Come Together / from MediaPost

A few weeks ago, Vocus released a survey about the divergent attitudes amongst us marketing and PR professionals and our take on integrated communications. The survey, also featured in MediaPost's Center for Media Research, looked at the differences in our perceptions surrounding the effectiveness, priorities and purpose of integrated communications.

One of the most surprising findings centered on the definition of integrated communications itself. And this raises a question: is something as ill-defined as integrated communications preferable or even valuable for companies? Is there a benefit to bringing together communications functions of two distinct practices (marketing and PR) that can barely agree on each other's applicability or raison d'être?

The answer is a resounding YES, and for two main reasons;

1) Despite the disconnect between marketing and PR professionals regarding the philosophy and aim of communications, these are viewed and consumed by outside entities (consumers, in the case of B2C companies, businesses for B2B) in the same way. That is to say, various communications are inherently linked, and so they must be developed and disseminated in an integrated way.

2) Integrated communications leverages the power of both PR and marketing to achieve unified aims. Rather than a mash-up of at-odds tactics and strategies (as does exist with separate PR and marketing entities), the sum of techniques used in a robust and integrated communications program becomes so much greater than its individual parts.

We All Own It

While the Vocus survey stops short of making a pronouncement on the value of integrated communications, integrating our efforts (yes, I'm talking to you, Marketing Department) is the only way to effectively engage and manage the diverse communications channels available today. Just as the survey finds that both PR ad marketing practitioners perceive social media outreach as being part of their scope (43% of PR professionals feel they should "own" social media, while 34% of marketers make the same claim), an integrated approach is really the only way to maximize the benefits of this still-growing medium. It's impossible to be effective in a vacuum.

Talking of Social Media

Social media is a great example to support the above statements - that both the PR and marketing aspects of corporate communications are linked. Facebook pages or Twitter feeds function equally as awareness drivers and marketing vehicles. The commonality here is brand engagement, and that is neither a strictly marketing nor a strictly PR function. It is a function of integrated communications, period.

That said, social media demonstrates that it's often necessary to use different tactics to achieve different results. Even as social media resists easy tagging as a 'PR' or 'marketing' medium, it produces different end results if traditionally marketing-related or traditionally PR-related techniques are used to activate it. And users of social media can usually tell the difference between sales and outreach efforts, and each may be relevant under different circumstances. But to make this resolve, and to reap the most rewards from communication in this channel, everyone has to be on the same page.

Integrate Baby, Integrate....click here to continue reading.

Digital & PR Agencies Getting Hitched

A great piece in Adweek by Brian Morrissey about Digital and PR agencies coming together. All I can say is ABOUT TIME!

Why? To paraphrase Kevin King, managing director of Edelman Digital;

"To execute a robust digital strategy, you have to ... do everything." Kings feels that "traditional" digital agencies aren't adept at being nimble enough to react as quickly as needed in social media. PR firms, steeped in the 24-hour news cycle, don't have that problem, he said.

AMEN.

Click here to read the entire piece on Adweek.com

My response to MoBlog's "Forecasts Don't Reflect Full Scope Of Mobile Spending"

A few thoughts on Mark Walsh’s article on Mediapost’s MoBlog last week (5/20) concerning the growth forecasts of mobile ad spending.

The article cites a larger mobile marketplace (in dollar terms) than leading growth estimates imply along with a higher and longer-term growth potential for the channel as justifications for businesses to resist the prevailing urgency to jump into mobile marketing and advertising. Inevitable increases in mobile content inventory that will go hand in hand with a more mobile-centric future, he argues, make the imperative of claiming a share of the mobile market at this juncture a “tad alarmist”.

I agree with a part of this argument - that the mobile explosion or ‘critical mass’ analysts have been predicting for years has yet to (and may never) materialize; I have addressed this notion in some of my Mobile Marketer columns- but deny vehemently the conclusion Walsh reaches. Yes, the mobile revolution in terms of marketing and advertising is shaping up to be gradual, but that doesn’t make it any less powerful, or any less important for businesses to be involved with. Moreover, the inflation of ad spend figures when considering ‘earned media’ only indicates that mobile marketing and advertising may be more of a mature market than analysts have realized, which would make a case for the urgency to get involved, not against.

Mobile is not going anywhere, so I agree that the concept of ‘missing the boat’ doesn’t necessarily apply. But companies that don’t engage in mobile marketing and advertising at this point are ceding a significant early adopter advantage to their competitors. This isn’t strictly about staking a claim in the market (who wants to be the Pets.com of the mobile space?), but more about engaging the mobile channel to become conversant in the marketing language of tomorrow.

Companies that utilize mobile marketing and advertising today are perceived as innovative and forward-thinking among their customers and competitors; companies that jump on the mobile bandwagon in five years will be behind the curve, and viewed as such.

