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Toronto Star adds del.icio.us bookmarking
1April 16, 2006 by Colin
Sometimes, fundamental shifts in how the traditional media works with its customers seem to fly under the radar – especially in Canada. Earlier this month the Toronto Star (a Toronto paper with national reach, circulation 984,700 daily ) added del.icio.us bookmarklets to all its online articles.
What does this mean? It means that columnists like James Travers, who today wrote about the new press regime being imposed by the Prime Minister’s Office, have a far greater chance of influencing online discussion of issues important to their readers – and the countless other people their readers influence. At least until his piece disappears behind the subscriber firewall after a week.
Unlike, say, the Globe and Mail, where columnists and editorials are always behind a subscriber firewall.
Which social media tactic has more impact, both on the reputation of the paper and the influence of the ideas it prints? The now ubiquitous “e-mail this” link? A site-based community for comment like you can find on globeandmail.com, or a more paticipatory vehicle like del.icio.us?
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Airports, communities and San Diego: a public relations campaign
0April 14, 2006 by Colin
San Diego may need a new airport. Or maybe not. The San Diego County Regional Airport Authority is well into implementing a community outreach and consultation campaign on future growth plans for the facility. Some details about the campaign’s tactics are discussed in an article posted on voiceofsandiego.org: “Ghostwriting the Airport’s Story.”
As most PR pros would expect, the Authority isn’t working alone. It has brought on a local public relations firm that won a tendered contract worth up to $3.8M. GCS Public Relations has even won a Bronze Anvil for some of their work for the Authority.
An online investigative paper, voiceofsandiego.org has examined two years worth of the firm’s invoices, originally obtained under a California Public Records Act request.
One example: GCS Public Relations billed the Authority $3,140 for 16.5 hours labour helping to prepare an ostensibly third party op/ed published in the Sand Diego Union-Tribune in December.
“… Not all of GCS’s efforts happen behind the scenes. The public relations firm has pitched speaking opportunities to groups ranging from the Black Contractors Association of San Diego to the Borrego Springs Republican Women Federated. Staff members have e-mailed every Rotary Club in San Diego County. They convinced Vista school officials to allow students to earn credit for attending a local town hall meeting.
Airport officials and authority board members typically attend the meetings and hold question-and-answer sessions. The town halls feature a three-minute, 40-second video that explains the need for a new airport.” (voiceofsandiego.org)
This isn’t your traditional slapdash story demonizing the large public organization for wasting money and blindsiding the public. Instead, Rob Davis, the author, casts a careful eye on the way the authority and its public relations agency (and partners) have approached their shared goals – and how some members of the community have reacted to their solicitations of support. It’s well worth a read.
For more information, a year-old article from the San Diego Reader discusses GCS work in support of the Authority, and looks into the activities of the Alliance in Support of Airport Progress in the 21st Century, a lobbying group promoting the relocation of the airport.
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CSR: what is it good for? Huh!
0April 11, 2006 by Colin
Apologies for the affront to the collective genius of Frankie Goes To Hollywood/Edwin Starr. What is the true, quantifiable, worth of corporate social responsibility? Aside from polishing up Nike’s annual report? Or pulling a veil over the dirty workings of international oil conglomerates? Wal-mart must be wondering that as it tries to marshall positive voices in favour of its banking application, currently being heard by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Voices like Andrew Young and the Salvation Army.
Arrayed against the corporation, it seems, is every community bank in the country, local activists, and a sizable number of members of Congress. And the Wal-mart haters. Wal-mart flavoured haterade must be on sale, because there are some people with some real issues speaking out on this banking application:
“walmart has decided to try to rule the world. The stores and their domination are bad enough. If they have control of a financial institution it could be a disaster. All their friendly, good old boy, we’re with you America ads are just a sham. They are out for one thing, the all mighty dollar, and it has to go into their pocket. I’m not fooled by their folksy attitude one bit. If they control a bank in any area they control the area, if you’re not with them, you’re against them and you get no loan for your new business.” (FDIC submission, .pdf)
Hearings are on now at the FDIC offices in Virginia, and:
“At times, the hearing felt more like a referendum on Wal-Mart’s integrity than the wisdom of allowing it to open a bank, with friends and foes of the retailer marshaling character witnesses. Testimony touched on Wal-Mart’s role in port security, its efforts to recover missing children, the generosity of its health insurance plan and the cost of a shovel at its stores.”
