Archive for the ‘Publicity’ Category

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Is any press, good press?

November 30th, 2011

Recently, The New Yorker wrote a feature piece in Talk of the Town for our book entitled DON’T: The Essential Guide to Publicity in New York City (and any other city that matters). The review might be characterized as “adventurous” – running a fine line between enthusiasm for the content and censure for it being self-published.

So, is this sharp article in The New Yorker still good? Decidedly. Is bad press still good for company profiling? Decidedly, NOT.

Besides celebrity gossip and juicy tabloid crap (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6835364.ece), which is the exception to this rule, bad media coverage works badly for companies, regardless of the exposure. Negative press travels 20X faster than good news, and as such, has the ability to damage carefully developed reputations 20X faster.

There are those who would say that it is simply the exposure and recognition, regardless of the quality, that can ultimately be measured. (This opinion seems to prevail from those that are still licking wounds from an editorial spanking.) Certainly crisis management comes into play to mitigate those disasters, but in the end, bad press is bad. It can swiftly destroy the solid media foundation you aspire to achieve.

I mention this as a caution to publicists who embark upon a campaign without considering negative press as a possibility, and as such, fail to plan.

By all means, think about the great press you anticipate getting, but also consider any chinks in your story’s armor (such as failure to prove, or potential for insult). Doing so may protect you from a windfall of negative press. Which is, however you look at it, bad. http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/04/att-has-a-human-working-for-it-and-his-name-is-seth/

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An Intro to Cocktails and Socializing: An Excerpt from “DON’T”

November 14th, 2011

The following is an excerpt from Marco Larsen’s critically acclaimed book “DON’T: The Essential Guide to Publicity in New York City”. In this post he gives an introduction to the do’s and don’ts of cocktail etiquette.

********************

According to the Encyclopedia of New York City, the island’s original, Native American inhabitants affectionately referred to it as manahachtanienk, meaning “general state of inebriation”. Whether they meant themselves or their new, Dutch neighbors over on what we now call Broadway is…hazy in retrospect.

No surprise then that Wall Street was named for a rampart that the more virtuous 17th century citizens of New Amsterdam erected partly to stem the tide of soused English colonists and other stray flotsam attracted by the abundance of pubs in the area. True to its beginnings, New York City to this day boasts more watering holes per block than any other city in the world.

In true form, business, and any other activity, in New York, often involves imbibing. A world-class city filled with world-class drinkers, it’s an intoxicating metropolis in many ways. On the vanguard of everything, commerce to cocktails, in the de facto cultural center of America even its signature cocktail is loaded—with history.

The Manhattan is named after the Manhattan Club, a bastion of upper crust Democrats, and mixed for Samuel J. Tilden, elected Governor of New York in 1874. A presidential hopeful, Tilden was later embroiled in the 19th Century’s greatest election scandal when he won the popular vote against Republican Rutherford B. Hayes, but was denied the White House based on crafty ballot counting in Florida (sound familiar?).

Fifty years later, when Prohibition reformers straightjacketed America for over a decade, New York responded by debuting 100,000 speakeasies. As the city’s patron saint, Frank Sinatra once put it, “I feel sorry for people who don’t drink. When they wake up in the morning, that’s as good as they’re going to feel all day.”

Which is more or less, how New Yorkers feel. Moreover, publicity is a profession intricately entwined with fashion, media, and entertainment, and excepting the financial industry, exceeded only by those three fields, in a race to the nearest bar for business meetings and professional events.

The list is long — the messy drunk, the maudlin drunk, the bitter drunk, the overly gregarious drunk, the sleazy drunk, the blabbermouth drunk—and you don’t want on it. If you’ve had any problems in the past managing alcohol’s effects, deal with that before starting in business here.

In New York, more so than other cities, it can be difficult to distinguish between a night on the town cutting loose with friends and one forging bonds with professional associates. For those in marketing and public relations, the distinction is worth nothing. Moreover, in a city where functioning alcoholics and social critics routinely overlap, how and what you drink will classify you. Use this to your advantage. Or at least avoid neglecting it to your detriment.

– By Marco Larsen

Stay tuned for more advice on socializing and cocktails in my next post “DON’T Order Vile Hooch”.

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PR’s “Dear John” Problem

June 13th, 2011

Why So Glum, PR?  Got Another Letter Today?

