Media attention has swarmed around Ripley’s Believe It or Not! and its recent acquisition of a Lady Gaga portrait made of 61,509 BB gun pellets.
Gainesville, Fla., artist John O’Hearn created his Gaga masterpiece using just five colors, and now, it’s set to hang in Ripley’s Hollywood, Calif., Odditorium this Spring.
Goes to show you…there’s no Bad Romance when it comes to Gaga (and other “it” celebrities) and public relations power.
Prince: “The Internet’s like MTV. At one time, MTV was hip, and suddenly it became outdated.”
Prince is getting a lot of headlines for proclaiming the Internet is outdated. “The Internet’s like MTV,” he said to a reporter from The Mirror. “At one time, MTV was hip, and suddenly it became outdated.”
He should probably take that back – along with The Black Album. Sorry Prince, the Internet will be dead when pigs fly – or doves cry.
This is especially true for people who work in public relations. Online media provides some of the most valuable targets for media relations and PR campaigns – despite being undervalued in the eyes of some clients, who think it’s all about TV and daily papers.
Online media opportunities continue to grow as the traditional media continue to deal with shrinking space and cuts in staff and budget. Internet media offers so many terrific opportunities, probably 1999 or more, including:
· Connecting directly with customers through social media: Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Tumblr,Yelp, LinkedIn, etc.
· Reaching out to a targeted, niche audience through blogs (some of which have tremendous followings)
· Generating brand buzz and awareness through online video: YouTube, etc.
· Posting company news through online press releases (all while building SEO)
· Promoting events through community and national calendars
· Garnering the benefits of user-generated content
Who knows what the future will bring with the explosion of smart phones, iPads and the next big thing being cooked up by Apple and Google.
The (purple) reign of the Internet will last for a long time. Make sure to seize the many PR opportunities it offers.
Does the price of an NBA Championship include the tab for the citywide celebration after the winning buzzer sounds? In Los Angeles, the answer is yes.
The Los Angeles Lakers will likely be amending their annual operating budget to include a season-ending party. In tight economic times, the Lakers ownership faced criticism last year after beating the Orlando Magic for the cost of a parade and citywide celebration.
After this year’s defeat of the Boston Celtics, the Lakers wasted little time announcing they will pay the bill for the 16th championship parade through the city of Los Angeles. In coordination with city officials, the Lakers response to the potential negative community relations was swift and professional.
The direct response shows that businesses that step up, get in front of the story and take responsibility will be praised in the public light. The Lakers saga shows that even in the height of success, businesses must stay alert to protect their public image.
With this public relations move, the Lakers are champions on the court, as well as off the court.
“What the hell did we do to deserve this?” BP CEO Tony Hayward
Here’s a PR tip that applies to BP and all businesses big and small: don’t underestimate the power of a good mea culpa.
Merriam-Webster defines mea culpa as a formal acknowledgment of personal fault or error.
Let’s say you happen to spill a few million gallons of crude oil into the ocean. That requires a super-size mea culpa. That’s the source of a lot of the public’s frustration right now. They’re hearing everything from excuses to rhetoric to things they can’t believe are coming out of the mouth of BP CEO Tony Hayward. Here are some Hayward quotes from a Newsweek story.
“What the hell did we do to deserve this?”
“…the Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean. The amount of volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume.”
“…the environmental impact of this disaster is likely to be very, very modest.”
“…there’s no one who wants this over more than I do. I would like my life back.”
And the company wonders why the public is livid?
"The manager at a major electronics store (we’ll call it 'Best Buy') would have been wise to opt for mea culpa"
Mea culpa also does wonders on a smaller scale. For instance, the manager at a major electronics store (we’ll call it “Best Buy”) would have been wise to opt for mea culpa after discovering that a customer (we’ll call him “me”) has been waiting for three weeks for an item to arrive that he was told would arrive two weeks ago. After several unreturned phone calls and two trips to the store, the manager discovered that her expert salesperson ordered the wrong item for the customer and the item that customer really needs can only be ordered online. She could be a graduate of the Tony Hayward school of PR , as she opted for a “not my fault” attitude. The customer was given $5 in free shipping, but all he really wanted was a sincere mea culpa and her best effort to make the situation right.
Regardless of whether you’ve fouled up a customer’s day or fouled an entire ecosystem and the livelihood of thousands of people, the advice is still the same: always start with a good mea culpa.
The beaches in Destin, Fla., were beautifully clear this past weekend for Memorial Day. Yet many of the visitors stayed away.
No oil or tar balls have hit the pristine Florida panhandle. Still, patrons are afraid. The key drive markets throughout the South have seen constant coverage of oil in the Gulf.
We have had the pleasure of representing resorts and vacation homes across the panhandle, and what is unfolding is another undeserved blow for the region. For the past three summers, many of the resorts suffered thanks to the economy. The mayor of Destin told CBS Evening News this was supposed to be the recovery year: The year when people from Memphis, Birmingham, Atlanta and points beyond ventured back to these wonderful Florida beaches.
