Robin Leedy & Associates Newsletter/Blog

by Christian Brucculeri

In today’s digital marketplace, I am always fascinated when I see major brands that do not pay close attention to their organic search results.  A quick Google search of IAMS pet food gives the following results:

This is not an attempt to criticize P&G, an incredible company with a huge portfolio of great brands (there are a number of other brands and companies for whom this example is relevant); but I can’t help but wonder if anyone at P&G is monitoring their brands’ organic search presence. 

The results above are the story that consumers are told when they search for Iams.  Right or wrong, justified or not, responsibility falls on the brand to address, or at least be a part of this conversation.  The biggest problem with the story above is that its only one side of the story.  Where is the response from Iams?  Inaction in social media is the same as responding to a journalist with “no comment”; it leaves you at the mercy of those who chose to publish and make heard their views.

Organic search results matter more now than ever.  With consumer Tweets, blog posts, message board comments and other social conversations showing up in search results, effectively protecting and promoting a brand’s reputation online is becoming a minefield of micro-interactions.

There are a number of ways to monitor and optimize your search presence to protect your brand value; the best of which involves giving your best customers a platform to express their affinity for your product.   Regardless of what your social media strategy is, not having one is no longer an option.

 

June Agency News

Watching the ups and downs of the stock market every day, along with all the media talk about the economy, is enough to put any of us over the edge. Are we at the bottom, when will the recovery start, will the official collapse of GM prolong the recession and when will consumers start spending again? These and other economy-related questions seem to be all that anyone can talk about – myself included. That is, until recently. Now I have a new obsession and that is, how everything in communications – during the recession and after – is going to be different. Vastly different, forever changed. PR and communications will never look the same.

Social media, which we’ve been talking about in this blog for 18-months or so, is surely a part of the change. But the overreaching change is much broader than Facebook, MySpace or Twitter (which we covered in our last blog), or whether cable will win out over broadcast TV or if newspapers will survive. It’s about how we get and share information, and for communicators, how do we manage this new world. This is the focus of our “Talking PR” and “Chit Chatter” columns – both written by the newest member of RL&A’s Chatter department, Christian Brucculeri, who has been busy developing and executing a number of social media programs for many RL&A clients.

We also have some great PR results to highlight in this issue, including placements on CBS’s The Doctors, as well as many popular blogs and magazines, in our “Clients in the News” section. So please read on and enjoy – and if you’re interested in learning more about how RL&A can help your company or brand communicate and “engage” with target audiences, just shoot me or Alyson an email at rrusso@robinleedyassociates.com or aomahoney@robinleedyassociates.com. We’ll be happy to do a communications audit for your brand that may just change the way you see your consumer outreach – and whether your current efforts are working. Also, if you or a marketing colleague plan to be at NACDS later this month and would like to meet with Alyson and I in between retailer meetings (or when you are on booth patrol), let us know.

The Doctors, which airs nationally on CBS to an average of three million viewers, has many health-brand manufacturers drooling with the thought of their product being featured on this popular show. RL&A had two clients featured over the past two months – Florastor Kids and the Enfant Vision Test. Working with Dr. Sears, one of the most well known pediatricians and a featured doctor on the show, as well as show producers, both segments prominently featured the products by name and with visuals. Dr. Sears is part of the renowned Sears family of pediatric experts and is co-author of the popular “Baby Book.” 

A great placement in Martha Stewart magazine (with a whopping readership of 8.1 million) recently featured Softlips Tinted Lip Conditioner as a great choice with its SPF 15 lip protection. Softlips was also featured in the May Issue of Women’s Health (readership: 4.7 million) to help prevent vertical wrinkles and scaliness.

Exercise got you sweating? RL&A’s placement in the April issue of Self magazine (readership: 5.9 million) recommends client DSE’s Certain Dri antiperspirant because its aluminum chlorohydrate helps cut down on perspiration – even when you’re working out.

RL&A’s program for The Mentholatum Company’s ROHTO eye drops includes endorsements from celebrity makeup artist Nick Barose, who is quoted in the May issue of InStyle magazine (readership: 7+ million) in its “Deals and Steals” section. 

Community Management:  The New Frontier

As marketers, we spend so much time and energy trying to guess who our customers are.  We take surveys, we hold focus groups, we read the research and we paint a picture of the people who want to buy our product.  While traditional research methods are excellent tools for getting a read on our customers, social media is quickly reinventing our ability to listen, learn and act.  Through proven methods of what we call Community Management, brands now have the ability to collect relevant conversations, identify their key influencers, define their target demographic and create systems to enable two-way communication and measure the results.

