Flack's Revenge

If Data Center Tech Were Marketed like the Republican Candidates

I heard about the latest out of a seemingly endless number of Republican debates, and thought back in
amusement about a comment a friend posted on his Facebook page.  He said, sarcastically I hope, that he was looking forward to more and hoped they continued even after the election.

The campaign season so far also made me wonder what it would be like if data center tech was marketed like the Republican candidates.  Here are a few possibilities, below - do any others come to mind?

• The leading vendors would host industry round tables in every market timed to key events in those markets
• The round tables would be staged like Jerry Springer talk shows, where questions are designed to start fights and rile the audience
• The participants would all argue about whose solution holds truest to industry ideals like high performance, bandwidth, improved energy and space efficiency and low latency
• They would pile on the market leader and attack it for not achieving those ideals in a socially acceptable way
• Their leaders would fight over who was most like industry icons
• Their leaders would call each other out about hype, bluster and grandiosity

Most of all they would talk, talk talk.

 

Branding and Ad Tech on Display in New York City this Week

I set aside ny usual client and agency activities yesterday, and split the day between Jeff Pulver's BRANDsconf in the morning and Ad:Tech New York in the afternoon.  The latter is a much bigger event, an actual trade show.

BRANDSconf is a Jeff Pulver 140 event.  I found the tagline to be Ironic because it is about humanization of brands via technology, something that is decidedly inhuman.  Yet maybe that is not so strange - as companies strive to use social media and other tech to communicate, the human aspect of brand building is something that must be emphasized and can't be lost.

The event featured a day of rapid fire sessions about brands and social media, hosted by panels and individuals, many from large companies and interactive agencies.  This gave me a glimpse into how the "big boys" do it, and offered a useful perspective, as most of my clients are tech startups.

E.g. Katie Richman, who runs social media for ESPN, spoke about tips for managing typically overloaded social media activities and schedules.

The "Evolution of the Community Manager" session featured a great panel.  At the end, each person offered tips for aspiring and practicing community managers:

• Danya Cheskis - Community Manager, Skillshare: Be ready to "murder your darling" if the concept is not working.  Everyone involved needs to know what is happening on the ground. Prioritize, relentlessly execute.
• Katie Morse - Social Marketing Manager, Billboard: Always remember the top business goal, execute against it.
• Matthew Wurst - Director, Brand Strategy and Emerging Media at 360i: Understand what content engages the consumer to drive the emotional connection (it should not be just about marketing).
• Staci Perkins - NYC Community Manager, Eventbrite: Continue to adapt, the job is not set in stone

 

 

Channeling the Voice of Customer to Monetize Web, PR and Social Media

The following post was written by Tony Grass, President, e-Market Intelligence

We all hear about the advantages of social media, and most companies invest in Web content and PR. All too often, however, these efforts can be time, money and resource drains that don’t have clear payback goals, structure or ROI measurement.

In a challenging economy, businesses need a common sense way to tie efforts back to leads, converted sales and profits. The following 3 step process gives a clear strategy for monetizing social media, Web content and PR efforts.(Note: The Fusion and e-Market Intelligence teams  are running an Executive Workshop in two weeks that will show how customer-centric marketing works, with demos and consults for each attendee).

Flip the Sales Funnel

Sales funnels involve scattershot efforts to generate leads “by the pound.” This can actually cost you sales, because you can’t choose the greatest number of prospects you can best sell to, or know exactly which products, features and benefits to offer.

Flipping the funnel means starting out by targeting your best prospects by what they are already searching for – and then using the intelligence gained to generate multiple streams of qualified, saleable and profitable inbound leads via integrated Web, social media and PR.

Social media typically involves posting topics and hoping to build a following. All too often, PR is an unfocused exercise in blasting pitches and press releases to the broadest audiences, and hoping that some of it sticks. Many strive for improved search engine rankings; however it is not always clear how to customer-optimize Web content for the best results.

Flipping the funnel means tuning into the voice of the customer, selecting the prospects that are already interested, and posting messages of your unique value targeted to their interests. It means generating traffic from prospects who are already searching for what you offer, and through targeted media and influencers that are aligned with the most profitable segments. This flip to customer-centric marketing lets you monetize social media, PR and Web efforts and content in 3 steps:

1. Get a 60,0000 foot view of all your markets, choose the customer groups with the best numbers, and target them by the keywords they are using in their searches. Set up optimized micro sites that map to customer interests and needs
2. Keyword and link your social media posts and PR content to the pages of your website that feature what the customers’ interests describe.
3. Post messages that are of value to your chosen customers on the social media pages, networks, Twitter streams and blogs they are using, and by getting the attention and coverage of key media and influencers.

Please stay tuned to the next installment of this series, which will go into more detail about how to channel the Voice of the Customer for more leads and sales. Also, seats for the 9/15 workshop here in New York are filling fast, please click on the following link to register and attend.

