Category Archives: Communications

PR Lessons from Madonna

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My introduction to marketing and branding came at an age when I didn’t even know what that meant. It all started with Madonna and her 1984 hit “Like a Virgin” that propelled her to global recognition after topping the Billboard Hot 100 chart for six consecutive weeks. The song created a huge controversy with complains that it promoted premarital sex and undermined family values; and Madonna’s attitudes and opinions on sex, nudity, style and sexuality forced the public to sit up and take notice. I did; and became an immediate fan. I sang her songs into my ‘microphone’ hairbrush, dressed like her and even dressed the family dog like her.

Madonna’s rise to fame came at a pivotal time in the music industry. MTV had just been launched and as a result artists with strong ‘visual appeal’ (read: good looking) were pushed into the spotlight. Early on Madonna recognized that she could use music videos and MTV to establish her popularity.

Lesson #1: Utilize communications tools faster and better than anyone else.

Madonna’s use of shocking sexual imagery kept her in the media forefront, from risque music videos to her elaborate performances on stage. At the first MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs), she stunned audiences by performing ‘Like a Virgin’ on top of a giant wedding cake while wearing a wedding dress and white gloves, which MTV rated as one of the most iconic performances in VMA history.

Lesson #2: Don’t be afraid to break the rules when needed. What have you done lately to stand out?

Madonna consistently uses her music and image to influence the masses into believing that she is the authoritative knowledge on trends. Right from the beginning of her career, she expertly combined her fashion style, performances and videos to influence audiences. Her style became one of the top female fashion trends of the 1980s with lace tops, skirts over Capri pants, fishnet stockings, crucifixes, arm loads of bracelets and bleached hair.

Lesson #3: Know your brand. Work your brand.

Known for continuously reinventing both her music and image to remain relevant, Madonna is not ‘just another pop star’. Her continual reinvention is one of her key cultural achievements. By working with upcoming talented producers and new artists, she successfully remains at the center of media attention. Her’s approach to music was far from the “find a winning formula and stick to it” approach. Her musical career has been a continuous experimentation. Madonna has never rested on her laurels. And neither should you.

Lesson #4: Evolution is necessary for survival. Don’t do what you’ve always done, just because it’s what you’ve always done. What works today, might not work tomorrow… And we’re back to the Will Rogers quote: “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”

Madonna is iconic. She is attributed to providing the creative freedom that today’s female pop stars enjoy thanks to the trail she blazed in the early 80s. It’s hard to imagine today, but there was a time when Madonna was seen as an inauthentic product of pop culture and an artistic lightweight. If you were to believe all the talk in the mid-‘80s, Madonna would not have lasted beyond her “Like A Virgin” era. However, the career she carved out for herself made it possible for virtually every other female pop singer to follow and in doing so, she redefined the parameters of pop music.

Lesson #5: Know what you stand for.  Be original. Carve out your own path.

You may argue that Madonna is not the greatest performer/singer/dancer in the world. But her staying power, appeal and influence can’t be denied. She is a successful musician and a businesswoman. Her creative approach to marketing has always been bold leaps rather than baby steps.

As Madonna once said, “[It’s] better to live one year as a tiger, than a hundred as a sheep…”

Abracadabra!

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PR is a highly credible form of promotion. One of its key points of power is establishing credibility for a product, company or person in the minds of targeted customer groups by capitalizing on the influence of a third-party – the media. Hiring a professional communicator to conduct your PR is always money well spent, as we know how to target information to have the most impact with the press and the public.

However, the perception as to the amount of influence that we have is sometimes greater than reality. While we excel at promotion and yield high results, I’m sad to have to burst our reputation bubble. PR professionals are not magicians. We don’t have magic wands that we can wave to make stories magically appear the night after you hire us. The reality is, no matter how compelling the story, we can’t make a reporter write about your company, product, and/or event. Frustrating isn’t it? After all, you hired us to make the magic happen.

So let’s talk about what PR pros can do…

We can provide an outside, objective perspective, which can help to identify new angles and opportunities that might have been missed. We can help find, and define, your story/message and finesse it so that it’s told in the right way to the right people. We focus on media outlets that speak to a client’s core demographic rather than sending press releases to every publication under the sun. We use social media every single day to get the word out about clients, to communicate with customers and to respond to questions or problems.

But results take time. Unless you’ve partnered with Facebook or Google on a new venture or have discovered the cure for Cancer, chances are that reporters will not be chomping at the bit when your story is pitched. But fear not! If done right, there will be some nuggets that will perk up a reporter’s ears – but it takes time for most stories and opportunities to reach fruition.

PR is the result of hard work by skilled professionals – not a parlor trick.

oi with the poodles already!

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If you’ve ever watch the TV show Gilmour Girls, you’ve already understood what I’m saying here.  For those of you who have never watched it, you missed out on Lorelai Gilmore’s great phrase to express your frustration at any given situation: Oi with the poodles already!

