Friday's Video Views

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There are so many edifying and entertaining video clips on the Web for PR pros that I thought I'd post a few for your weekend viewing. The first went viral yesterday, fueled in part by a tweeted link from one Michael Arrington (@arrington) -- no stranger to the subject in question.



The host of the second video applies some basic analyses to explain the user demographics and surreal gestalt of the latest buzz-worthy phenomenon, Chatroulette. (Last weekend, I let my mother-in-law tool with it. Now that was fun to watch!)



chat roulette from Casey Neistat on Vimeo.

And the final video shows the roundtable, organized earlier this week in the Bay area by my buddy Andy Plesser, founder of Beet.TV. Hosted by the WSJ's All Things Digital's Kara Swisher, it features a who's who of digital news and entertainment talking about the prospects and promise of video. The iPad and its ilk lead off the discussion here

It's (Not) the Real Thing

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A number of authoritative voices I follow on Twitter today collectively glommed onto the long-simmering issue of PR-driven corporate speak under the banner "Worst Press Release Ever?"

The catalyst for the extra-carbonated Twitter cooler conjecture was a post by the Wall Street Journal's "The Deal" blog titled "Coke: Most Unintelligible Press Release Ever?"

In it, The Journal's Dennis Berman not-unrealistically imagined how such words ended up on the lips of Coca-Cola Company president and CEO Muhtar Kent:

"In fact, we’d like all Deal Journal readers to pay homage to Mr. Kent’s achievement by reading aloud the below paragraphs. We’d like them to savor his words, no doubt hand-picked by a team of attorneys, bankers, PR apparatchiks and outside consultants. Mr. Kent, you are our greatest living artist. We salute you and look forward to using our “passport to winning” so we may follow “the roadmap for winning together.”

Apparatchiks, huh? So what was the offending quote that fell so flat (forgive), and sent Twitter tongues-a waggin'?

"Our 2020 Vision calls for decisive and timely action to continuously improve and evolve our global franchise system to best serve our customers and consumers everywhere," Kent said in a statement. "Consistent with the 2020 Vision, our roadmap for winning together, we act today as an aligned system….Our new North American structure will create an unparalleled combination of businesses, which will serve as our passport to winning in the world’s largest nonalcoholic ready-to-drink profit pool."

Wait! There may actually be an aluminum lining in all of this. PR people everywhere now have proof that journalists actually read, and even extract quotes from press releases!

College Screen Test

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It's that time of year. Trending at #1 for much of the day on The New York Times's most emailed list of stories: "To Impress, Tufts Prospects Turn to YouTube." Here's an excerpt:

"Lee Coffin, the dean of undergraduate admissions, said the idea came to him last spring as he watched a YouTube video someone had sent him. 'I thought, ‘If this kid applied to Tufts, I’d admit him in a minute, without anything else.'"

As a Tufts alum and long-time participant in the university's Alumni Admissions Program (TAAP), I am indeed impressed. This story comes on the heels of the university's top showing on a list of 50 "top social media innovators among the nation's colleges and universities."

As for the YouTube-posted videos as application supplements, I truly wonder how much weight they're given based on my own experience as an alumni interviewer. Over the years, I've interviewed countless applicants whose admissions to Tufts I've strongly urged, only to learn of their subsequent rejection. Conversely, I've met a fair share of ho-hummers whom I felt had no logical place at the university, but who, to my surprise, were accepted.

One explanation may be that candidates must meet a certain academic threshold (SAT scores and GPA) before the committee turns to the other, more subjective pieces of the puzzle, e.g., the alumni interview and YouTube video. Though, as a previous piece in The Times pointed out, mysteries abound in the admissions process.

One former client has built a better mousetrap to help perfect the matches between college-bound high schoolers and the institutions on which they have their hearts set. Jordan Goldman, the subject of a New York Times series on the process while in high school, exacted his revenge by building the definitive online college resource once he graduated college.

The site, Unigo.com, derives its content not from the admissions or administrative departments of the colleges and universities featured, but rather from the students themselves. Jordan recently told me that some 10 percent of the student bodies of these institutions have contributed reviews, photos and/or video. Talk about the wisdom of the crowds!

Recently, as part of Unigo's new partnership with the Wall Street Journal, Goldman moderated a web-streamed panel featuring six admissions officers. If you're in this game, it's certainly worth a view.

Athletic PR-owess

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With two public (relations) apologies -- one major and one minor -- now behind us, who in the PR-sphere hasn't reflected on the "what if's" of these now fading acts of contrition?

