Oh, the delicious irony. This bold and proud typographic error is brought to you by students at one of the highest ranked high schools in B.C...at an event designed to attract prospective students and parents to the school. This little gem was positioned in the foyer leading in to the auditorium. As I sat listening to a parade of administrators expound on the school's virtues and reputation for academic excellence, all I could think of was that forgotten "c" - missing in action but not missed one bit by its owner. A great example of how a small error can undermine credibility and create cognitive dissonance for your audience.

Stop Preaching to the Choir Now

There's a lot of great talent, products, and causes out there. Unfortunately, you don't know about them. That's because they are too busy networking and communicating within their own circles. Well, why not?? They know how to speak to their own kind; it's familiar and cozy and when things get a bit uncertain, they can comfort themselves with the idea that they are part of a supportive and collaborative community. Don't get me wrong, building relationships within your industry is lovely but chances are, it's not going to expand your knowledge of your markets, increase your client/customer base, or pay your mortgage.


Let's find your markets

1. Who needs what you have to offer on a regular basis?
Although we've all heard about the salesman who could sell ice to an Eskimo (hm, I think I have just made a couple of very non-P.C. faux pas), why would he want to? Far better to approach restaurants and bars (places that go through a lot of ice), retail outlets (that will resell the ice), or processing plants that use ice to freeze their products.

2. Who needs what you have to offer on a seasonal basis?
Let's stick with our ice guy. He could find a very good seasonal market for his ice with winter sport and festival providers. Think polar bear swims in Arizona, Quebec Winter Carnival, 2010 Winter Olympics at Whistler...

3. Where are all these people?
Just like you, they're hanging out in their own industry circles. Check out local and national associations for networking events and conferences and see if it's possible for you to attend as a supplier. Better yet, offer to be the official ice sponsor for the event, or if impractical for your product/service, offer to host a cocktail party, breakfast, etc. at either end of the event. As you begin to meet members of your target market ask them what publications they read, what associations they belong to and what events they attend. Please learn how to do this in a non-stalkerish way before attempting.

4. How do you engage these markets?
You really need to approach this with the mind set that you have a service or product that will benefit them. Don't try to manipulate or otherwise bamboozle them. That's smarmy and completely unnecessary. If you picked your markets accurately, they want what you've got. Put together industry specific (specific to their industry, not yours) whitepapers, reports, or articles that illustrate current issues related to their industry and yours (i.e.How Global Warming is Wreaking Havoc on Winter Sports/Festivals and How to Cope). Hold a webinar, podcast, or seminar and offer it free of charge to your markets' associations and members.

5. Ask for Feedback
I don't want to be told what I need. I am also not particularly interested in hearing about how great you are. I want my needs to be accurately identified and fulfilled, something that can only be achieved by a little fact finding on your part. Ask me how often I use ice and for what purposes. Ask me about my experiences with ice suppliers and what my ice supplier relationship would look like in a perfect world. Ask me how you can help me and give me an easy and commitment free way to get my feedback to you (I'll give you some ideas on how to do this in my next post).

Dear Health Canada,

Thanks so much for the lovely invitation to your H1N1 vaccination party. I was particularly impressed with the effort you made to present collateral materials that were bright and upbeat, making appropriate use of white space and the "trust colour" blue. I noticed that you went to great pains to ensure that your online invitation mirrored the very expensive, 4 colour heavy card stock direct mail invitation. I certainly appreciate the elaborate planning and expense that went into issuing the invitation as well as the great pains you obviously took to engage the media in your mission to ensure that we were all aware of the potential severity of the virus.


Regretfully, I must decline your invitation due to poor health. It seems that I, and two of my three children, have contracted the dreaded virus. Both children weathered the illness with no serious consequence, though thanks to your very persistent communication plan, I was well aware of how the virus can take a dire and deadly turn. Between bouts of my own fever induced delirium, I held an anxious vigil over my children, alert for signs that their condition would require medical help. Of course, parents are discouraged from bringing their children into medical facilities if they suspect that their children have H1N1, so having been given a plethora of information on what could go wrong, in the end, we could only rely on our own judgment. Never mind, most individuals who have contracted the virus (and there do seem to be quite a lot of us ) have muddled through.

Perhaps if you had held your party earlier, more of us could have attended. I received your message that you had to postpone the event due to inadequate supplies although I later heard that a number of very important people such as hockey players, celebrities, and wealthy hospital patrons are now well vaccinated, so I suppose you must have sorted that out. Such a pity that when you did have supplies on hand, the invitations to the rest of us were lost in the mail.

