Part 2 of a 3 part series on visiting Nigeria.
Andrew, part my bodyguard, part my cinematographer and part photographer and I flew Delta Airlines. Fortunately we got to fly business class and it was a great experience. In fact, the Delta service team was one of the best ever on the way to Nigeria. On the way back was another story, which I promise I will write about in the next few weeks.  The food was excellent too. It was just a little weird dining at midnight, right before you popped an Ambient sleeping pill.

Delta to Nigeria

Our plane arrived 11 hours later about 3 PM Nigerian time. We were greeted by our government assigned, armored, traveling security team with big AK47’s. From there we plowed through at least a million cars and saw miles of poverty en route to our hotel on the island of Victoria. This is a sad sight considering the amount of oil money that comes from this country. It does seem like there should be a better outcome.

City scape in Lagos

The ride was intense and not without fear. The driver had two speeds: super fast and stop. I honestly thought this was one of my last trips on earth.

Scary car ride on way to hotel

One hour later, we arrived at the Ecko Hotel. The hotel was comparable to a lower end 3-star US hotel. Contemporary, it had some cool African art in the lobby, and was gated with several towers. Andrew and I were split up. In hindsight, I should have demanded this be corrected. Fortunately, our four days were safe and without incident.

African art in Lagos

The service was very good. The wine was divine. The food OK and interesting. Lots of plantains, which I like. But everything had an odd fishy flavor to it that I’m still trying to identify. I believe it’s the cooking oil. I’ve noticed this in other countries I’ve visited too.

Our rooms were comfortable, once you got past the constant horn blowing outside, the fact the internet moved like a drunk snail and the power completely turned off about every couple hours without notice. Apparently, this has to do with a power supply issue. We did get used to that, but it totally sucked when Andrew’s only power cable blew up from a surge. $200 later, a scarier cab ride, a tire blow out and some serious sweat, he was back in business.

During our stay, as long as we remained inside our compound, we felt safe, just on alert, as there were always several armed guards outside our windows at all times.  There was also a high degree of missing trust and crime related issues that were apparent. Below is the sign that greeted us upon check in? This is a shame because the country is filled with many more honest and trusting people, than the minority of bad folks who have tarnished the country’s image.

The first day there was a press conference at 10AM promoting the event. We were driven over and greeted by a roomful of 25 plus curious journalist, Internet, print and broadcast. Everyone was unbelievably friendly and warm. This calm tone changed dramatically at the event. The media at the event was like no paparazzi I’ve ever imagined, swarming like bees, hungry for up close photos of the Governor and the branding speaker, “moi” from the US. There were a couple times that I had big fears, not for my life or safety, but that my hair piece (curls) were definitely going to fly off.

Both days, everyone wanted to know how branding could help their country, leadership and ultimately the people the government served. I covered the highlights at the press conference and encouraged everyone to attend the event later that night.

I will cover this topic of government branding and post my presentation in my next blog post.

Until then, here are a few more lessons from African trip. Missed my first one?
1) Always pack two power cables for your computer if your work depends on power.
1.5) Pack legal pads, so when you don’t have Internet service, you can still write.
2) Save your earplugs from the flight, so the cab horns don’t keep you up all night.
3) When visiting another country and doing an event with 500 people, pack a box of business cards 500+.
4) Pack at least a dozen energy bars, in case you are not loving the food.
5) Pack super light, international airport travel will not be so stressful.
6) Don’t wear anything scented – hair product, lotion, nothing. Mosquitoes love the stuff. You don’t want them sucking your blood and giving you a serious disease.

This week, Taco Bell experienced a greasy brand bump by some hungry law firm.

A lawsuit was filed claiming that Taco Bell was falsely advertising its beef tacos, and allegedly the 99 cents delicacies only had 30% or so beef in them, which is not enough to be defined as beef by the USDA.

The late night comedians, social media channels and journalists have been having a meaty joke and news fest. Taco Bell fired back on Friday with a news statement and full page ads claiming they are grateful in a “Thank you for suing us” campaign and welcomed the opportunity to talk taco with all of their loyal customers and anyone else who is starving for the truth. Additionally since the lawsuit broke, Taco Bell has furthered it’s position by posting ‘The Real Beef Facts’ and a quirky video touting the Super Delicious Ingredients Force, a Saturday Night Live parody that’s worth checking out.

Taco Bell says its beef is 100 percent USDA inspected, and that its recipe is 88 percent beef, 12 percent “secret recipe.”

So did Taco Bell do the right thing, by playing a bold brand defense card after a very public attack?