What if Tiger hadn't filled the room with friends and family (as props) but instead allowed in journalists to ask questions (versus delivering a tightly scripted speech)?

Why not a taped video statement with no audience at all? (Think Michael Jackson.)

What if he had chose to avail himself for an exclusive interview with Larry King, or The Golf Channel (taking a page from Mark McGwire)?

Would these strategies have served him better in quelling the inevitable post-mortem criticism?

Maybe the choice of channel is secondary to body language, cadence, and word selection in terms of their respective influences on the public's perception? Frankly, we'll never know for sure, except to say that the passage of time almost always offers the most effective remedy for tempering even the most egregious of offenses.

As for the minor apology from bronze medal-winning snowboarder Scott Lago, I wonder if his antics involving his girlfriend, the medal, and a section of his anatomy, all captured online, were calculated to help him publicly rise (forgive) above the other Olympic athletes?

But this post is not intended to re-hash what coulda or shoulda been. It is a recognition of the Olympic athlete who, in my mind, struck exactly the right tone during a less-than-softball interview with Bob (Mr. Olympic) Costas. Did you catch his interview with a most genuine Evan Lysacek, the 2010 Olympic men's figure skating champion?

Costas put the winning American on the spot by sharing remarks made by second-place (and second-rate) Russian skater Yevgeny Plushenko. Here's the exchange:

Evan Lysacek: "I felt good. I felt like I accomplished my goal. I had my personal victory. And whatever happened. Whether I won a medal or not, I was going to be 100% satisfied with my experience here in Vancouver."

NBC's Andrea Joyce to Yevgeny Plushenko: "Did you think you had done enough to win gold?"

Plushenko: "Of course. I though I could win with quadruple. I could win. You know. This scoring system is new. And with old system, scoring 6.0, if somebody was going to jump quadruple, he can win easily. With this system, it's a different system."

Joyce: "Did it surprise you that the Olympic champion is a champion with out a quad?"

Plushenko: "That surprised me."

Bob Costas quoting Plushenko: "If the Olympic champion doesn't know how to do a jump quad, now it's not men's figure skating, now it's dancing. You can't be considered a true men's champion without the quad."

Lysacek: "Well, I think, no one likes to lose. ...what he's saying is coming from a little disappointment and anger...so taking it out of context, I can't be emotional about it or react to it...The truth is is that he's been a force to be reckoned with in men's skating for the last decade, and has been a great role model to me...and has definitely pushed the sport. And took some time off, came back, and did something that no one thought was possible...and got his third Olympic medal, two silvers and a gold, and that's not something to be taken lightly."

Evan Lysacek is true American hero who embodies the Olympic spirit. Kudos to you, Evan.

Now I can't wait to hear the sour grapes from the Russian hockey thugs after Team USA sticks it to them!

What Can I Say?

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My Remarks
February 19, 2010

I want thank the handful of reporters who stupidly happily agreed to join me in listen-mode only today at my former [unnamed] sponsor's tournament. I also want to thank my wife Elin who I hope will reconsider my offer to move back in. Honey, how does Solitude feel?

I also want to plug Nike and Gatorade for sticking with me during these grueling months, with a special thanks to my buds there who so graciously offered to drop them as their sponsors had they chosen to drop me.

And I can't thank enough that handsome young man for his stunt double work at the sex clinic, and for remembering to return my favorite cap.

Finally, I want to thank the PGA Tour and the many tour sponsors who had the temerity to avoid a ratings disaster by accelerating my return to the tour in time for The Masters. Oh, and look for me on the Golf Channel on March 22 for a little Masters warm-up.

No questions.

Tiger Woods

Oscar's New "Thank You Cam"

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Seasoned crisis managers have an innate ability to predict probable outcomes of various gnarly situations. In "crisis preparedness" exercises, they attempt to anticipate all the "what ifs?" and then simulate communications plans to address each possible scenario.

It's a fair bet that many crisis counselors knew immediately how the Toyota recall might snowball into its current cataclysmic dimensions.

Today we learn that the #1 Japanese automaker's dealers in southern California, apparently not content with the glacial pace of an entrenched corporate culture, retained the region's go-to crisis guy Michael Sitrick to cure what ails their sales.

Sitrick is perhaps more closely associated with guiding the likes of Michael Jackson's family, Paris Hilton and Chris Brown through their travails, but I guess the saying "it comes with the territory" applies here. How do you feel that the firm posted a link on its home page touting its latest crisis client?

