I go through a lot of new business presentations. Generally they go like this. We’re called in to present our agency and our thoughts on XYZ client’s business. They usually say something along the lines of, we don’t want a fancy PowerPoint presentation, just tell us about your agency, your thoughts on our business, and why you’re the best choice. Translation: show us a fancy PowerPoint presentation and make it visually attractive. You see, agency selection is, more times than not, similar to teenagers dating. You say you’re in love with the high school quarterback, but really it’s just because he’s popular and good looking. In fact, he’s kinda stuck up. The president of the Chess Club is actually a much better choice, but he’s not flashy, kinda nerdy, and just wants to get straight As. It isn’t until after you’ve dated the quarterback that you realize that Chessboy was in fact, the better choice. Now you just hope one of your friends hasn’t already claimed Chessboy before you make this realization.
I know what you’re thinking. I’m just bitter because we may not win every client pitch and I’m blaming it on our graphics department. In point of fact, we don’t win every pitch. But I can tell you that we have a 50 percent “Chessboy” retention rate. That is, for every 100 client pitches we make, we end up working with 50 of those companies within 18 months after the pitch. By then the quarterback luster is gone, overpromised and under-delivered. The client realizes that actual results do tend to matter more than the promises, and they approach us to help them.
Some clients looks past the flash and dash of a well constructed, Oscar-caliber, presentation. Those that don’t tend to be either first time agency shoppers, or ask for public relations help but really want advertising. It’s in everyone’s best interest to decide up front if you want the sizzle or the steak.
What would the Olympics be without some good, old-fashioned rivalry? And, nothing breeds rivalry like men’s figure skating. Before Evan Lysacek (USA) and Evgeni Plushenko (Russia) even put skates to ice, Olympic commentators hyped the much-anticipated match-up. But there can only be one winner, and after quadruple axles, circular step sequences and flying sit spins, Lysacek emerged victorious. That’s when the antics begun.
First, Plushenko stepped on the gold-medal spot on the Olympics podium to reach his silver-medal spot – a not-so-subtle dig. He told reporters, “I stepped on the gold medal position … because I forgot that I came second. To be fair, I felt that I’d stepped on to my position. It wasn’t planned, of course. It’s just that in my brain, I’d won.”
Plushenko continued to voice his displeasure over the results of the competition, claiming the sport had regressed. Then
“‘3 day of Spring Training and im already boreddddddd” a Tweet from Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen
The Sox didn’t think ahead now the organization’s having to respond to comments manager Ozzie Guillen is posting on his brand new Twitter account (http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/whitesox/2069174,CST-SPT-sox25.article). It’s a great reminder for any organization. Millions of people are active on social media, assume that your employees are among those millions, and develop a social media policy that’s in-line with your company culture. You can’t control what your employees say online but you can set upfront expectations for employees on social media (from use of social media during office hours to what’s considered confidential).
No one can question Sarah Palin’s passion for helping children who are physically and mentally challenged. But her recent remarks are moving Sarah from the passionate crusader category to hypocrite in short order, all because she forgot one important thing — the media have a long memory. In calling out the show The Family Guy for what she believes to be an attack on her family and son Trig who has Down’s Syndrome, Sarah screwed up.
Sure she has a track record of slamming others — like the president for his Special Olympics faux pas and Rahm Emmanuel for his “retard” remark — but the media picked up on something else…that Sarah also dismissed Rush Limbaugh’s use of the word “retard” as a satire (his full quote: “Our political correct society is acting like some giant insult’s taken place by calling a bunch of people who are retards, retards … I mean these people, these liberal activists are kooks”). So while the initial coverage of the story was all Sarah’s messaging, the second wave has turned more toward analyzing her inconsistency and what really constitutes satire. Take a lesson from Sarah’s gaffe — if you say it publicly, no matter how long ago, your words can resurface at any time.
One of the biggest stories in sports right now is Tiger Woods. He released information on his website on Wednesday saying he will make a statement on Friday morning. This will be the first we’ve heard from him since he wrecked his car into a tree trying to escape his wife’s wrath. Or whatever version of the truth you want to believe. Speculation has been building since that day as to when Tiger would play golf again, even speak publicly again. He has been seen at a sexual addiction clinic in Mississippi, but that’s about it. His entire life pre-”sexgate” was meticulously scripted, from who he endorsed to his appearances, etc. So it’s interesting to note the timing of his non-news conference news conference.
He made the announcement on Wednesday, the first day of the Accenture Match Play Championships, and will hold his hearing on Friday. He is quite simply stealing the spotlight from his former-sponsor in the biggest way. No one will be talking about the Match Play. Everyone will talk about what Tiger says. Even his agent couldn’t deny the unique timing. When asked if he could speak to the public at any other time, he simply said, “no.” The truth is, Tiger could hold this little soiree whenever he wanted to. But he chose to rub it in the face of a sponsor that dropped him, and show that he’s a bigger draw than their tournament. Ruthless? Maybe. Coincidental timing? Hardly.
Nothing personal to the blog of course; it gives us another way to chat with our audience. But it’s just so needy. And like the plants I can never manage to keep around my apartment, if I don’t give this blog regular attention it wilts – badly.
But that’s a good thing. And therein lies my conflicted relationship with this blog.
People talk a lot about the external benefits of blogging, but in the last year I’ve also come to appreciate its internal benefits. At our agency, we have a team who’s responsible for contributing to the blog on a regular basis. And while people grumble when they have a post due and no inspiration for a topic, it’s been a great learning experience. It pushes people to look beyond the news they normally read and the companies they usually follow to come up with a compelling topic. It’s sparked conversation about headliness and debate about communications implications.
I never thought I’d say it, but blogging can make you smarter.
