Good and Bad PR: No Scotland, no party, Elon Musk, Mondelēz & Starbucks tanks

Off we go again and what an action packed week it has been once again. The World Cup has given us everything a PR could wish for so far. Fun, political drama, reactive opps and some actual football (soccer). Let’s gooooo, as they say in America.

Scotland leads the way in World Cup popularity

Scotland has become even more of a global sensation thanks to their fans positive interactions with the residents of Boston. From 6am bag pipe sessions in residential areas, to drinking bars dry across the city, right through to popping traffic cones on the top of all the city statues, the media is loving it. It is presenting McReactive opportunities too, with a McDonalds in Scotland announcing that they will be showing the next game in their restaurant. 

Back over to Boston, and the Scottish fans are even giving the Japanese fans a run for their money when it comes to tidying up after themselves. A park groundskeeper in Boston was amazed to see the clean state of the ground after a Scottish party.

It’s all good fun. Isn’t it? Call me cynical but I think this secretly sits on a knife edge. As an OG member of the Barr family (sadly, not connected to those ones) I know that it could all so quickly fall apart. There have already been a few glimpses. A video of a Scot demonstrating that he could headbutt a punching machine game harder than the locals could hit it, tells you all you need to know… the video went viral.

One bad result, one wee in the wrong bush and the media could turn. For now though, let’s all bask in the “No Scotland No Party” atmosphere which I am 100% loving.

First Good PR of the week: Scotland and its fans.

Love him or loathe him, Musk is a financial powerhouse

SpaceX rocketing above Amazon to become the fifth largest company in the world has taken many by surprise. The brand became the biggest public listing in NASDAQ’s history with an initial share price rise of a staggering 50%.

You can see the begrudging respect for Musk in the associated news stories and dare I say, he is mellowing a bit in his old age. Old Musk would have boomed and bragged in his usual bullish style, but this time around, he seems quite muted. Could it be that all the legal battles around his rogue X’ing (tweeting) have maybe taught him a lesson. Or, is just that SpaceX is so big that he was kept well away from any media on the run up.

If it was a strategic comms decision to keep him in the wings, I salute the PR professional who came up with the idea. 

Good PR for SpaceX and Musk.

Mondelēz tries and fails to dodge a Bad PR bullet

Towards the end of last week a BBC interview with Mondelēz Chief Exec hit the headlines as the brand was held to account for continuing to operate in Russia. Try as he might, the Chief Exec could not, quite rightly, duck and dive out of the awkward questions.

He went with the reasoning that they didn’t want to put people out of work, and also potentially lose their assets to the Russian government. He reinforced that they had stopped all investment in their factories over there, and also halted all marketing.

The crisis comms training didn’t work, and the global media wrote about the story. Mondelēz then tried a different tactic, but dare I say, it was too soon and was rightly outed for being a distraction tactic. The chocolate giant released a report outlining its thoughts on why its healthier snack products were struggling, and laid the blame firmly at the feet of the muggles for not choosing to eat them. I wonder how much is spent marketing its healthier snacks versus is chocolately goodness?

Bad PR for Mondelēz for remaining in Russia, and for also thinking no one would work out what they were up to with its distraction campaign.

Starbucks tanks in Korea, thanks to ill-thought-out campaign

Not since Ford and its full-beam saga in China, has a global brand got a campaign so wrong as Starbucks just has.

It launched a campaign in South Korea called “Tank” on the anniversary of a 1980 massacre in the country and it is safe to say, that was a mistake. The consequence, the brand has shut every one of its stores in the country for one day so the staff can receive training on the history of the region. This will also include the head of Starbucks Korea.

The store closures is said to be costing the brand $1.4m in lost revenue and that is without the repair costs from having their outlets smashed up in revenge attacks.

Starbucks Korea is essentially a franchise/licensed business from the main brand in America, and you can bet your bottom dollar that the Seattle HQ is furious. Still, they licensed the brand and took the money without doing, it would seem, enough checks.

Small businesses are calling out influencers in the best way

The influencer game is a tricky one. I will admit to having had my fair share of WTAF moments when looking at the fee that a micro-influencer wants to charge a client for an over-polished 30 second clip.

Small businesses in the food, leisure and entertainment industry have clearly had enough. There is a growing trend of small brands posting clips of their team members eating the products, with the text over the top saying: “An influencer wanted to charge us £xk for promoting our product, so here is X name eating our product instead”.

The videos always make me smile, and now these stories are starting to gain traction with the mainstream media, as every few days a new article comes out talking about this happening. It is about time the pouty-influencer-crew calmed down. Great PR for the indy brands using this content.