A round-up of recent happenings in the world of PR, marketing, and other
things I find interesting.
Measure This: I haven't had time to sink my teeth into this, but measurement guru KDPaine presents a broad set of industry-wide standards for measuring traditional media. The woman knows her stuff, ladies and gentlemen.
You Liked What Now? The New York Times explains that your "likes" on Facebook can show up, unbeknownst to you, in ads for the product in question. Remember, it's the data, stupid.
A Little Birdie Told Me They Like Your Product: Since it's become hip to bash Facebook advertising, it's only logical that someone decides Twitter is the logical alternative. One thing that makes sense -- people seem to go on Twitter for a broader range of purposes, making it more likely they will engage with a product.
Mad Men Season Five Finale: Just because...
Showing posts with label Mad Men. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mad Men. Show all posts
Monday, June 11, 2012
Friday, March 23, 2012
What we can learn from America's hat
Canadian PR guy Victor Vrsnik weighs in on the public relations definition debate that has so vexed those of us south of the border. Turns out Canada has its own defition of PR, and it's better than ours:
"Public relations is the strategic management of relationships between an organization and its diverse publics, through the use of communication, to achieve mutual understanding, realize organizational goals and serve the public interest."
Compare that to the recently approved American definition:
"Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics." (emphasis in both cases is from Vrsnik)
Why is Canada's conception of the dark art of PR better than that of the good old U S of A? As Vrsnik notes, it is explicit in recognizing that public relations is a means for achieving an organization's strategic objectives, i.e., its business goals. Hence he draws on Don Draper's famous line, "I don't sell advertising. I sell products."
Integral to achieving business goals are managing relationships, which Vrsnik notes is at the core of the Canadian definition. By contrast, we Americans place our emphasis on the communications aspect of public relations, which is merely a means to an end, not the end itself. Vrsnik is devastating but dead-on accurate in his conclusion:
Corporate outcomes make PR practitioners relevant and invaluable; moves us to the C-Suite; and puts us in a position to seize ownership of emerging technologies for communicating messages.
People who sell social media will always be hired to do social media. People who sell media relations will stay in the communications ghetto. People who talk in terms of corporate objectives get to do it all.
What a powerful declaration. It's a finger, poking us in the chest as PR professionals, demanding to know, 'Are you good enough? Do you know what it takes to succeed?'
I have my answer. What is yours?
"Public relations is the strategic management of relationships between an organization and its diverse publics, through the use of communication, to achieve mutual understanding, realize organizational goals and serve the public interest."
Compare that to the recently approved American definition:
"Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics." (emphasis in both cases is from Vrsnik)
Why is Canada's conception of the dark art of PR better than that of the good old U S of A? As Vrsnik notes, it is explicit in recognizing that public relations is a means for achieving an organization's strategic objectives, i.e., its business goals. Hence he draws on Don Draper's famous line, "I don't sell advertising. I sell products."
Integral to achieving business goals are managing relationships, which Vrsnik notes is at the core of the Canadian definition. By contrast, we Americans place our emphasis on the communications aspect of public relations, which is merely a means to an end, not the end itself. Vrsnik is devastating but dead-on accurate in his conclusion:
Corporate outcomes make PR practitioners relevant and invaluable; moves us to the C-Suite; and puts us in a position to seize ownership of emerging technologies for communicating messages.
People who sell social media will always be hired to do social media. People who sell media relations will stay in the communications ghetto. People who talk in terms of corporate objectives get to do it all.
What a powerful declaration. It's a finger, poking us in the chest as PR professionals, demanding to know, 'Are you good enough? Do you know what it takes to succeed?'
I have my answer. What is yours?
Monday, July 26, 2010
Everything I needed to know about public relations I learned from Don Draper
Don Draper, the fictional ad man on AMC's "Mad Men," has previously expressed his disdain for public relations -- an attitude mirroring that held by many of his real-life counterparts. But last night's season four premiere was aptly titled "Public Relations," with Don and his colleagues finding some use for their profession's cousin. In the process, he provides a decent PR primer.
I had originally thought that Don's smack-down of the Jantzen swimwear execs was a stunt, in parcel with his subsequent interview with a Wall Street Journal reporter. But "Mad Men" series creater Matthew Weiner set me straight during an interview today on "Fresh Air." That scene, in which Don unveils a risque ad campaign he knows the straight-laced Jantzen boys will reject, was really about Don calling a spade a spade. Jantzen wants to pretend it isn't selling sex, even refusing to call its swimsuit a bikini, since bikinis are merely "underwear you wear to the beach." If they don't own up to what their product is really about, their competition is going to eat them alive, Don tells them.
That's lesson number one: Own your brand.
In reality, it was Peggy Olson who taught Don that lesson. After he chews her out for pulling off her own PR stunt, she reminds him that everyone in the new firm had put their future at risk to follow Don. They all wanted to please him. No matter how many other names are on the letter head, it's his firm, and he better start acting like it.
Which brings us to the next lesson. After blowing an interview with an Advertising Age reporter by refusing to answer the question, "Who is Don Draper?" -- a question, that, at its heart, Don really can't answer -- he gives the WSJ reporter an exclusive about how he convinced his partners and co-workers to flee Sterling Cooper to form the new agency. The reporter eats it up, and Don seems to relish the tale. Why shouldn't he? After all, it's his story, and for once, Don gets to tell the whole unadulterated truth.
That's lesson number two: The truth is the best kind of public relations.
Unfortunately, Don Draper and the truth have but a passing acquaintance.
I had originally thought that Don's smack-down of the Jantzen swimwear execs was a stunt, in parcel with his subsequent interview with a Wall Street Journal reporter. But "Mad Men" series creater Matthew Weiner set me straight during an interview today on "Fresh Air." That scene, in which Don unveils a risque ad campaign he knows the straight-laced Jantzen boys will reject, was really about Don calling a spade a spade. Jantzen wants to pretend it isn't selling sex, even refusing to call its swimsuit a bikini, since bikinis are merely "underwear you wear to the beach." If they don't own up to what their product is really about, their competition is going to eat them alive, Don tells them.
That's lesson number one: Own your brand.
In reality, it was Peggy Olson who taught Don that lesson. After he chews her out for pulling off her own PR stunt, she reminds him that everyone in the new firm had put their future at risk to follow Don. They all wanted to please him. No matter how many other names are on the letter head, it's his firm, and he better start acting like it.
Which brings us to the next lesson. After blowing an interview with an Advertising Age reporter by refusing to answer the question, "Who is Don Draper?" -- a question, that, at its heart, Don really can't answer -- he gives the WSJ reporter an exclusive about how he convinced his partners and co-workers to flee Sterling Cooper to form the new agency. The reporter eats it up, and Don seems to relish the tale. Why shouldn't he? After all, it's his story, and for once, Don gets to tell the whole unadulterated truth.
That's lesson number two: The truth is the best kind of public relations.
Unfortunately, Don Draper and the truth have but a passing acquaintance.
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