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This picture from the Washington Post underscores the value in conducting media training for anyone your organization might put in front of a microphone--including athletes.
tags | public relations | PR | media relations | media | media training | college football
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Better ROI From YouTube Video Than Super Bowl Spot: Advertising Age reg. req.
“Unilever's Dove brand has generated more response from its YouTube 'Evolution' spot than a Super Bowl commercial.” But sadly marketers will still pay a premium to avoid the meritocracy of the Web for the “guaranteed exposure” they get with the Super Bowl.
Newspapers are probably breathing a sigh of relief that TV’s lunch is being eaten by YouTube. It doesn’t give them any more breathing room, but it does take the attention away from their own impending doom.
An Army of David Zuckers: Time’s Political Bite
Some great snark on the use of YouTube in political campaigns. “If the idiot box is for people who are too apathetic to vote, well, YouTube is for people who are too apathetic to watch West Wing.”
Get Lost in the Spin Thicket: Media Orchard
Scott Baradell’s Spin Thicket is a Fark-like creation geared to news on advertising, PR, marketing, journalism and politics. Check it out.
There are Three Kinds of Bloggers: disambiguity
Which type of blogger are you…Sharing, Banking or Hollywood? There are certainly more types out there, but this post nails the descriptions it serves up. Via David Armano at Logic+Emotion
Ack! he's eating my brains! uploaded by Turtblu
tags | public relations | PR | media relations | media | advertising | marketing | blog | Fark | Ad Age | YouTube | Spin Thicket
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Our favorite format isn’t dead; it’s just abused more than Ronn Torossian at a Gawker staff meeting.
Here are 10 sure signs the news release is alive and kicking ass.
1) Berkshire Hathaway Acquired BusinessWire: Warren Buffet buys what he believes in. How else do you explain the nearly six-figure price for one share of his company's stock?
2) PR Newswire Acquires US Newswire: Not to be outdone, the Coke to BusinessWire’s Pepsi snaps up US Newswire (reg. req.).
3) Vocus Purchases PR Web: It’s getting interesting as a news tracking service snaps up a news distribution service in an already small market (reg. req.).
4) PR Web’s Free Lunch Ends: Vocus promptly pulled the plug on PR Web’s free news release distribution. It won’t stop bad content from being distributed (just scan the last 24 hours of any newswire service), but it should help by creating a barrier to entry.
5) Vocus Gets Social with BusinessWire: A strategic alliance to create an Enhanced Online Newswire sounds good, but what does that mean exactly in the fast-changing, highly-networked world of social media?
6) Billboard and Vocus introduce SEO news release service: Vocus is clearly working to differentiate itself with some specialized offerings. Does a targeted service mean better information for the media? Fingers crossed, but tapping the Billboard brand was a smart start.
The well-heeled Vocus is spending like a drunk sailor right now, fueling the above strategic moves and incessant, but surprisingly sophisticated, direct marketing campaigns.
7) News Release Goes Direct to Consumers: While the media are the primary audience for most news releases, there are times when they can be used for other audiences (reg. req.). I’ll also remind everyone that there are alternatives to the news release format.
8) News Release 2.0: Who do we have to thank for turning the news release into The Six Million Dollar Format? Two words—Todd Defren.
Seriously, while we bitch and moan about the news release (myself included), Defren’s been making things happen. Still not convinced the social media news release works? Talk to Nellie Lide.
9) Join the Social Media Club: Expanding on Defren’s efforts, this Google Group with a purpose is establishing standards for a document in dire need of a makeover. This quote from Edelman’s Phil Gomes tells me they’re taking a pragmatic approach:
“Make no mistake...The news release is most certainly not dead. The problem is that the news release ceased to be about news and the press release ceased to be about press. If bad writing persists, shoehorning (the news release) into a Web 2.0 format will be kind of like putting racing stripes on a pig.”
If you’re interested in getting involved, sign up here.
10) More Than 100 Years Young: It’s safe to say that with 100 years experience under its belt, the news release has staying power. Yeah, I’m not sure if this is good or bad news either. But I needed one more item.
UPDATE: As Constantin comments, no one's sure when the news release was born. In fact, it's probably even older as the practice of public relations certainly is older. More here.
Vive le News Release!
alex- flex air uploaded by skateboarding is a hellava drug
tags | public relations | PR | media relations | social media relations | news release | PR Newswire | Vocus | BusinessWire | PRWeb | Edelman | Social Media Club
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Via T'rati:
Posts (in English with any authority) that contain Edelman Wal-mart for the last 30 days. See a trend? There have been at least 50 posts in the past 48 hours alone.
Disclaimer: I am not anti-Edelman, anti-big agency or anti-gravity for that matter. This post is to show how fast issues spread online, particularly when left unchecked.
UPDATE: Edelman is silent no longer. But not until a slew of bloggers and media speculated, assumed and asserted their take on the issue. And now I suspect they'll do the same with Edelman's response too.
FINAL UPDATE: As Technorati serves up stats using a rolling search vs a fixed point in time, I did a screen grab for posterity. Moving on.
tags | public relations | PR | social media relations | Edelman | Walmarting Across America | Wal-Mart | fake blog
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Visited the American Sign Museum last week for the first time.
Founded in 1999, it’s one of Cincinnati’s best kept secrets—I only recently became aware of it.
Anyone into neon or design should check it out. It gives you an interesting, nostalgic view of advertising and many different brands.
There are a bunch of sign museum-tagged pics on Flickr. This one, taken by a coworker, is a favorite of mine.
