Pepsi is ringing in the new year with the debut of the first TV ad by its new agency, TBWA\Chiat\Day. (The agency's creative director, Brett Craig, was in Boise earlier this year to talk to Boise Ad Fed about its work). The spot, "Wordplay," began running yesterday on YouTube and is attached to a microsite, Refresheverything.com. The work is meant to appeal to millennials. See here for details and to view the spot. Note the new logo, as well.

Labels: Advertising

Labels: Drake Cooper

Courtesy of a PRSA teleconference, four members of the national news media weighed in about Twitter. The panelists ranged from a technology reporter from the St. Paul Pioneer Press, a business columnist for the San Jose Mercury News, and the digital audio manager for ABC News. About 10 PRSA members from Boise came over to Drake Cooper agency to participate in the discussion.

A blogger once described Twitter as "the latest Silicon Valley play thing" or "instant messaging for adults." Approximately 4 million people are using it now, a 440 percent increase from this time last year. Between 250,000 to 500,000 new people are jumping on board each month. This compares to 41 million unique visitors who frequent Facebook per month. Twitter is growing, but it's certainly not the only social media tool out there. Even so, because million of people are using it, it has become a marketing tool, it's a great way to pass on information to your friends and associates, it's being used by journalists to find sources for stories, and it's being used by PR people to pitch stories to journalists.

So, Twitter is another conduit that PR people can use to reach journalists who may have blocked their email inbox from unsolicited queries. How do we find these folks through Twitter? There are several lists out there online. Click here to see a pretty inclusive list of twittering journalists. This is great intelligence for the PR professional.

BUT ... the journalists on the panel warned us that sending them a story pitch via Twitter may not be the best way to pitch a story. Some of them prefer to receive a pitch via email, and some of them suggest getting to know them first by following them on Twitter, and then pitching them later.

They also reminded us that the same rules apply for pitching stories to them:

1. Research their bio and know what topics they cover.
2. Research the media outlet they work for and make sure they haven't already covered that story.
3. Get to the point quickly.

On the last point, Twitter requires you to be succinct because a "tweet" can not exceed 140 characters. Some journalists in the high-tech field prefer to be pitched on Twitter so they don't have to wade through a lengthy email to find the crux of the story pitch, if one exists at all.

The journalists also suggested hooking up with them via Facebook. The techie reporter for the St. Paul paper said he loves Twitter and hates Facebook. He also just finished a book about Twitter titled, "Twitter Means Business: How Microblogging Can Help or Hurt Your Company."

The other journalists on the panel liked Facebook, and see that service providing a lot more information and bells and whistles than Twitter.

Ultimately, we should know that Twitter is a unique social media tool, and it should be used accordingly. Figure out your goals, and use whatever communication tools are best suited to reach your goal. None of the tools are the end-all be-all by themselves.

But as new tools emerge, the Drake Cooper PR team believes that it is prudent to learn more about them and know how to use them.

A couple of Twitter resources:

• twitturly.com - Shows popular url's that people are sharing on Twitter.
• tweetbeep.com - Set up like a Google alert to keep tabs on what people are saying on Twitter about you, your company or your products.
• twitter.com/stevestuebner My Twitter handle.
  
  

Labels: agency, Boise, PRSA, Public Relations, Twitter

Drake Cooper employs many fine individuals who, in addition to exceeding client expectations daily, pursue a number of a diverse hobbies and interests outside of work. Two of those stellar employees have recently published two very different (but equally awesome) products.


Assistant Art Director Cale Cathey has an amazing talent for design and illustration, particularly hand-drawn illustrations. He recently illustrated an entire children's book published by the Boise State Bookstore Press. The book, entitled “Buster Becomes a Bronco,” is a light-hearted fictional history of how the Boise State mascot came into existence. You can order it here. Congrats Cale, on your foray into children's literature!


Referred to as a “local celebrity” by reporters, Public Relations Account Manager Steve Stuebner recently added to his collection of existing work with the production of Boise’s first-ever road cycling guide. The map and guide is printed on water and tear-proof paper and the cover features a shot of Idaho’s golden girl, Kristin Armstrong. It gives detailed information on 30-plus rides in the Treasure Valley and surrounding areas including difficulty, distance, travel time (both race pace and recreational pace), start/finish location and directions. The map is Steve’s seventh trail guide. Find out more about Steve and order his publications at his website, www.stevestuebner.com. Nice job, Stuebner.

