Slow-Jamming Prez Is Height Of Cool

The following article by Vanessa Horwell, Chief Visibility Officer of ThinkInk, originally appeared on Marketing Daily on 05/03/2012.

The first American president to appear on television was Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Speaking at the opening of the 1939 World’s Fair in New York City, he declared the event “open to all mankind.” But for all Roosevelt’s TV-friendly oratory, it wasn’t until 1960 with the election of John F. Kennedy, historians argue, that television fully matured. Used with expert precision, Kennedy became our first “TV president.”

The same technological evolution can be seen with former president Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Clinton may have been the first president to send an email, but it is Barack Obama, with his social media-savvy Facebook, Twitter and YouTube accounts, that have allowed him to take top honors as the nation’s first “multimedia president.”

Too Cool for School? Not This Prez

It’s that media/tech-savvy distinction that allows Obama to connect with young voters –- better than even the saxophone-playing-Clinton once did. Obama’s presidential “cool” allows him license to use Kennedy’s favorite communications medium in new ways too. On April 24, Obama was the guest-in-chief on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" -- where he joined the host in a bit called “Slow-Jam the News,” where current events are put to a relaxed R&B beat.

But humor was only part of Obama’s continuing call to cool. His presence was a superb lesson in public relations.

Obama took the opportunity to connect with Fallon’s college-aged and 20-something viewers to address an issue that is central to their futures -– student loans and mounting debt. The five-minute opener (with nearly 5 million YouTube views when I wrote this post) featured a smiling and hand-waving president who morphed into mocking seriousness. With a bluesy backbeat, the chief jammer began: 

“On July 1st of this year the interest rates on Stafford student loans -- the same loans that many of you use to help pay for college -- are set to double,” he said. …“What we said [to congress] is simple. Now is not the time to make school more expensive for our young people.”

The camera returned to a smile-suppressing Fallon, where he delivered the follow-up line in a raspy, deep voice. “Ooooh yeah. You should listen to the president." 

Public Relations 101: Stay On Message

With performances like that, who needs costly political ads or even stump speeches? Obama chose the student loan topic deliberately. Hours before the live taping, Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney began backpedaling when it came to his opinions on the “student loan crisis,” first tacitly endorsing the July 1 deadline and then breaking with Republican colleagues to support the president’s call to keep student loan interest rates in check.

Perhaps the Romney campaign would like to blame it on the leap year.

On February 29, at a campaign stop in Ohio, Romney answered a question from a law student that illuminated his position regarding student loans and the need for market forces -- not public handouts -- to determine the fair cost of financial aid.

“The right course for America is for businesses and universities and colleges to compete, and for us to make sure that we provide loans to the extent we possibly can at an interest rate that doesn’t have the taxpayers having to subsidize people who want to go to school,” he said.

That’s an opinion that speaks to the Republican base. But throw in his campaign advisor Eric Fehrnstrom’s Etch a Sketch comment about being able to rewrite political narratives once the general election gets underway and you’re left with a politician edging toward a John Kerry-style flip-flopper.

We still have a long horse race ahead in the game of presidential politics. But Obama’s smooth, humorous and televised quasi-Romney dig will continue to serve him well. Not only does the president rely on a host of media outlets to disseminate his message, he’s skilled at shifting his tone throughout events.

Obama understands that shifting tone is different than shifting message. We’ll have to wait and see if Romney has been properly schooled and if Obama can remember his own lessons come fall.

But for now, I’ll still agree with the Roots rapper Black Thought, who at the end of President Obama’s slow jam session called him the “POTUS (President of the United States) with the mostest.”

Indeed.

The following article by Vanessa Horwell, Chief Visibility Officer of ThinkInk, originally appeared on Marketing Daily on 05/03/2012.

Daily Deal Dilemma: Does Groupon Need a Refund, a Reboot, a Stern Reprimand or Just a Little Maturing?

The answer depends on whom you ask. If you ask Groupon CEO Andrew Mason, 31, he’s likely to say the latter.

But before we get to Mason, let’s recap.

