filter by tag: planning

Hope for the best; prepare for the worst.

It’s an age-old saying that applies to so many aspects of work and life, but perhaps there is no better fit than in the realm of event planning. Events have become a staple in the PR arsenal, and when used effectively, they can be an extremely valuable tool for driving awareness and visibility for a brand. They can create news hooks, provide strong media visuals and deliver opportunities for direct consumer engagement. Yet, large-scale events can also be a headache for PR professionals because of the multitude of factors beyond our control that can – and often do – go wrong.

Below are some tips for navigating the inherent challenges:

Prepare for the Worst – It probably goes without saying that preparation is everything when it comes to event planning. You not only need to have a laser-like focus on every detail of your event; you also need to plan for the unexpected. Ask any seasoned event planner and she will happily bombard you with war stories of unexpected hurdles she had to overcome – water main breaks, lightning strikes, road closures. The list goes on and on. Take the time to anticipate the types of things that could go wrong – the “what ifs” of your event. What if the event materials get lost in transit? What if the teleprompter doesn’t work? What if the headsets fail? By anticipating potential hurdles and creating solid back up plans, you will save yourself from significant frustration on event day.

Choose Your Team Wisely – Strong event planners are a treasured find because they possess a rare blend of obsessive attention to detail and the ability to be flexible and adaptable in the face of a rapidly changing event scenario. Those two skills are hard to come by in one person, so when you find someone capable of both, you’ve struck event-management gold. It is equally important that the members of your event team have the ability to stay calm under pressure and think quickly on their feet. These skills will be essential on event day when issues arise that need immediate, creative solutions.

Partner with the Right Vendors – They are more critical than you think. The right vendors can make or break your event, so take the time to fully research and evaluate your partners. In 2010, just days before a major consumer-facing client event in Times Square, I awoke to news of a terrorist’s car bombing attempt about one block from my event site. As Times Square shut down and the area was evacuated, my event security vendor came to the rescue. Thanks to security officials' deep connections to the NYPD, they were regularly briefed by law enforcement, arming them with the most accurate, up-to-the minute information on the crisis as it unfolded. This allowed me to make informed decisions about the upcoming event and put my client’s fears at ease.

Manage Expectations – For clients or internal executives that haven’t been involved in large-scale events, having an open, honest dialogue ahead of time is key. Prepare them for the types of potential challenges and last-minute hurdles that might crop up so they aren’t caught off guard if bumps in the road arise and plans need to shift. And, if you are fortunate enough to have an event that goes off without a hitch, your accomplishment will be even more impressive.

Hope for the Best – Once all the preparation has been done and every last detail has been checked off the list, it’s time to take a step back, breathe deeply and hope for the best. Event day is always full of challenges and surprises, so prepare your team to expect the unexpected and focus on staying ahead of issues as they pop up. Staying nimble is the name of the game.

With the right preparation, you and your team will be able to tackle the many challenges thrown your way and execute a successful and memorable event that delivers great visibility for your brand.

--Amy Russ, Vice President

A recent Advertising Age article examined freakonomics – the law of unintended consequences – in marketing. The verdict: choice may not be all it’s cracked up to be. This isn’t a new claim but certainly one that’s worth re-examining, as today, consumers are faced with a host of products and services accompanied by varied promises. Logic suggests successful brands should focus on the promise that consumers expect from them – the promise that’s core to their business and that defines the product/service in the eyes of the target audiences – rather than get distracted by trying to be all things to all people. Innovation is crucial, of course, but the best innovation is often a natural extension of an organization’s “sweet spot.”

The value of focus – be it in product development or marketing strategy – is one that can easily be applied to PR campaigns. Something can’t mean everything to everybody at the risk of disengaging many. It’s important for PR professionals to work with clients to develop campaigns that resonate with a product/service’s target audience and avoid marketing to the masses. To ensure a campaign doesn’t evolve outside itself and stays on the straight and narrow, here’s some food for thought:

Josh Holloway (center) working with Cone client Nature Valley

Photo Credit: Getty Images

Stay true to the brand. For a consumer-facing launch, it’s crucial to identify a spokesperson who aligns with the brand DNA in order to provide natural and needed credibility. A strong example is a recent program we executed for our Nature Valley client with actor Josh Holloway. Known to the public as the rugged "Sawyer" from “Lost,” Holloway is an outdoor aficionado in his own right, which allowed him to share real-life stories with media and stress getting outside and visiting our national parks with our core audience – active consumers.

Less is more. When developing campaign messaging, it’s natural to want to fit in as many points as possible. But for an initiative to be effective, the true message points should be minimal. Three strong points for the overall program will provide clear and actionable messages that stick and provide just enough information to tell a story. Additionally, the more concentrated the core messages, the easier it is to ensure that copy is consistent across an integrated campaign that may involve POP, advertising, digital and social.

