Kentucky is synonymous with horses but in recent years the state has made some significant strides in burnishing that image worldwide and protecting its equine industry (and its image) on the legislative and PR front.
The Bluegrass State is fortunate to have one of the largest branding opportunities every year in May with the Kentucky Derby run at its fabled racetrack Churchill Downs, the Wrigley and Fenway (combined) of horse racing. So it's no surprise that the state's two largest universities are tapping Derby week to further its push for the state to be the "horse capital of the world." And there's a PR opportunity here, too.
The University of Louisville is looking to hire PR support with two RFPs ahead of the first-ever Kentucky International Equine Summit set for April 2008. The event should be both a significant PR challenge and an opportunity as it is taking place in Lexington during the week of the Derby, a unique time of crowded hotels and restaurants, many distractions, and a few people like the late Hunter Thompson roaming around. UofL, which is sponsoring the two-day event with the Univ. of Kentucky, has issued the two RFPs – one for advertising and PR, while a second covers PR and media relations. The RFPs can be downloaded here.
Lexington firm Preston-Osborn won a Silver Anvil last year for its work with the Kentucky Equine Education Project, a statewide effort to organize and brand the Bluegrass State as the "horse capital of the world." Campaigns like that are vital to Kentucky especially as the industry globalizes and major events are popping up around the world, particularly in the Middle East.
Competitive horse racing has a unique niche in American culture, although the sport has had difficulty connecting to a younger audience. But the ongoing media and public saga over the injured and later euthanized thoroughbred Barbaro this year shows that a broad public interest is there to be tapped.
Constantin Basturea is lighting the fires for Global PR Blog Week 3.0. Some new things for this year are live and Second Life events, a digg-style voting mechanism, and video.
John Stodder sees naivete in a consumer group’s crusade against Edelman client Unlever. Unilever is being targeted by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood – an umbrella organization of groups with names like Hardy Girls, Healthy Women, Concerned Educators for a Safe Environment, and Teachers Resisting Unhealthy Children’s Entertainment. The group sees hypocrisy in Unilver’s heralded Dove Campaign for Real Beauty and a current contest for Unilever’s more racey brand, Axe. Edelman handles both brands.
Waggener Edstrom is working with the U.N.'s Millennium Development anti-poverty effort on a day-long "Stand Up, Speak Out" global awareness event Oct. 16-17 steeped in social media.
The campaign is using a "meetup" style of political social networking and a blog to encourage participants around the world to set up their own events and to literally stand up for poverty on that day. Sites on Facebook, MySpace, Flickr and videos on YouTube are all being utilized.
The Magnet name has lost its attraction to Havas, which hopefully signals that the French are getting serious about PR in the U.S.
Havas officially put an end to Magnet Communications with today’s “blockbuster” news that
"Euro RSCG Magnet, the U.S. public relations arm of Euro RSCG Worldwide and the PR arm of Euro RSCG Life, a leading, global health communications agency have aligned their public relations assets to create a single PR offering that will enhance the capabilities of both operations.”
How is that for clarity? The convoluted press release is fitting for Magnet, which failed to develop its own “brand” or identity during its seven-year life.
Magnet has been around (and bounced around) since June 22, 2000. It sprung to life via the merger of venerable PR firm Creamer Dickson Basford and ACG Communications, an interactive and events shop. Kratz & Jensen and Capstone were tossed into the mix to create a PR powerhouse with 224 staffers in Chicago, Pittsburgh, New York and five California cities. Billings were more than $30M, coming from stalwarts such as IBM and H.J. Heinz. Darryl Salerno was the kick-off CEO. What happened?
Magnet merged with Euro RSCG Middleberg on April Fool’s Day, 2004 to become Euro RSCG Magnet. Don Middleberg, in one of PR's shrewdest deals, sold his dot-com shop to Euro RSCG in June, 2000. He says Middleberg Communications was a $20M operation then, staffed by 150. Middleberg was gone by Magnet merger time, and so were many others. Euro RSCG Magnet's staff totaled 150 when it added Middleberg's people.
PR veteran John Margaritis came to the rescue on Nov. 30, 2005 when he was named executive VP of Euro RSCG Worldwide PR. His primary focus was to figure out what to do with Euro RSCG Magnet.
That decision has now been made. Magnet is gone. Euro RSCG Magnet is now going under the name Euro RSCG Worldwide PR North America with Euro RSCG Life PR as a “sub-brand.”
Euro RSCG Life PR? That is a story for another day.
Mayo Clinic’s media relations and new media guru thinks PR pros ignoring social media are guilty of "malpractice." Good thing he has a 12-step program.
Burson-Marsteller is basking in a warm media glow of late, which is good news for the PR profession. The spate of stories demonstrates the true power of PR. The coverage is more valuable than the information inside a hundred college PR textbooks.
The Wall Street Journal has been especially “hot” for the WPP unit. It ran an “A-4” story Sept. 24 about B-M running a “stealth campaign” on behalf of Microsoft to defeat Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick. The paper sourced the story to the Observer in the U.K.
The WSJ returned Oct. 3 with a “B-1” report about B-M’s effort to salvage the reputation of Countrywide Financial, symbol of the subprime mortgage mess. It credited B-M with a “long history of crisis management.”
The Associated Press jumped on the B-M bandwagon with news today that it is working for Blackwater, the tainted security operation involved in a shootout in Iraq that left 17 civilians dead.
