In public relations, it often seems like slow and steady wins the race. By distributing a steady stream of news, securing key coverage and continuing to put out consistent messages via social media, blogs and contributed articles, your efforts will likely have an impact on your business.

However, sometimes there is a need for speed. As communications professionals, we need to be adept at recognizing situations, whether it is news or holidays that our clients can capitalize on with a witty response, relevant pitch, timely event or infographic.

Ad Week recently published an article titled, “Types of Real-Time Marketing, and the Brands That Got It Right,” by Tim Nudd, which looks at examples of how brands took advantage of situations with a quick response. He refers to it as “right timing marketing.”

At Communiqué PR, we often look for local news events to tee off of for pitches for our clients. Here are a few of my favorite ways brands can take advantage of timely situations:

• Holidays. Companies often look for a way to tie into the holidays. For consumer brands, for example, Christmas often makes sense. However, the holiday season is also a very noisy and crowded time. Standing out requires a great deal of creativity. Lowe’s did a nice job celebrating Fourth of July, by creating a Vine that used exploding tools to imitate fireworks. It was simple, but well-timed and creative.
• Celebrities. Leveraging a celebrity can often help draw attention to your brand. When Prince George was born, many brands tried to give “congrats” or joke about the royal birth. Ad Week called the efforts “disappointing.” However, the Sun managed to put together a clever picture featuring Prince George and other celebrity babies that was well received.
• Newsmakers. Brands often have a hard time promoting their own news in a creative, not overly promotional way. However, one of my local favorites is the Seattle Police Department. I’ve long admired their witty Twitter feed, sharp replies and out-of-the-box campaigns. During last month’s Hempfest, for example, SPD handed out Doritos with the dos and don’ts of marijuana use. Additionally, they tweet real-time updates about crime and respond to followers. It is isn’t all fun and games—the @SeattlePD handle is serious when it needs to be—but they’ve build a steady stream of followers to successfully disseminate the messages necessary.
• Comebacks. Twitter can present a fun platform for witty responses and banter between brands. And, when done well, the back-and-forth can earn you a slow clap from followers. For example, Taco Bell and Old Spice duked it out on Twitter about their products’ respective ingredients. “Why is it that ‘fire sauce’ isn’t made with any real fire? Seems like false advertising,” @OldSpice asked—to which @TacoBell replied: “@OldSpice Is your deodorant made with really old spices?” OldSpice had the last word: “@TacoBell Depends. Do you consider volcanos, tanks and freedom to be spices?”

While these companies really nailed real-time marketing, companies should always make sure that they remain true to their brands. What worked for Taco Bell, won’t necessarily work for Microsoft. Keep an eye out on the world around you—you never know where you’ll find inspiration.

Seattle is a geek’s town and last week the team at aptly named GeekWire hosted some of Seattle’s brightest tech minds for its 2013 GeekWire Summit. From e-commerce to venture capital strategies to the future of video games, the conference covered an array of topics pertinent to investors and tech businesses big and small.

The two of us from Communiqué PR who attended the Summit saw an energized Seattle tech community excited to show off the region’s successes, ideas and potential.

Did you miss out on the Summit this year? Here are our five takeaways that you need to know:

1. The Seattle tech scene is diverse. Most businesses know the importance of diversity in their employees, but the tech industry is often critiqued for being a male-dominated field. At the GeekWire Summit, we were thrilled to see the diverse group of people representing Seattle’s tech industry. There was a tremendous diversity of ideas as well. Amazon and Microsoft continue to be huge economic drivers for the region, but the city’s entrepreneurial spirit showed in the range of ideas, businesses and products represented among the Summit’s presenters and attendees. Gaming, communications, retail and real estate are just a few of the markets represented at the Summit and being impacted by technology coming out of the Pacific Northwest.
2. “Innovation” isn’t done yet. There are many in the tech journalism and PR fields who will say the word “innovation” is overused. They may be right, but based on what we heard at the GeekWire Summit, Seattle businesses are doing their best to counter that notion. Early in the day, Dr. Nadia Shouraboura, the CEO and Founder of Hointer, shared some fascinating ideas about how technology can revolutionize in-store shopping. Our client Kymeta’s CEO, Vern Fotheringham, participated on the Summit’s panel on “The Future of Innovation.” Kymeta is working on game-changing satellite antennas that are smaller and flatter and require considerably less power than existing solutions. Things got downright futuristic when Peter Lee, the head of Microsoft Research, expressed optimism about the future of artificial intelligence. There’s a reason that “innovation” isn’t giving up its spot atop the tech lexicon anytime soon.
3. Mobile is tops. During one panel, investor Bill Gurley of Benchmark Capital emphasized the dominance of mobile succinctly. “Companies that lead on mobile have an advantage,” he said. His fellow panelist, Zillow founder Rich Barton, agreed: “The platform of the future, in fact the platform of now, is the mobile device.” At Communiqué PR, we’ve seen the rise of mobile reflected in our clients’ business (as we work with companies like Mobidia and Lively) and based on talk at the GeekWire Summit, it doesn’t look like mobile is going anywhere but up. We’ve also seen the rise of mobile in the media industry, as mobile-based news outlets like Quartz are continuing to rise. A timely article from Adweek last week highlighted the increase of mobile news apps via a study from The Reynolds Journalism Institute and Digital Publishing Alliance, which found that 50 percent of smartphone and/or tablet users downloaded at least one news app in the first quarter of 2013. It’s a reminder that PR practitioners need to find ways to pitch content optimized for mobile consumption and appealing to editors who are looking to reach mobile users.
4. Gaming – mobile gaming in particular – continues to be huge a draw. With geek culture thriving in Seattle, it was no surprise that GeekWire’s panel on gaming was hugely popular. When one panelist asked the audience for a show of hands of attendees of the recent PAX conference held here, a lot of arms went up. The mobile and casual gaming industries have certainly seen ups and downs lately, but users are still looking out for the next Words With Friends or Candy Crush. David Edery, CEO of the game development studio Spry Fox and a panelist for GeekWire’s “The Future of Video Games” discussion, emphasized that mobile games can drive major revenues from relatively small development teams. Based on the enthusiasm here in Halo’s hometown – also home to studios like Big Fish Games, not to mention the indie game developers who call Seattle home – gaming is going to be a major topic of discussion for years to come.
5. Education is critical to the industry’s future. If you work in a tech field, you’ve no doubt heard the importance of creating more opportunities for students to learn critical computer science and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) skills. You’ve probably also heard of Code.org. Its founder, Hadi Partovi, dropped by the GeekWire Summit to make a pitch to the audience on the importance of teaching students to code. His presentation was stellar. In another discussion, Chase Jarvis, the photographer behind the education startup creativeLive, also argued for the importance of a creative education for students – including coding skills. It was a reminder that all the talk about innovation, or the next great startup idea, won’t go anywhere without a highly-skilled and highly-motivated next generation of thinkers and entrepreneurs!

