A lovely view of Rochdale town centre
Think of the day if Coca-Cola advertised Pepsi on its cans, Vodaphone plugged T-Mobile’s latest new unlimited texts offer, Manchester United embossed ‘City Til I Die’ on their latest strip or Ronald McDonald handed out flyers for Burger King.
It’s pretty hard to imagine and you could argue that it would only happen in some crazy parallel advertising universe. Promoting your rivals seems bit a backwards strategy and let’s be honest its insane to even think about it, but not according to the communication crew at Rochdale council.
They have been advertising near by town centres and local markets on the back of their employee’s wage slips. Neighbouring towns, Todmorden and Hebden Bridge, have made an appearance and as they are just a short journey away should be considered fierce rivals to Rochdale’s own town centre. Although the adverts will no doubt put a few extra pennies in the council’s coffers, the possible long term damage is potentially disastrous.
For one Rochdale town centre has been going through a bit of a rough patch for the past few years, retailers have deserted the town in their droves only to be replaced with a bazaar of pound, pawn and phone shops. Town centre businesses need all the shoppers and custom they can get. So you have to wonder what the logic is behind actively encouraging people to go elsewhere. And the council is not just encouraging the general masses to go elsewhere it’s encouraging its own staff, its own representatives, the very people who are working to try and better Rochdale.
Also what kind of message does it send to council workers that their employer is promoting neighbouring shopping centres instead of its own? It almost shows a lack of loyalty and a lack of confidence in its own facilities. It is unimaginable to find ASDA promoting Tesco’s latest deals on the back of its employee’s wage slips, so why should Rochdale council promote rival markets?
This practice is inconceivable in the real world but somehow seems acceptable to communication professionals employed by Rochdale council.
Still no word from Rochdale Council about the total cost of delivering their glossy PR magazine Local Matters. But I can now tell you it is likely to cost over £10,000 to deliver every issue.
