New Business

John Heenan, Chief Marketing Officer

“In 2012, full-service agencies will be the solution. Marketers continue to face extreme scrutiny of their ROI. They will continue to shorten timelines for their many different specialist agencies to develop initiatives. In doing so, they must take greater responsibility to manage diverse marketing activities across all channels in hopes of generating consumer interest faster. With reduced staff, reduced budgets and increased C-level accountability, marketers will consolidate resources and revive full-service offerings.

“In 2012, telling a brand’s story with multiple resources in separate channels is key. Digital, traditional, PR or social will be so 2011. Telling that story faster and with clear accountability will be the differentiator for agencies in 2012.”

Public Relations

Brian Pia, SVP/Director of Public Relations

“We’ll see more and more newspapers continue to fail in 2012. But that’s not a bad thing. More than 50% of the cost associated with creating a daily printed newspaper is tied to the printing press and circulation. By cutting those expenses and allowing reporters to report for digital media — the online version of the newspaper — consumers will get more timely information on their laptops and phones. By adding video and compelling digital images to their copy, you end up with a consumer product that people actually want — instead of a collection of dated information in a wet roll of paper that we pick up at the end of the driveway.”

Creative

Brad White, Chief Creative Officer/Managing Director

“Marketers are going to have to learn how to use big data to tell more relevant brand stories. It’s not enough to just come up with something clever anymore. More data means more relevance. Smart brands will use this data to create much stronger personal relationships with their customers.

“Online video and pre-roll on sites like Hulu will give creatives a chance to shine by extending the life of TV commercials and developing ways to create contextual and semi-personalized ads based on consumer preferences. As production costs go down, a brand’s arsenal of messages will be able to grow.

“Boundaries will be pushed as far as what is deemed acceptable in advertising. Brands fighting for attention will be challenging censors and arbiters of decency to be seen as cool by an increasingly desensitized audience. So watch the #@%* out people, it’s about to get !@#&*#%.”

Join us tomorrow for Part 2, when we’ll explore the future of strategy, social media and digital.

Edward Bowser is Community Manager at Luckie & Company. You can contact him by e-mail or follow @etbowser on Twitter.

So many people in the PR industry talk about the need to create a crisis management program. That’s important. Every company should have one.

But preventing the crisis is far more important. That’s called brand protection.  And that’s something we do very well here at Luckie Strategic PR.

What’s brand protection? How does it differ from crisis management?

Crisis Management vs. Brand Protection

Crisis management consists of:

• Methods used to respond to crises
• Establishing metrics to define what scenarios constitute a crisis to trigger the necessary response mechanisms
• Communication that occurs during the crisis

But here’s the reality of it all: Crisis management is making sure that there are an adequate number of body bags for the plane crash victims. It’s damage control. It’s about showing empathy after you just screwed up. It’s meeting with media and showing how much you care and making sure you’re communicating efficiently and effectively.

Brand protection is very different. It’s making sure the plane doesn’t fall out of the sky to begin with. It’s about identifying potential problems and advising the client about the red flag you’ve just discovered. It’s about sounding the alarm before they do something stupid.

The BP oil spill is just one example of a disaster that went out of control. While the media skewered BP for poor crisis management, I look at the disaster from a slightly different perspective.

What the heck was BP doing drilling for oil a mile deep in the Gulf of Mexico without a backup plan? Remember the underwater camera shots?  More than 210 million gallons of oil spewed from that well.

BP set aside a total of $41 billion to cover oil spill costs. That’s money they wouldn’t have had to shell out if someone inside the company had the guts to shake up the corporate culture and say, “Wait a minute, what are you doing?”

And believe me, that takes guts. No one likes to rock the boat, but if the PR counselor doesn’t do it, who will?

The key to brand protection is conducting a crisis audit. Basically, it means analyzing all the ways a company does business and putting a stop to the things that don’t make sense before they erupt into a multibillion dollar crisis of epic proportions.

