By Jim Bianchi
Posted in BtoB Marketing Group News | LinkedIn

In our unscientific survey of communicators and executives to find the business buzzwords that should be banned, many of you nominated phrases that drove you nuts.

So, as a follow-up to last week’s post on biz buzzwords to be banned, here are the phrases that  you’d like banished from business communications – along with some of your comments related to the offending phrases:

1. At the end of the day (Has displaced “the bottom line”)

2. It is what it is (Of course it is. Isn’t it?)

3. Teachable moment (Aren’t they all?)

4. Having said that / That being said (I’m going to keep talking)

5. It’s all about the brand / Live the brand (What happened to the customer?)

6. Let’s take (the discussion) offline (So I can beat you up in private!)

7. Let me wrap my head around that (Imagine the mess that would make!)

8. Out of the box / Outside the box (… and into the toilet)

9. Reach out (Can’t you just say “call” or “write”?)
I find the variation of this – “Out-reach” – even more irritating. AJ

10. User engagement (When’s the wedding? For the ring, he went to Jared!)

Thanks to all for contributing!

We also received a few contributions – real-world quotes – that go beyond mere irritation and I just don’t know how to categorize them. But still, they’re worth sharing:

A. “The glide path of mission critical work streams”
eh?

B. “We need to market our green initiative, although we really don’t have one.”

Amazing! You can’t make this kind of stuff up.

BtoB Marketing Group News | LinkedIn

Commentator Stephen Wadds posted this story on his blog concerning the changes to UK media licensing. These moves by the NLA are deeply controversial and will inevitably make life much more difficult for PR agencies, and for their clients who will ultimately have to bear the cost of this licensing. This development has to be set against Google’s recent announcement of its plans to restrict access to newspaper content. It looks like there will be some fairly big changes ahead in 2010 for web users and communications professionals alike.

NLA web clipping licence to go ahead in the New Year

I have followed the NLA’s plan to licence the use of paid-for business-to-business web content from newspaper web sites since the NLA announced its plans in June (search my blog for content tagged NLA for more information). Since then publishers have started to raise pay walls and take on Google in a bid to monetise content.

Six months is a long time on the Internet and especially so for newspaper publishers running loss making web operations.

The NLA said today that the web licensing scheme will go ahead from 1 January 2010. Press clipping agencies, web aggregators, PR agencies and client organisations that track web clippings on newspaper web sites will need a licence. Free consumer services will not be affected.

In September the NLA said that the move will generate an estimated £2 million and while this won’t make a significant dent in the £1 billion production budget of the UK newspaper industry, it will ensure that publishers recover a contribution from the after market for web clippings.

In a press release issued today the NLA said that it has reached agreement with almost all press cutting agencies but that it still needed to agree terms with “a small number of paid web aggregators”.

“Newspaper publishers, which own the NLA, have written to the remaining aggregators to express their full support for the NLA’s initiative. The letter makes clear that the publishers and NLA will pursue non-compliant aggregators with technical and/or legal measures as necessary.”

In agency-land any move to implement additional costs will be inevitably be challenged but the ongoing debate about monetising newspaper web content will help the NLA’s case.

NLA web clipping licence to go ahead in the New Year | Wadds’ PR Blog

Like it or not, social media has changed the PR landscape. With it, the way companies manage their interactions with the public has had to change too. And it’s still changing as lessons are learned and techniques evolve to handle the extraordinary speed with which stories can spread. Here are some notable events from 2009 for PROs to ponder.

(Originally published today in The Daily Dog)
Online skirmishes between activists and brands are a daily occurrence.  Consumer products companies, in particular, are juicy targets for disgruntled customers, gadflies and pranksters, many of whom are busily accumulating sizable lists of followers and friends on social networks.  Lessons learned in 2008 guided many brands toward active surveillance of social media, yet few could have predicted the lightning-fast speed and audience size of the top social media brand attacks of 2009.

Based on a Twitter straw poll of social media observers, and corroborating data from Google search and YouTube, the big nine of ‘09 were:

• #1 United Breaks Guitars – Virtually no one had heard of the Dave Carroll’s Canadian country music band Sons of Maxwell until the musicians were angered by United Airlines. The carrier’s baggage handlers damaged a $3,500 guitar that the band had checked onto a flight, and United gave Carroll the runaround when he tried to get compensation. The episode inspired a song and music video that includes the lyrics, "I should have flown with someone else, or gone by car, because United breaks guitars." With more than 16.9 million Google search references and 5 million views of the video on YouTube, the impact to United Airlines was massive. Despite the carrier’s inability to appease Carroll before his digital anger spread in July, I loved spokeswoman Robin Urbanski’s quip: "This has struck a chord with us." She was classy while under fire.

