Hi MPRers.  I’ve been off doing other things for a while, but rest assured you’ll be seeing lots more from me soon.  In the meantime, this is something I had to share.  It is a video of Rory Sutherland speaking at the TED conference.  Sutherland talks about the importance of perception and he is very informative and entertaining as well.  While I am a TED subscriber, I have to credit Scott Monty for bringing this video to my attention.  So, I encourage you to check out Scott’s blog, The Social Media Marketing Blog for his insights.
 
Money is good 04/10/2010
 
I am not one to blog political, so please don't take this post as a political statement.  I do think that this soliloquy from Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged is more relevant today than it was in 1957 when it was written.  I also believe that this passage and the entire book is an instructive read for modern marketers and PR folk.  If you'd rather read this, here's a link.  Please share this.
 
How We Decide 02/19/2010
 
How We Decide, by Johan Lehrer is a reasonably well written excursion through the competing rational and emotional processes of the mind.  For marketers interested in consumer behavior, decision making and general psychology this is not a bad introductory work.  I was disappointed, however, because I was expecting more.  Much of the text is a collection of interesting anecdotes, but many of them will be familiar to those who read a lot of this sort of material, including any of Gladwell’s recent stuff.  It also fails to put together a model or coherent thesis on how he believes that we decide things.  

In the end, conclusion seems to be that sometimes the rational mind is correct, and sometimes it’s the emotional mind.

Should you read it?  You decide.
 
Brain PR 07/24/2009
 

Those of us who have been in the business of PR for years can get stuck in the rut of “press releasing for print pieces.”  While writing press releases to get mentions and articles in print media is still vitally important to our vocation, brain science has shown us that things that are visual, interactive, and enduring are more engaging and memorable than the printed word alone.  With this in mind, it is essential that marketers use photos, illustrations, and interactive technology as a part of their MPR programs to maximize the effectiveness of campaigns.  As pointed out in Tom Wujec’s talk at the TED conference, imagery can help clarify a point and make an idea or concept more engaging.   These are crucial factors in all aspects of marketing, but even more so in MPR, since in MPR we are giving up control of our message to media and word-of-mouth. Additionally, making these visual and interactive material available to connectors* gives them a useful tools for spreading the word and adds an extra incentive for doing so.  OfficeMax’s “Elf Yourself” campaign is a simple example of this, but one of my favorites.  Clearly, visual and interactive components are powerful and should not be ignored in MPR efforts.

Wujec also mentions “augmenting memory through visual persistence.”  For us, I suggest this means weaving the same imagery (interactive or static) through all of the elements of a marketing effort. Yes, folks, I mean branding. It sounds obvious, but in many organizations MPR operates separately from sales and marketing. This silo mentality increases the likelihood of transmitting mixed signals to customers and other stakeholders via unaligned messages.

 *See “What’s a Connector?” blog post.