Townsend Chairman Mentioned in the U-T San Diego

Posted on September 4, 2012 by Elizabeth

Jackie Townsend Konstanturos, Chairman of Townsend Advisers, was mentioned in the U-T San Diego today for her PR work in the late 90′s with Barbara Bry and Atcom/Info.

“In 1996, we did our first startup together, Atcom/Info, whose business plan was to make Internet and email kiosks for airports and other public places. At the time, very few people traveled with laptops because they were expensive and heavy and difficult to hook up to a phone line. High speed Internet was available in only a few places.

We did not yet have a product, but we had an artist draw a picture of the kiosk — a very cool looking pyramid shape — floating in outer space. And we decided to announce to the world what we had, even before our genius developers had actually finished the software. We viewed this as “anticipatory marketing.”

We turned to Jackie Townsend, then the head of her own public relations firm. She persuaded Business Week magazine to run a tiny drawing of our kiosk (which didn’t yet exist) on the back page. The headline was “coming soon to an airport near you.”

A few days later, two big telecommunications companies wanted to order 20 of them for their airport customers. We installed the first ones in the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport in August 1996.

This article and others attracted the attention of a New York venture capital firm that invested $5 million. Bill Gates read a Fortune magazine article that named Atcom one of the year’s coolest companies, and he sent Tom Caldwell, a young Microsoft engineer, to visit us. Microsoft became one of our most important partners, and Caldwell joined our company as vice president of engineering.”

Read the rest of the article titled “MEDIA LANDSCAPE IS VAST, SO LET’S FIND YOUR FOOTING” on the U-T San Diego website.

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Apple Ad Man Thinks Differently About Branding

Posted on July 31, 2012 by Kimberly

Ken Segall (left) and Harry McCracken (right) discuss "Insanely Simple." Image by Townsend Advisers

Today at the Computer History Museum, Time’s Techland columnist Harry McCracken interviewed advertising wizard Ken Segall on his new book, “Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple’s Success.” Although Segall was never an Apple employee, he spent 12 years working directly with Steve Jobs and is the creative mind behind the tagline “Think Different” and the product brand name “iMac.”

Branding and tagline development is incredibly difficult to do well, and the resulting language and images must reflect your company’s values and brand promise to customers. (Visit here for more on Townsend Advisers’ BrandTrack methodology.) Here are a few best practices Segall shared:

  • Surround yourself with the most talented people you can find – ideally people whose expertise differs from yours
  • Stay laser-focused on your brand promise; for example, the first Macintosh computer shipped with the tagline “simplicity is the ultimate sophistication,” and it can apply to every product and service released since that day in 1984
  • Invest in building your brand capital rather than making incremental product improvements; then, when a campaign or product fails, your brand is resilient, and the mistake will soon be forgotten.

Segall’s book details the dramatic saga of the iMac launch. Here are some highlights he shared with the audience.

The Scene: Apple has suffered several failures. Former CEO Steve Jobs is brought back to the company after founding the marginally successful NeXT and the very successful Pixar. The success or failure of Apple rests on the next product. Can it restore consumer confidence? Will the company reignite with excitement and innovation?

The Challenge: The (iMac) product won’t launch for six months. There’s a creative brief outlining what Apple thinks the product will do, but there’s no prototype and few details. The assignment is to convey a compelling brand promise – consistent with the company’s brand – through a brand name, tagline and advertising campaign that could change the course and success of the company.

An Iconic Name: Jobs created a product name himself and suggested it to the ad team. MacMan. Of course, the device was not very portable, like Sony’s then-popular Walkman. In addition, Jobs wanted everyone to know that his product was not a toy (PacMan, anyone?) but a powerful, sophisticated machine. Segall knew his team had its work cut out. He created iMac and thought it was the best of their other ideas: Rocket Mac, Mackster, EveryMac. It took several pitches that Segall didn’t think stuck. Then, one day, he learned Jobs had silk-screened the iMac name onto a prototype, and it met with an enthusiastic reception from the staff. The rest is history.

An Iconic Ad: Jobs instantly loved the “Think Different” tagline, and he was deeply moved by the script for the ad.

