BP has been taking on a multi-faceted marketing campaign in attempt to offset the bad press as a result of the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill. Recently, BP began bidding on keywords such as “Deepwater Horizon,” “Gulf of Mexico oil spill,” and “oil spill,” in which the landing page provides information on BP’s response to the environmental disaster. Visitors can click on video updates, pictures and news releases to get the company’s perspective on their clean up efforts and tactics. Yahoo!, Google, and Bing reveal PPC ads with links to BP’s response.
Social media sites have been targeted by BP in order to control the message being broadcast. To date, BP’s official Facebook page, BP America, counts 30,343 “likes.” Fans can read updates from the company as well as watch YouTube videos and review BP’s commenting policy. However, the majority of Facebook users have chosen to befriend BoycottBP with 694,898 “likes.” Facebook users have the ability to participate with the page instead of BP’s controlled approach that only allows the company’s commentary. The anti-BP page allows users to vent their frustrations and with over 8,400 photos being added by users of the aftermath and more than 51,000 links associated with the boycott, users are, indeed, frustrated.
BP has also taken their voice to Twitter. The company states:
Updates of BP’s ongoing response efforts are provided by our social media team as well as on-the-ground personnel working in the affected Gulf regions… From time to time, CEO Tony Hayward and COO Doug Suttles will be giving first-hand updates via this channel. These tweets will be identified by ^Tony or ^Doug.
Once again, BP’s one-way conversation with its followers are not doing enough to ease the tension. BP Public Relations , another anti-BP account takes a more whimsical approach as it weaves in dark humor and quips about the company’s response efforts. It writes:
My staff told me I shouldn’t wear my monocle in Congress but now I can’t read the lies they’ve written for me. ^Tony
and
We’re not blocking all reporters from the gulf – just the ones who aren’t going to say nice things about us.
The false BP Twitter account boasts 175,820 followers while the official BP America claims 15,735.
It seems as though what the world wants now is to be heard and have a discussion instead of being spoon fed information from a very intentional marketing strategy. Essentially, BP’s social media involvement and PPC ads are not geared toward a direct response, which is quantifiable. Instead, one must ask his or herself: When someone is searching the keyword “oil spill,” what is he or she looking for? The answer may be news, pictures, videos or what BP is saying in general. So, BP’s strategy is a successful one, albeit, a bit of a perversion of the point of social media and PPC ads.
June 30th, 2010 at 9:57 pm
There has never been a time in history when the BP oil spill would have received more new recognition than the present. From The Daily Show and Colbert Report’s daily trashing of BP to the around the clock CNN and other news 24 hour coverage.
Add in social media and the internet and people are more informed than ever before about world events. I hope this information will cause companies to be more responsible to avoid the repercussions that BP is currently seeing.
July 1st, 2010 at 10:17 am
Thank you for your comment Green Guy. You are right. BP’s saturation in the media is not slowing and so many people, including bloggers like myself, have been lurking around the Spill trying to find a niche to write about. This adds to the sensationalization but also does not allow BP or future companies to shirk their responsibility. The addition of social media BP’s spin attempt is an interesting aspect.