Listen & Learn
A common misconception of marketing in social media is that it can be purchased in the same manner as traditional media. The problem with this approach is that Community Management is a process, not a flight.  This process of developing relationships begins with listening to existing conversations about your product, brand category and competitors, and applying these findings to quantitative benchmarks. The net result of creating this snapshot is a defined set of actionable insights and key performance indicators for your campaign. Too many marketers miss this step and end up questioning the ROI of social media campaigns without defining what they were trying to achieve in the first place. This is a crucial misstep in the process of creating a social media presence and can waste significant time, effort and money.

Act
Creating a platform is defining where you'd like to build and how you'd like to interact. There are a number of social media channels to consider; and some of these work better for certain brands than others.  Again, this step is built from listening to the space and deciding how you'd like to create impact.  For example, if you decide to create a Facebook page, you need to decide what you're going to do to keep it active and interesting.  Generally, profiles aren't Web sites.  Making a page and putting up product shots will not foster community;  you need to be engaging and you need to facilitate conversation. If you're reaching out to a network of bloggers, you need to give them something.  Whether it’s great content, a product to review, or a way to cross-promote their space, bloggers are interested in creating and maintaining relationships;  they are not interested in being free advertising space.  All of your tactics in social media need to be centered around creating and strengthening relationships with your customer base.

Measure
Lastly, defining ROI on your campaigns is vital to effective marketing.  With clearly defined performance indicators and a benchmark of your presence, measuring ROI becomes a much simpler process. The problem marketers are having is figuring out which measurement unit to use.  I contend that you can measure social tactics with any metric you want, so long as you decide how to measure it before you begin. All success is measured on change:  what is the change in comments, conversations, inbound links, clicks to site, friends, impressions, conversions, sales, etc. Unless you are starting with a baseline, you'll never get to the finish line.

Are you listening?

The New Consumption Dynamic

Supply & Demand

With the recent news about the New York Times and Boston Globe running into financial peril, this seems an apt time to talk about why print publications, both long and short lead, are having so much trouble maintaining their historic revenue streams.  The quick and obvious answer is that these publications are being hit from two sides by the new digital environment: since consumers can now get their news for free online, they are purchasing less print publications and, as a result, advertisers are spending less money to reach their diminishing audiences. At first glance, this follows the natural law of economics:

1. Consumers want content.
2. They used to pay for it AND read advertisements while consuming it.
3. They no longer have to.
4. As a result, demand for print publications goes down…and will continue to go down long after the economy rebounds.

But when we look closely at what's happening, I contend that this has less to do with price and more to do with experience.

Consumer Value & the Experience Product

I just bought the new PunchOut game for the Nintento Wii. Between work and classes, I have no idea when I'll ever play it, but I was thrilled to discover it was available for the new Nintendo system and I couldn't wait to tap back into my inner 10 year-old.  Bravo to Nintendo for advertising to let me know about it!!

Except they didn't.  Or at least, that's not how I found out about the game's availability.  A friend of mine posted a YouTube video in Facebook with a comment.  Some trash-talking ensued and, before lunch-hour rolled around (Thank you Amazon!!), I owned the game.

The New York Times' financial troubles and my decision to buy Punch Out are very closely related:  its all about experience.

When you buy a newspaper, you're all alone. You read through the articles, you glance at the advertisements, you fold it up into neat little origami shapes of readable size and, occasionally (usually on the weekends), you interrupt your partner, co-worker or friend to say, "Hey, check this out". This experience is isolated, and, unless you happen to speak with someone who has read the same article, does little for our ability to share our views, thoughts and impressions from the content.

Now, when The Times posts an article online,  I can:

1. Share the article with my followers on Twitter.
2. Post it with comments in my Facebook news feed.
3. Email it to my grandma, boss or brother.
4. Comment below the article and have my thoughts be seen by all New York Times readers.

In my opinion,  this ability to share and interact is a new consumption dynamic. It's like going to a concert instead of buying the CD;  the experience has almost infinite touch-points and we feel like we're a part of it. We all want to share what we know; its basic human nature for us to connect with one another. How can a print version of the same story possibly compete with my ability to interact with the online story? It's not that the content has changed, my experience has changed and I don't want to go back to the way things were. I want to share things, hear my friends opinions and be heard myself.  While not all of our thoughts and opinions belong in social networks, the power of these new platforms to influence consumers is unmatched in any other form of media. We're all at the concert, and the record store seems so much less appealing than it used to.

