This week on the If You Market podcast we have a special episode officially introducing our new co-host Karla Jo Helms. We lavish praise on her as co-host and have some fun talking about epic PR fails. Also successes, but let’s be honest, everyone wants to hear about the fails.
Being an alumni of crisis management, Karla Jo has worked with litigation attorneys, private investigators and the media to help restore companies of goodwill back into the good graces of public opinion—she has patterned her agency on the perfect balance of crisis management, entrepreneurial insight and proven public relations experience.
Subscribe to the If You Market Podcast on iTunes: www.goo.gl/nfMMtW
Youtube: https://youtu.be/w0BwsWmwCKU
Contact Karla Jo Helms
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karlajohelms/
FREE PR IQ TEST: https://jotopr.com/free-pr-iq-test/
PR is life—based and simple at its core, but there can be many moving parts. Because PR affects everything, it is often confused as advertising, marketing or customer service. This quick quiz will bring to light your strongest and weakest areas and compare them to what it takes to use real PR the right way. There are six sections addressing the component parts of Public Relations. Each section has seven questions. The maximum and best score for each section is 35. The overall maximum and best score for the whole test is 210. The closer you are to 210, the better your PR.
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Transcript:
00:10
thank you for listening to be a few
00:12
markets podcast on your host guy Cassidy
00:14
and today we have a special episode with
00:16
our new co-host Carlo Joe Helms we we
00:20
had Carla on to talk about PR on episode
00:23
25 back in August and we liked her so
00:27
much that we had to have her on
00:29
full-time so Carla thanks for joining us
00:31
yeah thanks for having me and thanks for
00:34
inviting me to be a co-host this has
00:36
been a lot of fun it was great how that
00:39
happened we were starting to look for
00:41
co-host it just kind of naturally
00:43
happened and and we love it we’re super
00:45
excited to have you
00:46
we’re not just gonna talk about how much
00:48
we love Carla Jo though everybody don’t
00:50
worry we are also going to be covering
00:53
epic PR fails and successes which is
00:55
Carla Jo’s expertise yes specialty she
01:00
runs a joto PR just to remind everybody
01:03
and is also a co-host on the if you
01:05
market podcast just imagine your anyway
01:14
epic PR fails and successes so many
01:18
things we could talk about I’m sure we
01:21
all see these things in the news maybe
01:23
some of them we never hear of because or
01:25
realize their successes but I think the
01:27
failures we’ve all heard yes you know
01:30
this came up years ago we started
01:33
writing a what we called a disruptive
01:37
newsletter of PR fails PR wins and PR in
01:42
history to you know educate people be to
01:46
be mostly on public relations and how it
01:51
really affects a brand and how people
01:54
the way people feel causes them to act
01:57
and if you’re not controlling that then
02:00
you’re not controlling your bottom line
02:01
so it affects marketing it affects sales
02:04
and people have loved it so much and
02:07
then they’ve written in over the years
02:09
and they said what do you think about
02:10
this please write about this can you
02:12
tell me about this
02:13
so it’s just kind of taken off with a
02:15
life of its own so I have tons here that
02:19
we can go over so you you know ask me
02:22
something if I have something on it
02:23
we’ll talk about it and I’ll I’ll tell
02:26
you about it excellent this is a perfect
02:27
opportunity also to mention that that
02:31
blog or newsletter that you guys put out
02:33
I started receiving those and they’re
02:35
great anybody who’s listening and you
02:38
know you want to know more about PR you
02:40
are just in b2b marketing in general you
02:43
don’t have a budget for PR but would
02:44
like to get on that newsletter list and
02:49
and and read those in they are they’re
02:51
awesome so thank you for well we like to
02:53
make this part of it entertaining
02:55
I am a poor reader so I do not read a
02:57
lot of things but your newsletters great
02:59
good and we’ll put that in the show
03:00
notes as well and I’ll mention at the
03:02
end of the episode okay okay so PR fails
03:04
PR successes what do you want to start
03:06
with well most people like to start off
03:08
with PR fails I mean that’s just games
03:11
well end on a happy note we’ll start
03:13
