Ragan is holding a Tele-seminar on Blogs for PR people who aren’t sure what the excitement is all about –and how to use a blog.

I know most bloggers will say this is a bit late in the day! But hey, it’s never too late to learn. Something to watch out for when ‘pitching bloggers’ –one topic up for discussion: don’t do it unless you have been around blogspace.

PRSA has also jumped in stating, on its site that pitching bloggers is tricky business. They note that “bloggers are extremely idiosyncratic in choice of subject matter and slant,” but that they must be considered “a new medium.”

Says Joel Johnson, in this article in PR Week about pitching to his gadget blog, Gizmodo, “If you want to get your product noticed, take sixty seconds and write a real email. Don’t be pushy…”

I am interested in hearing from category-specific bloggers if they would entertain being pitched to. Email me and let me know.

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Relevance, Differentiation. Esteem. Knowledge. We’ve heard these words strung together before by brand strategists. But this time it’s defining something else entirely, at least for Burger King, the once-big brand in burgerland. Russ Klein, its chief marketing officer wants the marketing to run with all four engines firing. But he observed in an interview that ‘customization’ and ‘empowerment’

It’s against this backdrop that we must judge the very odd Subservient chicken ad, and the latest, a nipple-ring expose, that rides on the controversy surrounding Janet’s infamous ‘wardrobe malfunction.’

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By now you’ve heard all of the abuse of Iraqi POWs in Abu Ghraib prison, and seen the stark images in print and on TV.

These horrific images fly in the face of so much PR that the U.S. undertook post September 11th, 2001. Remember the famous ‘Shared Values Initiative’ crafted by Madison Avenue’s own Charlotte Beers, to combat the bad press in the Arab and Muslim world.

I checked the ‘Open Dialogue’ Web site that supplemented this effort and found that it has not been updated since Ramadan 2002!

Is someone asleep at the switch?

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I have been often asked about whether blogs will change or revolutionize journalism. I have ambivalent feelings about this, because I love the feel of a newspaper or magazine, and don’t want them to go away.

However, it’s hard to ignore the fact that the many-to-one form of communication is taking a hit in all areas. Advertising, PR, political campaigns. Consider this statement, that’s not from some slick e-commerce research unit in the US:

“Every citizen’s a reporter. Journalists aren’t some exotic species, they’re everyone who seeks to take new developments, put them into writing, and share them with others.”

It’s from a new media outfit in South Korea, called Ohmynews, based on the belief that that ‘citizen reporters’ have more information to share than ‘privileged reporters.’
Click on the link that says ‘English’ on the top left.

OhMyNews is not a blog, but is based on that same principle of a medium in which many can participate.

The New York Times reported that the site gets some 14 million hits a day. This translates into about nearly a third of the S. Korean population.

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Do we know where advertising headed?
If you read Sergio Zyman’s book (in 1999), and Al Reis similar treatise in 2002, it was heading for the exit.

But here’s a more tangible way of looking at the future of advertising. The magazine business lost 21% of its ad pages in 2001 and 2002. It remained flat in 2003, and seems to have declined by 2.3% in the first quarter this year.

Companies are rushing to produce the viral ads, distributed –for free—via the Net. Not just a subservient chicken or the BMW car chase ads, but American express, and Toyota. Toyota’s viral ad spend is worth $10 million! Mazda, has asked JWT to create a Web-only ad, and spread it virally through Brit-based viaral and buzz marketing agency, DMC.

Then there is the new use of outdoor ads –as in live billboards. Check this story about the use of an interactive billboard in New York’s Times Square. Must have a cell phone to play!

While you’re at it, check this Adidas use of a ‘live billboard’ format in Tokyo.

What’s going on here? Could it be that we are coming to the realization that “there is no mass in mass media?” (Can you guess who made this Toffler-esque remark recently?)

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I’m always looking out for brand makeovers. This week’s Advertising Age (April 26th issue) noted that the artist formerly known as the x-rated one, now appeals to a wide spectrum ‘from hardcore adult families to suburban mums’ as they put it.

Maybe the one-time shocker is trying to brand himself with the only shock tactic left –being squeaky clean!

In other shock tactics, Bob Dylan is featured in a Victoria’s Secret TV commercial.

