Cyber Monday: Hoax or (Key)Stroke of Genius?

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Anyone who has ever worked in an agency has had some exposure to the business development process. After all, without topline growth, how can agencies sustain themselves?

I'll always remember how one agency for which I toiled invited a highly touted outside consultant to help re-vamp the agency's new business prospecting and acquisition processes. A group of us spent a half-day session with this new biz guru running through a series of exercises. As is often the case with these kinds of sessions, I emerged with but one compelling takeway that has stuck with me to this day: branding.

The consultant demanded that we add a catchy title to every initiative we intend to present in our new business proposal. Not unlike the insidious work of Frank Luntz whose phrases like "death tax" and "climate change" were fabricated to reframe the public perceptions of the terms "estate tax" and "global warming," respectively, adding clever branding to an initiative can often help create self-fulfilling prophesies.

Take "Cyber Monday." It took years for Black Friday to earn its place in the American lexicon according to Wikipedia:

"The news media have long described the day after Thanksgiving as the busiest shopping day of the year.[3] In earlier years, this was not actually the case. In the period from 1993 through 2001, for example, Black Friday ranked from fifth to tenth on the list of busiest shopping days, with the Saturday before Christmas usually taking first place.[2] In 2003, however, Black Friday actually was the busiest shopping day of the year, and it has retained that position every year since except 2004, when it ranked second."

Cyber Monday is a more recent phenomenon wherein consumers allegedly take to their digital devices to shop online until their fingers fall off on the Monday after the long Thanksgiving weekend. CNN's John Sutter reports that "'Cyber Monday' is Mostly Myth":

"The only problem: It's mostly a marketing gimmick, according to consumer electronics experts and an online metrics tracker. Cyber Monday has never been the biggest day of the year for online retail sales, said Andrew Lipsman, director of industry analysis at comScore, a company that monitors internet traffic. Typically, a Monday in December takes that title, and Lipsman predicted the biggest online retail day of 2010 will be on December 13."

Still, like its bricks & mortar predecessor Cyber Monday, a term purportedly created by the National Retail Federation, may very well one day live up to its name.

"Ellen Davis, vice president of the National Retail Federation, which owns CyberMonday.com (and Shop.org), said the 'Cyber Monday' term originated organically as retailers noticed that consumers turned to the internet to shop on the Monday after Thanksgiving. 'The trend was actually developed by shoppers and started in '02, '03,' she said, adding that the federation just put a name to the concept."

Ah ha! The Federation just "put a name to the concept." Smart, me thinks. And as Cyber Monday works its place into the popular lexicon, online retailers will be sure to deliver the goods as more and more online shoppers boot up on the Monday after Thanksgiving to find the digital deals. I give it two years (if that) for Cyber Monday to live up to its promise of being the biggest online shopping day of the year.

Friday's Video Views

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Social TV: Boxee Box Demo

This week, the much buzzed-about Boxee box shipped. Some say it may be better than its deeper-pocketed rivals Google TV and Apple TV. Here's a review from the Hill Holliday blog.




Bulldogs: Brill and Woodward on Campus

Yale University's Poynter Fellowship in Journalism sponsored a chat with Steven Brill and Bob Woodward on campus to talk about journlaism in the 21st centuiry. It runs over an hour, but if you have the time, it's a worthwhile listen.




Innovation Trail

While we're on the subject of journalism's future, here's some sound from Rachel Ward of CPB-funded Innovation Trail talking about the collaborative journalism effort now ramping up in upstate New York. It was captured by @OReillyMedia's man in the Beltway Alex Howard at the recently held Public Media Camp. #pubcamp




27,000 Text Messages a Month!

This week, The New York Times published one of the most talked about, debated and shared stories in recent memories. Matt Richtel's "Growing up Digital, Wired for Distraction" struck at the paradox of how best to educate young people today. Here's a video from The Times's Erik Olsen and Mr. Richtel cleverly titled "Fast Times at Woodside High:"




Jets Blue

You gotta love this series of viral videos from JetBlue. Made for digital consumption, their creativity has driven an extraordinary number of online views, i.e., no $1M 30-second Super Bowl spot needed. (via AdWeek's AdFreak blog)




Don't Stop...Competing

L.C. McDuff updated Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" for the Silicon Valley set.




Thanksgiving Check-in

As if a check-in from outer space didn't top it all, here's a tweet from FourSquare founder (and New Yorker) Dennis Crowley:

@Dens Love seeing @AlRoker give a shoutout to @foursquare during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.

