Archive for the ‘Public Relations’ Category

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A New Beginning Well Done

Friday, January 13th, 2012

By Joe Bogardus

Last week we helped a new firm launch its brand – Red Chair Architects.

It was a new beginning well done. Not just because we managed the launch with three other great companies: Bryant Research, Blue Media Boutique and Nashville’s Locomotion Creative, but because we worked with a set of clients committed to doing it right.

Despite an extremely tight timeline, David Cockrill and Margaret Backhurst of Cockrill Design & Planning and Don Shell and Bill Vinson of Community Tectonics agreed to meaningful research, with results that yielded the insight of like-minded companies, providing great design and relishing the opportunity to create close relationships with every one of their clients.

With a brand essence of “Great design, in genuine partnership with every client,” Locomotion Creative generated dozens of possible names for the new company. In a November meeting, it was agreed Red Chair Architects would be the name of the new company — with the red chair symbolizing the company’s focus on the person for whom the firm designs and plans, bringing smart, unique ideas that enrich the experience for each.

It was a new beginning – a beginning created from a solid foundation of competitive analysis, research and intuitive judgment combined with the brilliance of a name that captured the spirit of what the principals truly wanted their brand to represent.

“Well done!” to them. And “Well done!” to all of our team that launched what the Knoxville New Sentinel’s Roger Harris  described as “a new contender for the coolest business name in town.”

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2012: Here’s to a Year (and a Life) Well-Lived

Monday, January 2nd, 2012

By Mary Beth West, APR

With great delight this past New Year’s weekend, I opened my Wall Street Journal (yes, the one made of actual paper) to find Scott Adams’ essay, “A Year Without Fear.” 

First of all, I marvel at anyone who not only can draw (Dilbert) but also can write.  My husband’s cousin, cartoonist Marshall Ramsey, is another rare example; but I digress.

Adams describes in hilarious detail his efforts to overcome a natural penchant for taking the safe route, spurred in early life by an encounter on his bike with a woodchuck (you just gotta read it).      

What I loved about this piece, apart from the fits of laughter it prompted, was its metaphor for what I strongly believe life is largely about: consciously rejecting the easy route when it means achieving a life lived. 

We continue to face times of great uncertainty, change and instability.  In the thick of it, it’s so important to chart your own course, even when – and perhaps particularly when – doing so means facing down some pretty big fears. 

So here’s a virtual toast to 2012 and to you . . . make this year count.

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Appreciating What We Have and What We Can Do

Friday, December 23rd, 2011

by Joe Bogardus

Most of the 1990s my family and I spent in London. This time of year in the city – home to Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” – is special. Harrods is sumptuously decorated, many of the grilles of the black London cabs are adorned with holiday wreaths and the Christmas crowds overrun Oxford and Regents Streets. It is an intoxicatingly festive time.

Most every Christmas Eve, our family would attend the traditional Christmas Concert at Royal Albert Hall. We never realized there were so many verses to the Christmas songs we knew back in America. And, the English sang every one of these verses. It was always a somewhat long, but glorious evening.

On Christmas day, we opened our central London home to numerous American families who had stayed in the country, because they could not afford to travel to the United States or (like us) did not want to endure the travails of holiday travel.  Two, sometimes three, dozen people were crowded into our row house on Sussex Square.

I remember now, and recall thinking at the time, how appreciative I was of what we had as a family and what we could do for others who were far from home.

When we returned stateside, as a family, we continued to open our home to friends and just acquaintances at holiday times (and on other occasions as well.)

Earlier this month my colleagues Amy and Tyra have talked about the times they have helped people and causes during this holiday season.

Fortunately, this is something all of us can do and take the opportunity when it is offered.

As the effects of the economic debacle of 2008 linger, so many people need our help large and small this holiday season. As Tyra references in Gary Chapman’s The Five Love Languages, one of those languages is “acts of service.”

So this holiday season, appreciate what you have and appreciate what you can do for others. It is a language of love that works two ways.

