The World’s Best Brand and It Doesn’t Advertise

Imagine that. Today’s news from research firm Millward Brown’s Brandz study showed that the company with the best brand on earth, the one with the most recognition worldwide, was Google.

Yes, Google. The company that does the least amount of advertising of any on the list. In fact, the article in Advertising Age even states that “Despite doing no visible consumer advertising, the search giant repeats as this year’s most powerful brand…” Truly, this is a company that understands the power of public relations and its role in brand management and development.

Now, before I ruffle the feathers of friends or others in the ad industry, I should note that Google is the only “brand” listed in the top 10 that does not advertise. However, each of the top 10 receives so much coverage that it’s hard to imagine a true need for advertising, except to support its ongoing PR efforts. (more…)

In PR, Transparency Should Always be a Policy

On our blog, we clearly state that we represent clients who pay us to help with their marketing communication campaigns. This means we speak highly of them. Luckily for us, it’s easy to do because the companies we work with are companies we can believe in and support.

However, and this surprises me, not everyone in the profession adheres to similar standards. Well, it doesn’t surprise me that their are unethical people out there who are trying to manipulate the system for their own or their clients benefit, but it surprises me that they feel it is an acceptable tactic.

So why is this news? Cisco recently ran into legal problems because they did not have a disclosure policy in effect. How could they and many other companies avoid a potential lawsuit or loss in the trial of public opinion, be transparent. (more…)

Perserverance, Laser-sharp Focus and a Good Idea = A Winning Combination for Jason Alba, Creator of JibberJobber.com

I love a good story, and to me a good story can become great when it

*  Involves a real person,

*  Who overcomes adversity and/or long odds, and

*  Achieves success.

Jason Alba fits into the great story category.

Without going into all the details, Jason’s a tech guy with an MBA under his belt who found himself out of work in January 2006. After several months of unsuccessfully looking for ajob to meet his skill-sets and needs, he decided to branch out onto his own by launching JibberJobber.com — a Web-based solution to help others out of work manage their job-seeking efforts.

Picking up on repeated questions he heard about the benefits (if any) of LinkedIn, the social networking site, Jason wrote a book entitled simply enough, I’m on LinkedIn. Now What? Recently he published a second book: I’m On Facebook. Now What?

By themselves, these are positive steps in what sounds like a decent personal turnaround story. But Jason’s taken his entrepreneurial efforts beyond the basic “woe is me” story to the “I’m doing pretty okay now” with his fairly tireless self-promotional efforts.

His most recent hit? A very nice 3-25-08 write-up in U.S. News & World Report entitled: “Boosting Your Sales with Social Networking.”

As proven by the USNWR story (as well as by inclusion in stories from The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and others), Jason has now transformed himself into a sought-after expert — in essence, a brand unto himself.

Congrats, Jason. That’s good news for you, and for those seeking your advice/assistance as well.

Don’t Pick a Fight with Someone Who Buys Ink by the Barrel, Normally

Normally we stick by the old adage: Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel. But after some strange events last week, it seems you can as long as you have a room full of industry types, bloggers and other reporters in the room to back you up.

That’s what seemed to happen during a live interview between Facebook founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, and Business Week reporter and author, Sarah Lacy, at the South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) conference held last week in Austin, Texas. From the reports and videos I’ve seen it appeared that Lacy tried to make herself the the focus of the interview.

True, she did ask some probing questions. Some that were good to shed light on Facebook and its recent activities. However, with her anecdotal stories, and constant references back to herself detracted from the bigger story in the room, Zuckerberg.

But none of this is the point of this post. The interview has been well documented (for fun, type in Zuckerberg, Lacy in Google news and you’ll see what I mean), so I want to focus on the PR lessons to take away from it. (more…)

Qtrax Lands “Bewildered Betty Award” for Announcing Deals with Major Music Labels Before Said Agreements Are Signed

Major PR faux pas by Brilliant Technologies puts future of nascent free music download service — QTRAX — in serious doubt

Can you think of ANY reason why a company would ever want to “announce” it had closed deals with one or more major partners at a HUGE industry event without having such deals actually signed?

Me neither.

Amazingly, that’s apparently what happened this past weekend at the MIDEM music conference held in Cannes.

According to media reports from around the globe, New York-based Qtrax — a subsidiary of Brilliant Technologies (Pink Sheets: BLLN) — spent close to £500,000 to host a launch party that featured such recording artists as LL Cool J and James Blunt and was designed to promote the “fact” that Qtrax was going to announce Monday it had

• Signed deals with the four largest music labels – EMI, Universal, Sony BMG and Warner Music Group; and that
• These deals would provide more than 25,000 free downloadable songs for users of the new free ad-supported QTRAX music download service.

