Got Earnings? Now You can Tweet it from the Rooftops

Back in December, I wrote about how Netflix CEO Reed Hastings ran afoul of SEC Fair Disclosure rules by
Roof-tops posting an update on Facebook about record viewing numbers.

There was much buzz about the SEC action at the time – previously the SEC said that public companies could use websites and even social media to announce information that was considered material, that is potentially stock price moving.  So why was Reed Hastings in hot water?

The SEC fine print said that the method used to share material info must be public and a recognized conduit of stock information for investors – these were debatable points for Netflix, but many thought that the SEC was being too strict.

The NY Times and many other news outlets reported yesterday that the SEC has provided additional guidance that explains how companies can safely use social media to make these kinds of announcements:  Here is an excerpt from the Times piece:

Now, the S.E.C. seems to be relaxing its stance.

After an investigation of several months, regulators said that
companies could treat social media as legitimate outlets for
communication, much like corporate Web sites or the agency’s own public
filing system called Edgar. The catch is that corporations have to make
clear which Twitter feeds or Facebook pages will serve as potential
outlets for announcements
.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Got Earnings? Now You can Tweet it from the Rooftops

It’s the End of the Storytelling World as we Know it: My Interview with Doug Rushkoff

I am a big fan of author Doug Rushkoff, and have read many of his books, starting with Media Virus back in
Ps the late 90s..

Doug has a knack for being the first to spot and describe
things which in retrospect seem pretty obvious. In particular, he likes
to hone in on topics related to media, information, technology, how they are changing, and what this means for our culture.

I met Doug at a NY Tech Meetup a couple of years ago, where he spoke about his book Program or be Programmed, He agreed to an interview, which I posted back then.

More recently I learned of Doug’s new book Present Shock after seeing reviews of it it in the NY Times and WSJ. The title is an ironic twist on Alvin Toffler’s classic Future Shock (classic Future, sounds like oxymoron, doesn’t it?!).

Well, Doug has nailed it once again. His new book eloquently describes what happens when we are eternally stuck in the present, a social media, 24 hour cable news, sensory overload-driven Groundhog Day kind of reality. He says, essentially, that we are llosing the capacity to put things in context and take the time to smell the roses, so-to-speak.

One of the most dramatic conclusions relates to something Doug calls Narrative Collapse. In marketing and PR, one of the first things you hear is that “you need to tell a good story…” It is the mantra we repeat endlessly to clients and each other.

It seemed to me that this was something that should be explored further, and would be of interest to Flack’s Revenge readers. So I asked Doug for another interview, and he agreed. Here it is:

You seem to soak up lots of pop culture as you observe and write about the impactof tech on society; the first chapter alone refers to scores of movies and TV shows, ranging from Mary Poppins, Simpsons and Beavis and Butthead on up through to Sopranos, Real Housewives, etc. – do you really watch all this stuff (either not such a bad gig or torture, depending on what you like)?

Well I don’t watch it all at once, but I have been alive 50 years so there has been
a lot of time. I saw Mary Poppins in the late 60’s. Simpsons and Beavis and
Butt-head in the 80’s, Sopranos in the 90’s, and bit of reality TV over the
past decade. You don’t’ have to watch every episode of every TV show to get a
good sense of what they are about and how they work. You can’t help but soak up
pop culture if you are alive these days. But there’s plenty of shows I’ve just
missed completely. Or watched maybe one of, like CSI or something.

In light of Narrative Collapse, why
bother with your book – are long form
content creators doomed to irrelevancy?

No, just because we are transitioning from a culture based in narrative to one
based in more open-ended styles of media doesn’t mean long form content
creators are doomed. I’m not looking so much at the length of experiences as
the quality. A fantasy-role-playing game lasts a whole lot longer than a game
of Monopoly. And it is still narrative – just not in the closed-ended
Aristotelian way. It doesn’t have a simple crisis and conclusion. It just keeps
going.

So presentist entertainment can collapse narrative by being as short as a YoutTube
video, or by simply refusing to drive towards a single endpoint.

Don’t we need stories and story frames to understand the world?

We need stories when we want to understand the world as a story. Many of us still
want to believe God is coming to save us at the end, or that the world is going
to end in a zombie apocalypse. In order to maintain the belief that
there’s a plan with a beginning, a middle and an end, then it sure helps to
have a story.

