Good PR of the week
Lego builds fan base
PR photographer Simon Apps tweeted an email exchange between his seven-year-old son Luka and Lego this week that has been doing the rounds and for good reason.
After Tigerbread in 2011 (surfacing again in early 2012), Bodyform’s video response, O2’s “street” Twitter exchange and numerous other examples, personalised brand responses to customer comments is clearly in vogue.
Luka lost a toy he’d saved his Christmas money up to buy in the supermarket and Richard at Lego Customer Services responded with the following “perfectly aimed” reply:
It’s been tweeted tens of thousands of times, if not more, and been picked up by media including ITV.
Books by McDonald’s
McDonald's is to become the UK’s biggest children’s books distributor, having committed to giving away 15 million fiction and non-fiction books with Happy Meals by the end of 2014.
As well as books given out alongside Happy Meals, customers can redeem books at WHSmith, the high-street retailer, under the offer, McDonald’s said yesterday.
I know I usually focus on straight stunts and campaigns in this column, but thought it was well worth highlighting the good work McDonald’s continues to do to improve its public image, too.
Wooden train wins over DfT
Having been awarded to First Group in August and then taken away after Department for Transport (DfT) “miscalculations“, the West Coast Main Line has been a big media focus in the last few months. Virgin, which previously ran the line, will continue to run it until at least 2014.
This week, wooden toy company Bigjig Toys wrote on its blog how it wrote a letter to Transport Minister, Patrick McLoughlin to see if its bid for the West Coast Main Line was any better:
On the third, it got this response:
Although it seems like all is lost, Bigjig says it is going to make a few minor changes and resubmit!
Thanks to Lorna Gozzard, Sara Nelson, Björn Loesing , Rebecca Fennelly and Willard Foxton for making sure I didn’t miss this!
Bad PR of the week
Put a ring on it
This is GLORIOUS (and also a bit sad).
Although some would argue a certain two tech journalists should feature for their ongoing and frankly, now-embarrassing Twitter spat, I want to draw your attention to something even better.
A Northern Irish jeweller posted this on its Facebook page – competition winner Lynda Spears (kind of) happily showing off a new and shiny ring:
Then, this happened:
Obviously, the fact Lynda posted back as the page is incredibly suspect and led to a good number of websites and page fans crying foul.
The damage had already been done when Skillens posted this update, which puts it all in perspective and probably just demonstrates the need for more careful social media usage:
Thanks to Enda Guinan for tweeting with this.
Also, special mention to Qualcomm, who, seemingly put on the weirdest show at CES 2013, including Desmond Tutu, a gory scene from Blade II, Big Bird and a webcast of Maroon 5 performing, dubbed over with Dido for broadcast rights reasons. Read more here. Thanks to Mark Pinsent and Lucie Bickerdike for tweeting with it.
Have you seen any good or bad PR?
Contact PR Rich Leigh with it by tweeting him @GoodandBadPR or by emailing rich@10yetis.co.uk throughout the week and we’ll happily credit you for your trouble. Good and Bad PR is a feature on the blog of 10 Yetis PR Agency. Rich founded stunt and campaign site PRexamples.com in January 2012.
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