Right now it’s March and that means my mind is wandering to the important questions of life: Does Florida have the talent to repeat? Can Villanova really go to the Sweet 16? Who will this year’s George Mason be? And since I have been invited to be a part of six different brackets, I’m obviously dedicating a few minutes of today to pondering these questions.
Fortunately, I work at a really cool place. My bosses happen to be huge sports freaks so they encourage us to participate in brackets, and actually have two separate games going on in the office. There’s no cost to enter, but there is a cash prize at the end. Starting Thursday, the conference room will have a game on the flat-screen consistently … until we need the conference room for real work.
The understood March Madness law is that no work gets neglected, no client gets ignored, and no job goes undone. But as long as we’re doing what we need to be doing, why not have a little fun?
The Salt Lake Tribune ran this fact in a recent article: “According to Chicago-based firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas Inc., companies stand to lose close to $3.8 billion in worker productivity during the tournament. The firm estimated companies would lose $4.05 for every 13.5 minutes employees viewed games online rather than tending to their duties.”
This could be a compelling argument for business owners to set strict rules about the tournament, but what my bosses understand is that they have employees who care about March Madness and are going to be paying attention to the games whether or not it’s allowed. They don’t want us sneaking around, calling in sick, taking long lunch breaks to watch the game, or constantly checking the Internet for scores. Plus, the bosses care about the games as much as the employees. So they use this common interest as a chance to connect with their employees, and an opportunity to build company morale. We love March around here. And the winner of the bracket REALLY loves March, and our bosses, who provide cash as a reward at the end of the tournament.
Work is just that: work. But I’m impressed with companies that truly recognize that its employees are its most valuable asset. The most important aspect of public relations – and unfortunately, the most overlooked aspect – is INTERNAL relations. You know, relationships with your employees.
I’m not saying you have to make every day a nonstop party. Obviously you’re in business and that means working hard. But encourage your employees to play hard too. Make sure they have lives outside of the office and you are supportive of those lives.
And at least for the next three weeks, let your employees linger a little longer in the break room to watch a close game, or a top seeded team get upset. Because, let’s face it, you know you want to know the score.

To me, this title essentially sums up everything I want to say in this blog. Yesteday I had a client approach me about possibly helping with online branding efforts, but he was incredibly hesitant because it didn’t deal with newspapers or magazines. I conducted a two minute crash course in PR 101, explaining to him that our agency was equipped to handle any number of projects outside the realm of media relations.

Today on my list of things to do, I am working on developing Web site coby, editing radio ad copy, working on a technical writing project that will be a resource guide for a new software program, and trying to get a client on Oprah. And as of yesterday, I’m working on an online branding project.

Public Relations has endured countless definitions since first being introduced. Here at The Intrepid Group, a huge amount of time is dedicated to media relations (essentially, working to get our clients mentioned in the media in a positive light). But beyond that, we can get involved anytime a company is communicating with a public, whether it’s the media, employees, stakeholders, etc.

If your current public relations strategy is limited to media relations alone, I recommend reevaluating your strategy. PR is MUCH MORE than media relations and your PR person will be thrilled to hear you say it.

Here are some things you don’t know about me:

1. I am tired of being passed over for that promotion.

2. I am interested in OEM software from Microsoft.

3. I think getting a PhD online in 4 weeks would really spruce up my resume.

4. I like investing in penny stocks that are going to move!!!

5. I buy a lot of Viagra and C|ali$ online.

6. I am interested in singles in my area.

7. I would like to fire my boss.

8. I deserve a $777 bonus.

9. Zahlen Sie 100EUR/$ ein und spielen Sie mit 400 EUR/$!!!

10. I am looking for a mortgage loan for $437,000.

At least, according to the email I get on a regular basis this is apparently what many marketers assume about me. Here are a few more things they assume about me:

11. I am willing to enter into financial transactions based on emails from people I don’t know.

12. I do not have a problem submitting my credit card information through a website that does not have a secure certificate, has no contact information whatsoever, has no privacy policy, return policy, or anything remotely resembling legal language.

13. I am an idiot.

Have you ever read a few spam subject lines and thought “They wouldn’t keep sending this out if nobody was buying it, so who in the world is buying this stuff?” You might be surprised. Although I searched and searched for it in vain, an article I recently read told of a website selling a male-enhancement product marketed via spam that accidentally published its customer database online long enough for it to be copied and passed around the Internet. The database listed customer names, credit card information, purchase history, etc. From the database a few facts could be pieced together:

1. The website was generating hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue per month. A multi-milliion dollar business.

2. Some of the customers were people you wouldn’t expect to buy such things in response to a spam message (PhDs, politicians, and other publicly recognizable figures).

