Time Magazine Propagates Myths About PR

Posted on November 11, 2010 by rgeller

I was taking in this week’s Time Magazine, and, always on the prowl for good fodder for the blog, ran across a review of a new book on the PR field, called Deadly Spin.

“Wonderful!” I thought, that is until I read the first few words of the review:

Great p.r. flacks are as talented with misdirection as they are with the truth. There’s no better recent example, says [author] Potter, an insurance p.r. guru turned whistle-blower, than the health-insurance industry’s stealth campaign to oppose Democratic health care reform. In Deadly Spin, a gripping indictment of his old bosses at insurance giant Cigna and of corporate p.r. pros everywhere, Potter exposes how corporations manipulate public opinion in the service of shareholders, forming front groups, touting misleading studies and enlisting sympathetic media types to further their causes.

Wow, those are fighting words, and they made my blood boil.

First, Kate Pickert, the reviewer, uses an oxymoron, combining “great” with the pejorative flack (yes, I am aware of course that the word “flack” is in the name of this blog – I used it to be irreverent and self deprecating, see my Ragan article on this term).

In the same breath she propogates the misperception that those who are skilled in the field seek to warp the truth at the expense of others.  Apparently, in Kate’s view, there is no room for those who are ethical in PR.

Kind of like saying “Great journo hacks have no problem in hatchet jobs to get great headlines and win readers,” isn’t it?  Or that journos are really not so different than PR agents, just serving different corporate interests?

Are you reading these words, Ms. Pickert?  How do they make you feel?

Posted in In the News, PR | Comments Off on Time Magazine Propagates Myths About PR

The bed bugs ate my headline! (and the cure for this)

Posted on November 10, 2010 by rgeller

There is an old saying that holds particularly true in PR: "There's no accounting for taste." Bb

It is sometimes hard to understand why the media latches onto a particular story and will not let it go. This can be extremely frustrating when it is your job to interest them in your client's story and the press may not be biting so eagerly.

Speaking of "biting" I am getting sick and tired of the lowly bed bugs and all the press they have been getting – all without the benefit of PR representation, one would assume. While it is true that the articles have not been exactly flattering, there is no such thing as bad press right?

Well, I have a new idea that can cure the "bed bugs ate my headline blues." Please hear me out as this concept just might have some wiggly, squirmy little legs.

I am envisioning a bed bug-enabled news headline embed strategy via a newfangled, 3D, organic press release (or Trojan bug  – do you see where I am going with this)?

Just find a promiscuous bed bug (that should not be too hard), use a little nano surgery to slice it open, drop press release contents in (via recombinant DNA code), stitch the bug up and send it on its merry way (think of the movies The Fly, Fantastic Voyage and The Social Network, all kind of mushed together).

It will be multiplying and spreading your good news in no time at all.

Posted in Fun Stuff | Comments Off on The bed bugs ate my headline! (and the cure for this)

Latest App, the Portable Schm**ck Detector, Combines Sentiment Analysis & Augmented Reality

Posted on November 8, 2010 by rgeller

I am on a caffeine-induced creative tear very early this morning, and am just overflowing with great ideas, so please bear with me and hear me out while the thoughts are fresh in my mind, as they might not seem coherent or even very good in the lights of day and decaf.

At any rate, I was in a new business pitch and the prospect kept bringing up this expression for getting attention – he kept on saying they need to do some “big arm movements,” which I thought was pretty cool way of putting it.

Then, I read in the NY Times about how pollsters are using sentiment analysis to understand social media chatter and take the pulses of voters. It seems like this technology is finding more applications, and getting better and more widely used.

Finally, I thought back to my post on augmented reality – the technology that enriches viewing on a cellphone screen by superimposing data over images captured by the camera.

It occurred to me that a some really smart developers could come up with a breakthrough app that combines image capture, pattern recognition, sentiment analysis and augmented reality. It could be used to analyze hand gestures in real time and then superimpose an avatar or caption defining the person and sentiment being expressed.

