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To Press Release or Not Press Release, That is the Question

Posted on April 18, 2016 | by Catherine Seeds

As PR professionals, our main goal is to drive and secure coverage for our clients. As Ursula the sea witch from Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” says, “It’s what we do. It’s what we live for!”

In our last blog, we talked about the value of the modern press release and the benefits releases generate for PR campaigns. But according to our friends at NonProfitPR.org and as PR folks worldwide know, press releases are not always the best course of action and can often be just a big waste of time and money. See below for examples of when to not go down the press release path:

Announcing an event
Many companies, private and public, often use a press release to announce an event such as attendance at a conference or the launch of a propriety event. Even though you’ve taken the time to craft a release and send it to local media, rarely will you see these releases published among general media. Instead, consider listing on a community page or industry calendar. You can also utilize social networking sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter to highlight the news of your event and motivate your network into action.

Announcing a great story
When you have a great story to tell, look beyond a press release. Whether it’s to highlight a successful implementation with a customer or a longer feature story on a specific topic or trend, writing a release may give you some coverage, but there could be a better way to highlight this news. This is the perfect opportunity to give the scoop to a journalist to write a more in-depth story and publish your news. Not only do you begin to develop great media contacts, you end up with a great story about your organization.

Sometimes it’s just not newsworthy
Some companies assume they have to send a particular number of press releases each month or year in order to engage in strategic public relations. It’s never a good strategy to send releases simply to fill a quota. Sending the media lots of non-newsworthy releases (awards, speaking opportunities, small product updates, etc.) could cause journalists to stop reading your news altogether. When this happens, even when you have something truly newsworthy, it’s possible you still end up with no news coverage through no fault of your own. It’s much better to objectively analyze the worthiness of your announcement from a reporter’s perspective and then decide if a release is really the way to go.

There are many ways to have your news heard beyond the press release. From utilizing social networking, industry calendar listings and even pitching directly to journalists, picking the right strategy can provide better coverage and more public awareness, all at a more efficient cost.

Great Reads from Around the Marketing Blogosphere

Posted on June 13, 2013 | by Ketner Group | 1 Comment

This week we’d like to give a shout-out to other like-minded marketing or media agencies, whose blogs summed up everything we wanted to say before we could have said it.

Up first, is Thom Singer’s blog, “Tweet, Post, Update and Share Beyond Yourself,” which talks about the importance of promoting others even when there is nothing to gain personally. This is as easy as ‘retweeting’ someone else or sharing a Facebook update. The idea is to not make it all “Hey, look at me” but to make some of it “Hey, look at them!” You never know promoting others may lead to them promoting you.

Next we would like to mention Bazaarvoice and their blog on “Collaborative Economy,” a new(ish) way to reach, sell to and share with each other directly through a social, digital marketplace. This sharing marketplace allows customers to subscribe to or rent products other customers own. This was most commonly seen in media, such as: Netflix, Gamefly and Redbox, but now sharing has become something like a community. This may seem like a threat to traditional businesses, but in reality, this sharing marketplace offers great opportunities for businesses that jump on the trend. For example, Toyota now lets customers rent cars off their lots, competing with services like ZipCar and Car2Go, and Chevy partnered with mobile app RelayRides, which lets members rent out their cars while they aren’t in use. The collaborative economy moves beyond selling, and allows business to create relationships for mutual benefit.

Our last shout out goes to Marketo and their round up of the “5 of the Most Innovative and Unique Marketing Campaigns So Far in 2013.” With 917 shares and counting, I was interested to see what campaigns made the cut. Out of the five campaigns, two really stood out to me in both creativity and just plain ole’ fun: Senador Volstead Beer and #lowesfixinsix.