If we are ready to believe that the world keeps going – that there could even be
sustainable solutions to the world’s problems rather than wars we win and bad
people we vanquish, then we might want to look at forms of context that go
beyond the simple story.

“You Need to Tell a Good Story” is one of the mantras of advertising and
PR. Do these trends portend the decline of marketing as we know it?

Yeah. But anyone half-way intelligent in advertising has known this for a long while.
I’m not saying anything new here. They all know that the creative storytelling
in advertising works better for winning Cleos than selling products.

Brand mythologies were created to shield consumers from the realities of mass
production. We don’t want to know our cookies are made in horrible factories,
so companies invent brand myths like Keebler Elves and the Snackwell’s Cookie
Man. Today, we care less about whether the cookies were made by elves in a
hollow tree than what is really happening: are kids losing their fingers in a
cookie machine? Is this made with corn syrup? Organic flour?

Marketers these days have to convince companies to tell the truth about their products
and processes. And if they’re not proud of those things, then they have to
change them. It’s very very simple, but very hard: companies have to actually
do stuff that’s worth talking about. Then people will Tweet it all over the
place. What’s worth talking about? These days, it’s as simple as not being
totally incompetent. Just find one little area in which the company is not
completely screwing things up and hurting people, and then trumpet that
achievement.

Does this mean we have to produce “Now-ist”
content like much TV has become these days?

You don’t “produce content” so much as help the company communicate its
non-fiction, real creation of value. Surely the company is doing something for
someone. It’s asking for money for its stuff, right? How does buying from this
company reflect my values? How does it extend my intention?

Posted in Books, Tech, Tech PR, Web 2.0 | 2 Comments

Tear Down that eHail Wall, Mr. Mayor!

A judge just denied NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s quest to outlaw large sugary drinks here.  Now I hear
608358523e87b216170f6a706700c37bthat Bloomberg has styrofoam cups in his crosshairs.

Since the Mayor has been such a great cheerleader for NY Tech, I thought I might humbly request, through this blog, that he shift his attention and the power of his office from the world of beverages back to something that is tech related, and also can improve the quality of life here: namely e-hailing.

There are some laws that apparently stand in the way of allowing these types of apps to hail Yellow Cabs in NYC. I recently visited Tel Aviv and San Francisco, and was blown away with how easy Uber makes it to hail a cab in these places – you can order one, see a map that shows the cab’s location, its ETA, phone number, and let’s you effortlessly pay (even calculating and adding tip).

Very cool!  Do you agree?  If so, please voice your opinion via Qwanz, the Opinion Graph (and client / NY tech company).

Posted in Apps, Current Affairs, NY Tech | Comments Off on Tear Down that eHail Wall, Mr. Mayor!

Launch Show Wrap

I like to write about the booming tech sector in NY, which recently eclipsed Boston in terms of
Photo (16)dollars behind VC-funded startups.
However, a few days at Launch 2013 in San Francisco convinced me that NY has quite a ways to go to catch up to Silicon Valley; the event dwarfed anything similar that I had seen in in NY.

It was awesome, in terms of sheer scale, and the quality of attending companies and speakers.
Fusion PR participated as a co-sponsor – our very own Victoria lined this up, after Jason Calcanis and his team asked us to help with media invitations, and to provide some PR “office hours” for demoing companies.
As part of the deal, we secured a booth/tabletop exhibit that prominently displayed our logo. We also got a very nice mention on the big stage from the man himself (thanks Jason!).

Victoria and the team worked hard to ensure good media participation in the event;  I entered the exhibit hall on Monday to see Victoria taking a KRON TV reporter around – see this link for the resulting news segment.

The show gave us the chance to catch up with existing clients and contacts and make new connections. Victoria and I took turns breaking away from the booth to sit in on a variety of panel discussions and demos in the auditorium. The main course was a series of demos by launching companies. Each gave their pitch followed by questions and critiques from the star panels, which included well-known VCs, entrepreneurs and influencers.
Jason Calcanis moderated the sessions.

The panels did not hold back in giving very frank feedback. Robert Scoble seeemed to enjoy playing the Simon Cowell role.
It was an interesting form of tough love – most of the criticism was constructive, and I thought spot on – but I sympathized with the demoing companies, as I know they had paid a lot for the privilege of this very public undressing.

