Today’s connected consumer suffers from what can only be termed the “Times Square Effect.” The other night, I walked out of a Broadway show and was immediately bombarded by the neon signs and noisy soundtracks of brands trying to attract consumers’ attention. I walked away not remembering a single message from any one specific brand. The “Times Square Effect” is following consumers 24-7-365 as brands compete both online and offline for audience attention and share. PR professionals, who have long been the stewards of a company’s message, must now help curate the enormous amounts of content being thrown at consumers. They are already using social media to create, control and communicate their own experiences. We can help by making sure our output is relevant, useful and meaningful to them.  People are not just craving more information—they also want context from and an emotional connection to the brands they use every day.

Consumers want to know what a brand is all about, the humanity behind it, if you will, and they now have the digital tools and resources to find out. If brands aren’t ready to tell their story, consumers can and will decide what it is. This means that even more than before, starting at the top, companies are now asking themselves: “Who are we and what do we stand for?” Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is about weaving that cause throughout the company’s corporate DNA, so that it becomes evident in everything the company does. Companies are also now faced, more than ever, with having to communicate authentically to their customers and potential customers—in real time. PR practitioners have always been about developing relationships and projecting the humanity of a brand. We are a natural fit to help companies recognize the benefits, and navigate the pitfalls, of real time interaction.

At the end of the day, this is an exciting time for PR and for companies looking to get their message out. The potential for greater creativity is boundless as we have more tools to help clients service consumers. The opportunity to help customers connect with brands that share their concerns and values through meaningful content and conversation is palpable. I’m looking forward to what the rest of 2012 will bring—including the unexpected.

I am so proud that Kaplow supported the annual Avon Walk for Breast Cancer, which held its ninth annual walk here in New York this past weekend. As a long-term partner of Avon’s, we are so honored to be able to raise awareness and funds for breast cancer through this amazing annual event. In addition to working on the series of walks throughout the year with Avon, Team Kaplow also strapped on our walking shoes and covered the 39.3 miles with thousands of other supporters and survivors. As we stood at the closing ceremonies, I was overwhelmed with such a sense of pride at being able to help Avon communicate the importance of this milestone event in so many people’s lives. Avon global ambassador Reese Witherspoon was on hand at the event to share in the stories of survival and to award over $9 million in grants supporting breast cancer organizations.

I want to thank our partners at the Avon Foundation for Women for enabling Kaplow to share in this life-changing event, celebrating people who have made a difference in so many ways to eradicate breast cancer from our lives forever. The walk will be a lifelong memory for me and Team Kaplow.

Here are some words from a few of the Kaplow team who participated in the event:

I’m honored to work with such an amazing client as the Avon Foundation. To watch thousands gather at the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer New York and actually see their raised funds given to local NYC hospitals and organizations on the spot– is very motivating and meaningful. It makes me want to pitch their story until my throat is dry. – Gloria Quinn Doyle

I was so excited to participate as this was my first Walk experience and then a month beforehand I injured my ankle pretty seriously.  I was nervous about training and being able to do it at all, but made a promise to myself and my fundraising supporters that I would give it a shot.  On the Saturday of the Walk weekend, I realized, as we walked up the West Side highway, I was surrounded by a sea of pink shirts, women buzzing and laughing, many wearing signs “in memory of” or “in honor of.” In that moment my physical limitations were no longer my primary thought, and instead I was filled with pride to be part of such a powerful movement in support of such hope and strength. I was able to complete 13 miles- many more than I had thought possible due to my injury- and I can’t wait to try to complete the whole thing next year! – Melinda Templeton-Duffy

I was incredibly inspired to have the opportunity to walk with so many dedicated women, men and even children, some of which have been participating in the Avon Walk for the Cure for years.  To be surrounded by countless supporters and survivors was an amazing experience and I couldn’t be more honored to have the opportunity to be “in it, to end it” with my Kaplow-colleagues! – Jacqueline Agosta

Did our PR program work?

That’s the big question every communications professional asks at the completion of an initiative. The answer is simple. It did if it met our goals. And when those goals can be measured, we’ll know.

