The damning evidence against Sherrod surfaced on July 19, when conservative blogger and activist Andrew Breitbart posted a  2-minute video snippet of a speech Sherrod gave in 2009.  In the clip Sherrod, who is African American, recounts an incident in which Roger Spooner, a poor white farmer, approached her for help in saving his farm from foreclosure.  She says she handed him off to a white lawyer rather than devote the necessary time and resources to his case.   Of course we now know the clip was edited and posted out of context:  in the full version of the speech, Ms. Sherrod goes on to say she later helped save the Mr. Spooner’s farm after she saw the lawyer had been mishandling the farmer’s case.  Sherrod was using this episode to illustrate how it changed her views on race and poverty.

In today’s 24 hour newscycle, social media sourcing has become commonplace for reporters, bloggers and general consumers.  Social media has truly leveled the playing field, empowering the public to determine what is newsworthy.  However, just becuase it’s on the internet does not make it true.  More than ever, both the media and consumers need to check the facts to prevent the spread of misinformation.  Anyone can launch a blog or post a video that distorts information, trashes a competing company or spreads false rumors about a brand, product or individual.  Many companies have been burned by rumors started online, and the impact can be devasting to personal and corporate repulations alike. 

In this case, Breitbart’s post had further consequences than even he intended.  His real target was the NAACP, who just a week earlier had accused elements of the socially conservative tea party group of racism.  Sherrod was simply collateral damage, but the implications of his post extend far beyond one woman’s damaged reputation.  It’s a wake up call to ensure that all of us check our facts and do the research needed to make informed decisions. 

Robert Gibbs Apologizes to Former USDA employee Shirley Sherrod

Barack Obama - “Over the last 15 months, we’ve traveled to every corner of the United States. I’ve now been in 57 states.”

Joe Biden – “This is a Big F-ing Deal.”

George W. Bush (oh, where to begin…) – “They misunderestimated me.”

Dan Quayle – “I’ve made a misstatement and I stand by all my misstatements.”

Ronald Reagan – “Facts are stupid things.”

Richard Daley – “The policeman isn’t there to create disorder, the policeman is there to preserve disorder.”

Stephen Colbert (okay, so he’s not a politician, but this one was too good not to include) – “Truthiness.”

Most people associate publicity stunts with incidents like Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction, Speidi‘s (Heidi + Spencer = ridiculous nickname) countless exploits or other celebrity-centric controversies, but hardly anyone thinks of the icon that started it all. Edward Bernays is reputed, and self-proclaimed, as the ”father of public relations,“ but he is also the first publicity stuntman as well. In 1929, the New York City Easter Parade included a group of young women marching to liberate all women with their cigarettes held high billed as ”torches of freedom.“ The event caused a stir, as it was taboo for women to smoke in public at the time. These marchers were symbols of women’s rights and equality as stories appeared in newspapers across the nation.

Little did the public know, it was a well-crafted publicity stunt. Bernays hired the women, mostly young models, to light up Lucky Strike cigarettes at his command in front of the awaiting press. Bernays capitalized on the lingering spark of women’s suffrage to ignite a movement. His client, the American Tobacco Company’s Lucky Strike, had a new crop of impassioned consumers.

To learn more about Bernays and public relations’ beginnings, I recommend watching the BBC’s documentary, ‘Century of the Self.’

Public relations, marketing and advertising have certainly changed since Bernays’ heyday and the changes seem to only accelerate with time and technology. Unconventional stunts or marketing aim to break through the estimated daily 600 – 625 promotional messages Americans experience. They have to be creative, interactive and unexpected to have us talking, thinking and wanting more.

Below are a few infamous stunts that I particularly enjoy and I think, in keeping with their purpose, you will too.

A Publicity Wiener –

In 1936, Oscar Mayer drove into the history books and America’s heart with the debut of its legendary Wienermobile, which still travels around the country and rides out its almost-guaranteed media coverage.