I know that this is a bold idea and at first might not be easy to follow, so please take your time, and re-read if necessary to take in and understand the richness and brilliance of it.   Wouldn’t it be great to have your own portable schm**ck detector, to do the following (perhaps some examples will help here):

  • Bird Watcher – Put your field glasses away, this app is not for the naturalist but for the driver – it detects when the middle finger is raised and can help avoid road rage situations
  • Look at me, I am Merlin the Magic Wand Waver – This app detects when someone is holding up your elevator ride – it senses hands being waved like magic wands that trigger the optical detector and cause the door to open – it emits a jamming elecotromagnetic pulse to defeat the waving
  • Hand Waver – Finally, when someone is prolonging and endless meetings via “look at me, call on me, I need to be heard” hand waving, just point your cellphone – it will identify the offender and then emit a loud fire alarm signal to end the meeting
Posted in Fun Stuff | Comments Off on Latest App, the Portable Schm**ck Detector, Combines Sentiment Analysis & Augmented Reality

NY Tech Meetup Wrap

Posted on November 3, 2010 by rgeller

I attended my first NY Tech Meetup event yesterday, and really enjoyed it. At Fusion 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
Posted in Events | Comments Off on NY Tech Meetup Wrap

Assault on the Media: When Politicians Attack

Posted on November 1, 2010 by rgeller

When politicians go on the attack it is a sure sign that it is campaign season, and the targets often are other politicians. However, as the New York Times wrote yesterday, in this election cycle, it would seem that the politicians are fighting mad at the news media.

For as long as there have been politicians and media there has been a tension between the institutions (recall Nixon's famous quote "The press is the enemy" from years ago). Politicians want great press of course, and love to get media endorsements.

However they don't always love the coverage, and recently many (especially on the right) have seemed to drop all pretenses and ignored the conventional wisdom that says you should not pick fights with those who buy ink by the barrelful.

The article lised the the litany of media attacks on journalists.  Please visit the link for the full story, and see below for excerpts.

  • …security guards for Joe Miller, a Republican Senate candidate from Alaska, handcuffed a reporter…
  • Charles B. Rangel, the famously cantankerous Democrat from Harlem, castigated an MSNBC reporter as television cameras rolled… “It’s a dumb question, and I’m not going to respond,” Mr. Rangel said in July, dismissing a question about his ethics violations case before adding a gleeful “Next!”
  • Carl Paladino, the Republican candidate for governor in New York, had to be physically separated from a reporter for The New York Post last month as the two engaged in a tense shouting match…“I’ll take you out, buddy,” Mr. Paladino snarled as he jabbed a finger at the reporter.
  • Sharron Angle, the Republican Senate hopeful in Nevada… recently shushed a local television reporter before he could even ask his question. On Friday, the Angle campaign banned two local television stations from its election night party after their reporters surprised her with questions at the airport.
  • And in Delaware last week, Christine O’Donnell, a Republican Senate candidate, threatened to sue a radio station if it released a video tape of an interview she had just conducted.
  • Sarah Palin, who often appears proudly contemptuous of what she calls “the lame-stream media,” and Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, who has accused the press of treason, have made a sport of needling journalists this year.
Posted in Politics, PR | 1 Comment

Info fire hose? Bring it on!!! Geller’s Gonzo Email Kluge

Posted on October 29, 2010 by rgeller

A couple of minor changes in my email routines and technology have led to a pretty radical transformation in my information consumption habits.

Our agency went to a hosted email Exchange solution, meaning that we can use Outlook to access email from the cloud – we no longer have to be tethered to the LAN to do this.

As with any technology change there are unintended consequences. I have run into some things that are a little irritating, like the need to set up my email signature again. Another side effect that I thought would be irritating, but has actually led to some positive changes, is the fact that all those little nifty rules I had set up to shunt various types of emails into different folders no longer work.

The result is that all email comes in as an uninterrupted stream. At first I thought: Damn! I need to go through the process again of figuring out what to send where, and defining rules for this. That was followed quickly by the thought: Crap! My IT guy is right. I do get a ton of email, and it is a difficult to manage mess.

But a funny thing happened – what at first seemed to be be intense and overwhelming turned into a cure for procrastination and a boon in information discovery.

All the stuff that I used to miss is now right there – search alerts, newsletters, as well as the usual email from friends, clients and colleagues, and yes, spam and pitches for this blog too.

I have developed a new routine where I quickly cycle through email to separate the wheat from the chaff. I flag important emails – e.g. Google search alerts regarding content that might be good blogging or tweeting fodder – by emailing them back to myself for future reference (I know this is a little low tech and scary, but hey it works).

I can hunt these puppies down by sorting by name. I can use my Blackberry email client when I am out and on the run to cycle through email and flag topics in a similar manner – it almost feels like a video game, scan, zoom, pop, forward!