This was despite the website having no contact information, no secure certificate, and making no promises about whether the customers’ information would be protected. And yet people who should know better were making purchases on this site. That article also detailed how the people running the website only filled about half the orders and never sent out the other half. Why should they? They made it hard for anyone to figure out how to contact them and bug them about it, and who’s going to take the matter to court? You think a state senator is going to contact his local law enforcement officials about something like this?

But this isn’t a post about spam, it’s about marketing. The point is that while you and I would like to assume our customers have a certain level of intellectual ability, the fact of the matter is that some of them may be a few clowns short of a three-ring circus. You might assume that your messaging makes sense to anyone with a brain. You might think your website is easy to navigate. You might think your corporate brochure is designed in a way that does a good job of showing off your product. You might think your brand and your marketing is giving you the best ROI possible. But you might be wrong.

Granted, those who respond to spam are the exception, not the rule. Spam doesn’t work because it is carefully crafted by professionals, it works because of its volume. About 70% of all email is spam, and about 50 people per million respond to spam. Focusing on those 50 to the detriment of the million would be foolish at best. However, frequently companies create marketing pieces that make sense to them, but which not only fly over the head of the 50 but most of the million as well.

When crafting an idea for a billboard or a direct mail piece, designing the interface for your web-based software, or developing a TV spot, you don’t necessarily want to focus on the lowest-common denominator in society as a whole, but it does pay to at least consider focusing on the lowest-common denominator in your target audience. You might be surprised how simple you have to make something in order for it to be as successful as possible.

Having an outside perspective can often help, especially if your company is run by engineers. This might mean hiring a firm, a consultant, a focus group, or talking to a spouse. Although I say this with some reservation because getting an outside opinion can also hurt. Companies have sometimes engaged firms, consultants, and focus groups and spent millions or even billions to market a new product, only to have it fail miserably, despite professional recommendations and positive data. New Coke and some products from Levi’s come to mind. But generally speaking thinking about the issue is better than ignoring it entirely.

Often there’s no way to find out what your customer wants other than throwing a product/service out there and seeing if they buy. After all, that’s the ultimate test. Having a back-up plan in case of an initial failure might be helpful, but the ability to recover from a marketing mistake, learn from it, and then regroup, is what has turned many failures into successes. This capacity will enable you to not only protect yourself from overestimating the customer, but underestimating them as well.

Communications professionals know that the choice of words they use is a key component to messaging to the public. Republican strategist Frank Luntz, the man who coined the phrase ‘Death Tax’, has just written a book titled “Words that Work”. The book discusses the importance of word smithing in communications, and while reviews of the book have been mediocre at best, it does have some interesting case studies, including the coining of the phrase ‘Death Tax’.

Jimmy Carter found this out the hard way when he released his new book on the Middle East, titled “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.” Supporters of Israel were deeply offended by the use of the word apartheid. Or perhaps Carter strategically chose that word, either way; it’s affect created quite a controversy.

There are examples of “word” blunders almost every day, and we’ll see a lot more as we near the 2008 elections. With the advent of new media such as blogs and podcasts, and the influence of the traditional media, it’s more important than ever for communication professional to choose their words wisely. Words matter.

I just overheard a television commercial for a local liposuction practice. The commercial tagline really caught me by surprise: "It's your body, you select it." It sounded really good (which is what an advertisement is suppose to do) but it's a complete lie. Just because it's your body doesn't mean you hold the key to modify your DNA. Not even good marketing can change that. This isn't to say that liposuction is wrong in any way. I'm just commenting that despite what marketers would have you believe, you cannot change your physical appearance with money to complete satisfactory levels. In nearly every case, that comes from within. But when my kids hit adolescence and struggle with their appearance like every other human being does, I'll just lie to them: "It's your body, you select." That was easy.

As a native East Coaster, I rarely find anything to complain about that side of the country. But this past week or so I have watched in surprise as Boston, one of my favorite cities, turned into an anti-guerilla marketing, terrorist stopping machine. How in the world one city got so worked up over a marketing-stunt-turned-bomb-scare is beyond me.

Yes, the East Coast has endured more than its share of disasters. I don’t think any of us truly appreciate or understand the fear that comes from living through a random sniper prowling the streets (DC 2002—my brother’s high school football season was cancelled to keep the kids from being outside and in the line of fire) or a world-stopping terrorist attack (NYC and DC 2001—my mother-in-law was in the Pentagon when it was hit and is still recovering emotionally from that day), and the precautions you find yourself taking to protect the places and people you love. So I give credit to the Boston police force that took the threat seriously and did everything in their power to protect the city.  But at the same time, come on! Chill out! These didn’t look like bombs – they looked like electric, neon signs of cartoon characters flipping the bird. 