Concentrate on the core. Is your client marketing to a specific demographic? Make sure the media outlets you’re prioritizing align with the overarching marketing strategy. Coverage in the Wall Street Journal, for example, is great, but a post on a popular mom blog may be considered just as much of a “win” depending on the target audience and desired outcome. Sometimes, the best placement isn’t splashy but one that drives in-store results.

Engage strategically. Want to let Facebook fans in a specific geographic area know that a new product is hitting shelves? Leverage regionalized posts to target specific markets and track applicable consumer feedback in real time. Utilize Facebook Insights to see which PR efforts are driving social media traffic and engagement. When it comes to social media, every brand has a role to play, but it’s how it’s done that counts.

Communicate results. The benefit of a focused campaign? Tangible results that can be benchmarked en route to the finish. Select a few key media placements and ask your client to match up the dates with sales data. Many eCommerce companies use tracking tools like Google Analytics to directly correlate PR results and sales, and it’s time to bring more measurement into the CPG PR realm.

--Jessica Anselmi, Senior Account Executive

It’s a trap we in the agency world fall into at one time or another – staying too focused on delivering what we promised in the “scope of work.”

Yes, our clients expect us to plan the work and work the plan, but we’re operating in a dynamic global marketplace. Things change every second, which means new opportunities spring up, and what we planned six months ago may no longer be relevant. Our charge is to help our clients succeed and meet their objectives. Today, that means being resourceful and vigilant about bringing creative new ideas to the table to meet these goals. If you don’t come up with the next big idea, someone else will, and it may be your competitor.

Big ideas can come from the strangest places. I was flying home from Dallas last week and happened to read a story in AmericanWay magazine about two 20-somethings from the UK, Sam Bompas and Harry Parr, who call themselves culinary curators. They blend their interests in food, architecture and art to develop signature events and programs for their clients. Imagine flooding a room with Courvoisier, sending visitors rafting across on giant orange slices, or making a three-dimensional map of the United States out of Jell-O, complete with scale models of famous monuments. Brilliant!

No one said creativity is easy. It may come more naturally for some, but even “creative people” can’t simply snap their fingers and find a big idea. It requires hard work and it means getting to know yourself. What are your passions – sports, pop culture, social media? What can inspire you to conceive a brilliant idea – an article, talking to a wacky friend, cooking? When are you most adept at being creative – first thing in the morning, on a plane or train?

Think about the answers to those questions and then make a conscious effort to be a creative idea generator. Set aside some time each day or each week to focus on being an idea factory. You may stray from your scope of work, but your clients are sure to forgive the digression.

--Marc Berliner, Vice President

When a student fired shots from an AK-47 rifle as he walked across the University of Texas at Austin campus on Tuesday, it highlighted the new reality that employers – both for-profit and nonprofit – can learn plenty from universities when it comes to crisis preparedness.

How many employers would be able to send text alerts to employees’ personal cell phones within seven minutes and start Facebook and Twitter information feeds minutes later? And how many would be communicating with a workforce that had already been taught how to act (“shelter in place”) during an emergency? Thanks to UT Austin, students quickly accessed information, could debunk rumors and connect with parents who had their own sources of updated information via the university’s website.

Universities have seen too much violence and death over the past several years. But, the “ivory tower world” has learned its communications lessons and ACTED. Technology is in place and crisis planning, training and drills are built-in. Unfortunately, we can’t say the same of employers in the “real world.”

On average, more than one employee per day is murdered in an American workplace and another 2 million Americans a year are victims of some kind of workplace violence. If that wasn’t motivation enough for employers to take preparedness seriously, you’d think the now constant threat of terrorist attacks would do it. However in 2005, with the 9/11 attacks burned into our memory, more than 70 percent of American workplaces still had no workplace violence plan in place, and more than a third of companies had no crisis plan at all.

That’s just shocking. Aside from the legal obligation any employer has to provide a safe work environment, on a moral level there is no excuse to continue to back-burner crisis planning when it comes time for budgeting any organization’s priorities. A good crisis plan will identify and prioritize risks, confirm a process and responsibilities for emergency decision-making, put rapid communication tools in place, train key personnel and create ties to vendors that can provide critically needed support when a crisis strikes.

Traditional crisis plans have often focused on external communications to news media. But an organization’s own employees have always been a key audience. That’s truer today more than ever. Your employees will be sending out photos and videos of the crisis unfolding in real-time and tweeting what they think is happening. Their perceptions will define the story and how your organization’s reputation is affected. Without crisis preparedness, you won’t keep up.