Jason ran a very tight ship, it was a real classy event – he said that he would not put up with shenanigans (well, he used another word), and in fact ejected a company that was too edgy, shall we say (something to do with booth babes in camouflage).

Congrats to Launch 2013 winners, who are covered in this TheNextWeb story.

All in all, it was a great experience and conference.  We thank Jason and his team for inviting Fusion PR to help.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Launch Show Wrap

Times Tussle Pits Tesla CEO & Fans vs. Journos

I love reading the NY TImes, and sometimes check out its Sunday Auto section.
Th

Being a PR guy -  one with an affinity for tech and startups – I have been closely tracking the Tesla Motors story (you know, the one about the US-based manufacturer of electrical cars, that has gotten crazy amounts of funding and whose CEO – Elon Musk – previously cashed out at PayPal). There is a dealership in our local mall (yes they sell, or, more accurately, take orders in retail stores) and I have walked in and drooled over the beautiful machines.

When news broke last week about a negative review of the Tesla in the NY times – followed by Tesla Chairman & CEO Elon Musk's now infamous public rebuttal – I dug up my Sunday Times, read the review and fastened my seatbelt for a wild ride and interesting story for this blog.

Interesting, because it forces us to re-examine some commonly held assumptions about PR:

There is no Such Thing as Bad Publicity

I have never been a believer in this idea; please read the Times review, and let me know if you still do. For starters, I really got interested in the topic after seeing a thread on the NY Tech Meetup (NYTM) mailing list, which began with an email titled: Tesla will Lose this Publicity War.

The Times article describes a harrowing ride in sub zero weather by auto reviewer John Broder (I would love to have his job); and how the Tesla seemingly failed to live up to its specs in terms of distance between charges.  Ultimately, the car had to (very delicately) be hauled onto a flatbed truck, leaving the reviewer stranded.

It is hard to see how Tesla – a company that already has gotten tons of positive PR and enjoyed great buzz – benefited from the piece.

Don't Pick Fights with Those Who Buy Ink by the Barrel

I cringed when I read Musk's rebuttal; my sympathies tend to lie with tech companies, as these are my clients.  But his blog post broke a couple of basic rules of PR – the one above, sure (which I do believe in), and also the rule that says you should not find ways to prolong a crisis.

Elon Musk's rebuttal seemed thin skinned, and made the amazing charge that data pulled from the car afterwards proved that John Broder "worked very hard to force our car to stop running."

Broder responded with his own rebuttal to the Tesla blog post, as reported in Engadget.

The initial NYTM email generated dozens of responses, most of which at first seemed to line up against Tesla.  Through the list, I learned of a number of other articles about the brouhaha, in Wired, Atlantic Wire, and Slate.

The last two in particular challenged Elon Musk's claims.  It seemed clear that journalists and others were siding with the reviewer,

So Musk picked the wrong battled, prolonged a crisis,and that is the end of the story, right?  Not so fast – read on.

There are Courts of Law and Courts of Media – and they Don't Play by the Same Rules

Reporters can weigh a set of facts and write an article that influences public opinion – yet they are not constrained by the same rules as a court of law is.  However, It used to be that their words were more or less final; but not any more.

As the discussion progressed on the NYTM mailing list, many seemed to  be willing to cut Tesla some slack.

I won't get into all the ins and outs of the technical arguments made by Musk, Broder, NYTMers, other media et al.  You can read the stories and decide what you think. 

My point is, that the crowd now has a voice, and many ways to be heard.

One of the last NYTM emails I saw cited a Silicon Beat article about how some Tesla owners have joined forces to recreate John Broder's now infamous road trip.  The article said:

Tesla’s devout fans have suggested that “broder” become a verb, as
in “to purposely or with willful ignorance run down the battery pack of
an electric vehicle to the point that it no longer moves the vehicle.”

Oh, yea – you can follow their progress on Twitter: @teslaroadtrip progress

So, I ask – did Elon Musk break some basic rules of PR – or are he and Tesla fans tapping some of the new ruies?  Was Musk's rebuttal s shrewd defense of the Tesla brand?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.siliconbeat.com/2013/02/15/convoy-of-model-s-owners-to-re-create-john-broders-infamous-teslaroadtrip/
Posted in Campaign Analysis, In the News, PR, PR Tech | Comments Off on Times Tussle Pits Tesla CEO & Fans vs. Journos

February NY Tech Meetup (or Bust!)