• #2 Domino’s Pizza employee prank – A series of videos posted to YouTube in April depicted two workers doing disgusting things in the food preparation area of a Domino’s restaurant in Conover, N.C. Images of an employee putting cheese in his nostril before using it in a food order, and wiping a sponge on his rear end, were live on the video-sharing website for 48 hours, attracting coverage by the Consumerist and more than 1 million views before being removed. Despite telling company officials and police that no food tampering had truly occurred in the prank, the employees were arrested and the restaurant closed its doors in September. As of early November, there were 4.3 million references to this drama on Google.

• #3 Tim Horton’s donation to anti-gay event – The Canadian restaurant chain Tim Hortons angered the gay and lesbian community by sponsoring a rally against same-sex marriage in Rhode Island, where the company operates stores. Through a Twitter protest that used the hashtag #TimHortonFail, petitions started, blog entries authored and mainstream media coverage sparked. The company pulled its sponsorship, but coverage continued and the episode generated 4.88 million Google references.

• #4 Nestle outreach to bloggers – Swiss food giant Nestle has been the focus of a boycott since 1977 over its sale of infant formula in developing nations, where poverty is rampant and it’s tough to find clean water to mix with formula. The battle flared in September when Nestle invited mommy bloggers (and some dads) to its U.S. headquarters to discuss parenting issues. Breastfeeding advocates went ballistic in social media, trying to convince influential bloggers not to attend and accusing the company of PR dirty tricks. The issue was still raging on Twitter in early November, using the hashtag #nestlefamilies, and there were 1.1 million mentions on Google.

• #5 Glenn Beck advertising boycott – When conservative Fox News Channel host Glenn Beck called President Obama a racist, the African American political advocacy group Color of Change used social media to organize an advertising boycott. While Beck’s ratings soared, dozens of brands prohibited the network from airing their commercials during the show. There were positive and negative #glennbeck tweets about the decision by advertisers to either stay or flee from the program. Google shows 576,000 pages of content on the issue.

• #6 Outraged iPhone want new discount on new 3GS phones – When Apple unveiled a faster iPhone capable of shooting video, there were plenty of existing iPhone owners who wanted to upgrade. They also wanted a deal. When neither AT&T nor Apple offered a loyalty program to appease fans, the crowd got ugly. Twitter was the battleground, with an #iphonersHateATT tag created and petitions circulated. While the campaign yielded only 15,000 signatures, it generated high-circulation media coverage and 987,000 Google references.

• #7 Facebook’s terms and conditions – Some people don’t want their long history of BFF’s to become the property of Facebook. There was considerable online agita in February when the social network changed its conditions of service to limit the rights of users to erase their own data. Concerns voiced by the FB community spilled onto Twitter and into the pages of law journals and mainstream business press until the company tweaked the policy to better reflect the wishes of their users. Today, there are nearly 450,000 references to the affair.

• #8 Amazon’s disappearing LGBT books – Amazon blamed a computer glitch for the sudden disappearance of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender books. Some 57,000 titles were removed in April, catching the eye of several authors and quickly spilling into tweets, Facebook postings and eventually an article in The Wall Street Journal. As of early November, Google was indexing 430,000 pages of content on the incident.

• #9 Windows 7 HouseParty video – To launch its new operating system, Microsoft contracted with the marketing company HouseParty to organize hundreds of in-home events. The goal was to generate word-of-mouth and online buzz about Windows 7, but an instructional video aimed at party hosts derailed the messaging. "If this video is Microsoft’s idea of a party, whoa — I don’t want to be a lame-ass by association," wrote Joe Wilcox on Betanews. At last count, YouTube had up served this six minute treasure 1.2 million times and Google had 129,000 pages on the topic.

Crises fueled by social media are a new phenomenon to most PR professionals. While the issues and responses may be similar to those we have faced before, the breakneck pace at which messages spread makes it imperative to have the tools to capture television, print, internet and social media conversations in real time and to curate responses.

Thankfully, many of the practitioners who have steered their organizations through these very visible online debacles are very open to sharing the things they did right and what they’d do differently if given the chance. My advice, follow them, friend them and learn from their experiences.

Social media skirmishes in ‘09 offer PR lessons

Today’s Telegraph reports on an unfortunate incident involving a TV station, a digital signage system and an un-moderated Twitter feed. A recipe for disaster if ever we heard one!

TV station managers suspended following Twitter ‘gang rape’ billboard

Two senior staff in an Alabama news station have allegedly been suspended after a billboard with a live Twitter feed seemingly accused its own presenters of rape.

