Lustig on PR

How Cosi Made Me Feel Like A Jilted Lover

2008-07-02T07:51:00.000-07:00

Some of you know the feeling: you date a person for months, maybe years thinking all is grand and you are in a devoted, trusting relationship. Then, after the fact, you find out the boyfriend/girlfriend cheated on you - in effect scarring every wonderful memory you have of time spent with that person.

Well, that is how I feel about Cosi right now. For years I've been in what I thought was a trusting, mutual relationship with Cosi. I order your salads and whole wheat bread; your chicken TBM or Turkey with Brie sandwiches and you, in turn, promise that this food will be healthier and less caloric than the double cheeseburger at McDonald's.

Well hold the phone Mabel because all is not well. I was in Cosi for lunch last week and some older woman requested to see a sheet with the nutritional content of all Cosi menu items. At first I wondered what this kook's problem was. This is Cosi, after all, so take your wacky suspicions elsewhere.

The woman walked away and curiosity bested me. I picked up the sheet.

Chicken TBM Sandwich -- 670 calories, 29g fat Nooooooooo!!!!!!
Cosi Cobb Salad w/Bread -- 714 calories, 34 g fat Traitor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Tandoori Chicken Sandwich -- 801 calories, 34 g fat You should be ashamed!!!!!!!!!!!
Tuna & Cheddar Sandwich (my wife's favorite) -- 960 calories, 54 g fat Sweet Mother of God!!!!!!!!
Smoked Turkey & Brie Sandwich -- 771 calories, 35 g fat Just from a Turkey and Cheese Sandwich?????!!!

For comparison's sake, one could get a double cheeseburger and small fries from McDonalds and it would only total 690 calories and 36 g fat -- on par with just one Cosi Chicken TBM sandwich (no chips) or the smoked turkey & brie sandwich.

I stumbled away from the counter, woozy. All of those glorious memories, the wonderful bites I savored thinking that you cared about me had all been a fraud. You never cared about me, just the contents of my wallet.

Obama's Real Problem on the Race Issue

2008-06-03T09:21:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I was down in Florida for a family-related matter. At a relative's house in an upscale retirement community near West Palm Beach, I found myself in a conversation with one of their neighbors. He was white, Jewish and I'd guess around 70 years old. I asked him how long he'd lived in Florida and he mentioned it had been roughly 22 years. It was the next part of the conversation that opened my eyes a little wider on the challenge Obama faces in the general election:

Neighbor: We were living for a number of years in another Florida community, but then the blacks moved in and (guffaw), we moved out. I'm not racist mind you, but I just didn't grow up around blacks and so when they came to town my wife and I decided it was time to leave.

Me: (forced polite smile)

Neighbor: But don't worry, I'm not racist. Now I'm not voting for that Obama character. Heck no. But I'm not racist.

Ok. Thanks for making it clear you aren't racist. It was on the heels of this conversation that I realized the true electoral challenge for Obama this November is not the self-acknowledged racists who are just not ready to vote for an African American and very well may never vote for a minority. This category of voters for whom racism is deeply ingrained and as much a part of their lives as work and religion, probably have not voted Democrat in some time and won't eat much into the Democrat base simply because Obama is on the ticket.

But it is another class of voters represented by the man I met lurking as the true unknown element of this election. Voters who believe themselves to be open-minded on such issues; voters who do not actively rant against minorities with your typical unfounded racist talking points. They are the self-delusional voters. The ones who try and convince themselves that:

a) if they choose not to vote for Obama it will be because of some policy position and not the color of his skin
b) they could possibly consider voting for Obama, but when the curtain closes the reality of their conscience hits them

The neighbor was not an exaggerated or stereotyped version of a racist. But he represents a bloc of voters that simply cannot be calculated. A single-issue voting bloc that will vote against Obama for one reason and one reason only.

Anatomy of a Facebook "Frenemy"

2008-05-13T07:00:00.000-07:00

For business acquaintances, friends and family who utilize Facebook, it is clear that the litmus test for establishing a Facebook friendship is far more lax than how we would define conventional friendships. For that reason, it is clear that on Facebook there are friends, enemies, and frenemies.

Frenemy: I've witnessed a close friend that I've known since 3rd grade Facebook befriend dozens of people we knew from middle school and high school. Most are harmless, but some were guys that were, frankly, jerks that my friend knows I didn't like at all. Now today I'm sure they are fine, upstanding citizens, but I'm not going to simply forget history and in some ways consider it a slap in the face that my friend has aligned with these people. So in real life this guy is still my friend, but perhaps for now he is my frenemy for aligning with my known former enemies.

Enemy: On the business side, I recently received a Facebook friend invite from someone who, no joke, tried to steal a client away from me. "Hey, I know that I tried to take your client, but I hope we can still be Facebook friends?" I don't even know this person or ever met him in person, but yet, somehow, he's decided that we should be Facebook friends. Pass.

Friend: The Facebook friend can take many forms - family member, close friend, long lost friend, like minded niche group friend, business friend that serves a professional purpose, etc. Bottom line is that volume counts, and the more friends you can acquire the more relevant you are in the Facebook sphere of influence.

Averting Future Housing Crises

2008-05-05T10:30:00.000-07:00

Many factors have contributed to the current housing predicament, not least among them homeowners who overextended and bit off more mortgage than they can chew. Part of this was facilitated by easy borrowing and dubious lending schemes, but in my opinion there is another discussion point that is being completely ignored: the value of the mortgage affordability calculator.

While the calculator comes in a few different forms, it is fairly universal in asking the homeowner to plug in debt & income obligations, as well as loan assumptions, to generate an estimate of how much house the homeowner can afford. The calculator itself is well-intended, but let's be honest: most homeowners clearly who bothered to use it displayed selective memory to justify whatever house they ultimately wanted. Skip a loan obligation here, short another one there and soon enough any house seems affordable.

To me, a far more effective - though at this point impossible - tool would be for homeowners to view what household income and equity are for prospective neighbors and the prior owner. The neighbor makes $400,000 a year?! My god, there is no way I should even be looking at that house! Now of course the system only works once the imbalances are flushed out of the market, but a more effective shock to the system I cannot imagine.

What had me thinking about this was a story today in the San Francisco Chronicle that shows how the Web is blowing the cover off of previously unavailable salaries. The distressing news (and paradox) is that, for cities with high costs of living, $200,000 in annual income is middle class -- yet somehow no one is making that much money. What does seem apparent from the story however is that many of the people you interact with every day - county employees, teachers, policemen, the head of your kid's city soccer league - are pulling well above six figures in certain markets.

These are all noble, respected professions of course, and that may in fact be the point behind a reclassification of middle class. These professions have historically been considered middle class jobs, so even if the salaries push $200,000 they are still categorized as such. As middle class becomes harder to define, so does the middle class house. Is it a $500,000 property? $650,000? More?

I'm not arguing that personal income information should be widely available on the Web - or anywhere else for that matter except for matters of corporate stakeholder and government accountability. But, to the extent this information can be made available in generic fashion to help homeowners make more informed buying decisions, I do see value.

What Vocus is and what it isn't

2008-04-21T17:58:00.000-07:00

Every so often chatter abounds about robotic cyborgs that will one day possess the intelligence to replace manufacturing line workers and eradicate entire professions. I've always hoped that if a cyborg is built to replace me that he will be taller and more handsome so that at least I could be comforted that I was beat by the best.

Long story short, I'm all for disruptive technologies. And if one comes along that serves as a more efficient and cost-effective alternative to the PR professional I'll tip my proverbial hat and find another vocation. But there is an inherently personal aspect of effective public relations that will make it very difficult for such a product to bust on the scene anytime soon. And I can tell you one product that is definitely not a viable replacement for, well, me - Vocus.

First off, let me say that Vocus is a lovely product as a supplement to, not a replacement for, a strategic public relations program. For the uninformed, Vocus is a media database program that allows PR professionals and organizations to look up media contacts by geography, beat, outlet, etc. One could, if they desire, blast out releases and news en masse, though those worth their salt know that 99% of the time this approach does more harm than good.

I bring this issue up after attending a DC-area entrepreneurial event featuring panel discussions for entrepreneurs to gain insight on various business issues, ranging from raising capital to sales and marketing. The event itself was great, but I was horrified to hear one of the Sales & Marketing session panelists recommend to entrepreneurs in the audience that they use Vocus instead of a strategic PR program.

This was suicidal and reckless advice - especially for a start-up. When you are a company with zero name recognition or credibility you really have one shot to make yourself memorable to a reporter, editor or blogger. If you don't enter the conversation knowing what they have been writing about, what messages they need to hear, what competitors they will ask about and how to frame the story the opportunity will be over before it begins.

Vocus is a great tool but not without its imperfections. In some ways it is akin to Google - it can narrow the search field but still leaves you with a high number of generic results. It is up to the PR professional to lock in on that one contact best suited to reach out to, in addition to all of the messaging and support around each media opportunity.

Second, Vocus is still a tool for conventional public relations. As most entrepreneurs know, PR is increasingly operating in an unconventional environment through online viral campaigns, targeted interaction with customers and social networks. In other words, PR is requiring a more intimate - rather than impersonal approach.

I'll give this panelist the benefit of the doubt that she was trying to "help" the entrepreneurs, but in effect all she was doing was inviting entrepreneurs to engage in a highly non-strategic PR path, one that would involve a dangerous game of Russian roulette with the media that would still end up costing five figures a year just to use the service.

Vocus is a great tool for PR professionals, but it is not a suitable replacement for start-ups - nor is it meant to be one. Take that, tall and handsome Cyborg replacement.

PR professionals and media should take lesson from Jackie Moon

2008-04-02T19:12:00.000-07:00

If anyone in the PR industry or editorial world has seen Will Ferrell's comedy (I use that term loosely) Semi-Pro, they certainly aren't heeding the catch phrase of Ferrell's character Jackie Moon -- Everybody Love Everybody.

These days, there has been no love lost between PR professionals, bloggers and offline media. Latest example: a spat playing out on TechCrunch, one of the most influential tech weblogs around that is required reading for anyone who touches the "new" Internet space. TechCrunch founder and co-editor Michael Arrington has certainly helped to "make" more than a few new Internet companies, but he recently decided to "break" an intern who did little more than simply try and cross her legal t's in re-using TechCrunch content.

Fellow industry blogger Steve Lubetkin gets it exactly right - regardless of how well the intern might have parsed words, her intent was absolutely legitimate and reasonable. Now, full disclosure: I used to work for the company from which the intern hails, but this episode is just the latest in a larger and disturbing pattern of deteriorating relations between media and PR.

Ironically, I penned an op-ed that appears in the current issue of PR Week (subscription required) that hits on the underlying issues of this very incident. Track all of the online coverage surrounding the TechCrunch dust up and it leaves one to wonder if both sides spent even a fraction of the time seeking out ways to improve the communications process how much better off everyone would be. And that was the point of the op-ed; you take this incident and the building frustration that caused Wired editor-in-chief Chris Anderson to post a public blacklist of email addresses he felt was sending him spam pitches and it becomes crystal clear that the process is broken.

What we can all sense in the tone of both Anderson and now Arrington is frustration. And my guess is that in the case of Arrington the innocent PR person whom he went off on simply bore the brunt of frustration that had been building for some time over more egregious queries. What concerns me is that both sides seem to retreat into finger-pointing mode when these incidents pop up. Rather than spend time trying to identify ways to make the process work better, it becomes a poisonous back and forth that serves no one's interests. The PR Agency that sits on the sidelines watching a competitor take the heat will likely at some point feel the burn as well.

The reality is that the online and offline press need PR professionals, and we need them. The sooner that industry and media influencers start championing real solutions, the sooner incidents like these will be a thing of the past.

Is Rockville Town Center a Ghost Town Waiting to Happen?

2008-04-01T10:22:00.000-07:00

The Federal Reserve certainly has its share of critics these days for its handling of the financial levers and mortgage mess. But, for all of that, you must allow it has taken an activist posture (i.e. - Bear Stearns rescue, etc.) in trying to prevent a cratering situation from getting even worse.

I'm not going to argue the merits or wisdom of the Fed's approach, but rather implore Rockville city officials who have spearheaded the $400 million Town Square development to take a look at what is happening around them and rethink where the current path is headed.

For those of us who live near the Town Center and have been eagerly waiting its completion for years, the results thus far are distressing. Delays are inevitable: the Gold's Gym opened more than a year after initial estimates and the long-awaited grocery store that could serve as a critical anchor for the project is supposedly not going to open until 2009. But more unsettling is the increasingly formidable hurdles erected for the local businesses (and patrons).

Much of the issue centers around two problems: 1) the incredibly costly parking garages that the City is now trying to recoup its investment on and 2) the mismanagement of the infrastructure building process(sidewalks, etc.) that has forced the city to repeatedly shut down areas in front of storefronts (and now the garages) because the initial work has been deemed insufficient.

Let's start with the parking: Yes, the City is on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars for these new garages and cannot keep them free of charge indefinitely. But, now that they have installed these fancy parking machines and are charging $1 an hour 7am-7pm Monday through Friday, businesses - right when they were starting to see traction among clientele - face a backlash and loss of business. I work out at the Gold's Gym nearly every morning. Now, because I must pay $1 for the hour I am there every day, parking costs me almost as much as the monthly membership itself. This means that I will likely soon go back to working out in North Bethesda, which in turn means I will not be stopping into the Town Center Starbucks a couple mornings a week and the cycle of lost business extends well beyond the $1 per day the parking nets the City.

And this is where the City needs to take a page from the Fed and, in effect, put a rescue bailout together for the local businesses before too many patrons decide to flee due to the parking and never-ending construction cycle. Shorten the period where a fee is collected or conceive some stop-gap measure that won't turn Town Center into a ghost town before it has a chance to solidify some loyal traffic. Without the grocery store there are few anchors that keep patrons coming back on a regular basis. How often is a resident going to go to a boutique clothing store? Twice a month maybe?

The other factor working here, admittedly out of the City's control, is the cratering real estate market which has kept Town Center condos vacant and thus greatly reduced traffic to local businesses and restaurants. The weekends, unsurprisingly, are relatively packed in the Town Center given parking is free. But it is clear that the businesses will not be able to survive the interminable construction and loss of business due to weekly parking unless action is taken.

The City may be inclined to ride it out and stick to its guns on parking and other efforts to aid local businesses. But, what is unclear at this point is whether that strategy will pay off for shop owners and residents.

National Small Business Week coming up

2008-03-27T18:18:00.000-07:00

By the time the general population catches on to the upstart, innovative companies, they have usually grown beyond the "upstart" phase. It is hard for us to remember Google as anything but the behemoth it is today; same for Facebook. But both - and thousands of others - were small businesses at one time, driving change and pushing the large, established companies to match their pace of innovation.

April 21-25 is National Small Business Week, a week-long Small Business Administration (SBA) event that has been declared by every President to formally recognize the small business community's vital role since 1963. It would be an oversight if SmallGuyPR didn't at least mention Small Business Week because, after all, I have had the pleasure of working with a number of small business clients over the past year - and remain inspired by the entrepreneurs who lead them.

The events will take place at various locations in Washington, DC and New York City; but if you can't make it the entire event will be available live via webcast. But what the week is really about is honoring some of the most successful and intriguing small businesses from around the country, while hosting discussions on some challenges that the small business community faces.

So if you are in DC or NYC the week of April 21st make a point to catch at least a day or two of the event activities.

Sonic, where are you?!?

2008-03-11T19:27:00.000-07:00

Everything about SONIC, "America's Drive-In," seems fabricated. The menu seems to have been devised by Willy Wonka after he was 10 years past his prime. You know, instead of gems like the everlasting gobstopper, he gives us cheesecake puffs or cinnasnacks. There are hundreds of fruit drink and slush combinations like Cranberry Juice and Chocolate. Oh Mr. Wonka, where did things go wrong?

But it all works. The drinks, sandwiches and implausible fried doughy creations speak to me. They have a happy hour! A two-hour period each day when drinks are half-priced. Judging by the fact that the happy hour is 2-4pm I'm guessing that I'm not the target demographic but who cares.

I drive around looking for the nearest location. Two days and several missed client meetings later I return home empty-handed. I visit the web site and utilize the store locator to map out a route to the nearest location. I stop writing down directions after it references a connecting flight through Knoxville.

I call Takeout Taxi to see if Sonic is on their list of restaurants. It is not, but they graciously offer to deliver a california roll to me for $27. From an advertising perspective, there is always the danger in conducting campaigns that extend beyond a brand's footprint. It can lead to frustrated - or in my case suspicious - customers.

Sharper Image is fading away

2008-03-03T17:57:00.000-08:00

It turns out that Sharper Image gift cards are now as practical in everyday life as the products the store sells. As part of Chapter 11 reorganization announced last month, the retail chain is suspending its acceptance of gift cards. For anyone who did not see profitability troubles looming, maybe they should have visited the store and purchased a pair of Spion Zoom binoculars for $143.95.

It is frustrating though. If only Sharper Image could have figured out a way to monetize hundreds of thousands of people walking into the store, sitting on the massage chair for 30 seconds, and leaving then maybe things would be different. I am sure it is just a coincidence that there are more massage chairs in one Sharper Image store location than in all of the houses I've ever visited in my 36 years of existence on this planet.

Management plans to close half of the chain's 184 stores and Nasdaq is delisting the shares - which likely means that the only thing the company will be selling over the counter will be its stock. In an odd way, Sharper Image's demise closes the book on a chapter of my life. I hold tight fond memories as a teenager spending weekends at Northbrook Court mall outside of Chicago with friends, strolling through Sharper Image, salespeople knowing we would never buy anything but lacking the power and jurisdiction to remove us from the store.

And to think tomorrow's teenagers will never have that opportunity. Oh wait, there is still Brookstone.

Is the Democratic Presidential Primary about them or us?

2008-02-21T12:37:00.000-08:00

I'm increasingly convinced that the 24/7 punditry about what the Democratic primary results say about Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama is completely misguided. They are misguided because the unfolding race, in my opinion, reveals far more about voters than the candidates.

This contest isn't about a white woman against an African American man. It isn't about the Clinton legacy versus the the Kennedy mystique reincarnated. Instead, the outcome so far, while not decided, is about voters want to hear.

Is it possible that part of the reason the Obama campaign has caught fire can be likened to what motivates us to go to the movie theater? The ability to suspend disbelief for two hours and to emotionally invest ourselves in something truly inspiring or moving is as natural as breathing. We don't sit there during Star Wars and wonder how none of the stormtroopers' lasers ever hit Han Solo. No. For those two hours we think how great it is that they save the world and leave it at that. Sure, after the movie we might armchair quarterback the realism of it all, but that gets to my entire point about this Democratic campaign.

Put aside the campaign spin jobs about change versus experience. Both candidates are qualified enough to be running. But the language each uses when stumping is in fact very different: Hillary going into impressive detail about specific policies while Obama favors less wonky, uplifting rhetoric.

What the contest has proven - especially during the last month as Obama finds himself speaking to overflow, five-figure crowds - is that the electorate doesn't want the details right now. They want a front-row seat to the Obama movie so they can ingest every line. After the campaign has ended I'm sure the electorate will turn increased focus to specific proposals, but for now that doesn't seem to be what they want to hear.

So is this race more about us or them? Could you swap out Hillary and Obama for two other capable candidates, have one talk about hope and change while the other focuses on a more gritty and grounded approach to the nation's problems, and have the same scenario play out? That I don't know. I'm not trying to minimize each candidate's unique abilities and qualifications, but one gets the sense that a race built around two larger-than-life personalities may in fact be more about joe voter.

