Did a Mindshare Press Release Spawn a ‘PR Ethics Battle?’

By Kiran Aditham 

So, to help fuel your Friday as we watch the clock incessantly in anticipation of the weekend, let’s bring you this interesting tip that came to us overnight. Perhaps someone at OMD might be a little peeved, see below verbatim.

 

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“Seems like a run of the mill story about a ranking has become an PR ethics battle.

Take a look at this release from Mindshare —  hey, we all like spin, but this headline crosses the line between spin and BS.  Mindshare broke the Gunn embargo, putting this out on Wednesday to try and put their spin on it. So far the response from legit media has been underwhelming.

WPP (@WPP)
3/2/12 7:11 AM
Mindshare wins creativity battle in Gunn Report for Media 2011 results bit.ly/w2HvpS @GroupMWorldwide

Gee, this is gonna be a surprise to the folks at Gunn  who put out a very different story yesterday.http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/omd-tops-the-gunn-report-for-media-for-the-second-year-in-a-row-55577522.html

Not surprisingly, the release  is just on their website – they would never have gotten this past PR Newswire.

And for the record not only is the headline wrong but the math is too –   here are the numbers from released this week and Feb 2010.

GUNN REPORT FOR MEDIA 2011

1 OMD | 176 points
2 Mindshare | 161 points
3 Starcom | 142 points
4 MediaCom | 87 points
5 Ogilvy & Mather | 83 points

GUNN REPORT FOR MEDIA 2009

1.OMD/155 pts
2. MindShare/131 pts
3. BBDO/131 pts
4. Leo Burnett/91 pts
5.Mediacom/89 pts

Mindshare wins creativity battle in Gunn Report for Media 2011 results
2 March, 2012

Mindshare, the global media network, has seen its Gunn Report for Media ‘media creativity index’ rise by 46% over the past three reports ( covering 2007 – present and released in April 2008, February 2010 and February 2012), scoring 161 in the 2011 results, with OMD’s ‘creativity index’ falling by 25% over the same period.

Mindshare is now the fastest growing of the two big agencies at the top of the report in terms of media creativity.

In addition to Mindshare’s impressive creative showing, WPP also had a strong result with GroupM topping the Holding Company of the Year tables with 513 points, ahead of Omnicom Media Group and Publicis Groupe Media.”

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