Obama to Announce VP Choice via Email and SMS :: Maybe, We’ll See

According to an email I just received, Barack Obama is going to give his supporters the news of his pick for Vice President via email and SMS, before anyone else.

Hmm? Well, it would be a first. I must admit to a wee bit (OK, a lot) of skepticism on this one. All the news organizations are signed up for all of his mailing lists, after all. They also see mailing lists we never see. So, will his supporters really be the first to know? Read more

Yobi.tv :: Proof Positive That Online Viral Marketing Doesn’t Always Work

It especially won’t work if you have a bad product.

I can feel Jen O’Meara’s pain. We likely all can. She has a project she loves and it isn’t going anywhere. Frustration. We’ve all felt it, right?

David Meerman Scott shares A viral marketing story suitable for bedtime. It is a story of disappointment and sadness. But, at least the author, YOBI CIO Jen O’Meara, tries to tell it with a tongue-in-cheek spin.

Jen’s no dummy - you’d think. A Ph.D. under her belt, no less, she’s struggling to get her startup Yobi.tv site off the ground. Yobi.tv claims to be a “unique blend of social networking, reality show contests, and user-generated content (that) will revolutionize the world of online entertainment.” Well, it’s good to have a dream. Read more

Facebook Word-of-Mouth Campaign :: ASCCA Trying Something New

Facebook is an interesting social media community. For ASCCA’s interests of connecting with college students, it seems like the natural community to engage. ASCCA wants college students to work as counselors, program staff and for internships. So, we’re trying something new to reach them.

ASCCA is going to run approximately 50,000 flyers a day, for three days, targeted at students from the following universities: University of Georgia, University of Florida, Troy State University, Montevallo, University of Alabama-Birmingham, University of North Alabama, University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa) and Auburn University (Auburn).

This will give us over 150K impressions. Now, realistically, we’d like to run more - and target many more universities. But, the Facebook flyer program does have some limitations. I’ll discuss those. And, just so you’ll know, Camp ASCCA is not paying for this. A new tactic in our strategy of reaching students, I felt it best to cover this myself as a test. We’ll see how well it goes. The cost of this program equals about 1/2 of a week long campership. So, I thought it best to test the process, first. Still, that cost would be a small fraction of what we’d usually spend to advertise in college campus newspapers. More on that in a bit.

The image to your left is an example of one of the flyers. That is what students at UGA will see on Sunday through Tuesday when they log in to Facebook. It appears just below their lefthand menu. A nice placement, I think. Click the image and you’ll see all of our flyers. On Facebook, when students click the image, they are sent to a purpose built page on our site that offers greater detail. See ASCCA Public Relations Internships. In the future, I’d actually like to target the top 25 universities with PR programs. Maybe we will, still.

So, what are the limitations of the Facebook flyer program, as I see them? Well, currently you cannot target students beyond simply choosing a specific school, or schools. I find this a bit strange, since Facebook does have the demographic and lifestyle (interests) information of their audience. Ideally, I’d like to use that information to specifically target the students most likely to be interested in what ASCCA has to offer.

For instance, if we wanted to seek male counselors, I should be able to target a specific school, reach only males, and reach only those that have listed interests like: recreation, education, or even special education. Facebook is still relatively young and their flyers and advertising programs are still maturing. Right now, Facebook flyers are more of a broadcast tactic than a targeted one.

You might be wondering, “How effective is the Web for accomplishing ASCCA’s marketing and hiring needs?”

Today, Matt Rickman told me that he has yet to run a single ad in college newspapers during his counselor recruiting process for Summer ‘07. That’s remarkable. Even more remarkable, Matt shared that he is ahead of his annual hiring targets. He would usually start college newspaper ads in April. This year, he may not run any of them. So, why is that? What is different this year?

Although we have sketchy data upon which to base this claim, so far the difference seems to be our Web site. Yep, apparently the site is accomplishing the goal of reaching potential counselors - just as we hoped it would. We’ll poll the counselors and program staff this summer to see exactly how many actually found us online.

