Archive for the ‘Team Play’ Category

PR Horizon Management: Pointing Clients Toward New Territory, Long-Term Results

Thursday, October 29th, 2009

Posted by Tom Gable

The public relations profession faces many challenges in these hardscrabble times. Clients are holding tight, cutting their public relations budgets or simply saying goodbye. Competitors swoop in, looking for hints of weakness in a client-agency relationship. Business consulting, advertising and marketing firms aren’t far behind, promoting their tool kits as a means of not only surviving but growing in touch economic times. What steps can agencies take to ensure that their clients are incredibly pleased with the work being done, the results generated on their behalf and the agency relationship?

Based on lessons learned from working through three previous recessions (some better than others!), I’ve come to realize that success in client service and retention requires a manic sense of urgency to deliver short-term results combined with a disciplined approach to creativity and long-range planning. Smart agencies provide clients with ideas and strategic plans that will be generating results six, nine and twelve months into the future. The best way to get the agency or in-house team pointed in the right direction and taking action: create a system and process to drive results.

Developing Your System

At Gable PR, we experimented with different approaches in the 1992 recession. The goal was to have clients envision gaining market share and mind share from their competitors by committing to pro-active public relations. Statistics from several sources provided validation; the companies that continued marketing in troubled times grew faster than those who didn’t. We began calling our system “horizon management” and worked to get the client on board for sailing together toward new and beneficial destinations.

As recently presented during a recent PRSA Webinar and based on longer lessons found in The PR Client Service Manual, pro-active systems work best with an interactive team process; the more brainpower the better. One approach is to hold regular meetings every Monday to update on all client activities. For long-term impact, use the meeting to brainstorm new ideas for each client on a rotating basis. Chose one client or two as the subjects for the next meeting. Have the team leader or account manager review background information in advance of the session, including client calendars, milestones, known events and activities, conference schedules, editorial calendars and focus editions.

The Planning Spreadsheet

Then, to make it easy for everyone to visualize the flow of activities and critical deadlines, plot your plan on a project management program or Excel spreadsheet. List activities in the first column, months in the subsequent columns over the next year or two and put in check marks to note when activities or events are expected to take place.  A rough sample can be found here on the Gable PR Web site.

Then, during the creative session, analyze each opportunity and see what result might be generated to advance the client’s business, marketing or capital plans, or all of the above. Envision media relations, community relations, investor relations, social media activities, trade relations and public affairs opportunities unfolding across time.

Agency teams can brainstorm on the tactical approaches within each area, set priorities and also get creative in looking at what we call “the flip side” — what’s there and, more importantly, what’s not there? The initial road map gives the agency a simple planning document to track, and makes it easy to take detours and add new side trips while still keeping the original destinations in mind as the program unfolds.

From Brainstorm to Masterful, Strategic PR Plan

With team brainpower, the agency has now created a master plan for the year, with a series of new ideas it can present to the client, implement and keep updating with creative sessions that are adjusted to point to new horizons. Clients get excited. They see the agency as creative, intuitive, pro-active and worth keeping! New ideas can also drive new budgets.

The flip side is sitting back and bemoaning the lower budget and managing for time, not results. This inevitably ends up with the client calling to ask one of the worst questions on earth for an agency: “What have you done for me lately?”

Every agency’s mission, as well of those on internal PR staffs on the client side, should be ensure you do great work both lately and for the long-term. Techies call this parallel processing. Handle the daily tasks with alacrity and skill while working on your horizon program that generates results that go beyond the ordinary and expected for every client. The approach creates value and ROI for the client and relationships that endure to perpetuity (well, maybe not quite that long, but potentially for years and even decades).

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Posted in Authentic PR, Brilliant Counsel, Client Service Results, Horizon Management, In the Beginning, Team Play | 1 Comment »

SD Kicks for Kids; Chargers’ Cause Marketing PR Campaign Scores

Friday, October 2nd, 2009
 

Kaeding Kicks for Kids

Kaeding Kicks for Kids

Posted by Krista Rogers

In light of our San Diego Chargers’ first of many wins for the 2009 season, we thought it would be appropriate to highlight some of the other ways the team is scoring points off the field and within the community. 

