Morning embers: Why some ads go viral and others don’t

1)  Why some ads go viral and others don’t (Harvard Business Review) – It’s the holy grail of digital marketing: the viral ad, a pitch that large numbers of viewers decide to share with family and friends. Three Harvard professors used infrared eye-tracking scanners to determine exactly what people are look at they watch video ads.

2) Email still outpaces social media (PR Daily) – A survey conducted last month by Ipsos found that 85 percent of people with Internet access send and receive email, whereas 62 percent of those surveyed use social media.

3) Digital diplomacy at the State Department (Tech President) – A new report from the Lowy Institute, an Australian international policy think tank, delivers a remarkably detailed look behind the scenes of State’s digital democracy efforts and asks: what has it all accomplished?

4) How to breathe life into an old blog (Copy Blogger) – Starting a company blog is like making a massive mud pie. It’s a major undertaking, yes, but an exciting one. Here are tips to revive that blog if it’s become a bit stale over time.

Morning embers: Obama, the GOP budget and when to ignore your PR team

1) For web traffic, it’s Obama in a landslide (The New York Times) – Political campaigns might be using sophisticated techniques to attract potential voters to their Web sites, but data from Nielsen shows that President Obama holds the lion’s share of Web site visits. Also, Ron Paul is in the lead among the Republican presidential candidates.

2) How the GOP is selling its budget (Politico) — After 2011′s budget battles, House Republicans are increasingly relying on polling, new messaging and coalition-building to sell their new budget proposal.

3) CEO ignores PR advice, pleads for help (PR Daily) – In general, begging is a tactic that PR folks frown upon. But when Nick Sarillo, CEO of Nick’s Pizza & Pub, sent an email pleading for customers to help keep the doors open at his two Chicagoland restaurants, customers didn’t just respond. They rallied.

4) Marketing to women (Fast Company) — Ekaterina Walter writes that brands looking to increase market share need to look beyond superficial marketing ploys and understand that the women’s market isn’t a niche–it’s a driving force.

Petroleum industry ramps up gas price messaging

A spike in gas prices isn’t great for the consumer, but it’s not discouraging the oil and gas industry from spending big to get its message out. The American Petroleum Institute has placed a significant display ad buy on The Post’s home page – not a cheap investment. Take a look:

 It’s no coincidence that the ads are appearing shortly after Congress announced it will hold hearings on gas prices.

Morning embers: Joseph Kony, Pixar and the future of newspaper advertising

1) #StopKony: The viral video that sparked a broader debate (Tech President) — A viral marketing campaign targeted at Lord’s Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony – called “Kony 2012″ – is fascinating and controversial all at once.

2) Could Pixar’s ‘”Secret Story Guidelines” work for your team? (Harvard Business Review) — Back in Pixar’s scrappy start–up days its management team devised a set of “story guidelines” to help separate its movies from the competition. Judging by the company’s meteoric success, your company may benefit from such guidelines too.

3) Xerox CEO on the rising role of reputation (Forbes) —   Xerox’s Ursula Burns argues that companies can lure talent with big money and sexy job titles, but to keep the best people, a pristine reputation really counts.

4) Fixing newspapers’ misguided approach to digital ads (Fast Company) – According to a new Pew study, the newspaper industry has not moved very far down the road toward a sustainable business model — even though overall newspaper ad revenue has fallen by more than half in just a few years.

Campfire featured in The Washington Business Journal

I co-authored a guest commentary in today’s Washington Business Journal with fellow small business owner Brad Wills.  Our column explores how entrepreneurship would suffer in Maryland under a recent proposal to impose a six percent tax on every professional services firm in the state.  We also touch on lessons we learned serving as public relations advisors to the computer services industry during its successful campaign to repeal the “Tech Tax” in 2008.  Enjoy, and please share with those who may share our views about this proposal.

View this document on Scribd

Morning embers: Ryan Braun, product naming and the mounting minuses at Google Plus

1) Slugger Ryan Braun hits PR home run in drug controversy (Sheboygan Press) — Reigning National League MVP Ryan Braun scored a big PR victory last week in his battle with Major League Baseball over allegations of drug use.