with the bad stuff you know it’s so we
03:21
have lots of stuff we I think you and I
03:23
were talking about towards our rests not
03:26
too long ago that was an epic PR fail
03:28
yep I was talking to someone my office
03:30
about that I think this week like how
03:33
did they go out of business there’s this
03:34
massive toy vacuum now that people are
03:37
trying to fill which means there’s
03:39
demand thank you
03:40
well I mean you know PR what people
03:43
don’t necessarily realize is PR is not
03:47
just putting out stories and spending
03:48
things to get people to think of you in
03:51
a positive light PR is your public
03:54
relations it is how you are running and
03:57
managing all parts of your organization
03:59
and that includes proper stewardship
04:01
right and it also includes how you
04:04
handle when things go badly and you know
04:09
PR like this PR failed Toys R Us
04:13
you know they got into trouble they
04:16
didn’t run the company well you know
04:18
which is kind of hard to believe Toys R
04:21
Us was like wow you know a big icon
04:24
since I was a little kid right
04:27
and you know they got into chapter 11
04:29
but the thing that you know really
04:33
started turning the tides of how can
04:36
like consumer opinion and public opinion
04:38
was thinking about them is that they
04:40
even though they asked for it they
04:42
actually won while they were in Chapter
04:45
11 a 16 million dollar bonus plan to
04:48
their top execs if they hitted their
04:51
targets right so they’re having to bail
04:55
out the company from a 5.2 billion
04:58
dollar debt right right now that’s that
05:01
always seems to happen and it’s always
05:03
the executives it’s not new executives
05:05
brought in it’s the people who got them
05:07
in that situation and they’re saying
05:08
please stay you created this problem
05:11
please stay and help us and fix it and
05:14
we’ll pay you extra for that it always
05:15
seems odd I know it’s bad getting us
05:18
into trouble you get a saboteur you’re
05:20
not even getting us into the black
05:21
you’re just getting us like a little bit
05:25
more out of trouble right it’s it’s a
05:28
stunt like that ISM it’s miserable for a
05:31
company’s PR because people trust and
05:34
want to do business with organizations
05:36
that reward leadership and employees for
05:38
a job well done right
05:40
it’s like words and penalties and if
05:43
you’re going to pay those bonuses out
05:46
you know pay them to you know the that
05:51
vast amount of employees that are also
05:54
doing the work right so you know when
05:59
you reward statistics that are going
06:01
down what are you gonna get you’re gonna
06:03
get more of that and public opinion
06:07
today because of the court of public
06:08
opinion and everything’s publicized
06:10
right yeah then you have people that are
06:14
going to you know make a decision with
06:17
their pocketbook and you know those
06:20
rewards did not give the executives the
06:24
incentive to do more work and ultimately
06:27
they crashed and the CEO publicly ended
06:32
up blaming the uncooperative vendors
06:36
that he actually publicly blamed the
06:38
customers who weren’t supportive enough
06:40
look into this childish public bickering
06:42
kind of yeah he blamed the lenders who
06:45
live by their spreadsheets and he blamed
06:47
in the media who you know made
06:50
self-fulfilling prophecies with their
06:52
reports so he said right and you know he
06:57
didn’t really what look well at all so I
07:00
think we recently found out an
07:04
investigative reporter found you know a
07:07
lot of their HR records were left behind
07:11
right security
07:14
you know breaches of all things like
07:16
left behind like everybody was laid off
07:19
and left and there was just HR records
07:22
and yeah filing cabinets in an abandoned
07:24
building yes soviet-style left behind at
07:31
the bottom of public relations you know
07:34
that’s how you do it all right starting
07:39
with the big winner there who do Toys R
07:41
Us I don’t want to grow up on my doors
07:43
get and come complete meltdown yeah yeah
07:49
so that’s a good one that’s a good bad
07:51
one yeah yeah um so okay something that
07:55
comes to mind for me you people say that
07:59
no press is bad press and that kind of
08:02
stuff I think you probably disagree with
08:04
that but is there a such thing as on
08:09
purpose PR fails for attention yes those
08:12
are called stunts and there is a rule in
08:16
PR that you know if you’re going to do a
08:19
stunt you say it’s a stunt if you do a
08:23
