360PR Blog

By Amanda Gonzalez

Celebrities, fashion, speeches, kitschy musical numbers and Betty White (of course!) made up the 62^nd Primetime Emmy Awards last night hosted by Jimmy Fallon.  Aside from the usual elements of the glitzy show, another component was present in a big way this year – social media.

This year there were more options than ever to watch and interact with the awards show.  NBC utilized Facebook, Twitter, Ustream, yfrog, NBC.com, AccessHollywood.com, and Emmys.com to allow fans to catch exclusive content of the show and promote a conversation.

Fans were encouraged to send their best tweet about presenters via a special NBC.com website or using the hashtag #imontheemmys and Jimmy Fallon would read select tweets to introduce the presenters in a new twist to the veteran show.

While this was an innovative way to engage the audience, especially younger viewers, the execution was a little off.  Tweets such as “Tina Fey: I’d hit that” left something to be desired.  Hats off to the Emmy’s though for sparking that conversation on the social media site especially since, as of this post, some of the top trending topics for Twitter still include “Emmy Awards,” “Emmys” and big winner “Modern Family.”

The Emmy Awards didn’t just stop at Twitter, though.  Celebrity super-fans were also encouraged to go to UStream.com beforehand to catch a live stream of the red carpet and also during the show for a live backstage stream of the green room, makeup room, press room and more.

If that wasn’t enough, true celebrity stalkers could get their new computer background from yfrog where the website posted pictures of those A-listers who stopped by the yfrog Photo Booth and Ryan Seacrest streamed pictures & video from the red carpet.  Check them out here.

All of this new interaction may have also contributed to a slight rise in viewership this year as the show drew in 13.5 million viewers compared to last year’s 13.47.

So did you watch the Emmys last night? Did you tweet, watch the live backstage stream or checkout your favorite celebs photos?  Did you like the social media twist this year?  Leave your comments and let us know!

Filed under: Consumer Marketing, Events and Conferences, FaceBook, Internet, Social Media by Admin - No Comments →

A few of us from 360PR attended the BlogHer 2010 session entitled, “The FTC Guidelines: After A Year, Has Anything Changed?” The panel included BlogHer’s co-founder and CEO, Lisa Stone, marketer Susan Getgood, blogger Kimberly Coleman and Stacey Ferguson from the FTC who discussed whether the Guidelines have had any significant impact on how marketers and bloggers do business.
 
The FTC endorsement guidelines became final in December 2009, and Stacey Ferguson said, “The point of the guidelines is to ensure that there is no deception in advertising, and to provide transparency to consumers.” The FTC Guidelines are just that – they are guidelines, not laws. There are no fines for violating the FTC guidelines, but transparency is always best practice. The guidelines are intended to help consumers, endorsers and brands.
 
The main takeaway from the session for bloggers was to be absolutely sure they are always being transparent – their readers should understand their connection to the brand.

The panel encouraged bloggers to think about it more as valuing their relationship with their readers.  If a blogger is endorsing a brand, the endorsement should be natural, clear and organic.

The FTC guidelines intentionally don’t tell bloggers how to make their disclosure because they want it to be in the blogger’s voice. Some suggestions:

• The best disclosure is always within context of the post or Tweet rather than at the end of a post or using a hashtag on Twitter that might not be clear, for example #sp (I didn’t know what that stood for and most consumers probably don’t either! #sp = sponsored post).
• There are three rules of thumb: make the endorsement clear, make it prominent and make it unavoidable.

The main takeaway for the brands was that at the end of the day it’s the brand’s responsibility to be sure endorsers are properly disclosing. Brands need to make it clear what they expect from their endorsers, but the disclosure should be in the blogger’s voice so it feels natural.
 
There seems to be some confusion regarding guidelines for traditional media versus bloggers, however, traditional media has always had to follow the same guidelines! The difference is that it’s about audience understanding. It is generally understood by the audience that traditional media is receiving products to review for free.