2) The mounting minuses at Google Plus (The Wall Street Journal) – To hear Google Chief Executive Larry Page tell it, Google Plus is a worthy competitor in the social networking space, with 90 million users registering since June. But those numbers mask what’s really going on.  Google Plus is a virtual ghost town compared to competitors.

3) Cool PR tools for your company (The Flack) — Blogger Peter Himler reviews three online PR tools – GroupHigh, ToutApp, and Muck Rack Pro – designed to help PR pros get their messages out more effectively online.

4) Eight principles of product naming (Fast Company) – Even at the best of times, naming is a contentious and emotional business. Whether you’re naming your baby, your boat, or your brand, the process can breed nearly endless deliberation. Keep these principles in mind as you scout the perfect name.

Paywalls and Buyouts: The media industry continues to fragment

The paywalls are coming.  So are the journalist buyouts.  And both impact how organizations will get their message out in the future.

Gannett, owner of 81 community newspapers and USA Today, announced this week it will erect paywalls on nearly all of its newspaper websites.  So did The Los Angeles Times.  They join the The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Chicago Sun-Times, The (Baltimore) Sun and others in closing the spigot of free online content to non-subscribers.

But that’s not all: Gannett also announced new buyouts of more than 600 employees.  In early February, The Washington Post announced its fifth round of buyouts and big revenue losses. The same can be said for the Kansas City Star and The Chicago Tribune. Rest assured, more will come.

Those of us who work with newspapers should take note: The newsrooms we work with will have far less institutional knowledge than a decade ago, putting well-rounded coverage of our clients at risk.  And advertisers will need convincing that a paywall-protected news site is the right place to invest their ad budgets.

Morning embers: The IRS, microtargeting and business tips from the campaign trail

1)  IRS looking for PR help (The Wall Street Journal) — The Internal Revenue Service, which ranks among the least favorable federal government agencies, is seeking PR help to promote its earned income tax credit and small business retirement plans.

2) Campaigns use ‘microtargeting’ to attract voters online (The New York Times) – Political campaigns, which have borrowed tricks from Madison Avenue for decades, are now fully engaged on the latest technological frontier in advertising: aiming specific ads at potential supporters based on where they live, the Web sites they visit and their voting records.

3) Five smartest business tips from the campaign trail (Inc.com) — Author Steve Cody says the 2012 campaign is not all Super PACs and mudslinging. In fact, every business executive can learn valuable lessons from inside the Beltway and on the campaign trail.

4) Industry groups join forces to start measuring public relations (PR Daily) – Five organizations are teaming up to create a set of standards for public relations measurement.  The goal is to create a common measuring stick that organizations can use to gauge the effectiveness – or lack thereof – of PR efforts.

Morning embers: The Girl Scouts, Cable TV, and Barack Obama’s Truth Teams

1) What the Girl Scouts can teach your business about marketing (Start Up Nation) – From the outside, the Girl Scouts may look like most other non-profit groups that set up outside the local Walmart to sell their wares.  But when it comes to marketing and sales, we can all learn a lot from the girls in green.

2) Cable leads the pack as campaign news source (Pew Research) – Cable news is now the top regular source for campaign news, with 36% of Americans saying they are regularly learning about the campaign on those networks.  Also, the long-term decline in the number of Americans who get campaign news from local and network TV has only gotten worse.

3) Obama campaign launches “Truth Teams” to combat misinformation (The Hill) – The Obama campaign on Monday launched a new effort to rally grassroots supporters to join “Truth Teams” by fighting what it considers word-of-mouth “misinformation” about President Obama.

4) Five elements of a successful media embargo (PR Daily) – Some claim the embargo is dead.  Others say it’s alive and well. This writer says the embargo still works if it’s executed properly and if it includes five key elements.

Marketers accelerate the migration to online ad spending

Here’s a prediction that’s been going under the radar: eMarketer is projecting that online ad spending will surpass print advertising this year for the first time ever, topping out near $40 billion.  Here’s a look at the respective trend lines through 2016:

Projected online ad spending vs. print ad spending

To make up for the lost revenue, expect print media to accelerate plans for online paywalls like those seen at The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Baltimore Sun.

The news isn’t all bad for traditional media. Television ad spending is projected to remain strong and will remain top dog over online ad spending, at least through 2016. You can read more by clicking here.