So take a moment now, and ask yourself a question. Does your organization have a plan in place that fits this need? If the answer is no, or if you’re not sure, forward this internally or raise the question yourself. Be proactive while you still have the chance.

Mike Lawrence is Executive Vice President and Chief Reputation Officer of Cone LLC, which works with companies and nonprofits on strategy and communication programs including crisis preparedness.

How can a brand stay alive, remain relevant and engage with its consumers? Those are the key questions for any mature brand. Not to be a “Debbie downer,” but 24/7 Wall St. regularly compiles a report of brands that are likely to disappear in the near future. The most recent list includes:

• Blockbuster
• BP
• Dollar Thrifty
• Kia Motors Corp.
• Merrill Lynch
• Moody’s
• RadioShack
• Reader’s Digest

Blockbuster is a perfect example of a company that is taking a hard look at its business model and trying to find ways to adapt. Gone are the days when friends or families made a trip to the movie store to walk through the aisles and pick out what they were going to watch. With the influx of services from On Demand, Netflix and Redbox, movies and entertainment are more readily available to consumers in extremely convenient places, and they are often much less expensive.

Another brand attempting to resurrect itself is Gourmet. After shuttering the print version in the fall of 2009, Condé Nast just announced the former magazine will rebrand itself as an iPad application called Gourmet Live. The free app is set to launch in the fourth quarter and will include new content along with some archival content from the magazine.

Executives clearly found value in the Gourmet brand and wanted to try and capitalize on it using a new medium. It is unfortunate, in my humble opinion, the rebranding was not announced in conjunction with the end of the print publication. It would have helped bring some positive news to the end of an era. Condé Nast’s hope is to create a new way to engage with consumers and not rehash the magazine online.

Making it onto the infamous you-will-disappear list is not always a brand’s fault. Some things are unavoidable and unexpected – like a down economy. However, the unpredictable nature of market conditions does reinforce the importance of being able to adapt and change with the times and the consumer. It’s not good enough to rest on your laurels and assume you will make it out on top. Brands needs to continue to communicate with consumers and innovate.

-- Jessica Lappen, Account Supervisor

Toyotas and aspirin and lettuce! Oh my! These days, everywhere you look something else is being recalled. What is a company in crisis to do?

First, take a deep breath. Second, be glad you have a crisis preparedness plan in place.

You do have one, don’t you? You should. Mid-calamity is not the time to start developing one. Take advantage of today’s peace and quiet to prepare for tomorrow’s potential disaster.

And, be sure to consider the following when developing your company’s plan:

• Act quickly and take responsibility to “contain” the crisis.
• Your organizations will be on trial during the early stages of a crisis. If you wait for every last fact before taking action, you will be convicted in the “court of public opinion.” 
• Ensure your actions are consistent with your mission and values, and don’t forget to show empathy for what has happened.
• Organizations in crisis too often focus their communications on the minutiae of the crisis, event timelines, etc. and forget to share feelings (regret, sadness) about what has happened to critical audiences as a result of the crisis.
• Review your organization’s history to find prior damaging occurrences (similar past events, active litigation, etc.) that could be dredged up or leveraged for greater impact during the current crisis.
• Agree on how you’re going to address questions about this history, the impact it has on the current event or what it may suggest (i.e., the company did not sufficiently address a past problem).
• Use the media – traditional and new media – as information resources and communication vehicles.
• Both media and online resources can help organizations reach critical audiences quickly with a message about the crisis or can help correct damaging misinformation before it has any significant impact.
• Make time for media and online monitoring as well as monitoring for feedback from audiences with which you are communicating.
• Listen to what’s being said about your organization’s response to and communications about the crisis – this information may prompt valuable adjustments to communications strategy and messaging.

--Jenn Sheehy Everett, Vice President

Customer service is more than just a 1-800 line or salesperson who helps you. As a marketer, I believe it is really about external brand communications and ultimately enhancing brand equity. Now more than ever, a small, isolated customer service incident can become a national PR disaster. For those companies who don’t make customer service a priority or handle situations the right way, it can cost them dearly.

It’s simple – failure to meet consumers’ expectations can damage brands. According to a recent study from Genesys, with research firm Greenfield Online and Datamonitor/Ovum analysts, U.S. companies lose an estimated $83 billion each year due to lost purchases and customers as a direct result of a poor experience. In fact, 71 percent of consumers have ended a relationship because of a poor customer service experience.

Consumers don’t want to feel like they are not being heard. These days, with the help of social media and other channels, consumers have a much bigger voice. This is something we saw with film director Kevin Smith and his recent Southwest Airlines flight experience. While Kevin has a slightly larger platform than most, he was still able to catapult his unpleasant flight experience to national news.

