360PR Blog

Some of the smartest minds in social media gathered recently at the Society of New Communications Research (SNCR) Symposium at Harvard for a discussion of the group’s latest research findings. This is my third year attending the event and it has been hugely interesting to see the progression of each of SNCR’s studies. A couple of trends really POPPED for me this year…

Surprisingly, corporations are still behind the curve with social media adoption. Nora Ganim Barnes (University of Massachusetts Dartmouth) found this in the Social Media Adoption Trends Among Inc. 500, Fortune 500, Higher Education and Charities study. While many of the world’s biggest brands have a presence on social media platforms, Fortune 500 and Inc. 500 companies are still behind Charities and Higher Education in their use of social media to communicate with stakeholders. The proof is in the pudding. Check this out:

What does this tell me? While many companies “get it”, there is still more work to do in educating consumer brands (our clients) on the value of social media in helping them to connect with their customers. With changing media consumption habits, the methods in which we communicate must also continue to evolve!

While corporations still have some catching up to do, media and journalists are using social media for their story-telling and reporting in a BIG way. In a separate session, Jen McClure and Don Middleberg presented the “3^rd Annual SNCR/Middleberg Survey of Media in the Wired World”. In this study, it was found that 90% of journalists say that their reliance on social media has increased significantly in the past year. 75% of journalists are using Facebook in generating content. 70% are using blogs. 69% are using Twitter. 54% are using online video. 53% are using Wikipedia. 31% use LinkedIn and 28% use citizen photos.

So, to those Fortune 500 / Inc. 500 corporations that have not yet adopted social media as a significant portion of their communications strategy, you might want to take another look at what the cool kids (i.e. influencers and journalists) are doing!

Thanks to SNCR for organizing yet another great Symposium, as well as for honoring 360PR’s work with the Ball brand National Can-It Forward Day campaign in the Excellence in New Communications Awards.

Filed under: 360 Public Relations, Boston, Digital PR, Events and Conferences, Industry Organizations, Social Marketing, Social Media by EliciaBasoli - 2 Comments →

By Caitlin McNamara

The JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge Series is a 12-city, six-country, five-continent road race, making it the largest road race series in the world. The Corporate Challenge provides an evening of healthy competition, camaraderie and teamwork for local companies to get to know all of their employees. This year, the Corporate Challenge continued its success with a projected number of 250,000 participants.

360PR was lucky to be involved in the race series by taking the communications lead in Chicago (May 26), Boston (June 2) and New York (June 15 and June 16). In addition to focusing on JPMorgan Chase, the bank, we also worked with companies that participated including Caterpillar and Molex (Chicago), Dassault Systemes and Fidelity (Boston), as well as Coach and Johnson & Johnson (New York). Learning about the individual runners and the companies as a whole, we were able to fine tune our pitches leading to national and regional coverage with Banker & Tradesmen, Mass High Tech, the WSJ Dealbreaker Blog and many more.

Each year, companies from all different industries participate in this 12-city road race series – ranging from Tassimo, to WebMD, to Bloomingdales. In Boston, the 360PR crew took part in the 3.5 mile race around the Boston Common. And, while we didn’t win the race, we’re proud to say that 360PR made it to the top 10 in the Boston  t-shirt contest this year!

Filed under: 360 Public Relations, Boston, Cause-Related, Events and Conferences, Industry Organizations by Admin - No Comments →

To call all PR people social butterflies would be a generalization. If you don’t consider yourself an extrovert, however, you’re probably in the wrong profession. It’s our job to gain awareness for our clients, and in doing so, we do a LOT of talking. The panel I attended yesterday, Successful Social Marketing: Cultivating Advocates and Driving Sales, served as a reminder that listening is equally, if not more, important. And, as we all can attest here at 360PR, listening to a brand’s chatter online across forums, blogs, Twitter, Facebook and beyond takes time, patience, and an analytical eye.

The discussion was part of a series of events hosted by Mitx, a group of industry thought leaders dedicated to, in part, keeping on top of trends. Speakers from BzzAgent, New Balance and EMC offered their experience and expertise on utilizing outlets including Facebook, YouTube and Twitter to assist in a successful campaign – from planning stages, through launch, and beyond.  Among their suggestions: leverage employees to be brand ambassadors, engage influencers in the early stages, map your content to what people are already searching for, and strike a balance between knowing your brand and listening to your customers.

