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Is there really no such thing as bad press?

Well, leave it to the crew at PETA, they know how to stir up controversy. They’ve grown out of throwing red paint on rich folks wearing fur… and set their sites on a bigger target: the meat loving, BBQ roasting, and bacon loving (lusting), cowboy culture of America. And honestly, what better way to get cowboys riled up then with hot chicks?

By now, you must have seen the sexy new ad that PETA attempted to run in this weeks Super Bowl. I’ve included it here for your critical analysis. The question I have is, was this a smart move for PETA’s brand?

Ignoring for a second wether or not you actually agree with PETA, or whether or not you find the ad offensive, or for that matter whether or not NBC is acting on good faith by rejecting this ad, but gladly airing the sexy ads from GoDaddy.com, Budweiser, or other mega brands, there is an interesting analysis to be had of the online marketing strategy employed by PETA in this increasingly online world.

I suspect that PETA’s strategy was actually simply link baiting executed perfectly.

What’s link baiting? If  you’re a brand marketer that’s paying any attention to the online world you had better already know what link baiting is. In all likelihood you’ve paid or considered paying an SEO expert tens of thousands to develop and execute a viral campaign. But if you weren’t rigorous and thoughtful about the goal of the campaign, and you didn’t have a clear grasp of your brand values, then you probably won’t pull off a stunt like PETA has.

The whole point of a link baiting campaign like this is to get people linking to your site… Whether or not people are talking about your brand (good or bad)… may not matter to you. Of course, if you execute your campaign “well” and it does take off, then people will talk about your brand, and you’ll get detractors as well as fans.

It doesn’t hurt if your brand is already considered edgy… Frankly you can’t get much edgier than a brand that literally assaults people by throwing paint on them… So being racy, and objectifying women: it’s hard to make a case that this will tarnish the PETA brand.

What was PETA’s goal? My hunch: Turn some heads (check), get some inbound links (check), and increase their page rank on terms related to vegetarianism and health benefits (check?). PETA already runs GoVeg.com which ranks 2 on google behind Wikipedia for “vegetarian”; 5 for “health benefits of vegetarian diet”; 5 for “health risks of eating meat”. That’s pretty good rank to begin with, but this link baiting campaign certainly isn’t going to hurt.

Filed by Brad Hefta-Gaub at 12:20 pm under Marketing, Social Media
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