Case Study: MapSherpa
"We have been fortunate enough to have worked over the past nine months with Francis Moran and Associates to deliver virtual CMO services for our company, and so far it has been highly effective. With this relationship, we get access to a level of experience and expertise which would be unaffordable to us if we were to hire a full-time equivalent." Dave McIlhagga, Founder and CEO
Case Study: Singletouch
"When I hired Francis Moran to lead our marketing efforts in 2011, I had very high expectations. We needed to completely rebuild our marketing from the ground up. Francis and his team not only met those high expectations but exceeded them. He brought a very high level of strategic thinking, professionalism and creativity to our organization that will be felt for many years to come in our quest to build a successful IT company." Marty Hilsenteger, Founder and CEO
By inmedia
I wrote a quick post yesterday about the horrible things that can go wrong at a trade show. Gremlins, clearly, are equal opportunity mischief makers since everything can fall apart at even the most professional and highest profile of events. Check out this story from the BBC that my colleague, Danny, drew to my attention this morning, where comedian Robin Williams had to come to the rescue of the hapless host.
By Linda Forrest
Today, I’m doing a lot of work that’s invisible to the client’s naked eye. Having previously posted on database maintenance, a “behind the scenes” task that is incredibly important to the integrity of the PR campaign, I thought I would post a few other tasks that your agency is regularly undertaking on your behalf, invisibly.
As we’re nearing the end of launch campaigns for some new clients, I’m starting to get a feel for the full range of opportunities that exist in the mid- and long-term for these clients. This means I’m researching the published opportunities available in editorial calendars for target publications for these clients, establishing a list of relevant tradeshows and conferences where company executives could be spokespeople or where there might be value in attending for business development purposes (let’s hope they bear no resemblence to the cautionary tales mentioned yesterday), and generally getting a feel for the PR opportunity outside of the Tier 1, or most influential, media with whom we had in-depth conversations on our clients’ behalf during the launch phase and within which we have a firm handle on the opportunities forthcoming.
This research will culminate in just a few short pages in the report to the client, but it takes a considerable amount of effort to aggregate the relevant data, weed through it for appropriateness and formulate it into a cohesive spreadsheet or report. Yet, all of this work is truly “behind the scenes” and typically, clients just see the finished product in the report and aren’t in the least aware of the hours we put in to get the raw data.
Once we’ve got a fulsome view of the opportunities and have discussed with our clients which ones they would like to learn more about, the process again becomes about the behind-the-scenes work of sussing out who is writing the piece on the editorial calendar, what their angles will be, what sort of shape the piece will take and then determining whether there is an intersection between where our client;s interests lie and the particular piece. It’s inevitable that sometimes, these pursuits go nowhere because the client is not a fit for whatever reasons. Still, all the data gathering and other hard work up to that point had to be done and is billable work. Like in the entertainment industry, there’s no such thing as an overnight sensation. A lot of hard work goes into getting results. Sometimes it pays off, and sometimes it doesn’t. It’s as simple as that.
The process is similar for speaking opportunities – sometimes your spokesperson would be a good fit, sometimes they’re disqualified for any number of reasons. A considerable amount of hours were used, but unless there were results achieved, the work is invisible to the client. Because so many of our clients are such focused propositions, an immense amount of qualification goes into the establishment of the target media and conferences for our clients. Knowing the space and having a firm understanding where the opportunities are most likely to lie reduces the amount of negative outcomes at the end of the exercise, but like the little duck calmly floating along the pond, your agency’s legs are kicking like crazy underneath the surface in order to keep the program swimming along on a forward trajectory.
I would be interested in the input of the other PR practitioners reading this post and invite them to add in the comments to the list of tasks that although integral to the PR campaign, cannot truly be seen or measured by the client. What percentage of your time is spent on these tasks, versus the ones that the client can see?
By inmedia
As PR practitioners, we here at inmedia have spent enough time in trade show purgatory to expunge a lifetime of sins. Still the circuit remains a critical element of the marketing mix for many technology companies and we expect we’ll hang many a lanyard around our necks before our time is done.
What we hope to never encounter is the kind of trade show disasters recounted in today’s Network World. Some of the stories here are older ones, but others are quite fresh. I have to say the one I enjoyed the most was the tale of the hapless Dateline NBC producer who tried to go undercover, complete with concealed pinhole camera, at Defcon earlier this year. This security-focused show, which attracts hackers by the hundreds, has got to be ground zero for the paranoid. Needless to say, it wasn’t long before she was identified and ignominously escorted off the premises.