There may be more than one way to skin a cat, but there was only one way to catch the Super Bowl on Sunday. Network executives at CBS are boasting a record-setting audience of nearly 107 million for Super Bowl XLIV, besting a 1983 record set by the series finale of “MASH”.
Maybe it was the drama of watching golden boy Peyton Manning face a team once nicknamed the “Aints” by its recovering hometown, but this Sunday’s draw highlighted something that is a rarity in today’s television market – total domination.
Between online broadcasting, cable programming challengers, terrestrial and non-terrestrial radio coverage, there were plenty of outlets to lure a distracted public away from CBS. This spread of entertainment opportunity increasingly
It’s not a secret that Las Vegas is the nation’s destination for frivolous fun. In fact, Vegas bases its entire identity on being the place for irresponsible decision-making – “What happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas.”
Over the years, celebrities, films and the media have supported this notion, and Vegas has profited from these “endorsements.” I have no doubt The Hangover has inspired many a best man to plan a bachelor’s party in the “City of Sin” hoping to wake up with Mike Tyson’s tiger in the hotel bathroom.
But when President Obama recently said “you don’t blow a bunch of cash on Vegas when you’re trying to save for college” to illustrate his point about responsible spending, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman cried foul. Apparently, President Obama is not allowed to state the obvious.
Come on, Vegas, take a look in the mirror. You define foolish spending and reckless behavior, and that’s the reason you will continue to be a popular tourist destination no matter what the president says. And, you know it.
Mayor Goodman recently had some harsh words for President Obama about the commander-in-chief’s upcoming visit to Vegas, saying
Has the Internet made public records too public? There’s no question that public data is helpful, but there’s a definite line between a Google Alert-worthy news story and personal information. Let’s take real estate for example. Your home sale or purchase was once a tiny listing in the local paper; now real estate transactions can be featured profile stories without the buyer’s or seller’s consent. And BlockShopper.com seems to lead the pack in transforming personal information into headlines.
BlockShopper.com is “a local news and market data service for current and aspiring homeowners, home buyers and home sellers” to help them “gain market perspective, studying a unique database of everything real estate, from home sale prices and owner records to foreclosures, comps and taxes, all broken down by city, zip, neighborhood, subdivision, condo development and (of course) block.”
There’s no doubt it’s a helpful tool for buyers and sellers, but as I discovered while checking my Google Alerts the other day there are features that cross some boundaries.
Our firm represents a residential real estate brokerage so I get a lot of BlockShopper alerts, and the other day I caught a friend’s name on BlockShopper. I already knew that he recently purchased a home, but not what he paid and the address (I know I could have found this pretty easily, but I hadn’t taken the time to invade his privacy and look it up). But there’s more
It’s that time of year again. The time when each sector of the entertainment industry, in an attempt to market its product, inundates the airwaves with awards shows. The sheer volume of broadcast hours devoted to this annual exercise in self-congratulation is nothing new. What is new is a marketing trend. In my opinion, the industry establishments are conspiring with the television networks to defraud the public into thinking the Grammys, Emmys, Golden Globes, People’s Choice, Oscars and “Ad Nauseum Awards” actually have some artistic merit. These endless shows have become no more than not very well choreographed “fixed fights”, manipulating the awards themselves to make sure that virtually every preferred artist wins something, to make them easier to sell to the public.
The Grammys have such a multitude of award categories, in every conceivable combination, that it’s impossible for every artist under contract to a record label not to win something. (“Best Spoken Word” album is my favorite category). In fact the Grammys have more award categories than any other three awards shows combined.
Ask most communications people today what goes into a good news release and you’ll probably hear the same things – good headline, interesting lead, quote from someone important, facts and figures, and a boilerplate.While it’s true that those are all aspects of a good release, they are lacking one major ingredient. Vision.
On June 8, David Letterman put his foot in his mouth, and on June 16 Sarah Palin accepted his apology for doing so. That’s more than a week. The saga really didn’t have to go on that long, but it did because Palin and Letterman both ignored some key tenants of issues management.
Fortune magazine recently finished its mid-year installation of the Dumbest Moments in Business 2009 with a combination of blunders and outright mess ups that reflected the tone of the last six months. Usually a recap of the year leaves me both smiling and somber as we relive the brightest stories and remember the most tragic events. But the mix of big business and government goofs on this list was a definite reflection of our times.
First it was the home phone, then email, and now Twitter. Spammers just can’t seem to stay away and now they’re following us on Twitter.
There’s no doubt that Twitter is red-hot right now. It’s become the largest online gathering place; everyone from celebrities and politicians to major brands and everyday people are joining the Twitterverse, and attracting its share of spammers.
One mommy blogger’s recent call for her contemporaries to boycott PR pitches for a week in August offers an interesting case study about the rising influence of this community. It also serves as a warning to communicators about the best ways to tap their voices.
According to the blogger calling for the “PR blackout”, the effort is meant to be a lesson to companies inundating bloggers with irrelevant pitches.
The media moves so quickly and sometimes recklessly today. More than that, the sheer volume of media pervading our lives can make it a deadly instrument for the innocent…or the guilty.
In the wake of the death of Michael Jackson, the media has endlessly covered every conceivable angle of the death, its aftermath, the money, the children and every ugly fact, rumor or idle speculation. Of late, the coverage has taken a rather disturbing turn. One of Jackson’s physicians, Dr. Conrad Murray has become the target of a police investigation regarding the circumstances of the entertainer’s death.
Didn’t we learn our lesson after the Kentucky Grilled Chicken (KGC) debacle of 2009?
It’s a recession. People will swarm for free stuff, major rebates and deep discounts. And when they can’t get what’s been promised, they get angry. Very angry. That’s when a feel good program can spin out of control and ultimately deliver a reputation hit.
