Mischief PR worked its magic for an excellent online campaign for feelunique.com.

The online beauty store got talked about after offering to pay people 10p per wink (details here) for displaying feelunique.com on their eyelid.

News of the offer (which has now closed) even spread to The Huffington Post, which was last year named as one of the most powerful blogs by The Guardian.

My friend Philip Levine often uses his head as a canvas for creative messages.

Here are some rather impressive and impactful brand images he has created with his body painter Kat Sinclair.

Philip models Mercedes, Durex, Apple, Chanel and The Hospital Club.

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Online PR firm onlinefire hosted The Voscars (Virgin Mobile Oscars) to find the best viral campaign.

Bloggers, social media commentators and journalists were asked for their favourite viral campaign and my submission was this Jeans Jumping video which came 17th.

And the winner was ‘Jizz in my pants’.

The event was used to launch Virgin Mobile’s 30p campaign and showcase its own viral.

If you’re interested in seeing what 30 peas can do go see it.

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You’re not a full member of celebdom until you’ve had a dedicated thread that spans at least three pages on the Digital Spy forums.

The boards are awash with scathing, mindless and often hate fuelled comments that would leave celebrities, with the thickest of skins, incandescent with rage.

I did have a bit of a chuckle (albeit little) at a comment made by Rob22 in response to a post by Imogen M…

Imogen M said…

“I detest Cheryl Cole. You can’t polish a turd. This “nation’s sweetheart” nonsense is an absolute joke and she’s becoming hideously over-exposed. She has no personality and only got as famous as she is now because her footballer bloke cheated on her.”

To which Rob22 replied…

“If being a turd means you get to be a millionaire, sell countless albums, be on TV, sign autographs, e.t..c - then I think I’d like to be a turd too.”

See the full discussion here.

Comments (17)

Read my article ‘Simon Cowell to choose new X Factor judge via social media?’ on E-Consultancy.

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A couple of weeks ago at the launch night for RAW at London nightclub Jalouse (in support of Cancer Research UK), I saw an example of an established profession using the internet to generate revenue.

On arrival at the private members club, frequented by celebs including Sienna Miller, Ronan Keating and Leonardo DiCaprio, attendees were photographed red carpet style by Pictures Inc, and given the option to purchase the print outs on site; just like when you get off the Log Flume at Alton Towers.

But if you didn’t want to run the risk of losing your print out on the way home, you could always log on to the Pictures Inc website the next morning and purchase the photo online as an A4 print out or get it made into a key ring.

The internet means photographers can generate revenue after an event.

Paul Martin from Pictures Inc says the practice is a double edge sword, whilst many partygoers like to see their photo online, only a few go on to purchase.

I think Paul is correct, but quite possibly polite in his observation. I would go as far as saying it’s simply modern day narcissism in action.

The kind of narcissism that would lend itself to sending to friends, posting on Facebook, or embedding into a blog (who would do that?).

This ‘self gratifying viral’ behaviour can be used to the advantage of sponsors whose branding appears behind most photos (in this case The Fashion Crowd and Jalouse) – it’s like making a celebrity out of every individual. Perhaps this is the way to fund event photography, in addition to merchandise?

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Last week Emma Jones of Enterprise Nation posed the question “I know about traditional PR – it’s all about getting myself in the press/on radio/on TV but what is online PR and how do I go about being good at it?”

See my response on the Enterprise Nation website.

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The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) is the trade association for online advertising.

They recently published a Social Media Handbook which contains a contribution from me titled ‘Using social media to increase paid-search marketing effectiveness’.

- Read my contribution here
- Read the full Social Media Handbook online
- Download a PDF copy of the Social Media Handbook

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I was lucky enough to attend a listening event of Alesha Dixon’s new album at Volstead club in London with fellow blogger and friend Michele Obi of MYFASHIONLIFE.

The album sounds brilliant (can’t wait to get my hands on it) – I’m no music critic, music journalist or music blogger but I’ll use my blog as an opportunity to describe it as perfect infectious British pop.

The event invite actually came as a surprise. Arriving in my inbox two days prior to the event apparently I had won the tickets? I didn’t realise but weeks ago when I entered my email address to download a free Alesha Dixon track I also entered a competition to attend a listening event.

A great idea to get fans involved, especially with Alesha there to meet them, but I feel the event could have also been used as an opportunity for the Strictly champion to meet music bloggers.

Lots of pop bloggers and the influential posters on pop message boards (UKMix, Popjustice) would have spread the word about Alesha’s album online like wildfire.

They would also have linked to her new website www.aleshadixon.co.uk, which would help it move up the ranking in Google when her name is searched for (which would also save a few pennies as they are currently paying per click on Google Adwords).

A least one [fashion] blogger Michele was there – look out for an interview with Alesha on style on MYFASHIONLIFE.com.

Also: I must say I was also shocked that the email invite had no less than 45 of us winners in the CC field. Yes, not the BCC field, but the CC field. Surely record companies have access to email marketing platforms?