There was also discussion about celebrities and folks from the audience were wondering if celebrities get a free pass. Kim Kardashian has tweeted that she is craving a Carl’s Jr. salad. Even though she does receive a hefty $10,000 per sponsored tweet, the FTC called Kim Kardashian after she tweeted about the Carl’s Jr. salad to ask if she was contracted to do those tweets. The answer was no. Celebrities are not getting a free pass.

Do you think anything has changed after one year?

Filed under: 360 Public Relations, Blogger Relations, Events and Conferences, Social Media by Admin - 1 Comment →

Bloggers felt the embrace of brands who planned out involving and playful interactions for them at BlogHer10. There was every manner of entertainment at the show, from happy mascots and hi-energy dance floors, to coloring stations and full-on hair salons!

At this year’s event in particular, I was struck by how many bloggers were turned into brand “spokespeople” right in front of my very eyes through highly creative and video-worthy stunts and campaigns.

In a nutshell, putting bloggers on camera talking passionately about a particular topic led to a whole lot of third-party endorsements for brands. On the flip side, bloggers didn’t seem to mind their starring role in the brand videos; in fact they seemed to welcome the opportunity to be on camera, bringing to mind the possibility of a future BlogHer Reality TV series?

Please read my short letters to the brands to learn why they were the video stand-outs, extending their brand through video in the most distinctive ways.

Dear Walmart,

You are very bright.

I applaud your focus on selling products that sustain people and the environment, and I admire that you knew it would be the perfect theme for BlogHer. I like how you took a page from the Grammy’s playbook by inviting bloggers who are passionate about the quality of life on our planet to tweet their “bright” ideas for creating a sustainable future, and then feeding their tweets in real time on the giant video screen at your booth for everyone to see.

You were also genius to offer a professional video booth for bloggers to record their ideas and share them on your YouTube page and sustainability site. Having dozens of female bloggers raving about sustainability on your website is an endorsement that means way more than any paid advertising. But you already knew that. It also didn’t hurt that you had super knowledgeable folks staffing your exhibit – they were all brilliant.

Sincerely,

Cindy

Hello Jimmy Dean,

You brought a lot of sunshine to BlogHer.

Apart from the fact that I love sausage breakfast sandwiches, who wouldn’t love meeting the “hot” celebrity from your famous Jimmy Dean commercials? As if that weren’t enough, having the chance to star in a video with the “Sun” was a marketing move that really made me melt.

In the other part of your booth galaxy, I enjoyed talking to the friendly Hillshire Farms Chef who happily took the time to make me a custom, savory sandwich. She also gave me the 411 on the “Fresh Taste Challenge Sandwich Showdown” hosted by Padma Lakshmi that had 16 bloggers competing Top Chef-style to become the champion. The really great twist in my opinion was inviting three elementary school kids to judge the goods and decide the winners (they loved the sandwich ka-bob!). Talk about great content for the Hillshire Farms YouTube site, not to mention that the 16 bloggers have most likely already streamed the video on their own blogs.

All the best,

Cindy

Dearest Yahoo! Shine,

You inspire me.

It’s really good news that you are dedicated to offering online advice and information to women, and you were very clever to extend your “You. Reinvented” brand campaign to BlogHer10. After all, what’s more inspiring than stories of women who are reinventing their lives?

I was spell-bound by your fashion news-room set-up where you invited bloggers to share their “reinvention” stories on camera. I was so enamored with the idea, that I decided that I must reinvent myself in time to participate in your video show at BlogHer11.

Good for you for not only curating the blogger videos on Yahoo!, you also smartly gave embeddable videos to each of the participating bloggers so they could easily share on their blogs too. The idea that one woman’s voice on one lone blog may not change the world–but together, they wield quite a bit of power with other women is very classy.

As ever,

Cindy

P.S. I would be remiss to not offer a shout-out to the Tempur-Pedic folks for being cheeky and dressing up in pajamas, and also for jumping on the video content bandwagon with their “Ask Me” professional photography booth.

That’s a wrap.