I’ll report back in a week or so to let you know how our experiment with Facebook went this time around. For now, let me hear from you. What do you think about this tactic? Do you have any suggestions about other processes we may undertake to reach potential interns?

Did you know that Camp ASCCA is in Facebook? If you are too, please go on over and “Friend” Camp ASCCA. This way you may keep up with what we’re doing all the time. Join the Camp ASCCA Facebook group, too.

Super Bowl Ads :: Integrated Marketing Communications

Many of my students have enjoyed Jeremy Pepper’s post about Super Bowl ads and PR. If you haven’t read it yet, please visit Jeremy Pepper’s post about Ramping up for the Super Bowl.

For a class exercise, we’ll be following the use of YouTube, iFilm, Revver, Google Video, et.al. (social video sharing sites) in the promotion of products/programming or pretty much anything else. We are looking for specific instances where social networks, CGM and/or PR played a role.

We’ll also look at marketing communication campaigns like GM’s igotshotgun - Blog and their myspace.com “I Got Shotgun!” sites. Heavy use of video there. Emily Melton, our lovable and quirky Auburn PR alum, is working with the campaign. Cheers for Emily! Hey, it took her to the Super Bowl. Read Emily’s latest igotshotgun post. You’ll note, on the MySpace site, the personal info on the person that set up the site reads: “Female, 21 years old, NEW YORK (where she’s headquartered), Alabama (where she’s from), United States.” Well, that’s Emily. She initially set up the site, I imagine.

As for ads, one example this year is the Anheuser-Busch Budweiser promotion of upcoming 2007 Super Bowl ads. We saw them all last night, right? If not, there is a full catalog of them at iFilm - Super Bowl Ads 2007.

This strategy essentially turned YouTube into a serial cliff-hanger delivery medium. (Oh, how the social media purists will hate that “medium” remark. So, let’s call it a “space” for them.)

Unless you’re my age, or older, you likely don’t know about the Saturday morning movies that we attended with glee. Back then the movie was actually a long series of several cartoons and short films, called serials. The end of each serial usually had a car flying off a cliff, or some such catastrophic event. The freeze frame ending always brought us back.

They also ran trailers, or promotions, for future films/serials and those did the same thing. Trailers, I’m sure you’re familiar with, but now it is different. Movie trailers have been uploaded in several social video sharing sites before. But, have you ever seen a promo for an upcoming commercial before?

Previously, it was a bit of a scoop if someone was able to get a clip. Today, they are being given away in the hopes they’ll be written about, talked about and even posted in blogs. This is a new twist.

Budweiser’s tactic this year seems to have had the same effect. Some of you watched the Super Bowl, not only for the game, but also to see what the little Budweiser dog finally found. Why? Because you were teased at YouTube.

First, just to establish what kinds of ads are considered great and effective, let’s start with the ad widely considered to be the best Super Bowl ad of all time. Later, we’ll see what AdAge’s Bob Garfield thought of this year’s ads. Then, you may visit the Super Bowl ad min-site at iFilm. For more on ads … Read more

SEC Chairman Says Blog Away :: SEC Adopts XBRL

A former student of mine, Diana, sends along this link to an AP news story - SEC chief suggests blogs for disclosures.

Diana was (is) a great student and I’m not surprised that she is following news about social media in the corporate world. I thank Diana for sharing the news and continuing to keep me up to date on her experiences in NYC. (More on that, later.)

Add to this SEC/Sun news the recent news that the SEC is backing XBRL - SEC backs XBRL - are you ready? (September 26, 2006) How will this affect the SMPR / hRelease?

So, what is the story here and what can it mean for public relations?

First, the AP story:

SEC chief suggests blogs for disclosures
By MARCY GORDON, AP Business Writer Tue Nov 7, 1:58 AM ET

WASHINGTON - In the first official communication posted to a blog by a chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Christopher Cox said he was intrigued by the idea of letting companies use Weblogs to disseminate important corporate information.

Cox has invited the chief executive of Sun Microsystems Inc., avid blogger Jonathan Schwartz, to talk to the agency about the idea of allowing companies to disclose significant financial information through blogs.

