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Steve Jobs and a murder in Brooklyn
0July 6, 2005 by Colin
Sometimes, the values of a company shine through in a moment of anguish.
Christopher Rose, a fifteen year-old, was killed during a fight over an iPod last week. In a remarkable display of empathy, Steve Jobs called and spoke to the boy’s father:
“Calling him by his first name, Mr. Jobs asked how Mr. Rose was doing, he said, and conveyed his sympathies. “He told me that he understood my pain,” Mr. Rose said. “He told me if there is anything – anything – anything he could do, to not be afraid to call him. It really lightened me a bit.”(NYT)
iPods are apparently becoming the target of sidewalk robberies, especially among urban youth.
This week, Steve Jobs demonstrated that effective crisis communications doesn’t have to come from a rapid response binder, deployed by the corporate communications team.
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PR pays what? says the TV producer
0July 6, 2005 by Colin
If you follow this thread over at TV Spy, you can watch a TV producer realize that public relations staff are better paid – and have a better quality of life!
Ah. Schadenfreude.
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McDonalds Made me Phat, Baby!
0July 5, 2005 by Colin
McDonalds, in an effort to carve out more of a brand identity and boost employee retention numbers, is considering commissioning uniforms from contemporary designers like “Russell Simmons’ Phat Farm; P. Diddy’s Sean John; American Apparel; American Eagle Outfitters; Abercrombie & Fitch; Fubu; Rocawear; Tommy Hilfiger and others.” (Ad Age)
I had a friend in Grade 11 who, in an attempt to carve out an identity ŕ la Ducky, wore different retail uniforms to school. One day it was a complete Shell gas station attendant’s outfit, another a really sweet brown McDonalds polyester number from the 70s.
The idea works if you’re an individual: I don’t know if it will translate into a youth culture trend. How many flight attendants do you see trying to wear a Song uniform to the mall or a wedding reception?
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Craigslist and barriers to entry
0June 30, 2005 by Colin
Craigslist is a genuine, certified, giant. It’s making media conglomerates wet their beds at night. But it is still not the one-size-fits-all solution to publicizing garage sales, scrapbooking meetings and indie concerts that many web literati argue. Jim Buckmaster, Craigslists’ CEO, told the Fool:
“I think it is still at $18 billion, the classifieds industry. It is mind-boggling to us that so much money still goes into a problem that has basically been solved and the costs are extremely low. In our minds, far too much capital is going into something where they could be finding cures for diseases, putting men on Mars or whatever … with that money.” (Motley Fool)
I agree. But classified advertising also appeals to a segment of society that cannot afford the costs routinely assumed by current Craigslist users: the cost of equipment (either buying, leasing, or travelling to a public use computer), internet service (whether dial-up or broadband) and the spare time in the day to segment their information gathering deeply enough to identify Craigslist as a resource.
These are the dishwashers looking for jobs; Wal-mart employees looking for affordable apartments; the single mom trying to find daycare while holding down a job and going to school; the retiree trying to squeeze a few more dollars by selling the old lawn-mower.
They’re a significant proportion of the population, but a group that evangelists always seem to forget (or is that overlook) as they scramble towards the next innovation.
Evangelists can get so wrapped up in selling their new flavour of Kool-Aid that they forget billions of people travel the earth every day, oblivious and unaffected by their work.
Media conglomerates are searching for a solution to free services like Craigslist – a solution that saves their bottom-line. As traditional sources of revenue shrink, they may resort to subscription or pay-per-use schemes to fund their information gathering and distribution systems.
And this will likely result in less information and resources available to the poor – at least until the cost of computing becomes affordable for everyone (either over time or with extensive government underwriting).
