A backwards glance shows seismic shift in the PR world

By Robert Wheatley

It was without a doubt one of the most powerful PR campaigns I’ve ever been associated with. An entirely new product category created from scratch off a compelling, dynamic public relations strategy. Yes, I said PR — not advertising or sales promotion. Over $100 million in sales (and that’s in 1994 dollars) was achieved and an 84% share of market within 16 months of launch. It was the introduction of First Alert brand carbon monoxide alarm products.

Recently we heard from the Wall Street Journal that futurist Richard Dawson believes newspapers will be irrelevant by 2022. The reference point for this incredible shift can be more fully appreciated by briefly looking backwards to a moment in time when conventional print and broadcast media were popular and respected sources of news, information and influence on consumer behavior and public opinion.

Here’s the story of PR campaign media strategies that were built from a full-scale deployment of earned media tactics.

• And the approach is no longer as relevant. New businesses are now developed in an interactive, narrowcast environment without push-button scale-ability

The lesson: the old rules no longer apply. New media protocols, planning processes and program strategies literally demand a transformation of our beliefs about brand building, PR strategies, how PR firms are put together. Thus how we look at messaging, outreach, measurement and evaluation of ideas is different than it was even 10 years ago.

When editorial media ruled!!

It was 1993, the firm I owned at the time, Wheatley Blair, was hired by First Alert, the leading home safety products brand in the US. They had invented the residential smoke alarm category and literally owned the retail market for them. Rich Timmons, now principal and President of Wheatley & Timmons, was the global marketing chief at First Alert – a marketer who had followed conventional paths focused on TV advertising and who was going to do something unprecedented: launch the next biggest thing to come along in his company’s history through PR.

A new category: Carbon Monoxide (CO) Alarms

We were awestruck the moment we learned that CO poisoning was the largest source of accidental poisoning deaths in America.

First Alert had created the first affordable residential detector for this previously unseen and little understood hazard that claimed at least 1,500 lives every year and injured thousands more.

The Silent Killer

How do you convince Americans to protect themselves from a hazard you cannot see, taste, smell or touch? And after all, headaches are common and ubiquitous, right? We created a theme that dramatically defined the threat.
• Poison center physicians, indoor air quality experts, leading fire service officials and others were recruited to help explain the problem and support the solution
• We built the Carbon Monoxide Information Bureau to house the scientific and medical evidence
• Brought together consumers who had lost loved ones in CO accidents to personalize and make the hazard tangible and real

Launching a Media Tsunami

Media tours were conducted with CO survivors and coordinated with local fire department representatives. We booked medical expert appearances on TODAY, Good Morning America and all of the network news programs. Placed in-depth hazard education features in national newspapers and virtually every major daily in the US. Similar treatments on family protection were secured in women’s service, lifestyle and DIY magazines. We assembled an in-house TV news production department that was producing a regular flow of 90-second video news packages.

Our tracking on consumer media impressions within six months topped 700 million and grew to over a billion. There were 6 o’clock news stories in major markets about lines outside stores exclaiming that First Alert alarm products were sold out. A major trade publication featured a quote from a senior buyer at Walmart who described First Alert CO alarms as the “cabbage patch doll of the hardware department.”

A business was created. A category established. First Alert doubled in size. Thousands of lives were saved in the process. Importantly, editorial media in virtually all channels was the instrument of awareness, education and motivation. The decline of traction, audiences and the splintering of media into hundreds if not thousands of platforms of self-interest make this story simply a reflection of a another age in media communication.

The same product launch, repeated today would be wholly different and geared to empower individuals to spread the word as much as media properties are addressed to influence the influencers.

For First Alert we constructed a media machine that hummed and produced and delivered editorial attention. That is no longer the way communication operates. Yet many still attempt to apply the old rules of quantity thresholds to a world now devoted to the quality and personalization of encounters with communication.

Nine years after we began, the agency moved on to represent Kidde, the other leading category brand. We helped them secure the number one market share position. This dramatic video PSA was part of the effort:

How would you launch the CO alarm category today?