The SEC chief showed interest in Schwartz’s recent request for blogs to be used as a way to expand investors’ access to information. His response to Schwartz, posted on Sun’s Web site on Friday, caught the attention of the online world and even sparked envy from a Wall Street Journal blog.

… and …

Said Cox: “Assuming that the (SEC) were to embrace your suggestion that the ‘widespread dissemination’ requirement of Regulation FD can be satisfied through Web disclosure, among the questions that would need to be addressed is whether there exist effective means to guarantee that a corporation uses its Web site in ways that assure broad non-exclusionary access …”

… and …

Thirty Fortune 500 companies are now publishing corporate blogs, nearly double the number in December 2005, according to the Fortune 500 Blogging Wiki, a collaborative tracking site. Technology companies such as Amazon.com Inc., Cisco Systems Inc. and Oracle Corp. were early adopters, but senior executives at big industrial companies like Boeing Co. and General Motors Corp. also have embraced the trend.

Blogs with related posts:

• Jonathan Schwartz’s Weblog : Weblog - One Small Step…
• Jonathan Schwartz’s Weblog : Weblog - Sunlight on a cloudy day
• SEC Chairman Cox Applauds Use of Corporate Blogs
• LexBlog Blog : SEC Chairman Cox posts comment on blog
• Law Blog » SEC Chairman Cox Posts a Comment On a Blog

Kayak Satirical Ads :: CGM and Ads May Sting

When I first saw the new Kayak.com TV ads, my first thought was how different they were from other launch ads. They were intended, I believe, to be funny - sort of like the “Roaming Gnome” ads from Travelocity. However, as I saw more and more of them, it became apparent that these are more edgy than anything anyone has done recenlty.

The Kayak site introduces the ads with this: “We hope you’ll agree that we are equal opportunity satirists and will enjoy the ads in the humorous tone in which they were created.” Well, it hasn’t quite gone that way - for everyone.

Paul English, a co-founder of the site/company, has posted some of the more angry anti-Kayak.com emails they’ve received about the ads. (Danger, Will Robinson! Some pretty vulgar angry stuff in there.) The Alaska / Big Oil ad seems to have touched a nerve. OK, more like jumped up and down on it - with an ice pick.

Another aspect that interested me, even more, is how Kayak is incorporating consumer generated ads / media (CGM) in the mix via YouTube. David Weinberger, one of the authors of the Cluetrain Manifesto, has even joined in the fray with a Joho post about the ads and developing his own Joho Kayak ad.

You may see all of the Kayak produced ads here and all of the consumer generated Kayak ads here. As of this post, there are 132 CGM ads in there. That’s impressive. The viewing numbers are impressive, too. Many ads have more than 100 views.

My thoughts? It is a crap shoot. Be edgy, but risk hacking off a lot of people. So, contingency planning is key if this plan is going to be implemented. This is a perfect example of how a company might want to involve PR in their advertising campaign planning. Hey, if you’re going to run ads that will inevitably make people mad, then be ready with a planned response strategy and implement it real-time.

I searched Technorati for posts about the ads, but didn’t find any - other than Joho. The rest were about - gee, kayaking. There are not any posts tagged kayak.com. So, I don’t know if Kayak has such a planned response in action. The meme hasn’t developed (and may not), but better to be prepared than caught flat-footed.

Paul English’s transparent post of the email flames is a refreshing touch, in a way. He writes, “Our goal was to be funny, and controversial. We wanted to take some risks, we knew some people would be offended. The response has been huge with overall positive comments.” Well, where are the positive ones, Paul. I don’t doubt you have them - and some are available in YouTube - but how about sharing those, too. Some are posted to the CGM ads available in YouTube.

One of the comments on the YouTube Kayak Alaska / Big Oil ad actually claims that the Kayak site and ads are part of an astroturfing campaign. (That will fit nicely into my next post.) The comment, from TheOrioleGuy, claims:

Desire: I want to promote my liberal agenda about the environment, plus vilify the Bush administration and oil companies. Problem: I need to bypass the laws and limits that restrain political action committees. Solution: set up a simplistic “travel search site” as a front business, and use the television advertising for it to accomplish my goals… thus bypassing PAC guidelines. Pathetic.

