July 24, 2011 · 4:15 pm

Are You Wasting Money on Publicity?

The Value of Publicity is Based on 3 Key Factors

Every year, companies waste time, money and opportunity generating publicity that accomplishes little or nothing in terms of tangible business outcomes.

Here are a few hard truths regarding publicity:

  • Your audiences are unlikely to notice the exposure, or do anything about it.  Even with content shelf-life driven by intelligent SEO management, there is simply too much information, too many online and offline media sources, and too little time in the day for your customers, prospects and referral sources to read, see or hear your message. And if they do get your message, there’s often little motivation for them to act on it.
  • Publicity volume does not translate into business results.  A single high-value media placement that’s properly merchandised often has greater impact than a pile of press clippings. In fact, publicity for its own sake is often unfocused, with no connection to the company’s underlying value proposition or core messages; generating confusion and apathy among target audiences.
  • Some types of publicity have significantly greater marketing value than others. The old PR adage that “There’s no such thing as bad publicity” may work for Lindsay Lohan, but it has no application for companies that care about their brand. To calculate the media placement value of various types of publicity (see chart above), Highlander Consulting uses three key criteria:
  1. BRAND RISK – If you have little control over how your company’s reputation or intellectual capital is presented – such as in a feature story where a reporter or editor will seek to produce “balanced coverage” by presenting negative items or including a competitor – then the publicity has inherent brand risk. (Value Scoring: +1 if you have total control over content; -1 if you have little or no control.)
  2. CREDIBILITY – Often called “masthead value,” this factor is based on how well the media source is recognized and respected. The potential value of the publicity is based in large measure on the underlying credibility of the source, because the exposure supplies an inherent 3rd party endorsement. (Value Scoring: +1 if the source has strong credibility; -1 if it has low credibility.)
  3. MERCHANDISING POTENTIAL – This often overlooked factor is sometimes mistakenly called “reprint value,” but Merchandising Potential encompasses far more, relating to how easily and how broadly the media exposure can be leveraged to support and drive specific marketing goals. Simply posting publicity on a website does not deliver a high ROI.  (Value Scoring: +1 if the publicity has a range of applications; -1 if it’s limited to one or two.)

Using this ranking methodology, and as reflected in the chart above , bylined articles and OpEd pieces published in credible sources typically deliver the highest marketing ROI; while inclusion (being mentioned or quoted) in a round-up news or feature story does not score well. Most home-grown efforts, such as self-published press releases, have very little value.

By using this formula, or a similar methodology, to evaluate the potential ROI of individual publicity tactics, and by building media and marketing strategies around only high-value activity,companies can consistently make the connection between publicity and tangible business results.

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July 15, 2011 · 1:17 pm

Using Negative Publicity as Negotiating Leverage

Shakedown of BMW of North America

The disclosure last May that Facebook had hired public relations firm Burson-Marstellar to initiate a smear campaign against Google’s “Social Circle” raised the hackles of many PR practitioners who labeled the tactic as unethical.  Although there’s no direct reference to the practice of using accurate information to disparage a competitor’s reputation in the PRSA’s Code of Ethics, it certainly can be classified as a bare knuckles strategy that most companies would not attempt.

A related behind-the-scenes tactic that’s more widely practiced (often by law firms on behalf of their clients) involves using the threat of negative publicity as a negotiating ploy. In many high-profile divorces, disputes involving celebrities or sports personalities, corporate mistakes or shortcomings, and misdeeds of senior executives, the direct or implied suggestion that unpleasant, embarrassing or damaging information will be disclosed to the media often serves as an effective bargaining chip.

Having witnessed the power of negative publicity, I decided to use it for personal advantage in my dealings with BMW of North America involving the lease of a 1992 318i, which over the course of less than a year had 27 different problems – including engine failure, faulty muffler system and a sideview mirror that simply fell off the car.  After multiple trips to my local BMW dealer, I felt it was time to bypass Lemon Laws and escalate the issue.