Senador Volstead Beer is a truly genius campaign, I may have LOL’ed a bit while marveling at its website. Senador Volstead is a beer company based in Spain named after Senator Volstead, who declared the start of prohibition in 1920. How did they keep to the prohibition theme? By hiding their product to make it look like they are selling teddy BEARS not BEERS. This is memorable and hilarious.
Second, is from a Lowes Vine campaign: #lowesfixinsix on a solution to keep rugs from slipping across the floor. This is a really innovative campaign that uses Vine’s strengths to create a step-by-step process for the consumer. This campaign really sticks out to me; it really shows how a brand can use Vine to their advantage. Make sure to check out the other campaigns as well, they all do an amazing job of capturing the attention of their audience.
Read an interesting blog lately or have any comments/thoughts? Please feel free to share!

Image courtesy of Lowes

SXSW: A blur in the rear-view mirror

Posted on May 6, 2013 | by Ketner Group

Photo courtesy of SXSW Interactive Festival

Both Austin and myself are fully recovered from the sleepless madness that is the South By South West (SXSW) onslaught of all things branded and hipster and geeky-cool that is now a much-loved and/or much-hated March tradition, depending on whom you ask (and whether or not you ask them as they sit in gridlocked traffic courtesy of all the road closures).

Though March and April(!) have come and gone, as have the road closures, thank goodness, I’m still thinking about a few sessions at SXSW Interactive (SXSWi) that opened my eyes to new ideas, and that’s the true value of SXSWi. As a busy professional, and one of the 69% of PR professionals that eat lunch at their desks every day, it’s so easy to put on blinders as I sit, chained to my computer every day, waging war against deadlines and monitoring budgets. Everyone needs to shake it up sometimes, and two sessions in particular posed questions that, a month and a half later, I still can’t shake.

The first session that blew me away was #bingle, a joint session with Danny Sullivan, Founding Editor Search Engine Land at Google, and Duane Forrester, Senior Product Marketing Manager of Bing Webmaster Tools. A pure Q&A format, the conversation was fluid and candid as SXSWi attendees took to the microphone to ask the experts. See the whole #bingle twitter feed here—look at the tweets from March 8-14.

The main question I walked away asking myself was this: What is the value of wire distribution for press releases?

Search engines have been discounting press releases for SEO for years. So what’s the real value here? This question has come up a few times recently at KG, but hearing it directly from Google and Bing has increased our sense of urgency in reevaluating our internal processes. While we’ve always been very selective about which press releases we distribute via the wire and which circuits we recommend, we can still be more strategic in why and when we recommend wire distribution.

The other session that I still quote and think about daily (not exaggerating) was #socialb2b, “B2B Social Marketing: Blazing New Trails,” led by marketing experts Jamie Grenney, VP of Social Media & Online Video at Salesforce.com, Jason Bartlett, VP of Global Social Marketing at Xerox Corporation and Jeanette Gibson, Sr. Director of Social & Digital Marketing at Cisco Systems Inc. See the feed of tweets from March 11 here.

This session was packed with tidbits that have not just lingered in my memory, but have actually inspired change within myself and across KG:

And to quote myself quoting the panel:

The question that a session attendee asked the panel that still haunts me is: How can we translate big enterprise B2B social media success to much smaller companies with fewer resources?

The panel didn’t have an especially confident answer on that one, which is admittedly a really tough question with which the majority of businesses across the country struggle. The idea the panel did suggest, though, resonated with me. They all stressed how successful YouTube videos have been for their enterprises, and this is something many smaller companies do not invest in, but could produce on a budget. So long as there is a direct call to action within the first 15 seconds, YouTube videos are highly effective. One reason for this is how safe it is to share a familiar YouTube link. This point was driven home this week when I found an email from Networld in my inbox that aggregated some incredibly compelling stats about video:

“89 million people in the United States are going to watch 1.2 billion online videos today.” (A second source: Comscore)
“Online video users are expected to double to 1.5 billion in 2016.” (Source: MediaPost & Cisco)
“Online video now accounts for 50 percent of all mobile traffic and up to 69 percent of traffic on certain networks.” (Source: TechCrunch & Bytemobile)

What’s more, PR giant FleishmanHillard saw the writing on the wall and this week announced they are rebranding from a traditional PR agency into a “channel agnostic” integrated marketing communications firm that will tackle digital marketing projects, including video.

