Barnhart

I’m new. New to the morning commute, new to no longer calling myself a student, (kinda sorta) new to the PR field and new to Barnhart. Post-graduation I am pursuing my goal to become a knowledgeable PR professional by joining the Barnhart team in the PR department as the summer intern. As my excitement has trickled into conversations with friends about my new office digs, the question has surfaced quite a few times: What is PR anyway?

This seems like a silly question to me: someone who has spent the last four years studying communication on both small and large scales. But it has come to my attention the majority of my generation perceives PR as an easy gig mostly associated with socializing, schmoozing and handling club openings. I can probably thank multiple pop culture references for this warped image (at least for the majority of the PR industry).

My most influential professor instilled in us eager pupils her take on PR as a business management function. Her boiled-down definition describes what most goals and strategies of PR seek to achieve. When it comes down to it, good PR reaches both members of the media and general public alike in an effort to make a connection and better the company.

As I navigate through the PR industry, I find it is an ever-evolving field that is anything but stagnant from one year to the next. A PR pro must possess traditional tricks of the trade as well as constantly sharpening his or her new media tools in order to keep up and get ahead. I guess I have my work cut out for me!

Control. Who has it? How do you get it? How do you keep it? These questions can boggle the minds of even the most expert experts in public relations and marketing when it comes to the digital age of information technology. In the world of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and the blogosphere, we media folks best keep on our toes.

A recent study published by USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism has proclaimed public relations pros the winners of the online social media fight when it comes to budgetary appropriations. (Pause for all the marketing specialists to gasp in horror and outrage.)

Agency budgeting for social media is ever increasing as its popularity and vitality continues to boom. Sure, marketing and public relations professionals alike do warrant some of the control over social media, but it’s all in response to the general public. We must keep up with the ebb and flow of the social media world, and ensure we are providing our clients, and by extension the public, what they want.

So as much as I would like to gloat as a PR person that we are the top dogs, I’m afraid it isn’t so. Just for kicks, though, the study did conclude these findings:

“When asked to define, in percentile terms, how much budgetary control PR/Communications exerted over digital/social media in their organizations, 25.4 percent of corporate participants said that PR/Communication has 81 to 100 percent of budgetary control. Only half as many – 12.6 percent – said that Marketing had that much control.”

Where there’s action, there’s money. And he who controls the action gets all the money. So naturally, the online tug-o-war for social media control will likely continue to be a battlefield. Until then, it looks like dinner’s on us PR people.

Where do you stand on this ever-changing topic? Who, in your eyes, should or does control social media? PR or marketing folks?

Garbanzo Mediterranean Grill, one of our fast-growing clients, has been getting quite a bit of media attention recently! The company has been featured in national and regional publications and on local TV programs related to its new business developments and commitment to healthy, fresh and authentic Mediterranean cuisine. Below are just a few of their recent media hits. Click on the links to see the full stories!

“Hummus Catches On in America (as Long as It’s Flavored)”

“Garbanzo Mediterranean Grill inks first franchise deal”

“Fast Food Goes Upscale”

“Garbanzo Mediterranean Grill is expanding to the East Coast”

Here is a great little speech by ad guy Rory Sutherland, who makes the case for perception change over real change. In advertising, that is what we do. We don’t reinvent the product. We don’t do the R&D. We rely on the companies to do the real product heavy lifting. We are happy to do the whole change perception thing. Call it candy coating or a spoon full of sugar or whatever, but it’s just words and music mixed with (on good days) ideas that can change perception of a brand.

So marketers, CEOs and CMOs taking care of how your brand is seen and perceived are the expertise of the ad guy. Making a product that is worth changing perceptions for is yours.

It makes what we ad guys do seem a little shallow, but it is what we do. We help clients change or perpetuate perceptions. It’s branding. Whether your brand is an energy drink, a car or a 15-year-old boy who needs a date to prom, it’s all the same. Affect the perception of your brand, and the consumer (or 15-year-old girls) will follow.

Add value without changing the product? The Shreddies “case study” in the video below is gut busting. (TED now has an iPhone app you can get to see all your favorite videos.)

Sutherland is right. “Poetry is when you make new things familiar and familiar things new.” That is what we do, or at least try to do (again, on good days).

So take a listen and get ready to smile, and then figure out how right Mr. Sutherland is.

Rory Sutherland: Life lessons from an ad man (part 1 of 2).

The eMarketer article, “For Veteran Social Marketers, Twitter Is Tops,” made me feel validated…and not completely crazy. It reaffirms what I’ve been experiencing and saying for some time now.

Twitter seems to be THE social media tool that achieves the best results and relays your message to the most people in the shortest amount of time. And the fact that Twitter enables the user to find and follow their audiences – thus encouraging their audiences to follow them back – makes it that much more appealing in my book. You can’t do that with a Facebook fan or company profile page, which I feel takes some of the control out of the marketer’s hands – and I hate not being in control (I’m a PR person after all)!

The statistics from eMarketer’s survey are quite interesting. Although Twitter is tops, it barely edges out Facebook. And these two sites have grown in importance as blogs have dropped further down the list.

