The power of video gaining viral legs can create incredible visibility for a brand. One of my personal favorites – the Evian roller babies – brought this brand back to life for me after moving it to the passé section of my mind sometime in the 90s. However, even though I loved the video, I still haven’t been motivated to pick up a bottle. I just smile when I see the logo and pay heed to the creative talent who developed the video.

Interestingly, Evian started running the ads on TV a few months ago. Apparently the sales pipeline thinned out from the online push and they’re trying another approach.

This week, SymphonyIRI released the latest sales data for Old Spice body wash, the product that has risen to the number one most viewed video spot thanks to the muscular Isaiah Mustafa sending messages from the shower.

Bad news Mustafa – sales are down. Apparently these past four weeks, the campaign has been running without a corresponding coupon, leaving consumers less motivated to purchase. Sales have dropped 30-33 percent since the buy one, get one free sales promotion ended, giving Mustafa quite a bit less muscle on his own.

This serves as an important reminder that motivating target audiences to take action requires more than an entertaining video. Today, capturing a consumer’s attention takes a minimum of 3-5 touch points from multiple sources. Companies must create 360 degree campaigns which reach their targets in all the places they are engaged — media, blogs, point of purchase, social networks, online video sites, events, etc.  And there has to be a compelling call to action and/or incentive. For the general consumer, coupons are particularly hot right now as the recession has conditioned us to look for ways to save.

Regardless of your target audience, the importance of having a multichannel marketing plan is imperative. A one legged stool just won’t stand up. Unless of course your only goal is to be the number one viewed video and have people smile at your water bottles. And let’s not forget – viral isn’t a given, so even this goal has no guarantee.

What brands do you think are the best success stories when it comes to multi-channel marketing? Failures?

The recent debate over net neutrality is a heated one (to say the least). Since Google and Verizon’s talks made the news a few weeks ago, the media has been peppered with headlines discussing the issue. Big questions at the heart of the debate include who should get priority on the Web, how this will impact innovation and small business, whether the government can police this effectively, if this is just a play for big business to benefit, and the overall implications for consumers.

Given the tremendous amount of ink already given to these questions, I’ll save my opinions for another day when the dust settles a bit more. Instead, let’s take a look at the impact to Google’s brand: will net neutrality be the tipping point for trust in Google, transforming them from the company with the “don’t be evil” motto into a “corporate behemoth”?

Based on discussions brewing on the Web, it appears trust could be on the line. Consumers are noting they are moving to new search engines, that the company has lost its connection with its start-up roots and that they are moving away from their entrepreneurial positions to ones that benefit them as a large business. Even comedian Jon Stewart has joined the discussion, documenting the variance in Google’s message from 2006 to present (in his unique way of course).

Jon Stewart on Net Neutrality

The change in their position alone could have huge implications for the company and Google will have to carefully navigate how they reconcile their former “free Internet for everyone” stance with what is a very complicated issue. Consumers could see this as creating a hierarchy for Internet access, with big business looking to line their pockets at their expense. This story isn’t new, and the headlines could increasingly take a turn for the worse from Google’s perspective (insert “evil empire”).

The imperatives for Google: show how net neutrality still aligns to their original position and be clear on the benefits to consumers and small business. If it doesn’t line up, it will be interesting to see how Google is discussed going forward.  One thing for certain, the Google brand is rapidly moving from warm fuzzy search company, to tech titan.

I remember a conversation I had with a colleague about 15 years ago when the Web was starting to become a mainstream part of our daily business world, especially in the high tech market. The person said that the Web was simply another distribution channel and she somewhat downplayed the importance that the Web would have in our daily lives. Boy was she wrong.

Fast forward to today and you have a much different picture. The Web is critical to our daily business lives, both in the B2B and B2C worlds. But it cannot be done in a vacuum. As analyst firm AMR said in a recent report, “Two thirds of B2B marketers believe that online must be complemented by traditional marketing activities.”

I’ve read articles and heard from multiple companies that “we need a social media plan.” The reality is this cannot be done as a standalone effort – it must be part of a larger marketing strategy. With experts like Forrester Research predicting a doubling in B2B interactive marketing spending by 2014, forward-thinking B2B and B2C companies need to continue to strengthen their online and social media talent with a combination of in-house and external resources. Sadly, BizReport says that 60 percent of B2B firms have no staff dedicated to social media compared with 54 percent of B2C players. Why is B2B lagging here?

