Proper British miscommunication - me and HP sauce

So here’s a story about brands, blogging and PR people not really ‘getting it’. (While still being quite nice and quite smart.)

As many of you may know I have a couple of blogs about cafes. And I’ve written a book about cafes. And in there I talk rather fulsomely about HP Sauce. Which is, in my opinion, the king of sauces.

A couple of  weeks ago someone from a PR company contacted me and said that HP are thinking about doing a PR stunt about saving the proper British cafe from decline and fighting back against the Americanisation of the High Street and all that, and would I like to be their spokesman and publicise it on my blogs.

I eventually said no. For various reasons, discussed below. But I must confess to hanging on to see how much they would pay.

Which has led to all kinds of debate (in my head, nowhere else really) and confusion about the value of blogs, the relationships between what I do here and the commercial world and how irritating the average PR stunt is.

I don’t have a coherent argument to make here but some of the things that crossed my mind are these:

1. If they’d bothered to read the book or the blog they’d know that I don’t necessarily believe that cafes are in decline and I’m not against Starbucks or all those latte based places. Some cafes are going (especially the older style formica palaces, often because formica has a limited shelf-life, which is a shame, but is also how business works and cafes are, above all, businesses). But cafes are born every day too. I’ve yet to see any compelling evidence that there are fewer independent cafes now than there were 10 years ago.

2. When I raised these doubts about the basis for their campaign I was told they’d done online research (which sounded like they’d done an poll asking 50 people if they thought cafes were in decline). And they’d done ‘desktop research’ – saying ‘desktop’ like it was some special sort of research which only yields the truth rather than just typing the words ‘cafe’ and ‘decline’ into Google and Lexis/Nexis.

3. I absolutely hate this kind of faux-research nonsense. PR companies have learned that they can guff up some research to say anything they want to and that journalists are too lazy or ignorant to question the basis of that research. So you’ll get a quick fun item on the news based ‘research’ but it’ll be completely meaningless. Which undermines anyone who actually does some proper research.

4. I have to say though, I’m behind them doing a campaign on behalf of British cafes. I think that’s a good idea. If they’d just asked me to stick a link of the site and left it at that, I probably would have done. Though their idea of giving £5k to a winning cafe seems pretty cheapskate. That’s not going to keep the wolf from the door.

5. If HP/their PR company had done any homework they’d have realised that I love HP, love cafes, love many of the things they’ve done (like the Paul Smith limited edition sauce) and I spend my life thinking about brands and communications – and giving lots of that thinking away for free on this blog. Would it not have made sense for them to ask me what I thought they should do online? I’m probably just being arrogant about that but it might have been a good idea.

6. But I’m not a saint, I’d have put all these quibbles aside, and would have lived with it if they’d offered me enough money to be the spokesperson and do the link and stuff. Typepad have to be paid every month. But the fee they offered was just silly. Again, I don’t think I’m being arrogant, but I think I’ve built some real value in eggbaconchipsandbeans.com and I don’t think I should sell that cheaply. I might give it away, but I’m not going to sell it cheaply.

7. The PR bloke who called me wasn’t stupid or bad. He seemed smart and nice, if a little too busy and glib but I don’t get the impression that he understood the dynamics of blogging. I think maybe he thought there was some kind of lower threshold of caring with a blogger because I’m not a real journalist or author. Wheras I think the threshold is often higher, because this isn’t just a job, this is a passion (well, maybe passion is too much).

8. They told me this campaign was going to break last week, but I’ve been googling “proper British” and HP sauce and I’ve not found much, just the ad they did earlier in the year. (Quite good, filmed at the S+M cafe Ladbroke Grove, I think). Maybe they’re not going to do it. But it led me to the official HP site, which made me realise, for all their PR and sauce smarts, maybe they’re not that up on the live, personal nature of the blogosphere.

Anyway, thoughts anyone? Has anyone heard of this campaign? Anyone think I should have done it?

Comments

[Ben]

You shouldn't have done it, mainly for reason number 1.

Anyone reading the blog, book or listening to the odd interview would know that you don't think cafes are in decline and that it would be hypocritical for you to say otherwise. They also seem to be going for an anti-American angle here, which is understandable but again (for fairly easy to find reasons) you are the wrong person to ask to front that.

"I might give it away, but I’m not going to sell it cheaply." You are right here too. (You sound like Seth Godin in his glory days ...).

Money, fame or glory wasn't the issue here, they should have spent a few minutes of that "desktop research" finding out a bit more about their target.

[russell]

Ah yes, hypocrisy, I'd forgotten about that.

[Matt]

The approach seems absolutely par for the course. I can just picture the PR agency brainstorm now...eerruuugghhh.

It seems to me that the EBC&B 'thing' is about celebrating something rather special. Nothing more, nothing less.

Overall, my two cents would be that when approaching the sensitive issue of brands working with bloggers (and occasionally vice versa) the best place to start is by seeing if you can create something together. Something that both parties feel interested in, excited about and commited to.

A simple test would be that if either side can't get over that first critical hurdle, then there's absolutely no point trying to push it any further.

