Manhattan Marketing Maven

Ann Taylor Tries to Buy Off Bloggers

Ann Taylor tried to schmear a bunch of bloggers and almost got busted by the FTC. This is good news because it will force bloggers to shill less and will put lazy PR guys on notice that payola shouldn’t be the currency of choice in the blogsphere.

Here are the facts, as reported by Ad Age:

• Ann Taylor invited selected bloggers to preview the Summer 2010 Loft collection
• They promised those posting articles would be eligible for a “special gift”
• The “mystery card drawing” offered gift cards valued from $50 to $500
• To cash in bloggers had to submit their posts to the company within 24 hours
• There was a sign at the event reminding bloggers that FTC rules require disclosure

Whoever thought this campaign up clearly believes that “pay for play” is the rule in dealing with bloggers. The on-site signage was a CYA move that didn’t really fake out the FTC. This is an effort to get right up to the line and exploit bloggers in ways that are impossible in dealing with official journalists.

Somebody probably thought that for a few bucks they might ignite a lot of attention because if they could get some action and attention on blogs, mainstream writers, who generally monitor blogs in their vertical coverage areas, might pile on. And eventually a PR snowball would build into serious coverage and some virility. I can visualize the pitch session, can’t you?

Instead it didn’t really work, the campaign invited unwanted scrutiny from the FTC and the whole affair sullied the brand. Ann Taylor ducked the enforcement bullet because it was their first offense and because the only got a couple of stories and some of the bloggers actually disclosed the gifts.

Shame on them. Ann Taylor has a legitimate story and should tell it in a legitimate way. Buying bloggers is bullshit and AT customers deserve better. [Full disclosure : I’m an AT loyalist . I led the team that launched their first e-commerce site in 1999.]

Bloggers, yours truly included, can’t always be looking for freebies or have their hands out. Hordes of bloggers have taken all kinds of merchandise from desperate or cheap retailers and lazy PR people for years.

But netizens aren’t stupid. They see through the scams, they smell the shills and they instinctively understand when they are being conned. The FTC rules and the surprising FTC scrutiny combined with the nascent threat of enforcement is a welcome activity to keep the blogsphere honest.

Online PR Tactics Are Changing the Game

The Internet prompts tectonic shifts in the way PR and media relations will be done now and in the future. Technology, economics and changing public sensibilities have changed the PR game forever, though you’d never know it from talking to agency publicists.

 

Start with the basic PR assumptions:

 

1. PR influences mass media to put ideas, products and brands into the public consciousness and conversation
2. PR works through editorial decision-makers who set the national or global news agenda
3. PR targets large audiences to accelerate and optimize brand impact and buzz
4. The value of the implied third-party endorsement combined with the speed and reach of influence-able media makes PR worth the effort

 

Now consider the current media and editorial landscape:

• Mass media audiences have significantly declined and fragmented. Niche media rules.

• Famous vehicles like daily newspapers, Time, Newsweek and the national nightly TV news have much smaller audiences and cannot keep up with the news cycle.

• The number of journalists and name columnists and their relative influence is declining.

• The power of editors to shape the national or news agenda is much less than ever before.

• Almost anyone with a blog, a camera phone or a video recorder can gather, edit and transmit news, potentially influencing public debate or potentially initiating a viral sensation. John Q. Public can still claim his 15 minutes in the spotlight.

• Reaction to and analysis of events takes place in real time and is influenced by a growing number of voices and sectors empowered by widely and cheaply accessible technology

The recession has reduced the number of working journalists and forced leading news organizations to eliminate or consolidate foreign and specialty reporting, question the value of subscribing to wire services and find ways to share resources or rely on freelancers to fill the shrinking news hole. If you work with publicists you know that the remaining few writers, editors and producers are hard to reach, even harder to persuade and usually unwilling to take a flyer on an off-beat story. Brands, topics and ideas that don’t neatly fit the few remaining beats or synch up with spread-too-thin coverage strategies die of loneliness.

 

Because the basics of news gathering are changing online PR tactics are becoming more important to access to and attention from the media. It also requires you to think of PR much more like advertising where the message can be directly transmitted to customers and prospects without an editorial filter. Here’s how and why.

