Note the background image on Kevin's Twitter profile...

*By ‘some’ I mean a PR agency who you could argue has a profit motive for fear mongering; but nevermind that, I’m going for dramatic effect here.

Regardless of whether this prophesy comes true, I’ve seen many branded social media endeavours that have a definite lack of contingency planning, so a little extra prep won’t hurt.

3 things to help you avoid a Y2.01K crisis:

1. Plans

• add an addendum to your existing crisis management plan that outlines procedures, concerns and considerations that are specific to social media (i.e. public visibility, timeliness, communication channels)
• mobilise an internal response team; stack it to include a PR person with crisis management experience, a social media person who understands the space and a lawyer who can reduce the risk of you getting sued

2. Policies

• create 2 sets of policies:
  • Rules of Engagement: outline employees’ rights, responsibilities and repercussions of engaging in social media
  • Community Guidelines: set rules for users to follow if they wish to participate in any of your online communities (i.e. Facebook Page, forum, comment on your blog)
• ensure both sets of guidelines exist in document form (‘understood’ policies don’t cut it) so that they can be published, distributed, referenced, called upon as proof in a court case – you get the idea

3. Systems

• implement systems that monitor online conversations:
  • keep an eye on your critics and naysayers
  • watch for mood swings
  • create alerts to notify you when sensitive keywords are used in conversations about your brand (i.e. palm oil in Nestlé’s case)
• connect with / enlist your advocates; anticipate issues before they blow up

Prevention is key, but in my next post I’ll outline some ways you can diffuse a mounting crisis.

Oh noes, another cyberstoning!

Toyota’s Australian marketing folks are copping it for their unconventional RFP process, which has agencies competing their best Toyota Yaris campaigns against one another to take home the glory, the honour, the respect of their peers… and a retainer relationship with the car company! You can just see the agencies frothing at the mouth over this.

If you’re not familiar with Toyota’s social media ‘experiment’ here’s a quick overview (mUmBRELLA goes a bit more in-depth):

• 8 of the big digital/viral/guerrilla/social media/PR/advertising/[insert marketing buzzword here]  agencies were asked to devise a social media campaign for the Yaris
• they were given 2 weeks dev time and a budget of 15k
• the top 5 were allowed to take their campaigns live and face the public
• the top 2 win projects with the company in the coming year

Blogger Laurel Papworth was so turned off by this social media “downfall” that she made a video about it! Calling upon the tried and true Downfall meme, Laurel dropped in subtitles to depict the conversation between Hitler, err.. ‘Bruce’ the Marketing Manager and digital agency execs. She makes some good points in her post and I definitely chuckled once or twice during the video (How f%$&ing hard is to do a Facebook fanpage, a YouTube viral or a Twitter account? classic!), but Laurel doesn’t offer any solutions alongside her criticism. (And, I would venture to guess that Toyota’s Marketing Manager might be less than thrilled with the comparison she makes in her video?!…)

The criticisms vary, but the general feeling is that this has fail stamped all over it. But you know what, I disagree – I think they’ve got it nailed. Think about it. They have 5 of Australia’s top digital agencies busting their asses to promote each of their campaigns (and in doing so promoting Toyota Yaris). Hmm, so it sounds like they’ve deliberately targeted and selected a small number of people that are regarded as experts in their field – you might even call them influencers! So, they’ve given the agencies the tools to create assets and build engagement on Toyota’s behalf and then they’re tapping into the agencies’ networks to get their message to the masses (brand advocates?!). Furthermore, the entire process generates a wealth of information – channel performance, campaign performance, agency performance (they’re basically crowdsourcing their agency selection process for crying out loud!).

Let’s just look at all the buzz this has generated – blog posts, tweets, even videos are being fired out in response! (And this is in response to the overall campaign, not to mention the individual agency campaigns.) Yes, many of the conversations have a negative tone, but it’s mostly in relation to the campaigns, not the vehicles themselves. Furthermore, in their criticism, some commenters have actually been pointing out Yaris features that they should be highlighted:

To be honest, I’m not really impressed with any of the ideas. My sister owns a Yaris and to me the one thing that differentiates the car is just how sexy and small it is. I don’t see how any of the ideas really show why you should buy the Yaris…

If I had $15k – i would have aligned the Yaris with the Melbourne Cup Carnival and done a tongue in cheek viral around the world of sexy and small jockeys….as they are fast, elegant and small….