For the second time, the San Diego Chargers are teaming up with The Ronald McDonald House to help raise funds for the non-profit organization that provides on-site housing for families with hospitalized children. Ronald McDonald Houses around the U.S. offer families a way to stay together, in proximity to the treatment hospital, and be comfortable and cared for during their stay.

Two of the Chargers kickers – Pro Bowl place kicker Nate Kaeding and one of the NFL’s top punters, Mike Scifres – have joined forces in a cause marketing campaign called SD Kicks for Kids that exemplifies all that a successful cause marketing campaign should entail.

The basic premise of the campaign is to have donors pledge a certain amount of money per kick for each of Nate’s field goals and Mike’s punts inside the 20 yard line. For example, if you pledge $10 per field goal and Nate kicks 20 field goals this season, you will have pledged $200 at the end of the season. In addition, donors will receive other perks from their giving, including being entered in a raffle to win a pizza party with Nate and 20 of your friends at the end of the season. Immediate rewards for giving

While the Ronald McDonald House may not have a direct correlation to the football team, the two joining forces together is original, creates a sense of community, brings people who may not normally follow the Chargers to pay attention to the games, and connects football fans with a cause they may not previously been aware of.

Cause marketing campaigns are a great way to create positive buzz about your company and create support for the non-profit organization; it truly is a win-win situation. Gable PR encourages its clients to participate in cause marketing campaigns to give back something to the community that’s been good to you. Here are a few tips to consider when engaging in a cause related marketing campaign.

1. Be original: Although contributing to The Ronald McDonald House isn’t groundbreaking, tying the success of the Charger’s kickers with donations is innovative and ties the pledge to something that’s both fun and easily measurable. The more novel your strategy, the more interested the media will be in covering your efforts.

2. Pick a cause that is significant to your brand or your target audience. In this example, the Chargers are reaching out to the local community and Charger fans.

3. Get the word out! Let people know what you are doing and take initiative in creating buzz around your campaign. Spread the word through public relations, public service announcements on television and radio, scoreboard mentions, email blasts, billboards and cost-free communication networks such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

4. Reward giving: While just donating may be rewarding enough for some people, instant perks such as receiving an exclusive membership into “Nate’s Locker” after every game (an e-newsletter with get an email update from Nate sharing his take on the game) and an official Kicks for Kids magnet reminds people that you recognize their donations. Reminders of the donations and a quick thank you will go a long way toward enhancing the relationship.

5. Set Goals: Set realistic goals and share with the community when you have reached them. Having a tangible goal and seeing it achieved will make the people contributing feel good about their donations and your organization. Be specific about how the money is going to be used. SD Kicks for Kids has a FAQ page that answers all of those questions. It’s best to be conservative in setting your goals so you can announce early victory!

5. Celebrate: Let the world know when you have achieved your milestones and say thank you to the people that have made contributions. In some cases, it may be appropriate to hold a media event to hand over the check for the money raised directly to representatives of the cause (how about Kaeding and Scifres in uniform handing a check to the Ronald McDonald character at the 50 yard line during half time of a nationally televised game?). With creativity, a company can generate positive media attention and continue the push to make more people aware of the cause.

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Posted in Authentic PR, Brilliant Counsel, Client Service Results, Hype Free PR, Leverage, Team Play | 1 Comment »

The One-Minute News Cycle; Social Media Critical in Crisis PR

Wednesday, August 12th, 2009

Deep, Fast Searching

Deep, Fast Searching

Posted by Liz Dill

According to an article in The Wall Street Journal entitled, “For Companies, a Tweet in Time Can Avert PR Mess,” many large corporations such as Ford, Southwest Airlines and Pepsi are creating social media teams. By closely monitoring social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.) they can quickly identify potential issues, analyze customer feedback in real-time and craft effective communications strategies to deal with the breaking issue while protecting the reputation of the organization. The article specifically mentions a situation where a Southwest Airlines flight had to make an emergency landing and their emerging media team was able to scan social media sites for passenger response to the incident, and then was able to craft an appropriate message on behalf of the Airline based on their findings.