The latest near-victim of KGC syndrome is the federal government’s Cash for Clunkers program. With $3,500-4,500 rebates for old cars – and not to mention a cool name like “Cash for Clunkers” – what’s not to love?
The NFL has often been likened to the Nixon White House; a paragon of power and paranoia. The league has always been obsessed with containing information, and not telling anyone anything until and unless it has been approved by multiple league authorities after endless self-serving review. That reflects a longstanding league belief that somebody or perhaps everybody is out to get it!
Now add “new media” to that list of the NFL’s perceived co-conspirators. The league, which recently opened training camps for the 2009 season has issued an edict banning “Twitter” from its facilities. That goes not only for visiting media, but for all its players, team and league employees.
There is very little debate that healthcare is one of the most important domestic issues in this country and of great importance to most everyone. There is very little debate that the issues are complex, need sound thinking and thorough discussion. So WHY is the media missing the boat? That is simple. It is because juicy quotes, ugly video and audio are much more interesting…to them, anyway.
Recently, town hall debates have been scheduled all over the country to air issues on healthcare reform to try to reach some intelligent national consensus. Debate on the issues can be heated as there is passion on all sides of the landscape. For that and other reasons, a trend has emerged, in which particularly vociferous groups have entered those meetings to dramatically raise the decibel level, if not the level of discourse, often resulting in shouting matches, shoving matches and, in some cases, arrests. That may not be constructive, but spirited debate is part of democratic process. That’s alright. What is NOT alright is
It’s a fact: we all inevitably make mistakes in our writing. And as PR pros tackling daily writing assignments, we lean on each other to catch potential inaccuracies before the documents go out the door to reporters or clients.
As participants in the news process, it’s our responsibility to do everything in our power to deliver factual, error-free information to the media. But when communication breaks down, editors make assumptions and writers don’t do their homework, errors are made that cause the public to lose trust in their reporting.
Chicago Alderman Helen Shiller is learning the hard way that silence just doesn’t fly these days.
Friday morning, a Chicago neighborhood blog, Uptown Update, was abuzz over a posted video of two rival gangs fighting in the middle of a street around 9 p.m. on Thursday. Residents posted more than 100 comments about the video (which was shot from a condo balcony), voicing concerns over what they felt was a historic lack of safety concern by their alderman, who they say rarely attends neighborhood policing meetings or makes satisfactory responses to crime. Based on the online conversation, one resident sent the video link to Chicago media and by that evening three TV stations covered the situation – and Shiller’s office didn’t respond to calls from any of them.
A new feature to Google’s subsidiary YouTube will give businesses one more way to gain exposure to their local audiences. The site has added a section under its News & Politics category called “News Near You,” which releases videos to registered users based on the user’s location. For example, if you live in Chicago, you currently see videos from the Chicago Tribune. The goal is to create a mini newscast pulling together clips from a number of local sources. Citizen journalist reports even could pop up.
News Near You just launched in the spring, so it has a ways to go in offering news from a variety of local media outlets. Local TV stations need to embrace this new concept and partner with YouTube to give their viewers one more way to see their news reports on the Internet—no matter the time or place. But some stations are resisting.
The great thing about social networking is its ability to connect people without boundaries. We can catch up with friends, find business contacts, meet people with similar interests, and so on. For a lot of users of social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, it is very satisfying to have a large number of ‘friends’ or ‘followers.’ What many people forget is that just as in the real world, it takes time and effort to make any relationship work. It isn’t enough to simply have 478 friends on Facebook and say you’re ‘networked.’ It isn’t enough to follow key people on Twitter and say you’re involved. It takes more than that. It takes being proactive and making the most of your connections.
It continues to come up in conversations with my peers, raises my red flags, and influences me to “share” some friendly advice. Whether it’s Twitter, Facebook, personal or business related blogs, your content may contain too much information and way too much over sharing.
Example 1: A guy in Arizona who went on vacation and was robbed in the meantime. Why?
The recent death of Senator Edward Kenney (D-Massachusetts) was certainly notable for many reasons; political, historical, social. History will be the judge of the full impact of Senator Kennedy’s life and career. However, I was struck by how his passing had a dramatic effect on the media and its coverage.
These days, the country is highly partisan politically and the media reflect that. There are media outlets which are unabashedly conservative (Fox News Channel) and unabashedly liberal (MSNBC). Most outlets have some political leaning, which unlike previous generations of media, they make no effort to hide. They do that today specifically to pander to their particular target audiences to build ratings and circulation. So be it. We are so conditioned to this raucous, polarized political media climate, it was oddly surprising and extremely refreshing to observe that the coverage of Kennedy’s death, life, various ceremonies, tributes and internment was respectful, even-handed and CIVIL! Yes, I used that word; CIVIL. How many of us can remember media coverage of any political story, resulting discourse and analysis being civil?
I was raised Catholic and have 13 years of Catholic schooling under my belt, so the cover of Thursday’s Sun Times grabbed my attention:
“Local Dioceses’ Plea to Catholics: Come Back Home”
It’s no secret that the Catholic Church has been losing members and suffered from declining attendance – in part fueled by the poorly handled abuse scandals – in the United States over the last few years. As a result,
We all know that public relations is less expensive than advertising, but carries much greater credibility. Maybe that’s why increasing numbers of wily ad guys are taking great PR results and building ad campaigns around them.
Let’s say a freak global accident occurred. The accident? The Internet shut down – someone flipped the switch on the good old “www”. It may be hard to picture, but let’s just say it did. What would the world do? What would businesses do?
This type of incident seems unrealistic to people like me, but I bring up the subject for a reason. Our office, just like any other, has difficulties with online connections from time to time, leaving us without the Internet for short periods of time. For employees like me, who don’t know what work days were like without access to instant Web surfing and unlimited information at your finger tips, it’s hard to imagine what it was like “BI” (before internet).