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Behind every new look, new launch or new advert there has been thought as to how it will affect the industry, press and most importantly the end consumer.

Rebrands get planned months, if not years ahead. To make sure they’re right.

What does our new brand need to reflect? How will our current consumers/customers feel about it? Who are we trying to speak to with our rebrand? 

Product launches take years to master. To make sure they’re right.

Who would buy this? Why would they buy it? Where would they buy it?

And a lot of effort, by a lot of people goes into creating TV adverts, to make sure they’re right too.

How can we make impact? What times and which channels will it be on? Do we need a celeb in it?

Many will present a rebrand, product launch or advert and tell those in charge of their online – “this is what we’re doing, make our online fit”.

The wrong way round? I think so.

Nobody at Pizza Hut thought about registering or acquiring www.pastahut.net or www.pastahut.com

Vodafone has an exclusive deal to launch BlackBerry Storm in the UK – utilising online PR should have seen them rank #1 organically for ‘blackberry storm’, instead they’re bidding and paying per click.

Love Bingo could’ve made sure they ranked #1 for their name before advertising on TV – they rank #3 for ‘love bingo’ but I am sure JackpotJoy and ilovebingo.com, who rank #1 and #2 respectively, are the main benefactors of searches for ‘love bingo’ from Love Bingo’s TV advertising campaign.

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According to consultancy firm Intangible Business the value of Bernard Matthews has dropped £20m in the past year.

Unsurprising news after the Jamie Oliver led Turkey Twizzler bashings and the uncontrollable Avian Flu disaster.

But when a brand is down, the only way is down even further or up, up and up.

Bernard Matthews has chosen the up path, with a new name in tow, adding Farms to the brand name to become Bernard Matthews Farms.

£3m spent on TV, press and outdoor advertising should get the new name out there.

But what happens when such a campaign is successful? What if the ads are so intriguing people want more info? What happens when you reach out to people willing to learn more about the brand?

They Google you.

A couple of headlines a googler (is that a new word?) would see…

“Bernard Matthews worker caught playing football with turkeys “

“The H5N1 bird flu outbreak at Bernard Matthews Holton Suffolk 2007”

Methinks Bernard Matthews, sorry Bernard Matthews Farms, could do with spending some of the £3m budget on online PR to encourage some good news articles to spread the web, and subsequently rank in Google.

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Some websites make money by selling products.

Some websites make money by selling advertising.

Some websites make money by referring customers to other websites.

Some websites make money by collecting customer data which is sold on.

Ask an SEO for help and they’ll promise higher search engine rankings will help you sell more products, sell more advertising, refer more customers and collect more data.

Ask an email marketer for help and they’ll promise email promotions will help you sell more products, sell more advertising, refer more customers and collect more data.

Ask an online media buyer for help and they’ll promise banners, buttons and MPUs will help you sell more products, sell more advertising, refer more customers and collect more data.

And so on.

The dilemma for most websites is that they’re all right. Everything helps. For instance, it helps your click through rate in Search if people recognise your brand from a banner advert.

Helping is good, but limited budgets and high expectations can often lead to a desire for marketing that does more than help.

Stripping away every type of marketing that fails to directly impact the end need - selling, referring or collecting – is a short term measure to hitting those high expectations with limited budgets.

After all you’re not interested in investing marketing budget which “helps”, you want it to “do”.

Great. For a bit. Until your competitors do the same as you PLUS the stuff that helps.

That’s when the thing that “does” it for you, “does” it for them instead, and consequently it stops “doing” it as well for you. All because they saw the value in “helping” the thing that “does it”. Get it?

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This week I was sent a link to a ‘SEO in 15 minutes’ chart. It’s great checklist for anyone who wants to understand on page SEO techniques. But a potentially dangerous tool for those who think studying these points makes them an SEO expert.

Dangerous not for those in SEO, but to the company that thinks doing these things alone will see their visits from Google Organic soar.

You may remember a couple of months ago, I blogged on E-Consultancy.com about the role of the SEO becoming dead – and this idea of “SEO in 15 minutes” partly backs up this theory.

Everyone is becoming aware of on-page SEO, but many find it difficult to comprehend the idea of online PR and having to create compelling content to attract links – which then translates into a higher SEO ranking.

The thing is every company has competitors doing the same things to make their on-page SEO effective. So ask yourself this, with everything else being equal if everyone in your space followed these 15 minute points who would win the Google race?

You see when you adopt something that works for a competitor (on page SEO) you’re being reactive and that creates a standard (an optimised website). Standard never wins (because everyone has an optimised website). Doing more than them (attracting links through content that is resourceful, humorous etc.) will see you win the SEO race – and that’s a ethos that is true for any product, service offering or marketing activity.

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Visit the Glasses Direct blog to see my blog post ‘Will you join Glasses Direct’s online fan base?’.

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Read my article ‘How else can Google ascertain relevancy?’ on E-Consultancy.

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This week on E-Consultancy I asked the question ‘Is the role of the SEO dead and should PRs own natural search?’.

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