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TransAtlantic Parliamentary Hottie of the Week
0June 28, 2005 by Colin
Quite surprised no-one in Ottawa picked up on the unlikely competition for parliamentary hottie of the week in the Guardian Backbencher newsletter a couple of weeks ago:
… As ever, the Backbencher’s appeal for male totty has been roundly ignored, with terrifying junior minister Caroline Flint and Ottawa MP Rona Ambrose engaged in an unlikely run-off for Hottie of the Week. Frankly, the Backbencher only has eyes for Nicolas Sarkozy and Dominique de Villepin – a political rivalry so enthralling that it makes Tony and Gordon’s relationship look positively amicable …”
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RSS, aggregators and coporate comms
0June 28, 2005 by Colin
Everybody working in corporate communications raise your hands. Everybody who has an RSS aggregator step forward. Now, who actually asked the corporate IT guys about authorized software and loads before installing it?
Most corporate IT shops (in traditional industries and smaller companies) haven’t quite cottoned on to RSS. It’s probably taken goading by early adopters to have them even look into the area. That’s why the news that IE7 will support RSS should make them nervous.
Chad Dickerson remembers the load problems that developed with IE4′s Active Desktop: preprogrammed calls to the web driving loads up, even when users weren’t at their computers.
IE7 will certainly force the corporate IT team to look seriously at RSS.
Thanks to Steve for the link.
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Pitching the principled influencer
0June 28, 2005 by Colin
Nic Harcourt is the host of Morning becomes Eclectic on KCRW, an LA listener-supported radio station. The show has long been a platform for emerging and aspiring musicians, but elements of Harcourt’s playlists have increasingly found a home in more mainstream music.
This, the NYT Magazine notes, makes him an influential (and much pursued) element in LA’s music industry:
“Harcourt, whose show is broadcast daily from 9 a.m. to noon, has a knack for finding interesting new music ahead of everyone else: he was the first in America to play Norah Jones and Coldplay on the radio; like Jesca Hoop, the platinum-sellers Dido and David Gray were unsigned artists whose demos Harcourt originally spotlighted on his show; and more idiosyncratic unsigned acts like Damien Rice, Sigur Ros and Jem have all also become the object of record-company bidding wars as a result of Harcourt’s championing.”
At first glance, Harcourt may fall squarely under the marketing tag of an “influencer.” But, as he told Frontline last year, ”
“I’m apparently unworkable, is what I’m told by various people …”
The usual promotional efforts, side deals and exclusive releases don’t seem to work with KCRW. Surprisingly, it seems that traditional PR tactics may be the best approach: study your audience, target your pitch, and demonstrate relevance and benefits. Harcourt again:
“I’ve worked in the commercial world as well, so I understand that side of it. But I think what I found is that people in the business who understand what KCRW is, and what “Morning Becomes Eclectic” is, and maybe have a sense of who I am, realized that if they’re smart and they’ve got good music, and they’ve got an artist who deserves to be heard, then this is a place that they can launch that artist. And there’s numerous examples of that.” (Frontline)
A side note: I highly recommend the podcasts for KCRW’s The Business (with Variety’s Claude Brodesser) and The Treatment.
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This blogspot has one more Canadian
0June 22, 2005 by Colin
Hey Canadians! Rick Mercer’s blogging now! Here’s a nibble:
“stupid and talking, my favorite combination in a politician.”
Rick is the host of a successful comedy show called “Monday Report” on the CBC. Or, at least he used to be, until the CBC decided that his show would be better shown on Tuesday. There goes all that brand name/scheduling synergy, right out the window!
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Takin’ it to the streets!
0June 22, 2005 by Colin
I can understand the idea that publishing the home addresses of prostitutes caught working the streets of Chicago might cause them shame and prompt a change in activities. But publishing their arrest address, most likely where they regularly ply their trade?
Taken together with the pictures posted online by the Chicago Police, this might be a form of advertising!
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Editors, Sloan Rangers and iPods
0June 21, 2005 by Colin
Sarah Sands is the new editor of the Sunday Telegraph, and she spoke to Roy Greenslade about her new job:
“My rather trite observation is that I’d like the paper to be like your iPod, containing all your favourite things. If we can have a sense of gaiety, that will be a quality that sets us apart. I want people to treat it like a party, a nice place to hang out. I know this is a nebulous idea, but I think we can get there.”
