I was listening to the radio the other morning (Q100) and they were talking about a recording that has been circulating on the internet regarding AOL’s customer service. I wasn’t surprised that the radio covered the recording, but I was surprised that NBC10 picked up the story. Although the recording is interesting, I wouldn’t exactly consider it to be “newsworthy” - at least not according to my journalism school’s definition of newsworthy. But maybe these days - with the every-increasing power of the viral quality of the online world - it is not all that surprising to see instances of buzz created online affecting what ends up on mainstream media.

New media is quickly becoming mainstream. You may have seen VH1’s show about “web junk”- all the silly videos that usually get forwarded through e-mails or frequented on video sites. According to AP, NBC is set to run promos on YouTube. After all, vnunet.com says that YouTube is the advertising medium of the future. And in case you haven’t heard enough about blogging and MySpace, USA Today posted a story on Tuesday about blogging and July’s Wired Magazine features Rupert Murdoch on the cover.

I have no doubt that these new media initiatives will continue to become more mainstream over the next year or so. Everyone else, I’d love to hear your thoughts…?

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The American Marketing Association announced an industry event, Mplanet, to bring together all of the leading marketing individuals and organizations to discuss and learn about new resources, effective ways to reach target audiences and new trends that will affect the marketing industry as a whole. This event will take place at the Walt Disney World Dolphin Resort in Orlando, Fla. on November 29 - December 1, 2006.

All of the participants will be given the opportunity to attend six different programs that will cover topics ranging from brand relevance to new customer reality. Top CEO’s, CMO’s and marketing executives will engage in “podium-free” sessions discussing their perspectives, trends and experiences and new tools and techniques in the marketing field.

“Mplanet is just one of several steps AMA is taking to advance marketing best practice, provide essential resources and training, and promote the importance, efficacy and ethics of marketing,” said Dennis Dunlap, CEO of the American Marketing Association.

Highlights of this industry event will include keynote speakers such as…

• Larry Huston, VP Innovation, Proctor & Gamble
• Dan Henson, CMO, GE
• Brian Kardon, Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer, Forrester

The Mplanet Discovery Center will feature interactive and experiential exhibits that will allow participants to view the latest marketing products and services from more than 100 companies including American Express, Turner Broadcasting/TNT and The Savo Group.

Forward readers, how beneficial do you think this is to the marketing industry and how different is it from any other marketing conference??

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We’re certainly proud of our Forward contributors for all of their accomplishments, and as you may remember, we had several who graduated this spring and began that exciting charge ahead into the professional world. So I thought it a good idea to feature those achievements (not previously mentioned) here:

Luke Armour - MA in communications from The University of Akron; recently started work as a public relations account executive at Innis Maggiore in Canton, Ohio (IM specializes in the Positioning concept developed by Jack Trout)

Mike Sacks - MA in public communication from American University

Jessica Laiti - BA from the University of Georgia in public relations, working as an internal communications specialist at Cox Enterprises, Inc. in Atlanta

I GIVE YOU … THE POWERFUL PODCASTING PAULL

I mentioned this in the audio of our last Forward Podcast, but I’m delighted to formally announce the promotion of our Australian contributor Paull Young to the position of director of Forward Podcast. He’s busy working up ideas for content and whatnot, so we can look forward to some great things happening there! I know we’re still planning on each episode running about 20-30 minutes, and we’d like to eventually settle into producing a new show every other week. Look for the debut of this new and improved Forward Podcast in the coming weeks, and a big pat on the back to Paull for working hard and heading up this part of the site!

Update:  This post has been altered at Mike’s request. 

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Here is a great example of how to handle a crisis.

Cadbury, the company that brings us Cadbury Eggs at Easter (you know, the commercials with the bunny that makes chicken noises), pulled more than one million chocolate bars from store shelves amid fears of salmonella contamination last week.

Cadbury was very up-front and thorough about the situation; it …

• Put out a detailed list of the type of bars that could be contaminated
• Communicated that the potential salmonella levels in the bars was below health problem standards
• Announced if anyone had ingested one of the contaminated bars, they did not have anything to worry about
• BUT Cadbury gave an information number and offered a full refund.

This is a great example of proactive PR. Was this situation a crisis? No. Could the company have let it slide since they knew the potential wasn’t serious? Probably. Instead, Cadbury came forward with ALL of the information for its consumers, pulled the products off of shelves, and set up an informational hotline for those who wanted it. It didn’t hold anything back or try to avoid anything, but was completely honest. This is how any potential crisis situation needs to be handled. Always present all of the information that is available, be timely, explain what has happened and have a way for those affected to get in touch with you.

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I heard once from a marketing teacher what seemed to be a very true fact about car commercials: that you never seem to notice them until your “in the market” for a car. I don’t know about everyone else, but that’s pretty accurate for me.

Car commercials seem to all be one in the same. They show the car driving on a road with a voice in the background describing the car’s features. Well, actually I am sure that’s probably NOT how all car commercials are, but the point to be made here is that is how LITTLE car commercials have gotten through to me. (Granted, I am broke and 21 so maybe I’m not their ideal target.)

But one commercial did get through. One for a Mercury Milan, and I have a few thoughts on maybe why it did.

