Borrowed Thoughts from Small Agency Diary

In catching up on other industry-related blogs, I’ve neglected to update The Betty Factor. My sincerest apologies; a real update is coming soon!

So! In the meantime, I want to highlight a blog post I recently read written by Jennifer Patterson over at Small Agency Diary that really taps into small agency culture through a story about — of all things — a squishy carpet.  It’s a testament to the career path many  us have chosen and I just wanted to share! I’ll check back in soon.

There was a time at the agency when the floor squished as you walked from reception into the kitchen. The squish eventually migrated from reception to one of the offices and soon became a sort of character in the office. People would come in and ask “What’s the squish-factor today?”

When the squish was vacuumed out, we lost more than a water-logged floor. We lost a part of our culture.

This sounds absurd, but anyone who works at a small agency will know this to be true. At a small agency, we’re used to communing with the elements. Those little inconveniences are part of day-to-day work life. At a large agency, these inconveniences are efficiently handled — there are plans, there is a person whose job it is to deal with the squish. At a small agency, you just keep squishing along.

We never really mentioned the squish to outsiders. After all, no client wants to hire a (literally or figuratively) sinking agency.

But I am here to say the squish is worth something.

Small-agency culture is all about creativity and spontaneity. On a given day you deal with the highest altitude issues of client’s brand and business and the lowest altitude issues like what kind of coffee to buy. But getting your hands dirty with the in’s and out’s of your own business is a great reminder that your client’s business is also about the elements.

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.

BusinessWeek: Social Media Will Change Your Business

We in the Politis universe have grown to understand the importance of having a blog, while a few clients remain iffy about this wonderful world of blogging. If that statement rings true for you and yours, as well, you might think about sending them this this quote from BusinessWeek.

Sure, most blogs are painfully primitive. That’s not the point. They represent power. Look at it this way: In the age of mass media, publications like [BusinessWeek] print the news. Sources try to get quoted, but the decision is ours. Ditto with letters to the editor. Now instead of just speaking through us, they can blog. And if they master the ins and outs of this new art - like how to get other bloggers to link to them - they reach a huge audience.

A few weeks ago BusinessWeek.com’s Technology section featured an article written by the team of senior writer Stephen Baker and associate editor Heather Green, simply and appropriately titled Social Media Will Change Your Business: Look past the yakkers, hobbyists and political mobs. Your customers and rivals are figuring blogs out. Our advice: Catch up… or catch you later.

Baker and Green draw examples of blogging successes and mishaps from major corporations and smaller alike. The article talks about the current state of blogging, warns against talkin’ trash about the company you work for (the boss is more than likely going to stumble across that blog post), dishes on the evolving world of creating revenue on blog sites and what all this blogging really means for the future of print media.

To read the full article, go ahead and click here. And if you think that BusinessWeek doesn’t practice what it preaches, it’ll be the first to tell you about its plans.

We’ve done our research on blogs, made our dire pronouncements. Pretty soon, someone in production will press the button. But this story should go on, as a conversation. And it will, starting on Apr. 22. We’re launching our own blog to cover the business drama ahead, as blogging spreads into companies and redefines media. The blog’s name? Blogspotting.net. See you there.

See me there? Yes you will.

Happy Betty Award! Quality Customer Relations - Millhollow

So often, we hear of poor customer relations as the sole reason individuals decide not to return to a company to buy goods or services. But it’s not often we hear about good customer relations that lead to return customers. I wanted to highlight one example and hand out a Happy Betty Award.

Recently, my colleague and I were in Rexburg, Idaho, for a career fair at BYU-Idaho. We stopped in at a local sandwich shop called Millhollow’s for lunch and ordered our meals (I ordered a club on white, and Kris ordered a spicy Italian on white). They were absolutely delicious! There was only one problem: there was no meat. Hands-down, they were the best meatless deli sandwiches I had ever had in my life.

