Strategic Public Relations

LinkedIn Hacks, Christvertising, Escaping the Cube, Meeting Math | Four Links | 12.28.07

1) Tip: Use LinkedIn to Calculate Turnover | PRNewser
“Go to LinkedIn and type in a position title and company name. Now look at how long most people have been in that job.” Guy Kawasaki also provides some LinkedIn hacks to hone your use of the professional network.

2) Christmas Wish From Christvertising | Adverblog
Christvertising brings back memories of the Think God campaign from the early 80s. Or an SNL skit.

3) Employees Stepping Out Of Their Cubicle To Find “White Space” | PSFK
PSFK points to You Won’t Find Me in My Office, I’m Working. This NYT article details how people escape the interruptions common to cube dwellers to get work done. My white space is found sitting in plain view in our main lobby. Everyone assumes I’m in a meeting, or waiting for someone, and they leave me alone.

4) People Hour Power | Heath Row’s Media Diet
Ever sat in a meeting and heard the giant sucking sound of billable hours flying out the window? Heath Row points us to Meeting Miser so you can quit bitching and use data points to end the meeting early.

The Boredroom uploaded by c2k2e
tags | public relations | PR | advertising | marketing | LinkedIn

50% of Agency Relationships Last Less Than 2 Years

Research shows that half of the agency/client relationships out there last less than two years. This is from a sample of about 140 companies with an annual marketing spend of at least $2 million, including Citibank, General Mills, IBM, GE, and ESPN.

After nearly 15 years in agencies, this percentage sounds about right. But where the research tries to determine why this is the case, I take issue with it.

The other big reason [for the short tenure] is likely the fact that agencies take their eye off the ball. When you examine the reasons why clients get rid of agencies, a lot of it has to do with weaknesses in strategic thinking, creative, and service. Too many agencies try and do too many things well. They are in the business for being great creative and strategic thinkers and do-ers…not to be a great lead generation/business making machine. Too many agencies take their eye off the ball soon after an account is won, only to look for the next new win. Staying more focused on existing clients and leaving the business of building business to experts is likely a more productive strategy, long-term.

A lead generation firm sponsored the research. This fact turns the above excerpt from a research insight into a thinly-veiled ad.

It’s Not You, It’s Me
So who’s fault is it? Part of this churn is a natural cycle vs. it being someone’s fault. Marketers are restless creatives at heart. The shelf life for any type of creative work is getting as short as consumers’ shrinking attention span. And, while it’s expensive to select a new agency and get them ramped up on your business, doing an agency review is often seen as the best way to get new ideas. Even the research notes (depressingly) that “more than 40 percent said they 'look forward to' or 'find it exciting' to search for a new agency.”

But there are also external factors that impact the client/agency relationship. Many of these factors are out of the agency’s control, including industry economic climate, client contacts changing jobs, client politics and client chemistry. These are just a handful of items to deal with and we haven’t even discussed the work yet.

Since moving client side three years ago, one of the biggest benefits I've discovered is time. I’ve been able to prioritize and grow our marketing efforts strategically. With a few years of momentum, and plenty of results along the way, I'm looking forward to doing even more in 2008.

This may read all Pollyanna, but I think clients and agencies need to rethink ways to keep their relationship vital to realize this kind of return on investment. Yeah, who am I kidding. Anyone want to be a client/agency counselor? LOL, I can see the role playing session now.

In the middle of nowhere uploaded by psiconauta
tags | public relations | PR | advertising | marketing

Social Media Outreach, RSS Feed Speed Reading, Office Politics and Marketing Life Lessons | Four Links | 12.24.07

This Christmas Eve round-up brings us advice based on several bloggers’ hard-earned experiences. Enjoy and add your own opinions in the comments…if only because it’s better to give than receive.

1) 10 Tips for Reaching out to Social Media Influencers | Communication Overtones
Kami Huyse’s tip list for influencer outreach using social media. I’ll add that outreach takes time and it takes participation vs. logging in and pitching.

