As we get back to work in these first few days of the New Year, I’m still feeling celebratory!
In the mood for some festive music, I just pulled out a CD by one of my favorite jazz trios – the magnificent pianist Tommy Flanagan, who accompanied Ella Fitzgerald for years, here teamed with bassist Peter Washington, and drummer Lewis Nash. You’re listening to the album’s title track, Sea Changes – which inspired the title of this post. You can either be anxious about change — or embrace it and be happy! Guess what I’ve chosen?
The upbeat composition by Flanagan made me think of how the Sea Changes in PR are changing things for the better. Having transitioned my practice to an inbound marketing approach, here are four reasons why I’m looking forward to 2010.
Companies are waking up from the marketing deep sleep of 2008-09 and coming to the realization that they’ve somehow returned to consciousness in a new and promising world. While they slept, some PR and marketing people were busy figuring out that new online tools open opportunities that didn’t exist before to engage with customers and other stakeholders.
As these companies bring budgets into play, they’re happy to learn that online efforts can not only generate leads, but also convert the leads to sales. It’s really nice to sit with company executives and watch their heads nod enthusiastically as the light dawns that their websites – maybe with a few tweaks and additions – can become drivers of marketing success.
As a PR/marketing strategist, I have a fresh tactical toolkit to dig into. New inbound marketing tools & techniques are capable of turning the idea of marketing integration from nice concept to powerful reality. By pulling a variety of disciplines together – sales, marketing, PR, corporate affairs, community relations, customer service, search, video, web development, R&D and more, inbound marketing allows organizations to leverage knowledge across corporate silos and benefit from broader buy-in and contribution to business objectives.
Wow! It feels so good to offer services where we can actually measure how they contribute to the bottom line. No mistaking when relatively soon after optimizing a site for search engines, adding a blog with great content and building links with important online communities your Website Grader score goes from 20 to 85 and you move from Google obscurity to ranking on page one or two for important keywords.
What’s making you feel optimistic about the year ahead?
Today I was in the midst of my usual early morning multi-tasking, reading email, a few favorite blogs and the New York Times online, drinking coffee and eating breakfast while listening to local news and weather on the tube in the background.
Eating in earshot of the TV has become a real crapshoot in terms of whether you’ll be able to finish without a pharma commercial ruining the meal with a nauseating list of potential side effects of some miracle drug. This morning I didn’t get lucky.
As I got into a NY Times story that caught my attention, Adding Fees and Fences on Media Sitesby Richard Perez-Pena and Tim Arango, a drug commercial came on, sending me running to preserve enjoyment of my yogurt and fruit. As I exiled myself from the room with the offending commercial, I couldn’t help but think for the umpteenth time that this couldn’t possibly be the result that pharma marketers are looking for.
Particularly in light of the Times article, which focuses on how news media companies are trying to monetize their content, I thought – also for the umpteenth time – about the visionary ideas behind dLife – a multi-media effort focused on helping people living with diabetes to better manage their chronic condition. I had the good fortune to work on the launch of that venture back in 2004. And it can provide a road map for both media companies and advertisers trying to find new ways to succeed.
The genius behind the dLife concept is its founder, veteran marketer Howard Steinberg, who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age 10. Recognizing that successfully managing diabetes represents a lifestyle – a very different view of disease management – he created a multi-media diabetes network that would provide the diabetes community with a new approach to living well with a life-threatening chronic illness — while building a hugely targeted audience for pharmas and other providers of products and services for diabetes.
dLife has a web portal at its hub plus spokes that include the first lifestyle cable TV show about a chronic illness, a radio ‘tip’ segment and a newsletter. dLife.com is now one of the top diabetes/healthcare sites on the web. Its TV content is consistently award winning. You can follow the company on Twitter — @dLife. dLife members (sign-up is free) get unlimited access to its content, as well as product discounts and online purchase opportunities.
Who pays for all of this? Advertisers do! Gladly! dLife delivers a large community that is almost 100% guaranteed to be interested in advertiser offerings. And, instead of buying expensive national advertising to reach a relatively small fraction of the US population, they can reach dLifers via much less expensive cable, online and radio advertising.
Media companies and advertisers can take a lesson from dLife. Maybe the New York Times, for example, should begin to break down its reader base into affinity groups and build segmented communities that are interested in certain areas of its coverage and would be interested in particular ad categories. The Times seems to be moving in that direction with its Weekender subscriptions and ad campaign that explores what sections people are ‘fluent in’ – read ‘interested in’. It could then offer targeted packages to advertisers – particularly multi-media offerings with built in cross marketing. Like 24/7/365 special advertising sections.
The technology exists online to provide personally segmented advertising. That’s how to get ads to where they’ll actually be appreciated – and effective. In fact, the process could be interactive. I know I would consider self-selecting for relevant ads to keep desirable news content coming – particularly if I could get irrelevant and disgusting pharma commercials out of my life!
I’d love to hear some of your creative ideas for new content/pay models for traditional media.
In honor of Howard Steinberg’s vision, today’s music is the tune Miles Ahead by the visionary jazz man Miles Davis with the Gil Evans Orchestra conducted by Quincy Jones, live at the 1991 Montreux Jazz Festival. Ironically, Davis is listed as a musician who lived with diabetes on the dLife website.
New PR Words - and Music! 
