The PR Warrior

What Small Companies Can Teach the Big Guys About Marketing

The race is on for the hearts and minds of your customers...are you even on the starting blocks?

Okay, blatant plug time...

I've recently relaunched my 'sideline' blog SWEAT EQUITY. Please feel free to check it out, I'd love to hear your thoughts :)

Essentially, the website is forming the basis of a book I'm researching and writing called SWEAT EQUITY: What Small Companies Can Teach the Big Guys About Marketing.

SWEAT EQUITY is a marketing manifesto for a hyper-connected world. It’s a call to arms, a declaration of principles, an ethos for companies to live by.

Importantly, it is a new and smarter way to market your brand in these tumultuous times in which technology and the ever-evolving media landscape have changed forever the way people communicate with each other and interact with brands, companies and organizations.

Vibrant online community

The goal of the SWEAT EQUITY website is to establish and maintain a progressive and vibrant online community, a place where we highlight and celebrate cool and clever marketing efforts by entrepreneurial small to medium-sized businesses and not-for-profits, emerging brands, fast-growth enterprises and, in some instances, major companies that understand intuitively how to communicate their brand in today’s social media-driven marketplace.

• We feature examples and case studies of smart brands that ‘get' the new marketing landscape.
• We examine what it takes to stand out from the 'white noise' in today’s information-overloaded marketplace and resonate with the public – your customers!
• At times we take a ‘helicopter view’ while on on other occasions we get down and dirty and look specifically at things you can do to get your brand ahead of the pack (whether that ‘brand’ be personal or your business – often, today, the two are significantly blurred!).

Hopefully we'll also soon introduce video and podcasts!

So if you want to better understand how to cut through the clutter and market your brand more effectively in today’s networked environment – if you genuinely are interested in becoming a smarter marketer and influencer – then SWEAT EQUITY is for you.

Here are some selected posts from SWEAT EQUITY you might find of interest:

• Building a brand the Gary Vee way
• 6 brands that instil fun, passion and spirit into their communications
• Promotion Reworked Part 2: emulate chefs
• Promotion Reworked Part 1: build an audience
• Building brand stories that endure
• What brands can learn from the John Butler Trio
• Could your company form the basis of a best-selling book?
• Adding colour in a business world of beige
• So what's your name smart ass?
• Share the process, not just the results

And, if you do stop by, you might want to consider joining the SWEAT EQUITY Facebook page and/or follow us on Twitter (@SweatEquityBiz).

Cheers, thanks!

Trevor

The PR Warrior Storms Brisbane for IABC Event

Last week I facilitated a roundtable discussion in Brisbane for the Queensland chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators.

Topic for the evening was 'Communicating in a Hyper-Connected World'.

We had a solid turn-out, close to 20 people (that's all the boardroom venue would hold). Discussion was a bit slow to take off but once everyone realised they faced similar issues and challenges, participants freely exchanged views, ideas and experiences on what it was like to communicate in today's marketplace.

We didn't just discuss the social web either. I think professional communicators have probably had a gut full of debate on 'the tools' themselves (Twitter, Facebook etc).

Rather, the conversation settled around major themes emanating from the new media landscape and what they meant for PR and communications people.

Here were some of the points discussed:

• CONSUMER ACTIVISM – power to the people!
• YOU ARE THE MEDIA – every brand can now be its own TV network, radio station & online magazine

• THE RISE & RISE OF THE MULTIMEDIA MICRO-STAR – influencers are everywhere!

• 'PUSH' GIVES WAY TO 'PULL' – traditional media's relationship with the social web

• WHOOOSH! THE '5-MINUTE' NEWS CYCLE – 24 hours is an eternity in cyberspace

• 'NICHE-IFICATION' & THE RISE OF COMMUNITY - explosion of niche communities of interest

• HUMANISATION OF THE BRAND – people do business with people

• TRUST IS THE 'NEW BLACK' – the 'secret sauce' for today's brand communicators

In coming weeks I intend squaring away individual posts on each of these themes. 

I look forward to continuing the conversation with the Brisbane IABC event participants as well as anyone else in marketing and communications interested in this space.

 Photo courtesy @SusanLambe

Connecting with the 'New Influencers'

Brian Solis is a new media thought leader with several best-selling books to his name. 

In the interview below, Solis talks about the challenges traditional media outlets (and by extension, brands) face in reaching and engaging with today's networked marketplace.

"We're going to have to connect where people's attention is focused", he says. 

"Remember, you're not just trying to connect with eyeballs...you're trying to now connect with an audience, who has an audience, who has an audience. These individuals are now starting to build networks around themselves."

I especially like that bit about an audience, who has an audience, who has an audience. A ripple effect, essentially, and a major challenge for marketers the world over.

Hearts, Minds, Words, Actions

In this post ('Influencing the Influencer') Solis talks about: 

"Transcending visibility into presence and presence into community is the critical path for companies to earn a place in the hearts, minds, words and actions of the very people who define its markets" 

It's a powerful statement, and captures beautifully the need for brands to redefine the way they engage with today's cynical and information-overloaded marketplace.

