Pass the Mic Blog

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) have been items of hot debate in the tech world this month. According to Christina DesMarais of PC World,  this may “possibly be the most contentious uproar seen on Capitol Hill and in the tech world ever.”

Originally, the bills provided a primary means of fighting online piracy. By forcing service providers to block infringing domain names, it would be more difficult to access file sharing hubs or other copyright violating websites. Furthermore, according to Jared Newman of PC World,  the bills would seek court orders “requiring payment providers, advertisers, and search engines to stop doing business with an infringing site.” Although this may hinder many online pirates from downloading with ease, it would also open the door to a new type of online censorship. Governmental control over Internet access could snowball into general censorship over opinion, content creation and social media. After public discovery of SOPA and PIPA, protests flooded many blog sites, Twitter, Facebook and news channels as technophiles around the world voiced their opinions. The uproar culminated into a 7,000-site blackout on January 18, 2012 and support from the Internet hacktivist group Anonymous.

What specifically caused the commotion and how it could have been handled differently? I believe that there were two core fallacies behind SOPA and PIPA that created a whirlwind of bad press. These fallacies could have been easily fixed by applying very basic PR principles.

Communication Failed From the Top Down
Those of us in PR know how quickly opinions can sour if communication is not handled in a professional way. SOPA and PIPA supporters were at a loss with communicative explanations for the bill and its intended purposes. Mel Watt (D) North Carolina, ranking member of the Intellectual Property Subcommittee stated that he was “not a nerd and didn’t understand a lot of the technological stuff.” This sentiment was soon followed by Zoe Lofgren (D) California, Darrell Issa (R) California and Jason Chaffetz (R) Utah, who all stated that they were not enough of a nerd to understand the issue. One step that could have helped mitigate the social upheaval would have been better communication with stakeholders. Obviously, congressional members had spoken with lobbyists from Hollywood’s powerhouses, but hadn’t discussed the issues with bloggers, online journalists or the technology industry at large. Worse yet, congress retaliated to the protests with public name-calling. The generalizations were astonishing. Apparently, all those in the technology industry, anyone who publishes online content, as well as general Internet end-users are, for all intensive purposes, “nerds.” Jon Stewart,  host of the Daily Show and news comedian, stated it perfectly when he responded, “Really? Nerds? You know, actually, I think the word you’re looking for is ‘experts.’” Communication is key. Communicating professionally, early and often could’ve alleviated this issue.

Research Didn’t Exist
Another PR101 lesson that would have helped the SOPA and PIPA bills would have been better understanding of the dialogue and audience. Had the congressmen understood the terminology in the bill and read the bill as a whole, they would have better grasped the consequences and the possible infringement on the 1st amendment it could cause. One of the first lessons learned in PR, either in school or on the job, you must understand what your client does. How can you represent your client if you don’t understand what they do? How can a congress represent the citizen-base if they don’t understand what we do? Lack of research and comprehension can be devastating in any field.

Through research, shared vision and communication SOPA and PIPA could have helped prevent the expansion of online piracy, along with protecting the rights of online content creators. According to Eugene Lee, the CEO of Socialtext, SOPA and PIPA identified and targeted the wrong side of the issue. Lee asks, “how would we solve the problem if it were analog? Would we shut down video stores if an independent film company made a movie that violated copyright? We need to start with a rational assessment of the problem and propose solutions that make sense for both the protection of copyright and the protection of innovation.”

With thorough communication around the issue and research backing the solution, PR basics (and a little common sense) can make problem solving more effective in any field.

—Majhon Phillips

Over the next two weeks, three teams will be gearing up for Super Bowl XLVI. You read correctly, three teams. Not only will the New York Giants and New England Patriots be battling it out at Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium, another team will take to a different field – the social media field.

