iMedia Connection - ad:tech blog

Quick updates:
Urban Outfitters finally spoke out both via Twitter and on the blog to which they link:
Hey everyone, please read our statement regarding the I Heart Destination Necklace. http://urbout.co/kqdecK
Why the company waited until the Saturday morning of a holiday weekend is beyond me.
Note also that my friend Marshall Kirkpatrick of ReadWriteWeb found a different take on the story that showed that Tru.che did not originate the design in question:
Late night RT: if you've read about UrbanOutfitters vs Etsy, this might make you reconsider the story @Regretsy: Urban Outrage bit.ly/iNYW9A
Here's a link to my original overview from Friday morning, with ongoing thanks to@kathiiberens for first surfacing this story to my attention.
@tallasiandude had quipped to me yesterday:
@bradberens I would think the "most chilling thing from an industry perspective" is its lack of ethics WRT design theft. #urbanoutfitters
To which I riposted:
@tallasiandude don't want to presume guilt-- except for bad marketing tactics.
In light of Marshall's gemcutting tweet, I'm doubly glad of that exchange with @tallasiandude.
The Take Home: Whether or not Urban Outfitters is guilty of design theft, the company is definitely guilty of having a poorly-conceived social media crisis policy, which after the Domino's 2009 debacle (see my overview post) is just plain foolish.  Whether or not a proposed... Read more

The Twitterverse is on Urban Outfitters like piranha on a suckling pig and the clothing giant is doing nothing about it.
The news in brief from my wife, Kathi Inman Berens' blog:
Urban Outfitters sat on their hands yesterday while their brand equity hemorrhaged cool. In three hours, UO lost 17,000 followers on Twitter; #urbanoutfitters and #thieves became a trending topic. The tweet that started it all from @amberkarnes:

Urban Outfitter’s meager response--this one tweet posted a few minutes after Karnes'--was insufficient to staunch the blood that kept spilling all day:

The @amberkarnes tweet became a “Top Tweet,” and was quickly dispatched to another nearly 1.3 MILLION followers. Boing Boing, The Consumerist and Huffington Post picked up the story. Even Miley Cyrus got in on the act and shared with her one-million-plus followers.
Amber Karnes’ full blog post has all kinds of smart things to say about how her Tribe of 1000 followers turned this into an assault on an incredibly powerful brand.
The big story for brand marketers: every second of delayed response to an accusation creates space for a tsunami of ill will that can wreak havoc with even the most carefully manicured brands.
The indie-cool vibe that Urban Outfitters diligently built by hiring independent... Read more