Flack's Revenge

Quality Photos are Marketing Money

There have been many stories about the death of PR (see my post Circle of Life in PR).  And now it seems that SEO is being killed off too (see this Forbes piece). Yet, the last time I looked, the PR field continues to grow; and I don't get the feeling that good SEO professionals are lacking work.

The same, sadly, cannot be said for the field of professional photography; yet you don't see many articles about its decline (there was one such piece in the NY Times two years ago; more recent articles about the field focus on the photo retouching controversy).

It is a sad fact that the growth of photo sharing, digital cameras and cheap stock photo sites are sucking the life out of professional photography. People are all too willing to sacrifice quality in the name of saving a few bucks.

I know this because I ride the train every day with Steve Lesnick, a commercial advertising photographer.

Steve is extremely talented, and has a great track record and portfolio (see the link and photo on the right); yet his business has suffered, and he is not alone, if you believe the NY Times piece.

I asked him for his comments; this is is what Steve had to say on the topic:

I've been living and watching the entire dumbing down of visual arts that has taken place since everyone got Photoshop/Quark/Illustrator and a decent digital camera. They were supposed to be tools, not styles or an end result.

Great images create an emotional connection with the viewer.  To me, a company that brands itself with mediocre imagery in their advertising makes it look like an afterthought.

Since when is "it's good enough" good enough, if you want to stand out from your competitors? Wouldn't it be cheaper to do something that is more memorable from the beginning?

If a company will only spend a nickel on their advertising/images are they only going to spend a nickel on product development, testing and customer service too?

If you think Steve sounds a little bitter, can you blame him? It is not easy to see your life's work, and the field around it, become increasingly irrelevant.

But perhaps there is hope for photography.  More and more people are speaking out about the power of visual images in marketing, and the importance of high quality (see these  examples: You Should be in Pictures, Studies Show that People Ignore Generic Photos,  5 Content Marketing Ideas worth Stealing, The Evocative Visual Approach to Social Media Marketing).

Amidst the online noise and clutter, a compelling image might just be ticket to having your marketing stand out. 

Online marketing is growing, as is content marketing - both increasingly benefit by using high quality, professionally produced imagery as an attention getter.  Will the rising tide of these forms of marketing lift the boat of professional photography?

Check out Steve Lesnick or other professional photographers.  Spend the money to get the high quality images that will deliver top marketing results - you won't regret it.

 

 

VCs Wake up to the fact that PR Actually Works

In the tech PR field, we have an interesting and sometimes tortured relationship with VCs. Especially for those of us that work with startups, we value the financial muscle that they bring. We greatly appreciate it when they they introduce us to their portfolio companies.

On the other hand, things can get tricky when VCs try to micromanage PR programs, as I wrote in this post awhile back.

As a group, they have always seemed a bit impenetrable. Sure most of them are scary smart and understand all areas of business including PR. However, many have been reluctant to toot their own horns and use the tools of the PR trade.

This seems to be changing, according to an article in the NY Times yesterday, which highlights the success of Andreesen Horowitz (a firm that has not been shy about using PR), and the trend of VC firms to embrace PR and other forms of marketing.  Here is an excerpt:

It wasn’t so long ago that venture capitalists kept secrets...Self-promotion was shunned [by VCs] as crass.  Now, Sand Hill Road in Silicon Valley is one long parade route. Venture capitalists are hiring full-time public relations experts to tell bloggers and reporters of their investing prowess. They publicize their every doing and thought on Twitter and in blog posts.

The self-promotion, branding and race to build an admiring Twitter following, people here say, is a symptom of the stresses on the consolidating venture capital industry...

But the biggest catalyst for the attention-seeking atmosphere, venture capitalists say, has been the rise of Andreessen Horowitz. The speed with which the venture firm — started by Marc Andreessen, the co-founder of Netscape, and Ben Horowitz, a former executive there — has rocketed to the top ranks has served as a case study in successful self-promotion.

Latest NY Tech Story Roundup: NY Chips away at Boston and The Valley

I saw a couple of interesting articles about NY tech this week.  Hannan, our summer intern from France, pointed out this Huffingtom Post story: NY Startups Help Fuel High-tech Renaissance.  It quotes NY Tech Meetup's Andrew Rasiej:

"There is a renaissance in the New York tech community...In the same way that hardware married software and created the legend of Silicon Valley, technology is marrying content and creating entirely new opportunities in New York City."

The article also cites some impressive numbers that chart the growth of NY tech:

From 2007 to 2011, nearly 500 startups in New York received investment. While startup funding dropped 10 percent nationwide during that period, it rose 32 percent in New York. More than a dozen established tech startups have moved to the city from tech hubs like Silicon Valley and Boston, and the number of IT jobs in New York has risen 30 percent since 2007, according to a recent report from the Center for an Urban Future, a think tank based in New York City.

The NY Daily News published an article earlier this week: NY Tech Companies Get Big Lift from VC Boom.  It starts:

New York is raking in the deal dollars.

For the second quarter in a row, New York state surpassed Massachusetts as the country's No. 2 destination for venture capital deals, though it still ranks behind venture capital king California, according to a new report from CB Insights.

The article goes on to list the types of companies - and names some specific ones - that got funded recently

 

How the Political News "Sausage" is Made: "Take this Quote and Cut it!"