So, do we really want our new company / site to be dragged into some wild “George Soros / Al Gore (kind of) conspiracy theory” meme online? Hey, stranger things have happened. And, TheOrioleGuy has just started it for Kayak.

This will be interesting to watch. I’ve written to Paul English to ask about the campaign. Something tells me the guy is getting tons of email, so I won’t hold my breath for a reply.

PayForPlay, PayPerPost … The Bane of Online PR and Marketing - Link Fraud

Pay for play isn’t new. Think Armstrong Williams, VNR scandals, CEO vanity magazines, advertorials and more. Now, there is shock and horror about PayPerPost.com (PPP). It is a bane. It is a poison. But, it is as old as hemlock in digital years.

I’ve been waiting for some enterprising federal prosecutor to pump out a string of indictments for link fraud online. Is this the perfect opportunity? I’m not a lawyer, so maybe one will jump in here and help out with a definition.

Payola online? Hey, I imagine it has already happened too many times to count. Will Google and Yahoo! and others join with prosecutors to help keep their link rank / page rank algorithms free (or, as free as possible) of taint? Why not. They have a lot of advertising dollars at stake here. Link ads have been propping up Google from the beginning, haven’t they?

In a conspiracy charge, “a group of conspirators (have) banded together to achieve some harmful or illegal purpose” and if that purpose is fraud - well, do we have the open door to a trial? I imagine that intent plays a role here. If the company seeking the links can be proven to use blog posts knowing that the testimonial is insincere and the blogger can be shown to have made the post solely to make money, well we have a beginning. However, that’s not likely to be easy to determine from the willing participants - after the fact. So, what we can expect is a sting operation. Yes, just like the guy on NBC that has been phishing for perverts, some industrious blogger or reporter (TV or print) can at least make a pretty good expose out of all this. How long do you think it will take for that to happen?

PayPerPost.com has a pretty funny tagline on its header - “As seen in BusinessWeek.” That brings back some scary memories. Just check the logo to the right. Now, most people that see that logo, I believe, think of the product as schlock.

The funny thing about the tagline at PayPerPost.com? Jon Fine decries it - and the ensuing online meme about it - in BusinessWeek as “a rhetorical race to the bottom.” He’s probably right.

Wonder if PPP will be asked to take that tagline down. And, what hubris does it take to use a negative article to help promote your own product? You’ll notice that there is no link to the BW column so people can see what it is about. Makes sense from a company willing to foresake transparency in their own business model.

It isn’t as if this hasn’t been happening all along, is it? My feeling is that anyone believing that these types of scams haven’t been occuring - under the table - for a long time in blogs is quite naive. And, it is a scam if the intention is stated that disclosure may not occur. That’s fraud, no matter how you spin it.

Think about it. The link loving bloggers - linking in faux adoration circles - are just one such example. How so? Think of the many feigned adoration posts by bloggers about some a-lister (just praying for a link back) and think of the lil’ chunk of their soul given up for that link. Don’t think it happens? Wanna buy a bridge?

If that doesn’t do it for you, then think of all the splogs out there. They are playing the links, too. But this one (PPP), using blogs with heretofore legitimage page ranks, is particularly sleazy. I think the hubris of admitting that disclosure won’t necessarily happen is the sleaziest part of all. No, it isn’t transparency to admit you are not practicing transparency. OK, if you mean the people behind the endeavor are being transparently sleazy. Yep, that’s transparent - in so many meanings.

A poster in Adrants Soflow Network says it (PPP) “is going to destroy the credibility of all bloggers even the ethical ones like myself that have even forgone monetizing my traffic via advertising so as to maintain an independent perspective on the industry that I choose to cover.” Funny thing is, on his mobile blog (not his personal one) I found this ad among a plethora of ads.