This race isn't over or, as the Veep might say "in its last throes," so we will have to see how this blockbuster plays out.

Washington Post not feeling the McLovin

2008-02-13T10:48:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure how many of you have seen the Seth Rogen blockbuster comedy "Superbad," but I think I know a couple editors and scribes at the Washington Post who haven't. In the movie, a high school student gets a fake ID and lists his name as McLovin. Now I've never heard anyone with that name before, but apparently there is a teenager right here in suburban Washington DC whose middle name is in fact "McLovin."

Or so thought the Post when putting together a story that appeared in the Saturday issue about how parents are adding teenage-friendly furnishings to the house to make it more of a hangout. Now I notice in the slideshow the middle name has been removed, but it is still present in the photo caption. I can only imagine the hero status that Will "McLovin" Dickerson has achieved in High School if in fact he managed to slip a cult reference.

In my lifetime, an equivalent feat has not been pulled off since middle school. The local community paper had a contest encouraging students from our class to submit short, creative poems, and the best ones would appear in the paper. A crafty classmate copied verbatim the lyrics to the song "Oh Hannukah" and submitted it as an original poem. It made the paper, and only later - after hundreds of readers questioned how a 12 year-old could be given credit for an established classic - did his ruse come to light.

Well done McLovin, well done.

What PR Professionals Can Learn from the Super Bowl

2008-02-05T18:13:00.000-08:00

This past weekend I took my 4 11/12 year-old son to the Washington Wizards game. I was hoping that by feeding him a steady diet of pizza, cotton candy and pretzels that he would be placated enough to sit down and blend inconspicuously within the crowd.

Before the first quarter buzzer sounded, he fell through the back of his chair into the lap of the woman seated behind him and dropped the contents of a half-filled bottle of water into an open purse of that same woman. The woman was a real trooper, though that was before she began inspecting the soaked items in the purse.

But I digress. What I found most interesting was what happened during a timeout on the jumbotron. Being the afternoon of the Super Bowl, they had recorded interviews with several Wizards players on whether they thought the Patriots or Giants would win. Every time a Wizards player chose the Giants, the crowd cheered; when one chose the Patriots the crowd booed. This is in Washington, DC, where the Giants are among the most hated of division rivals.

The fact is that no matter who the team is and what market they play in, everyone loves an underdog. I think that this is something that PR professionals sometimes forget. In our quest to make clients seem as big and important as possible, people don't like the giants. They like the giant-killers. Everyone loved Google as the quirky upstart. Who likes them with a multi-billion dollar market cap and 62% market share?

Reporters fall into this category as well. They might cover the big names, but that doesn't mean they aren't seeking out opportunities to profile the underdog. And while the star QB of the favorite might get the model girlfriend, the underdog went home with the ring.

Lustig Communications hits SmartCEO Awards Gala

2008-01-25T18:44:00.000-08:00

So Lustig Communications embarked on its first official sponsorship last week, taking part in the Washington SmartCEO Future 50 Award Gala - which recognized the 50 fastest growing companies in the Greater Washington area.

A few hours before the event, as the snow came down heavier than it had all winter and the evening was put in jeopardy, I wondered if someone was delivering a not-so-subtle message that Lustig Communications and sponsorships don't mix. But the snow eventually abated and it was all systems go.

I've been to a lot of events - in this town and others - and it was one of the best run of its kind. One of the reasons it worked so well is because the companies who were honored are young and hungry; genuinely excited about the distinction bestowed on him. The nearly 500 attendees fed off of their energy and enthusiasm, and I could not have been more pleased to be part of the event.

He's Baaaaack and Still Sweatin' To The Oldies

2008-01-22T17:26:00.000-08:00

Before the days of high-intensity body pump classes and morning fitness boot camps, I can understand that there was a place in this world for Richard Simmons. Sure, one could generate more sweat loading the "Sweatin' to the Oldies" cassette into the VCR machine than actually following the workout; and his rendition of classic oldies would have him struggling to get past round one of American Idol, but it worked.

So I was struck with a pang of nostalgia when an infomercial pumping the availability of the 20th Anniversary Sweatin' to the Oldies DVD set popped on the air the other night. It reminded me that Richard Simmons was never about buff arms and ripped abs. He was a genius marketer who connected emotionally with people. In other words, he was Dr. Phil wearing a flimsy tank top and a body with all the definition of a fluffy marshmallow.

Why was he a genius marketer? Well, you don't see real people on his infomercials talking about losing 42 pounds in 7 weeks. No. In fact there is no guarantee of weight loss whatsoever. In fact, the only guarantee he does make is that you will sweat. I visited the Richard Simmons online store to see what amazing products he had to help folks get in shape. There are two items listed on the store page: His "SuperStrechin' Classic Chillout" CD (ok, stretching is good so that sounds like a decent product), and the second product is a Richard Simmons "Giselle" doll. I left his online store more confused than when I heard Fox was bringing back "'Til Death."

Are consumers doing a bad PR job?

2008-01-15T17:42:00.000-08:00

Let's conduct a socioeconomic experiment: "Gene" is married with two kids in an upper-middle income neighborhood. Gene's salary hasn't changed in the past year, nor have the finances of his family. One neighbor just bought a new Lexus, the other just lost his job. Spring break is coming up, and Gene is deciding whether to hang out at home for the week or take the family - at a considerable expense - to Disney World. What does Gene do?

The answer most likely lies in the headline on the front page of the daily paper, or the chatter at the local Starbucks. I'm a big believer in the concept of a self-fulfilling prophecy, and we are seeing a big one play out right now with a steady stream of news mentioning the "R" word.

It goes without saying that between the housing market, bleeding stock market and other red flags, the economy is not humming along. But, at the same time, news organizations and consumers are doing a poor PR job in spinning a more positive story. Gene is a teacher at a private school, and the headlines about a souring manufacturing index hardly seem relevant to his family's prospects. But people keep talking about a coming recession, and Brian Williams won't shut his yap about it on NBC.

He starts connecting the dots: manufacturing sector declines, the parents of two students in his class lose their high-paying executive positions at a holding company that went all in on the sector, pull their kids out of private school in favor of home schooling to save money, class size decreases and bada bing bada boom, he's out of a job. It makes less sense than signing your teenager up for Lindsay Lohan driving school, but nonetheless Gene gets skittish and takes as pass on Mickey and friends.

I'm not arguing in favor of sunshine-pumpers that aren't grounded in reality, but it seems that, in an economy that has been propped up by consumers for years, that these consumers exert more control than they think. And it appears that many are starting to act as if a recession is imminent or already upon us, which of course will lead to just that.

Pay for Placement PR for Small Businesses?

2008-01-04T12:09:00.000-08:00

The Wall Street Journal - particularly the small business section - ran a bunch of content last week on how small business owners are using public relations. One piece focused on the concept of "pay for placement" PR as a way for small businesses to get guaranteed results without forking over $20k a month to a big Agency and not receiving good results.

Another feature article looked at an independent PR professional who basically operated out of his basement, busily blast e-mailing reporters info on quirky consumer products (like the Fish N Flush Toilet Fish Tank). It was not lost on this PR practitioner that many clients indeed feel that their PR dollars are flushed down the proverbial toilet - minus the fish.

Pay for Placement - whereby the firm sets some financial value to each publication and then charges when a story appears - is the product of how clunky it can be to stuff PR into the traditional marketing channels. Paid Search, affiliate marketing, Direct mail, banner ads can all directly trace to a specific number of sales (or at the very least, leads). PR, on the other hand, is far tougher to link directly to sales. You can certainly track spikes in Web traffic or sales to specific media hits, but on a day-to-day basis, it is nearly impossible to make an accurate estimation.

Pay for Placement is an assault on the traditional PR agency model because it strips away the ability to charge high hourly rates or charge $20-25k per month retainer fees. The problem with Pay for Placement is that there is typically no consideration given to the quality of the media hit itself, if the message was strategically conveyed or whether or not the media outlet is a good target for the client. Sure, the WSJ is great, but not for, let's say, a company that offers gift baskets in San Francisco and whose customers are more likely to look at USA Today or the Chronicle.

Pay for Placement also encourages a practice that is rapidly falling out of favor with the best PR firms and the reporters that they pitch - generic, blast email pitches. Casting as wide a net as possible and seeing what fish take the bait does the PR industry a tremendous disservice because it commoditizes what we do down to the lowest cost denominator. It removes the strategy and value-added, instead placing the focus on who can bombard the most media outlets for high volume returns.

All of that said, pay for placement - assuming the right ground rules are set - may be the better option for small businesses considering a large agency retainer. The reality is that even if small businesses end up paying $5k a month in pay for placement fees, the annual expense of $60k for a full year of PR activity still comes out less expensive than a quarter-page ad in a national publication.

T

The artificial presidential darkhorse

2007-12-27T18:05:00.000-08:00

I often wonder if reporters covering the interminable presidential primary campaign are actually forced to feign shock and awe when obscure candidates levitate to the top of the pack. These guys have been around long enough to know that darkhorses gallop ahead for a reason: charisma trumps brains every time.

One week before Iowa voters will determine who their Democratic and Republican presidential candidate will be, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee's ascent as the "darkhorse" was about as predictable as Lindsey Lohan parking her car in a tree at 2am and then stumbling into a 24 hour diner for some all you can eat hash browns. Huckabee - like Bush II, President Clinton and Reagan - is connecting at a real and personal level with voters. And like Clinton in particular, he has been able to pull the most difficult of feats: showing voters that he empathizes with their life, their plight, their struggles.

This is not to say some of these former presidents were not intelligent, but brains did not get them elected. Sen. Kerry, former Vice President Gore and Sen. McCain have all proven that being the smartest person in the room doesn't translate to ballots. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is finding this out the hard way, watching the self deprecating Huckabee let the air out of Romney's stuffed shirt and long-winded policy explanations.

Granted, a Huckabee victory in Iowa is going to be very different than ending up as the nation's candidate. And extending beyond his trusted evangelical core is going to be a heavy lift, but he is an artificial darkhorse. A candidate that is changing votes based on personality more than policy and positions.

Political expert Charlie Cook recently reiterated a tried and true formula for winning presidential candidates. Voters opt for the man or woman they want to invite into their living room live and in HD for the next four years. Some of the leading candidates on both sides right now might be great presidents, but five minutes in a locked room will leave you screaming bloody murder.

I'm not by any means endorsing - or voting for - Huckabee, but stepping back I can see the appeal because it reminds me of what was so inspiration about President Clinton during his initial run. I can see how a republican voter would "want" to like him and gravitate towards him. While some of his competitors are busy undergoing radical policy transformations to adapt to the party base, Huckabee is content to ride the physical transformation he underwent when losing over 100 pounds a couple years ago.

Ask Huckabee and he might say he's living on borrowed time by reversing his health issues before it was too late. Maybe 2008 will be his time.

An idea so logical it might actually work

2007-12-16T08:57:00.000-08:00

The PR professionals' vernacular, for better or worse, overflows with buzz words used to describe the latest and greatest products and services of the clients they serve. Bleeding-edge, seamless, feature-rich, leading - the list goes on and on. It is amazing to read press releases and find out that, somehow, dozens of companies within a given category are in fact "the leader." The authors of these releases are rarely asked to substantiate these claims, which is probably why the press release has become so useless in the eyes of media.

These products and services all might in fact be "snazzy" and "feature-rich," but that isn't what impacts the bottom line. Beyond the buzz words one thing is clear: the most successful companies are those that identify an unresolved or poorly resolved problem and find a simple way to solve it.

Case in point: 105 million Americans will shop online this holiday season, yet 60% plan to do less of it this year due to fears about the security and privacy of their sensitive information. The opportunity to exploit this dichotomy is crystal clear. Consumers want to shop online and will continue to shop online, but they do so reluctantly and in some cases restrict the volume of shopping they conduct online because of these fears. All the security software in the world can't eliminate the potential for identity theft, and most consumers have no clue what level of security exists on the computer they use and Web sites they shop at.

From a PR perspective, the best part about simple, common-sensical solutions are that they often require little to no proactive media outreach at all. The solution is so intuitive that press immediately get it and don't need the typical PR hard sell. So I was somewhat surprised that BillMeLater - despite a steady stream of impressive press - even had a PR firm. Because the solution was so simple, so logical, that coverage would materialize organically and virally in spite of any press apparatus.

BillMeLater found the most obvious solution to a truly complex problem: how to make people feel comfortable with the online shopping experience while at the same time removing the biggest pain point and the biggest factor in shopping transaction "abandons" - providing credit card information. BillMeLater allows shoppers to purchase items online and then receive the bill in the mail, at which time they can choose the billing options without being forced into one method of payment at the point of sale.

I haven't tried out BillMeLater yet, but if presented the option for upcoming purchases, I'm going to give it a go.

PR Week "40 under 40" shows who is worthy

2007-12-05T18:47:00.000-08:00

PR flacks are a competitive and, at times, jealous lot. Much like courtroom lawyers whose performances create clear winners and losers, results for public relations professionals can often be a zero sum game. If one Agency's client gets a hit in USA Today, that means another Agency's client in the same industry didn't - and probably is pretty steamed about it.

It is for this reason that I typically cast a skeptical eye at the PR industry's awards and competitions recognizing the best and brightest - an exercise in self promotion at its best in which politics can take precedence over reality.

That said, I'm admittedly impressed by the recently announced PR Week "40 under 40" list; a who's who of the industry's brightest and most accomplished practitioners under the age of 40. It is recognition I lovingly refer to as "the list of really impressive people who make everyone else feel as if they've been twiddling their thumbs for the past decade."

For Brandee Barker, 37, Director of Communications at Facebook, the PR challenge is no longer to get her company press, but to position it strategically for growth and navigate through potential roadblocks such as the current Beacon disaster. Other names that made the cut are not surprising - the brash and controversial Ronn Torossian of 5WPR; executives at Dell, Toshiba and the major agencies. That said, a few other deserving folks joined the heavyweights as well.

Closer to home, few firms have as steady a reputation as Warschawski in Baltimore, and its 36 year-old founder, David Warschawski was recognized for the firm's growth - 17 employees and clients such as Black & Decker and SunTrust. They've collected so many awards that last I heard they were seeking larger office space to accommodate all of the hardware. I'm quite intrigued by their PR version of the therapist's couch - an online form that companies can fill out on Warschawski's web site describing a PR situation or problem that Warschawski will then read and dispense free advice (I'd love to know the conversion rate on this crafty tactic.)

It is also good to see some familiar names on the list: my old firm Qorvis boasted one of the younger stars - Vijay Raghavan at 25. Vijay started after I left, but I know he's been doing some solid work in the grassroots public affairs/digital space.

One of my own clients made the list as well - Richard Strauss of Strauss Radio Strategies. Strauss has successfully carved out a leadership position in strategic radio communications, parlaying his background as the first White House Radio Director into a firm he runs that now has a dozen employees. Rich was literally the first person I knew upon moving to DC for Graduate School nearly 13 years ago when I responded to his room for rent on Washington Circle. One of the first things I learned about Rich after moving in - he was out of town at the time - is that he was not an avid cook. I whipped up some pasta that first night and decided to sprinkle on some Parmesan Cheese I found in the fridge.

About two bites in I realized something was not right. I read the expiration date on the cheese: two years prior to that night. I then went through the other condiments in the fridge and found a similar story. It was like the refrigerator where condiments went to die.

What is most interesting to me reading the brief bios is how some of these small Agency founders grew their companies. As I contemplate the future for my own nascent firm, it is clear there are multiple paths to take, each of which can lead to success.

Despite being omitted (I guess it would help to nominate myself next time), PRWeek did a terrific job with the list.

My own version of the Sports Illustrated cover curse

2007-11-28T14:13:00.000-08:00

Back in the day - which I'll longingly refer to as any time of my life when I was less cynical than I am now - it was relatively easy being a rabid sports fan. What I mean is that when I was growing up I wouldn't think twice about buying a Ryne Sandberg jersey, or Michael Jordan, Walter Payton, and so on. Back then, these players weren't going to another team, or if they did it would be in the twilight of their career and at the very least they'd always be psychologically associated with the original team.

And so it was - as I remain a die-hard Cubs fan - that I realized how delicate and tricky it has become to purchase any sports items associated with a specific player when deciding on a jersey back in 2004. I'd narrowed it down to 3 players and evaluated the pro's and con's:

1) Carlos Zambrano
Pro's: Young, charismatic, healthy
Con's: The guy is loco, could be traded
2) Mark Prior
Pro's: Young, still relatively few injuries at the time
Con's: Only one solid year under belt
3) Kerry Wood
Pro's: Dynamic stuff
Con's: Highly injury-prone

I sat at the counter and debated for several minutes, trying to in effect peek into my crystal ball and decide which jersey - and player - would remain most relevant for the long term. After all, who wants a jersey for a player that was on the 60 day DL, or was traded to the Mariners?

In the end, I went with Kerry Wood, and 17 trips to the DL later...

Who knows? The transient nature of professional athletes has likely given rise to a cottage industry of fan products - like fathead. Knowing how often kids need to tear down athlete posters from walls when they...get traded, get arrested, get a big head...fathead created adhesive player figures for easy removal.

I bring this up because of my most recent jersey acquisition. Everyone knows about the Sports Illustrated cover curse and the belief that tragedy and disappointment tends to follow any team or player featured there. Knowing that I'm a big fan of the Wizards and Agent Zero, my wife was able to snag me over the summer an autographed Gilbert Arenas jersey. And now, just a couple weeks into the season, Gilbert has also been shelved - leaving me to wonder if I've somehow created a parallel version of the SI Cover Curse.

The Brian Lustig jersey curse may be real or perhaps not. I might test it out by purchasing the player jerseys of some of the Cubs must feared rivals (I'm looking at you Mr. Pujols).

PR Industry's Struggle with Transparency

2007-11-19T12:36:00.000-08:00

Almost every industry – financial services, student loan, lobbyists, food producers – has struggled the past few years to self regulate and improve transparency. Whether the demands have come from consumers, investors or watchdog organizations each industry has addressed the challenge differently, and experienced varied results.

Our industry is no different. There is always going to be an element of what we do that involves pulling strings behind the curtain, and that is fine as long as we act in good faith and set clear ground rules and update them as conditions warrant.

After outlining a media relations strategy for a former client not too long ago, the executive casually offered the following:

“When you talk to reporter so-and-so, let the him know we advertise in the publication.”

This executive was in fact not deliberately suggesting an underhanded strategy; he frankly didn’t know how “it” works. And increasingly, as I observe various PR tactics come under fire in the mainstream and trade media, I’m left to wonder if we as an industry have also lost track of how “it” works.

To quote former President Bill Clinton, the answer probably depends on what your definition of “it” is.

From surreptitious campaigns to Conference pay-to-play speaking slots and the cloud hovering over Video News Releases (earlier this month the FCC levied additional fines against Comcast for airing VNRs that lacked proper attribution) we are seeing a case of, for the most part, well-intentioned PR professionals unsure of how to adjust to a game becoming more complicated by the day.

Every week a newsroom guts its editorial staff and publications under the same ownership group consolidate coverage. Meanwhile, the traditional press release has been crucified as a news generator and Press Release 2.0 is still working out the kinks. The upshot of all this is traditional earned media opportunities – both offline and online – have dwindled, sending PR professionals into this expanding gray area of coalition fronts, corporate-backed surveys, pay-to-play blogger relationships and other vehicles that further blur the line between earned and paid media.