Walking to Raise Money, and PR

An op ed piece in the New York Times raised an interesting question about the connection between walking and raising money for charitable causes.  Why not take the same effort that is exerted at these events, and apply it to something really useful, doing even more good in the process?  Regarding the Boston Walk for Hunger,Ted Gup writes,

What I saw that morning in Boston was a resource diverted from its true purpose. Imagine those 210,000 man-hours (42,000 times a five-hour walk) put into direct service to benefit the poor. Think of the houses that might be built, roofs repaired, gardens planted and harvested, public spaces improved, and meals delivered to shut-ins. (And add in the efforts of the 2,000 volunteers that day and the contributions of 50,000 donors.) Now multiply that by the millions of man-hours that are represented by such events in cities across the nation, from Los Angeles to Louisville, Ky., from Austin, Tex., to Grand Rapids, Mich.

In reading further, though, it becomes clear that mass walking serves a purpose to support charitable causes that is not wasted effort; rather it is collective motive force applied to something that sounds a lot like PR.  Gup writes:

The easy explanation, of course, is that there would be no giving — or not nearly so much — without the walks. Fund-raisers recognize that the nobility of giving is often stimulated by activities that conjoin the selfless with self-interest.

Those who oversee such fund-raising spectacles argue that there is more to these events than meets the eyes — mine included. These walks and runs are incubators for future volunteers and donors. They constitute a public proclamation that others matter. They make the invisible visible. More to the point, it is easier to get relatives, friends and colleagues to open their pocketbooks than it is to win over the largess of strangers.

That is the genius of such events.

 

CTIA Wrap: AT&T Steals Thunder, Proving Peril of Launching News at Shows

I just wrapped up attendance at the CTIA show in Orlando. It was two action-packed days, filled with client, media and analyst meetings.

CTIA is one of the few mega tech shows left., and it was great to walk the show floor and experience the energy and excitement. The sheer size of the Orange County Convention Center and number of exhibitors meant lots of walking and made it a challenge to get to everything on my list.

As I walked into the show on Tuesday, I was amazed to see a space carved out in the middle for CNBC, with lights, cameras and Jim Cramer blaring.  He and his panel were of course focused on the big news: the AT&T acquisition of T-Mobile (see below for more on this).

In my conversations, comparisons were inevitably made with CTIA shows past. One exhibitor crassly noted the "booth babe index" (actually, he used a cruder term, but I will spare you) as evidence that the show is back, after a couple of down years.

The show also proved the dangers of holding on to big news for release at an event like CTIA.  We know it is tempting, because the world is watching, and there is more press coverage focused on the industry at these times.

Yet shows are the opposite of a slow news day. so there is more competition for the headline and readers. And, as big and impressive as your news is, there is always much larger news that can come along and eclipse it.

As was reported in yesterday's Wall Street Journal article Sprint CEO Blasts AT&T Deal:

AT&T's surprise deal forced attendees across the conference to compete for attention. Samsung Electronics Co., for example, picked the CTIA conference to launch two new tablet computers.

Role of Publicists in the Oscar Chase; One Seat was Vacant

If you like movies and handicapping contests, there is no better time than Academy Award season.  And if you happen to be in PR, as I am, it is interesting to follow news reports about all the behind-the-scenes marketing, maneuvering and gamesmanship that is done to try to influence the outcomes.

I enjoyed the show last night - I thought the hosts did a great job, and the quality of movies that were up for awards seemed to be better in general this year.  I also enjoyed reading a couple of related articles in the New York Times.

The first article featured Times reviewer responses to reader questions about movies; one question, posed to Manohla Dargis, was about the Social Network vs. King's Speech - the answer highlighted the role of publicists and press in the Oscar race:

Q. What do you think accounts for the seismic shift from the total dominance of “The Social Network” on the awards circuit to “The King’s Speech” replacing it as the front-runner over the last few weeks?

MANOHLA DARGIS The idea that “The Social Network” was ever an authentic front-runner for best picture is a nice idea and a total media fabrication. Every year entertainment journalists, aided and abetted by movie publicists, try to spin some kind of drama out of what has become an interminable “awards season....”  Two easy ways to stir up interest and trouble are to locate a villain (as in late 2001, when nasty chatter about “A Beautiful Mind” oozed into the mainstream) or create a media-friendly slugfest, as with last year’s trivializing battle of the exes (Kathryn Bigelow versus James Cameron). With no obvious villains available this year the, er, reigning narrative is that “The King’s Speech” has unexpectedly emerged as the one to beat at the Oscars...

The second article ("The Missing Guest at the Oscar Party") sadly reminded us that Ronnie Chasen, a publicist who would normally be there and working the room, was not because she met an untimely death last year.