If the BP oil spill isn’t good enough for you, how about this: Your home is now worth a lot less money because a bunch of crazy financial experts thought it would be a cool idea to provide big mortgages to people who couldn’t afford them. Then they turned around and packaged the bad loans into investments that went belly up. Then millions of Americans lost their jobs. It’s going to take years to dig out of the mess.

Perhaps your house would be worth a lot more money if someone said, “Hey, wait a minute!”

Brian Pia is SVP/Director of Luckie Strategic PR. An expert in consumer lifestyle public relations, crisis prevention and response, Brian can be reached by email.

Photo credit: Calignosus via Flickr

If you sell a national consumer product, morning television lifestyle shows are your direct connection to women shoppers.

Whether it’s “Today” or “Good Morning America” at the national level, or local morning broadcasts like “The 10! Show” in Philadelphia or the nationally syndicated “Daytime” show based in Tampa, landing coverage on morning TV programs is your key to a successful consumer product launch.

Our Luckie Strategic PR team lands coverage of our clients’ products on morning lifestyle TV shows all over the country on a regular basis. We’ve divided our team geographically so that each team member knows how media in their assigned cities think. So it doesn’t matter if TV producers are based in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles or San Antonio, we know what makes them tick.

Secrets to Success

OK, let’s get real. You might have spent millions of dollars creating a consumer product and done a ton of marketing research, but TV producers really don’t care. It’s not about you. It’s about their consumers —their viewers, who believe it or not, are actually your consumers. So how do you get past cynical and cranky TV producers who’ve reached the end of their ropes dealing with moronic PR people who don’t have a clue about the news business?

Have an engaging messenger. Lifestyle shows require lifestyle experts. If you’re selling a gardening product, you need a gardening expert. If you’re selling home décor products, you need an interior designer or decorator. You need a compelling messenger to tell the story through tips and techniques where the benefits of the consumer product become part of the story.

Create a compelling storyline for the show you want to be on. TV producers are interested in two things: keeping their jobs and getting more viewers to watch their show. You don’t achieve either goal by putting a glorified commercial on TV. Those three-minute segments need to be informative, entertaining and help improve each viewer’s life: Creating a garden without a yard; Hot summer colors; Budget tailgating. Then you have to create the journalistic reason to discuss the benefits of the consumer product in a meaningful way. It’s not about just saying the product’s name; it’s about showing how the new product saves consumers time and money.

Involve the anchor or host. TV anchors or hosts aren’t potted plants. They’re people. If you’re creating a container garden on set, then you need to have the anchor help you. Get their hands dirty. Get your hands dirty. If you’re doing a cooking segment, then get the anchor to help you cook. Have him or her chop up some food or add something to the pan. It helps to make the segment interesting.

Here’s the bottom line: If you make your TV segment the most compelling segment on the air, you’ll help the station’s ratings, get invited back to the show as a regular guest and sell more products. Everybody wins.

Brian Pia is SVP/Director of Luckie Strategic PR. An expert in consumer lifestyle public relations, crisis prevention and response, Brian can be reached by email.

Photo credit: SunriseOn7 via Flickr

In what has been called the most publicized trial in history, Anthony was found not guilty of murder, triggering an outpouring of emotion from millions who followed the case. Shock and outrage reverberated across social media following the verdict. A recent Gallup Poll found that 64 percent of Americans believe Anthony definitely or probably murdered her daughter.

Anthony was sentenced for misdemeanor charges of lying to police and was released July 17. As she rejoins society, she is likely to face a huge backlash from an untrusting public.

Brian Pia, SVP and Director of Luckie Strategic PR, recently joined other national PR experts on CNN’s American Morning and CNN.com, offering advice on how Anthony can survive the oncoming storm of criticism. Watch Brian give his insight in the video below.

Edward Bowser is Community Manager at Luckie & Company. You can contact him by email or follow him on Twitter.