TOW#6 It takes a village to embed a @#$%&#)( project in my blog

It takes a village to embed a @#$%^&%$# pr project into my blog Thank God for helpful friends. It is ironic that my pr strategy was about Community building because I needed a community to get this project done. First, Research research research. Then, a whole lot of brainstorming. How does this place survive? Why do more people not know how awesome it is? Could it handle a massive media campaign? What if hundreds more women needed services? So, the timing before launching would have to be carefully looked at. When brainstorming, I need to talk at length about these things. Secondly, I have kids, and they are so over me this week. I will make sure they love me again soon.I'm lucky to have supports to let me get my work done. Thirdly, this is my first power point of the year. I have managed to always present without using a powerpoint, Who needs em I say. Apparently this profession requires it....and , that is understandable. I kept planning on learning, just like the plan to slow cook steel cut oats and organic apples, I have procrastinated. But I had to this time and so, I relied on my community. I'd like to thank Ray for not judging, Alix for her judging and generousity, and Matt for the last minute save. I actually think the NEWC is a place that should be a palace with a spa. The staff should be paid extremely well, the perks should be lavish. I wish they had a new building like The Humane Society. It is a beacon of hope in an area that really needs it. I would love the chance to put these ideas into action. But I would gather my community first. Lucky right?

North End's Women's Centre

The North End Women's Centre

Very Twitteresting

I have a love hate for Twitter. It is annoying, confusing, disorganized and cluttered. It is also democratic, rapid, helpful and can connect us. I have spent way way too much time trying to get into some chats, read tweets, compose tweets. Why would anyone else care about my grilled cheese sandwich?

The thing is, people do. Well maybe not my grilled cheese sandwich but they care about other people's small goings on and daily rituals and peeks into each other’s mundane lives. We keep worrying about a world where we are desensitized, where communities aren't connected, and people aren't looking out for their neighbour. Maybe this is a way of communicating more effectively or efficiently. The economy of language can be a good thing. Is the minimalist tweet the best way we have to engage each other?

The 140 character is just a taste and, if you are interested and want more, then you can look more closely.

Siloam mission needs blankets.

Accident on the Slaw Rebchuk Bridge.

Tickets still left for AvenueQ.

There are real time, helpful, sometimes life-saving possibilities with this platform but, like all media, you can still get sucked into the fact that January Jones ate her own placenta. Did that make the mainstream press? It sure did. Is Twitter the reason it became such a story? That is hard to say. Placenta eating really riles up both sides of the debate.

Spike Lee just apologized after tweeting the address of an elderly couple in Florida thinking it was George Zimmerman's address. It was the wrong address. The couple graciously accepted his apology and quietly took some money but the possibilities of a tragic end to that mistake are endless. If it was the right address, more violence seems inevitable and everyone is very lucky that this mistake was caught in time. Roseanne Barr just tweeted the correct address. This is a dangerous precedent.

I am, as we speak, still trying to participate in a tweet chat. I keep missing the opportunity. I can't really blame Twitter, only my lack of ability to tell time.

I am still wondering the value of Twitter vs. Facebook but I think the economy of the tweet is what gives it an edge. The immediacy, the less-is-more mentality can make it that much more effective. The problems with it are similar to those of Facebook and Blogs. You start to check out coverage on the Federal Budget and instead you are reading recipes for placenta. It's research.

Did Huggies do the right kind of research?

Recently, Huggies had a PR disaster when they launched a new campaign aimed at Dads. The point was to poke fun at Dads and put the message out that Huggies are so great the diaper can even withstand Dad's ineptitude.Huggies stepped in it big time.

If they had done more research, could they have known that men and women, particularly the Daddy-bloggers would freak out and mount more than three different petitions against them?

According the U.S Census Bureau, 32% of Dads are the primary caregivers in the U.S.Even those Fathers that aren't primary caregivers are quite capable of changing a diaper.

It would be interesting to know what kind of focus groups they do before they launched the campaign? Did they test it with a small segment first? Did anyone working on the campaign at any time, think. “You know, it is 2012 and this could be seen as offensive to men.”

It may have been a little out of touch of Huggies when they say their campaign was to celebrate Fatherhood. Did they survey Fathers? Did the look at parenting statistics? It is harder to measure and predict when a comic look at these things backfires.

It is a little ironic when you think of all the insanely offensive advertising, sexualizing young girls , or portraying women as idiots that the Dad's are so horrified.But yes,it is a little old to keep seeing the same stereotyping in commercials, dumb or nasty woman, dumb or fumbling man.

Anytime you launch a campaign you must decide who you are targeting. You have to research how that audience will respond to certain messages. There has to be times when you make an educated guess, but Huggies must have been aware they would receive some criticism but they clearly weren't prepared for the outcry.

If you want to launch a campaign celebrating Fatherhood, then they should have reached out to the Daddy bloggers before and gotten some feedback.

What was the long term strategic plan for Huggies? Huggies will make you a better Dad? Huggies will make being a Dad easier?