Ok, which is more important, price or big ideas…

By Robert Wheatley

Many years ago I had a client who literally shopped every project among their current stable of agencies. It was a calculated effort to keep everyone grinding the budget pencil ever harder. Kind of like a bidding contest. Or perhaps the sort of challenge posed by Wal Mart buyers in a packaged good category pricing throw-down between competitors vying to retain in-store shelf real estate.

In our business (a strategic and creative endeavor) however, less is never more. And that pricing agenda drove out the passion for innovation and great thinking that lies at the base of campaigns that can transform business outcomes. I wondered are we in the arms and legs business or working to build a brand? The experience was discouraging and commoditized the entire agency/client relationship. This episode grounded me in a valuable lesson about why we do what we do, and served to refine the value proposition components we deliver to clients about competitive moves. We track shifts and changes in the retail environment and plot response strategies. We study. We pay attention. We think. We care. Great ideas drive stronger tactics…

In the mix of all this lies the tactics that will be deployed to communicate with consumers and other stakeholders. To get there we have a defined process that helps guide the selection of PR tools and how put to them to work. We built a planning model to help institutionalize the process that cultivates epiphany and insight. So our plans always come together with a sort of secret sauce attached to them. Either through conceptual thinking or research, there’s some significant audience, category, brand or product understanding that works to evolve the strategy into something quite powerful.

Not just awareness for awareness sake – or pushing the button on boilerplate tactics that get rolled out and arrayed like so many toy soldiers in a kids’ board game. My point: You can attempt to reduce the conversation about agencies, their value and services to a calculation of hourly costs – or you can replace this commodity view with an approach that’s more compelling and valuable.

Getting the biggest bang for your buck…

Tapping the brainpower and potential for great ideas begins first at an emotional level, one that springs from a sense of partnership rather than vendor-like behavior.

If you follow our planning model its virtually assured the relationship will start off on the right foot because the diagnostics require it. That said some PR assignments never get that deep because the goal is not about transformative business outcomes, but rather to address narrowly-defined communications needs that feel more cog-like than about brand building.

Our defined purpose…

As an agency we’re here to build brands and the best relationships are founded on that mutual goal. When that’s the starting point, clients always make an effort to involve us in their business from R&D to factory floor. They provide access, share research. We spend quality time with each other. Why? Because of what’s at stake. Or this can be about press releases and media tours, available at prices so low you have to stoop to pick them up.

What business should we be in?

Marketing can move from assertions of goodness to tangible proof points

By Robert Wheatley

There’s an interesting trend emerging in branded food products, one that’s about “inherent goodness, freshness, wholesomeness and balanced nutrition,” rather than vague assertions of good or better for you. This is just a great edible bandwagon and we hope to see more and more of it. Here’s why…

We operate today in the era of transparency and authenticity. Thus the product itself is front and center in the marketing. So genuine claims absolutely will trump any attempt to concoct a story more about marketing-speak than simple truth.

And simple is the transcending idea here: New products are gaining acceptance on simplified formulations — a sort of “less is more” proposition that authentically moves packaged food towards natural, real and additive free recipes. Ingredients you recognize and know. Marketing Daily has a fascinating article on the subject, tracking the emergence of products with fewer, more natural ingredients across an array of categories from beverages to meals and side dishes. This simple proposition invites scrutiny and boldly stands the acid test of what is essentially more wholesome by eliminating the artificial. On the snack front, Frito-Lay simply says the only thing in the bag of their Lays chips beside some potatoes, a bit of oil and salt is your hand. Haagen Dazs delivers great tasting ice cream with just five natural ingredients. Hmmm. How simple. (Tried the Coffee flavor – it was amazing).

If you claim you’re wholesome how does this secure more believability?

A fundamental tenet of sound public relations strategy is respect and advocacy for brand propositions and communications that accentuate and magnify what’s real and true. Consider the history of PR and its historical devotion to editorial channels of communication. We were obligated under the spotlight of editorial scrutiny to present truth and proof of what we claimed about a client’s product or service. We knew they would check into what we said, look for their owns sources to corroborate and then report.

So we labored greatly to line up the facts, provide the data and sources to validate our claims. (Of course Hollywood’s presentation of PR as hucksters and spin-doctors violates this idea of PR people as conveyors of truth. However, I happen to be telling– the truth). What can be more self-evident than a short, sweet and simple ingredients statement?