2) 10 Steps to Manage Your Feed Reading Time | Social Media Explorer
Jason Falls’ hints on how to make it work when you plug 100 feeds into a feed reader. My favorite rule? Just Let Go -- Click “Mark All Read” and start fresh if you get too far behind.

3) The Lazy Office Worker’s Guide to Office Politics | Servant of Chaos
Gavin Heaton reminds us that even staying out of office politics requires understanding office politics. Don’t forget to steer clear of your workplace’s nattering nabobs of negativism. They’re the co-workers who would be upset if they were happy as they're only happy being upset.

4) Thinking of Going into Marketing? | Drew’s Marketing Minute
Drew McLellan closes out our lists of lists with advice for anyone getting into marketing. I think it's also a friendly reminder for folks who are already in the business.

Cube Farm uploaded by DanielN
tags | public relations | PR | social media | marketing

Happy Holidays │ Friday Flickr Fix │ 12.21.07

My lack of posting might lead you to believe I am slowing down around the holidays. Quite the contrary.

The year end race has been crazy. But I hope to start blogging again over the break next week.

Until then, have a great holiday!

Kiddies, Cupcakes and Christmas uploaded by prblog

Does The BBC Pwn Brandweek?

Tracking a story on Brandweek this morning I was amazed by BBC’s pwnership of the trade magazine’s home page.

As you can see, it looks like they are co-branding the site. Talk about saturating the target.

tags | advertising | marketing | Brandweek | brand

In Your Face: Ad Placements of Tomorrow

PR folks get steady grief for trying to place news stories. And while the definition and delivery of news is worth some scrutiny, let's be honest. Grief makes for good content.

But what about the visual pollution created by the ad side of the house? OK, let me be more specific…it’s not the ads. It’s where ads are being placed that never ceases to disgust amaze me.

Now there are ads on parking spots, food and even foreheads.

This over the top approach to ad placement may have started at trade shows. Trade shows are an all out attention war. It’s not enough to have a booth bimbo anymore, you have to have ads stashed anywhere the eyes might wander.

During your next plane flight you might see an ad as you takeoff or land. Air space is now prime ad space?! It’s enough to make me sick (courtesy of CBS).

And now, even police cars are sporting ads. Uh, Tim Horton’s, Krispy Kreme and Dunkin Donuts, what are you waiting for?

It'll get worse before it gets better. How bad will it get? Here are five places I (don’t really) think we’ll see ads placed in the future.

Monumental Ads: The Washington Monument sporting a condom ad, the Seven Wonders of the World, brought to you by a casino…it’s the ultimate in brand association.

X-Ray Ads: Crafty companies looking to influence a healthcare industry niche may pay someone to adjust their rib cage to resemble a logo or brand name.

Bowl Ads: The men’s bathroom has already inspired a myriad of ad techniques. The next time you enter a stall, don’t be surprised to see something ugly staring up at you from the bowl. Hopefully you can flush these ads.

Baby Scales: The first "moment of truth" for a new consumer could very well be when it’s weighed for the first time…consider the brand impression!

Headstones: The baby scale ad buy might be packaged with some headstone advertising as part of a company’s thorough cradle to grave strategy.

The Bible: It worked for The Gideons and King James. The opportunities are endless if you consider codex licensing could extend your brand to other best sellers like The Koran and The Torah.

We've just begun to see where ads will be placed. But let's hope the above predictions are nothing more than some snark to start your day.

UPDATE: According to AdLab, at least one of my predictions has already come true. Along with AdRants, they point us to some bad ad placements I missed in the above list. Sigh.

Related:
NY Times Ads Everywhere -- Ad Lab
Corporate Tattoo You -- Scatterbox
Ad Creep Reaches PDFs -- Ad Pulp

advertising everywhere in nyc uploaded by jeffreyk
tags | advertising | marketing | branding | brand