Twitter Food for Thought

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Amy Adams as Julie in "Julie & Julia"

Last night I was tooling on my Twitterstream when I noticed a curious tweet from The NY Times's food columnist and author Amanda Hesser.

In an attempt to learn the true identity of influential (18K+ followers) Twitter personality @RuthBourdain (a name amalgamated from fellow foodies Ruth Reichl and Anthony Bourdain), Ms. Hesser asked her followers if anyone has made a list of their shared followers.

I summoned my Twiangulate app and ran a cross-check of @RuthReichl (58K+ followers) and @AnthonyBourdain (18K+ followers). It produced 45 common followers between them. (Ms. Hesser slyly suggested that WashPost food editor Joe Yonan might be a candidate for @ruthbourdain.)

Meryl Streep as Julia Child

What I didn't know was that @anthonybourdain, like @RuthBourdain, was an unverifiable "nom de twume." The real Anthony Bourdain, author and celebrated chef at New York's Brasserie Les Halles restaurant, tweets under the handle @NoReservations (180K+ followers), the name of his Travel Channel show. (My bad.)

A new cross-check of Ms. Reichl's and Mr. Bourdain's actual Twitter handles (his "verified," hers not) yielded 278 common followers.

Anyway, this got me thinking about Twitter, and the dangers of anonymity, a subject on which I've written previously. Very quietly, Twitter stopped its program to anoint certain Twitter "stars" ("the chosen") with "Verified" accounts. This was a way, Twitter claimed, to "limit user confusion by making it easier to identify authentic accounts on Twitter." A site called Truth Tweet appears to have captured and catalogued verified users.

I'm not happy about this. We all know what can happen when poseurs commandeer legitimate Twitter accounts. Think BP, Steve Jobs, Goldman Sachs, for starters. Fun to read, but most Americans don't differentiate. Let's hope Twitter re-introduces a more inclusive verification program so that every active Twitter user can stake claim to his or her own identity.

Separately, but not unrelated, I recently registered my displeasure over the practice of when one distorts your original tweet to suit another's ends. I asked whether this is "more than bad Twitter manners?" Huh? Isn't getting re-tweeted a validation of one's influence? Yes and no.

My tweet in question read:

@peterhimler @rapleaf profiles users by name (think facebook, myspace, political ops)
WSJ.com (via @emilysteel)

Very shortly thereafter, the media-mining minds at Rapleaf re-tweeted my original tweet, as follows:

@Rapleaf @PeterHimler Check out this interesting WSJ post on Rapleaf's CEO and our company's commitment to privacy: WSJ

In reality, my original tweet was intended to raise eyebrows over the big brotherish approach to mining one's personal online data. (Doesn't Rapleaf have close to a billion people in its database?) From The Journal:

"RapLeaf says it never discloses people's names to clients for online advertising. But possessing real names means RapLeaf can build extraordinarily intimate databases on people by tapping voter-registration files, shopping histories, social-networking activities and real estate records, among other things.

Pushing the limits of online privacy is one thing, but my personal beef is aimed at Rapleaf social media person who twisted my original sentiment to promote the company. If the company took this license with a re-tweet, just think what it might do with your personal data.

Happy Thanksgiving all. Did you know that the average calories consumed on Thanksgiving range from 3000-7500? Yikes!

Friday's Video Views

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Good Reporting is Not a Commodity

Beet.TV's Andy Plesser catches up with Chris Ahearn, president, Media, Thomson Reuters, in Monaco (of all places). Ahearn is bullish on Reuters growth on our shores. (via @huffingtonpost)




Staci Speaks

While we're on the subject of quality content, the influential editor of paidContent Staci Kramer also spoke with Andy while in Monaco. Separately, Staci's old boss Rafat Ali, the founder of paidfContent, announced in Twitter he's taking a senior advisory position at Edelman to help with content strategy and creation.




Pepsi's Taste Test (updated for speed geeks)

AllThingsD's Kara Swisher tweeted this earlier in the week:
@karaswisher Spoiler Alert: PlayBook Outshines iPad in RIM Video (via @JohnPaczkowski




Rockin Social Browser

That same Swisher grabbed some time with the much buzzed about founders of Rockmelt, the first browser explicitly built for social. Don't get too excited. Trial is by invitation only.




First Sister Tweets Messages

And this tweet from @randizuckerberg
Love this video my team worked on about the updates to Facebook Messages. Legit filmmaker talent!

Of course there's probably some subjectivity in this Twitter endorsement.




