Advertising for the Presidency

Regardless of who got your vote in last week's election, it's hard to deny that throughout the campaign, Obama clearly had a momentum building that finally carried him to the White House. What creates momentum like that? Is it really just shared ideals or personal charisma? No doubt, these played a part in Obama's election, but the reality is that winning the presidency is an expensive undertaking. Here are the stats, as reported in various news outlets:

• The Obama campaign had around 700 paid staffers, versus McCain's 100;
• The Obama campaign spent over $44.5 million in the first nine months of 2007, across 600 cities and 1200 zip codes;
• It's estimated that the Obama campaign outspent the McCain campaign in broadcast advertising 25-to-1.

In working with small businesses, I often hear complaints about how difficult it is to go up against large competitors whose significant marketing budgets have made them household names. The fact is, advertising WORKS. It is impossible to build brand recognition, something necessary to get the sales doors to open, without some decent level of marketing. People buy from people they trust, and they certainly don't trust people they have never heard of. And anyone who has taken a marketing course knows the three words tied to campaign success: MESSAGE, REACH and FREQUENCY. It is not enough to have a resounding message...it has to reach enough of the market, enough times, for them to grasp that message and act on it.

So back to the election. How did Obama raise the kind of money he did to run these big ad campaigns? People magazine reports that there were over 3 million individual donors who contributed to the campaign, meaning it all started at the grass roots level.

What does the "grass roots" of your business look like? What can you do to build momentum with what you've got? If you haven't got a huge ad budget, a base of happy customers (willing to talk about your products or services) is a good place to start. They are the foundation for a good public relations campaign, which can put a company on the map at a much smaller price point than full-page ads. They can also be a powerful base for referrals, which can grow sales much faster than cold calls.

There's a lot we can learn about marketing from a presidential race, more than we have room for in one "Out of the Box" entry. One thing to keep in mind is that, unlike presidential elections, business is not just about winners and losers. There is something called market share, which means a business can get a small piece of the "pie" and still be profitable. To get that piece, it still takes a solid marketing program made up of happy customers, a relevant message, reach and frequency...but the investment can pay off in a big way!

For a free initial consultation on how to win a bigger piece of your market, visit my Web site at www.LindaWisePR.com.

Blogging for Non-Bloggers

One of the more valuable PR services I offer my agency clients is ghost writing. So many executives are truly thought leaders in their industries, but sometimes they need a little help in communicating their messages in a way that is understandable to a broader audience. This is especially true in energy and high-tech marketing, where many a CEO is a brilliant engineer who wants to tell his story in "tech-talk" and it needs to be written in...well, English! While I haven't put it into my formal bio, I do think sometimes I should have "translator" in my job description. Clients can give me their ideas and supporting details for an article, I write it in the voice that makes sense for that particular media and audience, and the client gets the nice byline when it appears in the press.

The latest form of ghost writing I'm seeing requests for is blogs. While blogging is certainly not rocket science, it does require a certain conversational tone that executives are sometimes not used to using in communications with broad audience groups. Not only do you have the issue of style, but sometimes the CEO is such an evangelist for his product that he can't see what other content might be of interest to readers. And of course, there's the issue of time. Some clients are excellent writers with great ideas, but they just don't have time to maintain a blog that requires updating on at least a weekly basis.

That's where my firm comes in. First, we are able to help a client decide if blogging even makes sense for the organization. Is there enough to talk about week after week? Are they open to feedback/comments that are part of the interactive dialog blogging creates? Can someone at the firm dedicate the time to help us build a content strategy and then participate in brief interviews with me or my other writers to get the info we need to write the blogs themselves?

Once a blog concept is developed and a strategy for integrating it into the rest of the marketing and PR mix is established, we can get started. We take the client ideas, "translate" them, format them and publish them as blogs. As we often do in our media relations work, there's a good chance we'll probably throw in a few story ideas of our own, based on what's going on in the market . The end result? Blogs that are fresh, up-to-date, readable, relevant and effective in establishing our clients as thought leaders in their industries.

For more information on Linda Wise Public Relations & Marketing and our communications programs, visit http://www.lindawisepr.com/.

Good Advertising, Bad PR?

Marketers, wake up! Yes, your job is to drive sales, but you should be doing that through responsible communication with your target market! Remember that old adage "the customer comes first"? Companies that put that into practice in a real way come out ahead, and one way in which to do that is to ensure that your advertising is not thwarting your public relations efforts.

Let's take last week as an example. It is the day on which all of America is holding its breath, waiting for Congress to pass legislation that will bail out the failing mortgage and investment banking industries to the tune of $700 billion. Oh, and by the way, what is being blamed for this national crisis? Corporate greed, especially lenders going after people who couldn't really afford the home loans they were applying for. The "get 'em in cheap and they can worry about the eventual rate hike later" mentality.

You cannot imagine my shock, upon opening my computer browser window, at what ad appeared across from the economic crisis news story on Yahoo!

My first thought was, "Does the greed ever stop??" This ad may have been an effective way to drive applications for home loans, but the effect from a PR perspective was dismal. It had a completely negative effect on my opinion of this firm, as it seemed to illustrate exactly what had gone wrong with our economy.

In contrast, I opened the Houston Chronicle the next morning to see an ad by First Community Credit Union that was positive from both an advertising and PR perspective. It spoke directly to the now fearful public "YES, your funds are insured!" and it also asked for business "YES, we are lending!" The body copy went a step further to communicate key messages such as the credit union's core values and the fact it has been in business for over 50 years. It also addressed the audience's specific needs by mentioning it had hurricane relief loans available.