The heart of the measurement conundrum for our profession always comes back to the discipline of goal setting. Earlier this year, I attended the annual PR News Measurement Conference, in which hundreds of PR professionals heard from some of the industry’s top thinkers in this area.

What struck me is that while topics discussed change from year to year (welcome to the age of social media!), the fundamental issue is always the same.

You can’t talk measurement without talking goals. And what’s so exciting for our industry is that, more and more, those goals relate to the quality of coverage (and social media conversation), not merely the quantity of it.

Here’s what I know about good measurement (one tip to get started – measurement is part of the planning process of a program, not just part of the reporting process!)

1. Every PR program is ultimately accountable to business objectives. It’s critical to know what those business objectives are before PR planning is underway.

2. A PR program must include clear, measurable goals that align with those business objectives. In many cases, just counting impressions (or other pure “volume” metrics) at the end of program doesn’t tell us all that much. What can be really telling are the qualitative attributes of coverage.  Are you working to get market share from a competitor? Setting goals around share of voice (in traditional and social media) may make sense.  Looking to create a new brand identity? Perhaps analyzing the presence of specific messaging is the way to go. Aiming to grow sales? You may want positive product reviews in the few key media (or from the social-media influencers) that connect most directly with your target audience. No matter what the scenario, the best PR goals are generally qualitative, and are crafted through the lens of business objectives.

3. In most cases, measurement should show us change over time. To do that, we need benchmark metrics. If we’re setting goals against share of voice, say, we need to know where we are today if we want to project where we can be tomorrow. Setting a goal of achieving 60% share of voice won’t be too meaningful if, unbeknownst to us, we’re already at 75%.

4. Strategies and tactics must be interrogated against their ability to help achieve PR goals. It’s the way we determine the appropriate deployment of resources. Fun idea but no bearing on our goals? Then we need to think long and hard about executing it.

5. In the best case scenario, the measurement at the close of a program is simply an analysis of the program’s performance versus its goals.  Did share of voice grow? What message pull-through did we achieve? Did we land the product reviews we wanted?  If we find we’re frequently measuring things at the close of program that we didn’t set goals against, we may need to re-think how we’re setting our goals.

6. Finally, the PR profession (and Kaplow) has some best practice standards when it comes to the “volume” metrics we use. Ad value equivalencies are not considered reputable. Multipliers (in print impressions) are not encouraged. Unique monthly visitors (using subdomains when available) is the preferred online metric. Using consistent, trustworthy metrics will ensure the measurement is accurate and illustrative.

A rigorous, disciplined goal-setting and measurement process helps us know that our PR programs work. And that’s a story we all want to tell in any final wrap-up report.

The power of our incoming talent pool.  They are plugged in, savvy and connected marketers. And they are often under 21.

On the hunt for PR innovators? At our agency, we’ve had great success finding a new crop of smart, creative marketers.

It may surprise you that these new stars are our recent band of interns.

When we first established our intern program, it was part recruiting tool, part admin support. Interns helped with mailings, stocking product closets and a host of other important, but not necessarily strategic, work. But in the past few years, our interns have become a great resource for our firm, and I suspect, other smartly run businesses.

These savvy college students offer a window into marketing 2.0, and great perspective on how to reach an astute and significant demographic—their own. Millennials are powerful consumers and brand builders, and they demand tailored outreach programs.

So two years ago, we tasked them with devising a college initiative for one of our technology clients and last summer, a back to school program for a retailer. This year, we asked for a snapshot of their fellow Millennials’ media and technology consumption. The four interns spent their first week drafting and executing an extensive survey that spanned from Facebook to texting to eBay.

Millennials have grown up sharing their impressions, persuasions and choices with one another online, and they have spent their pre-professional years building vast networks. Using only their personal contacts, our interns sent their survey to more than 2,000 people within less than an hour. That’s impressive and really, social networking at its best.

Students regularly call upon their personal networks for official use. Online friends help each other by completing surveys, generating attendance at events, donating to a charity or even answering a simple question, like “What did I miss in class today?”

The ease with which they merge their public and personal lives is often criticized, but it can also be a great boon to PR. In their final presentation to a room full of executives, the interns referenced their own blogs and experiences on social networking sites.