We'll only end up with similar pieces to the one you've just written and a load of comments that will reverberate around the place for some time to come.

[Julia Xavier]

3 things to tell you:
#1 (as a healthy breakfast fan): you actually should start a campaign to put an end to English breakfast - I still can´t believe english people eat egg bacon and beans for breakfast.
#2 (as a brand fan): their approache was the worse possible. I´t was almost naive...
#3 (as a Russell Davies´ fan): you should never be payed to say things on your blog. If I knew that you are getting payed to say something in your blog (even if it is the bacon one), I would be very disappointed and would never read any of your blogs again. It would discredit everything you said before. Don´t. Never. Freedom of Speach rules - not money.

[russell]

the other thing I thought was interesting was they didn't tell me / ask me not to blog about this. Which was naive. Bloggers blog, that's just what they do. I could easily have broken some embargo or something. Though, I thought it was just polite to wait.

Unless this is all a very clever trick to get some free coverage and there never was supposed to be a campaign. Which would be simultaneously clever and stupid.

[Servant of Chaos]

Not sure if this is what you are looking for ... http://www.visit4info.com/details.cfm?adid=29829 ... though if they were interested in using online communication, they also should have asked you about YouTube.

[Luca Vergano]

What did you say in the APG video (the one with all the Andre Gide quotes)? "In order to get back consistency cause that's what we're looking for" (I am quoting this on memory so it may not be the exact words).

I think that the main reason why you made the best choice is consistency.

A) you don't think cafe are in decline

B) you would have wounded the "Russell Davies" (as a brand) consistency

So it would have been maybe good for HB but not so much for you, in a way...

makes any sense?

[Tom Asacker]

To sell or not to sell? That is the question in the attention economy. And btw, TypePad costs less than $200 a year. ;)

[Ben]

If you look hard enough, isn't HP owned by Heinz?

[James Cherkoff]

I was doing some work for HP last year and ended up buying the following URLs...

officialsauce.co.uk
theofficialsauce.co.uk
greatbritishsauce.co.uk
officialbritishsauce.co.uk

which were not used and they do not want....so if you have a use for them...

[Anne]

Is this it? http://www.proper-british.co.uk/ I think they've nicked one of my photos - cheeky bastards.

[Richard]

Should you have done it?
You have done it.

I'm off to buy some HP Sauce ...

[russell]

yes, that's it. It probably is your picture. `They ripped some of mine off for their demo version which a journalist accidentally sent me. They're not doing themselves any favours with the blogging community. Except for me giving them all this free publicity.

[Jonathan]

I'm all for learning those pesky Yanks how to make a proper brekky though, HP sauce n all.

http://www.maninapanic.com/2006/01/the_half_monty.html

My cholestorol clogged arteries need some bean juice to keep the fat chugging along.

[Jem]

There's a story in the telegraph today.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=PTNGXPTIDTKEFQFIQMGCFF4AVCBQUIV0?xml=/news/2006/04/20/ncafe20.xml

Greasy spoons fight for survival against cappuccino culture
By Jonathan Petre

[Lips]

Hi Russel,

not sure if you pick up metro in the morning. There is a small article (more a snippet really) about the HP campaign on page 23 today: " A saucy plan to save our cafes".

Email me if you need to see it.

Lips

[Noel Kingsley]

It's good you're sticking to your principles as the commercial aspect of this campaign is rather a turn off. Being independent is best.

Noel
Noel Kingsley

[Ben]

Russell, there has just been a 3-4 minute piece on the BBC's London News about this. About the campaign, not this post.

They claim cafes will be gone by 2010, but independent skinny latte merchants will thrive. They even interviewed cafe owners and customers. Then they interviewed Paul Harvey, who I think is you. If you see what I mean. No mention of HP.

I imagine you could watch it again online, should you wish http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/

[russell]

yes, it's been a depressingly succesful campaign. Depressing in that the lazy PR and dumb research has led to lots of coverage.

But good in that there's lots of talk of cafes.

The Mirror's got all excited and got me to make up a top ten list of cafes for tomorrow's paper. And then made me do the usual embarrasing picture of me and a fry-up.

[Colman]

Guardian editorial today...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/britain/article/0,,1758102,00.html

[Rob Mortimer]

It does seem like they want to make you fit their promotion instead of just joining in with what you are really saying.

If its saying something you dont believe then its good not to do it. Marketing works best when its truthful.

I did see the article in the Mirror today though! Well done.

[Ben]

Oh dear.

http://www.londonreviewofbreakfasts.co.uk

[Ben]

Have you seen that they are moving production from Britain to Holland? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/4754351.stm

That PR doesn't seem to be working.

[Malcolm Coghill]

I wonder if you are glad that you didn't do the publicity for Heinz in view of their plan to move manufacture of HP Sauce to Holland ?
Sauce of Great Britain, my arse.

[Robert Seviour]

I am very glad to hear that decent cafs are still around. Having spent a few years abroad I was nervous that yet another of the parts of British life that I appreciate would be on the way to extinction.

My paean to the Great Fry is at

http://27ways.ca/english_breakfast.htm

Robert