Filed under: 360 Public Relations, Blogger Relations, Consumer Marketing, Digital PR, Events and Conferences, Green Marketing, Internet, Marketing to Moms, Social Marketing, Social Media, YouTube by CindyGordon - 2 Comments →

360PR is out in full force at BlogHer this weekend (#360PR  , #BlogHer10) , as are dozens of brands showing off their wares and services to attendees.  Are you at BlogHer? If so, we want to know which brand/s you think are doing the best job of breaking through. Visit our Facebook page throughout the weekend to cast your vote in our poll!

Filed under: 360 Public Relations, Blogger Relations, Events and Conferences, FaceBook, Social Media by EliciaBasoli - No Comments →

The 2010 Bell Ringer Awards were bustling last night – nothing like a roomful of PR people with cocktails waiting to be recognized!  The awards cast a spotlight on the leading-edge campaigns of the past year by New England-based firms.

The lifetime achievement award was presented to Larry Weber, a reminder of the caliber of talent, entrepreneurship, and innovation that has come from the Boston PR community over the past 20+ years.  ”PR has always been the influence of opinion through the use of content,” said Weber, commenting on the opportunity for PR in today’s content-driven digital world.  It was a simple but inspiring statement.

360 was in great company and our team was truly honored to be recognized with 13 awards, including five gold Bell Ringers.  Garnering six awards, our launch of Dorel Juvenile Group’s AirProtect^TM car seat safety technology was among the most gratifying.  That campaign helped educate millions of parents on the very real dangers of side impact crashes and what can be done to help protect children.  And campaigns for Allrecipes and Snuggie® were just plain fun, in addition to meeting their very real business objectives.

You can read a full list of the winning campaigns on the Publicity Club’s site.  Congrats to the more than 40 agencies, companies and organizations recognized at the 41^st Bell Ringers!

Filed under: 360 Public Relations, Events and Conferences, Industry Organizations, PR Industry by LauraTomasetti - 4 Comments →

I’ve walked through Copley Place and the Prudential many times. But, instead of grabbing a bite to eat in the food court last Friday, I speed-walked through the mall to the Hynes Convention Center for the first annual Penny Arcade Expo East (PAX East). It was quite a sight…over 60K gamers, many fan boys and girls in full costume, descended on Boston and captured the attention of the Pru “suits” on their lunch break, as well as the local media. Multiple features in Mass High Tech, the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Xconomy.com and others chronicled the success story that was PAX East.

Held for the past four years in Seattle (PAX West), PAX organizers decided to branch out to the East coast and Boston was a natural choice – as a HUGE college town, Boston is filled with gamers! Thousands of attendees and about 70 hardware and software companies, including 360 clients Turbine and Immerz, crammed into the tiny Hynes Convention Center for a sold out show. And I’ve heard that in 2011 the event will be held at the much larger Boston Convention & Exhibition Center – the open space will provide more room for the nerd herd to really spread out next year.

The gamers are gone, for now. But it’s clear that PAX East was a milestone event for Boston, the first gaming event of its size to be held in our backyard. While Massachusetts has long been known as a leader in various technology sectors, in recent years the gaming cluster has really started to shine becoming a key growth area for the state.

According to a 2009 survey by the Mass Tech Leadership Council, the state’s video game makers, which include industry heavyweights Harmonix and Turbine, take in $2 billion in revenue per year.  There are over 70 companies in MA dedicated to games, employing over 1,200 people. There are also multiple local organizations dedicated to fostering the community, including the New England Games SIG (of which I participate as a steering committee member), the Boston Post Mortem, and the MassTLC Games Cluster.

Did you get your game on at PAX? What did you think? We at 360 can’t wait until next year! Check out some photos of the 360 team at PAX on our Facebook page.

The 360PR team at PAX East - Elicia, Stacey, and Amanda

Filed under: Boston, Events and Conferences, Industry Organizations, Media and Press, Video Games by EliciaBasoli - 2 Comments →

The life-size cardboard cut-out of Edward stopped me in my tracks as I walked the aisles at Toy Fair in New York this week.  ‘Twilight’ was one of the newer licenses dotting booths at the annual toy industry show.  Mattel has cast the Twilight stars – Edward and Bella – as Barbie dolls.  Mattel also unveiled the newest Barbie career dolls: News Anchor Barbie and Computer Engineer Barbie, as voted by fans and getting good buzz at the show.