The corporation’s certainly facing an uphill battle. The lobbying battle against the application seems to be led, in part, by the Independent Community Bankers of America. Common themes, and phrases, run through many of the letters filed with the FDIC. Quite a few seem awfully similar, like the 49 or more nearly identical letters from the Citizen’s Tri-County Bank.
I understand the value, from the pespective of sheer quantity and physical impact, of organizing a petition or letter campaign. But what is the real effect of all that work (or, in the case of an online email campaign, not that much work)?
Research with members of Congress has shown that form letters, or letters that are evidently the product of an organized lobbying or petitioning campaign, are discounted by politicians. Communicating with Congress: How Capitol Hill is Coping with the Surge in Citizen Advocacy, prepared by the Congressional Management Foundation, provided quantitative and qualitative backing for this finding:
“I wish that outside groups would understand that overwhelming our office with form letters does
more harm than good for their causes.”—House Correspondence Staffer
“One hundred form letters have less direct value than a single thoughtful letter generated by a constituent
of the Member’s district.”—House Correspondence Staffer
“In cases where the Member/Senator has not reached a firm decision on an issue, 44% of staff surveyed said that individualized postal communications have “a lot” of influence, compared to 3% for identical form communications. As one House staff member noted, personal communications are more effective than form messages “because the recipient knows that the author was truly motivated by the issue.”
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McDonald’s, VOIP and long-distance orders
0April 11, 2006 by Colin
Your next drive-thru order at MacDonald’s may not be taken by a sweaty, slightly overweight and harried assistant manager with an ill fitting corporate dress shirt. If you’re in Hawaii, the person asking you about supersizing may in fact be over a thousand miles away – in Santa Maria, California.
Thanks to low-cost VOIP, centralized call centres and a standardized menu, remote order-taking has arrived.
MacDonald’s executives first floated the idea at a retail conference a year ago.
“”You have a professional order taker with strong communications skills whose job is to do nothing but take down orders,” said Matthew Paull, McDonald’s chief financial officer.
Paull said a “heavy percentage” of complaints the company receives are from drive-thru customers who got the wrong order. “Even if 95% of the time it is right, those 5% are very upset with us,” he said. (USA Today)
Today, the NYT details how one call centre 150 miles from L.A. is serving drive-thrus in Mississippi, Wyoming and Hawaii – among 40 locations.
“When the customer pulls away from the menu to pay for the food and pick it up, it takes around 10 seconds for another car to pull forward. During that time, [Doug King, CEO of the outsourcing firm Bronco] said, his order-takers can be answering a call from a different McDonald’s where someone has already pulled up.
The remote order-takers at Bronco earn the minimum wage ($6.75 an hour in California), do not get health benefits and do not wear uniforms. Ms. Vargas, who recently finished high school, wore jeans and a baggy white sweatshirt as she took orders last week. (New York Times)
I can see one benefit to the consumer: an outsourced call centre may be able to provide better service in spanish – if the right order-taker picks up. I don’t know whether these order-takers will be immediately familiar with local condiment or combo preferences.
Really, are we going to revert back to the old Automat restaurants, with giant displays of prepared food ready for sale at the drop of a quarter? It’s bad enough I can see the teenage “cook” take the sausage patty for my Egg Mcmuffin out of a plastic warming tray – like an Easy Bake oven – without dropped data packets ruining the call and completely depersonalizing the experience.
Remember, at lunchtime, Skype “Ronald’s McNuggets”
For further commentary, American Public Radio reported on the use of call centres in fast food in January 2005.
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Sting: just not as cool as he thinks he is
1April 10, 2006 by Colin
This just in from the world of marketing non-sequiturs:
“IN THE LATE 90s, I was working on a campaign to make Compaq hip. The firm attempted to buy itself coolness by sponsoring Sting’s world tour …”
I’m sorry. I think I must have misread that. Did you just associate hip and cool with the artist known as Sting? Was this the 90s, or 1983?
