How to Avoid PR Missteps: Know Your Audience

The New York Times recently wrote about a PR stunt gone awry. Last month, ConAgra, and their PR firm, Ketchum, hosted a dinner at an NYC restaurant for food and mom bloggers with George Duran, host of TLC’s “Ultimate Cake Off,” and food industry analyst, Phil Lempert. The bloggers were told they were in for a “delicious four-course meal,” Duran’s “one-of-a-kind sangria,” and to learn about food trends…attendees were also promised “an unexpected surprise.”

The event attendees did mingle with Duran and Lempert, but much to their surprise, the food was provided by Marie Callender’s, a frozen line from ConAgra Foods.

The bloggers were not told they were eating Marie Callender’s food at first. Hidden cameras were put in place to capture the reactions of the bloggers when they found out the lasagna and dessert were both from Marie Callender’s.

Events like this have been proven effective in years past. Pizza Hut successfully promoted their Tuscan pasta line by serving consumers the dishes at a high-end restaurant, and following dinner, unveiled the truth that the food was provided by Pizza Hut rather than the restaurant’s chef. If you’re not familiar with the commercial, you can watch it here.

Keeping in mind it was a commercial produced by Pizza Hut, consumers appeared to be genuinely and pleasantly surprised; even entertained by the bait-and-switch. To ConAgra’s surprise, their event didn’t play out as well with some of the bloggers in attendance.

“Our entire meal was a SHAM!” wrote one of the attendees, Suzanne Chan, founder of Mom Confessionals, in response to the event.

FoodMayhem.com, co-blogger, Lon Binder wrote: “We discussed with the group the sad state of chemical-filled foods. And yet, you still fed me the exact thing I said I did not want to eat.”

ConAgra stated they did not intend to upset the bloggers. In response to the negative reactions, ConAgra even offered to reimburse attendees for expenses like cab fare.

Despite some of the controversy, ConAgra reported that most of the people who attended enjoyed themselves, and had a positive impression of Marie Callender’s.

Ketchum Public Relations, who represents ConAgra, was criticized by the Public Relations Society of America.

Deborah A. Silverman, head of the Board of Ethics and Professional Standards at the PRSA, stated the promotion was “unfortunate” and “not quite where they should be in terms of honesty.”

Ms. Silverman added, “Ketchum has an excellent reputation for high ethical standards,” and “the social media realm (including bloggers) is new territory for public relations practitioners, and I view this as a valuable learning opportunity.”

I agree with Silverman’s statement that PR professionals are still learning to navigate the social media and blogger sphere. Working with bloggers and promoting positive conversation online is not a simple task.

Social media (including blogs) makes companies, brands, and individuals vulnerable to criticism, negative press/comments, and sometimes even slander. There is no way for a PR or marketing professional to control online conversation or tone.

Binder ended up writing a long blog post in response to the event – condemning George Duran and accusing him of selling out to sponsor ConAgra.

What’s tricky about bloggers is they have the freedom to express their opinions. They don’t necessarily have to report the unbiased truth – they can have an opinion, and almost always do. This is different from articles where traditional journalists are reporting the facts rather than their feelings.

There is no “right” way to work with bloggers, but I always rely on the PR 101 lessons I learned early on in my career. One of the essential PR rules is: know your audience. Just like a traditional journalist, you need to do a lot of research on bloggers; maybe even more so. Educate yourself on what they write, what they stand for, what products they review and endorse, etc. FoodMayhem.com blogger Lon Binder made strong statements against chemically enhanced foods the night of the event. I can’t say for certain if Ketchum could have known Binder’s food politics were based on his past blog posts, but it’s important for PR professionals to do their homework so they can avoid issues like this one.

For example, if a mom blogger is taking about Whole Foods and organic and sustainable farms on her blog, she might not be the right person to target for a frozen food meal. And furthermore, will probably be upset if you feed her that food without her knowledge.

I’m not a fan of processed or frozen food, but I also wouldn’t consider myself a “foodie.” I personally think some of the bloggers reactions were a bit over the top, but they are entitled to their opinion; and the Internet and social media allows them to disseminate their thoughts.

Although this event might have been a bit misleading, I don’t think the intent was to upset or alienate attendees. Rather, Ketchum executed a PR stunt that has proven effective in the past; and to their credit, was a different, and somewhat “out of the box” idea. Clearly, it was a learning experience for Ketchum, and PR professionals everywhere, as our industry works towards building stronger blogger relations practice areas.