While we're talking Hollywood, my thoughts turned to crisis mitigation after reading a Reuters piece detailing efforts to deal with "the single most hated thing" on the Oscar telecast: those supposedly 45-second speeches that morph into endless tear-filled thank yous to agents, managers, directors, fellow actors, family members and even lowly PR peeps.

This year, we're told, things will be different. The show producers recently held a luncheon, i.e., a prepardeness exercise, wherein they instructed each nominee to create two speeches:

"Typically, that advice is to keep them short and avoid a long list of "thank yous" to agents, directors, spouses and family...Instead, he [Bill Mechanic] and co-producer Adam Shankman [any relation?] will have winners give two speeches: one onstage telling audiences what winning an Oscar means to them, and a second backstage for a "Thank You Cam" where winners can say "Thanks" to whomever they want."

There's still no guarantee these unpredictable winners will abide by the rules:

"So to illustrate their idea, the producers showed a videotape of past winners such as Renee Zellweger talking about what winning meant to them."

Media training pros, sound familiar?

As for preparing two speeches, I still hold out hope that one day some clever company will make my Academy Award marketing idea a reality.

It goes like this: pay each supporting actress (or actor) nominee to pre-tape a TV spot promoting the marketer's product or service. Once the Oscar winner is announced and speech delivered, the telecast cuts directly to commercial featuring the winner (in his/her Oscar attire) gushing on the evening's achievement (and the sponsor).

I suppose, it could work for losers too:

"Oh well. I was in excellent company. Better luck next time. Doesn't my hair look great? I have to thank my hairdresser and stylist, but also Nice 'n Easy - something I pray will happen next year."

Mining Influence Without Twitter & Facebook

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In his PR Squared blog post "When Clients Want Coverage in Your Blog: Social Media Ethical Dilemmas," my buddy Todd Defren frames the debate with the following two questions:

Should clients be allowed to leverage the agency’s (or its staffers’) brand to promote their own? Should the agency principal ask a well-known staff blogger to write about a client’s news/products?"

Even those of us with comparatively modest numbers of followers have been leaned on by clients to plug them in our posts or tweets. (The latter channel for me has the extra reverb of my Friendfeed, Facebook, Ping.fm, Google Buzz, and LinkedIn pages.)

I also happen to agree with Todd's philosophy about using one's personal and professional pulpit for promotional purposes:

"Honestly I don’t have a hard & fast rule here, my judgment is based on whether y-o-u will get value from the post. Given that this is a blog about Marketing/PR/Social Media, the client’s news or product would need to fit in that category, or else I am wasting your time."

Still, there seems to be a feeding frenzy among agencies to hire those with "followings." How often do we hear about some blogger or active Twitter user, with relatively meager PR credentials, getting gobbled up by one agency or another? Was it the size of their spheres of megaphonic influence that sealed the deal or their PR smarts? Maybe the two are related? And how are they positioned to clients clamoring for a little more Twitter juice?

But I digress. One way to circumvent a potential loss of cred among their flocks by those who socially shill for their agency's clients is through the proper disclosure in their posts or tweets. Adding (in parenthesis) the word "client" seems to be the preferred mode for making it all OK.

There are other methods for codifying the disclosure of paid relationships, including WOMMA's "Ethics Assessment Tool," cmp.ly's "simple disclosure solution," Sponsored Tweets' "Disclosure Engine," and Izea's Code of Ethics. (Thanks to Converseon's Constantin Basturea for pointing out some of these.)

Now what if I were to tell you that one's number of followers and conversations mined on Twitter or Facebook may not be the end-all for identifying (and cultivating) influencers? I have one client (wit: full-disclosure) whose Israeli developed analytics technology skips the public conversations altogether for pinpointing influencers AND their followers.

The company, called Pursway, has figured out how to apply its algorithm to the voluminous amount of behavioral data that resides in its clients' internal customer databases. Here's a short item from TechCrunch. Once influencers and their followers are identified, Pursway develops engagement/cultivation programs exclusively for the influencers, which ultimately yields (for the company's 20+ clients) a 5-10x increase in customer acquisition, retention and cross-selling.

In truth, I was a little reluctant to post on this client, but, like Todd, I concluded that the topic resides in my editorial sweet spot and also provides value to the more analytics-minded followers of this space. And a hat tip to Todd for his inspiration.

Publicity for Roach Motels

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I enjoyed reading New York Times travel writer Joe Sharkey's interview with TripAdvisor.com CEO Stephen Kaufer in which Kaufer defends the integrity of the just-published, crowd-sourced “2010 Dirtiest Hotels” list.

