Category: Blog

Often times, hospitality companies do not look themselves in the mirror and ask the tough questions like: How can we better position ourselves for growth? Ripley Entertainment has taken that hard look and is on a pathway to open more Mirror Maze attractions in tourism destination spots across the country.

The company announced this week its first attraction is El Paso. The company already has successful Ripley attractions in Dallas and San Antonio.  Could Texas be big enough for more Ripley expansions? For the latest in Ripley news go to http://www.ripleysnewsroom.com.

Barnie’s Coffee & Tea held a pep rally this month in Baldwin Park for the Orlando Magic playoff run and to announce its new limited-time-only coffee appropriately named Orlando Magic Blend.

The rally generated coverage from NBA Web sites, Orlando TV, The Orlando Sentinel and even far away coffee trades. From a pure public relations standpoint, the event was a huge hit. Barnie’s Coffee & Tea owner Phil Jones was gracious and charming with the crowd as they waited to get autographs from former Magic Player Bo Outlaw, get pictures taken with the Magic Girls or spin the Magic prize wheel.

But the real hit of this event cannot be judged solely by media coverage or the number of blue & white Magic Blend coffee bags sold. The best word-of-mouth advertising came from a group of school children from Audobon Park Elementary School, who took a lunch break from their studies and visited with the Magic Girls and played with Stuff. The kids too young for Orlando Magic Blend quenched their thirst with tasty peach lemonade.

A few days after the event, Barnie’s received hand-written notes from the kids thanking them for the event and expressing the fun they had. Those notes can now be seen at the Baldwin Park Store for all Magic and Barnie’s fans to enjoy.

Goes to show you: Uplifting the community provides its own great PR.

See the complete photo album on our Will Wellons Communications Facebook page.

When you think of General Motors, let’s face it. Straightforward, honest and clean aren’t exactly the words that come to mind. It’s more like: hefty bailouts, billion-dollar bankruptcy and teetering obliteration. Talk about PR scrap yard.

Yet GM is going for that straight-talk approach, and is attempting to jumpstart its once all-American, good-guy image. And taking the helm is GM CEO Ed Whitacre, who strolls through TV commercials all too often these days—declaring that his company has paid back its government bailout loan in full, with interest, years ahead of schedule.

Just recently, GM ran a full-page crisp, clean ad—with no images, just words—in USA Today claiming the same message: “We know a lot of Americans didn’t agree with giving GM a second chance and that we have a lot to prove,” it reads. “But we want to make this a company all Americans can be proud of again.”

Convincing.

Well, almost. An article in Forbes—aptly named “Still Government Motors”—delves a little deeper into the facts. Turns out, when Mr. Whitacre says GM has paid back the bailout money in full, he is not referring to the entire $49.5 billion worth of total loans and equity. He only means the $6.7 billion that the Obama administration handed over as a pure loan.

Even further, according to the article, GM is using escrow money—a.k.a. money from the government—to pay back that $6.7 billion loan (in other words, they’re not paying it back with profits).

Bottom line here: A straightforward message can work and even rebuild squandered public trust, but it has to be backed up. Otherwise, you risk the media revealing all your flawed facts. As for GM, we’ll see if the quality of its cars drives sales in the future, and gets them out of this PR pothole.

For decades, Toyota has been a standard-bearer for quality, innovation and commitment to excellence. Now, its reputation stands, if not in ruins, severely damaged. It’s yet another case of horrific communications management (I won’t even call it crisis management because what has been done in the last few months shows a systemic communication problem).

Now, the future of the company depends on if they can learn from their mistakes, move forward, and start to communicate better and more honestly with their audience. Whether you’re in crisis communications or just corporate communications in general, here are a few tips to keep you from veering off the road.

Step 1. Get out in front of any news story. Don’t sit back and let the reporter, the blogger or the private citizen define the story. Figure out the facts, define your message and stay out in front of the story.

Step 2. Tell the truth. This point should be a big duh, but some corporations have real problems with this. They think that they’re above it all and the truth won’t come out. As a former journalist, I can tell you the truth almost always comes out, or worse yet, some part of the truth. Once again, if you control the story, or at least try to be a part of it, you have a better chance at getting your message out.

Step 3. An offshoot of telling the truth is giving people the facts. Your intelligent consumers will make their own decisions. If your facts are strong enough and your product works, you’re in good shape. If it’s not, no amount of PR or buzz or wizardry is going to help things. So give people the facts.

Step 4. Reach out to your audience. Once again, this is PR 101. Try to connect with your audience. Don’t just give them words or lawyer-ized statements. Honest connection with your audience is a great pathway to success.

We’re going to see in the next few months what pathway Toyota decides to take and what its future looks like. In the meantime, one of our coordinators gets in her car every day and wonders how well her Corolla will drive.

My son asked me at halftime of the Super Bowl XLIV – “Dad, why do the halftime acts have to be so old?’’

At first, I was just happy that he did not add the line I knew he was thinking: “Dad, The Who is way older than even you.”

My 12 year old is slightly too young to remember the wardrobe malfunction that terrified CBS and likely all the executives that picked the halftime act. Since that day, the Super Bowl halftime shows have been the hall of fame for musical acts that qualify for AARP. If something was accidently exposed, I’m sure everyone would just look the other way.

In a marketing sense, the planners of the Super Bowl and NFL need to run a modern play. When picking halftime acts, they should appeal to my son and daughters. Not my parents.

Yes – the younger hipper acts might leave people talking the next morning about something other than the tired commercials. It might actually make for good PR.

The Who is the equivalent of the three yards and a cloud of dust.  Time for the NFL to dust off the playbook and bring in a young gun.

Yes, the headline is true. Ripley’s top-selling Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Seeing is Believing secured a wonderful feature in the recent issue of the National Enquirer on newsstands now. (Wow, I never thought I would use that line!)

But kudos to the Enquirer for a very colorful and well-crafted photo montage on how Ripley’s, in its annual Believe It or Not! collectable, scoured the world to find artists that took a unique approach to create familiar celebrity faces.

If you want to see, you better hustle to the grocery store. We have a feeling this issue could go fast. The coverage is on page 18 – just ahead of the Tiger Woods Cheating Scandal – Believe It or Not!