Velvetrope

I attended the February NY Tech Meetup last night; it was great event, as always, but not easy to get in.

They really should try to find a larger venue.
Trying to get tickets has gone from a mildly frustrating exercise to damn near impossible. That is great, in a way, because it shows the enthusiasm for these events and growth of NYTM – but not so much if you want to attend.

They always sell out, so the best way to get in is to pay close attention to release dates (tickets become available in batches), and if you don't jump on it, they are gone. Getting them when you fail to have that discipline becomes an exercise in begging and pleading on the mailing list and Web site discussion forum. It seems like those in search vastly outnumber ticket sellers.

Actually, it gets pretty funny reading the sob stories of people looking for spare tickets.  Many (myself included) wrote about how they report or blog and just want to cover the event, and spread the good buzz about NY Tech.

You can see the messages posted here. One enterprising guy offered his ticket in exchange for job opportunities – I thought that was very creative.

Usually someone responds to my emails/site posts with ticket offers, but not this time. So a colleague and I decided to roll the dice and go to NYU's Skirball center to see if we could scare some up down there and the gamble paid off, as we ran into someone who had two spares to sell.

Our persistence was rewarded – it was another great event and night of demos and networking. Without further adieu, I list the participating companies below:

  • How about We – This novel dating website has been around for some time. They provide a nice alternative, as their service is more about getting people together over creative dates rather than just helping to make connections. It was a very nice demo; they now have a service for couples (my colleague jokingly wondered if it was about swingers).
  • Combosaurus – This new Web-based service is an outgrowth of OKCupid, which is another dating site (and the one where I met my girlfriend of close to two years – so it worked well for me!). Combosaurus gives you a way to discover interests and people based on lots of data and impressive number crunching.
  • Shelby.tv – A great video discovery and sharing site
  • Mortar Data – Grist for the big data geeks out there – a so-called open source framework and Hadoop-as-a-service for engineers and scientists. The CTO showed a cool demo – he mined Twitter data using clever searches to find which state had the most coffee snobs (Oregon, as it turned out).
  • MLB Advanced Media -This is a business unit within Major League Baseball that does live streaming for a number of clients, including NYTM. It was a really impressive demo – they used their own streaming tech to take us behind the scenes in real time, showing their data center and walls of video.
  • Catchafire – A website to organize do-gooders around pro bono projects.
  • Tactonic Technologies – This company offers an innovative approach to touch and gesture interface technologies (thus "enabling surface interaction – everywhere"). There are many cool potential application, e.g.they showed how this might work on a car dashboard and steering wheel.
  • SumAll – Business intelligence for the rest of us, AKA small biz.  The team showed how to generate beautiful charts and graphs from a range of data.
  • Citia – This company wins my vote for the coolest demo of the night.  The website claims that they reinvent the media experience, and I have to say, I don't think this is an overstatement.  Their system makes content jump, roll over and do many other tricks.  It is really hard to explain, but they do have nice videos on their home page that will give you a taste (the demo they showed looks like Flipboard on whatever comes after steroids).
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on February NY Tech Meetup (or Bust!)

Mind the Customer Experience at your Next PR Event

Dogandponyjpg

You may have heard of a relatively new buzzword that is getting lots of play in the customer service and telecom arenas: customer experience management (CEM). I thought about this when I attended a press luncheon this week that our agency helped put together.

The event went very well, and had all of the nice touches. It took place in an upscale NYC restaurant.
We had a semi-private area carved out, and about 20 people in attendance, including journalists, PR and client staff, and a guest analyst. There were no empty tables – media attendance was what we had hoped it would be.

We paid careful attention to the seating arrangement to make sure that vendor executives were evenly distributed. There was an air of buzz and excitement as we took our seats – the media were told in advance that this would be a major announcement, and they seemed to be eager to learn more over a very nice lunch.