Famous but a Fugitive –

Sprung from one United Press article on the FBI’ most wanted and the positive publicity that resulted, the bureau established its Most Wanted List in 1950 in conjunction with the nation’s news media. It has aided the apprehensions of 152 fugitives as a result of citizen recognition.

You Have to Hand it to Them –

More than seven million people joined hands for 15 minutes for Hands Across America raising $20 million to fight hunger and homelessness on May 25, 1986.

A few stunts closer to home…

¡Yo quiero Taco Liberty Bell! –

As a prank on April Fool’s Day in 1996, a full-page ad appeared in six major American newspapers announcing that Taco Bell had purchased Philadelphia’s historical Liberty Bell to help reduce the country’s debt and it would be renamed the Taco Liberty Bell. By noon, the company owned up to the hoax.

Pin Down a Hit –

In 2008 a Guinness World Record-breaking piñata, which was six-stories tall, filled with 8,000 pounds of candy and located in South Philly, generated a lot of media stories and excitement.  The creator, Carnival Cruise Lines, held an event that was full of giveaways, music and food.

Killer Publicity but no Love –

Showtime’s ‘Dexter’ put on a show in 2007 when the fountain in Love Park was turned a deep red. Many Philadelphians saw red after spotting the gruesome promotion.

Here are some great sites where you can check out more celebrated stunts and marketing…

PR Week’s ’10 PR Stunts that Would Make PT Barnum Proud’

WebUrbanist.com’s ‘15 Dramatic Guerrilla Marketing Campaigns’

Taylor Herring’s ‘Top 50 Publicity Stunts‘

CreativeGuerrillaMarketing.com’s ‘The Best 80 Guerrilla Marketing Ideas I’ve Ever Seen’

My Favorite: Nikon's billboard in subway station

Please share your favorite publicity or marketing stunts below in the comments!

At Maven, we are always looking to promote our clients in new and creative ways.  And when there is no “breaking” news to announce on behalf of your clients, a good PR firm will find ways to create their own.

Salon Vanity by Edmondo Blando on the 10! Show

Excel Physical Therapy and Fitness and Salon Vanity by Edmondo Blando, are two consumer clients whose clients include many brides-to-be looking to gear up for their big day.  Since June is the most popular month of the year to get married, we thought why not pitch a targeted broadcast segment focusing specifically on weddings? With broadcast coverage in mind, we approached the NBC 10! Show with the idea of launching a “wedding special” featuring both clients. The producers loved the idea of putting together a show about the hottest trends in weddings in the hottest month to get married. With a tight time line of three weeks, wedding special feature grew from two segments into an entire hour-long program dedicated to the hottest wedding trends – everything from flowers, dresses, dances, hair & makeup, wedding planners, fitness, food and more with an audience consisting entirely of brides-to-be. Maven and the NBC 10! team divided and conquered the show and all of its various components.

Excel Physical Therapy and Fitness on the 10! Show

In addition to our two clients, Maven secured fabulous wedding consultant Vinnie D’Adamo of Kaleidoscope Solutions to cover wedding planning trends, and high end bridal boutique Bridals by Danielle to showcase the hottest wedding dress trends for the season. We outlined the segments, developed key messages for guests, media trained the spokesperson and practiced run-throughs with all our segment guests to ensure the show was flawless.

As well as conducting the orchestra of semi-live television (the 10! Show is taped at 10am as if live but then plays as is at 11am), Maven was charged with filling the 50-seat audience entirely with brides-to-be and assemble a gift bag for each. We ended the bride search with a waiting list 15 brides deep and a very excited studio audience. In addition, gift bags for the audience turned out wonderfully with a value of more than $500 each.

The icing on the wedding cake was a special giveaway to one lucky bride in the audience. Maven was able to secure:

A three-day/2-night Luxury Included® Honeymoon to any of the twelve Sandals Resorts with locations in Jamaica, Antigua, St. Lucia and the Bahamas. The lucky couple’s Luxury Included® stay includes lavish accommodations, all meals, including gourmet dining and anytime snacks, premium brand beverages, daily & nightly entertainment, an array of land and water-sports including snorkeling and scuba, gratuities, and transfers to and from the resort designated airport.

