Morningstar Communications Luminary Blog

I recently read an article titled “Connect Four” by Piet Levy in my monthly Marketing News publication. The article discussed event marketing and encouraged marketers to answer four questions to ensure an event fulfilled the greater marketing objectives.

1. What am I trying to accomplish?
2. How can I be relevant?
3. How will I integrate my event with other marketing plans?
4. How will I measure success?

    Taken from the 7.30.10 Marketing News

It strikes me that with a few tweaks these questions apply to any marketing or public relations initiative, not just events.

We all must connect four and ask ourselves “What’s the point?” of the particular initiative we’re creating. We should look at how the strategy:

•  Accomplishes our end-in-mind
•  Is relevant to our target audience in an often crowded space
•  Integrates with other marketing efforts and the overall efforts of the company and individual departments
•  Can be measured to show how we moved the needle.

Personally, I love the planning process and connecting all the dots to create a program that is strong and effective. In fact, I just spent the last day and a half doing just that for a client out of Houston. It’s an invigorating process and when all the puzzle pieces fit together magic really happens.

 For the last couple years, talk about innovation in communications has centered around social media. By now, social media is not longer the new thing. Sure, it continues to evolve and we are discovering new and different tools to enhance the social media experience.

Our marketing toolboxes have a permanent place for social media right along with the more traditional communication vehicles such as direct mail, advertising and trade shows.

Throughout our lifetime, we’ve experienced the adaptation of new channels that initially are thought to be category killers. But we still watch television, listen to the radio and read newspapers (although it is oftentimes not the hard copy that is thrown on our driveways.)

Social media offers a way to share content in a way that we haven’t before. The communities built in social media offer a distinctive and credible perspective in a shared space. It’s constantly evolving – some of the applications stick, others fade away (remember MySpace?). How we use the tools will change, but there's no doubt we will continue to use them.

So if social media isn’t the new kid on the block, what is taking its place?

I’m all ears if anyone would like to venture a guess at what the next big thing is - the floor is yours.

In my last post, I mentioned that the activities of the day were top secret. Since you are all curious, here are the details of our day.

The team was instructed to be ready to leave the office at 9:30 a.m. Several of us came in early to check email and voice mails. I think we were just too excited to sleep. Everyone received a T-shirt with our logo on it. After donning the treasured shirt we loaded into two cars. Destination: Town Center Plaza.

We all gathered around and I told them we were going on a scavenger hunt. All the clues were to be answered with a photo and they had to be in the order of the clues. No one was to go into any of the stores. No need to bother the people working or the shoppers while we were having fun. We divided into three teams. Everyone had the same clues, just in a different order. After receiving detailed instructions, the teams opened their 20 clues and took off through the parking lot.

Since the clues were written by me, I followed the teams with my camera hoping to get some great candid shots. Silly me. These people were VERY competitive. The photos I got were of feet, sidewalks, and backs of our teams running, yes running, to the next answer. It was great to see the team work and enthusiasm. People were sweaty and tired and had no time to talk to me. I did get several shoppers asking me what was up with all the blue shirts running around. They laughed when I explained and wished us luck.

Waiting at the final answer for the winning team was intense. Team Eric, Rachel and Holly came in first with Team Matt T., Tyler and Sheri coming in a close second. Team Shanny, Matt D. and Tricia came in a distant third. After comparing the clues to the photo answers, it was discovered that the first team to finish did not stay together the whole time as instructed. They were disqualified. Team Matt T., Tyler and Sheri won the hunt. They were very excited.

We stopped off for some frozen yogurt and smoothies on our way back to office where we dined on pizza for lunch. We played two heated rounds of Taboo and then came part two of the day.

We all participated in a CPR class and became certified. It was very interesting and rewarding. Now, if the situation ever presented itself, we could save someone's life. It took two hours and the possible return is priceless. There are pictures on our FaceBook page if you are interested.

It was a good day. Until next year...

Several years ago an acting teacher told me never to use the word “just” when describing what a character wants; it weakens the motivation. People use words as a crutch and hide behind them to avoid saying something bold, or even honest.

A recent post in Patrick Williams’ Trail Mix blog reminded me of this. People who find themselves in the media – athletes, celebrities, spokespeople – have a difficult time saying what they want, need or mean to say and hide behind meaningless words or phrases.

Williams talks about public figures and television guests using vague terms like “hopefully,” “just,” “really,” “very,” “sort of,” etc. Now that I’ve pointed it out, I have a feeling you’ll notice it often. Make it a game - it adds an element of sport to your daily media viewing.

I have noticed an annoying trend in which athletes give a five-word answer: “It is what it is.” You can substitute these five words with any five words and it would mean as much, if not more.

Reporter: “How do you feel about throwing that interception?”

Athlete: “It is what it is.”

Or …

Reporter: “How do you feel about throwing that interception?”

Athlete: “My wife makes good hummus.”

Neither one comes close to answering the question and neither are acceptable answers. But with the second one, at least you know the athlete’s wife can whip up a tasty and healthy snack dip.
 
In your everyday life, I encourage you to challenge yourself to cut out vague filler words and I think you’ll find your clarity – to others and to yourself – will improve and your motivation will be stronger.

