Archive for the ‘Public Relations’ Category

Kentucky Derby

We caught up with two of our Public Relations staff members, Shelly Gubser and Nick Clark, and asked them to let us know how their clients leverage the excitement of the Kentucky Derby and the Kentucky Derby Festival. Shelly and Nick gave us some insight into the evolution of their involvement with the “Greatest Two Minutes in Sports.”

Shelly

With nearly 70 events over three weeks, the Kentucky Derby Festival offers something for everyone, and a unique opportunity to gain brand awareness for our clients. Searching for an opportunity to have a larger presence in the local community, in 2004, McDonald’s Restaurants of Kentuckiana deemed sponsoring Kentucky Derby Festival activities a good fit.

The Pegasus Parade, the oldest and founding event of the Festival, was an obvious choice for McDonald’s initial involvement. In front of a crowd of 275,000 people, the same giant Ronald McDonald inflatable balloon that is used in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade made its debut in Louisville. The parade did not come without learning experiences, though. A mixture of underestimating the amount of people it would take to handle the balloon, paired with very strong winds, it was quite a workout getting Ronald to travel smoothly down the parade route. After learning our lesson, the following year we partnered with a local high school football team to make sure we were well equipped. 50 strong athletes dressed in head to toe McDonald’s apparel made carrying the balloon look effortless. Cheers from the crowd and shouts of “We love you Ronald!” proved parade participation a huge success.

In 2007, ready to have a larger presence with the Derby Festival, and wanting to create a unique program that everyone in the community could participate in, the McDonald’s Thunder Funder Program was born. This program encouraged customers to purchase a 32 ounce drink at any local McDonald’s, and a portion of the proceeds was donated back to the community to help support the largest fireworks and air show in North America, Thunder Over Louisville. The Thunder Funder Preview Party was also created as another avenue to bring brand awareness to McDonald’s. With a chance to meet the producers and pilots, see aircraft up close, and plenty of kid-friendly activities, The Preview Party gave the community a chance to see what it takes to produce Thunder Over Louisville. Admission to the event was free with a McDonald’s Thunder Funder Cup, an additional avenue for brand exposure.

In 2010, equipped with a sampling vehicle capable of producing McDonald’s food products, and a new variety of delicious coffee products, the McCafe line, McDonald’s set to embark on yet another sponsorship. McDonald’s became the “Official Coffee Partner of the Kentucky Derby Festival” giving us the opportunity to get products into the hands of consumers who may have not tried them otherwise.

In 2012, McDonald’s wanted to find a new avenue to encourage healthy active lifestyles, promote our new line of Real Fruit Smoothies, and reach a family audience. Again utilizing the sampling vehicle, McDonald’s became the “Offical Smoothie Partner” of the Kentucky Derby Festival. The Derby Festival Marathon and miniMarathon, as well as the Great Balloon Glow were the stops for the sampling vehicle, again getting consumer’s Lovin’ It by providing them delicious McDonald’s treats.

Nick

When you think of the Kentucky Derby, sometimes Bourbon is the first thing that comes to mind before the horses. Bourbon often gets more attention during this time when countless celebrities, world-famous horse trainers and jockeys and dignitaries flock to Louisville, Ky. The Derby has helped catapult the Bourbon industry to new heights making it one of America’s most popular spirits, giving our client, Four Roses Bourbon, a little something extra to talk about during the two weeks leading up to the big race.

The mint julep is the signature drink of the Kentucky Derby and at Churchill Downs. Nine years ago, BCH created a mixology competition between bartenders at some of Louisville’s best restaurants and bars to see who could concoct an original mint julep. Each year, the juleps are judged based on taste, presentation and creativity by a panel of food and beverage experts. What is most exciting about the competition is seeing and tasting the most original mint juleps one’s ever seen. Last year, one bartender boiled boar bones to create a root beer and boar simple syrup. Yes, BOAR bones. The “Triple Crown Mint Julep” as he called it ended up being the first place winner.

Not only do the bartenders get excited about the Rose Julep Recipe Contest every year, but our goal is to attract media attention – both local and national – and it works! We often get to showcase the winning Rose Julep during Churchill Downs’ backside media interviews the week of Derby. The exposure from this opportunity is huge because of the hundreds of thousands of people who come to town for the greatest two minutes in sports. And people who don’t make it to the Derby often host their own Derby parties at home. The variety of Four Roses mint juleps we’ve had the pleasure of spotlighting gives Derby party hosts a chance to replicate these on their own for their guests.

Another exciting Derby week activity Four Roses is involved is an event BCH planned for the first time last year called “Social at the Silks.” The Great Steamboat Race is an official Derby Festival event that Four Roses is contributing sponsor. With that sponsorship, BCH recommended Four Roses and Derby Festival select a single barrel bourbon during a made-for-TV press conference two weeks before the Steamboat Race. The bourbon selected would eventually be bottled and served on board the Belle of Louisville on the day of the Steamboat Race. BCH created “Social at the Silks” as a post-Steamboat Race affair where Four Roses could make the special selection bottles available for purchase along with meeting Master Distiller Jim Rutledge. The cocktail reception takes place at the Jockey Silks Bourbon Bar inside Louisville’s Galt House Hotel, a favorite of Derby guests far and wide.

