Gen Y Not? Three Tips for Tapping the Genius of Millennials in Communications Corporate Communications…By Shirley Engelmeier, CEO, InclusionINC Like many other business sectors, the PR and communications industry’s workforce demographics are increasingly complex with four generations sharing space and work. Interestingly in a digital and knowledge-based age, the youngest cohort in the office right now has a disproportionate influence because of the agility with which they find and deploy information.
Failing on YouTube? It’s Time to Revisit Your Online Video Marketing Fundamentals Marketing…By Jake Oates, Vidify YouTube isn’t the only video hosting site on the web, but it’s undoubtedly the most popular. After Google, YouTube is also the second most popular search engine which makes it a very important site if you want to bring more visitors to your website. If you’re looking to improve your site’s search engine optimisation (SEO) as well as your marketing efforts, then now is the time to revisit the fundamentals of optimising your videos.
Rodney King: Social Video and Societal Change By Larry Thomas for Latergy’s Social Video Channel Video has always been a social medium. People have gathered to watch and discuss moving pictures in theaters, living rooms and bars for years. Those conversations were frequently continued and extended around the office water cooler and elsewhere. Entertainment, sports, politics and news. Long before YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and smart phones we have been watching, sharing and commenting. Occasionally, the video elicits a response that truly impacts society.
A Public Nosedive: Spirit Airlines Pisses Off Entire Country over $197 By Steve Lundin for the Marketing Nightmares Channel There are just some things you don’t do: trip blind men, steal from the collection box and refuse to refund money to people who are dying- or in the case of Spirit Airlines, someone who is a dying veteran in a wheelchair. This past week, Spirit Airlines started a very public nosedive with their mismanagement of a customer relations issue, and it seems that their marketing advisors and CEO are either too stubborn or stupid to send out a Mayday call.
Email Marketing Tip #1: Build Your List Organically By WhatCounts for the Effective Email Marketing Channel Welcome to the first in a series of weekly “tips” for improving your email marketing ROI. We’re here to share effective email marketing success stories.
Even the entrance to his speech Saturday night was part of his schtick. The president walked off stage just before he took the podium with an alleged “hot mic,” making fun of getting caught last month on an open microphone with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. The president pointed out his similarities with the presumed Republican nominee, Mitt Romney.
“We both think of our wives as our better halves, and the American people agree to an insulting extent,” the president said.
“We both have degrees from Harvard. I have one, he has two. What a snob.” The association was formed in 1914 as a liaison between the press and the president. Every president since Calvin Coolidge has attended the dinner …
PR Agencies Get Into Media-Buying Game: Trend Driven by Social Media Ad Age Digital Next PR is boldly moving beyond earned media. This is a growing trend where its core competency — storytelling — is increasingly cutting across not just earned but paid media. Consider that Fleishman-Hillard last year bought about $100 million in paid media across nearly 25 clients. “Paid channels are another way to do our storytelling,” said Fleishman-Hillard CEO Dave Senay. “We never do paid media on a stand-alone basis. It’s just one component of an increasingly integrated spectrum.” PR firms like Fleishman have dabbled in creative advertising and buying before — particularly in the D.C. market for public affairs. But now PR-agency media buys are moving beyond the Beltway. Experts say it’s because earned-media efforts, especially social-media work, benefit from being supplemented with paid elements that drive consumers back to the original content. The budgets that PR shops work with pale in comparison to major media shops, where a single client budget can be north of $1 billion …
The report raises awareness about the use of mobile devices in connecting with social networks and how this is fast becoming a preferred method for cyber criminals to spread malware – primarily to Android-powered devices.
“We detected a big increase in the use of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter to target Android users. Cyber criminals are finding it very convenient to distribute their malware straight to a mobile device via these networks,” says Yuval Ben-Itzhak, Chief Technology Officer at AVG. “The growth of the Android platform has been phenomenal, which has not gone unnoticed with cyber criminals …
Tony Wells Named Chief Marketing and Customer Officer of ADT PR Newswire Tyco International Ltd. today announced that Tony Wells will assume the role of chief marketing and customer officer of The ADT Corporation, to be created upon separation from Tyco later this year. Mr. Wells, 47, joins ADT from 24 Hour Fitness, where he served as executive vice president and chief marketing officer since 2007. At 24 Hour Fitness, he was responsible for marketing communications, public relations, oversight of 24hourfitness.com, member services and retail products/services. Previously, Mr. Wells served as vice president, client services for VISA USA, Inc., where he was directly responsible for global relationship management for HSBC and USAA Banks …
Economic Data: Stats Show Employment Probably Picked Up in April BusinessWeek Hiring probably picked up in April after the weakest gain in five months, and the U.S. jobless rate stayed at 8.2 percent, showing improvement in the labor market, economists said before reports this week.
