Microsoft/Edelman/Vista/Freebie-Gate According to Andy Lark
January 10, 2007 by Eric Eggertson
Filed under Marketing
I’ve never met him, but I have a lot of respect for Andy Lark, who knows the technology industry and how companies, media and bloggers interact.
His takes on the Microsoft give-away of free laptops, the launch of the Office 2007 trial version, and Edelman PR’s role in the Microsoft blogger affair, focus not on what a bunch of his blogging buddies are saying, but on what Lark thinks Microsoft (or Edelman) should have done.
His verdicts: Giving away free laptops to bloggers was big mistake that put bloggers’ reputations at risk; Releasing an Office 2007 trial without technical support alienates the beta testers and early adopters on whom Microsoft relies to identify problems; Edelman shouldn’t be faulted for moves by Microsoft over which it had no control, and probably had little influence.
Says Lark about the position Edelman finds itself in:
“There is no question that the WalMart affair and Edelman’s overall aggressiveness in the blogosphere has painted a pretty big target on their backs. At the end of the day, this is a fine agency doing some of the leading work in social media and participatory communications. Their only mistake of late is not doing more to shine a light on what they have been doing.
- They’ve built a worldclass social media practice that is pretty much the envy of the industry. Is that practice being listened to by the rest of Edelman? After the Walmart affair, you betcha.
- They are pioneering PR to technology relationships – such as those with Technorati – that I expect to see more of in the next year. I’m surprised more agencies aren’t doing the same. It’s interesting seeing traditional technology business development coming to the world of communications.
- They are doing some terrific client work – I’ll leave them to tout that. Axe comes to mind.
“Edelman, it would seem, is in a bit of a bind with regard to Perception and Reality. Perception is that they’ve been behind a series of blog blunders. Reality is, not really.”
Tags: edelman, walmart, microsoft, andy lark, communications, bloggers, technology
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I view part of Edelman’s responsibility as the PR firm involved to have at least made an attempt to read the writing on the wall and counseled MS that this would be a bad way to go. So far, I have seen no evidence of their doing any thinking just acting as a functionary taking orders. From Edelman’s rep, that constitutes very poor client relations and lpousy management of their side.
Perception IS reality.