When you’re in the business of marketing and PR you’re expected to stay up-to-date on the latest current events and pop culture trends. It’s important to create a personal brand to incorporate your own interests and recommendations, but also stay professional while doing so. It’s a fine line we walk as marketing professionals in the digital era – thankfully, there are emerging social media networks to help us do it all.

Viewers check in to entertainment on Philo

While Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook all provide a common place to share your thoughts and ideas, a new group of social networking sites now offer a platform to share opinions on all of the latest entertainment trends. For those of you who don’t want your business contacts to know just how deep your love for the Real Housewives of New Jersey runs, there’s now a spot to chat for hours on end without plugging up your wall of tweets or updates. Inspired by the budding Foursquare check-in phase, sites such as GetGlue, Miso, and Philo allow viewers to share cultural experiences with their respective social networks. These sites dramatically change the way we experience entertainment – creating a shared experience with the viewer and their virtual neighbors. The largest perk of all, these sites create a place for professional people like you and me to expand our individual brand on a personal level, creating an even stronger connection with people through shared interests.

Miso allows viewers to check in via iPhone

It’s only natural to see this trend grow as social networks on mobile devices become increasingly available. According to Mashable, a recent study shows that 98 percent of iPad owners use their mobile device while watching television once a day – and I’d bet a pretty penny the same goes for non-iPad users as well.  In addition to individuals utilizing entertainment check-in sites to leverage their personal brand, television networks are also anxious to jump on board the bandwagon.  Although most networks are subtle about their ties with these sites,  some choose more obvious marketing tactics such as creating badges for shows with cult-like followings, even creating fan pages for network-specific shows. For example, Miso’s partnership with TNT rewards loyal viewers with access to their “Fan Club” that reveals inside information and additional content about the show. In the end, the large networks help drive traffic to the social networking site, while also gaining valuable market research about their viewers, including check in behavior and a minute-by-minute breakdown of engagement throughout the show. Sounds like a recipe for better television.

GetGlue True Blood stickers

Overall, the trend to share cultural concepts online can and should be used to leverage your individual brand on a personal level. As networks continue to partner with these sites, the potential for marketing opportunities will also increase, making the entertainment check in craze a force to be reckoned with – stay tuned my friends.

For the Graphic Designer, prepress means the procedure to prepare digital graphic design files for printers and vendors. These steps of preparation can include proofreading, revisions, checking size, fonts and color, and output of the file in correct format. Prepress at a printer can include making separations, platemaking, creating blue lines and color proofs. The steps stay basically the same on each job and when you do them professionally for several years you may notice signs of how they affect your life. Below are the top ten signs you may be a prepress pro:

1. Double spacing after periods in body copy REALLY bothers you.

2. While driving home after a long day using Illustrator – you imagine creating bezier curves with your car on the highway.

3. You get called nicknames like Genius, Design Darlin’, Design Dumplin’, Graphics Guru or Speedy Spice (from way back – Spice Girls).

4. You really wish you could do a “Command Z” on some actions in life.

5. You are fatigued explaining “Bleed” has nothing to do with losing precious bodily fluids.

6. Continuous tone is not about the car alarm that went on for hours in the neighborhood last night.

7. You feel nausea when you see the font Comic Sans or any True Type font or encounter a Microsoft Word file or Illustrator file used as desktop publishing software.

8. Dummy means an example of design work. You have a lot of other words for stupid people and dingbat is not one of them either.

9. Acid free paper is not about being completely bummed at a Rave.

10.Eating a meal is a major distraction. When you do get out to a restaurant and look at the menu, you recognize the fonts, typos and double spaces after periods instead of the food. Besides, fonts are considered a food group.

What signs have you noticed?

Bailey Gardiner is looking for a graphic design intern for the fall quarter/semester.
A little about you:

• A college student (junior or senior) majoring in advertising, art direction, graphic design or something similar
• Must be able to obtain college credit for the internship
• Willing to commit to a minimum of 16 hours per week, set hours are preferred
• Has a student portfolio of design work
• Working knowledge of Adobe Creative Suite. Experience in Flash/Fireworks/Dreamweaver is a huge plus
• A well-organized, self-starter who shows ownership over assignments
• Some production experience preferred
• Excellent communication skills – both oral and written
• Must have a good attitude and aspire to do award-winning work
• Eager to learn
• Creative

A little about your responsibilities:
Assist the creative team with the following:

• Assist team members in research, concept development, designing and mounting of logos and creating collateral pieces, websites, identity and stationery packages
• Accompany senior team members to photo shoots, press checks, client meetings and assist in photo and art research when necessary

This position is unpaid and only open to current college students who can obtain college credit through the internship.

