REICH COMMUNICATIONS

Happy Passover

The Neighborhood

 

It's good to see that the U.S. Postal Service has issued a stamp a few days ago to honor a gentle man who was a hero and friend to so many young people who grew up from the '60s through 2000.

Fred Rogers, known to most of us simply as "Mister Rogers," was a fixture on public TV for nearly 40 years, starting locally in Pittsburgh, then on the CBC for a few years before launching on PBS in 1968.  "Mister Rogers Neighborhood" ran on PBS until 2001, two years before Fred Rogers' death at 76.

I had the chance to meet him and hear him explain why he kept his show soft and gentle and slow-paced, even as glitzy fast-paced programs like "Sesame Street" were getting all the attention and accolades.

"The space between the TV set and the young viewer -- those few feet -- is a holy space," he told the audience when he received a Christopher Award in 2002, just about a year before he died.  "It's a space that can be used to educate, explain and comfort a child, to let him or her know that it's ok to be just who you are."

When I heard him explain that concept, I realized why he kept his program low-key.  He was the friendly neighbor and a man kids could feel comfortable with, especially kids in homes without a soft and compassionate father figure.  The daily opening ritual on the show -- coming in the door with a smile and a soft hello as he changed from his jacket to a cardigan and from street shoes to sneakers -- put him on a different level with his viewers -- still an adult, but a non-judgemental one you could talk with and let your fears and insecurities out just a bit.  He was a man who could tell you, it's ok; whatever you feel inside, it's ok to be yourself.  

I was at the Christopher Awards in my capacity as the PR person for the annual awards program...something I've been doing for more than 20 years and which I'll be doing again in May for the 69th Christopher Awards.

That year, when the formal program ended, I had a chance to spend some time with Mr.Rogers.  A blizzard was raging outside and the car to take him to his hotel was delayed.  He was going to walk the several blocks to the hotel, dragging his big suitcase through the windy snow and slush.  I convinced him to wait, to stay inside until we were able to get a car. And we sat and talked.

In maybe 30 minutes or so, he learned from me that my father had passed away less than two years before and that I thought of him every day.  I can't even remember the questions he asked me -- but he made the conversation more about me than about himself.  He spoke in that quiet way that we all saw on TV for so many years, slowly and deliberately.  He told me he had been a minister and, along the way, found that TV could be a powerful tool to minister to young people. 

When I finally walked him downstairs to the car, he thanked me for the conversation and he said, "Your father must have been a special man, because he raised a good person in you."

I was blown away; in fact, tears came to my eyes.  And for days after that, I was sort of floating, feeling I had been in the presence of a truly special person, someone truly touched by God.

 

What We Do: Drive Safe

 

For The National Road Safety Foundation, we do a youth outreach program to involve young people in communicating safe driving messages. 

In four major markets, we coordinate with the local auto show on a project we call Drive Safe.  We're wrapping up now on the program we do with the Atlanta International Auto Show, which opens next Wednesday.  From entries received from teens throughout Georgia, we picked a winning idea for a public service message about distracted driving.  We had a crew go to the winner's school in Leesburg, just outside of Albany, Georgia, where they've been doing the filming yesterday and today for a 30-second PSA based on the winner's script.  The finished PSA will debut at the auto show next week, before airing nationally on Teen Kids News.

We were able to get coverage of the film shoot, from the FOX and NBC stations and the local paper.

 

To see the story that aired this morning on NBC/WALB-TV, click here...

http://www.walb.com/story/37728915/lee-county-student-wins-statewide-psa-contest-for-distracted-driving

   

 

More on Fake News

 

Over the past several days, I’ve seen several stories relating in some way to how to deal with fake news.

A few days ago in the New York Times, tech writer Farhad Manjoo wrote about a two-month experiment -- getting news the old-fashioned way by reading about it the daily newspapers and not looking at online news or social media. The headline neatly sums up the outcome… “Opting for Yesterday’s News Today: Deep, Informed, Accurate and Inky.”

Getting his news mostly through daily newspapers via their print editions enabled him to get information more fully developed and reported, with fewer inaccuracies and errors. In other words, slower but the truthful, or at least more truthful. He also got insight and context that fast-breaking news coverage can't always provide. And by avoiding posts about news on social media, he says he missed out on the slanted and sometimes intentionally misleading representation of information that we’ve all fallen victim to online.

