Sunday night, April 11, was nail-biting time for the communications team at 1-800-Flowers.com. The popular florist/gift provider and the company’s president, Chris McCann, were about to go under the public microscope as the stars of the CBS reality show, Undercover Boss. PR executives are used to controlling outcomes, but in this case, says Yanique Woodall, VP of enterprise PR for the company, that was out of the question.

“We had not seen the episode in advance,” says Woodall. “That was a big risk, but we understood that going in.”

Risk, and some pretty big rewards, appear to be the hallmarks of an organization’s participation in reality TV shows. Risk, because there’s a level of unpredictability (and sometimes just plain trouble) associated with these shows; rewards, because they are popular and can drive awareness. Consider that of the top 15 shows rated by Nielsen for the week of April 4, five were reality programs.

The ability to get the message out to millions of people drove 1-800-Flowers’ decision to participate in Undercover Boss, where the boss pretends to be a regular working stiff and, hopefully, learns valuable lessons from his rank-and-file employees.

When presented with the opportunity (a purely editorial offering with no sponsorship fees required), says Woodall, 1-800-Flowers worked internally to understand the pros and the cons around appearing on the show. “There was a chance to get our message out about our retail stores and our Fannie May candy offerings,” she says. In addition, it was an opportunity to use the show as an employee relations tool. What tipped the balance was viewing the first show of the series, which featured the head of Waste Management. “We were impressed by that show, and we decided then to take the risk,” says Woodall.

In January, the company’s four-person PR team began work on the project. The main task was supporting Chris McCann as he traveled with the Undercover crew to retail shops and the Fannie May candy factory in Canton, Ohio. Otherwise, says Woodall, the PR effort had to remain, well, undercover, since employees had to be kept in the dark about the project. At the same time, the staff worked in concert with the CBS communications team to record some pre-show promos with McCann, always making sure that the element of surprise was intact.

Back to Sunday night, as the show was about to air, Woodall and her team were “anxious and excited all at once,” she said. For good reason: Reality shows have been lightning rods for PR controversies.

STORM AT THE SHORE

Consider the case of Domino’s Pizza and the much talked about MTV show Jersey Shore. Late last year, one of Domino’s ads appeared in the show’s premiere episode. Immediately after it aired, Domino’s decided to pull the ad from the show. “It was pretty cut-and-dried. No histrionics. No threats,” says Tim McIntyre, VP of communications at Domino’s. “We simply exercised our choice.”

But what happened next surprised even McIntyre, who has dealt with some high-profile PR crises before. As groups began to protest the show’s portrayal of Italian-Americans, Domino’s got pulled into the controversy. “We were swept up in a tide of publicity that was pretty much unwarranted, from our perspective,” says McIntyre. “It was laughable.” The incident reached a crescendo when “Snooki,” one of the show’s larger-than-life personalities, gave advertisers that pulled their spots a verbal middle-finger salute. Such is the power of reality television, says McIntyre.

But that power can be focused in a positive way as well, reaping PR dividends for lesser-known brands.

BUILDING GOODWILL

When John Parker, founder of Tallahassee, Fla.-based home construction company MyddeltonParker Builders, got a call in January 2009 from someone saying he was an executive producer of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, he had to do some quick Googling to be certain he wasn’t being punked. A family in the area had made the cut for the show, and they needed a house built—and quick.

For MyddeltonParker, it wasn’t simply a matter of building a house in one week—the PR and marketing plan had to be created from the ground up as well. After saying yes to the project, Parker called other construction firms involved in prior Extreme episodes. Their key advice: Ramp up the PR. Parker’s wife, Sydney, was the company’s marketing director and had PR experience, but the company also took advice from ABC’s marketing department and received help from the local Hill & Knowlton branch.

After setting up Facebook and Twitter accounts to create awareness around the effort, and forging a partnership with the local paper, the Tallahassee Democrat, the company tapped its friends to help secure sponsorship, donations and volunteers.

This time the power of the reality show came through in a more positive way: More than 3,000 people volunteered to work on the project, and many had to be turned away.

The 3,000-square-foot custom home was built in five days (normal build time is six to eight months). The Kadzis family moved in, and the show was a hit.

Says Parker, the pressure for success was great. “We’re a relatively small city, and I’d hate to think what would’ve happened to our business if it wasn’t a success,” he says. But the results have been “tremendous,” says Parker. A local TV station has been rerunning the show once a week, and Parker sends new business prospects links to the Facebook page and a microsite detailing the effort.

A key lesson learned: “Don’t underestimate the power of social media,” says Parker. “You put out a call on Facebook for 20 last-minute volunteers, and in an hour you have them.”

PR ‘PETAL’ TO THE METAL

It turned out to be a good Sunday night of TV watching for the 1-800-Flowers communication staff. While it was prepared for a crisis, none was forthcoming. Woodall and her team have been arranging post-show interviews with McCann now that the secret is out. Woodall wouldn’t say if the show generated an uptick in sales, but customer and employee feedback has been good. She also has some advice for PR executives thinking about taking the leap into reality shows:

• Make sure that the opportunity fits with your brand. “In our case we wanted to show how good our customer service was, and the program’s premise fit that perfectly,” says Woodall.

• Be prepared for positive as well as negative results, and leverage both.

• Even though you’ll feel some pressure for the show to come off perfectly, try to keep a sense of humor, and have fun with it.

Just don’t get on the wrong side of Snooki. PRN

CONTACT:

Yanique Woodall, [email protected]; Tim McIntyre, [email protected]; John Parker, [email protected].

TV Programs With the Most Product Placement Activity, 2009
Rank	Program	Network	Total # Occurrences
1	The Jay Leno Show	NBC	1,015
2	WWE Monday Night Raw	USA	787
3	The Biggest Loser	NBC	704
4	American Idol	FOX	553
5	Extreme Makeover Home Edition	ABC	483
6	The Celebrity Apprentice	NBC	428
7	Top Chef: Las Vegas	BRAVO	412
8	America’s Next Top Model	CW	380
9	Project Runway	Lifetime	350
10	Dancing With The Stars	ABC	331
Eight out of the Top 10 TV shows in 2009 with the most product placements were reality programs—underscoring the branding opportunities of such shows.
Source: The Nielsen Company

Register today for the PR News’ Public Affairs Conference, which will be held May 25 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Corporate, government and association PA professionals will share the latest innovations, tactics and forward-thinking ideas from the public affairs industry. Keynoters will be Newsweek contributing editor Eleanor Clift and Consumer Electronics Association president/CEO Gary Shapiro.