Mon dieu! Someone should have reminded the French national soccer team about the old maxim: don’t air your dirty laundry in public. The team is in complete disarray at the 2010 World Cup as players and coaches feud publicly over the poor performance and underachievement of one of the world’s most talented squads. Former players and current politicians have waded in, advertisers and sponsors have pulled out. Ooh la la.

It’s all a good reminder of what mother used to say: if you don’t have anything nice to day, zip it. (Or words to that effect.) It’s also a good example of how a lack of public relations skill can inflict terrible damage on individuals, a team with a noble tradition, and legions of fans around the world.

Good branding requires companies to tell a good story. And the sign of a good story is when others start retelling it for you.

That’s what we’re attempting to do for Keystone Processors Ltd. It’s a new beef plant in Winnipeg. For now, it’s selling beef solely within the province, but it has big plans to reach premium niche markets internationally.

So what? Well, Keystone Processors is the first new beef plant in Manitoba in a generation and it also happens to be owned by Manitoba farmers. When the US shut its border to Canadian beef in 2003, Canada’s beef plants in Alberta and Ontario were swamped with local livestock. With no access to local plants, Manitoba cattle farmers were devastated. A handful of them recognized they had to change the way they did business. So they united behind a vision of marketing a new brand of Manitoba beef to the world - and to own every stage of production from farm to distribution, gate to plate.

Instead of rewarding massive multinational companies, profits will go to farmers - many of them running farms that have been in their families for generations. At the same time, the new plant could mark a turning point in the Manitoba food processing sector too, which has been shrinking in recent years.

We raise great beef here. That shouldn’t be any surprise with our clean air, wide open spaces and history of agricultural leadership. And we want Manitobans to be proud of the company and the farmers behind it.

The company has come a long way in just a few short years. Thanks to dogged determination and countless hours of hard work, the farmers’ dreams of a brighter future are becoming reality. In fact, just last week, the plant received major new funding from the federal government and the Manitoba Cattle Enhancement Council.

For our part, we’ve begun telling this remarkable story wherever we can. We’ve had considerable success with media relations across Manitoba and in agricultural media across the country. Several international publications have also started following the company’s progress. These efforts are crucial as the company has to build its brand outside of our borders, but advertising is cost prohibitive to reach all the jurisdictions they need.

We’ve also been repeating the story locally, because we need Manitobans to buy in to the Keystone Processors success story first. To do this, we’ve been building a successful Facebook fan page, blogging and Tweeting all about the company. We’ve also run some small advertising campaigns, which we expect to ramp up in the months to come.

Early results have been encouraging. On a limited budget we’ve seen growth in Facebook fans, Twitter followers and, more importantly, traffic into the Keystone Processors’ online and real store to buy premium Manitoba beef.

That’s when you know the story is working: when people are buying.

Like most public relations firms, we’ve been incorporating social media into campaigns for a while now. Blogging is a great way to differentiate corporate websites (as long as it fits your objectives and your culture).

We’ve also been experimenting with social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. One example of our work in this area is with Keystone Processors here in Manitoba. We’ve recently established a Facebook fan page for the company and will soon begin a test-run advertising campaign on the social network to gain a larger local Winnipeg and Manitoba audience. Meanwhile, we’ve also been helping with a Twitter feed (@MBBeef).

Slowly, but surely, our audiences are growing. The more work we do integrating blogs, social networks and our other PR and marketing activities, the more  success I predict we’ll have.

Throughout this, we remained focused on delivering timely, useful and interesting information for our audiences… which is the best way to find an audience in the first place.

A video showed up on YouTube this week that’s a prime example of how one unhappy customer can create a commotion like never before. United Breaks Guitars illustrates how important it is for companies to realize new media is giving average customers very powerful voices.

As the story goes Dave Carroll and his band, Sons of Maxwell, were on a flight from Halifax to Nebraska. During the connection in Chicago the band watched through the plane’s windows as luggage handlers threw around his guitar case containing his $3,500 Taylor guitar. Once he arrived in Omaha and claimed his luggage he was not surprised to find his guitar broken – so began his nine month fight with the airline for compensation.