From MediaPost’s SearchInsider.
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Public service advertising: don’t discount the soft sell
0April 9, 2006 by Colin
Public service ads aimed at moving health and risk-based behaviour may benefit from more motivational and incremental messaging: so says work by Magdalena Cismaru, of the University of Regina.
“Treats alone are not enough,” she says. “I don’t think there is a smoker in Canada who doesn’t already know that smoking leads to all sorts of terrible diseases. … What is much more important in people’s decision-making process is ‘how difficult will it be for me to make these changes?’” (Canadian Business, not online)
PSAs need to provide the audience with the moral or practical support to change their behaviours: in situations where consumers are unsure of their ability to break longstanding habits on their own, they may retreat from hard-hitting advertising and messaging.
The .pdf of “Using Protection Motivation Theory to Increase the Persuasiveness of Public Service Communications”, heavy in social science jargon, can be found on the Saskatchewan Institute of Public Policy website.
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Competent Speechwriters: the undiscovered country
0April 8, 2006 by Colin
The claim: Canadian executives are poorly served by their speechwriters – or the agencies that claim they have speechwriters on staff. Scott Feschuk and Scott Reid think they have the answer. Formerly the speechwriter and director of communications in the office of Prime Minister Paul Martin, they’ve set up shop to produce bespoke texts for every Empire Club, Board of Trade, Rogers Cable 22 and Toastmasters appearance you may face.
“As a former reporter, Mr. Feschuk says he has sat through enough annual general meetings to realize that speechwriting is not a priority in Canadian business.
The work is usually assigned to the member of a company’s public affairs team who “makes the least amount of spelling mistakes,” he says. “And you can tell.”
“”There’s a market that’s not as well-serviced as it ought to be,” [Mr. Reid told the National Post] “Generally what happens is a large communications firm says it can do a speech and it gets pawned off on the lowest associate. It’s seen as low-hanging fruit. But if you’re a CEO who has to speak in front of 500 people, it’s a pretty intense experience and you want to be working with good stuff.” (National Post, behind a firewall)
I think they’re selling the industry short. There are a number of skilled speechwriters in Toronto and Ottawa. Equally, we’ve all worked on speeches at one point or another. There you have it – the peaks and valleys of speechwriting in Canada.
I also suspect, Michael Cowpland, Conrad Black and the Rick George aside, that Canadian executives didn’t feel pressed to deliver well-tailored speeches. Until Sarbanes-Oxley, that is. With stock cross-listed in Toronto, New York and London, off-the-cuff ramblings can cause tremendous complications with financial and legal regulators in many countries.
Technorati: speechwriting
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Why does your client’s argument fall on deaf ears?
0April 6, 2006 by Colin
What logical structures guide public relations staff in building and deploying an argument in favour of their clients? When confronted with a demand for an explanation “why?”, there is always a “reason” underlying the logic in your media lines and storyline. In his book Why?, the sociologist Charles Tilly identifies four different types of reasons – or answers – that we all attempt to use at one time or another. Malcolm Gladwell wrote about Tilly this week:
” … In Tilly’s view, we rely on four general categories of reasons. The first is what he calls conventions — conventionally accepted explanations. … The second is stories, and what distinguishes a story … is a very specific account of cause and effect. Tilly cites the sociologist Francesca Polletta’s interviews with people who were active in the civil-rights sit-ins of the nineteen-sixties. Polletta repeatedly heard stories that stressed the spontaneity of the protests, leaving out the role of civil-rights organizations, teachers, and churches. That’s what stories do. As Tilly writes, they circumscribe time and space, limit the number of actors and actions, situate all causes “in the consciousness of the actors,” and elevate the personal over the institutional.
Then there are codes, which are high-level conventions, formulas that invoke sometimes recondite procedural rules and categories. … Finally, there are technical accounts: stories informed by specialized knowledge and authority. An academic history of civil-rights sit-ins wouldn’t leave out the role of institutions, and it probably wouldn’t focus on a few actors and actions; it would aim at giving patient and expert attention to every sort of nuance and detail.
