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.
With the demise of print publications, magazines and newspapers are becoming increasingly dependent on outside content such as contributed articles from industry experts and public relations professionals. Contributed articles offer organizations a great way to establish thought leadership, discuss a topic it’s passionate about and retain ownership of key messages.
Jennifer Gehrt, co-founder of Communiqué, recently wrote a contributed article for Today’s Parent and provided tips on how parents can make the transition to school easier. While summer vacation is just getting under way, some parents are already thinking about preparing their kids for the transition back to school.
Today’s Parent is a bi-monthly publication which provides insightful and entertaining features on a variety of topics such as family vacations, parenting and tuition for school. It is distributed to more than 2,000 schools, camps, libraries, restaurants, doctors and professional offices and hospitals in South Florida.
The contributed article entitled, “Off to a Smart Start: Strategies for Preparing Your Kids to Head Back to School” discusses the importance of establishing a routine prior to the first day of school to help kids return rested and ready to learn. This includes establishing a regular sleep routine, creating an encouraging homework environment, fostering healthy eating habits and discussing new social situations that may arise.
Given the target audience for Today’s Parent, which is primarily parents and grandparents, this was a great way to provide insightful content and information from experts including Dr. Stacey Radin, a psychologist specializing in children; Pat Hoge, with Connections Academy; and Vicki Folds, with Children of America.
Contributed articles can be a highly effective tool for establishing credibility with a target audience as it showcases you as a thought leader in your field. Additionally, they can be used to draw attention to issues and trends that are important to an organization, which in turn showcases the strength of your company and helps differentiate it from competitors.
We encourage parents and grandparents to read the article, which will be published in the July/August print issue of Today’s Parent. To learn more about placing byline articles and establishing though leadership through byline articles, contact us at [email protected].
You can also visit our past blog which provides “Tips for Writing a Byline Article” by clicking here.
For the first time ever, PR agencies from around the globe were invited to participate in this year’s annual Cannes Lions Advertising Festival to demonstrate their ability to successfully convey a brand message through their campaigns. While the most prized award, the “Lion” award, went to an advertising campaign, it was a PR campaign that broke the record for winning the most Grand Prix in a single festival.
Tourism Queensland’s “Best Job in the World” PR campaign wowed judges at the 56th annual festival. Described as a classic, very simple, single-minded campaign, the purpose of the campaign was to promote the islands of the Great Barrier Reef. The campaign, organized by CumminsNitro, leveraged different mediums including YouTube, microblogs and Twitter.
According to AdAge, the winning campaigns this year strived to “engage consumers and deeply involve them in brands, or a movement, rather than whack them over the head with canned message time and again.”
In today’s highly competitive market, improving consumers’ loyalty to brands allows companies to maintain a positive position in the marketplace and also enables them to take market share from competitors.
Done well, PR campaigns can garner the type of coverage most media buyers would charge millions to secure. These campaigns can provide more successful results than traditional marketing efforts. However, as we enter into a new era of communications dominated by digital media and social mediums, some experts predict we will see an increasing number of campaigns that leverage and combine advertising, PR and marketing efforts. This year’s Cannes Festival could be seen as early proof of the convergence between marketing, PR and advertising. The shifting media landscape coupled with the current economic climate, are causing organizations to consider integrating their advertising and PR activities.
An increased PR presence at the Cannes Lions Festival could offer agencies the opportunity to start leading the creative process and win more business. To view the complete list of PR Cannes Lions winners, click here.
Recently, Apple unveiled the latest version of its wildly popular mobile phone, the iPhone 3G S. The highly anticipated device boasts new features such as video and editing functionality, voice control, peer-to-peer networking and improved battery life. And of course as the “S” stands for speed, users can expect to download Web content and launch applications twice as fast.
One thing is clear; the iPhone phenomenon is still going strong. Apple has reported it has already sold more than one million devices since its launch on June 19. In addition, the company said more than six million existing iPhone users have downloaded the new iPhone 3.0 software in the first five days following its release.
As a self-proclaimed Mac and iPhone fan, I have to say I’m disappointed in the new updates. The software upgrade process was painful, I lost all of my contacts and I’m finding that my phone is running slower than ever. And since I have an older device I can’t take advantage of some of the features such as the video recorder and compass. However, knowing Apple and its products, I know that these kinks will be worked out and only improved upon in future updates.
The fact of the matter is, Apple is still doing some of the most innovative things in the mobile device space (in my humble opinion), and I’m always up for seeing what they will come up with. They’ve taken mobile computing to the next level and have shown consumers (not just business professionals) how their mobile phones can impact and enhance their daily lives. The iPhone has opened up a new wave of innovation for mobile application developers as well, and we’re only just beginning to see the possibilities these new mobile applications will bring.
As a PR professional, I’ve followed this space closely for several years as many of my past and present clients play in various parts of the mobile industry. While the iPhone 3G S is a nice upgrade, we’re on the verge of seeing an interesting showdown in the market with increased competition from Google, Nokia and Research in Motion (RIM) – not just from a device perspective but the convergence of mobile applications and connected services as well. These companies are really going to give Apple a run for its money. Ultimately, PR and marketing will play heavily into the success of who comes out on top in this race.
Either way, it should be an interesting showdown. I’ll be following the action closely from the comfort of my beloved iPhone.
Do you have the new iPhone 3G S? Tell us what you think by leaving a comment below.
For the past 87 years, Reader’s Digest has been a prominent general-interest family magazine intended to appeal to the broad American public. In an effort to revamp and reorganize its image and survive the changing media landscape, Reader’s Digest announced it will shift to a more conservative focus and will increase its coverage of inspiring spiritual stories.