stunt and pretend it’s real it will
08:25
backflash on you and I know you’re gonna
08:28
ask me for an example and I don’t have
08:29
one off the top of my head but if you
08:33
are going to do a stunt you really need
08:36
to announce that it’s a stunt
08:38
it won’t get you less coverage because
08:40
the media loves big stunts but if they
08:44
find out you did something and it was
08:46
fake just to get attention and use them
08:49
for that attention most likely it will
08:52
backfire
08:53
very badly interesting I mean I guess
08:56
stunts might be the right word for I
08:58
know people do you know only a morning
08:59
radio show and in Northern California I
09:01
remember a long time ago where a DJ took
09:04
a desk and put it in the middle of the
09:05
Golden Gate Bridge and just backed up
09:08
traffic and eventually they police
09:10
showed up and arrested him but he got
09:12
just an insane amount of attention for
09:14
it that’s obviously a stunt and a bunch
09:15
of people are mad but that’s you know
09:17
he’s getting attention and that’s what
09:18
you want is a morning radio guy just
09:23
like there’s no absolutes in this
09:25
universe but right I guess I’m thinking
09:27
more of the type of thing like the
09:28
conspiracy theory that when Coke came
09:32
out with new coke they knew what they
09:33
were doing and they intended to roll
09:36
back to the original coke to get that
09:38
bump of now this thing you love is back
09:40
I guess that kind of a stunt where it’s
09:44
a they’re looking for the backlash of
09:47
attention on purpose but not in a you
09:50
know look at us juggling on the bridge
09:52
type of a situate their still the jury
09:54
out on that one I know that that has
09:57
been said and there’s you know been all
09:58
sorts of debate whether that really
10:01
happened or not you know it it you just
10:04
have to you really have to think it out
10:06
you know think something outrageous just
10:09
to get your name in the press I guess
10:10
I’d say yeah for the sake of getting
10:12
your name and the press like the purpose
10:14
of PR is to really for businesses is to
10:18
publicize your good works to generate
10:21
goodwill goodwill today is one fourth of
10:25
the valuation of your company Wow
10:28
so look at even public companies 20 to
10:33
25 percent of the entire cap the market
10:37
cap is based off of reputation is based
10:41
off of goodwill right which is why you
10:43
see public companies investing a lot
10:46
into PR they understand the game right
10:49
so you have to do those stunts with a
10:52
real purpose behind it and a real
10:55
message behind it and it has to be well
10:58
thought out and well executed so I guess
11:00
I’d say I don’t have an example and it
11:01
might be because I’m thinking b2b and
11:03
that kind of a stunt is generally a
11:05
consumer thing maybe
11:07
yes generally it can be businesses have
11:11
work to do when cybersecurity was you
11:19
know not as you know to like as
11:22
prevalent a topic as it is in the news
11:24
today you know we’ve had many clients in
11:27
that industry but I do remember a stunt
11:31
that a client did and they wanted to
11:36
show you know new stations all around
11:40
the nation that you could easily hack
11:42
into a computer by you know leaving the
11:44
USB stick on the ground or something
11:46
like that and you know employees would
11:49
pick it up and a whole system right so
11:54
we did a whole stunt like that sent
11:57
pizzas to all these news stations around
11:59
the nation and of course it had a USB
12:02
stick taped on it now people in the
12:05
producers room they love pizza and so
12:10
you know when they would take that USB
12:12
stick and of course they knew it was a
12:14
from a PR firm and they knew it was a
12:16
stomp but they put in their computer it
12:19
would come up and would say warning
12:20
you’ve just been hacked but it would be
12:22
like if this was real life you would
12:25
have been screwed kind of thing right
12:26
right
12:27
those are great stunts um newsrooms
12:29
won’t let you in they won’t let pizza
12:32
boxes into the news rooms anymore as you
12:34
can imagine but nice job Carla thanks to
12:37
you guys good job
12:38
yeah they love pizza now they can’t have
12:41
it and it’s all your fault if there’s
12:46
anything else you know wanted to have
12:47
just send it over with it with a USB
12:49
stick – got it done yeah Wow okay okay
12:55
yeah I can see that most of the stunt II
12:57
stunts stunts get your name out there it
12:59
is is more of a b2c thing I guess I but
13:02
that one was B – because this was