This is a great thing we’re doing. I wish we could do this every day in Chicago. How many people it will employ. How much publicity we’ll receive throughout the world. It is unbelievable. You can’t even give us that exposure globally – Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley on Oprah Winfrey’s plan to host an anniversary extravaganza on the city’s Michigan Ave.
You know, when I first heard the mayor’s statement on this huge Oprah-driven media opportunity, I: 1. giggled because Daley quotes are so great (tell me what the last sentence means, please) and 2. became more than a little cynical — I figured the city would get lost in the shuffle and the star power would take front seat.
So I’ve been monitoring coverage of this event, watching clips of the show (which aired on 9/10) and checking out Oprah’s web site….and I’ll grudgingly admit that the mayor,
I overheard an interesting conversation this weekend between a dad and his college-age son. At first I thought they were joking, but it turned out to be quite insightful about how we use technology today. The son was telling the father he noticed he hadn’t been calling as often and when his father did call, he was talking about more meaningful things than, “what have you been up to?” That dad’s answer was simply, “I see all your pictures and updates on Facebook, so I feel like I talk to you every day and get a sense of what you’re doing.”
Imagine that. A college kid complaining that his dad doesn’t call enough and a baby boomer using a social site as it was intended. Has the world gone mad?
As someone fascinated with numbers and their significance—not necessary statistics and calculations, but the meaning behind numerals—I was a bit surprised to see this Sept. 9, 2009 come and go with little media fanfare. After all, it’s the last repeating, single-digit date for nearly 100 years.
It seems like on an almost daily basis one media outlet or another goes out if its way to illustrate how little TV news is about “news” anymore, but simply ratings and audience demographics. They may call it a “newscast,” but it’s simply a television show whose content is manipulated for demos, target audience and ratings. Any news content is purely coincidental.
Here’s an example of the changing times. Recently, a major market TV station in the midwest decided to eliminate the sportscast from its 5 p.m. newscast. The powers-that-be determined (no doubt in conjunction with an army of consultants and focus groups) that the 5 p.m. show’s audience is predominantly female and therefore has little or no interest in sports. Whether that premise is accurate is debatable. Whether that premise is condescending and perhaps even a bit misogynistic is not debatable.
What is just as unfortunate is that often, even a sportscast has actual sports NEWS in it, but this station has decided
As if the original crime wasn’t bad enough – Kanye West interrupting Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at the MTV Video Music Awards, ABC Nightline co-anchor Terry Moran tweeted to his 1 million-plus followers that President Barack Obama called Kanye a “jackass.”
The problem with the tweet was that the portion of the interview with the president was “off the record.” Furthermore, the conversation took place during an interview by another network, CNBC. Moran deleted the tweet and ABC apologized to the President and CNBC.
Moran’s tweet upset the White House and Kanye fans around the world, but the tweet draws attention to
The Shedd Aquarium recently tested the waters in the Web vs. text debate to find out which generates more leads when used as a call to action. And the results were surprisingly clear-cut – at least for that audience.
I don’t know if you saw the Fantasea campaign, but the Shedd ran four ads on the Chicago’s NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox affiliates to promote the new attraction and invite viewers to enter a contest. The call to action at the end of three of the ads asked viewers to log-on to a Web site and register. The fourth, which was identical in content to the other three, gave a second option to enter the contest via text message. In the end, the text option generated
By now everyone has seen the story, which is obsessing world wide media of all kinds and is likely to be doing so for the next several news cycles.
To recap: On his October 1st “Late Show” on CBS, Letterman announced that he had been the target of an extortion plot. A man since identified as an employee of CBS who had worked as a producer on another show, contacted Letterman, allegedly presented damning “evidence” and demanded money to prevent him from releasing embarrassing information about Letterman’s private life. Letterman contacted his own lawyer then the district attorney. Finally the alleged extortionist was arrested and charged with a felony.
Over the last month, I’ve had the very eye-opening experience of trying to fill a vacant position during the recession. The resumes I’ve seen range from spot-on to “huh?” (the former exterminator falls into that category) and I’ve come to one important conclusion. PR people need to pitch a prospective employer the way they would pitch the journalist. But the reality is too many don’t.
The cover letters and resumes that catch my eye have all of the elements of a good pitch. First,
Amid all the guests talking over one another last night on Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell, I heard something that re-affirmed the power of good communication in a time of crisis.
The topic? The deaths of participants at the sweat lodge retreat hosted by self-help guru James Arthur Ray. The comment? One of Jane’s guests, another self-helper, said that he – and the whole self-help community – wished Ray would just say something about the situation instead of clamming up the way he has, which has allowed others to
While newsboys, or hawkers, have long been replaced by TV news and the Internet, I still like to think of my Tribune buddy on the corner of State and Lake as a hawker. He gives almost everyone a “have a nice day” and calls out a few of the top headlines. It’s a nice touch, and, for me, it evokes a classic feel that says the Tribune’s hardcopy will never leave us (despite its Chapter 11 filings).
But my friend wasn’t always there. In the last year,
I’ve recently sat through half a dozen new business meetings with start up companies looking to make a name for themselves and get their word out. What’s interesting is that all of them recognize public relations as a much better vehicle than advertising for both their budgets and their goals. In the not so distant past, I would have usually spent some time explaining the difference between public relations and advertising, go over the benefits of each, and make a case for why throwing money at advertising isn’t the best option for a company with little to no brand awareness. But all of the companies I spoke to offered up that they don’t intend to advertise – at all. (At least not for the foreseeable future. Even we will counsel that there is a definite critical place for advertising in most businesses.)
