Arguably, its not what American Apparel did that caused the issue (on the flip side of the bad comments, some pointed out that offering a little welcome relief to tens of thousands of bored American’s stuck inside while the storm raged was, well, nice), but the way in which they launched it somewhat flippantly via a tweet.

Twitter is now a global communication tool on a scale that no one could have predicted even as little as three years ago, and it can be used to great effect. While American Apparel were being rapped in the Twittersphere, New York marathon runners were using the site to organize relief and aid for those worst hit on Staten Island.

For brands, the freedom of expression that Twitter allows can be something of a blessing or a curse. It’s great when consumers follow what you are doing, retweet the bits they like and generally interact positively. It’s not so great when you have to defend your name or your actions via the Twittersphere. Social media is a powerful tool, so put a foot wrong and you’re setting yourself up for at best a customer backlash, and at worse a media storm.

For this reason more and more brands are adopting a crisis communications strategy. Long gone are the days in which companies had 24 hours to come up with a crisis response. Thanks to Twitter the reality now is that catastrophic events need to be dealt with in real time or else run the risk of rumours spreading.

Not that coming up with a crisis communications strategy is an easy or straightforward task. There have been plenty of examples where brands have got crisis response via Twitter very wrong, while others who have taken a measured approach came out of the other side faring OK. With this in mind, here are my dos and dont’s of crisis communications management in this age of immediacy.

Do – remain calm under pressure

The recent Lance Armstrong debacle has caused a headache for every one of his sponsors who have been forced to drop him. By far the most high profile of these is Nike, which didn’t immediately terminate its contract with Armstrong, but ultimately took the only available course of action in the face of ‘insurmountable evidence’.  Some people may question why Nike didn’t immediately sever ties with the shamed sports star immediately as allegations came to the fore. Actually, I think it’s quite refreshing that the brand didn’t jump straight to conclusions and panic, instead standing by their man until the facts became crystal clear. It can be easy, in the age of Twitter, where stories such as this gain momentum leaving a brand as big as Nike, with its 750,000 plus followers under immense pressure to ‘do the right thing’ Usually brands bow to pressure and make quick decisions to ‘save the brand image’, which ultimately did result in Nike dropping Armstrong a week or so later.

In fact it’s not really the relationship that Nike had with Armstrong that has come under scrutiny, much of the Twitter bashing has centred around how the sports giant could drop Armstrong, but didn’t drop Tiger Woods when he was caught out having an affair (in my view the two aren’t comparable – Nike’s partnership with both Armstrong and Woods has been a professional one, with Wood’s problems having come in his personal life and Armstrong’s being within the professional arena). Interestingly, Nike has not used its Twitter feed to enter into any Armstrong related conversation unlike the charity Livestrong, which Armstrong until recently chaired. More on that in a bit.

Don’t – take your eye completely off the ball

Ok so I’ve said above that knee jerk reactions aren’t the best way to plan out a crisis communications strategy, but being seen to do nothing at all can be equally as damaging to a brand.

Last year WH Smith learned this lesson the hard way, after a Twitter user tweeted a photograph appearing to show that the retailer had moved its copies of Gay Times and Attitude to keep them out of sight. The picture, which was uploaded over the weekend, received hundreds of retweets, leaving the brand to deal with a Twitter storm by the Monday morning. It quickly issued a statement explaining its actions but by then it was too late – the damage was done.

Effective crisis communications requires a brand to keep one eye on the ball at all times, in order to respond within an appropriate time period.

Don’t – view social media as a secondary news channel

Back to the Armstrong debacle, and a very Twitter-centric approach taken by Livestrong. Livestrong used Twitter to announce that Armstrong had stepped down as chairman in wake of the scandal, with many subsequent media reports opening with ‘Livestrong confirms Armstrong step-down via Twitter’ or similar. Was this the correct thing to do? With the severity and enormity of the story, was it enough to ‘just tweet’ about it and let the leaves fall as they may? I think that more should have been made out of it, with a press conference called at the very least. There were numerous questions which needed to be asked and the public definitely deserved to hear Livestrong’s responses, although a press conference was called a couple of weeks later to confirm a replacement. Twitter is a magnificent social media tool which enables brands to communicate with consumers and fans in a way that they have never been able to before, but in this case I think the human touch, given the nature of the whole scenario would be have been more appropriate.

