We're not even two full months into 2014 yet, and one company has already staked a claim for the 'Biggest PR Gaffe of the Year'.
House PR, the PR company representing MasterCard, the main sponsor of the BRIT Awards has been asking journalists to guarantee coverage of MasterCard on Twitter, in return for press accreditation to the event.
Telegraph journalist, Tim Walker, told PressGazette about the campaign.
Tim Walker tweeted to say "Please fellow journalists do not agree to the absurd conditions for covering @BRITAwards. I've even just been told what I should tweet. No."
Walker even gave PressGazette the email he was sent by the PR company. The email shows the conditions on which Walker will be giving press accreditation for the BRITs, including examples of pre-wrritten tweets for journalists to use. Here is that email:
"Hope you’ve had a lovely weekend. As you know we’ve been in touch re. accreditation for the BRIT’s but just wanted to check in with you directly to confirm that you are happy with the below.
Firstly as part of our Priceless Surprise we are putting on cars to take guests directly to the awards – we will be booking your car to take both yourself and Katy from the office at 4:30pm. Are you happy with these details?
In addition – in return for this ticket we would like to ask that you agree to the following…
Social media support from both publication and personal Twitter feed
Pre event – e.g. Really excited to be heading down to @BRITAwards tonight with @MasterCardUK #PricelessSurprises
Event night – live tweeting from the event including @MasterCardUK handle and #PricelessSurprises and to retweet @MasterCardUK tweets throughout the night where appropriate
Post event – tweet directing followers to @MasterCardUK BRITs YouTube videos
Pre-event coverage of MasterCard’s Priceless Surprise video edits with either Laura Mvula, Kylie Minogue and/or Pharrell Williams – to include full credit for MasterCardUK and #PriclessSurprises
All features to be pushed on publications social feeds – to include @MasterCardUK and #PricelessSurprises
MasterCard inclusion in post event write-up (print and online) including #PriclessSurprises hashtag and somethingforthefans.co.uk URL
Post event write up presence on publication homepage (where possible)
Inclusion of MasterCard branded event night images in post event piece
Post event - coverage support for MasterCard music activity in 2014 (Beyonce & JT)
We are really looking forward for you to join us at the awards with us on Wednesday and if you could let us know you are happy with all the above that would be great
Please let us know if you have any further questions and look forward to hearing from you."
Ginny Paton, managing director at House PR, told PressGazette: “The role of the PR agency is to pursue all coverage opportunities on behalf of its clients. This includes providing accurate brand references from the outset, for use across all platforms. It is a two-way conversation between the journalist and the PR in order to reach a mutually beneficial outcome. Editorial control always remains with the journalist.”
Needless to say, this is not the way to create social engagement. Even if a journalist hadn't outed the PR tactics, natural engagement is always best. Someone would've smelled a rat; how many people usually include the sponsors when Tweeting their excitement about something? I've never seen a "Really looking forward to the @BarclaysFooty Premier League match between Arsenal and Manchester United on @SkyFootball with @Ford" (irrespective of the 140 characters).
But now that Tim Walker has outed the House PR, the campaign is doomed to fail.
Natural engagement is always best on social, for everything else there's @MasterCardUK. Now that, ladies and gentlemen, is a #PricelessSurprise House PR was not expecting.
By Jonathan Davies, Editor of the Digital Marketing Magazine.
Connect with Jonathan Davies on Google+
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