By Tom Chivers
Published: 4:38PM GMT 30 Nov 2009

The unfortunate juxtaposition was caught on camera Photo: THE PALMETTO SCOOP

The advertisement, for WPMI-TV in Alabama, showed the station’s anchors, Greg Peterson and Kym Thurman, with their top weatherman Derek Beasley, alongside the latest headline and the words “Right now on Twitter”.

Unfortunately for the station, at one stage the top headline on Twitter read “Three accused of gang rape in Monroeville”, and the misleading juxtaposition was caught on camera by a passing motorist as he drove through Mobile, Alabama.

The resulting photograph soon found its way on to a South Carolina blog, the Palmetto Scoop, and then on to social media site Mashable, before being sent around the internet in a series of emails and blog posts.

Now, according to various websites, two of the station’s senior staff have been suspended, allegedly over the billboard incident. However, the station has yet to confirm this.

WPMI-TV is a local affiliate of NBC, covering the south of Alabama and much of Florida.

TV station managers suspended following Twitter ‘gang rape’ billboard – Telegraph

A major b2b title in the UK has become the first to employ Social Media directly in the production of its print-edition editorial. Control Engineering magazine under the editorial direction of David Greenfield has only been an active participant in the business networking site LinkedIn since May 2009, but has already built a strong following of around 3,500 users. LinkedIn allows users to organise themselves into groups based on interests or professions. Each group offers its members an interactive discussion board facility that allows them to debate the various themes and topics they are interested in. By following and participating in these discussions on its LinkedIn and Facebook pages, Control Engineering’s editor has been able to tap into a rich seam of lively debate and informed comment from which to create highly-topical editorial. You can read the first article developed in this way here.

In a publishing world that has for so long simply regurgitated print editorial in online form, this is a very interesting development. Closing the loop between traditional and modern media makes a lot of sense from an editorial point of view; comment is easily obtained, it’s dynamic, fresh and completely democratic. Anyone has a chance to have their voice heard, not just those with big PR budgets and advertising spends.

For PR companies, it provides the clearest signpost yet that the role is changing. Clearly, it is no longer enough just to be writing and sending out press releases when editorial policy is being built in such a dynamic way; PR companies now have to take an active role in monitoring and engaging in forums such as Linked In and Facebook or risk having their messages left behind. It’s like the editors are stepping down from their ivory towers into a vibrant, thronging marketplace filled with colour and distraction. The challenge for PR people is to ensure they maintain an influential position in this melee; if you like, a guiding hand to lead an editor gently but firmly to their client’s stall. We can only do that by being there and staying connected.

“Photoshopping” – the deliberate manipulation of photographic images to enhance, conceal or mislead – is in the news a lot lately,  mainly as a result of the media’s growing unease about the use of implausibly-skinny models to promote ladies fashion. But as far away as it may seem from the glamour of haute couture, the world of B-2-B PR is not immune to Photoshop controversy, particularly when it comes to the portrayal of professional display equipment such as LED screens and videowalls.

The problem is – like stroppy catwalk models – such devices are notoriously difficult to photograph well, particularly with digital cameras. There are problems of exposure, viewing angles, unpredictable moiré effects and screen refresh artefacts. Little wonder, then, that some manufacturers resort to the “artist’s impression” approach to creating imagery for their products.

Personally, I don’t like it. Trying to promote a visual product by using a picture that has been faked is questionable practice at best. Particularly so when the subterfuge has been badly executed, as in the example above. In this recent image from a well-known European manufacturer, the fake image has been badly aligned, resulting in a picture that seems to float a good centimetre outside the physical dimensions of the screen. Not good. The same image also features fake mullion lines superimposed over what is quite clearly a stock library image. To my mind, not only does this seriously undermine the quality proposition of the product concerned, but it also raises questions of ethics –  a deliberate attempt to mislead a potential customer surely is not a good start to the relationship. If a manufacturer is willing to “lie” about how its screen actually looks, what else are they willing to lie about?

We do, from time to time, manipulate images of our client’s products to enhance their appearance or correct some of the technical problems that often occur when photographing screens. However there is one big difference: We NEVER use library shots to fake a screen image because it is vital to maintain integrity. We would never for a second consider putting an untruth into a press release – why would we do so with an image?

When we go on a shoot we always take lots of shots at various timings and exposures, and then use these collections of real images to create a composite or an HDR composite of a real, genuine product image.

If you or your client are a display manufacturer – please think twice about using fake pictures. With just a little more effort and skill, you can achieve great results without cheating. As they say – honesty is the best policy.