With the changing face of public relations and the recent backlash against traditional advertising, companies are beginning to recognize the value of public relations vs. the traditional cost and results from advertising when trying to launch a new company or product/service. Of course, we’re delighted by this. But what’s really interesting is
To say that we are hearing more and more about the H1N1 vaccination in recent weeks is an understatement. The problem is that we’ve been getting mixed messages about when and where this highly anticipated vaccine will be available, which is causing great unease among millions of Americans. There are even Web sites cropping up that are anti-H1N1 vaccine.
First, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said there would be 40 million H1N1 vaccines by the end of October. Then, they said 28 million would be distributed, but there are only 11 million available right now. At the same time the number of doctor’s office visits for the flu is six times higher than last year, the H1N1 virus is widespread in 46 states, and President Obama has declared the H1N1 outbreak a national emergency. Hospitals are preparing for traffic jams, and many wonder why it is taking the CDC so long.
Because the CDC is not making the vaccine, it is at the mercy of the drugmakers that are not producing as quickly as expected. It’s expecting to have another 18 million by the end of
Over the last five years, most of us have come to love the magic that social media has brought to our lives. The instant, brief headlines and links from Twitter, the easily accessible world of music provided by MySpace, and the power to connect and share with everyone you’ve ever known in your life thanks to Facebook.
But not everyone’s loving the magic. There’s growing speculation that Facebook is slowly, but surely, killing that old tradition of meeting up with your old high school friends and acquaintances while Johnny Quarterback finishes his ninth Jack and Coke, the prom queen shows photos of her six kids, and the Ace of Base cover band goes for round two of “I saw the Sign.” This is what makes America. This is The High School Reunion.
That was the often repeated and now infamous phrase slugger Mark McGwire used under oath while testifying before Congress in 2005 during the investigation into the abuse of steroids and other controlled (generally illegal) substances in Major League Baseball. McGwire had denied using steroids when the cheating allegations first arose the year before, but when questioned under oath about his possible steroid use, he essentially said “I don’t want to talk about it” and our elected representatives let him weasel out of it. McGwire has continued to weasel out of it by remaining in safe, self-imposed, silent exile in southern California…until NOW.
McGwire has shocked many by suddenly agreeing to return to baseball and the media spotlight to become the St. Louis Cardinals’ new hitting coach. The media are already in feeding frenzy and lining up to get the story McGwire’s been hiding from for years. PR 101: IF he thinks he can remain silent and simply report to spring training in February and the media will go away, McGwire is
I’m interested to see what kind of impact PRSA’s new advocacy campaign, “The Business Case for Public Relations” (http://www.prsa.org/Intelligence/BusinessCase/) has on the industry. I’ve been in PR for 12 years and it was clear from just about day one that this industry, which ironically advocates the power of good messaging, never really escaped its stunt-driven and, at times, dicey history. Then we have pop culture perpetuating the slick spin image, which makes me cringe because people believe it. (How many times have you been in a meeting and someone says “can’t we just spin it”? Um, no.)
This industry has acted like its own worst client – letting others tell its story for years until things got out of hand – so I’m not betting that an advocacy campaign is going to trigger any sweeping changes for years. Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for giving practitioners tools they need to explain that yes we are a business function, not flacks. But it’s going to be a long, hard haul.
Christie Zielinski is a vice president in Cushman/Amberg’s Chicago office, specializing in helping B2B clients grow their business. In her spare time, she’s an amateur home renovator who also enjoys exploring the city, feeding an eclectic reading habit, and watching Detroit Pistons basketball (when the Pistons are enjoyable to watch).
I recently attended a conference with PR celebrity Peter Shankman and he said something that really struck me: if you can’t write you will be eliminated. Period.
Improving my writing has always been important to me. My mother and my grandmother were both English teachers who drove home the importance of proper grammar and typo-free writing. Then I went to journalism school, and the threat of public embarrassment or a bad grade certainly taught me the fundamentals of writing.
But what makes this call for good writing more important now than in years past is the fact that in 10 years 90 percent of first contact with people will come through the written word. This contact could be in the form of an e-mail, tweet, Facebook update, blog post or LinkedIn connection. That means first impressions will no longer be made on your strong handshake, buttoned up suit or pearly whites — but rather
Rob: There has been a big debate about a sense of entitlement toward a work life balance among younger employees in the last few years. I’m not sure that any employer wants to work an employee to death and most employers support work/life balance, as long as the work gets done. What I fear is work being pushed aside for things like having to walk your dog that you’re allowed to bring to work, or spending time on Facebook games like Farmville.
Krista: Especially during times of economic downturn, employees may be feeling a massive amount of pressure over not only long-term job security, but also quality of performance. With this elevated level of stress comes an even greater need for work/life balance. Of course employees must come to work and focus on work to keep their jobs, but it gets unhealthy when an employee puts in a quality eight hour work day, yet it never seems to be enough for the boss.
Blogging and tweeting (and even Facebooking”) have been some of the hottest words for the past year. It seems like everyone’s doing at least one of these things – for either personal or business reasons – because they’re such an easy way to reach people. I mean, anyone can start a blog with the help of Google’s BlogSpot or Word Press’s prefabricated templates. And Twitter…you don’t even have to know how to embed code, just type a sentence and insert a link if need be.
But this ease of use is taking us toward a point of over-saturation of stuff that’s just not that compelling.
Think about it. Even London’s Big Ben has its own Twitter account – and all it tweets is a number of “bongs” every hour in accordance with the time (it has more than 23,700 followers, by the way). And as far as blogging goes,
Tiger Woods may have thought that by remaining silent for so long he was controlling what he wanted reported about his situation. How naive – or, simply, bad counsel.
Did Woods – or his advisors for that matter – not learn anything from the way David Letterman strategically shaped and controlled his recent story of improprieties?
