PRactical Ramblings

I recently came across this old print ad for Pepsi X Energy, and I was surprised that Pepsi would want to be associated with the images portrayed above. I recognize Pepsi was trying to create a memorable, humorous message that the energy drink’s target market (college-aged students) can relate to; however, pictures of drunk, passed-out, young adults at parties should not be an image the company wants to be attached to.

Is the ad memorable? Yes. Is it funny? Perhaps to some. Is it tasteful? No. Is it incredibly creative? Not really. Although the Pepsi X Energy “Don’t sleep at the party” ad may be memorable, I don’t think it’s unforgettable in a good way. Developing a brand message that caters to your target market is important, but it’s safe to say that if my grandpa saw this ad, he would be sickened, and his view of Pepsi as a whole would be tarnished. Yes, I have peers who would find this ad funny and relate to the message, but I think it’s offensive to more people than not. A classier representation of “don’t sleep at the party” could, in my opinion, have been wittier and less insulting.

The message portrayed in the ad is not one I would want to be connected to if I were Pepsi. Maybe that’s why the product wasn’t successful. What are your thoughts? Am I overreacting? Is the ad in fact memorable in a good way?

I graduate in five weeks, and I’m on the lookout for a job in the public relations field. Call me picky, but before I fire my resume off, a company has to pass a test: it must be socially responsible. And I don’t just mean green. In my opinion, companies have a role to play in fostering human rights, supporting philanthropies, preserving the environment, embracing cultural diversity, and treating their employees well. Corporations can’t act as isolated economic entities detached from broader society.

I’m not alone in believing so. According to a recent study by Care2, 73 percent of workers said it was “very important” to work for a company they believe is socially responsible. In addition, 48 percent of employees say they would work for less pay if they could work for a socially responsible company. Finally, 35 percent report having actually left a company because they believed it was not socially responsible.

Socially responsible companies more often than not enjoy an enhanced reputation, increased customer loyalty, improved employee morale, and greater support from investors.

How important is it for you to work for a socially responsible company? If it ranks high on your priority list, check out Care2 JobFinder. It’s the world’s largest listing of jobs at eco-friendly, socially responsible, and nonprofit organizations.

I’m graduating from the University of Oregon in seven weeks, and I’m experiencing a plethora of emotions. I’m eager to start a new chapter in my life, terrified to be torn away from friends, and grateful for my education. Four years comes and goes quickly, and although I’m no expert, I thought I would pass along some things I’ve learned in my four years that I wish I would have known from the beginning.

Be curious. Curiosity opens up new possibilities and keeps your mind active. William Arthur Ward said, “Curiosity is the wick in the candle of learning.”

Take classes that have nothing to do with your major. Elective classes will complement your major courses and offer you a fresh perspective. Taking courses from an array of departments will help your career and widen your interests. A Japanese literature course I signed-up for out of the blue turned out to be one of my favorite courses.

Get to know your professors. The majority of them want to get to know you. Go to office hours and ASK QUESTIONS. Professors are excellent resources, and they want you to succeed. Allow them to help you do so.

Be open. You’re going to come in contact with people who have different beliefs than you do. Don’t automatically dismiss their ideas and viewpoints. You don’t have to agree, but you can listen. I went into college thinking the majority of issues were black and white, and I’ve come out realizing most issues actually have quite a bit of grey.

Get involved on campus. Join clubs and organizations tailored to your interests. It’s a great way to network and meet people with similar passions. One of the best decisions I made in college was to get involved with our student-managed PR firm on campus. It has allowed me to apply the skills I’ve learned in the classroom to real clients, learn from talented peers, and work with motivated students who share similar career goals.

Take a moment to breathe. This one may sound ridiculous - but trust me - it’s important. College isn’t all about academics. It’s a time to learn about yourself, form lasting relationships, and discover your passions. Don’t let the stress of school get the best of you. If I could get my last four years back, this is the tip I’d work on the most.

The media are a powerful force, and they can do a lot for you—or a lot against you. Cultivating relationships with reporters is essential if you want to attract positive news coverage for your organization. They are, after all, the messengers of your story.

I was fortunate enough to learn a few tricks about establishing relationships with the media from my co-workers at EMC Creative this past summer. Below are a few tips I picked up:

Learn reporters’ deadlines. News is perishable, and reporters must meet specific deadlines. Your job is to help them do so. Develop a reputation as someone who respects reporters’ schedules, guidelines, and priorities. Provide sufficient information, stories, and pictures when they are needed.

