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October 28, 2005
Blogs Attack
Want some spit and fire? Anger the blogerati. That’s what Forbes did today (requires free registration) by proclaiming that “Web logs are the prized platform of an online lynch mob spouting liberty but spewing lies, libel and invective.”
Well, sure, there are those who spew invectives and flat-out baloney. And author Daniel Lyons is right to report that blogs can be a big threat to brands. That’s true. But what really has the greater blog community roiling is the bald-faced dismissal of the entire channel as intellectual arsonists.
Disclaimer: I’m writing in a blog, therefore I’m pro-blog. End of disclaimer.
Lighten up, Daniel. Bashing companies isn’t the exclusive property of bloggers. Before the blog, it was email. Before email, it was Usenet newsgroups. And outside the techno-sphere, you can bash a company in a bunch of ways that will garner attention.
The impact on our industry is that as we work on behalf of our clients, we have to be more diligent in our efforts to stay current on trends and issues impacting them, their competitors, their industry and their key influencers. It shouldn’t matter if the hate mail comes in the mailbox or the inbox.
So let’s not get hung up on channel. Let’s worry about what’s behind the diatribe, and let’s work with our clients to protect their reputations.
What’s Daniel going to think about word-of-mouth?
Posted by Rich Sharp at 2:14 PM | Comments (0)
October 27, 2005
Think Blogs Aren't Affecting Your Industry Yet?
Earlier this week I facilitated a media tour for our long-time client Rockwell Automation http://www.rockwellautomation.com with some of the leading trade publications in the manufacturing industry. Now one might think that editors covering something like industrial automation might be a little bit "old school." Don't be fooled. These are some seriously smart people who understand the journalistic process and aren't afraid to ask the pointed question. And they're blogging...
First, let's get one thing clear -- if your idea of manufacturing is a bunch of unskilled workers screwing lug nuts onto cars on an endless assembly line, it's time for an update. Today's manufacturing facilities are incredibly sophisticated, with highly skilled and trained workers more likely to be making critical decisions based on computer technology than turning wrenches and driving forklifts.
But I digress. Dial back five years and a meeting with one of these reporters would have likely resulted in coverage of some type 4-6 weeks later in the print publication. Fast-forward a couple of years and most publishers added Web sites, but typically with the same content as in the print version.
Not this time. The day after our meetings, I was greeted with two postings on my blog search tool -- one from Walt Boyes at Control Magazine and another from Gary Mintchell at Automation World. Cool! Instant gratification! But wait a minute -- these weren't the genteel, polite stories that I was used to reading in the hard copy and Web versions of their publications. These were some seriously opinionated postings - letting us know what was REALLY on their minds. It's not that they were overtly negative -- they just had the types of opinions that are usually only uncovered after plying an editor with a few glasses of wine at the end of a long day of trade show duty And you know what? I really enjoyed reading them.
So we now have a new dimension -- in addition to the hard copy and the "official" Web version of a publication, we have the independent opinions of the reporters themselves -- posted on their own blogs unaffiliated with their publishers. This should give companies entirely new insights into what reporters and editors REALLY think. And if these postings are popping up in the manufacturing industry, chances are they're popping up in yours as well...
Now we'll just have to see if anyone reads them!
Posted by Matt Kucharski at 7:39 PM | Comments (0)
October 13, 2005
Creativity is like chili
A primary benefit of our Lumin collaborative is shared knowledge: whippersnappers like me get to season our thinking with the hickory-cured wisdom of pros like Patrice Tanaka of PT&Co. We just had an online lesson from her on Creativity in Public Relations. In the session, she mentioned holding multiple brainstorm meetings until you come up with that breakthrough idea.
[sound of record needle ripping across vinyl] Multiple brainstorms?
When do we ever get the luxury of multiple brainstorms? Or . . . I mean . . . struggle that much?
. . . And then a Grinch attack . . . my heart grows three sizes this day . . . . Maybe brilliance doesn't happen in one meeting.
Maybe it's like chili. Good the first day, but better the day after, and even better the day after that.
Too often, we expect creativity to happen in a single session. The team gets briefed on the spot and we try to blanch the ideas out of everyone's brains before we lose them to another meeting. And when we're done spanking the last drops out of the coffee pot, we better see some brilliance! More meetings means impending failure and we go back to the drawing (and quartering) board or bring in a fresh team of Thoreau-bred geniuses. And we're betting they're faster!
Somewhere, a VP stews . . .
I like this slow cook approach. Hereafter, our process forever should include:
* Ingredients-gathering (background and research)
* The soak (the team is briefed and then we let it seep into our beans for a day or so, showers are encouraged, etc.)
