Finding Madeleine with mixed media

Now a couple of days have passed and information has been allowed to flow through, I thought I’d look at last week’s Madeleine McCann campaign and the traction it managed to generate. The campaign warrants looking at firstly because every little bit of awareness keeps her name top of mind and hopefully contributes in some way to finding out what has actually happened to this little girl. The second reason is that the campaign combined an interesting mix of offline and online media techniques which aren’t currently combined that frequently.

At the moment it is usually the big-bucks digital advertising agencies that are using traditional channels alongside video sharing and social networks, for example the Compare the Meerkat adverts and related Russian meerkat online shenanigans. This method often gains mass credence and looks a success in numbers: 610,136 fans on facebook, the top video on YouTube has 255,506 views with four more having over 100,000. The number of ‘Compare the Meerkat’ searches speak for themselves in the following table.

But it’s important to question the end result. Of course, the Compare the Market is looking for brand engagement, translating to sales, market share and real ROI. In terms of associated growth in Compare the Market search, it seems to have done very well indeed.

Whether this all translated into sales and impacted the bottom line is one to look out for at the next Ad awards, where I’m sure we’ll see a lot more of Alexander and friends. It is reasonable to assume though, that such a growth in Compare the Market Searches would mean a substantial uptick in business. On the flip-side of this one wonders how long such interest can be sustained. No doubt Compare the Market will know when it’s time to throw in the towel on this one, to avoid flogging a dead meerkat, so to speak.

Now, compare this with the Madeline McCann campaign. This is a movement that gained and sustained massive popular support for a substantial amount of time after the abduction. The media got very involved and was instrumental in keeping the interest alive for longer than is usual in such cases. A compassionate public, likeable family and adorable child, also helped sustain interest in the story.

Now, a year on, interest has significantly died down and the natural response is for the family to attempt to drum up new support and interest using every means at their disposal. So the work with CEOP and the ‘viral’ video came about. 

Again the media was very conducive to an update on the situation and covered the story heavily on launch day. ‘A minute for Maddie’ was splashed on many front pages, across breakfast news sofas and generally covered in most, if not all, the major news outlets.

The interesting thing is the campaign’s effect on the social media-sphere is was designed to infiltrate. The video, though by no means high on ‘shareability’, was presented as a viral to be viewed and spread more though conscience than anything else. And this worked for a time. The trouble is that attempting to instigate a viral via ‘old media’ PR efforts is almost impossible. Also, without the mega budgets of the big advertising guys to keep plugging away with adverts, interest dies away at an astounding rate. Just look at the Madeleine MacCann searches:

As soon as the news broadcasts stopped, all was effectively lost. The graph goes to an amazing pique then back to nothing in just a day or so. The sad thing is that the interest has also not spread Europe-wide as was hoped. While the YouTube video is offered in numerous languages, searches outside UK and Ireland are few and far between. Having said this, the fleeting interest did translate into 418,568 views of the YouTube video but has not spawned the additional videos or associated sharing of the Meerkat campaign.

These two contrasting examples give the industry some important food for thought for the PR industry:

·         How easy is it to meld ‘old’ and ‘new’ PR tools for long-term effect?

·         What does the success of advertising mixed with social media mean for PR?

·         Does creating mass interest always translate to engagement?

·         Is it right to always focus social media campaigns around short-term projects?

Either way, let’s hope they find Madeleine in the end.

As usual, comments are more than welcome.