This past Monday, the Super Bowl committee announced that the most watched sporting event will have the first-ever Social Media Command Center. In the lead up to the game, a local digital marketing firm will send a team of roughly 50 strategists, analysts and techies to monitor the digital fan conversation on various social media channels. The people in the command center include college journalism, public relations and telecommunications majors from Ball State University, Butler University and Indiana University and they will work out of a 2,800-square-foot space facility that utilizes over a mile of Ethernet cable.

You might be asking what are these people going to do all day? Troll around on social media channels? Essentially, yes. But there is very good reasoning behind this approach. This social media super team will monitor the Web for the 150,000+ football fanatics who will descend on Indianapolis for the game. The team will specifically be looking for key words and phrases to help the out-of-towners maneuver around Indy, providing directions, parking information, things-to-do around town provide alerts should an emergency arise.

The super team concept is pretty novel, if you ask me. Indianapolis is effectively utilizing the social media super team as virtual tour guides. With cash-strapped cities looking to lure visitors in order to jump-start local economies, this is a cost-effective tool that can be used for future events as well.  If well-executed, it could have a profound effect on the people attending the event and enhance their experience. The super team concept could very well catch on with other major sporting event such as the Olympics, World Cup, World Series, and NASCAR – all major events with significant online interactivity. The beauty of the super team concept is not limited to just sporting events as it could also be applied to big tradeshows such as the Consumer Electronic Show, or even multi-day music events like Coachella and Stage Coach.

Many of you may be shaking your head and saying sure, this is a great concept, but the mobile networks will get bogged down, fail to support the increased online traffic and kill the experience? Not so fast. Recent reports indicate Verizon and AT&T have spent millions of dollars to prepare their networks for the influx of data usage in the Indianapolis area. AT&T has also deployed nine COW’s  (Cell on Wheels)  which will boost high speed 3G and 4G LTE service to the surrounding area to help alleviate the added stress on the networks. The city of Indianapolis will most definitely benefit from these advances in the long run.

Sports fans are without a doubt that are the most rabid in social media posts as record-setting Tim Tebow tweets clock in at a solid 9,420 tweets per second  and last summer’s Women’s World Cup finals approached that with 7,196 tweets per second. The Super Bowl’s groundbreaking Social Media Command Center is more proof that people, especially sports fanatics, prefer to communicate via social media than any other outlet available today.

Do you see Social Media Command Centers catching on? What events do you see this concept being adapted for?

— Marta Weissenborn

We’ve been busy in the first 20 days of 2012 at McGrath/Power Public Relations!

We are proud to welcome the future of networking to our client base.  We have won two new clients critical to the next generation of this industry – the Open Networking Foundation and the Open Networking Summit.

The Open Networking Foundation was founded in 2011 by Deutsche Telekom, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Verizon, and Yahoo!  ONF is rethinking networking and collaboratively bringing new standards and solutions to the market, including the highly topical OpenFlow. ONF is accelerating the delivery and use of Software-Defined Networking (SDN) standards and fostering a vibrant market of products, services, applications, customers, and users.

The 2nd Open Networking Summit is the premier official /Software Defined Networking event of the year.  The two-day Summit will highlight the latest SDN developments and bring all stakeholders from the networking and cloud computing industries into an intimate, focused and high-energy setting.

M/P won these two related, yet separate networking entities based on the agency’s work in the SDN market on behalf of other clients including IP Infusion and ConteXtream along with an extensive list of event and association clients including Digital Living Home Alliance (DLNA) and The Video Electronics Standards Associations (VESA).

We are also proud to welcome two new partners to the Worldcom Public Relations Group family.

Com&Sense is based in Tel Aviv, Israel and focused on finances, law, publishing and B2B. We are excited about this new partner as many of our technology clients are beginning to market in Israel and Com&Sense will allow us to extend our programs into this region.

Oxenstierna & Partners is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden and specializes in B2B and investor relations.
Both of these agencies demonstrate the global reach and strength of the Worldcom partnership.

–Jonathan Bloom

I’ll bet you one of my children that numerous exhibitors at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show are standing in their booths today asking “why?”

“Why am I here?”