 

 

6 Degrees of Celebrity Train Wreck / Charlie "Sheeny"

I like to focus on the positive stories, even though I know that it is sometimes negative ones that can get the most attention.  A lot of this has to do with my belief in Karma - I am, after all, in PR and what goes around can often come right back.

I will, however, make an exception with the news about Charlie Sheen's rants to the news media.

In my opinion, Sheen wins the "Double D-bag" award - and the D in this case does not refer to breast size, although that would clearly appeal to him. The Ds in this case are single-syllable words, however I will leave out the specifics so as not to stray too far from the normally very civilized tone of this blog (OK, one of them is "dirt").

My suspicions that he is a very unpleasant and sleazy person were confirmed with the latest news about his rants to the news media and the suspension of the show in the wake of yet another outrageous report about hooker and coke parties.

You can now add the label "anti-semite" too, as in his diatribes he went out of his way to goad the show's (Two-and-a-half Men) creator, Chuck Lorre, who is Jewish, as reported in the New York Times yesterday:

...the actor assailed Mr. Lorre, calling him a “clown” and a “charlatan” whose “tin can” of a show Mr. Sheen said he had converted into “pure gold.”

For no apparent reason.. Mr. Sheen said Mr. Lorre’s real name is Chaim Levine. He was born Charles Levine; a Hebrew version would be Chaim. The comment struck executives at both CBS and Warner Brothers as anti-Semitic...

In response to the shutdown, Mr. Sheen sent a comment to TMZ. Again he attacked Mr. Lorre, saying, “What does this say about Haim Levine [Chuck Lorre] after he tried to use his words to judge and attempt to degrade me. I gracefully ignored this folly for 177 shows.” He added,“I urge all my beautiful and loyal fans who embraced this show for almost a decade to walk with me side-by-side as we march up the steps of justice to right this unconscionable wrong.”

Hmmm... while we are on the subject of not-so-subtle digs, perhaps we should take a closer look at Mr. Sheen... after all, his nose does look a little "semitic," shall we say?   And Charlie - isn't there a Jewish name that would fit, like Chaim?  And Sheen - short for Sheeny? Perhaps he is a self-hating Jew (naaa... porn stars and coke?? As my mom would say, "that is not a very Jewish thing to do").

If I feel sorry for anyone, it is Sheen's publcist, if he has one - good luck in rehabilitating his image.

There, I feel better already.

CES Media Coverage Indicates New Mood and Optimism in Tech

CES is the last of the tech mega trade shows still standing in the US.  Yet this show, like many others, has suffered in recent years in terms of attendance, excitement and media coverage, as companies have pulled back marketing budgets in response to a bad economy.

I was not sure if I was just imagining it, but it seemed to me that this year's CES really bounced back.  The coverage has been impressive almost more for what it (and the show) did not include (as usual, Apple sat this one out, and since it is an electronics show, social media and cloud computing were not really represented).

Topics that were front center related to interplay of pivotal trends, technologies and national issues, like 4G, wireless, tablet computing, and government policy about  broadband and wireless spectrum (FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski addressed CES about the last item, and that got lots of coverage).

Well, thanks to Factiva I can go beyond specualtion to get a pretty scientific view of media coverage and track not just number of articles, but topics, major trends, people, and media voices reflected in the articles.

So I decided to do a quick search to test my hypothesis. I searched major publications (filtering out wires and press releases) over 3-month periods spanning November-January for 2009, 2010 and 2011. You can see the numbers from Factiva below

• 2011: total articles: 1,784
• 2010: total articles: 1,435
• 2009: total articles: 877

According to Factiva, there were about 25% more articles this year (compared with 2010), and over double the number of articles that appeared in 2009 (the biggest bounce seems to be from 2009-2010).  Steve Jobs eclipsed Steve Ballmer as the executive most often mentioned in the articles for the first time this year, despite the fact that Apple was not even at the show.

Social Mention gave me a way to track sentiment over the past month regarding the social media buzz about CES (unfortunately there is no way to compare with previous years).  It showed an 8:1 ratio of mentions that were generally positive vs. negaitve.

I did not do a real thorough audit of broadcast, but seeing tons of news coverage from the show floor is what really drew my attention and made me think that the coverage was in general more extensive and also more exuberant this year than in other recent years.

NY Tech Meetup Wrap

I attended my first NY Tech Meetup event yesterday, and really enjoyed it. At Fusion and Social Fluency,  
we work with tech companies ffrom around the country and world, and it was great to take a step closer to the tech culture in our own NYC back yard.

The event, which was held in a lecture hall at NYU, was packed with 700 plus people. NYU computer science professor Evan Korth, the host for the evening, started out with some general comments about the NY tech community, and discussed its growth, and the importance of an ecosystem that extends to surrounding areas and universities.

