Will the YouTube Video Destroy Domino's Brand?

Larry Green, Corporate Web Director at Landor, wrote an interesting blog article, "You got three minutes...to destroy your brand" about the recent YouTube video posted by disgruntled Domino's Pizza employees.

He identifies some good points that companies should consider.

But I think he overstates things when he says about destroying your brand in three minutes.

I agree with the concept that it takes a long time to build a reputation, but it can take a short time to destroy it.

However, I think in this incident, customers will blame the employees, not the company. But that doesn't mean that some people now will think twice before ordering from Domino's. Look, people went back to Jack in the Box after the E. coli outbreak -- some reports claim the company turned the scandal into an advantage.

Domino's has that opportunity now. But one lesson is for companies that choose to ignore social media because they don't understand it or don't like the lack of established metrics: You've got to monitor social media and participate in social media to give you the tools and context to address a potential online crisis.

"Blue Book of Advertising" Has Some Good Ideas for PR

While the media & PR worlds are changing, The Little Blue Book of Advertising: 52 Small Ideas That Can Make a Big Difference provides some useful insight and tips -- whether you work in PR or advertising.

Written by agency veterans by Steve Lance & Jeff Woll, some of the ideas are not new for those who have been in the agency business for a while, but too often people forget them, like:

• Be expert on the benefits of your client's product or service.
• Know who your customers are.
• Read what your customers reads, watch what they watch.
• Quality is the absence of non/quality signals )like misspellings."
• Attention spans will get shorter. Need to make the point/message shorter.
  

There are some good points on branding:

• Know where you want to take the brand.
• Map a clear route of how you'll take your brand to the destination.
  = make sure to communicate that map.
  = establish benchmarks against which progress will be made.
  =establish measures w/client/agency.
  = agree how to resolve issues.
  = establish criteria w/client.

The book is a quick read, and worth picking up as a refresher.

New study finds that fast-forwarding past ads still raise brand awareness

A new study published in the Journal of Marketing by two Boston College business school professors found that people actually may pay closer attention when zapping past commercials on TiVo -- if only to look out for the end of the commercial so they don't miss the continuation of the program they were watching.

What's more, the researchers found that commercials designed for brand awareness -- including a logo, and simple info/storyline -- could be quite effective.

Check out The Economist article: Watching the watchers: Television advertisements can work in fast-forward.

The challenge for advertisers is that while they need to keep fast-forwarding in mind, they can't make every ad a brand awareness ad. They've also got to sell products.

Perhaps that's good news for PR functions.