A Love Letter 15 Years in the Making

“Hello gorgeous. You know, I traveled over 1,000 miles to see you. Stepping through the doors of the hotel, there you were. A decade had passed, but it seemed as if we’d never left each other. Your warm smile, welcome hello, and gigantic embrace welcomed me back, picking up from where we’d left off.” 

Before you starting texting and calling my wife, let me explain.

15 years ago, I found myself surrounded by some of the most brilliant public relations minds in the world. Industry legends and emerging thought leaders would sit down next to me and engage in spirited conversation. We’d debate and discuss our opinions, our profession, and the future of communications, while at the same time forming long-lasting personal connections and friendships. 

These gatherings were occurring in Beijing and Toronto. In Rome and Orlando. In Boston and Lisbon. I’d become a partner in the Worldcom Public Relations Group, the largest partnership of independent PR firms on the planet.

But those relationships extended beyond gathering in person twice each year. We shared information, insights and business. I vividly recall pulling together 18 partners for a same-day, multi-city product introduction – something that would have been next to impossible without this tight-knit team working in lockstep.

So when I left Worldcom in late 2002, recruited from my agency to take a senior in-house role with Eastman Kodak Company, there was more than a little regret and sadness. 

Sure, we saw each other now and then. I gave that speech when you gathered in Australia, sharing advice from the “other” side. We saw each other on the street now and then, with a quick hug at a Silver Anvil evening or PR Week Awards dinner.   

I even flirted with some other groups who claimed to be like you. But it just wasn’t the same. Their ‘partnerships’ were just names on a page. They didn’t know each other the way we did. They didn’t have each other’s interests at heart. They didn’t have your soul.” 

Fast forward to late 2011, when I left my position leading Bausch & Lomb’s global communications and public affairs efforts to return to consulting. My business partner? You guessed it – Bill Collins of Travers Collins, a Worldcom partner whom I’d first met years ago at a meeting in Boston. McDougall Travers Collins was born, and the Rochester office found itself in Worldcom as of March 1.

Last week, I made my way to my first gathering of partners since 2002. The bonds I’d formed from years ago had held strong, with conversations seemingly picking up right from where they’d left off. Better yet, new partners became old friends in a span of days. It was a remarkable experience.

But then again, I’m talking about a remarkable group of individuals and agencies. Agencies with whom we’re now working on projects in China and the UK. Agencies that have opened doors to some of the world’s top media at the blink of an eye. Agencies that are currently assisting a MTC client with one of the most unique challenges of my career (a topic for a later Schism post). Agencies that are acting not as dots on a map, but as vested partners.

“When I returned after all those years, we’d both grown. You’d become more wise. More open to new ideas. And more vivacious than ever before. Is it crazy to love your business partners? Not in this case.” 

My friends, it’s good to be back.

Opting Out of AMC's "The Pitch"

AMC’s much anticipated (or much hyped) reality series “The Pitch” premiered this week, following advertising agencies as they face off to win new accounts.

Much has been written about the series, including a post from our own Kellie Mazur on our sister Smarty Rants blog. The show makes for good TV, but is it real?

In some cases, it can be too real. Want proof? Take a gander at the list of major shops that declined to participate. Taking a concept from a blank page to the real world can be rewarding, enthralling, and often dramatic, but laying out your business strategies, your processes, and your warts for all to see perhaps takes the notion of radical transparency too far.

Coke isn’t letting TV cameras into its vault to film the secret formula, so why should an agency do the same? Publicity? The urge to show their brilliance?  Sheer ego?

Jim Edwards of Business Insider labels those who chose to opt out as cowards. He believes that messages can no longer be controlled.

We beg to differ. While the degree of control has been eroded in recent years, corporations still have a responsibility to guide and shape their message. If you saw one of your associates suddenly begin to live stream a pitch to a major prospect,  you’d probably have his head. So why bring an entire production crew into the mix, and let your approach to securing and retaining business be critiqued by every household with a cable subscription or iTunes account?

I faced the same scenario in 2009, declining to place my then chairman and CEO on the pilot season of CBS Television’s “Undercover Boss.” The unknowns were too great, and the returns too uncertain. I’m a risk taker, but only when I know the odds at the table.

The agencies who said no to “The Pitch?” They’re well known and well respected because they’re stewards of their own brands, acting for themselves in the same way they’d treat their clients (to which I can attest, having worked with a handful of them during my corporate days).

