A pending lawsuit by Frank Maggio owner of the new upstart interactive TV network ReacTV and erinMedia, gives an interesting look at how companies can use a lawsuit for marketing efforts.
Maggio first used his company ReacTV to sue Nielsen ratings claiming they conduct monopolistic business practices and keep the competition from entering into the TV ratings marketplace. A federal judge made the ruling that ReacTV had no basis to file a suit and through it out.
Now he is using his other company erinMedia (erinMedia is a small competitor of Nielsen), to sue them for the same reason. The antitrust case is now in the process of discovery.
Recently, at the Advertising Research Foundation's Audience Measurement Symposium in New York on June 21, Frank Maggio made the announcement that he intended to become a client of Nielsen ratings, according to Media Daily News.
This is the classic David vs. Goliath strategy of marketing and public opinion. Because Maggio didn't get much attention from the original lawsuit, he made announcements to use Nielsen, made his intentions known that he wanted to buy them and filed the second lawsuit. All of it added together has now drawn attention to his company that he wanted. Now people know they exist on a much wider basis.
It doesn't really matter if the suit is thrown out or not now. The marketing strategy has worked. If it does go to trial and they win anything, it will just be icing on the cake.
This type of thing happens all the time. Don't you see lawsuits involving corporations that you scratch your head and say they don't make sense? This is one of the reasons why: it's part of getting a companies name out there. What better way to do it than sue them? The media always loves a good lawsuit story; and people like to read about them.
This is really a cheap way to get attention to a company. It's done all the time.
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