The PR Industry: An Economic Bellwether? / from MediaPost

Happy days are here again. Or are they?

On June 29, WPP, the global behemoth marketing and communications firm reported a significant uptick in earnings and growth. WPP's Sir Martin Sorrell reported that "in the first quarter, branding and identity, healthcare and specialist communications (including direct, digital and interactive) continues to show relatively stronger growth at over 2.0%, followed by consumer insight at slightly over 2.0% and public relations and public affairs at 2.0%." Congrats, WPP -- that is great news for stakeholders, but what about the rest of the agency world?

Roughly six months ago, as the new decade broke, agencies started the year in a cautiously optimistic mindset. And they had reason to; the recession was over (almost), consumers were shaking out the cobwebs from their wallets, the White House promised to put some sort of chokehold on Wall Street, and firms were hiring again. We saw green shoots.

Today, however, that somewhat rosy picture has failed to materialize for a lot of the PR industry and its clients. It was like a mirage in the Gobi Desert. An illusion.

As PR agencies find themselves at the crossroads of sticking to old-school tactics versus the social-media-as-an-everything Goliath, reinventing their model -- and really, trying to stay relevant to their clients, another major hurdle is facing them -- companies say can no longer afford PR. Seriously.

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Mobile's Coming Of Age? For The Hundredth Time, Yes

A recent article on the WashPost website does a great job describing the proliferation of mobile coupons, along with their benefits to consumer and retailers.

Mobile coupons, as our mobile clients have been touting for years, have a threefold advantage over their paper forebears:

1. They provide convenience and ease of use to consumers,
2. Allow consumers and retailers to engage in a dialogue with one another, and
3. Let retailers collect valuable tracking data about their loyal customers and their spending habits.

All of these are highlighted in Ariana Eunjung Cha’s piece "Mobile coupons help retailers track customers," though of course no article of this kind would be complete without a veiled hint of menace (“the convenience…comes at a price: your privacy”).

But it’s the cautionary aspects of this column that are a little bit misplaced.

Now, we’re not complete pollyannas about the mobile marketing movement, nor are we deaf to the intimations of big brotherhood that inevitably accompany the accumulation of vast amounts of tailored, individualized data by large corporations.

But in terms of mobile couponing, there seems to be a very clear-cut trade off that consumers are willingly engaging in. This is NOT an invasion of privacy, but rather accepting an invitation to trade personal privacy for preferential treatment, and even that in a very circumscribed manner. Now Facebook, that is a whole nother story...

What is important to remember here is that the current generation has been willingly ceding aspects of their (our) privacy for more than a decade. When every travail is documented on Facebook, why balk at allowing purchasing behavior to steer discounts your way?

The truth is, very few balk at this. This is the choice generation, we (and they) want our offers to be relevant, tailored just to us, and we want the ability to seize them or let the pass as we see fit.

And this is the beauty of the mobile coupon, an aspect only briefly mentioned in the Washington Post article: the mobile coupon is an ‘opt-in’ offer. There must be an affirmative decision made on the part of the recipient to receive one. This means that if you don’t sign up for a mobile coupon, it’s just like the other coupons in the Sunday paper you never bought; they exist, but they don’t affect you.

Many would rather have access to the discounts mobile coupons provide. And so mobile coupons have persisted, and will continue to grow in popularity.

But of course, if you read this blog, you knew that already.

All Work And No Play....

Makes us very dull people. This is a fact.

I read a great post last week about vacation time on Firm Voice, a PR blog, and the fact that Americans need a holiday.

A recent national survey commissioned by Mondial Assistance, revealed that;

four in ten (39 percent) Americans haven't had a vacation - defined as leisure travel of a least a week to a destination at least 100 miles from home - in the last two years, up from 33 percent who said the same last year. An additional 17 percent of Americans haven't taken a vacation in over a year, meaning 56 percent of Americans haven't taken a vacation recently (39 percent more than two years and 17 percent more than a year).