So here’s the strategy I developed:

  • I created a simple tombstone ad that read: “Looking for Reasons NOT to buy or lease a BMW 318i ? Call me. I’ve got 27 Good Ones for you.”
  • I drafted a press release entitled “Irate BMW Owner Places Ads in New York Times and Wall Street Journal After 27 Problems With 318i,” that detailed the car’s various issues.
  • I compiled a comprehensive list of automotive editors at every major publication.
  • I drafted a letter to the CEO of BMW of North America that said, in effect, “As a courtesy, I thought you would like to see the advertising and press release that’s scheduled for distribution next Wednesday.”
  • I FedExed the letter, the advertisement, the press release, and the editor list to BMW headquarters in New Jersey.

Two days later, I received a call from BMW’s head of service, who opened with, “Mr. Andrew. I understand you have a problem with your 318i?”

“In fact,” I responded, “I’ve had 27 problems with the car.”

“Have all of those 27 problems been fixed to your satisfaction?” he asked.

I countered with, “What is BMW’s slogan?”

“What do you mean?” he said.

“What’s your tag line, your advertising slogan, the phrase BMW uses to distinguish itself from other cars? “ I said.

He said nothing.

“Doesn’t BMW claim to be The Ultimate Driving Machine?” I asked.

His tone of voice changed. “What do you want from BMW, Mr. Andrew?”

“I want a new car.” I said.

He laughed. I didn’t.

“Here’s the deal” I said. “You give me a new car, or I place the ads and distribute the press release on Wednesday. It’s your call.”

After a very long pause, he asked, “Can you give me more time than that?”

I said, “You have until Friday. Thanks for your call.” And hung up the phone.

On Thursday, I received a call from my local BMW dealership, asking me to bring my car in as soon as possible for “an inspection.” When I arrived at the dealership the next morning, I noticed that all of the parts & service staff were wearing ties. I asked the service manager (who was also wearing a blazer with a BMW logo on the pocket) why everyone was dressed so formally. He pulled me aside, and whispered, “Mr. Andrew, I’ve worked at this dealership for 7 years, and no one from BMW of North America has ever been here for any reason. Today the head of service for all of BMW will be here, and he’s coming to look at YOUR car.”

Bingo!

Here’s what BMW offered me: If I paid for taxes and registration, they would swap the 1992 4-cylinder 318i clunker for a brand new 1993 6-cylinder 325i.  I took the deal, and never had a single problem with the 325i while I owned the car.

The lesson in this for people looking to use negative publicity as negotiating leverage, is that you must:

  1. Possess truthful information that’s likely to cause tangible reputational / brand damage
  2. Convince the other party that you have the ability to disseminate that information credibly
  3. Demonstrate that you either have nothing to lose, that you have a few screws loose, or both

The lesson in this for BMW of North America is that by dealing with me fairly, they created a lifelong customer. I believe BMW does live up to its Ultimate Driving Machine claim, and I currently drive a 2011 328xi for that reason. But the assumption BMW should have made in its negotiations with me is that there was no way a guy who was too cheap to drive one of their 7 series cars would have made good on a threat to place ads in the NYTimes or WSJournal.  I was bluffing, but with negative publicity as a card I might be holding, I won the hand.

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July 13, 2011 · 2:39 pm

One Way Smart B2B Marketers Work Backwards

B2B Marketing Needs Impressive Stuff Like This

Companies invest considerable time and effort in securing and preparing for public events, industry seminars, keynote addresses, webinars and roundtable discussions. But contrary to The B2B Marketer’s Bible, and regardless of the upfront investment, the intrinsic value and opportunities related to participation in in-person and virtual public forums do not lie within the event itself.

Consider this:

  • A public platform represents an implied endorsement from the sponsoring organization because of its vested interest in showcasing knowledgeable speakers. No organization will knowingly showcase a speaker who has no credibility or expertise in his or her respective field.
  • The audience attending the event represents a small fraction of those you are attempting to influence, and key decision makers often are not present at public events.
  • What’s done to promote the firm’s endorsement from the sponsoring organization—in advance of and following the event—can be more important than what occurs at the event itself. Simply issuing a press release, or posting the event’s slide presentation on a website, will not adequately address the opportunity.