Much like cobwebs hidden in a political candidate’s closet, someone, somewhere will eventually snuff out the real story. To feign surprise that some previously hidden element of a campaign comes to light is kind of like acting shocked when Lindsey Lohan decides to park her car in a tree at 2am. And when the real story emerges, any gains that might have been earned by operating in stealth mode will be erased, and then some.

The key to addressing transparency issues head on and emerging a stronger industry for it can be achieved only if we, as professionals, stop dancing around them. The recently concluded PRSA International Conference in Philadelphia had – like most other PR gatherings these days – plenty of panels and workshops on social media, PR 2.0, RSS feeds and social networks. Finding a panel discussion on transparency issues proves more challenging because, frankly, it won’t fill the room like a tutorial on blog metrics.

During my 13 years in PR, I’ve been part of my fair share of coalitions, initiatives and campaigns where one could question whether or not the intended audience fully understood what entity was pulling the levers. This didn’t discount the message or make it less true, but it did deprive the recipient of making a fully informed decision.

While tried-and-true editorial opportunities might be shrinking, the options for maintaining transparency have expanded via executive blogs, social network pages and user groups. The key to capitalizing on these new opportunities is to increase the volume of discussions around transparency and inject some level of oversight to help guide industry veterans and rookies who face these difficult decisions every day.

What happens in Vegas May Stay in Vegas, but residents aren't

2007-11-15T18:42:00.000-08:00

In sneaking away this past weekend for a few days in Las Vegas, I was struck by what an interesting case study in PR the city has become. While Vegas has poured millions into successful external communications efforts featuring catchy advertising slogans and public relations to draw people to the city for business and pleasure, the internal communications is quite another story.

What exactly do I mean by this? Well here's a tip: if you want to truly enjoy your time in this adult playground, don't ask cab drivers, blackjack dealers, waiters or anyone else who calls Vegas home how things are going because, for the most part, they are not going well.

The visitor demographic for the city has morphed from older, affluent and respectful to young, brash and obnoxious. While a small handful of casinos establishing cache like Bellagio, the Venetian, the Wynn and Mandalay Bay are holding their own; and niche casinos catering to the young crowd like The Palms and Hard Rock do fine, the rest of Vegas - which depended so heavily on the crowd no longer showing up - is getting hammered.

Most casinos never recovered from 9/11 and executed massive layoffs in the subsequent 18-24 months. Walk through the casino at any time block other than a weekend night from 10pm - 2am and you will find half of the gaming tables unused, empty casino restaurants and plenty of room at the gyms. But nowhere is the demographic shift more evident among tourists than at the slots. Row after row of empty chairs that have no chance of beckoning twenty somethings over from the Craps tables or Texas Hold 'em tournaments.

Cab drivers speak of 80% turnover and how the old timers and big tippers who used to be such profitable customers have been replaced by young, intoxicated movers and shakers who are barely sober enough to remember to pay the fare before jumping out.

Vegas tries to put on a happy face while its house of cards crumbles. But recent articles - such as the one last week on the Wall Street Journal - highlight that Vegas can't simply hang its hat on being the only game in town. Luxury casinos going up in Detroit and Biloxi will continue to draw travel-averse tourists who see less need to spend 5 hours on a plane, and as the high-end restaurants follow, Vegas will have an even harder time luring travelers.

Many employees who keep the cabs moving and cards flying aren't hanging around to find out. I spoke with one cabbie who, after being laid off in 2002 from a casino and turning to driving a cab, is headed to Phoenix in the hope of landing a gig at one of the Indian casinos. All of the Californians who flocked to Vegas may now be looking elsewhere in the Southwest.

It was impossible to ignore the vibe of residents, which says to me Vegas has an internal communications problem. It is time to get this house of cards in order, before it folds.

Why Netflix loves me and Seinfeld gets stung by critics

2007-11-02T12:18:00.000-07:00

When Netflix executives huddle around a powerpoint presentation charting out who its ideal customer is, a picture of me no doubt flashes on the screen. For a savvy Netflix customer, the process works something like this: customer lines up desired movies in queue; customer receives movie in mail; customer watches movie within 24-48 hours; customer returns movie and receives another one 2-3 days later.

Now here is how the Netflix process works at the Lustig household: I start to arrange movies in queue and forget to go back and prioritize them; a movie then arrives and my wife and I wonder what possessed us to choose it; movie sits on top of DVD player for a week; friend comes by, sees movie and declares it is worst movie he has ever seen; movie sits on DVD player for another week because that friend has now sapped any scrap of interest we had left to watch it; wife and I, resigned to fact we will never find time or inclination to sit down at watch it, stick it back in mail unwatched, cursing Netflix for getting the best of us again.

It is based on my experience that I do believe Video on Demand (and I'm talking about the robust, full-service offerings rather than PPV or Comcast on Demand), may in fact succeed if there are more people out there like me.

Show of hands: who feels like they have already seen Jerry Seinfeld's "Bee Movie?" Perhaps that feeling is due to a nagging sensation that the movie is stalking me - at home watching TV, at the Mall with giant displays, in full page magazine advertisements. This would all be fine and dandy if the movie lived up to the hype. But deep down, we all knew it wouldn't. Five seconds into the preview it was clear this was flop city, and there is an inverse relationship between the amount of shameless promotion a production company engineers and the quality of the movie. Sending Jerry Seinfeld out to the talk show circuit wearing a bee suit is not a good sign.

Assuming the movie is as bad as early reviews are indicating - I am going to trudge with my son to see the movie this weekend unless I can talk him out of it - it provides further evidence that once in a decade, you have a television show that fits together so perfectly it can never be replicated. If you point to this as the latest string of Seinfeld actor disasters, it becomes apparent that Seinfeld was just that: a collection of semi-talented actors that blended together so perfectly that any attempt to separate them using the same character formula would be doomed to fail.

ExecutiveBiz The New New Internet Conference Unwraps Web 2.0

2007-10-31T06:48:00.000-07:00

I spent most of today at The ExecutiveBiz New New Internet Conference (or as I like to call it EBNNIC). The conference was Web 2.0 - Beltway style, with Web gurus and innovators within the private sector and government agencies. I've written on Web 2.0 many times, and I'm increasingly convinced that PR 2.0 has still not caught up to Web 2.0.

What I mean by that is if most Web 2.0 companies seem to have moved beyond traditional PR. A hit in the Boston Globe might be nice, but in their world PR means word-of-mouth social media efforts, free application and widget distribution. PR professionals have been talking about PR 2.0 with great zeal at our industry conferences and other venues, but no doubt most return to their cubicle and realize they don't know how to execute half of the tactics being discussed.

As PR continues to migrate from traditional PR elements that we can control - write a press release, call a reporter, conduct a product review - to PR 2.0 tactics like widget distribution, Facebook pages and viral video, it is imperative that the industry creates vehicles to train professionals with these skills. The more we outsource these functions, the more we lose control of the client relationship, and the more irrelevant we will become. The press release is half-buried, reporters don't answer phones and route e-mail pitches to the junk folder and the last time I saw a fax machine was at my neighbor's garage sale.

Honest Tea is to Red Sox as...

2007-10-22T18:16:00.000-07:00

I'm not trying to create unwanted flashbacks to your SAT, because if the above analogy showed up on the test it is highly likely you would have stormed out of the classroom, hunted down your Princeton Review instructor and smashed your #2 pencil on his head for failing to prepare you for what was supposedly the most important 3 hours of your young life.

Honest Tea is to Red Sox as Elephants are to Junior Mints. Which is the point really. A small but growing organic beverage company based in Bethesda, MD really has nothing to do with the Boston Red Sox unless you have a clever co-founder who engages in one of the most fundamental, time-tested successful PR strategies:

1) Identify a timely topic (MLB playoffs)
2) Identify a topic that you - and readers - are passionate about (being a Boston Red Sox fan)
3) Find a clever way to connect what you do (leading an organic beverage company) to what they do (care passionately about a team with a history of many downs and, more recently, some great ups)

This is exactly what Honest Tea co-founder Seth Goldman did with a blog entry comparing his experience building an organic tea company with what life has taught him about being a Red Sox fan. The tips were basic, but that hardly mattered because the idea as a PR generator - whether by design or not - was tremendously clever. The Washington Post ran the blog entry in their Monday commentary section that pulls excerpts from executive speeches, blog entries, etc. The Boston Globe also ran a small news brief on it.

I think that sometimes the most simplistic case studies are the most valuable. PR practitioners who are busy attending the annual PRSA Conference and studying up on every nook and cranny of PR 2.0 and social media should pause, take a break, and think about why this Boston Red Sox analogy worked.

Fortune Cookies Crumble Cheerful Thoughts

2007-10-12T14:38:00.000-07:00

When it comes to reliable pick-me-ups and ego stroking, it is hard to beat 5 star hotel staffers and fortune cookies - until now that is. After apparently having run through every positive prognostication in the book, Wonton Food - the makers of 4.5 million fortune cookies a day - decided to take a slightly more cynical view of life with the latest batch of fortunes.

Imagine polishing off a plate of Kung Pao Chicken only to find out that "there may be a crisis looming." Perhaps that crisis relates to the fact you just consumed two weeks worth of fat content and cholesterol in one sitting.

Another fortune making the rounds is "perhaps you've been focusing too much on yourself." Think of all the possibilities: friends who fear directly confronting someone about their cheating spouse can arrange for their fortune to read "perhaps you should check out profile 'IMSINGLE' on MySpace and it might be someone you know."

Or the new fortunes could be a passive-aggressive form of intervention. "Perhaps that ninth glass of plum wine was a mistake." Bosses could politely inform underlings of professional developments "perhaps you should reconsider that offer in Houston."

I don't know. Beyond their role as an invisible hand guiding people towards the lottery to play lucky numbers, fortune cookies had traditionally been the last respite of eternally cheerful optimism that is so over-the-top that you almost have trouble swallowing it. At least we still have Rachel Ray.

The death of the blog comment

2007-10-03T17:29:00.000-07:00

In the cycle of Web 2.0 tools, the blog "comment section" reminds me of standing at the grocery store deli counter. I have number 78 and the number counter skips from 77 to 79, and #79 happens to be a kind but portly woman with a soft spot for Muenster Cheese - which I desperately need for my double decker turkey sandwich.

The World Wide Web has plenty of bloggers, but very few blogees. Sure, some of us have a small handful of bloggers we check out from time to time, but blog reading tends to be condensed rather than spread out. And if there are in fact people reading blogs, an even smaller percentage are posting genuine comments that advance the conversation.

Instead, it seems most blog comments I see these days are either a) spam b) posters who simply want to include a link to their own blog site and improve SEO, or c) those hocking wares. This, I dare say, is not the utopian blog experience many envisioned, instead more like a one-way conversation, lecture during which little time is left for questions.

For this reason, I think the "blog comment" is dying slowly but very surely No one comments on blogs, and no one reads the comments. Innovators have skipped right past the blog and moved on to social media, where individuals have followed. Why be limited to a static blog comment to express your opinion when you can set up your own page, or group for that matter?

Whether or not this causes a more radical shift away from blogs and to social media sites beyond what is already underway remains to be seen. But it certainly seems as someone has definitely moved my Muenster Cheese.

The longest week for Cubs fans

2007-09-25T11:01:00.000-07:00

With Game 6 of the 2003 National League Championship Series seemingly in hand, I rose from my basement couch and gravitated upstairs to bed to watch the Chicago Cubs notch five more outs and, by doing so, their first World Series appearance in 58 years.

The Cubs were up 3-0, but the lead seemed so much larger with one out in the 8th inning and phenom Mark Prior gliding through the Florida Marlins lineup. The Cubs had just tacked on single runs in the 6th and 7th, and the light-hitting Mike Mordecai was easily retired by Prior for the first out of that infamous 8th inning. Then Prior surrendered a double, walk, wild pitch, single, error on a bouncer to short that would have been an inning-ending double play, and then another double to tie the score at 3-3. Prior was replaced by a new pitcher but the bleeding did not stop: intentional walk, sacrifice fly, intentional walk, double, and a final single bringing home the 8th run of the inning before it mercifully came to a close.

At some point during the inning I yelled, which caused our 8 month-old son to wake up crying, which caused my wife to yell at me for waking up our son. The Cubs put up a fight in game 7 but went down...and home for another long winter.

The next year the Cubs actually put themselves in position to secure a wildcard position. With one week to go they were a couple games ahead of two other wild card contenders. Then there was a gut-wrenching 4-3 loss in NY where the closer gave up the lead with one out to go. The lost the next game 3-2, then won a game, then proceeded to drop the next five games - 3 of the losses by a single run. When it was all said and done they had blown the wild card.

So here we are: the final week of the 2007 season and the Cubs are 3 games ahead of the second place team. If they go 3-3 the final six games the Brewers would have to go 6-0 to force a one-game playoff. A team with this large a lead this late has not blown it since WWII which, given the Cubs history of blowing things in improbable fashion, is a statistic that makes me very nervous.

And yet, hundreds of thousands of Cubs fan with third degree burns from past history have opened up the wound once again, asking to have salt poured on it. The 15,000 available tickets for the first two hypothetical home playoff games sold out in 30 minutes. Cub fans are just plain giddy. Of course the higher the fans get, the farther there is to fall.

The catch phrase for the Cubs this season playing out on t-shirts and in the Wrigley Field stands every game is "It's Gonna Happen." Could the brains behind this slogan have found one that didn't tempt fate so deliciously?

I've seen too much to proclaim the playoffs a done deal. Cubs' history has been full of done deals that upon closer inspection proved not to be firm contracts but instead weak handshake agreements that unraveled before our eyes. But that doesn't mean I won't believe. Through the power of superstation WGN Cubdom has extended so deep and wide that at times it seems the entire country is pulling for the team to win its first world series in 99 years.

One week from now we will know a lot more about whether that could still happen. But for now, here is a some motivational tunes to help fans ride out the week.

One Synogogue where Yom Kippur and Football crossed paths

2007-09-24T14:33:00.000-07:00

Service-goers are used to standing during Yom Kippur services, but standing ovations? While our services at Washington Hebrew were uneventful this past weekend, my friend passed along a pair of tales from her weekend services that shed light on the inherent good and bad nature within us (people, not Jews).

Story #1: My friend brought her nearly five year-old son to adult services for the first time on Saturday morning. As her son shifted around in his seat to get comfortable, he apparently directed a kick or two - accidentally - at the bench in front of him. Now I know what image is popping up - that of a bratty little kid mercilessly whacking the seat in front of him on a redeye from New York to LA. But from what I can tell this was a couple of light kicks as he got settled in his seat.

A man sitting directly in front of the boy passed a dirty glare back after those initial kicks. A few minutes later, when one more inadvertent kick landed, he spun around and said "adult services are no place for a boy!"

Now, that in fact may be true but it is a secondary point. First of all, Yom Kippur is about evaluating our past year and thinking about ways to make the next year a better one. Clearly this man was not interested in making any attitude adjustments. Second, my friend was simply eager to expose her son to the religion at a level beyond that of the children's service.

Eventually the man moved his family down the row in a huff and barked "hopefully your boy will stop kicking now."

Story #2: Early in that same service an elderly man - probably in his 80s - fainted. Most in the service assumed the worst as it was not clear what exactly had happened. The Rabbi asked if there was a doctor in the house, and about a third of the hands went up. Eventually, a stretcher was called and the elderly man, as he was being wheeled out on his back, raised an impromptu thumbs up like you might see from an injured NFL player carted off the field. The congregation broke into applause - probably another Yom Kippur first - and everyone was buzzing for the remainder of the service.

There was a great column in the Washington Post on Saturday by a Cleveland writer named Jim Sollisch. He talked about how, as a young writer, he was unwilling to revise his work and it cost him a chance to have his novel published. He went on to talk about how Yom Kippur is a chance for Jews to edit the way they lived their lives the past year, and make revisions that could make the next one better. The writer spoke of how individuals have such a hard time making revisions to life, admitting mistakes and making amends.

I thought about that column as my friend recounted the two stories because few of us do take the time to amend how we act and react. I don't know the man from her service but in a way I probably do: he's probably the guy at the movie who silently stews when people talk through the previews; the guy whose shoulders sink when he arrives at his airplane seat and finds a mother and small child nearby; the guy who, basically, refuses to revise the way he reacts to life's little twists and turns.

So that is what has been itching me

2007-09-21T07:52:00.000-07:00

I couldn't figure it out. Ointments, dermatologists, electroshock therapy. Nothing was working, and the latter served only to cause severe short term memory loss. But leave it to a flamboyant German politician to diagnose my problem.

Gabriele Pauli, who is seeking leadership of Bavaria's Christian Social Union (CSU) -- sister party of Chancellor Merkel's CDU -- is looking to pass a law to have the marriage contract last only 7 years.

This, she reasons, will give husbands and wives with a 7 year-itch the chance to either continue or dissolve the marriage. As you might imagine, she is not referring to the effort as the "Pauli Family Values Campaign." Thankfully for German couples who may fear the answer their spouse might provide, Pauli stands almost no chance of winning the leadership battle.

As my marriage recently passed the 8 year mark I started to worry: Is Pauli right? The track record of people named Pauli offering sage advice is not good, taking its greatest hit during the Rocky movies when Uncle Pauli served as the marriage counselor from hell to Rocky and Adrian.

While the 7 year-itch may be fallacy, Pauli has simply found a creative angle to address a legitimate issue: the high rate of divorce. "The CDU doth protest too much" leads me to believe she has tapped into a sensitive issue, and the more Germans protest the more you have to think that this may not be the last we hear of it.

Until then, itch away. Just don't scratch.

Hammertime for the TechCrunch40 Winners

2007-09-17T13:57:00.000-07:00

We've been hearing about how the mobile phone will revolutionize our existence for years. Embedded GPS that can alert us to restaurant happy hours if we are a block away, fully functional video, the list goes on and on.

I'm sure this day will come - whether myself or any of my children are still alive to see it is the burning question. It is with that critical social issue dangling that I bring attention to the fact Michael Arrington and TechCrunch are hosting their TechCrunch40 Conference today and tomorrow - highlighting the 40 hottest start-ups that were invited to demo and announce their products during the show.

One of the invited winners is a company that I had signed up for via a beta email a few months back - Yap. At the time, I really had no idea what the company was up to. (I'm not sure if signing up for a service named Yap without having any clue what they do or who is involved demonstrates that I'm a risk-taker or simply need a Web 2.0 hug).

Yap, as it turns out, is in the mobile voice-to-text game. You say something into your mobile phone and that message is automatically converted to text and can be routed to friends, family, acquaintances, whomever. Perhaps more practical and easier to get your hands around is the ability to call up a search engine on your mobile phone and vocalize the search term (rather than having to type it out on the small keypad every time) and have term converted to text within the browser.

I also learned in reading about their TechCrunch40 distinction that the company was founded by Igor and Victor Jablokov, two brothers inspired to create the service after seeing their sister dangerously texting on her phone while driving. Why am I betting on Igor and Victor? First off, they have accomplished backgrounds in the space. Second, with names like Igor and Victor I think it is in my best interests to say nice things.

When it comes to start-up expertise and entrepreneurial and VC power, this Conference is a real heavyweight. Expert panelists include many likely suspects: Flickr co-founder Caterina Fake, Mark Cuban, Guy Kawasaki, Om Malik, and, oh yes, MC Hammer (I'm not sure that I ever imagined the day when I would see Hammertime decked out in a cream-colored mock turtleneck, but I must admit it works for him). It actually turns out that Hammer is an advisor to a stealth start-up called DanceJam. If the company is in any way involved with bringing back the puffy pants era, I'm on board.