We discovered the gaffe about half-way through eating our sandwiches, and had a good chuckle about it. We decided to go back to the counter to let them know of the mistake. They were obviously embarrassed, but they took the remainder of our sandwiches, piled them with extra meat and returned them with two gift certificates for a free ice cream. They treated us very respectfully and were very nice about the mistake.

It was a prime example of quality customer service that we ought to recognize. Check them out if you’re ever in Rexburg.

Fox Cashes in on Super Bowl Ads

Could you spend $2.7 million in 30 seconds?

Well, that’s what companies are reportedly spending on average this year for one of the coveted 63 ad spots scheduled to air on Fox during Super Bowl XLII this Sunday, February 3. Fox has even sold some spots at as much as $3 million, topping the $2.6 million CBS Corp. reached last year.

Commercials have started to leak onto the Internet via Youtube and other popular video-hosting sites. As one of the few that have leaked, this 60 second clip from Pepsi stars Justin Timberlake with appearances by Dallas Cowboy’s quarterback Tony Romo and Saturday Night Live comedian Andy Samberg. (Hmm… I guess if Romo couldn’t play his way into the Super Bowl, he had to get in there somehow!) Do you think the commercial is worth the cost to get that kind of talent and the appx. $5.4 million just to launch it during the SuperBowl? Watch for yourself and decide!

I’ll report back next week with a list of commercials that had everyone at my party rolling… and the sad few that just maybe weren’t worth the dollars spent.

Oh, and as far as Sunday goes… GO GIANTS!

2008 Marketing/Advertising Trendspotting

I’ve recently come to realize (even through writing on this blog) that I am a list person. I make lists all the time! Grocery lists, packing lists, lists of CDs to purchase, lists of desirable vacation spots, gift lists, etc. I, however, am not keen on making those New Year’s Resolutions lists like so many out there.

So while people spend time reevaluating their lives and penning hopeful personal trends for 2008, I turned to the Internet to research what the knowledgeable ones are predicting in marketing and advertising for the new year. Basically, if marketing and advertising were personified and could make their own New Year’s Resolutions lists, they would look something like this…*

• Go mobile
• Go green (everybody’s doing it)
• Everything needs to be available digitally and traditionally… everything
• Get inside consumers’ heads, literally, to figure out how to give them what they want
• Either tell consumers flat out that their spending habits are being tracked or hide it much much better, go one way or the other
• Go mobile, it’s the perfect time
• Tell car dealers and realty companies to market to women, we seem to be overlooking them
• Don’t overlook the widget
• Give customers more control
• No really, go mobile

What are your predicted marketing/advertising trends for 2008? Share your ideas in the comments!

 *This list was compiled based on personal prediction and 2008 trend lists by Advertising Age, BtoB Online, ConsumerLab.com and Entrepreneur.

KSL-AM Turns to David Politis for “Cyber Monday” Story

The Monday after Thanksgiving is now known as “Cyber Monday,” supposedly the biggest online shopping day of the Holiday Season.

KSL-AM’s Paul Nelson turned to Politis Communications founder David Politis for his insights about what Utah companies would likely do well today.

Included in his list were Overstock.com, BYUBookstore.com, DeseretBook.com, CampChef.com and HobbyTron.com.

Read or listen to the story here: http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=2220726.

Seasoned Journalist Offers Advice to PR Pros

The idea that anyone, let alone a public relations professional, would speak with a journalist while chewing food is mind-boggling.

But that’s what award-winning, Salt Lake Tribune Reporter Paul Beebe says that at least one PR “pro” did last week while visiting with Paul at last week’s Speed-Pitching Event produced by the Utah Valley Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America at Utah Valley State College.

The first-time activity was a fun and helpful PRSA get-together designed to allow PR reps to spend four minutes pitching a story idea to one of six different journalists, of which Beebe was one.

