You’ve got to hand it to the Geek Squad. By all appearances, the brand (part of BestBuy) is growing. A year ago, employees (“agents”) totaled 12,000. In December, the number swelled to 17,000 . Dogged by a handful of bloggers, the brand managed to reach its core audience through television ad rotations and aggressive national public relations with regional tactics.
Viral marketing and social media didn’t drive overall success, but were used with geeks primarily to blunt online criticism and manage the company’s reputation.
Sunday’s 60 Minutes program segment on Geek Squad shows the art of bypassing new media when your core demographic is not geeky. It’s no accident the Geek Squad made a good story for 60 Minutes: A percentage of the show’s viewers don’t want to troubleshoot or repair gadgets, computers and home theater systems. Whom can they turn to besides a family member or trusted local repair shop? Geeks in short-sleeved white shirts with ties and agent badges.
60 Minutes, which pulls 13 million viewers on an average per week, helped position Geek Squad as a trusted consumer friend among the 19-49 demographic. Ketchum, the company’s PR agency of record, can be congratulated for the piece, which first aired Jan. 28, 2007. A rare double dip of top-10 Nielsen ratings television exposure after millions of people have bought or received consumer electronics products is 50% skill and 50% fortune.
That 60 Minutes didn’t provide a balanced flipside (disgruntled customers, alleged employee misdeeds) illstrates how far one of the most well-known news brands has veered from serious journalism.
Robert Stephens, Geek Squad CEO who founded the company in 1994 and has a placeholder blog (hardly geek-like with a single posting and video), says ”people always think I was joking about world domination.”
Look for a continued push internationally beyond U.K. and China with more advertising and PR to support the company’s story and strategy as geeks continue to debate the brand.