In an ideal world of strategic public relations, goals are set, actions carefully planned, core messages thoughtfully crafted and outcomes weighed. The same systematic approach is particularly important when confronted with a crisis situation. Avoid the urge to launch a quick reactive response. Use all the resources available to gather information and create an intelligent, insightful situation analysis on the impact of the situation in both short and long term. Gable PR has detailed checklist to help in the process.

Analyze the results and determine the strategic response. With the impact of social media and the impact on the velocity of news and buzz, clients, organizations and their PR professionals need to be up-to-the minute. Look beyond Google News and the other news trackers to monitor the pulse of the conversations and emerging tones in real time. Without intense scrutiny of the social media universe, an organization could see a small incident gain global buzz and quickly escalate into a larger PR crisis – one with long-term impact that extends beyond the short-term issue.

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Mine Magazine: The Future of Media (and Media Relations?)

Thursday, May 28th, 2009

News for you!

News for you!

Posted by Erin Koch

Slate.com this week provides a fascinating look at a new type of personalized magazine from Time Inc. The magazine, called Mine, polls subscribers on their interests and then pulls content from different sources to produce, print, and mail a customized magazine tailored specifically to those interests.

Slate’s Farhad Manjoo thinks this model has oodles of merit: most Sports Illustrated subscribers probably don’t subscribe to The New Yorker – but would probably love to read that publication’s sports-related stories. And I don’t subscribe to Entertainment Weekly – but I’ll confess I would be more than happy to read its review of the new Star Trek movie.

This hyper-personalized approach to providing content is also highly relevant for PR practitioners. Major hits (such as a story in a high-circulation publication like the Wall Street Journal) still have their place in PR and can make a big impact on a business. But many of today’s businesses are more interested in reaching a narrow audience in a very specific way (think industry e-newsletters or blogs or even word-of-mouth). One of our clients at Gable PR recently told us “I don’t want the front page, I just want to get in front of potential clients.”

This means that the PR approach – like Mine magazine – must be highly personalized. A good agency will first learn all they can about a business’ target audience – and the right way to reach them. Who are the decision makers? What messages will influence them? And, most importantly, what are the best methods (media) to make those messages top-of-mind?

In other words, PR firms should follow the Mine magazine model: poll their clients’ key audiences on what they want, and then provide it – in a format that is highly customized and designed to generate results.

Photo Credit: faeryboots

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Posted in Brilliant Counsel, Client Service Results, Clutter Busting, Horizon Management, Hype Free PR, In the Beginning, Team Play | Comments Off

Business Week Editor, Top PR Pros Offer Social Media Tips

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009

Posted by Tom Gable

The recent annual meeting of IPREX, an international network of leading independent PR firms, featured a heavyweight panel on new approaches to PR. The moderator was John A. Byrne, editor-in-chief of Business Week and the panel included senior corporate communications professionals from Bausch Lomb, GE, Kodak, MasterCard, Pfizer, Swiss Re and Viacom. More than 60 professionals from 15 countries and 29 U.S. cities attended the meeting in New York City.

The expert panelists all agreed that major corporations need to invest in building reputations from the ground up with every tool available and by involving the entire organization, from clerk to chairman. Failure could come quickly with partial commitments, insincerity and non-authentic approaches, which will be discovered quickly and magnified in lightning speed through the social media.

The panelists agreed that a key element in PR for the future is ensuring that communication becomes more two-way and engaging and takes on a human voice, avoiding corporate speak.

Gary Sheffer, executive director, corporate communications and public affairs, GE, said his firm has had a tough year. It’s reputation is dented. The economy has gone through a reset and his company is resetting PR to be more human, taking advantage of the “300,000 people around the world who have a passion for what they do” and 500,000 retirees. They have hired journalists to handle the blogging, and the program has been liberating for communications as it adds a new strategic component.