After the fiasco that was this campaign, and the amount Turner will be paying out of pocket to get this problem to quiet down and go away, it will be a while before we see another nation-wide guerilla marketing campaign. 

I think the whole thing is an unfortunate series of events. We all know that thanks to TiVo and similar devices, traditional advertising is blocked out, even skipped. People zoom through commercials or use the 2:30 to get up and move around. Most of us don’t even notice ads anymore. Guerilla marketing is currently my favorite to observe and watch. I love the creativity and ingenuity that goes into a single campaign. They’re clever. They push advertisers and marketers to stretch. They’re just fun.

Well, at least until someone sees them as a terrorist threat.

It’s a shame that world events have pushed us to the point that we’re paranoid. But the lesson we can take away from this is that, unfortunately, the world has pushed us to this point. People are scared. They will call the police on anything that could be a bomb threat, from backpacks to envelopes to marketing campaigns. If we aren’t allowed to take water bottles on airplanes, we should anticipate that placing electric signs around major cities may be a problem. This event will make companies and especially advertising agencies pause and think before they act, which may not be a bad thing. The best marketers will be the ones who can examine and foresee any possible backlash on their campaign. Expect the worst case scenario and plan for it. And of course, now we all know: Don’t Mess with Boston. 

I realize this commercial is over a year old, but it still cracks me up. And you gotta watch it a second time for the full klepto goodness. But on an advertising ROI basis, I'm not sure if the ad increases Starburst's bottom-line. It may only be memorable via its wittiness rather than its ability of creating an emotional impulse to buy more Starbursts. Regardless, it's good stuff.

Utah Business, which is generally a pretty poopsky magazine with very trite articles, has a nice little read on the key benefits of blogging. They dub keeping tabs on what's going on in your space by reading blogs as the first benefit of blogs and the marketing power via publishing a blog. Here's a nice blogging for dummies description from the article: “A corporate blog can enhance a company’s brand, build thought leadership, deepen customer relationships by promoting conversations and put forth a human face to a large organization. A blog also provides fresh web content, which gives you more online visibility, attracts search engines and drives more traffic.”

My only beef; if you decide to publish a company blog, don't call it a "corporate blog." Just call it a blog. Personable. Authentic. Sans spin. No direct selling. Blogging: taking the corporate out of companies since 1999. I should trademark that.

This Sunday, this blessed Sunday, is my favorite day of the year. This blog entry might be atypical for a woman, but I was raised on the Washington Redskins and Baltimore Orioles as much as I was politics and history (I’m a DC native). Sports are in my blood. I served as the sports editor at BYU’s newspaper for several years, shocking most of the men reporters under me as I rattled them with statistics, facts and figures that most women roll their eyes at. I can’t throw a football to save my life, but when playoffs and the Super Bowl rolls around… Let’s just say that my life revolves around that magical day. 

The Super Bowl has taken on a life of its own during its unique history. I personally find it appalling that the majority of the watchers now tune in exclusively for the ads, which have a track record of being more uneventful than the game itself. Seldom do you see one ad, or a series of ads, that is worthy of the hype associated with the price point of that :30 spot. 

What is especially noteworthy to me as a PR practitioner — besides the fact that Peyton Manning is getting his well-earned and much deserved chance to wear the ring — is how everyone seems to jump on the Super Bowl bandwagon in order to get some extra publicity. My grocery store and even my bank are offering football related specials. Does it work? Only for the select few who are doing something incredibly different.  After practicing PR for the past five years, I’ve learned that one of the best ways to get PR is to be where the cameras are. Election Day, the post office on Tax Day, the Super Bowl, 4^th of July Events …

The local media consistently covers these stories, and I am shocked that more companies don’t take advantage of these opportunities. For example, we had a spa client and wanted to generate publicity for them around Valentine’s Day, another PRable event. Rather than simply creating a Valentine’s Day package, we partnered with a women’s shelter and provided pampering services and chocolates to the residents leading into the holiday. We were covered by three of the local TV stations and garnered a major newspaper feature. 

The key element to all of this is to be creative and tell a compelling story. If the news is going to be covering it any way, give them a unique angle that no one else will have. Take advantage of big stories – make them work for you. If the media is going to be there, you should be there too. Just be there with something VALUABLE and NEWSWORTHY to say. And if you’re not sure what that is, call and ask a professional who does. 

But don’t call this Sunday. I have a game to watch. 

Mmmm... fonts. Typography. Here's a list of the 100 best fonts as voted by design experts for a German publication. Some of my favorites include Helvetica (no. 1), Futura, and Myriad. Would it be too nerdy to ask what your favorite font is?