FAKE Testimonials?
That’s what Your Visitors Think. Get the Seal and ProveThey’re REAL! (Ad by TrustedTestimonials.com)

You will note, I hope, that the Trusted Testimonials site and the Pay Per Post site both have the same “Secured by GeoTrust” logo on them. Wonder if that Adrants poster knows he is running an ad for what may be the same type of site he abhors?

That company - GeoTrust, like those blogger associations (honesty police), will no doubt fail in securing trust among readers of blogs. And, of course, given the relationship noted above I am curious as to whether any of them are legitimate.

Let’s face it. Blogs are a combination of facts (as they are interpreted by the author) and opinions of the blog’s author that you cannot - with any hope of universal accuracy - trust to be truthful. At least you cannot trust them until you have done a lot of your own research and fisking. And, who’s going to do that - really?

Take a lesson from journalism. Approach everything with a healthy dose of skepticism - even traditional mainstream media. I trust blogs, in general, much less than I trust traditional media. The blogs I do trust are always as upfront as possible. They also only gain that trust after a great deal of time spent reading them and following links - researching what they write - to see if I agree. And then, even if I do agree, that’s just my own infopinion, too … isn’t it?

Gee, just look what social media has wrought. Anyone ready for another update to EPIC?

HigherEd BlogCon :: Day Two is New Media in Alumni Relations

HEBC More interesting presentations today from student affairs professionals. Yesterday’s posts spurred some comments showing the excitement about social media in higher education. See Joseph Diorio’s comment to the right.

So, what will today bring? Check out these posts and please post about HigherEd BlogCon to help us share these ideas with communicators everywhere. The ideas, I believe, may transcend their usage in higher education and be applicable in many business practices, too.

Tuesday, April 18, 2006: New Media in Alumni Relations

SPECIAL EVENT: Chat with the presenters, live at 4:30 EDT.

Alumni E-Networks: Using Technology to Engage Alumni and Constituents

Holly Peterson
Tristan Roberts
World Learning, including The Experiment in International Living and The School for International Training

Here is a podcast interview with Holly and Tristan recorded awhile back. It will provide some background into their work, too.

Podcast with Holly and TristanOnline Networks: A New Tool for Alumni Relations - How Third-Party Social and Business Networking Sites Can Benefit Alumni Communities

Andrew Shaindlin
Elizabeth Allen
California Institute of Technology

Social Networking: What Is It and Where Does It Fit in the Alumni World?

Abe Geiger
Affinity Engines

Katie Seay
University of Florida Alumni Association

Link Love :: With a positive purpose

Scott Baradell, Media Orchard, wants some Link Love, so I’m sharing it with him.

This is a wonderful opportunity to revisit a project that I think has promise and virtue for everyone that chooses to participate.

Let us revisit Operation Link Love - PR Bloggers “Pay It Forward” and Give Back. Read that post and the associated links to see what the project is all about. Or, go straight to The NewPR/Wiki page for all the details.

This is a project all about links that can serve a positive purpose. I hope you will get involved. Write about the viability of social media for nonprofits. Find a nonprofit blog that you can add to the wiki list. Link to them, and I bet they will link back. So, everyone wins.

I’m working on a fix for the image code. For now, feel free to hotlink to the image above.

Operation Link Love - PR Bloggers “Pay It Forward” and Give Back

Operation Link Love

Giving back. The ultimate in simple and selfless gifts by PR bloggers, it is easy to do and will definately help non-profits gain visibility and (if you offer it to them) advice on how to improve their social media implementations.

What initiated this idea?

I read Tom Murphy’s Charitable Blogging… post. Earlier, I commented on his post Call: Charities using blogs.

In his most recent post, Murphy asked this question, which I took as a call to action:

So the question for charities out there is how can we help? I’m in the planning stages of a small project here in Ireland where I’ll be working with Enable Ireland to possibly put together a free blogging workshop for charitable organisations. But I’m sure there’s stuff we can do online, and I’m sure the ever growing PR blog community won’t be found wanting…

That sounded like a call to action to me, so …

Then, I wrote to Constantin Basturea and asked if I could create a page in The NewPR/Wiki dedicated to non-profit blogs and social media. Constantin agreed and coined the phrase “Operation Link Love” regarding my idea to answer Tom Murphy’s call to action. Many thanks to Constantin for his suggestions and support.