 

Everyone Searches. Google is the universal go-to-resource. Those same reporters who won’t take your call, use Google and other search engines for ideas, sources, data and color commentary. If your press materials aren’t online and aren’t searchable you have no chance of either influencing the media or of going direct with your message to people interested in your brand, your category or your subject matter.

  

This mandates understanding and using different tools. You have to consider the means of distribution; e-mail directly to press lists and online distribution to insure searchability and to capitalize on those sites that import PR feeds as content. You also must build SEO tactics into the language and construction of press releases.

 

Video is Vital. In the old days a black-and-white glossy would do the trick. Today you need a video. Why? Three reasons; YouTube is the second most searched site on the web. If you want to be found, huge numbers of the public and the media search there. Video is expected. We live in a sound and motion universe and your customers and prospects as well as the media who cover you expect brands to present themselves and their key actors on video. Video gives you the option to more carefully control the explicit and the implied message and has the potential for significant consumer or media pass-along.

 

Everything is a Conversation. One-way media is dead. Everyone talks back to, edits, reviews, and comments, adds to, shapes and criticizes everything. Every story is fluid and many more people develop the angles or the extensions. If you doubt me, think about Britney Spears. How many different sources, from the credentialed press corps to people down the block weighed in on her circumstances, revealed new behaviors, surfaced photos or offered insight and opinions? How impossible was it for her or her people to manage, control or spin the story?

 

In a world where everybody finds out what is happening at lightening speed on a growing range of devices, the game is about interpreting and analyzing the experience rather than presenting new information. Zillions of bloggers are becoming reporters, reviewers, photographers, interpreters and commentators. There are fewer authoritative voices but many more voices that can advance or sidetrack your cause.

 

So PR pros need to monitor mentions and reputations, transmit and receive RSS feeds and keep track of advocates, enemies and the forums they participate in. They also need to understand how to use Twitter, Facebook and other social media to follow and to influence the on-going conversation, which is often monitored, catalyzed and promoted by leading websites and TV or cable networks.

 

Helping PR Make the Digital Transition

The practice of public relations, especially media relations, is making a transition from semi-traditional press agentry to the digital age. In working with both PR agencies and clients, it is clear that the recession will further complicate the process of getting attention and visibility for brands.

 

Here are 11 things to do to help smooth the transition.  

 

Integrate Channels. A publicity campaign is a multi-media event. Be sure that your website, your customer service representatives, your front line customer-facing employees and your printed materials are aligned and on-message. Think about what you are going to say and anticipate how, when and to whom your customers, prospects, investors, employees or competitors might react. Coordinate your announcements with other sales, marketing and out reach activities including e-mail, blogs, circulars, position papers, speeches, appearances and trade shows so that your brand speaks with a single, clear and consistent voice.

 

Don’t Rely on Releases. The press release is the classic vehicle for communicating with journalists because they mirror the style and content found in the media. Many marketers think that the creation and transmission of a press release constitutes communication and persuasion. Nothing could be further from the truth. Press releases are a dime a dozen. They vary widely in quality and content and are frequently ignored by the intended recipients. As you compose your message consider a broad array of vehicles to transmit information. In many cases a short e-mail or voice mail message with punchy pitch points will work better. In other cases Op-Eds or letters to the editor or comments and feedback to blogs or published pieces are far better vehicles to get your message on the record.

 

Leverage News Cycles. Each day has a news cycle and on an annual basis there are predictable sand evergreen stories that our 24/7 media cover. You can increase the likelihood of coverage by understanding and tracking these cycles and connecting your news to these patterns.

 

Do the Math. You have an affirmative burden to link your news to ideas in the media, topics on the national agenda or subjects in widespread conversation. A new announcement without context and missing links to broader themes dies quickly of loneliness. You must also explain clearly and persuasively why your news matters, who it matters to and why anyone should care. Too often things that matter to you have little or no significance to broader audiences. The media serves as a gatekeeper to local, national, professional or global audiences.

 

Think Like an Editor.  News has to be new, different and significant in both absolute and relative terms. Reporters, producers and bloggers covering your industry or business can assess these elements in a nanosecond and grant you a hearing or close you down instantly. In framing any news release, announcement or pitch these elements have to be clear and up front.