As experienced “editors” of their own content driven sites—whether it’s a blog or the newsfeed on Facebook—they’ll begin their PR careers with a better understanding of what is compelling to publish, and therefore pitch, to both media and consumers. After all, they’ve already spent years marketing what’s happening in their lives.

Constant use of instant messenger, texting, and BlackBerry messaging (my daughters got me started) may have left Millennials trading traditional writing skills for new communication tools like Twitter which allows for only 140 characters per message.  There you have it, short messages to their wide social network – a perfect PR storm.

We may not know precisely how, but clearly technology is going to keep changing the way we work.  As it does I’m sure we’ll be looking to Millennials for best practices. They should be poised to respond since they’ve grown up adapting the way they connect and communicate.

Kaplow held our first Algonquin 3.0 Editorial Board meeting of 2008 on Monday, February 4th. Why Algonquin 3.0? It’s worth a minute on the story. I was an English major in college. One of my classes was The Short Story and one of the writers with whom I was most dramatically taken with, was Dorothy Parker. She had all the accoutrements of a nutty, desperate, brilliant 1920s writer, but what was best about her was that she was not a recluse. She liked to talk to her writer- type friends. She liked to hear their stories and opinions on the ideas of the day and you can be sure she liked to give hers.

It happens that her famous roundtables—held from 1919 to 1929—took place at the Algonquin hotel on the very block where Kaplow is located. So, when we decided to hold the first of our series earlier this month, how appropriate that we could pay homage to Dorothy with a roundtable of our own. The topic? Fittingly, “Who makes the best story tellers for your brand?”
Story telling always has been (and continues to be) integral to public relations. We are constantly on the prowl to find out who makes the best storytellers for our clients’ brands. Is it the celebrity who always manages to create excitement, the expert, who has the credibility and know-how to actually speak with authority, or the new media stars coming through the pipeline with their stories living all over YouTube?

In a way, there was no consensus on the best method for story telling. The journalists all came to the conclusion that what they are looking for is authenticity. They want to talk to people that are interesting, make a story come alive, and when it comes to the brands they are representing, there must be a real connection. If it isn’t a natural fit, the result is disingenuous and hollow.

Talk of using spokespeople in viral videos once again brought the conversation to blogging, and one of the editors mentioned that she is “over blogs.” One member from Kaplow spoke about how we are tapping into blogs more than ever but that it is the new, influential bloggers that will be key to our conversation moving forward. Our office has been talking to bloggers every day, from the day they started. Some have dropped off, some have grown enormously in popularity. Our job as PR people is to continue to follow their story, continue to watch their audiences and to work with them in an open, transparent dialogue

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According to a recent Women’s Wear Daily article, beauty bloggers have become a true asset to the success of new products as beauty-nistas are turning to blogs for product reviews and honest opinions. Liz Kaplow was noted in the article for the agency’s foresight into the beauty blogging landscape – holding blogger press launches and inviting bloggers to media events.

Read the full article after the break.

Published: Friday, January 25, 2008

Beauty in the Blogosphere

By Matthew W. Evans with contributions by Michelle Edgar

A new breed of beauty writers is building the sort of influence that’s gaining the attention of major brands: bloggers.

Scores of blogs largely dedicated to opinions and reviews of beauty products have proliferated in the past several years. And as the quality and quantity of blogs increases, beauty companies’ traditional marketing strategies are having to adapt.

Typically, when a beauty manufacturer is pitching a new product, the firm needs to take into account how far in advance — from several weeks to several months — magazines are producing an issue. If a blogger gets a product in the morning, however, a review — good or bad — could be on the Web site by the afternoon, immediately followed by reader feedback.

“You get the consumer’s voice so fast,” said Procter & Gamble Co.’s Esi Eggleston Bracey, vice president and general manager of global P&G cosmetics, overseeing the Cover Girl and Max Factor brands. And “blogs are more interactive. You get the benefit of dialogue rather than one-way communication.”

While they may not look like magazines, the honest voices and conversational tones of sites like Lipgloss and Laptops, Beauty Brains, Beauty News NYC and My BeautyBerry have gained a wide following. Moreover, blog commentary is virtually out of reach of the spin control of beauty marketers.