So, that’s where we stand today.

What is it?

A list in the NewPR/Wiki. Operation Link Love

Visit the wiki and you may:

• add links to non-profit blogging and social media examples you know of online
• use these links to visit the sites
• comment on their sites with either support or constructive criticism/advice on how to improve their practices
• write a post about their efforts in your own blogs, or include them in a podcast, and discuss the value of social media for non-profits
• add the links to your blogroll in a special non-profit/charitable social media, or blogging, category to provide support and heighten awareness of these sites
• bookmark these sites in the popular social media sites with “OperationLinkLove” and/or “nonprofitblogs” to help further spread the meme of non-profit social media efforts. Examples of those sites are: bloglines, technorati, del.icio.us, furl, digg, spurl, wists, simpy, newsvine, blinklist, reddit, fark, blogmarks and yahoo’s myweb2 search

Visit The NewPR/Wiki’s Non-Profit Blogging, Podcasting and Social Media list and participate.

The List

(as of March 4, 2006)

• Omidyar’s list of non-profit blogs
• Getting Attention Blog (resources for non-profits)
• Re-focus - Fundraising Technology
• Dr. Len’s Cancer Blog - American Cancer Society
• Blog for Hope [Archive only] Yahoo! & American Cancer Society
• Alabama Special Camp for Children and Adults - Easter Seals Camp ASCCA
  • Oscar C. Dunn Rotary Environmental Center
• Greenpeace
• Oceana
• American Lung Association of Minnesota
• The Diva Marketing Blog Profile on the American Cancer Society
• Jamie’s Big Voice - Big Issue charity and the Hansard Society’s e-democracy programme.
• betachurch.org (resources for churches using social media)
  • betachurch’s links to other resources.

Also, thanks to Constantin’s suggestion, we have this ‘button’ you may use to link to the wiki page and encourage participation in “Operation Link Love” in other blogs. Want to make a better button? Won’t hurt my feelings. Send it in and we’ll load it up there.

Cut-n-paste this code into your blog’s sidebar or a post:

<a title="Operation Link Love" xhref="http://www.thenewpr.com/wiki/pmwiki.php?pagename=NonProfitBlogs.HomePage" mce_href="http://www.thenewpr.com/wiki/pmwiki.php?pagename=NonProfitBlogs.HomePage" ><img border="0" vspace="10" hspace="10" xsrc="http://www.marcomblog.com/images/oll150x60.gif" mce_src="http://www.marcomblog.com/images/oll150x60.gif" width="150" height="60"></a>

Come on and join in. This kind of giving is easy and painless. Surely there is one non-profit cause you can support.

Finally, yes - I am involved in the Camp ASCCA, Alabama’s Special Camp for Children and Adults blogging effort. So, if my initiative seems too self-serving on my part, no problem for you. Choose another from the list or find one on your own and add it to the list. Then link to them. Honestly? I want you to link to all of them. Hey, a guy can dream.

The goals here are simple. Encourage non-profits to explore blogging. Share a little link love with those blogs to help them out. We all know what links can do for these sites with regard to search. Please take the few minutes of time it will cost you and help them.

Thank you.

GlaxoSmithKline Goes Grassroots - 8,000 Evangelists

Michael Pucci has guts. You have to give him that. His strategy to unleash 8,000 sales people as a speakers bureau to every county, in every state, of the nation is bold. There is potential for failure, even disaster, but - it is a bold PR move.

Who is Michael Pucci?

For “22 years with GlaxoSmithKline, he has served as Vice President of Sales for the Cerenex Division, which launched Imitrex and Zofran in the USA. Mike then led Glaxo’s Sales Training Department for 10 years where he earned a CEO award and set the pharmaceutical industry standard for new rep training and distance learning.”

He now serves as Vice President of External Advocacy at GlaxoSmithKline.

Think of it. An evangelical army of 8,000 employees spanning the entire country with the mission of spreading your “talking points” about your company and industry. What could this accomplish? What is the value of a speakers bureau? What is a speakers bureau?

