Everybodysagenius’s Weblog

Hey Everybody,

As you might know from my recent posts, I worked on a campaign that promoted the 86-mile Market to Market Relay in Omaha, NE. The race took place on Oct. 11 and it was big success. I wanted to share the case study with you because it was a little strange and it was pretty successful and very cost-effective. Bozell took on this client and all the art was done by my buddy Aaron Christensen. Enjoy!

The Opportunity:
Every year thousands of runners compete in the 197-mile relay run from Mount Hood, Oregon to the Pacific coast. Similar races exist in Kansas, California, Colorado, New Hampshire and Texas. Recently distance relays have been growing in popularity because they combine the athletic prowess and competitiveness of distance running with the fun of team sports.

In 2008, two childhood friends from Omaha, NE started their own distance relay race, The Market to Market Relay. The race routed runners across 86 miles from the Old Market in Omaha, NE to the Historic Haymarket in Lincoln, NE. The Market to Market Relay took runners through small towns, rural farms, downtown brick roads, state parks, over streams and across the plains of Nebraska.
In spring of 2008, with the route mapped and preparations made, only one thing was missing: runners. Registration opened on March 15, 2008 with slots available for 150, six-to-eight-person teams. So, how do you get more than 1,000 people to sign up for an 86-mile race?
The Tactics:
Bozell’s challenge was to create a marketing strategy with a very limited budget that could increase sign up and establish the legitimacy of the race to possible sponsors. The Market to Market Relay’s messaging focused on three key angles:
1. The novelty of this event: This is the first time that race of this nature had been held in Nebraska. The 86 miles was divided into 24 race legs that were run by alternating team members.
2. The ‘green’ factor: The race donated a portion of its proceeds to the Great Plains and Eastern Nebraska Trials Networks and the eco-friendly group, 1% for the Planet. The post-race party also focused on conservation education.
3. The course’s beauty: This long distance race took runners through a variety of Nebraska landscapes.
Bozell contacted the local media throughout the summer and fall of 2008 with race developments. The public relations push was also targeted at national running magazines and online running forums.
Bozell created ads that appeared in the Omaha World-Herald, Lincoln Journal Star, Running Times and Runner’s World. A Market to Market Relay Facebook group and MySpace page were created to quickly spread information to runners and to let participants easily promote the race to their friends.
The Results:
The Market to Market Relay filled all 150 of its team slots on July 25, months before the race. Another 50 teams were also allowed to sign up on a waiting list. This list was also filled by July 25. On Oct. 11, more than 1,200 runners competed in the Market to Market Relay.
The Market to Market Relay was able to reach beyond its projected sponsorship goals and even secure a presenting-level sponsor, The Nebraska Orthopaedic Hospital.
The relay raised $6,000 for the trail systems of Nebraska.
The Omaha World-Herald and Lincoln Journal Star both published several stories on the Market to Market Relay. A variety of smaller local newspapers and magazines also published stories and photographs on the relay. Local television networks WOWT, KOLN and KGIN aired stories. Several local radio stations also covered the event. There were roughly 50 independent blog posts written about the run including large online running publications such as: TrailRunnerMag.com and RunningNetwork.com.
One particularly impressive piece of media coverage came in the form of a slideshow presentation built by the Lincoln Journal Star. This slideshow included photography and race information, it also incorporated audio from race day.

Hope you enjoyed the article. Please feel free to e-mail me or hit me up on Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, Linkedin, MySpace, SlideShare, etc. I go by the profile swept14.

Best,

William Flavell

Good Morning Everyone,

I gave a presentation last week on several social media tools that can be used (for free) to better track a company or theme online. Some of the tools were also used to find people (evangelists). Just to name a few: Wink, BoardTracker, BackType, Technorati, Summize and more. Anyway, I hope that you will check out the embedded slideshow below (thanks slideshare). I conveyed a lot of the presentation’s information through speaking, so if you want more info on anything, just drop me a question or comment.