Here’s how one professional services firm gained a tangible ROI from a single speaking opportunity:

The managing partner of a New York-based, eight-person CPA firm—following his presentation at a regional bar association’s seminar on law-practice-related tax, compliance and compensation issues—sent highlights of his remarks, with a brief cover note, to all the members of that regional bar association, whether they had attended the seminar or not.

This CPA firm’s follow-up marketing effort, which combined the bar association’s implied third-party endorsement with its managing partner’s thought leadership in practice management, resulted in new relationships with three law firms that had not attended the seminar.

Smart marketers work backwards. They have a specific plan to merchandise the credibility and thought leadership related to the marketplace exposure directly to target audiences in advance of seeking the speaking opportunity. That way, their ability to convert a public platform into bona fide business results is significantly enhanced.

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July 6, 2011 · 10:26 pm

Casey Anthony, Communitainment and the Death of Democracy

The Fourth Estate: As journalism goes, so goes democracy.

While observers of the Casey Anthony trial focused on the apparent injustice of the verdict, defense co-counsel Cheney Mason used his first opportunity in front of a microphone to call reporters to task for “media assassination,” and for publicly promoting an assumption of guilt. “I can tell you that my colleagues coast to coast and border to border have condemned this whole process of lawyers getting on television to talk about cases they don’t know a damn thing about,” Mr. Mason said.

Mason’s rant aside, no one denies that loudmouth Nancy Grace, pop shrink Dr. Drew Pinksy (his degree is in internal medicine), CNN anchor Anderson Cooper and a very long list of respectable print, electronic and online media sources have feasted on the Casey Anthony trial over the past 3 years. And the American public, including this writer, did not resist the sideshow, nor reject the media’s conclusion that Casey would be found guilty and put to death.

The day prior to the Anthony verdict, a news story broke regarding one of Rupert Murdoch’s British tabloids, News of the World, involving accusations that in 2002 its journalists hacked and manipulated the cellphone messages of murder victim Milly Dowler, 13, while her family and police were searching for her. The newspaper had previously admitted to intercepting the cellphone messages of celebrities, politicians and other public figures in the mid-2000s.

But the revelations about Milly Dowler are significant because in 2002, the editor of News of the World was Rebekah Brooks, a confidant and friend of Rupert Murdoch – whose company also owns the Wall Street Journal. Ms. Brooks, who is now chief executive of News International, the British newspaper division of Mr. Murdoch’s News Corporation, has always denied knowing anything about phone hacking at any Murdoch-owned papers.

Here’s the point of all this:

The historical roots of journalism, now mass media, were nurtured by its role as The Fourth Estate; the independent public watchdog that keeps in check the three major democratic “estates” of power (in Britain the houses of Parliament, in America the three branches of government). So in spite of the great amount of attention it pays to murder trials, royal weddings and the lives of celebrities, the media plays an important role in our democracy; and to function properly it must be objective, unbiased and independent.

The problem – demonstrated by the media’s conduct in both these recent incidents – is that the line between news and entertainment continues to erode. All media sources are competing for the same eyeballs, so speed is more important than accuracy in reporting, and there are no rules regarding how the news is gathered. The journalist’s role has shifted from fact-based to opinion-based reporting. Journalism is now “communitainment.”

Three years ago, veteran journalist Bill Moyers explained it this way: “Our dominant media are ultimately accountable only to corporate boards whose mission is not life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for the whole body of our republic, but the aggrandizement of corporate executives and shareholders…These organizations’ self-styled mandate is not to hold public and private power accountable, but to aggregate their interlocking interests. Their reward is not to help fulfill the social compact embodied in the notion of “We, the people,” but to manufacture news and information as profitable consumer commodities.” [Read Bill Moyers “Is the Fourth Estate a Fifth Column?: Corporate media colludes with democracy’s demise” in its entirety.]

