Canuckflack

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.

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!

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!

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.

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.

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!

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)

… but so is the comment spam. Let me know if you find any really good bargains, okay?

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.

http://tinyurl.com/aqad9

The Onion’s got a funny – and somewhat accurate – critique of the poor design found in your very own mailbox:

“”This isn’t a gas bill�it’s a cry for help. Authored by someone with a disease.”

Hugh sums up my feelings towards Flash fairly well.

I’ve pulled together a few 3″ by 5″ templates for any public relations staff planning to try out a Hipster PDA – or even just starting to use index cards:

- spokesperson evaluation template

- media call template

I’ve also whipped up a Hipster Bingo template, for those long and boring meetings.

They’re preparing for an internal event downstairs. It might just be me, but I don’t place much faith in a speaker who relies upon a podium like this one. Black, grey, built-in speakers, recycled ABS, adjustable height. It may be environmentally friendly and easy to store, but doesn’t it really look like a couple of beer coolers stacked on their ends? Or maybe a prop from Star Trek?

Then again, at least the speaker won’t be using this little beauty – a portable speaker/mike set that could have easily been used by Vice Principal Vernon.

I had NO IDEA you could make up to $350 a day working the beer cart on a golf course. As Nicole Kallis told Golf Digest this month,

“… a sense of humor really helps my tips. Golfers eat up any kind of flirtation. I was told once: “The cart girl is every man’s fiancee before he takes a wife.”

Unfortunately for Nicole, she didn’t manage to get a mention of her new book, Secrets of a Tee Time Girl, into the column. But her publicity campaign seems to be going well nonetheless.

Sauciness and frivolity aside, Nicole obviously recognizes that the beer cart is a unique retail outlet: it’s a near-monopoly in an isolated area with constant demand and fixed prices. The only variable that would affect her pay seems to be customer service. As one of her fellow cart attendants told a local paper:

“She bakes cookies and brings licorice for the customers. Everybody goes, ‘I don’t know how she does it.’ She brings a lot of revenue out of her cart.” (San Diego Union-Tribune)

And THAT’s the sign of retail success!

If you’re interested, here’s some econometric work on a hedonic model of supply and demand for golf.

The authors, though, seem to love their model a little too much:

“We offer one other observation worthy of additional study. In our database, 63 percent of golf clubs price differently during the week and weekend. The average weekday discount is $4.41. The question is, what factors determine this discount?”

I’ll tell you what may prompt a discount: cheap seniors wanting to play 90 holes then hit the early bird buffet during the week. As for raised prices on the weekend – prices naturally go up when you have almost unlimited demand and limited supply – as you do for early morning tee times on the weekend.