TAC Straps in for a Terrific Integrated Campaign

In the communications game it's important to ensure you have plenty of 'layers' to the stories you tell on behalf of your clients (if agency) or organisation (if in-house).

That's often the job of the PR and/or advertising team - to bring a story to life so that it resonates with audiences. To do this, you need to be able to identify and add layers of interest, to 'join the dots' of a story and then leverage via a multitude of different channels.

Sometimes a bit of luck can fall your way and the elements come together beautifully, thus ensuring the communication enjoys maximum impact.

Case in point this week's tactical campaign to commemorate the 40th anniversary since the wearing of seatbelts became compulsory in Victoria.

Victoria's Transport Accident Commission (TAC) has consistently served up excellent integrated campaigns for years now, and this one is a beauty!

Teaming with Essendon Football Club and its big ruckman David Hille, the TAC has integrated several layers to its campaign, including:

• changing the club's guernsey for its match on Friday night (Essendon's famous red stripe was stylised into a 'seatbelt');
• producing a TV commercial (below) tying together Hille, the Friday night football match and the seatbelt story; 
• placement of media stories focusing on Hille and his backstory.

Using Hille to spearhead the campaign was a masterstroke.

Twelve years ago when Hille was a teenager, he was a passenger in a fatal car accident in which three of his friends were killed. None of them were wearing seatbelts at the time of the accident. 

Great campaign, hat-tip to all concerned!

Communicating in a Hyper-Connected World: let the discussion begin!

“We are not seats or eyeballs or end users or consumers. We are human beings and our reach exceeds your grasp.” 

These words first burst from the pages of The Cluetrain Manifesto back in 1999. 

Talk about 'slow burn'! The theories espoused by the authors of Cluetrain are scarily relevant in today's networked age where anyone with an iPhone and a few idle minutes has the potential to make life difficult for any company or organisation.

The advent of the social web has sparked a fundamental transformation in the way people communicate, connect and collaborate; in turn is having a profound effect on the way marketing and communications professionals go about their business.

On Wednesday, August 18, I will be leading a discussion with the Queensland Chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators around the topic 'Communicating in a Hyper-Connected World'.

The questions we will be posing to communication professionals include:

• How well are you navigating the new media landscape?
• What are the broader implications you face as a communications professional?
• Is your organisation sufficiently equipped to communicate with a networked marketplace?

The changes we're seeing in the media landscape are enormous. I'm of the school of thought that social media (collectively, in all its forms) is the most significant event to occur in communications since the advent of the printing press.

Indeed, author David Meerman Scott believes the era of broadcast mass media is merely an aberration - "...the Web has brought communications back full circle to where we were 60 years ago".

Right now there is a growing disconnect between brands that insist on pushing out their pre-packaged messages ad nauseum and consumers who simply aren't listening, or more over, are being influenced like never before by their peers.

At the IABC QLD event we'll look at some of the (intertwining) major themes and trends that are emerging:

• The rise and rise of the micro multimedia star.
• The explosion of niche communities of interest.
• The breakdown of public trust in the 'big end of town'.
• The growing call for openness and authenticity on the part of big brands particularly. 
• The public rage against, and disinterest in, over-hype and spin.
• The escalating power (and speed) of peer-to-peer recommendation.
• The growing disconnect between companies that 'get' the new communications landscape - and those that clearly have no idea.
• The influence of social media on traditional journalism (indeed, the changing face of the media generally).
• The emergence (and implications) of the 'five-minute news cycle'.
  

This facilitated discussion promises to be lively. If you're a professional communicator based in Brisbane, this is one event that should be in your diary!

Let's start the conversation here, right now! 

I'd love to hear your thoughts on how the PR and marketing communications profession in Australia is dealing with the ever-changing new media landscape.

Event details are as follows:

WHEN:

Wednesday, August 18, 2010 from 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM

WHERE:

Forrestfield Room. QR National Conference Centre
Level 1, 305 Edward Street 
(next to Central Station and opposite Mincom)
Brisbane (see map below)

BOOKINGS - click here for IABC QLD's Eventbrite page

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Social Media: a Corporate View (Video)

I had the pleasure recently of interviewing Annalisa Bluhm (from General Motors in the US) and Andrea Matthews (GM Holden, Australia) at an event organised by Social Media Club Melbourne.

Annalisa plays a day-to-day role in the GM social media team while Andrea is corporate affairs manager based in South Australia and social media lead for the brand in Australia.

Rare Opportunity

It was a rare opportunity to get two perspectives 'from the trenches' - one international, the other domestic - of managing social media marketing for a major brand.

Both Annalisa and Andrea were refreshingly open with their answers and generously shared key learnings.

If you're interested in hearing first-hand how a major corporate is dealing with the challenges of social media, I think you'll find these videos of great value. 

VIDEO CREDIT: David Neiger.

DISCLOSURE: I'm on the @SMCmelb organising committee (along with Nikki Bannatyne, Lucio de Ribeiro, Simon Small and Tim Beveridge).

Videos can also be found on the Social Media Club Melbourne YouTube page.

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To find out about our next event follow please Social Media Club Melbourne on Facebook and/or Twitter.