Dear John letter“I’ve got here irrefutable proof that PR is indeed a person!  Hundreds and hundreds of letters written directly to him!”

As someone proud to work in the PR profession, I get bummed when I see articles, blog posts, and comments that start with the phrase “Dear PR…”  The letters that begin this way might continue “Dear PR hacks,” or, “Dear PR colleagues,” but to me they’re all just reasons to sigh.

 

I haven’t found another industry that so often receives Dear John letters.  It’s not often one encounters something that starts “Dear Scientists,” or “Dear Secretaries,” yet all it takes is googling the phrase “Dear PR” to see how often someone has taken it upon themselves to address our entire industry in a formal letter in order to express regret or disappointment.

These letters come from news outlets and mommy bloggers asking to be pitched a certain way.  They come from people on the receiving end of a bad pitch.  They come from our colleagues to admonish us to our duties and remind us of how much more work we need to do, and now!  Separately each one may make sense in its context but taken together as individual missives in a gigantic mailbag, they begin to weigh heavy.

One reason I think so many (and often times so many unqualified) people want to tell off “The Flack” is because there’s not a broader understanding of what PR does.  The average person knows the rudimentaries of how a factory works, or how a law-office is structured, but doesn’t really know the function that PR serves in a larger company’s objectives or the difference between in-house and agency.  Much worse, there’s a lack of understanding about who a PR employee actually is when they represent a company with a pitch or Facebook post.

Another major force that drives this very public outpouring is the very public nature of our industry.  Defined in so many terms as “driving engagement” or “drawing the attention of key stakeholders,” much of the point of our profession is to say, “look at me!”  Spending that much time demanding attention creates the petard on which we’re hoisted when one of us screws up.

I suppose if I had to write my own “Dear PR,” it would say something like: “I know people make fun of you, and say you’re stupid.  Let’s face it, sometimes you are stupid.  But so is everyone else!  You’re out there doing some really neat stuff, and I ain’t mad at ya.  Keep doing your thing.”

Of course if I did send that letter to PR he’d probably copy and paste it and send it to everyone he knows, and I’m not sure I want to be on record saying “I ain’t mad at ya.”  I’ll probably just keep my letter to myself this time.


– Topher

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Aflac Ducks Potential Disaster

May 2nd, 2011

When Gilbert Gottfried was unceremoniously let go a few months ago for tasteless humor following the Japan earthquake on March 11th 2011, I applauded the quick action of Aflac. That action, however, came so swiftly from higher ups that I doubted whether Aflac had prepared anything (namely, a plan) beyond the decree. The news cycle moves so quickly that moments fade after a week. But when Aflac recently announced the new voice of the duck, Daniel McKeague, their backroom plan quickly revealed itself as a winner. Whether this was planned all along, or frantically cobbled together in the war room, they’ve managed to add a valuable new brand layer – with little cost. (Yes, the power of PR…).

We’ve always associated the duck with Gottfried, but now this little animal has a new persona – one decidedly less cantankerous and cloying. The duck will be watched with increasing curiosity, and I anticipate, be received with affection because Dan is simply a likable guy (see Aflac CEO Dan Amos Welcomes the Duck Voice, Dan McKeague). Not to mention their man (and Aflac’s duck) on every network and morning show last week proudly honking their avian anthem. (Truly, who knew two little animals, a duck and a Gecko, would emerge as such powerful brand ambassadors).

While the interim, before Daniel was ultimately discovered, Aflac still pushed their branding initiatives forward with clever vignettes harkening the days of silent film.

The famous “quack” was cleverly displayed so effectively that I scarcely think consumers even noticed, or cared, about Gottfried’s absence. Aflac played their hand beautifully, as evidenced by their stock value, now trading around $59.00. I think the dividend should go to their communications team. Chapeau.

- – Marco

| Aflac found its new voice |

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Which is worse: Jerry wants a smack-down vs. the U.N. overlooking mass rapes in the DRC

September 10th, 2010

So just in case you haven’t been paying attention this week, it was a HUGE week in popular culture! But don’t worry PUBLIC always has your back; here is a rundown of some of this week’s big headlines!

So Jerry Lewis wants to smack LiLo, Reggie’s might be getting his Heisman taken away, Paris’s personal safe deposit box, and Kanye wants to kiss and make up.