As we continue to feed on mind-numbing, easily digested communitainment…let’s keep in mind what we’re really giving up in exchange for what’s often falsely packaged as the truth.

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July 4, 2011 · 3:13 pm

3 Ways Social Media Will Fail Marketers

All communication channels have limitations

1. Social media will not increase word of mouth influence.

Research by Keller Fay for Google shows that 94% of word of mouth conversations occur offline, and most often, those conversations are sparked by information found on the internet and television…and not on Facebook, Twitter or other social networking sites. Based on those offline conversations, consumers most often rely on internet search for additional product / brand information, which is considered to be more credible (+25%) and more likely to lead to purchase (+ 17%), when compared to information found through social media sources.  Marketers are best served by focusing on improvement of their SEO capabilities.

2. Social media will not drive customer experience.

Social media does not improve or replace the customer service channels that have the most significant impact on brand impressions. Multi-channel customer experience research by RightNow / Loudhouse showed that consumers are open to using social media to post opinions, but when it comes to interaction, 50% of consumers want to use online self-service tools, phone (18%), or email (19%).  Marketers are best served ensuring traditional channels deliver a customer experience that validates the company’s brand promise.

3. Social media will not reduce the marketing burden.

Similar to all other communication channels, social media involves ongoing discipline and a commitment to continually learn and improve performance and results. Establishing a Facebook page, Twitter account or company blog represents an obligation to dedicate the financial resources, appropriate skills and senior level attention necessary to make social media a strategic marketing asset. Marketers are best served walking away from half-hearted or short-term commitments to social media.

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June 21, 2011 · 6:12 pm

Four Lessons From IBM’s Centennial Advertising

Page One of IBM's 4-Page Insert

“Every advertisement should be thought of as a contribution to the
complex symbol which is the brand image.”

– David Ogilvy

In recognition of its founding 100 years ago, last week IBM produced a 2,592-word, four-page advertising insert that ran for just one day in the U.S. issues of the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and Washington Post.

Although few companies have the resources or courage to produce “old media” advertising on this scale, IBM’s Centennial insert embodies several important lessons for marketers at companies of all sizes and industries. Here are four take-aways:

  1. The message was well-targeted and on point. IBM was speaking primarily to investors, through the nation’s 3 most widely read daily publications. By pointing out that 100 shares of IBM stock purchased in 1915 would be worth $200 million today, the company was entitled to state that “90 day reporting cycles” are not IBM’s end game…a clear message to Wall Street analysts and institutional investors. Lesson for Marketers: Define your target audiences, reach them through appropriate channels and make your point clearly. Sounds like Marketing 101, but many ads are placed for prestige and ego rather than for impact, and it’s often a mystery what most advertisers are trying to accomplish.
  2. The layout accommodated all types of readers. IBM understands that most people are surface readers, focusing only on heads, subheads, graphics and captions. Although the body copy was 1,888 words in length, the ad’s layout accommodated those quick-scan readers with eye-catching and interesting graphics, and also cleverly footnoted each graphic element as a means to draw readers into the main text. Lesson for Marketers: Regardless of the medium, you have a nano-second to catch someone’s interest, and if you’re lucky enough to accomplish that goal, you have even less time to make your point. Don’t make people work to understand your message…because they won’t.
  3. The ad was part of an integrated campaign. This advertising insert served as one small part of a larger IBM strategy to leverage its 100th anniversary as a marketing asset. Other components of this well-structured campaign include a book; short films; colloquia, lectures and thought leadership forums; a dedicated website (www.ibm100.com), and 2.5 million hours of volunteer community service provided by IBM employees around the world. Lesson for Marketers: One-off tactics — even those conducted over periods longer than one day — seldom produce meaningful results. IBM’s marketing budget is larger than total revenue at most companies, but those companies can be just as smart as IBM, in terms of building marketing programs that are integrated and strategic, rather than a collection of tactics.
  4. Their appeal was honest and human. In addition to its longevity, IBM has much to brag about. But this ad was written with humility and sincerity, and did not appear self-serving or overly promotional. In fact, a prominent graphic in the ad featured 3 of the company’s “share of misses,” including IBM PCjr, its OS/2 operating system and its Prodigy online service. Lesson for Marketers: Copywriting style aside, and regardless of the tactic, it’s more powerful to present the evidence that supports your value proposition and let your audience draw its own conclusions, than it is to tell your audience how wonderful you are.