Now isn’t that the type of agency with whom you want to work?

Peer-to-Peer: The Future of Employee Engagement

The Worldcom Public Relations Group, the largest partnership of independently-owned communications firms, today released “PR in 2012: Emerging Tactics and Trends from Around the Globe.” McDougall Travers Collins was honored to be asked to contribute.

Our viewpoint on the new realities of internal communications follows, yet it’s just a taste of insights and opinion from some of the most talented communications professionals in the industry. Download the entire eBook — for free — by clicking here (PDF).

—————

- How a Peer-To-Peer Model Drives Employee Engagement -

Organizations seeking to improve their market positions
typically begin searching for external solutions among customers,
prospects, distributors, retailers and suppliers. They look to their
communications and marketing teams to refine and amplif y messages.
They take another glance at burgeoning digital media efforts, perhaps
placing some additional budget allocation against promising programs.
That’s expected and most certainly fair.

Some companies, though, are tapping into a method often hidden
in plain sight: reinvigorating and sometimes reinventing their
internal communications function to better align employees against
the challenges at hand. This goes beyond refreshing an internal
newsletter, placing some lipstick on the intranet site or increasing
the frequency of senior leadership messages to their teams. Savvy
executive teams are developing and executing plans to deploy peer-to-peer
communications skills – and instill the desire to use them – across all
levels of the company.

Doesn’t this amount to a decentralization of the employee
communications infrastructure? In many ways, yes. The peer-to-peer
model is what our associates are experiencing every day beyond
the office, through increased personal use of digital media – social
sites, blog posting and commenting and even that old killer app called
email. Unfortunately, in the corporate setting, there continues to be
an over-reliance on messages emanating from the center.

Moving to a peer-to-peer model – one in which the company’s
communications professionals become the educators, evangelists,
and mentors – presents myriad business advantages that can drive
measurable market impact. Information moves more quickly among
teams and individuals, creating a more nimble culture that can rapidly
adapt to changing conditions. Strategic concepts are given added
context by those in the trenches, helping promote understanding
of how business decisions will directly affect employees if executed
as planned. Feedback originates from all levels, bringing to light new
viewpoints and potentially game-changing innovation. Collaboration
reaches new heights, especially among groups once separated by
power silos that were deemed impenetrable. Combined, these
benefits tap the knowledge of the entire organization to form new,
powerful insights on a more frequent basis.

Establishing a differentiated internal communications model isn’t
easy. It isn’t immediate. And it isn’t always fun, at least during
the early stages. But the peer-to-peer construct is the future of
how companies will develop and nurture optimum organizational
performance that translates into market success. What we give up
in control we’ll more than earn back in engaged and empowered
employees across the enterprise.

–
Download the entire eBook — for free — by clicking here (PDF).

Indians Baseball on Pinterest = Happy Fans

Baseball season starts next week week. More importantly, Cleveland Indians baseball starts next Thursday – my most favorite time of year. Sadly, living in Western New York doesn’t lend itself to participating much in live games, but I’ve purchased MLB.TV to fulfill that void.

To me, there’s nothing better than a baseball game. Tom Hamilton, the Tribe’s AM radio play-by-play announcer is one of the league’s best. He can paint a picture of every play, every hit, every stolen base. His home run calls are the best because you can see his eyes widening and feel his lungs filling with air when he screams “WAAAAAAYYYY BACK … GONNNNNNNNE!” Check out any of these YouTube videos to see what I mean.

I’m excited to see what new talent comes forth this year, as the Tribe still claims to be in “rebuilding” times, a familiar term for Cleveland clubs. The #bullpenmafia is juggling around starters, relievers and closers to find the right rotations – especially after the whole Fausto Carmona debacle (sheesh, that was embarrassing).

While I can’t go to as many games as I’d like, the Tribe is making it easier than ever for out-of-town fans to enjoy the ball club through social media. Twitter and Facebook have always been go-to sources for Tribe news and in-game commentary. Cleveland has a great, entertaining (and articulate?) sports reporting community complete with journalists, bloggers, freelancers and life-long fans who post online.

New this year, is a Tribe baseball Pinterest account. Words cannot contain my excitement. This chick loves baseball. Now, I will be able to connect with other chicks who love baseball on one of my favorite social media platforms.