Now comes food that is deliciously straightforward. Goodness that invites inspection. That breathes the basics of healthier choice. How refreshing. We hunger now for real and are attracted to what’s honest. Better-for-you options made easier to identify and to believe through simplicity. As a marketer and PR expert I’m excited. Are You?

Agencies that lead bring more value than order takers

By Robert Wheatley

Hugh MacLeod is a creative and insightful expert who regularly exposes the soft underside of the marketing world — and helps us laugh at ourselves. His thoughts, expressed as graphic images, can be down right powerful. Today’s post in some respects is a perfect foil for a few of his engaging ideas. (Check out gapingvoid.com – and subscribe to his daily image emails).

Great work falling from great ideas can transform the future direction and growth of business. Yet more often than not, by definition, it will require clients to stretch, to have faith and take risk. And none of this will see the light of day unless agencies step up to passionately support and defend solid out-of-the-ordinary thinking. This is often the price of strategic concepts that are unique, unexpected and disruptive (in a positive way).

An insightful article on this subject was published today by Cory Treffelett of Catalyst SF. You can read it here . In his excellent piece he accurately describes the difference between a vendor and partner style relationship between agency and client. Essentially the order taker vs. the leader.

Good agencies are in the strategic idea creation business. Clients make investments in programs and concepts that will grow business, build brand reputation and attract or retain new customers. No easy task. And I can recount over the years in virtually every instance of needle-busting results, innovative concepts always supplied the accelerant. Thus risk and leadership is demanded of the agency.

The path of least resistance is easily followed and at times it feels much safer to stay within the comfortable bounds of serenity — a quiet surf made calm by the absence of tough discussion that can whip up a big wave or two along the way.

Fear – collectively our greatest enemy
What stands in the way of great ideas and game-changing initiatives? It’s fear. Fear of rocking the boat. Fear of losing the account. Fear of failure. Fear of disagreement. Fear of ruffling feathers. Fear of slaying sacred cows. Fear of the unknown. Fear of folded arms and taught expressions. Fear of shaking heads. Fear not being loved. Fear of losing the budget. Fear of the boss. Fear of mistakes. Fear of conflict. Fear of perception leading reality. Fear of risk, of making the big bet. This insidious human condition interferes so many times, closing the gate on otherwise powerful moves that may occasionally require a willingness to “boldly go where no man has gone before.”

This is not a call to arrogance and conceited behavior by the way. What is in the client’s best interests at all times will be growth and development of their brand and their business results. The fact that innovation is often at the fulcrum of transformative periods only means that risk will be part of the mix in bringing these things to fruition. Clients who are challenged by their agencies to accomplish more through bolder initiatives are needed now more than ever. And are often in short supply for all of the reasons mentioned above. Just take the order, do the work and make sure everyone is happy and smiling all of the time? No great thing was ever accomplished by simply riding the existing wave. Blazing a new trail will be required of us.

Agencies and Clients Together Offer the Best Formula…
There’s an old saying, “an agency is only as good as its client.” Well in some end-game sort of reference I suppose this is true if all you ever hear is no. Should clients run from risk and punish their agency for bringing bold ideas then Houston, we have a problem!! Ultimately however, agencies have an obligation to bring this kind of thinking routinely. It should be the rule rather than the exception.

Clients can help this process by openly inviting and encouraging their agency partners to challenge them, to say no when its necessary, to think big, to look for new territory to trail-blaze. In essence to disrupt the category conventions and accepted brand behaviors that can deter major leaps ahead. Clients also acquire an obligation: to be willing to approve and fund campaigns with risk involved. And be prepared to accept a mistake along the way and learn from it.

This kind of healthy give and take — lively discourse built around discovery and epiphany — is essential if transformative programs are to get out of the developmental garage. Our daily mantra should be to make this quest genuinely a part of our culture and operating philosophy. To do less is to compromise the values and integrity of what we’re on the planet to accomplish.

What do you think?

Can we really fly blind and expect to be effective?

By Robert Wheatley

There are those great moments of clarity when something hits you. Often it can be something you already know, but your perspective and its horsepower (importance) will get injected with an entirely new level of “amen” when understanding adjusts or elevates a bit. Sorry to be oblique – this happened today while reading Brian Solis’ great book, “Putting the Public Back in Public Relations.” Yes, there’s a point here and a recommendation.

