Month: March 2003

Media buzz is buzzing….  

Deborah Branscum is back blogging regularly and it’s a recommended blog for anyone interested in some interesting views on the media world.

Whether or not you agree with Deborah’s point-of-view (and I do in most cases) it’s thought provoking stuff.

Among the more recent postings was reportage on the comments from a Fleishman-Hillard exec:

“Feed a Flack, Bomb Iraq sez PR Watch about this lovely little item from the fine folks at O’Dwyers: ” ‘Let’s have this damn war and get it over with it,’ said Doug Dowie, a senior vice president at the Fleishman-Hillard PR firm. Speaking at a Los Angeles meeting of the Public Relations Society of America, Dowie complained that uncertainty connected with the Iraq war has paralyzed client spending. ‘The sooner we get there the better off most of us are going to be,’ he predicted.” (subscribers only: http://www.odwyerpr.com/members/0303get_iraq_over_with.htm)”

Google Dancing….  

Well Google is finishing it’s search update for the month.  Find out more at Google Dance.

The ultimate conference giveaway….

Picture the scene.

You are sitting around the conference table with the marketing group.  You are half way through planning and organizing a user conference for your customers. The venue is booked, you have the entertainment, your partner conference hall is fully booked out.  Thousands of your customers are already confirmed, the media is showing high levels of interest in attending. Everyone is motivated and ready.

Towards the end of today’s agenda is an item concerning attendee packs.  You know the usual stuff, conference guides, computer bags etc.  Someone to your left pipes up.

“I’ve a great idea,” he blurts.  Everyone turns to him.

“Let’s give all the attendees dolls in the image of our executive team with bobbing heads.”

Do you: a) Ask the proposer to take a drug test or b) Break into spontaneous applause?

Here’s what one company decided.

Miscellaneous PR…. 

I found an interesting posting on Nick Denton’s blog from last May.  It’s an excerpt from a leaked internal memo from a large (un-named) PR firm detailing how to approach bloggers.

MediaMap‘s newsletter this month covers; fundamentals of successful pitching, helping your client publish a book, reminders for a successful press interview, the importance of media relationships and the lessons to be learned from how NASA handled their most recent crisis.   

The Register has a story on Microsoft’s pre-launch of Office 2003 which pokes fun at their use of NDA’s with journalists.

Strategic Marketing Montreal has a very informative article on how to think better!

Finally a Technology Marketing story on how iMakeNews is looking to jump on the blogging bandwagon.

Sound Analysts Relations Advice….. 

I’ve mentioned the Knowledge Capital Group here before, they’re a Texas based firm that offers analyst relations services to both PR firms and PR clients.  Their monthly newsletter AR Insider is well written and gives some excellent information and sound advice on dealing with industry analysts.  This month looks at IDC and the top issues facing analyst relations in 2003.

Although they are in the business of selling Analyst Relations services and sometimes they overplay the role of AR :-), nonetheless their newsletter is very valuable to anyone working with analysts.

KCG are hosting two free webinars in March on �The AR response to the challenges facing the Industry Analyst Community�. The events take place on Tuesday, March 18th at 3:30 pm CST and Wednesday, March 19th at 11:00 am CST.  For more information call or e-mail Stephen England at 512.334.5943.

PR news from around the web….   

Interesting piece in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on how the downturn is encouraging marketing professionals to strike out on their own.

Fitzgerald Communications has appointed Steven Casey to the newly created position of President.  This is Casey’s second stint at Fitzgerald, he returns from Iona Technologies (one of my alma maters!) where he was vice president of corporate marketing.

An article from Australian magazine Crikey on how Public Relations can assist large companies in reputation management if they are committed to transparency and honesty.

OnPhilanthropy.com looks at how Public Relations can help NPO’s.

Flash Hall of Shame….

Our twenty fifth entrant to the PR Flash Hall of Shame is an Irish entry.  MRPA Consultants.  No Flash introduction here, oh no, they take over your entire screen and your browser. Urrghghhh….

Films and that thing you do on the Web…..  

OK, OK this is my last post on blogging today as it’s a little like a writer writing about writing if you catch my drift.

While I was catching up on James Horton’s always readable PR Thoughts, I came across his post about a new independent film called “I Love Your Work” which has a blog to accompany the film’s production and keep fans informed.

As James points out, the fact that the blog has to be run through the director, producer and actors reduces some of it’s impact but still it’s a fantastic idea for communicating with your audience, feeding advance publicity and building interest.

More on marketing and blogs….    

Further to the story yesterday on Dr. Pepper’s blog for its new drink, I found the firm behind the idea, Richards Interactive, who modestly bill themselves as “one of the top online strategy teams in the country.”

They run Project Blogger which aims to recruit bloggers who will agree to look at clients’ products.  They highlight three areas for bloggers to remember:

1. This isn�t advertising. We don�t give you big ads to run and pay you per viewer. We put our clients� product(s) in your hands and let you discuss it as you would anything else on your blog.

2. We will not, repeat WILL NOT, tell you what to write. You�ve worked hard to build your site and audience. We�d be foolish to mess with something that works.

3. We work hard to protect our clients. We won�t work with sites that continue to link to porn or other objectionable or offensive material. We realize that�s how many sites pay the bills. But while working on our project, we require that the content stay PG-13. 

Sound like PR?

More bad news on the publishing front…

According to Internet Week, Salon had until last Saturday to come up with $200,000 for the magazine’s landlord. Thanks to poor results last month, the company had warned investors that it might have to cease trading.

Following on so quickly from the news of the demise of Red Herring this is an awful pity.  Salon regularly publishes new, fresh mainstream content, it would be a shame to see it fail.