a weekend. Rather than calling for the take down, SeaWorld launched its own offensive to pump its positive message into the search engine world to counter.

What’s the bottom line through all – be prepared to meet the challenge in the format presented, and be aware of now Net Influencers impact the brand. These are consumers of the brand who actively share and forward info.

As one producer for a major on-line webcast pointed out, as brand managers “we are our own networks.”