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Get Your Summer Reading On! 5 Best Books for PR and Marketing Pros
Public Relations… By Gini Dietrich, CEO, Arment Dietrich, Author, Spin Sucks, Co-author, Marketing In the Round.
It’s the season of book publishing, which means we have a new crop of books to consider for our summer reading. But there are also some classics not everyone has read that keep topping the list of the best-of for communications professionals. While fiction, in the number five spot, is cheating a little bit, it’s included because all work makes for a very boring person. So, as you’re heading out for your vacations before the kids go back to school, consider taking (or downloading) the following books to read while you sip your Mai Tais:
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Business Marketing Toolkit: Email Marketing Tips Beyond the Basics
Marketing… By Wikus Engelbrecht, Digital Writer, GraphicMail
Today’s email marketing tools provide a wide array of advanced features to help both beginners and pros get the most out of any campaign. Email marketing has become a powerful weapon in the small business marketing toolkit. The ability to reach existing and prospective customers with a targeted, consistent message on a regular and timely schedule through a medium that is ubiquitous and efficient is an incredible advancement over the traditional direct mail or print/broadcast advertising paradigm.
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Shell’s Fake Social Media Fiasco – What Would You Have Done?
Social Media Zone… By Vicki @Smartwoman Flaugher
This week, a scenario that cuts way too close to horrible for most marketers surfaced. Last month, a Shell Oil themed launch party gone wrong (about kicking off drilling in the Arctic) was filmed, looking very grassroots and incognito, and it was widely shared on YouTube. The video even shows the security of the “private” event objecting to the filming, much like you’d expect. Next, enthusiastic, very real looking press releases were created, denying Shell’s involvement in the launch party. But, that’s not all.
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Engineering Happiness – Where Does Business Fit In?
By Rakesh Sarin and Manel Baucells for CSRwire’s Corporate Social Responsibility Channel
Ninety-five years ago, B.C. Forbes asked in the first issue of his magazine (Forbes): “Business was originated to produce happiness. Are we in danger of forgetting this?” To be happy is a basic human desire. Happy people tend to be healthier, live longer, and have better social relationships. Happy employees tend to be more productive and happy customers are likely to be more loyal and to buy more. So the question: how do we become happier?
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PR Pros on the Go: Nestle USA Welcomes Hannah Coan as New Vice President of Corporate & Brand Affairs
PR Newswire
Nestle USA announced today the retirement of Laurie MacDonald, Vice President, Corporate & Brand Affairs. Ms. MacDonald joined Nestle in 1985 working in the Nutritional Products Division before joining Corporate & Brand Affairs. Hannah Coan has been named Vice President, Corporate & Brand Affairs, Nestle USA. Ms. Coan was most recently Senior Vice President of Waggener Edstrom Public Relations, where she led communications for Microsoft’s Office Division. Prior to this, Ms. Coan was Executive Vice President and Managing Director of Publicis Consultants PR in Seattle, Wash. She was the team leader for numerous Nestle public relations programs, working with integrated teams on many Nestle brands in the United States. Ms. Coan will be responsible for Nestle USA’s internal and external communications, public affairs, and the Culinary Center based in Glendale, Calif …
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Shell’s PR Nightmare Continues as Public Is Duped by Greenpeace Parody
Forbes
Two months ago, an “Arctic Ready” website appeared online. Festooned with Shell Oil’s logo, it purported to be a site dedicated to educating the public about Shell’s drilling for oil up North. It even included an interactive ” social media” component – an “ad generator” allowing visitors to caption photos supposedly provided by Shell. It looked a lot like Shell’s own Arctic-focused section of its site. But it is and was a fake, created by anti-Shell groups – Greenpeace and the Yes Men. And despite the fact that it has been reported as fake repeatedly, visitors continue to be duped by it and so it continues to generate controversy for Shell. Greenpeace has apparently discovered that it’s far more effective to ram Shell online than it is to send Greenpeace boats out to protest or to handcuff themselves to drilling equipment in the snow. Combining a fake corporate site with a fake corporate reaction seems to legitimize the content, and convince or at least confuse most people on Twitter who have limited attention spans. Shell’s real attempts to contain it have been lackluster, in part because they likely fear bringing any more attention to the critical content …
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For Olympic Committee, Marketing Is No Game
NPR
One record expected to be broken at the London Summer Olympics is the size of its audience – an expected 4 billion people. For advertisers, that’s a golden opportunity. But there are also strict rules about who can use the Olympics to promote their products. One of those rules is known as the “blackout,” a period starting Wednesday in which athletes competing in the games may not appear in any advertising by companies that are not official Olympic sponsors. To understand what this means, consider Michael Phelps: Subway has long sponsored the Olympic swimmer, but it’s not an Olympic sponsor. That means no Subway ads featuring Phelps can air between July 18 and Aug. 15. But this Head & Shoulders commercial of Phelps washing his hair is fine – Head & Shoulders is owned by Procter & Gamble, which is an Olympic sponsor. Corporations have paid a lot of money to officially partner with the London Games. According to Lisa Baird, chief marketing officer for the U.S. Olympic Committee, that’s why this and other rules exist …
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CMOs on the Go: Delevic Resigns as Mako Surgical SVP of Sales and Marketing
CBS
Medical device maker Mako Surgical Corp. said Wednesday that its senior vice president of sales and marketing resigned. The departure of Steven Nunes was effective Tuesday. Dr. Maurice Ferre, the company’s president and CEO, will oversee the company’s sales operations in the interim while it searches for a permanent replacement, Mako said. Ivan Delevic, senior vice president for strategic marketing and business development, will become senior vice president of marketing and oversee commercial marketing, in addition to his existing strategic marketing duties, the company said …