* Let's cook! (quick-fire brainstorm for rapid boil and extraction of top-level ideas; heat 'em up; move 'em out!)
* Simmer break (we go away, a summary is distributed and reviewed, we play with the kids and our spouses, sleep, listen to Stevie Ray, etc.)
* Back for seconds (next day, we savor the goodness that we created and coax out new combinations and subtle nuances)
* Heat and repeat (we do it again till we're satisfied and we're fired up that we've got some truly gut-seeking ideas)
[roll guitar music: Texas shuffle]
Or maybe creativity is like beer . . .
Bob Brin
Posted by Bob Brin at 4:26 PM | Comments (0)
October 11, 2005
Another sign of the impending you-know-what
David Carr of The New York Times writes: "Putting print on the grid is a necessity, because the grid is where America lives. But what the newspaper industry really needs is an iPod moment." And fast.
Posted by Rich Sharp at 3:36 PM | Comments (0)
Minneapolis Star Tribune Redesign
Newspapers face an uncertain future. Circulation is down. Jobs are evaporating. Readers are disappearing. Yet profits for some, including the Minneapolis Star Tribune, are up. Go figure. Newspapers ran fat for years. But pulling cost out of production, cutting back on pages and increasing ad rates and subscription fees are ways newspapers such at the “Strib” have been able to survive.
Now comes the paper’s redesign. Before I proceed, I must disclose that I have a journalism degree and have been a reporter and freelance writer. I still can smell the ink from the press room of the International Falls Daily Journal, which sat directly behind the newsroom. I love newspapers.
But I fear for their survival.
The redesign is a step in the right direction. Newspapers must evolve or they will die. Most importantly, they need to grow and sustain relevance in the lives of people much younger that me.
I think of my preschoolers and wonder if they’ll get ink on their fingers in 20 years. How relevant will print be in 2025? How relevant will it be in 2010?
Newspapers have become one of many channels through which we receive news. I read more news online than I do in print, and I read almost as much news on my cell phone as I do in print. I monitor at least 25 marketing/pr/advertising/business blogs to get news the Strib doesn’t report. And I try to catch at least one 10 p.m. newscast every night. Oh, and I listen to Minnesota Public Radio on my way to work.
The redesign is meant to help the Strib cement relevance in our lives as a newspaper for the future. Let’s hope the effort succeeds. Or, at minimum, let’s hope the Strib cements its relevance in our lives as a news source for the future, whether it’s print or not.
Posted by Rich Sharp at 9:54 AM | Comments (0)
Ever Been Mailed a Frozen Potato?
In the never-ending quest to get attention in this age of information overload, we've been on the receiving end (and yeah, sometimes giving end) of some really "out there" mailers. Lots of them are really clever. Some of them not so much.
I was reminded of this by PSB's Sarah Voigt, who told me her husband (an IT manager) was mailed a damaged hard drive by a storage company a reminder that it's bad for employees to store valuable information on their desktops. Fine on the surface, but not exactly an item that you'd like to keep on your desk, and tossing them in the garbage is no longer an option due to environmental issues. Can't you just picture the conversation?
"Hey, Bert. We've got about 100 damaged hard drives from some old PCs. What should we do with them?"
"I know, let's send them up to Marketing. They might want to ship them off to customers."
Let's use this posting as a way to list "winners and sinners" on the interruptive mailer front. If you have one to add, we'll post it in the "comments" section (company names will be withheld to protect the stupid.) Here are a couple to get us started.
Winners:
- An annual "Halloween figurine" mailed to us by one of our design firm partners. One year it was a little wind-up witch. Another year it was a glow-in-the-dark skeleton. They're festive, slightly creepy in a Tim Burton sort of way, and fun to have sitting around.
- The "War by the Lakeshore" -- a mailing tied to the annual Housewares Show in Chicago for 3M's Scotch-Brite "Never-Rust" wool soap pads that featured a miniature boxing ring with a frying pan in the center, and 3M's nifty product "facing off" against the gross rusty old steel wool option.
Sinners:
- The press kit with the potato. One company that was touting a food product with potatoes in it decided to send a potato in a press kit. Problem was, it was the dead of winter, and the potato froze. Ever see a frozen potato? It gets kind of green and slimy.
- A box with a helium balloon inside that, when you opened the top of the box, the balloon would float into the air and the message attached to the bottom would be there for you to read. Two problems. First, in cold weather, the balloon would lose pressure and lie limp at the bottom of the box. Second, in warmer weather, the balloon would get stuck on the ceiling.
Looking forward to your stories...
Posted by Matt Kucharski at 7:42 AM | Comments (0)
October 3, 2005
Hail The Onion
If you’re a man, you know that shaving your face with a razor is a potential trip to the emergency room (or the plastic surgeon). Every morning. So when Gillette announced in a news release that it was escalating the shaving wars by going to five blades, a little bell rang my head. I knew I’d read that news somewhere before.