According to Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, print and broadcast outlets are working hard to distinguish themselves as the Internet continues to play a key role in educating consumers on a variety of topics. “Magazines and cable channels are trying to figure out what they can add to the mix if people already have the basic facts from the Internet and elsewhere.”
As circulation numbers at print publications continue to decline, many magazines are looking for ways to differentiate their content in order to survive. Reader’s Digest’s circulation has decreased from 8 million to approximately 5.5 million over the past couple of years and the publication has decided to reduce its frequency to 10 times a year instead of 12. Mary Berner, president and chief executive of the publication told the New York Times it will focus on more conservative values to target a market that’s been largely ignored, but is incredibly powerful, and says it will also consider increasing the amount of spiritual content. By making these changes, the publication hopes to reach a more niche audience and ensure a thriving future for the magazine.
In addition, Reader’s Digest plans to partner with Rick Warren, an evangelical pastor, on a project called the Purpose Driven Connection. Subscribers will receive a quarterly magazine with religious workbooks and DVDs featuring Rick as well as a membership to a social networking Web site which will provide prayer tips each week.
This is an interesting shift and one we’ll likely continue to see given the current economic climate and shifting media landscape. More niche publications will certainly give way to new opportunities for organizations looking to reach specific niche audiences; however, the reduction of general interest media with large circulations will no doubt further influence where consumers go to get their information. Will consumers commit to reading several niche publications a day to get the information that’s most meaningful to them or will they still crave a catch-all outlet that gives them a little bit of everything?
“Hulu, an evil plot to destroy the world. . .”
While Hulu may not be destroying the world, it is undoubtedly impacting the broadcast media landscape with its customizable online video service that offers free TV shows, movies, clips and other online destination sites.
Hulu was founded in March 2007 and is co-owned by NBC Universal, News Corp. and Providence Equity Partners. In a move to extend its service, Hulu will now offer a new desktop application that according to AdAge will “encourage more consumers to flip on their computers rather than their TVs.” The application will mimic the TV experience; however as an added bonus it will allow viewers to watch the shows they want, when they want with fewer advertisements.”
Although Hulu is currently restricted to computers, nearly all computers have an output jack to plug it into a TV. Hulu’s new application has sparked concern with many of its network backers who worry that this application will threaten the livelihood of cable TV. To prevent this, many of them have restricted Hulu from pulling their content.
While Hulu executives argue it isn’t a replacement for traditional linear TV and cable, Michael Learmonth with AdAge says, “Don’t believe it. The battle is just getting started.”
New technology such as Hulu is changing the face of broadcast media in much the same way as the Internet changed the traditional print publication. Jonathan Miller, chief digital offer with News Corp., commented, “Cable is going to have to push to get their content where people want to consume it.”
As services such as Hulu continue to impact the broadcast media landscape and provide viewers more control over what they watch and when they watch it, the company has the potential to change how PR and broadcast media interact. For example, we anticipate it will become more challenging to place stories as network coverage may become more limited. As networks strive to keep their shows on top, producers will be looking for stories that resonate with a local or niche audience and also provide information that is truly valuable to their viewers.
For tips on how to pitch to broadcast media, visit our past blog entitled, “What you Should Know before Pitching Broadcast.” We offer advice on what to research before developing a broadcast pitch and also provide some great resources that can help you effectively prepare for a broadcast pitch.
“Information wants to be free.” According to Simon Dumenco with Advertising Age, this statement is a truism that is destroying traditional media models. He opines not only does information want to be free, technology itself – computers and software – also want to be free.
There is still a lot of discussion about the future of the media industry with many questioning its ability to survive. Simon correlates the media industry to the technology industry and cites his experience with the Eee PC, a mini laptop (netbook), to explain this correlation.
Last year, Simon wrote a column about his experience with the Eee PC, a Microsoft software-free mini-netbook, and predicted it would bring an end to Microsoft. The netbook was designed to run on free Web-based services such as Gmail, Google Docs, Facebook, etc., instead of Microsoft’s complex operating system and high-cost applications.
The Eee PC was a huge success selling approximately four million units and virtually every hardware maker has since adopted the netbook model. Simon argues companies should start bundling the hardware experience with a media experience saying,” hardware makers may have no choice but to turn their Internet devices into multi-tier-subscription-based media machines. And the more we get used to the idea of essentially subscribing to media as a way to pay for hardware . . . well, the more hope there is for media.”
An example of this would be if a hardware company required consumers to pay a monthly subscription fee for a tiered level of media access to Hulu Premium or the New York Times – in order to get a better deal on the netbook or computer.
Simon makes an interesting argument, and one that could prove to be a win-win solution for hardware makers, media and media content providers. As the media landscape continues to evolve, we’re already seeing publications evaluating alternative models to stay afloat. For example, many of them are implementing a subscription-based plan, switching to a niche format to reach a target audience or developing digital portfolios. Simon presents yet another model that may help the media industry survive.
While consumers may not be fond of the idea of paying for a monthly subscription to a magazine, newspaper or exclusive online content, they may be willing to pay for that subscription in order to get a better deal on a netbook or computer.
No matter what models media outlets consider, PR professionals will no doubt need to once again re-evaluate their strategies and approach to align with new media formats. As the media industry experiments with different models, opportunities will continue to shrink or become very niche focused.
We’d love to hear your perspective. How do you think these different models will impact your business or PR strategies? Will this force us to rely more heavily on other mediums such as social networks? Leave us a comment.