Labels: Drake Cooper, Drake Cooper employees

The American Civil Liberties Union is challenging designers to design a poster that "depicts the transformation of America into a country that holds its leaders accountable; that strives to restore eroded civil liberties; that works to change policies that are unconstitutional."

The winner will receive a $500 cash prize, and will have their design featured as part of the ACLU's national campaign. Additionally, the ACLU intends to hold an event in Washington DC in January featuring the top designs.

The deadline is January 4th, 2009. Find out more and submit your entry.

Labels: Advertising

Journalists are now (admittedly) using Twitter as a way to look for tips, trends and sources. A handful of them are going to talk about "twit pitching" preferences this Thurs. (Dec. 11) at 11 a.m. MST. Idaho PRSA is paying for the conference and Drake Cooper in Boise is hosting. We have a few spaces left if you'd like to join us (RSVP to me at jtaylor@drakecooper.com) or you can go to Bulldog Reporter to register yourself.

Here's the list of panelists:
Brian Stelter, Reporter, The New York Times (circ. 1,500,394)
Julio Ojeda-Zapata, Consumer Technology Reporter, St. Paul Pioneer Press (circ. 252,055); Author, "Twitter Means Business: How Microblogging Can Help or Hurt Your Company"
Ina Fried, Senior Writer, CNET News
New Speaker: Chris O'Brien, Business Columnist, San Jose Mercury News (circ. 241,518) Dan Patterson, Digital Audio Manager, ABC News

Labels: Public Relations

Image by Getty Images via DaylifeFirst thing every morning I send out a "quote of the day" to the agency. The topics range all over the place. Occasionally, I might post one up here, like today's.


“They prefer stability over conflict, continuity over disorder, and GM’s way over anybody else’s. They believe that hard work will overcome adversity, and that tomorrow will be better than today – despite four decades of evidence to the contrary. In many ways the story of General Motors since the 1960s is a tale of accelerating irrelevance. Customer preferences changed, competition tightened, technology made big leaps, and GM was always driving a lap behind..... Over the years the company has tried to reform itself any number of times, but it has been doomed by what ONCE made it successful: doing it the GM way.”

Alex Taylor III, a writer that has been covering GM for the last three decades. This quote is from his latest article in the December issue of Fortune. I am sure you are all familiar with GM’s woes, but consider this -Toyota, through their progressive direction of capitalizing on changing consumer interests and technology is no where near needing a bailout and has a market cap of $103.6 Billion. GM, who has said they are not interested in thinking like Toyota, has a market cap of $1.8 Billion.

If you want to be relevant in business and stay there, consumer driven-continual change, harvesting technology to your benefit and some level of conflict and disorder are all conditions of success. You can quote me on that...


-jamie

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Labels: Advertising, Business

Image via Wikipedia

Check out this interesting article from the Economist on where online spending will go in the downturn. Yes, the Economist. Find it HERE.

Excerpt:

...All this makes spending on advertising much less speculative, so that it starts to be treated instead as a cost of sales. This is one reason why online advertising should suffer less than other sorts. This week eMarketer, a market-research firm, predicted that online-advertising spending in America, which makes up about half the global total, will increase by 8.9% in 2009, rather than the 14.5% it had forecast in August. The firm thinks search advertising will grow by 14.9% and rich-media ads by 7.5%, whereas display ads will grow by 6.6%. In short, online advertising will continue to expand in the recession—just not as quickly as previously expected.

Online marketing increasingly aims for awareness, consideration, preference and loyalty all at once. Mr Rothenberg gives the example of a rich-media ad for Kraft, a food company, in which a yummy image raises brand awareness, a click reveals a recipe that increases consideration, another click provides coupons and yet another click initiates a game that can be shared with friends.
Marketing managers can therefore defend their online budgets as being both above and below the line.

Worth a read.

-jamie

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Labels: Advertising, interactive, Online advertising