Mobile growth projections are impressive for a reason: the channel is quickly becoming a dominant medium for marketing and advertising. Consumers are embracing the mobile web and direct mobile communications, and the mobile device is becoming indispensible. Businesses and marketers that ignore or dismiss this phenomenon- or play the waiting game with a rapidly expanding channel- do so at their own peril.

The mobile marketing and advertising revolution will be less like flipping a light switch (with late adopters shadows in a suddenly bright room), and more like building a bonfire. Those on the fringes will eventually see the light, but they won’t be nearly as hot as those who had been there from the first spark.

Good PR makes good 'cents' for hotels, says TravelInk'd

Turning Media Coverage into Dollars: Good PR makes good 'cents' for hotels.

Thanks to HotelInteractive and TravelInk'd for this piece...

The actual connection between a hotel’s media exposure and revenue is not especially well understood. Sure, the industry has metrics for it - ROI chief among them - but for most hoteliers, the process by which media coverage generates hard dollars is mystifying. There’s a disconnect between the actions performed by a public relations firm and room sales or restaurant covers; unlike marketing or advertising, which have the explicit goal of driving sales, public relations can sometimes seem like a roundabout way of achieving the end aim of increased business.

And yet it’s not alchemy. Those hotels with efficient, robust public relations approaches consistently outperform their competitors that don’t.

There are exceptions, of course, and no amount of PR can spin a substandard product. But the correlation remains—and yet so does the uncertain perception about public relations’ role in revenue generation. In today’s operating environment especially, hotels and hoteliers should be embracing the relationship between media coverage and sales, as it can be a very profitable one.

There’s a simple trick to understanding this relationship: substitute the words ‘visibility’ and ‘awareness’ for the term ‘public relations’. Visibility and awareness are, after all, the fundamental goal of any public relations strategy (with the important qualifier being positive awareness). The correlation between having a hotel be visible to potential consumers and increased sales is much more straightforward, as is the relationship between consumer awareness of a given property and bookings.

In the lodging industry, defined primarily by crowded and competitive geographical marketplaces, visibility can represent a considerable advantage. A hotel that creates more awareness among consumers than its competitors will enjoy more bookings and a higher relative occupancy rate. Though this can be accomplished through marketing and advertising, public relations is the most cost-effective - and often the most effective - way to increase consumer awareness of a property. It logically follows, then, that effective public relations can directly influence room sales.

One of the most important components of a solid public relations strategy is media coverage. Having a hotel featured in the media boosts consumer awareness to a degree unattainable by direct consumer outreach, like marketing and advertising. Moreover, media coverage of a hotel can help define the hotel’s image and brand, not just disseminate it. A hotel featured in the media instantly becomes a desirable destination - assuming the coverage is positive, of course. Media coverage, in this respect, is like an invitation: Every feature article in a magazine, every TV news or lifestyle segment, is an unspoken “come and see what everyone’s talking about”. This can be very effective in terms of increasing sales, including ancillary (non-room) sales.

Hotels can achieve positive media coverage in a variety of ways. As always, everything starts with a great product, though a hotel need not be a W Hotel to enjoy media mentions. The key is finding an aspect of the property or the hotel’s operations that is newsworthy, or that appeals to a broad audience. Once a focus is determined, then a story can be told about it.

Hotels are full of good stories, but telling them in a way that will invite media coverage is the real trick. A good story is compelling, conveys a strong message, and builds a property’s brand in the telling. And it is more than simply issuing a press release and hoping it sticks somewhere. Most importantly for generating media coverage, a good story is one a wide audience can relate to. The story can be aimed at the society page or the business section, a profile of the general manager or owner or an architectural review of the facilities. A good public relations firm can help a hotel identify the right stories, and tell them in the right way.

Crafting the right story isn’t the end of the process for a hotel, though. To get good media coverage, that story must be presented to the appropriate outlets. Is a local newspaper the right target for a given hotel? Or is it a national publication, with the goal of attracting out-of-town guests? Or perhaps a story about the finances and operations of the property, which would be of interest to trade publications? This determination should be made early on in the story development process, to give it direction. When the media targets are set, then the visibility process becomes about getting the story in front of the people who need to see it.

If executed correctly, this PR process (which has been simplified for the purposes of this article - whole textbooks have been written about hotel PR) will deliver increased consumer awareness of a property, which will deliver increased bookings and ultimately, revenues. As the industry continues the process of economic recovery, and as individual hotels continue to try and carve out profitable niches in competitive markets, public relations and media coverage are playing ever-larger roles in sales generation.

Understanding that relationship is the key for hoteliers to unlock the floodgates of revenue. So what are you waiting for?

You can also find the article online at http://www.hotelinteractive.com/article.aspx?articleid=17027

Helping the Homeless via an app? iHobo, hhhhmm

iHobo,a new app created to raise awareness of homelessness reminds me of a throwback to the '90's Neopets a.k.a Neopests. It's this year's equivalent of virtual "caretaking" - but with an apparent cause. Homelessness.

