In this episode of PRobecast, Tony Sapienza, Renatta Siewert, Sam Friedman and Justin Martell join me in talking about Ford’s and Chrysler’s misleading advertising, the Blackberry outage and Bank of American’s new charges.

Ford’s and Chrysler’s Misleading Advertising Campaigns – Ford Motor Co. and Chysler Group are have had complaints to the FTC over misleading advertising that lead some of the general public to think their vehicles are made in the USA – particularly the Chrysler 300 and the Ford Edge. Apparently, these models are assembled in Canada and often have Mexican-made parts, which go against Chysler’s “Imported from Detroit” tagline and Ford’s radio spot that advertised it being an American car. What do you think of the companies’ advertising their cars as American?

BlackBerry outages spread to North America – Across the world, Blackberry users noticed an outage in their services – one of the biggest outages yet. Since the European infrastructure failed, emails and messages sent were so backed up in the RIM systems, it caused outages in the US and in Asia. With outages happening a couple times a year, people are rethinking keeping their Blackberries, opting to upgrade to a DROID or iPhone. Can Blackberry keep up?

Bank of America sharpens messaging about new fees – Last week Bank of America announced a $5 monthly fee for debit card users – causing public outrage. They now have repositioned their messaging, explaining who will be charged with this fee and how it can be avoided. According to this PR Week article, a recent survey found 36% of Americans have “very little” or “no” confidence in US banks. While BoA is saying this new fee is to recover lost revenue, do you think consumers will look to bank elsewhere?

Now it’s time for the PRobecast PR Power Ranking – which is when we go around the room and pick the story that we think ranks the highest PR-wise – meaning any aspects of PR could be the reasoning behind the pick. Is it the story itself, good data that was used, what’s getting the most pickup, was it a good PR move the company made, etc.

This week it was a 4:1 vote – Blackberry. With the general population being so dependent on technology, especially mobile, Blackberry needs to make sure outages like this don’t happen again. This one on of the biggest stories of the week and had people questioning whether or not they should still be used, and that is why this story won as the Power Ranker.

Who do you think should have won?

Share on Facebook

Technorati Tags: Bank of America's Fees, Blackberry outages, Chrysler and Ford advertising, misleading advertising, RIM

Share/Save

In this episode of PRobecast, Tony Sapienza, Renatta Siewert and Justin Martell join me in talking about how people don’t want the help of tech in grocery stores, Neiman Marcus’ Foursquare campaign and Facebook’s changes.

Big Y Ditching Tech for Human Interaction – A recent study shows that more and more people are opting not to check-out at the self check-out line at the grocery store and instead go to the cashier. A study from the Food Marketing Institute has found that only 16 percent of shoppers use these self check-out lanes and now Big Y has recently announced they are ‘bagging’ these lanes. With a society so addicted to technology, this surprises me. Will people start calling their friends and family rather than taking more time to text them? Will we see other trends where people prefer human interaction rather than tech?

Neiman Marcus’ Foursquare Campaign – Neiman Marcus is launching a campaign on Foursquare to promote its annual shoe and handbag event – hiding 15 Nancy Gonzalez clutches at 15 of its 41 stores. When a customer checks-in on Foursquare, they will be told whether they are in close range of the hidden clutch and where to find it. The first to find the clutch wins. In total, Neiman Marcus will be giving away 56 clutches because they will also be picking at random lucky winners who checked in. Do campaigns like this help promote the Neiman Marcus brand? Will we be seeing more companies do campaigns like this?

What’s up with Facebook? – Everyone has been up in arms with Facebook’s recent changes to people’s feeds and profile page. However, Facebook will be changing once again with the launch of Timelines and Open Graph. Timelines will pull everything you’ve ever posted (or what people have posted on your wall) all into in e-scrapbook that people can easily browse through once on your profile page. Open Graph has customizable actions and gestures that will allow applications to post things you are doing online – and offline, depending on the application. Is this going to far?

Now it’s time for the PRobecast PR Power Ranking – which is when we go around the room and pick the story that we think ranks the highest PR-wise – meaning any aspects of PR could be the reasoning behind the pick. Is it the story itself, good data that was used, what’s getting the most pickup, was it a good PR move the company made, etc.

This week, Neiman Marcus’ Foursquare campaign won. Noting that a younger demographic isn’t normally their target audience, the use of Foursquare to bring in new customers is a great campaign. While Tony and Justin aren’t normally into clutches, everyone appreciated the creative aspects of this campaign – and agreed it makes the Neiman Marcus brand look more favorable to consumers.

Who do you think should have won?

Share on Facebook

Technorati Tags: Facebook and privacy, Facebook's Open Graph, Facebook's Timelines, Foursquare camaigns, Neiman Marcus, self checkouts

Share/Save

In this episode of PRobecast, Renatta Siewert joins me in talking about how T-Mobile will no longer be under contract with Radio Shack, how social media is being used effectively in classrooms and a man how got 4 years in prison for stalking women on Facebook.

T-Mobile and Radio Shack Break-up – T-Mobile devices will no longer be available at Radio Shack locations after an apparent “breach in contract.” Radio Shack will now be teaming up with Verizon Wireless come September 15th. While most brands, people… entities, attempt to make their split amicable and PR-friendly, this duo seems to be doing the opposite.

Social Media & Education- While social media isn’t completely embraced in the classroom, certain schools across the nation are incorporating social media and mobile devices into their curriculum. The theory behind this is that these new ways of participating are encouraging kids to pay attention, making them aware of what they post and who their audience is. A principal from NJ said that kids are coming into the classroom bored and disconnected and social media is a way to get the students’ attentions.

Man gets 4 years for Stalking on Facebook – A man is currently getting 4 years in prison for stalking women on Facebook, figuring out their email passwords and sending explicit pictures of the women – which he found by trolling their email folders. This brings up the bigger issue of making sure your private information isn’t available to everyone on Facebook or other social networks. While social networks are often thought as places to connect with friends – odd people are lurking on them as well.

Now it’s time for the PRobecast PR Power Ranking – which is when we go around the room and pick the story that we think ranks the highest PR-wise – meaning any aspects of PR could be the reasoning behind the pick. Is it the story itself, good data that was used, what’s getting the most pickup, was it a good PR move the company made, etc.

This week social media in the classroom won because like it or not, kids are online and using technology more and more. There is no way to stop it – so why not embrace it and integrate education into their use of it?

What do you think?

Click To Play:

Share on Facebook

Tweet This Post

Technorati Tags: education, facebook stalking, learning, Radio Shack, Social Media, T-Mobile, using social media to learn

Share/Save

Category: Marketing, Media Relations, Messaging & Positioning, Mobile, News & Commentary, PR, PRobecast, Social Media, Social Networks, Tech, Web | No Comments »