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December May be the Best Time of Year to Work in PR

Tuesday, December 20th, 2011

By Mary Beth West, APR; @marybethwest

As a communications student at the University of Tennessee in the early 1990s, the public relations sequence was housed in the School of Journalism, where many of my classmates were journalism / news-editorial majors.  

Whenever the class might be asked by a professor or a visiting lecturer, “Why did you choose your major?” a common response heard from many of us – both on the news-ed side as well as the public relations side – was “I want to make a difference in the world” (or something like that). 

For many of my news-ed friends, the idea seemed to stem from the idea that reporting what happens in the world provides a window through which the public could see, learn, experience and choose whether and how to engage – all for the hopeful betterment of society. 

Serving as the lens for that process gave these students a very unique and critical role that they aspired to undertake – one that I have tremendous respect for to this day.

For many of us in public relations, the idea of making a difference took on another hands-on role . . . that through the process of helping companies and organizations manage their communications effectively, we could also influence – even help drive – other more direct behavioral and decision-driven outcomes.   

Public service represents one of those areas.

Some of the most all-around rewarding public relations efforts I’ve been a part of have focused on implementing a community service endeavor by an employer or client.  Yes – telling the story of that effort was key, but the actual process of making it happen and serving others in an altruistic way carried its own benefits and rewards to everyone concerned. 

Few other management functions as public relations take on a more direct role to help companies support public service in high-quality ways. 

During the holiday season, we can see many examples of these initiatives in full swing, both locally and nationwide. 

Many of them are conceived and orchestrated by public relations professionals, who invest heavily in the process of creative thought, third-party relationship-building and managing the intricate details of these projects – including telling the story to a wider audience to enhance positive outcomes, like public involvement and contributions. 

Like every month of the year, December is a great time to work in public relations – but perhaps more so as the spirit of the business reflects the spirit of the season.

 

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Speaking the Language of Service

Wednesday, December 14th, 2011

By Tyra E. Haag
@tyratuckerhaag

I admit it – I love to get gifts.

I’m sure Emily Post would be disappointed to learn that I’m not one to delicately open birthday or Christmas presents. In fact, each Christmas Eve I try my best to convince my husband that I need to open just one gift – yet year after year my childlike request is outright denied.

Around the holidays, our team enjoys celebrating our clients, colleagues and friends by delivering homemade cookies. It’s always nice to be remembered and we certainly appreciate the goodies that show up at our doorstep too.

Yet with all the gifting that occurs this time of year, acts of service are the lasting gifts that seem to truly matter.

If you’ve ever read Gary Chapman’s The Five Love Languages you know that “acts of service” is one of the five love languages everyone speaks. The others include quality time, physical touch, words of affirmation and gifts.

Now, keep in mind this book is geared toward marital relationships, but as with all relationships – personal and professional – it’s important to take the time to figure out the type of “language” those around us prefer to speak.

By taking the time to figure out the communication style our colleagues and clients prefer, the better equipped we are as an agency to communicate with them.

Regardless of your own communication style or “language,” I hope you take the time this holiday season to express an act of service for a meaningful organization in your community.

Personally, my first act of service this season will be participating in a blood drive on Saturday, Dec. 17 at Cedar Springs Presbyterian Church. Medic Regional Blood Center is hosting a blood drive for a premature baby boy recently born in Knoxville at just under two pounds. Feel free to stop by, but be sure to eat a little something before you go!

After all, that’s what the true spirit (or language) of the season means, right?

“Tis better to give than receive.”

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The Gift That Keeps on Giving

Monday, December 12th, 2011

By Amy Schwinge, MAOM
With the holidays upon us, a lot of attention is focused on helping less fortunate families and individuals. I think this truly is a worthy cause and should be a priority all year long.

This time of year reminds me of community outreach projects in which I was involved early in my career from adopt-a-family programs, angel trees, filling stockings for a local orphanage to taking gifts to senior homes. I have participated in and helped coordinate a variety of these activities for past employers. But, one incident stands out from the rest.

Honestly, I didn’t fully comprehend the true meaning of these activities until I helped deliver some of these items.

