Adventures in Candyland

I’ve been in the PR world for about ten years now, so I’ve learned and I think most people know it can be a tricky industry. For ages, agencies have charged their clients monthly retainers whether or not they pulled publicity that month. And many times, it’s not for lack of trying, often the story just doesn’t resonate with any writers. So there’s always this wierd struggle between clients and agencies. A client pays the agency to get publicity. The agency chooses an account person or team to work to get the publicity. The account person spends time researching, writing, pitching and then nothing happens. But, the client is still expected to pay the monthly retainer. And the agency still has to pay the account person. It’s definitely a dilemma. But, there does seem to be a shift occuring and frankly, I’m not sure what my opinion is on the topic — well, maybe I am.

Today’s WSJ featured a piece called, “Paying for PR — But Only When it Works.” It’s all about this semi-new trend of pay-per-placement PR, particularly in the small business arena. So, instead of hiring a agency or even consultant on retainer, a client would provide a story angle to a pr consultant or an agency who only focuses on pay-per-placement pitching and they would only get paid if the story got covered. In theory, it forces pr people to work extra hard and more strategically to get the placement. But, as much as I understand it, I think the business model is short-sighted (for the business being pitched) and unfortunately, a bit unfair(for the person doing the pitching).

Now, I completely understand and empathize with business owners who put a significant monthly retainer towards public relations and then barely have anything to show for it. There’s no doubt that this kind of agreement has the propensity to leave a bad taste in someone’s mouth as well as give public relations and it’s practioners a bad name (what doesn’t these days). And for agencies, yah, you might have made $60,000, but you’re usually left with a fractured relationship and bad word of mouth.

So, is there a middle ground? I think there is. Here at Sweet Talk, we always begin a business relationship by focusing on the overarching marketing goals of the business by developing a comprehensive marketing strategy plan. And strategy doesn’t exist on PR alone. And PR doesn’t exist on media alone. Today all the marketing rules have changed which is why marketing should start at the 10,000 foot level and then move downward. Many small businesses don’t see this or if they do, they don’t have the time or staff to do it- they might believe one piece of good PR is going to create an deluge of sales. But, readership and viewship is increasingly fragmented these days, so even if you do get one nice piece in your local newspaper you aren’t going to get the flood that being on Oprah would bring you (and yes that is every businesses dream and unfortunately it’s reality for a very lucky few).

The point here is that pay-per-placement agencies don’t really focus on strategy. They just focus on one piece of the pie. So, if as a business and you’ve created a cohesive marketing strategy and you want to farm out the media portion by providing the person with pitches that fit in the overall strategy that’s great! But, if it’s just a one off thing, you’re probably not going to get the response you hope for.

And I’m also not saying the answer is to choose a big agencies with more comprehensive services and overhead.

I think it’s more about finding a company that will work with you and your budget to build something a little more long-lasting, that just like trust, grows over time.

So said the legendary basketball coach John Wooden.

Being prepared and being honest are two things Sweet Talk prides itself on, as you will see in an article in yesterday’s small business section of The New York Times entitled, “Like Marriage, Business Takes Work.” It’s an interesting article about how partners can benefit and evolve from using business coaches and therapists. Our coach, Maggie Mistal, who was also mentioned in the article, has provided us with so much great guidance and advice. She has often been a catalyst of positive change for Sweet Talk, as well as educated us on ways to provide the best service and strategy to our clients.

The article also made mention of our new business model, which focuses primarily on marketing consulting for small to mid-sized businesses and nonprofits. We’ve already worked with several clients to help them create a strong marketing foundation for 2008. We look forward to continuing to provide excellent service and counsel to those of you with whom we already work, and with those we may work with in the future.

If you have any questions about our experience with a business coach, just let us know. It’s a process we recommend to all entrepreneurs.

Our weekly Friday guest post is up over at GoBigNetwork.  The exciting news is that it talks about target audiences and key messaging for startups and small businesses.  (There’s a slight tinge of sarcasm in that part about exciting…)

Catch ya next week.

Did you know today is Blog Action Day? It’s a cool idea. Basically, a group of bloggers set out to heighten the awareness of one of the most important topics, environmentalism, throughout the blogoshpere and all on the same day. This mass blogging event will be the topic of the day on 15,000 blogs and reach 12 million readers. So - of course I wanted to participate. What is more important than preserving our earth?