 

Make a Target Press List. Every business, industry and sector is covered by dedicated journalists. In some cases, its a challenge to figure out who naturally covers you because the number of journalists is shrinking and the amount of interconnection and overlap between topics is increasing. Err on the side of adding more names to your list because while the number of writers and reporters is shrinking the number of distribution outlets is increasing. So as you figure out who follows your business, each voice is likely to carry farther.

 

Then figure out which media your most likely customers and prospects watch, read and follow and make a list of these outlets. Everybody really pays attention to a couple of sources and many of these sources can be predicted based on the age and business tenure of your customer base. Nobody can follow everything so don’t sweat the big picture. Zero-in on what the people you care about most do.

 

The combination of these lists should be your primary media targets. Call and e-mail these people and keep the list as up-to-date as possible.

 

Savor Search. Nine in ten journalists search the Web for story ideas, news sources and to check out people and companies they are covering or considering. Being found on Google, Yahoo and other search engines must to be a part of every PR program. This requires an understanding of natural search tactics, demands coordination between online and offline media channels and can be expedited by using the web for press release distribution.  

 

Optimize Keywords. We live on a word filtered, sorted and governed by key words. As you conceptualize your news or information you have think about which terms, phrases, and jargon will be used to quickly communicate meaning. These same words and terms must be used frequently in your documents as keywords which can be searched efficiently in cyberspace.

 

Act Like a Telemarketer. The disparity between the number of journalists and the huge demand for attention makes most media people hide. They have unlisted phone numbers, send all calls immediately to voicemail, publish e-mail addresses for mailboxes they never look at, don’t respond to e-mail and get really annoyed if you try to pitch them using IM or social media. They appear to be friendly, open and accessible but vigorously screen themselves from unwanted or unsolicited pitches. Reaching working journalists is like telemarketing. You have to be canny, call frequently and be satisfied with a very low response rate.

 

Be Social. Social networks are becoming American’s preferred platforms for ideas and conversation. You can not afford to ignore these big and growing communities. A PR campaign should create specific messages and tools to leverage the interactivity and viral potential of online communities because they give you an opportunity to marshal and direct brand advocates and evangelists, enlist new customers and prospects to your cause and reach people who may have great interest but little awareness of your brand and its offerings.

 

Monitor the Conversation. Set Google Alerts to track themes and competitive messages. Become familiar with Digg, Technorati and Twitter which allow you to gauge the frequency and intensity of topics in-motion and concepts in-flux. Register and participate in Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, LinkedIn and any other social network that has relevance to and participation from your employees, customers, competitors or prospects.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leveraging PR Opportunities: No More Plain Vanilla

In a 24/7 digitally interactive world where everyone is a pundit plain vanilla doesn't sell.

Corporate speak, processed prose and caveatted academic-style rhetoric are DOA; the white noise ignored by millions. In a world where you have to scream and act out to get baseline media attention toeing the party line and imitating Ron Ziegler is a prescription for oblivion.

I'm frustrated by clients who desperately seek the spotlight and when they get it, after Herculean efforts by PR people, squander it by speaking robotically, stonewalling or hedging every syllable. If Jim Cramer is at the far end of the attention-getting spectrum, everyone seeking access to the media, even access to a lowly blog such as this, has to have something sharp, different and interesting to say. Otherwise why bother? Nobody has time for the obvious. Everyone is insistent -- "tell me something I don't know."

I'm not advocating obnoxious behavior, slander or profanity. I'm not insisting that we become a nation of clowns, hucksters or attack dogs; mostly the realm of talk radio. But I am  advocating understanding the context of the media and the appetites of the audience. When you realize that soft news and entertainment rumors get much more traffic, attention and pass-along than hard data and real news that actually impact our lives, it has to shape your thinking about positioning and guide the kind of story angles you pitch.

Unless you are already a well known media commodity, if you are seeking to present yourself as an expert, you have to have an opinion. It has to be factual, relevant and punchy. You've got to speak like a regular guy not like a North Korean functionary. Animation, colorful examples, naming names, judgment calls and different perspectives on topics with media currency are what the media wants to find and the public wants to hear. We're all over plain vanilla.