We all have THOSE DAYS. You know which ones I’m talking about. Those days where you wake up on the wrong side of the bed, can’t get your butt in gear despite circling around the proverbial airport because you, ironically, also can’t seem to sit still.

Oi with the poodles already!!

On days such as this, here’s what I do to attempt to refocus myself:

1. If you can’t focus on the task at hand, take a break from it. Do something else…. anything else that will make you feel productive. Vacuum, wash your floors, wash your windows. Give your pet a bath. Now check it off the to-do list that you haven’t written.

2. Write the to-do list. Pick another task and check it off. BTW, checking your Facebook account doesn’t count.

3. Go back to your original task and focus on it for 15 minutes. Hopefully, that 15 minutes will turn into however long it takes to get the job done. But if at the 15 minute mark you are mentally spent. Well then, you’re done for the day. Move onto something else… like a glass of wine.

I Know You Watch TV

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If there is one thing that can generate a discussion, it is asking someone about their television viewing habits. The typical knee-jerk response is that they don’t watch much at all. As the discussion continues, it is only then that their true viewing habits are revealed: “I don’t watch much TV at all… except for this show and that show…” Love it or hate it. I know you watch TV. I do too. Statistics show that the average Canadian watches 16.9 hours of television a week. Although television remains the predominant mass communications device worldwide, consumption patterns have changed as new technologies have entered the market. Apparently, we are still watching our favorite shows. But how we watch them is changing.

Let me start with this: I have a love-hate relationship with television. I love watching it, but I hate watching it. For six years I worked at a television station doing their PR. I had a television in my office so that I could monitor our channel. So for eight hours a day, I watched TV. I watched it on-air. I watched it being created in the studio. I watch it from the control room as the director called out camera shots to the crew. I watched the product placement, the scripting and a slew of other technical and creative aspects. I watched how a show came to life. I watched how the producer determined the content of a live show. I watched how the director lead a team of cameramen, floor directors, production assistants, audio, video and graphics teams to fulfill the creative vision.

When my workday was done, I went home… and watched more TV.

Television shows were an obvious choice for water cooler discussions. Whether you work at a TV station or not, one can agree that discussing TV shows is an easy way to bond with new people as you get to know one another. In fact, one of my close friends and I met, and instantly bonded, over our love for Buffy The Vampire Slayer. However watching all this TV came at a price. I wasn’t reading as many books. I wasn’t practicing my violin. And, if I’m being honest here, I wasn’t really using my brain as much. Like many people, I like to watch TV to “zone out” when I’m feeling drained after a long workweek. I want to spend time with my “friends” on CSI solving cases. I want to explore freakish events as part of the Fringe team. And although I am solving these cases alongside these characters, television is still remains a passive medium. It doesn’t ask me to do anything other than to turn it on. But too much television viewing made me sluggish. It was time to shut it off.

After conducting what I’m sure were many costly studies, broadcasters realized that during the summer months, people watch less TV. So the traditional viewing season now ends as the warm weather beckons us out to play. I noticed that during these summer months, I am a happier person. The effects from the added Vitamin D aside, I recognized that this was in part because I was watching less television. I read more books. I socialized with friends more. I had more ‘free time’ as I was not tied to a broadcast schedule.

Over the years my personal viewing habits have evolved as technology has evolved. The creation of the DVR/PVR has freed us from the traditional broadcast schedule and allows me to watch my shows when I want. My time has become my own again… and I feel liberated. As newer options to view content are growing, audiences, such as myself, are now able to choose how, when and where we receive content. I now have the option to watch show on my iPad, phone or laptop. I can get programming through Netflix and iTunes. I rarely, if ever, watch live television.

For me, my love-hate relationship with television comes down to finding balance. It’s about watching my favourite shows – guilt free – by ensuring that my viewing habits do not cannibalize other aspects of my life. It’s about the freedom to choose when I watch these shows.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to watch True Blood.

UBC Day 25: Who gives a Tweet?

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Have you ever stopped to think about the tools you use for communicating with friends and family? Chances are they are the same as what we use in our professional lives. Facebook, Twitter, email and text. Sometimes we even use the phone and see one another in person. But mostly we text or Facebook one another. Yup Facebook is a verb.

I read an article called Does Facebook Make Us Lonely, in The Atlantic that suggests people who have active outlets, rather than passive ones are happier. The article defined an active outlet as anything you physically participate in, such as a team sport or social gatherings. Television was labeled as a passive activity, which is no surprise, but so was social media.

“Social media—from Facebook to Twitter—have made us more densely networked than ever. Yet for all this connectivity, new research suggests that we have never been lonelier…”

The article suggested that the more time we spend being ‘social’ on social networks, the more dissatisfied we become. This is because while we’re scrolling through our news feeds reading all the seemingly wonderful things that our Friends are posting, we start to compare our lives to these random snippets.