Do – take responsibility for social media blunders

A colleague has been let loose on your Twitter account and has tweeted something decidedly ‘off-brand’. A swift delete might seem like the easiest option – but should it end there? Recently an employee from a US brand called Kitchen Aid tweeted something unsavoury about Barack Obama. Kitchen Aid deleted the Tweet and issued an apology, making clear that the offending tweet did not reflect the brand’s opinion. Next up the head of Kitchen Aid talked on the record to popular tech-site Mashable to apologise for the tweet, taking immediate responsibility. By speaking openly to the press she pre-empted any ‘social media fire’ that may otherwise have burned bright. There’s proof that it worked too, Mashable went on to publish an infographic demonstrating how quickly mentions of the brand reduced as the apology and media interviews were broadcast.

Of course rectifying a colleague’s ‘outburst’ on Twitter isn’t always quite that straightforward  look at the damage that footballers are bringing to their own clubs and to the FA as a governing body with their various and often foul-mouthed rants regarding the recent racism enquiries. How the FA’s image will emerge on the other side remains to be seen. One final tip I’d offer (to brands and footballers alike) is to always take a deep breath and count to ten before sending out a tweet when emotional. Once a tweet is out there, it can be out there for your followers and the general masses to remember indefinitely, regardless of whether you immediately delete it or not.

By Ruben Pillai, Marketing Coordinator at Blackjack Promotions 

What has been particularly exciting about 2012 so far is the evident rise in use of innovative technologies used to captivate and interact with consumers. Over the summer months, the likes of Samsung, Adidas and Cadbury’s all incorporated cutting edge digital technology into their experiential offerings. Of course this approach not only offers the consumer a more exciting experience, it makes the activity altogether more measurable for the brands involved too.

The problem that experiential marketing has faced until now is that while regarded as a favourite with brands that wish to stand out from the crowd, it hasn’t been considered entirely justifiable. With the cost per contact typically higher than it is in many other channels, brands and agencies alike are under increasing pressure to monetise their experiential spend. But new technologies are affording experiential more clout.

Radio frequency identification (RFID) is one such cutting edge technology that has picked up a considerable buzz this year. The technology transmits the identity of a person using radio waves. Cadbury’s used it to great effect at the London 2012 Games by issuing guests to the Cadbury’s House interactive experience in Hyde Park with badges, that when waved in front of a dedicated connection point enabled them to ‘check in’ to Facebook and upload tagged photos and posts.

Cadbury’s expected some 50,000 to attend the event itself over two weeks – think how many more people it involved though in this way, and how measurable that reach was for the brand. The exciting thing about RFID is its ability to turn an experiential event into a real time one, shared across social networks right at the point of the activity’s height.

Of course smartphone technology is playing a huge role in shaping the future of experiential. Brands undertaking sampling campaigns, for example, are beginning to see the value in incorporating an interactive element within that, that prolongs the lifespan of the activity overall. The rapid growth in smartphone usage is also aiding the adoption of an exciting trend that has migrated from the Far East – that of the pop up store. Brands are really catching on to the idea now that installing their presence in such a way delivers a statement quite like no other in the experiential space.

Tesco, as we all saw this summer, dipped its toe into the water here with the launch of its virtual store at Gatwick, which enabled travellers through the terminal to pre-order post-holiday groceries by scanning bar-codes beneath products with their smartphone. Far from appearing a purely promotional experience, this is an activity that demonstrates how experiential activity can begin to produce a direct commercial agenda. Couple the use of the smartphone as part of the experiential experience with the launch of the 4G network in the UK the possibilities are endless.

