RaceTalk

By George

Another senseless act of gun violence erupted today – this time on the rural campus of Northern Illinois University. A graduate student is being identified as the gunman who went on a murderous rampage that left five students and the gunman dead. A total of 21 people were shot.

Our sympathies are with the victims, their families, and their friends.

The shooting has unleashed another 24/7 cycle of news coverage. The cable channels, wire services, and national newspapers have been updating the story continuously since it broke this morning. One of the remarkable aspects to this tragic story is the significant role that social media networks and the Web are having on the coverage.

The Web continues to transform the news industry – the way to cover the news, research the news, and present it to readers. For example, CNN is showing photographs of the victims from their Facebook pages. Facebook is fast becoming a news destination for reporters looking for personal information about people suddenly thrust into the spotlight. The cable station even has video of Facebook as an unseen user clicks through the individual pages of the shooting victims.

CNN has also been conducting online research into the identified suspect – finding photographs and other Web content to help fill out its profile of him. ABC News is doing the same. They posted a story today containing information culled from users of an online music community where the killer was allegedly an active participant.

CNN is among the first news outlets to set up an online forum for readers to sound off on the shootings. Hundreds of readers have already left comments behind on the tragedy. CNN has used the forum as a way to gauge national reaction to the shootings.

But it wasn’t only readers wanting to communicate using the latest technology. According to the Washington Post: “Inside the library (at Northern Illinois), more than 50 students gathered around computers. They searched for news and to send messages to friends and relatives, and also tried to use their mobile telephones.”

By Peter Prodromou

People can find something to criticize about everything, including the transparency of Bono’s “Red” campaign. The Red campaign was started a little over a year ago and includes corporations like the Gap, who donate a portion of sales proceeds from Red branded merchandise to help with medical issues in developing countries. It seems the New York Times has questions about how much of that money is getting to these countries.

The Times article comes on the heels of Dell Computer joining the campaign and publicizing its participation during a Super Bowl ad.

That’s the problem with today’s brand of corporate social responsibility (CSR). It simply too sporadic and even if it isn’t — the way it’s executed leaves people with the best intentions open to criticism. This trend points to the glaring need for companies to reform their views and execution on social corporate responsibility. Companies today need to ingrain in their DNA and their corporate positioning the spirit of CSR.

We applaud Dell, Gap and every other participant for joining the Red campaign. Now we ask them to be truly bold. They can begin by reframing their corporate images around a handful of the most important issues in the world today – whether the environment, solving poverty or something else. They should think not only about giving, but empowering societies by developing and providing them with the tools they need to elevate themselves.

Imagine a cleaner world brought to you by a Green General Motors, or a future bastion of democracy in the developing world with entrepreneurialism powered by accessible computers. That’s the true spirit of CSR – the kind companies must focus on to lead and compete in the 21^st century.

By Ben

In December I wrote that a 30 second commercial during the Superbowl was going for $2.7 million. If not for the unfortunate outcome of the game, I would have said the commercials were the least memorable part – and USA Today seems to agree.

According to the paper, celebrities showed up in 18 ads this year, but not one of the advertisements cracked the top five in USA Today’s ‘Ad Meter’, and exclusive real-time consumer rating of the ads.

For businesses, these kinds of results may be even more disappointing that the game itself.

By Peter Prodromou

It’s been nearly 80 years since Edward Bernays changed the face of PR by marching a bunch of women down Madison Avenue smoking cigarettes. Yet even with the passage of time, you could argue nothing’s changed. Companies and governments still use the same tired approaches to publicize their agendas:

1 Part Wall Street Journal + 1 Part Charitable Act = Successful Reputation Management

The problem with that formula is that the world has passed it by.

The Wall Street Journal is still important and, let’s face it, who can argue with the righteousness of charitable acts? But the reality is, today’s audiences are more fragmented, sophisticated and connected than ever. The power of the internet and digital media has given everyone and anyone the power to drive perception. At the same time, the public is more issues driven than ever. Just think about how many of your friends and neighbors talk about the environment… and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

The companies and countries that are going to define this century are going to need more than economic might and an audience with print and broadcast media. They’re going to be tapped into those issues and, equally important, they’re going to have to understand the value of new technology and web media for not only communicating a story, but creating conversations and on-on-one constituent relationships.

They’ll do it through digital media, blogs, forums and other discussion sites. They’ll do it visually, using the web to spread their message far and wide. Most important, they’ll do it credibly with true commitment to the issues that concern the public today and through true relationship building.