This advertisement is a reflection of IBM’s marketing craftsmanship, and suggests a bright outlook for their second century. In fact, you might consider purchasing 100 shares — currently trading at around $165 per share — for your grandchildren.

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June 15, 2011 · 5:49 pm

The Fine Line Between Craftsmanship and Obsession

An Obsession With Balsa Wood and Glue

Maynard Luther Hill was born in 1926 – the year before Lindberg’s historic trans-Atlantic flight – and died last week at the age of 85.

For most of Mr. Hill’s life, he was obsessed with model airplanes and with pushing the limits of their capabilities. He set 25 world records for speed, duration and altitude, for both powered flights and gliders.

The culmination of his decades of devotion to the design, construction and flight of model aircraft came at the age of 77.  Nearly blind from macular degeneration and mostly deaf as well, Mr. Hill’s 11-pound model plane, the Spirit of Butts Farm – constructed of balsa wood and mylar, with a 6 foot wingspan – made the 1,900 mile trans-Atlantic crossing from Newfoundland to the west coast of Ireland in just under 39 hours. For this historic flight, as well as his lifelong advancement of the hobby, Mr. Hill will long remain a legend among aeromodeling enthusiasts.

“By age 9,” once Mr. Hill wrote in an essay, “I had acquired a fairly serious addiction to balsa wood and glue.” He even admitted that on the third day of his honeymoon he went to the store to purchase those items.

“Anybody that does something great in his field has to be obsessed to some extent, and he was obsessed,” noted a senior staff member at the Johns Hopkins lab who also worked with Mr. Hill on the trans-Atlantic flight. “Why do people want to jump higher or run faster?” he added. “It’s to excel, and that was Maynard’s big thing. It was to do things no one had ever done in the field of model airplanes.”

So where does craftsmanship end and obsession begin? Do craftsmen simply seek to replicate accepted standards of perfection…building a model airplane that’s flawless in design or performance; compared with those who are determined to “do something great” by re-defining perfection…building a plane that’s faster, lighter, sturdier or more elegant than existing models?

Shakespeare, Beethoven, Emily Dickinson, Albert Einstein, Frank Lloyd Wright, Margaret Mead and even Steve Jobs were all obsessed, and have set the bar higher for those who follow. Like Maynard Hill, these game-changers provide craftsmen with the understanding that perfection can always be improved upon.

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June 12, 2011 · 8:06 pm

Harrison Frazar: Hopeless Cause

St. Jude Works His Magic

It took 355 starts, but PGA Tour professional Harrison Frazar finally got his first career victory at the FedEx St. Jude Classic, beating Robert Karlsson on the third hole of a sudden-death playoff.

With 4 second-place finishes over the course of his 13-year career, he’s come close to a Tour win, but few expected Frazar to ever make it to the top of a Sunday afternoon leaderboard. He will turn 40 in July, had suffered a hip injury in 2001, a wrist injury in 2005 and was playing this year under a major medical exemption granted by PGA Tour officials after he quit last season early because of a second hip surgery. Last year, he earned a total of only $200,000 – peanuts for a PGA Tour pro.

The 2011 golf season wasn’t shaping up very well for Frazar, having missed the cut in 6 of the 10 events he entered.

The million dollar prize money that Frazar pockets from this particular event no doubt will have special meaning for him.

St. Jude is the patron saint of hopeless causes.

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June 7, 2011 · 5:12 pm

Is it Ethical to Edit Online Customer Reviews?

