The second announcement in a fortnight from Mattel for the recall of toys due to safety concerns has had to create global awareness of the problems instantly while trying to avoid mass panic amongst their consumers. In addition to taking out full page ads in the national press Mattel also took the opportunity to video their Chairman & CEO Bob Eckert making an impassioned statement on behalf of the company.

If anyone had any doubts about the increasing use and value of video through the Web than this is another fine example of how a brand can communicate to the media and its audience simultaneously. With an anticipated 18.5m products recalled globally (2m in the UK alone), the need for a swift response from Mattel has been essential to avoid long term damage to the company’s reputation. Showing the compassion of Eckert, a like-minded concerned parent, through the video shows an individual who is prepared to face up to errors and explain how they are overcoming them. The video personalises the issues and looks to build empathy and trust with the viewer. The footage from the Mattel website has subsequently been featured on traditional TV news bulletins such as the ITV news at 22.30. By their swift response and acknowledging the benefit of the Internet to deliver their message in a personal and timely fashion, Mattel may live to fight, or play, another day.

Last week I attended two conferences, which should not have been linked in the traditional sense, one in the world of Football at Soccerex 07 London at the New Wembley, and the other at Media 360 at Celtic Manor. However the one thing both had in common was media convergence and the issues and challenges to both.

Richard Scudamore the CEO of the Premier league has just returned from the USA where they had issued a lawsuit against YouTube for showing clips of the Premier League, and when challenged as to what he expected as the outcome, was less than convincing, and as an observer one may suggest it was the opening shot in a new set of 'Rights' to be sold! Whilst he kept focusing on the importance of attendances and fans and making sure the experience of going to Premier League football could compete with going to the shops or other social competition, one couldn’t help but question whether their primary focus is maximising 'TV' revenues, no matter which media platform they be delivered on.

At Media 360, whilst, it was good to see many of the movers and shakers in the media world, and listen to their debates on the media landscape, the title of the conference said it all 'Converging Media - Emerging Value'. I was pleased to see that we produced the latest episode of MediaWeek.tv from the conference as it was putting in to practise in front of the delegates just one of the techniques open to the media world. I do hope, however, that the media agency world does embrace the new opportunities for brands, as otherwise one could suggest that also Media 360 does what it says on the tin, in that it just keeps going round in circles!

The number of printed publications investing in their online exploits is continuing to rise, with growing numbers of magazines and news papers going the full hog, and converting to ‘online only’ format.

The world's oldest newspaper have stopped printing their publications and focused on publishing online. The newspaper, Sweden’s tongue twisting “Post-och Inrikes Tidningar”, may have been founded in the late 17th century, but seems to be embracing the online world with both wrinkly hands. The newspaper will be joining the likes of the US editions of FHM and ElleGirl, which both jumped shipped to online only formats at the tail end of last year due to a perceived lack of future ad growth.

The following quote from www.foliomag.com http://www.foliomag.com covers the major issue that faces these publications in the online arena:

“Part of the problem is that magazine publishers need to cope with the new experience of being a small fish in a big pond. Sites such as TeenPeople.com and ElleGirl.com post impressive traffic relative to print circulations but lag far behind other sites that cater to their audience, such as Myspace. Sports Illustrated is the dominant print sports brand and SI.com is an extremely successful Web entity, yet it is about the fifth largest sports Web site by traffic”

The backlash against fake corporate bloggers continues, with brands being ‘named and shamed’ if they try to generate interest online by posting fake ‘personal’ comments on blogs and forums.

At the start of Jan, Wikipedia warned PR agencies that it would be taking steps to stop them writing about companies they represent in the popular online encyclopaedia. Now The Times has reported that new UK laws (to come in force from next December) will be brought in to ‘name and shame’ PR agencies/brands posing as innocent bloggers.

The new regulations also will apply to authors who praise their own books under a fake identity on websites such as Amazon. See the below article for more details and some interesting case studies - like the owner of a restaurant/hotel near Loch Ness who got caught out littering travel blogs with over flattering reviews of his business under a fake alias!!

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article1361968.ece

There seems to be some sort of desperation going on where brands make a scramble to try to control everything that's said about them online, instead of spending their time creating genuinely new and interesting online content.

You know, for the past 18 months we’ve had a slide in our convergence workshop discussing what is more important when it comes to ‘TV’ interviews – 30 seconds on BBC Breakfast, or a ‘TV’ style interview with the editor of FT.com that is then made available ondemand via the FT web site – for those who have attended our workshops, they’ll confirm I’m not making this up! So it comes as no surprise to read in on nma.co.uk that The Financial Times will host daily videos on its website throughout next week's World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, with FT journalists offering analysis and interviews with WEF attendees. The story says that a web page has been launched to host all WEF coverage at ft.com/davos, which will include videos, daily diaries from attendees like Conservative party leader David Cameron, as well as immediate news and comment and that FT.com has steadily added to its video content over the past year, and soft-launched its 'Daily View' video service in December 2006, offering comment on the top corporate or market news of the day. Hence why we’ve banging on at our clients to literally think outside of the box known as our TV set, and consider media days where a ‘TV’ interview does not necessarily mean you will watch it on TV.