Once again, thanks for thinking of my family. We would so have enjoyed standing in line for hours at a local makeshift clinic, listening to crying babies and disgruntled neighbors, wondering if the supplies would run out before our turn came. Ah well, perhaps next time! Do let us know if typhoid, ebola, or smallpox comes to town, won't you?

All the Best,

Amanda

I think there has been a stranglehold on creativity. Up until recently, it was difficult for a fledgling business, freelancer, or hobbyist to access services and products that had the same flash and professional appearance that the big boys could achieve. While the corporate giants wring their great big hands, a bunch of enterprising and brilliant programmers have emerged on the scene to offer the business world's Davids business applications and services that are quite simply, brilliant. This is the first in a series of posts about truly innovative (as opposed to the tired PR use of the word) and affordable services available to the average Jo(e).

Meet Moo.com. A little upstart company based in London (England, where the queen and Jamie Oliver live), these guys do it all to perfection from beginning to end. Need business cards? How about postcards, notecards, or even retail hang tags for your latest craft fair creation? Now your first inclination might be to mosey on over to your (un)friendly local big box office supply store. You could do that, but you will end up with a product that is as apathetic as the person who sold it to you.

Knowing that every piece of collateral that has your name on it represents you, are you ok with what an anemic, white, flaccid business card says about you? I thought not.

This is where Moo comes in to save the day. Go to the site, figure out what product(s) you need, and start designing. Hold up! I know that you started to hyperventilate when I said the "d" word (that would be "design"), but no need to freak fellow artphobes. Moo has a plethora of artist created graphics to choose from as well as endless combinations of colours, fonts, and formats. Happen to be of the artistic persuasion yourself? Upload your own images, graphics, or logos and use those to create your cards. The card stock itself makes these cards stand out from the aforementioned floppy variety and if you combine that with the glossy finish, I guarantee that your card will turn heads.

Moo's newsletter and blog is full of original and fresh ways to use their products. One idea that I thought had particular merit was pairing the Moo card design with IBM's Wordle application. What a fun way to get your word out. The marketing possibilities are endless. Unlike standard stationary orders, you can order every single card in a different design. Really! If you were a photographer, artist, or web developer, you could put one item from your portfolio on each card. If you were, oh, I don't know, a PR professional, you could make several "Top Tips" lists and print them on the cards. In this way you would create business cards that are a collectible set, all the while giving a snapshot of your style and expertise.

The process of creating and ordering the cards couldn't be easier. While the price is a little more than what you would pay at the big box stores, the quality and service far exceeds anything I have experienced at said stores. This company's commitment to excellence and consistency is stunning. A huge thumbs up to their marketing department for making sure that the user's experience is positive and reassuring throughout their transaction. The Moo group used their creativity to offer up a fantastic way for you to showcase your creativity. In a sea of boring vanilla, dare to stand out with your own unique flavour.


AC

Here's the thing...if you are truly interested in understanding your audience, whether it be for fun or profit, your primary focus will be on their responses to the messages you convey. As I am sure you already know, it's not what you say, it's what they hear and in marketing/PR it's also how they behave after hearing your message. This whole Internets thing has created a great vehicle for the practice of two-way communication with your audiences. There are a ton of ways in which you can use this to your advantage and over the course of time I will probably blab on about all of them in this blog, but for now, let's focus on the online newspaper.

Being a true - not red, white, and blue - Canadian, I read the Globe and Mail online every day. Aside from the whole Eastern-centric thing, it's a pretty good read. "In these tough economic times" (that phrase will never get old) many of the articles focus on layoffs, foreclosures, and bankruptcies (oh my!). Today there was a gem of a headline that screamed:

"Ottawa Refuses to Rescue AbitibiBowater"

Well, in the manner of all good headlines, that's pretty provocative. The article featured quotes from an assortment of parliamentary types as well as from disenfranchised AbitibiBowater employees, and generally echoed most of the anxieties and difficulties that we as a society and as a nation are facing. Nothing really new there. What was the kicker in this case was that headline with its inference that our government was turning its back on one of its venerable corporate institutions. Oh yeah, didn't you know? AbitibiBowater is one of Canada's oldest companies and is the largest producer worldwide of - wait for it - newsprint.