Back in February 2012, I wrote about how Groupon, the daily deals “Mecca” was launching a PR blitz to help rewrite its then recently soiled reputation after a slew of communication missteps:  a fumbled Super Bowl ad and a case of fuzzy earnings math just prior to its November 2011 IPO.  It revamped its website and added the public relations might of Paul Taaffe, the former chairman and CEO of Hill & Knowlton. (For history buffs, that’s the 85-year-old Manhattan-headquartered PR agency once known for its support of Big Tobacco and its infamous “A Frank Statement to Cigarette Smokers,” 1954 newspaper ad, that claimed the “statistics purporting to link cigarette smoking with [lung cancer] could apply with equal force to any one of many other aspects of modern life.”  Gotta love this industry!)

In that earlier post I puffed on about the tough job that Taaffe had ahead of him, referring to the journey as a “rocky road” while going on to say that, “taming the daily deal beast just doesn’t seem like a job anyone should embrace,” and that “public relations leaders can only craft a message so far. Too much spin and a message – and a company – can spin out of control. Let’s see what happens next.”

And (nearly) spin out of control it has.

Earlier this month it was reported that the Securities and Exchange Commission had begun a preliminary investigation into Groupon’s questionable financial accounting practices after the company announced that it was revising its 2011Q4 earnings, cutting it by $14.3 million to $492.2 million from $506.5 million. The announcement left many Groupon naysayers crying, “I told you so,” while investors are jumping ship in search of…. better deals.

Fast forward a few weeks since the troubling news and Groupon’s stock slide continues. On Thursday April 26, 2012, Groupon’s stock price was nearing bargain-basement levels, trading at $12.06 a share, after its $20 a share opening in November and its 52-week high of $31.44. The reason for the downward revision? Groupon hadn’t set enough money aside for customer refunds.

So in light of all this communications turmoil, one would expect that Paul Taaffe and his team would be out in full force defense and crisis mitigation mode.  To date, however, Taaffe’s strongest defense was when he told reporters: “Every three months Groupon is a different company.”

Somehow I don’t think that’s what investors wanted to hear.

But to give credit where it’s due, Groupon CEO Andrew Mason at an informal town hall meeting on Wednesday admitted his company no longer has “any margin for error,” adding that Groupon is “still this toddler in a grown man’s body in many ways.” In helping the company grow up, the company has announced plans to bring on board additional senior management, and according to a recent Wall Street Journal article, at least two new board members – all designed to show that the company can mature, mature quickly and rebuild investor confidence.

As a public relations professional, one of the most important pieces of advice I can give is telling clients to be up front about their actions and intentions and if there’s no substance behind a marketing campaign, then there’s no point selling the message.

Frank town hall meetings that get section-front coverage in the Wall Street Journal (check out Marketplace in the print edition) is probably not enough to quell all investor fears. But as Groupon closes out another challenging month and is only two and a half weeks away from its next quarterly earnings report, it’s nice to see a maturing response.

Perhaps then – and in an ironic way - Paul Taaffe was on to something after all. Just maybe, Groupon is beginning to change. And just maybe this change is here to stay and the company will not be something different three months from now.

We’ll have to wait and see.

Checking Their Guns (And Their Brains) At The Door: The Secret Services

Talk about public relations disasters in degrees. When Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney criticizes a Pittsburgh cookie it’s one thing.  But when half a dozen secret service agents and 11 military personnel lose their jobs after seeking the “secret services” of women who could have gone by the street name “Cookie” it’s an entirely different matter and enough to make me lose my dessert. 

In short: this is not good at all.

If anything, the unfolding Secret Service and military personnel prostitute scandal is a glaring example that sometimes no matter how much spin is added to the curve ball of professional news speak and public relations, you can still strike out. The exploits of these men are indefensible which has left the political punditsphere returning to humor. One of my favorites comes from Steven Cody, the Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Peppercorn, a public relations firm. His idea, expressed in his most recent post: “Let’s re-brand it the not-so Secret Service.”

And while crass humor may serve as a temporary public antidote for the serious standards and security breach that was uncovered in Colombia, it will do nothing in the longer term court of public opinion.

