Increase in PR and Advertising Jobs

There seems to be some proof that the recession is turning around - both locally and nationally.

Locally, Joanna Sullivan of the Baltimore Business Journal interviewed 10 ad agency heads and described some of them as “downright giddy.” They are hiring and pitching new business, and their clients are spending more.

Nationally, a Council of Public Relations Firms (CPRF) survey reports similar news. Interesting stats from the survey are:

• Compared to the first half 2009, 74% of firms have seen an increase in revenues so far in 2010 (Q2 survey)
• 82% of firms expect to see the demand for digital and social media services increase in 2010 (according to a Q4 2009 survey)
• According to the following percentage of Council members, Consumer (56%), Healthcare (46%), and Technology (37%) had the most new business activity during Q1 2010

It appears that the PR and advertising fields are being revived by crises and social media!

Booming PR Industry

If you saw the January 14 posting by The Economist claiming that the PR industry is booming and, like me, you said “WHAT?”, then read on.

I read a few short synopsis of The Economist’s article and was dumbfounded.  About half of the people I know who are PR professionals were laid off this year, and now I’m hearing that, apparently, the industry is booming? Talk about PR spin.

Turns out that the full article is very interesting. And true. Here’s why:

• Increased need for PR firms from the “Uh-oh’s” in the corporate world (i.e. “undeserved bonuses, plunging share prices and government bail-outs, among other ills”)
• Increased demand for PR due to the recession 
• Spending on PR grew by more than 4% in 2008 and nearly 3% in 2009 to $3.7 billion (comparatively, spending on advertising decreased by nearly 3% in 2008 and by 8% in 2009)
• WOM and social media have been a big boon; in fact, spending in these areas increased by more than 10% in 2009, and spending on them -  particularly social media - will continue into perpetuity
• Services provided by PR and advertising firms are blending (which I have mentioned myself)
• The crushing impact on the journalist community has profited the PR industry, as PR professionals have some specialized knowledge to figure out new routes to gain the attention of the dwindling number of journalists 

Very interesting article - it certainly changed my  mind about the profession, and gave me some hope.

Flies Carrying Ads

What? Flies carrying ads? Yes, you heard correct, folks. I’m still a little miffed at the ads on my cell phone, so this latest is truly interesting. I have no idea what the company is or what they’re selling, but the concept is amazing. Genius.

Setting up a Shingle

I’ve written before about the hit that marketing, advetising, and public relations takes during a recession. I serve on the Board for PRSA-MD, and half of the Board members have gotten laid off this year. This statistic is also high for our members. With a plethora of talented advertising, marketing, and public relations professionals glutting the workforce, hitting up against a limited number of available jobs, particularly for senior-level professionals, it’s no wonder that more and more advertising, marketing, and public relations mavens are deciding to set up shop on their own.

Some advice:

Find your niche. Have you dealt with alot of restaurants? Maybe a larger percentage of your past work has been with automotive? Do you have alot of experience planning large events? Small events? Whatever it is, find your niche, and market it. Just like any large company, you need to differentiate yourself from all the other sole practitioners out there.

Professionalism. Answer voicemails and e-mails promptly. Put together a slick Web site. Have business cards made up. From day one, put your best foot forward - after all, in this industry, more than any other (other than the straight beauty industry), impressions have a huge impact.

Hit up your contacts. Hey, it can’t hurt, and it may even help. Get the word out that you’re providing your considerable knowledge and experience under your own name. You never know who knows who, or who has heard of what opportunity.

Network. Join a professional group, join a local networking group, attend career educational events. Come armed with business cards.

Elevator speech. Have your standard ‘elevator speech’ - a one or two sentence description of what your company does, and why you do it better than anyone else - down pat.

Essentially, start out with how you want to finish. Take the time to put together a business plan - it will guide all your decisions.

Good luck!

Advertising in a Recession

It seems that when a recession arrives, the first things to go are marketing, advertising, and public relations: the staff, the budget, the strategy. However, this is probably the worst move a company can make in a down economy.

This is proven fact. The companies who continued to advertise during the 1980 to 1985 recession had a 256% growth by recession end over their competitors that had stopped or decreased ad spending, per a study by McGraw-Hill Research.

By ’staying in the game,’ you’ll be the lone gunman, so to speak. You’ll be the voice the customer sees, versus your competitors, who have all stopped advertising. Talk about cutting through the clutter!

Plus, not only will you be able to attract more customers by 1) being the only ones advertising and 2) offering them deals, but you’ll also be able to get some deals yourself on ad spending. When no one else is doing spending ad money, the radio stations, TV stations, and print publications cut their costs in the hope of attracting customers - you.

Don’t fall victim to the lure of saving money by cutting your marketing, public relations, and advertising budgets. Rather, keep that budget in place, and actually earn more money - and  more long-term customers - for your business by keeping your brand in the forefront of your customers’ mind.

Clif Bar Ads - Hilarious!

I am a triathlete. I love triathlons, and am fascinated by the sport. In fact, I write regularly on the subject of triathlons as the Baltimore Triathlon Examiner (please don’t mind the truly awful picture of me; honestly, I really don’t look like that).

As such, I’ve come across an ad by Clif Bar that I’m still snickering over. It is truly hilarious, the funniest I’ve seen in a while. Granted, I’m not sure how much it does to promote the brand other than via the Clif Bar tagline, but the ad is certainly memorable.

