Name: Industry Insider: Guest Blogger
Bio: BurrellesLuce invites marketing and public relations professionals with valuable information and perspectives to share their thoughts.
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- You’re speaking to customers in their language
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Shared Experience Becomes Experience We Share
February 16th, 2010Bill Hiniker is principal at MessagePoint Communications, a writing and consulting practice specializing in corporate and executive communications. He blogs at http://www.messagepointblog.blogspot.com/ and can be reached at messagepoint@cox.net.
Instead of being a “shared experience,” TV is quickly becoming “an experience we share.” That observation, made on a recent episode of NPR’s always-enjoyable Culturetopia podcast, really rings true for me.
I’m a first-generation television kid and am old enough to remember when the television dial was really a dial with 13 numbers. There were just three networks plus an educational channel and an independent channel or two that mostly showed old movies. Miss “The Twilight Zone,” “Ed Sullivan,” “Laugh-In” or, later, “Saturday Night Live” and you risked being left out of the lunchtime conversation.
That was pretty much the way of the world until the first video recorders began appearing in homes and offices in the 1980s. Almost overnight it became possible to borrow a missed episode of “Cheers” from a coworker who hadn’t forgotten to set his VCR (as long as he didn’t have a Beta machine).
This opened up a whole new world for communications professionals. Suddenly it became possible to record, copy, and share cassettes of the annual meeting or positive media coverage with employees, customers, and other stakeholders.
Fast forward a decade or two and digital technology made it possible to post videos on company websites and e-mail links – or even short clips – to your key publics. Even more importantly, you could forward clips of cats playing the piano or bears catching fish to your friends.
Technology has continued to advance at warp speed. You can now see most of your favorite shows online or buy them for a couple of bucks on iTunes. More than 65,000 videos are posted on YouTube every day. And someone somewhere almost certainly watched the Super Bowl on his cell phone.
With more than 100 million viewers, the Super Bowl is one of television’s few remaining shared experiences, something almost everyone watches at the same time. Maybe Michael Phelps swimming at the Summer Olympics or the finale of “American Idol” also qualify. I’d like to hear your nominations.
So what does all this mean for professional communicators?
In some ways it makes our jobs harder. We have more channels to monitor and more competition for people’s attention than ever before. We have to do a better job of training, prepping, and equipping our spokespeople, because screw-ups can live on and on in cyberspace. And we’ve got to be more prepared than ever to respond quickly, effectively, and creatively to disasters, rumors, and PR challenges that didn’t even occur to us a few years ago. Bad news can go viral faster than you can bathe in a KFC sink.
On the opportunities side of the ledger, we also have more tools at our disposal than ever before. We can respond to negative press overnight or, ideally, even quicker. We can set up dedicated YouTube channels, as Best Buy, Mercedes Benz, Apple and hundreds of other companies have done. And we can get the word out – from executive speeches to news clips – faster and to a broader audience than ever before, with a few mouse clicks.
Six decades after television took over America’s living rooms, its power to communicate, persuade, and entertain continues to grow. What are you doing to tap into the power of television in the social media age?
Life After Oprah
January 14th, 2010Abbey Franke is an Account Executive at Scott Circle Communications. She focuses on new media strategies and online communications and comes to public relations with a background in live television production. You can follow her on Twitter: @scottcircle LinkedIn: abbeyfranke or Facebook: Scott Circle.
Image: AdWeek
As Oprah tearfully announced that her upcoming 25th season would be her last, a flurry of tweets began flying before the credits even started rolling. The question on everyone’s lips (or tweets): “Who would be next?” Oprah, a towering icon of television talk, leaves behind a unique brand and some sizeable shoes to fill. As the voice that launched a thousand small businesses, authors, celebrities and lately, politicians, she has harnessed the power of her daytime audience in a way that no competitor has. Where other shows are more specialized, the Big “O” packs a punch in terms of variety, serving up everything from celebrity interviews to self-help, confessionals to contests, all with a side of fashion and fanfare. This broad base has made Oprah into a holy grail of public relations, the golden ring for communications professionals and clients to strive for.
So, who is next? Where will we turn when we have a new book to promote? An expert on multiple personality disorders to pitch? Or a golf pro ensnared in a PR-tsunami with a big apology to make? Already names are being tossed around.
Funny girl, Ellen DeGeneres seems to be the natural heir to Oprah’s talk queen crown. Her appeal is broad, although she only commands less than half of Oprah’s estimated seven million viewers. This fall has seen the two together on the cover of O, The Oprah Magazine and appearing on each other’s shows, leading many to believe that Ellen’s succession could be a natural one. Still, it’s hard to imagine her hi-jinks and dancing paired with a tell-all from Whitney Houston, much less Sarah Palin, both of whom appeared on Oprah this fall.
Rumors also suggest a Katie Couric daytime program following the end of Couric’s contract with CBS in 2011, but Couric’s image, as a sophisticated girlfriend, does not have quite the same warm, likeability of Oprah’s mentoring presence. Other names like Tyra Banks, Whoopi Goldberg, Paula Abdul and even Sarah Palin are floating around as potential daytime divas. Morning shows like Good Morning America and the Today Show offer a similar variety to Oprah’s programming, but still cannot match her numbers. And then, of course, there are the prime time and late night outlets. Leno, Letterman, and Conan remain strongholds for celebrities while Colbert and Stewart offer politicos, authors, economists and other thought leaders.
