In the 1970s and 1980s, Folgers ran an advertising campaign that had hidden cameras showing diners enjoying coffee in high-end restaurants.

The catch? The coffee was actually Folgers and not some hoity toity brand you’d expect in a white tablecloth restaurant.

Many other companies have replicated the campaign, including Domino’s, Pizza Hut, Coke, Pepsi, and now Marie Callender’s.

Last month, ConAgra, the company that owns the brand, and Ketchum, their PR firm, invited food and mom bloggers to a night out with “Ultimate Cake Off” host George Duran and (my favorite) food analyst Phil Lempert. The invitation was to an underground NYC restaurant, Sotto Terra, where they were told they’d enjoy a “delicious four-course meal,” the celebrity chef’s “one-of-a-kind sangria,” and learn about food trends. Continue Reading »

Adam Toporek is the owner of IntenseFence Management Solutions and blogs about small business and franchising.

The past decade has seen some great public relations campaigns, particularly in the for-profit realm.

Doritos knocked it out of the park when it “crashed” the Super Bowl, Tourism Queensland put its island on the map when it created The Best Job in the World, and Old Spice reignited its stodgy brand by convincing women that buying their grandfather’s deodorant will give their husbands six-pack abs. (Testimonial from my wife: “Old Spice is full of crap.”)

To me, however, the Domino’s turnaround is the most brilliant PR campaign in recent memory.

In the midst of a recession, in a hyper-competitive and mature industry, Domino’s completely realigned the perception of its product and its brand while generating measurable financial results for its stakeholders. And it did so through an innovative marketing campaign that seamlessly integrated traditional advertising, social media, and public relations. Continue Reading »

Everyone is back from SXSW and I think they’re spending some time recovering. It’s been REALLY quiet!

But things are not quiet on the Arment Dietrich and Project Jack Bauer fronts. Our latest newsletter came out this morning and, in it, we give you two big things: An April webinar about building community and our newly released eBook, called “Dear CEO: Letters to the C-Suite from Experts on Vision, Culture, Community, and Integration.”

The book compiles advice from 32 business leaders and I’m really pleased with how it turned out! And…it’s available for your eReader, which was NOT an easy feat.

The beta for Project JB launches on April 4. We had a meeting on Wednesday where we realized we’re only six weeks from launching. Holy. Cow. Nearly three years in the making and we’re six weeks away. Anyone have that puke bag for me?

So not quiet here, but we were happy to learn from those of you who did attend the festival. Thanks for that!

With that, I give you Gin and Topics with Chrysler, Domino’s, pay walls, lessons from SXSW, and an inspiring story from a heroin addict turned serial entrepreneur.

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This ran in the March issue of Franchise Times, which is why the bent is toward that audience. But I think you’ll get some value from the interview I did with Joel Libava, aka The Franchise King.

Are you getting tired already of experts and everyone telling you to get on the social networks without a real tie to your marketing strategy or business results?

Me, too.

There are lots of PR firms adding social media tools to their toolbox, and they should be. But they’re still doing PR, not just social media. And I think that’s important to consider. If an “expert” comes to you who only does social media, watch your back. These are the people who are taking advantage of a trend and trying to capitalize on it with franchisors who don’t fully understand how it all works. Continue Reading »

This was published in the May issue of Franchise Times.

Last year, in this column, we took a look at the online crisis that was created for Domino’s when a couple of employees posted a damaging video on YouTube that took less than 24 hours to circle the world.

After the story ran, Ramon DeLeon, a Domino’s franchisee in Chicago, sent me a note to say that they were changing how they communicated with customers and attached a video apology he sent to one of his local customers just the week before.

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A lot of people have asked me what I think about Tiger Woods and the apology he gave on Friday. I’m never one to react with a knee jerk. I like to let it all soak in, discuss opposing sides, and then tell you what I think. But this one is a little bit different…mostly because the incident happened three months ago (so I’ve had plenty of time to let it sink in) and my opinion of how he should have handled this is no different just because he read a scripted apology on Friday.

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I’m pretty sure it’s career suicide to take on one of the PR industry’s top media outlets, but you’ve never known me to back down from a fight, have you?

Jeremy Probert, a guest columnist with Ragan , yesterday wrote an article titled, “Why letting staff remark publicly is an idiotic idea.” When I read that title, two thoughts flashed through my brain: 1) Surely this title is sensationalism and I’m going to buy into it by reading the story and 2) The wise words of my friend Amber Naslund, “Why would you let your staff answer your phone, but not let them use social media?”

And then I read the story.

You simply do not allow employees free rein. You don’t; that’s accepted.

Then along come the social media strategists. “It’s all about content, it’s all about dialogue, it’s all about the quality of the      conversation”—free spirits in the digital age. Not for them the rules of the old guard—no, the rise of the Internet and Facebook and Twitter has changed the world, and we must move on or wither and die.

It appears that their lobbying—and the continuing spread of Shiny Object Syndrome—has convinced even the most conservative of organizations (Coke, anyone?) that they should be allowed to let employees post directly to the social media sites, without passing the sense/health check that is the PR department.

On first blush, it’s quite intriguing that a “20 year communication veteran” is so adamant against anyone not messaged or well briefed working with the media. That Coke and Ford would actually ALLOW someone not in the internal communication department to be brand ambassadors is insane.

And then I realized the poor man is old school.

He thinks people aren’t already talking about their company, their bosses, their peers, the products or services they provide and that those that do, publicly, have been messaged and briefed. And he thinks the social media strategists (some of whom ARE communication professionals) are advocating staff talking publicly because social media is the next new thing.

Here are the facts: Employees complain about their managers. Managers thinks executives line their pockets with what should be their bonuses. Customer service listens to customer complaints all day, every day. Some staff drink the kool-aid and believe strongly in the vision and the culture. Some don’t. But what all of these people have in common is they are brand ambassadors, the good and the bad, no matter if you give them “free rein” or let only those who are messaged and briefed speak.

They are telling their friends. They are telling their family. They are telling potential customers. They are telling potential colleagues. They are talking about the good and the bad. But now you have the ability to SEE and HEAR what they are saying.

Probert points to the Domino’s video incident from a few months ago as an example of what goes wrong when you let staff talk publicly. Those employees were not given free rein to speak publicly to the media. Their manager was not in the store. They created the video. It went viral. They got fired. Without social media and an easy way to upload video from a phone, this would have happened, but the only people who would have known about it were their friends. They would still have jobs and they would still be sneezing and spitting on your food.

I’m sorry Mr. Probert, we do not read your column and think you are “miffed that you’ve been edged out of the frame and that stuff is going on without you.”

Coke and Ford are two great, big corporations who know these kinds of things are already going on. Now they have the opportunity to decide what to do with the detractors (fire them?) and how to reward the brand ambassadors.  I think NOT allowing staff to speak publicly is idiotic.