The emergence of social media has changed the game for PR communications, to be sure. For instance as we’ve heard from virtually every social media pundit, conversation is better than any attempted monologue in brand communication strategy. Frankly its just wayyyy more difficult these days to push messages at people and get any traction. So communication that’s truly effective is no longer one-way.

That means PR people no longer sit solely on a “dissemination” platform (press releases, editor desk-sides, spokesperson media tours) to move messages outward through various channels of non-paid or earned media.

Now relationships and dialogue with influencers and other forms of “democratized” media have to be layered into the brand outreach recipe. What over-arching strategic issue does this immediately recommend? Listening.

Let’s look at the fundamental “best practices” involved in relationship building. If the best conversationalists are always the best listeners, and if brands must form relationships with their best users based on behaviors that approach similarity to what we would call real-world friendships rather than “transactional” relationships, does it stand to reason we should be hearing our best customers?

If relationships are to work, they’re built from a foundation of shared interest. And as covered many times in this blog, we know that brand relationships are earned based on what a marketer does to correctly discern and understand the consumer’s passions and concerns. And then operate as an enabler, facilitator, educator an community builder.

Furthermore if the media landscape is littered with self-published content created by customers, then it only makes sense to know what they’re saying, good or bad.

So listening jumps to the front as an integral part of fundamental PR strategy in the digital age. Right? Yet more often than not it is at the tail end of consideration in plans and sometimes the first to fall off the budget truck when pressure builds to make some cuts.

Of course formal Web-based listening tools should be employed and made integral to PR plans. They should also, however, receive the priority they deserve to be preserved when sacrifices are targeted on the spending front. This takes understanding on both the agency and client sides of the table about the value of it. To do less in some respects is to say that pushing messages outward remains the first and most important path.

Relevant communication springs from understanding. And that’s an outcome of getting quiet for awhile, and paying close attention to the conversations going on all around.

I for one will feel more comfortable as we work harder and with greater resolve to build the listening tools into the front end of the campaign strategy, and not a final layer that almost invites elimination due to its perceived lack of priority.

What do you think?

New prescription for growth all about burrowing in on your best prospects

By Robert Wheatley

I have a confession to make: I’m a music fan . Big time. And have been almost all of my life. I sang my way through high school. Played guitar in a band. Had a vocal music scholarship when I started college. Ended up as the promoter and producer of all the rock concerts that appeared at my University. Had family and personal acquaintances in the rock concert promotion and band management business (Heart). Even today one of my Chicago friends is now a senior player at LiveNation, one of the largest live music organizations on the planet.

So what is it with me and music? I can’t really answer that. Born that way maybe. I’m also a culinary fan. Wine fan. Antique and art fan. Auto buff. Writer. Fan of parenting (and my daughters) generally. Talk to me, inform me about these things and I’m listening. Intently.

In the last post we explored the sea change in American attitudes about life and what matters, as people now hunger for greater meaning, purpose and belonging more so than consuming. So too, brands and businesses that identify and mine “consumer tribes” coalescing around lifestyle aspirations and interests have a better shot at sustainable growth. Why? Because the value added by these brands is aligned not just with commerce and direct selling but also being a facilitator of activities and experiences the consumer cares about.

• Take for example the DIY home decorating and fixing game. There are tribes of consumers who get significant emotional and personal payback from taking on projects aimed at improving or changing their homes. Brands that become facilitators and advisors in this endeavor can earn a place (relationship) in the consumer’s life by virtue of their unselfish behaviors. And why bother? The relationship precedes the willingness to pay any attention to marketing and brand communication.

Virtually every category has its heavy users, or fan-base of individuals who are more engaged and involved, based on their unique personal interests…Do you know them? Study them? Listen to them?

Get Focused.

Witness the tightly focused business model of Internet site Songkick – a relatively new rising-star brand on the music scene that is quickly putting a differentiated foot-print on the live concert business. They are working hard to listen to and follow their best customers.

Music and sports share something in common: the emotional relevance they retain with their greatest fans. When the Chicago Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup, hundreds of thousands of Hawk enthusiasts lined the Windy Cities’ streets to cheer and celebrate with the team. It was an amazing example of the power of sports to motivate people.

