Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Are Your Clients Happy-A Positive PR Agent Story

Todd Brabender--PR Pitcher of the Year Scores a front page WSJ profile of himself--with examples of how he succeeds for clients where most others fail. His rate of $2500/mo is likely to going to increase thanks to his own profile, it reads like he's someone that should be considered.

That tells me that not every PR agent should be pooh-poohed.

Paying For PR-But Only When It Works?

If you missed the Dec 17 WSJ Small Business section, or don't have an online subscription, below is a snapshot of the challenges faced by Cynthia McKay, CEO of Le Gourmet Gift Baskets.
After expensive and unsatisfying experiences dealing with retainer-based PR firms that were expected to generate buzz with media outlets, Cynthia ultimately opted for an agency that only charges for actual media mentions. Its an interesting approach--paying only for performance. McKay says that this model has generated great coverage, which in turn has sparked a big increase in sales.

We always like to believe that you get what you for, and unfortunately, too many think that a PR firm that imposes a hefty retainer falls into that category.

Our advice: If you have the passion for your product, and you're comfortable putting on a sales hat--try the old adage :"If you want to do something right , do it yourself." There are certainly some exceptions..as noted in the above anecdote from the front page of WSJ Dec 19 edition... (Hey Rupert---hope you don't mind that I keep on referencing your publication!)

The Situation: After years of trying different public-relations approaches with mixed success, Le Gourmet Gift Basket settled on a pay-per-placement program.
How It Works: CEO Cynthia McKay paid a PR agent an initial fee of $1,000. After that, she pays only when her firm gets a mention in a media outlet.
What It Lacks: Pay-per-placement firms usually just pitch a story and don't offer other services like strategy development.

Monday, December 10, 2007

Facebook: Hubris Leads to Egg on Face

Last week we posted a note sent to Facebook's head of advertising encouraging her to embrace a program that allows its community to share in the ad revenue that their eyeyballs are otherwise responsible for. The simple application would include a small box on the students' (or now everyone else allowed to be a member) home page with a "my favorite stuff"--and display links to advertisers that they want to endorse. It could work in a similar manner as the Commission Junction platform.

As a Dad with a college senior in house, I posed the idea to my offspring and her peeps, and they all thought it was a good idea--after all, it could be a source of income, however small it might amount to.

Lo and behold, I was unaware of a company called Weblo--which is apparently one of the hundreds of software companies that are taking up Facebook's "open architecture" invitation to introduce their applications to the Facebook community.

Per today's NY TImes- "Chris Kelly, Facebook's chief privacy officer has said Facebook does not allow users to sell ads because Facebook does not want user's profile pages to become cluttered"

That's the wrong response, just like it was the wrong approach to allow Beacon to publicize users activity without getting their permission.

Weblo's CEO has it right : Rocky Mirza says that people should be able to sell space on their pages on Facebook (and a variety of other sites like MySpace and YouTube) because they are the content creators on those sites. Facebook would have no content if not for its users, he said, which makes it different from media organizations, for example, that have content because they pay reporters.



Sunday, December 02, 2007

Short Life for Chief Marketing Officers

Latest edition of BusinessWeek merely profiles a job title that's been misinterpeted by too many for too long. David Kiley and Burt Helm's article points out that CMO's have typically been accountable for approving creative ads and managing the agency process, when in fact, its a job that's supposed to connect the tag line to the bottom line.

Now that metrics are the meter, it isn't any surprise that the average CMO is out of a job in 22 months. But..in all fairness, CEO's (and Boards) need to understand that re-engineering, re-branding and revitalizing sales are complex processes.