If you haven’t seen it since its debut in 1997, it’s worth watching again:

With a powerful, inspirational leader like Jobs, he was the obvious choice for the narrator. Unfortunately, he didn’t like the sound of his own voice and didn’t want to do it. Regardless, Segall took three takes of Jobs reading, but, without Jobs enthusiasm for the task, the spark was missing. Having just completed “A Bug’s Life” at his other company Pixar, Jobs recommended Phyllis Diller for the part. Despite her enthusiasm for the project, she delivered only a loud, Vaudevillian performance that didn’t suit the content. Finally, everyone agreed to the performance by Richard Dreyfuss. After the first ad aired, celebrities from Robert Redford to Woody Allen requested a presence on the next ad.

Apple is now one of the fastest-growing companies of the world and boasts a higher valuation than nearly any other company. What do you think has made Apple one of the most successful companies? How do you view Apple’s brand? What branding tactics have helped you succeed? We’d love your thoughts!

Image by Townsend Advisers

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Recipe for Startup Media Coverage

Posted on July 9, 2012 by Kimberly

Startups and SMBs face more challenges attracting reporters’ attention than their corporate counterparts.  Reporters are held accountable for how many clicks their stories generate, according to a Forbes.com paid contributor we interviewed this week.  She shared that, despite Forbes’ focus on business, the most-read stories either contain entertainment celebrities or big consumer brands like Apple.

BusinessInsider’s Alyson Shontell shared the key ingredients she requires when considering writing a story on a small or new company:

  1. Exclusives: Offer something juicy that no one else knows about your company

  2. Product/funding news*: Meet the bar of significance, which varies by publication

  3. Name-brand supporters: Highlight who values knowing your company, such as a top-tier angel investor, VC, incubator, customer or popular pundit; execs at Google-caliber partner companies or former employers; a trusted friend or colleague of the reporter

  4. Surprising opinions: Bust the top myths of your industry, and be prepared to back up your opinion; help the reporter spark discussions about your article

  5. Game-changers: CAUTION – only attempt if you can clearly articulate a truly disruptive offering (example: This Startup Could Literally Change The Way The App Entire Industry Works by Alyson’s colleague Matt Lynley)

  6. Authentic clarity: Be succinct and sincere, and focus on what makes YOU unique – not how you compare to a category leader (“Also, don’t use buzz words to describe your company, such as: ‘We’re the Groupon for luxury’ or ‘We’re the Foursquare for websites.’”)

    * Note: If you are a service provider, you’ll need to be even more creative leveraging customers and events to accommodate the lack of product or funding news.

Alyson’s recipe isn’t exclusive to BusinessInsider.  In our experience, this recipe for startup media coverage applies to almost every reporter with whom we’ve worked.  Do you have two or more key ingredients?  Give us a call, and let’s get the show on the road.

Image courtesy of ReneS

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Are PR Pros “Friends or Foes?” Journalists Answer

Posted on June 22, 2012 by Kimberly

Do journalists view PR pros as friends or foes?  That was the question posed by Trulia’s Ken Shuman at a panel he hosted last week.  Respondents included — in order pictured above — AllThingsD’s Kara Swisher, Bloomberg Businessweek’s Doug MacMillan, NBC TechNow!’s Scott Budman and The Wall Street Journal’s Shayndi Raice.  The full presentation (f-bombs and all) can be viewed here, and the tweet stream is at #friendorfoe.

In a room full of 100+ PR pros, it’s not surprising that all panelists agreed that PR flacks are not rivals.  But PR pros definitely have an agenda!  The more honest we are about our companies and our stories, the more credibility we can build over time.  Another best practice is to offer resources beyond just our companies — customers, analysts, influencers and even competitors in the context of industry trends.

The journalists weren’t the only people in the room with agendas.  WSJ’s Shayndi Raice gave PR pros props for having to pitch the most suspicious, skeptical people on the planet.  Beyond a natural tendency toward cynicism, journalists are hungry for exclusives and extremely competitive with one another.  As BBW’s Doug MacMillan noted, if you have true news, every publication will pick up the story, but if you have news and want a feature with in-depth analysis, you need to offer an exclusive.  What he and the other journalists didn’t mention is that companies run the risk of offending outlets when they offer exclusives on truly juicy news.

