Saatchis tells crisis-ridden Toyota to stop advertising
Ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi has stepped into Toyota’s PR crisis with the agency’s global chairman using a visit to the region to urge its client to suspend its advertising.
In an interview published in today’s Sydney Morning Herald, Bob Seebert – on a book promotion tour – told Julian Lee that he urged silence from the brand until it has a better plan to fix its safety problems:
”Our stance with them is that in this environment it doesn’t make any sense to do any advertising. In effect, they are sitting back thinking about how they are going to fix cars, and once it is in place [we’ll think about] how we can help relaunch their position.”
Toyota’s local spokesman was not answering his phone this morning.
Q, why has it taken this long for someone to pass on this wisdom???
They’re probably suffering a case of analysis paralysis, with everyone telling each other what to do and nobody making the decision to get out there. In the US they’re starting to reach out. Jim Lentz, President of Toyota Motor Sales, USA, is using Digg.com to answer questions apparently. A tad more effective than a viral video. OH what a feeling – ouch.
And why do Saatchi & Saatchi feel qualified to offer “goof pr” advice? when their “Clever Film Competition” fell apart so dramatically, so ridiculously and sucked all the air out of the room… Saatchi & Saatchi’s disaster did more to DAMAGE toyota’s faith in “social media” than show them the real power of it as was intended.
Apple famously stays silent whenever one of their products starts showing signs of an inerrant flaw (the new 27″ iMacs screens for instance) and all they get for that silence is a TON of bad will, and worse press.
Toyota should continue to COMMUNICATE with it’s customers.. “yes there’s a problem, sorry about that, we’re gonna go ahead and get that fixed for ya”
Honesty and openness is what’s needed, not the “head in the sand tactic” that Saatchi & Saatchi suggest, to HIDE in a dark corner till it passes, or pretending it’s not happening.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com.....4fc4_o.gif
Ad man offers unauthorised PR advice for his client in public? Not even the BSD’s in Mad Men have that much chutzpah!
However, let’s give Bob credit for his own PR, although a little insight might prove useful ; Bob’s comment in the SMH on the time the 2 founders Maurice and Charles Saatchi left Saatchi & Saatchi to form M&C Saatchi and took key accounts like British Airways with them, is a gem – Bob said “We saw early on that it wasn’t going to be good so we got the ugly truth out on the table,” – the truth is that S&S was a listed company on the London Stock Exchange – they had to comment publically, and in detail, on why two key executives had just departed and the likely impact on revenue; it’s the LSE rules of continuous disclosure. Same would apply for any ASX listed company.
Does make me think that the creatives for the Commonwealth Bank adverts have got it spot on. Sh-bang-a-bang!
BTW, I would have made the above comment on the SMH article by Julian Lee, but Fairfax don’t offer an online instant comment facility (apart from sending an email to the Editor), so well done Tim for allowing a conversation to develop after each article.
Like with Apple, keeping quiet is like an ommision of guilt, particularly if its keeping quiet in a medium which is usually full of their presence. Sure they are having some problems, but lucky for Toyota their more recent campaign features “Australian Built”. Im sure they are loving that.
I would promote the hell out of that fact to not effect the sales of the launch of Camry.
Also as almost every consumer pole will tell you, no presence in the market is a sign of weakness. Toyota need to buy their way out of this (with smart advertising) and reposition themselves as a strength, not pretend they are beat, and give a great oppotunity for others to overtake them/beat them.
Advertising is like war, if you make a mistake and your enemy gets the best of you, you dont lay down and do nothing, allowing them more advantage. You accept the failure then move to counteract it and get back on top.
I hope his book launch is going well….
@ Anonymous – 10 points