Following the goings on on Irishgamer.ie earlier I couldn’t help but think of that old cliché ‘All publicity is good publicity’.
In the event of Irishgamer.ie the chestnut proved to be true; the editor of the site dealt with the problem swiftly, recieved kudos all around and for the price of a game (which they probably got for free!) pulled off a PR coup that all the Google Ad’s and billboards in the world couldn’t do; they showed that they take their credibility seriously, are willing to respond to viewers input, criticism and opinions and above all showed a level of maturity in the way they deal with their problems. The site is in its early stages but with this kind of handling and the right content it could become a big force in the Irish game scene.
As I said before, hardcore gamers are a tough crowd and by publically showing their true and pleasant nature on one of the busier games forums in Ireland they managed to turn a potentially lethal event into a completely positive one.
Saying that I don’t believe the previously mentioned cliché is true for one minute; while larger examples of bad publicity leading to positive results are all around us (Pirate Bay’s shutdown, for example) there are rules to the concept of bad being good. Pirate Bay grew in popularity after the news of its temporary shut-down because many people in the world like what they do but may not have known they existed; while some read about the police raid and thought “good”, others read it and though “damn” or “I must check that out”.
If a politician comes out with a hugely controversial policy initiative some people would be disgusted but there’s almost certainly a portion of voters who will get turned on by the initiative.
Irishgamer.ie turned bad to good by responding properly and fixing the problem quickly, something that Sony didn’t do with their Rootkit crisis a while ago.
The rules of good being bad are simple and can only apply when the publicised wrong is righted quickly and properly or the wrong can be considered a right by some.
If it is found that a software company is using spyware to gather information on its users, and on publication of that fact they refuse to apologise or remove the malicious code how can that ever be considered good publicity?
What is interesting is that for the most part any company can refresh its image through quick action; Google is doing it on China. Consumers are very willing to forgive but if you act poorly and don’t deal with an issue don’t expect them to forget.