The key change that technology is affording the experiential space is that it’s allowing activity to be brought to a much wider audience.  Take, for example image recognition solutions that marry our physical and our digital worlds. In most basic form now (and I say basic because they seem to have been around for ages now), this means QR codes. A lot of brands have already dismissed these as something consumers just don’t want to engage with. Yet research shows that a lot of people simply don’t know what to do with these little black and white squares. We worked on a campaign for Interflora last Mother’s Day whereby vouchers and a giant backdrop with a scan-able 10% off voucher were distributed to passers-by, and the concept of QR codes was explained too. When people begin to understand how simple and effective a new technology is, they begin to open themselves up to it. We are moving at a rapid rate of technological change and sometimes we, as those already immersed inside the high-tech world of marketing, forget that our target audiences might not have quite the same level of knowledge when it comes to these dynamic new mediums.

In the past experiential has been seen as a powerful way to connect brands and consumers, but one that reaches only those people there present at the time of the event itself, and one that can yield little in the way of tangible results beyond a general sense of adding some brand awareness. Now digital and social media platforms are enabling the channel to unlock its full potential. The use of technology in experiential is not only enabling brands to create more measurable results that please the board, it is also allowing for the creation of more exciting and dynamic activity in itself – a win, win situation all round.

By Will Northover, Client Services Manager at Blackjack Promotions

And yet really, we’re all still on something of a learning curve when it comes to gracing social media etiquette – in particular it would seem on Twitter. It’s not hard to see why – professional sport is made up of a melting pot of passion and profit, while Twitter is a world stage from which any sports star – and the brands associated with them – can share their emotion and involvement with a tournament or event. For the most part this is all good – but there have been times when things have backfired.

There is the well documented case of Nike’s rap from the Advertising Standard’s Authority (ASA) this summer, after it decided that tweets sent from the personal accounts of brand ambassadors – footballers Wayne Rooney and Jack Wilshere – broke rules for not making it clear that their tweets were part of a marketing campaign. The fact that Nike appealed the ban sums up how powerful social media has become, in that such an almighty brand took such protest at the ASA’s rules to a simple marketing campaign on Twitter.

The point is that Twitter is an incredibly powerful tool for brands – and especially those involved in the sports industry. Twitter is the place people go to watch live events – be it the Olympics, the football or – in the case of the ICC for the next 3 weeks, the cricket.

According to Twitter, there were 150 million tweets about the London Olympics, compared to 125,000 tweets about Beijing four years ago. The Games themselves may be over, but for brands and sponsors there still exists a honeymoon period when it comes to capitalising on the success of our athletes. The likes of Mo Farah and Jessica Ennis have gained many thousands of new followers since the Games, while Tom Daley is regularly amassing around 50,000 ‘likes’ per Facebook photo he posts online. With the BBC Sports Personality of the Year presentation on the not too distant horizon, our sporting athletes are likely to remain front of mind for a while yet.

The trick for brands who want to harness the endorsing powers of our new sporting heroes is to do so cleverly and with subtlety. Jaguar received some nice endorsement when it invited Olympic Taekwondo champion, Jade Jones to its manufacturing facility in Birmingham, to help build the Jaguar XF she will soon become the owner of – something that Jones appears very much to have tweeted about off her own back (a simple ‘On my way down to Birmingham for a Jaguar day!’ to her 35,000 plus followers did the trick).

It’s all about striking the right balance. There are some sports stars who will use social media as their own personal advertising hub, where every other week a new ‘thing’ is the best since sliced bread and tweet after tweet is sent mentioning the said product. I’m all for the little village business in Wales getting free publicity from a global superstar about their awesome sandwiches, bags or haircuts, but when you have sports stars always talking about the new beauty product or clothes they have been given, that’s when the marketing message can start to sound false.