Well, it is an educational program. Isn’t that a function of PR? The bureau shares knowledgable people with groups to provide information via public speaking. The goals may be stated many ways, but let us go with these:

• To increase understanding and meaningful participation.
• To provide critical information to employers, interested stakeholders, community influencers.
• To put a human face and voice out there with your organization and initiate a more personal face-to-face relationship.
• It fulfills a community need. The number of civic groups, alone, that are always seeking thought-provoking programs would stun a herd of buffalo.
• It can be a crisis management tactic, too. This is the case for GlaxoSmithKline and the pharma industry.

Can it be a powerful tactic? Yes.

What would I, for instance, give to have an 8,000 person strong speakers bureau for Camp ASCCA Easter Seals? Um, which limb do you want? Pick one. Maybe two.

It would change the future of any nonprofit in an unbelievable manner. And, a positive change, under the right conditions. But, a non-profit and an enormous global pharma conglomerate don’t have anything in common, do they? For the sake of this discussion, let us compare them.

ASCCA’s speakers bureau would have to be volunteers. They would be counselors and staff. They could also be parents, past campers or donors. What is their stake in all of this? Well, they are believers. They drank the koolaid a long time ago.

GlaxoSmithKline’s speakers bureau is made up of the sales force. They are not likely going to be volunteers. Some will volunteer - maybe even many will. The smart ones, that is. The ones that realize their future hangs in the balance, will buy in. How many? I don’t know. 50%? More?

In fact, some - many? - may want release time or compensation for their efforts. Do you think Michael Pucci can convice all 8,000 to “give” their time? Um, if you do - you’ve been drinking something, too. Or, it may have come from the pharmacy stache. No, he cannot. He can ‘tell’ them to do it, but that isn’t the same thing. ASCCA’s participants ‘ask’ to participate. That is a big difference.

Personally, I love speakers bureaus, *if* I can be sure the speakers have a rational, and ethical, stakeholder relationship in the organization. They will be transparent and honest. They will say, “I don’t know” when asked a question they can’t answer. They will not exaggerate. They will do follow up, or share with appropriate personnel, any questions they receive. They will *never* be confrontational. And, their motivation must be shared openly with their audience.

People that say “command and control” of your PR message is old school have a point. But, in this case, you must have a significant monitoring process in place to assure that the 8,000 don’t do you in with a mistake. And, of course, prior to any monitoring - the key will be preparation and training of the bureau’s participants.

Pucci has created a 50 minute presentation for all of the participants. He is training them. How much he trains them, and how well, is going to be a major indicator of the success. People are already hearing that the speakers are being armed with “talking points” and the general public considers those to be the equivilant of spin and propaganda.

He states, ““What we’re leveraging here is asking our employees to talk to people, even if they just start with their family members.”

and

“He said the majority of questions the reps receive revolve around pricing, and he has given them what he calls a “learning system” that takes 50 minutes to master and will enable the rep to satisfy queries about the company and the industry. GSK reps made 15,000 presentations last year, Mr. Pucci said, reaching 1.8 million people.”

Source: AdAge

One of the most troubling aspects of this is Pucci’s assertion that he will have “masters” of PR in 50 minutes. That may be the AdAge author’s term and not reflect Pucci’s overall feeling. But, if it is a correct interpretation of Pucci’s opinion - the foolishness and hubris of such a statement is mind-numbing. Certainly the sales reps are already quite knowledgable about products. They are also likely quite persuasive. But, any goober that thinks he/she will train PR advocates in 50 minutes may be dipping into the free samples from the hallucinogenic section.

When the program has a flub-up, and it will (even if in just a minor way) - this will likely be one of the flaws pointed to in the evaluation. If Pucci can effectively manage 8,000 people speaking to 1.8 million people and not have one crash, he deserves to be ‘the’ PR action figure of all time. Could Pucci succeed? Yes. Do I think it will be a total success? No. It will depend on the level of error and the reach that failure causes, in the end.

So, what are the pros and cons of this grassroots campaign.

