Recent events in Vancouver have had me musing about the role the media and Vancouver Police media strategy have had and the law of unintended consequences. If you search up "1994 Vancouver riot", you come across 3,270,000 results. Clicking on "news" results in 1310 results, 1280 in the past month. Remember where the Internet was in 1994? Here is a May 25th article via the Canadian press as an example of the media frenzy leading up to the events of June 15th events (http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5ivkrDt7XKuL99fSaWJZB-4lMcxdw?docId=6956869) There are thousands of articles and news items just like it.
Consider your mental state as a young adult with a few adult beverages consumed. Most of the people involved in the 2011 riot were not adults or even teenagers in 1994. So in the last month, these young people, searching to find themselves and eager to come together in groups for a common party have heard, read and viewed thousands of messages telling them about the 1994 riots. The last time Vancouver was in the Stanley Cup final, that's what Vancouver fans did, was the message. 17 years later, here is our chance to participate in history was the mantra of all of these young adults. They took pictures and video of themselves and others uploaded them to the Internet, then the media went wild putting their pictures and video on Television and live coverage of the event. These young adults could not have been more thrilled with the outcome. They will have stories to tell their children and pass this tradition along to them.
So what does this have to do with business marketing you might ask? Simple. Really consider the mistakes of the Vancouver police PR department when considering a media strategy. Consider all the consequences, intended and unintended before you start. You might be considering complaining to the media about taxes or city services. Then consider how the city might react and how your customers will view it before deciding what to say. Listen to what the public and your customers value and take that into consideration before starting your media strategy. Until next time, I'm Larry "The Ad Man".
Consider your mental state as a young adult with a few adult beverages consumed. Most of the people involved in the 2011 riot were not adults or even teenagers in 1994. So in the last month, these young people, searching to find themselves and eager to come together in groups for a common party have heard, read and viewed thousands of messages telling them about the 1994 riots. The last time Vancouver was in the Stanley Cup final, that's what Vancouver fans did, was the message. 17 years later, here is our chance to participate in history was the mantra of all of these young adults. They took pictures and video of themselves and others uploaded them to the Internet, then the media went wild putting their pictures and video on Television and live coverage of the event. These young adults could not have been more thrilled with the outcome. They will have stories to tell their children and pass this tradition along to them.
So what does this have to do with business marketing you might ask? Simple. Really consider the mistakes of the Vancouver police PR department when considering a media strategy. Consider all the consequences, intended and unintended before you start. You might be considering complaining to the media about taxes or city services. Then consider how the city might react and how your customers will view it before deciding what to say. Listen to what the public and your customers value and take that into consideration before starting your media strategy. Until next time, I'm Larry "The Ad Man".
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