I love my pop-culture candy as much as the next person and it does a fabulous job of breaking up the day to see what a New Jersey housewife did or what Lady Gaga said. But, at the end of the day, in terms of news consumption, are we eating too much candy and not getting enough vegetables?

Case and point – the recent articles about the mass rapes in the Congo and the U.N. accidentally overlooking the incidents. This particular incident came to mind as a good friend of mine is down there helping victims and he actually helped break the news to the media. He’s 23 – we both graduated in May 2009 – and he was one of the first people to go help the victims while a U.N. office was 20 miles from the villages. Really U.N.? 20 miles?

Now the U.N. is in a PR sh*t storm trying to deal with the aftermath of their oversight of rebels going into villages and systematically raping 500 women. This is the organization whose main aims are international security, human rights, and world peace. Is it just me or does there need to be an organizational review about the fundamental goals?

I’m not going to go on about all the messed up things in the world that are overlooked and under-reported. But, with Twitter and Youtube, people want their news in quick, witty snippets. People want their skittles and are refusing to eat their spinach. The negative doesn’t need to be sensationalized, but at least make it equal to the amount of coverage Kanye’s apology tweets are getting.

Maybe if the U.N. sends out an “I’m sorry I f*cked up” tweet, it will finally make
cnn.com’s homepage. Probably not though.

-Amelia

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Proud to be an American? Consumer behavior today.

August 10th, 2010

At PUBLIC, we tend to have a strange affection for our fellow man behaving badly. Just when you think you have heard the the most absurd story about consumer behavior, an even crazier story tends to surface. Below is the most recent case of consumers behaving badly, and proof that the costumer is not always right!

Two top stories circulating national and international news today are reinforcing the idea that the American consumer is a complete ass that lacks any semblance of common decency or civility.

The first tells of the flight attendant who dramatically resigned after a passenger hurled verbal abuse at him after the passenger was told to wait until the plane reached the gate to retrieve his luggage from the overhead compartment.

The next shows footage of a fast-food drive-thru patron who becomes violently enraged after learning she could not order chicken nuggets at 6am because only breakfast was being served.

Sure, some people are legitimately crazy, cracked out, or drunk. Others though are complete and utter jerks who have taken the saying “the customer is always right” to mean “you have to give me whatever I want right now, while I am entitled to treat you like a piece of crap and have absurd tantrums if I so please”.

So who, or what, is to blame for this regression in social evolution? There are those who point the finger at parenting – if you allow them to act like brats, they will always be brats.

Or is it customer service commercials showing companies going to extreme lengths to meet the demands of the consumer? Now I’m all for great customer service and always appreciate when someone goes out of their way to help me out. But, I think more commercials should highlight patient and helpful staff, while also serving to admonish consumer bad behavior. The “look at the shit we put up with and keep on smiling”, commercial.

Sure, Burger King started going down this path with their Whopper removal freak out commercials, but that doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface.

I think more companies should begin utilizing their CCTV security cameras and absurd stories from their managers and employees to reflect their excellent customer service during verbal and physical assault.

Like this video, where a lady trashes a McDonalds because she is unhappy with her burger:

Or what this Dell Service rep has to deal with:

The video cannot be shown at the moment. Please try again later.

Now let’s circle back to the story about the JetBlue attendant. I’m happy JetBlue gave the guy a 20 minute head start before calling the cops after he inflated the emergency slide to exit the plane. They know what their staff goes through everyday dealing with customers – it’s enough to make anyone snap.

-Amelia

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From the Streets to the Tweets

August 4th, 2010

On August 3rd, rapper Wale released his follow-up to his crtically acclaimed mixtape “The Mixtape About Nothing”. However, most didn’t anticipate how popular the actual release would be, and Twitter should take a significant amount of credit for More About Nothing’s release day success.

As an avid user of social media, I have never been one to have the ‘too cool for school’ attitude regarding social networking. However, as far as utilizing it as an avenue for direct marketing has always made sense to me, but personally I found such tactics painfully annoying–until yesterday.

Wale, a Washington DC native and ‘Twitter happy’ rapper, released a free album for his fans yesterday at noon. As a fan of Wale, I have been paying fairly close to attention to the process and was fascinated by the way in which he created buzz surrounding the album. Yesterday the DC emcee enjoyed more than 100,000 downloads via a single site, and even more via other sites. Although many others have been successful at utilizing social media as a marketing tool, this was the first time I was captivated by the entire process. Below is a timeline of events that led up the release of Wale’s mixtape, “More About Nothing”:

  • First, Wale mysteriously disappeared from the Twitter scene for weeks and came back to announce that he will being sharing his reasoning behind his disappearance to his followers in the upcoming days.
  • Days later Wale posts a link on his Twitter account to this youtube video: 

    The video cannot be shown at the moment. Please try again later.

