Strategic Public Relations

Bubble Bursts Hollywood Distribution Model

Replete with Tivo and other time-shifting technologies, consumers want control of what matters most—their time. Perhaps Hollywood is waking up to their needs?

Steven Soderbergh took note when releasing his latest film, Bubble. Or maybe he was responding to three years of declining ticket sales at the box office. According to Engadget, the Bubble release was "the first time ever a movie, within four days, hit the theaters, cable television and DVD." The distribution strategy alone has created buzz and bucks for Steven Soderbergh and business partner Mark Cuban.

Newspapers and other mainstream media take note. You can change your model. Whether it’s on the big screen, iPod screen, cell phone screen or plasma screen, it’s time the Mountains started coming to Mohammed.

tags | Steven Soderbergh | Mark Cuban | Bubble | marketing | movie marketing

Weber Shandwick Hires PR Blogger Jeremy Pepper

Congratulations to Weber Shandwick on hiring PR blogger Jeremy Pepper. According to, GASP!, the news release "Pepper will serve as group manager in Weber Shandwick’s San Francisco office, working closely with agency clients including Agilent, BEA Systems, Cisco and Hitachi to develop and drive online communications strategies."

Thankfully Pepper will continue writing his POP! PR Jots blog while working on the Northern California-based team. To the East, he'll be joined by Weber Shandwick blogger Robert Ricci. Both of you guys need to box Brandon Smulyan's ears, or send him to the Bad Pitch blog. Then again, I suspect he's more than learned his lesson.

So we assume this moves Pepper from Scottsdale to San Francisco? Will he have to adapt from running his own shop to joining a large firm? Perhaps, but we're sure he'll be fine. My advice to his new co-workers? Take him with a grain of salt. >rimshot<

Hat tip to Shel and Neville at For Immediate Release (Show # 107).

tags | For Immediate Release | Weber Shandwick | Jeremy Pepper | public relations | PR

Consumer-Generated Unemployment

Slate’s editor-at-large, Jack Shafer, has a great piece discussing the "collapsing cost of media creation."

"Not Just Another Column About Blogging: What newspaper history says about newspaper future," drives home some important points in concise, descriptive fashion.

”The newspaper guild (again, reporters, editors, publishers) can't compete by adding a few blogs here, blogging up coverage over there, and setting up "comment" sections. If newspapers, magazines, and broadcasters don't produce spectacular news coverage no blogger can match, they have no right to survive.”

A clear call to action that includes this jaw-dropping factoid: "The price of one gigabyte of hard-disk storage has dropped from about $9 in October 2000 (nominal terms) to about 45 cents (retail) or less today."

Let me be clear. I'm rooting for newspapers to figure this out. I like everything about the newspaper experience, even ink-stained hands. Whether you love print media or are seemingly rooting for its demise, you better pay attention to the Fourth Estate’s destruction evolution. Public relations skills MUST adapt no matter what happens to print media.

To borrow from Shafer's quote, if you are not delivering spectacular results to your client that no one else can match, can you survive?

tags | Slate | public relations | media relations | blog | PR | consumer generated media

The Edelman & Holmes PR Action Figures

Richard Edelman's and Paul Holmes' discussion of the payola scandal are must reads. It warms my heart to see two pros defend our industry. If they were action figures, they'd come with Kung-Fu Grip. It is my hope that the new president and CEO of the Public Relations Society of America, Cheryl Procter-Rogers, joins this discussion. Quickly.

Holmes and Edelman are doing such a sound job; I've found it tough to add on. Then I saw Media Orchard's post on ethics. I'm standing in line with these folks and posting an excerpt from the PRSA code of ethics on my blog. If you're blogging, I encourage you to do the same. If you're not, print them out, read them and pass them around. It would appear we could all stand a refresher.

DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION

Core Principle  Open communication fosters informed decision making in a democratic society.

Intent  To build trust with the public by revealing all information needed for responsible decision making.

Guidelines  A member shall:

• Be honest and accurate in all communications.
• Act promptly to correct erroneous communications for which the member is responsible.
• Investigate the truthfulness and accuracy of information released on behalf of those represented.
• Reveal the sponsors for causes and interests represented.
• Disclose financial interest (such as stock ownership) in a client's organization.
• Avoid deceptive practices.

Examples of Improper Conduct Under this Provision

• Front groups: A member implements "grass roots" campaigns or letter-writing campaigns to legislators on behalf of undisclosed interest groups.
• Lying by omission: A practitioner for a corporation knowingly fails to release financial information, giving a misleading impression of the corporation's performance.
• A member discovers inaccurate information disseminated via a Web site or media kit and does not correct the information.
• A member deceives the public by employing people to pose as volunteers to speak at public hearings and participate in "grass roots" campaigns.

tags | PRSA | code of ethics | payola | Scrushy | public relations | media relations | PR | ethics

McDonald's Moves from Fake to Real Blog

What a difference a year makes. Last year we wondered if the Golden Arches had been forever tarnished by the fake Lincolnfry blog that debuted during the Super Bowl.

A year later we are lauding McDonald's for their new blog, Open for Discussion. In doing so, the company moves from Goofus to Gallant which is the bigger story.

In an age of corporate cynicism where folks are seemingly lying in wait for a company to make a mistake, McDonald's experiments, screws up in full view of the public, learns from it and keeps trying. They do it with their menu too. Anyone else remember when they tried to sell a pasta dish?