“Manufacturers can consider [having less influence over bloggers] risky,” said Eggleston Bracey. But “there [can be] more upside than risk.”

The lack of influence over a blogger when trying to position a product “keeps everybody honest,” said John Demsey, group president of the Estée Lauder Cos. Inc. “They have an opinion,” said Demsey, adding, “when it’s positive, it’s incredibly positive and when it’s negative it’s incredibly negative. It’s very democratic. Everybody gets a vote.”

Beauty blogs typically post links to other beauty blogs and sites can spawn others. Julia Coney, founder of a blog called All About the Pretty, said Tia Williams, founder of Shake Your Beauty, inspired her to start blogging in 2006. Same with Blogdorf Goodman founder Annie Gugliotti, who launched a blog in 2005 after being encouraged by Robin Krug of Now Smell This. (See sidebar.)

And it’s not only the brands that are having to adapt to the power of the blog. Magazines also are having to recognize the growing competition, and as a result titles such as Glamour, Elle and Lucky have launched their own blogs. Glamour’s first beauty blog, called The Girls in the Beauty Department, was launched in April 2006, and Allure has plans to introduce a beauty blog by the summer.

“It’s a layering process in terms of communication,” said Demsey. “Magazines that continue to offer a strong point of view will continue to be important and successful.”

Beauty executives and bloggers agreed blogs don’t have the commercial pressures of magazines — if they make any money at all. As Karen Monterichard, founder of Makeup and Beauty Blog, put it, “We don’t have the same commitments to advertisers. Bloggers can say what they want without having to answer to a corporate sponsor. There’s independence if you’re not connected to a magazine.”

But when it comes to the credibility of blogs, it “can vary widely,” Stacy Baker, editorial director of Sephora, said. The retailer entered the beauty blogosphere in June 2006 with the creation of Beauty & The Blog. “A blogger has to know what she’s talking about and have the résumé — or at least citations — to backbone her opinion,” Baker added.

“[Blogs] don’t have the intrinsic authority of Vogue but someone who is trusted and has a unique voice can become an expert,” said Demsey. Added Eggleston Bracey, “Some women want a magazine voice rather than sifting through a blog. [Bloggers'] credentials are by way of beauty experience as opposed to journalism experience.”

Indeed, despite a plethora of beauty content on blogs and social networks, of women under 30 years old, 74 percent sought beauty advice and information from magazines in early 2007, according to a report by brand strategy firm The Benchmarking Co.

The Washington-based firm, which puts the number of beauty-related blogs, message boards and social communities in the “thousands,” added that 30 percent of women got beauty advice or information from these sites. This reader base reached 50 percent for those under 30 years old, said the report, which was based on a March 2007 survey of more than 2,500 women in the U.S.

The bloggers themselves can range from “young teens who are basically spending all day blogging,” said Demsey, “to women in their 40s and 50s who have embraced the sexy vixen personality.” Sephora’s Baker cited Blogger.com data that said a new blog is created every 7.5 seconds. Most bloggers are under 30 and are likely to live in the suburbs; only a third live in urban centers.

Beauty brands, retailers and publicists often target bloggers with product samples, information and events. Liz Kaplow, founder and president of Kaplow Communications, has begun inviting bloggers to press events or separate “blogger press launches.”

Linda Wells, editor in chief of Allure, said she believes beauty brands have started to take blogs seriously over the past few years because blogs are “starting to have an effect on product sales. Companies are more excited about being mentioned [on blogs], so we’re seeing more of the industry reaching out to bloggers,” she said.

For the first time this week, specialty retailer Henri Bendel invited a dozen bloggers to its beauty breakfast Wednesday, an event the retailer holds yearly to introduce the brands it carries to the press.

“Bloggers have a valuable voice in the market since they talk directly to our consumers,” said Claudia Lucas, senior vice president and general merchandise manager at Bendel’s.

However, just as blogs present noncommercial editorial, magazines are able to feature more well-rounded pieces, according to Wells. “Although one person’s voice is very entertaining,” she said, “bloggers don’t have all the research to give a real assessment of a product.”