If you’re looking for more from the GeekWire Summit, head to its YouTube channel for full video coverage of the conference’s panels and presentations.

My husband and I are into biking vacations. We find them to be an ideal way to see new countryside, meet the local people, learn about an area, and earn the benefits of exercise. When you are cycling 25, 35 or 65 miles a day, you can pretty much eat whatever you want!

This year we signed up for Backroads’ Big Sur trip – cycling from Monterey to Santa Barbara along California’s renowned Highway 1 before exploring the Santa Ynez Valley. Some good friends joined us and our vacation was everything we expected. The Pacific Ocean was a vibrant blue, the sun bright, and the group interesting. And it provided a much-needed break from my work in the world of public relations.

Nonetheless, while peddling out of Carmel, I got to thinking about business – specifically Backroads’ business and the lessons I could learn from my observations. Founded in 1979 by Tom Hale, a fellow Oregon Duck, Backroads is now the world’s No. 1 travel company and for good reason. Backroads seems to be unfailing in its commitment to making its trips as fun as possible – and they do this for each “individual” person. This is no easy feat. On our Big Sur trip, there were 22 people of varying ages, fitness abilities, interests and backgrounds. So how do they do it?

As far as I can tell, Backroads’ recipe for success is built on 1) its leaders; 2) its training process and 3) its marketing.

The trip leaders are Backroads’ most important asset. Certainly, there are others – fleets of well-maintained bikes and vans, trailers, ample food, etc., but I believe that without question the leaders are the most essential ingredient to creating a consistently excellent guest experience and building the brand. In my five trips over nine years each was first-rate and memorable.

These leaders are the ones that put the trips together: selecting routes, restaurants and hotels. They fix broken bikes, share safety tips, answer questions, solve problems and accommodate myriad requests. They consistently demonstrate an amazing array of skills – they are well-organized, articulate and natural leaders adept at managing a group. They can maneuver heavy vans and trailers. They are dedicated, hard workers – often up at the first light of day setting up and preparing for the morning route rap, and the last to go to bed after making sure the group has dinner and is comfortably ensconced in the hotel.

Since the leaders are my heroes, I asked one of our guides, Courtney, about the hiring and training process. She explained it is a rigorous process involving applications, interviews and a Leader Hiring Event. Tom Hale, she said, still attends many of the Leader Hiring Events and takes an active role in selecting leaders. Apparently, he can tell whether a candidate will make a good leader just from his or her introduction.

Once hired the new employees receive intense training to further develop their skills and learn about the regions where they will be leading. Courtney explained many people opt out during this process, but the ones that stay on are poised for success guiding trips in some of the most beautiful regions worldwide.

My final observation involved Backroad’s marketing. It is true that Backroads has a comprehensive website, newsletters and expensive-looking but entirely free catalogs with beautiful photos, but the customer experience really speaks for itself. People love these trips and truly believe Backroads is a better way to see the world. Backroads capitalizes on this with an entire section of its website devoted to customer testimonials. They also invite guests to enter annual Backroads Photo and Video contests and offer compelling prizes to winners – many of the people on our trip were working to capture a winning image.

Backroads is a role-model company. I am already daydreaming about my next bike adventure and hope someday to actually get the opportunity to meet Tom Hale.