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Lessons from PR Week

Lessons from PR Week

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I was lucky enough to talk to Tanya Lewis from PR Week a few weeks ago and to have my headshot and a few paragraphs appear in this week’s PR Week. The article profiles 4 “creatives” promoting greater understanding of social media in PR. Because of the Aug 4 timing, I was very excited to do this as I could discuss the work my team will be doing covering real long-tail athlete stories on the ground in Beijing over at http://summergames.lenovo.com and at www.twitter.com/lenovo2008.

The online article is behind a subscriber-only firewall and the print article is on Page 13 so, being new to PR, I pretty much assumed this would be the veritable tree falling in the forest. Not so. Here’s what I learned this week:

  • Print is alive and well in certain sectors – evidently, I have a lot of colleagues and friends who comb every page of PR Week.
  • News of print coverage travels fast online through social media. Change blogger and former colleague Qui Diaz was quick to tweet her congratulations and I have received emails from a range of folks I hadn’t heard from in a while.Small
  • But most interesting? Everyone who wants to be perceived as creative has their headshot done in front of a brick wall. ALL 4 individuals from the article had done this. I was lucky that mine looked slightly different as it was taken in front of a “Beware of the Dog” mural in an alley in Greenville (thank you Brains on Fire). Evidently, I’m going to have to think of something really nutty – swinging from a trapeze? – to set me apart from the rest of the “creative” PR set. Any suggestions?
Presidential “Word Cloud” in Print WashPo

Presidential “Word Cloud” in Print WashPo

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Today’s Sunday Washington Post features a comparison of the “word clouds” created by John McCain and Barack Obama’s respective blogs. The immediate point is that Obama is the biggest topic for both blogs, but that’s not why I care. Tag CloudWe know that reporters use blogs for story ideas and leads on quotes, but seeing something as run of the mill in Web 2.0 as a tag cloud appearing in the Sunday print edition is a very visible example of convergence. Now if only I could somehow use the print terms to sort reading the rest of the zillion pages in the Sunday edition, we’d really be in e-business.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that these lovely clouds are the creation of Wordle.

Tom’s Walks the WOM

Tom’s Walks the WOM

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Ben at Church of the Customer and John at Brand Autopsy have kindly shared the remarkable story of Tom’s Shoes. In a nutshell:

Strategy: Passion + a Simple Mission

For every pair you purchase, TOMS will give a pair of shoes to a child in need. One for One

Ton Shoe’ing a Baby

Advertising Budget: $0. To quote the founder, “It’s hard to do advertising in a personal way” Marketing dollars are spent on getting involving customers in the mission – truly cutting the marketing clutter. In an MSNBC interview, a retailer explains that the shoes started selling after posting a picture of the shoes being handed out and the mission over the display.

Results:

  • 60,000 pairs donated and a goal of 200,000 by the end of 2008.
  • People who think the shoes are ugly on first glance (including me) purchasing them and breathlessly waiting for them to arrive.
  • A growing army of volunteer marketers who want to be asked about their ugly shoes so they can tell the story.

I am equally excited about the shoes, mission and conversational capital that I just bought!

Noise Counter Cuts Marketing Clutter

Noise Counter Cuts Marketing Clutter

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Noise Awareness from PSFKPSFK featured a set of European billboards that display live readings of the noise level in the locations where they are posted. I guess we have become to immune to irrelevant clutter – both visual and auditory – that we now need a billboard to remind us of the decibel level and the value of products that can shut it out.

Because the product it is selling – a quiet Electrolux washing machine reduces the noise pollution in your home environment, I’d definitely rate this as efficient, clutter free marketing. Even in billboard form.

Sleep: Luxury and Emotion

Sleep: Luxury and Emotion

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In our crazy world, time is the new luxury. And it’s not just awake time – it’s the time we spend sleeping that sometimes gets treated as a luxury instead of the precious necessity it is. You probably know that sleep is critical to everything from your ability to focus mentally to the appearance of your skin and weight maintenance. It’s as necessary as breathing, but people are passionate about sleep. They love sleep. They desire sleep. And when they figure out how to get good sleep, they become evangelists.

I came to realize just how deep this passion runs through some work for my (DISCLAIMER) client Select Comfort that I have been “taking home” with me – getting more sleep. Select Comfort, has an online promotion encouraging people to celebrate summer by getting an extra hour of sleep each night, and in so doing being entered to win a new bed. It has been fun to watch the emotion this topic has sparked. In addition to entires, comments on the blog post announcing the promotion have included concerns about sleep interruptions from pets, snoring spouses, stress, and babies (ok, I added the baby one, because that’s a concern in our house). Read the full comments here.

I am taking the challenge myself and can definitely tell the difference in my life when I get extra rest. If you could use more shuteye or just want to see what’s going on, click on the badge to check it out.