Death of the Instant Winner

2007-09-14T09:33:00.000-07:00

I drink a fair amount of diet soda (I used to call it 'pop' growing up in Chicago but after years of curious looks here in DC I have acquiesced), and despite the fact that these contests likely ended a decade ago, there is still this ingrained knee-jerk reaction when I twist off the bottle cap to see if I am an instant winner.

Every time, of course, the underside of the cap features not a win or lose message, but a numeric code which leaves me to wonder if the Internet has killed the "instant winner" marketing concept.

Now before I continue it is important to clarify that I'm not necessarily longing for the days of instant winners because, to be frank, I never was one. They claimed "1 in 7 bottles was a winner" but in drinking hundreds of bottles over a number of years I can't recall winning more than a couple free Cokes.

Winning or losing aside, these companies have realized that creating instant winners of free pop, er soda, and other prizes is a wasted opportunity to engage and upsell their customer base. Instead of a winning bottle cap, lets throw some random code on there, route the customer to a web site where they must return repeatedly in order to have these codes translate into something of tangible value.

Codes are clearly a marketing tool for a generation younger than the one I reside in. You might as well leave the cap blank. I don't know what codes can be redeemed for and probably will never make the effort to find out. But I get it: if some kid wins a free soda in Des Moines and redeems it at the local 7-11, the beverage company is completely cut out of marketing channel. 7-11 wins because the kid will go there, redeem the soda, and buy a WHATCHAMACALLIT bar and a comic book.

Now if the scratch-off lottery tickets disappear...

Will Apple iPhone ever be MyPhone?

2007-09-12T10:39:00.001-07:00

If you asked consumers to rank service providers they are most fond of, credit card companies would likely appear near the bottom. After all, the only time we interact with them is when we are staring at a staggering monthly invoice for items we really don't need or if, in our infinite wisdom, we left the card sitting in some downtown bar at 2am and in the ensuing 12 hours had our credit record so thoroughly destroyed we couldn't even qualify for a replacement.

It is against this backdrop that you really have to hand it to American Express. The company not only managed to orchestrate a successful PR coup last week by offering to make customers who bought the iPhone at full price financially whole relative to the discount price, but at the same time subsumed any good will Apple hoped to achieve by offering those same customers a $100 refund.

The iPhone price drop, from a business perspective, is an intriguing maneuver that to me capitulates when Apple had no reason to do so - unless the sole purpose was to boost underwhelming sales. How many times have you bought something at Best Buy, The Gap or hundreds of other retail outlets only to find the price slashed 20% a few weeks later? That's life early iPhone adopters so get over it. You had to have the phone immediately. You couldn't wait one day let alone a week, and you should absorb the inherent risks of irrational exuberance.

The real financial winners here are AmEx customers - they not only get $200 bucks back from American Express but conceivably also $100 back from Apple - which means that they'll actually end up paying less than a consumer who purchases the iPhone today.

From a PR perspective, the price drop did not aid Apple in large part because consumers really do not understand the underlying reason behind the cut. When Jobs' fails to explain it, consumers who paid $600 are left feeling pretty stupid, and it is never a good idea for a company to make customers feel stupid.

Will iPhone ever be my phone? My knee-jerk reaction was a resounding no. I bought a Treo three months ago that I'm fairly happy with and could not justify dropping another $600 on hype that I would not believe lives up to expectations.

But then I listed to people talk about their iPhone the way I imagine cavemen spoke about fire when the first few sparks appeared. I started to question my blind opposition. I'm Apple-friendly after all. I work on a MacBook and run with my iPod and listed to my iTunes. At this point the protest seems somewhat futile, almost as if I was trying to lose weight and ordered a triple cheeseburger, onion rings and a Diet Coke.

I'm suddenly getting very thirsty.

Blogcation, all I ever wanted...

2007-09-05T12:56:00.000-07:00

Blogcation, had to get away. Ah, who could forget the Go-Gos. Tomorrow night, during dinner, when you are trying to slice into your Chicken Parmesan and the song keeps repeating in your head, you will curse me.

Every blogger should at some point take a blogcation. Over the past two weeks, as the summer has come to a close, I've stretched out my blog posts. Part of this is due to some added blog duties I took on for ExecutiveBiz, a weekly digital magazine written for and about executives in the Washington, DC area. You can check out my blogs at http://blog.executivebiz.com/.

But in many ways my lack of blog posts was due to a particularly difficult period of time for my family. You see, I was not among the small handful of winners in last week's huge Mega Millions lottery jackpot. I'd argue it was bad luck that cost me the jackpot, others tell me that it had more to do with the fact I never actually purchased a ticket. I suppose we can debate the semantics all day, but the bottom line is that I genuinely appreciate all of the cards and letters from readers during this challenging time (and by cards and letters I mean confused shrugs of indifference).

The start of September also marks roughly five months since I ventured out on my own professionally. It has been a crazy period in terms of adjusting to a new work-life model. I've worked hard for clients from day one, but now the difference is that I work a lot smarter.

In terms of summer highlights at a personal level, I can't say there was anything terribly exciting. The Cubs are still in the pennant race and it is September, so that has provided me with a great viewing alternative to the brain cell-reducing summer prime time programming lineup. I could actually feel myself becoming less smart watching Singing Bee.

To be honest, the majority of the summer has revolved around indulging my four year-old son's obsession with Spiderman. This obsession includes wearing a Spiderman costume 22 hours a day, forcing my wife to hand wash the costume on a daily basis, demanding that I, as Green Goblin, battle him the moment I walk in the door every night. These battles usually just involve letting him deliver a serious of blows to my pancreas while I bemoan the fact that I left my exploding Green Goblin balls back at my lair.

His Spider-fetish did allow me to play hero for one night however. We were at the beach for the weekend in early August, and just about to head home from the Ocean City Boardwalk amusement park. Predictably, my son spotted a huge, kid-sized stuffed Spiderman and demanded I win it for him.

We walked over. Basketball. Make one shot and the Spiderman was mine - or really his. I could do this. Of course this was not your regulation basket. Like your typical "this looks easier than it is" amusement park game, the basket is about 20 feet high, the rim was effectively slanted outwards with more bounce than a Rabbit hooked up to a Starbucks' Vente Cappuccino IV machine.

The game was simple: 3 shots for $5. One shot gets the prize. The first shot could not have clanked off the rim harder. The ball bounced out of the entire shooting area and landed in a booth 50 feet away. This could get expensive. It was late. My wife hovered nearby with a "if you don't win this our son is going to throw the tantrum of all tantrums and I'm not going to deal with it" look.

Second shot...right through the net. As you can tell from the picture, I'm not sure which one of us was happier: My son for having his beloved Spiderman or me for actually winning something for him without depleting our savings account.

Associated Content brings power to the people

2007-08-28T14:13:00.000-07:00

For all of their vulnerabilities when it comes to manipulating search results, search engines such as Google and Ask.com still allow for David to defeat Goliath on any given day. In other words, large companies might spend millions for high search engine placement, but a clever viral campaign or search engine approach can dethrone even the mightiest adversary.

But, increasingly, augmenting an individuals or company's search engine rankings does not require complex schemes or a degree in SEO-logy. Thanks to the growth of online media companies such as Associated Content and E-zine that let anyone write and publish articles on whatever issue comes to mind, it is possible to push content to the very top of search engine results.

To investigate the SEO effectiveness of writing articles for these sites I penned a piece on my beloved Chicago Cubs a few weeks back and the rumor that Mark Cuban was interested in buying them. The article itself was purely tongue-in-cheek by design, providing entertainment value and little else in the way of expert insight on the topic. I submitted the article to Associated Content and, after reviewing it, they even offered to pay me $6 for my trouble.

I recently pulled up Google and entered several keyword combinations to see where my article stood. Unsurprisingly, if I entered "Brian Lustig, Mark Cuban" my article came up first (of course no one is going to search by this combination but nonetheless). When I entered "Mark Cuban, Chicago Cubs" my article performed respectively and showed up on page four of the search results, behind mostly legitimate articles on the topic in major publications. And even better, when I entered various combinations of Mark Cuban buying the Cubs, bought the cubs, etc., the story came up number one in most cases.

Now of course, if Mark Cuban ever did buy the Cubs my story would be shuffled down the list pretty quickly, but the results indicate that these online media publishing companies can be a useful tool for both individuals and firms looking for an SEO boost. I've used Associated Content on behalf of clients and found similarly strong results. It goes without saying that people should write because they want to write, but it helps to know these services exist and stand a good chance of connecting your content to people who want to read it.

Is the new Google News feature really news?

2007-08-21T13:57:00.000-07:00

With most issues or breaking news, bloggers respond swiftly and dramatically - picking their side of the issue and drawing an unmistakable line in the sand. Because of this, every announcement covered assumes larger-than-life proportions until, of course, they stop writing about it and the issue floats away.

There was a piece of PR news that I was tempted to write on immediately, but instead decided to hold off, take a step back, and examine it collectively after a number of other industry bloggers had put in their two cents.

Earlier this month, Google announced an experimental new feature whereby certain readers of stories that run in Google News can add comments to it. The select group of approved readers must be participants in the story (mentioned in some way). Bloggers quickly pounced on the story, and Michael Arrington of TechCrunch provides a succinct roundup of various viewpoints - as well as his own.

Many critics - including myself - are scratching their heads as to why Google would expend so much manual energy to validate news story participants who ping Google in an attempt to have their comments added to the story. John Murrell with Good Morning Silicon Valley suggests a PR hiring boom will result as additional resources are thrown at hunting every client mention and adding the necessary spin. I don't see it. PR professionals are certainly willing and justified in going through the exercise, but at that point what is the real impact? What percentage of readers go back to stories days after it first came out to scour the comments section? Once I read a news story I'm done, and by the time PR people add any counterpoints I've moved on to reading something else.

For that reason, I see few who truly benefit from this experiment. Google has taken on the role of vetting story sources; PR professionals must go through the motions of adding counterpoint spin that few will read except for their clients; and consumers aren't likely to even see most of the comments, and even if they did most will recognize that added content is not the product of objective editorial, but pure PR spin.

Google announced this so by default it is "news." But, as suspected, after the initial rush of coverage I don't hear anyone talking about it or using it. I scanned several news articles in the Google News Home Page Section and couldn't find any cases where comments had been added. And that, really, is the real news. There is truly nothing to see here. Move along.

Spammers apparently haven't caught wind of the Mortgage crisis

2007-08-16T13:37:00.000-07:00

The deepening and widening mortgage crisis, whereby even credit-worthy investors are running into difficulties securing home loans, apparently hasn't reached the rock that spammers conduct business from under.

Roosevelt Macias has been kind enough to send an email to my Yahoo account informing me that I've been pre-approved for a mortgage loan. I don't know anyone by that name nor ever applied for a loan, but the fact that Mr. Macias is willing to extend a mortgage loan to me in such troubled times is welcome news. Perhaps the mortgage crisis is ending!

Upon reading the e-mail in the preview pane (not opening), the news gets even better. If I simply click on the link provided a $203,000 loan at $608 per month is mine. Below the link is a series of random letters and numbers that raises no red flags whatsoever.

I'll let everyone know when I settle.

VMware partying like its 1999

2007-08-14T11:03:00.000-07:00

Investors longing for the exuberant Tech IPO market of the late 90s enjoyed a bit of nostalgia today as software maker VMware went public and saw its share price explode nearly 90% in its first day of trading - great news for the company, shareholders and for EMC, which is the controlling stockholder with an 87% stake.

VMware plays in the virtualization space, basically allowing multiple operating systems to run on a single computer or server - which can lead to all kinds of efficiency gains at data centers, etc.

I've been following VMware for some time, trying to determine if the biggest IPO since Google will have legs from a shareholder perspective. Competition is already heating up in their space,
and there are some whispers their flagship product violates certain linux copyrights.

That said, the company is on pace for $1 billion in revenue - and there is nothing "virtual" about that. What is really interesting about VMware is that they aren't a hot company that just bust on the scene looking to parlay the initial buzz into a big IPO payoff. They've been around since 1998 and were acquired by EMC in 2004. The revenue explosion has been more recent, and since the year before the EMC acquisition revenue has surged from just under $75 million to the current billion dollar pace.

Dancing in the Dark maybe. Dining in the Dark?

2007-08-13T08:20:00.000-07:00

As your typical insecure Jewish male there are many things that I hope one day will be socially acceptable to do in the dark, but eating is not one that crossed my mind.

A poster to a San Francisco Chronicle dining blog references a trend sweeping (ok, maybe inching) through parts of Europe and China that involves patrons at upscale restaurants dining completely in the dark. I say inching because I found a Time Magazine article from 2002 referencing this same trend. A July San Jose Mercury News story declares dark dining "all the rage." It also points out that while the trend is more of a gimmicky fad, it didn't start out that way. The Merc story says the first pitch-black restaurant opened in Zurich in 1999 with the intent of "creating jobs for the blind and handicapped people."

The poster in the SF Chronicle blog goes on to say that in some cases waiters are blind or wearing night vision goggles and the Time Magazine article also confirms that in the German dark restaurant featured the waiters are blind or visually impaired.

Now I've been married for 8 years so while I'm sure my wife would find it more appetizing to not have to look at my mug during her meal, it would seem that many patrons (not me of course) might prefer restaurants that provide soundproof, glass-enclosed capsules so that diners can't hear each other.

I can think of a few cities where not being able to see other diners might be preferable (I'm not looking at you Pittsburgh so stop acting so defensive). In DC I can't see something like this flying among the power players given it is all about seeing and being seen.

The poster does not address what happens when the diner needs to go to the bathroom and how many tables have been crashed into, so I'll just let my imagination run wild with that one. When I see stories like this, I'm inclined to wonder how trends like this are gaining steam? While dark restaurants offer that lack of sight heights other senses that can enhance one's enjoyment of the meal, it still seems like a dicey business proposition. Are restaurant owners having conversations with diners that I'm not aware of that go like this:

Owner: How was your meal?
Diner: Well, the food was good and all, but if there was any way you could work it out so I wouldn't have to look at the people I'm dining with, that would be fantastic.
Owner: (placing finger on chin) Hmmmm....

Is TGI Friday's pulling a Jerry McGuire?

2007-08-07T13:08:00.000-07:00

The airwaves have been blanketed recently with TGI Friday's trend-bucking "Right Portion, Right Price" campaign, which focuses on offering diners small portions and smaller prices. The effort has been applauded by health-conscious organizations such as the American Diabetic Association and the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

As I watched the commercials, my thoughts kept racing back to the scene in Jerry McGuire, after Tom Cruise's character has a meltdown, a crisis of faith about how he has lived his life. He spends the entire night writing a mission statement about everything wrong with the sports agency and sports marketing business.

"Better Service, fewer clients, and less focus on the bottom line," was the core of the mission statement. And as Jerry's fellow agents read through his mission statement the next day, Jerry is hailed as a courageous hero.

His nemesis Bob Sugar slaps his shoulder and says, "Finally, someone said it."

Then two other agents murmur to one another:

"How long you give him?"

"Mmmm, a week."

So this is kind of the vibe I get when watching this TGI Friday's campaign play out. Other casual chains Applebees, Chili's and Ruby Tuesday's applauding in the background that there may finally be an end to the rat race of which chain can offer a five course meal for $5.

"Finally, someone said it," Applebee's remarks to TGI Friday's.

But deep down, these chains know that TGI Friday's has just sealed its fate. In the land of glut and excess, the land of rampant obesity, announcing smaller portions is kind of like a bar doubling - rather than halving - its prices during happy hour.

A few months from now, once the ugly numbers roll in, the CEO will call in the executive who green-lighted this program and give him the ax in Bob Sugar fashion.

"I came here to let you go."

"Pardon me?"

"You did this to yourself. You said 'smaller portions.' You put it all down on the menu."

"You'll lose."

"You wanted smaller."

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm underestimating the general public. Maybe they want portions controlled for them. Maybe they do want a small chunk of Cedar-Seared Salmon on Field Greens instead of Chili's new Crispy Honey Chipotle Chicken Crispers (if you use the root "crisp" twice there is a good chance this menu item is not going to be healthy). Maybe the McLean Deluxe flamed out at McDonald's for completely unrelated reasons, and the Dairy Queen Breeze drifted off the menu because the yogurt replacement for the Blizzard was too popular.

Or perhaps, when consumers make the conscious decision to go to an establishment with predominantly unhealthy food the die has already been cast. It is like going to a movie. The theater concession stands don't even bother adding anything remotely health-conscious because they realize movie-goers have already committed to popcorn, candy and unhealthy eating.

I for one applaud the efforts of TGI Friday's and its right portions menu, but at the same time I have little faith it will be around for very long.

"Fake Steve" Jobs Unmasked - What does it mean

2007-08-06T06:42:00.000-07:00

For over a year, an anonymous blogger known as "Fake Steve" Jobs has been writing and ranting about his fake life as Apple head honcho Steve Jobs. The blog is tantalizingly written, almost luring the reader into a suspended state of disbelief where you almost convince yourself it is the real Steve Jobs, before the blog smacks you across the face with lines such as "(Jim) Cramer, you are lower than whale sh*%."

Perhaps most notable about Fake Steve being traced to Forbes Senior Editor Daniel Lyons is what little effort Lyons put forth to cover his tracks. Part of his success in keeping the secret for 14 months is that those most interested in finding the truth gravitated towards the most sensational possibilities - an Apple insider, Steve Jobs himself. The more they bought into outlandish possibilities, the farther off the track they found themselves.

The popularity of the blog - 700k monthly visitors says what exactly? People appreciate creative writing? Eh, partly. I think its popularity speaks to a genuine disappointment with the existing state of CXO blogging. While readers don't expect CEOs to hand over the crown jewels in their corporate blogs, they do expect a certain level of candor, humility, humor and content that hasn't been scrubbed by the marketing department. What I see in the success of "Fake Steve" is an opportunity. An opportunity for real CEOs to transform what the corporate blog is today - CEOs opining about the state of the industry and their product line - to something more real.

What I've found in writing my blog is that most readers might enjoy the PR-industry posts, but they find the personal posts more enjoyable because they are real and humanizing. I don't think a PR blog needs to be writing about PR every single entry - nor do I want to. Keep the writing creative and interesting is what readers really want, so that they can get as much enjoyment out of Real Steve as they did from Fake Steve.

"Small" DC-area companies winning big contracts

2007-08-02T05:02:00.000-07:00

Ashburn, Va.-based Intelligent Decisions has clearly been successful in convincing its customers that choosing them is a very intelligent decision based on news the small, minority-owned business snagged a plum, 7-year contract from NASA worth up to $5.6 billion.

That number isn't a misprint, and while contracts of this type don't always rise up to the maximum possible value, the company's prior relationship with NASA has clearly paid off big time here.

What does Intelligent Decisions do? Well, they describe themselves the same way hundreds of other inside-the-beltway firms categorize themselves - a leading provider of information technology solutions.

The company's web site - like many other "small" IT technology companies serving the Federal government - is simple, even a little cleaner than most. This is by design: their customers aren't looking for flashy, simply results. These companies are often reluctant self-promoters as, after all, companies bringing in multi-billion dollar contracts can only fly under the radar for so long. Their press page goes through the motions of listing news announcements, but doesn't highlight news coverage.