Anniversaries were another dominant theme at Toy Fair: Etch a Sketch and Slinky celebrate their 50th and 65th (wow, I’m old!); Hello Kitty is 35; and Hasbro introduced a round Monopoly game board in honor of Monopoly’s 75th.   The makers of Rubik’s Cube (a 360 client), which turns 30 in 2010, have rolled out a campaign to empower America’s youth to solve the cube – check out the Rubik’s Facebook page we just set up for the You Can Do the Cube campaign.  You CAN do it!

Our friends at the Toy Book were offering to tweet show news for exhibitors.  Simply stop by Toy Book’s booth at the Javits with your 140 characters and the editors will tweet it out.  Social media made even easier.  You can read all the tweets from the show at #toyfair.

Looking at the appointment schedules our teams booked up for clients, it was striking just how many more bloggers made it to the show this year.  That added some welcomed immediacy and a real-parent perspective to the Toy Fair news stream.  (Love to read your post if you want to leave a link here.)

And here’s one of my favorite Toy Fair images - one that caught the attention of FOX Busiiness – the New York City skyline sculpted out of Bendaroos (a 360 client):

Filed under: Consumer Marketing, Events and Conferences, Industry Organizations, PR Industry, Retail by LauraTomasetti - 4 Comments →

As I have finally conquered the hundreds of e-mails that awaited my return from a week in Las Vegas at CES, I have a moment to reflect on some of the things that struck me about this tradeshow in particular.  This was the first CES that I have attended (though I had plenty of 360PR vets to show me around), and I can assure all who have not been there that the hype is real.  CES consists of massive show floors that stretch across three different convention halls, hundreds of meeting rooms, and spills out to hotel suites all across the city – it is certainly far too much for one person to take in on their own.

Source: www.pcper.com

TWICE Magazine reported that the attendance of the first two days of CES was 112,515, which broke the forecast for the entire show.  In addition, this number was nearly 15,000 more attendees after two days than the previous year – perhaps a positive sign for 2010.  As a PR guy walking the show floor, it was awesome to see so much energy around some of the coolest products I have ever seen.  Some show product trends included tablets, e-readers, 3-D TV’s, and green tech, but there was certainly enough (something like 20,000 products were launched) to keep any techie salivating for days.

In particular, the media energy caught my attention, possibly because they were out in full force.  I was intrigued by the delight of the editors from Popular Mechanics as they handed out their CES Editor’s Choice Awards on Thursday (which Oregon Scientific, a 360 client, was fortunate enough to win).  It was clear that they were just as excited about the awards as they were handing out as were the companies who accepted them.

I first saw evidence of the media excitement at CES Unveiled, which was an event a couple nights before the start of CES.  I staffed a table at Unveiled and was one of the people that was nearly bowled over by the swarms of media that lined up, patiently waiting to get into the ballroom at the Venetian to see what companies had to offer.  From some of the largest media outlets to the smallest tech product review sites, journalist after journalist stopped at our table with a smile and said, “What’s new?!”  These two words, combined with their visible enthusiasm, exemplified just how jazzed these same people who I pitch all year round were to be at one of the greatest tradeshows in the world.  And I was happy to be there with them.

Filed under: Consumer Marketing, Events and Conferences by Admin - 1 Comment →

In honor of Sesame Street’s 40th anniversary in 2009, I thought I’d cap off the year with the Letter of the Day – make that Letter of the Year.  By my guestimation, the letter E was the hardest working letter in the alphabet in 2009 – used in ads, on packaging and in press releases countless times as marketers described their products as having “eco” qualities or making our lives ”easy,” or used “e” to indicate “electronic.”   No doubt D, G and O ranked high as well, for Digital, Green and Obama.

What were some of the other trends in 2009?  Many of us will remember ’09 as the year of the budget.  The way we talk to consumers (mass-market consumers anyway) has forever changed.  Features are nice, but price was the deciding factor for most in 2009, and marketers worked hard to cast price in the broader context of “value.”

