Pepsi honours fans with posters made from live tweets and Nutella goes nuts

 29th May 2013    Good and Bad PR 

Great PR  
 

Pepsi honours IPL fans with posters created from their tweets
 

Even as news swirls on whether Pepsi will continue with their title sponsorship of IPL for the next five years, the company has come up with several innovative campaigns to leverage attention of fans on social media.

The latest #PepsiIPLLiveArt invites fans to send in witty tweets, the best were converted into posters which were also displayed during the telecast of matches.

Here is an example of one of the posters that was created live:

@TheBigBhookad's tweet was selected as the first #PepsiIPLLiveArt.

And here is the poster based on the tweet:

The rest of the art can be viewed here.

Mad over Donut comes up with ‘Keeler PR’ riding on tie up with zombie movie Go Goa Gone
 

Now this is a fun social media campaign. Doughnut maker Mad over Donuts has come up with a game and a contest to promote itself with a tie up with Go Goa Gone.

Watching the hilarious zombie movie gets you a free donut:

And playing this Zombie “Keeler” game till May 31st can win players free donuts and music CDs of Go Goa Gone

Interesting contest riding on a common young audience and a play on Saif Khan’s signature line, in an obviously fake Russian mafia styled drawl, from the movie: “I keel dead people!"

Let’s face it, shooting dead people in the middle of a workday is always fun!

Bad PR of the week
 

N Srinivasan steps aside as head of BCCI after generating miles of bad press for BCCI and cricket
 

N Srinivasan’s refusal to take responsibility and delaying his decision to quit as President of BCCI, has only prolonged  the post IPL 2013 agony for the beleaguered cricket board. Even now Srinivasan has only “stepped aside” till the enquiry is over and not quit outright.

The arrest of N Srinivasan’s son-in-law in the spot fixing scandal had triggered a crisis for BCCI, and now stubborn Srinivasan has refused to quit as head of BCCI. This along with the public sight of BCCI officials stopping the press from asking Indian cricket team captain any questions about the spot fixing at a press conference has only made matters worse.

Not only that, but the Economic Times has carried a lead story implying conflict of interest as Dhoni has bought a 15 per cent stake in sports management firm Rhiti Sports Management, that also looks after other cricketers such as Ravindra Jadega and Suresh Raina.

Bad press all around for BCCI, for cricket and ultimately for India as people increasingly connect corruption with Indians whether in the private or public sector.

Nutella goes nuts
 

A fan favourite this week was hazel nutty amber nectar Nutella, after parent company Ferrero ordered “super fan” Sara Rosso to cancel World Nutella Day, a celebratory day she established in 2007, held on February 5th every year.

Ferrero ordered Rosso to "cease and desist" from publishing anything with the Nutella name or logo on it, despite the event becoming popular with the public and having been as good as endorsed by Ferrero employees within PR/brand strategy in the recent past.

Here’s the message Rosso posted:

“On May 25, 2013, I'll be darkening the World Nutella Day site, nutelladay.com, and all social media presence (Facebook, Twitter); in compliance with a cease-and-desist I received from lawyers representing Ferrero, SpA.

“The cease-and-desist letter was a bit of a surprise and a disappointment, as over the years I've had contact and positive experiences with several employees of Ferrero, SpA., and with its public relations and brand strategy consultants, and I’ve always tried to collaborate and work together in the spirit and goodwill of a fan-run celebration of a spread I (to this day) still eat.”

After a bit of a backlash online (isn’t there always?), loudly highlighting the odd turnaround by Ferrero, there was, after a couple of days, a positive solution. Rosso posted the following “to all World Nutella Day Fans“, along with a few Q and As' (all here):

“I’m relieved to say there’s been a positive resolution to the situation. Ferrero employees reached out to me directly after I had posted my fan letter online and sent my formal reply to their C&D. They were very gracious and supportive and we were able to have a productive discussion about World Nutella Day living on for the fans, which is the whole point.

“I believe they were truly interested in resolving the situation in a way that preserved the spirit of the fan-run holiday. I’m satisfied with the turn of events, and I hope to celebrate many more World Nutella Days with you. See you on February 5th!”

So, it looks like it COULD be back on next year.

Brands just don’t “own” their reputations in the same way they might have once believed they did. To try to control it with heavy-handed litigation in this social day and age, especially when the focus of their ire is an unofficial yet positive, promotional campaign, just smacks of men in suits losing touch with marketing.

Thanks to Bulletin PR’s Rob Tomkinson and NDPB’s Sara Nelson for tweeting with this.

Have you seen any great or even bad PR?
 

Contact Paarul Chand by emailing paarul@prmoment.in or tweet @PaarulC or @PRmomentIndia throughout the week and we’ll happily credit you for your trouble.