Olympic Bid Goes to Rio, Now What?

The pitch was successful. Take the Olympics to a South American country for the first time in history was the message used to make Rio’s argument. A good point indeed, considering Brazil’s role in this global economy.

The country is the largest in South America, the 10th economy in the world and, according to the World Bank, will rise to the 5th within the next seven years. But will the 2016 Olympics be good for Rio or Brazil? We are yet to find out. So far, so good!

Besides the entire infrastructure that is needed to host such an event, Brazil also needs to come together with the most appropriate communication and PR strategy, internally and externally. 

The country already has a phenomenally high number of the population using social media tools. For instance, Portuguese, the language spoken in Brazil, is the second most used language on Twitter.

But to be in the spotlight requires serious preparation. Media training, Q&A, branding, you name it, needs to be carefully and strategically thought out. Brazil now has an opportunity to strengthen its position, to publicize the country, the culture and its people. Their audience all around the world is highly sophisticated and it will be watching like a hawk.

Foreign investments, tourism growth and all the benefits that might derive from hosting the Olympic Games will only be possible if Rio and Brazil deliver the right key messages. Combine communications strategies, actions and tactics to show the world that the country is not only about Carnival and scantily clothed women on the beaches of Rio!

I hope for the positive outcomes. I am Brazilian. And after 120 years of the first modern Games, my country was awarded the 2016 Olympics Games, becoming the first one to host an Olympic Game in South America.

Paula Hall is an account director with HMA Public Relations and originally from Brasilia, Brazil.

Rolling My Eyes at “Smart Eyeglasses”

Being in the communications industry, any kind of marketing, advertising or public relations messaging that is unclear annoys me to no end. When I see something I don’t like or don’t understand, I obsess over it.

And with The University of Arizona’s confusing new billboard a block from my office, I now obsess at least three times a day (on the way to work, driving to lunch and on the way home from work).

The branding ad, less than 10 miles from rival ASU, simply says, “We invented smarter eyeglasses.”

Umm…okay.

Who is “we?”

When did this happen?

Why isn’t there a photo?

Why haven’t I ever heard of this before?

After seeing this billboard for the 100^th time, I finally Googled my booty off during my lunch hour trying to figure out what it meant.

Now, some of you may argue that was the ad’s purpose – to entice me to learn more. But isn’t that counterproductive? And wasteful? And annoying?

Comment below – and I am looking forward to hearing from Wildcat alumni on this one!

And PS – it was folks at U of A AND the Georgia Institute of Technology who developed the glasses, not just U of A.

New Season, New Promotional Lingo

This is my favorite time of year. On top of it being my birthday week, it is also the week for many television shows’ season premieres. As always, I am hooked on more shows than I can count, but this year I have been even more hooked by the interesting taglines and lingo thrown around to attract viewers.

Being in the communications field, I understand how impactful just a few words can be. So, here is a short list of my favorite – and least favorite – network and television show taglines and promotional lingo:

Style Network

This ladies-only network now simply describes itself as “Before Meets After.” As a long-time fan of Joan Rivers on the Red Carpet and any makeover show, this tagline tells me everything I need to know about the network and reminds me of all the shows I love to watch on it after the hubby goes to bed. Tip – watch the Dish on the Style Network hosted by former child star Danielle Fischel.

Grade: Gold Star!

NEW Jay Leno Show

Admittedly, I can’t stand this guy. I found his show constantly stealing from other programming and always pandering to the lowest common denominator. However, I have to give props to his decade-plus of dominance in the late night talk show war. But, when I heard Leno attempting to sound edgy yet cute by promoting the show as “100 percent more comedy, 98 percent fewer murders,” I threw up in my mouth a little. Lame joke. Lame show.

Grade: Frowny face!

Fringe

Since the show is pure Sci-Fi and always compared to the X Files, it is only fitting it gets a SUPER cool tagline in the vein of the X Files classic “The Truth is Out There.” And it did by turning the common phrase “Endless Possibilities” on its Spock-loving ear and going with “New Cases. Endless Impossibilities.” Bring on the aliens, ghosts and time travel because I am hooked!