SXSWi 2012 left me enlightened but exhausted. SXSWi 2013 left me inspired and recharged. The post-SXSWi zombie syndrome is always worth it to get out of my comfort zone and hobnob with the bright minds and progressive thinkers that are shaking up my industry. Ketner Group is committed to evolving with the times, staying fresh and current to bring our clients the most relevant, thoughtful counsel possible. We’re excited how far we have come—the new website, the new-and-improved PB&J blog, and the addition of the incredibly digitally-savvy Sara Lasseter—and we look forward to continuing to chart this new, more digital course through the rest of the year until SXSWi 2014, when we’ll fill up our inspiration tanks once more.

Social Media Scores as an Effective Marketing Tool

Posted on February 15, 2013 | by Catherine Seeds

super-bowl-social-media — Image courtesy of Branding Magazine

Super Bowl XLVII Shines in the Dark: Social Media Scores as an Effective Marketing Tool

Here is a statistic that will blow you away: According to a study from the Mobile Marketing Association and Session M, during the Super Bowl, a whopping 91% of viewers used their mobile devices during the commercial breaks!

After hearing this, one thing is for sure – we love our mobile phones as much as, or even more, than my three-year old son loves his special security “blankie.” Speaking from personal experience, when it comes to any highly-anticipated sporting event or celebrity-fueled telecast (such as the upcoming Academy Awards), my iPhone is never too far away. My need for instant gratification and social connection leads me to constantly check out what my friends are saying on Facebook and to make my own witty comments about the details of the event.

We all know that the Super Bowl commercials have become just as important to the overall event experience as the game itself, especially now with the saturation of mobile devices and social media. Brand marketers and advertisers have certainly stepped up their digital media game in recent years, and last Sunday was no exception. A few highlights:

Instant Advertising through Social Media
After the Super Dome lost power at the beginning of the third quarter, the quick-thinking team at digital ad agency, 360i, posted a picture of an Oreo cookie on Twitter with the tagline “You can still dunk in the dark,” moving from concept to posting in five minutes. Raise your hand if you were craving some Oreos and milk after seeing that posting! The ad became a viral hit, retweeted more than 15,000 times in the first 14 hours. Other brands tried to take advantage of the 34-minute game delay through Twitter, including Calvin Klein, Tide and Volkswagen – but none of them seemed to have the same affect that the Oreo ad did.

Online Contests and Customer Interactions: A New Focus on Online Integrated Marketing
While watching the commercials, I noticed that many brands developed advertisements that directed viewers to their websites for a more interactive experience. Coca-Cola held an online poll to vote for the ending of its commercial, asking viewers to select which one of the three groups in the ad (cowboys, showgirls and badlanders) would win a race across the desert to reach a bottle of Coke. Oreo again received rave reviews for their commercial that asked viewers to vote, via Instagram, whether they preferred the cookie or the cream part of the Oreo. After the cookie vs. cream campaign, Oreo gained more than 50,000 followers on Instagram.

The TV spot for CBS’ new show, Under the Dome, directed its viewers to visit www.UndertheDome.com

and enter your address to see what your home would look like under an actual dome. I did this and saw my house under a dome similar to what was shown on the commercial. I really don’t know what the show is all about, but the TV spot left an impression on me so I will probably check out the first episode.

Overall, the notion of online integrated marketing seemed to resonate with Super Bowl viewers. According to social marketing solutions provider, SocialCode, brands that advertised during the big game saw Facebook fan increases 2.7 times higher than non-advertisers, when compared with previous fan growth.

The Second Screen Super Bowl Wins
Super Bowl XLVII has been deemed the “Second Screen Super Bowl” meaning that CBSSports.com, for the first in Super Bowl history, provided a digital live stream of the game, as well as all of the TV ads and the halftime performance. This second screen experience gave fans new ways to interact with the big game and generate as much as $10 to $12 million for CBS.

What were some of your highlights from Super Bowl XLVII? Any forecasts for how NBC might try to checkmate CBS on the digital media front during the 2014 Winter Games?