13:04
cybersecurity yeah yeah anyway yeah like
13:08
it’s it’s what you were saying b2b does
13:10
it in this way when there’s something
13:11
actually that looks bad happens in in
13:13
business it’s actually bad it’s not an
13:16
intentional or somebody’s fired because
13:19
they don’t know what their due
13:20
I guess with their PR yeah yes yes we
13:24
had a client one time that wanted to do
13:26
a stunt of get a very particular type of
13:29
flying vehicle – you know how about you
13:33
know we do a stunt when we land on
13:34
Google’s you know property and
13:37
headquarters and takeoff and I said yeah
13:38
we have to coordinate all that there’s
13:42
legalities involved you have to like
13:44
really plan out a stunt today right I
13:47
guess I’d say that’s where a start-up
13:48
would just do that yeah maybe and they
13:50
say oh look we’re you know we do drones
13:53
for commercial videography whatever it
13:55
is and we’re just gonna fly onto the
13:56
White House grounds
13:58
and we’re gonna get a ton of attention
13:59
and may be arrested but you know we’re a
14:02
start-up we got three guys in a drone
14:04
let’s do it you know you know I’m not
14:06
saying that you can’t do stuff like that
14:07
but you really do today you have to
14:09
coordinate with legal you have to
14:11
coordinate with your PR team you have to
14:13
really make sure that it has a good
14:15
purpose behind it so if you piss off a
14:17
few pardon my french you’re gonna have
14:20
to make sure that the majority love you
14:23
right it seems like a Hail Mary with the
14:25
with some serious repercussions
14:26
potentially yeah okay now what about
14:29
I’ve been seeing a rash recently of
14:31
these heard people calling them or sorry
14:33
commercials yeah where you know every
14:37
ubers doing we’re sorry commercial
14:39
Facebook’s doing were sorry I’m like
14:40
basically uh all these big companies
14:44
coming out with like hey you know we’re
14:47
cool we messed up
14:49
take us back you know we actually and if
14:56
you give me a second
14:57
we may have talked about that in our
14:59
last episode it’s it’s ringing a bell a
15:02
little bit in general but I don’t know
15:05
if we want to cover this as a if I could
15:07
ask you you know we’re sorry commercials
15:09
PR wise good idea bad idea when should
15:12
people do it is that right well it seems
15:24
like once everybody’s doing them it
15:25
doesn’t feel genuine anymore well and
15:28
there’s parts of it that that don’t feel
15:30
genuine um you know with the fiasco that
15:33
was Fargo
15:34
it’s been going through right where they
15:36
created all of these fake account and
15:38
this and that and then they have a
15:41
billboard that says you know where we
15:44
committed to you
15:46
that’s not commensurate to the damage
15:50
that they did so when you do an apology
15:52
it has to be above and beyond like
15:55
whatever mens you do have to be above
15:57
and beyond the damage that you’ve done
16:00
it’s like an estimation of effort so a
16:03
billboard
16:04
saying we’re sorry but not changing
16:06
anything uber has a new CEO saying we’re
16:08
sorry
16:09
Wells Fargo I don’t know but I’m pretty
16:11
sure a lot they blamed one low-level
16:13
person and fired them or something like
16:14
that and it really doesn’t atone for the
16:24
damage that’s been done it actually
16:26
needs to be a concerted campaign I do
16:31
have the statistics here
16:33
Wells Fargo cent spent thirty point five
16:36
million on its atonement ads uber spent
16:40
twenty three point two million Facebook
16:43
spent forty seven point five million you
16:46
know but when you look at for instance
16:48
just the amount of users Facebook has in
16:51
the amount of media play that it got by
16:58
upsetting others right you look at that
17:00
estimation of effort and then you look
17:03
at your ad next to it it’s not enough
17:07
right right right
17:09
well it’s it’s the Wall Street banks
17:11
that say okay we’re not supposed to do
17:13
this but it’s gonna make us a billion
17:14
dollar and we’re gonna get fined a
17:16
hundred million and people are gonna say
17:17
100 million that’s outrageous we made a
17:19
billion more who cares right and that’s
17:22
people kind of see that and say when
17:24
it’s an apology thing like that seems a
17:26
little disingenuous when you’re still
17:27
doing the activity and this is just a
17:30
drop in the bucket compared to what you
17:31
invested into that the bad part it seems
17:34
disingenuous you know and you are right
17:36
and you know people go well you know