Then I remembered: I read it in The Onion. Almost 18 months ago.
Since this is a family-friendly blog, we can’t share the actual headline from the satirical tabloid’s piece “penned” by James M. Kilts Gillette chairman, CEO and president. But it goes something like this:
*!@# Everything, We’re Doing Five Blades
Man, I love The Onion. Now let’s play a little game. Guess which Kilts quote is real, and which is from The Onion:
Quote 1: “It’s the future of shaving.”
Quote 2: “It’s a whole new way to think about shaving.”
Tricky, eh? Both lines ooze corporate-speak. Ah, but it’s the context that reveals the true Kilts, er, corporate communicators.
From The Onion:
Stop. I just had a stroke of genius. Are you ready? Open your mouth, baby birds, cause Mama’s about to drop you one sweet, fat nightcrawler. Here she comes: Put another aloe strip on that *!@#*!, too. That’s right. Five blades, two strips, and make the second one lather. You heard me – the second strip lathers. It’s a whole new way to think about shaving. Don’t question it. Don’t say a word. Just key the music, and call the chorus girls, because we’re on the edge – the razor’s edge – and I feel like dancing.
From the Gillette news release:
“Gillette Fusion is more than just a next generation shaving brand, it’s the future of shaving,” said James M. Kilts, Chairman, President and CEO, The Gillette Company. “Gillette Fusion extends our rich history of innovation. It’s a breakthrough platform that will continue to drive our category leadership.”
(cue yawn) The point of this comparison is to show that sometimes, in the never-ending quest to increase shareholder value, corporate communications loses its creative nerve. “Breakthrough?” “Next generation?” Where’s Harry Frankfurt when you need him?.
At least with words like @!#*!, you know where you stand.
Posted by Rich Sharp at 2:00 PM | Comments (0)
October 2, 2005
Salsa Outsells Ketchup and other reasons you should have paid attention in Spanish class
To add some hot sauce to our thinking, Hispanic-market-focused PR firm Conexión just joined our Lumin collaborative. They note that, while Hispanic-directed media is rapidly growing in importance (Univision ranks fifth of all TV networks with a full prime schedule), it's often mishandled or overlooked.
Since the Hispanic media doesn't yet have the advertising sway of the mainstream media, Conexión says there's a opportunity to get greater value for advertising and PR budgets. However, reaching these outlets is trickier than just translating your press releases and ads. The market is complex, with varying dialects and demographics.
It's younger too. Last time the Census folks came knocking, the largest segment of the population was 5-9 year-olds. Those kids are now pre-teen and teenagers. A little salsa with those fries?
Bob Brin
Posted by Bob Brin at 7:54 PM | Comments (0)
October 1, 2005
Achtung Baby
According to an article in Friday's USA Today, several publishers in Germany have kicked off a four-month, $36 million advertising campaign designed to "lift German spirits." http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-09-29-german-pride_x.htm.
What's next? A campaign to increase passion among Swiss? Improve organizational skills in Italians? How about raising the humility level of Americans?
Apparently the campaign includes an emotional (sic) two-minute TV ad featuring celebrities such as Katarina Witt and the theme song from the movie Forrest Gump. Don't know about you, but my mood has improved already.
The campaign is being bootstrapped by publishing giant Bertelsmann and 23 other companies, including newspaper Der Spiegel and broadcaster RTL Germany. The thinking is that, even though this is a country with a jobless rate above 10 percent, economic growth of less than 1 percent per year, and a huge defection of jobs to Eastern Europe, India and China, an ad campaign featuring an Olympic skater from a decade ago and an obscure song from the Baby Boom generation is just the ticket to improve the moods of an inherently cynical German populace. I have several good friends in Germany, and I honestly can't tell when they ARE in a good mood!
Setting aside the fact that this is a wholly unmeasurable campaign in the age of metrics, somebody thought this was a good use of $36 million. If we're really honest with each other, we'll admit that we see companies making dumb decisions like this every day. Rather than address the fundamental business problems facing their organizations -- deficient products, an ill-equipped sales force, poor relationships with suppliers, a focus on profitability to the detriment of long-term sustainability -- these companies will assume that a good ad campaign will smooth over all of those rough edges.
The fundamental truth of marketing -- managing product, price, place and promotion -- doesn't change -- you can't compensate for deficiencies in the first three with the fourth. At least not over the long term.
So if you're expecting a flashy ad campaign to fix all of your business problems, I have only two words for you.
Achtung, Baby...
Posted by Matt Kucharski at 7:32 AM | Comments (0)
