Where Are Their Packages?!

Watching too much television got me into a lot of trouble as I was growing up.  My parents didn’t frown on my obsession with entertainment; they just insisted that I do my chores and homework before I became engrossed in whatever was airing at the time.  Often I would forget my homework or my chores because of my love of television and I had to suffer the consequences.  But the entertainment that was coming from that little box was my get-away from my boring world in rural small-town Alabama. I became so involved in the shows that I was watching that my emotions would take over and I would build relationships with the characters and their plight.  As I grew older and ventured out into the world all over the United States, television still was amazingly important to me, but I learned to separate fiction from reality better.  Yet still today, I find myself feeling strongly for entertainment characters.  Therefore when our topic of product placement came up this week, I reflected back on how sorry I felt for the characters of Cast Away, starring Tom Hanks.  While watching the hit movie, first I felt sorry for him having to survive alone on a deserted island for so long.  But at the beginning of the movie, I remember feeling sorry for the “owners” of all of those Fed-Ex packages that never got to their destination. Let’s just say that the product placement in this movie and in others is interestingly important and this marketing practice is ever-changing.

This week in Leadership and Media Strategies, our emphasis is on message development and placement.  We have information about product placement from a lot of interesting sources.  A study we read on the placement of political messages is important in that we just finished a tumultuous campaign season that often took the low road in attack ads.  Thank goodness that this one is over.  Modern media is so prevalent that we were bombarded with political messages everywhere from traditional media to modern Internet social media.  I was overwhelmed, and believe it or not, I found myself watching less and less television, my beloved entertainment staple.  The article “Campaign Ads, Online Messaging, and Participation: Extending the Communication Mediation Model” that was found in the Journal of Communication noted that too much exposure to political attack ads might result in a backlash against the campaign pushing the negative ads.  I wonder if that is what happened in this election cycle that resulted in so many voters not coming out that had voted four years ago.  Both sides equally attacked each other, especially towards the end. I don’t think that Clinton ads were more negative than Trump’s, but others may have felt so. If so, the Republican organizers did a better job of political advertising placement than the Democrats.  I just wonder what future studies will show.

Other fascinating information this week came from numerous studies and opinions on message development and product placement in television series and blockbuster movies.  Our always inspiring TED Talks this week featured Morgan Spurlock in The Greatest TED Talk Ever Sold. Spurlock gave a hilarious presentation about the not so subtle tactics of modern product placement.  He talked about his marketing pitch to Hollywood to do a film totally about product placement that would be funded by product placement, marketing and advertising called "The Greatest Movie Ever Sold." Every definition of product placement says that the marketing technique should be a subtle placement of a commercial brand to blend in with the piece and not jump out at the audience. In the article “Making the Invisible Transparent,” the authors note that in marketing, professionals should “make the consumer the authority through their freedom to discover – to stumble upon – the promotional message rather than being subjected to it. Spurlock’s amusing in-your-face movie pitch to entertainment executives turned out to be not so amusing to them at all, but it was funny. He did a good job of allowing the executives and us, his TED Talk audience, to take a good look at product placement and how it can get out of control. 

Some studies such as the one entitled “When Product Placement Goes Wrong: The Effects of Program Liking and Placement Prominence” by Elizabeth Cowley and Chris Barron points out that the technique should occur “under consumers’ radar.”  Many messages and their placements are now so blatant and the practice occurs so often that I truly understand Spurlock’s comedy in his tactics in pitching his film.  The mentioned study and others show that product placement that is not subtle may turn audiences off towards the brand because it may interfere with their natural enjoyment of the piece.  Other studies show that too subtle placement may make a product go undetected and have no effect at all.  So how should marketing professionals approach the practice in a world of traditional media and the world of increasing Internet and social media?

            The fact that entertainment executives wanted nothing to do with Spurlock’s idea tells me that it is noted that going over the top with product placement is troublesome, but that professionals have to continue to study the markets and come up with subtle ways to continue to grab all markets.  The key word again is “subtle” because unlike “The Greatest Movie Ever Sold” and unlike too many political attack ads, marketing does not want to turn the public off and garner a negative connotation towards their brand. 