17:38
they’re still around they’re still
17:40
behemoths they’re still making a lot of
17:42
money but you know sometimes revenge is
17:45
served best cold and that’s sort of how
17:48
the public can react new competitors can
17:52
come into the market you know when there
17:54
are others that they can actually vote
17:56
by their pocketbooks or they can vote by
18:00
putting their business elsewhere
18:02
people have you know a memory and they
18:05
will do that so you know you might not
18:07
see the reverberations overnight but it
18:13
does happen you know people get affected
18:15
emotionally and they act right you hit a
18:19
trigger word here for me I think it’s a
18:20
perfect transition you said when they
18:22
vote yeah so political getting political
18:27
I’ll Papa John’s written down here what
18:30
is your what are your thoughts on the
18:33
political PR whether it’s a success
18:37
failure touching it at all what are your
18:41
thoughts well as a rule my company and I
18:44
we don’t talk about or do political PR
18:48
like whatsoever it’s extremely
18:50
polarizing and there are rules of the
18:53
game in political PR that if companies
18:57
applied companies would not stay in
19:00
business you know they’re it’s okay to
19:04
lie and political PR it’s not really but
19:07
you know these are the games right it’s
19:10
okay to polarize it’s okay to have
19:13
opposing forces all the time with no
19:16
resolution so they would say it’s it’s
19:18
not okay to lie it’s just part of the
19:20
part of the PlayBook right yeah and we
19:23
don’t get into it you know it’s good I
19:27
mean I suppose it’s a minefield and PR
19:30
you are supposed to stay away from
19:31
minefields yes and companies have
19:33
suffered you know companies that are
19:35
more left they’ve suffered and companies
19:37
that are more right have suffered by
19:39
getting political on their business
19:41
lines right is that usually on purpose
19:45
or is it just theirs is it usually on
19:47
purpose when they get political or is
19:48
there somebody that’s political in the
19:50
company and they you know go on social
19:53
media or something gets put out and all
19:55
of a sudden now the company is branded
19:57
with a certain
19:58
position it can be that and you can have
20:01
people in management that you know have
20:04
a certain leaning right or left and they
20:06
feel like it’s their moral duty to say
20:10
or do something on their platform you
20:12
know it’s actually okay to do that and
20:14
we have freedom of speech but you have
20:17
to look at the purpose of the company
20:19
and the mission of the company and who
20:21
you’re serving and it doesn’t serve to
20:25
do that on your business platform if you
20:27
are a thought leader already have your
20:30
own platform you know go do it
20:31
separately make it very separate there
20:33
are ways to do it
20:35
where it wouldn’t be damaging to the
20:38
company but you know don’t drag your
20:40
employees with you basically your
20:42
employer or your customers right okay
20:44
yeah so is there a time when when it’s a
20:47
good idea to get political is there
20:49
whether it’s a Hail Mary desperation
20:51
move for a company that’s struggling is
20:53
there any situation where you’d say okay
20:55
maybe getting political is a PR solution
20:58
yes I did not expect you to say yes I
21:07
was ready for you to say no and then we
21:09
were moving on you know we have serious
21:15
commerce splendors of taking political
21:17
sides let’s see if I can okay I guess if
21:21
you’re a if you sell gold coins maybe
21:23
take a political side so if you have a
21:25
product that’s very much in I mean I’m
21:28
sure gun manufacturers take a political
21:31
side it has to be aligned with the
21:34
mission of the company where you would
21:36
go naturally naturally right yeah right
21:41
like that is your audience you’re not
21:43
alienating half your customers exactly
21:45
and there have been companies in history
21:48
where that has really made a lot of
21:51
sense for them and they’ve done it and
21:53
they’ve done it successfully but again
21:55
it there is no people get upset when
21:59
they’re like look I just want to go eat
22:01
chicken I don’t want to talk about I
22:03
don’t want to be reminded of politics
22:05
you know or I just want entertainment I
22:08
don’t want to think about this at that
22:10
time yeah and I guess all the examples
22:12
I’m
22:12
or not b2b on things that go political
22:16
is generally a consumer product as
22:18
that’s you know the nature of the
22:21