Start with those in the speakers bureau. Pharmaceutical sales people are generally well-educated and quite polished in their presentation skills. They have to be. One of their main target audiences is busy (and sometimes cranky, even a bit arrogant) doctors. How do I know? Some of our graduates are in the field. I do not know if any work for GlaxoSmithKline. Almost always, these students were among our best students. Seriously, they could be powerful advocates.

Now, a negative. They are the sales people. Hello! Some of these sales people are greedy lil’ buggers. You trust a lot of sales people, do you? Their stakeholder relationship to the company is quite personal and quite financial in nature. The sales people make a lot of money. They want to protect that salary. This doesn’t mean they will lie, or obfuscate, but it does offer a rational reason for skepticism among the audiences they will meet. They could present a trustworthy face - and message - to their audiences. But, I doubt all of them can.

How about the audiences they are targeting? Again, a plus is that they are targeting influentials in civic clubs and community organizations. Convince them, they - in turn - convince others by their adoption of a postive take on the industry. It does spread.

A negative? They are speaking to those groups. Another Hello! Have you been to a Rotary or Civitan club lately? Who’s in there? A lot of middle-aged - and elderly - men and women. Hmm? Aren’t those the people that take a lot of medications? Yep. Think they - or their parents - have already been hit by the rise in their insurance co-pays? You betcha. They blame the pharma industry and the insurers for that, too.

Oh, and these are not shy people. I have spoken to these groups … literally thousands of times. Seriously, these people are not shy about challenging you. They are not shy about asking probing questions. They can be quite skeptical. Also, they have a stake in this one. If they can tag you on a lie or misdirection … they will. That meme will spread faster, and wider, than any ‘truths’ you might share. You want WOMM - Word of Mouth Marketing? That will show you the power of WOMM … and the potential pitfalls.

So, what to take from Glaxo’s 8,000 evangelists? A bold move that may pay great dividends. It may also pay with a bite in the rear. The 24/7 news/infotainment cycle lives for these kinds of stories. They love to put locals on the air and interview them about how upset they were at the “propoganda” campaign of the drug companies.

I hope Pucci has the total trust and support of the C-suite. Given his 22+ years with the company, I’m thinking he’s on good ground. But, there is no such thing as a sure thing.

Overall, I like it - if it is well-planned and well-monitored. If the campaign is closely monitored and the training is excellent, it can work to a significant degree. Participant buy-in must be sincere. I hope it works, actually.

The post below this one contains a variety of links either found or provided by nice people that commented on the previous post about Glaxo. Thank you all. I’ve read them and listened to the latest ForImmediateRelease podcast. All of them had points that reflected my own thoughts on the topic. Some have a more favourable opinion of the plan, but all express concerns, too. I do not wholly disagree with the plan, but feel confident there will be - at least one - ugly incident along the way.

An Aside: Camp ASCCA, may not have a 30+ billion dollar corporation on the line. But, ASCCA does have an enormous reservoir of goodwill. Glaxo does not. ASCCA does have the lives and well-being of thousands of children and adults in their hands. So does Glaxo. Millions of them. Glaxo has a board and stockholders. ASCCA has a board and stakeholders. There is a difference. A big difference. So, both Glaxo and ASCCA have their reputations on the line and - most of all - they both need people to understand just what it is they do - and why they do it. A good speakers bureau can do this.

Some examples for ASCCA? Try explaining why a child in a wheelchair ‘needs’ to be tubing on Lake Martin? How about why a quadraplegic needs to be whitewater canoeing down the Tallapoosa River? Here’s a good one. Why should a child with hemophilia be rappeling off a 30-foot tower or a 100-foot cliff at Mount Cheaha?

Yeah, and you thought Glaxo had it tough.

Sorry, I’ve been thinking a lot about speakers bureaus and Camp ASCCA, lately. If you have read this blog, you know I love camp. You know I have volunttered there and worked there, too. We have a speakers bureau - and it is good. But, it is essentially the staff - Dana, Matt, John, Josh, Nathan, Heather and a few others. The Board does it, too, but we need a much larger group. It could change the camp’s world.