Originally posted on Digby’s blog, The Mobile Retail Blog by Catherine Seeds

Vine: The New Social Sensation?

Posted on February 6, 2013 | by Ketner Group

Well we’ve just begun 2013 and a starlet app has already hit the social scene. Vine is the new kid on the block everyone is talking about – could it be the next big thing in social sharing? It’s still too early to tell, but the mobile technology industry seems to think this Twitter spinoff has a pretty good shot.

Vine is a video creation platform designed to let users record 6-second video clips or GIF-like spots and share them to the social sphere. After its January 2013 release by Twitter, the industry hype surrounding the app has been on the rise. Other social video products, like SocialCam and Viddy, have been circulating the mobile sharing community as early as 2011. These platforms gained momentum rapidly, but after the launch of the social media giant’s own video app, the chances of survival have dwindled drastically. Viddy has experienced the most significant blow to followers and finances after supposedly turning down a buyout by the very company that is putting it out of business.

Brands like Trident and Wheat Thins have already jumped on the Vine train, and more companies are on their way to implementing the new social feature on Twitter. While the video application offers a unique outlet to not only promote products and services, Vine does come with bugs and burdens as new platforms typically do. Some non-Apple mobile devices have seen difficulty viewing the clips and other issues involve the inappropriate or unintended use of Vine for explicit content. Vine has its concerns, but the possibilities for future use are potentially endless. Specifically, the entertainment industry is interested to see how this new face of social sharing will impact music marketing.

So will Vine become another addition to the list of failed “Instagram for video” platforms, or will this new app see a consistent following in the coming months? Only time will tell, but KG looks forward to observing the role Vine will play at the fast-approaching SXSW Interactive Festival!

4 Easy Ways to Refresh Your Company’s Branding Without Spending Too Much Money

Posted on November 29, 2012 | by Ketner Group

Have you ever gone into your closet at the change of a season looking for something to wear to mark the change (it’s finally chilly!)—and left disappointed? After ignoring your fall/winter clothes for the better part of half the year (in Texas), your clothes seem boring, blah and so last season. Well, instead of throwing on a pair of jeans and whatever t-shirt looks good with a scarf, refresh your wardrobe by mixing what you already have up a little.

The same concept is true for your company. A web designer once told me that companies usually spend a lot of time and effort building a website they’re happy with, then leave it stagnant. Then after two years, they’re unhappy with it again. I have worked with clients who are never completely happy with their company messaging and try to do a complete rewrite every year. I get that—the market changes, customer needs change, you find what works, what doesn’t—but there has to be a better and less time-intensive way to refresh a company’s brand without a complete overhaul of your website, collateral, messaging, etc.

1. Blitz your Blog. Reorganize and refresh the design of your blog instead of your entire website. Give your blog’s template a shiny new look—change up your categories, or add more. Putting more internal and external (promotional) focus on an interactive and ever-changing messaging avenue such as your blog will allow your company to respond more quickly to changing trends or hot topic industry news. And you’ll be less likely to grow tired of your website.

2. Create an evolving campaign. Evolving campaigns are brand initiatives that involve a central static idea with variable details/messages that change based on different tradeshows, product launches, customer events or promotions your company is planning. For example, take a look at our Be Spectacled campaign. Our central idea is our monocle man’s Be Spectacled slogan, which challenges our visitors to make their public relations program shine (with us, of course). Currently, we’re focusing our Be Spectacled efforts on NRF 2013, a huge retail technology-industry tradeshow. In the past, we’ve focused the campaign on South by Southwest Interactive. Our Be Spectacled evolving campaign lives in a prominent location on our homepage, and this helps our website stay up-to-date with our changing focus.

3. Quarterly reviews of messaging with sales team. The sales team is a great source of information when it comes to messaging. They’re out in the field every day speaking with prospects and customers, so they are loaded with information about the most common challenges prospects experience and can see first-hand what messaging points resonate with prospects and customers. Sales teams can point to the benefits your company’s services provide that are most important and helpful to customers. Sit down with your sales team every quarter to refresh company messaging. This ensures that it changes little by little instead of in huge chunks—which means less time and effort on the marketing team’s part!