The experience you will receive at Bailey Gardiner is invaluable. We will take the time to teach, support, provide you with responsibility and of course, have some fun.

For a little more information about us, visit our portfolio or get an intern’s perspective on working here on the blog by our interns.
If you are interested, please email your student portfolio, cover letter and resume to kelly@baileygardiner.com

No phone calls please.

If you have been reading this blog for awhile, you may be aware of the differences in opinions on the trendy geo-tagging application Foursquare here at Bailey Gardiner. I was first introduced to the application last year at the PRSA conference in San Diego, where event participants were checking-in and sharing information about events they were attending, and where they were hanging out afterward. Because I am one of those Twitter users that loves sharing good restaurants, great finds or cool experiences with my followers, I immediately jumped on the Foursquare bandwagon.

I’ll admit that it took me awhile to really like the application.  But after a few months (and a high-energy fight for Mayorship of my local Target with other bloggers in the area) I began to really see Foursquare’s value. While I will agree with Jon that not everyone needs to know when I’m bra shopping, I do find it interesting to see other people’s patterns: where they like to shop and eat on a regular basis, and where they have gone so many times that they are mayor. Putting on the marketing hat, I also think it’s a great way to promote establishments and offer deals and specials to friends, clients and customers in your immediate area.

Recently, I had an appointment at my hair salon, and while I was waiting for my stylist, I checked-in via Foursquare. Being a proponent of supporting local businesses in my area, my main goal was to give my salon a virtual “shout out.” After checking-in, I received a sponsored coupon from a small, local establishment down the street; they were offering a half-off deal for people checking in. Having seen these specials before from larger corporations such as Starbucks and Chili’s, I was really excited to see a local bar embracing this form of marketing. Thinking of the positive aspects of Foursquare, I started mentally writing this blog post in my head.

Then about half-way through my appointment, I received an email from an address I didn’t recognize saying they were just one town north and asking if they could “come down and see my hair.” Since this was to my personal email, I asked if this person was someone I knew. It wasn’t, and the proposition that followed made me realize that this person knew more about me than I was comfortable with. And worse – this person knew my exact location at that moment.

Cyber-stalking isn’t new, but the tools have changed. With Facebook about to roll out its geo-tagging service, and Twitter and Yelp also offering “check-in” abilities, one has to wonder how this will compromise people’s privacy – and even safety – in the future. The Daily Beast posted an article recently about a story similar to mine, but this time the “stalker” called the restaurant the user had checked in to and harassed her verbally over the phone. Quoted in the article, Foursquare counters that the service is meant to alert your friends about your location and that broadcasting the information over Twitter is just an option. And while that is true, keeping it a closed network isn’t the intent or desire of these technologies since the monetization of their services is based on the broad, open reach that “check-ins” can offer.

I’m torn. As a PR professional, we want people to use these tools to tell the world that they are at an event that we organized, or are shopping or eating at a client’s establishment. There is a distinct value of users broadcasting that they are thrilled to be trying out a new restaurant or that a particular store has a fabulous sale going on. But as a user, now concerned over her and her family’s personal safety, I will definitely think twice before checking in.

What do you think? Do you have any ideas about how to use these tools for marketing to a large audience yet still be safe to the individual user?

Back in the 19th century, I used Notepad to hand code web pages. Then in early 20th century, I used Filezilla to upload web contents to the hosting. It’s now 2010, and I have found my two favorite tools in coding web pages.

• Coda: One window web development software developed by Panic. It has great design interface and is user friendly.  Coda is both a text editor and file transfer along with helpful desk reference on CSS, PHP, JavaScript and HTML. Along with Coda, Panic just released a Safari Extension called Coda Notes, a tool which offers clients the ability to give notes and ideas on web development process to the developer easily.
• Firebug: A FireFox integration, this is a web development tool that allows you to inspect and modify a website layout in real-time. Firebug lets developer precisely see how each modification reacts to the layout without messing with the actual web content files online.

Not only do these tools help me write valid code cleanly and efficiently, they also allow me to accurately translate my design to an interactive web format. The most important feature both Coda and Firebug offer is error indicator. This error indicator helps you get your code validated. With validated code, you know your website design will view properly across various browsers.

On the other hand, some people might say their favorite web development tools are Adobe Dreamweaver, Adobe Fireworks, or Flash Catalyst. Those are not bad tools but they often create sloppy code. I found these tools to be difficult to use when programming for Wordpress sites or a site with a CMS tool.