The Indians account features some of the following boards:

• Tribe Eats: awesome Tribe-inspired culinary delights
• Indians Shop (Kids, Men and Women): the newest outerwear and Indians fashion
• Tribe Memories: back when the Indians created more smiles than tears
• Tribe Pride: pins from fans of Indians baseball

Indians Cake from Pinterest

Between Twitter, Facebook, MLB.TV and Pinterest, I’ll almost be able to taste the ballpark hotdogs and insanely-priced beer. Strikeout batters will almost be able to feel my wrath and the evil glares I send their way through cyber space.

Pinterest is a great way for brands to interact with fans, and I’m glad to see the Indians jump on board – especially considering the large female fan population hanging around. It must be something about the high-rise socks. Pinterest allows fans to share visual favorites on organized boards – and cross pollinate content on Twitter and Facebook.

I forsee the Indians Pinterest account generating more content than expected – it’s a perfect platform for the Pinterest audience of women. Afterall, it is estimated that more than 90 percent of Pinterest users are women. Women love taking photos, women love sharing, women love baseball and women love Pinterest. It’s a match made in baseball heaven.

Katie Corbut, Account Coordinator

Don’t Lose Your Message: The Art of Translation

It’s the era of global communications, with a story (or rumor!) in one market appearing at the speed of light thousands of miles away. While the world’s most advanced technology has made this possible, the allure of a universal translator to overcome language barriers is still some years away (despite some very good attempts uch as Google’s Language Tools).

MTC has been working with global clients for years, including recent programs in France, Switzerland, China and Mexico that required translation. How can you ensure that your message won’t get lost between languages? We’ve compiled a few pointers that may help:

Visualize the end product. When using a translation services partner, it’s important to outline the scope of the project before the materials hand-off. If creating a brochure or other piece of collateral material, a translation service with design capabilities can be a life saver. This ensures your materials look as good as they sound, especially if working with unfamiliar character sets where line breaks may not be evident to the untrained eye.

Learn to love sentiment and catch phrases. My French grandmother said “bar salad” into her early 90s. Be careful to not overlook local euphemisms or catch phrases along the way because of language differences, as well as sentiment and satire. If these are important to the mix, you will want to evaluate whether to press ahead with direct translation versus a copy adaptation.

Cover your bases. If you have the ability to run draft translated copy by someone in your overseas office prior to final approvals, build in the time to make it happen. As much as a service may provide fluent translators, on-the-ground colleagues are usually able to confirm that copy syncs to local tonality and turn of phrase.

Make your deadline. When establishing your time frame, work in extra days in the event that copy needs to be changed. Make sure your translation service knows your deadline, especially since many global jobs have little flex time because of printing and shipping demands.

Rushing documents through translation can be done (at a cost, of course), but always allow a minimum of 36 to 48 hours to get the job done right. Your translation service will work best when they have more details than needed to complete the project.

Have you worked with a translation service for your business or client? We’d love to hear your tips, too!

Katie Corbut, Account Coordinator

Snapshot: Inside Silver Anvil Judging

What does Silver Anvil judging look like? Here's a view from inside the judges room last Friday in Manhattan. I'd say more, but the long-arm of PRSA would find me! Winners will be announced in early June -- good luck to all the finalists.

Welcome to the family, Mr. ADDY!

Why the "Coach" Wins in Social Media

The topic is a regular one among peers in the marketing, communications and advertising industries. "Who owns social media?"

Stop the bickering and land grabs -- no single discipline "owns" it, but every corporate function has a responsibility to play its part.

What about those teams who are planting their flag in the SM social media space and begin protecting it as "their" domain? As more executives become versed in the digital landscape -- and see its impact from a holistic point of view -- they're beginning to see that some individuals and groups are only it it for the pride, for the (supposed) job security, or because they fear that others may outshine them.

So turn the tables. Instead of building walls and protecting your turf, become the social evangelist. Look broadly at the implications of real-time content dissemination and of placing a global megaphone in the hands of individuals. Ask tough questions about your organizations' preparedness to deal with new socially-driven behaviors and technologies. Recommend solutions, then band together to put them in place.

Pull in your colleagues from customer service, legal, human resources and operations. Share best practices, but also take time to listen -- those who are unfamiliar with social media minutiae sometimes offer the most nontraditional and valuable insights.

