"But it's only online..."

Over the years, I've been in an ongoing back-and-forth (conflict sounds too harsh) with clients who say they want to embrace "New" (hate that term) Media, but are very much stuck in an "Old Media" way of thinking. You know these clients -- the ones who hear some buzzword and immediately want to get their brand in on it -- whether or not it's possible/correct/etc. For example:

"Can you make me a Viral Video?"
"We need a blog for all our press releases..."
"Let's put our blog on Twitter and then it'll go viral, right?"

Blurgh.

Then there are the others (identities will be hidden to protect the naive), who can think of nothing more successful than getting their brand on a Network AM Show or The New York Times. Don't get me wrong-- there's definitely a ton of value in hits of those magnitude. But these are the same people who completely discount the value of online hits; as if, unless you can 'hold it in your hand', it didn't really exist.

So when I saw this video on Richard Laermer/Kevin Dugan's Bad Pitch Blog (both of whom I unfortunately missed meeting at their party last week), and I thought I'd pass it on.


The Online Media from RealWire on Vimeo.

I've heard the headline of his post ("It was just on the web site, not in print") from countless clients and colleagues and managers. I'm sure you probably have too.

Of course, nothing compares to actually holding a great hit or seeing it on TV. But isn't that really just an ego thing? Granted, my Mom and Dad are probably more impressed when I snag a placement on Good Morning America or the NYT, but which is actually serving the client better? A lot of clients feel just like Mom and Dad, unfortunately, because that's they way they were raised to consume media. They need to understand why an online placement is valuable to their brand, sometimes even more than a print placement (but ideally with both). The video above is a great way to show them the power of Digital.

What really got me, however, was a comment on the blog. To wit:

"I've gotta be honest - if you think a placement in Wired's blog is as good as a placement in the magazine then you're kidding yourself. I certainly see benefit in online placements - they do get (limited) readership, they have hyperlinks that can drive people directly to the product/service and they have SEO benefits.

But, pound for pound, print placement gets us more results than anything. Period."

SERIOUSLY? First of all, leaving "Anonymous" comments is kinda lame --own up to your views. I agree with Kevin's response... Making absolute statements about media relations is *very* short-sighted, and I think discounts the credibility of the comment itself.

As for the comment itself: This is the constant discussion with those aforementioned clients-- what's 'more results than anything' mean? Is it more eyeballs? Not necessarily. How many people actually read a magazine cover-to-cover? Are you absolutely sure that the person read your product's mention? With online, readers are more active -- they may have found your mention via search, or trackbacks to the piece.

In addition, the MSM picks up stories online, and goes online for research, so that placement lives on far longer than the newspaper that is now lining the litterbox, or the magazine that is left in the bathroom. As the video also says, bloggers may pick up the story as well -- and then the aforementioned MSM may take notice. It also has the opportunity to go GLOBAL, which is less likely for a US-based long-lead pub. I won't even go into the fact that the run-up time makes most info covered in mags very old by the time they're published. They're called "long-lead", right? That usually means a few months, at least.

So, once again, how do you quantify "more results than anything"? Are you talking 'impressions' that are an inflated number based upon circulation numbers? Can you directly correlate those numbers to sales figures? Probably not. Or is it just because the client likes a fancy masthead or pretty pictures in a magazine that his boss likes to read?

Gossip Girls

Just wanted to share this oldie but goodie with y'all...

He Also Eats More Than They Do

PR girl #1: I love your outfit today!
PR girl #2: You know, I was walking down the street, and this homeless man in a box told me that "Purple is the color of royalty."
PR girl #1: Don't joke about that. I could be joining him, if my apartment doesn't come through.
PR girl #2: At least he lives in Manhattan.

--Office, 53rd & Broadway


Overheard by: Roger Resnicoff

Overheard in New York

New York Mets get Rick Rolled

Frakkin' FARK.

My Mets will be having a runoff vote to determine their new eighth-inning sing-along song.

Traditionally, Shea (in its last season alive) plays Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline", and everyone rocks out a bit. In the latest misguided digital corporate campaign, the organization received five million votes at mets.com after inviting fans to choose from among 10 selections to potentially replace the song.

Fark.com readers bombarded the Mets website with votes for a write-in candidate: Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up."

And it won.

My first footnote

And the 'first' colleague, too, Dave Binkowski. I'm sure he'll dig the traffic that this search brings... Again. It's the gift that keeps on giving. :)

NY Daily News

Valleywag

Spike TV Unlocks the Secret to the Sith

Really the key to the reason the Empire came to power... That and Jar-Jar Binks.


Image courtesy of Slashfilm








"A guy can only be called "Annie" so many times before he snaps..."

Mail... Snail Mail.

The Royal Mail (UK) has launched a set of stamps marking the 100th birthday of the birth of James Bond creator/author Ian Fleming.

The series of six stamps show a selection of 007 novel covers, including Casino Royale, Dr No, Goldfinger (Goooooooldfingah!) and For Your Eyes Only. It’s on sale at UK Royal Post Offices and online (link below).

Almost makes you want to start sending stuff old skool stylee now.

I really dug the Muppet (U.S.) collection from a couple years back:

Via the Beeb

Royal Mail

A Matter of Trust: Sears & Kmart and Neil Diamond

Scary news for corporations who are interested in building online communities to further engage consumers (Disclosure: I'm involved in creating online communities for corporations interested in further engaging consumers -- but nothing nefarious like this). A Harvard researcher has uncovered a piece of "marketing software" sourced from Sears and Kmart and discovered that it contains invasive (and illegal, according to Boingboing) spyware.