Professionally, if you find yourself in a situation where you will be asked to explain a situation or tell your company’s story, media training will help prevent you from falling into the trap of saying a lot of words without actually conveying any real message.

Having your message misunderstood, whether personally or professionally, is a terrible feeling and completely avoidable. Knowing what you want to say and knowing how to say it without creating any confusion or ambiguity will go a long way.

For me, Twitter has become an integral part of my day at work, and even has begun to creep into my personal life more than I expected. Personal branding conversations aside, I’ve made my Twitter presence a reflection of who I am: social media/PR/marketing, sports, entertainment all mixed together. This puts me in a position to explain to the Twitter non-believers the benefits of the platform from both a personal and professional perspective.

On the professional side, I use my Twitter presence in a variety of ways, from relationship-building to professional development. One of the more valuable aspects for me on Twitter are the weekly chats that have sprung up in the past year and a half or so (a GREAT list of chats can be found here . If you haven’t sat in on a Twitter chat before, the concept is simple. Using a hashtag to track the conversation, a moderator asks a series of questions and discussion ensues. A pretty simple concept that has paid tremendous dividends for me.

If you visit the above link, you’ll find a veritable cornucopia of chats geared to many different interests. As a PR person, the ones I’ve found especially valuable are #journchat, #pr20chat, and #u30pro . These chats provide great professional development and networking opportunities. I hope to see you tweeting during one in the future.

In addition to serving as the theme for the 2010 Smart Communications Summit held last week at the Kansas City Convention Center, this tagline truly describes how Morningstar Communications worked with client SKC to help develop and implement the company’s annual thought-leadership event.

Now in it’s third year, the Technology Summit has grown from a tent in the parking lot of SKC’s headquarters in Shawnee, to the Kansas City Convention Center, a premier event space. With the move to a larger, more high-profile location came the need for increased production and visibility.

From key messaging to presentation coaching, video production consulting to staging recommendations, Morningstar Communications collaborated with SKC to help orchestrate the Technology Summit. Our work on the Expert Panel Discussion is perhaps the most notable.

Take six industry leading CEOs and VPs, some of whom are fierce competitors, and put them together on a stage to discuss one universally important topic. Unorchestrated, this keynote could go drastically awry. With careful preparation and forethought it becomes a highlight of event. Such was the case with SKC’s Expert Panel Discussion.

Questions were carefully crafted based on key messages provided by our panelists to ensure the audience received the most useful and beneficial information, and our executives delivered their key points. Phone calls were held with each panelist to provide the ins and outs of the discussion’s flow and prepare them for what was to come. Our very own Eric Morgenstern facilitated the panel to keep a consistent rhythm and energy, and to tie answers together into key insights for attendees. From the tiniest details to the big rocks, everything was planned for a spotless execution.

The event brought more than 400 of SKC’s clients, prospects, manufacturers and employees together under one (big) roof. In the end, the Technology Summit helped us accomplish exactly what we set out to do three years ago in SKC’s parking lot. It positioned SKC as an industry leader and knowledgeable expert, provided attendees with information and opportunities they can’t receive anywhere else, and strengthened ties between SKC and it’s key manufacturers.

We’re proud to serve as SKC’s strategic marketing partner and are already looking ahead to 2011 as the Smart Communications Summit continues to grow and thrive.

Media lists. Recycling. Future Visioning. Distribution. Media relations. Blogging. Proofing. News releases. Clips. What do all of these have in common? My life the past 10 weeks as an intern at Morningstar Communications.

As an intern at Morningstar Communications we get asked often “What did you learn?” Gaining experience is always at the forefront of everything we get to do as an intern. It is bittersweet to say I only get to answer that question one last time since my internship is ending this week and I head back to my senior year at the University of Iowa. It’s a challenge to answer the question, not because I didn’t learn anything but because I learned so much.

My final answer to the question is integrated marketing.

Before this internship I felt I had a good handle on integrated marketing. And, I think I had an excellent knowledge base from what I was taught. Using a mixture of all forms of marketing will, in turn, provide the best results for communication programs. It’s something I knew all along, but this summer I got to see it in action.

There have been numerous accounts that I’ve worked on this summer that used integrated marketing but there is one project that stands out. A Future Visioning^TM session I was a part of truly encompassed integrated marketing strategies. Future Visioning is the process of working with a client to figure out where they want to be in the next few years and providing the plan to get there. Using as many different marketing tactics helped create a strategically sound communications plan. Social media, tradeshows, white papers and blogs were just some of the different marketing strategies recommended for the client.

For me, I got a chance to see integrated marketing be properly implemented – that’s better than any classroom lecture.

With integrated marketing we unify methods to create the best possible communications map for our clients using traditional and new media. Paying attention to details and the big picture are key to a successful integrated marketing strategy and are things we sometimes overlook. We often get excited with new communication tools such as Twitter and LinkedIn but it is important to remember that combining marketing approaches includes both the tried-and true and new tactics.Whether an intern or a seasoned professional, going back to the basics and remembering the keys to integrated marketing will prove succesfful for your next communications project.

I’m taking with me this valuable knowledge and I hope everyday to ask and answer the question “What did I learn?” I know I will be putting this information to good use in the school year and beyond.