I know that if I don't try to keep up by making email scanning a habit that I tackle several times a day I will miss stuff and probably never see it again. As a result, I have found topics that have turned into nice blog posts and tweets. And, at least so far – I have not missed anything important from clients, family, friends and coworkers.

To make this system perfect I just need to prune all the junk a bit more. Folders and email organization are for pikers!

Posted in PR Tech | Comments Off on Info fire hose? Bring it on!!! Geller’s Gonzo Email Kluge

4 Ingredients for Social Media Monitoring on the Cheap

Posted on October 27, 2010 by rgeller

Take one part open source Web browser (Firefox) – add a tab manager – blend in social search engines  like Google Blog search – combine with a browser plug-in that generates tag clouds – and what do you get?

A cheap and easy way to monitor social media buzz.

If you or your client has money for fancy social media monitoring dashboards, by all means go for it. In the meanwhile, the above recipe can help you keep your fingers on the pulse of the buzz in your space

  1. The browser in this example is Firefox
  2. Twitter and Google blog search engines were used
  3. The tab manager makes it possible to organize groups of browser sessions – each tab can include several instances of Google or Twitter searches tuned for various search phrases
  4. The tag cloud generator shows which words are popping for each search phrase via a cloud at the top of the search results.

I wrote more about this in my post on Social Fluency yesterday, including the specifics about the tag cloud generator that was used

Posted in PR Tech | Comments Off on 4 Ingredients for Social Media Monitoring on the Cheap

Retail Marketing: Tapping the Blogosphere to Drive Demand

Posted on October 25, 2010 by rgeller

The New York Times’ Small Business column had an article about how to get products on retailers’ shelves.  This caught my attention, insofar as I covered a simlar topic in my post Marketing with Social Media on a Shoestring recently.

The column offered a number of tips, ranging from suggestions to start small and local, to engage buyers, go to trade shows, consider a broker etc.  In the realm of social media, writer Eilene Zimmerman suggests tapping into the blogosphere so that buyers call you:

The best way to get your product onto a store’s shelves is to have the buyer call you because customers are asking for it. Those customers have usually read about it — or have heard about it from someone who has read about it.

Send your product to bloggers and ask for feedback to start building a relationship. If they get to know your product, they may write about it.

She goes on to cite a success story in the food products arena.

Posted in In the News, PR Tech | Comments Off on Retail Marketing: Tapping the Blogosphere to Drive Demand

Crowdsource Your Marketing Messages

Posted on October 21, 2010 by rgeller

The approach some companies take in developing marketing messages can seem like managed chaos: throw a bunch of people in a room, jockey for white board positioning and commence mud wrestling as the brainstorming begins.

People from different sides of the company can and should be involved. As with any type of corporate gathering, undercurrents of politics and agendas can taint the process, and where you sit in the food chain and the dynamics of personalities can play roles too.

Discussions about marketing messages inevitably get mixed up with bigger picture product strategy and positioning topics, and the very act of trying to find the right words can be a flash point for disagreement; there’s generally a lot of passion tied up in these things, ideally, anyway.

And then, the messaging stake is put in the ground, the messages are developed, and they sit more or less as is until someone wants to start the messy process all over again.

Just thinking about it for a bit made me think of how outdated this approach to messaging development is – it is insular and just too easy to be tainted by the curse of knowledge – that is people who are too close to the story lose perspective and can’t see it as others do (for more on the curse of knowledge, see Chip and Dan Heath’s great book Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Die and Others Thrive and my post Building Better Memes).

I thought about this while reading an article about a client’s technology on a popular gadget blog. We had struggled with key messages leading up to a new campaign, and came up with ones we thought were good. But upon reading the article, I concluded that this blogger had really nailed it, with a fresh and interesting way of describing the tech.

The flip side of marketers losing control of the message is that we can use the crowd as an ally in message development.

Let’s face it, we are all in the attention game. Everyone wants their content and ideas to rise to the top. Although we can’t force people to adopt our messages, we can listen to the crowd – especially the voices that are skilled in the art of writing in ways that get attention – and use what we learrn tio inspire and inform our messaging development efforts.

Posted in Marketing, PR | Comments Off on Crowdsource Your Marketing Messages

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

Posted on October 15, 2010 by rgeller

One of the more entertaining stories I heard at AdWeekMedia SocialMedia Strategies earlier this week Kevinbacon 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.

Posted in Events, Fun Stuff, PR | 1 Comment