Insights for Leaders Navigating
Visibility, Credibility, and Growth.
From media strategy to reputation management, we explore the trends shaping public perception and share the approaches that drive measurable results for growing brands.
I was catching up on some industry-related reading recently, and came across myriad stories about branded content and how this critical strategy is blurring the lines among marketing services. One story in particular, “The Power of Content,” caught my eye, as it was published in a “branded content” special advertising section of Advertising Age paid for by the Council of Public Relations Firms.
The article addresses public relations’ role in the branded content space and references a spirited debate during the Council of Public Relations Firms’ annual Critical Issues Forum in October 2013 (I mentioned I was catching up, right?). The themed forum, “Content Frenzy!,” brought together experts in public relations, journalism and content strategy to discuss how and if public relations firms can stay ahead of the competition as marketers, ad agencies and publishers all strive to stake a claim on the content development and strategy space.
“Without question, the lines around the whole marketing-services mix have blurred,” said Chris Perry, president-digital, Weber Shandwick. “In the case of branded content, I’m not sure there are lines. This is the dawn of a new era for the way marketing communications is going to be done.”
For PR practitioners, whose stock in trade is storytelling and audience engagement, these blurred lines create more competition for agencies and ups the ante in terms of the quality of the content delivered on behalf of clients.
“The most important thing about this [content development] is that if you do it wrong, you create ineffective vanity publishing on behalf of your client,” said Christopher Graves, global CEO, Ogilvy Public Relations. “If you do it well, you create very powerful tools that will help propel your clients’ business and reputation ambitions. The real differentiator here is: ‘Is it effective content?’”
The debate continued as panelists discussed the practical elements involved in the development of branded content, and whether firms should create their own, hire an outside writer to produce content, or rent content from other sources. Each of these options has its distinct set of benefits and associated costs. For example, renting and licensing content written by known branded sources is a fairly painless and affordable option, allowing firms access to a plethora of stories relevant to their topics and the quality is assured as it’s already been used in major publications. Contrarily, building content internally requires a major commitment to talent and capital expenditures, but it also allows for more control over quality and delivery for timeliness.
Some panelists, including BuzzMachine founder and media critic Jeff Jarvis, wanted attendees to understand that as PR practitioners, the content we produce must not be disguised as traditional journalism. According to Jarvis, PR is about relationships, not creating content, and he advised that PR firms stay away from branded content. As told by Patrick Coffee at PRNewser, Jarvis emphasized that “journalism” isn’t about promoting the business interests of a client by dressing up an old strategy in a new suit.
While there are seemingly as many opinions on the subject as there are marketers, the one thing that everyone can agree on is that a strategy for producing authentic and effective branded content is critical for marketing services – especially PR, which needs to remain competitive. We are storytellers, after all, and the stories we share with target audiences must resonate in order to be effective. Fortunately, because we are storytellers, we may just have a bit of an advantaged
Check out the following links for more about “Content Frenzy!” and subsequent coverage of takeaways from the debate:
- Council of Public Relations Firms
- PRNewser’s “The Future of Content: Takeaways from the Council of PR Firms ‘Content Frenzy’ Event”
- O’Dwyer’s “CPRF Weighs Pros, Cons of Native Advertising”
What do you think about PR’s role in branded content? Please share your comments.
If you’ve been to a technology conference in the last few years then you’ve heard about our country’s STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education crisis. You’ve heard that our country’s future economy depends on training more students in these critical fields to prepare them for jobs in programming, engineering and more.
A lot of statistics get thrown around to illustrate the problem. Primarily, most communicators working on STEM position the issue as an economic one, and use data to show how the crisis affects the sustainability of growth for the tech and advanced manufacturing industries. If you need a primer, check out this helpful infographic from Microsoft. The most standout stat to me is that 80 percent of jobs in the next decade will require technology skills while, at this rate, just 16 percent of bachelor’s degrees in 2020 will specialize in STEM.
The problem is so pronounced that many companies and nonprofits have made STEM education the centerpiece of their corporate social responsibility and grant programs. Groups like Code.org, a learning website sponsored by the likes of Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, is a great example. We had the pleasure to see its founder, Hadi Partovi, pitch the importance of Code.org at last year’s GeekWire Summit. You can see a video of his presentation here.
To put another exclamation point on the issue, just this week President Obama referenced the need for better STEM education in his State of the Union address.
The point is, STEM education is critically important to the tech industry, and many companies, industry leaders and nonprofits are all pushing in numerous ways to solve the problem. But even now, with the attention of Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates and President Obama, it can still be difficult to communicate the problem of STEM broadly.