New Public Relations Calculus

In the old days PR guys sold ideas and press access. Today PR guys need to sell insight and a multidimensional system for anticipating and managing perceptions in a 24/7 digital global media environment.

The realization that the press is always on, that the standards for publishing credibility have radically changed and that the number of ways a story can be "placed" and morphed have increased geometrically. Thinking planning and preparing to manage perceptions of a brand in this environment requires a different way of thinking and different set of skills than ever before.

Too many clients and their PR counselors are still locked into the press agent paradigm and are unprepared philosophically and practically to deal with user-generated attacks on a brand, regulatory actions or marketplace developments that can move across media and across the planet in a nanosecond.

Three critical factors are changing the basic PR calculus:

Always On Connected Media.  A random complaint voiced by a blogger in a remote area or a court decision in a distant venue can quickly become the cause of the moment on a social networking site, an embarrassing video on YouTube and shortly thereafter a wire service story or a story on CNN, Reuters or even Al-Jezeera. Everything from fluff to oddities to self-promoting celebrities to topics we used to consider hard news can have a hockey stick trajectory from obscurity onto the global media front pages.

Persistence & Searchability. In the old days a story appeared and went away the next day. Even an extended story had a beginning, a middle and an end. On the Internet nothing ever dies and everything --fact fiction or fantasy -- persists forever. Since the Internet has great believability, publicists not only have to find these endless mentions but interact with authors, lobby and threaten to remove inaccuracies or rumors and stay vigilant to insure that the default information source for millions of consumers and businesses fairly presents their client's stories. Many PR firms routinely prepare special variations of releases targeting emerging news and opinion sources or influencers and enabling easy online search functionality.

Changing Credibility. Big media has always scoured trade media and small town media for trends, new people, early signs of innovation and odd-ball stories. Now the fishing pool has been expanded to include blogs, podcasts, social networks, video sites, photo-sharing sites, wikis, search engines and other emerging new digital venues to sniff out a scoop or find the back story or the color commentary to flesh put stories making the global news cycle. The ten year old blogosphere gives virtually any consumer anywhere a global platform to voice complaints or advocate a favorite brand.

Managing brand perceptions on a global basis requires understanding core brand values and insight into the needs and concerns of constituent audiences married to scalable and credible systems to address multiple media in multiple formats simultaneously in real time. 

Join the Creative Conversation

PR guys often rate themselves on creativity. But in my mind creativity starts with context.

At any given time, there are ideas, issues, topics and conversations that are part of the on-going national dialogue. Some of these are set by politicians and the economy. Some are developed by the realities of life and still others emerge from the interplay of people and media --- the influence of social networks and the Internet.

By positioning yourself, your company, your product or your service in the context of these ideas you get more attention faster, greater uptake and gain rapid familiarity. A lot of PR thinking then is helping clients connect the dots and do the math to link client needs to these broad themes.

Let me give you a few examples.

For the last ten years we’ve been talking about women’s leadership, women’s empowerment, the glass ceiling, the mommy track and post-feminism. Clients use these well known concepts as launching points for positioning themselves, explaining the implications of their ideas, reaching out to women’s audiences using familiar terms of debate and positioning ideas, services and products relative to the progress and the challenges women in business face.

As you can imagine, when this is done right, like the Dove campaign, women perceive ideas quickly and differently, get engaged faster, interact with our brands favorably and help advance and extend the message.

Similarly we have been talking and thinking about ecology, our planet, global warming, conservation and the need to respect and preserve the earth. Many clients have used this context to explain, position and promote new organic products. Many businesses have framed moves to open markets, build facilities and re-engineer production using these terms.

Now if you’re thinking all you have to do is clothe your pitch with the buzzwords and aura of an on-going conversation you’d be dead wrong! This is not a cynical manipulation because consumers sense that instantly.

This approach works when the claims are real and the connections are genuine. There is no room anymore for PR to mean an attempt to fool some of the people some of the time. Americans are too savvy for the stunts and tricks of the past.

Our institutions – like family and marriage – and our civil and social behavior is a constant source of context. We are in constant conversation about teaching, feeding, parenting, motivating and protecting our kids. Questions about traditional and changing values, the sanctity of the family, new variations in relationships and lifestyles, democracy, equality and fairness are familiar to everyone. In this on-going national conversation are openings to present personalities, points of view, perspectives, products and to raise our consciousness about problems and solutions.