How many people brands can you think of, who have had a drastic makeover? Let’s think wide, outside of the usual pop culture names.

How about Muammar Gadafi? Check his Web site.

Martha Stewart has some ways to go. But check her MarthaTalks site which tales on the legal problem, head on.

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I’m working on an article about branding through experience. This may not seem like a new idea, but interacting with my colleagues in advertising, I know ad agencies still spend an inordinate amount of time on branding as a media exercise, rather than a people exercise.

I know of many examples from Virgin Atlantic to Southwest Airlines where the ads are not the major part of the branding. But I just came across this example I thought you brand-concerned readers would find fascinating.

It’s a cheap product that’s priced less than a cup of coffee. (So it’s not in the Starbucks league, even though that brings up an interesting sidebar on brand experience.) There is no celebrity association and no connection with sports. Or racing. Or Hollywood. Yet, it’s probably the first name you’d associate with when you hear ‘instant noodles.’

That’s right, it’s Raumen noodles! No, that’s not a typo. (Check the site here for the original spelling)

As for the ‘experience’ check this AP story. It’s about how people stand in line for over an hour to get into the Shidome Ramen restaurant, in Tokyo, where a chef dramatizes the noodle preparation in front of an ‘audience.’

As for Virgin, I like how the ads play on the experience. Check the card-insert in Business2.0 designed to look like the passenger instruction card in the seat pocket. It’s a warning to Upper Class passengers recommending they not host pajama parties in the new, spacious sleep deck. You can hardly call this an ‘ad!’ Take a look at the sleeping section here! If I flew Upper Class, I’ll want to party too!

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Blogging is still a huge question mark hanging over us. Many communicators are skeptical about all this ‘chatter’ that’s going on, so different from the speechifying we see –and work into– Web sites and press releases.

My position is that Blogging is the Web 2.0 with those at the periphery, rather than the status quo, taking control of Communications. The people have spoken, and we better listen up. They may not be the ones with MBAs and marketing-communication degrees, but they have stronger opinions, tell better stories, and sometimes have a louder voice. What once seemed like a crude, inarticulate medium is a fast evolving one, defined by specializations and –surprise– brands!

Hoi Polloi is then a place where I gather and link to material that is defining this neo-communications movement. Hoi Polloi, after all, is Greek for that derisive term ‘the masses’ who are now so fragmented, diverse, but so powerful. Often it is they, who influence what goes on at the center. Individuals matter (duh!) evidenced by the rush to customization, to connect with minority groups, and to understand the ‘tribes’ and sub-segments among us.

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“It’s a task any writer should approach with great humility, but I think it’s worth doing. We are at war, and we can’t lose sight of the hardships war inflicts on individuals.”

Garry Trudeau on an expletive (the one that rhymes with ‘witch’) in his comic strip, Doonesbury, being deleted by newspaper editors on Wednesday April 21st.

See it here.

I thought this was a rather uninspired use of censorship. Maybe the media are in the Howard/Britney/Janet phase of not knowing whose knuckles to rap.

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“Now you’re ready to tame the vast wilderness of the Web.”

Can you guess which site this statement was culled from? It’s not a search engine. It’s not a news aggregator. It’s from a site called ‘SaveThis’. A pretty useful spot where you can save your favorites, and can access them anywhere, from any PC. Click here: www.Savethis.com/

What biz will they be in?
And while we’re complaining that “it’s a jungle out there,” consider this: What business are the following companies in? Dmoz, Fast, Inktomi, Alltheweb.

They are part of that ever-evolving ‘search’ business more or less owned by brands such as Yahoo!, Google, Alta Vista and Lycos.

But do we really know what business they are in? What business will these one-time search engines and indexes be in, one year from now? We have seen how fast Google and Yahoo! Have moved into the advertising and email space within the last few months. Google is into Blogs. (Blogger.com is a Google property) and even allows you to do a product search on a cell phone! (a ‘Froogle’ service in beta test mode.) Yahoo! allows you to download screen-savers to a cell phone, etc. So it’s possible that areas as diverse as music, or custom publishing may be sucked in. I’ll be watching. Let me know if you spot any clues.

Indeed, Search Engines have relationships!
To find out their not-so subtle relationships, click here for a neat, interactive, map.

Looking for blogs, or a blog directory? Find them on Blog Search Engine.

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