Papa John's should apologize for their apology

During the Cleveland Cavaliers-Washington Wizards playoff series, a Washington Papa John's franchise handed out promotional towels to fans. On the towels, it said "23 Cry Baby," referring to their opponent (and our local hero) LeBron James.

This of course, caused an outrage among Cleveland fans. So to apologize, the Cleveland-area Papa John's decided to give their pizzas away for a mere 23 cents (referring to LeBron's jersey number).

This was a one-day promotion that happened on May 8th.

The event, of course, was supposed to be both a goodwill gesture and a great PR stunt.

And I'm not certain it turned out to be either.

First of all, the 23-cent offer was loaded with asterisks. It HAD to be a one-topping pizza. it HAD to be picked up. There was only one pie per household. And there was no promise on how long it would take to actually have your pizza ready. News reports showed people waiting as long as three and four hours for their pizzas.

This was sort of like the school yard bully apologizing for punching you while he was kicking you in the knee.

I'm not sure anyone who actually got a 23-cent pizza thought to themselves after it was all over, "Yeah, now that was a great deal...that was worth it."

And then there was the PR spin. Sure, Papa John's got a ton of press coverage. Every radio and TV station brought you stories of people waiting in line for their pizza. But the same reporters also showed the downside to all of this: Fights breaking out, consumer frustrations, reports of day-old pre-made pizzas being sold. And the commentator themselves dogged the quality of the pizza and the common sense of those waiting in line.

In the end, I've got to believe a full page "We're sorry" ad would have been less painful, costly and embarrassing.

And hey, if anyone needs to apologize to the Cleveland fans, it's the Cavs themselves for their heartless performance in game 2.

Mark Dolliver, where are you?

Not long ago, Adweek revamped its website. It looks nice. It navigates pretty easily. It's got a lot more video capability. But,in my view, it’s missing something very important. The Portfolio section, written by long-time ad critic Mark Dolliver.

Up until the relaunch, Mr. Dolliver used the forum to critique current and noteworthy advertising. Sure, a lot of sites do this. But what made Mark’s column so special is that he regularly recognized work from smaller, emerging agencies. Agencies that were doing great stuff (or sometimes lousy stuff, if you ask Mr. Dolliver), but weren’t doing it for the VW’s and the Burger Kings and the P&G’s of the world.

What Mark seemed to realize that perhaps Adweek management doesn’t, is that good work can come from anywhere. Mark sought out the local and regional work. He took the time to display it. Honor it. And give it its due prominence in the advertising community.

Mr. Dolliver still contributes to adweek.com. But he’s off doing bigger and better things.

I just wish his employer realized that sometimes smaller is better, too.

Who's taking part in social networking? It's not who you think.

If you think social networking is just for twenty somethings, think again. A new study shows an astonishing increase in participation of online social networking among the affluent, according to the Luxury Institute. 30% of Facebook users come from household incomes of at least $100,000, and 22% of MySpace users come from similarly affluent households.

If you're marketing a luxury brand to consumers, does your strategy addresses this important movement? Are you taking steps to understand how this audience uses social networking, and how best to engage them?

Hey, it's a new look for Point to Point's web site

If you’re an avid Point to Point fan, no doubt you’ve noticed we’ve made a few changes to our site lately. Our old site (with the exception of the blog) was entirely Flash-based—as most agency sites are. We decided it was time to update the site for several reasons. We wanted to see how our search engine rankings would change if we created an HTML site. And we all agreed that HTML or Flash, the important thing was to get visitors to our work as soon as possible, something that we weren’t sure our old site did. Finally, while the old Flash site challenged your beliefs in how to navigate a site, we wondered if there was a better way to get that point across.

And it gave us an opportunity to really push the traditional thinking of HTML design with a horizontally scrolling web site.

Why push the limits? It’s my belief that agency sites should always push you, should always make you a bit uncomfortable. Most people visit an agency site expecting the unexpected, expecting to be entertained. We decided to challenge the notion of traditional navigation—the traditional way of navigating from, well, point to point.

I hope you like it, we are still working on finishing up some loose ends—but please feel free to post any thoughts you might have.

Announcing the 2008 Point to Point Account Management Internship

Have a strong sense of curiosity? Possess a positive, “whatever it takes” attitude? Are “organized” and “detail-oriented” the perfect way to describe you? Then you may be the perfect candidate for our Account Management Intern. Our internship will enable you to gain a solid understanding of how an agency functions and the services it provides to clients. You’ll gain valuable experience that will foster your growth and development along an account management career path. Under the supervision of the Account Directors, you will support and participate in day-to-day responsibilities of client service and account management. Plus you’ll earn a little money to stock up on the beer fund.

Internship will begin in June, depending on student availability, and last about 6-10 weeks.

If you are interested in this paid, 30 hour per week position, please send your resume and cover letter no later than April 11, 2008. Send a non-returnable sample of something that you’re proud of – a writing sample, a paper that earned you an A, or anything else that would make your mom say “that’s my boy/girl!”

Point to Point
ATTN: Internships
23240 Chagrin Blvd
Suite 200
Cleveland OH 44122
internships@buildamovement.com
(no phone calls, please)