The riots were a huge crisis in terms of PR and like most PR crises had to be responded to very quickly to a) aggregate the positive views of the city that most people were voicing in direct response and b) get people back into the city spending their money (yes yes, the ugly capitalistic side of modern life).
The campaign used Facebook and Twitter to promote the constructive messages being broadcast by individuals and businesses. It used the Manchester version of Milton Glaser's famous I 'heart' NY logo to create an identity for the campaign:
The campaign has been successful with over 20,000 people liking the Facebook page, over 37,900 people tweeting the hash-tag #ilovemcr, two well-attended events and lots of support from Mancunians (and non-Mancunians).
However, people are now starting to blog/tweet on how the campaign didn't work. The main issue being raised that if Manchester is such a unique city and does "things differently" why did we use the logo above?
My main response to this is a question to you:
Can you create a logo with that much emotional resonance (and in itself a call to action) in two days and in those two days, can you get that logo branded onto thousands of posters, hundreds of t-shirts and thousands of other promotional items? If you can then I would seriously like to work with you.
My second response is also a question to you:
You were asked at the time to get involved and help out the city that you are part of and has supported you. Why didn't you get involved or at least make suggestions then if you have such a strong opinion now?
1 comment:
I agree that there were time constraints here, but I disagree that the main negativity is about the logo. Any negativity I can see seems to be focussed more about the monetary slant of the campaign, instead of looking at the deeper issues that may have started the riots in the first place - as stated in our blog post at PushON (www.pushon.co.uk/blog/is-the-ilovemcr-twitter-campaign-counter-productive/) Or the way that the #n4lovesyou festival was arranged with little consideration for residents.
But overall, it seems that the negative comments are mostly coming from people who love Manchester the most, and just want the best for it. It's a shame that you jibe that they're all talk and no action in your blog, as in my experience, the people complaining are the people that do the MOST for Manchester. Maybe they didn't comment on your campaign before it happened, but many of them didn't know it was happening or what 'it' actually was. They didn't need reminding to love Manchester, they already do love Manchester. They ARE Manchester, and yes, maybe they struggle when someone else decides to define what that is, what that means and makes a logo for it.
It's was bound to be a difficult and sensitive task.
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