So here we have the message and the medium in a spectacular mash-up. We have aprimarily print news publication conveying the message that a newsprint manufacturer is going under. The message could have been delivered in the dispassionate and unbiased tone for which serious journalism is known (tongue, meet cheek) but where would be the fun in that? Nope, the sentiment was set with the headline and ran a merry course from there and the readers had something to say about it. Many online newspapers have a comments section directly beside or below each article which provides a forum for readers to sound off on the topic or story at hand. If a story is controversial enough to evoke feeling, the reader is motivated to respond and there is gold in them thar responses. Finally a place where you get to learn what others "hear" and what buttons it pushes for them. You get a myriad of perceptions that, if you're smart, you will absorb so that they can enrich your knowledge of your audience and inform your messaging to them.

It doesn't matter whether your communications are intended for personal or professional purposes. You always have an audience and what they hear is infinitely more important than what you say.

AC

We've all heard the stories about disgruntled food service staff doing unmentionable things to food on its way to unsuspecting patrons. While the thought of such nausea inducing behaviour crosses my mind every once in awhile when eating out, I hastily reassure myself that it doesn't really happen all that often. I mean really, what are the odds???
Well, thanks to a Dominos Pizza employees' video recently uploaded to Youtube, I will forevermore believe that they are not in my favour at all.


There are obvious PR ramifications to the actions of these extraordinarily immature employees. Everything from corporate reputation, health and safety regulations, investor relations, franchise accountability and responsibility, human resource and management policies and practices...the list goes on. When I saw this video, my first thought was, "Oh man, who has to clean up that mess?"

In my career, I have often felt like the poo sweeper at the zoo. Funny enough, my higher ups were resistant to letting me use that as my title on my business cards. My heart goes out to the corporate communicators at Dominos who now have to dance a jig to rival Michael Flately in River Dance. I am willing to bet that at least one or two members of what is sure to be a very large Communications department spent a lot of time developing communications policies for employees and franchisees. Yep, I even bet that out of the 8,000 outlets and God knows how many employees, someone even read those carefully prepared guidelines.

The moral of this story is simple. No matter how many people you employ who are doing their best, it only takes one (or in this case two) to spoil it all.

Nobody cares about your company, your brand, your reputation, more than you. The person who cares second most is your PR person. Seriously. While I have always believed that anyone who works for an organization has an investment in it, it's the PR person whose very career relies on the appropriate, respectful, and successful messaging and reputation of a company. Countless hours of communication planning, media relations, community relations, and policy development can be wiped out by two idiots who are just passing through on their way to another job that they care nothing about.

Put that way, it sounds kind of depressing. It's not. It's just another challenge. How do you engage your employees so that they do feel that investment in your (their) organization? How do you communicate the importance of respectful and congruent messaging so that even the most immature employees might think twice before acting on their Id saturated impulses?

I have a few ideas on that and I'll be happy to share in my next post. For now, I think I'll just cancel that pizza delivery order.


AC

Yeah I know, Ringtones are for kids. A proper and mature individual should probably have a sedate, straightforward North American ring selected. Perhaps if you are a sophisticated kind of person, you might even choose the European ring. I think you can get those on Audiko too but if you are feeling not so proper, mature, or sophisticated, you might want to check out their other options. You can get cuts from just about every song out there, new and old, as well as audio clips from movies (think Monty Python and "the outrageous French accent"). You can create your own ringtones there as well if you are so inclined (some of us are lazy and prefer others to do that sort of thing for us). It's a bit of an indie, open-source site, so don't expect a lot in the way of user interface or intuitive search. That's part of the fun though. The best part is that it does indeed work with Canadian iPhones (for the uninitiated, Canadian iPhones are notoriously difficult to upload ringtones to since Apple likes being proprietary and all). I have found that the best way to use the app is to open a new folder on your desktop (name it ringtones, 'cause that's original), find ringtones on the site (http://audiko.net/) that you want, save them to the folder, and then open them with iTunes. Sync up your phone with your iTunes and Bob's your uncle, Betty's your aunt.

AC

Apparently the vast majority of figure skating enthusiasts are women. Huh. Who knew?

Skate Canada wants to change all that and has launched a (re)branding campaign that they hope will woo the male variety of our species. According to a recent story in the Wall St. Journal,the new key messaging will include the liberal use ofwords such as "risk", "strength", and "speed" and tales of relentless training and horrific injuries will be featured. I suppose this is a bid to align the sport of figure skating with, um let's see...hockey?

Call me crazy, but I always thought the point of figure skating was to execute breathtakingly graceful moves all the while making it look completely effortless. Figure skating has always required a huge dose of showmanship as well, hence the music, the costumes, and the makeup. Rumour has it that Skate Canada has quietly asked its athletes to tone down the flamboyant costume trimmings (think feathers and such - "ixnay on the equinsay") in an effort to support the new branding. Given that figure skating has always been big on glamour, I am curious to see how this new restraint will be manifested. Maybe they can just glide around in bulky sweatsuits reminiscent of hockey padding, whilst flashing their toothless grins on their makeup free faces. Yep, that ought to attract those male viewers.