This is the how the AP piece began:
“Public relations giant Burson-Marsteller has vast experience steering companies through tough times. But there's a limit to how much it can help Blackwater USA, a new client that's been battered by negative publicity.” That is pure gold for B-M.
Mark Penn, B-M’s CEO, also has enjoyed some heady ink. His book, “Microtrends,” has receivedmanywell-deserved favorable reviews. As Hillary Clinton’s chief strategist, Penn will figure prominently in the news throughout the election campaign.
B-M’s work for Microsoft, Countrywide and Blackwater is “real world” stuff. Coverage of those efforts provides inside dope about what PR can and can’t do.
Steve Blinn, who heads a boutique PR firm in New York focused on tech and financial clients, has compiled a list of what he believes are the 11 biggest lies agencies tell in pitching business or buttering up current clients. While some of the list can be seen as a small firm exec hitting on the big agencies, the list does carry some weight.
Among the prevarications are every-day complaints like pitching an account with a senior team and later servicing it with a junior one, highlighting "relationships" with reporters, and telling a client a product is great when it really isn't.
Blinn admits that "polite" fallacies are occasionally called for "to lubricate the wheels of commerce."
He blogs:
"But there are fabrications that are particular to the PR business. You see them lurking, again and again, in the latest cut and paste press release announcing a new client win. You read them on agency blogs. You hear about them from disillusioned clients."
O'Keeffe & Co., a tech firm in Alexandria, Va., is putting up $5K for its second "Tech PR Idol Challenge." The competition, which selflessly has the firm giving an award to another agency (last year, anyway), involves a hypothetical IT&T business/marketing problem and challenges contestants -- from college students to senior execs -- to write a PR fix.
The challenge: an information security software company needs customer references to validate its messaging and spokesperson's claims. Annual PR budget=$150K.
Weber Shandwick GM Robert Dowling won the contest last year.
Stephen O'Keefe, who heads O&C, noted the judging panel (his firm's senior management team) even includes a smart aleck with a British accent a ala Simon Cowell.
College students up to senior execs can pitch. Details are here.
In yet another sign of blogging's growth (and segmentation and marketing potential...), BlogHer, the community for women in blogging, is expanding to eight events in 2008, including a "Reach Out" tour, its annual conference, and a specialized business blogging conference. The "labor of love" started by three bloggers in 2005 decided to take some venture funding over the summer and has built up an advertising network and directory of blogs by women.
Racepoint Group is helping with PR. Here's what's on tap for '08:
BlogHer ’08 – Reach!
July 18-21, 2007, San Francisco, CA, The Westin St. Francis Hotel
Now in its fourth year, this year’s conference will once again encourage all bloggers, both men and women, to attend the conference, enjoy quality networking opportunities and participate in unique programming focused on the many ways women bloggers are changing the landscape of technology, online media and journalism.
BlogHer Business ’08 – Reach! Your Customers Are Where the Action Is
April 3-4, 2008, New York City, The Affinia Manhattan Hotel
Now in its second year, this conference will once again deliver a focused and common-sense approach to how companies can work with social media to serve their customers. With many companies still seeking to launch or improve their social media strategy, BlogHer Business will offer case studies, workshops and consultative programming to help attending companies take advantage of the best the social media world has to offer.
BlogHer Reach Out Tour
Mid-October, 2008, Six Cities in 2 weeks…stay tuned for the your itinerary!
The BlogHer Reach Out Tour is an entirely new event that will take place over two weeks in October 2008 with scheduled visits to Boston, Washington D.C., Greensboro, Nashville, Atlanta and New Orleans. The BlogHer Reach Out Tour will feature one-day events that will offer sessions to encourage new bloggers to get on board, plus content tailored to each tour city community, its interests and its local bloggers.
Registration for all of BlogHer’s 2008 events will launch in tandem with a new Conference web site on Monday November 26th.
We're no gaming experts around the O'Dwyer offices, but your esteemed editor Kevin McCauley isn't exactly a slouch with a Wii controller, and there are few that can defeat me as the 2000 Mets in MVP Baseball on Playstation 2. We've never played a Halo game around here, but we've certainly taken notice of the PR blitz supporting the game's latest release.
Guardian (U.K.) blogger Keith Stuart has a funny post on the media hype, noting the media's unspoken mantra: "Let's laugh at all the freaks who queue up at midnight to purchase a videogame."
Edelman and Taylor courted social media as well as the traditional press, and the results have been impressive.
The Bluegrass State is fortunate to have one of the largest branding opportunities every year in May with the Kentucky Derby run at its fabled racetrack 
Waggener Edstrom is working with the U.N.'s Millennium Development anti-poverty effort on a day-long "Stand Up, Speak Out" 
Havas officially put an end to Magnet Communications with today’s “blockbuster” news that 
Among the prevarications are every-day complaints like pitching an account with a senior team and later servicing it with a junior one, highlighting "relationships" with reporters, and telling a client a product is great when it really isn't.
O'Keeffe & Co., a tech firm in Alexandria, Va., is putting up $5K for its second "Tech PR Idol Challenge." The competition, which selflessly has the firm giving an award to another agency (last year, anyway), involves a hypothetical IT&T business/marketing problem and challenges contestants -- from college students to senior execs -- to write a PR fix. 
Racepoint Group is helping with PR. Here's what's on tap for '08:
We're no gaming experts around the O'Dwyer offices, but your esteemed editor Kevin McCauley isn't exactly a slouch with a Wii controller, and there are few that can defeat me as the 2000 Mets in 