  • After being hammered with questions from fans awaiting the highly awaited sequel to his class mixtape ‘The Mixtape About Nothing’, he gets the nod from his label to release the single,“Black and Gold”.
  • A week or so later, Wale and Kid Cudi team up for a Heineken promotional show in Soho, New  York City.
  • Wale claimed he would be dropping the mixtape at noon on August 3rd, but before noon  “More About Nothing” was trending worldwide via Twitter, the hip hop community buzzed about the overdue return of DC’s most celebrated hip hop act.
  • The mixtape is released at noon via Twitter and a variety of music blogs. Many links experience problems as a result of the traffic.
  • Late yesterday afternoon “More About Nothing’ surpasses Christopher Nolan’s Inception on the worldwide twitter trending feed.

Social media has become a vehicle for getting the word out for anything. Wale had an established following prior to this sequence of events, but the way the buzz was generated through trending topics and timelines worldwide demonstrates how truly remarkable the social media world really is. Is the future of direct marketing already upon us?

-Aaron

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In the PR game, BP draws another “You just got screwed…again” card

July 7th, 2010

While BP’s oil spill nears the 100th day mark, there is no question of the catastrophic damage this environmental mishap has caused in the Gulf. However, the increasingly popular social networking phenomenon has made BP’s long road back to public acceptance a rocky one. PUBLIC’s  Ameilia Meadows discusses the implications that social networking and a 24/7 news cycle has had on BP’s PR woes.

As if BP’s PR foibles haven’t been enough, a recent item put up for auction on eBay was the 70’s board game BP Offshore Oil Strike. One of the possible “hazard” scenarios players face is drawing the card “Blow-out! Rig damaged. Oil slick cleanup costs. Pay $1 million”.

Reports of this game’s unearthing have swept through news outlets and social media, highlighting once again how the internet has changed the PR game, and prompts people to think about what could be in store for the industry in the future.

Before the age of eBay and the internet, finding a game like BP Offshore Oil Strike in your grandmother’s attic may have sparked derisive conversations about BP amongst your family and friends. Now, a handful of people browsing eBay may have stumbled across it, sending the link to their friends, who make it their status update, which then gets tweeted, and finally gets blogged by CNN. And now Tony Hayward has to field questions about a board game created back when he was 13, in addition to cleaning up his own PR mess. You know he’s thinking, “Are you serious? A bloody board game?”

Comments surrounding this discovery question how, even back in the 70’s, BP could have been so dumb to produce such a game. But let’s be serious -it was the 70’s: Vietnam, Watergate, and hippies everywhere (and today we have Iraq, Bushisms, and hipsters).  People were still using abacuses and rotary dials back then; it’s doubtful anyone could imagine a day where information could span continents and reach diverse populations in seconds.

It makes you wonder about how people’s seemingly harmless actions now may come back to haunt them in the future. What was a dusty, old board game in the back of BP’s closet has become an unlikely skeleton adding fuel to the PR fire currently melting away BP’s reputation. Now with Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and more who knows what kind of information may be dug up in the future? What happens to all the information Google has stashed away in the abyss of internet history? And with Facebook’s new face recognition software imagine some of the more unfortunate photos that might be uncovered of future political candidates and CEOs.

I don’t mean to say we should all start freaking out and unplugging from the net. But it does make you think about what is in store over the next 30 years, and how you can even prepare for something in the future that may be completely inconceivable today.

-Amelia

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Tobacco PR – Is it time to get real?

April 27th, 2010

I make a morning ritual of listening to Fresh Air podcasts (via NPR) while brushing my teeth and slowly struggling into consciousness.  I’m not 100% current, though, so find myself catching up to some issues a bit late.  Today I listened to some great coverage about the state of the American tobacco industry, and its Don Draper/Lucky Strike clip really got me in the mood to pitch campaign concepts.

As a PR professional and an ex-smoker, I found myself just wishing one of the industry giants would have the guts to lay it out on the line: “Our product is not good for you, but there are still plenty of reasons to enjoy it, and new ways to do so.”