Ray Kerins, of Pfizer, said his company is a “$50 billion start up” with new management, new focus and a new structure. They are focused on fixing the Pfizer reputation. “We make life-saving medicines. How can our reputation be bad?” Jeff Kindler, the CEO, is focusing on reputation being driven by employees, from the sales representatives all the way up. Esteem, admiration and trust are key drivers, plus good governance, Kerins said.

Barbara Pierce, APR, public relations director, Kodak, used the social media to fight back when The Wall Street Journal ran an inaccurate story. Kodak responded with Twitter and blogging. They taped a video and put it on FaceBook and YouTube to refute the WSJ. They briefed industry analysts and used Twitter and Email to point everyone to the video while pursuing a correction with WSJ editors, which ran the next day.

Michael McDougall, APR, vice president, corporate communications, Bausch Lomb, said building trust and confidence are essential drivers of reputation. Who do you trust? This gives organizations the opportunity to be strategic in their communications and perform as promised.

Harvey W. Greisman, senior vice president, worldwide communications, MasterCard, fights the perception that MasterCard is at fault for high interest rates on credit cards, rather than the financial institutions issuing the cards. He advocated using social media depending on the target.

He advised the IPREX members and guests from several NYC-based corporations to look at all targets and how you reach them and plan to engage them. Respond quickly and transparently. He said his organization is even looking forward to more direct communication with its opponents.

The key takeaways from the panel:

  • Focus on building reputation for the long term
  • Integrate social media in your strategic PR plan to get there
  • Develop a human voice
  • Build a culture of pro-active communications
  • Use all the tools available (make video an important part of the tool kit)
  • Listen
  • Be authentic
  • Be responsive
  • Admit when something is amiss
  • Reset as needed

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Posted in Brilliant Counsel, Client Service Results, Horizon Management, Hype Free PR, Social Media, Team Play | 1 Comment »

California’s Election: $15 Billion vs. $21 Billion vs. Who Cares?

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

Posted by Erin Koch

When I worked for county supervisor (now state assemblyman) Jim Beall back in 2001, the City of San Jose and County of Santa Clara reached an agreement on sharing redevelopment funds. Government types thought this was a big deal. But as Beall’s media guy, I recognized that no one, most notable the media, would really care unless we could find a very human way to illustrate the impact of the merger.

The answer: having a family living in one of the redevelopment zones speak at a press conference about their hopes and dreams for improving their neighborhood. Four TV cameras showed up and we earned great coverage on the evening news.

This brings us to this week’s special election in California. Four of five budget-related initiatives on the ballot lost, increasing our state’s budget deficit from $15 billion to $21 billion budget. The only one that passed: limiting salary increases for state legislators and constitutional officers in years of budget deficits. Why did this happen? The reasons cited by the Sacramento Bee and others are too numerous to list in a single blog post. But in short, very few voters knew what was at stake in how it would impact them in real-life terms. The ballot language was confusing on each and considered deceitful by some pundits. Then, talk to a voter about increasing the budget deficit and you’ll get a yawn. But show them a classroom of eight year olds who will soon struggle with 30+ other students in their class (versus 20) and you will have their attention.

Governor Schwarzenegger and the state legislature must now make drastic budget cuts – and many in California will indeed soon experience firsthand the personal impacts. Could the outcome have been different?

This is the type of communications challenge that creative and strategic agencies love. How to tell a story in a compelling way that gets into the frontal lobes of a target audience in a way that moves them to act. It isn’t easy. The process requires a committed campaign finance committee to support sound (often extensive) audience research, brainstorming on evocative key messages to bring the issue to life, research into the best media to use for delivering the message, and, most importantly, consistent fact-based follow-through according to a strategic plan, yet one with the flexibility to adjust as the dynamics of the campaign change.

