When Kevin Holubar took his dog out to do his business on Christmas Eve, he could never have predicted what happened next. Nor could he have predicted the whirlwind, worldwide story that would ensue.
The short story about Kevin’s dog is this: Ham, the bulldog, took off on Christmas Eve and was lost for 11 days in Duluth. It was an 11-day stretch that was one of the coldest on record. He miraculously showed up on a good Samaritan’s porch, who had heard all about Ham on the news, and returned him to his owner.
In my role as the sales and promotions coordinator for UMD Athletics, I am always looking for ways to promote the athletic department and help the community. Well folks, this was one of those opportunities. There was intense media buzz, locally, nationally and worldwide, about this dog that had survived. Since Ham happened to be a bulldog, I knew this was an opportunity to do a promotion with the UMD Bulldogs.
I called Kevin, who lives in the Twin Cities (he was visiting family in Duluth for Christmas), and asked if he’d be interested in Ham being the honorary mascot for an upcoming men’s hockey game. He immediately said “Yes.” Kevin appreciated all the support and attention the Duluth area had given his dog and thought this would be a great way to say “thanks.” Wanting him to be properly outfitted, I called Duluth-based dogbooties.com and asked if they’d be willing to make Ham a jersey. Again, a resounding “Yes.”
The stage was set and Ham and his owner made their way to Duluth despite some snowy weather on Saturday, January 23. After both hockey teams were introduced, it was time for Ham to shine. He was introduced to the crowd and as he walked out to drop the ceremonial puck the crowd went wild! From the frozen ditches of Duluth to center ice at a men’s hockey game, Ham had truly been on an incredible journey.
Ham’s honorary Bulldog status garnered more attention for the team, got the fans engaged, and gave Kevin a chance to thank the community.
I encourage you to look for ways that your business can capitalize on public relations opportunities. If you already have, we’d love to hear your story.
Think it’s impossible to get a reporter’s attention? Think again. As newsrooms are increasingly overworked and understaffed, public relations professionals, businesses and organizations may actually have more opportunities to successfully pitch their stories. At the same time, getting the attention of very busy journalists requires that you do your homework, take a strategic approach and work hard to give them good stories. There is more to it than simply sending out a news release and crossing your fingers (although we do still cross our fingers!).
From flack to friend
photo by jgodfrey13 on Flickr
In this day and age of so much information—much of it unsourced—reliability is a major concern. Far from being the stereotypical flack of bygone days—the one who showed up with a story idea and bottle of liquor—PR professionals are increasingly viewed by time-pressured reporters and editors as valuable resources who can help them do their jobs.
According to a recent survey, most journalists turn to public relations professionals for assistance in their primary research. Editors and reporters surveyed said they depend on PR professionals for “interviews and access to sources and experts” (44%), “answers to questions and targeted information” (23%), and “perspective, information in context, and background information” (17%). Clearly, PR professionals have an increasingly valuable role to play when it comes to getting media attention and maintaining media relations.
Think before you pitch
The principles of good media relations haven’t changed: build relationships and connect with the right reporter on the right topic with the right information. Don’t waste their time—hone your message before making contact. Do your homework to ensure:
the topic is relevant (of interest to the reporters you have selected)
the story idea is sound (demonstrate why their readers/listeners/viewers would want to know this information)
the background information you provide them is useful and accurate (anything that helps them write the story and makes their jobs easier)
Use all the tools to make it easy for busy reporters
The avenues to communicate with reporters increase every year. Just think—not too far in the past we sent all our news releases via a fax machine. Now, it’s best to send your news via email, the delivery mode preferred by most reporters. If they’re interested, they’ll want to find out more and they’ll use the Internet to do it. A new survey revealed “89% said they turn to blogs for story research, 65% to social media sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn, and 52% to microblogging sites (think Twitter), and 61% use Wikipedia.”
This means you need to go one step further before sending your initial news release via email, making sure you post the news in your company’s online newsroom, send it through a wire service and post it on other sites that allow free postings (www.i-newswire.com). This tiered approach will give you multiple connection points with the journalist. Then follow up to find out if they got your information and if there is anything more you can do to help.
Listen to them, they’ll listen to you
Bottom line: find the people who fit the pitch, determine how that reporter wants to get information, then make it easy for them to get what they need. Everything from the content to the delivery to the follow-up should be customized to that reporter. Build relationships with reporters. Be a part of their world, be where they are and know what they read. Don’t expect them to want to listen to you if you aren’t listening to them.
HatlingFlint recently won eight ADDY® Awards at the American Advertising Federation of Central Minnesota awards ceremony held on Saturday, Jan. 30, 2010. The ADDY Awards recognize creativity in numerous forms.
Pediatric Home Service’s Thrive Campaign received a gold award and also won the Judge’s Choice Award. The Thrive Campaign consisted of videos, a direct mail piece, ads and a microsite. The agency also received a gold award for Illustrations from the HatlingFlint Circus posters.