So full disclosure, I am kind of a dork (yes, I like Sci-fi) and I love the NEW Battlestar Gallactica. The premise is humans invented robots, the robots rebel, kill many and take over the world, so the humans left have to flee into space to preserve the what’s left of the race. The characters are constantly craving earth’s environment, so they all want to get away on this one ship that replicates the beauty of earth’s outdoors. A reoccuring theme in shows of this nature for sure, but it always reminds me of how many of us take what we have here for granted. So, hopefully all this awareness will turn into action and not peter out because the reality is: this kind of revolution takes time. This month’s issue of Wired focuses quite a bit on this topic of time and trial and error particularly in regards to the future of energy.

One of the articles addresses the very prevalent molecule, cellulosic ethanol. This molecule is the answer to all our energy woes and even better, it’s just waiting for a good use in everyone’s lawnmowers! Problem is - it’s hard to break down. So even though there are ways to do it, it can’t be done at the proper scale and speed at this point. Sort of the like the whole corn ethanol deal - fuel can be made from it, but it’s not effective and efficient enought. I’m not going to get into the chemistry of it, but I think the underlying topic here is creative solutions and raising awareness regularly so people will continually clamor for solutions even if there isn’t a real answer for many years. Because in truth, there is no option for the US or the world whether due to the environmental or financial ramifications. Therejust isn’t a choice. And there needs to be mavericks who make it their goal to not let these issues just coast along.

In fact, check out these two guys, Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger. These two probably might not being having a lot of “coffee talk” with mainstream environmentalist. A result of their controversial manifesto from 2005, “Death of Enviromentalism” and new book titled, “Break Through: From “The Death of Environmentalism” to the Politics of Possibility,” but I bet they do inspire passion and hopefully change. They opine current mainstream ideas proposed aren’t extreme enough to make an actual dent in the reality of greenhouse emmisions and the only way for change to be had is if the solutions are, “pro-growth, pro-technology, and pro-environment.” Seems like common sense right, but apprently these are the non-conformist ideas that will turn the enviromental movement onto its ear so something actually gets accomplished. Well, that and money of course.

Whatever they inspire, at least at least they inspire something! Me, I am going to do something too, not world changing big, but world changing in my life big. I drink coffee at least once a day, so I going to make it a point to to use my own cup because it kills me when I see the 30 cups from the past week piling up in the trash. It’s definitely not going to make the impact Nordhaus and Shellenberger want to make, but we all got to start the change somewhere. What are you doing?

Check out how Sweet Talk is helping to differentiate HalloweenMart in a crowded field of competitors in today’s San Francisco Chronicle small business column, “Mind Your Business.”

Social networking can be a powerful and inexpensive tool for small business owners to market their business, but they need to be creative and know how to use it right!

Tick Tock, Tick Tock…being more creative is sometimes all about timing. For years, I worked in the advertising industry as a creative person. Having to be creative on deadline and “on demand” taught me a few things about the magic our minds can produce. Sitting there and thinking “ok, fabulous idea, shine forth your brilliance NOW!” is not likely to produce good (if any) results. The utter panic that can come from a deadline does inspire one to pull something glorious from his/her ass once in awhile, but for the most consistent results – try this: When you feel inspiration brewing, DROP other tasks and ride the wave. When the wave moves through – go back to other things and wait for the next wave. Creativity has its own rhythm, and all you need to do is make the hay while the sun is shining, and get other stuff done on the cloudy days.

Luckily, now that I have my own gift/accessory line, Soul’s Calling, the deadlines are mostly of my own making. But as a designer and business owner the number of different tasks I have to accomplish has increased 10-fold - I definitely have to be in the right space to do anything involving Quickbooks. So, next time your list involves coming up with a brilliant idea, don’t panic – just listen to your own little creative clock and catch the wave.

Usually when we meet with prospective clients, they want to know how we can connect them to celebrities.  Can we get Lindsay to carry their bag?  Can we get Bradley Whitford to emcee their charity event?  We often wonder if this is because we’re in LA, where everyone is so celeb-obsessed (though logically it should be the opposite - Angelenos should be sick of celebs!) or if it is just our culture in general.

And, we often caution against going this route - there are plenty of other ways to raise awareness about a product, and even about a charity, that do not involve celebrities.  Why do we do this?  Yes, our connections are limited and we can’t call upon them for every client, but more importantly, celebs are unpredictable.  While some celebrities might be the perfect fit for your brand, others can tarnish it as easily as bolster it; they can be flighty; they can be divas…I could go on. 

I read this in AdAge today and was reminded of the frustration we feel when clients ask about celebs before any other strategy.  Celebrities can be a part of your communications mix, but don’t count on them to make your brand - they’re just as likely to break it.