by Kristin Carpenter-Ogden
CEO and Founder of Verde PR & Consulting
Kenny Brack goes over the jump as Travis Pastrana passes underneath via latimesblogs.latimes.com
WANTED: A navigator with nerves of steel, a cool head, strong stomach and an uncanny ability to route-find over a long, unmapped region for a point-to-point race. Strong propensity for air required.
Is this a want ad for a rally car navigator or a PR partner?
It could be both, especially in the past couple of years.
Verde PR has been riding shotgun with our clients through the uncharted, off-road and exposed business climate launched back in fall of 2008. Honestly, no seatbelt, harness or roll cage could have tempered the turmoil of this ride. Just like rally car racing, it’s been exhilarating and an adventure.
But just as we were back on track, the course took an unexpected turn once again this past winter. Many of our clients are tethered to the retail climate and the pretend winter of 2011-12 doled out yet another beating.
The beating brought more waves of business “adjustment” in our markets. For some of our clients, the level of adjustment required to absorb this hit was on the level of what we saw in Q4, 2008.
Adjustment on this level brings disruption. Disruption initiates big change. At Verde, we see change as opportunity. This has proven true time and time again with the evolutions in communications that have also been underway in the past three years plus.
The Great Recession accelerated changes in PR and communications, including:
- Print media continues to take a beating but online outlets and communities are growing
- Consumers are continuing to choose and dictate how they want to research, interact and buy from brands
- There are more channels (and more noise) on the social web than ever before
Believe it or not, Verde has found that these are all great things when it comes to finding, engaging and becoming endearing to a target audience. With a caveat, of course – you have to be nimble, willing to risk take, try new things and navigate while going 100-plus miles per hour on an uncharted course.
The changes in communications brought new opportunity for strategic planning for our clients, which pointed our client storytelling into multiple disciplines, channels and brought new ways to integrate PR and sales with marketing assets.
As the turmoil caused by this winter’s retail stagnation continues to converge with these movements in communication, we see more opportunity for our clients in 2012 and beyond. In that way, this convergence has really amounted to a perfect storm yielding amazing opportunity to directly engage and activate audiences around brands.
In the first two quarters of this year I’ve had some intense conversations with clients and prospective clients centering around one theme:
“How can we make the rest of 2012 track? How do brand communications help drive that?”
Find-, connect with-, and make your consumers fall in love with your brand.
Here are three ways today’s brand communications can do just that:
Think Like Google:
I’ve just returned from a Public Relations Society of America conference in New Orleans, where the keynote speaker was Marcus Sheridan, president and founder of the Sales Lion. Marcus has built a really successful fiberglass pool company via content marketing. Drop in on his site (www.saleslion.com) to learn more. His point was simple and powerful: think like Google as you’re building your content strategy.
People, he said, trust Google almost more than anything else. If they want to find a product, they will go online to research it. Marcus noted that if you sit down with your sales and customer service cohorts for a half an hour, great content topics for your company blog should emerge from the questions they field each day. These questions should mirror how people are searching for information on your products online. Create an editorial calendar with these topics (on how your customers are researching your products) and watch your search engine marketing grow.
Be Loud About Marketing Assets Work for Sales:
We all know that sales and marketing don’t communicate as often as they should. In a year like this, this is a battle to choose and fight.
A brand’s grassroots events, athletes, ambassadors and PR successes are additional “products” for your sales reps to sell.
Retailers will see incredible value in how brands drive traffic to their stores in a retail climate like 2012’s. Your reps are your boots on the ground and your marketing assets are their ammunition.
Most brands invest in regional events, they have athletes and ambassadors on contract, and they have PR successes. Reps should be using all three in their selling and sharing all of it on their own social communities and those of their retail partners.
Similarly, athletes and ambassadors should be sharing their brands’ social media content and initiatives and working to grow their online communities.
Be Nimble
With so much change in retail and brand communications, it seems impossible to set a budget for an entire calendar year. Yet, most marketing executives are charged to do just that.
I advocate for being nimble – find a way to do so.
More and more, our clients are relying on us to counsel spend each quarter, or even monthly. This enables us to study and report in on what worked and tweak what’s in process. The ongoing basics that have to be done must be done very well (such as media relations, product placement, trade show planning, support and promotion, go-to-market strategy and other non-movables that PR supports through the year). Wouldn’t it be interesting to set a bit of investment aside to support being nimble? Kind of like an open-to-buy but for your marketing budget.
Whether in-house or agency, a PR solution must rise to the occasion and be a supremely nimble contributor. The right employee or partner will assess the landscape of choices for communication against sales and marketing goals, be willing to take risks, relish adventure and yes, have a propensity for getting air and sticking the landing, kind of like a rally car navigator.
If you’d like to learn more about how to make 2012 the year of consumer engagement for your brand – contact me.
About Kristin
Kristin doesn’t like to be called a “lightening rod” but if you’ve ever seen her in action, you know there are few words that describe her better: she’s dynamic, whip smart, and always there with a smile for friends and colleagues.
As one of the most recognized faces in the outdoor industry, Kristin transitioned a decade-long journalism career into a now decade old (!) public relations agency, bringing outstanding results to brands in diverse markets. Kristin’s knack for being ahead of the curve is supplemented by her expert understanding of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and sustainable business practices.
Her ubiquitous, initial’ed nickname — KCO — has led to the not-so-clever title of her forth coming, regular blog series here: “KCOrner.”
While it’s not really the same, in some ways, it’s akin to looking back on the people in your life that you’ve dated or had a long-term relationship with. That’s a lot of relationships.
Yes, the PR practitioner/client relationship is a highly personal one.
How could we not be close? We travel all over God’s green earth with our clients, share family vacations with clients, bunker down in sales meetings with clients, launch plans to take over the world with clients, climb mountains with clients, etc., etc.) – Some clients take us to many companies with them, which is always a fascinating experience.
We recognize that there are few business relationships that can become so close as that between the PR practitioner and the client. At Verde, this bond is one of our favorite aspects of our careers in brand communications.