Grade: Gold star!

How I Met Your Mother

One of the only sitcoms with some MAJOR buzz behind it (after four years on air!), the season premiere teaser line of “ROBAR” to promote the pairing of fan favorites Robin and Barney is cringe-worthy. However, the implication that these two beloved characters are actually sticking with each other makes me want to do a happy dance

Grade: Frowny face half-covered by a giant gold star!

So, how would you rate the promotional concepts of your favorite shows – and even some new shows set to air? Comment below.

A swiftly-sparked debate

Wow – I didn’t even know the MTV Video Music Awards were still relevant, let alone hot enough to spark a national debate on the social media revolution!  As everyone has seen by now, Kanye West made a national fool of himself during Sunday’s live telecast of the awards by stealing the podium from first-time VMA winner – and 19-YEAR-OLD-GIRL – Taylor Swift to let her know she didn’t really deserve her moon man.

And as everyone has also seen, a reporter from ABC tweeted an off-the-record President Obama calling West a “jackass” for his actions, sparking a national debate on Twitter, social media policy, ethics and where we go from here.

My take?  The first thing I learned in my PR 101 class and again in introductory media trainings was that EVERYTHING is on the record.  And guess what?  Obama does too.  He knew what he said would get out, and he knows our country’s obsession with pop culture.  He cleverly made that “everyman” comment “off-the-record” knowing full well what he was doing.

And so did the reporter – but were her actions ethical?  By actions, I mean both the tweet AND her “agreement” to go off the record at all.

#journchat – How Michael Jordan Will Help Social Media

At last night’s #journchatphx, there was a buzz in the room about how to get clients and the community at large to accept – and engage – in social media. As a panelist, I chimed in that it will happen, but in an old-school way and mentioned that the king of “traditional” entertainment, branding, pitching – Michael Jordan – may be the answer. I then mentioned a recent Mashable article touting how Gatorade was going to use Jordan’s upcoming induction to the Professional Basketball Hall of Fame to make a statement in the social realm.

Sadly, I didn’t have the article handy at that moment – so here it is! 

As you see, Gatorade – who owes their entire brand identity to Jordan – is launching a Jordan nostalgia/greatest hits Facebook App that is already getting major international buzz.

So, fellow #journchat Tweeps – what do you think? Will using the greatest traditional pitchman of all time help the world embrace social media? Will it give us even more ammunition in our on-going conversations about social media to our bosses, clients and colleagues?

And now a word from a PRGN Partner…

This article appeared originally on proto.pl

Microblogs and PR

By Bartek Lewicki, Senior Account Manager, Multi Communications, PRGN POLAND

Late last year the owners of the American tourism portal TravMedia were thinking of ways to increase their brand’s recognizability, the number of unique visits and, most importantly, revenue, all on a limited budget. They were aided by the Boston-based Castle Group agency from the PRGN network. Their advice was simple: Twitter. A focused use of the micro-blog service as a marketing tool proved extremely useful, and helped increase the number of portal visitors by 150%. More importantly, revenues in the first five months of this year twice exceeded the budget prognosis.

There are many more such examples. Not surprisingly, the eyes of PR consultants in Poland are on Blip – the Polish equivalent of Twitter – a service which allows you to post messages of up to 160 characters. This amounts to a message about as long as the previous sentence. Can such short messages be useful in building effective and efficient communications? Opinions vary, not only among Polish PR specialists, but also their global counterparts.

No one doubts that micro-blogs are becoming a very important tool in the everyday work of communication specialists. Abbie Fink of HMA PR in Phoenix believes that Twitter will become a staple of most communication strategies developed by her agency, enabling them to directly involve consumers and journalists. “We use Twitter every day to communicate with the media. We use it to signal a story that we elaborate on by e-mail or over the phone.”