The speakers were top notch. They did not get too deep down into the tech “weeds” and made sure to include application examples that were impressive and easy-to-understand. The information that they shared about the company’s leadership market position was helpful to those who were just getting to know the company,

The spokespeople made their pitches with the help of large monitors on either side of the podium.
The news covered a very technical, B2B product, yet the demos showed compelling benefits for end users. The speakers tied product features and benefits to relevant industry trends, and the analyst added an important air of credibility to the event.

OK, so the press luncheon wasn’t perfect. Perhaps the presentations went on for just a little too long – and no food was served for about an hour during this time. But that was OK, as the reporters were literally salivating over the news – and would not leave until we fed them! Some might have found the noise from other parts of the restaurant to be a little distracting – on the other hand there was a good vibe, it was clearly a popular and happening restaurant – hopefully sending the message (by association) that our client and its news were happening too.

I was seated next to a reporter from a major newswire and was very pleased to see her listening very carefully, taking notes, and quizzing one of the vendor execs at our table about the news. As I watched our other “customer” clearly taking in and enjoying the proceedings, the importance of the phrase CEM to what we do in PR really hit home.

After all, I can say with a fair degree of certainty that the newswire reporter (and other media in attendance) have no hands-on experience with this technology.
All they had to go on was the information that was presented, within the context of a very nice backdrop – an elegant meal at a fine NYC restaurant, with all of the nice touches that supported our news.

It is hard to know for sure without asking the journalists – but I hope and
believe the experience we delivered was a good one – and played a role in
how they regard the brand and cover the news.

Some may dismiss CEM as just another buzzword. And, while it may be more often associated with things like billing, support, and call quality – if you are in PR and planning an event, make sure that the media customer experience is optimal.

Posted in PR | Comments Off on Mind the Customer Experience at your Next PR Event

So, How did Lance Armstrong do? Was it a good PR Move?

It was one of the world’s worst kept secrets: Lance Armstrong’s decision to tell all on Oprah. The media widely covered this leading up to the interviews, and speculated about motives, what would be revealed, etc.

I thought t that I would try to find out from other people in the PR field whether they thought that Lance’s decision to tell his story in this manner was a good PR move. So, last week, before the interviews aired, I conducted a survey.
My question was simply this – forgetting for a moment about what you think about Lance as a person and disgraced sport figure – was he taking the right steps to turn around his image?

Here are some of the answers that I got when I started an email thread:

  • Is waiting until you get an exclusive with Oprah to admit to years of doping a PR move? Yes. A better one was just admitting it when you actually got caught.
  • My 2 cents: Lance Armstrong’s image is beyond repair. There is no amount of PR or Oprah interviews that can rehab him. He cheated and lied to the public and the government for personal gain.
  • Might be worthwhile to look into some of the Tiger Woods controversy awhile back for comparison. Slightly different as one is infidelity vs. doping and one was kicked out of the sport, the other not. But he also did the Oprah apology that bombed. Tiger still suffers in the public eye for his indiscretions, but as far as an athlete goes you cannot deny he changed the game of golf. Something to think about…
  • It’s different though – Tiger is still respected as a once-great athlete because his indiscretions had nothing to do with his athletic performance. But Lance Armstrong’s entire legacy is now in doubt. He cheated.
    No one was inducted into the baseball hall of fame this year because of drug issues for all potentials. That says something about how the public and the professional sports industry feels about cheaters — cheating in sports, not cheating on their wives.

One of my friends who is in PR said that it was the right PR move, but that Lance has a long road back to repairing his image.
Since it seems that Lance was angling for something here, my feeling is that most people would not care much about his belated tell all – he obviously has an ulterior motive, i.e. to get back into competitive sports. If you really want to burnish your image, just do the right thing and then go away for awhile.

The interviews are now over, of course. I saw the first one and did not think he did too badly. Some also expressed said that he did as well as could be expected. Others said that he was not contrite enough; one opined that Lance is a sociopath.

I enjoyed the SNL segment on this and thought I would share it – I thought Jason Sudeikis did a brilliant job as Lance.

Posted in Current Affairs, In the News, PR, Sports | Comments Off on So, How did Lance Armstrong do? Was it a good PR Move?

Tempt – and then Reject – Your Best Customers: The Great New Way to Build Brand

If I told you there was a way to build your brand by tempting – and then rejecting – more customers; would you believe me?