By airing his own dirty laundry, Letterman controlled what was being reported about his situation and for how long. While his news certainly garnered a lot of coverage, it was pretty much a two-day story, which took place over a weekend (the best time to break negative news because it is likely to get significantly less attention). By Monday, there were other new stories making the headlines – unlike Tiger’s drawn-out soap opera. It’s a classic example of a story that spun way out of control, causing a world famous athlete to have to play defense to rumors and accusations – that are turning out to be true – while trying to protect his brand and billion dollar image.
First of all, you don’t wait more than 24 hours to issue a statement, let alone five days.
Then, you don’t accuse others of making malicious rumors and accusations when you know they are true. Don’t blame others or the media because you want this to be a private matter. While Tiger is not a public official or spouse to any of us, he doesn’t owe us an explanation. However, some on the endorsement side may feel otherwise, but not all.
No matter how private he wanted this matter to be, it was more than
When I was in high school I hated grammar and style. Maybe it had something to do with the vagueness of my textbooks or the way Sister Paulissa taught the information. I loved to write, but things like sentence diagramming frustrated me. When I got to college, however, I learned to love these things fast. No one in my journalism program could advance to the fun classes unless they first passed “Precision Language for Journalists.”
Taking a class like that does strange things to your mind. You start editing signs on the street, patting yourself on the back when you find errors in the paper, and enjoying blogs like www.unnecessaryquotes.com and www.apostropheabuse.com.
Both of these blogs rely on followers (aka grammar geeks) to submit photos of misused punctuation on signs, etc. that usually ends up changing the meaning of the sentence or phrase – unbeknownst to the author. I love reading blogs like this because,
Seldom has anyone fallen from grace so dramatically, courtesy of the media that is, as Tiger Woods. But this post isn’t about his auto accident, his wife, alleged assignations and the subsequent media firestorm. I would, however, like to observe how far and how fast someone can fall if the media makes it so.
Until only a few weeks ago, and for the last decade, Tiger Woods was a media creation with international icon status, which perhaps had never had been attained by anyone in the history of modern sports/popular culture. Perhaps only Michael Jordan in his heyday attained that kind of stature. Certainly Woods delivered the goods. He’s the best golfer of his generation, far better than anyone else in his day and arguably the best of all time. More than that, the pubic revered him, the media fawned over him, his reputation was spotless and advertisers fell all over themselves, pleading with Tiger to pitch their products. His income from marketing was staggering and far greater than his formidable earnings from competitive golf.
Fast forward to today. Tiger Woods is the obsession of the tabloid media, which has been working 24/7 on him since this started. The mainstream media has joyfully jumped into the fun, with only slightly less sleaze. Tiger is the butt of jokes of all the late night comedians, and the butt of jokes at every bar and water cooler in America. His sponsors have begun to fall away, delay certain product rollouts or nervously sit on the sidelines offering tepid support while waiting to see what happens next. Meanwhile Tiger continues to literally hide in his Florida mansion, with no one knowing when he’ll venture out to play golf or do anything else.
One could argue that the media “made” Tiger Woods. Well, now the media is
Check out the viral breast cancer awareness video that’s making its way around the globe via YouTube. In less than a month from its online debut (Nov. 13), the Pink Glove Dance has captured more than 4.4 million viewings and 8,000 positive comments.
It’s genius! May the mastermind please step forward and share the strategy behind the perfect mix of a Chicago area-based medical supply company launching a new product (“generation pink” exam gloves) and more than 200 dancing employees of Providence St. Vincent Medical Center <http://www.providence.org/Oregon/facilities/hospitals/providence_st_vincent> in Portland, Ore. (from executives to the cleaning crew), rallying behind a popular cause—breast cancer awareness. Add a catchy tune (“Down” by R&B artist Jay Sean) that will get you moving, it’s sure to bring a smile to your face and leave you with a good feeling about the organizations involved. Tah-dah! Reputations are being strengthened.
This campaign was one way to energize audiences and boost their “feel good” barometer when it comes to products and services—especially knowing that the pink glove maker will use a percentage of its “pink” sales to pay for mammograms for women who cannot afford them.
Just when we thought things were getting better something like this happens.
Bristol Palin launches a public relations firm.
Not that I knock young Bristol’s entrepreneurial spirit, but come on – did it have to be a PR firm? Obviously, despite our work to combat old stereotypes, there are a lot of those old perceptions floating around out there. There have to be if a 19-year-old who doesn’t have a degree in any related area or any kind of internship experience (unless you want to call being on the campaign trail experience) thinks that she can begin advising people and businesses on their PR issues.
Even the White House can’t seem to throw a party without a few problems (namely, Tareq and Michaele Salahi and Carlos Allen). While most affairs aren’t a matter of national security, there is still a lot at stake when it comes to planning and executing a special event. Here are a few tips to keep in mind:
Always Ask Why: Special events are fun and glamorous, but they are also expensive and time consuming. Before you plan an event, consider why it makes sense for your organization. Refreshing your brand, raising awareness of new initiatives or fundraising are all good reasons to host an event – “just because” is not.
Start Early: You can never start planning an event too soon! Begin with the basics – who will be invited, where the event will take place, and when the event will occur. The more time you have to plan, the more prepared you will be to deal with unexpected challenges.
The Devil is in the Details: Executing a successful special event means everything from the audio/visual equipment to the hangers in the coat room must be set and checked. Transportation and parking should be mapped out, guest lists should be alphabetized and handicap accessibility should be pre-arranged – no detail can be overlooked.
Leave it to the Pros: Just like doctors are trained to treat patients, event managers are trained to plan and execute events. Everything that happens at an event bodes well, or in some cases not so well, for the organization hosting it. To ensure the best outcome, leave it to the pros.
Kate Cox is a senior consultant at Cushman/Amberg with expertise in event management and an extensive background in health care communications. Off the job, she enjoys traveling and plans to go to South Africa to cage dive with white sharks.
