Woolworths 'Fresh in our Memories' campaign crisis!

In April 2015, supermarket giant Woolworths, launched an Anzac Day campaign that 'saw the company's logo and the phrase "Fresh in Our Memories" placed over the images of former soldiers' (La Canna 2015). There was also a website created regarding the campaign. The campaign had sparked many negative comments by social media from the public and became a public relations 'crisis' that needed urgent attention.

'Fresh in Our Memories' picture generator
Source: Woolworths 2015

Woolworths insisted that it was not a marketing campaign and that their aim was not to gain money through this campaign, but rather they had hoped people would use the generator to create images that could have been used in social media profile pictures. However, many people got on social media to have their say. 

Tweet against the campaign
Source: Twitter, 2015

Wilcox, Cameron, Reber & Shin (2013) explain that public relation professionals must develop communication strategies to influence the course of conflicts to the benefit of their organisations. There were only a few things that were done to cope with the crisis. Firstly, Woolworths took down the website and all the posters after the Department of Veterans' Affairs minister called their marketing team to remove it (Aubusson 2015). The PR team from Woolworths apologised but did not further comment on their short statement which expressed regret that the generator had caused offence. 

The PR company could have had better methods of communicating with the public to solve the conflict as even after the company apologised, people were still angry (Aubusson 2015). Woolworths should have taken initiative after all the negative feedback to take the campaign down instantly. Instead, they kept it up until it was asked to be taken down by a higher power. The crisis was not handled correctly and has most definitely hindered the organisation's reputation as the public are still angry (La Canna 2015). 

References:

ABC News 2015, Woolworths picture generator, digital image, viewed 6 May 2015, http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-14/woolworths-fresh-in-our-memories-campaign/6392936

Grace [SpinnerGrace] 2015, 'Good God @woolworths. I could deal with the biscuits, but the #freshinourmemories is revolting. Will it be ANZAC figurines - 2 for $20 next?' Tweet, 14 April 2015, viewed 6 May 2015, https://twitter.com/SpinnerGrace/

La Canna, X 2015, ‘Woolworths takes down Anzac "Fresh in Our Memories" website after social media backlash', ABC News, 15 April, viewed 6 May 2015, http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-04-14/woolworths-under-fire-for-anzac-promotion/6392848

Aubusson, K 2015, ' Woolworths' 'fresh in our memories' debacle puts spotlight on Anzac branding' The Sydney Morning Herald, April 16, viewed 6 May 2015,  http://www.smh.com.au/national/woolworths-fresh-in-our-memories-debacle-puts-spotlight-on-anzac-branding-20150415-1mltt7.html

Wilcox, D, Cameron, G, Reber, B, Shin, J 2013, Think public relations, Pearson Education, New Jersey.

Monitoring and evaluating PR campaigns

There are many aspects of the campaign that need to be measured such as expenditure, timelines and results. In every case, it is absolutely critical that PR campaigns be precisely measured. Kerslake (2015, p.1) explains that an 'effective evaluation can show management the "worth" of the campaign as well as proving its success.'

Source: Farm3 2015

Monitoring is keeping an eye on what is going on in the campaign throughout the process of it. Without this step, it is difficult to address what needs to be changed for the end success of this campaign. An evaluation on the other hand takes place at the end of the campaign and is the overall evaluation of the campaign and if it was successful or not. The PRIA (2014) explains that practitioners should design their public relations campaign to enable effective measurement and planning with demonstrable results in mind such as conducting benchmark research. 

There are various methods to measure concepts like expenditure, timelines and results. Firstly to measure expenditure, it is important to have a spreadsheet for expenditure tracking against a predetermined budget. In regards to measuring timelines, usually a GANT chart is the best method to use as it is easy to track the progression of the campaign. Lastly, to see the results of the campaign, a good method is to ask for feedback. Sending out surveys are a common method to see how the public acted towards the campaign and if it achieved its goal (Wilcox, Cameron, Reber & Shin 2013).