As speaker Polly Pearson wisely said, social media is a relationship accelerator. So save your breath, because tapping in and listening to the conversation regarding your company/brand/product could prove more valuable than all of your planned email and phone pitches combined.

Filed under: Consumer Marketing, Digital PR, Events and Conferences, Industry Organizations, Interactive Marketing, PR Industry, Social Marketing, Social Media by SkyeMcIntyre - 1 Comment →

This was a week for the books!

The 360 crew headed down to NYC for The Holmes Report’s annual SABRE Awards dinner on Tuesday night. Cipriani was buzzing with all of the industry’s biggest and longtime players. Our own Stacey Clement shared the stage with Harold Burson. And Ray Day from Ford was among those honored for individual achievement.

As the world’s largest PR awards competition, we are extremely proud to have walked away with the honor of being named “Boutique Agency of the Year.” It was truly a special moment….and we’ve all been soaking it in!

Filed under: 360 Public Relations, Industry Organizations, PR Industry by EliciaBasoli - No Comments →

And I don’t mean the chocolate candy (although a Snickers sounds pretty good right about now)! The other SNCR (aka The Society of New Communications Research) held its 5^th Annual Research Symposium & Awards Gala recently in Palo Alto. John and I both were thrilled to attend and honored to accept two  “2010 Excellence in New Communications Awards” for 360PR!

Each year SNCR honors various individuals and organizations who are pioneering the use of social media. 360 was recognized for our work with Dorel Juvenile Group USA and their Safety 1^st brand (Multiple Platforms/Integrated initiatives category), as well as our work on behalf of You CAN Do the Rubik’s Cube (Online Publishing/ Facebook category). We are pumped to be among this group of 2010 winners, which included Old Spice, the 2010 SNCR Brand of the Year.

Actually, in addition to the awards ceremony, the highlight of the symposium was when Old Spice brand manager James Moorhead, presented the “Smell Like a Man, Man” campaign case study. The campaign, which Cindy blogged about this summer, has led to almost 2 billion impressions to date! A truly unbelievable viral success!

Filed under: 360 Public Relations, Digital PR, Events and Conferences, Industry Organizations, Social Marketing, Social Media by EliciaBasoli - 3 Comments →

By John LeRoy

This past Friday I was lucky enough to hear some great presentations made by fellows of the Society for New Communications Research (SNCR) at Stanford University.  It was great to hear from some brilliant academics including SNCR Senior Fellow Jonathan Salem Baskin, whose presentation really stuck with me.

Jonathan spoke about the “Histories of Social Media,” which also happens to be the title of his latest book.  The title threw me off a bit, as I expected that this would be a timeline of the various technologies used in social media today.  Boy, was I wrong.  Jonathan went on for about 30 minutes about his main point – while the technologies used in social media are new, the connections that can be made between the social media and various historical events go back for centuries.  The comparisons, which might take a few minutes to truly “get”, were profound and thought-provoking.

To give you a better idea of what I mean, here are a couple of the highlight comparisons:

• When examining the topic of community, which is at the core of modern social media, Jonathan questions whether or not they are supposed to be built to “last forever” as many marketers strive to do when they launch a new community.  He compared modern social networks to villages in the old days, which would be abandoned once all of the usable resources had been exhausted.  This thought beckons the question, “Should we eventually move on to something different, or should we want our community to last forever?”
• Jonathan compared oral tradition to a wiki.  This goes to say in the same way that we are able to create and edit information with ease using wikis, oral tradition allowed our ancestors to create, and change, stories that were passed down from generation to generation.  In a similar vein, Jonathan argues that folklore is an example of crowd sourced information.  New technologies now make it easier for us to do the same things, but this does not mean that they are original ideas.

These examples just scratch the surface of how deeply this book looks into the correlations between history and social media, and I am looking forward to reading it.  You can learn more about Histories of Social Media here.

