I used to be a PR bigot — PR was better, faster, stronger than all other types of marketing.  Then the World Wide Web happened.  (more…)

Wouldn’t it be great if you knew what a reporter wanted to write?  Well, you can know, if you look at the editorial calendar. (more…)

When sleep doesn’t come right away, I often watch movies on TV, catching bits and pieces of them, rarely watching a movie from start to finish.  Hence, it often takes months before I see all of a movie, if ever.  I’ve seen snatches of the 2008 film Bottle Shock, the mostly true story of how Napa Valley took on the French wine industry in 1976.  It makes for an entertaining take on the vintner wars, even when you know it was shot from a unabashedly patriotic view.

I see it as an interesting public relations story. (more…)

Yes, yes, there are media databases and it is possible to start this kind of a project using one but frankly, you are just going to have to go back through it and do this work anyway.  Plus you are paying big bucks for that database access and the temptation is to not do the research to confirm that the names that turn up are really your best targets.  (And then you can find yourself in the embarrassing situation of contacting someone who “stopped covering that beat 6 months ago” or “When I said I write about finance, I meant personal finance”.) (more…)

Last week I was a guest on PTV Live (Permission TV’s weekly Internet show).  True to form, some of the most interesting conversations started before the cameras were rolling.  I have a feeling I’ll be rolling out a number of blog posts based on those exchanges. Here’s the first:  Who cares what Michael Arrington says? (I know, I know…last year’s news but knowing your history never hurts.) (more…)

My two boys know my brother as the slightly crazy, lots of fun, fishing buddy, car racing and car dealing Uncle Dan.  Uncle Dan is the general manager of Salisbury Chevrolet, a GM dealership in upstate New York. (more…)

I used to use the circus as a device to explain marketing to people.  Here’s marketing by way of the Big Top.  (more…)

I started working in PR back “in the day.”  I make interns giggle when I tell them about editing press releases by crossing out letters and words, using White-out and actually taping pieces of paper together to add additional information.  We usually sent press release drafts to clients via courier or the mail.  (more…)