Indy Film Fest

We’re celebrating our newest client with a soda and some popcorn, ‘cause it’s time to go to the movies — BCH is thrilled to have been selected as the PR partner for the 2012 Indianapolis International Film Festival!

Since 2004, the Indy Film Fest has quickly grown into one of the Midwest’s fastest-growing and most-watched film festivals — and one of the most valued annual cultural events in the city. Featuring the best in independent and innovative film from both award-winning professionals and emerging filmmakers (and showing films that have won awards at Sundance, SXSW, Cannes and more), they’ve exhibited films from nearly every state in the country and more than 50 countries around the globe. This year’s Film Fest runs July 19 – 29.

BCH will work to publicize the great films, filmmakers, actors and special guests, in addition to getting great press for the growing organization itself.

To quote one of the great film classics, “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship!”

Stop me if you’ve heard this in a meeting before:

“What’s our strategy for Client Project X?” “Well, we’re focusing heavily on media relations.”

or “We’re reaching out to consumers through social media.”

or “We’re planning a guerrilla marketing event.”

Did you catch the glaring problem with the responses? The answers are all valuable tools to achieve client goals, but they’re tactics, not strategy.

Sun Tzu said in, The Art of War, “Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” While we might think differentiating tactics versus strategy is a concept to be mastered sometime before college graduation, time and time again campaigns are presented with great emphasis on tactics, and hardly any thought on overall strategy.

A Statue of Sun Tzu, Marketing Guru

Strategy, of course, is the master plan outlining desired outcomes. Tactics are the tools used to carry out the strategy. A strategy should be personal, unique, and tailored to the specific goals at hand; two strategies should never look the same. Tactics, while still tailored to each initiative, are more universal: media relations, social media, experiential marketing, focus groups, etc. Put another way, strategy is the blueprint of the house; tactics are the hammer and nails.

Occupy Wall Street is the latest (and most notable) example of a campaign with plentiful tactics and absolutely no strategy. Its tactical tools are numerous: Twitter, Facebook, a website, live stream, group forum, chat room, user map, guerilla tactics, media relations, and so on.

Yet their strategy is still nowhere to be found, even with the addition of a Manhattan-based PR firm representing the group pro bono. The group doesn’t have a list of goals or demands. There’s no specific mission or vision statement. They haven’t outlined how they’ll measure success. In fact, Occupy Wall Street hasn’t even defined success. They don’t declare their target audience, stakeholders, allies, partners, or adversaries.

Strategy Before Tactics = WIN, Tactics Before Strategy = FAIL

It isn’t just large-scale campaigns that fail to produce coherent (or any) strategies. Nearly everyone has been told to send out a press release announcing the hiring of a new big wig in the corporation, or to design a “quick and simple” billboard. Even these seemingly routine task need a strategy. Is the goal to obtain ten new accounts because of the draw of the CEO? Overshadow the news of the company’s poor fourth quarter financial showing? Stand out against the competition that just began a new ad campaign? If you think your strategy is, “Get the press release out and get a hit or two in local outlets,” or “Design a billboard that my client approves,” you need to go back to square one.

To avoid the same pitfalls of Occupy Wall Street, and so many other more run-of-the-mill campaigns, clearly outline the following at the start of any initiative, no matter how small:

What are we trying to accomplish on a large scale? What specific actions do we want to come out of this? How will we define success? What does success look like now and in the future?

While the “wars” of the agency professional may not be exactly what Sun Tzu had in mind, his advice, given more than 2,000 years ago, rings true today. Take the time to solidify a strong strategy before contemplating tactics and you’re sure to win the battle.

Many times a client will approach you, acknowledge they have no news (or worse, insist that an irrelevant or very minor bit of information qualifies as news) and expect the PR team to land coverage in every major publication in town. Don’t do this. By spamming out information that isn’t newsworthy, you’re conditioning the reporter to ignore you, your client, and eventually anyone who identifies themselves as a publicist. Instead, come up with ways to create an initiative that actually does warrant media coverage, or brainstorm other ways besides media placements to accomplish the clients’ goals.

It’s too easy to get swept up in the excitement of a new campaign or client and promise the world: “The media is going to eat this up!” “We can definitely give you an exclusive interview with our celebrity spokesperson at 4 a.m.” “There’s no way the Today Show would turn this down.” Yet it just takes one broken promise — whether it was under your control or not — to alienate a client or journalist. Promise the client that your team will work hard. Promise the journalist that you’ll do all you can to secure an interview that meets their deadline. But never promise results. In the field of PR, there’s no such thing as a sure bet.