As part of my job responsibilities, I created and distributed a news release outlining some of the community outreach activities that a past employer was doing, including providing enough food for a month (with a traditional holiday meal) along with holiday gifts for more than 1,000 less fortunate families in the area, which was a massive undertaking.

A local TV station in Atlanta was interested in covering this story, but they wanted to go with an employee to deliver these items to humanize the segment. I coordinated this activity, and I also went along for the delivery.

On the way, another employee and I stopped to purchase some candy canes and other goodies to take along as well. Little did we know how important these candy canes would become.

I was shocked at the living conditions and just how little a single mom and her young son (I am guessing he was about five or six years old) had in their small apartment in a housing project in inner-city Atlanta. Someone had given the mom and son a tree for the holidays, but it was not decorated with any lights or ornaments. The little boy tore open the candy canes we brought and joyfully decorated the tree with the candy canes without any prompting.

After all the food and gifts were handed out and placed under the tree, the little boy brought a single flower to the employee who had nominated the family for this community outreach program.

She didn’t personally know this family; she received their name from her church as a family who could use some help. When this little boy gave the flower to my colleague, hugged her and thanked her for all the food and presents (again, without any prompting), there was not a dry eye in the home, including the reporter who was covering the story. All of this was captured in the TV story as well.

This experience humbled me and forever changed me. I now truly understand what it means when people say it is better to give than receive.

The holidays always remind me of this sweet little boy and his mom, and I wonder how they are now—years later. I hope both are doing okay.

I always try to participate in some type of community outreach activity each year, whether it is a food drive at my child’s school, a local toy drive or purchasing items for an angel tree. I try to give something back and make sure my older child is involved as well. I want my children to learn why it is better to give than receive.

Remember, when you have the opportunity to participate in a community outreach activity, there are people on the other end who really need your help!

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Straight From the Stakeholder’s Mouth: The Power of Focus Groups

Wednesday, November 30th, 2011

By Mary Beth West, APR

Some of the best insights we’ve integrated into our clients’ communications strategies have come from input gathered in focus groups.

Several of our client projects of late – including those in the sciences, healthcare, education and professional services – have involved conducting focus groups as a basis of research for communications campaigns.

Generally, focus groups involve gathering a manageable grouping of people together – usually 8-12 – to have an interactive conversation about a certain company, industry, issue and/or other topic, all for the purpose of gaining valuable insights that can’t be answered thoroughly with a closed-ended survey question. 

The real value of focus groups includes:

  • Hearing verbatim feedback straight from the source – It means a lot to hear directly from individual customers, prospective customers, employees, referral sources or other key audiences exactly what they think . . . and in their own words. 
  • Digging deep with exploratory questions that get to the heart of big issues – Probing into the “how’s” and “why’s” of complicated challenges helps clients understand the real experiential motivators behind why stakeholders think and behave as they do. 
  • Getting the big-picture snapshot of topics that can then be researched quantitatively – Prior to any major survey research project, we generally recommend focus group work on the front end to make sure a survey truly evaluates quantitatively the most relevant and germane issues (not just what the client thinks may be the issues). 

If a research budget is fairly conservative – and not enough to fund a quantitative survey – then focus group research can provide a great alternative for data to make sure a campaign gets started on exactly the right track, particularly with good recruitment methodologies.  

Keep focus groups in mind as you’re thinking through the best way to “crack the nut” on insights you need to plan your next big campaign. 

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Research First, Media Relations Second

Friday, November 18th, 2011

by Tyra Haag
@tyratuckerhaag

Before our clients ask us to create a media relations campaign for them, our team takes the same first step each time before developing and executing a plan – research, research, research.

This process often involves managing a discovery process to uncover local, regional and national media opportunities, depending on the client’s scope of work. We make several phone calls, email editors, request media kits and scour editorial calendars to uncover what opportunities are out there.

Only after extensive communication with these media outlets are we ready to create a well-developed media relations plan. Once we determine the most appropriate areas for media exposure for our clients, we plug them into the best fit possible to get the best exposure possible.