It took 10 years, but Mark McGwire finally admitted what everyone on the planet already knew: he used steroids during his major league baseball career. Opinions on the morality of the steroids issue run the gamut; there are many hard-liners like me and there are legions of people who are indifferent. The media is rarely indifferent and this is no exception – the McGwire story is a feeding frenzy.
For years McGwire denied using steroids and made his now infamous appearance before Congress, when answering those questions with “I’m not here to talk about the past”. He has presumably come clean now because he has accepted a job as hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals and will soon be back in the public eye, unable to hide from media as he has done the past decade.
So how effective has McGwire’s PR strategy been since he rolled it out with a news release on Jan.11? I would offer this excerpt from a column by Bryan Burwell of the St. Louis Post Dispatch discussing McGwire’s media “performance” so far:
Over the last few weeks, I’m with COCO has been the hottest online bandwagon to jump on and the most recent example of how social media can mobilize fans.
In case you’ve been living in a cave, the battle for NBC’s Tonight Show spawned a late night feud among Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien and the network. The resolution – a return to the Tonight Show for Jay Leno and $45 million severance for O’Brien.
With the late night war taking place, Conan’s very personal statement to fans (or “people of the world” in his words) spread like wildfire via the Internet to address this issue with head on. The long, but simple letter let us know his opinion on the chain of events and thanked the masses for the support, no matter what ended up happening. Nicely done, Conan. People read the statement word for word and were up in arms over what was happening. That’s when social media kicked into high gear.
Fans took to public forums and social networking sites to express themselves and show support for Conan; made Facebook fan pages proclaiming
A recent nationwide survey of 1,400 chief information officers at companies with at least 100 employees shows a majority of businesses are banning companies with social media in the workplace.
54 percent prohibited social networking completely
19 percent permitted for business purposes only
16 percent limited personal use
10 percent gave clearance for any type of personal use
1 percent did not answer
Robert Half cites the lack of productivity as a reason for the restrictions; apparently, employers feel it takes away from their employees’ real responsibilities as these workers lose track of time on Facebook or Twitter.
Have you noticed that more stores and restaurants are asking you to give to their charity of choice when you get up to the cash register? Just this past weekend, I was hit up no less than three times at the point of purchase and it got me thinking about the right approach to a corporate social responsibility program.
To me, a successful CSR program makes customers feel good about doing business with a company, gives employees a way to get involved in their community, and helps the company connect with its various audiences. In my mind,
I go through a lot of new business presentations. Generally they go like this. We’re called in to present our agency and our thoughts on XYZ client’s business. They usually ...
What would the Olympics be without some good, old-fashioned rivalry? And, nothing breeds rivalry like men’s figure skating. Before Evan Lysacek (USA) and Evgeni Plushenko (Russia) even put skates to ice, ...
“'3 day of Spring Training and im already boreddddddd'' a Tweet from Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen
The Sox didn’t think ahead now the organization’s having to respond to comments manager ...
No one can question Sarah Palin’s passion for helping children who are physically and mentally challenged. But her recent remarks are moving Sarah from the passionate crusader category to hypocrite ...
One of the biggest stories in sports right now is Tiger Woods. He released information on his website on Wednesday saying he will make a statement on Friday morning. This ...
Ask most communications people today what goes into a good news release and you’ll probably hear the same things – good headline, interesting lead, quote from someone important, facts and ...
On June 8, David Letterman put his foot in his mouth, and on June 16 Sarah Palin accepted his apology for doing so. That’s more than a week. The saga ...
Fortune magazine recently finished its mid-year installation of the Dumbest Moments in Business 2009 with a combination of blunders and outright mess ups that reflected the tone of the last ...
First it was the home phone, then email, and now Twitter. Spammers just can’t seem to stay away and now they’re following us on Twitter.
There’s no doubt that Twitter is ...
One mommy blogger’s recent call for her contemporaries to boycott PR pitches for a week in August offers an interesting case study about the rising influence of this community. It ...
The media moves so quickly and sometimes recklessly today. More than that, the sheer volume of media pervading our lives can make it a deadly instrument for the innocent…or the ...
Didn’t we learn our lesson after the Kentucky Grilled Chicken (KGC) debacle of 2009?
It’s a recession. People will swarm for free stuff, major rebates and deep discounts. And when they ...
The NFL has often been likened to the Nixon White House; a paragon of power and paranoia. The league has always been obsessed with containing information, and not telling anyone ...
There is very little debate that healthcare is one of the most important domestic issues in this country and of great importance to most everyone. There is very little debate ...
It’s a fact: we all inevitably make mistakes in our writing. And as PR pros tackling daily writing assignments, we lean on each other to catch potential inaccuracies before the ...
Chicago Alderman Helen Shiller is learning the hard way that silence just doesn’t fly these days.
Friday morning, a Chicago neighborhood blog, Uptown Update, was abuzz over a posted video of ...
A new feature to Google’s subsidiary YouTube will give businesses one more way to gain exposure to their local audiences. The site has added a section under its News & ...
The great thing about social networking is its ability to connect people without boundaries. We can catch up with friends, find business contacts, meet people with similar interests, and so ...
It continues to come up in conversations with my peers, raises my red flags, and influences me to “share” some friendly advice. Whether it’s Twitter, Facebook, personal or business related ...
The recent death of Senator Edward Kenney (D-Massachusetts) was certainly notable for many reasons; political, historical, social. History will be the judge of the full impact of Senator Kennedy’s life ...
I was raised Catholic and have 13 years of Catholic schooling under my belt, so the cover of Thursday’s Sun Times grabbed my attention:
“Local Dioceses’ Plea to Catholics: Come Back ...
We all know that public relations is less expensive than advertising, but carries much greater credibility. Maybe that’s why increasing numbers of wily ad guys are taking great PR results ...