Perhaps Oprah leaves behind her a void that no one show can fill. Fans of her self-help segments may gravitate towards spin-offs Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz. Viewers interested in celebrity will stick with Ellen or Tyra. Lifestyle audiences could turn to Martha Stewart, the Oprah-launched, Rachel Ray or a rumored new program for Oprah regular, home improvement/design guru Nate Berkus.
So where does this leave PR professionals? The end of Oprah could be just another step towards the increasing hyper-fragmentation of the media as niche outlets multiply on and offline. The result: continued need for greater targeting efforts, heightened listening, and connecting with audiences where they are by PR. Does this require more work than one big push for the golden Oprah standard? Probably, but the outlets for exposure expand drastically as do the opportunities for meaningful interaction. Building buzz from the bottom up is daunting and without the ultimate “stamp of approval,” individual influencers need to be discovered at every level of communications. They might look a little different than Oprah and come in the form of mommy-bloggers or local anchors, but perhaps their reach will be even more personal and their audience even more engaged.
Between now and the end of Oprah’s reign supreme, there will be undoubtedly hundreds of potential candidates to take her place. Of course, there’s still one candidate that might be the best replacement for Oprah, and that’s Oprah herself. Although the full details of her next venture have yet to be released, or even developed, what’s brewing is a network that uses Oprah’s successful show as a jumping off point, promising dozens of new programs to pitch. So, as we enter into the end of an era, how will you be tailoring your PR efforts? Who will be your big get?
Please share your thoughts with myself and the readers of BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas.
Recentering Required: Regaining Trust and Finding Opportunity
March 23rd, 2009Paramjit L. Mahli of SCG Legal PR Network helps small to mid-sized law firms increase their visibility, build their reputation, and grow their business by using public relations.
The legal industry is not faring well in these difficult economic times. For years, the lone pioneers have been screaming to restructure how law firms function and operate. I can recall back in the summer of 2007 when I read in one of the legal publications that lawyers were now billing clients at $1000 an hour. I knew then the writing was on the wall, unless of course your clients are oil sheikhs! The end was in sight. According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, the legal sector lost 4,200 jobs in February and 1,300 in January. And the body count continues….
Regardless of how we got here, one thing is for certain. Rightly or wrongly distrust of the former masters of the universe – whether they are of the legal field, the newspaper industry, or some other sector – is at an all-time high.
Nevertheless, there is still hope. The cornerstone of a good relationship is trust, and trust is based on open and honest communication. A company’s reputation, or the essence of how it is viewed by all of its publics, is the leading factor in its ability to achieve success.
Restoring the battered image of the corporate world is not going to be a small feat, especially when each passing day the public is becoming more and more annoyed about the bailout monies given to institutions. Undoubtedly these institutions will need the help of sound public relations leadership, making the role of public relations more critical than ever before.
It is also an important time to evaluate what we in the public relations industry are contributing. Are we taking a reactive or proactive role? Is the glass half full or half empty?
Time is the most precious commodity we have. For those of us with jobs, I say reach out into to your networks, take that time to find out if someone needs a writer, pass on job opportunities to those in need. Every little bit counts; you never know how it will boomerang back to you. It is great time for building and strengthening communities and relationships. We are all connected and if we stick together the center will absolutely hold.
Customer-Focused Communications, Seriously?
December 2nd, 2008Sandra Holtzman, today’s guest blogger and president of Holtzman Communications, has over 20 years experience as a marketing strategist and writer/creative director working across a spectrum of sectors including consumer products. She’s the author of “Lies Startups Tell Themselves to Avoid Marketing.”
Many companies give lip service to customer-focused communications. Think – when was the last time you actually sat in a market research session (not behind the two-way mirror or sending one of your minions) with your customers – face-to-face – and listened to them? And when was the last time they had a chance to help you with your marketing? Most companies would answer never, or worse we do that all the time.
It’s likely that neither response is true.
In traditional market research you usually ask for their response to your already-created materials. So you’re communicating to them that you’re not asking what they think, you just want to know what they think about your ideas.
If that’s what you do, be prepared to learn next to nothing about how they really feel.
True customer-focused communications does not resemble what most companies are used to calling marketing. To resonate with your customers, you need to communicate with each person in a way that is compelling to them, based on their needs. Given the chance, they will give you the information you need to make your marketing more effective. But you have to be humble enough and listen enough to learn from them about how they want to be “told and sold”.
There are multiple benefits to using this kind of communications:
This type of research is more efficient and effective-you do the research once, and you execute the right message once, saving you time and money. And finally, by using actual customer-focused communications, you are separating yourself from the usual clutter, which strengthens your brand. For a comparison of traditional market research vs. customer-focused research see www.holtzmancom.com/teamwork_openmind.php.
Example: Stiefel Laboratories wanted a direct-to-consumer website created to launch their new Rx acne medicine. The primary audience for this launch was teenagers with active acne. In a customer-focused research session, the kids shared with us not only what they wanted to see on a website, but also their concerns about acne – for instance, they were concerned about what to do when they had a breakout on a date night.
They helped us create a website. It was truly unique. Not something that appeals to brand managers or adults, but to the target audience. Scripts for the medication jumped from 100,000 to over a million.
Some of their competitor’s tried to imitate their site (see the case history) but they never caught on to why the Stiefel website was so successful. It’s simple.
If you listen to your customers, they will end up listening to you, seriously.