4. Socialize. Social media can be an easy and cost-effective way to give your company a boost in chatter and activity. If your company is not on LinkedIn, Twitter and/or Facebook, yet, then you probably should be (with some exceptions). Brands should be involved with even more—Instagram and Pinterest are a must for brands right now. Ketner Group is even dabbling in some Instagram and Pinterest activities. Already in the social world? Change your social media profile photos and information. Something this little could provide you with a breath of fresh branding and is something your followers may notice.
On that note—follow Ketner Group on our other social pages—Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

Goodbye Summer 2012-See you in Rio in 2016!

Posted on September 27, 2012 | by Ketner Group

Summer is fleeting—even with the seemingly relentless heat of a Texas September, it’s undeniable that the days grow shorter and the mornings cooler, and the school zone lights blink their warnings during morning commutes.

The trouble with the end of summer is how fast the busyness of the fall and holiday season sneak up on you, even as you try to savor the last of the peaches and mourn the retirement of easy sundresses (just me?). It’s a fast and furious ride from here—a slew of fall birthdays (did you know more people are born in September than any other month?), big college football weekends, and then it’s straight on to Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas/Hanukkah, and New Year’s.

All of this is my way of saying that summer completely slipped away from me, without my permission, and in my denial that it is—officially—fall, I never posted part II of KG’s Olympic Love Fest.   We’ve made no bones here on the blog about how much we love the Summer Olympics at Ketner Group. I mean, some of us might love it more than others, but we all love a good excuse to have a little party and hang out together.

Thanks to NBC’s first-ever live streaming of the Olympics, the team realized how hard it would be to avoid spoilers if we waited until after work to watch the highly edited highlights of the day’s events in prime time. This was unacceptable (to some of us.) We then had the genius idea to set up a spare monitor in the conference room and hunker down for group work sessions while the Olympics were on in the background. Of course, one thing led to another, and the next thing you know, our group work sessions were complete with a daily rotation of hot tea, English muffins (perhaps a stretch authentic-wise), finger sandwiches, crumpets, scones, and bangers and mash.

We even found I had an Olympic doppelganger, Team USA swimmer Lauren Perdue.

Naturally I had to tweet at her because making a copycat picture isn’t weird enough by itself, and basically I’m famous now.

That first week of the Olympics was the most fun we’ve had at work in ages. Sometimes team bonding has a reputation for being forced and trite, but this was the real deal—pure team building gold. But, I had to leave a good thing, because I was on my way to London for the second week of the Olympics! (I think you can guess whether I am one of the KGers who really loves the games!)

My husband and I had the great fortune of seeing three events before we continued on to Europe. We saw Team GB’s greatest night of athletics ever (Americans call it track and field) (my bff Kate Middleton & her husband Prince William were there, too!), gymnastics individual finals (Gabby Douglas!) and men’s beach volleyball quarterfinals. We had fantastic seats at each event and had the absolute best time. I can’t believe we really got to go. But the real highlight of the Olympics for me was meeting Team USA gymnasts Jonathan Orozco and Jake Dalton.

And just for the record, if the athletes from my alma mater, the University of Texas at Austin, competed as a country, UT would have ranked in a tie for 13th place among all nations in the number of gold medals earned and tied for 18th in the number of total medals won.

U-S-A! Hook ‘em! Ketner Group!

INSTAGRAM AND PINTEREST: 6 WAYS TO TACKLE SOCIAL THROUGH MOBILE

Posted on September 24, 2012 | by Ketner Group

Originally posted on Digby’s The Mobile Retail Blog

The last couple of years have been pivotal for brands’ social media capabilities. Social media has grown beyond the 140-character, text-only limit and has blossomed into media-rich social communities. There is a burgeoning opportunity for brands to take advantage of social media in new ways to garner more brand interest, loyalty and participation.