The topic of exclusives came up during a discussion of embargoes.  The panelists were sick to death of embargoes.  The Wall Street Journal doesn’t accept them as a matter of policy, though sister blog AllThingsD will embargo news if it is offered as an exclusive.  (Incidentally, stay tuned for more news on the relationship between WSJ and AllThingsD, as the partnership is due to expire this November.)  Many panelists are annoyed by embargoes particularly because they see it as a PR tactic to make the news seem more important than it actually is.  One thing they all agreed on — EVERYTHING you send them is ON THE RECORD.  So, unless you have the reporter’s written embargo agreement in advance, assume the content of any email you send is on the record regardless if you state “off-the-record” or “embargo until (date)” in the subject line or body.

In a discussion of PR pet peeves, NBC’s Scott Budman gave a particularly poignant one: overpromising and underdelivering on a story.  Be sure to get your ducks in a row before making the first outreach because it’s really difficult to improve your reputation after a gaffe.

Here are some of the biggest opportunities we can look forward to with the panelists’ respective outlets in 2012:

AllThingsD: New video and audio content products are currently being designed. Get your b-roll ready, and stay tuned for new hires!

BloombergBusinessweek: The outlet has nearly doubled the editorial staff in the last year and added a lot of new blog channels.  Don’t forget the expansion of its San Francisco TV facility Bloomberg West.

NBC: While Scott Budman’s 90-second spot typically feature gadgets, he tries to conduct a 3-minute CEO interview each week and is always looking for Bay Area movers and shakers for that spot.

Wall Street Journal: Trend stories are the best way for smaller companies to gain notice; pitch issues, context, industry experts and competitors.  Another unsung opportunity is the Bay Area section, for which the outlet is always looking for story ideas in all beat categories (provided there is a Bay Area tie).

Image by Townsend Advisers.

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Bloomberg TV & Other Media Outlets Invest in Online Video, E-Books

Posted on June 11, 2012 by Kimberly

Bloomberg West Hosts Jon Erlichman, Cory Johnson and Emily Chang and Multimedia Group CEO Andy Lack Christen Newly Expanded Facility in San Francisco

We reported in May that the U-T would launch a new online TV channel this summer.  This outlet is not the first to push past print and website into live video streaming.  Bloomberg TV has been doing it for years, and we joined the outlet’s party last week announcing the expansion of its San Francisco studio.  Hosts (above left to right) Jon Erlichman, Cory Johnson and expectant mother Emily Chang and Multimedia Group CEO Andy Lack promised to increase the programming hours and use the space for events that will bring together Silicon Valley’s business leaders.

While U-T and Bloomberg West are focusing on more soundbites, the Financial Times and Forbes are cultivating long-form journalism with expansions into e-books.  The FT’s first e-book – “If Greece Goes…” – comprises new writing and repackaged content from a May editorial series by specialist correspondents and commentators.  Forbes is taking the concept one step further by partnering with HyperInk to create an e-book publishing platform that helps journalists and bloggers mine their existing content for themes, organize and update the material into book format and distribute online under the Forbes brand.  The first e-book is by Forbes’ Chief Product Officer Lewis D’Vorkin and is aptly titled, “The Forbes Model for Journalism in the Digital Age.”

Publishers are dramatically changing their vision of content production and delivery.  Like startups, they must do more with less by repackaging existing content and tailoring for different channels like video and long-form publications.  When companies do this with their own content, they’re setting themselves up for success working with the top-tier media outlets that now require diverse multimedia and multi-channel content.

What more can you make of the content you have?  What successes have you had repurposing existing materials?  We’d love your comments.

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Increase Press Coverage: Top San Diego Reporters Reveal their PR Wish Lists

Posted on May 25, 2012 by Elizabeth

I recently had the opportunity to attend the Business Wire “Meet the Media” breakfast in downtown San Diego, where reporters had the chance to vent about what doesn’t work, and what they’d like to see from PR pros.