Honda came out with a brilliant Dad commercial poking fun at Dads in minivans , but the comedy was more explicit and the message really was celebrating Dads.It was not playfully suggesting they would let their babies sit in filth if left to their own devices.

On the other hand, Huggies has a lot of money to do research. They may have examined all these segments very carefully and just fumbled. Based on this fail and the Motrin moms disaster, it might be wise for companies to really question when working the comic angle if you are making fun of a segment or a having fun with a segment. It is a very fine line.

Comment #1

#TheDailySpin: Urban Outfitters accused of mocking the Irish

Why do we care what Mike Seaver aka Kirk Cameron has to say about sin? He comes off as a bit of a lunatic . If he was relevant now, if he was an icon we cared about, then it might be somewhat interesting for a day or so but really? Newsflash- Someone we used to enjoy on a show that was slightly okay, is now, a bigot. Who cares?

TOW# 2 Publics

I am a member of several publics. I have chosen to belong to a few and some that have chosen me.

First, I am a parent. Even within the parent ‘public’ there are specific categories. I am a Mother, with two small kids. I am also a Mother of a child with a disability. This is not a club I would have joined but somebody’s got to do it right? I am new to this club and still feel like I’m not totally aware of everything it means. It does mean you see things differently, with a new perspective. I have recently met some of the parents in this club and there is a certain knowing look, a shared experience that I can see these parents have. I have a lot to learn.

I am part of Generation X. Believe it or not; I remember a day when we didn’t have a computer in our home and even a television without a remote control. We smoked in restaurants and cafes and gathered around the television for a very special episode, of, whatever it might be. These kids will never know the joy of waiting for the annual Wizard of Oz or The Sound of Music. The anticipation, the excitement that we X’rs got to experience, those were the days. These Generation Y’s just type it in that doohickey thingamabob and boom right there- entitled little crybabies.

   Apparently, the X’s are supposed to be making good money right now but because of two of the other “publics” I chose to be in, I am not in that category.

As an actor/writer and now actor/writer/student my fortune will have to wait. I’m back in school to try something new and to join the other “public”-the middle class. I want work that is challenging and important and meaningful but unlike ten years ago, I also fantasize about a fridge that makes ice and a vacation that isn’t in Saskatchewan. I am technically challenged. That isn’t all about age but just my fear of all things involving computers. I’ve come a long way and luckily I have some nice friends in my class who after they have a chuckle and pat me on the head, are very helpful.

                                                                                            

I am a feminist. I grew up with parents who were constantly talking about equality issues. I watched my Mother and Aunts and Grandmothers fight for all sorts of things that we now take for granted. I remember the Montreal Massacre very clearly. Dec 6 had a huge impact on how I defined myself as a feminist. I stopped saying “ I’m a feminist, but not like a crazy feminist”. I stopped apologizing for expecting equality.

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/top_right/2011/07/tina_fey_comic_genius.html#comments

I love this comment from Tina Fey about whether women are funny. “ We don’t fucking care if you like it.”   Nuff said.

Interview with A Pro

Interview With A PR Pro

“Communications is common sense” The Manitoba Arts Council is an arm’s-length agency of the Province of Manitoba, established in 1965 “to promote the study, enjoyment, production and performance of works in the arts.” The Council gives funding to professional arts organizations and individual artists, in theatre, film, visual and literary. It is through a peer assessment or a jury that these awards are decided. I have been lucky enough to be a recipient of the Manitoba Arts Council (MAC) in the past and thought I knew a little bit about what they do, but after sitting down with Leanne Foley, Communications manger I got a better sense of how massive the organizations scope reaches. I asked Leanne what she does in a typical week.

“ I manage, write, do advocacy, report to the council, and plan. I’m not just talking about the strategic plan, but the short term plans. It's a sales job. You are always selling. I sell to the government and to the arts community and the council. Eighty percent of my job is internal communications and twenty is external. We have a huge staff and a lot of programs so I am designing work flows, management processes, touching on everything in the office, every bit of communication that goes out of the office needs to go past me.”

Artists apply for funding and when putting together juries for different programs, the MAC staff must translate every application for the jury.

“Last week, a big job was figuring out a better way to deal with the French translations. This is a government agency so absolutely everything has to be French and English. It's extremely important but it makes the process more difficult. I just saved us a whole wack of money by doing things a little differently but even then I had to sell that new idea to the council and convince then that this is different, but it can work. So it's a lot of public awareness out in the world about what MAC does, but it's also keeping the council aware as well.”

Leanne was a classroom teacher and then an actor in Australia when she met her husband who happened to be an actor in Winnipeg and has lived here ever since. She then spent fifteen years as a set and costume designer in theatre and a production designer in film and television. Interestingly, she received the MAC major arts award in 1997. She has been nominated for several awards for her work in design. I asked her how her background or training prepared her for this work.

“ It all prepared me, but most of all communications is common sense. Intuition. As a designer and a communications manager, I use all my resources. I share information, ask my staff and I decide my intrinsic need and then ignore everything else. I have an amazing staff.”