To a large extent, Lawrence Berger, the lawyer for two Secret Service supervisors who lost their jobs was right. The actions of these individuals did not compromise the security of the President. But if that’s the best defense that can be mustered, I think one would be hard pressed to call that a stunning PR reversal.

The President may not have been harmed physically, but his image certainly was, giving political red meat to the likes of Sarah Palin who commented on Fox news recently, "It's like, who's minding the store around here?" 

The Secret Service, founded in 1865, and charged with presidential protection since 1901, has a long and largely successful history. While there’s no denying this public relations disaster is a big one, it’s also likely that an agency that presumably takes its mission and duty so seriously will work exceedingly hard at doing their jobs that much better so that time really will smooth out this unfortunate – kink. (Yes, pun intended)

“Waiting it out” is usually a PR professional’s least favorite advice to a client. But in this case it may be the only way the embattled agency can regain its stripes. “I’m sorrys” have been made. Jobs have been lost.

It’s quite possible the less they say going forward might be the most prudent course of action.  Until, of course, one of them releases a kiss and tell all tome, which will be only a matter of time.

Open Mouth, Insert Foot, Close Mouth-Mitt… PR Lessons Learned From a Crumbled Cookie?

Pop icon and singer Britney Spears’ second album may have been called “Oops!...I Did It Again” but it seems the 12 year-old phrase is getting a new lease of life in Republican hopeful Mitt Romney’s continuing saga of campaign trail gaffes.

Yes, oops he did it again! But at least his latest remark helps underscore some base public relations principals and makes for good blog post fodder.  Thank you Mr Romney.

The latest tongue-tie comes out of the Bethel Park community, a southern suburb of Pittsburgh, where at a recent a campaign rally/picnic, Romney hinted that the event’s sub-par cookies were coming from a 7-Eleven chain bakery. His humorous, though mildly condescending tone suggested local bakers bake better, more “authentic tasting cookies.”   

Anyone following the story (which went viral as CookieGate) knows that Romney’s comments were a not-so-subtle nod to Republican Party basics: espousing the vitality and vibrancy of small business.

But that’s not how the cookie crumbled for “open-mouth-insert-foot-close-mouth-Mitt.” His jibe to the quality of 7-Eleven baked goods backfired in several ways:

1)      The offending cookies were made by a 57-year-old local bakery, which had been hired for the event.

2)      7-Eleven is not a bakery, a remark that has again sparked concern that Romney is out of touch with everyday Americans, who, while they make struggle through the lyrics of the Star Spangled Banner, know exactly what their “local” 7-Eleven offers.

For Romney, this latest gaffe, like his Etch A Sketch comment a month ago, can’t easily be shaken off.

It also reinforces that effective public relations isn’t just about writing press releases – far from it. In fact we are constantly reminding clients that press release generation is in some ways, the least critical part of what we do. Managing a client’s message – in print, online, in person on Twitter and Facebook, and everywhere else their name and their brand are promoted.

Hindsight is, after all, 20/20, but isn’t it possible that a particularly on-the-ball communications whiz could have anticipated that their boss would try to inspire the small town business spark knowing that cookies would be served at the event? And if so, Romney could have turned that info into his advantage instead of spoiled dough.

By now, “CookieGate,” a week old and it’s entirely possible the Romney campaign will find humor after al. 7-Eleven’s PR team has already done that while the bakery is cashing in on its Internet notoriety by offering a “CookieGate” special: buy a dozen, get a half-dozen free.

Kudos….eerrrr…..cookies to them!

Considering that Romney gaffes are nearing bakers dozen regularity, it’s likely he’ll have plenty of time to improve his PR game before the big PR game heats up this fall.  And then we can talk about how the cookie crumbled.

A Plug For Women: And the Businesses They Run And Why They Work

Last month MediaPost blogger and self proclaimed “serial entrepreneur” Kaila Colbin raised the question in her March 23 post, “Do we need more women in technology?” stemming from a panel discussion on Women in Leadership, she had recently attended. Her answer was not necessarily – even if volumes of data continue to show a tech-sector gender gap and that in the second decade of the 21^st century it remains the politically correct rallying cry. What’s needed instead, she says, is greater diversity, “diversity of gender, of viewpoint, of life experience, of worldview.”