The founder and president of the company, Harry Martin Jr., is a boyish-looking executive who attended Howard University. I'm not sure why this news announcement caught my eye, other than as a reminder of what I'll call the tremendous hidden wealth existing in the region. Actually, what caught my eye about the announcement is that it really didn't catch my eye. Small company wins big award. It's happening every day in the region. Companies that may not be providing sexy services and executives that might not turn heads at Cafe Milano, but are nonetheless fueling the region's wealth, job growth and persistent low unemployment.

Now if they can just do something about the housing market...

Spiderman: Fighting Crime and...holding drug interventions?

2007-07-31T12:22:00.000-07:00

My four year-old son has migrated from an obsession with toys associated with the movie "Cars" to Spiderman. The transition is great news for my wallet, as the Cars marketing empire included about 50 cars and trucks that my son "had to" have - including several versions of the same car, all in different colors and in some cases the color of another car (all a little incestuous for my tastes).

Spiderman seemed simple enough. One hero, a few bad guys, clean and simple. We bought him a Spiderman action figure that also came with his arch nemesis the Green Goblin. If you were to see the action figures it would be clear these are not toys for teenagers, or even pre-teens, but likely targeted towards 4-8 year-olds.

I mention this because the toy box also included a Spiderman Marvel Comic book. It didn't receive a lot of attention until about a week after the purchase was made, at which point he asked me to read it to him as a bedtime story.

I looked forward to this father-son moment, harkening back to my childhood and love for comic books. I peeled back the cover, and began reading out loud:

The opening scene, depicted in the photo below (sorry for poor camera-phone quality), finds Spiderman hanging outside his good friend Harry's window. Harry is lying in bed, writhing in agony with a doctor at his side.

Spiderman: "Harry's in bad shape all right. Looks like I'm back in New York not an hour too soon."

I wondered which villain had bested Harry, and with anticipation building, turned the page.

Bedside Doctor: "I've done what I can for the lad -- though I'd rather we were in a hospital.

Random Young Woman: "You still haven't said what's wrong doctor. Has he been taking drugs again?"

Ok, hold the phone Mabel. What did she just say? I let it slide, quickly covering by changing the word "drugs" to "too much candy." My son seemed none the wiser. I was willing to give the comic the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps Harry was addicted to pain killers after being injured by the Green Goblin. I guess that's an ok topic for a 4 year-old?

Bedside Doctor: "It seems so miss Stacy. To be precise D-Lysergic Acid Diethylamide...what you and Miss Watson would know as LSD."

I re-read the line a few times. Surely my eyes deceived. This comic book was included in a children's toy box and the topic of the story is a guy hopped up on LSD. As if drug addiction weren't a heavy enough topic to introduce to a FOUR YEAR OLD, the doctor, who really seemed to care in his defense, went on to speculate that Harry's bad reaction was due to acute depression. So he's also got that going for him.

Maybe I'm being an old man here. Maybe my recollection of comic book topics when I was a child is off. I seem to remember a lot of issues involving Hawkman swooping in and battling the Legion of Doom, not drug-induced hallucinations. Needless to say. I did not continue reading the story to my son, and can only wait patiently for the day when he transitions to his next dysfunctional hero obsession.

Jangl's new voice offering is really an old jingle

2007-07-27T07:33:00.001-07:00

In Venture Beat, Matt Marshall talks up a few new Jangl deals, including using disposable, anonymous phone numbers for dating sites. Jangle is an Internet-based calling service whereby the user goes to their site and enters an email address. A disposable Internet phone number is then assigned to that email address and you can make and receive calls without the recipient knowing your identity or real phone number.

The idea of single daters (I'm hoping they are single but of course that is not always the case), using disposable phone numbers to hand out at clubs and on dating sites is not a new concept. I remember when I was working on behalf of Jeff Pulver and his FreeWorldDialup VoIP offering nearly 5 years ago we were playing this angle.

Dating applications aside, I do think that Jangl is well conceived and has some business merits. I use Skype regularly and the idea of extending this functionality to certain web pages, blogs, social network sites while maintaining privacy controls has some appeal. For professional bloggers who rely on breaking news to feed their site, having a Jangl widget to receive tips (while not having to provide personal phone numbers) could be a nice supplement to e-mail tips.

You are what your friends eat

2007-07-25T15:09:00.001-07:00

Business Week highlights an interesting study reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, finding that a person's risk for obesity is connected to whether or not their friends put on weight. The title of the article is "Sympathy Pounds" but I think that title is actually a little off the mark. My take, as someone with no medical background or experience with this topic whatsoever (but please, by all means, continue reading), is that these aren't sympathy pounds that are being added - or subtracted - but instead a case of rationalization.

If you are out to dinner and everyone orders dessert, you are more inclined to order dessert. If they don't, it isn't likely you are going to be the only person at the table who orders it. Not really a case of sympathy but more a case of mob mentality. If everyone else is doing it, surely it can't hurt if I do as well.

The study probably bolsters weight loss tactics like one sees on the NBC show "The Biggest Loser" - surround yourself with people committed to the same goal and the results will be phenomenal. The article hints on this at the end, recommending a harder look at "group weight therapy" versus an individual regimen.

What's in a name? Maybe more - or less - than you think

2007-07-22T08:23:00.000-07:00

After a week of heavy topics I wanted to move on to something a little lighter (maybe not from a caloric perspective but for other purposes). At times during my career I've participated in naming and brand brainstorms for companies that were looking to change the name of a product line, or in some cases, their entire company.

National and global brands spend millions on marketing and branding firms to concoct a new logo, or in some cases, if you are AT&T, you can spend millions to simply keep your name the same.

I've come to the conclusion that most consumers have an impulse reaction to a name that goes far beyond its meaning or logic. In the revitalized Rockville Town Center near our house, a donut shop franchise opened that wants to be the Krispy Kreme on steroids. While Krispy Kreme pioneered the incredibly rich donut experience, this new donut chain is turning the donut into a full meal with such offerings as "the French Toast" donut or "the Rolo" donut and other suspenders-busting choices. The name of this donut shop: The Fractured Prune.

So I thought about these two brands - Krispy Kreme and The Fractured Prune - and realized that most consumers associate a feeling with a brand, and spend little time dissecting it. After all, the image of "krispy" kreme, well to me, doesn't sound too appetizing. And the fractured prune? Hardly a name that one would associate with a savory treat.

But, and this is the but of all buts, it works. They both work. The names take on a psychological connection that cannot be fully explained, and would require a level of creative thinking by those who devised it that would make most of Madison Ave. cringe.

So there is something in a name, but it may not be what we think.

The SunRocket story goes on, and it should

2007-07-18T10:10:00.000-07:00

The SunRocket story, evolving with even great speed than that at which the company imploded, is moving away from a failure of the decision-makers to execute solid business decisions to a failure to simply act as human beings

There is plenty of finger-pointing going on from rightfully angry customers left with no service and staffers unceremoniously dismissed with zero severance at a Broadband Reports thread that has a staggering 147,000 unique page views (keep in mind SunRocket only had 200,000 customers). While the origins of the demise can be debated - competitive market, Vonage-Verizon patent litigation, management, quality of service issues and outages - the appalling manner in which 200,000 customers woke up Tuesday with a useless "gizmo" and what I can only imagine will be a harrowing 2-3 weeks trying to save their phone number and port it to another carrier is clear as day.

If you speak to most employees laid off in the past two weeks, I think what they find most objectionable to the end is how counter it ran to the mission and philosophy laid out by the co-founders Paul Erickson and Joyce Dorris. During their time at the company "no gotchas" really meant "no gotchas." I can tell you the duo was not motivated to start SunRocket to become wealthy or famous, but SunRocket was born from a genuine desire to create a better phone company. I can tell you they could have never envisioned customers waking up with no service, a cardboard "out of business" sign hanging on the front door and automated voicemail stating "goodbye."

Joyce and Paul "left" earlier this year, and, given the two of them had been the major reason I joined the company, I resigned a few weeks later, along with many other colleagues who had been equally inspired by Paul and Joyce and realized SunRocket could not and would not be the same without them. It is clear by what has happened the past few days that, true enough, SunRocket lost its way. Not because employees down in the trenches weren't working just as hard - they were - or weren't just as talented - they are - but because piece by piece the founder's mission was dismantled and along with it, the foundation of the company.

As is often the case, this story has tentacles that reach far beyond corporate headquarters and customers' living rooms. The SunRocket Customer Care Center had been an employment anchor in Springfield, Missouri - a slice of middle America full of hard-working folks that had seen their share of center closings before. Nearly 250 jobs at the Customer Care Center were lost when SunRocket went under, disrupting the economic fabric of families throughout the community. This ending was in contrast to SunRocket's beginnings in Springfield, when the company was hailed for rescuing the call center from closure after the previous tenant MCI had let it go.

I'm still at a loss how educated, experienced individuals could decide that the proper course of action would be to, without warning, cut 200,000 people off from their primary source of communication. I don't think I'll ever understand that thought process, nor do I really care to. While I've been gone from the company for several months, this week's events brought it all back. Running PR for SunRocket was always fun and challenging, and running campaigns that lifted the company to a household name and the 2nd largest independent carrier is still a source of great pride for me personally. But that all seems swallowed up by the bigger picture right now. From what I can tell some positive efforts are being made by others with a vested interest to step in and try and make the transition process as pain-free as possible, and I hope that continues so that these customers can land somewhere soon and go on with their day-to-day lives.

Perhaps I married well

2007-07-17T13:03:00.000-07:00

So I was able to hang out on the field at Camden Yards before the Orioles-White Sox game this Saturday night; of course it only lasted three seconds until I was gang-tackled by security, but I will always have that moment. In all seriousness I was on the field with the full permission of the Baltimore Orioles and below I will share how.

Quite often, after I introduce my wife to colleagues and acquaintances for the first time, they will pull me aside later and tell me how attractive my wife is. What I can't really tell is if they are saying "your wife is really attractive...period" or "your wife is really attractive...for someone like you." Of course my wife is very attractive but I tend to get the latter vibe, "someone like me" being a short, bald (personal choice, thank you), guy that doesn't come across a lot of women saying "oh, too bad he's married."

But on night's like this past Saturday, it is clear I married well. Though I am a die-hard Cubs fan, I'm also a huge baseball fan so the opportunity to hang out on the field behind the batting cage before the Orioles-White Sox game was pretty sweet. Below are some pics of my son and I. In the picture with him pulling his cap over his face I'm not sure if he is embarrassed to have his picture taken with me or to be wearing the Orioles hat (since I'm raising him as a Cubs fan and he will have to deal with all of the inevitable heartbreak and disappointment that comes along with it).

My son Zach with Jay Gibbons, who is thinking to himself, "finally, a fan too young to realize I'm batting .220"

Ok, don't smile...now pull your hat over your eyes so no one can see your face. Perfect. That's the money shot.

The White Sox are stretching in order to limber up for the big pre-game buffet.

Looks like the Sun has set

2007-07-16T13:22:00.001-07:00

According to an internal e-mail that reached the hands of OM Malik. If true, it is a very sad day at every possible level - for former employees, customers and the independent VoIP category in general. I'll expand a little later, still digesting right now. I wouldn't put this in 100% confirmed category, but all signs seem to be pointing to it being over.

Well, I've digested, and my stomach is quite upset. There are a great number of talented employees that are without jobs right now, employees that performed well but were wiped out due to factors beyond their control. What today proves, beyond that it is incredibly expensive to build and maintain a nationwide phone company, is going to be up for heavy debate.

There are also 200,000 customers who have their primary means of communication and are left hanging, unsure how easy or probable it will be to get their phone number back. I hope that what's left of management and the investors do right by the customers and take all possible steps to minimize the disruption to their phone service.

What might have been

2007-07-13T06:53:00.000-07:00

When you invest a great deal of emotional and physical energy in a company - a mission, really - it can be disheartening to see it unravel. Rumors continue to swirl about the fate of my former employer SunRocket, which laid off considerable staff earlier this month and the outlook is cloudy to say the least.

It was an amazing experience to be part of the original mission of SunRocket, and helping the company grow from a handful of customers to over 200,000 (and $100mm in VC) was an invaluable professional chapter in my life. I was inspired by the founders - Joyce Dorris and Paul Erickson - who in some ways transferred their entrepreneurial bug to me in starting my own firm.

Pinpointing what went wrong is complicated. SunRocket suffered from some unfortunate timing with regards to negative Vonage developments, a stiff regulatory headwind that altered the economic proposition, and a number of other factors I won't dive into now (maybe one day...).

What I don't believe - contrary to popular sentiment - is that the Cable Companies bundle offering killed the independent VoIP provider. There was - and is - a big consumer pie out there, and SunRocket could have commanded a hearty slice.

I have little doubt that the talented former SunRocket employees will be gobbled up quickly by other firms in the area, and will be watching what the future holds for SunRocket in the coming weeks.

Popping the pop-up adders

2007-07-12T13:57:00.001-07:00

Pop-up ads are obnoxious enough, but at least with those you can typically close the ad window with relative ease. What I'm growing less tolerant of is the pop-up overlays that slap an ad graphic directly over the text you are trying to read at say an online newspaper or magazine site.

They're animated, dancing around the page, and it is nearly impossible to find the "close" button, which is typically buried in size 2 font ten pages away. I'm not sure what action would let the creators of these particular ads understand what it is like to try and read a story with these things sitting on the page. Perhaps if I went to their place of business and stuck my hand about two inches in front of their face while they tried to work on the computer. I wonder if that would do the trick.

I've reached the nexus of the universe

2007-07-11T13:33:00.000-07:00

After logging thousands of hours of combined television viewing during my 8 years of marriage, it was inevitable that at some point a broadcast moment would occur combining my passion with hers.

Now don't get me wrong, there are plenty (ok, one: Lost) of shows we watch together, but this was different. A program aired on Tuesday night that miraculously combined her obsession for gossip shows and magazines, Oscar Night and other celebrity homages with my love for baseball.

The moment I clicked info I knew this would be a night I would not soon forget. A night when our worlds intersected so perfectly that I wondered why other network big wigs hadn't attempted this type of gender blending before.

Now some marketers claim to try jointly appealing to both sexes. Sony marketed its Bravia TV as "The Word's First Television for Men and Women." I don't know what the even means. I can't recall sitting in my living room in mixed company and having a female blurt "ugh, this is such a guy's TV." If there really was a "guy's TV" it would come without the Lifetime Channel.

No, this program was real. Fox Television. 7pm ET. The MLB All-Star Game Red Carpet Show. Yes. It combined my passion for baseball with my wife's passion for, well, red carpets. Now I did learn about five seconds in that my wife was less enthused by seeing Dmitri Young (Player McWeightProblem) stroll down the carpet instead of Patrick Dempsey (Doctor McDreamy), but I put that aside and savored the moment.

Do Americans like the idols or the rejects?

2007-07-10T10:14:00.000-07:00

I found myself asking a couple of questions upon viewing promos for Singing Bee, a new NBC competition that challenges competitors to accurately sing song lyrics. First, what motivates viewers to watch this absurdity and second, can the studio set accommodate the woman on the far left's hair?

Now of course millions of people will mock the entire premise and bemoan how inane reality television competitions have become, and the first week ratings will come out and lo and behold, millions of viewers decided to tune in anyway.

Why? Do viewers really want to see a contestant that "nails it?" Of course not. We want to see people flub lines. This show seems to be saying that viewers aren't drawn to American Idol, America's Got Talent, etc. because they want to see talent, but instead because they want to see people screw up and basically make fools of themselves.

What exactly does the winner of Singing Bee go on to do? That person has shown an ability to memorize song lyrics. Fantastic. I'll put that skill set on par with memorizing the shopping list my wife provides me for the grocery store. Where's my show? And I make a fool of myself every day, often with great aplomb, and alas, Hollywood has not come calling.

The studio execs are on to something: Americans are hooked on failure. The more pathetic other people look, the better we feel about ourselves.

Is ESPN News the new SportsCenter?

2007-07-08T18:34:00.000-07:00

SportsCenter has been running a gimmicky daily tournament called "Who's Now" that pits random male and female athletes against one another in fan voting to determine which one has more "buzz." Who is more "now" and is the ultimate sports athlete. Reggie Bush vs. Danica Patrick? How do you even vote on that matchup? And I'm not talking about the gender issue, but the fact that they operate in worlds that could not be more disparate.

Enduring the daily "Who's Now" segment on SportsCenter is a painful reminder that the program once considered required viewing multiple times a day by hard and soft-core sports fans is a victim of its own success. Sports fans now are statistical junkies. They want to know if their team won that day, see a few highlights and move on. Or they want to see how their fantasy league players performed. Forget the one-liners, hokey segments and grating banter that used to seem so inviting and just give me the game highlights.

That is why I find myself watching SportsCenter less in less, in favor of ESPN News. And I don't think I'm alone. In the old days SportsCenter never lasted long enough, and now 60 minutes seems like an eternity. Perhaps that's a product of having two kids and less idle time for such idle viewing. But I think if you pitted SportsCenter against ESPN News for "Who's Now," the latter would be the hands-down winner.

Why Bush and Cheney's low approval ratings hurt the Democrats

2007-07-03T07:01:00.000-07:00

I try to keep political ramblings to a minimum, because once I walk down that path I'll feel compelled to proceed even further. But, living in DC some developments are hard to ignore, as is the case with President Bush commuting the sentence of former VP right-hand man Scooter Libby. The move was not altogether unexpected but the timing was, and while Democrats will raise a stink most realize that for all of the benefits accrued to the ruling majority Party during the midterm elections per Bush's unpopularity, every coin has a flip side.

Bush's decision-making process is now subject to the same realization his Veep came do earlier in the Administration's tenure - with approval ratings so low he can now afford to cast decisions that the public majority disagrees with. After all, why does it matter if his approval rating drops from 30% to 25%?

Cheney made the same calculation early on, allowing him to serve as the designated pit bull with speeches and comments designed to appease only the narrowest (but most loyal) GOP base. Bush now seems resigned that, much like a starving artist, his vindication will come post-mortem. That only years or decades from now will history soften his legacy.

Of course the irony here for Democrats is that they have a President and Vice President no longer worried about approval ratings or their legacy. If Bush felt his legacy could be salvaged, the commuting of Libby's sentence would have been a much more difficult decision. The threat of subpoenas and indictments will fly left and right, but their impact will be minimal as far as forcing the Administration's hand.

Legitimately clever marketing or sham?

2007-07-02T11:18:00.000-07:00

Pulling into my driveway early Friday evening I couldn't help but notice two very official-looking young men standing on the street, studiously observing my roof and house. Their outfits and accessories - plain white shirt, clipboard, helmets - gave off a city inspector vibe. And that was exactly their intent.

Our development has had some ongoing issues with the attic exterior during the year, as the development association mandated that shoddy-looking exteriors would need to be refurbished at the owner's expense. Somehow my townhouse had escaped the first round, but fearing I would get nabbed this time, I attempted to sprint in the house as quickly as possible.

"Sir! Sir!" I heard one of the men yell as I scooted through the garage. Busted.

"My name is so-and-so with company XYZ. We're out here as a courtesy inspecting roof issues that owners may have to ensure everyone is properly up to code."

So they aren't with the city, and haven't been hired by the Association to do this. But, as good marketers do, they've created the appearance of objective officials, and communicated it would be in a homeowners best interest to heed their advice. Second, as good marketers do, the company has sent out two very non-threatening, sharp looking young men to disarm homeowners. And of course clipboards are always a nice touch.