Take a gander:

Top Ten Cruddiest Headlines

The Denver Egotist recently posted a timely article titled “The Rant: The Top 10 Cruddiest Headlines That Prove You’re a No-Talent Hack“. This piece tickled me so much, I’ll paraphrase their main points (the sincerest form of flattery, heh?) here.  

The top ten worst headlines and headline techniques (and they are truly awful) are:

1. No headline at all. Self-explanatory, really. This is pure laziness sold to an unsuspecting client.
2. Size matters. Aren’t we over this yet?
3. There’s [attribute]. And there’s [product attribute]. It worked back in the day, and personally I think it can still be clever, but it no doubt has been overused and has lost its edge.
4. Start your engines. Just a snazzier way of saying “Get ready”- which doesn’t say anything, really.
5. Or buy a [product]. Used with a blatantly silly visual, this approach is simply exhausting in its blandness.
6. There’s only one way to spell [word/phrase] - [brand]. Apparently, there’s many ways to spell it, because many people have used this line.
7. Think you know [word/product/brand]. Think again. Okay, I will. I’ll think of your competitor, who (hopefully) has a more creative ad campaign.
8. Got [brand/product]? It works for “Got Milk?” because that was the original. Everything else is just a clone.
9. The good and bad news. Again, pure laziness.
10. Puns. Or, as the author describes them, “painfully obviously wordplay.” They usually read as very silly wordsmithing.

What other cruddy headlines and headline tricks can you think of?

Apple’s Mac Marketing

Conceptually, has there ever been a better ad campaign than the “Hi, I’m a Mac” series? Seriously. These ads are engaging, entertaining, and creative, while also being informative - subtly - about the brand and the brand image they want to convey. You leave each ad in this series with a clear picture of what a Mac can do, as opposed to the negatives of a PC - at least from Apple’s perspective.

Microsoft has attempted a rebuttal campaign, which on paper I’m sure looked pretty good; it even looks pretty good on air. However, the strength of the Mac ads overpowers everything.  To be able to reduce your brand essence down to a T-shirted guy, and use this same guy to illustrate each strength of your product, is illuminating.

Now, there’s been debate as to whether or not the Mac ads are entirely truthful, and they are obviously selling their product on the ‘coolness’ factor. Plus, I’d love to see a study on how these campaigns have affected sales for each brand - for a time, Mac’s share went up, but with the economic downturn, their sales have been declining (the speculation is that while Macs aren’t losing customers, people aren’t buying them right now due to their hefty price tag). But have these ads helped to boost Mac sales? Not sure. Regardless, this is marketing and advertising conception at its finest creatively.

PR, Marketing, Communications - Oh My

I just spent a jam-packed weekend at the Public Relations Society of America’s (PRSA) Leadership Rally in New York City, and left not only with tons of ideas for our Chapter but also with the suspicion that public relations as it has been known for the past 100+ years no longer exists.

Now, I’m more of a mind to think that public relations, marketing, and communications are blending into one field. The standard distinction has been that marketing is about sales and pr is about reputation management, but, honestly, isn’t it all the same now? We all employ the same tactics to achieve the same result - brand management to build/foster a company’s/person’s reputation to, ultimately, increase sales.

Pitchmen - Snake Oil Salesmen or Genius?

If any of you have seen the Discovery Channel’s new television show, Pitchmen, you’re more than likely as fascinated by and addicted to it as I am.

The show airs on Wednesdays at 10pm ET on the Discovery Channel and highlights two ‘pitchmen’, Billy Mays and Anthony “Sully” Sullivan, as they meet with new inventors, choose a couple products, and pitch them.  Billy Mays, with his trademark beard and blue shirt, is well known as the face of Orange Glo, Oxi-Clean, and Kaboom!, among many others, while Sully and his British accent has pitched Foodsaver and The Smart Chopper.

However, the show is not as simple as following two guys around as they find and pitch products. Rather, it opens your eyes to the billion-dollar world of infomercials, a world that too often has been considered to be the realm of snake oil salesmen and con artists. Frankly, it shows you how wrong we all have been.

Contrary to popular belief, these pitchmen don’t market just anything. The products that Billy and Sully initially choose is based on their gut instinct and ad-hoc testing by themselves and members of the likely target market - they are very passionate about each product they pitch, and truly believe in what they are selling. So far, the products have included the “Dual Saw”, the “Spot Sucker”, and the “Tool Bandit”, among others, and, honestly, I watched each show thinking each and every product featured would be a huge success. However, this is where the genius comes in - not only do Billy and Sully have a knack for picking likely successful products, but they also display their marketing savvy in how they craft and pitch each infomercial.

You go into the show knowing that these two men are master pitchmen - personally, I feel they can sell anything (in fact, just this week I saw a commercial of Billy Mays pitching health insurance. Granted, I feel this is a miss in terms of matching a face to a brand, but it just shows that when someone wants something sold, they think of Billy or Sully as their go-to guy). But you leave the show in awe of the marketing genius that is behind a successful infomercial and how not only the face selling the product, but also - as in traditional marketing - the planning and strategy can make or break a product.

No matter how passionate the inventor or how emotionally invested the pitchmen, the products that Billy and Sully choose to take further is based on the results of their test ad campaign. If the results don’t back up the product, Billy and Sully don’t, either.

Pitchmen takes an often murky and overlooked world, the world of infomercials and direct response TV, and transforms it into the next big marketing frontier. Free up your calendar on Wednesday nights to tune in, and you’ll likely leave as fascinated as I am.