An important thing about creativity we’re learning from the online world is that reaction is often as powerful and sometimes more powerful than initiation. You don’t have to have all the big ideas or even start the ball rolling. In some cases commenting on events, reacting to others’ ideas or jumping into a debate can be a very effective communications tactic.

The line between writers and producers and their viewers or readers has become fuzzy. We are sometimes influenced as much by YouTube or MySpace as much as we are by CNN or the NBC Nightly News. And we are generally recognizing authoritative voices even if they aren’t employed by media companies.

The Enduring Appeal of Lists

Humans love a horse race. There is something about a list, especially one that ranks the names on it, that virtually guarantees media attention. Making lists and positioning clients -- either as the arbitor of lists or in prominent positions on prestigious lists -- is part and parcel of the publicist's craft.

We have a relentless appetite for comparison and a burning need to know how we stack up against our peers. This internal dynamic seems universal and may be related to our Darwinist evolutionary past or our continuous competition for survival. Either way lists are great ways to get attention and lists have a life beyond their credibility or origins.

Two recent lists breakling in the media illustrate the point. Newsweek's list of the Top 50 Rabbis in the United States and Editor & Publisher's list of data from Nielsen/NetRatings ranking the Top 30 websites of le.ading US daily newspapers

The rabbi list is the first ever cross-denominational ranking. Conceived by some Hollywood guys and based on a homemade ranking system, it has rocked the Jewish world and provoked endless debate and comment about who's on, who's not and why. And even though no one really has a practical use for this list and no one will actuially use it to accomplish anything, its very existance has set things in motion and stirred the pot.

Similarly the newspaper ranking, especially at a time when offline advertising is soft, will raise eyebrows among investors and readers. The New York Times high ranking can be spun to offset invenstor anxiety about its future strategy. Data about time spent onsite can also give editors and investors cues about the relevance and interest level of online content.

The marketing implication is clear. If you can create or get on a list that ranks things with built-in audiences, you can get attention regardless of who you are, how the list is compiled or what the impact of the data in a marketplace might be. 

The Enduring Appeal of Lists

Humans love a horse race. There is something about a list, especially one that ranks the names on it, that virtually guarantees media attention. Making lists and positioning clients -- either as the arbitor of lists or in prominent positions on prestigious lists -- is part and parcel of the publicist's craft.

We have a relentless appetite for comparison and a burning need to know how we stack up against our peers. This internal dynamic seems universal and may be related to our Darwinist evolutionary past or our continuous competition for survival. Either way lists are great ways to get attention and lists have a life beyond their credibility or origins.

Two recent lists breakling in the media illustrate the point. Newsweek's list of the Top 50 Rabbis in the United States and Editor & Publisher's list of data from Nielsen/NetRatings ranking the Top 30 websites of le.ading US daily newspapers

The rabbi list is the first ever cross-denominational ranking. Conceived by some Hollywood guys and based on a homemade ranking system, it has rocked the Jewish world and provoked endless debate and comment about who's on, who's not and why. And even though no one really has a practical use for this list and no one will actuially use it to accomplish anything, its very existance has set things in motion and stirred the pot.

Similarly the newspaper ranking, especially at a time when offline advertising is soft, will raise eyebrows among investors and readers. The New York Times high ranking can be spun to offset invenstor anxiety about its future strategy. Data about time spent onsite can also give editors and investors cues about the relevance and interest level of online content.

The marketing implication is clear. If you can create or get on a list that ranks things with built-in audiences, you can get attention regardless of who you are, how the list is compiled or what the impact of the data in a marketplace might be. 

Old Fashioned PR Counsel for a Digital World

People buy people. After that transaction is made all kinds of commerce and communication take place. But even in a transparent digital world where people introduce and represent themselves on Facebook, Friendster, YouTube, LinkedIn and other emerging social networks, real connections get made using old fashioned PR tactics wielded by publicists with networks of contacts, wit, wisdom, favors, timing and the sensibility of old time press agents.