He said, in essence, that NY should not necessarily look to Silicon Valley as our model (as many tech corridors do), but should instead carve out our own formula for success and growrth.

There were quite a few very cool demos (for a summary, I reiterate some of my tweets below). The highlight was a demo that involved the audience.  Huge inflated beachball-like spheres hwere thrown in and tossed around. An infrared camera captured the motion and superimposed the spheres on a large screen (you can see a lousy picture from my lame BlackBerry camera above). We played a game pitting one side of the hall against the other as people batted the balls back and forth.

In another sequence, the spheres cut swaths from the screen as they moved across it, revealing still shots underneath - as sections of the screen were revealed, people yelled out the names of the tech icons that became clear bit by bit  - Jobs and Woz, Richard Stallman, Gates and Ballmer, Eniac, etc.

I truly felt immersed in hacker culture, it was a blast to be in this room that was alive with excitement about tech, both past and present (someone yelled out "Facebook" making it clear how the paradigm in tech has shifted).

Another highlight was meeting author Doug Rushkoff, who was there to talk about his new book, Program or be Programmed.  It sounds like a great read and I will have to pick it up. Rushkoff has written many great books, including once called Media Virus, which should be required reading for anyone in PR, I read and really enjoyed it. He said that he would be happy to answer a few interview email questions for this blog, so please stay tuned.

My tweets from last night:

• General Sentiment, a Stony Brook LI co., is showing their app, powerful platform for analyzing buzz and public perception
• Build images via text instructions Http//bit.ly/wordseye
• Doug Rushkoff talking about his new book Program or be Programmed
• Hackathon winner: text roulette "combatting boredom with addiction" 917-725-4001 follow @Text_Roulette
• Rooster.AM, hackathon winner, cool morning wakeup/schedule/news/organizer
• Wayfor looks pretty cool - let's you find political issues, analyze, organize, mobilize via Web
• At NY Tech Meetup, 566 Laguardia, NYU Co Sci prof Evan Korth hosting

Marketing with Social Media on a Shoestring: the Man with the Bacon Head

One of the more entertaining stories I heard at AdWeekMedia SocialMedia Strateges earlier this week was  about J & D's Foods, a company that has figured out how to compete against the biggest consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands by launching interesting products in record time with negligible development and marketing costs - all while having some fun, too.

Or maybe the fun is one of their secrets. And oh, yea, the marketing is pretty much handled exclusively with social media. Did I mention that a Man with a Bacon Head is somehow involved in all of this?

Shortly after arriving at the event on Wednesday I spoke with Justin Esch, a panelist for one of the upcoming sessions and a co-founder of J & D's.  He started to tell me the story of his bacon-flavored products company - I more or less zoned out on this until I saw him eagerly waving the latest People magazine (they were in it) and talking about a bacon head.  This got my attention!

I was able to ask a few questions, and then sat in on his session (called "Small is the New Big") to hear the full story.  How could one not want to hear about a company whose mission is to make everything taste just like bacon?

The challenge that J & D's faced as a startup was that the CPG arena is dominated by big brands and big money.  For example, Kroger Foods told them that they should be prepared to spend $20 million to launch a brand in order to get product on their shelves. As Justin said "We were a little short."

So J & D's used size to their advantage, both in production and marketing. 

He realized that they needed to do something ridiculous or scandalous to get attention. Part of this involved launching a series of attention-getting products.

J & D's also got involved with cause marketing.  Justin had the idea of starting with something that costs almost nothing and turning it into a bigger value for a charity they teamed up with. They built a bust of Kevin Bacon made entirely out of bacon. Bidding started at 1 cent on eBay, and the head was eventually sold for over $4K.

J & D's promoted the auction by pushing the story out through blogs, Twitter and social networks. Word spread, and big guns media came calling: USA Today, NPR, People, and Fox News, to name a few.

Justin seemed genuinely hurt when an audience member asked a question that presumed it was all one big joke and that they were all gag products. He pointed out that bacon salt is very real, as is bacon-flavored mayonnaise ("baconnaise").

On the other hand, they did take things a bit far on occassion with gag products - e.g. bacon-flavored baby formula.  Also, the bacon-flavored sex lube fell flat because their primary demographic is women from ages 35-50 in the conservative "Southern U.S. bacon - mayonnaise belt." The lube followed their introduction of bacon-flavored chapstick, a real product that earned a mention on the Oprah Winfrey show.

If you think it is a joke, consider this:  the company has gone from a garage to being in 25% of grocers in three years.

Jason's advice to other entrepreneurs? Be nimble, and don't be afraid to fail. Be honest about failures and be real with the people that you are trying to connect with.

Here are the questions I asked Jason before his session.

Q: So what did the real Kevin Bacon think about the bacon head?

A: He was pretty cool about it

Q: Do you compete with Bacos?

A: No, we want to own each category we compete in and do not have a salad topping.