So who’s getting it right? Think One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) – empowering people all over the globe to gain access to knowledge and talking about it on the web, as well as through traditional media. Think British Petroleum, moving to transform from an old oil company, to a next generation energy resource – and is proud – and daring enough — to talk about it.

These are the organizations that give you hope for a better tomorrow and a view into real leadership. These are the model organizations that work now or will work with World 2.0.

By George

Apparently yes.

The vulnerability is scary. According to CNN.com, an anchor from a ship may have severed an undersea cable in the Mediterranean Sea and taken out Internet service in large regions of the Middle East and Asia (including China and India).

With so much information and critical services now Web-based – the cost of this outage will be in the billions. The United States has been spared from the outage (although the Web was in slow motion most of the morning).

But U.S. business have off-shored so much technical and customer support overseas that companies like IBM and Intel are still assessing the damage to their operations. It probably won’t be pretty.

Stay tuned to this story because it has greater ramifications than just the business losses and downtime. Government and business these days can barely function without the Internet (I think of our own operations at Racepoint Group – with a lot of our tools and many of our databases Web-based).

If an anchor can wipe out the Internet on two continents – the discussion falling out of this disaster will be centered on what will need to be done to fully protect and deliver the Web – while having reliable back up solutions in place.

By Ben

As Roger Clemens showed everyone on 60 Minutes, steroids are a major issue in sports, and people will probably be fighting over acquisitions and testing for at least the next decade. In a brilliant move, Southwest Airlines decided to capitalize on the hot news topic, putting out a series of great commercials about “productivity enhancers”. Maybe this poor business man can have a sit-down interview with Mike Wallace next to declare his innocence.

By George

From November 12 through December 31, One Laptop Per Child ran a charitable campaign in North America called the Give One Get One.  It was simple.  Buy two of OLPC’s XO laptops (often called the $100 laptop) for $399 U.S. dollars and you get one; while the second is shipped to a child in a developing country.

The campaign is a case study on the effectiveness of public relations in building awareness, creating consumer demand and driving action.  OLPC is a non-profit organization and couldn’t afford a fancy advertising campaign to spread the word about G1G1.  So they turned to Racepoint Group.

We have been working with OLPC for more than a year — doing pro bono communications work.  But the G1G1 campaign was different.  The public relations campaign we created for G1G1 would be augmented by a small (but very creative) advertising campaign (publications and broadcasters agreed to run these ads and short videos as public service announcements).  But we were primarily on our own in building awareness and driving traffic to the G1G1 web site where consumers would be able to purchase the amazing XO laptops.

We had already done a remarkable job in media relations for OLPC — but now we were tasked with directly impacting sales.  We had to move beyond the core technology and business writers and focus on consumer press.  The goal of G1G1 was to reach consumers — directly.  There was the added difficulty that consumers could only buy the XO in one place — a web site built by OLPC.  Consumers wouldn’t be able to go to a store to look at, touch, or play with the XO.  In fact, we wouldn’t even be able to tell them exactly when they would receive their XOs.

A difficult challenge, indeed.

But our campaign generated thousands of articles and broadcasts — from a feature in People magazine to appearances on “Good Morning, America” and FOX-TV and hundreds of blog posts.  For the month of December — OLPC was everywhere.  The results speak for themselves.  OLPC sold more than 160,000 XO laptops and raised more than $35 million dollars.

Proof that when public relations is done right — it can create a powerful impact.

By George

You don’t hear too much anymore about killing the press release.  It was all the rage for the last two years to talk about the need to murder the poor helpless press release.

The gist of the argument is that in our digital media world – the press release is an archaic relic of the days when PR consultants mailed press releases to editors and reporters (and then went out to hunt mastodons with spears).

You can hit this link to read The Silicon Valley Watcher’s Tom Foremski’s rant of press releases called “Die! Press release! Die! Die! Die!” (a headline which is grammatically incorrect, but that’s a post for another time).

Todd Defren at PR Squared supports the rather poorly named Social Media News Release – which is basically a list and a lot of links.  There’s some pros to this approach, but the biggest negative is that it doesn’t allow companies to provide context to the news they are announcing.