Music holds a similar value proposition. To some it’s an integral expression of their lifestyle interests. Who knows what is exactly at the root of this? Could it be some special gene that resonates to music in a powerful way? Bands and musicians are heroes to be sure. For some concert going is important and a reflection of how they define themselves. I would know. Sure Songkick follows the larger acts, but their unique effort to aggregate information about local bands helps drive their value and relevance to fans.

Go Deep.

Songkick helps facilitate fan devotion and involvement by helping people easily track information, events and news about their favorite artists. And post photos and share experiences they’ve had at concerts. Yes they’re making money from ticket sale commissions. That said the online presentation and interaction is more about the music than the commerce. Thus we see another example of earning a place in the music-centric consumer’s life.

Mine Relevance.

How would you describe a music lover’s lifestyle? How can you add value to it? What other attributes and benefits can be developed for those who see music as more than background ambiance or a date night piece of entertainment? The more relevant you are the more valuable you become. How close can you bring the music lover to the music creators and players? It’s an interesting proposition. Brands that matter to their users will gain greater ground in the long haul than those that currently move ahead on the basis of habit, history/tradition or ubiquity.

DIYers, home cooks, travel buffs, fashionistas – there are people out there who care, who pay attention, who will listen, who are engaged right now because of their personal interests and preferences. What’s the way in? Well that’s the $64,000 question. If you treat customer relationships more like friendships then you start to get the picture. Help them in-order to engage them.

What do you think?

Hyper-consumption falls as new era of meaning and purpose takes hold

By Robert Wheatley

We are sitting at the threshold of a new epoch in brand marketing and communication. One where old voices tempting consumers to look for the thrill in upward mobility and finding the joy in toys is being replaced by a soulful search for things more meaningful, more substantive.

Now more than ever there is a need to align your brand with a new set of consumer-driven values, to chart a different course with a refreshed voice and message, more in sync with this seminal shift in consumer attitudes. Are you ready? Read on…

The economic “thwack” on the side of the head…

Leave it to one of the worst economic disasters America has seen to finally bring some closure on the continual debate between judging one’s life by the things you buy vs. the “softer values” of contentment, happiness and belonging. Hyper- consumption may well be the biggest casualty befalling strategies for marketing and business as the economy searches for a new path to growth.

While the cauldron of behavior change continues to boil…

Sure enough the pocketbook difficulties (owing more but having less) faced by consumers here and around the world remain bitingly fresh. According to a recent report published in Food Business magazine, consumer spending at restaurants declined 2.2% in 2009 from the previous year. While that may not sound like much it is nevertheless quite remarkable. The data just released by the Economic Research Service of the US department of Agriculture indicated it was the first year-to-year decline reported since 1949, and the largest single drop in the restaurant business since the height of the Great Depression in 1938.

Today Mintel research reveals that beverage alcohol sales were off by 4.9% in the on-premise channel (restaurants, bars and clubs) over the same period. As we cut back in restaurant visits, we’re moving our adult beverage consumption to the home front, up 1.2 % over the same period and over 21% since 2004.

Hey buddy, can you spare a dime?

In a Forbes magazine report showcasing a new consumer attitude study from ad agency Euro RSCG , we find that saving rather than splurging is preferred now by 87% of Americans. And that 79% of us have way more respect for people who live relatively simple, debt-free lives than we do the bling-centric luxury lifestyle folk. Says Forbes: “Robin Leach has been sucker punched by Ed Begley Jr.”

Having possessions for their own sake and a sense of a life well lived are being separated from each other. Eight in 10, according to the study, believe that society has become too shallow, focusing on things that don’t matter. In a way you might say the “hyper-consumerist” life didn’t pan out the way consumers thought it would.

So what does this mean?

The data helps us see a new picture emerge:

• 80% of consumers are now shopping more carefully and mindfully.

• 54% are paying attention to the environmental and social impact of the products and brands they buy.

• 57% believe that cause participation matters.

More is less today about accumulation of goods. Instead our focus is on community, simplicity, a sense of purpose and belonging.