Hey Everybody,

I am sure that many of you know about the DEMO conference. If not, it is like the superbowl of emerging technology. They have a couple a year. The next one is They are doing a great job right now of maintaining a strong Facebook Group with all kinds of apps, videos, photos, and much more. They also have a really interesting Twitter presence. Their name is DEMOtweets (we really need to do something about that name: tweets). And they have a 500+ user LinkedIn DEMO group.

So, DEMO has a lot of presence online and they have a lot of great groups and great stories. So, what you might ask is a missing strategy. Well, the missed opportunity is for the technologies. With DEMO being the superbowl of emerging technologies, and all the tech news media and VC (venture capitol) groups world-wide watching, you would think that every new tech company in the world would be putting out info. Well, they are not. Very few are, in fact there is not one fan video up yet on the DEMO facebook group, which has 545 members so far. This is a great opportunity for one of those presenting companies to engage a highly interested audience.

Here are some of my recommendations for applying this strategy:
The strongest social media opportunity for DEMO right now is the DEMO Facebook group. It has 545 members and currently hosts no fan videos. The right tech company could be the first group member to put up a product demonstration video in the fan section. It would also be a good platform to post up your videos of DEMO or the DEMO training process. This way you can be contributing content and writing updates that are DEMO themed and that will also showcase your idea or product. Every update that you make to the group will automatically show up in the feeds of all the Facebook DEMO group members’ pages. This involvement with the Facebook Group will be used to build relationships with others in the tech community and to spread your name.

In addition to the DEMO Facebook group, DEMO also sponsors a Twitter account named DEMOtweets that provides DEMO stories to everyone following. It currently has 75 followers. We can join Twitter with a DEMO-themed account, follow the DEMOtweets account and send them messages. We can also use this platform to promote whatever product or idea at the DEMO conference. The tech press also regularly does Twitter searches on subjects or events of interest. The more DEMO posts that we have the higher the chance that we will get noticed and picked up by this press group.
DEMO also runs a LinkedIn group with more than 500 members. LinkedIn only offers one-to-one communication between its group members. It does not allow for multimedia posting either. But, this will be final stage in the social media communication strategy for DEMO. You can use LinkedIn to make business connections with those users that comment on our Twitter tweets or Facebook group additions.

Enjoy,

Will Flavell

Hey Everybody,

I recently read in a press release from Cision that they are offering more blogger contact listings than ever before. The press release was especially focused on Mommy blogs. If you are a mommy blogger out there, what do you think of this? Have you received any unrequested press releases from PR people lately? Do you want to get them?

The Cision press release also highlights the efforts of Cision to push PR people to treat bloggers with more respect and to address them in a very personal matter. Speaking from experience, (as a pr guy and blogger) that is the only way to do things. I need a very personal note or product trial to write about a product or service. I have heard that from a lot of other bloggers too. I have heard bloggers complain that PR people have never even read their stuff and are still sending that press releases. That is crazy and a big risk because it can often result in negative online coverage.

Cision is offering a free download of their tips on working with Mommy Bloggers here.

Best Quote that I read from Cision so far on Mommy Bloggers:

Blogs authored by mothers are one of the more influential social media communities, engaging with a market of more than 30 million women in North America between the ages of 18 and 42 who directly influence household spending estimated at more than $1 trillion a year.

Those bloggers influence so effectively because they are truthful, sometimes brutally so. Just a message of caution to PR practitioners: don’t try to push BS or you just might get some awful coverage. It doesn’t cost anything to put up a blog post.

Anyway, hit me back with what you think?

Thanks

Will Flavell

Hey Everybody,

I just started reading Jeremiah Owayang’s blog, at web-strategist.com. And needless to say. It is very good. My favorite post so far is his ongoing collection of companies that have failed or screwed up with social media. Check it out here.

Keep up the good work Jeremiah,

Thanks,
Will Flavell

Hello Everyone,

I have seen a few posts (humorzo, PRSA  Digital Impact, and NevilleHobson) around about this issue. And I thought as a semi-pr guy that I might be able to shed a little light on what this is and what is happening. I don’t work for Cision and I don’t even work in a PR department anymore, I used to do both and I think that I might be able to give an objective light to it.