The excited Sandals Resorts' winner!

The brides had no idea about their chance to win this special getaway when signing up for the show, but they were thrilled to find out! The winner was thrilled and Maven basked in its once in a lifetime Oprah-inspired moment.

Watch our clients’ segments below as seen by the estimated 27,000 daily viewers of the 10! Show. Maven placed the videos of their segments on their respective websites and facebook pages and made sure people saw how great they were and are! We owe the 10! Show team and everyone who helped out a HUGE thank you! Please visit the websites of those who donated to the gift bags at the end of this post. In addition, you can find more behind the scenes photos on Maven’s facebook page.

Everyone was elated with how the wedding special turned out, especially and most importantly, our clients, who were thrilled with the exposure the segment provided.

Gift Bag Contributors:

Sandals Resorts

Beke Beau

Bellezza Veils

Brandywine Valley Talent

Bridals by Danielle

Byers’ Choice, LTD.

Carl Alan Floral Designs

Carolina Pad

Chic Gems

dressy.com

Elegant Events

Excel Physical Therapy and Fitness

It’s in the Stars

Kaleidoscope Solutions

Larmon Studios

Marriott Philadelphia West

Philadelphia Marriott Downtown

Pictures by Todd,

Priscilla of Boston

Proud to Plan

Queen of Hearts Weddings

Ritz-Carlton, Philadelphia

Sabrina Ann

Sagets Formal Wear

Salon Vanity by Edmondo Blando

Silver Image Photography

Spell it Out

Stella & Dot

Rebecca "off camera"

In April, I was featured on a local NBC news segment regarding the Tiger Woods’ Nike Ad, featuring a voice over from Tiger’s deceased father.   There were a few things that went awry almost immediately.  First, I was late.  Big no-no.  Not only does that aggravate the producer, who has to deal with possibility a no-show segment, but it eliminates the opportunity for you to understand your surroundings, review message points, and relax.  As a result, I look tense and uncomfortable during the anchor’s introduction.  Actually, I look like I’m channeling Elin Woods right before she smashed the back of Tiger’s Escalade with one of his golf clubs.  On camera, everything communicates.  Body language, expressions, hand gestures, dress, etc. all convey a message about you and your company.  If my message was discomfort, then I think I hit a home run.

Given the humbling reminder on the importance of media prep, I thought I’d share (and review) some tips for succession media interview strategies below.

Define your Purpose: Before agreeing to do any interview, make sure you have a specific end game in mind.  How will the interview benefit you or your company?  If you can’t think of anything, then allow the opportunity to pass.  If you accept the interview, be sure to set specific goals for what you want to communicate.  Develop 3-5 key messages that you want to deliver throughout the interview.  These are the main ideas you’ll want to hammer home during the course of your interview.

Prepare, Practice, Repeat: Once you have your key messages in place, you’ll need to practice.  Have a colleague or member of your communications team run sample Q&A with you so you can get comfortable with the responses.  Make sure you have answers to the tough questions.  Even in friendly interview settings, it is important to have a response to questions you may not like answering.  Practice answering every question with a key message, and remember to keep your responses focused and concise.  In addition, it helps to do your homework before you walk into the interview.  What is the reporter’s interview style like? What have they covered in the past? What will the interview format be? Is the interview live or taped; in-person or via phone/satellite?  Doing a little legwork up front will ensure you are comfortable and prepared during your interview.

Watch your Body Language: For in person or on-camera interviews, everything communicates.  Even in positive interview situations, it is easy to look tense or stiff (ahem), which can impact credibility.   Arrive 15 minutes early to give yourself time to relax and review your message points.  If you have time before the interview, walk around take deep breaths to loosen up your body.  Avoid wild hand movements or big gestures when emphasizing your point.  If possible, maintain eye contact with the reporter as it helps to establish a connection with the reporters. If the interview is being conducted via satellite, look directly into the camera and keep your gaze steady.