In conclusion, there are two different parts of the measurement process. Monitoring is during the campaign and evaluation is after the campaign. Without measuring the campaign, it would be unclear whether or not the campaign was on the right track or was successful. Therefore, measurement of a campaign is absolutely critical. 

Source: Fresh spectrum 2015

References:

Farm3 2015, Evaluation, digital image, viewed 30 April 2015, http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2795/4514141088_df16489639_o.jpg

Fresh spectrum 2015, evaluation, digital image,viewed 30 April 2015, http://freshspectrum.com/what-is-evaluation-anyway/

Kerslake, T 2015, Module 7: The public relations campaign: monitoring and evaluation, COMM11110, Introduction to Public Relations, CQUniversity e-courses,  https://moodle.cqu.edu.au/course/view.php?id=215

Public Relations Institute of Australia 2014, Statement of principles on best practice in PR measurement and evaluation, viewed 30 April 2015, http://www.pria.com.au/knowledgebank/area?command=record&id=546

Wilcox, D, Cameron, G, Reber, B, Shin, J 2013, Think public relations, Pearson Education, New Jersey. 

#The Uproar of Twitter

Since 2006 with the uproar of the popular social media tool called Twiiter, the world has found communication to become far easier. The rapid rise of social networking sites has dramatically changed the landscape particularly in public relations (Wilcox, Cameron, Reber & Shin 2013). Twitter has been a wonderful platform for PR companies such as Memery who attempt to get a public talking about their client which may be a brand or organisation.    

Twitter Logo
Source: Siteseeker, 2013

The use of hashtags are very important as Twitter (2015) explain that people use this symbol before a relevant keyword in their tweet to categorize those tweets and help them show more easily in the Twitter Search. This becomes easier for the public to search for certain accounts and their messages. Also, the @symbol is used to call out usernames in Tweets. People will use someone’s @username to mention that person in Tweets, send them a message or link to their profile. From this, communicating with the public becomes far easier for a PR company such as Memery. Tweet A shown below is a good example of PR as it is has developed hype about an event to raise money for their client. For every retweet of the created hashtag #tweet4kids, a company was willing to donate $1. Tweet B also successfully proves to be PR. This is evident as the company has created a hashtag #experiential_campaign to create a hype about a certain event for a client.

Memery successfully provides an effective image of each of their clients by generating goodwill and hype via Twitter and other social media tools.

Tweet A
Source:Twitter, 2012

Tweet B
Source: Twitter, 2012

References:

memery [memeryaustralia] 2012, 'Every tweet helps! @Bankwest is donating $1 to @Telethon7 for every #tweet4kids today, so everyone get on board for a great cause!', Tweet, 3 July 2012, viewed 15 April 2015, https://twitter.com/memeryaustralia


memery [memeryaustralia] 2012, 'Bring ur muscle + umbrella! RT @Charlesgilroy1 : Heading to the city to be the hired muscle for the girls are @memeryaustralia #experiential_campaign',Tweet, 11 July 2012, viewed 15 April 2015, https://twitter.com/memeryaustralia


Siteseeker 2013, Twitter logo, digital image, viewed 15 April 2015, http://www.site-seeker.com/wp-content/uploads/twitter-logo.png


Twitter 2014, Using hashtags on twitter, viewed 15 April 2015, https://support.twitter.com/articles/49309-using-hashtags-on-twitter


Wilcox, D, Cameron, G, Reber, B, Shin, J 2013, Think public relations, Pearson Education, New Jersey. 

Public Relation Research is Critical

Source: UNSW, 2015

Research, according to Wilcox, Cameron, Reber & Shin (2013) is an integral part of the planning and development process of a public relation campaign. Without collecting and analysing data, public relation practitioners are unable to make decisions and map out strategies for effective campaigns. Eslake (2006) supports this statement by stating 'in the absence of accurate and reliable information, people and organisations will make bad decisions; they will be unable to help others to make better decisions; and no one will be able to ascertain whether the decisions made by particular individuals or organisations were the best ones that could have been.'