He went on to explain that attics should be checked for mold every five years, and questioned whether I had done so (which I hadn't). He explained that there had been some leakage issues from past rain and wind storms, and the company was offering a free inspection to ensure my attic was in solid condition.

Then, he pulled out marketing trick #3: establish the firm's legitimacy.

"We just finished a job at your neighbor's attic a couple days ago. The woman two doors down, not sure if you know them."

Brilliant. A good marketer knows that neighbors trust neighbors (the whole reason driveway pavers, handymen and painters put branded signs on yards during work), and that a homeowner will deduce that if the company's work was good enough for the neighbor, it was good enough for them.

Being a PR person by trade, I nearly felt compelled to put the employee through the treatment Giovanni Ribisi gave the newspaper ad guy in the movie "Boiler Room." In other words, alright buddy, you've pulled out some nice tricks, so sell me. But I took a flyer and let him off the hook. Whether or not I'll take the bait is a post for another day.

Friday's theme - overrated

2007-06-29T11:08:00.000-07:00

I try and keep the topic light on Friday, so today I'll be ranting about a couple of things on my mind.

First off, I'm going to let you in on a little secret regarding movies: if the tv previews say something along the lines of "from the producer who brought you X," the movie is going to be awful.

Wikipedia, which in the words of Ron Burgundy from Anchorman, 25% of the time includes accurate information all the time, defines a movie producer as follows: A film producer oversees the making of movies. The producer initiates, coordinates, supervises and controls matters such as raising funding, hiring key personnel, and arranging for distributors. The producer is involved throughout all phases of the film making process from inception to completion of a project.

Ok...so as far as I can tell the producer certainly plays a key role in ensuring that the movie is properly funded, marketed correctly, and adequately staffed. But you can have the best producer on board with a terrible movie and it is still going to be a terrible movie. The producer can't solve bad writing or bad acting. It's like saying "from the assistant key grip for Platoon." When a movie promo touts the producer, all that tells me is that there is a good chance that I'll end up convinced to fork over $10 to get my butt to the theater.

Last night I went to a birthday dinner for a close friend at a local, well-regarded, upscale restaurant with my wife. The company was great (some pictures from the party posted below) and the conversation lively. Do you ever just walk out of a restaurant feeling dirty? Dirty that you forked over $150 per couple for food that you really wanted to like but deep down knew was pedestrian at best? Well I walked out last night feeling downright filthy, so it was a good thing there was a steady rain coming down to wash away the memory of dry, tasteless duck, bland ahi tuna and, well I'll give them credit for the desserts. The plum cake was pretty solid.

The problem is, most diners (including myself) bail out of expressing their true feelings about the food to the staff. The waiter asks how everything was and for the most part diners will just say everything was fine. He's not the chef, so what's the point of bothering with confrontation.

But, most importantly, it was a fun night and the food's mediocrity could not take away from that.

Lobbying For Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Turkmenistan

2007-06-26T10:22:00.000-07:00

Beware Borat. There is a new punker in town, and is name is Ken Silverstein, Washington Editor for Harper's Magazine. In the July issue, Silverstein details how he punked two venerable DC lobby shops by creating a fake company and alias, then inducing these two firms into pitching their services to improve the image of Turkmenistan, a Stalinist country with a dubious human rights record.

Both lobby shops - Cassidy & Associates and APCO - went hard after the business, citing past work in polishing the image of other dictatorships (though these are not the kinds of case studies one might find on their web sites). So what is the takeaway here? To say that dangling a dollar bill in front of a lobbyist has the same same gravitational pull as dangling a bad movie script in front of Ben Stiller is hardly big news. The greater question, so it seems, is do lobbying/PR firms ever draw the line on a client? Is there a client out there that these two firms would have said "No, this is wrong. We would love to represent you Mr. Bin Laden but we must pass on your business."

Now of course evil is in the eye of the beholder. A recent poll of European citizens found that they held Vladimir Putin in higher esteem than George Bush. The president of Turkmenistan is Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov. How can you not trust a name like Berdymukhamedov? Though apparently his friends call him Berdy, this name would probably result in the highest scrabble score in history.

After the article ran, both lobby shops, predictably, attempted to back away from their interest in the client. Silverstein, however, was ready, and provided emails demonstrating that both firms were very interested in the business. I'm sure there are many other PR and lobbying shops licking their chops, convincing themselves they would have turned away the business without hesitation. That may be, it may not be, and it is hardly the point.

Silverstein's coup, which I have no issue with, actually implicates his own profession (as well as several others) as much as it does the firms he punked. Because it assumes that the lobbying/PR firms would have been successful in a) generating positive news coverage by getting his editorial colleagues to write favorable press; b) convincing intelligent Members of Congress that Turkmenistan is on the up-and-up; and c) changing the way that citizens view the country's record.

In other words, these lobby/PR firms are only successful if the audiences they target buy into the same argument they bought into when accepting the business. Translation: the story might end with APCO and Cassidy but the buck doesn't.

Sleepless in Silicon Valley

2007-06-25T10:45:00.000-07:00

A belated kudos to Om Malik, who not only operates one of the best blogs and news sites for all things tech but happens to be, as the USA Today feature points out, one of the true nice guys in the industry from my experience. While Om might view himself as a real tiger, the photo to the left shows he's all about the bear hugs.

The article talks about how Om and fellow larger than life tech blogger Michael Arrington - who runs TechCrunch have turned blogs into successful businesses. This point should not be lost on existing and would-be bloggers. It is one thing to create a popular blog that draws eyeballs, but quite another to turn it into a business with legs, and both men have done so. This effort isn't without challenges, as the article discusses sacrifices both have made in the REM category, but my guess is the adrenaline of breaking big news stories more than makes up, and they can worry about sleep in a decade or so.

Keep up the good work Om.

Why does Panera Bread Need my Shoe Size?

2007-06-22T14:47:00.000-07:00

Well, technically, they don't. But lately I find myself handing over seemingly inappropriate information to companies for no good reason.

When I use my debit card at Shell gas stations, they no longer ask for my pin code and instead request my zip code. And I can't think of a good reason why Radio Shack needs my phone number every time I buy batteries. Are you going to call me when the latest shipment of batteries arrive? A phone number here, a zip code there, it seems to me that companies are becoming quite adept at assembling information that consumers are comfortable handing out.

I'm no overzealous privacy advocate. Sure, I turn the lights off when I take a shower and will kick a person in the pancreas if they get to close to me at the ATM, but for the most part I'll gladly part with personal information if companies have a logical reason for obtaining it.

But lately I've been saying "no thanks" Radio Shack, I will not give you my phone number. I'll pay cash at the pump Shell, thank you very much.

Another Presidential candidate declares he's not a candidate

2007-06-20T08:46:00.000-07:00

The PR machinations of potential Presidential candidates continued in earnest yesterday when New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced he is hopping of the GOP train (wreck?) and proclaiming himself an Independent - seven years after he executed a similar exit from the Democratic Party.

Despite specifying the exact amount of time remaining for his mayoral tenure, visiting Presidential campaign states like New Hampshire (technically for a reunion) and making some other moves that some might infer as a pre-cursor to a Presidential run, Bloomberg is once again playing the PR game of "I'm not running for President, wink wink."

Once again, pundits are forecasting what his candidacy would mean for the race, proclaiming him as another disruptor as they did Fred Thompson just a few weeks ago. For what appeared to be a lightweight fight several months ago, one wonders if there is room in the ring for anymore heavyweights. Either way, marginalized candidates such as Sam Brownback and Joe Biden might soon find the debate stage so crowded that they will be relegated to a podium located right next the SOUS chef in the convention hall kitchen.

Voters like freshness. They like unexpected candidates. But the PR challenge for candidates and the staff that manages them is maintaining that freshness over what will be a historically lengthy campaign season. Early favorites like Guiliani and Obama have lost steam already, and the jury is still out on Thomson and Bloomberg.

Thomas the Train Derails

2007-06-18T18:47:00.000-07:00

Well, it looks like we have ourselves another good, old-fashioned recall. A half-million wooden railway Thomas the Train toys are headed back to that place where all recalled products go....China. (And I've just lost my Beijing affiliate with that non-PC humor) Yes, it turns out the trains that I've been weaving into the most mind-numbing, dry stories and DVDs for my son the past two years are in fact toxic. James, Thomas, even Skarloey. Let me tell you that Skarloey never hurt a fly, so the notion he's a lead-filled child killer is preposterous. All these months I suffered through these inane plot lines between a town of trains and their obese conductor, I'd been under the impression it was all harmless. During one stretch of about six months, my son demanded a bedtime story every night involving Thomas the Train characters. These would be stories I would have to make up, and for 27 nights in a row, the central character had to be Cranky the Crane. Try coming up with multiple stories about a crane who sits on the docks.

You know what would be nice? A development in product safety that I personally would find quite refreshing? How about a pre-call? That's right. How about a company takes the products off the shelves before my son has been sucking them drier than a pacifier? It would seem that testing for lead would be a logical part of the initial analysis a company does before shipping out millions of product to store shelves across the country.

The typical statement one usually sees coming out of a recall shed little clarity on the situation:

"We don't believe that the level of lead poses any danger to children but we are issuing a full recall." Ok, then. Thanks for alleviating all of my fears.

Can a PR professional like Gene Weingarten?

2007-06-14T11:00:00.000-07:00

The answer, of course, is a resounding...maybe. Gene is probably my favorite humor writer and I look forward to his weekly Washington Post magazine articles the same way Lindsay Lohan looks forward to an open bar. To make a career writing the types of columns Gene puts out requires a unique lens that few others would view a potential story through.

I've always considered my style of writing very much like Gene's. The only difference, if you want to get super-technical about it, is that I don't have a lucrative (it may not be lucrative but it helps my ego if it is) gig with a major magazine, thousands of adoring fans, dozens of fans who like Gene but if they had to pick one story to read in the magazine it would probably be "Date Lab," and scores of other customer care reps and PR professionals who consider punk-meister Gene the Borat of the publishing world (minus the awkward male nudity).

Gene is no fan of your typical PR professional, as evidenced in his most recent but by no means first column bashing the industry. He thinks PR people are lazy in that they blast meaningless news out to reporters who don't care; that they load press releases with fancy words as if it were their own personal scrabble board; and that many of them used to belong to a cult that roasted marshmallows and small farm animals (ok, made the last part up).

Some of Gene's blanket statements may apply to certain people in the industry, no different than would be the case with real estate agents, doctors, lawyers and yes, even columnists. What I might suggest as a useful exercise would be for Gene to spend a week as a PR professional and a PR professional spend a week as Gene (wife not included). My guess that each would probably gain a little more appreciation for the other. Being DC-based, I'll happily volunteer to swap hats and see if, after a week of wading through PR e-mails, I come to understand his pain.

Bulldog Reporter Conference

2007-06-12T13:57:00.000-07:00

The annual Bulldog Reporter conference is over. What you say? I didn't even know it had started. Attending an awards lunch on Monday recognizing outstanding PR campaigns over the past year, I was struck by a couple of thoughts:

1) I often forget how talented the stars in this profession are. That this is a true "craft" populated with really smart people that come up with campaigns most people could never dream of. Even the few snippets I heard during presentations and speeches told me that I didn't know it all, and probably never will.

2) PR agency professionals, how shall I say this, are a very competitive bunch. I've never encountered an industry with more award competitions and I can tell you that we don't like it when other people win them. For each award winner announced, there was a smattering (and I'm using that term liberally) of applause. Maybe I'm being overly critical here. I suppose that in a roomful of lawyers or doctors they probably would not be whooping it up when peers win an award or special distinction. I don't know, seems different with PR, as if another agency's (or woman's) award brings them one step closer to stealing my clients.

Overall it was a very well run conference, and I'd expect nothing less from Bulldog Reporter. The crab cakes and mashed potatoes made me a little sleepy, but other than that, no complaints.

When Profiling Can Be A Good Thing

2007-06-08T14:56:00.000-07:00

Alright, a little rant here, perhaps because the heat index in D.C. Friday was 1,000 degrees, which tends to make people a little cranky. Was picking up a greeting card at Hallmark this weekend and the cashier asked me if I have a Hallmark frequent customer card. Now of course profiling is a terrible social injustice, but in cases like this I would love to be profiled by the cashier. Lady, I'm a 35 year-old male. Do I look like someone who would make room for a Hallmark card in my wallet? It's precious real estate in there, and I'm certainly not going to bump anything out for a Hallmark card. Same deal for CVS (in case any executives are reading): I don't care if I've lost hundreds of dollars in savings by not having it. I'll never sign up for a CVS card because I always want to believe that the time I am currently visiting CVS will be my last time.

Why? Perhaps it is the fact that no matter how many customers are in line, and no matter how many employees are behind the counter, it is impossible to spend less than 45 minutes in line. I'm not sure what cashier system they are using, but it isn't working. Judging by the fact that only one register seems to ever be open, I have to assume that the other registers are just for show. Paper mache replicas utilized to confound would be burglars and perturb would be customers. To be fair, the demographic of the drug store plays a part in the long lines. When you have 89 year-old women paying for a $4.88 bottle of liver spots cream - all in pennies - it is bound to hold things up. And then when she pulls out a coupon that expired in 1989 and upon closer inspection is in fact not a coupon but a crumpled napkin with her Rummy Q score written on it, goodnight Irene, or Ilene. Either way, game over.

So Ocean's 13 is blessing moviegoers in theatres across the country and I think I speak for everyone when I say - why? Ocean's 11 was a nice little flick I'll grant them that. Ocean's 12 was like a bad, endless episode of "Whose Line is it Anyway?" I found it hard to believe there was even a script for that movie. I think the producer just gathered all of the actors together in Europe and said "ok, listen up. We don't have a script. Never did. George Clooney, just wanted an excuse for you guys to hang out and get drunk for a couple months. So just do what you need to do during the day, once and a while I'll roll the cameras. George, you give that patented smirk; Brad, you make a little quip about Parisian cafes; Matt, you look down at the ground all nervous like; and the rest of you try and stay out of the way."

So..with that introduction I'm prepared to provide my review of Ocean's 13 now. 1/4 of a star. I haven't seen it, but in a way I already have. It's called Entertainment Tonight. I'm only giving this rendition a quarter star because Al Pacino has been added to the cast and if he could make The Devil's Advocate watchable opposite Keanu Reeves, he can probably salvage one scene from this monstrosity.

Wie Alert

2007-06-07T12:32:00.001-07:00

In my house growing up, there was a certain child who endured the all-too-common bedwetting bug. To correct the habit, a device was used called the "Wee Alert," a small alarm system connected to a moisture-detecting pad that would slide under the bed sheets. When the pad detected wetness, a piercing alarm would go off until the child could manage to turn on the lights and find the off button. Thanks to a decibel level on par with a supersonic jet, neighbors up and down the block could easily track the child's progress in cracking the habit.

Time and time again we watch the athletes and celebrities who spend the most on PR and publicists receive the least valuable counsel. As I watched the Michelle Wie injury scandal develop this week, I couldn't help but wonder if these celebrity figures wouldn't benefit from their own alert contraption. I haven't worked out all the details (patent-pending), but it could work something like this:

1) Athlete or Celebrity does something mildly stupid
2) Athlete or Celebrity determines they can't think for themselves and turns to trusty, overpaid publicist for advice
3) Publicist pours gasoline on fire by recommending client denies all wrongdoing
4) Now this is where my contraption would come in. Just as the celebrity is prepared to issue some suicidal public statement, the deafening alarm would go off reminding the celebrity that what they are about to say has all of the logic of a young attractive woman running upstairs to the bedroom during a horror movie (yes, I'll run as far away from the exit door as possible).

Watching celebrity gaffes unfold offer the ideal case study for PR professionals on how not to practice their craft, and the best part about the education is it doesn't cost a dime.

2007-06-04T14:19:00.001-07:00

On June 1st I embarked on the 2nd annual Father-son weekend trip into Chicago to see the Cubs. Much like the inaugural trip last year, the days leading up to departure were filled with expletive-laced tirades on my part, questioning what would possess me to spend a dime on a franchise that once again was showering its fans with futility.

For Saturday's game my four year-old son and I had a front row seat behind home plate for the team's sixth loss in a row. Some might call it child abuse to subject my son to the decades of misery I've experienced living and dying for a franchise that has returned so much grief. The way I see it, the more my son understands what I've been through as a Cubs fan, the easier it will be for the two of us to bond.

At Saturday's game, my four year-old felt right at home watching the Cubs manager throw a tantrum on par with anything my son has ever put together. Thankfully, he didn't really pay too much attention, as he was occupied with cotton candy and the never-ending series of snacks required to induce him to sit through 3 hours of this crap. It is kind of an unspoken understanding between he and I: my son agrees to feign excitement for the outing, and I agree to keep the sugar coming, no questions asked. Now of course there are consequences, first and foremost my sugar-filled son did not go to sleep for three straight days, but a small price to pay.

I have to think that if baseball coaches and managers adopted the business-attire dress codes of other professional sports, it might cut down on the tirades. After all, Pinella - now serving a four game suspension for kicking dirt and the leg of an umpire - might be less willing to kick up dust if he had on an expensive pair of wing tips.

Introducing the "No PR Person Left Behind Act"

2007-05-31T07:01:00.000-07:00

With presidential politics in full swing affordable education is sure to be a hot topic over the next year. I'd actually like to propose my own variation of the "No Child Left Behind" act which I will call the "No PR Person Left Behind" act.

You see, the PR industry is evolving every day. Veterans transfer knowledge to the next generation of public relations professionals, but this new breed also looks to industry organizations as well for professional development and education.

The problem, as I see it, is that the cost of education for many PR professionals is prohibitively expensive. Sure, the large PR firms may not think twice about cutting ten $1,000 checks to send their employees to an annual media conference. But for smaller agencies and independents, $1,000 is a lot of money to shell out. Then you throw in periodic webinars that run a few hundred dollars a piece, and it all adds up quick.

Now don't get me wrong -- most of these professional development opportunities are probably worth every penny. The Bulldog Reporter Media Relations 2007 Conference looks amazing. The lineup is off the charts. But for me, starting a new firm, $1,000 is not chump change, and I have to wonder if other professionals are wringing their hands as I am right now. Going back and forth as I balance how valuable it would be to attend with the steep entry price.

I'm not blind to the economics at play here. These organizations are running a business and most set a price point that enables them to pay salaries and provide valuable services. But, I do think there is a need within the industry for more affordable professional development opportunities, because I fear many are passing up resources for purely financial reasons.

I'd like to see industry leaders gather to create a working group addressing this issue, and potential solutions to ensure no PR person is left behind. This message was not paid for by the Brian Lustig for President of the Working Group Committee.

FatDoor opens the door for neighborly communication

2007-05-29T08:28:00.000-07:00

I'd heard about FatDoor a while ago, but today's public beta launch shows the firm remains on track with its mission to change what neighbors know about each other and how they communicate.
As VentureBeat reports the company mashes public phone book data with Microsoft Virtual Earth and lets users input standard profile info about themselves or their neighbor. The profile part of it is nice, but to me the real attraction will be its ability to let communities have an easy way to create an online news site to keep neighbors up to date on information impact the community, events, real estate issues, etc.

As media continues to localize, with consumers opting less for national newspapers and more towards community outlets and user-generated content, FatDoor can become a great tool. For instance, your townhouse community could use FatDoor to create an online site customized for your needs. Right now, the beta is only rolling out in Silicon Valley so it may be a while before it reaches my neck of the woods. But it is worth keeping an eye on.