Successful brands in the digital age grow because they’re learning to align themselves as enablers, facilitators and supporters of consumer lifestyle interests and concerns. So, too, the message in brand communications and PR must adjust to acknowledge the desire for greater meaning, for personal growth, giving back and cause involvement – living simpler and less cluttered lives.

How can your band and product portfolio help consumers live a more satisfying life? And help them realize their desire for greater meaning? For belonging and sense of community?

What say you?

By Robert Wheatley


This is the story (heads up this is a feature-style post) of crazy commitment, of all-nighters and pushing beyond the limits we often place in front of ourselves. The effort delivered success for a brand and taught a person (me) what you can accomplish when you’re willing to dispense with fear (and sleep) to do something big.

It was 1990 and I had just walked off the edge of the cliff. For 11 years, ten of them in a relative state of happiness and personal growth, I had been working for Ogilvy & Mather – a wonderful firm that invested heavily to teach its emerging talent how to create powerful communications ideas and how to run profitable agency businesses. My last year was not so fun, filled with trepidation around a career move I did not want (so ordered by my boss) to a city I had no plans to live in (sorry Windy City but at the time I was living in LA and had client roots there) doing work that was not so challenging (vast difference in point of view between West Coast group I ran – progressive – and the Chicago office of Ogilvy – conservative).

And then it happened. After seven already unhappy months Ogilvy was sold in a hostile takeover to Sir Martin Sorrel and the final unraveling began in earnest. By March of 1990, after just 15 months in Chicago, I resigned from the place I thought I would be for the rest of my career and started a firm from scratch, working out of my partner’s storage room in her apartment.

We had just convinced Sara Lee to take a big risk, too. To hire a brand new agency to represent this venerable and iconic business at a moment in its 50-year history when it was most vulnerable. Years of share and profit declines had finally caught up and the brand was on the ropes. We had been talking to Sara Lee about a relationship while at Ogilvy but a conflict arising from the New York O&M advertising office stopped the conversation dead in its tracks.

How to resolve a client conflict? Surgically remove the conflict by starting a new firm (thus producing said cliff to jump off of). Our deal with Sara Lee was unique: they would literally own our firm for a year as we agreed not to solicit any new accounts. In return we got the business and a healthy budget to get our agency in motion. What got us to the deal table? A very BIG idea — one that involved risk all around but had the potential to arrest Sara Lee’s decline.

This is the PR business, and if you want to secure the kind and quality of media coverage that can transform your business outcomes, you need to go big. Events make news. And we were about to do the mother of all media events.

Something extraordinary and disruptive for a brand that had been around since the late 1940’s: in six months time we built The First International Symposia on Dessert. We had struck a moment in food brand history when dessert was getting hit right and left by news of new reduced fat products and technologies, coalescing over concerns that dessert was a major contributor to growing American waistlines.

People decided certain kinds of sweets (baked goods for one) were bad and stopped buying them. While new brands were emerging with low fat technologies to cut calories. Sara Lee was left flat-footed in this time of “no thank you” to dessert options and so-called “full calorie” products.

So, with a portfolio of new reduced fat products in the wings, plus an agreement to bring the real Sara Lee out of obscurity to become the face of the brand (named after her by her father when she was nine years old), and a strategy to revitalize and re-stage Sara Lee as a relevant and contemporary brand — we set in motion a major media experience…

Vienna, Austria: land of dessert, palaces and Mozart

Our event concept was predicated on capturing the hearts and minds of top food media from the US and Canada. To do this, we needed to give them content that was unique and compelling in a setting that would engage their imagination. We were determined to “own” them for at least three days time, away from their offices and schedules in an environment we controlled.

Vienna is the dessert capitol of the world. Dessert as we know it (cakes, pastries) was invented here. To be an acclaimed pastry chef in Vienna is to achieve our equivalent of culinary superstardom. We brought the idea to the Viennese tourism board, the Austrian economic chamber, Imperial hotels and Austrian Airlines. All bought in to the opportunity to host a large contingent of US food media, knowing the coverage opportunities this could offer. In return we got access to palaces at no charge, free ground transportation, cheap airline tickets and hotel rooms.