Filed under: Events and Conferences, Industry Organizations, Social Media by Admin - 4 Comments →

I just spent a couple of days surrounded by leaders in the PR industry, at the Council of PR Firms annual Critical Issues Forum.  One clear take-away for me is that this is an industry that’s more than bouncing back.  It’s invigorated – with ideas, new technologies and new ways to help brands fuel conversation, particularly in social media.

Another key take-away: PR’s value has grown tremendously in the new communications economy.  This was articulated by CMOs and senior communications officers from P&G, Heineken, IKEA, AT&T, American Express and Monster Worldwide.

The “huge shift” in how marketers advance their brands is peer-to-peer recommendations, said Heineken USA CMO Christian McMahan, who cited Trip Advisor as a shining example of a brand benefiting from peer-to-peer communications.

“The only way we’re going to get there is not paid media – it’s by earning the trust of consumers through peer recommendations,” added Leontyne Green, CMO for IKEA USA.

Building trust by listening to customers and through transparent, authentic conversation have always been core PR competencies.  That’s one of the reasons PR is driving the hottest area of brand communications – social media.

“PR is the most authentic form of marketing,” said P&G CMO Marc Pritchard, fresh off successful campaigns for P&G’s Old Spice, Head & Shoulders and Olympic Games campaigns.  “PR is the megaphone that amplifies the campaign,” Pritchard explained.

PR can also spark the conversation.  A successful campaign today can start with just 10 of the right influencers if the platform and the delivery are compelling, with social media as the thread that keeps the conversation going.

A third and final take-away: Big ideas can come from anywhere – advertising, PR, research, customer service – and what makes the big idea bigger is integration.  The fact is there are a lot of big ideas and your brand and your idea are in the most competitive communications environment marketers have known.  “From a PR perspective, you need to bring in people who understand [broader] marketing.  There’s no way you cannot be integrated,” said Monster Worldwide CMO Ted Gilvar.

For more, read Advertising Age’s coverage of Marc Pritchard’s remarks to the Council of PR Firms, and check out the Council’s Twitter stream.

Filed under: Digital PR, Events and Conferences, Industry Organizations, PR Industry, Social Marketing, Social Media by LauraTomasetti - 2 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 →

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 Admin - 1 Comment →

This week, the 360PR team took on Vegas for the 7^th annual ABC Kids Expo.  This year was my first trip to the show, and I was overwhelmed with the sheer magnitude of juvenile product companies exhibiting.  Anything you think a baby or parent-to-be would need/want was there…and then some!  Stainless steel baby bottles, eco-friendly cloth diapers, and multitudes of edgy, cool baby furniture were just some of the many highlights. 

It’s always a blast to look at the latest designs and fashions for baby (everything is just too darn cute!); however, the most important feature when little ones are concerned is always safety.  

The timing for ABC Expo was perfect, as Saturday kicked off National Child Passenger Safety Week, which is a nationwide effort sponsored by NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration).  To start the week, car seat check events were held throughout the nation on Saturday.  I was lucky enough to attend a local event sponsored by Safe Kids.  I met the inspiring and dedicated folks behind Safe Kids, including the Training Manager and Technical Advisor, Lorrie Walker (pictured below).  Safe Kids reports that a whopping 4 out of 5 car seats are installed incorrectly. 

The theme of child safety continued, as we held a car seat safety briefing at the Safety 1^st booth at ABC Kids Expo.  The panel discussed the danger of side impact crashes for children and new innovations in testing methods and technology to protect our kids on the road.  We had a great turn-out – including top-notch editors, bloggers and industry advocates.  This briefing also caught the attention of NBC Las Vegas, as they broadcasted live from our booth to report on the Safety 1^st Air Protect Side Impact Technology for their morning show – which meant a 3AM wake-up call for me.  In true Vegas fashion, the streets were bustling at that hour anyway!

Filed under: 360 Public Relations, Events and Conferences, Industry Organizations, Media and Press, Parenting by Admin - 1 Comment →

Guess what the first and last topic was on the first day of Blogher? Right. That FTC stuff. Disclosure was the main message from the Blogher founders.  Blogher requires its network of 2,500 bloggers to aggregate product reviews to a separate review blog and note that reviews are sponsored.

