Like many people playing in the social networks, I get lots of invites for new Beta tests and other invites for new services out there. And for the most part I keep those things to myself, although I did go nuts and hand out GMail accounts when it first popped out of Beta.
I stumbled [...]
In every organization I’ve either led or worked in, I’ve felt like we’ve never had a robust budget for marketing and public relations. Public relations has always seemed easier because it required only earned media placements and spreading the word. Marketing always meant digging into the pockets of the boss and justifying a campaign. It [...]
You know how it is. You’re standing in line right behind a controversial person and your picture is taken. And far from getting congratulatory phone calls, your own mother calls to find out why you’re hanging out with the low life. What’s a person to do? Which leads me to today’s [...]
Leo Burnett says it came up with the idea of turning 7/11’s across the United States into the fictional Simpsons-world Kwik-E-Marts. NPR’s Morning Edition covered the story well yesterday morning (July 18).
And apparently the agency didn’t get credit for the idea. The creative team pitched the concept over a year ago in meetings with [...]
Sun Tzu would have loved the Digg Debacle of 2007. I like to believe Tzu retired to become a sage PR practitioner leading a team somewhere and would have known just how to keep something like the Digg HD Key Revolt from happening.
Or, at least would have seen it coming and would have some [...]
Could Rupert Murdoch’s bid for Dow Jones be just a huge publicity stunt to bolster News Corp.’s upcoming business channel? MarketWatch’s Jon Friedman seems to think so.
“Whatever the outcome in his Dow Jones takeover bid, Murdoch has seized the upper hand in publicity. He has everyone talking about News Corp. and Fox, which can [...]
Last week a woman in Tacoma, Wash. lost everything in her house when a fake ad on Craig’s List invited people to come over and take everything and anything they wanted. When done, there was nothing left of value. The dogs had taken everything including the kitchen sink.
Yesterday I pointed to a soldier’s [...]
Advertisers frequently talk about viral marketing, earned media and social outreach in their pitches to clients and in turn the death knell is again being rung again for the public relations industry. Michael Shaw, Vice President of the Council of Public Relations Firms, warns “barbarians are at the gate” and the public relations industry is [...]
This may seem like a swat at Justin.tv, but I have to tell you the guy really blew it on that Today Show “Exclusive” (April 2) and it shows that when it comes to promotion, you really must consider the core message you’re trying to relate. You shouldn’t just expect that people will understand [...]
Todd Defren Tweeted me Tuesday on the subject of Waggoner-Edstrom, Microsoft and the briefing paper on Wired Contributing Editor Fred Vogelstein, but I’ve been too busy preparing people for interviews to write much about it.
To begin with, who hasn’t prepared an interview subject with a list of possible questions, the tone of those questions, the [...]