Apparently Panasonic is a KH Advertising customer since 1998 - this can only mean that Panasonic is happy with the services provided by the agency. But all these inconsistencies between press releases, and the absence of coverage for the product KH Advertising was hired to support, raise questions. We can believe that KH is too busy to update their own site - this happens to all of us, although it is hard to imagine that since 1998 they didn't have time to publish more samples of their work on the site. Some samples of work for Panasonic are available - like package design for Panasonic batteries and a trade ad for Panasonic Industrial Batteries - but the portfolio overall is poor.
The company's social media engagement is virtually inexistent and this makes me wonder how effective any online campaigns conducted by this company can become. For instance, the press release for October 2009 on KH's site announces that KH Advertising creates online campaign for new ECG Wireless Inspection Camera. The release continues with the following statements:
The campaign consisting of print and web ads, e-mail blasts and a 3 minute promotional video, is set to break at the end of September and continue for several months. Kirk Hessels, President of KH Advertising states, “This is an exciting launch for a really unique product that is already gaining momentum. The video we created has over 2,000 views on www.youtube.com in the first 10 days alone.” Congratulations (!) Now, at precisely one month after the video below was uploaded on YouTube, the number of views stagnates at 2513.
If you cannot read between the lines, here are the two PR don'ts we learned from KH Advertising:
- Don't publish a press release months after the fact. It lowers your credibility, it makes you appear sloppy and unprofessional, but what is worse, it potentially sets a negative light over your client. For example: the hurricane season started long ago. Why is Panasonic announcing a product for the "onset" so late?
- Don't brag about things that are not your skills. YouTube and social media outreach are not KH's skills. "2000 YouTube views" is a pathetic statement, dust in the eyes of the untrained readers who don't understand how viral marketing works and what is the real value of a YouTube view.