product pushes it on one side or the
22:23
other politically yeah you would
22:25
probably hear more about it that way
22:27
somebody’s gonna tweet with some example
22:29
of b2b I’m sure it’s out there but so in
22:32
general don’t go political thinking
22:34
you’re going to grab a big chunk of the
22:37
market somewhere it’s it’s probably not
22:39
a great b2b play yeah you should really
22:41
take a look at your consumer
22:42
demographics before you decide to you
22:46
know polarize part of them mm-hmm create
22:48
another Twitter account and vent your
22:50
personal interest there maybe okay yeah
22:55
if your PR team about this and really
22:58
think about and have strategy don’t
22:59
shoot from the hip all right no I think
23:02
a lot of the companies we’ve been
23:04
talking about in general are have been
23:07
b2c companies Toys R Us I’ve got a
23:10
handful of others written down here but
23:12
I’m looking I’m saying oh wait these are
23:13
you know and mentioned uber these are
23:16
really b2c companies I’ve got Nike
23:18
written down here and I guess those are
23:20
the ones that are that get a lot of play
23:22
and the in the press and that we notice
23:25
but do we have any any either success or
23:29
failure on the b2b side PR wise well you
23:32
know I people think of this as a b2c but
23:36
it’s also how they became such a strong
23:41
b2c force is by really creating
23:45
exceptional public relations with their
23:48
b2b market which was Airbnb mm-hmm yeah
23:52
Airbnb has done an exceptional job of
23:55
creating great public relations with the
24:01
hosts that they have that you know
24:03
actually put their locations up for you
24:07
know people to stay but also
24:09
economically going into the areas where
24:12
they have Airbnb hosts and really
24:17
supporting the restaurants through a lot
24:19
of positive PR and promotions about the
24:22
area and have actually hired
24:25
photographer
24:26
and other locals in those areas to take
24:29
pictures and do write-ups and things
24:32
like that they have created such a
24:34
juggernaut of b2b strong relations and
24:38
goodwill that they were able to it
24:41
really gave them the bandwidth to create
24:43
such good relations b2c wise and most
24:47
people don’t think about that but that
24:49
is definitely right I guess there’s a
24:51
lot of business travel and whatnot yeah
24:53
you know when you are an advocate for
24:56
local economies and local restaurant
24:58
ears and local tourist locations right
25:02
and local professionals that can help
25:05
you on your site with videographers
25:07
photographers and things like that and
25:10
you use this right and you’re generating
25:13
economic goodwill right and publicizing
25:18
them you create a lot of goodwill
25:21
support
25:22
that gives you a lot of great you know I
25:27
don’t even know what I want to say here
25:28
I’m losing my mind it gives you a lot of
25:31
leverage yeah gives you a lot of
25:33
leverage um well you know they they were
25:37
really disruptive they have been
25:40
disruptive in the you know travel and
25:43
tourism industry right the hotel market
25:46
and so when you’re disrupting something
25:49
like that you’re going to have to ease
25:52
the disruption because that creates a
25:55
lot of upset right so in order to do
26:00
that and to gain a lot of goodwill and
26:03
like a lot of good publicity and things
26:05
like that they did it very smartly okay
26:08
I love it so when it comes to examples I
26:14
have all these examples that are
26:15
generally examples of people doing it
26:17
wrong and bad examples off the top of
26:21
your head or you’ve got it written down
26:24
somewhere oh we’re gonna go to a break
26:25
in just a minute but can you think of a
26:28
company that does PR really well that
26:30
generally gets it right and I think you
26:33
may have even mentioned one in the last
26:34
episode same one different one doesn’t
26:36
matter but you know we all see all the
26:38
disasters out there
26:40
probably don’t even notice the great the
26:42
great moves people do I remember when
26:45
the United Airlines stuff happened
26:47
thinking this is an opportunity or was
26:49
an opportunity for them and now it’s an
26:51
opportunity for somebody else to step in
26:52
and give that passenger free flights for
26:55
life and they’re gonna get free
26:57
advertising for life basically just an
27:00
insane amount of free press or you know
27:03
United Airlines if they’d offered that
27:04
person some insane amount of money
27:06
instead of dragging him off the plane
27:07