Think like a reporter. Think in terms of what an editor or reporter would consider newsworthy. Reporters are bombarded with stories. What makes yours compelling? What makes your story standout amidst the plethora of others?

Know your message and stick to it. Reporters are busy. Don’t waste their time fumbling around the core of your message. Write down talking points before you speak with reporters, so you’re confident in relaying your message.

Be accessible. Make sure reporters know how to get in touch with you at a moment’s notice. They are on strict deadlines, and if you can’t respond to their questions promptly, they will go elsewhere for sources or ditch your story. Be on call to reporters’ needs and questions.

Be honest. It takes a lot of hard work to build credibility, and nothing builds credibility like honesty. Accuracy, integrity, and openness are key. If you don’t know the answer to a question, say so. Offer to get back to the reporter as soon as you can with an answer.

Every media contact is an opportunity to tell your story. Protect and cherish relationships with these individuals, so you can generate positive coverage for your organization.

Coca-Cola launched a new set of ads last week that invite consumers to join the company in community projects. Innovative ads were featured on television and in newspapers to highlight the company’s role as a corporate citizen. Coke’s involvement with the Boys and Girls Club of America, the Coca-Cola Scholarship Foundation, and its sponsorship of community sports programs were featured in the advertisements.

The ads are part of an overall “Coke Side of Life” campaign launched in 2006 by Coke. The ads are an invitation for viewers to live on the positive side of life and feature Coca-Cola as a socially responsible company committed to improving communities.

“As consumers push to learn more about the products they buy and the companies behind them, Coca-Cola needs to stress its community involvement,” said Katie Bayne, senior vice president and chief marketing officer for Coca-Cola North America. “Consumers want to know that Coca-Cola cares.”

The campaign also includes a Web site, which asks people to join the effort to make good things happen in their community. The Web site gives resources for people to support education, promote active lifestyles, and protect the planet. Coca-Cola also plans to add a ZIP code search where people can find out how to participate in specific projects in their area later this year.

Coca-Cola’s “Coke Side of Life” campaign is a refreshing, colorful explosion of energy and optimism. Its message is Coke is happiness in a bottle. The campaign strays away from violent, sex-filled commercials and inspires people to make a difference in their communities. The “Coke Side Life” campaign is an example of how to attract brand loyalty through positive images and messages that inspire.

Below is a “Coke Side of Life” advertisement that was featured during the 2007 Super Bowl. It continues to be a fan favorite.

I’ll admit it: I’m a Facebookaholic. I cringe at the number of times I visit the social networking site every day. I’ve considered deactivating my account to gain back precious hours I spend browsing the site, but the thought of no Facebook gives me anxiety attacks. No mini feeds? How will I ever know what my friends are up to?

I’m not alone. I can breathe a sign of relief. There are millions of other Facebook addicts out there. Youth Trends recently came up with its “Top Ten List Report,” and Facebook was students’ favorite Web site for the seventh straight quarter. More than 1,000 college students were asked to name their three favorite Web sites, and Facebook was a winner among 74% of females and 60% of males.

CollegeHumor, Break, and Digg all experienced gains this year among men, while the rise of Perez Hilton’s blog was the biggest surprise among women voters. YouTube was in the top five for both groups. What does this study say about college students? Well, the majority of us love social networking sites and visit them frequently.

A study conducted by Harris Interactive, Inc. in July of 2007 shows that 54% of college students visit social networking sites such as Facebook daily, 26% watch videos on sites such as YouTube daily, and 22% read blogs daily. Therefore, it’s no surprise that marketers are experimenting with social networking sites to reach their target audiences. According to eMarketer, a projected $1.6 billion will be spent on advertising to social networking sites in the United States in 2008.

Facebook is no fad for college students. As Youth Trends’ study suggests, social networking sites are here for the long haul.

The expressions “Keep it simple, stupid!” and “Less is more” pinpoint the importance of simplicity. A powerful idea must be simple. Why clutter your audience with excessive information that fogs up your message?

Chip and Dan Heath’s “Made to Stick” outlines six principles of sticky ideas, and simplicity tops the list. According to the Heath brothers, simple messages are core and compact. A sticky idea is profound and stripped down to its critical essence. Chip and Heath argue that easy words are better than hard words, sentences are better than paragraphs, and two bullet points are better than five. Relentless prioritization is key.