David Landis of LCI, San Francisco-based agency, emphasizes:  “I follow the media, and the media follow me. With Twitter I have a good sense of what journalists may be needing at a given moment and I do my best to provide it to them.” Landis believes that Twitter is an indispensable tool in everyday communications. “The way we access information is changing rapidly. As communications professionals we must speak where people are listening,” he says. As an example, he describes a project carried out for the San Francisco symphonic orchestra. “Twitter helped establish a loyal group of lovers and sponsors of the Orchestra, as well as fans of its conductor, Michael Tilson Thomas. With daily updates, music lovers became more attached to the orchestra.”

Twitter is also invaluable in crisis situations which require fast reactions and ongoing monitoring of the development of events. Patricia Pérez of VPE PR in Pasadena California says: We have been following Twitter on behalf of our clients and report on ongoing discussions, especially if they are negative. With the shrinking of traditional media, we have less opportunity to place our clients’ opinions. Twitter enables us to reach the public directly.” For Pérez it is also important that micro-blogs help her keep in touch with opinions on the client side, which is invaluable when cooperating with large corporations.

But not everyone is equally enthusiastic about micro-blogs and public relations. Mark Patterson of Australian-based Currie Communications believes Twitter can only serve as a source of information for monitoring potential crisis situations, and emphasizes that: “The majority of our receivers do not take this form of communications seriously. There is also insufficient proof that it can influence audience attitudes and behaviors. We find it hard to encourage our clients to invest in such activities.”

The TravMedia portal mentioned in the beginning of this article had no reservations about investing in communications via Twitter. Mark O’Toole from The Castle Group in Boston admits that the biggest challenge lied in establishing the initial group of people who would follow the company’s Twitter account. In the first month, the agency managed to attract several hundred people from a database of opinion leaders. This initiated a viral marketing campaign into social media. Less than six months later, the @TravMediaUSA address had over 3400 followers. This enabled the company to rank among the top 400 tourist portals (from among 20,000) in the Twellow ranking. The Twinfluence ranking placed this microblog in the top 15 000 – which is a success considering that Twitter has 10 million users. With Twitter, TravMedia reaches out to over 5 million people.

Uwe Schmidt from Hamburg-based IC AG believes that Twitter may be used to communicate with consumers, but it will not be successful in B2B communications. “In Germany this tool is still looking for its place in the PR professional’s toolbox. We are beginning to introduce it slowly in our services to selected clients, because it speeds up communications and provides support for classic PR” – he says.

Representatives of other agencies agree with his opinion. “Social media like Twitter are another communications tool, but they will never replace materials developed by professional journalists, who continue to prefer traditional ways of developing and verifying information” – believes David Landis.

Abbie Fink adds that this isn’t about replacing “traditional methods” but about applying different strategies that must be planned, tested and developed. “You cannot just open a Twitter account, make a bunch of entries and call it a strategy. You need to manage it like any other communications plan”, she emphasizes. “You need to remember the three basic premises: involvement, dialogue and fun.”

Poland’s most popular micro-blog – blip.pl – is approaching half a million user, but it is hard to find evidence of successful marketing campaigns in the medium. Rather, agencies are testing the capabilities of the new service and focusing on building a network of contacts, referred to as “observers”. Lively discussions are underway to integrate the public relations community.

Mariusz Pleban, president of Multi Communications admits he is interested in what goes on in Blip.pl. “I currently see two benefits for businesses that open accounts in Blip. Firstly there is the opportunity to talk directly to the consumer, which translates into the second benefit – imagebuilding. However, there are no tools to precisely verify effectiveness, which chills our enthusiasm somewhat. Fortunately, we have access to the experiences of our global colleagues associated in the Public Relations Global Network. Their experiences with Twitter have been very valuable for us”

The benefits of twittering and PR are there for… Twitter itself. The monthly value of its advertising equivalent is around $48 million.  Hard to believe? Not if you got 2.73 billion quotes over several months in CNN, Fox News and the press all over the world.