But this all brings me back to Cast Away.  I recall two products placements, Fed-Ex and that basketball, Wilson.  Wilson’s brand did not stand out to me, but Fed-Ex certainly did, as I painfully worried about those customers not getting their packages. Now, I have a heart and wanted Hanks to be survive and be rescued, but I was concerned with how the castaway just helped himself to someone else’s possessions. Sure I wanted him to survive, but I also wanted those people to get their packages. Yet the whole time, I had no idea of how the marketing technique was working in a very subtle way back then to allow several companies exposure in a big movie.  Studying the markets and keeping up with media and social trends will allow marketing professionals to continue to use product placement to tap into a huge market and not even remind them that they are there marketing themselves within your beloved entertainment.     

 

College GameDay Taught My Morning’s Lesson on Vision

     After my morning walk through the hills and streets of my neighborhood, I usually sit down and watch ESPN’s College GameDay on Saturdays to see what the headlines are in college football, my favorite sport.  I thought I had the wrong channel this morning when I saw the highly popular sports program was on a campus in Kalamazoo, Michigan.  Michigan nor Michigan State were being featured.  Confusion set in. I was shocked when the commentators said they were showcasing Western Michigan!! I have no idea who Western Michigan is in college football, and why in the world is College GameDay there instead of USC, who is playing UCLA; maybe Ohio State, who is playing Michigan State; or even LSU, who is playing Florida? To top this off, it’s snowing on the freezing GameDay team and fans because, of course, the show is always filmed outside from a scenic spot on campus! The opening voiceover assures us that Western Michigan is indeed worthy of College GameDay this morning because they are ranked number 21 in the country and are one of only two undefeated teams in the FBS, the other being Alabama. They go on to let us know that a few years ago, someone, some leaders, at the university had a vision of a highly successful football program. Internally and externally the Western Michigan family bought into that vision because here they are a few years later, number 21, undefeated and featured on College GameDay.  That was some vision.

     This week in Leadership and Media Strategies we focus on vision and leadership. We had a great list of references including the transformational power of classical music, Wendy Kopp’s vision of educational advancement, and our professor’s vision for this graduate program. Throughout our class, a major focus has been on the characteristics and qualities of leaders.  Dr. Padgett began our look at vision by telling us about his vision for this Strategic Communications graduate program. Other references this week came from entertaining and interesting sources including classical composer Benjamin Zander on TED Talk who stated, like other sources, that great leaders have a vision that they believe in so deeply that they know that the people they are leading will believe and follow. Zander’s goal is to help people appreciate classical music even though a majority of people could care less for the art. Because his passion for classical music inspires him so much, his vision is to help others realize their “untapped love for it.” In doing so, he opens people’s eyes to “new possibilities, new experiences, and new connections.” This is the type of leadership that resulted in College GameDay setting up at the Western Michigan campus this morning in the freezing snow, I’m sure. The culture at the university believed in this vision and did what was necessary to make it happen and this has resulted in new and awesome possibilities, experiences and connections and has them highlighted on the college football stage today.

     John Ryan is president of Center for Creative Leadership. His article entitled “Leadership Success Always Starts With Vision” stated that the first major step in leadership success is not giving up on your dream, and that this starts with a vision. This week’s Harvard Business Review article entitled “To Lead, Create a Shared Vision” states that leaders must ask, “What’s new? What’s next? What’s better?” Surely, great leaders, including the ones at Western Michigan began their visions this way and worked hard to bring aboard the administration, students and the community in order to be successful. Jerry Porras, from the Stanford Graduate School of Business focused on numerous studies to summarize what leadership entails, especially leaders of “enduringly great companies.” In his “Leadership and Vision” broadcast in GoogleTechTalks, he discussed how these amazing leaders make contributions to organizations that thrive long after they leave. They have a vision that is supported by having a purpose or a reason to exist. They are focused on building their organizations by building into them all of the qualities that develop the capabilities of others within the organization. No one person associated with an organization can succeed alone.  All enduringly great companies have had leaders who were passionate enough toward their purpose and set the appropriate to goals to bring aboard the cultures that ultimately ended in tremendous enduring success. History shows that this does not happen easily or overnight.  But with the proper leadership, communications, hard work and continuous belief in a vision and a purpose, lasting success is possible.

     A friend started a successful company in a rural area.  He was only in his late twenties in the 1980s.  He knew himself well enough to know that he wanted to work for himself and that he wanted to help people.  He did the research and found out that there was a need for a company on the forefront of providing medical equipment in his area.  He had a vision that would require a big investment of money and people that he trusted.  He also knew that this industry would have competition that already had a proven track record in the area.  Instead of focusing on services that the competition offered, my friend did his research, looked toward the future and included products and customized services never offered before.  Today he remains successful and he is always training, researching, and motivating his stakeholders to grow with him.  His vision continues to be a success because he continues to have a purpose and a passion for what he does and for his community.