It is important for brands to set up the proper infrastructure to ensure communication is being trickled all the way down and to the right people. There is nothing worse than consumer-facing employees not being educated about programs or products that are heavily promoted through other disciplines (e.g., ads, POP, email newsletters). Some things to consider when developing a customer service strategy are:

• Ease of implementation
• Employee communications
• Pertinent information distribution across all appropriate channels
• Program-specific reactive responses
• Online conversation monitoring
• Direct-to-consumer communications, if appropriate

Brands should be willing to adapt to the times and be open to change. A plan that was well received for the last 25 years might still be outdated. At the end of the day, the ball is in the brands’ courts. If they choose to put emphasis on evaluating their customer service efforts, it may save them big in the end and win the hearts of consumers across the country.

-- Jessica Lappen, Account Supervisor

When does a meeting need to be face to face?

Fast Company poses this question to our CEO Jens Bang in its online series "30 Second MBA," whichfeatures CEOs andother executive leadership sharing best practices for business management.

As he explains, a face-to-face meeting allows the participants to "express the emotionality behind the communication."

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll eat for a lifetime. Offer him free fish, and hoards of people will overrun your restaurant so fast you’ll risk food shortages and riots. Or something like that…

It seems there’s no end to restaurants and food brands offering coupons for free meals and products. What’s surprising, however, is just how little the participating companies understand the power of the word “free.” In this economy – or any economy, really – you’ll find people hard-pressed to pass on free food, as any parents visiting their child at college can tell you. Offer to take the roommates to dinner, and suddenly you’re staring at a two-hour wait for a table for 10.

So, why do marketers continue to underestimate the demand? Didn’t the Oprah-KFC incident teach us anything? Apparently, we’re still waiting for the lesson to sink in. Just last week, restaurant chain TGI Friday’s had to face the ire of Facebookers everywhere when coupons for a free Jack Daniel’s burger or chicken sandwich ran out 24 days sooner than expected. To stem the groundswell of negative comments, TGIF hastily extended the promotion. What was initially an offer of free burgers for the first 500,000 Facebook followers of TGIF “fan” Woody, has been opened up to the first million. At the time of this post, Woody is closing in with 970,739 followers.

In a similar incident, Smucker’s launched a promotion offering 20,000 coupons for free packages of Uncrustables Sandwiches. Within hours of going live online, the coupons were gone. The program was slated to run through October, and it didn’t even make it out of September. According to a Smucker’s PR executive, it doesn’t look like the company will make any more coupons available. This hardly seems like a good move, especially as Smucker’s tries to drive moms to its Web site to submit tips on giving their kids and the whole family “a wholesome, satisfying and convenient snack.” Moms can still provide tips, but they shouldn’t expect free sandwiches.

The lesson here? Take a cue from the Oprah-KFC effect. Coupons for free food will inevitably run out – and faster than you think. So, take the time to prepare a contingency that won’t leave consumers feeling cheated. Hope for the best, but plan for the worst.

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Recently, I assisted in the execution of “Dog’s Night Out”…the first-ever restaurant for dogs in Boston, Mass!

Having planned over the years for several different types of events, and implementing hundreds of them, let me share some tips that could help you get started on a future event.

Start out by thinking in four different phases.

First Phase: Plan
You need to begin planning three months to a year or more in advance, and determine the event’s purpose. Decide who your intended audience is and create a marketing plan; include a budget and the number of people you need to execute the event successfully. Do your homework, and conduct research surrounding your planned event date. See if there are any partnerships you can tap into to share some of the expenses.

Second Phase: Time to Tackle
By now...the decks are clear and you’ve rolled up your sleeves. Develop checklists, determine and confirm where your event will take place. Begin thinking and creating your event flow; choose your vendors and begin developing your promotional/media materials. Depending on your event type, invites should be in the mail, all media outlets contacted with appointments secured, and if you are considering a broadcast satellite feed, make sure that’s in place. Lastly…have a back-up plan in place for those “what-if” scenarios!

Third Phase: Nearing the Finish Line…The Event
Today’s the day…All your vendor contracts are signed, purchase orders secured and you’ve checked…you’re on budget! Lastly, your briefing books are assembled and you’ve reconsidered all the “what-if” and back-up scenarios. Team has arrived and everyone is there to work and achieve great results.

Fourth Phase: Wrap-it-up
Immediately following the event, make sure you send thank-you notes to everyone, including the team. Check to make sure that all the vendors are paid, and lastly…make yourself proud of you and your team’s accomplishments…merchandise your results.

Remember, no two events are the same, and these phases are meant to be used only as a guide.

--Helene Fletcher, Account Supervisor