The lesson for brands in this new dynamic is to give people things that are worth discussing. If your product is conversation-worthy, you need a platform that goes beyond a banner ad;  you have to build a platform for people to share their experiences with your product and you have to give them tools to do so.  If your product isn't conversation- worthy, you need to get behind some content that is, and make sure you can stay in the conversation.  People are willing to pay for products, services and experiences that they value. Advertising in the new consumption dynamic means offering an experience that is worth having.

Directing the Chatter: RL&A Hires Director of Social Media

The New York Times (February 23, 2009) reported in an article, “The Facebook Era is for Adults, Too,” that more than 60 percent of baby boomers are avid consumers of social media, such as blogs, forums, podcasts and online video, up from roughly 40 percent a year ago. This is music to our ears, as RL&A grows its Chatter RL&A social media department with the hiring of Christian Brucculeri as director of social media. Christian starts this month bringing a broad skill set and unique perspective to his position with his experience in the digital and entertainment arenas.

As a Senior Account Director for YouCast Corporation where he spent several years, Christian played a central role in transforming the YouCast product from a marketing vehicle for bands and Web products into a platform for major consumer brands to enter and participate in the online conversation. In 2008, Christian developed and activated successful social media campaigns for Snapple, Pepsi, Energizer, Schick, Macy’s, Pandora Radio, KFC, Triaminic, Sony, Warner Bros. Entertainment and others.

Christian began his marketing career as an intern for Bullygoat Records (Warner Bros.) where he helped launch Active Rock & Metal bands in digital media. Promoted to Director of Artist Management for Zen Media Group in 2004, Christian was responsible for managing online strategies for Anthrax, Mudvayne (Epic Records), Otep (Capitol), Bloodsimple (Warner Bros) and Krista (J/RCA Records). He holds a BBA in Management from The George Washington University and is currently an MBA student at NYU’s Stern School of Business.

John Whitcomb, social media coordinator at RL&A for the past year and a half will report to Christian and together with him, help enhance Chatter RL&A’s cutting edge digital and social media campaigns. If you would like to learn more about what Chatter RL&A can do for your company, contact Christian at Cbrucculeri@robinleedyassociates.com.

RL&A Signs New Clients

Just a little more than halfway through the first quarter of 2009, we’re pleased to announce several new RL&A client programs, including one for Taro Pharmaceutical’s Ovide for Head Lice, an Rx, first-line product that eradicates both head lice and nits and is safe for children and adults. For Diopsys, RL&A will conduct a public relations and social media program targeted to both pediatricians and moms for its Enfant Vision Screening test. Expanding on the work we already do for The Mentholatum Company of Buffalo, NY, including Softlips Lip Conditioners and ROHTO eye drops, RL&A will be conducting a campaign for Cherry Chest Rub for Kids, a topical rub that acts as a cough suppressant.

The troubled economy is stirring a lot of stories on ways to cut back, save money, get value from products, etc., which is perfect for many of our drug store  brands!  For example, the February issue of Elle magazine featured ROHTO eye drops as a professional stylist pick in a “cost-conscious makeup bag.”  Elle has a readership of 4.3 million.

Ever wonder how to make yourself look more awake than you actually are? Well, Gita Bass, our own celebrity makeup artist for the ROHTO PR campaign, answers that very question in the March edition of Shape (readership 6.8 million), including ROHTO eye drops to help “whiten your eyes.”

In our outreach efforts to gain editorial coverage in top alternative health publications for select clients, Florastor and Sambucol were both featured in Natural Health, a top health magazine with a readership of nearly 1.5 million geared toward “alternative health enthusiasts” as well as those who have adopted a natural health lifestyle.

RL&A’s Chatter social media division has greatly stepped up efforts to target the influential blogging community with key products/messages, particularly mommy and beauty bloggers. These influencers are actively producing content on a daily basis for a group of loyal constituents who follow their blogs on a regular basis. In the past couple of months, some of our larger blog hits included:

Shefinds.com (150,000 monthly visitors) is one of the largest blogs out there in the beauty industry  recently featured Softlips lip balm.

LA Pretty.com (30,000 monthly) – beauty blog geared toward the Los Angeles area featured Softlips, Phisoderm and ROHTO in a recent entry.