And now Leanne speaks lovingly for twenty minutes about people she works with. I can’t transcribe everything but suffice it to say she has a lot of respect for her colleagues and very much appreciates the way they all bring different gifts to the organization.

This leads to another question about how much writing she needs to do in her work.

“Writing is not my strength. I can do it, but I have people who can do it better. I have a great editorial eye. I know the shape and the gist of how it should be and then I get others to do it.”

You decide how to write for different audiences. At MAC we are communicating with different groups in two languages. How we speak to the minister of Culture, Heritage and Tourism in an annual report is different then how we communicate on our website. “

I am relieved and excited when I ask Leanne about social media and technology and she says

     “Technology is the easy part of the job. I knew nothing. I had an email account. I didn't even use face book. I just ask around, it's now become a huge part of how we communicate but you just learn as you go. I do not blog. We do have a facebook page but even that, I'm not interested in unfiltered comments from anyone. If someone has a question or a comment or a criticism, I will discuss that issue with that individual but I don't actually want a blog post commented on and that's not the ideal way to access people's needs.”

I ask Leanne about something she's most proud of and she talks about a project involving a residency at Deep Bay (Riding Mountain National Park) where artists go to have time to work in the seclusion of a cottage in a beautiful area of Manitoba. It's a fantastic opportunity for any artist and again, it's communicating with the artists, the council, the community that hosts these artists and making everyone happy. She's proud of the artists who have had the chance to be there and how it's raised the profile of Manitoba Arts Council all over the province.

She is also proud of the new translation policies and how it's made a difference in the speed of communications and saving MAC some money.

Three tips for a newcomer in PR from Leanne

1.               “Choose an industry you love. You have to be a constant advocate and constantly be validating everything you do so make sure it's an organization you believe in. “

1.              “Take risks and be okay with making mistakes. You have to be able to take responsibility and say 'Right, okay tried that, that didn't work so now we'll try something else”

2.              “  If you are applying for the job, show them how your biggest asset can help them. They don’t know how much they need you. I wasn't a writer so I had to convince my boss that he needed someone with a design background. And I came cheap (laughing) until we renegotiated, of course.”

Pr Thoughts

It's always interesting to look back on some of the early messages of the PR industry.  I read about the women smoking campaign at the Easter parade.  It's such a great and scary example of the power of PR.  It’s a reminder that with great power, comes great responsibility, as Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben said.  Actually, it was originally said by Voltaire (gotta love wikipedia) but I digress.

The fact that we can find ways to make it sound like toxic sludge is good for you is both horrifying and fantastic.  We can make positive changes with these tools as well.  In addition to the trashy, questionable stuff, there have been life-changing public health campaigns that were thought up in an office as well.  In 1973, a PSA that was part of a Participaction commercial showed a sixty- year old Swede running effortlessly beside a huffing and puffing thirty-year-old Canadian.  This commercial sparked a public outcry and even a debate in Parliament.  This PSA has been linked to a health and exercise movement in Canada.  Is it manipulative?  Maybe.  Was it for good?  I think so .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMD35tUh-Ek

Frank Luntz, a Republican party strategist; said if they hear something five times, people believe it.  We can all use that trick to help us put out our message.

That sentiment is even a joke in the first Scream movie, “You hear that Richard Gere gerbil story enough times, you have to believe it’s true.”

I have always been fascinated by the public's taste.  Why do we fall for some people's spin and not for others?  Charlie Sheen, Chris Brown, Tiger Woods, Mel Gibson, Woody Allen…why do some recover after a scandal and some don’t?

There's been much talk about the fact that that David Letterman beat his bad publicity because he came out and admitted it - he “got in front of the story”.  I would agree but I would like to point out, he didn’t beat anyone.  He cheated on his partner.  Sleazy?  Yes.  Human?  Yes.  Disappointing?  Maybe.

Chris Brown publicly assaulted Rhianna and pretty much got away with it.  Of course, this situation has more to do with culture and celebrity and apathy towards domestic abuse than PR.  But, his publicist must be walking around with a horseshoe inserted somewhere.

http://hellogiggles.com/im-not-okay-with-chris-brown-performing-at-the-grammys-and-im-not-sure-why-you-are

There are a few nightmare PR jobs at the moment I would hate to have at the moment. Representing Mel Gibson, Vic Toews, BP, Walmart and even The Conservatives party. Or how would you like to be the PR person at XYZ Company that charges outrageous parking at hospitals.  What would be their mission statement?  “We strive to get the maximum allowable money for our services at a time when people are usually so stressed that they don't have the time or ability to park further away.  That's what we do.”

Spin it? How? Anyone out there have a good spin for the parking people who charge hospital parkers insanely high rates?  “We keep the price so high so there available spots for you when you are in need?”

I still don't feel really clear about identifying the differences between PR, marketing, and advertising.  They all seem interchangeable so it will be interesting to look more closely at these differences.  It's exciting to imagine that I could have the tools to inform or intrigue or change people’s minds about some issue or some person.