Here is the Video Posted by Unitech City Residents depicting the plight of their affairs at one of the residential complexes. After a number of complaints, the residents decided to post a home video on You Tube and also number of pictures on Flickr.
Amazingly, with only 1700 views , this video was broadcasted on NDTV tonight!! Another example of Web 2.0 as a democracy. Imagine! a simple online Video becomes a PR nightmare for a company as big as Unitech.
The evolution of online media in India is almost like infant on steriods.Suddenly, the consumer is not just the King but also the voice that will be heard across multiple channels. As a marketer, I do feel bad for Unitech as well. Type Unitech Group on google and this Video ranks among the top searches!! If only Unitech was able to act quicker and get the video off air, the reputation would not have been at stake on National Media.
The big one I am thinking about right now is "how do you manage this if things go really wrong."In a way it's not really different from traditional media mayhem, yet the speed of distribution and the fact that the internet "remembers" makes it a bit more tricky. Responsible participation by companies is significant and can sometimes slow the damage. It also reinforces the need for blog monitoring to detect early word of mouth events. In times when we are investing hugely in PR agencies, it becomes critical to monitor ' online' reputation proactively and take corrective measures before its too late.
Monday, July 23, 2007
You Tube- A PR Nightmare?
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2 comments:
as a marketing professioanl and having dwelled in corporate strategy, i find this article extremely useful and timely.
as a reader of stories.. highly engrossing!
keep shattering the keys!
cheers
Imagine a Customer makes the BIGGEST purchase of their life,using hard earned money and a BIG Mortgage.ie. a Rs. 90 lakhs Uniworld city flat DIRECT from Unitech...soon to be Rs. 2Cr at "Grande"NOIDA. For essential repairs, the customer is fobbed off again and again and again by the Unitech team(contrast this with a Unitech manager moving in to a flat in the same complex...the same Unitech team fawns sickeningly over him, spends many many men and man hours doing up the manager's flat for weeks in a pristine manner,while ignoring the other customers. Unitech really take care of their staff at Uniworld city)...the customers are watching a dvd of lagey raho munna bhai on a hot sunday afternoon in june. They also happen to be web 2.0 EXPERTS...gandhigiri web 2.0 style during the bapu's birthday year is born 10 june 2007..
Life imitates ART...
Then NDTV comes along...the rest is now on nationaltv and of course on youtube.
The ONLY smart things that Unitech management need to do is:-
1. FIX ALL the Uniworld city customers issues...the cost for the whole complex would not be more than 1cr...its really worth spending it. You have an opportunity of turning critics into fans and satisfied customers...have you EVER thought about WHO actually lives in these complexes?? You do NOT want them to bad mouth you;
2. Request the youtube video owner to remove it, once the work is done...maybe even offer them a consulting job on how best Unitech should be leveraging web 2.0 instead of their idiotic marketing dept. Funny...the web 2.0 experts have Not even started using their skills in creative ways that would make this youtube video look like childs play.
...lets see what time brings ....
Fact is,the longer the video is left on Youtube..it will gather a momentum of its own that may cost crores in Brand Reputation,lost sales and Management time...surely its cheaper to fulfill promises??
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