The New Zealand Seafood Industry Council found themselves in a “fishy” situation this fall when The New York Times reported that the hoki, one of the country’s most heavily farmed fish, was at risk of depletion due to potential overfishing.
As Harvard University’s Nieman Journalism Lab points out, the seafood council, unhappy about this negative press, could have written a letter to the editor, issued a rebuttal press release or demanded the Times print a correction. They didn’t do any of that, however. Instead they bought Google ads (e.g., pay-per-click, site-targeted ads, etc.) for words such as “new zealand hoki,” “hoki,” and “hoki new york times.” Anybody searching Google for more news about this story would more than likely come across these ads and get the New Zealand Seafood Industry Council’s side of the story.
Another savvy move by the council – or should I say the council’s PR firm, CounterPoint Strategies – was to link Google ads back to a hoki-specific page within the council’s Web site. This link happens to be in the third paragraph of the Times’ article. After the article came out, the council revised the page from a general description of the hoki to a full-fledged rebuttal of the Times’ article. According to the council, 78,000 people clicked through from the article to that page.
How ingenious!
Rather than going back and forth in the press, as is typical in these situations, the council and their PR firm created a grassroots, viral campaign that I imagine hit much harder and was more effective. They reached readers at their main source of information – the Internet – and tried to squelch the negative news almost at the source and in real time by generating their own information.
This example hits on so many issues in regard to what is occurring in the news industry today. Everyday people, large and small companies, and communications firms can generate, control and manipulate their news without the use of a third party – the media. While the media still play an important role – don’t get me wrong – the way we disseminate information has been changing and will continue to change indefinitely.
I really connected with this story, as I feel strategies such as these are a gateway into what the future holds for our industry.
What savvy and/or modern PR strategies have you implemented or seen lately?
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Wow, a very good technique to handle the crisis.
Thanks, Behzod, for the comment! I thought so, too. I’m definitely going to keep online tactics like this in mind for the future.