1) Pitch more experts. According to Mandy Jackson, West Coast Editor for “Scrip Intelligence”, companies should pitch more experts. While she is bombarded with press releases, Mandy would love to receive more pitches pertaining to experts in fields related to her beat. An expert offers a unique perspective and credibility. Companies should also have an expert ready to respond to current events. For example, if a story on malaria just made the cover of the “New York Times,” and you have an expert in the field, offer that expert commentary to other publications.

2) Have a spokesperson ready when sending out a press release. The panelists all shared their frustrations with unfulfilled interview requests. Before sending out a release, confirm spokesperson availability and have that person prepare to distill complex issues to understandable sound bites.

3) Send your press release to the right media contact and only share newsworthy, relevant items. This point can never be stressed enough. Do your homework before you issue a press release. Review past articles to choose relevant reporters and outlets. Think about the publication’s audience and tailor your message. Don’t underestimate how well reporters know their readers; “U-T’s” Gary Robbins shared that he receives a daily analytics report on his web-based stories, and he is finely attuned to which stories attract the most attention and traffic.

Here are a couple more things I learned at the event:

1) Stay tuned for the new U-T San Diego TV channel this summer. Gary Robbins, the “U-T San Diego” reporter covering science, weather, and defense, shared some facts on the new U-T TV and what this means for San Diego news. This $3 million creation will broadcast on cable during the day and will resemble CNBC’s format of reporters visiting the anchor desk from the newsroom to share the current news. Scott Kaplan and Billy Ray “B.R.” Smith, past San Diego sports talk radio celebrities, will host. For more information on U-T TV, check out this video. 

2) Branded business cards leave a lasting impression. At the event, I sat next to Eloisa Orozco, Area Communications Manager for Waste Management. She handed me her business card, and I was blown away by how “on brand” it was. Though smaller than the average business card, hers made a big statement with its paper, which was handmade from 100-percent post-consumer material plus wildflower seeds. The card can be planted in soil or will biodegrade when discarded. Great job Waste Management; your business cards are right on brand, memorable, a great conversation starter, and fun. I am looking forward to wildflowers in my garden soon!

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How Freelance Journalists Pitch the Media

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Kimberly
PR flacks aren’t the only people who pitch the media.  Freelance journalists do, too, and they’ll be the first to tell you it’s a TOUGH way to earn a living.  In “The Freelance Strategist” last week, Grace Bello offered freelancers the following pointers on ”How to Write a Killer Magazine Article Pitch:” 
  • Choose topics about which you have a specific expertise or that only you can tell.
  • Include drama.  Editors can’t use ideas; they need stories that read like movies.
  • Provide research; evidence credible sources.
  • Be concise.
  • Pitch outlets and editorial contacts that best fit your niche.
Assuming you already have a UNIQUE expertise, the second bullet is, by far, the most critical.  All companies have messages stating they have the best solution for solving a particular problem.  That “message” is a fact.  As “The New York Times Magazine’s” Culture Editor Adam Sternbergh tweeted March 23, “…story has characters, timeline, conflict.  Like a movie!” and again April 13: “Review pitch and ask, ‘What’s the tension?’ If no tension, then no story.”  Readers require heroes, villains and action in order to digest messages.
 
This formula is used by all major news media.  Look what happens when we apply it to the cover story of this week’s print issue of “Bloomberg BusinessWeek:”
Cover Story: “Brazil’s War on Big Oil: Tiny Spill.  Huge Bill.  How Brazil Is Shaking Down Chevron,” by Paul Barrett and Peter Millard with Adriana Brasiliero (May 10, 2012)
Characters: George Buck (“Chevron’s top man in Brazil admitted he was out of his depth. ‘I’m just a driller,’ he told colleagues.”) and Eduardo Sandos de Oliviera (“The prosecutor seeks $22 billion in damages from Chevron.”)
Timeline:
  • November 2011 – Northeast of Rio de Janiero – a deep-sea oil well in a field called Frade.  Oil is spotted on the ocean surface.  Veteran driller George Buck of Chevron orders well to be cut off and repaired to prevent a BP-style disaster; apologizes to Brazilians publicly and takes full responsibility.  Problem solved.  Or is it?
  • December 2011 – Brazilian federal prosecutor Eduardo Santos de Oliviera sued Chevron for $11B USD for environmental damage.
  • March 2012 – A Brazilian Navy plan spots a second oil spill in a different section of Frade; Oliviera filed criminal charges against Buck and 16 others, including Chevron employees and those of contractor Transocean, who operated the Deepwater Horizon rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.  Chevron calls charges “outrageous and without merit.”
  • April 2012 – Oliviera sues AGAIN, increasing total damages claim to $22B USD.