Colbin goes on to say: “The answer is for us to realize that we are each limited to the maximum perspective our meager experience affords us, that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our individual philosophies, and that by inviting in those who see the world from a different angle, we can broaden our own vision.”

Forgive me for saying so, but doesn’t that sound a little lacking and unfocused?

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean to come off insensitive. Diversity is important – even nonspecific calls to that end aren’t totally useless as they remind us that the bringing together of wide ranging backgrounds can sometimes illuminate solutions to problems that weren’t first apparent and illustrate that in the end we’re all just people working to reach a goal. But I kind of feel like Sesame Street’s “We All Sing with the Same Voice” 1982 song hits the same notes. (Pun intended)

Instead, since this is my blog, let’s break a little ground here and go against the grain a bit to give a plug to women – not just in the tech sector – but elsewhere too. We do need more women in the workforce. Why? Because data shows that for a combination of social, societal and psychological reasons, women-run businesses are more successful.

A recent Illuminate Ventures Whitepaper found that high tech women-run businesses: “are more capital efficient” – or in non-technobabble speak, they spend money wiser and use one-third less capital to achieve the same revenue results.

Another translation: women-run businesses get more sh*% done with less. The report also found that companies with women in top management positions achieve 35% higher return on equity and a 34% better return to shareholders.

CEO and writer Margaret Heffernan, on her 20-first website, has researched the topic further, collecting not only data about successful women-run businesses, but attempts to answer why the statistics are what they are. Whether it’s the biological child-rearing instinct toward nurturing, or societally-imposed assumptions, women, according to Heffernan, have turned these stereotypes on their head and are using them as skills of empowerment – a defense mechanism common to many marginalized groups. She goes on to say that women have been found to be more flexible in term of working hours, they want to make “difference” as well as make money, (which can inspire staff), are more likely to be involved with community activities and they tend to offer good health care plans and retirement packages.

Increasingly women have become our society’s juggernaut, tasked with not only raising a family, but earning an income vital to the family’s survival. While traditional male-female roles have blurred, it’s women by and large, which have had to shoulder a greater burden. But time and time again as our plate of responsibilities have grown, we’ve met and exceeded the challenge.

The US may still struggle with a tech-sector gender gap, but with women holding some 58% of all professional jobs in the country and making up 57% of undergraduate degrees, I’m confident the information technology industry is bound to get the digital memo sooner than later. But hey, it’s men we’re talking about. Perhaps they’ll have to ask for advice from Siri first.

We all know what gender she really is.

The Cure For the Common Mind Virus: Fewer “Bored” Meetings And Less Pop-Cultural Poo

I beg your pardon? For those of you who are unaware, the title of this post was inspired by a friend – and brilliant branding specialist Bruce Turkel and his Monday musings on what he calls, “mind viruses” – not a sadistic reference to Alzheimer’s or other brain disorders. In everyday speak “mind-viruses” are the modern iteration of water cooler talk or the pop cultural nonsense increasingly crowding out valuable real estate within our collective cerebrums.

Turkel’s post raises the question, how do the words and terms (and TV shows and styles of board room attire and eats and…and…and…) we mindlessly discuss reach that critical mass where they become discussion points? As a marketing professional, Turkel is right in addressing the issue. In other words, he asks, where is the pop cultural discussion “tipping point” and when does something become a “hot topic?”

But as evidenced by his observations gathered from what sounds like far too many of the mindless meetings that I attend – the answer to his question may be less fascinating and more frightening.

So where does this cultural discussion point threshold lie? I’m not sure where in the brain the processing occurs, but I can tell you, it’s not a high standard, and it’s getting disastrously lower by the day.

The fact that many of Turkel’s meetings are littered with so much verbal rubbish suggests that more should be done to keep references to the Kardashians, Lindsay Lohan, and Beebs out of what should be productive meetings. I’ve had to sit through meetings where the latest episode of Glee or the demise of Lost garnered more discussion than the topic we had travelled some 3,000 miles for did. Now that is brutal.