A lot of complaints about press releases are legitimate.  Press releases are guilty as charged for containing too much spin, featuring meaningless quotes from executives, and failing to deliver clarity because they are cobbled together by too many cooks in the kitchen.  Companies also inject too much marketing and technology speak into press releases.  The typical press release is written for the market department by the marketing department.  They should be focused on the intended audience (After all, who really uses words like “leverage” and “paradigm” in real life?).

But supporters of killing the press release like Foremski make a big mistake.  They assume that press releases are written for the press.  But they aren’t anymore.  In our digital world, press releases are written for everyone: media, analysts, customers, prospects, partners, and even employees.  In the age of Google searches, press releases are just as likely to be part of the list of results as a news article.  That’s also why Social Media Marketing Releases fail – because they don’t provide an opportunity for storytelling.

That’s why we shouldn’t be killing the press release just yet.  Rather than kill it – let’s save it.  Because of their wide reach – press releases are even more important today than they were 10 or even 20 years ago.  We just need to return to the basics.  Use the press release for its intended purpose: to share information.

Here are some ways that Racepoint Group counsels our clients on how to approach writing a press release:

·         Focus on the News Value – The purpose of a press release is to broadcast a piece of news.  So don’t bury the most important part of the release in paragraph five.  The news needs to be front and center – the primary focal point.

·         Short and Pithy Wins – Long press releases have little chance of being read – by anyone.  The reason press releases turn out too long is because it is difficult to write short.  But at a time when attention spans are shrinking – any release longer than two pages has little chance of holding a reader’s attention.

·         Links Help – Make sure the release contains hyperlinks to Web content that will add another dimension to your news (links to podcasts, web content, news articles, videos, forums, and even other press releases).  Some readers will want to understand the ins and outs of the technology or read a long history on the company.  Rather than put that content in the release – put in a link instead.  It helps with readers who want more detail and has the added bonus of driving traffic to a company’s web properties.

·         Don’t Market Your News – Readers – even business readers – don’t want spin.  They want straight forward information.  So leave the marketing and technology jargon out of press releases.

·         English As a First Language – When writing press releases think Ernest Hemingway rather than William Faulkner.  That means using simple, declarative sentences written in an active voice. Leave the long, stream of consciousness work for Pulitzer Prize winning Southern novelists.

By Ben

Let’s play a quick game of Jeopardy.

Answer: A Super Bowl Commercial.

Question: How can you spend $2.7 million in 30 seconds?

There are two more slots open for advertisers in the 2008 Super Bowl, and they are now going for almost $3 million a piece. When you think about it, Fox has to charge that much for each ad – it’s the only event on television where people still watch the commercials. Many people recorded shows like “The Office” and “CSI “(before the writer’s strike) and watched them while skipping the advertisements. During the football games on now, people use the commercials to run to the kitchen and grab a bag of chips. No one pays attention to them at all.

However, the Super Bowl is the one event where people actually watch the game for the commercials. More then 90 million people are expected to watch the game, but how many of them are really interested in the game. Sure, Patriots fans will be intently watching as the Pats go for 19-0, but there are millions and millions of people who are watching for the halftime show and the commercials, and are running to grab chips during the game. With this event (it’s really not just a game anymore) sure to draw viewers during the commercials, companies are using it as their yearly splurge. USA Today reported that Fox has lined up about 30 advertisers, including Kraft (for the first time in 10 years), Audi (for the first time in 20 years), and Anheuser-Busch, who purchased four minutes of ad time for $10.8 million.

Now we just have to make it through the Justin Timberlake halftime show…

The partnership I have been waiting for has arrived: TomTom has teamed up with Google maps.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise given the fact that Google’s been dominating headlines with its recent AIM and Apple iPhone partnerships. For me, this most recent partnership means I can get the best of both worlds.

Having been born with zero directional sense, I am subject to getting lost within a two-mile radius of my house. So, to cut down on the “I-don’t-know-where-I-am” disgruntled phone calls from the car to my boyfriend, he kindly decided to buy me a TomTom.

I’ll admit I’m not usually an early-adopter of technology, but after a few days I was hooked. While the technology isn’t always perfect (sometimes you’ll be more successful just looking at an old-fashioned map), it usually gets me there and I can leave my phone turned off.

A huge fan of Google Maps (if you’re a runner, check out this link). and now a faithful TomTom user, I couldn’t be happier that they’re joining forces to make sure I get there without the many detours my trips entail.

Now, it’ll be just as easy to connect to and send info directly from Google Maps to my TomTom device. And instead of making regular pit stops to ask for directions, I’ll arrive at my destination–on time.