After it was explained in no uncertain terms there was nothing UA could do, Dave Carroll made the last person he talked to at the airline a promise. He said he would write and produce three songs about his experience with UA and make videos for each to be viewed online by anyone in the world. His goal is to reach 1 million views within the first year. This is the first installation in the trilogy and has already been viewed almost 500,000 times in the first 48 hours. These views are followed by almost 5,000 comments describing bad experiences with UA and other short messages of support to continue the good fight.

We have all been in this position – we are unhappy with the way we are being treated but feel helpless. Even if we do boycott the giant company in question our few dollars don’t impact its bottom line, therefore they don’t seem to care. But with the advent of new media websites designed to disseminate user-generated content to the masses quickly and freely it is now possible for any unhappy customer to cause a stir forcing a company to pay attention.

As a PR consultant and a consumer, I understand both sides of the story. As much as I am glad individuals have a tool like YouTube to tell their stories, I feel for companies that are unprepared to deal with this new form of unhappy consumers. Companies need to realize that the days of ignoring a complaint because it is just one person is over, those late in realizing this are more likely to become victims of crusades like the one Carroll is on.

The phenomenon is called a swarm and it is a  scary prospect for many companies who fear they’ll fall victim to this sort of attack. But on the other side of great adversity there is also great opportunity. The rule of thumb is to engage your complaining customers urgently, sincerely and in the medium they’re using. Apologize for transgressions if there are any and make amends quickly and professionally. If the complaint demands a new way of business for you and your industry, and if it makes sense, why not consider becoming an industry leader? Be the first to tackle the issue. For UA, can the company forge a better policy to deal with damaged luggage? By responding in the appropriate manner to Carroll’s complaint UA may even be able to win over the many other dissatisfied customers who have logged comments in support of the anti-UA effort.

As media changes and evolves, the rules of PR change as well. Companies need to know what is happening with their brands at all times. Just as the assaults are getting more imaginative the responses must be as equally as inspired to win over a very fickle public that loves to see someone sticking it to the man.

For companies, brands, organizations and people that ever doubted the value of social media as a powerful means of communication, the events of the last week in Iran must be an eye opening experience. Since the Iranian government has expelled almost all foreign correspondents the only news getting out of the country is being sent via social networks, namely Twitter.

What makes this particular situation different is that the content being shared on social networks is not remaining just on the social networks. Images and videos from inside Iran are being broadcast on television channels around the world – from CNN, to the BBC, to CBC.

The world is seeing the Iranian situation through the eyes of the Iranians. The news is coming from people living the event, not just reporting on it. This new free way to share information instantly around the world is forcing the Iranian government that has been accused of illegitimate actions in the past, to take notice and tread a little more carefully (witness the call for a review of some election returns by the clerics who run things there).
Some people and news outlets have called this the tipping point for Iran. Many feel that if ever Iran was going to throw off the cloak of old world thinking and reenter the world stage as a positive contributor that time is now.

Recent movements for positive change - the falling of the Berlin wall, the solidarity movement in Poland, the end of apartheid - have all come by way of people coming together, joining in the fight for change and slowly gaining the upper hand. It took communication; it took people understanding and drawing strength from their neighbours. With new technologies that enable anyone, anywhere in the world to instantly share their experiences through photos, videos or even their own voice, these movements now have the ability to do in days what used to take years.

It is hard to imagine this happening so quickly had it not been for Twitter, the killer social network with the silly name. Almost over night, a world that looked down on Iran has come to hope for it, to hope for its people. Some say that this could have all been possible without social media and they are right. Major change has happened many other times in our history without social media. However, a big contributor to the movement in Iran gaining momentum so quickly is because the people inside the country did not feel alone, they knew their messages were and are getting out and the people of the world are listening.

Many people are calling social networks a trend, and some aspects of it are trendy. There will always be a newer, hipper social network to be a part of, but social networks will always be there. The opportunities for communication that new media affords the world are just to great to ignore.