Murphy, who said, “Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong,” clearly went to a few trade shows in his day.
By Danny Sullivan
I’ve recently been working with a client on the development of article discussing the economic downturn and how companies can profit by investing in customer-facing activities during this period, rather than the usual approach of cutting back in these areas.
The article isn’t going to appear for a while, but I wanted to raise the topic now, as it’s one that affects PR and marketing people directly.
Many of us who worked in this business during the years when the tech bubble burst will have stories to tell about the hacking and slashing of marketing budgets that were, in many cases, first in the line of fire. Unfortunately, marketing is often viewed as an area of business that doesn’t have enough impact on the bottom line to prevent the hatchet falling heavily on it.
But in the article I’ve been working on, my client references data showing that companies that chose to increase their investment in marketing during previous downturns actually vastly outperformed those companies that cut or maintained marketing budgets, once the economy started to recover.
It’s an interesting topic, and I’m sure it’ll be of even more interest as marketing and PR departments start making the case for their budgets in the face of the downturn.
Of course, I’ll refer back to the article when it’s published so you can all check it out for yourselves (some time in May).
By Linda Forrest
I’ve had some informative back and forth with one of our commentors about the requirement that a company’s online media center be dynamic, and this opinion was certainly reinforced by a story in this morning’s Daily Dog Bulldog Reporter newsletter. A survey of journalists shows they’re accessing audio and video clips in online newsrooms more than ever before. When we launched the i-LIMB Hand for Touch Bionics, we knew that video would play an important role in telling the story of the world’s first commercially available bionic hand, as it’s such a visual story. Perhaps more of our clients should incorporate this element into their PR campaigns and web sites, as our client Singletouch has done on its site.
The statistic that 97% of the more than 400 respondents surveyed highlighted the importance of accessing company background shows that even if you plan to incorporate different media elements into your site, the ultimate requirement of your online newsroom is to provide the basic materials to the media in manner that’s easy to understand and access.
March 31, 2008 by Francis Moran
By Francis Moran For some time now, our major pro bono client here at inmedia has been the Ottawa-based charity Help Lesotho. Although we originally became aware of this group because of my personal connection to Lesotho, where I spent five highly formative pre-teen years, we have stuck with the organization because we are in […]
Read more... -March 31, 2008 by inmedia
By inmedia In case you missed any of these posts the first time around, here’s a roundup of everything we published this month. Francis India a challenging but promising market, entrepreneurs hear inmedia’s “Team iPhone” triggers productivity crash It’s easy building green Danny Do social networking sites play a role in B2B PR? Tools are […]
Read more... -March 28, 2008 by Danny Sullivan
By Danny Sullivan Since writing my last post about social networking and PR, I have learned about recent social networking tie-ins involving two of the world’s leading business publications, Fast Company and Business Week. Fast Company kicked things off earlier this month, with company president, Edward Sussman, stating that it was “the first major media […]
Read more... -March 28, 2008 by Linda Forrest
By Linda Forrest This morning’s Bulldog Reporter Daily Dog newsletter, a daily missive that shares PR news, views and tools, had an interesting article about online newsrooms and shares some anecdotes about companies that are good examples (Apple) and bad examples (Dell) of how to provide your media information online. The piece is an interesting […]
Read more... -March 26, 2008 by Linda Forrest
Last week, I wrote about the basic materials that, when combined with your media kit, will provide the media with all of the components that they need in order to cover your company, with or without your input. In addition to having these materials at the ready, in the hands of your agency, it’s best […]
Read more... -March 19, 2008 by Francis Moran
By Francis Moran Ottawa technology entrepreneurs were reminded again this morning that India is the world’s second-fastest growing market encompassing 1.1 billion consumers, 300 million of them middle class and about 500 million of them under 25, and that with a confluence of manpower, money and a can-d0 attitude, it’s a market most technology companies […]
Read more... -March 19, 2008 by Linda Forrest
By Linda Forrest At the outset of an engagement with a new client, we have a checklist of materials that we need to develop for the media and analysts to whom we are about to roll out the company, in order for these influencers to gain a comprehensive understanding of the company and its offerings. […]
Read more... -March 18, 2008 by Danny Sullivan
By Danny Sullivan Supported by the recent news of AOL’s acquisition of popular social networking site Bebo for $850 million, it is clear that the phenomenon continues to be considered an influential and valuable market segment. And there is little doubt that social networking represents a significant new marketing channel for consumer-oriented products companies. Indeed, […]
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