Stay on Message: Listen carefully to the reporters questions, and take your time in responding to avoid rushing your response.  Remember your key points and try incorporate them in every single answer.  Keep your answers short and sweet, and avoid industry jargon to keep your explanations clear and easy to understand.  If a reporter asks you a question you cannot or will not answer, say so and offer an alternative if possible.  You can say something like “I can’t give out personal employee information, but what I can tell you is….”  or “We don’t have that  information at this time, but we are investigating the situation and will keep you apprised of any new developments.”

Avoid “No Comment”: If you can’t answer a question, emphasize what you can say and go back to your key message points.  Never go off the record to explain your point, even if the cameras are not rolling.  If you don’t want to comment to be shared, don’t make it.  Period.

I thought the most interesting seminar was presented on crisis PR from Jerri Williams, chief press officer at SEPTA. Yes, her title makes even me say, “yikes, that is one heck of a job.” I was interested not only because I am one of those thousands of people cursing SEPTA in the morning, and most evenings, but also because any Philadelphian knows SEPTA has had a tough year by even the toughest standards.  Ms. Williams was insightful, eloquent, honest and refreshingly witty about SEPTA’s past year and her process of dealing with crises. The best part was her delightful redundant questions testing our knowledge about what qualifies as a ‘crisis.’

“What is a crisis? How about when the Transport Workers Union goes on strike at 3am on a Tuesday morning leaving the 3.8 million people relying on SEPTA’s buses, trolleys subways and some rail lines stranded? Or what about if three days later a train on a popular regional rail line, which was not affected by the strike, catches fire and 400 people have to evacuate on the tracks? Or maybe it was the following day when a SEPTA employee was struck and killed by a train?…”

It certainly made her point, as well as put my daily to-do lists and the students’ term papers to shame. Ms. Williams made two other noteworthy points: 1) it is not always SEPTA’s responsibility, but it is always SEPTA’s problem and 2) no matter how much of her job is fending defending SEPTA’s reputation, it is always important to establish a positive reputation as well. It may not be SEPTA’s responsibility to police and respond to attacks within the underground passages, which are technically city property, but the news and public see it as so. It affects their commuters thus it is their duty to respond. As much as is Ms. Williams chief responsibility to mitigate crisis, another important role is to establish and encourage positive perceptions of SEPTA, like her initiative “Did You Find Love on SEPTA?” contest, which featured 14 couples who found love aboard SEPTA.

SEPTA’s crises have undoubtedly taken a toll on its public perception. However with Ms. Williams at the wheel, I trust its team is doing their best and with a touch of tasteful humor as well. I will try to remember that at the bus stop tomorrow morning.

A strong SEO PR campaign focuses on choosing the right keywords to create a balance between words that most accurately describe the company and those that are “search engine friendly,” that is, they have low competition in search queries. By optimizing and distributing press releases online and using RSS feeds and other forms of social media, the press release has the ability to grow behind just print media and have a longer life online. The release will often be picked up and archived by a multitude of sites that pull relevant news feeds, which means that the press release’s message gets instant online visibility, and if the content is something people want to read it will naturally spread through social bookmarking sites such as Digg or social networking sites like Twitter.

SEO efforts can be further strengthened by having the keywords included in the release’s copy link back to your website. Besides increased visibility, this can be very powerful as the sites that are likely to pick up your online release are usually relevant to the content being distributed, which helps increase your rankings. Remember to use relevant keywords as anchor text for your links, too, and avoid anchor text like “click here”. But don’t go overboard:  putting too many links in a press release, article or blog entry can actually negatively impact your rankings, so just choose the most relevant key words to highlight. Lastly, when you create a press release, make sure it’s newsworthy and relevant to your target audience to maximize exposure..

Besides optimizing your written online content, other PR strategies to help build SEO include:

• Posting commentary on relevant industry blogs, forums or open source “wikis” with links back to your website can help boost visibility online.  Commentary should add value to readers, so it helps to keep blatantly self promotional language to a minimum.