Many sports stars turn to Twitter to promote the charitable causes that they are involved with. Rio Ferdinand, Bradley Wiggins and Wigan Rugby League Player Sam Tomkins are among the sports personalities that have all shown support for a charity called ‘Joining Jack’, which raises awareness and research funds for fatal disease Duchenne Muscle Dystrophy. A simple addition of the hashtag #alljoinjack and official Twitter account @alljoinjack to tweets has helped word of its cause to spread fast – the ‘endorsement’ of the brand message by these stars is heartfelt and genuine. Any brand should consider a similar element of ingenuity when asking a star to promote its products.

Sports stars can have commercial clout, but success really comes when the tone is spot on.

By Ruben Pillai, Olympics Co-ordinator at Blackjack Promotions

Blackjack Promotions’ brand ambassadors wearing branded Green and Black’s aprons targeted commuters entering and exiting major London Underground stations, including Baker Street, Waterloo, Oxford Circus, Green Park and Paddington, between 9am – 7pm. Blackjack brand ambassadors successfully distributed almost 200,000 samples throughout the day!

A Digital Out-of-Home campaign featuring the new flavours further supported the launch and drove awareness. The digital campaign, planned by Rocket and booked by Posterscope, appeared at all 16 stations between the hours of 4pm-7pm.

Lucky Londoners were able to have a tasty treat last Friday!

Experiential experts, Blackjack Promotions, provided promotional staff to distribute leaflets throughout the day providing further information to the public. Singing festive favourites such as “All I want for Christmas” and “Santa Claus is coming to town”, the quartet serenaded City travellers as they passed through the train station.

Holly Treadaway from Blackjack commented: “The London Community Gospel Choir delivered a fantastic show yesterday. The public thoroughly enjoyed the festive live music and atmosphere that was created during the event.”

The Flupak contained sanitising spray and wipes, tissues and information about maintaining good hygiene. Passers by were delighted to receive a product of such high quality and usefulness. The queues which developed at distribution points gave perfect opportunity for the ambassadors to publicise the client’s key messages.

Overall, 275,800 Flupaks were distributed to the public over 3 days.

Blackjack provided staff, branded uniforms and equipment for the activity as well as organising the logistics and project managed.

With all the buzz around the London 2012 Olympics, it almost feels as if brands have forgotten about the excellent promotional opportunities that Europe’s biggest football tournament, Euro 2012, has to offer.

The event may not be being held on home soil, unlike the Olympics, but in some respects that enables brands to create their own local experiences around key individual games and generate a tournament atmosphere that makes people feel like they are there.

But first, why Euro 2012? Well it has it’s own distinct place on the calendar, positioned between the Queen’s Jubilee and the Olympics, delivers a specific audience (particularly young men and women, non-luxury), and more of an opportunity to create an interactive, sharing experience due to the nature of a football match.

With only three weeks to go before the tournament kicks off, is it too late to plan related activity? Not necessarily. You may have missed the boat with respect to the main official sponsorship opportunities in and around the stadiums themselves, and with respect to securing TV ad space. There are probably also limited options relating to taking groups to the tournament or organising satellite events in the Ukraine or Poland. However, if you get a move on there are still chances to tap into Euro fever both online and live – or even better, a combination of the two.

For example, you could emulate the gamification trend and create your own branded Euro fantasy football experience that your customers will be able to play online during the tournament, with your brand front of mind as they do so. You can use email marketing, any existing social media activity, along with traditional media, such as newspapers, to promote the game and encourage people to sign up, while offering a series of prizes for the winners. Although developing such an online game from scratch can take some time, there are likely to be a number of ‘brand-able’ off-the-shelf packages available that can be up and running quickly.

However, if a brand came to me right now and asked how best they could leverage the buzz around Euro 2012, I’d have to say that creating a series of boutique events coinciding with key games would be the way forward. The number and scale would depend on budget, but each would feature a big screen showing a specific game, a bar and food, plus entertaining activities such as a live penalty shoot-out, band and party afterwards.

You could invite specific customers if you have a relatively small number of high-value. Alternatively you could run a competition or promotion online to select the audiences. Furthermore, to maximise the return you can amplify and extend the reach of the activity by videoing the events and either streaming them live online and/or uploading an edited version afterwards, drawing further attention to the content through social media.