I don't know about you, but I never thought figure skating looked easy. I was pretty certain that what I saw was the result of much practice, pain, and determination. The fact that they could pull it off with such panache was what made it special and set it apart from other sports. Now it would appear that yet another venerable institution is trying to be what it is not in order to win the popularity contest and ultimately, cash in. That's a real shame. Personally, I would have gone another way with it. I would have worked the hell out of the glamour angle and built up some of the sexiness aspect to attract the guys. Why not? Hollywood does it. So do the music and dance industries.

Figure out what you are and then embrace it with everything you've got. An authentic presence is a beautiful thing and beats out pretense and artifice every time. For the sake of Skate Canada, its athletes, and its fans, I hope that the recent rebranding efforts meet a swift demise. Bring on the sequins.

AC

Is there anything better than a good read?? Well yes, there may be a few things, but this is a family show people, so let's just focus on the reading thing for now. I am cursed with a love for all things written and take in piles of useless information just for the sheer pleasure of reading the words. It's a compulsion really. Imagine my joy upon finding Daily Lit, a website that offers up a wide array of publications, many of which are free for the asking, in a bite-size delivery format.

The concept is pretty straightforward. You sign up (fairly painless, all you need supply is an email address) and browse. Any books that you choose, are sent to you in installments via email or RSS. You can choose the frequency and timing of the emails as well as the length of the installment. This metered dosage of my guilty pleasure is great for me as it restricts my addiction to measured portions that once done, allow me to get on with the business of actually making a living rather than being sucked into a book that I can't put down. Should you get to the end of the installment and greedily want more, instant gratification is served by simply clicking on the "Get the next installation right now" link at the bottom of the email. Those for whom reading is not second nature may appreciate the bite sized portions of information, since it does not overwhelm.

Packed with features this site actually does a great job of integrating social media (you can build a profile and link it to Twitter), online community engagement (forums that act as book clubs), and e-commerce (some of the books do require payment). This is a prime example of web 2.0 at its best. The site itself has a clean layout that is easy to navigate and the service is packed with features. Best of all, it provides that elusive win-win. Users are provided with value, authors and publishers have an alternate distribution channel that addresses the preferences of modern readers, and Daily Lit has all the ingredients for a highly trafficked and affiliate friendly website. Nice.

I am currently reading:

*Seth Godin's, The Bootstrapper's Bible (most excellent)
* 100 Ways to Succeed by Tom Peters (not bad)
* Art of Money Getting by P.T. Barnum (hilarious! )
* 3 Short Reads by Edgar Allan Poe (very Poe-ish)


Go check it out. You'll like it.

AC

The web is full of gurus, have you noticed? Yep, experts abound on the interwebs, most of them seeking exaltation with a heaping dose of financial gain. Nothing wrong with that I suppose, commerce makes the world go round and egos have ruled the world since day 1. It's not my thing though so if you were looking for a guru you might want to pass me by. Try googling "get rich while you sleep" or "the secrets to women, wealth, and power" - I guarantee you will find a plethora of pontificating gurus eager to relieve you of your sheckels.

After years of working in corporate communications (read: public relations, online marketing) I have grown weary of the utter inauthenticity and artifice that informs most corporate communication policies and practices. It seems to go quite nicely though with the "scarcity" approach that many organizations and individuals are taking these days. Times are tough, it's a dog eat dog world, and we feel vulnerable and miserly. We shield our true selves (corporate and individual) with a thick veneer of PR slick and hoard all our treasures. Make no mistake, we all have treasures that we could share if we chose to. Information is the biggest chunk of gold, but time, contacts, kindness, and yes, even money are hot ticket items.

The Sow's Ear is my attempt to offer up some treasure. Information about awards, events, media queries, and cool people and things that I have come across. Ideas to spark your own PR and marketing efforts will also be forthcoming - you know, kind of a "teach a man to fish" thing. Some people don't like fishing or don't have time, in which case they hire people like me to fish for them. Either way, you're covered. Though I am not a gearhead, I do have a great fondness for new technology, especially as it pertains to business, marketing, and PR processes, so be prepared to hear me wax poetic about low-cost and free web apps that make life worth living (huh, Dad was right - the best things in life often ARE free - who knew?).


AC