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To Kim Cooke, Mark Hefley, Jeff Warhol and JJ Kelly
Have you no shame? How can you honestly defend the decision to send out this news release being pointed out to us by several sources?
”For $1 per student per year, services such as AllCall Notification could have provided VT with a method of crisis control capable of reaching every student far faster than email. It should have been in place as part of the school's emergency preparedness plan."There is a tragic lesson for every educator of every school-age student: AllCall or other notification services can save lives. If it had been in place at Virginia Tech, the situation could have been, and probably would have been, much different."
It’s my hope that US Netcom Corporation and each of you each get all of the attention you truly deserve — as opportunistic jackals willing to capitalize on the worst mass-murder shooting in American history to get a few column inches written about your product.
tags | US Netcom | Virginia Tech | bad pitch | bad pitch blog
18 comments:
I wish they were the only ones, they're not.
Add TechRadium to the "Hall of Shame."
Link to their alert is below. Bonus points for setting up a 'hotline' for the media.
http://dmnnewswire.digitalmedianet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=129726
You've addressed the topic of promoting services/etc. around a crisis before, and I have to say I disagree with your position. While I'm no fan of how this release was written (no need to point out VT for goodness sake - isn't it obvious?!), the fact is that media ARE talking about these services right now, because it is a timely topic. And there is news value - this crisis has schools rethinking their communications procedures (and again, media are talking about this)- knowing the availability of these services can be a benefit. THIS is what is being discussed on the news – it would be foolish to not to be part of the conversation. (And for the record, no, I’m not part of this company and have nothing to do with this service or anything like it.)
A better strategy, though, would have been to call the media you know and verbally pitch this - a release is crass.
Jessica - I'm not saying hide from the media during times like this.
I'm saying it should not be the first time you reach out to these media. I'm saying the pitch should not be so ham-fisted. If you have a relationship with the right media, they will come to you during times like this.
There are commercial and non-profit pitches that fit. Sending out a mass news release like the one detailed in this post is at the other extreme.
Oh and Jessica, thanks for the input! :-)
Jessica, you are SO WRONG. You do your reaching out EARLIER, BEFORE something like this happens, and the media will come to you, just like Kevin said. When I was repping UPOC back in 02, (www.upoc.com) I briefed all the media on how text messaging could be used in an emergency. After the blackout? I couldn't answer the phone fast enough. Upoc was quoted internationally, several times.
To do this 2 days after a disaster is just disgusting. End. Of. Story.
Wow. The "lesson" from the VT incident is that AllCall saves lives? Not sure who approved that.
While the media is trying to cover all angles, not sure this is something that anyone should try. Or an angle anyone should try to encourage.
We have to think like we're the folks at the university and realize what's important (students, families, still-recovering victims) instead of trying to be opportunistic.
Going back to a comment I made about an earlier posting on the subject, while I think providing information and context in these situations are okay, but it has to be about the target audience, not you (your company, product, etc.). US Netcom Corporation did everything I think is wrong about pitching about a crisis:
1) They made it about them. Talking about how important communication is in a crisis like this is one thing, but they're trying to sell product.
2) They second guessed what happened. We will never know what could have happened, so don't go making definitive statements about how "...the situation...probably whould have been, much different." They weren't there, they weren't being shot at, they weren't responsible for acting, so they are in no position to make that statement. If they want to provide context on how communication can brake down in situations like this or what makes for an effective preparedness plan, fine...just don't play Monday morning quarterback to sell product.
This type of self-serving PR makes me sick. It's days like Monday that makes PR seem very insignificant and it's idiots like this who make it shady.
Alex - You just encapsulated the main reason we started this blog. Welcome to the party!
This is not only shameful pr I am guessing that there is now way they have the technology to guarnantee that everyone on a campus can be notified in the event on an emerengency my gues us netcom is all vaporware.
Consensus seems to have emerged from this discussion: first-contact with a reporter on the basis of a tragedy is wrong-headed. It conflates the modest (a pitch for a company's product) with the monstrous. No one looks good...or smart.
I cannot speak to motivation, but I can guess that the idea to act got the green light because of the distance most of us feel from catastrophe. It's too often just another show on television.
I can't say anything nice, nor do I know if you'll approve of this comment, but that's shitty business...enough said. I hope it bites them in the ass.
Peter, I represented UPOC as a PR rep during the 9/11 attacks and they asked us to proactively pitch how their technology helped keep their staff connected during the attack. We got several good hits, but at least one reporter was very offended.
So UPOC is guilty of doing the same thing as Netcomm. Not a good example.
Amazing. US Netcom used be known as Phonemaster, but they changed their name because of so much bad press under the old PhoneMaster brand. US Netcom / PhoneMaster has been all about sensationalism and hype ever since their parent notification products started failing in the 1990s. Very sad.
I agree with the last poster. Our school district bought PhoneMaster (from US Netcom, same company/product http://www.usnetcomcorp.com/). Service was terrible and we had to return it -- the sales folks were all hype. Now this "communication" company has gone and made a terrible PR decision. I hope PhoneMaster / US Netcom / AllCall (or whatever they have to change their names to next) get what they deserve.
You people don't seem to understand the reason for all of this. Making phone calls and sending text message about what is going on at a school puts the parents at ease. I happen to like it when PhoneMaster, Alert Now, School Messenger and many more autodialer system make these calls. Don't you think if your child was in a school and something bad happen you would want to know ASAP.
To the last poster, I believe the topic in question is the tasteless, crass self promotion of Phonemaster / US netcom (capitalizing on tragedy), not the value of the types of services they provide.
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