I’d bet my next tacos on it. When a company is a well known brand like Taco Bell with lots of good, beefy brand equity, sitting back and not saying any thing is not an option. I like that they responded quickly and took a very confident stance on the issue with provable facts. As for the law firm, maybe they need to think outside the goofy, greed gene.

Also, check out: Miracle Whip and Cate Blancett. What do these two have in common?

Most big companies think they are ready. They have a crisis plan in place, communication experts on call  and teams of well media-trained executive spokespersons.

Small companies are often less formally prepared, most don’t have a plan, limited professional training and fewer lawyers, but can actually do better surviving  a tragic accident, scandal  or even a big, bad company misstep.

How do either of these transpire?

Bad things can happen to good and bad companies on any given day.  Take Toyota, Goldman Sachs, BP or a small restaurant that unknowingly buys some tainted product and WHAM! A bunch of customers get violently sick and one dies.

I recently did a guest appearance on FOX TV on the subject of surviving a big brand hit. What do you do? What do you not do? How do you navigate through a brand disaster?

My advice to all brands, companies and personalities:

1) Do have a plan. Whether you are a mega corporation or a small business, if you’ve got accident exposure, you had better have a thought through worse case situation and how you will respond.

2) Have the right spokesperson delivering  the voice of the brand in troubled waters. BP’s Tony Haywood was the wrong guy from the get go. Not American, overly arrogant and a loose canon of  the wrong sound bites, “I want my life back”.

3) Carefully balance litigation issues and public opinion management.

4) Don’t play the blame game, take the pounding and get back to business.

This past month, I’ve had a great month of media exposure. FOX, Forbes.com, American Express Open Forum all coming out soon. I will share the links when they all publish. If you are interested in earning more publicity for your brand, check out all my secrets are in the Publicity Ta-DO list. It’s a step by step simple game plan that’s been working for me and can work for you.

And 3 myths about the practice I’m going bust.
I believe publicity is worth the investment, if the coverage is relevant to your brand, if it appears in the right media outlets and you earn enough frequency.

As a small business owner and entrepreneur for nearly 28 years, I’ve been very fortunate to have earned a lot of media exposure in my career. I’ve been on Bloomberg radio and TV, CBS’s The Early Show. I’m a regular guest on FOX TV, I’ve been featured in Fast Company, The New York Times, The New York Post, The Miami Herald and Entrepreneurial Magazine just to name a few. This media coverage or publicity has directly made deposits in my bank account. I’ve gotten speaking gigs, consulting assignments and sold books. But let me bust a few myths about this powerful practice, too.

1) Publicity is free.
Not true. Sure every now and then a company gets a call from a media source and it didn’t cost much, but some good luck and timing, and a nice feature story appeared. However in most cases, earning publicity takes time and money. Whether it’s hiring a professional PR firm, a writer or communication planner to craft to your message and or PR materials, or just the expense of getting your news out through buying lists or postage. It’s not free.

2) All publicity is good publicity.
Not true. In the mid 90’s one of my clients was involved in an FBI investigation. As a vendor, my company was dragged through this mud even through we had nothing to do with the crimes in question. This was very unfortunate and did not help my business. If fact, the negative publicity through pure association with the company hurt my business.

Additionally, when an executive or employee stays something off message or stupid, this can dramatically impact the image of the brand.

3) Hiring a big name, expensive PR firm will guarantee you publicity.
Not true. In addition to working the media myself, I’ve engaged PR firms for fees of $500.00 to $15,000 a month. There is no correlation between fees and success. The magic sauce is the degree of contact with media that means something to your business, the real news you have to share and timing. If you are a small company there are many things you can do to get publicity all by yourself. I created a TA-DO list of getting publicity. These tasks and methods have worked for me and can work for you, without investing a boatload of cash. It’s not free it will take some time and strategic actions.

In the Publicity TA-DO list you’ll learn about

• A free daily service that features what reporters are looking for and how to connect with them
• What’s needed in your press kit
• And the BIG “never-dos” when you are building a relationship with a reporter

Beyond, my tips in the Publicity TA-DO list, PR Newswire, one of our partners has some great publicity insight on messaging, release distribution and campaign analytics. They’ve put together a special PR toolkit of discounts and resources for the Oddpodz community. I’ve been a customer of PR Newswire for my companies and my clients. They have been a valuable resource for media lists, distribution and competitive monitoring issues. This is worth checking out.

In closing, publicity should be part of every company’s marketing mix. It is a great way to further position a brand as an authority in their industry, leverage third-party opinions and provide repurposeable content for search engine optimization.