Corporateinklings

Who Are You Calling Small?

Memo to small businesses: The eyes of economists (and the world) are on you to lead us out of the recession. The value of a great idea – and the ability to turn it into commercial success – just got a lot bigger, especially as consumers clearly aren’t racing to spend a way out of the mess.

Last week, I attended the SBANE* finalist judging for its ’09 New England Innovation Awards, and I can tell you that innovation did not die on the vine when credit lines froze up last fall.

These 20 semi-finalist organizations range from nanotechnology pioneers to a mobile surgical unit that can be deployed anywhere an 18-wheeler can go. They’re creating products consumers want to buy, winning $mm contracts, opening new markets, and hiring smart and talented workers.

Not really a surprise at all, since most of my clients are exactly these companies – start-ups with great ideas who deliver real business value in supply chain, healthcare, financial services and more. What was a pleasant surprise was the SBANE organization itself.  Instead of a networking group for mom-n-pop shops, I found a group of sharp, experienced serial entrepreneurs and business leaders passionate enough to leave their day jobs and volunteer their time to foster the spirit of innovation.

Fast Company recently wrote about innovation being outsourced, too, along with so many other capabilities in the endless quest for “efficiencies” and “core competencies.”

Not to worry.  SBANE showed this week we’ve still got what it takes to re-fire the economy’s engine. Vision. Volunteers. Innovation.  Recovery on a large-scale can start right here in our backyard. Who’s ready?

*The Smaller Business Association of New England

  - Posted by Megan Boyaval

General Catalyst Pools Marketing Experts: Go. Target. Open. Integrate.

I just attended a fascinating workshop hosted by General Catalyst Partners for its portfolio companies. The topic: Marketing Through a Recession. But the content was nothing about battening down hatches or retreating, or finding ways to cut costs – all that has been done, of course.

This session mixed two dozen portfolio companies, a handful of trusted vendors, and a few top thinkers, including Jeffrey Rayport, former Harvard Biz School professor and now Monitor marketing consultant, and David Kenny, one of the savviest web marketers around – the former CEO at Digitas, and now the chief digerati at Publicis.

So what are they saying?

Like any top-flight consultant, Rayport boiled it down to 5 rules – which could be summed up as ‘just give it up.’

1. Target your core group – and then give them all the information they could possibly want.

2. Understand your community – who they really are. What drives them? What do they care about? Now make yourself real – and give them a reason to get active on your behalf.

3. Work the Web – this means unleashing the power of the social network. Adopt an open source mentality, and position yourself as an aggregator of terrific, compelling content.

4. Recognize that each customer will experience you differently – at the desktop, on their phone. Design the interaction for that experience.

5. And integrate, integrate, integrate. Assume that all of your marketing is cross-channel.

What does this tell me? That our blog – and our clients’ blogs – will be better and more compelling if we’re more honest, more open, and take more risks.

That sharing information is absolutely the name of the game.  For two years, we’ve been predicting that vendors will become the new publishers. There is an absolutely vast opportunity to create deep, credible information—and syndicate it. Because users will be clamoring for information, even if they don’t know exactly where to get it right now.

 

Teaser:  There’s more on the front-lines of advertising.

To come next week:

* How Nike targets specific viewers – this means you – with demographically targeted commercials on cable TV.

* How China is trying to keep consumerism ‘manageable.’  

* How Proctor and Gamble and IBM are selling shampoo in India. And what it really takes to sell technology to one of the world’s biggest advertising companies. (This is a lesson for absolutely anyone targeting the F 100.)

   - Posted by Amy Bermar

Why We Do What Reporters Say They Hate

I spent my first decade as a reporter, officially scorning any and all PR.  What did I hate? Lousy pitches. Annoying follow-ups. And mostly, the feeling that I was doing a vendor’s bidding. It felt lazy, and somehow, beneath the unspoken standards of performance.

Now that I’m on the ‘other’ side – I smile, and recoil, when I read the I-Hate-PR-blogs that fed-up reporters use to vent their frustration (perhaps with the world, but certainly with flaks.) They hate the self-serving releases. The stupid calls. The ill-informed interns who don’t know the pub they are pitching, and somehow were never trained, or just don’t care enough, to do the homework to figure out what a reporter will actually be interested in hearing – and learning about.

Because that’s what reporters do; they learn. On the job, every day, often without enough time to do it as well as they’d like. Which is one reason why so many reporters and bloggers – including those with followings – are willing to take news and run with it.  For starters, real news gets covered. It’s also usually interesting.

Of course we follow up, with phone calls, or emails. And every day, it results in meaningful coverage, because it opens up conversations about new stories, and trends, that may be related to the news we sent over, or not.

So why do we do what reporters swear they hate? Sometimes, they simply didn’t see the news. Other times, the releases are so confused – too many editors, too focused on the company, burying the ‘real’ news – that it takes a phone call or an email pitch to put the real news value in capital letters.

Of course the best reporters want exclusives, at least some of the time. And the best stories are always driven by creative, enterprising pitches that dig up new data, new insights, and something fresh to say.

At the same time, you may be amazed (dismayed?) at how many Page 1 stories start out with a phone call from the agency…

   - Posted by Amy Bermar

Is the Press Release Dead Yet?

For the past year, we’ve been talking with our clients about rolling out digital news releases – a reporter-and-blogger-friendly mix of bulleted information, presentations, photos, user quotes and assorted other information – no more messaging, positioning, fluffy quotes from executives who want to beat their own drums, etc. Just the facts – finally, giving reporters everything they need to write the story.

Cisco and Oracle have been doing this for years, and here’s more ammo for those on the brink, from blogger David Henderson.

The gist: Reporters just want the facts. (What a surprise.) They want to write their own stories. (What a surprise.) They certainly don’t want news that has already been circulated, a la Business Wire, PR Newswire or even just email blasts. (Really?) And please don’t have that pathetic, ill-informed intern follow up to see if I got the news, read it and will write about it. (More on that tomorrow.)

So why aren’t more companies jumping on digital news releases? They take more time to create. They’re different. We can’t be sure how they’ll work.

It shouldn’t be such a big jump. Releases ain’t what they were, anyhow. The best ones speak to reporters, sure; but also speak – loudly – to Google, with headlines optimized for search, even if they don’t sing as sweetly. The next audiences: Customers, prospects, analysts, and possibly investors, acquirers, partners, and employees.

Do these groups still want their news nicely packaged for a quick read? Or will they be willing – even eager – to dig through the ‘other sources’ and come up with their own story?

Oh, wait: Isn’t that what they say they do already?

   - Posted by Amy Bermar