We worked literally around the clock to do all of this within six months of our being hired. We constructed a three-day schedule of seminars, events and hands-on experiences we knew would supply editorial angles appropriate to an array of food media from Good Housekeeping to Associated Press. Also ladled in was entertainment for the editors on a scale that we knew would trump anything they had seen previously. This included an exclusive concert with the Vienna Symphony just for them in the very palace where Mozart performed his first concert when he was six years old.

In total 56 editors and writers went to Vienna. All of this would be carried off by our team of six people, plus the master pastry chef from Sara Lee. Adding to the pressure was the CEO of Sara Lee Steve McMillan, the head of marketing and the founding Lubin family all in attendance.

You just push yourself…

We recruited the top seven pastry chefs in Vienna to create new recipe ideas for home cooks using Sara Lee products as a base. We secured a dessert psychologist from the University of Vienna who did a remarkable presentation on the psychology of eating dessert. She spoke poetically about the guilt issues Americans experience that is absent in the European mentality about sweets consumption. The Viennese by the way are not fat even though the pastry shops outnumber McDonald’s.

We brought a US food historian to chart the evolution of baking and sweets in our nation, including the birth of Birthday celebrations and our cake traditions. A special seminar on chocolate was held in the oldest operating bakery in the world, opened originally in 1535. We introduced the editors to the real Sara Lee (they were awestruck), launched a new line of desserts at a dramatic “dessert fantasy” reception inside one of the most important palaces in Vienna.

We designed the Symposia to cover every aspect of dessert, why it matters in the American diet and to rekindle our love affair with the sweet tooth with a nod towards balance and moderation.

We positioned Sara Lee as the expert brand on the evolution of dessert in America….

To do all this required total commitment — mind, body and spirit. Nights, weekends leading up to the event were spent creating materials, securing editor attendance and handling the logistics of moving a large group of people from venue to venue flawlessly. Hotel rooms had to be meticulously selected based on editor preferences and personal needs.

The editorial concept development work was a monster, creating angles appropriate to each title and editorial slant, while developing supportive materials and sources for each one. Once in Vienna we had 56 editor “stars” to watch over and then our top client executives to boot. I did not sleep at all for four days. We worked around the clock making sure every detail was handled without mishap.

I distinctly remember sitting on the bus next to the Food Editor of Bon Appetit as we took them to the airport for their departure back to the states, literally zoning in and out of consciousness as we talked about her experience and story plans. It was a monumental undertaking and a huge homerun in the making. The media coverage coming from this event was unlike anything the brand had ever seen in its history. The turnaround was launched.

It was an experience I will never forget. There were moments along the way when you would hit the wall and declare, “I’m just done.” But you go on, knowing what’s at stake and push yourself a little further. I would not recommend this as a way to live your life on an ongoing basis, but a few of these experiences along life’s trail can elevate your game a bit — for a lifetime. Yes, its scary and yes you may tell yourself there’s just no way to do something of this scope in six months time with a small staff – and then you muster up the courage and press on.

We helped restore luster to an iconic American brand, and that was worth every minute. The only way to know what you’re really capable of is to test the limits and then go past them.

By Robert Wheatley

There’s not a moment to lose. Your brand, your budget and outcomes are at stake. The world of communications has changed, and your PR strategy and tactics must evolve with it. Or be prepared for little to no bottom line benefits from your spend.

Why does this matter? Being in the presence of a message (PR driven or otherwise) does not mean any useful interaction has actually taken place. Your goal is to impact consumer behavior. But there’s a vast difference between communications that is built correctly to accomplish that vs. messages “out there” in media that perpetually circle the engagement airport — never quite landing.

Here are the key questions you should be asking yourself right now…

1. How does the PR strategy connect and align our brand in a relevant and meaningful way with the lifestyle interests and passions of our core customers?

Relevance is key to securing engagement — so consumer insight and understanding is a precursor to building effective communications. There must be clear and specific linkage between PR programs and the consumer’s self interests that position the brand as an enabler, supporter, educator and facilitator of your consumer’s lifestyle passions. Otherwise she’s not going to pay any attention to what you put out there.

2. What proportion of your budget is dedicated to Web-based communication vs. mainstream media?

We have ample evidence that word of mouth drives business results. And now we know that Internet based communication is increasingly the genesis of influence, conversation and discussion about businesses and brands. Yet old habits (always hard to break) push spending and programming frequently down the well-worn path of conventional print and broadcast media. It’s not that these channels don’t matter, they do. But the poor red headed stepchild in many cases is the very media channel that can activate conversation and buzz. So is it time to re-configure the proportional spending to place more assets in web-based media channels? Yes.