“Why did we think this show would be a good vehicle to announce news?”

“Why are we not getting any attention?”

“Why should I do this again?

To the last query, I would answer: You shouldn’t.

While I think CES is a fun show to wander, I am not a fan of CES to communicate company news.  In fact, I am not much of a fan of any large-scale trade show as a place to be heard at any level.

Yes, we have clients attending the show and, yes, we are communicating on their behalf before and during CES.  But it wasn’t our first choice.

And it shouldn’t be yours.

Literally hundreds of companies thought issuing news and doing some level of promotional activities at CES would pay dividends.  The majority of them wasted their time, energy and budget because they believe that they will be rise above the boisterous conversations at this industry event.  Sure, it would be nice to capture the industry attention while everybody is in one place but that is a dream for the vast majority of companies that flock like lemmings to Las Vegas.

The days of the tradeshow are numbered in my opinion and I am not alone.  Apple long ago pulled out of CES and Microsoft announced plans this year that the 2012 CES would be its last.  Hey, I am not dogging CES alone.  I’ve been attending trade shows for nearly 30 years and we have represented several events including a five-year run with the RSA Conference and this year’s forthcoming Open Networking Summit.  Industry events have a definite place in the landscape.  For certain (read: large) companies, they can be effective as communications’ vehicles.  For the majority, however, not so much.

Back in the day, major shows like CES and Comdex were “must drop” events, meaning every company no matter what size or how important would drop news at the show.  Period.  Also back in the day, we did some pretty wild things to break through the growing clutter at shows including conducting an actual funeral for a product that competed with a client’s offering.  As recently as last year, we did sky writing over an Apple industry conference.  Both were effective but for different reasons.

The funeral was a hit because we broke the rules and created a stir on the show floor.  ‘Nuff said on that.  The sky writing was a huge success because it was in the physical world outside the show and the event was concentrated on a single venue.  Venue “creep” ultimately helped doom Comdex and it makes it hard to break through the noise.  Noise and size doom attention seeking small and mid-size companies.

When it comes to maximizing communications activities at shows, we counsel clients to view them strategically:

> Don’t use a show to communicate long-form information – you will only get brief attention spans from influencers and you run the risk of not being heard.
> Don’t make the show your focal point.  Think of it as the period at the end of a sentence.
> Plan to get heard by influencers or other target audiences in advance of a show.
> Use that advance buzz to attract your audience during the event.
> Consider a two-pronged news approach in which the primary announcement drops 2-4 weeks in advance and a follow up “show announcement” reiterates the key points in a show wrapper
> Consider using social media as a means to connect with show attendees on site and build further buzz onsite – but don’t rely on at-show social as the primary vehicle for the same attention span challenges mentioned previously.
> Only undertake a creative attention-getting if it is actually creative and actually capable of gaining attention (most aren’t).

Of course, if you have a highly recognizable brand with a highly newsworthy announcement, a show like CES can be an effective part of your marketing mix.  Few companies can claim that mantle and many of them are unfortunately left asking “why?” long after the event has concluded.

–Jonathan Bloom

My phone recently called it quits on me. While it may not have been the end of the world, it was the end of my mobile world; for a week at least. After the tech specialists deemed my phone unfixable, I had to get a new one. Lucky for me, I had insurance. Unlucky for me, my phone model was no longer sold in stores and a replacement had to be ordered. ETA: One week.

While this was quite an inconvenience to live through, it was also an eye opener to see how much one person relies on that little electronic we toss in our purse or tuck in our pocket. I was left without any form of mobile communication or information flow, and I quickly realized how much we rely on our smartphones to interact with people and the world around us. I also quickly realized how hard it is to find a payphone, but I digress.