Vocus and Cision are both list building services that PR people use. The big problem arises when PR people get lazy and build gigantic lists that they then use for Spray and Pray dissemination strategies. I read a lot of blogs slamming PR people for being lazy and spamming. Sadly, that is the case with a lot of traditional-only pr practitioners. Many are used to the old days and large print publication staffs. They are used to press releases being a trade secret that we could sell to clients. They are used to big media coverage being something that you could promise clients. To put it simply, those days are gone and the PR industry is in a world-shift of change from media-fragmentation to user-generated content to trying to pitch bloggers.

Here is a scenario of the problem in action. You take a PR person who has made their career by pitching big reporters and big, mass-audience publications. There is a very standard way of writing and talking in this world. Now you ask them to pitch a very personal, very niche blogger. Obviously, there is gonna be a huge disconnect. So, we have to retrain those people or get new kinds of PR people.

Sorry to be so honest, but it is sadly the truth. And I am a member of the PRSA.

Thanks, sorry for the downer post,

Will Flavell

Hey Everybody,

Just wanted to share this copyright free version of the Social Media Press Release. I got it off of http://www.pr-squared.com a while ago. Just wanna offer it to all the PR people out there. I think that I have said this before, but I don’t think that the new standard social media press release is ever gonna be considered the standard news release format. Instead I think that we are moving away from the days of a standard form of communication with each other and with media. What is a standard anything anymore?

But this template does give a good idea of some of the multimedia applications and tools that we (pr People) should be including in all of our communications efforts.

Peace and have a nice weekend,

Will Flavell

Social Media Press Release download location

Good Morning Everybody,

As most of you PR people probably already do (or should do), before we send out any press releases, we usually put them through a free spam e-mail checking service. Well, I just found something else that looks pretty cool. It is a free grader for your press release online.

HubSpot’s Press Release Grader evaluates your press release and provides a marketing effectiveness score. This score is based upon basic factors from public relations experts including the language and content of the release, plus advanced factors from Internet marketing experts such as links and search engine optimization characteristics.

Check out the service here: http://www.pressreleasegrader.com/.

Also I thought that I would add the link to a free Spam e-mail checker. It will grade your level of spam and make suggestions. Also it is free. Check it out at http://spamcheck.sitesell.com/. Both of these are good services and can be relied on.

Enjoy,
Will Flavell

Hey Everybody,

I just wanted to share one small success story that I wrote and did for a dog poop product. I wrote this story/case study for a magazine that the agency I work for puts out. It is called Thinking.

Enjoy:

Personalized Poo Pitching  

Reporters at major and regional news media outlets receive hundreds of news releases and e-pitches each day. The “Big Five” wire services – PR Newswire, Business Wire, MarketWire, PrimeNewswire and PRWeb – alone pump out more than 2,000 news releases per day, according to the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA).  And this number doesn’t begin to take into account the news releases sent by PR agencies, in-house public relations pros and groups representing this interest or that.

Harried by deadlines and bombarded by content, reporters typically toss or delete all but the most relevant – or intriguing – releases or pitches. It’s no wonder that sometimes a great story misses the news completely. So, how does a company make sure that its message gets through to the news media – and ultimately to its target audience?  While there’s no magic bullet, at Bozell we find that ingenuity (and an intern in a homemade superhero costume) can go a long way toward conquering apathy in the news room.

Case in point: The Doody Dangler.

Recently, the Doody Dangler came into our lives, a small pet product without a home. The Dangler attaches a dog’s “doody” bag to its leash. In essence, this product ensures that the dog’s owner won’t get stuck holding the bag. When we began promoting the Doody Dangler in December 2006, holding the bag wasn’t the only problem. The Dangler had virtually $0 in sales and no exposure.

 Who Gets to Meet The Dangler? 

