The film is about product placement, marketing and advertising, and also fully funded by product placement, marketing and advertising (Screenrant).

Spurlock managed to convince 17 willing companies, such as Hyatt, jetBlue and Old Navy, to participate in his latest ‘docbuster.’ In exchange for sponsorship funds, each of these brands received some sort of placement or promotion within the film.

Hyatt, for instance, is the film’s feature hotel partner. Everywhere Spurlock travels throughout taping, he stays in a Hyatt hotel. He not only shows off Hyatt’s services, but he raves about his stay in various Hyatt franchises.

In the video below, Stacey Snyder, marketing director at Hyatt, tells us about the decision her team made to participate in Spurlock’s project. Because Hyatt “is all about authentic hospitality” it made sense to jump at the opportunity to work with Spurlock, says Snyder — despite that it was a journey that they had “no idea where it was going to take us.”

Since the premiere of his latest ‘docbuster’ Spurlock has been spreading his take on brand transparency everywhere. He even presented a TED Talk (video below) entitled “Embrace Transparency” — brought to you by EMC. EMC actually purchased the naming rights to his talk on eBay for $7,100, which Spurlock has donated to the TED Conference to “go towards his attendance for next year,” he jokes.

More importantly than receiving any sort of product placement, the film’s corporate sponsors gained some brand humility and transparency by participating in the movie. Working with Spurlock meant literally handing over their brand assets, stories and select employees to expose on camera. These organizations allowed Spurlock to take complete control of the marketing message. But in doing so, they just might gain a little respect from Spurlock’s cynical, sophisticated audience members.

Video blogs and webcasts can potentially cost between $5,000 and $7,000, not to mention the cost of production hours. Are video blogs really worth the time, money and effort that companies pour into them to enhance the relationships with their key publics? Do these videos make the company more transparent to consumers, employees and shareholders? Or are they just a form of entertainment to add to the hype of the corporate website, blog or newsroom?

Southwest Airlines hosts a video blog on its corporate blog, Nuts about Southwest. Video blog posts range anywhere from new Southwest TV commercials and scripted humor videos to footage from promotional events. While these videos meet the fun cultural standards at Southwest, they may not add to the overall transparency of the organization—they just function as entertainment for the Southwest online audience. However, these videos do exemplify Southwest’s ability to break down the corporate marketing voice and use down-to-earth, humorous authenticity.

Check out this video posted on Nuts about Southwest around St. Patrick’s Day. Two Southwest employees give viewers a glimpse into their exciting day. Could they be showing hints of authenticity and transparency?

Accenture also has a video blog. Though the videos are less entertaining than Southwest, Accenture uses them to build transparency.

In the video below, for instance, an Accenture employee describes how she balances her life at work and life outside of the office. The folks at Accenture have given her the freedom to talk about recent vacations complete with personal anecdotes. This employee can be completely transparent and authentic, even in as serious an environment as an IT consulting firm.

Check out the video post on Accenture’s video blog site.

]]> http://lindseymmonroe.com/2009/04/06/video-blogs-additional-transparency-and-authenticity/feed/ 0 Lindsey http://lindseymmonroe.com/2009/03/25/interactive-financial-reporting/ http://lindseymmonroe.com/2009/03/25/interactive-financial-reporting/#comments Wed, 25 Mar 2009 23:47:39 +0000 Lindsey Monroe http://lindseymmonroe.com/?p=98 ]]> A huge step organizations have taken in the direction of openness is posting financial information online (government agencies are even required to post financial reports online now). What better way to be transparent to current and potential shareholders than post the financial strategies and reports online?

In the days of Web 1.0, organizations just posted the print version of their annual reports on their websites. With the advent of Web 2.0, industries need to take their investor relations a step further and create interactive annual reports.

An interactive annual report doesn’t just include financial information in new, digital formats, but also includes the traditional print materials as well. IBM’s 2008 annual report is a great example of an interactive annual report, complete with multimedia.

The Interactive Annual Report Company, based out of the U.K., is a company devoted to building annual reports in multimedia formats for other organizations. An annual report developed by the Interactive Annual Report Company includes a video letter to shareholders from the CEO or Chairman, video case studies, interactive click-through financial charts, as well as downloadable print formats.

However, the annual report also includes a small, pocketsize booklet of the annual report in print format. The booklet has colorful graphics and investors can carry it around anywhere.

Take a look at the video below. Dave Werner has created a multimedia annual report for Brinker International.

Many companies have only taken the first step to transparent investor relations with key publics. Posting annual reports in PDF format on corporate websites won’t foster the trusting relationship that an interactive report may. Current and potential shareholders might trust a company more if they’ve seen a video statement from the CEO, have easy access to a decade worth of financials all on one page, or can link to the corporate investors’ blog from the annual report (check out Dell’s investor blog to see an example).

Though interactive financial reports require extra time and money, the resulting investor relationship could make up for the funds taken from the bottom line anyways.

In the video, Shel Holtz, author of Tactical Transparency, defines transparency. He says organizations shouldn’t expose every internal secret (particularly for legal reasons) in order to be transparent to their audiences, but they should disclose information about business goals and practices, and allow audience members to have access to all of the internal employees. 

The key to fostering positive consumer relations is constant interaction between the customers and the employees.

Many companies are being forced into transparency. Consumers no longer call up a company’s customer service department if they’re unhappy–that message would only reach one person. They are instead going online to blast the company in front of thousands of other consumers. How should companies respond? Companies should join in on the conversation and explain to consumers why the service or product was less than mediocre, and work to rebuild a connection with angry consumers.

Dan Rather, formerly of 60 Minutes, made the mistake of closing the doors on his audience during the investigation on Former President Bush’s military service. If he had opened up lines of communication and updated viewers on the investigation, he could’ve kept from angering so many people. His lack of transparency cost him his job.

Dell on the other hand was forced into transparency after its outraged consumers created an angry network of blogs. Dell joined in on the conversation and created Direct2Dell and Ideastorm, which have been a huge success in rebuilding postive customer relations.

I found Holtz’s own personal story the most interesting. After a neglectful customer service experience with Park ‘n Fly, he wrote a blog post to complain to his readers. An administrative assistant from the company joined in on his conversation to apologize. What’s most important is that the Park ‘n Fly employee sent the message directly to Holtz, without checking the message with management first. By opening up free lines of communication between employees (lower and higher level) and consumers, Park ‘n Fly managed to uphold its relationship with Holtz.

The video’s central message is that companies should give their consumers a glimpse inside the organization to build a trustworthy relationship with them.