However, in regards to looking for certain research, practitioners must be able to decide what is safe to use and what isn't.  The words 'reliable, 'credible', substantiated' and 'accurate' must be applied to research in order to be able to prove a fact, rather then just providing guesses. The public want to know the facts and they want to know where it came from and how it was proven. Deciding which research adheres to these standards, all comes down to ensuring research is collected and derived from credible sources. Eunson (2012) states that sources can include primary research such as surveys, and secondary data that is a re-examination of primary data such as encyclopedias. However, all this data should be extracted from experienced research companies, statistic and government websites or peer reviewed journal articles, rather then an individual voicing their 'gueses' on their blog or on Wikipedia. 

Source: Quickmeme, 2015

Data needs to be proven by qualified individuals that can provide evidence, in order for it to be 'reliable, 'credible, 'substantiated' and 'accurate'. From this, the public will be able to have trust in public relation practitioners and their related campaigns as it will be valid and genuine. 

References:

Eslake, S 2006, The importance of accurate, reliable and timely data, viewed 31 March 2015, http://www.anz.com/documents/economics/The_Importance_of_Data.pdf 

Eunson, B 2012, Communicating in the 21st century, John Wiley & Sons, Milton.

Quick meme 2015, digital image, viewed 31 March 2015, http://www.quickmeme.com/Actual-Advice-Mallard/page/1816

UNSW 2015, Research groups, digital image, viewed 31 March 2015, http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/what-is-cse/types-of-cse/research-groups/

Wilcox, D, Cameron, G, Reber, B, Shin, J 2013, Think public relations, Pearson Education, New Jersey. 

The Boston Tea Party

'Public relations played a role in building support for the conflict that led to American Independence' (Wilcox, Cameron, Reber, & Shin 2013, p. 45). Samuel Adams, a famous public relations pioneer, was responsible for the orchestration of the Boston Tea Party which was considered 'the greatest and best-known publicity stunt of all time' (Wilcox et al. 2013, p. 45). This is evident by Smith (2008) who stated that the Boston Tea Party was a pseudo-event that was designed to shock and mock the British tea tax. It was also used to symbolise colonial defiance, however it left many colonists shocked and outraged. The campaign involved colonists throwing crates of tea from a British trade ship into the Boston harbour to protest unnecessary taxation on items such as tea (Boston Tea Party Historical Society 2008).

Figure 1: The Boston Tea Party
Source: WND, 2014

Although there are similar comparisons between advertising and public relations such as both communicating their messages through media, the two have a few differences.  Advertising is about paid space and broadcast time. On the other hand, public relations refers to relating to an event (Wilcox et al. 2013).  This campaign was heavily public relations orientated rather than advertising as it did not depend on paid broadcast time and space. Rather, the campaign used press agentry, as well as combining this with clever slogans and symbols to sway public opinion (Wilcox et al. 2012).


This event was a successful public relations campaign, however this campaign could not be used in today's society. This is because nowadays we conform to political correctness and this event caused a lot of controversy as it was not only planned in secrecy but the way the event itself was carried out shocked society which can be seen as unethical (Smith 2008).

References:

Boston Tea Party Historical Society 2008, The full description of the events, viewed 23 March 2015, http://www.boston-tea-party.org/in-depth.html

Wilcox, D, Cameron, G, Reber, B, Shin, J 2013, Think public relations, Pearson Education,  New Jersey.

WND 2014, Boston tea party painting currier, digital image, viewed 23 March 2015, http://www.wnd.com/2014/01/new-irs-rules-would-scuttle-tea-parties/boston-tea-party-painting-currier/

Smith, R.D 2008, Public relations history, viewed 23 March 2015, Public relations history, viewed 23 March 2015, http://cw.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415994224/pioneersinpublicrelations.asp