That’s right, it’s time for the mid-year review again. Today, Mei Xiaohua compiled the top ten public relations events in the first half of 2018. The Marriott Hotel incident, the Blue Label “dismissal” incident, the Hongmao Medicinal Wine incident, etc. are all on the list.

What other events made the list? Marketers, take a look!

01. Marriott Hotel Incident

On the morning of January 9, Weibo user @仲举扫地 posted a group of pictures. In a questionnaire released by Marriott Hotel, the list of "countries" included options such as Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and Tibet. Soon, the Marriott Group, which owns 124 hotels in China, was pushed to the forefront.

That afternoon, Marriott’s public relations department responded that it was just a “system error,” but netizens did not buy it. Netizens later found out that Marriott Group’s “Marriott Rewards” Twitter account had liked a post by the Tibetan independence account “Friends of Tibet.” At this point, Marriott has completely fallen into a crisis of trust.

Finally, under the condemnation of public opinion, Marriott ended its painless "toothpaste squeezing" apology. Marriott International President and CEO Arne Sorenson issued an apology letter in the early hours of the 12th.

It is reported that negative information caused by products or company behaviors involving government policies, government public opinion orientation, public safety, extreme religious forces, and separatist policy content are all regarded as the highest level of crisis public relations and touch the red line. However, in such a crisis, Marriott's public relations were not effective, which ultimately damaged the hotel's reputation.

02. Blue Label "dismissal" incident

On March 15, the circle of friends was filled with an article titled "BlueFocus, the so-called largest public relations company in Asia, is cheating its old employees like this. Doesn’t it really hurt its conscience?" 》The article went viral. The author of the article ( public account “一点自冊”) claimed that as a Blue Label employee, he was threatened and persuaded to resign by HR and leadership, and was unable to obtain employee resignation compensation. Soon, the incident caused heated discussion.

Around 6 o'clock that evening, the person involved deleted the post and apologized. Blue Label seemed to have successfully "publicized" the matter, and immediately issued a statement, but the content of the statement was suspected to be a veiled criticism of the person involved.

On the evening of March 22, the person involved in the incident issued another statement: "I deleted the article and issued a statement, but in return I received slander and uncompensated dismissal from BlueFocus," causing the incident that had already calmed down to stir up waves again. Soon, BlueFocus was not willing to be outdone and issued a "Follow-up Statement."

So far, Blue Label’s two statements have also been criticized by many parties, and many netizens commented that "the statements are completely cold and dull" and "they show the arrogance of a large company, but lack the magnanimity of a listed company."

03. " Starbucks coffee causes cancer" rumor floods the internet

On March 30, Starbucks encountered a "crisis public relations" incident. The reason was an article titled "Shock! Starbucks' biggest scandal exposed! The coffee we drink is actually this kind of stuff...” An article went viral. To increase the credibility of “Starbucks causes cancer”, the article also cited a US court ruling, requiring Starbucks to put a standard “toxic” warning on the outer packaging of the coffee it sells. Soon, public opinion was in an uproar, and news that "Starbucks is said to cause cancer" appeared on the Internet one after another.

It is worth mentioning that in just two days, Starbucks public relations cleverly resolved the crisis and successfully launched a beautiful self-defense counterattack.

First, they reported the WeChat account that spread the rumor and invited the authoritative account Dingxiang Doctor to refute the rumor. Second, they actively responded to the media and attached a picture of the relevant announcement of the American Coffee Association in response to the "court ruling" mentioned in the article that went viral. Obviously, they also took the opportunity to educate the public on whether coffee is healthy or not.

In addition to going with the flow, it is obvious that Starbucks’ crisis public relations this time was inseparable from its past brand reputation, so everyone quickly forgave Starbucks! Yes or no? !

04. Marvel movie promotions were criticized

On April 19, Marvel’s 10th anniversary event was held as scheduled in Shanghai Disneytown, which was supposed to be a feast for fans. However, Marvel's publicity and promotion was criticized and became a hot topic on Weibo.

Why is Marvel’s publicity and promotion criticized? First of all, the organizer had unreasonable arrangements for the event. There was originally a red carpet meeting with "tickets", but it was officially changed to free admission. The area of ​​Disney Town is limited, so in order to see their idols, fans lined up at night. The chaos at the scene also planted a bomb for this crisis public relations.