Tilly argues that we make two common errors when it comes to understanding reasons. The first is to assume that some kinds of reasons are always better than others—that there is a hierarchy of reasons, with conventions (the least sophisticated) at the bottom and technical accounts at the top. That’s wrong, Tilly says: each type of reason has its own role.Tilly’s second point flows from the first, and it’s that the reasons people give aren’t a function of their character—that is, there aren’t people who always favor technical accounts and people who always favor stories. Rather, reasons arise out of situations and roles. (New Yorker)
More detail can be found in a lecture by Tilly. I’ve included a sizeable excerpt after the jump, an excerpt that deals with how social scientists struggle to communicate their research and theory effectively to the general public.
keep reading »
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Muzak: programming the time of your life
0April 5, 2006 by Colin
“Audio architects“: those are the specialists at Muzak that custom design playlists for their client companies. They pick and choose from artists like Roy Orbison, Motley Crue, Nathalie Imbruglia and thousands of others to help score your retail experience and subconsciously underline their client’s brand attributes.
As a career, I can only imagine that every day these Muzak employees live the same sort of life as Rob, the record shop manager in High Fidelity, who constantly sorts songs and artists into playlists and mix tapes. But without Jack Black as a foil.
“…If you are a company that sells candles, you want an experience that’s moody, low light, and very organic, and so you want a sound system that kind of envelops you. If you walked in, you wouldn’t see a speaker, whereas when you come into an environment that’s more youth-oriented, like this one, the speakers are right there, and they aim the music at you, so that you feel it and get a real sense of where it’s coming from. And at Old Navy the music would be even more in your face.”
Muzak’s audio architects do something analogous within programs, too: some customers want to establish different moods at different times of the day; some want current hits to repeat frequently, as they do on Top Forty radio stations; some want programs that are closely geared to the seasons. At some retailers, one of the biggest changes occurs at closing time, when the music becomes louder, more intense, and presumably more likely to include lyrics that could be mistaken for profanity. That’s an after-hours program, designed by Muzak’s audio architects for employees who restock the shelves.” (New Yorker)
Rob: The making of a great compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do and takes ages longer than it might seem. You gotta kick off with a killer, to grab attention. Then you got to take it up a notch, but you don’t wanna blow your wad, so then you got to cool it off a notch. There are a lot of rules. Anyway… I’ve started to make a tape… in my head… for Laura. Full of stuff she likes. Full of stuff that make her happy. For the first time I can sort of see how that is done. (High Fidelity)
Technorati: Muzak blog High Fidelity mix tape
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Inside PR: a public relations podcast worth monitoring
1April 5, 2006 by Colin
There’s a new PR podcast on the horizon up here in the thawing Canadian north. David Jones and Terry Fallis launched their Inside PR podcast this week, with very few of the opening night jitters you often note from fledgling efforts. I delayed posting about their baby until I had a chance to actually listen: well worth the time, and it’s refreshing in its relative absence of the now-expected social media liturgy.
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Your Corporate “Real Men of Genius” Profile
0April 4, 2006 by Colin
The employee profile. The tried and true tactic in any internal communications plan, or if you’re trying to humanize your large faceless service organization. And an easy target for satire and mockery – especially if you’ve been cheap in hiring a corporate photographer.
Still, Dealbreaker’s posts on the profile posted for a Lehman associate are good for a laugh.
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Montreal’s wayfinding and parking signs blow goats
0April 3, 2006 by Colin
Marco Fortier, of Le Journal de Montreal, spoke to an urban design expert about the horrible state of affairs on Montreal’s roads:
«Tout ce qui est signalisation Montréal, c’est l’enfer. C’est honteux. De la vraie bêtise humaine», dit-il.
Luc-Normand Tellier dirige le Département des études urbaines et touristiques de l’UQAM. Son métier consiste «organiser» les villes pour qu’elles fonctionnent. Il n’a jamais vu une Ville qui organise son stationnement aussi mal que Montréal.