Clearly, experienced social marketers know what they’re doing when it comes to social media, and most of them are using Twitter. That doesn’t mean Twitter is right for every company. But after seeing these statistics, if you’re not already using Twitter, I think a second or even third look at the social media tool is in order.

What social media tools are you using most? Which ones yield the best ROI?

Jay Baer of Convince & Convert put it best recently when he said, “The best – and most effective – social media programs aren’t based on promotions and message distribution. Instead, they revolve around removing friction and uncertainty for potential or current customers. It’s about marketing sideways, not marketing head-on.”

Amen!

We feel like we’ve been screaming this message from the mountaintops for a while now, but only a few seem to really get it. The amount of companies talking at their audience rather than talking with them is staggering.

Baer provides a couple good examples of large companies that are helping their customers via social media. My favorite is the Geek Squad example:

“Geek Squad makes its living providing technology configuration and repair services, via BestBuy stores everywhere. But yet Geek Squad has a YouTube channel that includes hundreds of videos showing people how to do it themselves. They aren’t trying to sell you services – at least not at that point – they are being helpful.”

I like this example because it shows how you have to give a little in order to get more back.

Along those same lines, a friend of mine went to change his car break pads a while back – something he had never attempted before. Midway through he realized he needed some help, but his car tires were already off and he couldn’t drive to a garage. His solution? YouTube. He found the YouTube channel of a legitimate car maintenance company and followed their video demonstrating how to change break pads. He was so impressed, he now brings his car to that company for maintenance he can’t do himself.

These are both perfect examples of, as Baer puts it, “understanding the difference between selling and helping. That’s understanding that social media success is a long putt, not a tap-in.”

The sooner companies realize that no customer or potential customer wants to be talked at or sold to and that they should find ways to support and help their customers, the better off they both will be.

A social media audit is a great place to start when you want to find out what people are saying about you and who they are. If you don’t know who they are, then how or why would you talk back? What voice do you use? What do they want? I just got a text message from Snowbird Ski Resort in Cottonwood Canyon Utah and all it said was “Seven feet of snow in the last seven days. Come on up.”

I got the new free Snowbird iPhone app, created by the amazing guys at welikesmall.com, and so of course I gave them my name and number. Now they could have texted me and begged me to come up during the last 30 days of little snow and fewer customers. That is what they needed — Customers. But they waited until they had something I wanted. Snow! So instead of being pissed off that I got a text from some company I was elated.(And normally I do get pissed off).

Give them something they want and your business will grow. Try to “sell” them on their mobile device, Facebook, Twitter or whatever, and you will fail.

The app industry has exploded. With Apple’s iPhone dominating the market at figures as high as 99.4% of app sales, and Android coming on strong, the world is changing. While fart noise apps are fun for a minute or two, there are apps being put to better use. The disaster in Haiti has brought personal giving to the forefront of many people’s minds. And, no surprise, there’s an app for that.

CauseWorld is available for free at Apple’s App Store. And it’s not hard to find because it’s on the front page, at least for today. Launched by a startup called ShopKick and sponsored by Kraft, Citibank and others, it’ll make you feel better about buying that eighth pair of re-issued Air Jordans. And really, you don’t have to buy anything, you can just window shop if you want. Just check in with the retail outlet and you’ll get karma points. When you’ve collected enough points, one of the sponsors donates cash to your chosen cause. Choose a different cause with every donation if you wish – there are plenty to choose from. It’s a philanthropy game and it’ll be interesting to see how much good can be done when the numbers come in.

Grab a handful of parks and rec brochures at your local visitor’s center and you’ll end up with dozens of institutional tri-folds with boring lists and tiny photos of random rocks and trees. When Denver Mountain Parks decided to update their parks guide for the first time in over forty years, we knew we had to do something totally different. This meant an oversized brochure, in full color, with NO photos, printed on 100% recycled paper. Not an easy thing to convince any client of, but DMP gave us full freedom to create something truly unique.

The Denver Mountain Parks system was created in 1912.

We wanted to invoke feelings of wonder and nostalgia for the parks, so we drew inspiration from a number of vintage illustrations that were typical of park advertising in the early 1900s. The acclaimed illustrator Roger Beerworth was commissioned to develop a series of images for the project, including views of Echo Lake, Red Rocks, and the bison at Daniels Park. Period typography and a custom map added to the classic feel of the brochure which includes a park directory, historic background, and camping tips.

Denver Mountain Parks understands the value of good design to achieve real results for public causes. The piece has already been featured in the Denver Post, and will continue to raise awareness as it is widely distributed across the state. And people who are educated about Mountain Parks will be more willing to approve continued funding for their one-of-a-kind park system.

Barnhart has won the multi-year Wyoming Tourism account! Our emerging new media ideas and great creative helped us rise above the other 15 contenders for the business. We developed some incredible work over the past few months, with a special focus on interactive and social media, and we can’t wait to start implementing them. Thanks to all the tourism folks up in the Equality State for choosing Barnhart for 2010 and beyond!