PHS Thrive Campaign and HatlingFlint Circus Illustrations
Silver award recipients were the Blattner Energy website, Glenn Metalcraft photos, the HatlingFlint Circus posters, a video of Tyler’s Success Story for Pediatric Home Service, and St. Cloud State University’s MBA Engaged Marketing campaign.
The award-winning pieces will advance to the district competition in Minneapolis on March 19-20.
I sit down with Libby Issendorf, Digital Strategist for the Flint Group, to discuss her past experience at Campbell Mithun and what brought her to Fargo. We’ll also talk about her social media work with the US Speedskating team, her upcoming trip to the Winter Olympics, and where businesses should start their social media efforts.
Much like there are buzzwords in the business world—“heads up,” “let’s circle back,” “at the end of the day”—there are also buzz words used in advertising.
How often have you been watching TV and come across a commercial selling some random product “for a limited time only,” or the special promotion is preceded by, “but wait, there’s more!”
If you had a nickel in your pocket for every time you came across a print ad that proclaims that the company can help you with “all your [fill in the company’s product or service] needs,” how much money would you have?
As someone who works in the marketing communications field, these phrases make me cringe. We hear these types of phrases so often that they no longer carry any real value. When someone hears that the “time is now” to replace their tires, it doesn’t even register as a phrase with a sense of urgency; they’re just empty words relegated to the part of the brain that mothers use to tune out a room of screaming children.
My personal list of played-out phrases includes the following, in no particular order:
- “We offer the best deals in town”
- “Now more than ever”
- “Stretch your dollar”
- “Get more bang for your buck”
- “We go the extra mile”
- “Time is money”
- “Your one-stop shop”
- “We’re slashing prices!”
I propose a moratorium on these and the scores of others that are out there that have been beaten to death and have nothing left to offer in the marketing world. Who’s with me?!
So…how do we stop these buzzwords? The key to avoiding these buzzwords is to take a step back and ask some questions. What does it mean in the context of your business to be a “one-stop shop?” What products/services do you offer that allow you to make that claim? What does it mean to your customers—what is important to them and how do your products/services make their lives easier? The answers to these and other similar questions are what truly differentiates your business from the competition. Couple these differentiators with unique copy and messages that speak to your target audience and, presto, the buzzwords disappear and are replaced with substantive statements that will pique your target audience’s interest and compel them to learn more about your business.
What are some overused phrases that you can think of?
As competition increases in nearly every market, a knowledgeable, experienced and talented workforce is paramount to your success. Unfortunately, investing in your workforce to gain this advantage can be expensive, and it chews up a lot of time and effort. Even more disheartening is the chance that your employee jumps ship after you invest in training.
How can you accomplish your employee development goals without breaking the bank?
Explore what already exists
We live in the age of information. It’s out there and available to everyone. All you have to do is look. Take some time and gather articles, blogs, podcasts, and any other sources of information that are relevant to what you’re trying to accomplish and what your employees need to know. Package it all up, put it in a location everybody can access and you’re off to a good start.
Learning Management…the cost-effective way
Relying on what’s already out there may not be enough. You could send employees to expensive training courses to learn detailed information about your company’s products, services and/or processes. But you don’t really have to.
You can teach employees the same things they would learn at a seminar, and save lots of time and money, by developing and incorporating online training courses. .
Learning Management Systems have been around for years. They’re a great tool for any company that needs a cost-effective way to train staff, using customized courses that bring tremendous value and cost savings to any organization.
A restaurant can train its servers consistently.
A university can efficiently train its employees about campus policy.
A corporation can train its dealer channel or sales force.
A bank can train its many departments on procedures and customer service.
Those are just a few examples. Whether you develop a custom, interactive training game or leverage existing content and business knowledge to create tailored courses, a good Learning Management System can provide tremendous value and benefit to any organization that wants to invest in making their employees smarter. Why wouldn’t you want to do that?
For more information on Learning Management Systems and online training contact us.
After last week’s blog posting, how did your brand clean up? Here are five more questions to see if it’s time to brush up.
Have you acquired new companies or shed divisions?
When your company acquires new ones or divides, it may mean a shift in business strategy or it may not. Regardless, it may mean you’ve left your brand behind.
Has your revenue growth stalled?
If your category is dying, you can’t necessarily blame poor performance on your brand. But if your sales growth doesn’t match your category’s growth – and it hasn’t in awhile – it could be time to overhaul your brand.
Has your market changed around you?
Lots of new players, new developments and new customers in your market? Your brand may be well-positioned to take advantage. Or it may not. Time to figure it out.
Has your senior management restructured?
Brands belong to the people, but brand development begins at the top of the food chain. When there’s a lot of change at the top, there’s bound to be some confusion below. A strong brand development process is a great way to get everyone on the same page.
Has your company turned 20 years old?
Okay, this one belongs to my friend Jim Hughes, of the Brand Establishment, who’s been doing this a long time. Jim swears a high percentage of established companies that come to him for his brand development expertise are about 20 years old. Why? His hypothesis is that at about the 20-year mark many companies find they’ve lost their focus, the market has changed around them and maybe there’s been some senior management change. Whatever. Maybe it’s like the 17-year locust or seven-year itch. But I’m guessing that if your company’s about 20, some of the other nine clues are making themselves evident.
