Imagine this: You run a company that is in dire financial straights, so much so that you’ve sent your CEO to Washington to beg for a bailout. Sales are down and not looking to go up anytime soon. What do you do? You cherish every customer you have, and especially try to take care of all those people who love your brand so much they’re promoting it for you, right? Embrace Web 2.0, build your community, find new ways to market? Apparently not, if your name is Ford. Instead, they’re suing — that’s right, suing — people running Ford fan blogs for using their trademarks without permission. And what’s more, they didn’t even tell their Digital Communications guy that they’re doing it. So much for fostering community.
Author Archive
November 19th, 2008
How to handle being ripped off on YouTube.
You can yell and scream and sue, try to pull every clip of your show off of YouTube, or you can do what Monty Python did, and launch your own channel. They’re putting their own stuff up, and instead of going after illegal clips, they’re taking the most-watched clips and making sure to put new versions up in high quality. And what do they want in return?
“None of your driveling, mindless comments. Instead, we want you to click on the links, buy our movies & TV shows and soften our pain and disgust at being ripped off all these years.”
I think it’s nice to see someone realizing that youTube ripoffs are inevitable, and instead of fighting it, using it as an opportunity to embrace their fans and increase their audience.
September 11th, 2008
Beautiful…
Eepybird (of Mentos and Diet Coke geyser fame) has a new video out with slinkys made out of post-it notes. It’s a bit mesmerizing…and it makes me want to go grab some post-its and try it, which isn’t a bad effect to get out of your viral video (they’re officially sponsored by both Coke and Office Max).
September 5th, 2008
The first Crispin Porter Microsoft ad is out
And so far, people don’t seem to get it. I find it funny just for being so random, but I’m not sure if it’s going to sell Microsoft. I’ll hold final judgment until more ads come out, but initially I’m a little underwhelmed.
August 6th, 2008
ExxonMobil situation shows ?brandjacking? is for real
There can be consequences for companies ignoring twitter.…food for thought.