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July 21, 2005
Beware the Trap of Publicity For Publicity's Sake!
When the marketers at CKE restaurants (Carl's Jr. and Hardee's) wanted to create a significant bump in sales for their $6 Spicy Burger, they decided to do what most marketers do - run an ad.
But not just any ad would do - they decided to run a music-video type ad starring today's most confusingly famous celebrity, Paris Hilton (who seems to be famous because, well, because she's famous.)
In the ad Paris is shown wearing a swimsuit and washing a Bentley, then herself, a little more Bentley, and a lot more herself. See it yourself at http://www.carlsjr.com/ontv (the actual ad that ran) or the extended-length internet version at http://www.spicyparis.com/ though you may want to make sure that neither your boss or kids are standing behind you when you do.
The ad that aired includes six shots of the hamburger in her hands (and one where she's eating it) for a grabd total of about 2 seconds hamburger exposure time after which the camera quickly reverts to more washing scenes. Then at the very end of the ad you get a mention of the CKE restaurant.
The ad has generated a significant amount of controversy, a reported 802% increase in web searches (though I seriously question how many people were coming to the Carl's Junior and Hardee's sites before...), 4 million hits on the spicyparis website, free showings on news shows, several petitions against it, and some franchisers refusing to run the ad.
So, unquestionably, it generated buzz.
Unfortunately, it did nothing for sales.
Let's look at the numbers. (Skim this part if you aren't a numbers person, but stay with me, because the lesson to be learned here is vital...)
Posted at 12:18 PM
You Talked, We Listened: Press Kit Training Manual Now Available
Wow - last week's request for more information about what you needed in a training manual on press kits and online media kits created a flurry of replies. Your comments made several things very clear:
1. There's a great deal of interest in a product that definitively lays out the best practices in the area of press kits and online media kits, especially one that will specifically show what elements are needed and what aren't in this key publicity-generating tool
That's why we wrote this training manual!
2. When asked whether you wanted it in one report or two, you overwhelmingly told us that one report's the way to go.
3. You gave us very clear indication of where the right price is for this training manual.
Thank you to all who gave us that excellent feedback!
Now, I have a proposal for you.
We know that testimonials are a great way to help people who are on the fence about buying something or not. Unfortunately, since nobody's seen this training manual yet, we don't have any we can show you.
So I'm willing to make a trade.
Posted at 10:54 AM
What's That Again? Dustbusters On The Dashboard
From The Salt Lake Tribune:
"'They told me that if I put a dustbuster in my car I wouldn't get a ticket'
"An elderly Utah motorist pulled over for speeding by Sgt. Larry Wehrli who found a vacuum on the dashboard of her car. Her family members had suggest she obtain a "fuzzbuster" radar detector to warn her of cops."
Posted at 10:03 AM
July 20, 2005
Are Paper-Based Press Kits Now Extinct?
The single most frequently asked question in our recent survey on press kits was some version of "Do I still need to have a press kit in today's digital age?"
A second frequently-asked question was "Do I need an online press kit?"
The answer to both questions is a definitive "yes."
You still need to have a paper-based media kit. AND you also need to have an online media kit.
It's unquestionable that online press kits are incredibly powerful. All kinds of advantages stem from a great online media kit:
- Reduced development and distribution costs
- Members of the media can immediately and easily access your materials, without having to wait for it to be delivered to them
- You can send reporters to a page on your online media kit while you're on the phone with them so they can see what you mean while you're still on the phone to explain and pitch it to them
- You can put more content into an online kit than a paper kit, which can then be accessed by only those interested in that specific content
- Online media kits are great for generating search engine traffic
So yes, you definitely need an online media kit.
But does this mean that you don't need a traditional paper-based press kit?
No, you still need one.
Let's look at several reasons why that's true:
Posted at 07:13 PM
July 11, 2005
The Value of Podcasting
I've been trying to decide my position on the value of podcasting for PR purposes lately.
I see good points both for and against it.
On the "podcasting is a good thing" side:- It's a great way to stand out among your competition (assuming that your work is really really good)
- It's a great way to develop an emotional bond with your customers
- It gives you more of a personality
- It communicates to those who have auditory learning styles, who want to listen while they walk the treadmill, and who have disabilities that make this a more efficient medium
On the proverbial other hand:
- Podcasts have to be sequentially listened to in order to derive value. They can't be searched, skimmed, or mined (Check out Dave Taylor's excellent insights on this for a more in-depth analysis)
Posted at 08:59 PM
How To Create A Bang With Your Next Publicity Project: Lessons Learned From Fireworks
I love fireworks. Always have. And I'm not alone. There's something about the combination of the bright explosions and the heart-pounding booms that thrills many of us to the core.
In the past, I've always been the cautious parental unit, sitting with my kids up on the hill to be away from any potential falling sparks.
But this year, I decided to be adventurous, so my son and I went right down onto the beach where they were shooting them off. Things are a lot more exciting down there!
I also discovered something that I hadn't experienced before. Up on the hill, there are only two key sounds - the sound of the firework going off, and the sound of the audience's reaction if it was a really good explosion. But when we were down on the beach we got an additional noise - multiple echoes coming back from the initial concussion. So we'd hear the boom, then 1/4th a second later, we'd hear echoes back from what seemed to be 4-5 different hard surfaces behind us.
As I sat and watched, I realized that there's several PR metaphors here (I'm so strange that I can't even watch fireworks without thinking about this stuff!)
First was the fact that my sitting on the beach changed the sound of the explosions from a nice loud boom to a physical "feel-the-sound" experience. That move changed me from a casual observer to feeling like I was an active participant in the experience.
Posted at 08:47 PM
July 08, 2005
Feedback, We Need Feedback... Media Kits Training Manual
Over the years we've seen lots of material on the subject of how to create media kits and online press kits. Most of it's pretty bad. The rest is really bad...
So we've decided to solve that problem by creating a manual of our own.
It's been a long and arduous process, but we've finally just about completed what we consider to be the best training manual on how to create media kits and online press kits available in the marketplace.
We've worked hard to include the information that our key advisors have told us is important to have in a manual of this type. But today I realized that we had never asked YOU for your input.
So, before we actually release it, I wanted to give you the chance to weigh in, to tell me what you need to know on this subject.
If you could spend two minutes to visit http://101PublicRelations.com/mediakitquestions.html and fill out the 4-questions there, I would really appreciate it! It will help to make a great product even better!
Posted at 04:07 PM
Cool Tool To Measure How Much Online Ink You're Getting Versus Others
Want an interesting (currently free) tool to see how many mentions you are getting in online media?
Try http://www.customscoop.com/trends/index.cfm
They "search 21,000+ online sources (newspapers, magazines, blogs, trade press, press releases, and more) from 107 countries in 18 languages" and show the results in a line graph by date.
It's a fun and interesting way to measure how things are going!
Posted at 03:03 PM