Tragic, huh?

While I do agree that sneaking off for a "breather" in times of crisis a la Tony Hayward is a really bad move (then again, show me any good Hayward move), I think the guilt factor and perpetual having to be "on" is working against the American workforce.

Personally, I work anywhere from 50 to 80 hrs a week.. It's not ideal, but as a PR agency owner, I have to do what I have to do. When it comes to down time, however, I feel no guilt. Of course, the blackberry and laptop are my travel buddies, yet sometimes I won't respond to emails until a few days later - shock, horror, gasp!!! But these mobility tools allow me the luxury of time away, without worrying about not being connected to the office, or I need to deal with an urgent client matter.

I (try) to take 2-3 one week breaks throughout the year as this length is managable, pre, during and post holiday.

And you know what?

I come back recharged, reinvigorated and creatively pumped to keep going until the next break. And usually a good 15 lbs heavier, but I digress....

No person should feel obligated to spend every breathing moment in the office for fear of not putting in enough face time or losing their job.

That type of workforce is a thing of the past; the one that confuses activity with acheivement. An inefficient worker is an inefficient worker no matter how much face time they put in.

We have been empoeered with tools that allow us to work anywhere and everywhere.

For the sake of innovation, creativity and a healthier, more sane workforce...

TAKE A BREAK!

Can Entrepreneurship Be Taught redux

My colleague at The ThinkTank, Erin Schmidt, asked a great question today....

Can entrepreneurship be taught?

Disclosure - our nonprofit division works with the South Florida chapter of a national organization that helps young people from low-income and disadvantaged communities learn entrepreneurship and business skills in middle and high school. NFTE , which is short for The Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, gives these young people the tools to break the cycle of poverty and find their own pathway to prosperity through financial independence and a sense of purpose.

These amazing young kids develop business plans and learn about the value of making it on their own, creating a concept, an idea, a vision and applying those in real-world, real-time applications.

The result is a generation of youth who recognize that jobs are not for life and college is no guarantee of employment. These are the youth that are creating small economic engines in communities all over the country, determined to be the first in their family to finish high school, go to college and start own business - or two.

These youth are our entrepreneurs of tomorrow and living proof that entrepreneurship can indeed be taught. As Erin wrote in her blog, "entrepreneurship should be taught not just within the walls of the university – but in our public school systems and in our communities, so that we can nurture and mentor the next generation of innovators."

You can also read a related post in the New York Times' You're The Boss Blog

On Journalism: The Futility of "Exclusive" Scoops

The futility of "exclusive" scoops in today's media cycle is, well, futile...

Last week, the Daily Online Examiner's article Major Newspapers Claim Right To Keep Scoops Exclusive described the futile and somewhat disingenuous recent filing of a legal brief by a handful of major US newspapers in an effort to prevent rival publications from picking up and putting out their “scoops”.

The argument is based on a case before federal appellate court wherein an online publication published a bank’s stock recommendations before some of the bank’s clients were notified. The larger implication, though, is that mainstream publications like the New York Times or the Washington Post (two newspapers that have joined the brief) would have the ability to prevent their exclusive stories from being reprinted (or, more likely, reposted online) by their competitors.

Good luck with that.

My view is that such an action has no basis and no precedent, and effectively undermines the public good achieved by the rapid dissemination of information, no matter who breaks it.

Journalism has always been in a bit of a bind in this area. It is called the Fourth Estate for its immense public value as a government watchdog, yet to facilitate that function journalism must be as removed from government control and influence as possible. This means journalism must be a for-profit, capitalist enterprise, which in turn means there must be stiff competition.

Once again, this means journalism must be a for-profit, capitalist enterprise, which in turn means there must be stiff competition. Got that?

Exclusives, scoops, and being the first to break a story are ways of achieving competitive advantage in this market, and so of course it's understandable that those organizations devoting the most resources to the gathering of news want to protect this advantage. Finder keepers, losers weepers.