Imagine that you work for a tech company, and just completed an interview for an important publication. You thought you nailed the briefing, but just to be sure, you decide to ask the reporter to see the article, or at least the section you are being quoted in, before it goes to print.

Sounds crazy right? In most cases, the audacious request would be denied.

What if you did not even need to go to the reporter, hat in hand, to ask for this - or send in your tech PR rep to do the same - but the notes were sent to you, as a matter of routine, so that you could edit those provocative sound bites and remove anything troublesome?

Not bloody likely, is it?

I thought about this as I read an article in the NY Times, earlier this week, while relaxing on the beach near my girlfriend's summer house. The article covered a practice that is now common in political reporting (I was already in a political frame of mind, as we had just watched the middling political campaign movie The Ides of March).

According to the NY Times:

The quotations come back redacted, stripped of colorful metaphors, colloquial language and anything even mildly provocative. They are sent by e-mail from the Obama headquarters in Chicago to reporters who have interviewed campaign officials under one major condition: the press office has veto power over what statements can be quoted and attributed by name.

Most reporters, desperate to pick the brains of the president’s top strategists, grudgingly agree...The verdict from the campaign — is often no, Barack Obama does not approve this message.

The push and pull over what is on the record is one of journalism’s perennial battles. But those negotiations typically took place case by case, free from the red pens of press minders. Now, with a millisecond Twitter news cycle and an unforgiving, gaffe-obsessed media culture, politicians and their advisers are routinely demanding that reporters allow them final editing power over any published quotations.

So what is going on here? Why are the worlds of tech and political media relations so different?

It all gets back to supply and demand, or what I like to call the marketplace of information. In technology, it is generally a buyer's market for vendor news - there are so many companies, products and news releases. Reporters generally have their pick, unless it is the biggest news from the biggest vendors, and can call the shots.

However, in the heat of campaign season, everyone wants to know what is happening with the race and the top candidates. It is a seller's market for the news, and the ones with access and info have more sway.

July NY Tech Meetup Wrap - 9 Great Demos, and Networking Too

Fusion PR CEO Jordan Chanofsky and I attended the July NY Tech Meetup, which featured a great mix
of demos, as always (there were no guest speakers this time around, so they managed to get even more demos in).

They ranged from quirky and cutting edge to mature and market tested, from consumer to B2B plays. Here is a quick rundown of each:

• Cnsmr - Get consumer ratings while shopping by scanning a bar code with your cell phone; it is kind of  like Yelp for consumer goods.
• Dashlane - One click checkout (but don't call it that, sounds too much like Amazon) from Android and iPhones or the Web, uses sophisticated semantic analysis to "understand" Web forms and help users fill them out, no integration required.
• Jirafe - Analytics dashboard for ecommerce websites; they seem to already have great marketplace traction, and were the one purely B2B play of the evening.
• Social Bicycles Combines a novel bike design, which is a feat of engineering - it has no gears, and a very secure locking mechanism, no special stations or kiosks required. Reserver your bike and map out routes via the Web, share info over your social networks.  This one wins my vote for coolest startup of the night, except for the unfortunate shorthand for the name, SoBi - not that there's anything wrong with that.
• Vook - Ebook content management and publishing platform, very cool.
• Skillcrush: A tech education and literacy site, helps you master geek speak and thus better mingle and shoot the breeze with the New York tech crowd.
• Appguppy: It lets you roll your own apps - and launch and market them without the usual app store shuffle.  Seems ideal for promoting and selling your own content, e.g. music.
• Shindig: Lets you run virtual events for thousands; a person, represented by an avatar can host it, and field questions; people can break off into groups and have their own conversations; truly amazing.
• Instinct: An app that helps you learn how to play guitar (other instruments coming soon).

The networking after party was fun too, it was at Sullivan Hall, in a cavern-like room; we had a chance to meet with some of the attendees, as well as the demoing company execs.

Forget Big Data. Now, There's "Big Soda" - and It's not Happy

Most who follow the tech field know that everything big data is hot these days. I like to write about tech, and also follow the NY tech industry (see my recent post on Handshake 2.0 about NY tech).

While techies love big data here, too, it is Big Soda that has been in the news, regarding NYC's plans to limit the size of soft drinks.

Just yesterday, the NY Times wrote about the soda companies' PR and lobbying campaign to battle NY City's ban on large soft drinks.  According to the Times:

...the American soft-drink industry is beginning an aggressive campaign to fight New York City’s proposed restrictions on large servings of sugary drinks.

Hoping for a debate about freedom, not fatness, the industry has created a coalition called New Yorkers for Beverage Choices to coordinate its public relations efforts in the city. 

I guess you can't blame the soft drink industry for trying. My view is that the city is getting up in our grills a bit too much (here in a nice motherly way, but the stop and frisk thing? I just don't understand it. Seems like a real bad move and draws tons of negative coverage).

Doesn't this place an unfair burden on the soft drink companies? I feel that we should be allowed to buy big gulps if we want them. 

On the other hand, I don't know if this is the hill that Big Soda really wants to die on, perhaps it would be a better move to give in and voluntarily reduce serving sizes. I doubt this campaign will incite people to rally in the streets and defend their rights to drink themselves silly and obese.