It’s a good read and it does make me wish we could go back to the way it used to be. I know we can’t – that genie’s been let out of the bottle. But it seems that we as a nation might be better off if we could go back.

...

About two weeks ago on C-SPAN I caught the last few minutes of a conference from London about fake news. There was talk of an effort in the U.K. to create grades of truthfulness or accuracy for digital media so users might have a better idea if what they are seeing is truthful or biased. I thought, what a great idea! I wish there was something like that to assess U.S. media.

So I was pleasantly surprised to see a story in The Wall Street Journal a few days ago. It was bylined by a former WSJ publisher L. Gordon Crovitz, and it said that he and journalist Steven Brill -- best-known as founder and publisher of American Lawyer – have started a company called NewsGuard that will rate news organizations and sites based on their accuracy, bias and other things that might impact their accuracy, including ownership and affiliations. Rather than relying on algorithms, NewsGuard will have real people monitoring news and what passes for news, rating media green, yellow or red depending on their truthfulness and transparency.

They plan to rate some 7,500 news brands that account for about 98 percent of traditional and online news in the U.S. It’s a much-needed thing that will help most of us see what’s real and what’s fake.

Of course, it won’t stop those who prefer to believe fake news because it lines up with their own viewpoint. But it should help the vast majority of us who do want accuracy and truthfulness in the news we consume.

...

And finally, as we speak of fake news, there’s something that Sinclair Broadcasting, one of the largest owners of TV stations nationwide with nearly 200 stations, is starting to do. Sinclair’s owners are conservative and have been inserting into local newscasts brief “must-run” segments reporting on national political news, but with a strong conservative slant that is not always a truthful slant. They also insist that their owned stations run “terrorism updates” that repeat and spread the latest conspiracy theories. The pieces carry no identification as “editorial” or “opinion pieces,” but are presented as hard and unbiased news stories.

And now, according to the latest reports in the trade media, Sinclair plans to have its local news anchors -- people who are known and trusted in their local markets -- read pieces echoing the complaints we hear from the White House, some Republican politicians and from conservative media like FOX that the “traditional media” like the networks and major daily papers are reporting fake news.

Even though these pieces are being labeled as “opinion,” it is still extremely harmful to our democracy and to the public interest to have on-air reporters and anchors demeaning other media and promoting the idea of them being fake news. According to a CNN report, many Sinclair TV stations news anchors aren’t happy about this, calling this forced move “manipulative.”

It’s unfortunate and it’s dangerous, since it further pushes the concept of our news media doing fake news, ironically from one of the media companies that has been most guilty of disseminating fake and biased news.

My advice… check to see which station in your market is owned by Sinclair and be forewarned.

NBC to cut ads by 10%... sort of

 

NBC says it will cut the number of ads it runs in primetime by 10%,  ADWEEK reports that the change will begin at the start of the fall season. 

Clutter and long commercial breaks have long been a problem, for advertisers whose messages get lost in the clutter and for the networks, who lose viewers during long commercial breaks that can, at times, last three minutes or more.

So how will NBC run fewer ads without losing money?  One answer might be..charge more for each spot.  But that's not realistic. 

Instead, ADWEEK says NBC will unveil some new formats in which ads can run.  One or two of them sound vaguely familiar, just under different names.

One they're calling a "show within a show."  An example they give envisions a brief segment in "The Voice" where a previous winner is featured, showing what they've been doing since winning.  I've seen segments like that on the old weight-loss contest "The Biggest Loser."  I remember watching a segment back then, and once I realized it was a paid promotional segment I was annoyed, feeling I'd been conned into watching a commercial.  There was nothing to indicate it was a paid spot. 

Another ad platform will be a primetime bridge.  This would be a spot, of varying lengths but probably longer than the traditional :30, that will run between two programs.  It's like going back a couple of years to traditional commercial breaks between shows, except the bridge ad will be for only one advertiser.

Then there's the scripted commercial launch.  This format will move from a moment in the show to a commercial, but possibly in a seamless way so the viewer will think he's still watching the show.  A character on a show might, for example, sit down and take a cup of Maxwell House coffee, which will then lead into an ad for Maxwell House.  Sounds a little like "product placement."

