Advertising, Marketing and PR Suck: Now What?

This past week, I was on a panel I didn't wildly promote, and when you hear the name of it, you'll understand why. I thought: better not to provoke the sharks although in hindsight, the sharks could have added some teeth to the discussion and so feel free to start a dialogue that will start a feeding frenzy.

The panel title? Advertising, PR and Marketing Suck, Now What? It was hosted by the American Marketing Association San Francisco Chapter.

Guy Kawasaki moderated the panel and on it with me were Loic Le Meur, Louis Gray and Steve Patrizi from LinkedIn. Scoble was supposed to be joining us but got double booked.

One of Guy's questions was: what would you do if you only had $10K for a launch? Steve held the viewpoint that advertising is still effective and let's not nuke it just yet and replace with grassroots efforts using social media tools alone to drive word-of-mouth (he was aghast at a $10K budget to launch a product - "What can you really do for that?"). Interestingly enough, the majority of the room supported his view.

You can't really answer that question effectively without additional data, such as what product or service is it? There are very different solutions to how you launch a $300,000 enterprise solution into the market vis a vis an online tool like Seesmic that is enjoying success through viral buzz and community efforts alone.

Let's be clear about one thing: word-of-mouth and viral has always been effective. It's not new. The difference today is that instead of 20 or 200 influential outlets and voices who can make or break your product, we have 6,000. And, how much time do you spend at the very end of that long tail?

Despite how active he is online, Louis put on a 'real world hat' and reminded us that there is a world beyond Twitter and social networks when you think about your reach.

Creating buzz online through so called authenticity everywhere your customers are, commenting, responding, engaging with an existing community or creating one is great and critical - I couldn't agree more, but let's be honest here: it's incredibly time consuming and doesn't scale.

Not only doesn't it scale, but not everyone in your organization is going to present themselves with perfect etiquette all the time, particularly as you scale. In other words, I'd argue that as the number of people who can influence our product or service grows, the need for smart, strategic PR grows too.

Loic argues that traditional PR and marketing does not work to build a community. No, it doesn't when done poorly nor does it help to build a community when you don't do what PR should do well - be an honest communicator with all of your audiences, not just press.

In the training I had in London in the late eighties and early nineties, PR was never about just press - ever. Nor was it ever one directional. The problem is that there are far too many cases where that has either been the case OR perceived to be the case.

So, over time, flacks got a bad rap. As everything becomes more and more transparent, they're the first to get buried next to those equally dishonest marketers, lawyers and advertisers.

What PR can do effectively moving forward is jump into that thought leadership role, jump into that strategic role and jump into that master communicator role. In other words, now we need 'community managers" engaging with customers and everyone else hanging out in the Long Tail more than we ever had in the past.

If you really "get" PR's role and what it can do powerfully well, then you'll see where messaging, etiquette and creating a vision for the company will play a vital role in the new media economy. Not everyone in the organization necessarily has the skillset, know how or frankly, personality to execute on that vision effectively and cohesively.

Messaging will always be important. Great messaging wrapped around authenticity, directness and proactive engagement is key and PR is smack in the center of all of that.

Combine the above with the Tribes mentality that Seth Godin writes about in his latest book and you've got a magical formula.

If you're not honest and admit that we're all in this together, testing out new approaches as things evolve where every 'hat' can play a valuable role in building community and creating a loyal customer fan base, including PR, then you're not thinking long-term.

The video is up as well. Due to the typical time constraints, it's in 8 parts:

Part I Part II Part III Part IV Part V Part VI Part VII Part VIII

Part I below:

Americans Continue to Charge a High Dime for Art & Museums

Paris has Le Louvre, London the British Museum, New York, the Met and here in San Francisco, we have the De Young.

While the de Young may be a distant cousin to the others, some really great exhibits come in and out of its doors. King Tut returns: Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs is currently in play.

The story is an interesting one....3,000 years later, you can take a look through 130 outstanding works from the tomb of Tutankhamun, as well as those of his royal predecessors, his family, and court officials.

A thing that always astounds me (and annoys me) about the states: nowhere else in the world (can't speak to Tokyo since it's the only expensive city I don't have first hand experience with), that charges what it does for art, culture and museums.

Exhibit tickets here are pricey even by American standards: $32.50 a pop excluding the rest of the museum. There were more than a few people who expected to see Tut himself, so remove that expectation before you walk through the doors.

In Europe, the thinking is this: art and culture is so important that we want to make sure anyone and everyone can afford to experience it. We'll subsidize this to encourage attendance and encourage it often.

Because it's so reasonable in other countries and the price isn't a consideration, you may find yourself going back as often as you do a coffee shop or the library.

What don't we value this? Don't answer, I already know why but it's a sad excuse.

Four Thumbs Up for District 9

Having lived in South Africa twice, both times before Apartheid was officially abolished, seeing District 9 -- the movie, was incredible, no unbelieveable, no so damn authentic, that you find yourself wanting to see it again to catch all the parallels.

Brilliantly captured, the personalities bring you back twenty years, no ten years, no two years......it sends shivers through your bones. To top it off, Neill Blomkamp and Peter Jackson make sure you experience the category its in: Sci-Fi.

The main character is bureaucratic civil servant Wikus van de Merwe, who is "promoted" to a role that takes him from shack to shack to evict and move an alien species stranded on Earth from one refugee camp to another in Johannesburg. Sound familiar? It's shot in Soweto and there's enough in the action shots to bring you back to the horrifying memories of the 70s.