3. Social media may no longer be a tertiary place to participate, but are you creating scale underneath your social media strategy?

Unlike any other media property that has come before it, the unique characteristic of social platforms is quite simple: they ALL begin with an audience of zero. It is your content strategy that can help aggregate an audience over time. How well you do this will impact the overall value and benefit of social media investments. Achieving scale is a combination of building and distributing useful, entertaining and valuable multi-media content (read video) along with special offers and benefits – and then integrating social media through every consumer touch point in your marketing communications toolbox.

4. To what extent are you now investing in creating media that fuels the budding relationship with your core users and brand fans?

“Owned Media” is now the third “core” leg of the media communications stool alongside earned and paid. Brands are now publishers and content producers themselves. The Internet has enabled cost-effective distribution. However PR campaigns have historically been built around enticing and convincing third-party editors and gatekeepers to do a story (earned media). And coverage certainly comes imbued with the associative value and credibility from implied third-party endorsement. Equally important however, brands can now talk directly to consumers through custom editorial content thus assuring the message remains unaltered or diluted. Have you launched your video channel yet?

5. Look before you leap. To what extent have you refined your listening tools to be sure you understand what consumer’s are saying to each other about your business?

Pushing messages at people doesn’t work any longer. Relevance is king. And part of the equation is honing your listening investments to be sure you fully understand the conversation that’s taking place around you. There are online-based tools both quantitative and qualitative that serve this purpose. A full suite of listening platforms should be “always on” with analysis following closely behind to assure you’re aware of what’s being said, by whom and where. You can’t effectively engage without this knowledge.

These five areas are vital to effective PR strategy and tactics, tied to your ability to impact behavior. They act synergistically to make communication effective. In the absence of these tools and approaches, you’re resting outcomes more on hope — and hope is never a strategy.

What do you think?

By Robert Wheatley

From left to right, Kerri Erb and her beagles Frankie and Flora; Bob Wheatley and Goliath; Betsi Schumacher and Otto; Ruth Keefover and Millie

Well it’s officially “Take Your Dog To Work” day and here at the agency we celebrate with gusto. Our dogs are patrolling the halls, searching each other out for some one-on-one nose to _____________engagement. Everyone is on their best behavior and enjoying the camaraderie.

My dog, a gentle giant named Goliath, is a 170-pound Newfoundland who has a habit of stopping traffic wherever he appears because onlookers first think I’m sporting a pet black bear. He’s sitting at the foot of my desk right now, a sort of big furry sentry watching the entrance of my office. If I make a move of any kind to stand up, walk down the hall, flinch, nod or whatever, he’s right there with me never more than a few inches away. My four-legged shadow.

And that in a few words explains the basic premise of our relationship. Never far off. Always with me. Always anxious for interaction. He’s consistent and faithful in that regard more so than most humans I know. I’m sure he has his bad days but for the most part I would characterize him as permanently chipper, good natured and happy. Sure he pleads directly for the tummy scratch or head rub by using his paw to push my arm in the appropriate direction. His head, by the way is seriously the size of a basketball. You wonder at times what’s going on in that brain of his.
It goes without saying we like each other. We have this thing, this sort of unsaid communication that’s always on. He watches me intently for cues on the next thing to do, go or see. So yes, this is a relationship. Pretty solid one at that. I don’t mind getting slimed which is par for the course with a big-jowl Newf. He doesn’t mind getting yanked along during a walk when I don’t have time for the sniff-every-object routine. We hang out.

So I get the pet food business growth juggernaut. I understand the premium-ization of pet food. I know why pets are now family members and accorded the rights and privileges thereof. We love them through our stewardship and care. They reward us with faithful, enduring, calming and uplifting attention. Pet products enable us to convey our love for them. It’s powerful stuff.

Other lifestyle acquisitions fail us routinely. They break. They cease to amuse. Don’t live up to our expectations. Become passé. Their value always tied to the moment of utility or entertainment where they hold court however briefly. Pets endure and transcend all of this. Now if only they could talk.