Butlins to Rome and back again.

Evening.

So it’s been a bit quiet around here of late. A direct correlation with it all kicking off outside of blogland. A quick update;

1) I now work here instead of here. It’s cracking. If you’re interested enough to want to know why I left and what I do now, please feel free to get in touch.

2) I drove from Calais to Rome in a £150 20 year old Volvo 480 in an organised rally. That again, was a good thing that happened. Here is Scarlet in action. (By action, I mean on the side of the road with one of us topping up the radiator. A familiar scene on the trip).

3) I got invited to go to Butlin’s in Bognor Regis on an organised ‘tweetup’.

This is a bit of a weird story.But probably one with a few lessons.

A few months ago, I signed up to a site called Fuelmyblog out of curosity as to what it could offer potential clients. It’s run by a chap called Kevin Dixie who I was lucky enough to meet at said tweetup. He knows his apples. I’m not entirely sure how I managed to get invited to this, as the majority of my readership is marketing folk and the majority of Butlin’s core market probably aren’t. Moleskine wielding types, not the first association you would make with Butlins really.

When I got there, it appeared the others who had been invited were a pretty mixed bag but all had their routes in tech blogging and web 2.0 start-ups; contributing tech editor at the Telegraph and now Techcrunch Europe and also of Michael Jackson flashmob tribute fame Milo, Paul Carr, a guardian and Techcrunch columnist and about ten other bloggers working in various fields, all of whom very nice.

However, media planning wise, not very, err, Butlins.

Perhaps that’s what the brief was? Let’s do a familiarisation trip with some guys who would never consider Butlins? To tap into a bit of Butlins redcoat post-modern nostalgia? To broaden Butlins to a wider market, to reintroduce the staycation to the ‘burbs and the Nathan Barleys? To generate some online chatter; get the link love going… maybe.

Here is a resulting piece of coverage from Paul’s column. A must read. Hmmm.

And here is a nice video that Milo put together.

Our particular highlight was having a giant inflatable penis thrust in my friend’s face by some lovely ladies from Romford. Luckily, Bradley from S Club 7 was on hand to deal with the large member- he autographed it… Magic.

In all, perhaps not the ‘key messaging’ that the guys at Butlins were after.

Finally, here is the tweet a few weeks later from the lovely Sara-Jane, then of Butlin’s PR team;

(Thankfully, it now looks like she’s got a great new job.)

Now, it must be said, that although the media planning was pretty shaky which resulted in some pretty scathing coverage and a redundancy, personally I had a pretty good weekend. We were treated very well, accomodation good, food was half decent and the entertainment was err 911 and Sonia (which went down well though with us ironic ‘meeja’ lot). There appears to be some other good reviews coming in from the parenting blogger community too (though similar concerns as to who the activity was targeting).

However, I don’t believe Butlins needed to embark on this ‘blogger outreach strategy’.

Butlins to me are sitting on dynamite. And most of it is wearing a red jacket.

It’s a simple formula. Get people who are passionate about Butlins, talking to other people who are enthusiastic about Butlins and reward those who grow that enthusiasm in others. The web is good at that.

In this instance ‘blogger outreach’ perhaps isn’t the answer therefore. Empowering their employees to speak on behalf of the brand could be? In today’s transparent environment, having a workforce that wholeheartedly believes in the product they peddle, is really quite a powerful communication tool, especially online. Sometimes, the PR function has to focus on facilitation of the conversation, allowing the amplification to follow.