What? You want your newspaper to be chock-full of:
- Paul Anka covers of 80s hits?
- Stewart Brand interviews?
- Arcade Fire bootlegs?
- recordings of old John Peel shows?
- that one Jeff Foxworthy routine?
- Malcolm MacLaren’s mid-80s pop/rap hits?
- one country music song?
- and, to bring this post back around, both of Rick Astley’s hits?Why Rick Astley? As the Guardian further tells us, Shaw:
… In her very earliest days as a cub reporter, in her early 20s, she was regarded as a bit of a “Sloane Square punk” …
Uuum. Don’t you mean Sloane Ranger?
Ah, dear reader. Are you still sooking for a weighty and intellectual analysis of the benefits of her iPod analogy? Let’s cut this short. I have seen the bastard child of the iPod and the traditional newspaper, and it is called USA Today.
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Experiential marketers have a brand image problem
0June 20, 2005 by Colin
They have a difficult job. Responding to newspaper ads or flyers on telephone poles, these poorly-paid workers show up at non-descript offices in suburban office parks, or even meet for work at a designated street corner. Their ostensible “bosses” have no real empathy for them, nor do they have any job security.
Their job? To work street corners, conventions and malls, raising awareness of their brand among a defined groups of consumers, suggesting ideas and helping sketch out benefits to convert reluctant or inhibited prospects into buying customers.
Sometimes a costume helps. Other times – free samples.
But there’s a hitch in this narrative. I’m talking about the members of the Canadian National Coalition of Experiential Women.
And they’re sex trade workers.
Better watch out – looks like there’s one marketing buzzword that’s going to lose its lustre.
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Swag, Sheep and podcasts
0June 17, 2005 by Colin
I’m told there’s a new t-shirt waiting for me at home, courtesy of the guys at the American Copywriter podcast. Thanks Tug and John!
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A sign things are going bad for the Greens
0June 17, 2005 by Colin
The White House has been none too subtle in its 1970s attitude towards the dangers of climate change. So it comes as little surprise that one of the lead Administration officials on the file has “gone to the dark side.”
“… White House Council on Environmental Quality chief of staff Phillip Cooney, left the administration last Friday to take a public relations job with oil giant Exxon Mobil, a leading opponent of mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions …” (WPost)
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comments are back, folks
0June 17, 2005 by Colin
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PR Compensation and Job Satisfaction Survey
0June 16, 2005 by Colin
YoungPRPros, a YahooGroups email community aimed at PR folks under 40, has launched its first ever Compensation and Job Satisfaction Survey, focusing on North American practitioners and customized by work environment.
Take part now for access to a great resource when it comes time for your next career move or salary review. Respondents will receive the results free.
Canuckflack
… Colin McKay has some thoughts about design, data, management, government and oddities … written in Canada!
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Blood Stains from the slaine Monks of Lindisfarne in the Viking attack of 793AD. Â Folios 191v and 192r of the Lindisfarne Gospels - written and illuminated by the Anglo-Saxon Bishop Eadfrith in 698AD.
Liber generationis Jesu Christi
“Lo, it is nearly 350 years that we and our fathers have inhabited this most lovely land, and never before has such terror appeared in Britain as we have now suffered from a pagan race, nor was it thought that such an inroad from the sea could be made. Behold, the church of St. Cuthbert spattered with the blood of the priests of God, despoiled of all its ornaments; a place more venerable than all in Britain is given as a prey to pagan peoples.”
Alcuin, Letter to Ethelred, King of Northumbria
Images: British Library
I had a Brooks Brothers 15 1/2 - 35 shirt and we used its front pocket to determine when the Pilot design was “pocket sized” - Joel Jewitt, discussing the invention of the Palm Pilot
http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130408043926-7298-early-employees-joel-jewitt-palm
Before I discovered the Internet
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