Independent of whether the PR industry has fully embraced the possibilities offered by micro-blogs, the phenomenon of Twitter and similar service is undeniable and cannot be ignored. Agencies which come up with the right idea and persevere in including social media (micro-blogs in particular) into their communications strategies, will be successful.

The PR agencies and firms quoted above are part of Public Relations Global Network associating 40 independent agencies operating on 80 international markets.

Branding is making me fat!

So, I have gained weight since my December 2008 wedding…and it is all marketing and PR’s fault!

Oh, you heard me fellow communications professionals. You and I have systematically worked together to make me fat.

This realization came upon me yesterday while at the grocery store. As always, I ignored all of the “junk” food like Hostess cupcakes, Nabisco Oreos and Hershey’s Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. After all, it has been drilled in my head over the past two decades never to buy that kind of food for the home if you wanted to maintain your weight.

So, what did I buy?

• 100 calorie packs of Hostess Twinkie Bites
• 100 calorie packs of Nabisco Oreos and Chip’s Ahoy
• 100 calorie packs of Reese’s Snacksters

It seems as long as my favorite junk food is labeled with the number “100,” I somehow think it is okay to eat. And why do I think that?

Brilliant PR and marketing people.

Sheesh. Through clever packaging, award wins as healthy snacks, and several news articles, my own people actually convinced me Twinkies were now okay to eat.

Well, my hat is off to all of the hard-working communications folks involved in launching these products. My waistline hates you, but your strategy is certainly working. Keep up the good work – I think.

 

Jackson Public Relations Machine

While you were busy on Twitter this past month, you may have missed this…

Turns out, it’s1984 again (cue vision of creepy George Orwell book we all had to read in high school), and the positive Michael Jackson public relations is flowing like beer at an after-prom party.

So, let’s take a look at the Michael Jackson public relations plan over the past few weeks, and its amazing time-warping, memory-erasing powers! 

• First – the tributes (and tears), meant to systematically erase 2009 Michael Jackson from our minds and replace him with cute Jackson 5 Michael and top-of-the-world Thriller Michael. Impressive. Hey, when we PR folks pitch a story to TV, we only use our best visuals. So did they!
• Second – the memorial, where everyone and their mother used the key messaging of “greatest entertainer of all time” until my ears bled. By the time Jesse Jackson said it, our own 12 News’ Mark Curtis was working on a story about it! Hey, when PR folks put together key messaging for a campaign or brand, they can only dream of that kind of success!
• Third – the video of poor victim Michael being burned by a misfortunate pyrotechnic accident. As we all know from journalism class, once there is no longer hard news to deliver on a news topic, we move on to secondary/background/fluff pieces. These PR folks are smart; using a video of Michael victimized to forget he was accused of victimizing others!
• Fourth – complete and utter world domination! If the PR folks’ campaign goal was to re-ignite Michael’s popularity by 100%, they exceeded it by about 10 million percent! His albums are at the top of the charts, his kids are superstars, and there are already talks to turn Neverland Ranch (formerly known as a creepy amusement park with a secret room designed as a shrine to Macaulay Culkin) into a West Coast Graceland.

But, at what cost?

So, what have been your favorite public relations strategies and tactics during this sad circus?

Judging by the new photos and reports of Jackson’s hideously damaged legs, the best (actually – the worst) seems like it is yet to come.

Agencies and Indies

Over the past several weeks I have had numerous conversations about what is happening in the public relations agency world.  Of course, the usual topics of billable hours, responding to RFPs, doing more with less are common themes.  But an emerging conversation is about the independent practitioner – smart communications professionals who have taken the plunge and decided to do this on their own.

I applaud them – running a business is challenging, and in today’s economy … well, who knows what to call it.  What I do know, is that there are plenty of business opportunities for both the indies and the agencies.  And if we’re thinking creatively, we will figure out a way to work together.  Certainly there is business out there that comes to a firm that might be better served by a sole practitioner.  Conversely, I would guess that the indies are finding new business leads that might need a little more staffing than what they can provide on their own.

