Getting Lied To Sucks: Fake News and How to Fight It
Some say no news is good news. But we all think fake news is bad news. These four stories are part of the reason fake news is such a hot topic right now.
Reputation Management
Fox.Sucks: How Fox News Became the Most Watched Cable Network
Fox News was the most watched basic cable network in 2016, with 1.4 million average daily viewers. It’s a shame they achieved this through shady reporting.
We give Samsung our “Bad Corporate Behavior” Award for October
When the first Samsung Galaxy Note 7 battery exploded, it signaled more than a product failure, it set the stage for a series of mis-steps that has earned the company the inaugural award for bad corporate behavior given monthly by Vox Populi Registry, the company bringing dotSucks domain names to the internet. In our view, the award for the month of October was well-earned. There were quite a few nominees for the October award. T-Mobile limited its unlimited data plans, Comcast overcharged consumers, Deutsche Bank paid fines for its handling of mortgage securities and Booz Allen had another NSA leak, but Samsung achieved special status as it couldn’t figure out what really caused the batteries to ignite. Though first reports of the product failure surfaced in September, the failed recall, multiple replacement cycles, inability to isolate the cause and extending the problem to Samsung washing machines made October special. If Vox Populi had chosen to begin this program earlier in the year, other companies might have earned the title of “First.” If the program started in August, it could have been Mylan Pharmaceuticals, based on the “what the market will bear” pricing for its lifesaving EpiPen; in September it might have been Wells Fargo on the strength of its phantom account scheme. The award is based on search traffic activity at its web site, www.get.sucks, and social media attention. In the case of Samsung, the award even had a personal aspect. It was clinched while I was on a recent flight and the attendant added to the take-off list off “to-dos” to make sure we did not turn on or power up our Samsung Galaxy Note 7, I knew then the company had made its mark. Vox Populi Registry and its dotSucks internet domain name platform is designed to help consumers find their voices and allow companies to find the value in criticism. Each dotSucks domain has the potential to become an essential part of every organization’s customer relationship management program. There is no physical award or certificate for the honor, just the pain in knowing it was a job badly done. I wonder who will win in November?
dotSucks at Ad:Tech ’16
“This is cool. What is it?” That’s what we heard when Vox Populi Registry, the company behind dotSucks internet domain names, made our first visit to an essential expo for advertising technology, Ad:Tech. After spending our first year talking mostly to intellectual property lawyers, Vox Populi Registry turned its attention to others who can make real and effective use of the platform: advertising. But after years of talking to (and being talked at) by people who understand top level domain names as well as we do, it was startling to get such a basic question from an industry thought to be, well, plugged in. The business model for Vox Populi Registry remains the same as the day we filed our application to manage dotSucks. Companies can use the names to better understand the mood of consumers and build loyalty, advocates can use the names to expand their reach of contributors and influence, and advertisers can use the names to get a word in edgewise. Each is easily understood, but it is clearly advertising that was first to see the active value in “sucks” not as a pejorative but a call-to-action. When Taco Bell promoted its hand-held menu under the cover of “Sharing Sucks,” when Jolly Rancher and the NFL agreed that “Being a Rookie Sucks,” and when Snap Kitchen understood the colloquial value of “Healthy Eating Sucks,” it was, as George Harrison said in “A Hard Day’s Night,” an early clue to the new direction. We just didn’t know how new. Our mission at Ad:Tech ’16 was to begin the conversation to convince the advertising industry to overcome its reluctance at speaking commercially the way many of their target audiences talk personally. It worked. By the second day we had to add a kiosk to allow attendees to register names right on the spot. And they did. But as the question above makes clear, there is still a lot of work to be done to explain, defend and promote the new gTLD program overall. There was a general understanding of the existence and value of .com, even .nyc (not strange considering Ad:Tech ’16 was held in New York City’s Javits Center, but not much when it came to any of the hundreds more. We were happy to do our part. Vox Populi Registry’s marketing focus right now on marketing is timely. Advertising is moving from television to digital mobile – digital spending will surpass TV ad sales this year for the first time and mobile is the biggest part of it. And those mobile, digital devices are in the hands of a target audience that is younger, more inclusive, less willing to accept the status quo and comfortable being familiar. An audience that understands when something sucks and aren’t afraid to say so. We think that’s a recipe for expanded dotSucks success. Based on our visit last week to Ad:Tech ’16, so do they.