- Jim (via mUmBRELLA)

Anyway, here are my thoughts on what the agencies came up with:

One Green Bean‘s An American Werewolf in Yaris campaign gives people the chance to “win a free lift from within metropolitan Sydney to a destination within a 10km radius with the themed ‘Werewolf’ in a Toyota Yaris.” People enter by tweeting or leaving a comment on the campaign’s Facebook page.

• Comments: This campaign seems to exclude everyone outside of Sydney – one of the major benefits of the Internet/social media is that conversations can take place and communities can be built outside of normal geographic limitations. I also wonder whether the One Green Bean folks are aware of Facebook’s promotion guidelines, which prohibit the administration of contests on the site without written approval. However, this campaign gets a bonus point for actually getting people into the cars.

HotHouse teamed up with Aussie vlogger, Blunty, to create a video of Lego robbers using the Yaris as a getaway vehicle. Viewers have been asked to leave a comment explaining why the Yaris is so clever for a chance to win the car.

• Comments: I think it was smart of them to team up with Blunty, a recognised vlogger with an established audience – particularly since the campaigns only run for 6 weeks. And another thumbs up for keeping it about the Yaris and getting users to talk about why it’s so clever. However, they should have put a little more thought into their Tumblr. They’re simply using it as a dump page to post the contest rules, but if that’s going to be the extent of it, they’d be better off with a downloadable PDF. There’s an expectation that a blog should have more than one post and it shouldn’t consist entirely of legal jargon. Why not republish some of the more clever comments from YouTube and hit the Tumblr community that you might not have reached on Blunty’s channel (hello, reblog!).

The Population and Oddfellows teamed up to answer the age old question of which truly is the ultimate city – Sydney or Melbourne. To enter, you simply become a fan of either city’s Facebook page.

• Comments: I understand what they’re trying to do in tapping into the rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne, but that makes it geographically exclusive (I live in Perth, what’s the pull to get me involved?) Also, the actual tie to the vehicle is a little weak… Brought to you by Toyota Yaris – the ultimate city car is pretty much the extent of it. Lastly, I’m not sure what’s up with the Facebook app, but it doesn’t seem to function as much of a leaderboard…

Saatchi & Saatch created a “Clever Film Competition” which asks people to create their own clever films featuring a Yaris in exchange for the chance to win $7k.

• Comments: Not gonna lie, I’m less than thrilled with the campaign name and I found the microsite to be equally uninspiring. “Step one: First read and understand the T&C’s and competition Guidelines. Then make a clever short film featuring a Toyota Yaris.” Umm, what’s in it for me? They need to better communicate why I’d want to dedicate my limited time to making a video for them (which can be a rather time consuming process). But, on the upside, they are at least trying to get people to talk/create content about the car.

No one has heard from Iris. But, maybe it’s just so underground and awesome that we don’t even know about it!

So what would I have done differently? Well, as I was watching this all unfold Friday afternoon, Marc and I decided we’d have a little fun with it, so we built a single serving site – ToyotaYarisIsYourNewBicycle.com.

Here was our thinking…

• Calling upon the isyournewbicycle meme, the site randomly displays non-sequiturs about the Yaris and things it does for you (i.e. Toyota Yaris asked if you’ve lost weight.) The statements are obviously not meant in the literal sense, but rather to serve as emotional triggers – these are things that make a person feel good. With that said, a new car should trigger many of these same emotions… oh what a feeling!
• Also note the small link in the lower left hand that reads “But you don’t have to take our word for it” which links directly to the owner reviews of the Yaris on the Drive.com.au site. It’s quite simple, we looked and listened and there are already Yaris advocates out there, people that own the vehicle and they’re talking about it online. We’re not going to tell you why you should buy the car, people that own the Yaris are.

We pulled this together quickly (total cost was an hour of our time and a glass of wine each), but if we were actually engaged in this, the next step might’ve been to tie in a UGC piece. Something along the lines of Tell us why Toyota Yaris is your new bicycle. Just tweet it and include the hashtag #toyotayarisyournewbicycle. Then, each week of the 6 week campaign, we’d give some cash, say 2.5k, to the most retweeted line – essentially using the budget to incentivise people to create and share content on our behalf… wow, that sounds a lot like what Toyota’s done. Maybe ‘ol Marketing Manager ‘Bruce’ is smarter than he gets credit for.