But doing so in this way nearly nullifies journalism’s Fourth Estate status. AJ Liebling once wrote that “the function of the press in society is to inform, but its role in society is to make money.”

The latter part of this dichotomy may be more and more difficult in the internet age, but the former has never been as important.

Pilots Walk The Gangplank / from MediaPost

I'm not writing about BP again today -- or anytime soon. Really, there's nothing left for me to say that hasn't been said elsewhere. However, in the same vein of "PR crisis control fiasco," I am writing about ceding control of the story to others, just as the pilots of Spirit Airlines did earlier this month when they went on strike over a pay lag and bungled salary negotiations spanning three years.

I found the pilot strike to be something of a paradox. The human in me wanted to side with the pilots' cause; after all, why would they not be entitled to a compensation package that is fair and reasonable? I wanted to side with the underdog -- you know, the powerless worker versus the corporate goliath, but I simply couldn't.

Why? Because the pilots did not share their plight with me -- or the rest of country, for that matter. They didn't communicate their story with anyone but each other.

Instead they embarked on a PR strategy of silence and handed the opportunity of telling their story to management on a silver platter.

Trying To Work Out Who The Good Guys Are

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QUITE POSSIBLY THE WORST PRESS RELEASE EVER

I don't normally write in caps, or use all caps for titles.

This post is the exception - I had to grab your attention to what is quite possibly the worst press release ever written. Ever.

I received this pile of junk last week and in the spirit of what follows, OMG. What you are about to read will make you want to stick pins in your eyes.

Are you ready?

"TEXTCHX - Text Message Marketing: A New Way of Advertisement

A good look at how TEXTCHX text message marketing has allowed small, & medium sized businesses to highly target customers & keep them coming back to purchase. Also, showing how this tool directly boosts brand awareness in the mind of the consumer.

(I-Newswire) June 15, 2010 - Text message marketing is a new innovative way of getting your business’s products and name out there. Almost everyone has some sort of text message service. It’s just ingrained in our culture. We want to be able to quickly send and receive messages to keep us up to date with what’s going on in the world around us. We get news, weather, social networking sites updates, we can vote on our favorite soft drink or American Idol star…almost anything—within reason—can be done with text messages!

As a business, you can benefit from a new form of advertisement. But what is this type of advertisement? What does it do?

Mobile text advertising is a wonderful way of sending your customers updates and new deals that are going on at your establishment or company. It’s easy—not a lot of people go without their cell phones. You can reach them anywhere and tell them all about your awesome new business, your deals, or whatever else you have to offer. Almost every major company supports text messaging marketing.

With sms marketing software, you simply choose a keyword, and your advertisement is sent out to a subscriber. Someone who is texted is more likely to read your message than someone you contacted over the phone, email, or any other media methods. You can also choose between local, statewide, country wide or even international markets. Imagine being able to reach customers EVERYWHERE! In Hong Kong, Baton Rouge, London, Brussels, or even Algiers!

But the text messaging advertising isn’t just limited to text messages. There are also options including mobile internet and app advertising.

Say you’re a dating service and your contract includes a mobile app that a lot of single people use. Maybe there’s a guy. He’s twenty-ish, not bad looking, but extremely shy. He doesn’t know where to start, poor thing. He wants to get out, see people! He knows he’s a lady’s man on the inside. He just has to find it!

Then, he sees your advertisement—thanks to your text messaging software—and decides he’s going to give it a try. He does—and discovers he LOVES your dating service. So he texts all of his friends and tells them all about it, earning you even more customers! All because of one little advertisement."

ENOUGH!

Whoever wrote this needs to be spanked and sent back to Grade 3. It's precisely this sort of crap that gives the PR industry a bad name.

Not to mention that the company is about 2.5 years too late to the party.

I just re-read it, I need a drink!

Oh, and Happy Tuesday.