By genuinely knowing your audiences and your objectives, you can create simple message that stick. Peter A. Eschbach, senior vice president of Porter Novelli, wrote a blog post highlighting the importance of keeping your message simple and profound. He asks, “Are your employees all PhD’s? Then stop communicating as if they were.” Eschbach argues that although lengthy sentences laced with high-sounding words may be impressive in some boardrooms, they will probably end up being misunderstood, ignored, or in the trash if used in communications to your employees. If messages are wordy and complex, there is a good chance they are ineffective.

Eliminate dense jargon and get to the core of your message. Simplicity does not equal uninteresting. It equals effective communication.

Image courtesy of barnsandnoble.com

Photo courtesy of Mark Lives in Ikea

Mark Malkoff, a comedian and filmmaker, needed to find a new place to live for a week in early January, because his apartment was being fumigated. Although most people in his situation would decide to crash at a friend’s place or fork out a few extra bucks for a hotel, Mark chose an unlikely place to reside: Ikea.

Why would Ikea agree to let Mark live in its Paramus, New Jersey store? Well, lets just say Ikea knows a good marketing maneuver when they see one. The Swedish furniture giant received a hefty amount of positive exposure from an unpaid spokesperson.

According to this Washington Post article, “Ikea was dubious at first, but once they got to know Malkoff — realized what squeaky, G-rated videos he made and what a good, unpaid spokesman he’d be — they opened the doors and made a little placard reading “Mark’s Apartment” to go outside his living space.”

Mark documented his every move at Ikea for a week, and videos were posted daily on his Web site “Mark Lives in Ikea” that captured his adventures. His Web site has received over a million hits since January 7, and his videos are also featured on YouTube. Visitors flocked to the New Jersey store to meet the man living at Ikea, and the media jumped on Mark’s story.

Sometimes the best marketing tricks are ones outsiders devise. In case you are interested, here is the first episode of Mark’s adventures at Ikea.

People are savvy, skeptical, and can sniff out lies quickly. If you’re not transparent, people will call you on it. And when they do, you will look worse than if you just said what was true to begin with.

Apparently researchers at UCLA forgot about the importance of being open with the public. According to a Los Angeles Times article, they recently accepted $6 million from tobacco giant Philip Morris to pay for a study on teenage nicotine addition. However, the school was mum about where its funds came from, and Philip Morris’ role in the study has drawn heavy criticism from anti-tobacco activists. Could the research help Philip Morris design a more addictive cigarette rather than help people stop smoking? While some argue that the study may discover new ways to help people quit smoking, others are skeptical about the intentions of the research and argue that the project is being conducted in secrecy.

“It’s stunning in this day and age that a university would do secret research for the tobacco industry on the brains of children,” said Matt Meyers of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids in Washington, D.C. “It raises fundamental questions about the integrity, honesty and openness of research anywhere at the University of California.”

UCLA researches should have openly discussed Philip Morris’ role in their study. Their confidentiality sends out a red flag to the public, and gives people a reason to believe they are hiding something worth uncovering.

The moral of the story: be transparent, so you don’t get caught playing a game of hide-and-seek with the public. More often than not, the public will find you. And when they do, they will expose what they found to the world.

This is the first presidential race where social media sites like YouTube, Facebook, and MySpace will impact what users see and know about a candidate. While remaining presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, John McCain, and Mike Huckabee have all jumped on the social media bandwagon, nobody seems to understand the power of social media better than Barack Obama.

Obama was the first presidential candidate to capitalize on the strength of Facebook; the first to have a profile on Eons, the MySpace for baby boomers; and one of the first candidates to have a profile on LinkedIn, a site for professional networkers. Obama also ventured onto BlackPlanet.com and MiGente.com, popular social networking sites in the black and Latino communities. In addition, Obama has joined the conversation on AsianAve.com and GLEE.com.

Obama has 583,956 supporters on his Facebook group, 286,233 MySpace friends, 6,661 followers on his Twitter account, and 12,036,832 views on his personal YouTube page. These numbers are far greater than his rival Hillary Clinton, who has 119,653 Facebook supporters, 183,492 friends on MySpace, and 1,351,685 views on her YouTube page.

Not only do these social networking sites let Obama and other candidates keep users up to date on their campaigns through pictures and videos, but they also allow candidates to gauge the pulse of their audience and know where to steer their campaigns. These sites allow candidates to appear more human by giving viewers insight into their hobbies, outside interests, and passions.

Barack Obama has reached out to more social networking communities than any other presidential candidate. Therefore, there may be a case to be made connecting his online expertise to his strength among younger voters.