In the piece "A List No Hotel Wants to Be On," Kaufer states the obvious:

"...if you’re a hotel on that list, it is not a good sign for your business...Please believe me,” he added, “we are careful about the lists, so a hotel isn't named just because there are four bad reviews. We are dealing with someone’s reputation. It’s the ones that are consistently bad that make it — and I challenge any curious individual to check out one of these places and see whether they deserve to be on the list."

He then goes on to explain how the sheer number of actual user-reviews pre-empts the potential for fraudulent reviews (by competitors) or "astroturfed" positive reviews by the hotels themselves (and its representatives):

“It’s damned hard to trick our system in a way that would affect the ratings, because we have the sheer volume of reviews to use for comparison,” Mr. Kaufer said. “Suspicious activity is caught in our filters before it makes it live to the site. And then we rely on the millions of people a day who are not shy about clicking on the link to report that they smell a rat.”

So what's a PR person to do when your hospitality (or any consumer-facing) client asks you to "fix" the overwhelming amount of negativity flowing online from the court of public opinion??? Well, that's a no-brainer: tell your client to address the deficiencies in his product or service. Wasn't that what Jeff Jarvis forced Dell to do back in the nascent days of citizen journalism?

In an age when the groundswell can make or break businesses, no amount of whitewashing will fix that which is truly broken. And frankly, to take that route might very well be a breach of WOMMA's code of ethics. Conversely, if you do have a product or service of which you are especially proud, there are acceptable ways to digitally unleash your customers' evangelical powers.

Doubting Thomases

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Washington Post media columnist and CNN "Reliable Sources" host Howard Kurtz set tongues-a waggin today with his column echoing complaints that President Obama has purposely avoided the White House press corps in order to control his message:

"Every president attempts to circumvent the press corps, viewing it as obsessed with process stories and "gotcha" questions. That's not exactly fair -- they do traffic in substance -- but talk shows have provided an easier forum since the days when Bill Clinton first went on Larry King and MTV. Obama, for his part, is the first Internet president, with his radio addresses on YouTube, videos on Whitehouse.gov and official photos on Flickr. There's a White House blog, and deputy press secretary Bill Burton has been weighing in on Twitter."

Duh. But I have to agree with Dan Gillmor who questioned in a tweet whether the press corps even has the ability to get at the truth:

dangillmor maybe if Obama held more press conferences the DC press corps could actually start doing its job again -- nah, another fantasy
about 1 hour ago from Seesmic

dangillmor Howard Kurtz imagines (wrongly) that the DC press corps asks presidents serious follow up questions -- Howard Kurtz: White House press corps feels bypassed by Obama in favor of TV shows, YouTube-- hardly ever
about 1 hour ago from Seesmic

The White House press corps naturally is venting over its diminished role, in spite of much wider and qualitative Presidential media coverage than the one or two 20-second sound bites that might survive the standard presser. I mean who can reasonably argue that this President doesn't do enough jousting with the media, especially when compared to his predecessor?

"It's a source of great frustration here," says Chip Reid, CBS's White House correspondent. "It's important for us to hold the president's feet to the fire."

"NBC White House reporter Chuck Todd calls the situation a "shame," saying the administration is trying to control the message rather than allowing Obama to be seen "unscripted."

The Obamaites counter that their boss is among the most transparent that Americans have ever seen. Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary:

"We have probably done more interviews with more reporters at this point in our presidency than anybody else has. We have hardly been a shrinking violet when it comes to turning on your TV and seeing Barack Obama."

Communications director Dan Pfeiffer adds that "not doing press conferences is equated with not taking questions, and that's not true." While the best way for a president to reach the public in the past was "through the reporters sitting in the first three rows of the White House pressroom. . . . there's no question that the Huffington Post, Talking Points Memo and their conservative counterparts can drive a story as well as the traditional powers at the New York Times and Washington Post."

This administration has endured considerable scrutiny of its efforts (or lack thereof) for delivering the digital democracy that served Obama so well on the campaign trail. Yet, even with a paucity of direct-to-constituency communications, one has to admit that the White House's generous use of new modes of communications, outside the stilted (staged) WH Presser, has offered Americans a wider window into this administration than any in modern history.

Do these new modes give the President greater control over his message? Well, clearly the creation and posting of original content does, but I'm not convinced that facing a room full of Beltway news correspondents provides a more accurate reflection of Obama's policies and proclivities than that which might result from a (crowd-sourced) interview with Katie Couric.