Payrolls climbed by 165,000 workers after a 120,000 gain in March, according to the median forecast of 64 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News before Labor Department data due May 4.
Bigger gains in hiring and wages gains are needed to sustain household purchases, which increased in the first quarter at the fastest pace in more than a year. Joblessness exceeding 8 percent for more than three years helps explain why Federal Reserve policy makers are sticking to a plan that holds borrowing costs low through late 2014 to spur growth …
Fed Guidance: Lacker Sees U.S. Fed Rate Hike in 2013 Reuters Richmond Federal Reserve Bank President Jeffrey Lacker said on Friday he believes the U.S. central bank will have to raise interest rates in mid-2013, not late 2014 as suggested in this week’s policy decision.
For a third meeting running, Lacker was the lone dissenter against the Fed’s calendar-linked interest rates guidance.
“I dissented because I do not believe economic conditions are likely to warrant an exceptionally low federal funds rate for this length of time,” Lacker said.
“My current assessment is that an increase in interest rates is likely to be necessary by mid-2013 to prevent the emergence of inflationary pressures.”
That was more specific than his March dissent, when Lacker stated an increase in the benchmark federal funds rate, now set in a zero to 0.25 percent range, would be required “some time in 2013.” …
PR Crisis: Amid Scandal, Wal-Mart Works to Clean Up Its Image Kansas City Star Wal-Mart’s PR team didn’t respond to request sto clarify how the company sees its own public image in the wake of the Mexico bribery scandal that erupted last week. But comms consultants agree the bruise from the Mexico allegations might have been lighter if Wal-Mart had been upfront about a business practice gone awry. “There is no way this one is going to go (away) quietly,” said James Haggerty, a lawyer, communications consultant and author of “In the Court of Public Opinion.” “Better to have gotten the story out on the right terms, in the right context, acknowledging mistakes and providing a complete description of the steps being taken to ensure it can never happen again.” Others wonder whether PR firestorms and employees’ grievances matter to the more than 200 million customers a week who pour into the company’s retail properties around the world …
In Case You Missed It: Penn State Spends Millions on PR, Hires New Firms Washington Post Penn State University hired two new public relations firms this week to navigate “corporate communications, media relations and stakeholder engagement” in the midst of one of the biggest higher education scandals in history.
Penn State has already paid $5.3 million to several firms, including Ketchum and Kekst public relations, to conduct an internal investigation and handle crisis communications, according to the university. Officials announced they had retained two new firms, Edelman and local shop La Torre Communications, for the next year for $2.5 million . Edelman, one of the largest public relations firms in the world, was hired by Duke University in 2006, soon after members of its men’s lacrosse team were indicted on rape charges that were later dropped …
Digital revenue at agencies surged 16.4% in 2011, with growth across agency disciplines. Digital-specialty agencies (digital pure plays, including search marketing, social media and mobile-marketing agencies) accounted for about six in 10 digital dollars, or $5.9 billion.
But agencies of all types are dialing up digital. The shift is most evident in customer-relationship management and direct marketing, where agencies pulled in an estimated $2.8 billion in U.S. digital revenue.
For the first time, digital services last year accounted for more than half of U.S. revenue at CRM/direct-marketing agencies …
F.C.C. Approves Plan for Online Database of Political TV Ads New York Times The FCC on Friday approved a proposal to have local broadcasters publish information about political advertising sales on the Web in a government database. Supporters of the proposal said it would give the public more information about the millions of dollars that are spent on ads to influence elections. It had been expected to pass despite deep opposition by the owners of some television and radio stations.
The information about ad sales is already contained in so-called public files, which stations are required to store at their offices. Moving the public files online was described by the commission’s chairman, Julius Genachowski, as a “common sense” step toward transparency …