When I say communicate, this not only includes voice calling, but extends to sending emails, posting on Facebook, shooting out text messages, checking in on Foursquare, browsing the web, Tweeting and more. While I was out and about, I had no idea what was going on and nobody knew where I was. I wasn’t able to call my mom from the road to tell her  I was on my way to visit and I couldn’t text my boyfriend to let him know I would pick up dinner. I couldn’t check my emails so I felt a little lost as to what was happening at work while I was away from my desk. I wasn’t able to login to Facebook, and as odd as it is, I missed a dinner invite from one of my girlfriends.  I couldn’t browse the internet for local news, traffic and weather updates, and I wasn’t able to “check-in” to my current location.

Earlier this year, Pew Research released a report on how mobile phones have become a near-ubiquitous tool for information seeking and communicating. The research revealed that 83 percent of American adults own some kind of mobile device. Text messaging and picture taking topped the list of ways that Americans use their mobile phones, shortly followed by content sharing and going online. A similar report from Current Results showed that people spent half the time on their smartphones to keep in touch with others through emails, text messages and phone calls.

The shift towards mobile in the way we communicate and consume information has had a direct impact on how professionals interact with each other and how businesses engage with consumers. People being mobile and constantly online have influenced when and where we can communicate with other professionals, whether they are colleagues, clients or journalists. We can answer urgent emails from the grocery store and take conference calls from the airport. I have even received text messages from a reporter about a meeting.  Moreover, news outlets themselves have begun publishing stories differently and creating apps so they are more reader friendly on the gadgets we view them on, thus creating a direct impact on the way information is packaged.  From a business perspective, there has been a shift toward mobile marketing because consumers are acquiring their content differently through mobile devices. This includes couponing, advertising, QR codes, app development and social media.

There is a lot of information online about mobility, smartphones and the way we communicate. I highly suggest that you check out this great roundup of infographics that shows just how big the world of mobile marketing and communications is, and how fast it is growing. You may be surprised to find that two hundred trillion text messages are received in America every day.

–Katie Peterson

Every holiday season, the iconic soda maker Coca-Cola issues the traditional holiday edition soda cans. This year was no different.

For this holiday season, Coca-Cola decided to create an attention-grabbing campaign by putting regular Coke in winter white cans with polar bears roaming the can. Coca-Cola has stated the design was in conjunction with the World Wildlife Fund to highlight global warming’s threat to polar bears’ Arctic habitat. While the cause is commendable, the color change has left Coca-Cola out in the cold.

Historically, regular Coke has been packaged in the classic red can while Diet Coke has been packaged in the polar opposite silver can. Consumers have been conditioned to visually understand the difference between the red and silver cans without having to read the label. This holiday season, diabetics across the nation are seeing a spike in their blood sugar all because of a little fun with color.

The Coca-Cola faithful have taken to social media to express their displeasure with the holiday cans. The main issue at hand is how strikingly similar the holiday edition regular Coke and Diet Coke cans are. Since the uproar over the can color, Coca-Cola has decided to scrap the white holiday cans and quickly replace them on store shelves with red holiday edition cans as early as this week.

While changing an iconic label is not unheard of, there has to be a substantial reason behind the transformation. Let’s explore a few reasons:

You should change a label if:
> The business is growing – As a business evolves so does the consumers. The business needs to be able to adapt as it progresses to their consumers changing needs and perspectives.
> Product repositioning – Brands often need to realign or redirect company goals. In this case designing a new identity with a logo or color scheme change is an effective way to come across as modern and fresh.
> Your brand is outdated – Ever look at an old picture of a Campbell’s soup can? What if they never update the soup pictures or the layout of the label? They wouldn’t exist. If your label looks outdated, your brand probably is too. Labels need to transform with society.

You shouldn’t change a label if:
> Your brand is having an identity crisis – So your brand hasn’t caught on just yet, that is not a reason to up and change the color scheme or logo. Changing your brand’s identity too often can make the brand seem unstable.  Consumers like consistency.
> You want to create buzz – Changing your brand identity to create buzz, can have serious backlash. In the social media world, how a person expresses their pleasure or displeasure of a brand on social media channels has a trickledown effect.  Consumers’ are highly influenced by their peers and social media gives them a soapbox to stand on.
> Everyone else is doing it – Just because your competition is changing or altering their brand does not mean it is the best decision at the time for your brand. Have your own identity.