They grow up fast

2007-05-24T13:08:00.001-07:00

As a father there are just certain milestones you never forget: when my son took his first steps, the first time he threw a Thomas the Train at a restaurant diner one table over, or that very first time at dinner when he told me how his day at school was. It went a little something like this:

Me: What did you do at school?
Son: Nothing

Me: Did you learn anything?
Son: No

Me: Did you play with anyone?
Son: No

Me: Did you eat anything?
Son: No

Me: So what did you do? Sit in the corner of the room by yourself all day and stare at the wall?
Son: Yes

Me: What exactly am I paying $3,000 for?
Son: Nothing

Me: Finally, we agree on something

Well in addition to these memorable childhood moments there is one that occurred this past weekend that topped them all: his first time in a moon bounce.

Now let me provide some background here to explain the significance. My son has, for the first four years of his life, been deathly afraid of moonbounces. Something about the loud noise and the cramped, veiled entrance and unstable flooring freaked him out. Every friend's birthday involved the same routine. Our son would pledge to try the moonbounce, would take off his shoes and get right up to the entrance, and then that is when everything fell part. Screaming, kicking, fighting, biting, whatever it took to get as far away from the moonbounce as possible.

This past weekend at a local outdoor festival we once again readied for the same routine. And sure enough, right as he was about to enter he had a meltdown. So we tried another approach and I told him I'd stick my head in so he could feel that I was, in a way, also doing it with him. So in he went, at first timidly bouncing while other insane children catapulted their bodies around him with little regard for bones and heads. Then my son jumped a little higher, and higher, until he was soon throwing himself around with reckless abandon.

In typical fashion, he did not want to get out. For 2 years we tried desperately to get him in, and now we couldn't get him out. That's how it works I suppose.

The launch of Lustig Communications

2007-05-21T06:51:00.001-07:00

Well, there is no turning back now. I've already purchased a lifetime supply of paper clips and highlighter colors that I can't imagine ever using under any circumstance. There is something simultaneously exhilarating and petrifying about launching your own business, and there's a definite "buzz" around the office today after the news hit on the official launch of Lustig Communications. Ok, so technically the buzz came from a lawnmower outside the window but in many ways it symbolically captured the beginning of a new chapter for me - and the company.

The better looking half of the new firm - my wife - has done a great job building the marketing and advertising side for the past 3 years, and it seemed like a great fit to add my PR component to create a truly strategic integrated communications firm. The two of us have aligned our business philosophies quite quickly and it is clear we have solid match. Sure, she has shot down a couple of my early ideas - like the 10am Margarita Hour and my own take on Casual Fridays that I call Pantsless Wednesdays - but overall we've been on the same page.

I know that as our company grows and evolves that I will chronicle some day-to-day happenings on this blog, and look back on this day - the launch - as the beginning of something really amazing.

Which is better? TV on the Internet or Internet on the TV

2007-05-18T12:00:00.000-07:00

Been beta testing a service the past few weeks called Joost, which is kind of like a cable tv network for your computer that offers dozens of channels and programming over a broadband connection.

As far as betas go, it has the usual hiccups and problems one might expect from a beta -- downloading problems, programming cutting out too frequently, and things of that nature which I'm willing to overlook.

The broader issue is that right now the programming selection is, well, uninspiring. No doubt Joost will continue to add programs and stations but how many people will opt to sit at their computer and watch second-tier programs? Probably about the same number of people who are streaming Internet movies through their television.

Joost bills itself as combining television with the interactive power of the internet. The key for them is what exactly will that "interactive power" be? The chatting and IM'ing while watching TV on the Internet can be a play here, but based on existing programming, that will take some time to build up.

I'm going to check back in with Joost post-beta and see how the product develops. For now, I would not place myself in the category of a daily Joost viewer.

Flighthost grounded?

2007-05-16T15:46:00.000-07:00

So my wife's business - now also my business - used Flighthost for 3 years, and according to her there hadn't been a single outage of any substance during working hours. In fact, if you Google Flighthost outage nothing comes up, so I imagine their record is spotless.

Sure enough, I switch over from GoDaddy to Flighthost and not two days later there seems to be an outage now going on over an hour, apparently unprecedented in its recent history. Given their track record I of course still wonder if the issue is localized to my area, but I am unable to determine that because their customer support line shuts down at 5pm and there is no mention of an outage on their automated greeting.

Ah, the perils of webmail. If you hear nothing more on this matter in future posts it will be due to the fact that I've learned somehow the service outage was due to customer (i.e. - me) error.

I picked the wrong county to start smoking, eating, drinking...

2007-05-16T07:58:00.000-07:00

Montgomery County, Maryland is a county of affluence and diversity full of lobbyists, lawyers, doctors, career civil servants, tech executives, probably a few undercover CIA agents (pending any Robert Novak articles outing them) and other professionals who work hard and like to play hard.

Unfortunately, if playing hard involves drinking good wine, smoking, or eating rich foods, you are out of luck. In the latest in a string of maneuvers by the Montgomery County Council, which apparently knows what is in the best interests of its residents, I now reside in the first county in the nation to ban trans fats in restaurants and markets.

Now I don't smoke, and from a personal perspective certainly have no problem with a smoke-free environment at restaurants. But, as anyone who resides in the county knows, getting a nice bottle of wine beyond the major labels is a herculean task because only county-run stores can sell liquor. And while I think everyone opposes trans fat and its health impact, some restaurateurs ill-prepared to switch to soy or canola might be forced to use equally harmful coconut oil.

At some point the County needs to take a breath and examine the extent of County intervention over personal choice. Should the focus be on educating consumers to make more informed decisions (bigger warning labels on cigarette boxes, trans fat info on menus) or on removing the choice altogether via County Council directives and tax deterrents?) And of course I speak not just for residents of my county but the nation as a whole.

If there are existing and viable alternatives to foods high in trans fat, the transition should be a smooth one. But if restaurateurs and market owners are left scrambling to either substitute one bad oil for another or eliminate menu items altogether, then one must question the timing and sweeping nature of this decision.

How companies view PR firms

2007-05-15T06:29:00.000-07:00

If a recent survey published in PR Week (subscription only) is any indication, PR firms have a long road ahead of them when it comes to digital media and Web 2.0. When organizations were asked what type of firm they would turn to for digital media assistance, PR firms finished near the bottom.

This is not surprising and I've posted several times on challenges PR firms have when it comes to digital media. Other than a small handful of pioneering firms like Text100 who have dedicated time and resources to getting digital media right, the industry as a whole seems content to implement a "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. If clients don't ask about digital media, firms won't tell them about it.

Large PR firms have added digital media experts, maybe even small departments, but the efforts are halfhearted at best and little match for digital media boutique firms and specialists who continue to siphon budget resources away from traditional PR firms.

To overcome client perception and recapture the lost budget, PR firms have a few options:

1) Continue to meander along with digital media and take what little scraps clients will give them
2) Acquire specialty digital media shops and integrate the offering into the firm
3) Organically hire and build digital media operations

My guess is that for the next 12-18 months the industry response will fall somewhere between #1 and #2. Once firms get a clearer picture of lost revenue, they will look to scoop up online specialists and add them to their portfolio. Some might hire organically, but most simply inch along until they can get their hands around a digital media strategy.

Dinner at 7-11, Starbucks and Lost - quite a day

2007-05-10T14:54:00.000-07:00

Do you ever have one of those moments when you see something and wonder what in the name of Paris Hilton is going on in this world? I strolled into a local 7-11 the other day and they were offering free sample bites of taquitos. For those not familiar taquitos are those lovely artery-clogging morsels you see rotating under a heat lamp as you wait in line. What's next? A rolling cheese cart for customers to nibble on as they stock up on lottery tickets?

Apparently 7-11 managers concluded that fried tubes rotating around in a circle was not doing the trick. Well...I'm no food expert but I suspect that the best selling mechanism for any cooked item at 7-11 would probably not involve letting customers taste the food before they bought it. Usually, the customer hands over the cash and only after that first bite, with one foot out the door, does Ronny Regret show up.

Moving on to another successful chain. You have to hand it to Starbucks. I haven't sipped a drop of coffee in 15 years and yet, they still get about $10 a week from me when the temperature dips below 50 degrees. Part of the problem is that the Starbucks sits there, right outside the Gold's Gym as I conclude my morning workout, beckoning me like a lit elevator button that doesn't need to be pushed again.

That's 10 bucks a week for three Chai Skim Lattes. At first I rationalized the expenditure by the fact I own stock in Starbucks, thus convincing myself I was directly contributing to a rising share price. But then I made the mistake of doing the math. Let's see, ten bucks a week, forty bucks a month, nearly $500 a year, carry the 7, divide by the circumference of Pluto and, lo and behold, this is not working out in my favor.

I'm probably not the only person who reminisces about buying Season 1 of Lost on DVD and watching all 24 episodes over the course of a single weekend. The intro music as the word crept onto the screen sent chills down our spine, and we couldn't bear the thought of waiting to watch the next episode.

These days, I'm not sure who is more lost, the stranded passengers on the island or viewers such as myself. It is never a good sign when a show announces it will run 3 more seasons and the viewer curses to himself that he wishes the show would wrap up this year. This is a problem for Lost. I don't really want to see three more seasons. I'd be happier if they could just wrap up the entire series over the next three episodes and I could stand up from my couch and say "Ohhhhh. I get it."

Why PR Professionals Blog...and why it matters

2007-05-09T13:08:00.000-07:00

Blogs are kind of like American Idol contestants. For every finalist who ascends to stardom and a nationwide following, there are tens of thousands who, despite their best efforts, wallow in obscurity. But not all bloggers are motivated solely by the desire to reach a critical mass of eyeballs. For some the reasons are deeper and more complex.

Fear. Freedom. Growth. These are in my opinion the three driving forces behind the dramatic increase in the number of PR bloggers. Each says a great deal about what makes us tick, and each says a great deal about where our industry is headed.

Fear
Observe the faces of many PR veterans when a conversation turns to social media, blogging or pretty much anything having to do with HTML code and you will see what the fear of death looks like. The type of fear that can cause someone to question his or her logic in selecting this god forsaken profession and ability to adjust to the changing paradigm.

The unease among practitioners in our industry is justified. For decades the PR template for conducting media outreach changed little. Develop pitch, identify list of targets, call each target, and potentially follow up by sending target a fax.

E-mail ushered in a technology shift, but very different than what is going on today with social media. E-mail changed the rules but not the players, and one could argue the proliferation of e-mail had a far greater impact on journalists than PR professionals. I mean how productive could reporters be collectively huddled around the office fax machine, waiting patiently as it took four hours to print out a two-page press release?

Even for the tech neophytes in our industry, e-mail was something that could be handled. There was no fear factor. But PR 2.0 – the use of Web social and emerging media tools – is an immense beast that many in the industry have struggled to get their hands around. It’s like flying over the Atlantic Ocean and trying to pick the most strategic place to jump in. You have no idea where the best spot is to make a “splash” or even how to jump. Should clients allow Web site visitors to Digg their press releases? Is a corporate blog a good idea? What about a widget or podcast?

What we see when PR practitioners blog is an initial but consequential step into the great PR 2.0 abyss. An attempt to demystify and overcome their fears about what emerging online PR means for their industry, and insecurity that any perceived lack in these skills will hold them back professionally.

Freedom
If you look at it one way, PR overflows with creative outlets. Practitioners have the opportunity to dream up and execute innovative and cutting-edge programs, events and brands. Viewed another way however, it is easy for individual creativity to become bottled up. We spend so much time espousing PR-friendly messages, one-liners and other forms of marketing-speak that true, unfiltered thoughts are suppressed deep beneath the surface. We speak for our clients and our employer, but rarely have the opportunity – or are even asked – to speak for ourselves.

Blogging is a logical antidote. Finally, an opportunity to speak our mind and break free of the PR-speak shackles that bind us every day. While to the external world it might seem that we can be interchangeably rotated among various client teams as if all cut from the same cloth, blogging is an opportunity to demonstrate our unique voice. In a profession based on hard rules there is nothing more satisfying than finding a creative venue without rules, and this freedom no doubt fuels many of us to create, write, and blog.

Growth
It is often said that the only way to truly learn how to speak a foreign language is by physically immersing yourself in the culture of those who speak it. In other words, it isn’t enough to observe from afar. You have to live it.

Perhaps that provides a simple and clean answer to why PR practitioners across all fields and disciplines are starting blogs with increasing frequency. As bloggers have emerged as a vital communication target that cannot be ignored, we logically understand that in order to maximize these influencers, we must learn to think and act like them.

This motivation for blogging is the one that holds the most promise for ensuring a smooth transition to PR 2.0. From blogging we will educate ourselves in other aspects of online PR, and the more we know, the better we can serve clients. And the better we serve our clients, the better we serve the future viability of our industry.

This is why blogging matters.

BuzzLogic finds logical way to make money

2007-05-08T14:18:00.000-07:00

Google, Technorati, Digg and sites of that ilk are wonderful resources for tracking your company's buzz...IF you either a) have just hired a spry intern happy to devote 10 hours a day to tracking down where the buzz is and if the buzzers really matter, or b) you are the kind of person who enjoys the thrill of the chase rather than the end game itself.

A couple of months ago I was given a demonstration of a product from BuzzLogic, which, among other things, attempts to take the guesswork out of identifying your company's influencers and what they are saying about you. While the demo itself had a few bugs, the potential and benefits more than made up and I believe they will have little trouble convincing companies, organizations and agencies to fork over $1,000 a month (and up) to stop piddling around the blogosphere trying to figure out who really matters and instead lasering in on the people who make the most difference to their brand perception.

If BuzzLogic were to turn the product themselves, they would no doubt pause to admire their handiwork before initiating a Barry Bonds-esque home run trot. And anytime a 20-employee company can receive gushing coverage in Fortune Magazine and other influential outlets with minimal to no marketing/advertising/PR expenditure, we're talking grand slam.

While there are similar services emerging and more will soon follow, BuzzLogic's business case is a sound one, and as long as they can work out the bugs I'd expect to see more of their customers making the logical choice.

This Madam is no butterfly

2007-05-06T18:38:00.000-07:00

Canary might be a more appropriate description for Deborah Jeane Palfrey (aka - the DC Madam), who has power players in Washington, DC sweating more profusely than the Summer of '95 (or as I like to call it the three-shirt summer, because it was so obscenely hot that I went through at least three shirts every day).

ABC has seemingly spared the majority of the DC Madam's clientele from being outed (for now) but you have to wonder if hundreds of lives are destined to be destroyed. There is something a little off about the entire episode. Palfrey's willingness to casually dangle the fates of hundreds of married men and fathers like yo-yos has caused even news organizations to hesitate. It is one thing for actors and athletes to be outed as having paid for an escort service (not implying it is justified, only that it is different) and quite another when you are talking about career diplomats and others who have served their country.

These men deserve some form of recrimination from their spouses, families and friends. But do they deserve to have their careers ruined for engaging in extra-marital activities? That is an entirely different story, one that may still play out if the Madam's client list sees the light of day.

Slow and Steady for Sprint's PR?

2007-05-03T17:41:00.000-07:00

When the stock market went up and up during the dot com boom, few could imagine it ever going down. And of course, when the boom turned to bust and the market cratered, it often felt like the ship would never get righted.

It can be the same way with a struggling brand. During the non-Jobs years, few could imagine that life could ever be pumped into Apple's brand. Today, from a consumer electronics perspective, there is no brand hotter.

In the wireless category, Sprint's brand is down and out. On the heels of the Nextel acquisition that is still being absorbed, the failure to land an initial or significant piece of the multi-billion dollar government telecom contract, and a perception among the high value users that they are lagging in cutting edge offerings, Sprint is losing customers. Worse yet, they are losing the customers wireless carriers covet most.

Though it seems Sprint will be hard-pressed to make up ground, all is not lost. If their big bet on WiMax pays off they will regain a chunk of customers - as well as the confidence of Wall Street.

Chairman and CEO Gary Forsee probably cannot afford a slow and steady approach if he hopes to hold onto his job, and that means it will be a sprint to the finish for their PR shop - which will be charged with getting their offerings mentioned in the same breath with other carriers buzzworthy rollouts.

Is Digg digging their own grave?

2007-05-02T11:41:00.000-07:00

Damned if you do, damned if you don't is probably the best way to sum up the initial decision by the popular social bookmarking site to comply with a request (PR-speak for demand) from the body overseeing the digital rights management technology to censor links posting to a copyright encryption key for HD-DVD discs. In response, Digg users flooded the site with complaints, forcing a reversal of course from Digg founder Kevin Rose, who decided to let the content appear uncensored.

It is clear that the Digg community backlash wasn't over a burning desire to see the code made available. Instead, it was part of a festering opposition to censorship attempts against user-generated content, and how the blurry line occupied by sites like Digg, Google and others can get even murkier.

It remains to be seen what Digg's power play will mean in terms of legal exposure. Have the called a bluff or, in fact, has Digg dug its own grave?

Sometimes the best PR is straight marketing

2007-05-01T13:26:00.000-07:00

It's a hard PR story to pitch if the company's angle is basically that its success depends on the ignorance and ineptitude of customers. In some cases, companies are better off just throwing the option out there and leaving it to consumers to read between the lines.

That's kind of the idea behind Firedog, Circuit City's branded installation service by which employees come out and install home theater systems, repair a PC, set-up a wireless network or, as the web site says, simply come out to fix a digital camera (If you are having someone out to your house to help work a camera it might be a sign to stick with the old Polaroid).

Most of the marketing - and my guess business so far - is to help self-defeating consumers set-up a Plasma or LCD television. Nightmares of wall mounts crashing to the ground are enough to convince most of us to fork over a few hundred bucks for peace of mind.

From a psychological perspective, branding the service as Firedog is smart. There is probably a segment of consumers who, after handing Circuit City $2,000 for a new TV, might resent the idea of giving them another $500 to put up a wall mount and hook up speakers. By branding it Firedog there is no doubt plenty of consumers who assume this is a separate entity and thus can more easily rationalize parting with the money.

The name is rather brilliant as well. Perhaps they hope that consumers will subconsciously link the concept of installing products themselves to a massive electrical fire that would burn your house to the ground -- including your dog. Don't have a dog, well then the fire would probably spread so quickly that several neighbors' dogs would be imperiled.

Fresca: It's not your grandparents soda anymore

2007-04-29T16:25:00.000-07:00

Ok, maybe it never was, but for me I will always associate Fresca with my grandparents. Growing up as a child, it was the only soda ever stocked in their refrigerator. Because it wasn't really a sweet soda compared to what kids usually drank, it basically tasted like acid to anyone under 12 years-old. In fact, drinking Fresca while watching 60 Minutes was probably the equivalent of purgatory to a child.

But like a fine wine, Fresca seems to have improved with age. You must develop a taste for it and I have to say, it is a pretty darn solid drink these days. The improved taste coincides with a successful, hip re-brand away from the old cans and bottles where you couldn't even tell what flavor it was (My recollection is that it was kind of like someone squirting lemons and limes into your mouth, with an occasional misdirect into my eye).

So my point is that Fresca is no longer banished to the back corner of your grandparents fridge, and it is now consumed by people that in fact have more hair on their head than their tongue.

Bravo Fresca.

So you think a politician can dance?