Why is that?
Similar to communicating around technology products or trends, communicating around STEM education often requires translating complex concepts, data or information into easily digestible articles. Just like it can be a challenge (albeit a fun one!) to tell a story about a new niche software product, it can be difficult to explain how a student’s success in AP Physics might impact our country’s future economy.
But this makes tech PR professionals the right voices to communicate the importance of STEM. It’s an issue that is relevant to our clients and therefore to our business, and it deals with topics that we work on almost every day.
At Communiqué PR, we see a number of organizations with footprints in the Seattle area focusing on STEM, such as Boeing, Microsoft, The Bezos Family Foundation, Google and many others. Washington STEM is one of the area’s leading nonprofits working on the issue. I’ve been impressed with the group’s ability to work with state policymakers and corporate citizens while making the issue accessible to the general public.
But while many large tech companies have put their stamp on the STEM Issue, Seattle’s smaller tech companies and startups rely on the same talent pool. They should also play a role in solving our STEM issue. Our local public radio station, KUOW, reported last year that more than 48,000 software engineers were employed in the Seattle metro area. In addition to mainstays in the Seattle market like Amazon and Microsoft, Silicon Valley companies like Google are growing their engineering presences in Seattle to take advantage of our city’s tech talent.
This is only going to increase competition for local talent and make it more important than ever for us to train the next generation of workers—especially as startups and small and midsize tech companies must compete more and more for talent with tech giants.
It’s been more than six years since the U.S. National Academies published its report on the STEM crisis, “Rising Above the Gathering Storm,” and launched the modern STEM movement. Two presidential administrations and countless corporate grant dollars later, it’s just as big of a problem today as it was then. And while some in the tech industry might be feeling STEM fatigue, it’s critical to continue to keep focusing on the issue—particularly for those growing and smaller tech companies who need smart new team members.
That’s why it’s crucial for tech communicators to keep telling the jobs story on STEM and to make sure all stakeholders—small and large tech companies, legislators and residents of cities buoyed by tech growth—understand its importance.
Credit: Microsoft Corporation, www.microsoft.com.
Steve Hooper seems to have the winning formula. We recently sat down with the CEO and co-founder of the newly opened Kigo Kitchen to discuss his strategy to establish the quick and casual restaurant as a place worth trying.
Hooper’s company is headquartered on Capitol Hill, but last year he was given the opportunity to test his Asian-style, fast and fresh restaurant concept on the Northeastern University campus in Boston. After the success seen in Boston, Hooper developed his concept into what is now known as Kigo Kitchen and targeted the Seattle business crowd in South Lake Union.
Given the menu offerings at Kigo Kitchen, Hooper’s brand marketing strategy is noteworthy—he is not using the word “healthy” to define his product. His reasoning is that “healthy” has a wide variety of definitions depending on a person’s perspective. As Hooper put it, “Some people consider going to McDonald’s one less time in a week [as healthy], whereas for some it is a kale salad with homemade granola.” He lets the customers define healthy as they choose. Nonetheless, because Kigo’s menu—developed by chef and nutritionist Heather Nucifora—includes lots of fresh veggies, it is unlikely that people will find the dishes to be unhealthy.
Initial marketing efforts were straightforward and focused on creating buzz and attention around the site of the new restaurant location. For example, rather than covering the windows during construction, Hooper opted to leave them uncovered, giving the public insight into the restaurant’s progress and driving excitement about its opening.
Next, Hooper leveraged connections at Amazon to spread the word about the restaurant to employees through its internal blog. Capitalizing on this large audience was a successful tactic—visit Kigo Kitchen for lunch during the workweek and you’ll see lines out the door and satisfied Amazon workers, among other customers, enjoying wok-fried lunch bowls.
Hooper is also using the power of social media to spread the word. The restaurant currently uses Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, each of which helps current and potential customers stay informed about Kigo Kitchen.
Behind the idea of Kigo Kitchen are two important, yet different, narratives worthy of sharing: an interesting business story and a culinary story.
The business story surrounds the genesis for Kigo and how Hooper came up with his vision for the restaurant. The idea for Kigo came to Hooper through a business class at Dartmouth. The culinary story surrounds Chef Heather Nucifora and how she developed a menu using fresh ingredients to produce Kigo’s fast yet high-quality Asian food.
Seattle Met and Puget Sound Business Journal both wrote articles focusing on these stories prior to Kigo’s opening.