What we fail to realize in these moments of trolling on our social media channels is that very few people share if they are depressed or feeling inadequate. We only see the happy or the angry vent. We don’t really see into someone’s day to day life. Trust me, their lives have dull spots too! However, the more we invest in ourselves, the happier we become. So being social in our physical lives can lead to happiness.

The article asks this fundamental question: Does the Internet make people lonely, or are lonely people more attracted to the Internet?

Thoughts?

UBC Day 20: PR Lessons from James T. Kirk

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To continue on the theme of my geekness, I bring you lessons in PR from Captain James Tiberius Kirk:

  1. When exploring strange, new worlds, seeking out new life and new civilizations, and boldly going where no man had gone before, Kirk made sure to put his team’s best foot forward.
  2. Until face with a hostile situation… Then he was in crisis communications mode.
  3. When giving a progress report to Star Fleet, he’d downplay the bad and highlight the good.
  4. Are the rules not working for you? Change them. Next time you are faced with a tough situation, think Kobayashi Maru.
  5. Kirk surrounded himself with a team he trusted with his life. Everyone needs a Spock and McCoy to trust with their reputation.
  6. When organizing away teams, Kirk had his main guys… and the nameless guy in red who was always expendable. In PR we need to prove our value, like Spock and McCoy, so we can live another day.

On your next project ask yourself what would Kirk do?

Be a leader, not a red shirt.

Boldly go where no one has gone before.

UBC Day 19: Under Pressure

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Captain’s log. Star date: 7-19-20-12.

Feeling pressured to write a blog because I signed up for the Ultimate Blog Challenge. But I am empty today. Writers block has struck so I am doing a writer’s block 101 exercise where I do nothing for the next few minutes but write whatever comes to my head. Boy are you guys in for treat. Ha! In case you didn’t get the “Star date” reference, I’m a Trekkie. I like how Kirk never gives up; tries to be diplomatic when he can; and when he can’t, he uses his all purpose judo chop.

Light-bulb! Question for everyone… What do you do to overcome a creative block?  When it’s writer’s block, I do this… when it’s creating a PR campaign, I start by added in the most basic stuff that needs to be done. Then I let my mind wander. I envision what I want the outcome to look like and start filling in the blanks to ensure it gets there.

Whether writing or starting a new project, it doesn’t matter where you begin. You just have to begin.

Kirk out.

UBC Day 18: Best Campaign Ever

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One of my favorite PR campaigns was when I was working at a local TV station. We were launching a new reality show that, at the time, was new territory for us. I remember how excited I was about the show but also because I was brought in during the initial planning stages so that I could proactively contribute from a PR perspective, rather than a reactionary one.

The show was a contest that began with an open audition, that through public voting, was narrowed to ten contestants. These ten contestants were pitted against one another through a series of talent and self promotional activities. The winner received their own TV show for one season. As the show progressed, the ten were slowly eliminated to the final three. The winner was decided through a combination of judging and online viewer voting. And this was just as marketing through Facebook and Twitter was starting to take off!

On the PR side of things, because this show was new to our market, it was easy to generate some buzz. Our two major dailies picked up the story and I engaged our audiences through our website, Tweets and Facebook updates. The other thing I did that in my mind made the difference in the sheer amount of earned media we received was to engage the community newspapers in each of the areas where our contestants lived. I’d send each paper a target media releases immediately following each show, providing an update on the contestant in their coverage area. I made sure it was easy for them by also providing stills from the most recent show. To compliment this, we ran a guerrilla campaign postering the downtown core and local universities. We organized publicity stunts and photo ops. Basically we had fun with it.

When typically running campaigns, we place a lot of value on getting hits in the dailies and we forget about the smaller publications. Publications, such as community newspapers, are always looking for content relevant to their coverage area. By engaging them from the start, we achieved an unprecedented amount of earned media.

After all, that’s the goal right?

UBC Day 17: Ask for Directions!

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Are you happy? Are you challenged? Inspired? Or are you keeping your ear to the ground for the next gig?

Most people that I talk to at events always have their ear to the ground for their next big PR gig. Job satisfaction is important and I can think of many industries where it might be low, but I would not have put marketing and PR jobs into that category. Forbes posted an interesting article listing the Ten Happiest Jobs. Marketing and PR positions were not among them. However, in their article on the Ten Most Hated Jobs, two of the ten jobs were: Director of Sales and Marketing in second place and Marketing Manager in ninth. Both cited the reason for dissatisfaction as lack of direction. Interesting.

In PR we often fly by the seat of our pants. We try to plan the best we can, but really it’s a reactionary role.  Because, let’s face it, while WE  may think marketing and PR are the most important aspects in business, most times the PR team is engaged late in the game, if at all. Is this really lack of direction or just lack of communication? Can you use it as an education opportunity? Does your C-Suite team  understand the value of marketing and PR?  They must to some degree… After all they hired you.

If you’re suffering from an acute case of lack of direction, the cure is to educate your organization on the value of PR.  Try this on your next project:  Tell them what you are going to do. Do it. Tell them what you did.

Now get to it.