Certain of my friends have been asking me for input about the Wal-Mart/Edelman thing, since I consulted to Edelman last year as they were developing their Word of Mouth Marketing capacity (no, I never advised on the Wal-Mart account!).
I'd like to offer my perspective by giving Edelman a report card for this campaign. Some people might be surprised at my grade: B+. Yep, that's right, they get a B plus from me. Because unlike most of the other agencies, they are 88% of the way toward figuring out how to help play in the new many-to-many reality of the Internet. And an 88% is a B+.
One of the recommendations I make to companies trying to jump-start their Word of Mouth Marketing is to find enthusiasts who are out there loving the brand and "help them out". Sponsor them, feature them on your website, give them free product. Reward those who love you. Boost your boosters. And then -- make a big deal out of the fact that you have rewarded them. This is the honest way, of course, which is the only appropriate way, but it's also just good PR. When is it ever bad to say you appreciate your best customers?
So, Edelman helped Wal-Mart do the first part by sponsoring the trip. They purposely neglected (or forgot about - I have no idea) the second part -- announcing the sponsorship. Shame on them for that. That was a grave error - you've heard me say here before that I don't like dishonest marketing. Employees at Edelman have been told over and over again by the social media experts they've hired about the importance of disclosure, the end of secrets, and the potential firestorm of negative word of mouth. Lots of us are saying "I told you so" right now.
So, they should have known better, especially with all the WalMart haters out there (in fact, I've often said that a basic principle of Word of Mouth Marketing is that you need to be certain you have a good product, because you don't want to accidentally fire up negative word of mouth). Even doing a Word of Mouth campaign for a brand with bad word of mouth is a risk that Edelman should have known to warn their client about. Hopefully they managed Wal-Mart's expectations up front.
But can we take a minute to look at all the pieces they've done right? Because it's been really hard just to get them to that point, and nobody learns without making mistakes. Does the blogosphere really want to discourage all the corporations that are trying to be innovative and learn to leverage the web? I hope not. We depend on them, folks, don't forget that. We all depend on big business investing in the Internet. Please let's not scare them away!
Edelman Report Card
- Recognizing that online PR work must be many-to-many - A
- Innovation in Public Relations and "putting themselves out there" - A
- Starting a fan club community for a client - A
- Proposing to sponsor "the little guy" - A
- Spreading the word that Wal-Mart has RV hookups - A
- Recognizing that social media demands transparency - F
- Pulling the plug when things went south - A
- Starting a huge online conversation about their client - A
- Making their brand number one search term on Technorati - A
- Issuing a mea culpa from the CEO within days - A
Personally, I would recommend not giving up at this point. In fact, now's a great time to run a sweepstakes inviting a real family to document a cross-country RV Wal-Mart tour, and paying all the winner's expenses. And, while you're at it, engage Wal-Mart's detractors, learn from them, and change. Make lemonade!
One more thing: I give WalMart an A for taking the risk and hiring Edelman to do something this innovative in the first place. I find that pretty darn impressive. I'm not trying to be a corporate apologist here. You know I'm the first to bash when bashing is deserved.
Am I biased? Sure. I worked at Edelman, I've talked with Richard, and take it from me, he gets it. Think what a hard task he has in front of him. Imagine completely retraining 5,000 employees -- from an industry that for decades has been rewarded by their clients for manipulating the media. That's a major challenge. Should he fire them all and hire people right out of college who already know that the web has changed everything, or should he take up the charge to retrain industry professionals so they can keep their jobs?
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