For those not familiar with Neopets, they were/are virtual animals that could be revived with cash, credits and virtual caresses - games after all - but I'm left wondering what is the point, or rather pointlessness of iHobo?

Homelessness is no game, nor is it entertaining. Has iHobo been created to build awareness of a tabooed and greatly misunderstood problem in our society? More importantly, can an app actually achieve that?

Some questions to iHobo's creators:

1) Is iHobo supposed to remind us that ad people are clever and can make a play out of any issue, any cause?
2) Is iHobo intended to build awareness of the issue and engender support from Hipsters? Will they really care?

Taken from a press release on May 10th, Publicis London says;

"By creating this app we aim to dispel negative stereotypes of young homeless people and raise awareness of the reasons that young people become homeless and the emotions that they feel. We wanted to create an app that would stand out and make people pay attention, and make people think about how they can make a difference."

Can an app do all that? I am undecided.

If you've got an iphone, you can download the app here or search for 'iHobo' in iTunes.

Or visit the dedicated microsite http://www.ihobo.org

Advice To BP That It Didn't Ask For / from MediaPost

Dear BP,

Here's some advice you haven't asked for.

Yours truly,
The PR Industry

That's the column I would have written if I hadn't decided to take another tack. You see, writing a column can be a solitary affair, and exceptionally polarizing when tackling big issues. The impulse to take a position -- the more incendiary the better -- and hammer it home is powerful when composing in a vacuum (I imagine this is how, say, Ann Coulter feels on a regular basis).

But it's an inherently limited process, and yields a limited viewpoint. So with something as topical, heated and broad-reaching as BP's Gulf Oil Spill, I decided to open up the dialogue by inviting other brains to take part in what I consider an important discussion about a substantial PR crisis. Though there are significantly more pressing issues surrounding the spill (ask an Appilachicola oyster or the guy that makes a living farming them), this column will focus solely on BP's handling of the spill from a PR and communications perspective.

I invited PR industry and marcomm experts to share their views on the BP's actions -- good and bad. The interviews printed below were insightful and well-reasoned, but the overall result of my invitation was disappointing. Of the 46 responses I received from PR experts, only these four PR professionals offered meaningful commentary. The rest were either incoherent or self-serving babble -- no wonder BP hasn't solicited any advice from those "experts."

But they would be well served by listening to Brad Burns, Mark Tardiff, Rene Henry, and Dan Baum.

Brad is a principal at Revoltion and a former SVP of Corporate Communicaitons with MCI/Worldcomm; Mark is the Associate Director of College Communications at Unity College; Rene is the author of Communication in a Crisis, and Dan is CEO and Creative Director of DBC PR+New Media. My interview with them begins:

Gentlemen, how do you think BP is handling the current crisis, from a PR perspective?

To read their responses, click here.

Why the PR industry must embrace mobile

As just about everyone knows – and as absolutely everyone who reads this publication knows – we are living in the mobile era.

Mobile is the defining communications channel of our time, improving upon – and in some ways eclipsing – the online channel.
As might be expected, many businesses and other organizations have been quick to capitalize on the marketing opportunities presented by mobile. But in the area of public relations, mobile has yet to become a dominant force.

Certainly mobile Web-enabled programs such as Twitter have left a mark on the PR industry. However, the fact remains that most PR professionals are not leveraging the mobile channel optimally, or even scratching the surface.

Tweethearts
As the PR industry continues along the path of commoditization, it becomes critical that PR agencies begin to embrace mobile, not just because of the channel’s immense potential – although that should reason enough – but because mobile communications are some of the most direct, immediate and actionable communications available.

These attributes are what make the mobile channel so effective for marketing and sales, and what can make the channel an invaluable tool for PR practitioners.

That said, marshaling mobile for the service of PR is not as simple as it might seem.

While some aspects and outcroppings such as Twitter are accessible, getting the most from mobile on a PR campaign will almost certainly require partnerships with industry experts and knowledge.

As regulations and best practices continue to evolve as the mobile channel matures, there is a great big grey area of protocol to follow, largely unknown by anyone outside the immediate industry.

This, in turn, presents a major hurdle for PR firms trying to use mobile in a similar way to how they use voice or online communications in their strategies and tactics.

Most agencies do not have the technical capability to implement a large-scale mobile campaign, and fewer would find a positive return on the infrastructural investment necessary to develop that capability.

But assessing the value of mobile in this way is truly counterproductive. Instead, the process of developing mobile partnerships should be viewed as a great opportunity.

The more conversant PR professionals become with mobile, the more services they will be able to offer clients.

Becoming a mobile-capable PR firm through strategic partnerships with mobile solutions providers is a very good way to carve out a profitable niche. More importantly, it is a good foundation for the future.

We time
Why is embracing mobile important for PR firms? Click here to find out.