It continues to unfold as van de Merwe transforms. More and more onions are peeled back and then just when you think you know how the movie ends, there's another twist. SEE THE MOVIE. Four thumbs up.

Geek Narcissism: Is This For Real?

Geek paradise? Perhaps, but I'm shaking my head in disbelief, thinking is this for real?

Unilever Fires Ad Agency of 16 Years & Goes Crowdsourcing

The beginning of the end. Unilever goes the crowdsourcing route to spruce up TV ads and recruit creative ideas.

After 16 years of using the same ad agency, they're throwing up a $10,000 prize offering for the best creative marketing ideas.

Turning to the masses for ideas is increasingly hip and less expensive. That said, a mastermind at the helm to gather and choose the right ideas or more likely, mix of ideas is also increasingly important.

This is where marketing has to sit and the hat it needs to wear. Forget those MBA hats. When I look at candidates, I think: are you creative and strategic, can you act intelligently and balanced on the fly, be more flexible than anyone else I talk to, and multitask in a flurry of incoming and outgoing noise?

Crowdsourcing is a great way to solicit valuable feedback and creative ideas. Crowdspring and User Voice are two of numerous services worth checking out.

That said, the crowd doesn't know the direction you want to take your company, the voice and personality you'd like it to have or your financial goals.

That's where the role of the new mastermind comes in. It's time (and has been for awhile btw), that marketing, PR and advertising execs dust off their notebooks, forget about how they were trained, adapt to the two way exchange and participate rather than dictate.

There's most definitely still a role, an important one that a lot of CEOs, engineers and product guys don't have the personality to play. Don't dabble. Dive into it with force.

BLOG OUT LOUD

I attended a panel on 'early stage blogging' in San Francisco's Mission District this weekend. In the very intimate setting of Bell Jar on 16th Street, roughly 50 people gathered to hear six women's stories.

BLOG OUT LOUD is a site that promotes their events, this one only their second. The goal was to reach out to the community and answer questions about why you should blog, the driving motivation behind it, do's, don'ts and basic tips, including blogging etiquette.

No techies here. The women on the panel were based in the LA and San Francisco areas and largely write about design, fashion, motherhood and personal issues. Below is a video that captures the last ten minutes of their talk.

A Little Blues in Downtown Palo Alto

A little blues in downtown Palo Alto.

Tips for Last Minute Travel Getaways

Great tips for last minute travel getaways in the Miami Herald. Deals, deals, deals. Check it out.

Ubergizmo's Digital Summer

Ubergizmo's Digital Summer was held last night in San Francisco's Temple on Howard Street, and while they had partners and sponsors, Eliane Fiolet, co-founder of Ubergizmo was the head and visionary on this amazing event.

A few random shots from the event last night below. I went through one of those sorrowful photographic experiences. Like most events of this nature, light was limited and my flash was flaky at best. I also spent less time flitting from group-to-group and more time connecting with fewer people. Hard for a publicist. Hard for a blogger, Even harder for a photographer.....I need better lenses.

Forgive the fact that I don't have everyone's names....entire set, essentially more of fewer people found on my Digital Summer flickr set.

Kudos to Eliane, Hubert and their partners for an amazing event.

Hubert and Eliane

Raising money to plant a tree - rock on that they did this :-)

George Gombossy: From Column to Blog

This week I heard from old journalist pal George Gombossy about his departure from Hartford Courant, not a pretty one in the eyes of traditional journalists and bloggers alike.

Those who care about ethical journalism and who are trying to protect their credibility inside the walls of their blogs are routing for George. It's already hit the New York Times and countless other sites, so the the buzz is very alive.

He worked at the paper for four decades. Can you believe? Four decades. He writes in an official statement: "the Courant fired me, for speaking out on issues of public concern as the paper’s Watchdog columnist: as the voice and protector of consumers and taxpayers."

More about his story for those who haven't heard the details: "During the past three years, my marching orders had been to expose any institution or authority abusing consumers or taxpayers. Consistent with journalistic ethics and favoring no one, the Courant’s advertisers were fair game and were given no special treatment. In fact there were occasions where my editors were dubious of certain claims by our advertisers and urged me to investigate.

It was a public-interest platform that thousands of readers actively helped build into a powerful voice for consumers. It resulted in profound changes in the way some Connecticut businesses operated, among which are the state’s largest utility company and the nation's largest retailer of consumer electronics."

He received heat over investigating a large advertiser of the paper, the investigation was over a company that may have been taking advantage of the elderly. Apparently the advertiser wrote a complaint letter and Gombossy was urged to play nice in the sandbox because a $500K advertising contract was on the line. (which turned out later to be worth less)

Yikes. The list goes on. It doesn't end there.

I've worked with Gombossy on and off for a decade and a half so the news came as quite a blow. Even though Gombossy has left the dinosaur newspaper world (and trust me, I'm a fan), he has forty years of investigative journalism experience that can be poured into a blog, his own blog and his loyal readers will follow.

CTWATCHDOG.com is now live. He'll be showering us with more tips, complaints and untold stories consumers should know about.

George ends his statement with this reminder: advertisers don’t take out ads because they like the columnists or reporters. They take out ads based on a newspaper's circulation, which is based on its credibility. The less credibility a newspaper has, the less readers it should have. And if that happens everyone will suffer consequences beyond our ability to now measure.

He tells me he'll be on CNN this Sunday so be sure to tune in.