Communications

Quotes for the week ending 16 November, 2007

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

“It acted as a steroid for our rebranding and exceeded our expectations.”

Wendy Clark, VP of advertising for AT&T, speaking of the iPhone at the Association of National Advertisers conference.

“That’s an excellent question”

John McCain’s response to a question from a woman in the audience who asked him “How do we beat the bitch?” referring to Senator Hillary Clinton.

“by facing the targeting and ad creation outward, Facebook has put the responsibility of correctly creating and targeting Social Ads in the hands of the many.

Joe Marchese, President of Archetypal Spin, in MediaPost’s Online Spin, commenting on Facebook‘s announcement this week.

“We’re teaching people better communication skills around touch and social affection … We hope to make the world a more cuddly and intimate place.”

Reid Mihalko, creator of the trademarked Cuddle Parties, a social trend that debuts in Phoenix on November 20th. The story broke in The State Press this week.

“I think that people who don’t think Facebook is extremely creepy lack any kind of foresight whatsoever.”

Someone going by the name of AJ, responding to David Berkowitz‘ experiment targeting a Facebook group around Orwell’s “1984.”

“It’s like we’re at that junction in the early 20th century when you had your pick of electric, steam, or gasoline-powered cars, and the steering wheel might be on the right or left side”

BusinessWeek cover story on iTV, or Internet TV, and why it’s not quite ready for prime time.

Employees not on the same page? This could help.

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There was a Towers Perrin study that flies in the face of what we believe all our fancy digital communications could do for getting everyone up to speed, and on the same page.

It states that there were significantly more disengaged employees in the workplace than those who were engaged. The big problem of course is communications –or the lack thereof of senior Management communicating to employees what was going on in the organization. They call it the “engagement gap” and it’s closely tied to employee performance.

What does that mean for communicators? I could come up with three ways to bridge the gap:

1. Invite employees to the party. Involve them before and during the implementation of a new strategy –not after. This could be done by conducting surveys regularly, not only when “issues’ come up.

2. Be transparent. Be very clear as to the objectives of the marketing or media campaign. Never try to spin the concept, because guess what? Employees are much smarter than corporate marketing gives them credit for.

3. Make them your evangelists. Assign them roles in the communication process. This may seem obvious, but how often have you seen employees described as “target audiences?” Maybe you want to get the message across to them, but they’re not targets. They’re nodes and channels.

For an expanded discussion of this check Melcrum’s InternalCommsHub.

Getting amateurs to collaborate like pros

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Take 140 agency people and corporate communicators, throw them into a pit, and you can make music!

That’s what Simply Communicate did last week at the Barbican in London. With just 90 minutes of practice, they went live.

A lesson in collaboration? In a time when people have become very defensive about their expertise, the metaphor of the orchestra and the potential for an ad hoc ensemble to work as a team and produce music on the fly, is something communicators need to think about.

Airline-speak from Singapore Airlines

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This blog covers the difference between sterile corporate-speak and the language of ordinary people, even in the line of work. I came across this example of Singapore Airlines speaking in, shall we say, code.

“All we ask of customers, wherever they are on our aircraft, is to observe standards that don’t cause offence to other customers and crew.”

What they were talking about was the policy regarding the use of double beds abroad the new aircraft. The A380 has 12 first-class suites that are not completely sound proofed. For an airline that lets flight attendants walk around in a sarong, all it had to say was something along the lines of “no sex please in our cabins.”

Quotes of the week ending 11/03/07

/ Angelo Fernando / 1 Comment

“If Fox demands control, presidential debates don’t need Fox. It is time that the presidential candidates from both parties stand with Senator McCain and defend his right to use this clip to advance his presidential campaign.”

Larry Lessig, commenting on Fox’s demanding that John McCain cease and desist using of a clip from a TV debate that carries the Fox logo.

“We would have pretty serious concerns about a government-run blacklist that affects the online advertising industry.”

Trevor Hughes, of the Network Advertising Initiative, commenting on the suggestion that the FTC to create a “do not track” list to prevent behavioral targeting.

“The choking, over heated, gaseous hot air suffocates. There definitely appears to be a growing backlash against these spineless PR’s from journalists who’ve simply had enough.”

Mark Borkowski, commenting on Chris Adderson’s move to publish the names of “lazy” PR flacks who spam him irrelevant pitches.

“He has a star quality … He can say ‘me and my colleagues actually invented the Internet and here’s how it works.’ “

Paul Twomey. Chief of ICANN, on the resignation this week of of Vint Cerf, who had joined the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers.

“There’s enough education that people should know better, and we all have media databases. It’s laziness versus strategic.”

Jeremy Pepper, adding to comments from the blogosphere on Chris Anderson’s controversial move –above– with practical tips on Social Media 101.

“No press releases, no media briefings, just quietly get the blog up. What we might, in traditional-speak, call a ’soft launch.’ “

Neville Hobson, on Dell’s launching a new investor relations blog called Dell Shares. The news was exclusively announced on FIR, the Hobson & Holtz podcast, embargoed until November 1st.

Flight attendants on Southwest are never “on message.” That’s a good thing.

