Branding

 A study conducted by the good people at the Pew Internet & American Life Project has concluded that a whopping 93% of teens are now online.  Of those, about 64% are using the Internet to post content as widespread as pictures and videos to homework assignments.  Feel free to take a second to pop your eyeballs back into their sockets.

According to a USA Today article on the study “Teens don’t drop old technologies as they add new ones, ‘they just communicate more,’ says Pew’s Amanda Lenhart. ‘And more frequently.’” 

For too long PR practitioners have considered a successful hit to be the front page of the New York Times.  Naturally we want mass audiences, but that’s like wishing for a return to the days of three TV stations.  As media continues its perpetual splintering, the future of PR will be defined not by print but by processors. 

Look into the crystal ball with me. 

In 10 years when these teenagers are young adults, news will regularly be delivered to their mobile phones or directly to their inboxes, not to their doorstep by a paper boy.  These adults will get personalized updates and news that is strictly relevant to them. 

Will a typical press release or pitch get picked up by media the way it might today?  Probably not.  I envision a day when press releases are regularly sent directly to consumers’ mobile phones and PDAs.  Forget pitching media when we can send highly relevant, highly targeted and most importantly, USEFUL information to the people we’re ultimately trying to reach.  What if PR practitioners could send press releases or company updates directly to consumers?  It could very well happen with the way traditional media continues to disintegrate.  And what if those consumers could send PR practitioners direct feedback about the products/brands that we’re marketing?  Certainly this group of consumers will be far more tech savvy than previous generations and the crumbling walls of media will only continue to put marketers and their audience on a much more intimate plane.  If the media, marketers and consumers represent three distinct groups today, in 10-20 years these groups will probably be indistinguishable - instead, we’ll simply be trading information with one another.  And the success of PR will not be about the number of eyeballs but about the quality of information shared and its meaningfulness to those who receive our messages. 

So let’s move beyond those New York Times hits, and let’s try to think about ways to actively reach and engage consumers instead of simply talking at them.  Sounds quite refreshing to me. 

A recent CNN story about political attack ads explored negative ads in American politics. These are definitely not a new phenomenon. The fear-inducing “Daisy” ad for Lyndon B. Johnson was devastating for Goldwater in the 1964 presidential campaign. The Willie Horton ad was a huge factor in the 1988 presidential campaign.

Social media has changed a lot of the rules for politics and business in general. We’re just starting to see how much of an impact this will have as the first presidential campaign since the explosion of social media heats up.
Now anyone with a laptop and a cursory understanding of video editing can reach a huge audience without the traditional barriers to entry. A negative campaign ad mashup of the famous 1984 Apple Super Bowl ad resonated with Obama supporters earlier this year when it replaced the image of “Big Brother” with Hillary Clinton. It will be interesting to see how these types of videos influence the presidential election as we get closer to the final vote in November.

The discussion about negative political ads got us thinking. How do these tactics apply to the business world?

The exciting thing about social media is that anyone now can make a video that could reach a huge audience. A huge community can also easily come together to share ideas about a specific topic. Unfortunately, however, anonymity often doesn’t help dialogue as some people leave comments they wouldn’t make if their real names and faces were somehow required. This is one of the biggest problems with political attack ads. It is often not clear who creates them, and they never contribute to meaningful dialogue.

The best way for companies to engage their customers using social media is to use be open and honest with them. Blogs, forums and other social media can be useful platforms for encouraging legitimate discussion of issues and can provide a mechanism for customers to give feedback.

We’re CarryOn Communication and we support this message!

Laughter frequently spills into the hallways of CarryOn. Sometimes it’s the natural response to a shared joke between colleagues at lunch or the result of a funny staff photo that emerges on the company intranet. Whatever may be its cause, laughter is more than just comic relief in the demanding world of public relations, it is the serum fueling creativity!

 Upon a recent visit to our Los Angeles office, a client noted CarryOn’s strong camaraderie. To his surprise, not only did we produce excellent results working together, we actually seemed to genuinely enjoy each others company. Truth be told, this shouldn’t come as a surprise! Although agency life is notorious for its stress-inducing environment of deadlines and crises, there exist anomalies that manage to escape the cattiness and hostility rampant among certain agencies. 

So the next time you’re shopping for the right agency to represent your business, make sure you get a feel for the agency’s internal culture. Happy employees who get along and have fun with one another will be better at managing job stress and in turn support one another to be more productive. Don’t take my word for it? Here’s an excerpt from a recent NYT’s article on the value of work friendships: “Because work friendships lower job stress and risk for major depression, employees who get along and support each other are likely to be more productive.” When you catch us laughing, know that you’ve stumbled upon one secret to our success. 

We’ll beat any price or your mattress is freeeeee!  Or so says the man with the high-pitched voice in the bad commercials that pepper Southern California TV and radio.  Suddenly the idea of free is not such a bad thing and it’s catching on across media.

In a move that would surely make steam spout out of Scrooge McDuck’s ears, Rupert Murdoch announced that his newly-acquired baby and venerable symbol of corporate penny watching, The Wall Street Journal, would “make access to The Wall Street Journal’s Web site free, dropping subscription fees in exchange for anticipated ad revenue.”  This comes on the heels of the New York Times making a similar announcement and the announcement by Paste Magazine that it would allow new subscribers to pay as much as they wanted for their subscription.  And of course THIS happened.  And THIS.  And THAT.  And just to be safe, this will probably be free one day too.

So, as always, we must ask ourselves what does all this free media mean for P.R.?  Well, these announcements by WSJ, NYT and Paste should serve as the last of many wake-up calls that ring the death knell for the printed word.  Conde Nast’s Portfolio suggests that WSJ’s print circulation could drop by as much as 50% now that all content will be available online. 

P.R. professionals must now re-evaluate what qualifies as homerun coverage.  Sure the front page of the New York Times and Wall Street Journal is a great hit.  But it’s a hit that only a printer could love. Do these hits really grab as many viewers as an online hit would have?  Increasingly, the answer has to be no.  Especially once one factors in viral traction through email, book marking services, and outside links from websites or blogs like this one.  So, just to be on the safe side, be sure to include those Web editors on your media lists.

Why would anyone pay for something that they could get for free online (especially now that the guilt/shadiness of illegal downloading or re-using member passwords has been lifted)?  Thankfully, consumers of digital media can finally breathe knowing that there’s a good chance many of the things they love will one day be freeeeee!