PR is not Advertising

PR isn’t advertising, so why measure PR success by advertising standards? AVEs (advertising value equivalents) don’t take into account tone, accuracy, penetration, or true reach. While the topic of PR measurement warrants a blog unto itself, a great starting point is this presentation from Joanne Puckett, Vice President and Research Director at Ketchum Global Research Network. She makes excellent points as to why AVE’s don’t do PR any justice, and what metrics to use as a better alternative. Start here to break yourself of the terrible AVE habit and educate your clients as to why they should too.

Repeat after me: There is never a reason to say “no comment.” “No comment” means “I have something to hide,” or “The bad things you’re hearing are true,” or “The rumors are accurate but I’m not allowed to confirm them yet,” or “My company doesn’t value our relationship with the media.” Instead, provide all the information you can disclose, and explain why you aren’t able to provide the information a reporter may need if you’re truly prevented from disclosing it. Then give exact details about when you can provide more information — and follow through.

The Boundary of Ethics

While this sounds like obvious advice, PR ethics can be complicated and hazy, especially as these rules try to keep pace with the changing digital times. A few of the big ones: Do insist bloggers and journalists disclose freebies and perks received by your company or clients. Don’t expect coverage in return for anything — favors, ad buys, free products, or special treatment. Do remember to disclose contributing authors of blog posts rather than stray into the murky territory of “ghost blogging.” Essentially, don’t engage in any PR tactics or strategy you wouldn’t want revealed on the front page of The New York Times.

Sketch by John Leech via Punch Magazine

Nick Denton, owner of Gawker Media, recently lamented boring commentators, calling them a worse problem than “trolls,” or anonymous cyber bullies. He explained that while these uninteresting individuals are “perfectly nice,” perfectly nice does nothing to contribute to the greater conversation. Somewhat similarly, a recent New York Times op/ed piece “Generation Sell” described the Millennial generation as “inoffensive, smile-and-a-shoeshine personality — the stay-positive, other-directed, I’ll-be-whoever-you-want-me-to-be personality… strenuously cheerful, conciliatory, well-groomed.” Millennials see themselves as a brand — one that they’re always trying to sell — and thus they try to be as safe as possible so as not to offend any potential customer.

The same could be said about PR professionals of any age. Not only are we worried about selling our own personal brands, but we’re also the face and voice behind the brands of others.

Unlike the “creatives” down the hall who can get away with tattoos and piercings and curse words on Twitter, PR pros often feel forced to present themselves as unfailingly polite and neutral. Better to not risk saying, doing, or representing anything that might rub a client the wrong way or annoy an industry peer.

Of course, there’s certainly good thinking behind this. We’ve all heard the horror stories of a PR pro that strays a little far from the herd — accidentally or not — and winds up in the unemployment line or loses a big client for the agency. Clearly no one is advising publicists to go on drunken rampages and post the video to YouTube the next morning. Yet playing it too safe is just as dangerous to our clients and our industry.

This kind of “Hooray everyone!” attitude can contribute to group think. If no one rocks the boat, the ship is going to float in the same place. We have to remind ourselves that while no one likes a bully or an instigator, it does our industry an injustice to not contribute to the conversation, test accepted ways of thinking or question standards. No one learns from a yes person. No one can grow from a habitual head-nodder.

Our clients aren’t benefitting from our blandness, either. Great ideas are bold, risky, and make our heart skip a beat or two. The ideas that have staying power and grab headlines are those that beg for eyebrows to be raised and blood pressure to rise just a bit. The moment we decide to take on that “strenuously cheerful” persona, we’ve traded in our passion, the spark that ignites great ideas.

Engage in a passionate debate with a peer. Challenge the status quo in the industry. Swim upstream every once in awhile.

By Dan Cook (USFWS) via Wikimedia Commons

If you’re not pushing people out of their comfort zones, you’re likely not producing anything powerful.

BCH earned a total of 24 awards at the 2011 Landmarks of Excellence Awards.

The Landmarks of Excellence Awards recognize the best public relations work in the Greater Louisville region, and are organized by the local chapters of the Public Relations Society of America and the International Association of Business Communicators. Public relations professionals from other cities judge the award entries, and scores are based on planning, creativity and execution, as well as a demonstration of achievement of objectives.

Of the 24 total awards, BCH took home four of the competition’s top awards, the Award of Excellence, signified by a statue of Iris, the messenger of the gods. BCH won the Awards of Excellence for work for Four Roses Bourbon, The Bridges Coalition and two for 21st Century Parks/The Parklands of Floyds Fork.

BCH also was awarded nine Merit Awards and 11 Honorable Mentions for the agency’s work on behalf of multiple clients, including Bluegrass Cellular, Delta Dental of Kentucky, McDonald’s, Monty’s Plant Food Co., Jewish Hospital & St. Mary’s Healthcare, the Louisville Zoo and others.

Awards for BCH from the 2011 PRSA Landmark Awards