2007-04-26T08:00:00.000-07:00

Another day, another political leader shakes a tail feather. Regardless of party affiliation, there is something innately uncomfortable about watching a politician under public scrutiny act, well, happy. Especially during dark political times when we are at war abroad and politicians themselves are engaged in partisan wars at home, we kind of expect these leaders to wear a dour expression 24/7. In other words, how can they carry the weight of the world on their shoulders and still find time to lead normal, happy personal lives?

Bush's dance yesterday was an improvement over Karl Rove's efforts a few weeks back, but still unsettling nonetheless. And when I describe these men as "dancing" I am using the word in the most liberal sense imaginable, and we all know how these two men feel about liberals.

So my first sensation watching these two men ham it up was a queasy one. Bouncing around as if they didn't have a care in the world. But then, on second thought, I reminded myself political leaders, even during the darkest times, should be afforded some creative outlets and moments of brevity. But I would caution members of this administration as it seems that things have a way of going sour when it comes to extra-curricular activities. Bush and Rove's dance floor abominations, VP Cheney shoots a friend while hunting, the list goes on and on. Or maybe it ends right there, who knows?

And now the circle of life is complete. I've finished writing this blog entry and have no recollection of what it was supposed to be about.

Venture Capitalists undeterred by weak IPO market

2007-04-25T06:30:00.000-07:00

The latest figures showing that VCs poured $7.1 billion into U.S. companies in the first quarter of 2007 - the highest tally since the end of 2001 - is an interesting one for the investment community.

Historically, VCs eyes an IPO as the most desirable avenue for receiving a handsome return on their investment. But with successful IPOs few and far between these days, it is clear that investors have shifted their accepted exit strategies and feel that the end result will still be a rewarding one.

While IPOs struggle, the market continues to soar and start-ups are still seeing tremendous valuations through acquisitions by larger companies. And it is through these acquisitions that VCs see the promise of big payouts until a healthier IPO market reemerges.

As the AP story points out "...last year, the average price paid for a startup funded by venture capitalists rose 19 percent to $114 million _ the highest price tag since the dot-com frenzy of 2000. In this year's first quarter, the average acquisition price of venture-backed startups climbed to $161 million."

Start-ups aren't complaining. For the past few years VCs have kept a lid on outflow investment, instead guarding their funds while scouring the nation for attractive investments. Now the VCs are loosening their purse strings as they watch start-up after start-up become gobbled up at high valuations.

Now that VC money is back in the game in full force, one has to wonder if the conventional IPO payout that came to define the start-up environment during the dot-com boom isn't far behind.

It turns out that trans fat has no trans fat

2007-04-23T18:52:00.000-07:00

David Copperfield watch out. There is some truly amazing magic taking place within the bowels of food production companies. You see, these companies whose products line grocery store shelves have transformed unhealthy, high-fat foods into healthy diet fare.

What's their secret? Their magic pill that makes this all possible? It is two little words. Two simple words that transform foods making an entire generation of kids obese to wonderful chocolate waterfalls that would make Willy Wonka proud.

Trans Fat.

A small bag of potato chips might have 10 grams of fat, but don't worry: It has only 2 grams of trans fat so sssshhhhh! That means you can eat all you want -- it's good for you.

Hamburgers, Oreo cookies, knock yourself out. Reverse the bag around and pat yourself on the back. No trans fat means you are able to go home and pretend your shopping cart full of junk is actually good for you.

I'm all for healthy alternatives to trans fat, and I have no doubt this type of fat is especially harmful to our bodies. However, turning a positive public movement away from trans fat to a marketing gimmick by food brands to make us believe that junk food is suddenly healthy erases whatever benefit the public receives.

The tech press seems all atwitter about Twitter

2007-04-20T07:20:00.000-07:00

RSS feeds for news you want to receive in real-time makes sense. An RSS feed alerting you to when your friend is getting a cup of coffee, or going to sleep, or doing the other million mundane things that occur throughout the day......

Twitter allows subscribers to receive instant update feeds from friends - via computer, cell, etc. - on their latest movements. If you visit the site, you can see examples of random people updating you on random snippets of their life.

What's fueling an online (mostly text) version of 24/7 reality TV? The low-hanging fruit answer would be the inherent voyeurism or curiosity of people to keep track of intimate details of one another's lives. But I'm not buying that. Most blogs aren't created for people to read them, they are created for people to write them. In other words, Twitter - and to a lesser extent blogs - are simply vehicles designed for people who believe that what they say or do is incredibly important and vital, and that others should have the pleasure of indulging in their incredibly interesting lives.

And that in my opinion is the inverse formula driving Twitter. This is not to say there aren't some interesting potential spin-off applications for Twitter that can serve some more tangible social value. As the site incorporates more multimedia capabilities there is the possibility to extend citizen reporting and access to events and places that others will be interested in seeing and hearing.

Small Guy Says No To Smart Buy

2007-04-18T14:31:00.000-07:00

My father enlisted my help in buying a new TV and so the two of us - along with my son - headed to Best Buy this past Sunday. While my father haggled and I perused, couldn't help notice that a seemingly random selection of TV's were marked as a "Smart Buy."

I couldn't help but laugh, but I did help, which means I didn't actually laugh. When the company trying to sell you an item is the same company that labels something a smart buy, it just all seems a little incestuous. Do consumers really believe that companies willingly point consumers to items that provide the thinnest margins? Or, and I know this is a stretch, perhaps companies consider "smart buys" items that they haven't been able to unload for months, have hidden cracks or smell funky. And if that is the case they should, in the name of honesty and transparency, change the item to a "smart sell," because that's what it really is.

The same approach catches my eye at wine stores. Owners smack "smart buy" labels on less than stellar vintages. Check out one smart buy tag I came across on a 2005 Bordeaux from Mexico?

"This spicy offering is like a tamale exploding in your mouth, and the aftertaste of stale nachos from a strip club in Tijuana will keep you coming back for more."

How gullible do they think we are? I held firm and only bought 8 bottles. I should have noticed something was amiss when the cork crumbled faster than a Chicago Cubs playoff run.

So, as a SmallGuy public service announcement: stay away from the smart buy.

VT Shooting and 9/11: Lessons learned

2007-04-17T06:26:00.000-07:00

The public struggles emotionally with any unspeakable act on par with what happened yesterday in Blacksburg, but we struggle even more when the perpetrator takes his or her own life. We struggle because there is no longer a person to direct our fury at. As much as we may try, it is difficult to generate anger towards someone who is already dead.

This anger doesn't just evaporate however. It sits and festers, just waiting for the next closest target. Those targets per yesterday's shooting have clearly emerged to be police and university officials - more specifically Virginia Tech president Charles Steger and Campus police chief Wendell Flinchum.

Early explanations do not paint the pair in a good light. While they can say there was evidence the gunman had fled campus, there was clearly no definitive proof that was the case. The argument about keeping students in classrooms rather than roaming around in the open would have validity if not for the fact it doesn't seem any of the classes in session knew they were on lockdown, and that having 3,000 people floating around in the open is probably a better alternative to having 20,000 students confined to their classrooms.

I can't help but think back to 9/11. In both cases an initial incident occurred (the dorm shooting yesterday and the first plane hitting the tower) and in both cases it seems there was an opportunity to err on the side of caution and get everyone out of dodge. Instead, decision-makers allowed business to continue as usual. Rather than evacuate the second tower before it was hit everyone was told it was safe to stay. Yesterday students were allowed to flock to campus, oblivious to the danger lurking.

Despite mistakes made yesterday it is somewhat disconcerting to see so much finger-pointing directed at University officials rather than the killer. These officials did not buy the gun and kill 33 people, yet their trial is already underway. While they should be held to answer for their actions, we should not lose sight that in an open society only so much can be done to protect citizens against someone determined to harm them.

These fax machines are making me thirsty

2007-04-16T11:01:00.000-07:00

Apparently there is no bad time or place for consumers to get their soda fix. Stocked coolers are no longer the exclusive domain of supermarkets and convenience stores. No. Now you can grab a Diet Coke at Toys R' Us, Staples, pretty much anywhere that has a cashier. As I purchased some office supplies at Staples yesterday I thought to myself: yes, this is good. A beverage would really hit the spot right about now.

Sadly, while these retail outlets have mastered the trick of installing the soda cooler and stocking it, they have not yet seemed to learn the fine craft of actually turning the coolers on. Opening the door and sticking my head in provides about the same level of cooling sensation as sticking my head in a sauna. I pick up one bottle - it's about 200 degrees. Then of course I initially give the store the benefit of the doubt. This bottle must have been one that was just loaded in there. But then I reach for another, and another, and another. They are all scalding hot.

Either these stores are trying to make 7-11 look really good for actually refrigerating beverages, or they should stick to selling what they know best, as clearly the challenge of offering customers cold drinks has proven too onerous.

Network Moves on Imus follow familiar PR pattern

2007-04-13T13:36:00.000-07:00

High-profile blunders that play out in the public eye offer some of the most useful case studies for public relations professionals who practice crisis communications. Or do they?

It seems that whenever you have a high-profile, money-generating talent, it doesn't matter what they said, who they slapped or slept with. The employer always follows the same 3 step plan:

1) Provide initial slap on the wrist, express dismay with what the employee has done, but provide no definitive guidance on what an ultimate consequence might be.

2) Spend the next week watching public fury rage, talks shows skewer everyone involved, and advertisers buckle under the pressure of aligning with the controversial offender.

3) Realize the initial punishment was too soft, advertisers will continue to flee until the talent's three hour, commercial-filled show is reduced to 30 seconds during a time-slot when 99% of the population is in deep REM; and the only move is to cut losses now before he/she drags the entire ship down.

I'm not saying this is a bad policy. After all, if networks eventually follow the will of the people they will not be held responsible in the long-term. Sure, some will complain the action should have come quicker, but that is a minor point of contention.

So I do not think ultimately there is much to learn for PR professionals from these episodes other than bold actions cannot be undone, and delayed actions can work if ultimately the correct decision is made.

Why News Anchors Are Furious with Don Imus

2007-04-11T08:28:00.000-07:00

If there is a group of professionals who may be as angry with Don Imus as the Rutger's Basketball team, it is probably local and national television news anchors. Why? Because it is forcing dignified news professionals such as Brian Williams and Anderson Cooper to repeatedly utter the phrase "nappy-headed hos."

For viewers watching middle-aged anchors with decades of experience utter this phrase, it is about as comfortable as watching Karl Rove do the funky chicken. You can just see it in the way they utter the phrase, gritting their teeth and cursing the need to dedicate hard news hours to Don Imus and Anna-Nicole Smith.

If you believe that part of Imus' employer's decision to not fire him stems from his revenue-generation, it will be interesting to see if the two week suspension sticks if the show continues to bleed advertisers and sponsors.

PR Agencies for Media Outlets: The unholy alliance

2007-04-10T11:37:00.000-07:00

There was a time (pretty much for all of eternity up until about a year ago) when a conversation within the editorial departments at newspapers, magazines and broadcast outlets might have gone something like this:

"Get a load of this: we just hired some PR agency."

"You've got to be kidding me. Those flacks are going to run this place into the ground."

"You know what we should do for kicks: Go through our massive e-mail trash bins of discarded PR pitches, hit reply but don't include a message. That way the PR person will get all excited when he/she sees we replied only to open it up and find a blank message."

(In my Guinness Beer commercial accent) "Brilliant!"

While in the past PR firms aligning with media outlets was about as comfortable as the POTUS trying to exit a major news conference, times may in fact be a changin'

As PR Week reported, USA Today retained its first agency of record earlier this month, a testament to changing dynamics for media outlets fighting off new and old competitors vying for consumer attention. As media outlets experiment with emerging news vehicles; try and cross-promote reporters and editors within other outlets and monetize various aspects of the online news site, this "green card marriage" (ok, you need me and I need you so let's just put aside our differences and get through this) will likely play out more and more between agencies and media outlets.

It is obviously a nice coup for agencies to have more direct access to the people they try and pitch, but also because it gives PR professionals a better idea of how the editorial side works with the marketing side - and should result in higher quality pitching and relationships with media.

The perfect napkin to complement your baby back ribs

2007-04-08T14:20:00.000-07:00

Restaurants like to make it simple for patrons. I get that. Fearful that novice wine aficionados would be overwhelmed by endless wine lists, high-end establishments make sure a Sommelier is ready to tell us what we should be drinking. Chain restaurants like Chili's, Applebees, Houston's, Outback, etc. also began to notice the increase in wine consumption and added their own, albeit slightly more cost-effective version of a Sommelier by including food and wine pairing suggestions in their menu.

Apparently we as consumers are incapable of deciding which mediocre, room-temperature glass of wine pairs with an Awesome Blossom. I speak for everyone when I say that the thick film of grease on each fried onion string doesn't work with a Merlot. But a Pinot...

Brew-pubs, fearful of missing out on the wine craze, soon began offering pairing suggestions for their specialty brews. Ok, I suppose I can swallow that.

But now we've hit a new low. Chili's menu currently offers food pairing suggestions with Margaritas. Hard liquor pairings with casual dining food? What's next? Suggestions on which bathroom stall pairs best with my burrito.

The 411 on 555

2007-04-05T08:25:00.000-07:00

It wasn't until watching a recent episode of "24" (by the way for those who watch: I think the entire show owes President Bush a huge debt of gratitude. By spending half his presidency at his Texas ranch viewers of the show have no trouble believing that President Palmer(s) can spend half their time in some Los Angeles bunker) that it occurred to me the show is using non-555 numbers. For decades Hollywood had in place an unwritten rule regarding the use of fictional 555 numbers so as to avoid inadvertently directing calls to real people.

Recently more shows seem to be moving away from 555 numbers and instead using a real number associated with someone for the show or movie. For "24" my guess is that to have Jack Bauer bark out a 555 number detracted from the gritty realism show producers were going for. Other shows I think realize the viral opportunities for having consumers call real numbers.

The origins of the 555 number and theories about the origins are quite interesting. One holds that 555 came from a branding deal MGM cut with a cigarette company called 555 decades ago. Ah yes. All roads lead back to Tobacco Road, don't they?

A Second Hit for Gamblers in Second Life?

2007-04-04T10:31:00.000-07:00

After reading back in October how some sly Members of Congress tucked away language basically killing Internet gambling into an unrelated piece of legislation, I got the impression these Members had seen Back to the Future II a few too many times. Anyone who has seen the movie recalls the alternate reality created by Biff Tannen, who uses a Gray's Sports Almanac to win every sports bet and turn the town of Hill Valley into a crime-infested cesspool of sleazy casinos.

So now that it is harder for U.S. consumers to throw their hard-earned money away, gamblers may soon find it harder to pretend to throw their hard-earned money away.

Second Life, which I have written about before, has invited the FBI to peruse virtual casinos within its virtual universe in what I imagine is a proactive step to ensure they are not running afoul of gambling laws. According to the story it seems, for now, the legal virtual gambling within Second Life can continue, but the risk of going overboard in regulating gambling remains.

Yes, gambling can be harmful if abused. So can alcohol, and prescription medication, and swedish fish. In other words there is a point where decision-makers must trust that most adults will engage in various outlets in moderation. There will always be a percentage of people who abuse it, but that will happen regardless. Life is stressful, people need outlets. If it means betting fake money in Second Life on blackjack I can think of far more destructive uses of one's time.

Small Guy PR crime tip

2007-04-03T07:44:00.000-07:00

Full disclosure: I possess no background in law enforcement or, thankfully, crime, so you can take my crime-solving tip with a grain of salt. Saw on the news last night a local bank robbery with some video of the perpetrator entering the Bank in the standard-issue burglar mask.

Does anyone other than a burglar actually buy this mask, let alone in April when ski season is winding down? In other words, rather than stationing some 82 year-old rent-a-cop at the Bank, why not go to the source. Put officers in stores where the ski masks are sold. I would think you'd have a 50/50 shot that any male 18-54 purchasing a burglar mask will be committing a crime in the next 72 hours.

Just a thought.

Short Circuiting Bad Press

2007-04-01T17:53:00.000-07:00

Circuit City seems to be doing its best to show consumers that all Big Box retailers are not created equal with the recent announcement that more than 3,500 "well paid" jobs would be eliminated in favor of fresh, new and CHEAP employees.

I'm sure consumers frequently scratch their heads when they see public statements like this. They might ask themselves why any corporation would proclaim such a seemingly inhumane reason to cut so many jobs. The reason these announcements seem so illogical to consumers because it is not consumers to whom these corporations are speaking to. News like this is meant for one audience and one audience only: stockholders. If you look at this news as a stockholder and not someone who just bought an Plasma TV the rationale becomes far more clear. If I own shares of Circuit City and see that management just announced all middle managers would receive a free trip to Hawaii and a $5,000 bonus I might say "well that is nice of them, but...that will certainly eat into profits and thus impact earnings-per-share and the stock price." The consumer may not like the job cuts but let's be honest: it isn't going to stop most of you from shopping there.

So it isn't the first time a large corporation has made job cuts of this magnitude - it seems that a Detroit automaker is doing it every week - but this one smells a little different and has rankled plenty of feathers. That is because the rationale reflects a managerial philosophy that appears to discount the "knowledge worker" at a time when consumer electronics are becoming more complicated for the customer. Thus, skeptics question a plan to eliminate a layer of employees with high product intelligence in favor of cheaper employees that - at least for a while - will be able to execute little more than the old point and pray maneuver. Point the customer to the aisle the product desired is located in and pray the customer doesn't have any follow up questions on how the product works.

The Big Box category is no longer just Best Buy and Circuit City. It's Walmart and Costco and Sears and Amazon. Consumers have choices, and the more who exercise a choice other than Circuit City based on this move will cancel out any positive impact the company assumed it would accrue from shareholders by taking this aggressive step.

Small Guy PR Suggestions for Start-Ups Part II

2007-03-30T07:32:00.000-07:00

PR 2.0 is about as easy to define as an Iraq exit strategy. For some it means simply going beyond the standard press release template; for others it goes a step further and includes implementing viral Web initiatives that touch bloggers, message board posters and occasional surfers.

A PR 2.0 press release template has been making the rounds for some time. It is the by-product of what is viewed by both senders (corporate communications professionals) and recipients (reporters, influencers) of the standard press release as a failure to achieve desired results.

If you tabulated the amount of time companies spend on perfecting the press release language you could not find a bigger waste of time. This is not to say press releases are not an important vehicle for communicating the corporate message, but in most cases the audiences that these releases are written for never view them, or only do so retroactively to verify basic corporate info already available on the web site.

It was this realization that spawned the PR 2.0 press release - a more dynamic document cleanly presenting facts, figures, video, photos and other elements of supposed use to reporters and influencers. If you are Microsoft, Walmart or other large companies that can generate news coverage simply based on putting out a release, the PR 2.0 release holds some logic. But for start-ups and emerging companies these releases cannot replace good old fashioned media pitching, and other than bloggers and online reporters, it is not clear to me that mainstream reporters are at this point demanding the 2.0 press release or finding more value in it. That time may come, but we are not there yet.

The press release process is still broken, because the people releases are designed to influence know better than to be influenced by them. Moreover, these releases often contain information for customers who never see them. How many customers with a Netgear router go to the Netgear press room web page to catch up on the latest news? A very small percentage no doubt.

What emerging companies should be focusing on is taking the information in these releases and presenting it in a compelling way, but more importantly distributing it in the right vehicle to ensure maximum exposure - whether it is a newsletter, corporate blog, etc. PR 2.0 holds plenty of potential, but so far its execution has been off the mark.