The C position at the event also became a big point of complaint among fans. Downey (the actor who played Iron Man)'s "C position" is unquestionable among the Marvel fan group. However, at the event, the host asked Robert Downey Jr. to stand on the side. Finally, in the group photo session, the supporting singer stood in the C position. That night, the topic #心不好妮妮# (Downey) was pushed to the top of the hot search.

There were constant complaints online, and various criticisms of the event also spread online. Finally, on April 20, Marvel came out to apologize. Undoubtedly, this speed was a bit late.

05. Hongmao Medicinal Wine Incident

In mid-April, the "Hongmao Medicinal Wine" incident became the focus of public attention and was on Weibo's hot search list many times.

The incident originated from a complaining article with less than 3,000 clicks . Guangdong Provincial doctor Tan Qindong published an article questioning the efficacy of Hongmao Medicinal Wine "China's Magic Wine "Hongmao Medicinal Wine", Poison from Heaven". One month later, Tan Qindong was arrested across provinces by the police in Liangcheng, Inner Mongolia, where the wine company is located.

Because an article was caught with less than 3,000 hits, netizens also had a lot of discussion about the "power behind it."

In fact, at the beginning of the incident, Hongmao Medicinal Wine Company was in the right and even had the initiative. Because whether from a personal perspective or from the perspective of experts and scholars, calling Hongmao Medicinal Wine "poison" is too strong a word. Hongmao Medicinal Wine Company can contact Tan Qindong and try to get him to delete or modify the article and apologize to Hongmao Medicinal Wine. It can also use legal means to send a lawyer's letter to Tan Qindong and apply for a civil lawsuit.

However, Hongmao Medicinal Wine chose a "show of muscle" approach by allowing the police to arrest Tan Qindong across provinces. Its purpose was probably to "kill one to warn the hundred."

06. "Stewardess was killed while riding Didi Hitch " incident

On May 10, the news that a flight attendant was killed while taking a Didi ride-sharing car in Zhengzhou attracted widespread attention. Subsequently, Didi became the target of public criticism and was pushed to the forefront. However, judging from Didi’s public relations response, it seems to be unsatisfactory.

The first was that the response was too slow. At 7:30 a.m. on May 9, Henan Metropolitan Channel reported the news of the murder of the flight attendant. However, it was not until noon the next day (the 10th) that Didi released a formal official statement. At that time, more than a day had passed since the Henan Metropolitan Channel's report, and more than 24 hours had passed.

However, what caused the most criticism was Didi’s statement of “offering a million-dollar reward”, which pushed it to the forefront. Although it offered a one-million-dollar reward, it still avoided talking about the platform review mechanism that everyone was most concerned about. This Weibo post by Didi was criticized by netizens as a show, and Didi quickly deleted it.

07. Tencent responds to negative reviews

On May 23, the self-media account "Chaping" announced the completion of its A round of financing led by Tencent TOPIC Fund (Tencent Interest Content Fund) and followed by Yunqi Capital and others. The amount of this round of financing was 30 million.

Unexpectedly, the incident soon caused controversy in the industry. Many self-media published articles questioning the lack of originality of Chaping. Sanbiao Longmenzhen even published an article titled "Tencent is as big as a Tibetan mastiff, but it is still a dog after all", saying that Chaping was a self-media that started out by "washing manuscripts" and had no originality at all.

Under pressure from public opinion, Tencent’s public relations director quickly made a statement on the matter on WeChat Moments. It means that "bad reviews" will not receive special treatment on the WeChat public account platform.

Subsequently, Tencent also issued an official statement with a very clear attitude, saying that the company will restart a more stringent due diligence procedure, and if it is inconsistent with Tencent's principles of protecting intellectual property rights, they will negotiate to withdraw their shares.

Almost at the same time, Ma Huateng also responded on his WeChat Moments, saying that he would resolve the issue responsibly.

From public relations director Zhang Jun to official account statements to Ma Huateng’s personal response, Tencent’s series of timely acknowledgments of mistakes quickly reversed public opinion towards Tencent.