If you’re unsure how new media and social networks can benefit your business or organization, give Adam Dooley a call at 204-291-4092. We’d love to sit down and have a cup of coffee with you to discuss the potential.

In my book, good communications is vital to sound decision making in business. Trying to separate  business management from corporate communications and public relations is like a surgeon removing a vital organ without caring to find a replacement. It kills companies as surely as a botched transplant will kill a patient. And like incompetent doctors, CEOs and other executives that continue to lead their companies without regard to how they communicate their strategies and actions deserve to be fired… immediately.

Take AIG for a particularly egregious example.  Over the past few days, the company has been pilloried for its decision to pay out $165 million in bonuses to employees despite the fact the company is currently on life support thanks to taxpayer-funded bailouts. Compounding this incredibly wrong-headed move is that some of the bonuses apparently went to the derivatives traders who almost single-handedly reduced the former insurance heavyweight to a welfare case.

Anyone with an instinct for public relations strategy could tell you that the decision to pay the bonuses was a bad one. Anybody with an understanding of how corporations need to interact and communicate with people today would have instantly recognized the folly of proceeding with the payouts. If something smells this badly from a communications perspective, it’s almost always a bad business decision.

Good businesses act with integrity. When good businesses  speak, they do so honestly with a view to enhancing their reputations. What good businesses do in the face of difficult circumstances reveals the character of their management teams.

If AIG were a good business with a good management team it would have found another way.

This isn’t a matter of upholding contracts. Insurance companies routinely challenge policies on flimsier grounds than congress is currently challenging these bonuses. It’s a matter of doing what’s right and managing the business for the many (the shareholders, the customers and the employees), not just for the privileged few.

I think AIG’s true character has been revealed. Time to break up the company and let someone else run the show.

There was good news for fans of quality, locally-produced food and supporters of the Manitoba cattle industry earlier this week: Keystone Processors Ltd. opened its doors and announced it was shipping Manitoba-raised beef to local stores.

Dooley Communications organized an official “tenderloin cutting” ceremony (in lieu of a ribbon) that generated a significant amount of publicity. Media covering the event included: Winnipeg Free Press, Winnipeg Sun (I love that print reporters make video now), CBC English TV, CBC French TV, CTV Winnipeg, CKX Brandon, CITY TV Winnipeg, Global Winnipeg and the Manitoba Cooperator. The story was picked up by a number of other print and radio outlets across the province.

So why is a new beef packing plant a big deal? Well, if you’re a fan of high quality, locally-produced food, then you’ll be pleased to learn that Keystone Processors is planning on launching a new premium-quality brand of aged, Manitoba-raised beef this spring. It’s difficult to find premium, aged beef as it is and nearly impossible to find Manitoba-raised products.

But more important is the potential impact the plant could have on the provincial cattle industry. The company plans to make this the first sizable, federally-inspected beef packing plant opened in this province in a generation. That federal licence is needed to sell to national retailers and to export our beef products to the world, including fast growing markets in Asia (where forecasters are predicting most food demand growth will be in the next 50 years).

It also marks the start of the creation of a Manitoba brand of beef. Keystone Processors has an opportunity to capitalize on consumers’ demand for high quality, premium products.

Having a local plant will also be a great benefit to local cattle producers who currently are forced to truck their animals across the continent (Alberta, Ontario or into the U.S.) to get them to market. Once Keystone Processors ramps up its operation, there’ll be another local option that will create more competition among buyers of cattle and one that will save local cattle producers significant transportation costs.

Dooley Communications is working with Keystone Processors on its branding and public relations efforts. Stay tuned. We cooking up some good things together.

I remember eating Campbell’s Soup when I was a kid. It was a staple of the North American diet. And while I didn’t really believe that the soups were ‘M’m! M’m! Good’, at least the company’s old commercials left me feeling pretty good about the brand.

But now the latest batch of Campbell’s Soup commercials have gone and destroyed that artifice. It turns out Campbell’s Soup was not only not ‘M’m! M’m! Good’, but it was also downright bad for us. I know this because the company is telling me so.