This was obviously a worthwhile chance to meet one-on-one with local journalists, so we had one team each from SOAR Communications and Politis Communications on hand (with clients in tow) to take advantage of the opportunity. And in my opinion, it went quite well; then again, the proof will be in the pudding (are stories written/produced about our clients or not by these journalists).

But back to Beebe’s 11/18/07 article, entitled “Let a hack pitch ideas to a flack.”

First off, for the uninitiated, “hack” is an unflattering nickname for what Beebe terms “a mediocre writer.” Conversely, Beebe writes that “flack” refers to someone who “nag(s) reporters on deadline with bad ideas for lousy stories.” OUCH (on both parts)!

If you have a moment (assuming the link above to the story is still “live,”) check out Beebe’s full article. As I would expect, it’s well-written, direct and pulls no punches.

However, since I’ve noticed in the past that Tribune stories often become unavailable after a week or two without a subscription, I’m going to republish below Beebe’s complete list of advice to PR practitioners everywhere.

So (with Beebe’s permission), here is Paul’s list:

• Do not talk with food in your mouth. That’s gross, and it happened last week.
• Never say you just started your job yesterday. Saying, in effect, you know next to nothing about your client doesn’t inspire confidence.
• Make eye contact. Speak in short sentences. Don’t drone on. Avoid hype. Avoid jargon. If you can’t describe your company in English, you’re in trouble.
• Know what you are going to say before you start your pitch.
• Tell me immediately what you want. Don’t expect me to figure it out.
• Don’t repeat yourself unless there’s a good reason.
• Anticipate this question: Why should I care?
• Bring a business card (some folks last week did not). I expect one. Don’t just circle your name at the bottom of your press release.
• Pitch real stories. Telling me your company is wonderful and your CEO is a great person is usually not persuasive.
• Ask yourself, would you really want to read what you are offering? If the answer is yes, your idea will usually sell itself. Otherwise you’re in trouble.
• In that vein, don’t ask me what I want to read. I’ll know it when I see it.
• Don’t ask me who covers what or who to contact at the newspaper. It’s your job to know.
• Understand what newspaper journalists do. They report news and trends, often on deadlines. Their interests are not necessarily aligned with yours. Tell them why their readers should care about your client.
• Be aware of business or economic trends and how your company fits in.

I STRONGLY recommend any person preparing to speak to a journalist read (or re-read) Beebe’s list and adhere to his advice.

For although most of Beebe suggestions should be second nature to PR professionals, the fact that he wrote the story/column at all proves that some PR practitioners and spokespeople have some basic improving to do.

Book Review: “MADE to STICK”

I had a seatmate on a recent airline flight tell me how much she loved “MADE to STICK” (subhead: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die) by Chip Heath & Dan Heath. Her recommendation reminded me that I had seen the book and prompted me to pick up a copy.

Chances are you’ve seen a copy as you’ve walked past an airport shop that sells books or if you frequent bookstores. It’s the book with the florescent orange cover with a strip of gray duct tape stuck on the front cover. At least that’s what the cover looks like from a distance.

Pick up the book and you discover that the duct tape is actually a photographic image of a strip of duct tape, which in and of itself was a great idea.

(more…)

An Overview on Book Reviews

Those of you who know me know that I’m a voracious reader, thanks primarily to my mom who shared her love of reading with me, as well as to my loving wife who was kind enough to share tips from her college speed-reading class with me.

Hence, it only makes sense that I would include here my thoughts, opinions and feelings about the various books I read on marketing, advertising, public relations, strategic communications, business and related topics.

Hence, starting today, we are adding book reviews to TheBettyFactor.com Website.

Books will be judged on the 1 to 10 Betty Factor Scale, with a 10 being high. We’ll also suggest whether or not we think the book is worth buying.

For the record, we welcome suggestions on books to read/review. Please remember the focus we’re taking here, however. In other words, please ensure that at least part of the book has something to do with strategic marketing communications, publicity, direct mail, advertising, interactive communications, etc., etc., etc.

Send book review suggestions to dpolitis@politis.com. Thanks.