Must see TV: Zuck at Web 2.0 (via @techcrunch)




Psycho Professor

Through the entire 70 minutes of the Battelle-O'Reilly-Zuckerberg interview, I'm sure most of you were riveted to the animated and rejuvenated Mark Zuckeberg. Not a yawn among you, right? Thank goodness. Here's Cornell professor who doesn't seem to have a clue about the nocturnal habits of the typical college student. (This one's going viral, but likely not on the College Humor site.)

Dem "Message-Crafting Functions"

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Senators Schumer and Reid

Following its drubbing in the 2010 midterm elections, Senate Democrats identified the culprit and now plan to nip the PRoblem in the bud. They have formed a new party organization focusing on...ta da...PR issues!

To lead this new initiative, Skin-of-his-teeth Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid anointed New York's senior Senator Chuck Schumer who knows a thing or two about making the most of the media filter.

No Fortune Cookie in Here

Sen. Schumer's weekly Sunday pressers are legend, and almost always succeed in filling the sleepy news hole the next day. This week, he set his sights on the Chinese, and specifically the reusable supermarket bags they produce and sell here under a green guise. Apparently, someone tipped off Sen. Schumer that the bags themselves contain dangerous levels of lead baked in. But I digress.

Back to the Senate Democrats' announcement of a new coordinated PR initiaitive. Here's what Harry Reid said in announcing the initiative:

"I have given serious thought to how our caucus can best address this and the many other challenges our country will face in the next two years and beyond. If I am fortunate enough to serve again as your Leader, one of my first priorities will be to strengthen our strategic operations."

He went on to provide further justification of the effort to mend negative perceptions:

"To do so, we must better integrate our legislative and message-crafting functions into a central, coordinated nucleus managing policy, press and politics. That starts with uniting the Democratic Policy Committee and the Senate Democratic Communications Center into a joint operation."

Ya think?! It's about time the hapless Dems took a page from the unified Party of No to calibrate and coordinate their communications.

In thinking about the possible narratives, the obstructionist anti-American GOP certainly has provided the Dems with fodder galore to fire up their base. Still, I wonder which Democrat had the lame-brained idea to make a news proclamation about plans to start a PR campaign??? Does Senator Reid really believe that this kind of "news" will win the hearts of minds of the American people?

I suppose Beltway insiders who've been frustrated by President Obama's loss of his mojo will welcome this, but that's about it. Harry, take a page from Nike, and "just do it!" Also, you might take another page from the GOP and just don't talk about it.

Friday's Video Views

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De-Friend-Nation

I'd hate to be the Facebook user that late night ascendant Jimmy Kimmel calls out in his monologue this week. But few can argue with his point. Right? Kimmel has started a movement he's calling "National Unfriend Day." (via mashable.)




Henry & Chris

Business Insider's legendary founder Henry Blodget sits down (for 40 minutes) to chat up Wired Magazine's legendary founder Chris Anderson. The talk ranges from his robot company to his model for Free and then some.




Flexible Viewing

In his never-ending quest for the coolest new technologies, Robert Scoble (via Rackspace-sponsored Building 43) gets a look at a flexible digital monitor. At $75,000, however, don't expect to see it in Best Buy just yet. om.




Social EQ

So much for the Fortune's Most Admired Companies. Global PR/PA consultancy APCO partnered with The Huffington Post to create a ranking of companies based on their "Social EQ." APCO's digital chief Evan Kraus explains.




It's Face Time

The Next Web introduced its readers to a cool app that makes logging in a snap. Fromn TNW: "As part of the European MoBio (mobile biometry) Project, the Manchester team has developed a demo app that can log the user into Gmail, Twitter and Facebook using just face and voice recognition. "


Logging into Twitter with your face from The Next Web on Vimeo.


Top This Lady Gaga!

The Times's Nick Bilton tweeted a link to this concert in Japan starring -- a holographic anime star! Pay attention because Nick lives "in the future" and knows "how it works."




Stan 'n Ollie

Thanks Andy Beal (Marketing Pilgrim) for posting this fab remix of Laurel & Hardy dancing to The Gap Band.




Wimps

Finally, for the sports-minded among you, here's a way (or rather, many ways) to physically put the kabash on your weekend. (This video has nearly 8 million views.)

your weekend.

PR Week NEXT

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I was able to swing by PR Week's annual NEXT Conference yesterday held at the Sheraton New York Hotel where I grabbed some sound from the publication's UK-transplanted new editor Steve Barrett. I asked him about the differences between the PR industry here and across the pond. He basically said that social media is more developed here, and that the UK also lags the U.S. in the economic rebound. Listen to his remarks here (RT 4:12).