«Il y a les parcomètres, les espaces sans vignettes, les espaces avec vignettes, les espaces pour handicapés de telle date telle date, les flèches gauche, les flèches droite, les heures qui changent d’un poteau l’autre. C’est devenir fou!» lance Luc-Normand Tellier dans un éclat de voix. (Le Journal de Montreal)
Thanks to PWI and Montreal City Weblog for the pointer.
Technorati: Montreal urban wayfinding
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Pull quotes: highlighting the actual meaning?
1April 3, 2006 by Colin
Isn’t this a remarkable jumble of mismatched fonts and font sizes? The Hill Times, the weekly tabloid newspaper that covers Parliament and politics in the nation’s capital, seems to be trying out a graphic redesign, one component at a time. This week, the pull quotes are broken out in a new sans-serif font in a variety of randomized sizes. Meanwhile, the rest of the headlines, sub-heds and text remain in stodgy old serif font.
The overall design of the paper hasn’t changed, with every inch of space crammed with articles, stakeholder ads and classifieds for movers, executive retreats and emergency loans.This leaves the overall impression that, once every couple of pages, the editor’s inserted a word jumble for the entertainment of readers.
To be fair, I think I can see method in the madness. Quotes from Ottawa sources – be they government, political or third party sources – can be full of clauses, conditional statements and overrun with adjectives. The new graphic treatment seems to highlight the core ideas or opinions buried in the pull quotes, drawing them out from behind their thicket of words and ancillary ideas.
Still hurts my eyes, though.
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CCNMatthews buys MarketWire: It’s all about the benjamins, baby
3April 3, 2006 by Colin
CCNMatthews, a Canadian newswire, has picked up MarketWire, the State’s #3 wire. Found that out in an email from their PR rep. MarketWire’s logo has already been redesigned. So why does MarketWire’s news release try to spin it as a merger or a partnership?
“Market Wire Joins CCNMatthews to Form Full-Service Newswire With Largest Media Distribution Footprint in North America” (MarketWire)
“CCNMatthews Acquires Market Wire To Form Full Service Newswire With Largest Media Distribution Footprint In North America” (CCNMatthews)
Who’s in charge? Really? To paraphrase the Friendly Giant: look down, way way down, in the news release:
“Both companies will continue operating as they had prior to this acquisition with Market Wire, headquartered in Los Angeles, California, being led by current president and CEO Jim McGovern, and CCNMatthews, headquartered in Toronto, Canada, continuing under the leadership of president and CEO Michael Nowlan. McGovern will report to Nowlan.“
The Canadian march to dominance in the creative industries continues. It all began with Lorne Greene, and the insidious spread of patience, politesse and good cheer continues today.
Update: The firms’ PR rep points out to me, quite rightly, that the second para of MarketWire’s release notes that “Company representatives disclosed that CCNMatthews was acquiring 100% of Market Wire’s stock in an all-cash deal. The companies have been in discussions for several months.” Guess I skipped over that, which leads me to this question:
“Except for material you’ve written yourself, do you read more than the head and the lede in a news release?”
Technorati: branding CCNMatthews MarketWire
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Media Relations for the Rich: The Sound of Silence
0March 31, 2006 by Colin
Not as much media relations as a gaping black hole that sucks in all light, sound and energy: that’s the philosophy of many of the Canadian billionaires profiled in the latest Report on Business magazine.
“… Peter C. Newman wrote in his autobiography that Fred Charles Mannix was the only Alberta tycoon he couldn’t rope into an interview. Legend has it that the family docked its PR manager’s salary every time the Mannix name appeared in print. …
… When we called The receptionist said she was not at liberty to disclose information about [Aminmohamed Lalji], not even his title …
… When we called We asked to speak with media relations, and were directed to [Michael] Gold‘s wife, Libby. She politely, but guardedly, answered our questions. …
… Recluse factor MEDIUM-HIGH When we called, his assistant politely explained that Allan Thorlakson “generally does not speak to the media.” … “
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… 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. 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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