The very idea might be foreign to tech marketers, but it is a strategy that seems to have worked well in higher education, according to an article in the WSJ.
The Journal story caught my attention because I saw it right after a friend told me about the status of his son's college applications (my younger daughter is graduating from high school this year and also going though the process now).

He was surprised that his son's early action application was deferred by Northeastern University; the kid had high grades and test scores, etc., and should have been a shoo in.
Here's an excerpt from the article:

In the past six years, Northeastern University has vaulted 42 spots in the powerful U.S. News & World Report college rankings. And not merely because it added programs, hired superstar faculty or built fancy facilities.
The private school in Boston also has made an all-out effort to increase the number of applicants for admission, dispatching its 30-person recruiting staff across the country and sending hundreds of thousands of personalized letters and emails to high-school students. It persuaded more than 44,000 students to apply for one of the 2,800 spots in its fall 2012 freshman class—up from about 30,000 in 2007—a move that boosted the school's selectivity, illustrating a growing trend in college marketing.

The article discussed methods that Northeastern and other schools are using to boost reputation and ranking, draw better students and increase donations; these include advanced target marketing techniques, and influencing the influencers (e.g. college guidance counselors).

There might not seem to be many takeaways for tech marketing, e.g.tech companies won't generally limit availability of product.
Yet the tech world has its various ranking systems and influencers. You can rest assured that other companies, perhaps right in your space are applying forward thinking strategies for target marketing, influencing influencers, moving up in rankings and brand perception – what are you doing to move the needle for YOUR company or brand?

Posted in In the News, Tech PR | Comments Off on Tempt – and then Reject – Your Best Customers: The Great New Way to Build Brand

Netflix Shows Facebook its Privates, Gets Slapped by SEC

I love the intersection of words and technology.  One phrase that seems to have caught on recently is
Images“humblebragging”, that is the art of shedding crocodile tears, or exhibiting false modesty, generally via social media status updates (this NY Times article explains it well).

I also saw the news in the Times this week about how Netflix CEO Reed Hastings got into hot water with the SEC by doing more bragging than crying on Facebook. According to DealB%k:

In July, Mr. Hastings posted three lines stating that “Netflix monthly viewing exceeded 1 billion hours for the first time ever in June.”

In doing so, he apparently violated Regulation FD (for Fair Disclosure, also known simply as Reg FD).  Most PR people as well as Wall Street types know that Reg FD specifies how news that can move stock prices is shared with the public. It aims to ensure a level playing field for investors, and avoid the situation where some people – e.g. journalists, or industry analysts – get a heads up on news before it is officially announced.

The whole thing was surprising to me because it seems that it was years ago that the SEC relented to modern times and agreed to let companies use their websites and even social media to release such news. Previously, companies had to use a newswire servic.

But as it turns out, life is not at all so simple – Stephen Davidoff’s DealB%k piece schooled me on a couple of things that I did not know.

First, I had assumed that Reg FD was generally a good thing, and was not aware of the potential unintended consequences that he reported:

It seems so simple. How can more disclosure be bad? But both public
companies and investment banks argued that the rule would actually
reduce the flow information, as companies, now forbidden from disclosing
only to analysts, would simply choose not to release the information…

Subsequent studies of Regulation FD’s effects have shown that the critics may have been right. One of the most-cited studies found
that analyst coverage of smaller companies dropped. And since there was
now less information in the market about these smaller companies,
investors subsequently demanded a bigger premium to invest, increasing
financing costs. Another study found that the introduction of Regulation FD increased market volatility because information was no longer informally spread.

Regarding the Netflix case, Davidoff discusses the updated Reg FD rules, and explains why they may not apply here:

Then there is the issue of whether this was privately disclosed information… Some
have seized on this requirement to claim that the S.E.C. is in essence
saying that Facebook is not a “public” Web site. This is laughable;
after all, Mr. Hastings is popular — he has more than 200,000
subscribers to his Facebook account. But the S.E.C.’s argument is likely to be more technical than saying Facebook is private. In a 2008 release on Web site disclosure,
the S.E.C. asserted that a Web site or a blog could be public for
Regulation FD purposes but only if it was a “recognized channel of
distribution of information. ”

In other words, a public disclosure
is not about being public but about being made where investors knew the
company regularly released investor information.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Netflix Shows Facebook its Privates, Gets Slapped by SEC