Oil has caused the recovery to slide off course.
Florida officials have said it will take a concentrated effort to tell tourists that it’s still okay to enjoy the Florida beaches. They are right. No matter what happens with the oil, it is going to take consistent and honest reporting of the beaches’ conditions for the tourists to have the confidence to return in full force. Educational public relations is going to be key for full recovery.
Perception – unfortunately for Destin, Fla. – is reality. The facts say the coast is clear for now. Some tourists are not taking chances and have picked other summer fun spots.
Recovery is coming. But with an uncapped oil well not expected to be resolved soon, that elusive recovery will likely have to wait.
Destin is destined to give great travel deals this summer. This wonderful community deserves support.
There was an old Saturday Night Live sketch that featured a character named Leonard Pinth-Garnell . He was an arts critic who showcased the worst in everything; Bad Playhouse, Bad Cinema, Bad Opera, etc. The audience got to witness a truly awful performance.
Today we’ll borrow a page from Leonard Pinth-Garnell for an installment of Bad Media Relations. KGO-TV in San Francisco was doing a story looking at how money in a hospital patient gift fund was being spent.
Watch as the hospital community relations director touches investigative reporter Dan Noyes a couple dozen times and then shoves his hand in a camera lens. It’s one of the most bizarre PR-media encounters you’ll ever see.
The station says it went to a community meeting to try and get an interview after the hospital ignored its phone calls. This is a standard practice, and an excellent reason to not ignore repeated phone calls from a reporter. Not calling back is basically an invitation for the I-Team to show up unannounced.
The PR person says the reporter purposely disrupted the meeting and the hospital says the story was unfair and distorted the facts. You can read statements from both here.
This ugly scene was easily preventable. Call the reporter back and find out what they are working on. Work with the hospital administrators and defend your position if you believe what you’re doing is right. Do a sit-down interview with the reporter, or at least provide a statement or written answers to his questions.
Handle your media relations properly and you have a story that you may not like on one TV station. Bungle your media relations and your story is now all over major news sites and the video of your bizarre tactics are there for all to see.
Estee Lauder announced today that it is gearing up a social media program where it will give away free makeovers and photographic shoots at its department stores across the country starting on October 16th.
Kudos to Esteee Lauder for this PR makeover.
They understand that when pushing their product it’s not about Estee Lauder, it’s about the people they are trying to reach. Those people all have egos, they all want makeovers, they all like to see themselves in photos.
This new promotion will be interesting to watch because it combines the needs of the customer well ahead of the needs of Estee Lauder.
Estee Lauder is famous for giving away free cosmetic bags and other little trinkets that almost every girl or woman has somewhere in their closet. It will be interesting to see if this new social media program designed to provide more push on things like Facebook will get them better sales.
The key point for any company to remember; it’s not about you, it’s about your customers. For that, Estee Lauder deserves congratulations.
We’ve all heard the swine flu warnings, but what have you done to prepare your business to deal with a possible outbreak of swine flu? Do you have a public relations plan in place? Take this simple quiz to measure your readiness. Are you:
A. Crossing your fingers and hoping that you won’t be affected?
B. Buying some of these anti-swine flu suits from Japan? (looks great, kills germs!)
C. Coming up with a comprehensive plan to deal with a worst-case scenario?
We developed a comprehensive public relations and employee relations plan for a client who wants to be ready. Their crisis communications plan includes:
• Paying for flu shots for their employees
• Educating employees on symptoms to look for
• Implementing CDC guidelines on dealing with sick employees
• Coordinating an operating plan in case of a major outbreak
• Preparing to deal with media inquiries
So far the impacts of swine flu have been isolated, but major outbreaks are a real possibility.
What will you do if one of your employees is diagnosed with swine flu? If you don’t deal with the public, your only responsibility is to your employees. Will you tell them “Bob’s under the weather,” or will you be up front and tell your employees what they need to know? Do you have a business continuity plan in place? Are you ready to stagger shifts or allow people to work from home?
If you deal with the public, you have another set of concerns. Do you let them know that some of your employees have swine flu? Do you close for a few days for disinfecting? Sure, you’ll lose some revenue, but you have to weigh that against the implications of infecting some of your customers?
What will you tell the media? There’s the phone call you dread. Or worse – the TV station live truck parks out front at 4:30 pm.
There’s no one-plan-fits-for-everyone solution. What everyone has in common is that they need a plan in place – before it’s too late.
Besides, those Japanese suits cost $650 and they don’t even make them for women.
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Does the price of an NBA Championship include the tab for the citywide celebration after the winning buzzer sounds? In Los Angeles, the answer is yes. ![54400354[1]](https://wellonscommunications.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/544003541.jpg "54400354[1]")
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