Let’s say a freak global accident occurred. The accident? The Internet shut down – someone flipped the switch on the good old "www". It may be hard to picture, but ...
This is a great thing we’re doing. I wish we could do this every day in Chicago. How many people it will employ. How much publicity we’ll receive throughout the ...
I overheard an interesting conversation this weekend between a dad and his college-age son. At first I thought they were joking, but it turned out to be quite insightful about ...
As someone fascinated with numbers and their significance—not necessary statistics and calculations, but the meaning behind numerals—I was a bit surprised to see this Sept. 9, 2009 come and go ...
It seems like on an almost daily basis one media outlet or another goes out if its way to illustrate how little TV news is about “news” anymore, but simply ...
As if the original crime wasn’t bad enough – Kanye West interrupting Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at the MTV Video Music Awards, ABC Nightline co-anchor Terry Moran tweeted to his ...
The Shedd Aquarium recently tested the waters in the Web vs. text debate to find out which generates more leads when used as a call to action. And the results ...
By now everyone has seen the story, which is obsessing world wide media of all kinds and is likely to be doing so for the next several news cycles.
To recap: ...
Over the last month, I’ve had the very eye-opening experience of trying to fill a vacant position during the recession. The resumes I’ve seen range from spot-on to “huh?” (the ...
Amid all the guests talking over one another last night on Issues with Jane Velez-Mitchell, I heard something that re-affirmed the power of good communication in a time of crisis.
The ...
While newsboys, or hawkers, have long been replaced by TV news and the Internet, I still like to think of my Tribune buddy on the corner of State and Lake ...
I’ve recently sat through half a dozen new business meetings with start up companies looking to make a name for themselves and get their word out. What’s interesting is that ...
To say that we are hearing more and more about the H1N1 vaccination in recent weeks is an understatement. The problem is that we’ve been getting mixed messages about when ...
Over the last five years, most of us have come to love the magic that social media has brought to our lives. The instant, brief headlines and links from Twitter, ...
That was the often repeated and now infamous phrase slugger Mark McGwire used under oath while testifying before Congress in 2005 during the investigation into the abuse of steroids and ...
I’m interested to see what kind of impact PRSA’s new advocacy campaign, “The Business Case for Public Relations” (http://www.prsa.org/Intelligence/BusinessCase/) has on the industry. I’ve been in PR for 12 years ...
I recently attended a conference with PR celebrity Peter Shankman and he said something that really struck me: if you can’t write you will be eliminated. Period.
Improving my writing has ...
Rob: There has been a big debate about a sense of entitlement toward a work life balance among younger employees in the last few years. I'm not sure that any ...
Blogging and tweeting (and even Facebooking”) have been some of the hottest words for the past year. It seems like everyone’s doing at least one of these things – for ...
Tiger Woods may have thought that by remaining silent for so long he was controlling what he wanted reported about his situation. How naive – or, simply, bad counsel.
Did Woods ...
When I was in high school I hated grammar and style. Maybe it had something to do with the vagueness of my textbooks or the way Sister Paulissa taught the ...
Seldom has anyone fallen from grace so dramatically, courtesy of the media that is, as Tiger Woods. But this post isn’t about his auto accident, his wife, alleged assignations and ...
Have you caught the Pink Glove Dance Craze?
Check out the viral breast cancer awareness video that’s making its way around the globe via YouTube. In less than a month ...
Just when we thought things were getting better something like this happens.
Bristol Palin launches a public relations firm.
Not that I knock young Bristol’s entrepreneurial spirit, but come on – did ...
Even the White House can’t seem to throw a party without a few problems (namely, Tareq and Michaele Salahi and Carlos Allen). While most affairs aren’t a matter of national security, ...
It took 10 years, but Mark McGwire finally admitted what everyone on the planet already knew: he used steroids during his major league baseball career. Opinions on the morality of ...
Over the last few weeks, I’m with COCO has been the hottest online bandwagon to jump on and the most recent example of how social media can mobilize fans.
In case you've ...
A recent nationwide survey of 1,400 chief information officers at companies with at least 100 employees shows a majority of businesses are banning companies with social media in the workplace.
According ...
Have you noticed that more stores and restaurants are asking you to give to their charity of choice when you get up to the cash register? Just this past weekend, ...
Not the viewing public!
It’s that time of year again. The time when each sector of the entertainment industry, in an attempt to market its product, inundates the airwaves with awards ...
Has the Internet made public records too public? There’s no question that public data is helpful, but there’s a definite line between a Google Alert-worthy news story and personal information. ...
It’s not a secret that Las Vegas is the nation’s destination for frivolous fun. In fact, Vegas bases its entire identity on being the place for irresponsible decision-making – “What ...
I have a love/hate relationship with this blog.
Nothing personal to the blog of course; it gives us another way to chat with our audience. But it’s just so needy. And ...
That’s more than a week. The saga really didn’t have to go on that long, but it did because Palin and Letterman both ignored some key tenants of issues management.
the effort is meant to be a lesson to companies inundating bloggers with irrelevant pitches. 
wers to log-on to a Web site and register. The fourth, which was identical in content to the other three, gave a second option to enter the contest via text message. In the end, the text option generated
A man since identified as an employee of CBS who had worked as a producer on another show, contacted Letterman, allegedly presented damning “evidence” and demanded money to prevent him from releasing embarrassing information about Letterman’s private life. Letterman contacted his own lawyer then the district attorney. Finally the alleged extortionist was arrested and charged with a felony. 
everyone a “have a nice day” and calls out a few of the top headlines. It’s a nice touch, and, for me, it evokes a classic feel that says the Tribune’s hardcopy will never leave us (despite its Chapter 11 filings).
The media is rarely indifferent and this is no exception – the McGwire story is a feeding frenzy.