Zimprich, Day, Kerins and PR Week's Iacono (l. to r.)

As Steve noted, the conference has built much of its cache by drawing as panelists a first-rate line-up of senior communications executives, mostly from the corporate and institutional side of the PR spectrum.

I was able to catch PR Week executive editor Erica Iacono, who's imminently en route to Ketchum, moderate a panel on global-local communications featuring Ray Day, VP, global communications for Ford Motor Company (and Scott Monty's boss), Ray Kerins, VP worldwide communications; head of global corporate media relations, Pfizer, and General Mills' brand PR chief Greg Zimprich.

Here are a couple of bites from the always quotable (and former agency guy) Kerins:

Re: social media: The train's left the station. We have to be on it.

Thursday [tomorrow] we're holding internal social media webinar wherein Pfizer employees from around the world will share their best social media case studies.

All communications runs through PR. It's not about controlling versus saving [the executives from] themselves. We're a very regulated business.

Ray Day added:

Ford CEO Alan Mulally is a communications dream. He views himself as chief reputation officer.

It took someone like ScottMonty to shake up the conservative culture. He's our SM evangelist.

Behm, Diermeier, Frymark and Ashooh (l. to r.)

The next panel, moderated by Edelman's Steven Behm, focused on crisis communications and featured former AIG communications chief Nick Ashooh, now VP, corporate affairs, Alcoa, Daniel Diermeier, IBM distinguished professor of regulation and competitive practice, Kellogg School of Management, and Catherine Frymark, SVP, communications, Discovery Communications who, as you probably know, recently had to deal with a gunman at Discovery's Maryland headquarters.

I had a chance to ask the panel about crisis preparedness plans, and whether they're still useful given the sea change in how news and information travels today. I believe it was Diermeier who correctly recognized that every crisis has distinct dimensions, but that crisis preparedness plans remain valid in that they provide a tactical roadmap for who to engage at the outset, freeing up management to focus on strategic considerations. I suggested that perhaps there's a potential boon for agencies in helping clients update their likely outmoded plans.

Barrett, Nadal, Sodera and Yakob (l. to r.)

Finally, I caught Mr. Barrett moderate a most eclectic panel featuring Miles Nadal, founder, chairman, CEO, MDC Partners, Vivek Sodera, co-founder, Rapleaf, and Faris Yakob, chief innovation officer, Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal & Partners. I was glad to hear Mr. Nadal say:

PR is the new new thing. We have invested over $100M in last 10 months. Plan to double it.

His firm now owns some of the more buzzed about brands in the biz, not the least of which is Crispin Porter & Bogusky, which first made its name with a "subservient chicken." I was hoping that someone would question RapLeaf's Sodera about that recent Wall Street Journal piece, which definitely raised some eyebrows among the privacy protection set.

On my way out, I did get a chance to say hello to my old (but never too old) boss and mentor Harold Burson, as well as former Edelman colleagues Derek Creevy and company COO Nancy Ruscheinski. All in all, it was a most worthwhile event. I wish I could have caught more.


Photos: Peter Himler (Canon Powershot SX20IS)

Friday's Video Views

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For the Love of Jack

Longtime PR industry chronicler Jack O'Dwyer shown here doing his best imitation of Russell Crowe (they look alike, right?) as Prof. John Nash in "A Beautiful Mind." Except this didn't happen at Princeton University, but at the recently completed PRSA Annual Conference in our nation's capital.




This Just In: iPhone for the Visually Impaired

Pong, anyone? (via TheNextWeb)




4th Most Re-Tweeted Tweet

Twitter's new CEO Dick Costolo revealing that the "Promoted Tweet" for Toy Story3 was the 4th most retweeted tweet of all time. (Via thebusinessinsider.) Geesh. Who'd a thought five years ago there would be terms like "promoted tweet" or "retweeted tweet?"




Social Shopper

Talking about re-tweeting, this Brian Solis insightful post "The Business Guide to Facebook Part 2: From E-Commerce to F-Commerce" was re-tweeted 474 times and shared on Facebook 205 times. Here's the Levi's social shopping video embedded therein.