There’s no arguing with features that don’t cost much, in some cases are free, and make our daily routines easier.  For that reason, 2009 was also the year of the app.  Is there anything we cannot do a little better or faster today without the help of an iPhone (or Blackberry) app?  There’s even a site dedicated to apps for moms, The iPhone Mom.

In 2009, the world – or at least a good 40 million of us – learned to think in headlines, something marketers have always been good at.  Twitter opened the floodgate on one-liners, and personalities like Heather Armstrong (Dooce) and Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh amassed audiences rivaling some magazines and double, triple, ten-fold the readership of many newspapers.

Meanwhile, The New York Times cut nearly 10% of its staff, while several magazines – some still thick with ads like Gourmet and Cookie – turned their last pages.  With traditional media on the run, bloggers took center stage and the FTC took notice, with new rules guiding interactions between marketers and bloggers.  Those who attended the swag-fest that was BlogHer ’09 welcome the formalized rules, a sign blogs are graduating from their teen years to a more mature media channel.

Perhaps least interesting to me in 2009 were the so-called “news” stories that dominated airwaves (and Twitter and Facebook), like “Balloon Boy” and “Kate and Jon,” so painfully familiar to us they don’t need last names.  Those were two of The Today Show’s “Top 10 stories of 2009″ over the weekend, a list I imagine was developed purely for ratings.  I hope.

Filed under: Consumer Marketing, Events and Conferences, Media and Press, Social Media by LauraTomasetti - No Comments →

I had the pleasure of moderating an informative panel of leading brands and bloggers in the parenting space at last month’s Marketing 2 Moms conference.  We’ve edited the two-hour session down to a 13-minute podcast, packed with tips and insights – worth a listen as you’re building your 2010 campaigns and considering how to initiate or extend your work with bloggers.

eMarketer reports that there are 34 million moms online and that may very well be a conservative estimate – we’ve seen numbers as high as 40+ million moms online.  And as parenting books such as Child, Wondertime and Cookie have ceased publication, hundreds more mom bloggers have begun posting.  There’s no denying it, blogs are a legitimate part of the mom media mix today – especially if you want to reach the connected, influencer-moms who have the power to word-of-mouth your brand.  But with more bloggers and brands jumping in, the environment is cluttered, and communications needs to be on point to break through and resonate with bloggers and their readers.

Moreover, with the FTC Guides taking effect 12/1, brands need to be diligent with their monitoring – making sure what is played back is accurate and any material relationships are clearly disclosed. We all have lots at stake – brands, bloggers and, most of all, readers.  Here’s what the experts at M2Moms had to say:

“Blogger relations should be about “quality over quantity…what [bloggers] say is more important than the numbers.” – Lesley Hettinger, General Motors Corp

“The intimate conversations are so much more valuable…it’s not about building an army, but an influential group of advisors and advocates…you really have to look at the long tail.” – Jeannine Harvey, PBS

“To me, it’s always about the added value…brands need to be able to provide added value” when working with bloggers and their audiences. – Kristin Brandt, Manic Mommies

“Blogs are such a personal experience for the reader…it’s really important that everything on that page be reflective of who we are.” – Liz Gumbinner, Cool Mom Picks & Blog with Integrity

“We want to get to know moms on a 1:1 basis.  We’re always reading blogs and looking at what bloggers are talking about on Twitter.”  – Marcia Hansen, Allstate Insurance Company

“I feel better about a brand if they have a presence on Twitter.  But the most important thing is to have someone monitoring…you have to have someone interacting with your customers.” – Beth Blecherman, Silicon Valley Moms Group

For more, listen to the M2Moms Brands & Blogs podcast below. A BIG thanks to Kristin Brandt for recording the session and to Susan Getgood for her masterful editing!

Filed under: Blogger Relations, Consumer Marketing, Digital PR, Events and Conferences, Marketing to Moms, Parenting, Pitch tips by LauraTomasetti - No Comments →

Following the landmark research reveal on 2008 social media adoption trends by Dr. Nora Barnes at last Friday’s Society for New Communications Research Symposium SNCR.com, I floated a question that richoted around the room like a bullet.