Brands evolve and change over time; they have to in order to stay relevant. But it is how the company executes the change that makes it a smooth transition or an epic fail. Could you imagine if one day, McDonald’s went from golden arches to green arches?

Do you have an example of how a brand successfully or unsuccessfully changed their logo? Share with us in the comments section below.

–Marta  Weissenborn

According to a new study, this holiday season people are closer connected than they have ever been before.  You may still have to travel hundreds of miles for grandma’s homemade holiday pies, but you may only be a short distance from Peru. I’m not suggesting a pseudo-universe by any means. However, the digital landscape has paved a better road for a different kind of distance—Degrees of Separation.

The famous Small World experiment by Stanley Milgram in the 1960’s coined the popular term “Six Degrees of Separation.” His attempt to quantify social networks by a range of distance between two people intrigued the general public. His findings showed that six links in a social network could connect any two people in the world. Although the research received criticism, his findings paved the way for a new consciousness in social networking.

For many people in my generation, the idea of social networking didn’t exist before the Internet and sites like MySpace and Facebook. What has social networking in the digital landscape done to change Milgram’s idea regarding degrees of separation? According to Facebook and the Università degli Studi di Milano, social media sites have built direct highways, helping to connect people with shorter travel time than we have ever seen in history. In fact, according to this new study, the average Facebook user is only 4.74 degrees away from any other Facebook user around the world, and possibly only 3 links away from another Facebooker in their home nation.

This is exciting news for those of us interested in communications, networking and Public Relations. Not only has the world gained another billion people since Stanley Milgram, but we’ve also lessened the degrees of separation! This means that all we have to do is connect to a friend on Facebook, who will connect us to someone else, who will connect us to whoever we want—and then we’re done, right? Err…not so fast.

For those of us in PR, we have learned about and applied the phenomenon of Social Media in the workplace and in our own personal lives—sometimes to the point of forgetting about RL (Real Life). We tend to neglect RL connections (remember your extended family and friends in Ohio?), RL communications (what’s that strange device hanging on the wall with numbers 0-9?) and even RL community (you mean people used to get linked via other methods than LinkedIn?).

Social networks have worked wonders by building bridges to connect people around the world with ease of use, speed and shortened degrees of separation, but what they gain in simplicity, they lack in sincerity and personalization. Although it’s easy to send a FB message or DM via Twitter to those media contacts, analysts, clients and customers, a call or face-to-face meeting remains the only way to build lasting memories and connections. I’ve never heard anyone say, “Remember that time we were DMing…OMG! Epic!” It may happen, but it’s rare. Far more often, we recall parties, events, mishaps and mayhem that took place on a personal level, with physical presence in time and space.

This holiday season reminds me that social networking and social media have helped our career by simplifying introductions and creating a landscape of casual interaction. I think we can all be thankful for that! However, as professionals in communication, we shouldn’t let it stop there. For the upcoming month and New Year, I plan to focus on using the tools technology has provided to find connections and build bridges between my social networks, but that’s just the journey. Once I’m there, I hope to build real connections and memories with the friends, colleagues and people who matter the most. My 2012 resolutions revolve around being a part of a wider community, building media, analyst, client and colleague relationships and growing them through RL efforts.

It may be a small world after all—growing smaller all the time. And travel time between connections will consistently shorten as technology grows. This time of year, however, I’m reminding myself that often I can take a quicker, simpler route to get from one place to another, but sometimes it’s the long holiday journey to Grandma’s for that homemade cherry pie that I remember most.

–Majhon Phillips

Any good agency can do solid work.  Product launches, trade show support, standard social media elements…check, check, check.  But few agencies get great opportunities to not only be creative but also move the needle on public opinion.  Earlier this year, we were given an opportunity to do just that in undertaking a bold communications program on behalf of a controversial company in the Internet tablet market.