So where does your company stand? Healthy brand or unhealthy? For most successful companies, working on brand building – understanding it, delivering on it, communicating it, measuring it – is an all-the-time thing. If your organization has a clear vision of your brand and is acting on it, you’ve probably already stopped reading. If not, you’ll probably find yourself nodding yes to a number of the clues; it may be time.
The results are in. Facebook is the #1 used social media platform for business leaders in Grand Forks/East Grand Forks. Number two, LinkedIn.
Our research partner, Prime Contact, conducted a survey with The Chamber of Grand Forks/East Grand Forks. Answers reveal that businesses use social media platforms for personal and business connections. See the detailed results.One of our social media strategists, Libby Issendorf, presented the survey results and her recommendations to a group of Chamber members last month. She’ll repeat that presentation with another group of members in March. (She’ll be in Vancouver, helping our client, the U.S. Speed Skating team, with social media during the Olympic Games!) The meeting space for these sessions can only hold a limited number of attendees, so we’ve summarized her presentation here:
Social media is important to business because it’s where people are.
Organizations must be in the right “media,” and this is it. Yet the messaging and interaction must capitalize on the “social” aspect. This isn’t TV, radio or even a website.
Social media is powerful word-of-mouth marketing.
Done well, social media allows businesses to solve customer service issues, collaborate, build brands and grow their customer base.
Social media works if you have a plan.
It’s tempting to create a Facebook page—just because you can. Slow down. First, answer some questions. What do you want to accomplish? Who is in charge of content? How will you tell people about it? How will you determine its success?
Crushing the Myth of B2B Social Media
The author of this blog, Jason Baer, is one of the most frequently cited social media experts. He also happens to be our business partner.
How do your customers use social media?
Use this tool to find out. Enter your customer demographic information and it breaks down typical social media usage by age and gender.
Social media can accomplish a lot. Solve customer service issues. Provide insights. Forge connections. Identify opportunities. And, we now know for certain, help sell tickets and definitely increase awareness.
In partnership with UND Fighting Sioux Athletics, SimmonsFlint and Flint Interactive developed and implemented a social media campaign to promote “Meltdown at The Ralph,” one night of UND basketball in key games at the majestic Ralph Engelstad Arena, usually reserved for UND hockey.
We created an online landing page, where we aimed all other platforms, including:
YouTube videos featuring players and coaches from the UND hoops teams, playing a little basketball on the hockey rink and checking out the arena (UND men’s hockey players were good sports in making cameo appearances)
About a week ago I booked a long overdue family vacation. We looked at several options from resorts to villas to cruises, and settled on a cruise with Norwegian Cruise Line. Needless to say, my 4 and 6 year olds were bouncing off the walls.
Last night I was thinking about the process we went through in booking our trip. Many queries started either on Google Maps, Cruise Reviews or Trip Advisor. From there, it was usually a brief stop on the website for the property, then right back to consumer reviews and photos on a third-party site. This happened over and over.
When we settled on the cruise, we wanted to look at the excursions the ship had to offer. We found ourselves off the NCL website and on to caribbeanportreviews.com to get what we really wanted, which was firsthand opinions of the excursions. My kids wanted to see every square inch of the ship, so we looked at pictures posted by past vacationers, again off the corporate site. NCL did provide some nice 360 view tools, but there were large parts of the ship missing.
I have seven different websites bookmarked, and when I put them all together, they answered most of the questions we had. It shouldn’t take that many sites to get the content I’m looking for. That just leads to a very poor customer experience. I know it is a big undertaking, but why wouldn’t NCL want to provide a one-stop platform for this information? Six of the seven sites (the seventh being ncl.com) I used to make my decision had information on all the major cruise lines. Do they really want potential customers reading about everything everyone else has to offer?
Are you providing what your customers want? Have you asked them what they want? Remember, if they are not getting the information they need from you, they are getting it from someplace else. Do you know where that is?
People are looking for authentic content when making buying decisions. You need to provide the opportunity for your customers to provide it. If you don’t have the capacity to maintain a sharing platform, you need to at least provide links out to sites that have this information, like Amazon reviews, Yelp, or Trip Advisor. Make it easy for your audience.
Question: Are reviews, tips and photos less credible when they are on a corporate website, even if they are not being sanitized? Do you trust them? Would you go to a third party site anyway? Tell me what you think.
The Flint Group are experts in marketing and communications strategies – planning, creative, media, research, advertising, public relations and interactive.
When Kevin Holubar took his dog out to do his business on Christmas Eve, he could never have predicted what happened next. Nor could he have predicted the whirlwind, worldwide story that would ensue.
I have seven different websites bookmarked, and when I put them all together, they answered most of the questions we had. It shouldn’t take that many sites to get the content I’m looking for. That just leads to a very poor customer experience. I know it is a big undertaking, but why wouldn’t NCL want to provide a one-stop platform for this information? Six of the seven sites (the seventh being 