This one sounds a little bizarre -- interactive picture-in-picture.  It's described as a split-screen format where part of the split screen will show a character from the program interacting with the product being advertised.  Hmmm.  We'll see.

Another is a social media concept where social comments from fans will be woven into ads that air during the show.  We've seen hints of that in past seasons of "The Voice."

And we've already seen some examples of super-short ads -- five seconds -- that run between segments of sports events.  In the Olympics, we saw instances when the narrator would say, "Coming up next, couples figure skating."  And there'd be a quick ad that is gone before you can reach for your remote or your DVR control.

The networks and advertisers are challenged with loss of viewership for ads, so it's understandable that they're trying new ways to keep us engaged or numb us into sitting through ads.  Let's see how these ideas work after we've seen them a few times, once we're on to the attempt to keep us watching the ads.

 

 

 

Using PR to Extend the Reach of Ads

 

It costs a lot to advertise.  Thirty seconds on a hit network show can be upwards of $100,000.  A spot on the Academy Awards broadcast is going for more than $2.5 million.  Spots on the Super Bowl cost upwards of $5 million.

And remember, those numbers are just for one spot -- 30 seconds that interrupt a program, when many viewers run to the kitchen or the bathroom.  And a key element of advertising is frequency -- ads have to be seen many times in order to have a real impact.

So some advertisers use PR -- publicity -- to extend the reach of their ads at relatively little cost.  Think of the super bowl of advertising venues -- the Super Bowl.  Many advertisers use PR to hype their ads before the big game, pushing for stories in the media and getting them seen and talked about via social media. 

Advertisers sometimes do something intentionally controversial in hopes of getting a bigger bang thanks to PR.  We saw an example just last week, in some outdoor ads in Boulder, Colorado for a local chain of sushi restaurants called Hapa Sushi.  According to ADWEEK, the chain ran a series of ads on kiosks and bus shelters downtown that used tweets by the president, unedited.  One ad shows a presidential tweet threatening the head of North Korea, followed by the words "Eat well before it all ends."  Another used a tweet that reads "The global warming we should be worried about is the global arming caused by NUCLEAR WEAPONS in the hands of crazy leaders!" 

Some Boulder officials missed the humor and asked the advertiser to edit the ads. Instead, the sushi chain agreed to take the ads down after only a few days.  But they garnered attention in the local newspaper, the Boulder Camera, local TV and other media around the state. 

Minimal ad expense -- bigger bang through publicity.

Years ago, one of my clients -- an ad agency -- was planning to run a huge billboard ad in the Times Square area, directly opposite a church.  The ad, for a maker of high-end toilets, showed people from behind standing at toilets, with their butts fully or partially exposed.

After the church voiced a complaint to the billboard company, the story got out to the media.  It ended up running in newspapers and on TV in New York and nationwide, with most of the stories showing the proposed ad, along with the name of the advertiser. 

A few weeks later, after the news died down, my client admitted that they had never actually planned to run the ad.  They had tipped off some folks at the church, which prompted the complaint to the billboard company.  And they gave the story to a friend in the media.  Once one outlet wrote about it, it exploded everywhere else.  

Afterwards, they asked me to do an ad equivalency evaluation for them, and the "free" exposure ,they got was worth several million of dollars.   And they never paid a dime for an actual ad, other than the very minor expense of having a mock ad created.

Clever?  Devious?  You decide.  It worked.  It caused some laughs, and no one got hurt. 

 

 

Eleven Years ...

 

Today is the 11th anniversary of my blog my 2 cents.  

I began blogging reluctantly, only because I was was pushed into it by a friend who was an early blogger.  I quickly fell in with an interesting a global group of marketing bloggers.  Many of us became online friends, to the point where we decided to have a meet-up in New York.  More than 100 bloggers came for the weekend, from throughout the United States and as far as Europe, Asia and Australia.  It was an incredible evening, when we met at a bar where we had reserved our own room.  A few of us knew each other, but throughout the evening someone new would walk in and a few people would go over and hug the newcomer, a stranger who we recognized only from photos online.   

I've made many friends and some business acquaintances through blogging.  I've learned a lot and I've had a chance to creatively  express myself in writing, which I normally don't do when I'm writing for clients. Early on, I limited my posts to marketing and public relations topics, although I began commenting on news and politics over the past two years. Some of those posts may have cost me some business or ruffled the feathers of some friends, but  

In the eleven years, I've written 928 posts. (This one is #929.)  I've received more than 2,500 comments.  The blog has gotten nearly 433,000 pageviews -- probably more since views on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter don't always get counted.     