Pet accessories typically can’t compete in a news cycle filled with political scandal, Hollywood hype or the rollout of such mega products as the iPhone. So, we knew going in that we would need to take a different approach. Instead of mass mailing a news release, we carefully picked one reporter from each major newspaper in the eight markets that the product would premier in. To attract product distributors and retailers, we also targeted key reporters at pet industry publications. Then we studied them. We researched these reporters’ past stories and learned about their writing styles. We found out what they thought was cool. We later used this information to make relaxed and personal pitch calls. Instead of the usual cold sell, these calls more closely resembled chats with an old friend.

 Dangler Style 

Because the Dangler’s selling points aren’t as titillating as Scarlett Johanssen or as scandalous as Michael Vick, we knew that what we sent the reporters needed to be extremely eye-catching in other ways. If sexy and scandalous were out, our next best bet was humor. Scooping poop is no joke, but what if we had a hero who did just that? What if this hero embodied all that is good (not to mention neighborly) about the Doody Dangler? A Bozell artist created the retro-looking cartoon hero, The Dangler, and the PR Team took the joke one step further by having an intern dress up and pose as a come-to-life action figure. Our product pitch kit featured the Dangler’s tongue-in-cheek adventures and included the following pieces, all laced with the Dangler’s flare for fun:

-personalized pitch letters
-personalized press releases
-fake dog doody
-sample Doody Dangler product
-traditional blue dog doody bag
-Polaroid of “The Dangler”
-a comic strip that humorously illustrated the use of the product

 Do they Love Him? Yes they Do! 

Right away, we knew that The Dangler was doing something special. Every reporter we contacted knew about the product, had seen the package and had forwarded it on to at least one colleague. At least they laughed, right? We noticed that reporters wanted to speak with us. Since we knew something about each reporter from our research, conversations came easily. This was extraordinary! The Dangler received media hits on National Public Radio, Pet Product News, Tails, The Chicago Tribune and more. Maybe even more important than the initial exposure was the way The Dangler’s comic heroics seemed to stick in the minds of reporters. Our PR team would speak with reporters weeks after the packages went out and they still remembered the Doody Dangler.

 The Road to Riches is Paved with What? 

The Doody Dangler is now sold at independent pet stores across the country. It has increased distribution through Internet sales on several pet product sites: www.petmountain.com, www.ihome.com, www.abelpetsupply.com, www.pethintz.com,  www.dailykibble.com, www.strictlypetsupplies.com and more. Out of the first shipment of 10,000 Doody Danglers, less than 2,500 remain. A second order is planned for 25,000-50,000 units.

 In a news world where a small, online pet product has to compete with the escapades of Nicole Ritchie, the Doody Dangler’s success can be an inspiration to us all. It’s just one example of how a more personal touch can make all the difference. Around our office the Dangler has become a symbol of how creative ideas and thoughtful research can change the fate of a product – not to mention the intern who is now a new hire. Our public relations team constantly strives to find ways to keep our clients out of the clutter and on top of the media inbox. And if we can have a little fun in the process, well, that’s what Bozell is all about.       

To see the Doody Dangler in action, visit www.doodydangler.com (also developed by Bozell).

Hope you liked it and took away the most important message. That message is to really get to know your media audience and you will succeed beyond your expectations. 

Thanks for reading.

Where there’s a Will, there’s a way.

William Flavell

Hey Everybody,

It recently occurred to me, while on a date that uniform strategies do not work. If you want to make a lasting relationship with another person, then you need to find new ways to do the usual things. You need to create interesting an unique experiences that they can reference as as a reason for love.

You can’t just go to the movies and dinner and call it good. That won’t get you anywhere. So why do we offer every client a press release? Why do the same 5 ideas come from PR departments at every new business meeting? That won’t establish interesting or lasting experiences.

I think, sadly, it has something to do with the idea of a pr dept. I think that many view the pr dept. as less of a creative entity than a group of order takers. I don’t wanna take orders or go see the same romantic comedy everyone else does. I always gonna sneak wine into the punk documentary and I’m always gonna bring at least one novel strategy to every meeting. Join me.

Regards,

Everybody’s a genius.