But is disclosure enough?  Do we need or, let me rephrase, want “compensated reviews”?  If a product or service is truly break-through and relevant to the audience, and the outreach is well timed and appropriately targeted (if I can put in just a small plug for PR), reviews get written and for the right reasons.

There was a lot of discussion throughout Blogher Business about how bloggers “add value for marketers.”  But most blogs weren’t started as a marketing platform, and even as they’ve collectively evolved to be a viable channel for advertisers online, the audience needs to come first.  If it doesn’t, we all lose.

A group of bloggers we have a heck of a lot of respect for launched an initiative this week called Blog with Integrity, inviting bloggers to take a pledge of a code of conduct – totally voluntary and completely about raising the bar back up in the blogosphere for mom bloggers and all bloggers.

So what about us PR peeps?  Almost a decade ago, The Council of PR Firms set forth a code of ethics by which members firms (including 360PR) agree to conduct business – to help ensure PR with Integrity.  ”In communicating with the public and media, member firms will maintain total truthfulness and accuracy… the sources of communications and sponsors of activities will not be concealed,” reads an excerpt.

Social media, and PR’s prime-time role in social media, have raised the stakes.  We need to strive to be authentic, accurate and transparent in every interaction with bloggers, journalists and analysts every day.  What would our moms say?  Just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should.

What are your thoughts?

Filed under: Blogger Relations, Digital PR, Events and Conferences, Industry Organizations, Internet, Marketing to Moms, PR Industry, Social Media by LauraTomasetti - 6 Comments →

The last BIG blow-out E3 Expo was held in 2006. But, in ’07 and ’08 the event was downsized significantly and became invite-only for many in the video game industry.  This year, however, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) reinvigorated the E3 of old, leading to a 840% increase in attendance compared to 2008 with 41,000 game industry executives and journalists in attendance….and, it was a blast!

The press was out in full force and ranged from consumer media, to traditional gaming outlets, fan/community websites, podcasters, and TV/video crews. If you google “E3 2009″, you’ll get a mere 25 million results – i.e. lots of buzz.

One of the big stories of E3 included Microsoft’s announcement that Xbox Live will soon integrate with Facebook and Twitter. And the use of Twitter itself surrounding the event was a big deal compared to E3 ’06, with many attendees and journalists tweeting about the event (#E3). In fact, our gamerDNA client launched a new website last week – TweetMyGaming.com – which aggregates conversations about video games happening on Twitter in real-time.

And, yes, even the “booth babes” were back this year. But, was there anything missing? Yes. Companies were not giving away as much swag to attendees – but I did get a free IGN.comT-shirt, which made me a happy camper

The ESA announced that E3 2010 will take place June 15 – 17 at the Los Angeles Convention Center – hope to see you there!

Filed under: Events and Conferences, Industry Organizations, Social Media, Video Games by EliciaBasoli - No Comments →

I need to start with a disclaimer.  There’s no way around it, this is a self-serving post, but hopefully still of some interest.  360 went 10 for 12 at last night’s New England Publicity Club Bell Ringer Awards.  That’s an enviable batting average even here in Red Sox Nation.

A glance at the list of campaigns by 360 and other award-winners, including our friends at Cone and Kel and Partners, speaks to the awesome national work that’s emanating from Boston.  As traditional media have downsized and shifted more and more to contributors working virtually, and social media has sprung from all corners of the globe, physical proximity has become less relevant.  But that’s a whole other post.

Back to the red carpet and a look at some of our “stars” accepting awards…

Crock-Pot cookers Brittany & Merideth

Team Xenith Caitlin & John

A jubilant Stephanie with a shiny award plaque for Ball Jars and Mike in his WowWee afterglow

360 took home top honors in several categories, reminding us of the great clients and brands we’re fortunate to work with:

Best Consumer Product/Service Publicity Campaign for Ball® jars

Best Special Event Series for Stop & Shop®

Best National Television News Placement for Crock-Pot® slow cookers on The Rachel Ray Show

Best Regional Television News Placement for Xenith’s X1™ football helmet on WBZ-TV/Boston

Best Feature or Commentary Placement for WowWee’s Alive Cubs™ in TIME Magazine

Best Response to Breaking News for WowWee’s FlyTech™ Dragonfly

[Read more →]

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