Chapter 10
Marketing and PR in Real Time
On August 27, 2010, Paris Hilton was arrested with her boyfriend. He was charged with misdemeanor DUI, she with felony drug possession. The story was all over the news.
In today's real-time world, anyone can share their thoughts with the world as news is unfolding. Hilton did so in a tweet to the millions of fans who follow her: “These rumors going around are so ridiculous, untrue and cruel. I'm not going to even pay attention to them, because I know the truth.”
Marketing and public relations have gone real-time as well. If you pay attention to what's happening in your marketplace and react instantly, you can insert yourself into stories as they unfold, generating market attention not possible if you wait even a day to react.
What I absolutely love about the Paris Hilton story is that, soon after her arrest, Wynn Resorts Ltd. spokeswoman Jennifer Dunne told the Associated Press that Hilton is barred from the company's Wynn Las Vegas and Encore hotels.
What Dunne did was absolutely brilliant! Now the media had another news hook. That the party girl got banned was now a story in its own right. And a huge one. I'd guess that this was one of the biggest PR bonanzas that Wynn has ever received. And because Hilton is a hotel heiress, the story took on yet another delicious angle.
As this situation was unfolding, I ran a quick Google news search for both “Paris Hilton” and “Wynn” (looking for stories that mentioned both), which returned a remarkable ...