Many of the people who were blogging when I began don't blog anymore.  Some have gone on to other platforms to express themselves.  Some have said all they have to say.  Others just got bored with it.

I still enjoy blogging and plan to continue to offer my 2 cents to whoever wants to listen.  As always, your comments are always welcomed.

There's still more work to do ...

 

Our friends at The National Safety Council just released their unofficial estimate of traffic fatalities for 2017, and it is down by less than 1% -- 227 lower than 2016 - for a total of 40,100.  

That's more than 109 people killed every day on our roads and highways!

Any decrease is good, especially after the increases of 8 and 9 percent in 2015 and 2016.  But it is still a lot more than 2015's total of 32,485, which had been the lowest number since 1949.

We still have more work to do.

What We Do: GMA

 

For one of our clients, we develop programs with youth organizations. The leaders of one of the those groups, FCCLA -- Family Career and Community Leaders of America -- were in New York for meetings with us.  They had been able to score some tickets to be in the studio audience Tuesday for the live telecast of Good Morning America in Times Square, and they were hoping to be noticed by the anchors of the show and, hopefully, invited to tell about the organization.

Just showing up there -- or similarly, in the group on the plaza outside The Today Show studio -- is no guarantee to getting airtime, other than possibly having your face shown as the cameras pan the crowd.  But in a case like that, only your family and friends will recognize you.

So here's how we improved the chances for some real air-time that would have more meaning than just being shown waving at the cameras.

We put together a brief email message explaining that leaders of the group -- representing about 164,000 members nationwide -- would be in the studio audience, along with a thumbnail description of what FCCLA does.  We kept it short and to the point, with contact info, and we sent it to two of the show's senior producers and one of the hosts.

When the group arrived at the studio, they were asked who could be a spokesperson, and that young person was miked. And finally, toward the end of the program, host Robin Roberts mentioned they had some important guests in the audience, citing FCCLA and using some of the info we had sent in our email.  One of the student leaders was called on to tell more about the group and why they were in New York.

So thanks, in part or maybe more than in part, to some advance work, FCCLA got more than a minute of national exposure on Good Morning America.

We had similar success several years ago with The Today Show, by sending in advance some info on a group planning to be in the audience to weatherman Al Roker and his producer.

Getting exposure by being in the audience at these shows is a gamble, but you can improve your odds by getting some concise and compelling information to the show's producers the day before, so they'll know who you are and why you're there.

 

 

 

More fake news...this time on infrastructure spending

 

Once again, we are getting fake news from the White House, this time regarding one of the president's big campaign promises -- spending to fix our nation's infrastructure.

On the campaign trail, he complained about crumbling bridges, roads and rails, and our power and water systems.

The official White House proposal revolves around a $1.5 trillion infrastructure spending bill.  But as is typical from this Administration, what they say doesn't line up with reality.  In reality, it is more like a $300 billion plan...way short of what the president is touting.  Here’s why…

In the past, government spending on infrastructure generally worked on an 80/20 ratio... the Feds putting up to 80 percent for projects, with states and/or local governments putting up the remaining 20 percent. 

The new proposed spending reverses that ratio, making it, in many experts' opinions, unrealistic.  The White House says we should look to private funding and other sources of revenue like tolls and taxes...more taxes by that will impact the middle classes, now that we are swimming in money from our huge temporary tax cuts. (Sarcasm here, in case you missed it.)

Even some industry and manufacturing groups, as reported in respected trade publications like Industry Week and Route 50, are skeptical of the president's proposal.  As to be expected, some industry officials are being a bit cagey in their quotes so they don’t incur nasty tweets from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

I find it curious that the White House continues to push for full funding of a southern border wall for $31 billion that, supposedly, Mexico was going to pay for.  Why can’t we use the same 20/80 ratio the president proposes and see how quickly that project gets done?  Hey, here’s an idea for the funding the wall… sell ad space on it.  Trump himself might buy some to plaster his name all over it.

It seems this infrastructure plan is yet another broken campaign promise accompanied by the usual falsehoods and misdirection we’re getting used to seeing from the White House.