Quotes for the week ending 16 November, 2007

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“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.

User-generated TV

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Businessweek (Nov 19 issue) has an interesting article on Current, the cable channel. They call it the “wiki cable channel.”

“Now Current is moving even closer to crowd-controlled TV. Since mid-October, visitors to its Web site have been able to watch everything that was on the channel in the previous two hours or what’s coming in the next two, leave comments on the shows, put up links to other sites, or add raw video to a story…”

This may be the model of what a lot of TV is growing up to be. They have an amazing stat: more than 70% of Current viewers have a laptop open while they watch the TV channel.

Larry King in Second Life?

/ Angelo Fernando / 2 Comments

Someday Brian Williams and Katie Couric may be the ones we get our news from —in Second Life. That’s not far fetched, considering how SL is attracting all media organizations.

But it’s also possible that Journalism schools could get into the act too, and (Professor) Larry King could be conducting journalism training in SL. I’m not making this up. There was a move last month by CNN where it said it was setting up a virtual bureau in SL, with its eyes on a citizen journalism. The bureau was supposed to begin operatiing last week.

In related news, Dan Gilmore, the authority on the topic of citizen journalism, is joining Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Gilmor has not commented much on this move, but I know it’s going to be a big leap for citizen journalism, and add a lot of exciting dimensions to the Cronkite School.

The above picture is from CNN’s iReport via one of its citizen journalists.

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.

Quotes for the week ending 11/10/07

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“I’ve been working with these people for 20 years. Without them I’m not funny. I’m a dead man.”

Jay Leno, commenting on the strike by the Writers Guild of America.

“We live evermore in the United States of Fear. We are entertained by it. Titilated by it. Distracted by it.”

Leonard Pitts, Tribune Media Services syndicated columnist, on the the media hyping up the sick of Staph infection.

“Hi. My name is Steve and I am a Web 2.0-alcoholic. Like millions, I am passionate about technology, particularly the web as a platform and its potential to change business and society. However, recently I learned I have a problem … More recently I have sobered up.”

Steve Rubel posting about the importance of not getting drunk on the web 2.0 Kool-Aid.

“THEY are the ones who have to tell the client the baby is ugly.”

One of the Top-10 reasons not to hate PR people, by Linda VandeVrede, at ValleyPRblog.

“A colorful release name like Android is the sort of thing that Apple or Microsoft would do, and it pretty much confirms my suspicions that Google is aspiring to world domination via the desktop”

Rachel Pasqua, blogging at iCrossing, commenting on Google announcement of its Gphone.

“The next 100 years starts today, and it’s going to be different.”

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, on the unveiling of an advertising program that allows marketers to create branded pages.

US to world: You’ve read the press, now watch the video

/ Angelo Fernando / 1 Comment

Doing PR for a a complex organization is one thing. Doing PR for a country embroiled in two wars is no walk in the park.

So when Karen Hughes, the U.S. Under Secretary of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs talks of the “long struggle” ahead of her office to improve the image of the US abroad, she must really mean that it’s a dirty job but someone’s got to do it.

I admire the move the State Dept took with Dipnote, a blog that (I featured last month) lets people in those tough diplomatic spots in Lebanon, Iraq and Sudan talk about what they are up against. On this blog, Hughes talked about her new video (created for the State Dept. by Disney, of all organizations!) that addresses a problem/opportunity she had identified: The need to lay out America’s welcome mat. Perhaps this message has not been communicated enough, considering the accusations of racial profiling, even by airlines. Perhaps all the talk about a fence around the border and Bush’s backing a guest worker program has sent mixed messages that we are –selectively– in lock-down mode. If you’ve been outside any US consulate you’ll know that these garrisoned buildings, bristling with security personnel and cameras are a necessary evil.

So what’s a Public Affairs czar to do?

A video? To be sure it smacks of old-school advertising, and propaganda. Also, when you watch the happy people and slow motion images it comes across as too glossy, too Hollywood. To a first time visitor a few kind words from a visa officer at the embassy, or an airport baggage handler would sear a permanent image in my mind far greater than a video.

Hughes rightly talks of a the US as a complex tapestry, but as we know all to well, the threads of that tapestry are not spun by Madison Avenue, Wall Street, Hollywood and Pennsylvania Avenue. They are coming off the loom of real-time media and citizen journalists in other countries, the families of people caught up in wars and poverty blamed on the US whether we are involved or not. In the flat world, we are so intricately connected (woven if you will) a video will just not cut it.

I am reminded of a previous effort –the so-called Shared Values campaign that was created by ad woman Charlotte Beers. It was so far out of touch with the reality of what was going on at that time, it was halted. It’s time to start looking for Disney-esque fixes to complex issues.

Counterpunching as a PR strategy

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Ned Barnett, APR, has an interesting piece in this month’s CW magazine. If you’re not an IABC member you won’t be able to get to the content so here’s a summary.

“If there is an element of truth in the attacks on an organization, going head-to-head with your opponents could provoke an ongoing dispute that will bring out all the gory details.”

However,

“Counterpunching begins to make sense when your attackers
have a vested interest in not coming to terms.”

He lists many dos and don’ts:

Use verifiable, unequivocal facts.
Use credible and disinterested experts as sources and spokespeople.
Use supportive employees to tell your story. Screen them carefully,
then trust them (don’t script them).
Use legitimate market research studies from credible well-known
researchers.
Monitor the media for attacks so you can respond in the same
news cycle.

There are many more. Worth reading the entire article.

The Wisdom of the Wikipedians

/ Angelo Fernando / 1 Comment

Corporate communication and brand management in a Web 2.0 world is not a skill set that has been taught in schools.

The audience for your well thought out brand communication will form their own takeaways, no matter how stringently you manage your communication guide.

I am not trying to be provocative. It’s a reality I run into regularly when I conduct surveys for customer loyalty projects, or do brand audits before a campaign.

So, to address this topic (shameless self promo warning here) I wrote an article on this in my tech/marketing column for the latest issue of CW Magazine. It’s titled “The wisdom of the Wikipedians.” But it’s not just about Wikipedia.

If you’re not an IABC member, you won’t be able to read the article online, so here’s a PDF.

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.