Sputnik Satellite uploaded by prblog
tags | Flickr | advertising | neon | signs | American Sign Museum
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John Wagner points us to a MediaPost article detailing how the Wal-Marting Across America blog was exposed
“as a promotional tactic engineered by Working Families for Wal-Mart (WFWM), an organization launched by Wal-Mart's public relations firm Edelman. WFWM paid for the RV and all travel expenses, rerouted the trip's original plan, and plastered a logo on the RV's side. Although the blog featured a link to WFWM, it did not identify the organization as a paid sponsor."
On top of that, one of the contributors to the blog turns out to be a photographer for The Washington Post.
This is the second time Edelman has been exposed for opaque social media relations on behalf of its client, Wal-Mart.
Joe Jaffe levels the following question at Edelman, “please explain why, as a so-called leader in this field, this is the second time you've (how shall I put this) acted like an advertising agency?”
As a non-agency guy, I’m also asking it. The folks at Edelman know that by embracing transparency we gain the permission to make mistakes…as long as we fess up quickly. So now’s your chance.
In the meantime I’m giving Edelman the Goofus and the Gallant on furthering the use of social media in the public relations industry. This tactic could have worked using full disclosure, just interview the customers and get their stories. It might not have resulted in effusive praise for the giant smiley face, but it would have been interesting nonetheless.
Hard to believe Edelman’s leviathan efforts in hiring the right team and investing the time and money to take a leadership role in social media could be thwarted so easily. But it very well could.
UPDATE: Biz Hack is tracking the issue here. Based on my referers, I KNOW Edelman is monitoring the situation. Based on the additional referers from Technorati, it would seem a lot of folks are. I'm linking to Biz Hack to show how quickly issues can unfold online. Left unchecked, problems escalate in a flash. This snowballs with more questions, assumptions and asserstions.
tags | public relations | PR | social media relations | Edelman | Walmarting Across America | Wal-Mart | fake blog
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Save the Ta Tas
The color pink raises a lot of money for breast cancer research, and this lighthearted approach to breast cancer awareness reminds us that “laughter heals.”
The founder of Save Our Ta Tas even has a blog.
Seven Types of Bad Writing Bad Language
A great post from Matthew Stibbe. But I was surprised he only had seven types. Perhaps we should have a recount?
Will Blog for Experience CareerBuilder
Here’s a smart promotion from CareerBuilder. Who doesn’t win in this contest where five students blog for a chance to job shadow at a venture capital firm?
Disclaimer: I have NO connection to ANY of this; I was alerted about it via email.
Blogging “The Full Spectrum of Gay and Lesbian Communications” The Out Front Blog
Fleishman-Hillard launched The Out Front Blog yesterday. The “blog will focus on the issues related to gay and lesbian public relations and marketing communications and the challenges associated with communicating by, for, with and to our community.”
Points awarded for launching it on National Coming Out Day. Points taken off for only having one post waiting for visitors. Hat tip to Eric Eggertson for bringing it to our attention.
Campbell’s Tomato uploaded by the tung
tags | public relations | PR | breast cancer awareness | breast cancer | Save the Ta Tas | CareerBuilder
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Diego Bauducco sent me a link to his flash-based Pictobrowser. Before I tell you what it is, let me show you what it does.
This is Neon Days and Neon Nights, one of Thomas Hawk's Flickr photo sets. He was kind enough to let me use it as an example since my sets suck. Thanks again Thomas!
Pictobrowser is a simple, elegant way to serve up Flickr photo sets in a blog post. It generates HTML code for you to publish after a quick and painless, two-step process. Check it out.
tags | Flickr | Thomas Hawk | hacks | widgets
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Several recent news stories make you wonder if unethical PR is the clients’ fault.
Keane
Keane executive David Garnick was shown the door for inappropriately trying to use investor relations to further his career. According to The Boston Globe (reg. req.):
Keane executives also confronted Garnick, he said, about a Sept. 21 e-mail exchange he had with a New York public relations representative, Hugh Burnham of Gutenberg PR.
Burnham alerted him that Wachovia Securities analyst Edward Caso had downgraded Keane's stock rating from "outperform" to "market perform" because of Caso's concern that Keane would tap an outside chief executive who would be slower to change the company's business model.
In his response to Burnham, which Garnick provided to the Globe last night, he wrote, "Thanks for the note. Any way to get some expanded press to follow-up on this that puts pressure on board to make move?" Garnick said this was a reference to the chief executive search.
Garnick is also the subject of the first personnel release I can recall that publicizes an executive’s dismissal for cause.
Rescuecom
Dave Parmet brings us a tale of a start up hoping some legal drama with Google would make them a household name. Instead it’s made them a joke and proves that all press is not good press.
India PR
Hobbit at India PR brings us some tales of bad pr moves and the clients that push the agencies to make them.
HP
And who could forget HP? From BusinessWeek to PRWeek (reg. req.), that story has not finished writing itself.
Some of these stories may not directly involve communications people, but we should be talking about all of them more. Remaining silent, in affect, is pointing the finger at the client. And that’s bullshit.
Yes, it's a lot easier for me to write this from a lofty, client-side perch, but the challenge is still present now that my clients are internal. My last job was at an agency that, to its credit, did walk from client relationships where the client didn't take our counsel. Luckily we were only dealing with bad ideas being foisted upon us and not unethical behavior.
If a PR person lets the client push them in the wrong direction to engage in anything from bad ideas to bad ethics, that person deserves the end result. If we don't point out these issues, we'll be defined by them.
tags | public relations | PR | media relations | investor relations | bad PR | HP scandal | David Garnick | Keane | PR ethics
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