Being a leader in social media is dependent of making room for others, and acknowledging that no one person -- or discipline -- can see the entire playing field. In an industry where boasts and bravado have dominated for decades, it's becoming the era not of the star, but of the coach.

McDougall: New Definition of PR is "Vanilla"

Excerpted from PR News Online (March 2, 2012):
By Bill Miltenberg

As public relations evolves and incorporates a suite of new digital strategies and concepts, so too must its working definition. That's why the Public Relations Society of America's Public Relations Defined initiative fielded suggestions from PR pros, academics and students, as well as the public, to help redefine PR itself.

More than 900 suggested definitions were winnowed by PRSA to three finalists. The winning definition, by popular vote: Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics. 
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Mike McDougall, APR, and managing partner of McDougall Travers Collins and a member of PR News' Advisory Board, says the new definition result is a "bit vanilla," but that's to be expected when trying to crowdsource a definition that needs to encompass a big-tent profession. "It will play well in a textbook, but not so well in business," says McDougall. "This definition could apply to related professions—IR, government affairs, customer service and even sales in some instances. The best we can hope is that someone hearing the definition will ask for clarification, forcing practitioners to provide a more focused explanation as to their value and expertise."
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Read the full story by clicking here.

Looking for that First PR Job? Nail the Interview.

Katie Corbut is an account coordinator with McDougall Travers Collins, and a 2011 graduate of Kent State University.

It’s a scary world out there after college. You can have the best education, recommendations and letters from the Dean – but even that might not be enough in this economy. Next week, I’ll be participating at a panel discussion at Buffalo State’s PRSSA “An Evening with the Professionals” roundtable event. Practitioners will be asked to shed light on current trends with careers in public relations, and give advice on how to get that interview.

Here is some of the advice I hope to share:

Your resume needs to be clean – Look at it so many times your eyeballs hurt, and then have five more people look at it to make sure it is grammatical and free of spelling errors. Your ability to answer questions about your internships and experience will speak louder than any unnecessary fluff you write in there. Keep your resume to one page and follow these tips:

• Name, address, phone number and professional e-mail (not babycakes@hotmail.com).
  
• Include a personal work ethic explanation – keep it simple.
  
• Compile a short list of core coursework – if one class stands out, summarize in a couple sentences what you learned and/or achieved.
  
• List your experience – internships, pro-bono work, managing a Ted’s Hot Dogs. If you worked for a semester or a couple of years, what did you accomplish? Are there any measurable achievements? Include them, and be prepared to discuss the challenges you faced.
  
• Cut the colorful borders and frilly images – keep it simple.
  
• Bring more copies than you’ll need – if you’re meeting three people for an interview, bring six copies.

Make a portfolio – What better way to show off what you’ve learned and accomplished by bringing in a clean portfolio of your work, or creating a free online portfolio to showcase your work examples and your ability to work on the web. Include your online portfolio link in your email signature, along with your social media links (Twitter and LinkedIn if you had to pick two).

Stay up on current trends – Know some of the most recent PR flubs and successes and be able to reference some of those case studies and why they resonated with you from a professional standpoint. This shows your interest in the field outside of your coursework and employment.

Get out there and meet people – Send emails asking to come in for an informational interview to see what the company does and who they’re looking for when they seek to hire someone. Do a little research – know about the person you’re pitching to, where they work and what they work on. The more people see your face out and about, the more they’ll remember you. They might not have a job opening, but they might know someone who does.

Know what you’re going to say when asked “tell me a little bit about yourself.” Be ready to give a good thirty-second snapshot of who you are, as a person and an employee. Put yourself on camera and record it, practice it – but know when it’s the right time to improvise.

Clean up your online identity – Your parents and professors are right. Take down those “blue and red cup” pictures and stop using profanity. If you’re going to work in PR, the people who are interviewing you are doing the same research on you that you’re doing on them.

I can’t speak from a hiring manager’s perspective, but these are all items I would look for when recruiting an entry-level PR practitioner with the intent to retain them. Did they have a grammar and spelling-conscious resume, filled with measurements on experience – not just their GPA and core curriculum courses? Did they attempt to complete multiple internships, or apply their coursework knowledge to a pro-bono job? Do they have examples of their work in the form of an online portfolio or physical portfolio, or both? Do they have a clean social media profile and presence? Did they do their homework – do they know about your company, clients and culture?

What do you look for as a hiring manager?

I’m excited to meet the PRSSA students next week and help in any way I can.