would have got great PR the next day
27:10
instead of this if they said ten
27:11
thousand dollars to come off you know
27:13
right right well there’s a lot of good
27:15
companies out there that do you know
27:19
really good PR big companies that people
27:21
know about universities coca-cola is one
27:25
coca-cola is one that has repeatedly
27:29
done really good PR despite what others
27:33
might think of them in their sugary
27:34
drinks their PR has really won them a
27:39
lot of admiration around the world and
27:41
they use PR very heavily before they go
27:44
into new markets like emerging markets
27:46
to win over the hearts of the people
27:49
before they go in and start their
27:51
marketing in their sales there’s some
27:53
great examples of that I always like to
27:57
bring them up because their their
27:59
financials always showed that their PR
28:04
is working when they go in an area they
28:06
start a PR campaign then they bring
28:07
their marketing and their sales efforts
28:10
and you know they take over the world
28:13
they’ve done that for many many years
28:16
they are no stranger to public relations
28:18
all right I think that’s a good place to
28:20
take a break here we’ll be back after
28:23
the break with more of the if you market
28:25
podcast with myself and called the Joe
28:27
Helms hi this is Daniel boss from
28:32
GoToWebinar I’m the chief webinar
28:34
Wrangler here at GoToWebinar where we’re
28:37
the largest webinar platform in the
28:39
world with more than 50,000 60 million
28:42
people attending webinars on the
28:43
platform every year if you want to come
28:45
check out GoToWebinar and go to
28:47
GoToWebinar calm
28:49
take out one of our free trials and give
28:51
the product a spin
28:54
all right we’re back from the break this
28:56
is Skye Cassidy on the if you market
28:58
podcast I’ve got our co-host here with
29:01
us to talk about PR and epic PR fails
29:03
epic PR successes everything everything
29:07
PR Carla Jo Helms welcome back from the
29:09
break thank you so and just remind
29:14
everybody Carla Joe is our full-time
29:16
permanent co-host now we’re all very
29:19
excited about that so be hearing a lot
29:20
more her and hopefully a little bit less
29:22
of me
29:23
I saw your tweets thank you so can you
29:27
give me some examples or an example of
29:29
some some PR and some historical PR
29:33
maybe I would say yes like I said we
29:37
have people that write in to us and
29:39
sometimes we don’t even know about
29:41
certain things and this is one where one
29:44
of our clients wrote in to us and send
29:47
us a bunch of documentation that we did
29:49
research on and this was PR how PR was
29:54
used to change the way the Brits talked
29:57
very interesting way mean changed did
30:00
they use to have American accents and
30:02
then they developed a person can you
30:04
believe that
30:05
oh yeah the primary so you know we have
30:11
our roots in British culture we we
30:13
Americans do right so why don’t you talk
30:18
with similar accents happens shortly
30:21
after the American Revolution the
30:23
primary reason for the switch to a
30:26
different dialect came wait wait wait
30:28
did did we win the war so we got to keep
30:32
the accent and they had to come up with
30:33
another maybe so or maybe they were so
30:36
disgusted with us they wanted to change
30:38
right but you know according to the
30:42
story the primary reason for the switch
30:45
came from a shift in power as people in
30:48
England who were born of lower stature
30:50
came into power and when doing so they
30:53
wanted to sound different in order to
30:56
demonstrate their new status among the
30:59
upper-class
30:59
so they made up fancy talk when we think
31:02
they sound
31:03
smart they did that on purpose yes
31:06
received pronunciation so I could do my
31:09
bad British accent but you know it’s
31:11
where they don’t use the arse right
31:13
parking the car Harvard Yard I mean that
31:16
sounds as awful right but so when we do
31:19
British accent to sound snooty that’s
31:21
exactly why they did it oh wow now I can
31:26
tell British people to stop putting on
31:27
that fake British accent crazy that is
31:33
that’s amazing it’s not the first time
31:35
that’s happened right
31:37
you know it’s happened in Spain you know
31:39
they have the Castilian style of Spanish
31:44
that’s like softer spoken has that
31:46
stereotypical Lisp and the way they
31:49
speak now that too is a PR campaign and
31:53
it was WOW so one group will say we want
31:55
to separate ourselves from these other
31:56