08. Luckin Coffee’s Porcelain-style PR

In the first half of this year, a small blue cup coffee called Luckin Coffee suddenly became popular, and advertisements for it were everywhere in WeChat Moments and on buildings. The founder of Luckin Coffee declared: "I will use 1 billion RMB to educate the market." According to public information, since the company was founded in November last year, Luckin Coffee has quickly opened more than 500 stores in China. The speed of expansion is staggering.

On May 15, Luckin Coffee suddenly released an "open letter" condemning Starbucks for unfair competition. The main points can be summarized into two points:

First, Starbucks and its property management company are refusing to allow Luckin Coffee to open stores;

Second, Starbucks and its suppliers refused to supply Luckin Coffee.

Luckin's open letter quickly attracted a lot of attention, but it also aroused doubts. Many professionals believed that this was just a marketing strategy of Luckin - "scam PR." Starbucks has not responded to any questions regarding Luckin Coffee’s “harassment” and “scam”. Some professionals pointed out that the exclusive agreement signed between Starbucks and the property is a relatively conventional contract model; and the open letter highlights that suppliers must make a choice between the two options, not to show the dangerous situation of their supply being cut off, but to say that they and Starbucks are the same supplier, so their coffee is as delicious as Starbucks.

Finally, the question is, what do you think of Luckin Coffee’s “scam PR”?

09. Toutiao and Tencent are suspected of blaming each other for "black PR "

On the morning of June 25, Tencent’s official Weibo account released a statement saying that the company had recently been subjected to continuous, intensive, and unconventional malicious attacks, and that there were obvious signs of “black public relations” manipulation. Tencent said that it has officially reported the clues it has recently obtained to the public security authorities and will crack down on black public relations in accordance with the law.

Tencent's use of legal weapons to crack down on black public relations is not groundless. As early as June 20, Tencent public relations officer Zhang Jun posted on Weibo exposing an article that was suspected to be a black public relations article, and denounced this black public relations behavior. At the end, he said meaningfully, "Guess who did this again." Alluding to Toutiao's actions~

Also on June 25, ByteDance (the company of Toutiao) also issued a statement saying that it had encountered large-scale, organized black public relations and had reported the case to the public security authorities.

Based on this, Toutiao also released several screenshots of chat records and transfer records. One of the screenshots showed that the transferor was suspected to be from Tencent Video .

The two companies simultaneously accused each other of black public relations. On the surface, it was a crackdown on black public relations, but in fact it was more like a continuation of the "Tencent-Bytedance War." It's not just Toutiao and Tencent. Looking back at the past, "public relations war" as a competitive weapon has also been repeatedly used by major companies. There is no right or wrong in public relations itself, but "black public relations" that deliberately discredits others and publishes false statements is indeed a cancer in the industry.

Finally, what do you think about the black public relations dispute between Toutiao and Tencent? Who do you support?

10. BlueFocus "Fake Gate" Incident

As soon as one wave of troubles subsides, another one arises. Following the "Blue Label dismissal scandal", Blue Label is once again caught up in a "fake" public relations crisis.

On the evening of July 2, the former special director of "Famous Cars" and car blogger "Juzi" posted an article on his WeChat public account titled "Blue Label, is this how you serve your BMW customer? 》Angrily criticized Blue Cursor.

The incident started when the author participated in a test drive event for the new BMW 2 Series Touring in Lijiang organized by BlueFocus Public Relations Company. During the entire event, the author raised two questions: First, he questioned whether BlueFocus used fake internet celebrities to inflate traffic and cheat money. Second: Questioning BlueFocus’s disrespect for content entrepreneurs .

BlueFocus responded quickly in two articles, one from the official and one from an individual, namely "BlueFocus: The article contains key factual errors and we reserve the right to defend our rights" and "Confession of an injured BlueFocus girl: The innocent will be cleared."

Although BlueFocus responded promptly, the effect was not necessarily ideal. The following two points are worth discussing: First, BlueFocus did not directly respond to the allegations of fraud, and secondly, it implied that "Orange" was trying to copy and plagiarize a big brand. Such a public relations response is unlikely to gain the public's trust.

The above are the top ten public relations events compiled by the editor. Due to manual compilation, omissions are inevitable. If you have any additions, please leave a message in the comment section below.

author: Mei Xiaohua , authorized by Qinggua Media to publish.

Source: Meihua.com