We just heard this afternoon that our favourite photographer has been awarded the title of UK Commercial Photographer of the year 2009 by the Master Photographers Association, at its Annual Awards Presentation on Sunday evening in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. These awards are the professional photographer’s equivalent of “The Oscars” – contested by the very best of the UK’s photographers. And as if that wasn’t enough, Ian also scooped first AND second place in the Midlands area Best Wedding Photograph before capping the evening with a Special Silver Award for his outstanding achievements. Quite an evening!

We’ve worked with Ian on many occasions and as our clients will testify, Ian is not only a gifted and visionary photographer but the consummate professional. Ian could be briefed to photograph a black cat in a coal cellar at midnight and still come away with a picture good enough for a magazine front cover. And not only that, he’s one of the friendliest and easy-to-work-with people we’ve known.

Well done, Ian – your awards are richly deserved.

www.ianpickering.com

A French magazine is pioneering a new approach to linking its traditional print-format publication with its online edition. The latest issue of Amusement magazine has a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag embedded within it that allows it to be used to access exclusive online content.

Readers of the influential lifestyle and technology magazine can thumb through the pages of the print edition as normal. However, when the issue is placed near an RFID-equipped PC, the unique identification information coded within it launches online content. RFID tags and printed media are no strangers; having been used by libraries for many years as a means to track inventory. But this is believed to be the first time RFID technology has been used to provide media content.

RFID tags are widely used in retail and industry to identify products, aid stock control and prevent theft. Passive versions use radio frequency energy generated by the reader to power a miniature onboard IC containing the identification data. Because they require no battery, they have a virtually unlimited shelf-life making them ideal for this kind of application.

According to Labels & Labelling magazine, the latest issue of Amusement is the result of a joint effort between French high-tech company Violet and GS1 France. NFC tags (size 15×15 mm) from UPM Raflatac are fixed in the middle of the first double page of Amusement’s fourth issue. The NFC tag is designed to work with Violet’s new ‘Mir:ror’ RFID interrogator, which plugs into a computer’s USB port. When the magazine’s RFID-tagged page is brought near the interrogator, the tag’s unique ID number is scanned and exclusive online content launched.

‘We consider this latest issue of Amusement to be an excellent door-opener for connecting traditional and new media using minute RFID tags. As part of UPM, a leading manufacturer of magazine papers, we view this as a highly attractive, real-life field of application,’ said Mikko Nikkanen, business development director, RFID, UPM Raflatac.

‘These publicly-available applications are shining examples of the latest ways in which we can use RFID technology – ways that have already been tested and approved in the BtoB world. As the cost of RFID components has already come down significantly, we see opportunities for totally new industry take-offs based on innovative and value increasing services for the consumer,’ said Pierre Georget, CEO of GS1 France.

RFID tags from UPM Raflatac connect French magazine to internet – Labels and Labelling – Latest News

A report on the Adweek website brings a – frankly – chilling insight into the way advertising online might be headed.

According to Adweek, a US company called ShortTail Media…

…wants to radically alter what online ads look like and how they get sold. And he’s recruiting some of Web publishing’s heavy hitters to help in his cause: the creation of a new standard video ad unit for the Internet that can be sold much like TV. This summer ShortTail Media, will initiate a beta test of what it’s calling the Digital 30 (D30), a full-page, deliberately intrusive placement built to showcase traditional 15- and 30-second TV spots. But unlike most Web video ads, the D30 loads between Web pages much like an interstitial.

In plain English, that means your web browsing will be interrupted by full page, tv commercials between page loads. Personally, I can’t think of anything more likely to enrage the target audience and create precisely the wrong perception of your brand. Let’s hope that – if not the company – then media buyers see sense and consign this one to the dustbin.

AJ

Chloe Markowicz 11-May-09

TV news presenter Nik Gowing has authored a study suggested that digital technology exposes the weaknesses of how political, governmental, military or corporate institutions handle crises.

The study, Skyful of Lies and Black Swans, published by the University of Oxford, finds that new technologies, such as social media, routinely catch these institutions off-guard in moments of crisis.

Gowing writes: ‘Even in the most remote and hostile location, hundreds of millions of electronic eyes and ears are creating a capacity for scrutiny and new demands for accountability. It is way beyond the assumed power and influence of the traditional media.’

Gowing explains how unlike powerful institutions, information such as civilian videos can provide real-time insight into crisis situations.

He suggests that in order to maintain credibility during a crisis institutions need to assert themselves as quickly as the media.

Digital technology undermines reputations, study says – PRWeek UK