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.
•  What am I trying to accomplish?
•  How can I be relevant?
•  How will I integrate my event with other marketing plans?
•  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.

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.

This afternoon my colleague, Matt Dunn, and I ventured out of the office to indulge in $4.35 burgers at West Chase Grille. The special was part of 435 South Magazine’s Tasty Tuesday series. For food lovers on a budget, Tasty Tuesday’s are a great way to try different restaurants out south on the cheap. 

As a marketer, I immediately lit up on how this promotion can really help drive traffic to your location. I’d never heard of West Chase Grille before…and I live a couple of blocks away! I would have never considered dining there if not for the Tasty Tuesday notice we received from Dion’s Daily Deal. This deal got me in the door.  What will get me to go back – besides the great burger – is the buy-one-get-one free offer we received from the waitress with our tab. I was impressed with this marketing effort from the restaurant. It took advantage of pulling people in the door through Tasty Tuesday and found a way to bring folks back, securing repeat customers.

For more Tasty Tuesday finds, visit 435 South Magazine on Facebook.

Oprah. Good Morning, America. CNN. For many of our clients national shows like these are the Holy Grail of media placements. Not surprisingly, they’re the Holy Grail for thousands of other brands as well. With steep competition for airwaves, national media relations is both challenging and rewarding. It takes a lot of skill and a bit of luck, too.

We counsel our clients that to have a chance at media relations success you must have a good story, told in a compelling and customized way for the outlet you’re pitching, with a TV friendly spokesperson. This is where the skill comes in.

But as I’ve said, national media relations also involves some luck and a lot of that depends on timing. Having a timely story is always important. But above that, pitching your story at a time when there is a news hole you can fill is crucial. It’s also something you often have no control over.

For example, towards the end of last week we began pitching national media for one of our consumer-facing clients. We have a compelling story that fits well into the content normally produced on several of the national morning and news programs, a fabulous “cameragenic” young spokesperson and a packaged pitch that pulls at the heartstrings. However our news hole is slim to none. As you all know, over the weekend several hard news stories broke (oil spill, Times Square bombing attempt, Arizona immigration rallies). Our good news story has trouble competing with this hard news. Our challenge is now even more challenging.

In situations like these, you must react quickly and be ready and willing to deviate from your initial pitch plan. Maybe you move on to a less hard news focused outlet, or try pitching several outlets at the same time instead of taking a one-by-one approach.  

Even with all the best laid plans, media relations of any kind, local or national, is not guaranteed. But with a good story and an open news hole you have a chance of getting your story told by some of the top influencers in media today. And when you have a compelling story with a chance of success, we like to think it is worth the challenge, because one placement will offer tremendous rewards.

The digital world is always changing and I’m constantly amazed at the new vocabulary people invent to go with it. One of my favorite Twitter page functions is the dictionary. The word for this morning: Top·sy — n. a search engine powered by tweets. I hadn’t heard of this search engine yet. Thanks Twitter!

Here are a few more buzz words, taken from the March 15 issue of the American Marketing Association’s MarketingNews.

Foursquare: An emerging location-based social networking program for mobile users that shares users’ locations with friends.

Augmented Reality (aka Augmented Apps): An interactive means by which the real world in real time is combined with information from the virtual world.

Android: An open-source mobile operating system developed by Google and operated in conjunction with the member companies of the Open Handset Alliance.

For more digital marketing definitions visit:
Glossary of Digital Marketing Terms

Trade shows. For many companies trade shows play a significant role in their marketing and business development efforts. But booth space, sponsorships and manpower can make trade shows expensive. After the budgetary and personnel resources are taken care of, businesses should look for all possible ways to leverage their trade show presence before, during and after the show.

Media relations is one strategy for leveraging your company’s trade show presence. Your experts are there, and so are trade media reporters and editors. You have information and expertise to share. The media is looking for compelling and timely content. This all adds up to the perfect opportunity for a win-win media relations scenario.

To make the most of trade shows and garner media coverage for your product or company, consider the following.

• Determine one or two announcements or trends you can speak to and contact trade reporters before the show to
   schedule interview times.

• When appointing spokespeople, remember that trade shows are a great place for reporters to put a name to a face and build a relationship with your spokesperson. Try to select someone who will represent your organization outside of the trade show, as well.

• Media train your spokespeople to ensure they’ll have the best interview possible.

• Consider having a member of your PR team at the trade show to coordinate interviews on site. It is not unusual for an interview to be rescheduled, pushed back or even run long. Having a person on hand to ensure the interview process runs smoothly allows your spokesperson to concentrate on what’s being said, instead of the logistics.

• Follow up with your media contacts after the event to say thank you and determine if any other information is needed for their story.

Trade media relations can be a very successful strategy for building relationships and sharing your message. Next time you’re preparing for a trade show, consider adding media relations to the mix.

As we close out another year, many of us are looking at our business communications plans for 2010. If you’re like me, you might be asking yourself questions such as:

How will I meet my goals and objectives for 2010?
What new and innovative tactics can we implement to gain traction and spur action?

I’ve found the following tips are helpful in generating new ideas. Try one or more of them as you develop ideas for your 2010 programs.

1. Start with a blank sheet of paper. Before opening an old plan to use as a template, spend time seeing what you can come up with on your own.

2. ID your brain trust for the best brainstorm. In some cases you may need a small group of out-of-the-box thinkers; in others you may want all the ideas you can get.
 
3. Turn to the outside world for inspiration. Do a Google search on your topic to see what comes up. Pick up a few marketing publications to see what others are doing. Check out social media sites to see what’s trending or being discussed.

4. Let it marinate. Give yourself enough time so that you’re not in a crunch to generate new ideas. Come up with an initial list, then step away for a couple of days. When you come back and read your initial plan with fresh eyes, you’ll have a better feel for what ideas stick and what ideas need to be thrown out.

Here’s to abundant ideas in the new year.

Acknowledgment: Thank you to Esther Grenz, APR and Heather Lewis, APR for providing these great tips.