Are you facing a similar communications challenge in your company, organization, institution or public entity? Is your message getting through? Do you know how to bring your vision and attributes to life in a compelling and human way? If not, we’d be pleased to provide a quick Creative Audit at no cost to give you something to think about going forward. Please email me (erin.koch [at] gablepr.com) with Creative Audit in the subject line.

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Branding South Korea: Better Than the North?

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009

Posted by Tom Gable

The Los Angeles Times ran a story Sunday on how South Korea is spending millions of dollars to develop a national brand. The headline: “How about, ‘South Korea: Way better than you think it is’?”

The story noted:
• 40 percent of foreigners polled on country image cited its lack of “charm.”
• It is linked to North Korea, rogue nation headed by the bizarre Kim Jong Il.
• South Korea ranked 33 of 50 nations in a recent Nation Brands Index (Germany was No. 1, the United States No. 7).
• It has formed a Presidential Council on Nation Branding with a goal of moving to 15th place by 2013.
• The government also wants to “globalize” Korean cuisine, moving it to among the world’s top five by 2017.

Will a few slogans and expensive promotional and advertising programs move the image in the desired direction?

Euh Yoon-dae, head of the Presidential Council on Nation Branding, was quoted as saying: “We’re trying to advance the identity of Korea. It’s the substance rather than the brand itself. We want to walk the walk rather than just talk up some new advertising campaign.”

The branding czar nailed it. The question: can South Korea walk the talk?

Images and reputations build over time based on a consistent flow of positive evidence, or proof of principle as the engineers and scientists call it. It could be compared to creating a great tapestry or painting to hang in the Louvre. Thousands of strands of color need to be strategically woven together or dabbed creatively over time to create a work of art for your admiring publics. The work is authentic, original and compelling.

The process to move image in the right direction is fairly straightforward for a company, organization, individual, cities states and even nations:

1. How do you want to be known two, three, five, ten or twenty years from now?
2. Is it realistic and attainable?
3. What do you stand for (your position)?
4. What are the three or four core values and points of differentiation that support the position?
5. What evidence will be rolled out over time to validate each of those core values and add to the lore?
6. Who are your most important target audiences?
7. How do you integrate communications strategies to reach each consistently and creatively over time to move perception in the desired direction and motivate them to action?
8. What about the negatives? Worst case scenarios? Push back? Criticism and cynicism? Competitive counter-attacks? Lack of core values? Over-hyped attributes?
9. How to analyze and change tactics and strategies as needed?
10. Is the organization totally committed to the program?
11. Are there other factors that might influence the program (economic, political, sociological, etc.)?
12. How do we measure success?

Can South Korea achieve its goal of going from No. 33 to 15 in brand image in less than five years? Some might consider the task to be more like an assault on Everest than a casual walk to Reputationland.

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Chumby: Cuddly or Awkward? A Targeting Success Story

Thursday, April 23rd, 2009
A Pride of Chumbies

A Pride of Chumbies

Posted by Erin Koch

Xconomy, one of our favorite online news sources, has a story this week on the Chumby – a cuddly/awkward touch-screen digital device that can be customized to do what the user wants.What caught our eye was Chumby co-founder Duane Maxwell’s comments about the Chumby marketing campaign (from the Xconomy article) – specifically the fact that the company intentionally made the device controversial:
Sure enough, the Internet is full of passionate debate over the Chumby-between ardent fans and strident critics.

But the controversy over the Chumby is exactly what its developers wanted. Maxwell says they never spent a dime on marketing. “This is another net phenomenon. We didn’t have the budget for Apple-style mass marketing, but it turns out that word of mouth-particularly among hackers and technically sophisticated people-carries a lot more weight than advertising. So we made an effort to target them.”

Word-of-mouth marketing – particularly when it is fueled by effective messages targeted at the right audience – has always been one of the most effective catalysts to action (in Chumby’s case, the target audience was the technically sophisticated and the desired action was both debate about and purchase of the product). And they did a great job as covered by the Washington Post, The Street, New York Times, among others.