Bye Bye Bobby

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A few friends sent me Jim Barron's New York Times "City Room" piece on PR man Bobby Zarem's decision to leave his adopted city for his boyhood home of Savannah, Georgia. And why should I care? Well, other than Elaine's losing its most famous patron (and promoter), and the city, its most original (and supportive) PR persona, Zarem Inc. is where I cut my teeth in this business.

The methods we used to build (MSM-only) buzz and awareness back then were starkly different than today. For starters, the office arrival of our first IBM Correcting Selectric typewriters (Zarem kept his manual) was a revelation, heralding in a whole new era of productivity, i.e., no more white-out, or powder-coated paper to mask typos.

Story pitches were made by phone and on paper, with fax, email, SMS and BBM light years away. Forget about Facebook and Twitter. These weren't even glimmers in Mark or Evan's eyes, since both had yet to be born. More often than not, we dispatched Luther, our full-time messenger, to deliver Bobby's hyperbolic pitch notes to the messenger centers of the major media of the day -- almost all of which were located in a ten-block radius of midtown Manhattan.

My three-year term with Zarem included a total of five days of paid vacation and one gift from Bobby for the work I did on Alan Alda's second movie "The Four Seasons." It was a cable cashmere sweater from his brother Danny's toney shop on East 57th Street, Andre Oliver.

Immediately after leaving Zarem's employ, I jettisoned one of his peculiar PR pitch practices. We all know that "there are many windows and doors" into a particular media outlet (to quote my former colleague Pete Judice of Burson-Marsteller). If one reporter doesn't bite, perhaps a different one will, usually with a modified pitch angle.

Zarem, however, insisted on opening all doors and windows at once. He would draft a single pitch letter addressed to multiple reporters, editors, and in one pitch to The Times, an Sulzberger-Ochs family member who, needless to say, was not very appreciative.

The opening salutation might read: Dear Bob, Ms. Jones, Mr. Smith, Susan, John and Rita -- with first names reflecting those he knew personally. Check marks were applied atop the name to match the envelope. (Could this be transparency at its worst?) Today I shudder to think how those lucky recipients reacted, though few in the biz could argue with the end result.

In retrospect, I would have to say that my early years plying the PR trade with an uber-publicist like Zarem continues to help me to this day. But, boy do I have stories! Unfortunately for you (and fortunately for him), Bobby will have to depart more than New York City for these tales to see the light of day.

Social Media Week Sound-Off

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Yesterday was the official start of Social Media Week, which this year expanded from one city (New York) to a six-city extravaganza of pundits and prophets extolling the personal and professional promise of this media, marketing and communications juggernaut.

With its hundreds of events -- 80 alone in the Big Apple -- this cornucopia of compelling content and characters would not be complete without the obligatory launch party. So here I was at Elizabeth on Elizabeth Street somewhere between Soho and Nolita. SMWNYC's lead organizer Toby Daniels secured three sponsors -- Meebo, Pepsi and Diageo -- to ensure that the hors d'oeuvres and alcohol continually refreshed.

I had my digital audio recorder with me and did my best to grab some sound bites from those I knew or recognized. Click on the names for the audio amidst the digital din:

• Toby Daniels (@tobyd), Social Media Week's organizer, provides the hot and skinny.

• SocialVibe founder Joe Marchese (@joemarchese), just in from CA, joined by Deep Focus's Ian Schafer (@ischafer), give their perspectives on the evening (and week's) festivities, including their sold-out Thursday panel, "Is the Future F#cked?"
  

• 360i's sr. director of emerging media and innovation (and Social Media Insider columnist) David Berkowitz (@dberkowitz) on his company's acquisition by Dentsu and his latest column on Gowana vs. FourSquare (and all others).
  

• Social Media Club co-founder Howard Greenstein (@howardgr) on this week's events and his club's role therein.
  

• PR Newser editor Joe Ciarallo (@JoeCiarallo) on this week's events, including MediaBistro's sold-out Tweet-up tonight, and which marketing discipline will own social media going forward.

• Sawhorse Media chief Greg Gallant (@gregory) on the most current stats for his Shorty Awards for which voting on the finalists has commenced.
  

• PepsiCo's Global Director of Digital and Social Media Bonin Bough (@boughb) on how to measure his company's pathbreaking social media campaign, the Pepsi Refresh Project.

• A snippet of Toby Daniels' formal welcoming remarks.

• And much to her likely relief, Just an Online Minute's indefatigable Kelly Samardak's (@socialmedium) comments are virtually inaudible due to the party noise. (You'll just have to trust me that she didn't disappoint.)

Party photo by Kelly Samardak for Just an Online Minute (via Flickr)