Marketers Can Leverage Knowledge of Online Behavior

In a discussion on WNYC regarding the economic impact of restaurant reviews, Reuters finance blogger Felix Salmon claimed there is research to support the counterintuitive notion that the most important aspects of online customer reviews on Yelp.com and other community opinion websites have less to do with whether the reviewer pans or praises the restaurant, and more to do with how well the review is written – in terms of its sentence structure, grammar and spelling. In other words, people are more likely to try a new restaurant that has well-written customer commentaries, regardless of the reviewers’ opinions.

Let’s assume this consumer behavior – driven by form rather than substance – is based on the likelihood that review readers conclude that if the restaurant’s online reviews are well written, that the restaurant’s clientele are educated, well-heeled, with discriminating taste and likely to eat at only the best restaurants. So regardless of any online reviewer’s advice, positive or negative, the restaurant is likely to be a “safe bet” in terms of food, service and ambiance.

More importantly, let’s assume this “Snob Effect” on online customer reviews has implications in other businesses, where socio-economics and personal status are factors in the selection of a product or service, and where online customer reviews for those businesses are readily available. For example, those product categories might include automobiles and computers & electronics; service categories might include hotels, resorts and health & beauty spas.

So here’s the ethical question posed to marketers:

Knowing that editorial quality of online reviews has a beneficial impact on sales, and if online consumer reviews are housed on your website, is it unethical to “clean up” those reviews by correcting spelling, grammar, punctuation and syntax errors…if online reviewers are notified in advance that their comments are subject to this treatment?

Before you rush to condemn the proposal, consider this: traditional media sources (newspapers, magazines, TV and radio) have applied this editorial practice for decades. Whether it’s a Letter-to-the-Editor, an OpEd opinion piece or a bylined article, outsiders wishing to express an opinion are notified that “Submissions may be edited for length, style and editorial quality.”  And most old media sources take full advantage of that disclaimer.

So why should online opinion – expressed in customer reviews – not be subject to the same type of editorial scrutiny? And why should marketers be prevented from taking full advantage of the Snob Effect on consumer behavior?

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June 6, 2011 · 5:14 pm

Are Journalists in the Misinformation Business?

Can Journalists Survive the Internet Age?

Do mainstream journalists – trained to present both sides of an issue they’re reporting – contribute to the public’s interest in and acceptance of information that’s known to be wrong?

An new study presented at the 61st Annual International Communications Association Conference, analyzed how the mainstream media reported on Sara Palin’s 2009 Facebook post, which read:

“The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s ‘death panel’ so his bureaucrats can decide…whether they are worthy of health care.”

Despite the fact that both PolitiFact, an arm of the St. Petersburg Times, and FactCheck.org, a project of the Annenburg Public Policy Center, both immediately debunked the veracity of Palin’s death panel claim…in the month following her Facebook post, the top 50 newspapers in the country published more than 700 articles about the claim, while the nightly network news ran about 20 stories on the topic.

In that mainstream media coverage:

  • More than 60% abstained from calling the death panels claim false.
  • Of the 40% who debunked Palin’s claim, nearly 75% of those articles contained no clarification as to why they were labeling the claim as false.
  • In 30% of cases where journalists reported that the claim was false, they included either side’s arguments as to why their side was right.

What was the impact of the lack of clarity generated by this journalistic “procedural objectivity”?

  • One poll released nearly two months after the Palin posting showed that 30% of the American public believed that proposed health care legislation would “create death panels.”
  • Three months following the posting, the number of people who believed in the death panel misinformation rose to 41%.

According to the study, the dilemma for reporters playing by the rules of procedural objectivity is that repeating a claim reinforces a sense of its validity — or at least, ensures it as an important topic of public debate.

The larger question raised by the study is whether traditional journalism can survive the internet age. According to the authors, the new focus of journalists should be substantive objectivity: to verify all information on which they report, and to not give a platform to facts known to be false or to unfounded accusations.  This is a major sea change for old school journalists, or at least for those who have survived.

The authors warn: “If we don’t see a greater degree of this substantive objectivity, the public is left largely at the mercy of the savviest online communicator. Indeed, if journalists refuse to critically curate new media, they are leaving both the public and themselves in a worse off position.”

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