COMPANY NEWS
When a Virus Is Used For Digital PR
Health problems and illnesses are one of the things which make us similar. However ways of treating them all over the world differ, just as companies use different ways to promote their medical products. But this blog post is about other types of viruses, which don’t require any treatment. The Ukrainian pharmaceutical industry, which is now taking its faltering steps from advertising to PR, has recently faced a new digital PR phenomenon, called Victor Gord. The link gord.com.ua will lead you to the blog of a young 15-year old Ukrainian businessman – Victor Gord. Mr. Gord owns a business, which he ‘created from nothing’, he is fabulously wealthy, takes care of his wife and child, provides jobs for 10 people working in his company etc … (it’s quite possible that he can even read our thoughts right now 🙂 ). And of course he can teach you how to become wealthy! 
- – Over 111 000 users visited Victor Gord’s site;
- – About 49 000 users viewed Gord’s videos;
- – Around 7 000 unique users contacted secretary via chat;
- – More than 260 publications were placed in blogs and forums (one article was published in Korrespondent magazine in May).
- – Over 12 500 unique users visited the Berocca site.
It is especially impressive that more than 600 people signed for Gord’s seminars. Unbelievable how many Ukrainians are willing to believe in fairy tales! However, despite such a success, there were a few strategic PR issues which Gord’s creators could not explain when asked by the Festival jury committee. First of all, they could not trace if their target audience – young men in the age segment from 25 to 45 years old – was reached. ISD group representatives assumed that Victor Gord might be of interest mainly for his age group. Secondly, it was difficult to estimate regional localization of Gord’s blog visitors. Given the fact that the majority of Ukrainian internet users are located in Kyiv, I daresay the campaign covered mainly the Kyiv region. The argument of limited regional coverage of online campaigns is often raised by pharmaceutical companies. When planning a digital campaign no one can guarantee that digital PR can reach mainstream audience across the whole Ukraine, due to the fact that 75% of internet users are concentrated in the capital. Another question is how Gord’s fans reacted once they found themselves mislead by Berocca? Will they still be interested in the vitamins when the Gord phenomenon is disclosed? Will they be loyal to the brand in the future? Finally, I also assume that around 30% of Victor Gord’s blog visitors were social media marketers and journalists, since the campaign was widely discussed by professionals. And if you’ve tried one of the links above, you have just increased this number. 🙂
< ! [endif] >let’s work together
