Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Should BP Be Looking to the Past Before Jumping on the New Media Bandwagon?

BP has created an environmental disaster the likes the world has never seen and now they are scrambling to stave off the world's collective hatred for their brand. Unfortunately there is not much thought that has gone into the process. Instead they seem to be throwing as much money as possible at their public relations problem without a plan and as a result, it all seems for naught.

It has been reported that BP has been buying up every conceivable variation of the keyword phrase "oil spill" in an effort to drive the traffic to the BP website to the tune of $50,000/day! This has only gone to further enrage the public who believes that $50,000/day should be spent on disaster relief and cleanup instead of Google adwords.

The BP media campaign is all over the map with photos on Flickr, videos on YouTube and search listings, and there are reports of massive spends destined for television. Where did they go wrong? They should have looked to the past for answers. The public responds to sincerity and heart felt apologies. They want to hear how BP is going to stop the spill and how much money BP will devote to the clean up effort, not to Google adwords.

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