No one is smoking for their health.  No one is surprised that inhaling the fumes created from burning a select blend of dried leaves, noxious chemicals, and colored paper has a negative effect on long-term health.  On the same note, no one is shocked that a daily diet of McDonald’s will usher you to an early grave, or that drinking a nightly six-pack of Coors will do the same.

Sometimes the things that make us feel good are not good for us, hence the KFC Double Down.  I don’t think that the tobacco industry should be held to a higher standard than fast-food chains and the alcohol industry (do we have stats on how many people die fat and/or drunk?).  I also don’t think the tobacco industry should be intimidated with big words from a President who himself smokes.  Nor do I think that the President should feel any sort of shame about having a nightly puff (so Jed Bartlet!).

That’s why big tobacco should just bite the bullet and get real:

“Tobacco – it’s not going to prolong your life, but it just might make it feel a bit less awful.”

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10 Social Media Do’s and Don’ts

April 22nd, 2010

Social media can be a tricky beast to tackle, but there is something to be said for the companies who make the move to implement it into their PR and marketing plans. Whether you’ve already been at it for years or if you still haven’t jumped on the bandwagon (and I’m really hoping you’ve already done so) here are a few tips to having a successful relationship with social media:

Do’s

1)    Monitor your accounts, those of others using social media tools (your buyers and other companies), and be aware of where your brand or product is being mentioned. Monitor and encourage the spread of WOM (word of mouth) so that you can easily and quickly respond to any negative remarks that need attention and thank others for the positive results. It may seem like a small token of gratitude, but you’ll be amazed at what a simple “thank you” can do. It says to your buyers (or future buyers) that you pay attention to them and what they have to say, helping to instill more trust in your brand.

2)    Use analytics to get a better idea of what your ROI looks like. These are easy things to apply to a blog or website, but are a bit trickier to apply to Twitter or Facebook. With tools like Google Analytics you can see where your traffic comes from, which can be very beneficial. It can also show you the keywords that bring someone to your site giving you an idea of what people are asking sites like Google, Yahoo!, and Bing.

3)    Connect with others in the industry and collaborate with them. Not only is it important to connect with them through social networking sites, it is crucial to the growth of your blog to connect with other bloggers and exchange links. Some social media and SEO “gurus” might tell you that links are not relevant to a blog, but they are a vital component to the reason my blog has grown so much in the past 6 months. Be consistent and persistent and reach out to as many people as you can. Just avoid spamming people, because, really, no one likes email spam.

4)    Give away free content of value. Be a source of information; be the resource that will come to mind when someone is looking for an answer in your area of expertise. How to establish that expertise? Keep giving away things of value, and people will eventually start to listen and share you with others.

5)    Be personable, personal, and real. This is crucial to making your social media efforts a success. No buyer wants to interact with a dry and personality-less entity; they can do that in the store and on your website. Hopefully your website is also personable and personal, though. Personify your profiles to encourage buyers and others online to interact with you; it’s much easier (and more fun) for people to relate to another person.

Don’ts

1)    Advertise yourself, all the time.

2)    Ignore customer and buyer inquiries and comments. (What’s crisis management again?)

3)   Make your profiles private. No one needs to see what you’re tweeting about.

4)   Make it extremely difficult for anyone to receive any information or tips from you, like an eBook or even a newsletter. Make as many hoops as possible for people to jump through.

5)   Forget about measuring ROI. The board and the company executives will just have to believe you when you say “it’s working”.

The moral of the story: use social media to connect, respond, and communicate with your audiences. Be personable and personal, making it more fun for your buyers to communicate with you. Moreover, measure results so you can impress upon the shareholders of your company the importance of PR, marketing, and social media. Advertising yourself is a somewhat necessary evil in PR and in social media, but do so tactfully and in moderation.

Remember, social media was not created for companies just to advertise themselves; it was created as a tool to connect people with other people. Bear this in mind when you utilize these tools. Also, keep in mind that results will not be instantaneous, and the amount of effort you put into using social media is directly correlated to the results you will see; if you put little effort into your social media use, you will see small results (positive and negative).

Ashley Wirthlin is a marketing associate of the H Media Group and a program creator for BusinessTraining.com who just launched her Public Relations Specialist program. She also writes for and manages PublicRelationsBlogger.com daily. You can reach Ashley via email or Twitter.

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