Billy Mays Found Dead

I was simply checking my e-mail on a Sunday at came across an article saying that Billy Mays had been found dead this morning in his Florida home! This man was so vibrant, I’m so shocked. My thoughts and  prayers go out to his family and friends.

Social Media Boosts Event Marketing

Click Here for a short but interesting article on using social media to promote your event.

I’m using these tips in crafting and executing the promo plan for the PRSA-MD Chesapeake Conference and Best in Maryland Awards.

Rant on Professionalism

I hate to do it, but I have to. I simply have to. I need to rant and vent. My biggest pet peeve is lack of communication. Lack of response to e-mails and voicemails, and even if responded to, taking too long to do so. For an industry and profession that is all about COMMUNICATIONS, there are too many PR and marketing professionals I have come across who are not professionals in one-to-one communication.

Sure, they can craft and execute an award-winning campaign, put together an awesome crisis communications plan, or institute an awe-inspiring social media/viral marketing initiative, but when it comes time to respond to simple e-mail questions or requests, these people drop the ball.

Respond to e-mails and voicemails within 24 hours (frankly, I’m even stretching it here, in today’s era of instant gratification). If you promise to do something, do it, and take the lead and initiative on following up on it. You’re a professional, act like one. Get organized. Hire an assistant, if you have to.

Not responding to e-mails or voicemails in a timely manner, or at all, only harms your image - and in this business, we’re all about branding an image, are we not?

YouTwitFace - Thanks, Conan!

“YouTwitFace.” I love it! Conan certainly got it right. Everywhere you go, someone is talking about who they’re friends with on FaceBook, while someone else is twittering away on their BlackBerry, and someone else is recording something on their iPhone to then post to YouTube.

All great PR and Marketing tactics, to be sure, but too often companies are forgetting that’s exactly what they are - tactics. They’re not an answer in themselves, they’re not a strategy on their own. They’re pieces of the bigger puzzle, and each can’t stand on its own. Twitter by itself is not an effective strategy; for some companies, it may not even be a good tactic. I know - I may be the lone voice in the wind out here with that one, but it’s true. Each company must evaluate its strategy and the goals of their campaign to determine what tactics work best for them - old school strategy creation.

Some companies utilize a social media plan, while others incorporate social media tactics into their overarching plan. Again, depending on your goals, each system would work if done properly. However, I’m seeing a troubling triend with clients (and even some colleagues) where the opinion is that Twitter/FaceBook/YouTube, you name it, is the be all and end all for them. They come to me with that answer in mind, without first considering what their goals are and if, in fact, Twitter would really be the best way to achieve them.

So, a word of caution - social media tools are amazing, and I certainly put them into use when needed, but proceed with proper planning. YouTwitFace, to be sure!

Apple’s Mac Marketing

Conceptually, has there ever been a better ad campaign than the “Hi, I’m a Mac” series? Seriously. These ads are engaging, entertaining, and creative, while also being informative - subtly - about the brand and the brand image they want to convey. You leave each ad in this series with a clear picture of what a Mac can do, as opposed to the negatives of a PC - at least from Apple’s perspective.

Microsoft has attempted a rebuttal campaign, which on paper I’m sure looked pretty good; it even looks pretty good on air. However, the strength of the Mac ads overpowers everything.  To be able to reduce your brand essence down to a T-shirted guy, and use this same guy to illustrate each strength of your product, is illuminating.

Now, there’s been debate as to whether or not the Mac ads are entirely truthful, and they are obviously selling their product on the ‘coolness’ factor. Plus, I’d love to see a study on how these campaigns have affected sales for each brand - for a time, Mac’s share went up, but with the economic downturn, their sales have been declining (the speculation is that while Macs aren’t losing customers, people aren’t buying them right now due to their hefty price tag). But have these ads helped to boost Mac sales? Not sure. Regardless, this is marketing and advertising conception at its finest creatively.

PR, Marketing, Communications - Oh My

I just spent a jam-packed weekend at the Public Relations Society of America’s (PRSA) Leadership Rally in New York City, and left not only with tons of ideas for our Chapter but also with the suspicion that public relations as it has been known for the past 100+ years no longer exists.

Now, I’m more of a mind to think that public relations, marketing, and communications are blending into one field. The standard distinction has been that marketing is about sales and pr is about reputation management, but, honestly, isn’t it all the same now? We all employ the same tactics to achieve the same result - brand management to build/foster a company’s/person’s reputation to, ultimately, increase sales.

Pitchmen - Snake Oil Salesmen or Genius?

If any of you have seen the Discovery Channel’s new television show, Pitchmen, you’re more than likely as fascinated by and addicted to it as I am.

The show airs on Wednesdays at 10pm ET on the Discovery Channel and highlights two ‘pitchmen’, Billy Mays and Anthony “Sully” Sullivan, as they meet with new inventors, choose a couple products, and pitch them.  Billy Mays, with his trademark beard and blue shirt, is well known as the face of Orange Glo, Oxi-Clean, and Kaboom!, among many others, while Sully and his British accent has pitched Foodsaver and The Smart Chopper.

However, the show is not as simple as following two guys around as they find and pitch products. Rather, it opens your eyes to the billion-dollar world of infomercials, a world that too often has been considered to be the realm of snake oil salesmen and con artists. Frankly, it shows you how wrong we all have been.

Contrary to popular belief, these pitchmen don’t market just anything. The products that Billy and Sully initially choose is based on their gut instinct and ad-hoc testing by themselves and members of the likely target market - they are very passionate about each product they pitch, and truly believe in what they are selling. So far, the products have included the “Dual Saw”, the “Spot Sucker”, and the “Tool Bandit”, among others, and, honestly, I watched each show thinking each and every product featured would be a huge success. However, this is where the genius comes in - not only do Billy and Sully have a knack for picking likely successful products, but they also display their marketing savvy in how they craft and pitch each infomercial.

You go into the show knowing that these two men are master pitchmen - personally, I feel they can sell anything (in fact, just this week I saw a commercial of Billy Mays pitching health insurance. Granted, I feel this is a miss in terms of matching a face to a brand, but it just shows that when someone wants something sold, they think of Billy or Sully as their go-to guy). But you leave the show in awe of the marketing genius that is behind a successful infomercial and how not only the face selling the product, but also - as in traditional marketing - the planning and strategy can make or break a product.

No matter how passionate the inventor or how emotionally invested the pitchmen, the products that Billy and Sully choose to take further is based on the results of their test ad campaign. If the results don’t back up the product, Billy and Sully don’t, either.

Pitchmen takes an often murky and overlooked world, the world of infomercials and direct response TV, and transforms it into the next big marketing frontier. Free up your calendar on Wednesday nights to tune in, and you’ll likely leave as fascinated as I am.