(more…)

A Pretty Cool Pair of Kicks

I couldn’t help but notice the AP story today about the release of the Air Jordan XXIII shoes.

[Pause for the roaring round of applause.]

In case you are not one of the crazed and obsessed kids (or adults acting like kids) skipping school, work and even mugging to get your hands on a pair, let me give you a little background on this now “household” name of a shoe.

In the early 1980’s Nike was a struggling shoe company who was in serious need of a company and product makeover and they had their eye on rookie play Michael Jordan. Unlike other shoe companies, Nike was willing to risk a substantial amount of their marketing budget on this particular deal.

The differences didn’t stop with the budget alone. The new shoe line had a bold black and red design-a stark contrast to the white high-tops seen in the NBA. When the NBA banned the shoe from the league, Jordan wore them anyway, racking up to $5,000 per game in fines. (Nike was happy to pay these fines to keep the shoes in the public eye.)

Since 1985, the Air Jordan line has consistently been among the best selling basketball shoes and has gained a strong crowd of fans and collectors. With the release of the XXIII (Jordan’s iconic jersey number), many have rumored this shoe will be the line’s last.

Ever the savvy marketer, Jordan is keeping his lips sealed on that one, only teasing the media with “You’ll just have to wait and see.”

While I love the idea of ending the Air Jordan “reign” over the basketball shoe market with this legendary number, I highly doubt Nike is willing to lose this obviously valuable brand. (Nike won’t say what Jordan’s contract is worth but Lebron James’ deal is worth more than $90 million.)

I also think there would have been a bigger pr and advertising push if this were the last Air Jordan…but what do you think? Am I way off base?

Timing is Not the Only Thing

My Canadian colleague, Mr. Bacon, has opined on the timing of announcements for maximum media coverage. He specifically mentioned the timing of Mitt Romney’s speech on Religion in America. While he focused his argument solely on the timing of Mr. Romney’s announcement, there are other factors he didn’t mention that I believe should be added to the discussion of when announcements should and shouldn’t be made.

First, consider the setting. In Mr. Romney’s case, he was scheduled to give a speech in the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library on the campus of Texas A&M, where he was introduced by the former president of the United States. He was 90 miles from where JFK gave his speech on religion’s role in his presidential campaign in 1960. It’s a perfect setting to abate some of the concerns the voting public has brought up with regards to his campaign. The setting itself-the public library honoring a former president, with that former president providing the introduction-was a politically calculated move to say, “I am running for president of the United States, not the leader of any religion.”

Second, consider the season. It was delivered in the first part of December. Hanukkah, the commemoration of a Jewish victory for freedom and the courage and faith that made it possible, began two nights prior to his speech. If he were to have given it on Tuesday, he would have been accused of trying to supersede the Jewish holiday and lost points for himself. But in giving it on Thursday, he allows others to celebrate the beginning of their own holiday. Moreover, Christmas, the Christian celebration of Jesus Christ’s birth, is around the corner; and the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca for Muslims, is slated to begin December 18. So it’s a perfect time for Mr. Romney to deliver a speech on religion and religious tolerance. It’s a season of focus on historical religious occasions, which lends itself to love, compassion and withdrawal of prejudice. There is no better season to deliver such a speech.

(more…)

Timing is Everything

We’ve all heard the saying timing is everything, and probably most of us agree with it to some degree or another. It goes without saying, therefore, that when making announcements to the press, timing is everything. But during an election cycle, it is even more so for politicians.

The obvious reason is for issues to be relevant to a reading or viewing public, they need to be timely. However, the reason to aim for timeliness is not simply so the media will cover it, but it also helps keep it announcing things during getting something out it is also to keep the announcement in the press for as long as possible.

The most recent example that demonstrated the importance of this concept to me happened last week with Republican candidate for president, Mitt Romney. He announced at the beginning of the week that he would give his so-called “religious speech” on Thursday of the same week.

I will submit that by announcing Sunday that he would address the issue during a speech scheduled for Thursday, he did garner the majority of the media attention throughout the week. However, was it the type of coverage he would or should want? Personally, no. The chatter throughout the week was not his message, but instead was a convoluted message from political pundits or talking-heads. Their messages varied, sometimes positive for him and other times negative.
By giving the speech on Thursday, Romney left only two days for his message to permeate throughout the airwaves, talk shows, newspapers, blogosphere and media in general. Why two days? Because the main weekly news cycle ends on Friday, and Friday, tends to be a soft news day at best. (more…)