When the Deepwater Horizon (not a bad name for an oil rig) exploded in April, one of the most far-reaching and, arguably, effective branding campaigns began in earnest.
Early on, if one Googled “Oil Spill,” the first result was:
“Info about the Gulf of Mexico Spill. Learn More about How BP is Helping.”
BP had quietly purchased Google keywords that related to the oil spill in order to insure that millions of people who searched for information about the spill would find “Info about the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill” and “Learn more about how BP is helping.”
A more appropriate name might have been “The BP Oil Spill Disaster” or “The BP Oil Debacle”, And as for BP helping, some would say BP had already helped enough.
Self-serving? Of course, Slick marketing? Excuse me for gushing ...You bet!
In order to distance itself from the disaster, BP made a point of naming it “the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill”, unlike Exxon/Valdez, a disaster named after the company that was actually responsible for it.
Ships hired by BP to lend a hand in the Gulf have been aspirationally named “Vessels of Opportunity.” The ecologically disastrous dispersant is brilliantly called “Corexit” ... not something straight out of a scifi thriller like, say, Agent X-22.
And who could forget the failed “Top Kill” and “Junkshot”, those gutsy, can-do names that could be featured in the next Bruce Willis flick.
“Blowout Preventer” is a descriptive and simple name, but, sadly, it never prevented anything.
“Top Hat 10” at this writing it is still being tested. Let’s hope it’s a good fit.
And if you Google “Oil Spill” right now, you will probably see:
Learn about BP’s Progress on the Gulf of Mexico Response Effort.
If BP’s safety measures were as effective as their branding and naming, the Gulf oil... I mean the BP Oil Debacle might never have happened.
2 comments:
Brilliant on target analysis. Thanks Stu, were you the naming agents for BP?
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