Note: If you are a programmer then you can probably use any tools you want. Any other tools for web development that you love?

There are many components that are associated with a start-up. Getting your name out there is one of the most challenging.

I think a great way start-ups can help market themselves and, in turn, help their business grow, is to add a charitable component to their marketing plan or their company’s mission. It’s something that is pretty easy to do and the return can be both financially rewarding and beneficial to the charity/charities they select (which I hope is the main reason why a company will do this).

Marketing your company as having a charitable component can open up so many doors. You tap into a market of consumers you might not have ever reached without the charitable piece. You are more likely to increase your chances of editorial coverage, because you have that different angle on your brand than your competitors. The media might give you a break on your cost or throw in a few free runs because they know you are doing something for a good cause. Most importantly, it will cause people talk, and even though people think it might not be as effective as it once was, word-of-mouth advertising is huge.

Recently, I came across a bunch of start-up companies on Trend Watching’s 2010 Innovation Insanity list of the most promising new brands. On this list, there are a lot of start-ups that involve a charitable component to help market themselves, which is great. Here are a few of my favorites.

1) How many people, like myself, hate those $2 service fees for using a non-bank ATM? Choose Change ATM in the USA has come up with a solution. Every time you use one of their ATM’s, they will donate $1 to the cause or charity you choose, which you select during your transaction. Love, love and love! Even though technically, they are making $1 off my transaction, I think it’s great that another $1 is going to a charity I believe in. Who can’t spare a dollar? My only complaint is they don’t say anywhere on their website where these ATMs are located. Hard for me to use it, if I don’t know where it is.

2) Stop buying plastic water bottles. Give Me Tap in the UK has come up with a program where people buy a reusable aluminum water bottle, and then they can go to restaurants and cafes and refill them for free with clean tap water. You can find locations via your phone. They also donate 70% of the profits to fund water aid in Africa. Cool concept. I wonder how many people have these water bottles with them at all times, how clean the tap water really is (does Give Me Tap test their water prior to allowing them to be a certified partner?) and do the restaurants and cafes allow you to clean your water bottle prior to refilling?

3) Purchase wine, donate water. So many people are involved with wine clubs or purchase wine online. Well, Cellar Thief has created an idea that when someone buys a select wine off their site, they will donate 100 days of clean water to Charity Water, a company they have partnered with. This is so easy. You buy the wine, they donate the water. I do applaud them for being involved in the social space. As they have a good amount of Twitter followers, they should be more active, as their last tweet was in the middle of July.

4) School uniforms can be expensive, especially in underprivileged  countries. FIGS in California will donate a school uniform to an African child in need for each tie that is purchased on its website. The ties though, run around $100 and I have to purchase via PayPal. It makes me a little uneasy about buying a tie via PayPal and makes me question how I know if a uniform was actually sent to a child. They really need to allow people to purchase on the actual website.

All and all, great job you four! I am glad to see that you have used a charitable component to help market yourself.

What other start-ups do you think should add a charitable component to their strategy to help their business grow?

I’d like to preface by saying that I have yet to read the original memoir Eat, Pray, Love. I haven’t got much to say about the premise or written works of Elizabeth Gilbert, but what I am interested in are the marketing and publicity strategies behind the film. I think that the marketing team behind Eat, Pray, Love deserves a job well done for their promotional support surrounding the film, not only because they’ve created a massive buzz across all media platforms (online, print, television, you name it), but because they’ve also encouraged consumers to spend more money, period.

Not only will the major film conglomerate behind the movie cash in, but other industries like the food and travel industries will also reap the benefits.

Within the last two weeks I’ve noticed a plethora of promotions surrounding the movie – especially involving companies who service the film’s target demographic of females 30-50 years old. For example, the Home Shopping Network (HSN) teamed up to launch a program devoting 72 hours of air time to Eat, Pray, Love. Throughout the allotted time frame the network will not only promote the film but also incorporate more than 400 of their products across multiple categories that are somehow related to the movie. Brilliant right? Everyone’s a winner—the studio, HSN, and even the home shopper.

Today, I saw another promotion tied to Eat, Pray, Love—this time online.  The contest, living on Self.com, plugs the film and ties it back to a chance to win a free trip to Italy to “reconnect with the pleasure of food” just as Julia Roberts does in the movie. I thought the contest was cleverly done. Not only does the studio reach their target audience online at self.com, but they also encourage one lucky winner to travel to Italy and spend more money while they’re there.  Well done marketing team, well done.