Remember awhile back when Sony embedded spyware into its CDs, crashing computers all over and further hurting its sagging in-store (as opposed to iTunes) sales? I personally took it as an affront because of what it did to Neil Diamond. Let me digress for a moment...

Neil was working with master producer Rick Rubin on a 'comeback album', 12 Songs. Rick had just come off of his work with Johnny Cash and other aging legends, so I was looking forward to their efforts. Neil, as per Rick's direction, was to play a good deal of the instruments on the record, which he hadn't done in 30 years or so (totally a guesstimate -- might bother looking it up later to update). Anyway, long story short, the album came out, the spyware was on it (along with a number of other releases), and Sony ended up having to get returns on a crapload of CDs. Sales of the Neil Diamond album spiked upon release, but after the spyware incident, took a nosedive. Pissed me off... Neil and I have similar roots.

Anyway, Sears and Kmart (both owned by Sears, btw) didn't learn Sony's lesson.

Topline:

• Fall 2007, Sears.com and Kmart.com began asking users if they wanted to participate in an "online community" (I assume a social network made up of Sears and Kmart loyalists).
• In late December, a security researcher discovered that the "community" installed software from a market research firm, to track the web activities of the sites' visitors.
• It also tracked visits to bank sites, looked at email, and other invasive things.
  
• All this information was sent to the market research firm.

Oops.

I harbor a strange romanticism for the lost American companies of my youth and prior, like Woolworth's, The Automat, and Gimbel's. Because of this, I used to feel sort of sorry for companies like Sears and Kmart, who've gotten crushed in recent years by Target and Wal-Mart and Best Buy (Disclosure: Best Buy is a client). Not anymore.

When will companies understand that full transparency/disclosure is needed when working with word of mouth campaigns, social networking and any other relationship-building initiatives? Evangelists are willing to, or even excited to work with their favorite retailers to improve their experience. When they're misled, consumers lose trust in a company, and move somewhere better. Lately, most other retailers have been better, online and otherwise. These guys just really really hurt the feelings of people who cared enough about them to stick around and shop, and join up what's essentially a fan club. They're not going to stick around any longer.

The Washington Post

via BoingBoing

Playing Well With Teams

So I sent the following to the MS&L US Network, to show 'em all what the Digital Team could do for them... Then I got a note from our Editorial Director who advised me that I used incorrect spellings for "word-of-mouth" and "Web site". She's totally right, and I'm sometimes a Usage Nazi myself, so I'll have to do better. That said, she writes these great "Editor's Notes" which I've filed 'for future consumption', but never had -- guess I better catch up. Anyway, in the "Director's Cut":

MS&L Digital launched a unique online Word-of-Mouth campaign that we’ve been working on with the MS&L Healthcare team, in partnership with Procter & Gamble/Prilosec, the NFL and ePrize. It’s a good example of how MS&L Digital works with various teams (internally and externally) to add value to their client programs.

The “Prilosec OTC® Winning Play Giveaway” project went live seven days ago, under a short timeframe (three weeks!) with 5 teams coordinating. It offers consumers a chance to win a trip to Super Bowl XLII, among other prizes (they can register online at www.WinningPlayGiveaway.com).

To further drive participation, we’ve created the “Prilosec OTC Winning Play Giveaway” widget to remind users to play daily. Consumers are given an HTML embed code that they can copy and paste into their blog or social network profile. The widget has an entry countdown, and “send to a friend” functionality (check it out over on the left).

As of Wednesday evening, we have 7,573 people registered for the promotion, and more than 17,000 sweepstakes entries, and 10% POTC opt-in.

We’d like YOU to get involved too -- please alert all your friends who are bloggers and Facebookers and MySpacers-- it's easy to add a widget to their blog or web site!

The widget works with most webpages and can be easily added to Blogger, Wordpress, Facebook MySpace and other blogging platforms. One caveat: MS&L employees aren’t eligible to enter – sorry.

Go to this link for step-by-step instructions on how to add it to your own:
http://widgets.mslideas.com/countdown/instructions.html

Special thanks to Britany Larsen, Damian Rintelmann (A2), Joe Guarino, Larissa Severenko, Jaclyn Buccellatto and Laura Kelly, who helped make this project go ridiculously smoothly with a lot of players involved.

(Note: I the companies mentioned above are my clients, and I work for their PR firm... )

Star Trek DIY: Fans make their own 'Webisodes'

To quote my colleague Dave, "The future of CGM and TV are here in full effect."

This is really really cool -- not just 'cause I'm a geek for this stuff (yes, including the Star Trek angle), but because it was done COMPLETELY with consumer-grade hardware and software. I estimate it was done for about $3K for all the equipment involved. In addition, it was worked on by remote teams, who communicated via Skype and email (free).

From a public relations / media relations standpoint, it's a great example of consumers taking a piece of pop culture into their hands and creating something for mass consumption... Much like we're about to do with Swiffer/You Tube in January.

I realize that this was produced by an IT guy and a printing shop guy, but this is an extreme example. But think about it: media editing technology is getting simpler everyday, and the digital cameras we all have are getting better video quality by leaps and bounds (aka, 'you don't need a special camera'). Engaging consumers like this will explode soon. Have you seen the material out there that's been done by WGA Letterman strikers?

The moms we're targeting for Swiffer/YT are just the tip of where this can go... Just think of all the new tech-savvy moms we have around here, who have the technology and the skill to do it....

http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/TV/12/20/star.trek.podcast/index.html