Tension: Chevron and other foreign oil companies drilling in Brazil — including France’s Total (quoted), Royal Dutch Shell, Statoil and BP — are baffled that a small spill with no injuries, no contaminated fisheries and no oil on shore is causing such a stir.  Chevron believed it was responsibly cleaning up for itself, and its biggest failure was having an effective communications plan that considered the media, populist protest, political posturing and criminal prosecution in Brazil.  For Brazil, this spill offers more proof that deep-sea drilling is very dangerous and risky despite any corporations best efforts at precaution.  Will this cause Brazil — home of the biggest Americas oil find in the past 30 years — to scale back deep-sea exploration?  Will it distance itself from foreign producers?  How will Brazil scale its national oil company Petrobas, which has a 30 percent stake in the Frade project and significant operational challenges?  How will Brazil’s next move affect the global oil market?

 
What’s your story?  When you’ve got the elements above, it’s time to pitch the media.  Three, two, [clapboard slap]… ACTION!
 
Image courtesy of NS Newsflash
 
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No News? 5 PR Tips to Staying Media-Relevant

Posted on April 19, 2012 by Elizabeth

You can run a business very successfully for months without generating breaking news. Yet, it is imperative to stay top of mind with your key audiences. But how? At Townsend Advisers, we work with clients on several effective tactics for keeping your company relevant to your publics (i.e. the media, customers, vendors, and other groups that you want to influence).

When should you issue press releases?

It important to regularly issue press releases for several reasons.  A press release can be very valuable as simply a keyword-rich SEO tool that drives search traffic to your website and marks your company’s key accomplishments to website visitors.  So what’s press release worthy?

  • New offerings    
  • Management hires
  • Quarterly financial updates
  • High profile customer acquisitions
  • New sources of capital financing
  • Strategic partnerships
  • Company events and anniversaries

News must be timely and relevant. These events all happen in the course of doing business.

Now that we’ve covered what’s press release-worthy, what can you do when your company has no news to report, but you want to remain top of mind in the media? Below are 5 PR tactics for asserting yourself as a thought leader.

1) Contribute articles or op-eds. News outlets are under growing pressure to create more content and more ways for their readers to consume that content.  As such they are in dire need of outside contributors.  Huffington Post pioneered a new model of relying on a large network of outside contributors to provide content to their readers, and now even the New York Times is started to rely more on op-eds to fill their ever-growing need for content.

Consider timely and newsworthy topics relevant to your industry.  What surprising insight can you share on this topic?  The key with contributed content is to think like a journalist; be informative on the topic without advertising your company.  You’ll have a search-optimized chance to promote yourself and your company in the byline and bio that accompanies the article.

2) Secure speaking engagements. Industry trade shows, events and conferences are a great opportunity to influence potential customers, vendors, and partners.  Check the website of these events several months prior for opportunities to nominate yourself as a speaker.  Look at the previous year’s speaking topics to get an idea of what interests the event organizers and attendees.  Pitch a relevant and timely topic that presents a your company as an expert thought leader, and provide valuable and novel content. 

3) Align with key industry influencers, and help them create news.  Partner with or sponsor a key influencer who is well known in your industry.  The partnership itself is news, and then your partner’s news can be your news.  Be sure to pick partners with robust publicity channels to cross-promote the relationship with their followers.  The key here is to ensure that your partner is a true influencer of your target public and to publicize their accomplishments and your role in helping them succeed. 

4) Create a signature award or event.  Identify an opportunity to give back to your industry, your vendors, or your target markets.  As an example, Ernst & Young created an “Entrepreneur of the Year” award and related gala event in order to draw attention to their customers and top prospects, and they have become a successful evangelist within their target communities.