Very simply I asked, “Who was the first Fortune 500 company to blog?”

Dr. Barnes respectfully deferred the question to the many experts in the room, and it was an immediate jumpball. Shel Israel was the first to speak up, saying he was fairly certain that General Motor’s was the first official mover in 2005 with its fastlane blog.  John Cass took possession of the ball next saying he was fairly certain that either SUN or Microsoft, or maybe both, were ahead of GM. A brawl ensued.

To get some answers, I reached out to Steve Harris at General Motors and Molly O’Donnel at Microsoft.  John Cass was a huge help too – he has been following all these guys since 2004 – forever in internet years – and was able to dig up some old blog posts and research for me.

So, who was right?

[Read more →]

Filed under: Digital PR, Events and Conferences, Social Media by CindyGordon - 1 Comment →

Research doesn’t easily wow me, but this particular study did.

I’m referring to the research presented by Dr. Nora Barnes from The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth at last Friday’s SNCR conference in Cambridge, MA.   Her study compared the adoption rates of social media from 2007 and 2008 between the 200 largest charities, the Fortune 500, the Inc 500, and the top US colleges and universities.

This study reveals that use of social networking, blogging and video blogging has increased dramatically. Video is up 38%, social networking 47% and blogging.

What’s really remarkable are the differences between sectors.

Charitable organizations are outpacing the business world and academia in their use of social media. In the study, a remarkable 89% percent of charities are using some form of social media including blogs, podcasts, message boards, social networking, video blogging and wikis.

 Also, charities are far and away “out-blogging” everyone. 57% of charities have blogs.  The Fortune 500 has the fewest number of blogs at 16%, followed by the Inc. 500 with 39%. Colleges and universities are blogging at 41%.

My initial reaction was to question how this could be happening when clearly top companies have many times the staff and money resources of non profits. Then I remembered that no matter the depth of your organization or the size of your budget, everyone can have an equal voice on the internet. What matters is the power of your brand.

[Read more →]

Filed under: Digital PR, Events and Conferences, Industry Organizations, Social Media by CindyGordon - 1 Comment →

The key take-away for me at this week’s Marketing to Moms conference was about story-telling. Not story-telling by advertisers or PR people - not the campaigns and messages that are pushed out. I’m talking about the stories created by the millions of consumers on YouTube, Facebook and other social sites.

With the increasing amount of user-generated content online, one of the best things brands can do is sit back and take it all in. Then, after looking and listening, figure out how to choreograph the content that’s already out there into a meaningful brand dance – the kind of raucous dance you see at Greek and Jewish weddings.

Coca-Cola is doing it. One of the best, most compelling presentations at M2Moms was by Wendy Clark, SVP of Integrated Marketing at Coca-Cola, who held a can of Diet Coke in her hand from the start to the end of her presentation (maybe not surprising, but as Clark talked about authenticity and brand fans, that Coke can seemed to add even more street cred).

Clark talked about seeking opportunities for collaboration and co-creation, tapping into the people who are telling your story. And that doesn’t mean people have to be literally talking about your brand. More often than not, it’s going to be a story that gets at the essence of what your brand has to offer (healthy living or more family time, for example).

“We need to integrate consumer ideas into the way we’re going to the marketplace, and use digital as an enabler,” said Clark.  She wasn’t talking about the usual consumer research or the traditionally linear process in developing campaigns.  As she talked, she pulled up random search results for “Coke” on Google.

What are people finding when they search for your brand (or a related topic)? How can you contribute to the conversation?  How can you “curate” what’s already there?  “The shift has happened – advertising doesn’t seem to capture what we do any more. We spend a lot of time talking about community marketing,” Clark said.  Marketers need to “be open to a model that bypasses traditional stages.”

Clark shared that her PR team is playing an active role in beating the social media drum at Coca-Cola.  “Our PR team has been our best friend,” she said. At the core, I believe good PR people are about two things: story-telling + relationship-building. We’ve got “the right stuff” for this new social media world. Now, we just need to listen a little more to the stories already being told in order to help write the next chapter for the brands we work with and the communities they want to be part of.

