As part of the launch of the Bahrain World Trade Center, the world’s first building with integrated wind turbines we used a SMNR in addition to a ‘traditional’ press release. There were both advantages and disadvantages to this.
Advantages
1. Exposure was significantly higher – more people were exposed to the story.
2. Traffic to the companies website increased 300% percent.
3. The number of people bloging about the project increased dramatically.
4. The news was shared through social media communities including Twitter, You-Tube and Facebook.
Disadvantages
1. The quality of footage in the SMNR was not high enough for television broadcasting companies to use it. As a result in addition to distributing the SMNR we also had to upload the event footage through a satellite uplink, the cost of this was over $3500 – an additional cost that was not explained clearly.
2. The cost of the SMNR was high.
3. The SMNR was popular among international media but the local / regional media (in the Middle East)
did not have the software capable of using this type of release. As a result, if we had only sent a SMNR coverage in this region would have been significantly affected.
Overall my experience with SMNR was positive, saying that I haven’t used one since then and that was 2 years ago. That’s not to say I wouldn’t in the future.
I have seen a number of companies use SMNR to great effect, my favorite example is Dominos Pizza.
Following a spate of negative publicity. Domino’s had no other option but to tackle the issue head on. They released a SMNR, which included a clip fronted by the CEO.
This proved successful; it enabled Domino’s to tap into the real-time double-edged sword of social media – speed and counter the negative publicity. The SMNR was key to this. It helped the company resolve the issue and provided a good example on how SMNRs can be used as a solution to a crisis.