If you haven’t seen the commercial, it features an energetic beautiful woman (who most women are watching with envy) addressing the audience.

Read the rest of this entry »

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While most of us have moved away from the classified ads in the newspapers and more towards the internet, searching job postings is a common practice for job seekers. There is certainly nothing wrong with such a job search tool and it can, in fact, be very useful. I do, however, have a helpful hint for you.

Recently I spoke with a Human Resources Generalist for a consulting firm out of Atlanta, Ga. We were discussing the issues of recruiting and she brought up to me a very interesting topic that I wanted to share with my Forward friends. She indicated to me that fewer and fewer companies are actually posting job advertisements when they have position openings. The new trend in recruiting is the new resume posting websites.

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This week a comment was posted to my blog asking for advice for a young PR pro who has a number of blog postings published regarding politics.

Here is some of the comment, which was posted by Jennifer Shulz.

“I am a pr student who has quite a history of political involvement. I feel that I cannot personally go into “cave mode” and become uninvolved in politics. I currently do not blog about pr however, just politics.”

“I also am at a loss as how to present this experience on my resume when I am applying to positions that are not necessarily politics-related. I have typed up several versions of my resume, sometimes listing political affiliation and other times not. Should I forgo the listing of my political experience altogether?”

I’ve got a few views on this, which I will share here. But I’d love to open Jennifer’s questions up to the Forward readership. I’ll put forward some advice about political blogging, but resumes aren’t my forte.

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note from the editor: Here’s a post from Erin that acts as a pretty good follow up to Wes’s post on the need for clarity. The post is originally from October at Erin’s personal blog. Erin thought the points are still classically relevant, though, and worth a re-post here.

- Ashley Imsand, Assistant Editor

——————————————————–

Have you ever started to read an article or something and finished the first paragraph only to realize that you didn’t comprehend any of it and you have to read it through several more times before it makes any sense? Or have you ever come across a really long sentence that was so incredibly long that you had to go back and read it again, from beginning to end, just to make sure that it really was just one sentence? (Yeah, like those two.) Or how about an article that is so complex over half the words require you to whip out a dictionary? For me, all this takes too much time and brain power.

Now, as a student, it’s normal for me to encounter things I don’t understand. So I read it, research it, embrace it - I am supposed to be learning here! That requires me to spend more time on things. However, “more time” is something that professionals don’t have much of. So when trying to reach these people with written messages, PR people need to be simple and concise.

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For the record, I am a huge music fan. Thus, in the summers I am always reading about music festivals and concerts. The other day I was reading about the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival and came across a well written piece of PR literature. It was the Bonnaroo “2006 Info Guide.”

The info guide is virtually just a handbook of what is permitted into the festival, and it answers frequently asked questions. It wasn’t great because of its AP style, but because of its clarity. Without clarity it would have done more harm than good. It would have left me and others asking, “what did that just say?” If someone has to ask that after reading a piece of PR literature, then I think the author has failed in one aspect of his job.

Most people know that the role of a PR professional is to relay a message of an organization to the organization’s publics. But something that is necessary in relaying the message is relaying it with clarity.

It is the responsibility of a PR person to put technical jargon and complicated matters into layman terms for the benefit of the publics and the organization. It is not always an easy thing to do because often PR people may not be experts on the subject themselves. But, that is no excuse not to find out about the topic and make the message clear.

I feel that it is necessary to write clearly to be successful in the PR industry. Most young PR people (including myself) aren’t very clear writers. I would assume that we all want to succeed, and part of the success is being able to write clearly. So does anyone have any tips or exercises that will make it easier to write more clearly?

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David Ross-Tomlin is one in a hundred. He has successfully navigated a graduate recruitment scheme that offered six places this year and received some 600 applicants – a success rate of just 1 per cent.

Now at Hotwire PR in London before even receiving his PR degree certificate, he’s in a good position to speak about career choices, competition and ambition. So what helped set him apart?

“I’d completed a year’s internship in an in-house role, so I already knew that PR was for me. I then spent my final year considering my options and talking to tutors, career advisors and checking the CIPR website.” [The Chartered Institute of Public Relations is the professional body representing some 8,000 PR student and practitioner members in the UK.]

Ross-Tomlin is now working as an associate program executive within Hotwire’s telecommunications practice, with clients in the telecoms and digital media sectors. He recognizes that he is being given a ‘fantastic’ opportunity to succeed within a fast-growing and award-winning consultancy and attributes this in part to luck (”it was the first proper job I’d applied for, he said”). But what advice does he have for job seekers?

“Be selective. Make sure you’re applying for something you’re interested in. That way your enthusiasm will come across. You have to be humble, but shouldn’t be afraid to offer opinions and suggestions. I’d say, be bold.”

The other five on the graduate recruitment scheme have yet to join, so Ross-Tomlin isn’t sure of their backgrounds. But he suspects they come from a range of courses (the graduate scheme was advertised widely on a graduate careers website.) “My PR degree was helpful, but the attitude here is ‘we will train you up.’”

Training, it seems, is crucial. Interviews are two-way processes and graduates want to know what training they can expect to receive, not just what salary’s on offer from an employer. And it appears that Hotwire takes this role very seriously: a member of the team even has the grand title of ‘graduate tzar.’

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