While at M2Moms, I “curated” a panel of brands and bloggers who are working together. Kristin Brandt of Manic Mommies, who was on the panel, was kind enough to record the session and we’ll be posting the audio here next week.  Meantime, you can scan some of the insights and soundbites from this week’s Marketing to Moms conference on Twitter, #m2moms.

Filed under: Consumer Marketing, Digital PR, Events and Conferences, Food & Beverage PR, Internet, Marketing to Moms, Social Media by LauraTomasetti - 5 Comments →

For the past 48 years, The Hatch Awards, hosted by the Ad Club, have been New England’s premier creative awards show.  Over 1200 entries are reviewed by a dozen judges – high-ranking creative executives from outside the New England area.  Awards are presented across 32 categories including every kind of media possible.

As part of the Ad Club’s PR Committee, 360PR attended the show on Tuesday night…and was blown away (props to Boston University’s drum corps)!

Hatch Awards 2009

I serve on the Ad Club PR Committee and one of the things we try to do is to cast a light on the young, diverse creative ad biz in Boston – the industry has moved well beyond the bygone “Mad Men” era.  This year, we invited some special guests to attend — some leading bloggers from the Boston area.  As we all know, mom bloggers are the movers and shakers of the world — they can topple brands or create success stories in the blink of an eye.  In fact, U.S. moms say 80% of ads miss the mark (via M2Moms).  But experts say that we can improve those results by using social media to create online communities and brand advocates. 

We also set up a hash tag for bloggers and members of the Hatch audience to follow.  Over the course of the evening, there were over 70 Twitter status updates using #AdClub.  The following local bloggers in attendance driving the conversation were:

• Christy Matte, More than Mommy (http://morethanmommy.com/) 
• Nirasha Jaganath, Mommy Niri (http://www.mommyniri.com/) 
• Susan Getgood, Marketing Roadmaps (http://getgood.com/roadmaps/) 
• Jennifer Leal, Savor the Thyme (http://savorthethyme.blogspot.com/) 

Some of the gold bowl recipients were Arnold’s picturesque FootJoy print ads (something any golf fanatic would love) in the Consumer Magazine Spread category, Mullen’s hilarious Boston Bruins national TV spots (my personal favs), and Hill Holliday’s sobering Liberty Mutual TV spots.

Filed under: 360 Public Relations, Blogger Relations, Boston, Consumer Marketing, Events and Conferences, Marketing to Moms, Social Media by Admin - No Comments →

It’s September and summer vacation’s clearly over.  Most of us have it engrained from the day we start kindergarten, backpacks on and lunchboxes in hand, that September means business.  This September’s no exception – and we’re thankful for that.

In one week at 360, we’ve had three client events spanning a range of product categories:  an event to introduce Stonyfield Farm’s YoBaby Meals featuring Stonyfield CE-Yo Gary Hirshberg and Boston Mama’s Christine Koh; a car seat safety briefing by Dorel Juvenile Group at the ABC KIDS Expo (#abckids on Twitter); and, a Snuggie fashion show during Fashion Week emceed by Ross “The Intern” Mathews from The Tonight Show.

A model wears one of the new Snuggie designs on the runway during Fall Fashion Week in New York.

We have two more events and multiple tours still to come this month, and we’re just one agency.  Multiply that by hundreds of agencies and brands with launches planned in September.  Imagine being a reporter or blogger on the receiving end of it all?  In fact, we’re hearing from bloggers that they’re being inundated with invitations – increasingly, it’s gotta be something pretty special to pull them out these days.

And at ABC Kids Expo in Las Vegas, editors from the leading parenting books were moving at a rapid clip, covering more ground with fewer staff.  Some were breathless.  It was interesting to see traditional media outnumbered by bloggers, and refreshing to see marketers spending after a cautious start to the year.

If September’s any indication, it’s going to be a noisy fall.  And it seems consumers are finally ready to listen – especially if the price is right!

Filed under: 360 Public Relations, Consumer Marketing, Events and Conferences, Media and Press, PR Industry by LauraTomasetti - No Comments →