With two successful locations, what does the future hold for Kigo Kitchen? Hooper hopes to expand his current market even further in two ways. First, he would like to create catering and delivery options for customers without sacrificing or compromising Kigo’s quality and attention to freshness. He would also like to expand Kigo Kitchen by opening more locations in the greater Seattle area. He acknowledged that with each neighborhood in Seattle, and with each city outside of Seattle, Kigo will need to market to slightly different audiences.
Thanks to the enticing graphics created by Creature and the edgy architecture executed by Graham Baba Architects, Hooper is confident that markets outside of the corporate world will also be interested in trying his restaurant. We are excited to see what the future holds for Kigo Kitchen and think discerning diners in and around Seattle will be, too.
Seahawks mania is at an all-time high in Seattle. The city is plastered with the iconic 12th man flags and not a moment goes by when there isn’t something on TV, radio or online about the team’s march to the Super Bowl. And of course, the big story that everyone is talking about is Richard Sherman’s famous post-game interview with Erin Andrews. Much has already been written about the interview so I won’t re-hash what happened. If you missed the interview and the fallout that ensued, you can go here and here for a recap.
Yes he’s brash, but trash talking is part of the game and we would be naïve to think that what Sherman said is the worst that’s been uttered on the field. Although we are big Seahawks fans in the Communiqué PR office, the point of this post is not to defend what he said because we agree that it was unsportsmanlike and slightly tarnished Sunday’s big win. But, I do believe that the heat of the moment and adrenaline can make even the smartest person say not-so-smart things.
As PR practitioners, we’ve all had our own cringe-worthy experiences with spokespeople who have gone off message or said something they shouldn’t have in an interview. Unlike Sherman, the one advantage they had was a PR pro at their side to help them navigate the situation. The events surrounding Sherman’s interview are a reminder of the key actions individuals or companies should take when faced with a PR maelstrom, no matter how big or small:
– Act quickly. Sometimes it takes stepping back from the situation to fully realize the impact, but don’t wait too long. Social media lit up immediately after the interview and within hours, Sherman published an op-ed explaining the background behind his rant.
– Be honest. Be transparent and provide as much information and background as possible. It turns out that Sherman was mic’d up during the game, and the claims he made in his op-ed and subsequent interviews were later substantiated when NFL released the audio.
– Own your actions. Controversies almost always leave victims in their wake and it’s important to own up to your actions. In this case, Sherman apologized to the subject of his rant as well as to his Seattle Seahawks teammates for taking the attention away from the game.
Despite the controversy, look what‘s happened:
– The story dominated social media and the airwaves, with all of the major morning shows, news broadcasts and news outlets still talking days later about the interview and its fallout.
– He landed the cover of Sports Illustrated.
– Within 24 hours of the interview, his Twitter followers more than doubled, growing from 268,000 to 567,000. He’s now closing in on nearly 700,000 followers.
– Sherman jerseys are now among the top 10 best-selling jerseys in the league and he is the only defensive player in the top 10.
– I’m not an advocate of “any PR is good PR,” but Sherman is top of mind, which could prove to be very lucrative for product endorsement deals. As the Los Angeles Times’ David Horsey points out, “Sherman is the most talked-about player and the most sought-after interview subject in the days before the big game. Soon, he will be sought after by commercial sponsors who will make him very rich.” On the same day of his post-game rant, Nike and Beats by Dre released new ads featuring Sherman. Coincidence? Maybe, but as a marketer, you couldn’t ask for better timing.
Like so many others before him who have endured their share of controversy, the public’s memory is short and soon this will be overshadowed by the next big Super Bowl story, like the looming threat of snow and sub-zero weather on game day.
Since the interview on Jan. 19, Richard Sherman has proven that he’s an adept communicator and if we can offer one tip it’s this: move on from this controversy. While interviewers may want to fixate on his rant, he can take control of the interviews and use this platform to articulate other, more positive messages. On a tactical level, we might suggest using the tried-and-true ATM method: address the question, then transition to your message.
GO SEAHAWKS!
Last week I had the opportunity to connect for lunch with Amy Bohutinsky, chief marketing officer for Zillow. Amy has a big job. She is responsible for all marketing and communications for Zillow including branding, public relations, mobile and social media marketing, email, business development and advertising. She is also one of Zillow’s earliest employees and was instrumental in the company’s initial public offering (IPO).
Zillow made its debut on the NASDAQ on July 20, 2011. The IPO stock price was $20 per share. Today it trades at approximately $85 per share.