About four years ago, Twitter was dominating the media waves with thousands of experts and bloggers sharing advice on how brands and companies could harness this new social technology. Now, media-rich platforms such as Pinterest and Instagram are the social media darlings, and Facebook continues to release innovative new capabilities for companies hoping to connect with their social customers. Some brands are making promising headway into social and mobile integration, and soon, they’ll be paving the way for many other brands. For companies contemplating dipping a foot in—or diving in completely—there are a number of practices to start now.

1. Incorporate merchandise photos on an Instagram brand page.

Instagram is a popular new photo sharing mobile app, where users can upload or take photos, edit them using preloaded photo themes and share with the community and their friends. Brands with photogenic merchandise should get on Instagram now. Companies should upload in-store photos of products or events, product shots, magazine spots and any other brand-worthy photos to Instagram, and tag them with key words and location to drive traffic to local stores. Puma (11,000+ followers) is doing a great job of sharing not only product shots, but lifestyle shots, with a friendly mobile fan base.

2. Add “lookbooks” to Pinterest.

Officially launched in 2010 as an invite-only beta trial, Pinterest has become the fastest growing and third most popular social network, behind only Facebook and Twitter. This virtual pin board allows users to upload photos from the web, add a description, organize by topic (or pin board) and share with their followers. Because every pin is credited back to the online source, many brands have experienced increases in site visits and sales from Pinterest traffic. A PriceGrabber.com study showed that 21 percent of Pinterest users had made a purchase directly from Pinterest.com. Companies could easily create boards that serve as lookbooks for their merchandise. One of my favorite brands to follow on Pinterest is Michael Kors, and his board, “Style Tips” is a good example of a brand sharing a product-inspired lookbook. A recommendation for Mr. Kors would be to link the photo back to the e-commerce product page or include the link in the description.

3. Allow customers to create and share Pinterest boards as a part of a community action.

Earlier this year, The Paper Source, an arts and crafts store, encouraged their customers to create a board inspired by a craft project using pins from Paper-Source.com as a part of a competition. The chosen winner of the most creative board would receive a large discount on all supplies needed to complete the project. It would be awesome to see a company run an in-store mobile contest where customers could create Pinterest boards on their phones or tablets by scanning product QR codes and adding them to the boards. Continue reading →

Social Media Dominates London 2012, Launches New Olympic Era

Posted on August 8, 2012 | by Catherine Seeds

Blog originally published on Digby’s The Mobile Retail Blog.

The 2012 Summer Games, hosted by the good people of London, has already been dubbed the “First Social Media Games”. As we start the second week of the XXX Olympiad, the world has already seen what a huge impact social media has had on the games – and the numbers are staggering! Twitter has already reported that the opening ceremonies sparked 9.66 million mentions, topping the total number of Twitter posts during the entire 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. According to iProspect, a large British digital marketing agency, and Carat, a media agency, Twitter was by far the favorite social media site, accounting for 97% of all online conversations about the opening ceremony.

Social Media Goes for Gold in London
For those of us who are Twitter users, we know there are good and bad sides to this social media platform. For this year’s athletes, it is a unique way to communicate “directly” to their fans, families back home, and other athletes. “Twitter and social media are how we can get our word out, and fans kind of want to see what things look like from behind the scenes,” says U.S. swimmer Ricky Berens in a recent Mashable article. “TV portrays things the way it wants to and we can give a lot more than that.”

The dark side of social media, however, can be downright mean and pressure-packed, as we have already seen during the first week of the games. After becoming the first African-American woman to win the individual all-around women’s gymnastics competition, America’s newest sweetheart, Gabby Douglas, became victim to social media bullies who made fun of her hair. When Aussie swimmer Emily Seebohm failed to take gold in the 100-meter backstroke final, she told reporters that she believed the pressure put on her via social media to win gold caused her to lose the race. “…Maybe I just started believing that I’d already won by the time I had swum…I just felt like I didn’t get off (social media) and get into my own mind,” said Seebohm.
Continue reading →