This Season's Spectacle: British Airways vs.The Grinch

The Winner?
Great move Branson, what a PR boon! And what a windfall. Not only will Virgin gain the public's favour this season over arch enemy British Airways by booking larger planes to accommodate those stranded BA passengers over the 12 days of Christmas, they'll also make fistfuls of cash as icing on the cake. Deck the halls with cash and jolly indeed!

The Loser?
Poor BA. What a nightmare for both the airline and its customers. As if travel isn’t hard enough work to begin with, but leaving passengers stranded over the holidays when stress levels are already on high, is an all-out PR nightmare for British Airways.

Unite, the union involved in the going-on-strike/Christmas-travel-blackmail-scheme has unleashed this fiasco over an issue that UK courts were already preparing to resolve in February 2010. Why now? Because it wants to show its sharp, nasty teeth.

Of course, unions were created to protect workers, but in taking action like this, how are they acting in the best interest of the employees if, in the process, they make proverbial mincemeat of the brand that provides the jobs? How about thinking about the long term consequences of your actions, Unite?

How about a reality check?

A BA long-haul crew member states “There is nothing that breaks my heart more than us going on strike and affecting thousands, if not millions, of people’s lives. But I am fighting for my future. I don’t understand how I can work for a company for 14 years, and yet I am earning less now than I was five years ago.”
Welcome to the rest of the world, chump. We don’t live in the glory days of 2004 anymore. The years of excess are gone. Welcome to an era of lean, FOR EVERYONE. Worker strikes are the ultimate act of selfishness and greed.

It's especially sad because over the years BA has earned a terrific reputation, and in an industry much maligned throughout this recession. Statistically, if complaints are handled properly, studies show that the majority of loyal airline customers will not defect. This strike, however creates as much an obstacle for BA as it does as an emotional roller-coaster ride for its passengers – making it home for the holidays.

Still, amidst the airline industry’s struggle to survive, BA has continued to invest in marketing and consumer enagement to protect its brand. Earlier this year, the airline developed and launched two social media initiatives to make the brand appear more up to date and exciting and to create a network of bloggers and online communities around the globe. They have been proactive in protecting their brand and this could very well increase the chance that the strike could have the opposite effect that the union and employees were counting on. Of course, they're hoping the public will be vexed with BA, but at a time when everyone is pulling in their belt straps to keep afloat (or in the air!), striking employees who are making peoples’ lives miserable are seen as being ungrateful and greedy buggers - the grinches stealing Christmas. Ironically, consumers will end up hating BA staff, not the airline. Maggie Thatcher’s reign springs to mind.

We all know that businesses are reducing costs in order survive. By trimming operating costs, airlines can keep their fare prices lower; this is a win-win for passengers and the airlines. Striking workers is not.

At the end of day, everyone loves an underdog. If BA's efforts (short of giving in to terrorists, so to speak) are seen as fair and if they are working with disgruntled passengers, managing their communications in a very clear, honest and transparent manner, the toll to BA’s brand mightn’t be so bad after all.

In the meantime, good luck with making it home for the holidays and no holiday wishes for any striking crews. That is just bad news, at any time of year!

Three BIG cheers to Shiv Singh, of Razorfish and blogger behind Going Social Now for seeing the big picture! As smartphones make their way into every pocket (and palm) on the planet, mobile marketing and advertising is perched to offer brands an immense level of inter-connectivity - more than anyone could have imagined!

Social media is absolutely working to the benefit of [mobile] marketing and "using customers to create customers," to quote Singh. Smartphones, however, will have a reach far beyond that of Twitter or Facebook, so get ready.

Of course, there's still a huge learning curve as brands and businesses hone their strategies and messages for this medium. Time is a precious commodity and to keep people engaged and opting in, offers have to be desirable and more importantly, relevant, or people will simply tune out.

Those who still dismiss mobile as a marketing fad, do so at their peril. Mobile is here to stay. Ask anyone (who's anyone.)

Click here to read Mary Ellen Slayter's interview with Shiv Singh.

#Number 49, The Week That Was

First up, Maureen Dowd needs to stop bashing everyone in the administration. Ok, now onto the week that was…

Materialists rejoice, frugalists it’s time to move aside.
You have a mission – to save our economy! Who cares if you’re in debt or your house is in foreclosure. Bah humbug! You have a higher calling folks – the nation’s retailers and industries are counting on you. The era of thrift and a return to values, whatever that means, didn’t last so long, did it? That’s according to the WSJ camp. The folks over at NYT think otherwise…

And while I don’t fancy reliving any scenes from The Gangs of New York, a trip to Manhattan's Lower East Side Tenement Museum offers a lesson on the difference between what we want and what we need - and how good most of us still have it!

Italy’s Sleazminister gets smacked in the face.
I’m wondering why it took so long? In a country rife with corruption, double standards and philandering as an encouraged marital practice, someone finally had enough of Berlusconi's misdeeds and punched his lights out. While I’d never encourage or incite a violent act, Italy’s Primeminister has kept the country in a twilight zone and made it a laughing stock of the Euro zone. Time to find another punching bag perhaps?

A case of Tigeritis
Two weeks on and we’re still writing about Tiger. Poor old Tiger. Sleazy old Tiger. He’s not a superhero: he’s human, like anyone else. The illusion he created has been shattered, and like the most virtuous girl in school who does something very nasty/lascivious on Prom Night, rebuilding the brand might almost be impossible. So why not let him bow out gracefully and get his act together – Act II, Scene I – Tiger Makes a Comeback as Golf School Instructor, or something like that. Leave the poor guy alone. In fact, if the media and the peanut gallery put that much effort into the unfaithful acts of Mark Sanford and Co, they’d probably be no Republicans left to fight the health care bills in Congress. Except Joe, but no one wants him anyway.

Waists may turn to blubber, but what about your brain?
David Rock warns of the neurological effect social media excess can have on our brains. Too much affects the area of the brain that governs impulse control - the same area affected by compulsive eating. Sadly, social media nor junk food provides the nourishment we need to maintain our health, let alone flourish. Despite the incessant flow information that we think we need, the constant interruption caused by social media is creating so many distractions that train the brain to operate at a substandard level. The result? Our brains our turning to mush…We're reading less and what we do read doesn't promote a deeper knowledge - the kind that instigates debate, reflection or critical thought. Yep, “garbage in, garbage out."

Celluloid Rules: When 3D Rocked London
Hollywood thrives in harsh economic times. We count on a flick as an attainable escape from our daily struggles. Right now, the 3D craze is giving consumers reason to turn off the DVD player and go back to the cinema. Ten years in the making and costing a whopping $425m to create, Avatar, the first big-budget live-action release to be shot in 3D opened in London this week - and the rest of the planet is buzzing in anticipation. What's next!? Tim Burton doing a 3D Alice in Wonderland? Oh...he is actually. See you at the movies!