• Social networking sites like Facebook and Linkedin are a no-brainer for companies looking to building web awareness. These sites have very high SEO visibility, are inexpensive and offer a relatively easy and instantaneous way to communicate company news, distribute video, post photos or start a discussion with target audiences. They are also much less expensive and time consuming than updating your own web site

• Registering your company in online directories (such as Philly Ad Club) is another cost effective way to increase rankings. Potential clients may be searching these organizations for new potential partners, and if you’re not listed, you won’t be on their short list of targets.

Like traditional PR, Clients are still extremely focused on immediate, demonstrable ROI rather than longer-term metrics such as branding, site stickiness, or correlating search behavior to other marketing/pr programs. Forms of measurable results therefore can be found in increased traffic to your web site, an increase in your keyword footprint, search engine rankings, online press release pickup and traffic generated from the release.

SEO PR is evolving every day with the addition of new social networks, web sites and online tracking devices. While there is no one-size-fits-all formula for SEO PR, there is almost always a unique mix that is right for your company. Smart use of PR and SEO provides a cost-effective way to harness the power of the web to help meet your marketing and business goals.

Spirit Airlines New "Eye of the Tiger" Ad

We’ve all caught Tiger Mania, but this time, the world’s highest paid and notoriously private athlete is at the center of a PR firestorm.  Yesterday, Tiger finally posted a second statement on his website following the release of a voicemail to US Weekly by a reality TV contestant /cocktail waitress who claims to have had an affair with the married superstar.  In it, Tiger admits to recent “transgressions” and asks for privacy:

“Although I am a well-known person and have made my career as a professional athlete, I have been dismayed to realize the full extent of what tabloid scrutiny really means…Personal sins should not require press releases and problems within a family shouldn’t have to mean public confessions.”

Sadly, the world (and yours truly), disagrees.  Since his bizarre car crash on November 27, Tiger’s silence and cancelled public appearances have fueled media coverage and wild fan speculation about what really happened. (Click here for a full timeline of events, courtesy of the LA Times)  Consider this:

• - Since posting his statement yesterday, Tigerwoods.com has logged over 13,600 comments from fans as of 1:20 p.m. today.
• - Tiger Woods is of the most popular searches on Twitter today, with new posts going up a at a rate of over 67 posts per minute (that’s over 3000 posts/hr!) as of this morning
• - Type in “Tiger Woods Scandal” into Google and you get 18,700,000 results.
• - Companies have already started to cash in on the Tiger media firestorm. Spirit Airlines has posted an “Eye of the Tiger Sale,” which promises fares starting at $9 each way to  – you got it –   Florida.  (See the video via the Orlando Sentinel website here).

If his goal is to control his previously carefully crafted image, manage rumors, or save his wife from further embarrassment in the press, then he needs to come out  – in public – and address the situation.  By failing to respond to the accident or the allegations of infidelity in a timely and transparant manner, he is simply fueling the fire.  Sadly, infidelity is no longer the social crime it once was.  Reputations and endorsements can be salvaged quickly by addressing the situation quickly, earnestly and directly.  (If you have any doubts, just ask David Letterman, whose quick witted confession on his late night television show mitigated what could have been a career ending story.)

Like it or not, Tiger Woods is a global brand.  As the spokesperson for mega-brands like Nike Golf and Gillete, Tiger earned more than $100 million last year between earnings, endorsements and appearances.  His carefully crafted and squeeky-clean image drives record sales for brands he endorses and has made him the first athlete to earn $1 billion dollars.  For better or for worse, the public cares about his story.  If he doesn’t start telling his side of it soon (as in, yesterday), then the media  – or or another nightclub hostess -  will do it for him. If he hides out until the next tournament, every stroke on the golf course will be footnoted by this scandal.

Until he comes out of hiding, I’ll be surfing TMZ and the Huffington Post for updates.  Stay tuned.*

*Tiger was spared one close call today:  Hamptons party girl Rachel Uchitel canceled her scheduled tell all press conference for today.