Magazines have found their own blogs to be a good outlet for topics that require a faster turnaround like events, trends and celebrity coverage. Magazine blogs also allow ongoing dialogue with readers.

Andrea Pomerantz Lustig, contributing editor and blogger at Glamour, also finds blogs useful for topics that might not make it into the magazine. “It’s a way of taking a bigger story and still writing about it, but in a more personal point of view, which couldn’t traditionally get in the magazine,” she said.

Observers by-and-large expect blogs to work in harmony with magazines. “Blogs are not a replacement for, [they are] supplemental to, beauty magazines,” said Eggleston Bracey.

I recently read a startling article by writer Caleb Crain in the New Yorker. Crain discussed the decline of reading in the United States – going as far to consider a world where reading is nonexistent.  “What will life be like if people stop reading?”  For media relations, at least, that world is already becoming something of a reality.  More and more young people are turning to television and the Internet for information as opposed to traditional newspapers.  “Millennials,” the latest in a long succession of terms used to describe the generation that is currently in its 20s, are the first group that really demand to be catered to differently, more interactively.  Reaching them is one of the first hurtles in the evolving media landscape.

To envision what it’s like to reach Millennials, try and imagine a ball of mercury.  Everytime you think you’ve got it, it moves to another place. To reach this target, PR needs to tap multiple channels using multi-media. The heyday of the long version press release is gone with an increased desire for virtual pitches that enable the media to quickly snap up the visual story.  For PR to move effectively into the future we need to reconcile some generational differences.  And a lot of that can be accomplished by guiding the Millienials in our own industry.

We can reinforce the value of reading as the foundation of effective PR.  We can encourage Millennials to read the top news stories of the day and follow the bylines of journalists before contacting them.  We can (and do) send out reading lists of favorite novels, knowing that the sparks of imagination that come from reading will make them better critical thinkers.  We need to encourage them to take deep dives into books and newspapers to make them smarter, well-rounded PR practitioners. But, let’s also look at what we can learn from this generation.  First, be realistic enough to know that if it isn’t moving, it may not be remembered.  Millennials can effectively help us understand the new zeitgeist of PR because they are living it.  They can tell us if Facebook will be successful in the long run as it becomes more deliberate in its voice.  They can better discern the blogs that are of value.  They can better help us navigate the waters of social networking as they themselves are immersed in the conversation.

As Millennials enter the workforce and the PR industry in greater numbers, this change is inevitable. Thankfully, our agency is strengthened by the presence of Millennials who are able and qualified to converse with the Millennials on the receiving end of our messages.

In PR, we are storytellers. Many think that this practice will be lost as technology changes the way we absorb and react to the media. But whether we’re speaking with a fashion blogger, an evening news producer or the person sitting next to us on a plane, it is the way we tell the story that gives it legs.

I remember when I had my “Aha!” moment early on in my career. I was sitting with a client who distributed very fine pantyhose that sold for $40 a pair. He spoke with such passion and knowledge about his product, owning a pair seemed to become as core to one’s existence as the very water we drink. He was so convincing that no matter if you worked every day on a farm or at the White House, you wanted to own a pair. He had the passion to change the conversation about the way women thought of and valued a commodity as common as pantyhose. In essence, I knew he had a story to tell and I thought it was worthy of Forbes. After the two-page spread in Forbes appeared, I remember thinking that the best PR can change the conversation about a product, brand or industry.

Today, the media landscape requires that we use many more tools to change conversations for our clients. By taking risks in the digital arena, we can talk directly to the consumer and influencers and inspire them to participate in the conversation. This past year Kaplow launched a team of specialists dedicated to reaching the consumer through new and different channels tapping into blogs, podcasts, social networking sites, viral contests and online games. But even while there are more vehicles available to us to have conversations, the goal is the same: connecting people to one another and to the brands they care about. This “new era” of PR is less about technological takeover and more about using technology smartly to really open the door to the consumer.

The media landscape could evolve to a place where it’s completely unrecognizable from the way it was ten years ago, but if you can still get to know your client as well as they know themselves and be able to translate their message for the masses targeting the right audiences, you remain invaluable to the conversation.