The fact is, thanks to marketers’ already near-constant bombardment via a host of mediums like smartphones and tablets, but also through the “diehards” like television, radio, and print, we are constantly being distracted and programmed to think “this is important,” when in actuality it’s really not.

Earlier this month the New York Times wrote about how office technology is getting in the way of productivity. While true, the bigger problem is all technology and not just office technology. But as a public relations professional and one who’s often on the side of praising marketing genius, can it be that we’re all victims of our own success?

Maybe.

Recognizing this, perhaps it’s time we work to make board meetings less boring and stick to the agenda so we can all be more productive – and get out of the boardroom and to the bar, where it’s okay to talk about the cover of People, or who watched The View, or what Kelly Rippa was wearing yesterday.

Besides, they’ll be plenty of time to gossip about the Gossip Girl –and whatever else – later. Now I’ve got a meeting to attend and don’t want to be late. I’m sure it will be mind blowing – one way or another.

How a year in the life of mobile can equal a lifetime

The following article by Vanessa Horwell, Chief Visibility Officer of ThinkInk, originally appeared on Mobile Marketer on 03/26/2012.

Call it a miracle.

It has only been a few short weeks since you have brought home your twinkling little wonder and already it is doing things – great things – that surprise you.

Day by day, hour by hour, you can almost watch its intricate wiring make vital connections and, in so doing, learn about the world through their and your eyes. Its life-changing potential on day one is no comparison to what your little “miracle of evolution” can do 365 days later.

The “miracle” I am talking about is not your child, but rather your mobile device.

No kidding

But some of the parallels between mobile technological developments and infants are striking.

Both are “born” with great potential to grow and expand their capabilities. Tapping into that potential, however, requires the right combination of experiences and environmental nurturing. For smartphones, that translates into using all of its smart features.

Very often, excited parents will sit by and watch their children hit cognitive mile marker after cognitive mile marker: a child’s recognition of a parent, his first steps, and his first words all signal that “things are on track.”

What parents do not do is extrapolate from 12 months of data and experience the full-on adult potential of their children.

Are some predictions critical? Absolutely.

But parents and pediatricians are quick to counsel a slower approach, letting the child explore his world at his own pace and in his own time.

In other words, parents are advised to sit back and watch their miracle unfold, focusing more on helping their children achieve goals – rather than just setting them.

As human beings we are also the collective parents of mobile devices.

And like infants, their worlds can change radically in the 31,536,000 seconds that make up a year as their “brain power” – computer data storage capacity and processing speed – steadily increases.

While data like Moore’s Law – the predicted two-year doubling, or more like 18 months, of the number of transistors that can fit on a microchip – is helpful at the macro-level in estimating the power of computing, it is of very little guidance when it comes down to tech trends, overnight sensations, and predictions in our always-connected society.

The bottom line is that smartphones and tablets have infiltrated nearly every aspect of life – just like wide-eyed and mostly smiling children.

While becoming a successful parent involves getting up to speed with and nurturing their potential, it remains to be seen if mobile marketers are truly keeping pace with theirs.

It’s still a feature phone world? Not for long

The above subhead underscores the rate of change taking place and the foolishness of making year-long, or even quarter-long predictions.

“It’s Still a Feature Phone World” was the headline of a Techcrunch article that was posted on Nov. 28, 2011.

In it, the article spoke about how despite all the hoopla surrounding the technology, smartphones remained a gadget still on hold for the majority of people.

Industry officials – and admittedly some of my clients – repeatedly reminded my company that in the race for mobile adoption, that standard mobile phones not be left out of the mix. The article estimated North American smartphone adoption rate at 63 percent.

But a just a 100 or so days later, that headline sounds decidedly antiquated. Why?

Because earlier this month the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project released its findings that in the United States alone, smartphone adoption rates had jumped 11 percent – 35 percent to 46 percent – from May 2011 to February 2012.

And with 88 percent of U.S. consumers owning a smartphone or standard phone, the percentage of smartphone-touting Americans rose to 53 percent.

With this kind of short-term jump in ownership, it is likely that the 63 percent North American smartphone adoption average from only a few months ago needs some serious updating.

Prices too, have also come down and, in many cases, have come down faster than had been predicted.