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NYSE Retail Order Pilot Draws Competing Plans from Bats, Nasdaq
Bloomberg
Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. (NDAQ), Bats Global Markets Inc. and Direct Edge Holdings LLC are working on plans to compete with the New York Stock Exchange’s initiative to attract individual investors through superior prices. The exchange operators are developing strategies to deliver lower prices to retail investors who want to buy and higher prices to those selling. The Securities and Exchange Commission approved a pilot project to be started by NYSE on Aug. 1 to furnish individuals with prices at least one-tenth of a cent better than those available to mutual funds, high-frequency traders, brokers and other market participants. The program is aimed at helping NYSE to compete with so- called equity wholesalers, a category of market makers that executes orders for individuals sent to them by retail brokers such as TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. (MTD) and Charles Schwab Corp. Knight Capital Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc. are among the largest wholesalers trading orders away from exchanges at prices that match or improve on the levels offered publicly …
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U.S. Stocks Rise as Earnings Beat Estimates
BusinessWeek
U.S. stocks rose for a second day after companies from Intel Corp. (INTC) to Honeywell (HON) International Inc. reported profit that beat estimates and housing starts increased to the fastest rate in almost four years. Technology stocks had the biggest advance out of 10 groups in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index as Intel jumped 3.3 percent after posting profit that topped projections while scaling back its annual sales forecast. Honeywell surged 6.7 percent, pacing gains in industrial companies. EMC Corp. rallied 9.4 percent after announcing a new chief executive officer at VMWare Inc. (VMW) (VMW), the software maker in which it owns a majority stake. “There’s some reduced pessimism about earnings season and the outlook going forward,” Peter Tuz, who helps manage about $800 million as president of Chase Investment Counsel Corp. in Charlottesville, Virginia, said in a telephone interview. “People were expecting worse numbers from lots of companies.” …
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Show This to Your Boss: Five Ways PR Can Help You Grow Your Business
Dallas Morning News
Worth sharing with execs who “don’t get PR”: 1. In the absence of a PR strategy, you risk letting someone else establish your brand identity. Embracing social media and designating a spokesperson as a respected authority in your industry or local market can elevate your brand above the competition. 2. Get more bang for your buck. A sophisticated PR campaign can be executed at a fraction of the cost of most advertising campaigns. Many small businesses have found that diverting 10 percent to 20 percent of their advertising budget to public relations can lead to better brand recognition and customer recruitment. 3. Enhance your credibility. Advertising is paid self-promotion, and consumers are rightly skeptical of it. As a rule of thumb, a positive news story about your firm is worth three to five times the value of the equivalent amount of advertising …
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Coke and Pepsi Launch PR Assault Against NYC’s Soda Ban
Business Insider
Coca-Cola, Pepsi and others have mobilized their forces against New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s proposed soda ban, reports Laura Petrecca at USA Today. Hundreds of soda makers, sellers, trade groups and more have created New Yorkers for Beverage Choices – a coalition that’s taking on Bloomberg’s ban. It’s being spearheaded by the American Beverage Association, which is providing funding. Here’s what they’re doing in the PR blitz, according to USA Today: A social media campaign mocking Bloomberg for promoting the July 4 hot dog eating contest, Radio ads promoting the freedom to cheer for whatever sports team you want, live anywhere you want, and drink any soda size you want, Airplane banners that say, “No drinks for u! New Yorkers for Beverage Choices,” and a petition that more than 60,000 New Yorkers have signed …
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Report: Sponsored Stories, Mobile Ad Targeting Drive Facebook’s 2Q Ad Metrics
All Facebook
Facebook’s oft-criticized advertising sector got some good news in the form of the second-quarter 2012 Global Facebook Advertising Report from social media advertising specialist TBG Digital, as numbers were up across the board in several key metrics, driven largely by the success of sponsored stories. TBG analyzed some 406 billion impressions between the second quarters of 2011 and 2012, from 276 clients based in more than 190 countries, and it credited greater use of sponsored stories, as well as Facebook’s introduction of mobile ads, for the social network’s 58 percent jump in cost per thousand impressions (CPM) over the 12-month period. After an analysis of 13.8 billion impressions during the first two quarters of 2012, TBG found that sponsored stories received click-through rates 53 percent higher than standard Facebook ads, and the cost per fan for sponsored stories was 39 percent lower …
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Digital Ad Spend Gap Widens Between Obama and Romney
ClickZ
Despite the fact that he’s knee-deep in a general election slugfest, Mitt Romney’s campaign is way behind President Barack Obama in the online ad spending bout, and the gap has widened since 2011. However, while the Obama camp has reportedly spent four times that of Romney on TV spots, the margin is a bit smaller online. Since each campaign launched in Spring 2011, Obama for America spent $26.9 million on digital ads through May 2012, including text messages, according to ClickZ Politics analysis. That’s 3.5 times Romney’s $7.6 million. In 2011, Obama’s online ad expenditures merely doubled Romney’s. A recent Associated Press report stated Obama for America has spent $100 million on TV ads thus far, while Romney has spent just a quarter of that. Although many expect conservative Super PACs to fill Romney’s TV ad spending gap, it’s unclear whether they’ll step in to create parity online …
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