Category: Case Studies

Positive response to Cisco’s corporate blog

A quick follow up post to my last comment about Cisco’s lawsuit against Apple for the use of the trademark iPhone. On a forum like a corporate blog you are bound to have many supporters, but critics are also known to come running. So when I read through the 50+ first comments on Cisco’s blog I noticed that the supportive outnumbered the critics by about 5 to 1, which is very good. Here are a few good examples and especially note the ones calling out for a (blog) response from Steve Jobs:

“Excellent response. It’s amazing what wonders blogging can do.”

“This post reflects Cisco’s openness in their communication. Very well explained. I just wished Apple showed some respect to Cisco’s and its openhandedness.”

“I am impressed by Cisco’ transparency and willingness to communicate, especially so when these traits are exhibited by the senior management. Congratulations, Cisco. You’re doing very well indeed.”

“Excellent. Absolutely excellent, and that’s coming from as big an Apple fan as you’re likely to ever encounter. What Jobs and Company did was (and is) wrong.”

“Very well stated. Apple, where are you? Oh, that’s right, you guys don’t blog…”

“Hats off to Cisco for your candor on the subject and willingness to have a dialog with comments open to all-comers. Steve Jobs? Care to chime in here?”

“I am an Apple fan indeed, but I must say I fully understand and support your point of view. Thank you for the excellent answer, it is time for Apple to think that way, too.”

“I’ve never seen a suit explained as clearly as this before. Your openness is the reason that you will prevail in this suit. Thanks for posting this information for all of us to read! Great idea to blog it!”

The opinion battle is far from won for Cisco. The biggest criticism against the company is that they seem to want a piece of the action rather than just to sell or license the trademark. But they are off to a good start.

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Corporate blog supports Cisco in iPhone lawsuit

Cisco yesterday announced that it has filed a lawsuit against Apple, “to prevent Apple from infringing upon and deliberately copying and using Cisco’s registered iPhone trademark.” For communicators it is expecially interesting to check out how Cisco uses its corporate blog to support the official press release. In the blog, Mark Chandler, Cisco’s SVP and General Counsel, is able to add pathos to the story, appealing to the emotions of the audience. Apple on the other hand does not have an official corporate blog to my knowledge which could be a disadvantage at this stage. Advantage Cisco.

[Via WSJ Law Blog.]

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Moss – the perfect poker face

Kate Moss has been offered £5m to front the online poker site nine.com, according to Brand Republic (reg. required). The gambling site has offered Moss a five-year contract to be the face of its new campaign. The contract would come with restrictions, including time in rehab and monitoring to prove she is not taking drugs. Moss was also asked to participate in a nine.com-sponsored anti-drugs campaign aimed at students.

Jack Abrams, a nine.com spokesman, said: “We did a quick focus group with some customers to see if they would be offended in any way and the response was an overwhelming, ‘No — please get Kate Moss as your spokesperson’.”

Sure, poker players would vote for Spongebob Squarepants as spokesperson, as long as it would lure more players into the game.

Swedish corporates are pitching bloggers

Having spent three weeks in my summer house in July, I had to wade through hundreds of emails when I returned back to civilization. One of them was from one of largest companies in Sweden, I will spare you which one because I am a friend of their head of PR. I believe it is the first time I have been approached by the communications department of a large Swedish company in my role as a blogger. I’m glad that public relations professionals are aware that bloggers are influential and potentially a target for PR pitches. But when it is performed in such a clueless way, I’m baffled.

First of all, the PR person hasn’t read my blog. If she had, she would know that I never ever write about stuff from her company’s industry. Is it really so hard to figure out that I blog about PR and media? It is in the headline. I do not blog about your products.

Second, if you are in the process of sending out a mass mailing, please make sure that I don’t feel like I’m on the receiving end of a spam attack. The email I got had obviously been forwarded at least once, so it had the “>” sign before every line, and the second half of the first sentence had apparently been edited, because it had a different color than all the other lines, at least in my email program. Translated:

> Hello,
>
> You receive this email because you are one of the most frequently read and
noticed blogs in Sweden.
>
> We wonder if you are interested in subscribing to press releases from XYZ?

Now, I am not trying to be mean, rather show that if you are pitching bloggers, you need even more finesse and fingerspitzgefühl than if you are pitching journalists. Not the other way around because bloggers will tell everyone that you’re making a mistake. Besides, it would have been smarter to let people sign up to press release subscriptions via the online press room or via RSS, but of course you can’t.

Kryptonite crisis and its impact on the blogosphere

Dave Sifry has an interesting graph on the number of blog posts in the blogosphere and how it relates to certain events. The Kryptonite bike lock controversy for example created two spikes – first when the news broke in the blogosphere, and second when traditional media picked up on the story which made bloggers discuss the implications.

The Kryptonite case will go down in history as classic example on what happens to a company’s reputation if it fails to handle crisis PR in a blog enabled world.

Via Mymarkup.

Playstation a no-no in Swedish prisons

In the light of the recent jailbreaks in Sweden, perhaps it is understandable that a certain amount of paranoia has struck the Swedish Prison and Probation Service. Now, no prisoners are allowed to have Sony Playstations in their cells because “they can be manipulated for making wireless communication“.

In the 90s, computer games were allowed in Swedish prisons, but due to the technical development of the games, prison managers fear that they will be used to send SMS and email, with the purpose of planning an escape or to smuggle drugs etc.

I guess prison blogs are out of the question then…?