Tell Me a Story

DEMO, TEDx, Ad:Tech, Web 2.0 Expo, SxSW, TechCrunch Disrupt, PR Week NEXT, Pivot...the list goes on. How about the "Reinvention Summit: Virtual Storytelling Conference" November 11-22? What a neat idea. After all, aren't we paid in part for our ability to spin a good yarn? Here's an explanation of the event. (Discount for readers of The Flack: Coupon for $25 OFF an Activators or Explorers Pass. Use code: REINVENTION)


Intro to Reinvention Summit: Virtual Storytelling Conference, Nov 11-22, 2010 from Michael Margolis on Vimeo.


Celtic Fan Gets His Game On

Basketball season has arrived, so what better way to celebrate than to scare the bejesus out of New York Knicks fans with a media splash of asbestos in Madison Square Garden. MSG checked out clean though some New Yorkers put it in the same category as GOP EPA Admin Christie Todd Whitman giving the air at Ground Zero a thumbs up for safety too soon after the Towers fell.

In contrast, The Boston Celtics sure know how to get its fans in the groove. Stick with this one, which has drawn some 350K+ views in just three days! (H/T my #3 son)

Where Social Media Resides

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CNN's Ali Velshi @ Council of PR Firms' Critical Issues Forum

Last week I had the good fortune to attend the Council of PR Firms' annual Critical Issues Forum and the PR+MKTG CAMP EAST events, both in New York City.

Some common themes emerged from the two, not the least of which had the PR industry being anointed by some big-name brand marketing execs as owning the discipline of social media marketing communications.

Here are some notable quips I culled from the Council's best-attended yet Critical Issue Forum for agency executives:



Procter & Gamble's Global Brand Marketing Chief Marc Pritchard:

"The biggest way for PR to 'blow the opportunity' is to not see the opportunity."

"PR and social media are inseparable...they're at least 2nd cousins."

"Old Spice viral mktg campaign generated 2B impressions."

"The future of marketing is tied to the future of PR"

"PR is the most authentic marketing discipline. It is PR's time to shine."

I especially enjoyed and appreciated that Mr. Pritchard gave credit to two of his (many) PR agencies: Marina Maher Communications and Paine PR for their work on the cases studies he showed.

Separately, Heineken USA's CMO Christian McMahan added these agency-directed remarks:

"Forget your standard scope of work. There's always money available for a good idea."

The 'new normal' in PR: "Think with discipline, act with courage."

Mr. McMahan was joined on the Socratic-style Len Schlesinger-moderated panel by:

• Ted Gilvar, Chief Marketing Officer, Monster Worldwide
• Leontyne Green, Chief Marketing Officer, IKEA
• Larry Solomon, Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications, AT&T
• Jessica Zoob, Senior Vice President, Global Business Development, American Express

PR+MKTG CAMP EAST

The next day I was able to catch the opening session of PR+MKTG CAMP EAST, held at the Lighthouse for the Blind headquarters. (I wonder if there is any meaning in this?)

The first panel included (left to right):

• Frank Eliason, SVP Social Media, Citi
• Jamie Pappas, Manager, Enterprise Social Media Strategy, EMC
• Peter Blacker, EVP Digital Media, Telemundo Network
• Shari Forman, Director, Social Media and Online Communications, American Express
• Stephanie Agresta, EVP, Digital Strategy, Weber Shandwick
• Aaron Calloway, Brand Manager AXE, Unilever

Former @ComcastCares social media chief and Twitter star Frank Eliason had this to say:

"Using regulatory as an excuse to not embrace social media is 'a crutch'"

Re: Fox-Cablevision dust-up: "Fox is more successful in having its message resonate for consumers than Cablevision."

"It varies from which dept (or agency) to source SM services. For Citi it's marketing, Comcast it was communications."

In addition, Mr. Eliason questioned Unilever's Axe brand for using its PR agency as its online "voice." Speaking of Axe, the brand manager Aaron Calloway was on hand. He shared these stats:

"We started year with 80K Facebook fans. We're now at 500K but 'still short of our goal.'"

"Social media is very much the responsibility of the PR agency."

As for this last quote, I came away from these two conferences thinking that PR certainly does have an important role to play (ownership?) in the social media hierarchy, yet its home within the organization varies from company to company. Frank Eliason noted: At Comcast social media resided firmly in the corporate communications department, whereas at Citi it sits in the marketing department. (Eventually, most prognosticate, it'll permeate all departments.)

Also, will social-minded companies ever grant hegemony to one type of marketing agency over another when it comes to outsourcing their social media marketing? Probably not, though the PR industry seems to have a leg up for now, unless of course Mr. Pritchard's warning bares fruit: "The biggest way for PR to 'blow the opportunity' is to not see the opportunity."