Say that again? Your rebranding campaign, which attempts to persuade us that your soups have less sodium and better ingredients, starts out by essentially saying the product has been awful for all these years. So bad, that employees won’t even buy it. One commercial shows an employee buried up to his torso in salt to illustrate how much salt has been removed from the soup. Another recent one showcased an employee who refused to serve Campbell’s Soup to her family. Who approved these ads?

Apparently, the campaign was partly a reaction to an internal survey of employees. Moya Brown, director of marketing at Campbell Canada (I guess she’s the one. Sorry that crack, Moya.), told Strategy Magazine they were startled by the results of the survey: “Quite a few of our employees had health concerns about our products. That was a real eye-opener for us, and a huge impetus for change.”

While I agree that should have led a charge for change, this campaign takes that information and uses it to ill effect. I would have called for the company to re-jig the recipes and rebrand too. But just because you’re making something ‘better’ doesn’t mean you have to say what came before was garbage! I also would have embarked on a major internal corporate communications push to let employees know their views were heard and changes were coming as a result. (Perhaps they did, I don’t know.)

The company could have had a campaign that built on the legacy of what was a very strong brand. But the campaign the company chose to follow has, in my opinion, done serious damage to the brand. It gives the new low sodium soups a position of weakness compared to their competitors. And entering a cutthroat competition from a position of weakness isn’t a good strategy.

And to add insult to injury, the company reported a 15 per cent drop in profit this week. Among the reasons cited for the decline was increased advertising costs.

Cross-posted from snoo.ws…

The pace of technological change on the World Wide Web has been absolutely breathtaking over the past few years. Our new ability to share art, design and ideas through all kinds of media also has the potential to let consumers the world over break free of mass produced sameness.

We’re living in an age where average computer users can create just about anything from their own jeans to cars, mugs to movies. Writing in The Business Times, Dr. Sivam Krish said this week that for the first time since our grandparents’ generation we can again have personalized and unique products en masse. He should know. As the founder of Genometri, his company is offering customers the chance to design and produce their own t-shirts, picture frames and other keepsakes.

I agree with him. In the last few months, snoo.ws has written about a large number of companies that are latching on to the ease of new technologies and our basic human desire to express our own uniqueness (or at least feel as though we are).

Toyota is letting its customers influence the design of its Scion models; CafePress lets us design t-shirts, mugs and just about everything else; RYZ is generating buzz in fashion circles with its UGC shoes; and we have all seen countless options for customizing avatars, the epitome of online self-expression.

Left to themselves, these user-generated content companies may have been able to carve out small niches somewhere in the great Web cloud. But they’re not alone. Thanks to the proliferation of social networks, many of these companies are expanding quickly as word of them is passed from friend to friend.

This week’s announcement of a partnership between CafePress and Sellit is an example of how the technology is spreading. Using embeddable widgets, the companies are offering users the opportunity to set up virtual ‘franchise’ locations across social networks. A lot of what’s on offer may only be trinkets and t-shirts today, but I believe it won’t be long before the trend spreads far and wide into new industries, irrevocably changing each business model as it does.

For the last few generations, only the very rich could afford such personalization in what they purchased, wore drove or sat on. Soon, I expect we’ll all be able to get that [fill in your choice of product here] in just the right colour, size and shape delivered right to our doors… just the way we designed it ourselves.

If you haven’t already, check out the blog we’re editing and writing on social media and user-generated content: snoo.ws.

The snoo.ws is a project of Dooley Communications client ICUC Moderation Services, one of the busiest online content  moderation companies in the world. We’re happy to provide our editorial and communications services for this daily news blog. We’re also working with ICUC on a number of other projects to build its business actively through social media, media relations and via speaking engagements.

But why is snoo.ws a cool project? Why does it make sense to do? Because over time the snoo.ws will demonstrate ICUC’s expertise in this field. They are really leading the pack in social media moderation - discussion forums, video, photos, text to screen, etc. - and this blog will help them cement that reputation. It also gives them an opportunity to reach out and connect with people in marketing and public relations fields who are tapping into user-generated content initiatives to drive market share and brand value for their organizations and their clients.

This is PR 101 for the 21st century.