Kudos to First Community. Their ad shows they care about their company but they also care about their customers. Good advertising. Good PR. No wonder they've been around for so long.

Pursue Your Passion

In 10 years of marketing and communications consulting, I have had the privilege of getting to know a number of entrepreneurs whose passion for business has taken them to heights of success they would have never imagined. Many of them were groomed for success from the start, with MBAs and years of experience at Fortune 500 companies before they set out on their own.

The people I admire the most, however, are those whose backgrounds didn't provide them with a blueprint for entrepreneurial success. They simply followed their passion in life into the business world, and as their passion overflowed and touched everyone they met, it became contagious and the money and acclaim naturally ensued.

One such person, whom I had the privilege of working with when she was first venturing out on her own, just happens to be my mother, Jeanette Coon. A remarkably beautiful and bright woman, she has always been a woman of great determination who never did anything halfway. Even as she raised two children, she was involved in the community, learning foreign languages in countries where we lived overseas and honing unique creative talents such as vegetable carving. Later, she amazed everyone by not only beating lung cancer, but susequently becoming a competitive ballroom dancer.

Jeanette did not enter the business world until she was in her 50's, but that doesn't mean she didn't use all of her life experience to make her business shine. After getting her feet wet in the cosmetics industry, she decided to leverage her sharp eye for fashion and passion for etiquette with her own business Professional Polish. She soon became a sought-after corporate trainer and her business has expanded to include representing several high-end fashion lines. She obtained her credentials as a Certified Image Consultant and among the many organizations she has served, recently became regional director for The Fashion Group International, Inc.(FGI).

This past weekend, Jeanette was honored by The Federation of Houston Professional Women as one of their 2008 Women of Excellence, which is a once-in-a-lifetime achievement award bestowed on women who have made a significant difference in their communities and professional organizations. As we toasted her success, I couldn't help but think back to the day, many years ago, of a simple mother-daughter conversation when I encouraged her to pursue her dual passions of personal presence/style and helping others. I am sure that at that point, she never dreamed she would be where she is today.

So what is the business lesson to take away from all of this? If you have a passion, pursue it. Follow your dream, not the money...and then the money will follow. Oh, and by the way, I would love to tell your story along the way.

Let the Wind Blow

There are certain things that immediately identify us marketing types. Like the way we get more excited sometimes about the commercials than the TV shows we watch, or how we have secret files of direct mail pieces and print ads that have caught our attention and we're compelled to save for the next time a client wants an idea of "what works".

The real kicker for me, though, came this week as Hurricane Ike blew through my hometown of Houston, Texas. Just 24 hours after my family huddled in the protection of the downstairs bathroom, and then spent half of the next day bailing water out of the attic of my storm-damaged home, the wheels in my marketing mind were already starting to turn.

What were my clients doing during the storm? Did my managed security services client Network Box USA keep its customer base of banks and credit unions protected while Hurricane Ike raged on? The hurricane hit Houston on Saturday....I was on the phone to Network Box CTO Pierluigi Stella first thing Monday morning and by Wednesday we had crafted a press release and pitched it to the Houston Business Journal, who ran our story as part of that week's front-page headline piece on Hurricane Ike (link to story).

Let the wind (of opportunity) blow!

Here is the release written by Linda Wise PR:

For Immediate Release

Network Box USA Helps Houston-based Businesses Shore Up Security, Minimizing Hurricane Ike’s Threat to Data Landscape

September 16, 2008 (Houston, Texas) – In the wee hours of Saturday, September 13, Houstonians who had not been evacuated to higher ground “sheltered in place” waiting for one of the worst natural disasters to hit southeast Texas in more than two decades. But while everyone waited and wondered if their homes and businesses would be in one piece after the winds and the rain had subsided, a number of company executives were resting easy that at least their critical data was being actively protected even as Hurricane Ike raged on.

One such executive was Tamara Hudson, Vice President over technology at Community Resources Credit Union. By last Friday, she had already been in touch with Network Box USA to ensure that everything was in place – including the financial institution’s data security - for the credit union’s technology move from its headquarters in Baytown to Crosby, in anticipation of the hurricane.

Despite being headquartered in the storm center itself, the information security team at Houston-based Network Box USA did not spend its weekend hiding from Hurricane Ike, but rather helping its clients prepare and secure their data from the storm and its aftermath. The company’s network operations center (NOC), from which Network Box USA manages and monitors its clients’ networks for security threats, operated without any downtime throughout the hurricane and continues to be fully operational despite widespread power outages in the Houston area.

“We have a number of clients who could not afford to have their critical data at risk while they were dealing with logistical issues resulting from Hurricane Ike,” said Pierluigi Stella, Chief Technology Officer of Network Box USA. “We were able to work with them to ensure business continuity and network security while they were transferring operations to other offices.”

According to Stella, disasters of any kind, weather-related or manmade, can leave companies vulnerable to exploitation and cyber attack.

“Criminals know that an ideal time to strike is when security personnel are distracted from their primary duties, like helping get a business back in operation after a major hurricane,” Stella said. “Companies who use managed services firms like Network Box to monitor multiple layers of their security have the benefit of being able to focus on their customers and restoring normal operations without having to worry about their data security on top of everything else.”

Network Box USA is the American Arm of Network Box Corp., a global managed security services provider (MSSP) that delivers a cost-effective unified gateway security solution. The company primarily serves financial institutions, education, government, and small to midsize enterprises. For more information, visit www.networkboxusa.com or call 832-242-5758.