Earlier this month, NPD Group estimated that of those U.S. consumers who considered buying a smartphone for $200 to $250, 64 percent ended up buying the device for less than $200, averaging $135 in the third quarter of 2011.

But prices and adoption rates are only the beginning of these speed-of-light changes.

The amount of mobile Web traffic has surged beyond anyone’s wildest expectations.

A study by Chitika found that from July 2011 to until the last week of February 2012, mobile Web traffic surged 35 percent.

It also showed for every hour that mobile users accessed the mobile Web, the amount of time they spent accessing the Web on PCs continued to fall.

The conclusion?

It is Armageddon time: the post-PC – and post-feature-phone – world is fast approaching.

“Misunderestimating” other things, too: Data gridlock and the tablet flock

Finally, the world’s rapid uptake of mobile devices – particularly smartphones – has led carriers to revamp their data plans long before individual contract renewals.

The Big Three in North America – Verizon Wireless, AT&T and T-Mobile – all now employ a system called “throttling” where if users are in the upper percentages of data usage, their download speeds will be “throttled back” to help clear congestion on the mobile network.

Think of it like 45 miles per hour speed limits in places on 65mph highways that never had them before.

Of course, slowing down data speeds enough will inspire – some would say force – customers to spend more money for larger data plans.

For many, their data plans may be still be unlimited, but try driving 65mph in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Not so easy. Who would have thought that in a few short years – and to some extent, only within the past year – that our digital skies would become as congested as our roadways?

And if you thought the challenges are smartphone-centric, think again.

While they tend to receive less notoriety, the relatively infant-like tablets – only in terms of their age, mind you – are rapidly learning how to play the mobile game too.

In Australia, a recent study by Telsyte found that about half of all Australians will be using a tablet by 2016.

Another study by Cisco Systems estimates that by that same year 2016 the number of mobile-Internet-connected devices will reach 10 billion with mobile traffic data of 10.8 exabytes a month, or a billion gigabytes.

Think about that.

In less than 1,500 days, these staggering data usage estimates could be facts – or, as has been shown repeatedly in the realm of mobile, low-balling what actually comes to pass.

So where do mobile marketers go from here?

It is clear that mobile is lightning fast – minus the throttling – and getting cheaper all the time, again minus finicky data plans. It is changing the way we consume media, socialize and, for all intents and purposes, live.

But for all the talk of mobile’s march on humanity, how many mobile marketing campaigns have we seen that are truly turning heads and fully capitalizing on these trends?

The answer is not too many.

And marketers, it is not easy.

As evidenced by the rapid changes facing all of us in the digital realm, it would be unfair to throw all marketers under the proverbial bus.

Just think how much a small child grows and matures in those first precious years of life? Mobile, it seems, is not really different. But, like any good parent, it never hurts to offer a few reminders.

Successful marketing campaigns generate conversation, connect people to brands and help them establish an emotional connection. And that is before we even start talking about the monetization.

When compared to with traditional mediums, mobile is uniquely able to integrate multiple types of marketing campaigns including promotional, experiential, sponsorship and others, and do so across multiple platforms.

But in each of those cases, the mobile device is key in linking back to the other outlets.

Learning to crawl versus learning to walk

With three quarters of 2012 remaining, it is very likely that mobile marketers –and the rest of us – will experience more miracles from smart device.

It is also a forgone conclusion that prices will continue to drop, data networks will continue to fill, and adoption rates will soar.

In these exciting years of rapid mobile device development and industry maturity – even if predictions will be difficult – mobile marketers would be wise to invest in the time, money and staff requirements necessary to keep pace with our increasingly everywhere and anywhere devices, lifestyles and expectations.

Mobile marketers may be fast crawlers, but like world-exploring youngsters, the difference between infant and toddler is that miraculous moment where a child successfully braces him or herself against a solid object, stands tall, and takes his or her halting first steps.

For mobile marketers, perhaps the remaining months of 2012 will be the needed transition period where an industry finds its stride. And it is about time, too.

The following article by Vanessa Horwell, Chief Visibility Officer of ThinkInk, originally appeared on Mobile Marketer on 03/26/2012.