My feeling is that we live in a results-oriented business community, not to mention a results-oriented society, which means we need numbers and validation. Gut instinct is fine but it’s hard to argue for social media-savvy staff members to the C-level executives if you can’t justify the benefits. To date, it has proven challenging to directly link things like re-tweets or blog posts to increased sales, especially for big-tickets items like database software or bulldozers.

Social media can be a great tool to help companies connect with their customers, partners and industry influencers and has potential to drive revenue growth. Whether you use an outside agency or take it in-house, a successful social media strategy must be part of the overall marketing plan for your company backed with real metrics.

How do you see social media strategies changing as they become an integral part of your marketing plan?

The Wall Street Journal today is reporting that the vast majority of Toyota accidents were the result of…driver error. Not sticky brake pedals:

The U.S. Department of Transportation has analyzed dozens of data recorders from Toyota Motor Corp. vehicles involved in accidents blamed on sudden acceleration and found that the throttles were wide open and the brakes weren’t engaged at the time of the crash, people familiar with the findings said.

The early results suggest that some drivers who said their Toyotas and Lexuses surged out of control were mistakenly flooring the accelerator when they intended to jam on the brakes.

What’s even more fascinating is how the grievance count suddenly shot up once people heard about the problem. Actually, we didn’t just hear about it, but were barraged by a non-stop, relentless news cycle involving electronic media, print and online media outlet and social media buzz.  Did the hype – not problems with Toyota – lead to the jump in complaints?  I’d say that looks like a pretty safe assumption.

A similar case of hype leading to mass hysteria is the latest (albeit flawed) Apple iPhone.  While it’s a nice device, there is very little that’s truly new or groundbreaking. If you already have an iPhone or an Android device, there’s not much reason to run right out and buy one.  The rational response would be to hold off until your natural upgrade cycle comes around.

The irrational response, fueled by months of breathless expectation by media and bloggers, along with Steve Jobs’ showmanship at launch, resulted in the thousands upon thousands of people waiting in line to drop down their hard-earned money on a device virtually the same as what they already have. Say what? My take, is the hype created a form of temporary insanity on a mass level, perhaps akin to the way mobs work.

Another example is designer handbags among teenage girls. Although somewhat tempered of late by the recession, my daughter went through a phase where she simply had to have expensive purses.  Working a minimum wage job, she would save pennies to get the latest Dooney & Bourke offering. I would see her purses and just couldn’t understand why she along with many other teenage girls would pay so much for what amounted to a fancy label. Hype and peer pressure are the only explanations.

As a PR person, I’m aware of the influence of hype and therefore largely resistant to its influence.  I counseled friends to buy Toyotas when the sales crashed earlier this year, and tend to avoid overhyped, overpriced Apple products.

But I am fascinated by the incredible power of hype to shape people’s behavior.

To no small degree, this is what marketing, advertising and PR people dream about and strategize endlessly to achieve. Get enough hype, and you have just hit the lottery.  So what’s the magic formula?  Still working on that one, but I’ll let you know once I figure it out.

I keep telling my kids that they are growing up in an amazing time. They don’t know what it’s like to use a rotary phone, they don’t know how to change the channel on the TV without a remote, and they have no idea what’s it like to live in a world without PCs, iPods and smartphones.

But I think that in their lifetime the changes to the written word, or more specifically how the written word is physically read, is having the biggest impact.

Those of us in the world of high tech PR know that newspapers and magazines have been dying off at a rapid pace in the past few years. And if they’re not dead altogether, the number of pages in most magazines has shrunk dramatically due to a reduction in advertising dollars. One magazine, BusinessWeek, caught my eye because it had an article that talked about how the publication had expanded the number of editorial pages by 20 percent. Granted, that’s probably due in part to Bloomberg infusing BusinessWeek with cash to promote the brand, but still, it’s rare that you see magazines expanding.

With the shift that we’re seeing – the decline of hardcopy publications in favor of the growth of online media, smartphones, Kindles, iPads, etc. – I asked myself a question…what kind of brand loyalty is there when a person has no publication to hold, read and enjoy? If I were to download five business publications on my Kindle, such as Time, Newsweek,

BusinessWeek, Forbes and Fortune, how would I know which story came from which publication? Sure, I may recognize the author’s name or the style of story to figure out which publication it was, but how will the publication keep me as a loyal reader?

I’m not a publisher, thank goodness, so I don’t have to figure out an answer to this question. But for every middle-aged person like myself, there’s probably five tweens/twentysomethings that only know one way to review material and that is from an electronic device like a PC, Kindle or iPad.