5) Be a resource. Invest some time building relationships with your top-tier reporters and influencers; discover what they’re working on and determine can make any introductions to expert sources who can help. You’ll eventually become the person they call when needing expert commentary for stories and projects.

BONUS: Create an infographic

Infographics have become a new, viral, pop-culture art form.  A really good infographic is short, easy to scan, provides novel information quickly, and motivates people to share it with their friends. 

The key to using an infographic to publicize your company is to not make the infographic about your company!  The infographic should cover something interesting to a wide group of people and applicable to what your company does.  The same way the by-line in a contributed article is enough to tie your company to a thought-leadership topic, the by-line in an infographic is all you need to reap rewards from your infographic’s success.   Tools like visual.ly can help you get started.

What have you done to remain in the news during a news drought?  Share it with us in comments.

 

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What I learned from PR Newswire about New Media Strategies

Posted on February 9, 2012 by Brandon

PR Newswire Logo

Our team recently had the opportunity to meet with Michael Pranikoff, the Director of Emerging Media for PR Newswire, our beloved wire service. Michael shared with us some great new tips and tricks for using new media (social networks, blogs, multimedia, etc.), that we’ll pass along to you.  Here are 13 tips for mastering new media strategies:

1. Use the right social media platform for your business. Evaluate your target market, business objectives, and how social media can help you reach those objectives. From there, use the platform(s) that fit with your needs.

Gentlemint Logo 2.  New social networks and tools are gaining popularity. They may not be as big as Facebook or Twitter, but they can help you reach very targeted groups.  For example, Pinterest tends to have a mostly female demographic. Use this knowledge to your advantage. Gentlemint is supposed to be the new Pinterest for men.

3. Eloqua has a great social media playbook which they openly invite you to steal. Check it out.

4. Social media is not about having the most likes and followers, it is about engaging with your customers and encouraging conversation. Your objectives should be related to engagement, not volume.

Google Plus Logo5. Sorry Google+, but you aren’t growing up to be the social platform Google hoped you would be. The reality is many people have a Google+ account, but few regularly use it. That said, we wouldn’t bet against Google. We’ll be watching very closely to see how this social network evolves.

6. Blog posts should be 300-350 words. Tumblr, which survives in the world between blogs and Twitter, should have posts between 100-150 words.

7. If creating a video, keep it short (90 seconds or less). You lose 20% of your audience in the first 10 seconds, so earn continued viewership by capturing attention immediately.

Twitter Logo 8. Google does not index Twitter posts, but they do index Twitter aggregators. What that means is your tweets must be retweeted in order to have an impact on your SEO. Tweet content that people want to share. Bing does index Twitter; 2012 might see continued momentum for Bing.

9. When writing a press release think, “What action do I want someone to take from this press release?”

10. Distribute more multimedia press releases. The data shows that they are picked up more than traditional press releases. Reporters, like everyone, love to consume images, video, and infographics. Give them what they want.

11. Include simple infographics with your press releases. Simple means no more than 3 major points. No one likes a complicated infographic! Look at visual.ly for examples both good and bad (hint: if you get bored or lose interest, it’s bad).

12.  A press release should clearly highlight 2-3 main points. Any more than that, and you have lost your audience. If your release has more than 2-3 points, break it up into multiple releases.

13. Consider changing the style of your press release to make it easier to read for reporters. Check out this example which breaks down the press release with main points, facts, and quotes.

Is there anything you’ve learned about using new media in 2012? Share it with us in comments!

 

 

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Townsend PR: Correlation Ventures Raises $165 Million

Posted on January 17, 2012 by Elizabeth

Correlation Ventures Raises $165 Million in Oversubscribed Initial Fund

Correlation Ventures Management Team

Correlation Ventures, the venture capital industry’s predictive analytics pioneer, announces the closing of an initial $165 million venture capital fund, 10 percent above the $150 million target.  The firm leverages its analytics to offer entrepreneurs and lead investors co-investment decisions within two weeks. Limited partners include leading endowments, foundations, pensions, family offices, and high-net-worth individuals, including over 30 venture capital peers who invested personally. Read the complete press release online at PR Newswire.

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