Fusion Garage had introduced the industry’s first tablet in 2009 – even in advance of Apple’s iPad – but execution issues stalled company and product momentum.  Many people wrote the company off.  Fusion Garage’s CEO asked us for a completely different communications approach to put his brand back on the map.  We gave it to him in the form of an aggressive, parody company called “TabCo.”  The four month campaign not only hinted at something big to come from Fusion Garage, it also poked fun at the industry, its shortcomings and some of the seminal moments that define the market space.  And it worked.

Fusion Garage and its CEO received a much coveted “second chance” by the often fickle influencers and consumers who follow the tablet market.  The industry took notice of the “TabCo” campaign in a big way.  It garnered extensive, positive Twitter commentary and media coverage including initial stories by the likes of Fast Company and All Things Digital.  Just a few short days ago, we were thrilled to read about the campaign from the communications industry perspective when PR Week highlighted TabCo.

It is a rare opportunity to be able to implement a campaign that is a delicious mix of risk/reward, edginess and non-traditional approaches.  It is an even rarer opportunity to have a client that enthusiastically gets behind the campaign and participates like a true partner.  Even though Thanksgiving has passed, we remain thankful for both.

–Jonathan Bloom

Relationships are key in our daily lives. For those of us who have chosen PR as our career, building relationships with the media is our lifeblood. Positive inclusions in a newspaper, magazine or on a key industry blog can help put our clients name on the map, as well as increase their revenue. As PR professionals, it is our job to make this happen.

But, you need to understand that generating positive coverage for your client isn’t about blasting mass emails, press releases or untargeted pitches out aimlessly. In reality, most journalists will tell you that there is nothing more frustrating than finding their inboxes filled with irrelevant pitches from PR professionals. To avoid this, don’t repeatedly spam them with information they can’t use. You need to be a reference that they can come to for help and to make this happen, you need to build a strong, ongoing relationship.

Here are four tips from my experience in working with journalists that will help you to succeed in building a strong relationship with the media:

Be Sure You Understand Their Outlet
Before developing your pitch, you need to first understand the outlet you’re pitching. As I mentioned before, nothing can be more irritating to journalist than to receive off-base pitches while they are under the pressure of meeting a tight deadline. As PR professionals, we must understand each of the outlets that we work with, as well as how they are structured and their timelines for story development. Take the time necessary to familiarize yourself with the outlets and stories that your targeted journalist typically covers to ensure that your client is relevant. Fully understanding who and what they cover will go a long way towards building a long-term relationship.

Always Personalize Your Pitches
No one likes impersonal communication. Make sure that you take that extra couple of minutes with every encounter you have with them to personalize your interaction. I highly recommend that you read up on what the journalist has recently covered and incorporate this you’re your pitch or general follow up. Keeping your pitch personal will let the journalist know that you understand their coverage area and is key to building a relationship. Also, every interaction doesn’t need to be a pitch. I’ve found that just checking in with a journalist to let them know that they recently wrote an interesting article can be very beneficial in the relationship building process.

Don’t Bait and Switch
Journalists are always on deadline and they don’t have time to play games. If you pitch a story, or source, that they are interested in, be sure you can deliver. Nothing can sour a relationship with a journalist faster than failing to meet their expectations by promising an interview with your clients CEO and then having a marketing director on the call. The same goes for story pitching. If a journalist goes into a call expecting one thing, and you turn around and talk about something completely different, chances are you might not get a second opportunity with the journalist.

Saying Thank You Goes a Long Way
After a story featuring your client appears, don’t forget to say thank you. This doesn’t have to be a long-winded, gushing letter. It could be a sentence or two that lets the journalist know that you appreciate the time and effort he or she put into the piece. This simple act of appreciation can be the difference between continued coverage with a journalist or not. Whenever a journalist covers one of my clients, I always send a short note thanking them for their time and offering the client up as a source for future pieces. This shows appreciation for their hard work and I for one know that it’s nice to be acknowledged.  I’m sure they do too.