From a PR perspective we always tell our clients to understand their target audience. So with what I see as the pending demise of the hardcopy publication (also saves a lot of trees), how do you change your approach to building brand recognition in an ever-changing market?

Brand name, brand experience, brand awareness, brand recognition, brand image, brand franchise, and brand identity…just to name a few. Thanks Wikipedia. Here’s the definition of brand that I like:

The word brand has continued to evolve to encompass identity – in effect the personality of a product, company or service.

Is there a more misunderstood or overused term in marketing than “brand?” I hear the term in planning sessions and see it all over the news, but how can something that is intangible cause such a stir in the corporate world?

In a recent CNET article about the world’s strongest brands, the top tech companies recognized included industry heavyweights Google, IBM and Apple. In fact, Google was the winner for the fourth straight year. Sort of funny when you think about it since IBM and Apple have actual products you can touch whereas Google is really just an online tool, albeit one that has effectively taken over the Web.

Here is the top 10 ranking of global brands in 2010 by research firm Millward Brown Optimor in its fifth annual “BrandZ Top 100 report“.

So as we talk about building brand, really, what does brand mean to you? To me Kleenex is a brand—do you ask someone for a tissue or a Kleenex when you’re about to sneeze? The name has effectively taken the place of the product line. I always have considered Sony a strong brand because it stands for quality products. I used to feel that way about Toyota but that’s another story.

A common attribute of brand in advertising that I see is the ability to identify with the product and want to emulate it on some level, like the Michael Jordan commercials with Gatorade (“Be like Mike”) or the Air Jordan shoes.

So in today’s day and age why is brand so important?

Because it’s all about building trust and strengthening brand loyalty. With so many choices available to consumers and companies, as well as so many mediums (radio, TV, social media, etc.) to reach target customers, companies are striving to keep their customers. It’s common knowledge that it costs less to maintain a customer relationship than to secure a new customer.

My feeling is that we’ve seen an uptick in the growth in usage of the term “brand” due to the rise of social media. Tools such as Facebook and MySpace not only give companies a way to reach their customers, but it creates a two-way dialogue that lets the customer engage with the company on an entirely different level. I’ve read about many smart companies that have added an element of customer service via Twitter. Sounds pretty smart to me.

So how can companies strive to instill more “personality” in their brand? What are some unique ways that companies are doing this?

It’s interesting to see how the idea of the virtual office has evolved and mirrored the advancement of the technologies available.  When I heard that Inc. Magazine had produced an entire issue virtually, I was intrigued.  One of Inc. Magazine’s staff writers came up with the notion of making an article idea about working remotely, “The Case and the Plan for the Virtual Company,” more personal by implementing a virtual office for the entire magazine staff for a month.  You can read and listen to the results for yourself but the net of it is that they were able to put this issue out without any of the staff members working in the main office.

One of the more surprising aspects of this story is that the entire staff was able to continue to do their jobs remotely without buying any new technology, software or equipment.  Ten years ago, when people were just starting to talk about the possibilities of working remotely, the argument often raised was the complication and expense of setting up a home office.  At the time there were naysayers who also questioned whether or not effective communication could still take place.  Now with just about every home having a computer, or better yet a laptop, and free technologies such as Skype it appears that many of these objections are no longer issues.

Many people working from home have experienced a significant increase in productivity. In the NPR podcast, “Magazine Staff Produces Entire Issue from Home,” Jane Berenston, Editor of Inc. Magazine, substantiates that point saying that staff writers found they were much more productive when they were working at  home and often lost track of time while they finished a story.  Berenston also reported that her staff was able to utilize the time they would have spent commuting by getting more work done. Talk about a “Green” work lifestyle!

All in all, a great article and podcast.

Living in the world of high tech means, at least to me, that we play by a different set of rules. Many tech companies are seen as innovative, strategic and forward-thinking, while others are clumsy, slow and reactionary. I started thinking about this issue after I read a recent Op Ed in the New York Times written by former Microsoft executive Dick Brass. In this article Brass ripped Microsoft for not being terribly innovative and commented that part of the issue resides in the company’s corporate culture. It ruffled feathers so much that fellow Microsoft PR pro Frank Shaw posted a response on The Microsoft Blog defending the company.

Similarly, CNET recently took some shots about the engineering-driven culture at Google and questioned whether the company could tackle the growth of social media.