So I offer this challenge to all of us – agencies and indies – let’s help each other out.  I’d love to know what types of work you like to do, what client industries you specialize in, what are your billable rates, etc.  I’m happy to share that with you as well.  Just think about the possibilities.

Howard Stern on Public Relations

This morning on the Howard Stern Show on Sirius XM Satellite Radio, Stern’s news correspondent Lisa G came into the studio with a big announcement – Rosie O’Donnell was joining Sirius XM with a new program set to air on the Sirius Stars channel.

Now, this is interesting for several reasons:

• Stern and O’Donnell ended a decade-long and very public feud about two years ago, and even became personal friends after Stern voiced his on-going support of gay marriage and O’Donnell’s popular family cruise documentary that aired on HBO.
• In recent years, Stern interviewed O’Donnell on his channels to help champion gay rights and to give her the chance to tell her side of the story in her many on-going Hollywood fights, including issues with both Barbara Walters and Donald Trump (both good personal friends of Stern – so much so that both attended his 2008 wedding).
• Stern pitched Sirius XM executives on having O’Donnell develop a program or series of programs for his channels – Howard 100 and Howard 101 – for the past year, even going so far as to personally tour O’Donnell around and introduce her to all of the movers and shakers within the company.
• The new O’Donnell program – as Stern found out live on the air this morning – would have nothing to do with either of Stern’s channels, and the Sirius XM executives basically went behind his back to develop a deal with O’Donnell without him.

Now, Stern – who has one of the biggest inferiority complexes one has ever seen even after a decade of seeing a psychiatrist three-plus times a week – reacted to this news by going on a rant off and on all morning – not mad at O’Donnell, but at the executives at Sirius XM for taking his idea and developing it for a non-Stern channel. He was also angry he was not part of at least a brainstorming session to announce the big news. You see, since he was the face of the company, the executives often included him in this sort of thing and always requested he interview new Sirius talent on his program to introduce his audience (anywhere from 60-80% of the 20 million subscribers depending on the day) to the new programming opportunity on their radio.

But I digress. This blog is actually (or eventually) all about public relations.

You see, in the midst of his fit, Stern took the promotion department to task for their utter and complete lack of a comprehensive and strategic public relations plan to announce O’Donnell’s new program. After all, in the 1990s O’Donnell hosted the top-rated afternoon talk show in the country and currently had legions of fans in the gay and lesbian community. Wouldn’t it make sense to think through the best way to announce O’Donnell’s new program and then create a campaign to reveal it to the world?

Nope. As it turns out, Stern’s producer reported, the head of promotions was off on vacation and no plan was in place before he left. So, Stern challenged the promotion department, “With Lisa G announcing the big news on Sirius XM – how would that attract NEW users to Sirius XM?”

How would it help get the word out in a controlled, strategic way to the media at large, he wondered aloud. It wouldn’t.

Stern then did something this public relations practitioner loved – he unveiled how he would have handled the media outreach to announce O’Donnell’s partnership with Sirius and had some Copper Anvil-worthy strategic and tactical ideas including:

• Stern himself going on the David Letterman Show and coming out with O’Donnell on his arm for a dual interview with Letterman about the big announcement
• A dual publicity tour with Stern and O’Donnell hitting all of the major newspapers in the country
• A dual publicity tour with Stern O’Donnell hitting all of the major gay and lesbian media in the country
• A series of tweets, press releases and media advisories teasing the big announcement and then a grand press conference at Sirius XM with O’Donnell
• A cover story in People Magazine or another pop culture magazine announcing the new partnership

Now, love him or hate him, Stern has always been a master at getting attention. Turns out, every outrageous thing he’s ever done for that attention had a public relations plan behind it.

Oh, and my favorite part of his rant? When he sarcastically told the audience how great it was that now Sirius XM would spend a ton of money on advertising O’Donnell’s new program rather than planning ahead and taking advantage of the enormous amount of press a little public relations planning would yield.