Those are a few recommendations that I have from my personal experience. Do you have any other tips that work for you? How do you build strong relationships with the media? Please leave your thoughts below.

- John Kreuzer

Earlier this week, the San Jose Mercury News reporting some shocking numbers: Netflix lost almost one million subscribers after the company announced pricing and services changes.  The article called Netflix management and the company’s external communications “tone deaf.”  How did a Silicon Valley mainstay company and consumer darling fall so hard and so fast?  Let’s take a look.

“We need to be transparent.” I hear that at least once a week from my colleague and McGrath|Power CEO, Jonathan Bloom. I fully agree, so I’ll start this post off with a little personal transparency. I’m not ashamed to admit that I signed up for Netflix because they offered “The X-Files” through their streaming service. I am, however, ashamed to admit that the reason why I have not taken a stand against their abominable PR and canceled my Netflix service yet is because I want to finish the epic sci-fi series first

In PR, as in our daily lives, it’s important to be transparent, especially when communicating on behalf of a client. What’s even more important though is how the transparent message is relayed.  Everyone knows the story by now. Earlier this year, Netflix tried to split their DVD and streaming video services into two brands, Netflix and Qwikster. They also increased prices astronomically for both DVD and streaming after the split of said services. You may also know that the poor delivery of these changes caused customers to cancel their subscriptions. If not, here’s a quick recap:

> On July 12, 2011, Netflix sent out a message to its users via email and the company blog. Beginning with “our lowest prices ever” and ending with a mathematical equation that spelled out “you’ll be paying more than double what you were before,” Netflix announced a few changes in the services they offer.

> They planned on splitting the DVD service and their online streaming service into completely separate entities with different websites, which meant that if you wanted to change your account information or service, you must do so on two separate sites. The reasoning behind this split was to “better reflect the costs of each and to give our members a choice.”

> The combined price for the two services increased 60 percent, going from $9.99 a month to $15.98 a month. Now, customers will receive half of the services they were offered before for almost the same price if they sign up for one service or they can pay double for the status quo if they sign up for both services.

It is apparent that Netflix underestimated its audience because this caused an uproar. While Netflix told the truth, they tried to hide it in words and phrases they thought would resonate positively with customers. People weren’t fooled by terms like “lowest prices” and “terrific value.” They saw through the “transparent” message Netflix was relaying and understood the truth of it. Netflix was more than doubling prices while making it inconvenient to manage accounts. The message was delivered and the people had spoken:

> “How exactly is this “lowest prices ever”? According to the article, a 1 dvd plan with unlimited streaming will now cost just about as much as I’m currently paying for my 3 dvd plan with streaming. Not only are you slapping existing customers in the face with a fairly significant price increase, but you’re outright lying about it too.” – Blog Comment

> “Just cancelled the DVD part of my contract. You’re welcome. Thanks for making the decision easy.” – Facebook

> “No @netflix you pissed me off with your c list movies and your depressing price hike! I will not come back to you no matter how u ask” – Twitter

In mid-September, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings put out another message on The Netflix Blog. While full and honest transparency from the company’s CEO is typically what’s best when major changes are announced, he was two months too late. The tone of the first message had already taken its toll. Customers are unhappy and untrusting, and it will be hard to get them back. The Netflix team is still trying to make things right by killing Qwikster just three months after announcing it, but it’s going to take time and transparency to get back to where they were.

While not many like change and certainly no one likes a price hike, Netflix could have kept a number of customers by changing the way they relayed their message. By stating the facts up front, letting customers know that it’s not ideal and giving real reasons for why it needs to be done, Netflix would have built more trust with their customer base.
It’s part of our job to make bad news sound better while telling “the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.” Netflix may have told the truth, but they went about it in the wrong way. How do you think Netflix could have handled this situation better? But more importantly, who’s canceling their Netflix subscription and hitting up Redbox because of this nightmare?

- Rory Mohon