You could even include a special booth at each event where revellers could pop in and record their reactions live. This can create a wonderful snapshot of the enjoyment levels within the audience and reflect really positively on the brand through a video compilation of the best responses, which can be hosted online.

Using live and online activity in this way not only builds loyalty through giving a memorable experience to customers, but also allows you to broadcast the fact you’ve done this, heightening positive associations with your brand.

Such experiential activity can also incorporate employees, boosting motivation levels and creating stronger brand ambassadors.

Tournaments like the Euros that lend themselves to this kind of communal celebration around a number of specific events don’t come round too often. And local satellite events can tap into the atmosphere and create an ‘as if I was there’ experience, while offering unlimited branding opportunities without the strictures that sponsoring the actual tournament can bring.

Ruben Pillai is Olympics Co-ordinator at Blackjack Promotions

WDF Senior Brand Manager, Jonathan Kelsey, tasked Blackjack to bring the film to life within the airport. Blackjack provided actors to play the characters of Tin Tin and the Thompson Twins to help promote the film, its connection to WDF, as well as the products and sales within WDF. The agency is providing staff in full character costume to circulate the airport handing out branded height charts and other WDF promotional material to passengers, particularly families with children.

The activity was funded in partnership between the airport authority and WDF, took place from the 20th October 2011 to the 30th October 2011.

This is arguably the best year in the UK ever for brand marketing opportunities. The London 2012 Games will create a festival-like atmosphere across the UK, deliver huge gatherings of people high on the Olympic spirit and ripe for engagement, and present lots of potential touch points. Meanwhile, there’s also the excitement of the UEFA European Football Championship, which although taking place on the continent, gives brands excellent scope to create bespoke events around England’s – and don’t forget Ireland’s – matches.

There’s also the not-so-insignificant matter of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. Yet it seems to have slipped off many brands’ radars. We see her iconic profile on every stamp on every letter we post, and it’s certainly no mean feat spending 60 years on any throne – even if it is in one of the more monarchy-friendly countries in the world. But this momentous cultural event has been completely overshadowed by the Olympic buzz and Euros fever. This is probably because the two sporting spectaculars are seen as ‘cooler’ events for brands to be associated with. Also, the promotional opportunities are more obvious.

Unfortunately, that means there will probably be a brand marketing cacophony unlike any heard before, as the scrum for promotional oxygen makes it a real challenge to stand out. In contrast, the Jubilee offers brands the chance to make much more of an impact. The problem is that many seem unsure of how to approach it.

Celebrating HRH’s 60 years on the throne seems more about Britishness, street parties and local culture than brands. However, it potentially provides the perfect opportunity for brands to really engage with communities at a grass roots level. In fact, the Jubilee gives home-grown businesses a chance to show off their British credentials without fear of being considered politically incorrect or jingoistic. What’s more, it presents great opportunities to bolster a brand’s corporate social responsibility credentials through some careful social marketing that could stay long in the memory of the communities it touches, while filling stakeholders and staff with pride. The results can be prominently displayed on a brand’s website and be spread far and wide through social media to show just how much it has given back to its local community.

The right approach to take is think local, deliver global. It’s a strategy that can also be very economical. For example, a brand could sponsor the street parties in its area, perhaps adding to the fun by contributing entertainers and free samples. Or put on a special Jubilee event for local people. This could then be filmed and amplified over the internet, so what happens on a local community scale is being spread worldwide.  Plus, of course, your employees – and even clients – can get involved and hold their own party, so you’re also winning on the loyalty stakes.

With marketing these days being very much about adding the personal touch, brands should consider backing up their activities with targeted direct mail campaigns. Mailing out individual branded invitations to your local community, saving local organisers the time, trouble and expense can make a big impact. Mailing out similar invitations to all your clients and staff and holding a major Jubilee company bash for them, too is also a great way of strengthening the bond with your most important assets.

So the possibilities for promotional activity around the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee really are endless. Now, if diamond is 60 years, what’s 70…?