All in all, I’m a huge fan of Eat, Pray, Love. Not necessarily of the book or movie (although I do love Julia Roberts), but more of the fabulous marketing and publicity surrounding it. I appreciate the efforts to submerge our pop culture with the idea to live your life to the fullest –and spend more money while you’re at it. Hey, when it comes down to it, our economy could use a little nudge. Just my two cents. 

There are some important questions you should ask when deciding which display network to use.   I have compiled a list of the questions to ask during your search:

1. How many sites do you have? Samples?
2. Do you have any exclusive sites?
3. Do you work directly with publishers or are you a re-seller?
4. Do you have any custom filters or filters that we would be interested in?
5. Do you do category, content, behavioral, and retargeting?
6. Do you allow rich media? What % of sites? What provider?
7. What kind of pricing models do you have? CPM, CPE, CPC
8. Who would we be working with? How much experience do they have?
9. What does your reporting look like? How often do we receive? How quickly can we get it if we need it on short notice?
10. Can you track view throughs?
11. How large (file sizes) can standard flash banners be?
12. Do you offer non-profit rates or grants?
13. Does the network have e-newsletter ads?
14. Do you offer mobile advertising?
15. Is your behavioral data based on visits to a site? Or specific pages?
16. Do you cap impressions to single users? What is your cap?
17. Agency or client minimums? Can we combine client budgets to meet minimums?
18. Are you growing? What is your growth/expansion plan?
19. Ask for reach based on filters- if filters are specific, what is the universe?
20. Do you have automated optimization? How does optimization work?

Have fun!

The 2010 Census and American Community Surveys are well underway. The first Census was conducted in 1790 when the US population was just under 4 million and in this Census, the 23rd Census of the United States, it is estimated that the population will be just under 310 million. Given that the last Census was in 2000, there will be a lot of change and new information that marketers will use to better communicate their products, speak to their audiences and concentrate their efforts.

2010 US Census, Image Courtesy US Census.

Outside of marketing, the overall effects of the Census include how federal funding will be used, which includes budgets for (per the US Census Website):

• Hospitals
• Job Training Centers
• Schools
• Senior Centers
• Bridges, Tunnels and other Public Work Projects
• Emergency Services

In addition to community support, many organizations use this data to advocate for causes, rescue disaster victims, prevent diseases, research markets, and locate pools of skilled workers. The Census will also determine the number of seats each state receives in the House of Representatives in 2012.

Directions Magazine recently published some initial projections of the 2010 Census based on the American Community Survey. Some of the biggest insights and changes include:

• 309 million people (up 10% from last census in 2000)
• 1/3 of the population is from immigration
• The population is aging (median age is up)
• Hispanic population is up about 40% (especially among younger Hispanics)
• Asian/Hawaiian/Pacific Islander population is up 33%
• African American population is up 10%
• Household composition changing from the traditional living arrangement of married couples with children under 18
• Household incomes roughly the same as 2000
• Women made the biggest gains in education and contribution to household income

These are some pretty big changes and will affect the way that we market our products and the makeup of our audience.

According to the US Census, details will be published:

• December 2010: Population counts by city
• February/March 2011: Population by race and Hispanic ethnicity for Persons 0+ and for Persons 18+, without any age or sex detail
• Summer 2011: Complete age/sex counts on a state-by-state basis and the data on marital status and household relationships.

Click through to this map to get up-to-the minute completion rates for the 2010 Census:

Real Time Completion Rates for the 2010 US Census, Image Courtesy the US Census.

We talk a lot about media relationships here at Bailey Gardiner. But we do more than just talk about it internally. We continuously hone our skills and share contacts and tips with one another. To formalize this process, we just introduces a “media bootcamp” for the PR team, where we review best practices and set team goals to strengthen all our relationships with local, regional and national media. Here are a few tips from our recent bootcamp session on how to strengthen your relationships with media:

• Stay professional but human. While these are professional relationships, it is also important to stay human, friendly and authentic.

• Understand each reporter’s beat and interests. Pitching them interesting stories they will like and need is the first step to creating goodwill.

• Become a valuable resource to media. Offer them information beyond your clients and get them in the habit of reaching out to you for help.

• Be informed on news and trends in your clients’ industries. That way, when a reporter is looking for something specific that your client may not offer, you may still be able to help them by letting them know about another business or trend you have seen.

• Follow media on Twitter. Try to engage and build a relationship with them online. Media are often more open to conversations online, and Twitter is a great way to form a relationship that can then jump offline.

Any other tips for PR professionals to help strengthen media relationships?