I took a step back to ponder this issue for a while. I’m not going to argue if Microsoft is innovative or if Google’s corporate culture might get in the way of improving its social media capabilities. Rather, what does this mean for the PR pros in the high tech world?

Start-ups generally get a few years to make good on their initial ideas. Engineering doesn’t simply happen overnight. Start-ups seem to gain acceptance early on, probably because their ideas sound interesting and people are always willing to support the underdog. But Microsoft was young once and yet now, some 35 years later, they are mocked for their lack of innovation.

“But part of the problem is communication: the term “innovation” largely has lost its meaning and has become a buzzword for big companies to use whenever they want to sound competitive and forward-thinking.” Gregory T. Huang, Xconomy

The more I thought about these issues, the more I realized that this has to do with brand. When a company is young it is energetic, full of ideas and many times referred to as “innovative”. As the company builds a strong brand reputation over time, it’s important to remain true to its principles. Your company cannot rest on its laurels as Microsoft appears to have done, for example in the mobile space as my colleague Brian Edwards pointed out recently. Create new things, share unusual ideas and push the limits so that you won’t be accused of being a sell-out. (more…)

Ok, so I don’t mean to be on a blogging rut focused on analyzing advertisements but I saw this commercial a few days ago and it struck me as an example of a smart way to use your industry leadership. In one of their latest commercials Lysol is positioning one of their employees as a key spokesperson. He’s not just any employee but Joe Rubino, the Director of Microbiology for Lysol Products. He introduces himself and then proceeds to give tips on how to kill the H1N1 virus in your home … oh and by the way…one of the tips is to use Lysol disinfectant spray and cloths.

My first thought is, “Wow, so Lysol has a Director for Microbiology? That’s pretty cool!” And then my second thought is, “Wow, so they care enough to show consumers how to make sure their home is safe from the H1N1 virus?” This ad represents a good example of how to not only use but to substantiate your position as a leader within your industry. Lysol is not only reinforcing their leadership position but also coming across as experts who really care about the consumer. They are doing this by not being in the consumer’s face about how great their product is, but by using a strategy of offering helpful tips on how to keep your home safe.

Where Lysol is missing the mark – and maybe this campaign has been out for a while and I missed it – is in timing. H1N1 is very close to becoming irrelevant. The threat is still there but nothing like it was a few months ago. Lysol may still be within the window, but much of the impact from an effective campaign is being lost with the onset of spring and the decline in flu virus. Well there’s always next year…

More than six years ago, I answered a query in a chat room.  A woman in LA was looking for radio interviewers.  As a long-time news anchor, reporter and author-interviewer, I symbolically raised my hand.

And then.

I lowered it.

She was looking for podcasters.  I’d never done a podcast.

She asked, “Have you hosted and produced radio shows?”

“Probably hundreds of radio shows, all lengths,” I quickly answered.

“Then,” she said, “you’ve done hundreds of podcasts. You’re hired.”

Oh! So, that’s a podcast!

Since then, I’ve hosted and produced more than a hundred more podcasts for authors, high tech clients, MBA and Law School students, and others.  Podcasts are real, dynamic conversations that you can listen to anytime, anyplace.  The word stems from a blend of “broadcasting” and “iPods.”  Or, as Wired described it in a March 2005 article, “the bastard offspring of the blog and the Apple MP3 player.”

Podcast popularity is rising rapidly.  The respected Pew organization did a study in late 2008 on the habits of web users.  The Pew Internet and American Life Project found 19-percent of Internet users downloaded podcasts, and this is up from twelve-percent two years prior to that.

Other stats – men more likely than women to download, and under-fifty more likely than over-fifty.  But, again, that was two years ago.

The Pew 2008 study shows more than 43,000 podcasts were produced — more than double the 2006 figure, and that technology is the most popular sector.  More than 4,000 podcasts were available then.  Wonder how many now?  I know I’ve pumped in a bunch.

Searching for ever more current stats, I find eMarketer projecting the growth will continue at least for the next three years, when there will be 37.6 million people downloading podcasts on a monthly basis.  That’s double the 2008 figures.  No question the trend is up.

Thankfully, podcasting is more than grabbing a mic and some software.  Paul Verna, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the report, Podcasting Into the Mainstream says “Today, the vast majority of the top-rated podcasts come from recognizable media entities that are using podcasts to expand their existing radio, TV, cable, or satellite audiences.”

The thing about podcasts is that they’re so convenient. They’re especially effective for high technology.  Entertaining.  Informative. Like a conversation between business associates.  And you can listen in anywhere.