But how do you get from a clear goal to a desired result? At Gable PR, we always recommend audience research as a first step to any PR effort. Who are your target audiences? Which messages will move them to act? And what are the best channels and methods for getting those compelling messages into the hearts and, minds and frontal lobes of your targets?

For those who want instant results, headlines, and customers/investors/partners, we remind them that even if you know where you want to go, it could be a longer and more complex trip than initially imagined. And you’re more likely to get there if you have a well-planned roadmap before you back the car out of the driveway.

Photo by Andrea Kizsa

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Is Twitter the new Facebook?

Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009

Posted by Liz Dill

With the phenomenal growth, continued media hype and celebrity backing of Twitter, is the microblogging site becoming more popular than Facebook?

According to a posting on Socialtimes.com, a blog that analyzes social media, Twitter has surpassed 14 million users, up over 76.8 percent since last month when we wrote that they had surpassed 8 million users. This tally was before the Oprah effect that jumped traffic 40 percent in one day. Although Facebook has over 90 million users, the rapid growth of Twitter puts their projected year end user number at 50 million.

In my opinion, both have pros and cons. Twitter is incredibly interactive and you can reach far beyond your circle of friends, but the functionality of the site is limited (find other users, send messages, replies) and updates are restricted to only 140 characters. Facebook on the other hand has a multitude of functionality (find people, make connections, instant messaging, video sharing, etc.) but on the downside is more difficult to navigate and update. In terms of creating a sense of community, Facebook wins the battle hands down.

Both networks should definitely be included in every savvy PR practitioners toolkit to use when it makes sense for their client. Depending on the goals and targets of your PR campaign, one of the outlets might be a bit more effective over the other. Here’s a few tips:

1. Twitter can often breaks news faster than other sources
2. If increasing traffic to your site is your goal, Facebook seems to be the outlet to use due to the sheer number of users.
3. Twitter can work as a quick, easy and inexpensive opinion poll on your company/product.
4. Since friends and “opt in” to see your messages, your messages will be targeted to people who are interested in your product/service.
5. By using “Twitter Search” you can see if someone’s talking about your company and you can participate where it makes sense. This is a great way to monitor and participate in what is said about your company online.

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Crisis PR: Speed Now a Deciding Factor in Success

Tuesday, April 21st, 2009

Posted by Tom Gable

The debate about how well Domino’s and Amazon handled their recent crises raised a new priority for crisis management PR: speed to respond. He who hesitates in lost, particularly when faced with millions of observers and critics circulating instant updates via Twitter and FaceBook, then posting evidence of any transgressions via blogs and on YouTube and Flickr, to be followed by mainstream media coverage, such as in the L.A. Times.

This increased need for speed led us to review crisis management programs conducted over the years for common threads. The most successful programs included:

1. Developing a crisis PR plan well in advance
2. Rehearsing the plan regularly (including surprise mock disasters)
3. Setting up news tracking, media and social media and other research tools for 24/7 monitoring
4. Launching your plan and responding immediately to even the slightest hint of pending crisis, even if only to let all targets know you don’t have all the answers but will get back to them as soon as you do
5. Following up consistently and in a human voice
6. Being aggressive at countering rumors and inaccurate information
7. Analyzing the trends in coverage, buzz
8. Adjusting the program as needed to meet new issues, attacks

That’s the short course. To help determine how fast to move and the steps to take in an emerging crisis, we created a five-page outline that helps quickly walk through the details of dealing with a crisis. The outline can be adapted to individual company or organizational needs. The concept is to be as professional, pro-active and quick as possible in responding to the crisis, to the ultimate benefit of long-term reputation and, often, company survival. If you’re interested in taking a look at the outline, please click here: Gable PR Crisis Outline.

Reputations can be made, severely damaged or even destroyed in a crisis, particularly in the new age of omnipresent reporting/scrutiny/criticism. Responding immediately, strategically and with integrity and confidence, can make a difference.

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