According to Ad Age ABC charged $900,000 for each 30 second spot on last nights season finale of LOST and yet only 2 companies took advantage of the specific audience. LOST fans come in all kinds. We are of all ages, both sexes, all educational backgrounds. We even cross the bounds between Sci Fi geeks and the “normals” who got hooked on the show before all the “weired” stuff started. The one thing we have in common is a love of the show.

Only 2 advertisers took advantage of this one common theme, Target and Verizon.  Target worked products and LOST story line concepts into their commercials. One commercial shows someone in a Darma costume  typing in “the numbers”, he hits a well worn enter key and enter won’t work.  Every LOST fan knows that if the numbers are not entered every 108 minutes something very bad will happen. Alarms start going off and then, cut to “Keyboard $23″.  Another ad shows a pig rimming through a forest simply followed by a picture of a bottle of barbecue sauce. Again the meaning of this commercial would be lost on the non LOST fan but we all remember the early days where our LOST heroes had to hunt island pigs for survival. The ads were not high budget but they didn’t have to be. They were funny and on topic for that specific audience. They showed respect for the audience.

Verizon also took advantage of the LOST fans love of the show. On the May 18th show fans were given a code they could text their farewell messages to. During the retrospective that led up to the finale Verizon sponsored “your transmissions”  They creatively inserted the messages onto computer and cell phone screens or pieces of paper and made it look as if what the actors were reading were the messages from fans. Like the target commercials they did not require a large budget.  They were warm hearted and funny, the fans got to see their words on the screen and LOST actors reading their messages. They showed respect for the audience.

$900,000 per 30 second spot and I only remember 2 of the advertisers on the show because only 2 of them took the time to respect me. Well done Verizon and Target. Well Done!

A few days ago I received a phone call from someone arranging for a conference on Social Media. A journalist friend had recommended me for a panel on PR.  I responded that technically I am considered marketing but that the two are so married it really doesn’t matter. She was floored. Apparently this was a new concept for her.

I had to put on the breaks and remind myself that the PR people live in a PR bubble, The Marketing people live in a marketing bubble and both bubbles are completely ignoring the customer service department. PR, Marketing, and Customer Service need to be three branches of the same tree.  They may focus on different aspects but if they are not connected at some point they are not going to grow well.

I’m not the only one saying this.  CC Chapman has mentions similar statements on Managing the Gray and Ron Ploof talks about it in Read This First – The Executives guide to New media from Blogs to Social Networks. I’ve heard many others say it too. But it’s those of us who do not come from either marketing or PR that find separating the three just baffling.

Wikipedia has several descriptions for Public Relations but the simplest one is “the practice of managing communication between an organization and its publics”

It describes Marketing as “the process by which companies determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales… create value for customers and build strong customer relationships in order to capture value from customers in return.^“

So if PR is “managing communication” and Marketing is “build(ing) strong customer relationships” shouldn’t they be talking to each other? And if it’s all about relationships with the customer shouldn’t both departments be talking to the only people in the company who are talking to the customers directly, the Customer Service Department?