people so we’re gonna talk different but
31:59
this one was traced back to a Spanish
32:01
king who actually spoke with a lisp
32:03
there you go so that’s how that
32:05
pronunciation was spread around because
32:10
they were you know trying to be like him
32:12
you see it now usually you see it in
32:14
dictatorships like people will start
32:15
taking the hair and the clothing and
32:18
stuff of the leader – oh we’re gonna
32:21
look like him type of a thing but you’re
32:24
saying it happens well outside I loved
32:31
it I loved it I had down here one one
32:36
thing from history PR is kind of a PR
32:39
battle I don’t know all the details but
32:42
off the top of my head but when
32:43
electricity was first coming in to use
32:46
in the US where they were trying to put
32:48
it into use Nikola Tesla and Edison were
32:53
warring over whose type of electricity
32:56
would get would get used by cities and
32:59
and everywhere they knew this was gonna
33:01
be a big thing everywhere and they would
33:03
do these insane PR stunts
33:06
you know electrocuting an animal to show
33:08
one type of electricity is bad
33:10
Tesla this Tesla coil the show is
33:12
electricity is good they did all these
33:14
crazy crazy PR stunts to
33:17
Alecto no I guess who’s considered a big
33:20
stunt back then to electrify a house to
33:22
put lights and wires and stuff in a
33:24
house so that at night the whole house
33:26
was lit up and everybody’s blown away
33:27
and putting electric lights throughout
33:30
the whole World’s Fair that year and all
33:32
these bizarre historical that’s PR
33:35
stunts I guess they were all designed to
33:37
win over the hearts and minds of all the
33:39
people yeah definitely and they’re
33:41
stories about Phillips you know PR was
33:45
heavily used to get people to then put
33:48
electricity in their homes because
33:50
electricity was synonymous with the word
33:53
electrocution back then that’s weird why
33:55
would those be so closely connected
33:59
that’s about electricity is apps you
34:06
that’s a really cool story to will give
34:09
the listeners homework Google at people
34:11
Google it yeah I mean remember when they
34:13
used to have Christmas trees with
34:16
candles oh my gosh have a bucket of
34:21
water or a sand bucket next to it just
34:24
in case a fire got started and it was
34:27
Phillips or Edison had the great idea
34:28
one time to make Christmas light bulbs
34:31
and put Christmas light bulbs on the
34:34
tree in the house called the New York
34:36
Times I think it was and they came over
34:39
and did a big story and that’s how
34:42
people started to buy light bulbs and
34:44
then that grew into a you know putting
34:47
electricity on your homes but you know
34:50
they were on their last you know an
34:53
investment seed capital and they didn’t
34:55
know what they were gonna do before that
34:56
and that was a PR something that’s when
34:58
the stunts come out the Hail Mary yes
35:00
the hell Mary you need some big
35:02
attention they do something extreme yeah
35:03
like light a Christmas tree that’s crazy
35:06
yeah crazy and all you’re trying to do
35:10
is create an effect change people’s
35:13
minds through some sort of emotional
35:16
response and get them to act that’s what
35:19
you’re doing so PR can be used for good
35:21
and it could be used for bad and I
35:23
suppose sometimes also you want it to be
35:25
big enough that it’ll be picked up by
35:28
it’ll be newsworthy kind of
35:30
so it’s not just commercials putting out
35:33
PR yourself but you want to be something
35:34
that other people spread out outside of
35:37
your own paid channels I guess a recent
35:39
example on that would be Nike it’s very
35:42
polarizing we’re getting into the
35:43
political thing there but and it appears
35:46
to be paying off I think they knew who
35:48
their audience was and who buying their
35:50
products and whatnot
35:51
yeah and so you know again they’ve done
35:55
a lot of work behind the scenes to
35:59
really plan the great publicity stunt
36:04
that would go on for quite a while right
36:08
not so much a Hail Mary for them though
36:09
I mean they knew they were gonna get a
36:11
lot of free coverage from it but it
36:12
isn’t like they were in bankruptcy and
36:15
really needed that desperately yeah on
36:21
the other hand Tesla struggling a little
36:24
bit right now PR wise yes that is one of
36:28
those cases of the figurehead of the
36:30
company creating the you know it’s like
36:33
Richard Branson you are the brand of the
36:35
company and if you go a little bit off
36:38
track