/ Angelo Fernando / 1 Comment

No matter what I have said about Southwest Airlines, I have to hand it to their flight attendants for not indulging in corporate-speak. Nor communications guide in their back pocket. No tact, even. At least they don’t talk as if someone gave them a work off a template.

Carole Adams shares this exchange (and many others) in Nuts About Southwest:

Passenger: Do I have to sit in the middle seat? (Last available seat)
Adams: When you’re the last one to the dinner table for Sunday dinner, you don’t get the best piece of chicken.

Now, if marketing had to craft that exchange,it would have been something like:

“Company policy on free seating allows passengers to adopt boarding strategies that ensure they get the seating most compatible with their desired flying experience.”

And the legal department?

“The rights of a legitimate ticket holder on any of the 3,300 domestic and international flights a day, permits passenger or a nominated agent to request in advance, with no obligation or bias, a boarding pass that provides an aisle or window seat in accordance with FAA regulations and marketing policy. For further clarification, please see our marketing response – above.”

Adams wins, hands down.

San Diego station leverages social media in crisis

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Image from KPBS Flickr siteSan Diego broadcaster KPBS, an NPR affiliate and service of the San Diego State University covered the fires in a way that most local stations would –with updates, lists of evacuation sites, safety tips etc.

But it has also embraced social media in a big way. Its stories have links to Delicious and Digg, a Flickr account inviting residents to upload images, and has a Google map embedded with icons to tell residents the status of the fire, and where to locate an evacuation center or animal shelter. For those inclined, there’s also a Twitter feed providing regular updates.

If you’ve ever been temporarily displaced, you’ll know that a phone line becomes a lifeline. Hence the value of Twitter, proving to be an incredible on-demand, up to the minute channel for situations such as this. On Saturday for instance, at 10.01 am, a “tweet” went out to announce that:

” The community of Deerhorn Valley has been reopened to residents only. Residents must enter from the west side of Hwy.”

The station also began using a free wiki from PBWiki that is a quick and easy way to assemble timely information, and allow the community to contribute or update. PBWiki responded by throwing in two free weeks of its Platinum service to KPBS.

Quotes for the week 10/27/07

/ Angelo Fernando / 2 Comments

“Stunts such as this will not be tolerated or repeated.”

Homeland Security spokeswoman Laura Keehner, commenting on FEMA‘s fake News Conference on the California fires on Tuesday 23rd Oct, where federal agency employees played the role of reporters asking questions of their boss.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m a little burnt on just being a “PR guy.” There’s so much more to what we do, so why not work on the PR for the PR and actually improve things.”

Brian Solis on the “new rules” of PR and why Robert Scoble should be a PR guy.

“10Questions is a great opportunity for anyone who wants to hasten the end of the age of soundbite TV politics and start the era of community conversation.”

From a post in OffTheBus, a crowdsourcing experiment in political campaign reporting by NewAssignment.Net and HuffPost.

“The connected consumer. There are four major driving forces: Digitization, Convergence, Media Snacking and Social Networking.”

Duncan Wardle, VP Global & WDW Public Relations, speaking at PRSA’s International conference on 22 October, 2007.

“My hope is that this tried and tested ‘disinfectant’ can help restore some of the luster to the reputation of the USA here at home and among our friends throughout the world.”

Visitor’s comment left at the State Department blog, Dipnote, that just started this week.

“Bring a technology solution to a technology-induced problem … Can you hear me now?”

Dan Wool, at ValleyPRBlog, suggesting that mobile phones come equipped with a ‘drive mode’ that sends callers and texters an automatic response to know that you are driving and cannot be distracted .

Quotes from the week – 10/19/07

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“It’s been the mother of train wreck PR campaigns.”

Elaine Lui, a correspondent for CTV, commenting on Britney’s fall from grace with her single “Gimme More.”

“Some day we will be at a fire or a car accident and we will be called upon to put the camera down and help.”

John Long, Ethics Co-Chair and Past President of the National Press Photographers Association, commenting on an incident in New York’s Times Square where an employee of MediaVest (a brand building agency) was photographed waking around with just one sock.

“It is, we fear, the authorities’ belief that what you are about to read here is against the law to publish.”

Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin, commenting on the subpoena of all articles from the Phoenix New Times related to Sheriff Joe Arpaio from January 2004 to present.

“It is nothing short of embarrassing that as we try to sell Phoenix as a progressive city coming into its own we are locked in a cartoon vision of the old west where the Sheriff runs the town.”

Amanda Blum, commenting on a post in ValleyPRBlog, about the arrest of Phoenix New Times owners for publishing a story about a subpoena demanding information about online readers.

“Actually you won.”

Brian Lusk, Manager of Customer Communication, on Nuts about Southwest blog’s winning Best Blog in the Blog category at PRNews 2007 Platinum PR Awards. Nuts even beat OgilvyPR’s Lenovo blog, and Yahoo.

“That subpoena is grossly, shockingly, breathtakingly overbroad.”

James Weinstein, a professor at ASU’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, commenting on the Phoenix New Times case.

“Every day I’m seeing more and more Social Media tailors peddling invisible clothes.”

Paul Dyer, Principal/Founder of NewMediAwake, on his blog Dyersituations.