McDonald's launched Lincolnfry to try and cash in on a trend without understanding it. They learned from this and created Open for Discussion to support a larger corporate responsibility strategy. I'm lovin' their perseverance. After experiencing the risk of blogging, they are now reaping the reward. This should tell corporations that blogs are worth the trouble. It should also tell them that bloggers forgive transparent, authentic companies.

The Bad Pitch Blog

Have you heard about the new blog I've launched with Full Frontal PR author Richard Laermer? If not, I encourage you to visit the Bad Pitch blog and add it to your newsreader.

The new blog is designed to be entertaining and educational. We're tired of remaining silent while our entire industry takes the heat for a minority of its members that pollute communication channels with bad pitches, poorly written news releases and useless phone calls asking "did you get the release?"

So we’re outing the guilty parties in full view of the highly-networked blogosphere. It’s our hope that the Bad Pitch blog will entertain the true victims of this practice, the PR industry, and it will help the guilty parties improve.

OK, the guilty parties may not improve, but if we stop one bad pitch or help improve a practitioner's game, it's a start.

tags | Kevin Dugan | Richard Laermer | bad pitch blog | public relations | media relations | PR

Nielsen buys/merges BuzzMetrics, Intelliseek

VNU sees the value of measuring consumer-generated media in this big move. BuzzMetrics and Intelliseek have been purchased by VNU and will become Nielsen BuzzMetrics service. The news release is here.

This should be the first of a few consumer-generated media measurement buys. Technorati anyone? Google, Yahoo and Microsoft are all rumored to be potential sugar daddies eyeing Mr. Sifry's blog candy. Interesting to see Nielsen consolidate the space to stake their claim.They're also endorsing the importance of this emerging media space.

tags | Technorati | Blogpulse | Buzzmetrics | Intelliseek | Nielsen | VNU | consumer-generated media

Do the media read news releases?

Sometimes. This post from Owen Thomas at Business 2.0's blog is interesting. He points to a minor news release boilerplate edit of all things to declare the start of the iPod era.

"When did the iPod era begin? Well, you could point to the 2001 launch of the first iPod. But for those who are really into reading corporate tea leaves, we nominate July 7, 2004. That's when Apple changed the boilerplate description of the company you'll find at the bottom of every press release to include a mention of the iPod."

Google the "news release is dead" meme for a recap, but here's proof that the media read some news releases. In extreme cases, they are even reading the boilerplate (surprisingly).

Uber anal retentive clients scrutinizing the nuance of every last buzzword in a boiler plate, through several rounds of edits, might feel vindicated by this. But to me it underscores that a boilerplate should be concise, clear, updated regularly and, most importantly, SHORT.

Before some of you beat this dead horse with your keyboards, there are plenty of alternatives to a news release. Just remember that, much like blogs, news releases are a tool. We use specific tools for specific jobs.

Content vs. Format
It is the content quality of a news release, and not its format, that is truly important. Bad news releases are deleted/tossed and are usually only published in some form to punish their creators. This is not the case for blogs.

Bad blog content is published at whim in a highly-networked format that is linked, tracked back to, tagged, pushed out via RSS, aggregated by automated sites and catalogued by search engines. This is one reason why MSM metrics do not work on blogs and why it only takes one person to impact the health of your brand.

tags | public relations | media relations | news release | blog | PR

photo credit: iPod, iPod and iPod originally uploaded by Geeeeeeeeeenta

E-Mail Marketing Tip

Here’s a tip: If you are conducting e-mail marketing, don’t do it from a free e-mail account. It kills the credibility of any e-mail marketing campaign. It also increases the probability that it will get caught in spam filters.

That reads obvious, right? Well I was surprised and disappointed to get a “Come to Our Booth!” e-mail from a company whose brand I admire enough that I am not calling them out in this post.

It was sent from companyname event.return at gmail dot com. Everything else about the e-mail, from the format and subject line to the graphics and VP of Retail Industry Solutions sig file was fine. Instead the gmail domain gets this company negative attention. They should know better.

As any good trade show will do the NRF rents out its attendee list to exhibitors so they can promote their presence at the show. I’ve been getting a ton of extra, completely untargeted e-mail and mail as a result.

Maybe I’m cranky because the annual National Retail Federation show is a week away and I’m busy preparing. In addition to media briefings, two of our vice-presidents are presenting at the show.

tags | e-mail marketing | trade show marketing | marketing

Cincinnati is Tuned into Podcasting

Here are a few recent examples of local podcasting efforts worth noting:

• University of Cincinnati: The Cincinnati Enquirer reports that UC's trying out podcasting. "This quarter, at least seven instructors at UC will wear digital recorders and record lectures and student presentations." I can already see the ban on ear buds/headphones during exams.
• Flying Pig Marathon: They offer an iPig podcast with interviews and training tips for anyone interested in the 26.2 mile race. I'm opting for the Flying Pig's half-marathon, but have subscribed to iPig as I need all the help I can get.
• Sports Podcast: Local sports anchorman Ken Broo is podcasting, mostly about the Bengals (hopefully this will remain his topic through early February).

Of course, Google serves up even more examples. And the podcasts join Cincinnati's well-established blogs, including several at The Cincinnati Enquirer.

The above examples convince me that the last 25 percent will be reached through a combination of conventional and innovative uses of new communication technologies. The conventional examples become a part of daily life, helping consumers understand it more easily. At the same time, innovative examples keep pushing the possibilities of each technology.

tags: Cincinnati, podcasting