With media relations, it’s really a matter of quality versus quantity. If we generate a coverage opportunity for our client in “XYZ Magazine,” but the outlet’s audience isn’t a good fit for our client, the exposure can easily fall on deaf ears.

The saying “Look before you leap” certainly holds true in the media relations world. I have no desire to waste our clients’ time by blindly pitching story ideas to publications or news organizations that have no use whatsoever for that certain topic.

By taking the time upfront in a media campaign and doing the best and most thorough research possible, clients have a better chance of getting media exposure that will be fruitful in the long-run.

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Penn State’s Crisis and Cultures of Denial

Thursday, November 10th, 2011

By Mary Beth West, APR

Dominating the news since last weekend, the alleged Sandusky crimes and the deep implications for Penn State’s leadership are opening a lot of eyes at iconic institutions across the country: 

Could the same thing happen here? 

If confronted with the deepest and most disturbing allegations of criminal wrongdoing among one of our own – particularly when that “one” is a stalwart figurehead – is our leadership and our culture such that we would do the right thing morally and legally, regardless of the near-term ugliness and damage to the institutional brand?

Every organization should take some serious time well-spent and ask itself these questions.  

Looking at another institution’s misfortune, it’s easy to say, “How could they ever have let that happen?”  (It’s always “they,” right?)

In truth, however, there are many cultural nuances within large institutional settings – be they academic, governmental, corporate or otherwise – that place major obstacles to dealing with these kinds of crises in a timely and effective way. 

It’s certainly not a free pass for making bad decisions, but it’s purely a reality – and as such, it’s something that organizational leaderships must be in tune with and show appropriate judgment and character to manage appropriately, whenever circumstances demand. 

Human instinct almost always is to go through phases of disbelief, denial and hope against hope that if an ugly secret is ignored, it will go away.  As is well-documented, it never does.  Deflection of the truth is generally the next phase . . . “he didn’t see what he thought he saw,” “there is an underlying agenda driving the accusations,” “it’s all a big misunderstanding,” etc., etc. 

That human instinct-based reaction is allowed when it lasts about 30 minutes.  Months, years or decades is quite another matter entirely.  All organizations — collegiate institutions in particular, in light of this case — must fight like crazy the elements in their own cultures that allow these types of instincts to manifest themselves and do their untold damage. 

In particular, managing the additional layer of complication tied to legendary — even mythic — programs and individuals must be dealt with and overcome, and it takes true leaders who hold a real grasp of the risks at stake to make that happen.

Penn State’s board had better pull out all the stops to right the ship to whatever extent doing so is even possible at this juncture.  The president and head coach ousters are only starting points on a road that may take as many years to recovery as they took in the perpetration of Sandusky’s alleged crimes.

 

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Research: Validate the Hunch

Thursday, November 3rd, 2011

By Mary Beth West, APR

Throughout my career, it’s often been my experience that some clients – even some folks in my own line of work – tend to be trigger-happy to launch marketing communications tactics to take on the latest challenge or opportunity, based on little more than a hunch. 

Gut instinct can be right, but it sure can be wrong, too.  Even if the primary notion is correct (“Audience X doesn’t know much about our product”), the follow-on ideas may be completely off-base (“Billboards are the answer!”).  The result:  a ton of wasted money.

At my company, we treat research as the client’s best friend, and that’s why we advocate for exploratory work prior to planning and implementing any major campaign.

Most research focuses on the key audiences:  who they are, how they think relative to the client’s product / service, what factors or messages will motivate them toward certain desired behaviors, and why. 

Apart from the audience, though, successful public relations and marketing communications campaigns need to sort out other factors that can influence a client’s desired end result.  Understanding changes in the economy, for example, is one of the key research points we seek to uncover so that the strategy we develop is on point with how a client needs to generate business outcomes tomorrow – not just today.

So pay attention to those hunches – they’re steeped in your own knowledge of your company and its business environment.  That’s worth a lot. 

But don’t just listen to your own voice and those closest to you . . . go to the source of those whom you need to influence and the world that’s shaping their decisions.  It’s the best place to start developing the best communications campaigns.

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