POWWOWNOW
Written by James Ward
As I was walking through Waterloo station on my way home last night, I saw a big sign saying “Powwownow” and lots of people looking at something underneath it:
Actually, most of the people were looking at the departure boards to see which platform their train was leaving from, but some people were looking in the direction of the Powwownow thing.
As I got closer, I discovered what it was that the people were staring at. It was Jodie Marsh, sitting on a bed:
I didn’t really understand why Jodie Marsh was sitting on a bed in the middle of Waterloo station, so I tried to find out more. Apparently, three celebrities were going to speak to each other for twenty-four hours on a conference call:
I was very impressed by their clever wordplay. “Up for a three-way?” It makes it sound sexy. A ménage à trois. One member of the ménage was Jodie Marsh, but who could be members deux and trois?
Phil Tufnell and Patrick Monahan.
I wonder if when the people at Powwownow decided to get three celebrities to have a twenty-four hour conference call, this is what they had in mind. Was that their dream team?
“You know who would be perfect for this? If we could get anyone in the world, regardless of budget or availability, the three people who would be absolutely ideal: Jodie Marsh, Phil Tufnell and Patrick Monahan. If we could get those three people to do it, I think this will be a huge success.”
No-one at Powwownow ever said that. No-one in the world has ever said that.
You may not be particularly familiar with the work of Patrick Monahan. Fortunately, the “About” page on his website contains lots of helpful information:
As well as a regular TV & studio warm up – on shows such as ‘Friday Night Jonathan Ross’, ‘The IT Crowd’, ‘The Lenny Henry Show’, ‘Davina’, ‘Open House with Gloria Hunerford’, as well as a regular MC at selected venues on the comedy circuit.
He’s also appeared as a contributor to nine out of twelve episodes of Channel Five’s ‘That’s so Last Week’. He has also appeared on BBC’s Destination Unknown’, ‘Malai Monologues’ and as a panel member on the comedy quiz show ‘Sudoko Street Challenge’.
I bet the other three episodes of Channel Five’s “That’s So Last Week” were rubbish.
I still didn’t understand why Jodie Marsh was having a conference call with Phil Tufnell and Patrick Monahan on a bed in the middle of Waterloo station though. It was obviously to promote Powwownow, but I’d never heard of Powwownow. I assumed it was something to do with Powwow, the company which supplies water coolers to office buildings.
Powwownow are a company who offer free conference call facilities or something. They have a website for their “Up For A Three-Way?” campaign. The website features a live Twitter feed. This is was what the Twitter feed said when I just looked at it:
And this is the reason why:
EDIT: After posting this, I mentioned it on Twitter and a couple of people sent through pictures they’d taken of Phil Tufnell at Victoria station. I asked if anyone had a picture of Patrick Monahan at London Bridge, and was pleased to see the live Twitter feed still worked:
Also, I have been able to find the list of people who Powwownow originally considered before settling on Jodie Marsh, Phil Tufnell and Patrick Monahan:
JAMES WARD: I LIKE BORING THINGS 
Does Jodie Marsh have a toilet within that installation? Or does she just hold it in for 24 hours?
I’m not sure. Maybe she has to use the public toilets situated between Exit 4 and Exit 5. They charge 30p per visit, but I’m sure she could claim that back from Powwownow. Alternatively, she could use the toilet in the upstairs bar, Sloe. The current access code is 4679. The current code for the toilets for the downstairs Wellesley pub are 1379. These codes are regularly changed however.
I like the idea that Phil Tufnell will do absolutely anything if the money is right. If you asked him to eat a baby on national television, his response would not be one of revulsion but of mentally calculating how much it would cost.
I have been inspired and may set up Powwownowbrowncow a free Twitter nursery rhyme sharing service. I’ll start with Humpty Dumpty.
I feel pained.
It all seems a bit….wait for it…………phoney.
This is the funniest post I’ve read in a while. I had to muffle my bloody guffaws.
Where are Phil Tufnell and Patrick Monahan during all of this? How do we know it’s really Phil Tufnell and Patrick Monahan and not her mother she’s talking to?
Well Phil Tufnell was at Victoria this morning, in a similar set up. He looked properly grumpy.
My legs hurt.
The fact that you’re talking about it shows it worked ;-)
By that logic, the BP oil spill could be considered a great PR success.
Thank so much for your Blog post its given a great deal of extra exposure to the recent Powwownow campaign.
I feel I must however point out that comparing a Planned PR Stunt across a number of stations in London over a couple of days, with the Major Catastrophe that was caused by BP in the Gulf of Mexico creating one of the biggest man made disasters in history, and has cost thousands of people there livelihood maybe just slightly inappropriate!
Andy
Yeah, but petrol and plastic are awesome though.
I think you missed the point on having a live twitter feed on a website, the beauty of twitter, facebook and other forms of social is freedom of speech, and companies censoring their feed would be immoral. I personally applaude any company or individual who are happy to take both the good and bad comments on the chin.
I don’t fully agree with you Alexander Lodge – while freedom of speech is key, there are certain steps companies must take to protect their brand.
Now, I am all for freedom of speech when it comes to a company Facebook profile and someone has commented on a status update by the brand, even if it’s negative. However, using a Twitter feed in such a way is very much a school boy error. And let’s face it, seeing comments in the feed with such strong negativity, to me, as a prospective customer, doesn’t look good. TK Maxx USA do it best – they ‘favorite’ certain tweets they recieve and then plug this in to their Twitter feed – manageable feedback. A Twitter feed free-for-all is no good for anyone.
I’m coming to this a bit late (how did I miss seeing this myself at Waterloo? Maybe I was on holiday). But the impact of this PR stunt is lessened by them all being in the same city. Couldn’t they just have taken the appropriate tube/train/bus and met somewhere conveniently central? Or assuming they couldn’t find an all-night cafe or pub, maybe just gone back to one of their homes?