Ad Age: Social media marketing supplanting traditional media relations

And the earth’s temperature is heating up.
While the dismantling of traditional media both financially and by audience/credibility has been gaining steam for years, this past year’s economic meltdown has only exacerbated the derailment. Clients are pursuing more direct lines to consumers through micro-targeted ads, Youtube channels, Twitter accounts and tactics of the like while PRtists continue [...]

Lesson #1 for Social Media Marketing: Don’t be the dupe

I just read Ryan McNutt’s blog (New Media Officer for Dalhousie University) with a post about misleading Facebook groups; ones set up by marketing companies to capitalize on the “Class of 20XX” propensity for students to connect and discuss their upcoming university adventure.
Read it.
Lessons to be learned? First of all, protect your brand. That means [...]

Conference Blog

I think I’ve written about the ultra-savvy GM of the 76ers, Ed Stefanski before. He’s smart, articulate and understands solid medlia relations practices.
Stefanski held a conference call with 25 bloggers which is garnering heaps of praise especially in the same calendar year that Mark Cuban banned bloggers from the dressing room.
Respecting, valuing and engaging with [...]

iPhones and iBasketball

Rogers and the iPhone. iPhone and Rogers. A match made in… well… Canada. Here’s the story: Rogers announces iPhone price plans for the Canadian roll-out of the Apple phenom. Customers/consumers kick up a storm as the prices are seismically higher than in the US or anywhere else for that matter. Then Rogers announces a dramatic [...]

Pitch, Feverishly

I recently received a pitch from a PR agency through e-mail. At first, I was a little annoyed. There was no possible way I could have been interested in the watery social media company the practitioner was acting on behalf of. I thought of simply deleting the e-mail. I thought I might publish the pitch [...]

Scrabulous talk keeps scoring

CBC Radio’s excellent Spark takes up the Scrabulous issue and comes to many of the same conclusions as Stractical: Hasbro/Mattel/other license holders saw a phenomenon rising and jumped on board, legally and communicatively.

Personal Correspondence + The Internet = Public Correspondence

One of the responsibilities for many corporate communication professionals is to handle response from the non-media public to issues of branding, marketing and community The ability to treat each inquiry with care is important not only for the satisfaction of the inquirer, but for the very real possibility that a corporate response from anyone about [...]

No Crossing The Blog Line

Apologies all around for not posting this week. Sometimes life happens.
Mark Cuban, the polarizingly (not a word) charismatic owner of the Dallas Mavericks has decided to ban bloggers from the locker room, creating a clear separation between newspaper reporters and bloggers. As of now, the only person affected by this ban is Tim McMahon who [...]

Student faces expulsion for Facebook study group

Interesting and troubling story coming out of Ryerson University about an engineering student who is being threatened with expulsion for administering a Facebook group that included some quiz answer sharing. I’m not going to deride the university for refusing to comment on an ongoing investigation or even praise the student’s representatives for going on the [...]

Obay Buzz Goes Offish

It’s tricky (tricky, tricky, tricky) pulling off an “It’s Coming…” campaign. You know the ones. Some vague, non-sequitur ad that doesn’t mention a product or a brand but instead leaves you scratching your head and wondering “What was that all about?” “It’s coming…” campaigns double down on a bet that the audience will take notice, [...]