The impetus for my lunch with Amy was to get her take on lessons learned from the Zillow IPO for one of our clients whose company is considering this option. She generously shared her experience with me and agreed to let me recap it on our blog. Here are several of her suggestions:
1) Well before an IPO filing, work to raise the profile of the CEO with the financial press. In Zillow’s case, Amy and her team worked to do this for Spencer Rascoff so that the minute the S-1 became public, people knew him. For the IPO to be successful, Amy feels it is essential that companies lay this groundwork.
2) Determine what the IPO means and how to preserve the company culture after the IPO. The IPO provides the means to accomplish goals. It is not the end goal. The management team at Zillow spent a considerable amount of time thinking about the significance of the IPO as it pertained to the long-term business objectives of the company, and strategized accordingly.
3) Communicate with employees. Once you are clear on the objectives for the IPO, make sure you communicate thoroughly with employees so they understand the vision and significance of this step. Amy also recommends providing them with guidance around what they can and can’t share with their personal networks and via social media regarding the IPO.
4) Negotiate with the stock exchanges. In keeping with its long-term objectives, Zillow decided to forgo some of the traditional celebratory maneuvers that companies do on the day of their IPO. Since Zillow expected significant attention on opening day, Amy negotiated with NASDAQ to take advantage of IPO-day opportunities later, when the visibility would make more of an impact. For instance, she chose not to have Zillow heavily featured on the NASDAQ’s high-tech electronic displays the day of the IPO, but instead leveraged this benefit when Zillow held an industry event in Times Square. The result was that attendees at Zillow’s event could look out the window and see the company prominently featured on multiple high-profile electronic displays.
5) Remember that the images from the day you go public will live on forever. NASDAQ often showers the company making its public debut with confetti. Zillow executives said “no” to NASDAQ’s confetti machine because they felt it sent the wrong message to investors and employees. Amy and the Zillow team did not want so much focus on the IPO that they would lose sight that it was simply a stepping stone to a larger vision.
I know these tips are ones that I will refer back to in the months and years to come. I also look forward to seeing Zillow continue to grow and am grateful for Amy’s time and willingness to share her insight.
What were the news stories in 2013 that stuck with you? In the world of business, at least, they were probably stories on tech, according to a new infographic from Dow Jones. To mark the end of 2013, Dow Jones released data on the year’s “most talked about companies.” Tech giants Google and Apple led the pack—by far.
According to Dow Jones’ data, Google received more than 123,000 media mentions between January and November last year, an increase of nearly 10,000 over 2012. Apple was not far behind, receiving just over 120,000 media mentions—a decrease of about 40,000 from 2012. And just behind those two is Microsoft, with more than 80,000 media mentions.
Just how visible was the tech industry in the press? Dow Jones listed 10 public companies in this dataset and the four technology companies included (Google, Apple, Microsoft and IBM) accounted for more than 50 percent of all media mentions. Google and Apple alone accounted for more than a third.
What drove all of this coverage? Helpfully, Dow Jones’ infographic includes highlights of press coverage topics during each company’s busiest months. For tech companies, major product announcements generated tremendous coverage in 2013. Remember all the way back in May, when Google announced its new Moto X smartphone? The company received more than 13,000 media mentions in that month alone—its biggest month of coverage for the year.
In September, Apple—king of the product unveiling—announced two new iPhone models and the rollout of its mobile operating system iOS 7. With more than 15,000 media mentions as a result, Apple had the busiest month of any company included in this set.
When Microsoft announced Windows 8.1 in June, its media mentions peaked for the year at more than 9,500. Microsoft’s second busiest month, September, included the announcement of CEO Steve Ballmer’s retirement. That same month, Microsoft also publicly acknowledged its purchase of Nokia’s Devices and Services business.
It was particularly interesting to me that new product announcements continue to be one of the largest drivers of press coverage for the tech industry. No doubt this is why Apple puts considerable resources behind product unveilings, and (as we discussed previously) why Amazon strategically timed its announcement of delivery drones just prior to Cyber Monday: to leverage press coverage into sales at key moments in the year.
As you’re polishing communications strategies for 2014, it might be helpful to spend a few minutes reflecting on the stories that dominated headlines last year. Will consumer technology topics continue to lead the way for business press in 2014? What can tech companies large and small learn from Apple’s and Google’s press rollouts? How can you leverage spikes in positive press into sales?
Dow Jones’ data shows that technology continued to be a favorite topic for press in 2013. It’s an exciting time to be working in technology communications and all of us at Communiqué PR are excited for what 2014 will bring!