And while the seedy and marginal image of Sidney Falco, Ivy Lee and a myriad of press agents and propagandists past have been largely put to bed, there is a constant need to make people-to-people connections, to develop postures for key executives, to polish brands and position brand stewards in the right circles to advance business objectives. Not every CEO is a former Stanford wunderkind or the scion of a moneyed familyor an "overnite"sensation. Most have a big job and a not-quite-clear plan that requires others to help them get where they need to go..Many boldface names get into your consciousness, show up on the dias, speak at trade shows, chair gala balls and give interviews on the pages of the magazines and websites you pay attention to because skillful publicists are hard at work.

Charlie Brotman, Washington DC's legendary PR maven, taught me this as a callow youth when I got the opportunity to be his client. I had the good sense (and a cue from him) to shut up and take notes as I watched him systematically take a short, loud, balding, pedantic, graceless and demanding new CEO from out of town and over 8-12 months introduce him and gain acceptance for him with the right people to achieve "instant" recognition in a town dominated by old school ties, old money with a provincial perspective linked to political connections, all without bruising his Duddy Kravitz ego..

Howard Rubenstein, New York City's "Mr. Connections" provides a similar, if unarticulated, service to his clients. I'd bet that most of his 450 clients would rather have Howard make a connection, open a door, put them on a board, find them a charity or set up a meeting or a call with one of his celebrity clients than get them a big story in the dailies or get them on CNN. Even in the digital age, its who you know and what they can do for you that matters.

Recently I've watched Diane Terman, an East Side doyenne and style maven, who is a partner of mine, skillfully acculturate and advance the career and prosects of an ambitious female executive from the Midwest working in the New York office of a global services firm. Her counsel has ranged from finding the right haircut, the right designer look and the right pocket book to volunteering for charities, working on industry boards and showing up at the right events. In a bit more than a year she has fully positioned this executive as a fast-tracker and integrated her into circles that have materially aided her business and impressed her bosses, got her a book deal, accelerated her access to industry leaders and engineered a profile in the New York Times.

A multi-channel PR strategy in the right hands and its steady, progressive execution is a thing of beauty to behold. But it doesn't happen by itself or by magic. In a world of clicks and widgets, strong marketing still requires seasoned practitioners making useful and purposeful connections.    

Jet Blue's Mea Culpa

David Neeleman, the Mormon founder and CEO of JetBlue,  has mastered the mea culpa. But he and his airline don't seem to be getting any credit for it. Could this fall from grace radically change the perception of the company that empowered and entertained zillions of passengers?

Reaction to the Valentine's Day snow storm debacle is surprising because no one wants to cut JetBlue any slack. Maybe consumers and commentators seem genuinely shocked because they never really thought of the brand in the airline category populated as it is by odious but necessary carriers. Or maybe we are in shock that the organization who embraced the great unwashed can actually screw up and make travel miserable for old ladies, families with small children and people accompanied by farm animals.

Yet persistent bad-mouthing in face of apologies, refunds and a proposed Passengers Bill of Rights -- things the other carriers never do in spite of regular greed-driven screw ups -- is counterintuitive. No one expects a brand to be perfect. That's why marketers and customer service people do everything they can to make deposits in customers' emotional bank accounts as a hedge against the invariable foul-up.

You would think that JetBlue should have a healthy balance with its core audience and with the public in general. So when they hit the bump, where is all the word-of-mouth marketing celebrating their many acts of contrition? Where is  the user-generated content celebrating their apology, leveraging their can-do attitude and celebrating the promise to do better and to recalibrate expectations for all airline passengers? Why haven't those millions of bloggers taken to cyberspace to defend the franchise? Is it easier to dump on Brittney than back-up JetBlue?

The Wall Street Journal reports that the competitors are pissed that Neeleman's bill of rights might provoke Congress to get involved. They don't want anyone messing with how they run their mediocre shows. Rex Hammock forgave them on his blog, but not before taking a shot at the apology e-mail. And Maria Palma while crediting JetBlue with zero common sense praised their use of YouTube as a means of transmitting their message and as a tool for communicating Neeleman's sincerity?

Is it me or are you amazed at the absence of grassroots defense? Other airlines have committed similar and even greater sins against their passengers without any contrition or public confessions. Why aren't JetBlue's legion of happy passengers standing up and differentiating JetBlue for truth, honesty and a plan to regain the American way?