     I will wrap up my assignment today in time to enjoy college football and family and friends.  USC plays UCLA later tonight.  Florida plays LSU, where I have a lot of family.  I will surely catch that game around noon.  In the meantime, I guess I will watch more about Western Michigan and learn more about the fruits of great leaders’ vision that helped this program to grow. Surely this vision was well supported, nurtured and orchestrated if it warrants the presence of one of  the country’s most popular sports shows this morning.  I wonder if when the leaders were setting forth with this plan if they had any idea that ESPN College GameDay would one day be set up on their lawn and that people all over the world would be looking at them, not Alabama, not Michigan nor Michigan State, this snowy November day in Kalamazoo, Michigan.  

Ice Cream Moments

The orientation instructor asked the freshman, “Are you a leader?” The nervous 18-year-old slowly responded, “No. I haven’t done anything to call myself a leader.” The instructor then explained to that student and to the whole class, “Truly you must be leaders. You managed to successfully get through 13 years of school and graduate.  Here you are in college, deciding to make something of yourselves by earning a degree and hopefully pursuing a career.  You’re setting an example for your peers and family. Give yourselves some credit. You are leaders.” Our topics this week in Leadership and Media Strategies are leadership and communication with internal, external and government groups.   

Lollipop moments and BizTweets were only a couple of the interesting topics this week.  We had a diverse and entertaining list of readings and videos which included a college administrator, a soldier, scholars and we read about a firm in South Korea. My favorite topic was “Everyday Leadership,” a TED Talks video which featured a college administrator named Drew Dudley who talked about lollipop moments, which are transformational moments that you may not even be aware of that make someone’s life better.  One of his transformational moments happened when he gave a young student a lollipop and did other memorable small things that changed her life. Dudley said that leadership should be redefined as being about lollipop moments that are capable of changing the world.  We have all had lollipop moments but we don’t always give ourselves enough credit to accept that we have done something that just might change someone’s life. The focus of our topics this week is how effective communication can be instrumental in improving the success of an organization and possibly changing the lives of everyone involved.

I vowed years ago that I would not spend a third of my day every day at work miserable.  There is nothing worse than working for an organization that does not value its employees enough to communicate with them. My first jobs in college were not the best, and now that I look back on those environments, I realize that there was a lot of dysfunctional communication.  There were a lot of student workers who received very little information about the departments where we worked.  Managers gave you pretty good instructions about your duties, but they didn’t communicate with you enough for you to get to know them or for you to get to know much about other departments. Leadership was not good because communication between management and employees was almost nonexistent. After college, my jobs got better.  Communication was better, but there were needed improvements.  Managers gave more information, but only to a point. There seemed to be managerial secrets and information on a “need to know” basis and it wasn’t as if we were working for the FBI. Sometimes we were rushed to meet deadlines because we didn’t have complete details about work orders, and this created a stressful work environment. Leadership was better, but they needed to work on internal communication.

The publication “Promoting Internal Communication” states that internal communication is communication within an organization that allows everyone to get the information they need, easily get questions answered and allows no one to be left out.  Internal communication can provide information to help people do their jobs effectively, give feedback, provide emotional support, suggest new ideas, and help share goals, vision and sense of ownership in the organization. Without it there is a huge disconnect.  My jobs early on had dysfunctional disconnected cultures between workers and management.

I have a job now where communication is free-flowing and all cultures have continuous access to vital information through daily emails, bi-weekly staff meetings and face-to-face interactions that help you stay informed. Leadership here is great! The authors of the article “Exploring Public Sector Communication Performance: Testing a Model and Drawing Implications” concluded that clear and effective channels of communication result in productive work environments.  They also state that improving communication should be a continuous, well-planned and well-executed plan. Good leaders within any organization should have a plan to address and continually improve internal communication in order to make worker relations excel and then address external communication to deal with that group.

Also this week we looked at government communications. Being left in the dark and not knowing what is going on cannot add to good morale for an organization or any government. Brooke Fisher Liu and Abbey Blake Levenshus state in “Public Relations Professionals” that a basic government duty is to inform citizens by constantly reporting decisions and actions by the media. The article concluded that the public’s trust in government communication is important because trust is necessary to effectively communicate messages with citizens. Governments have to address millions of diverse people, but modern communication tools like the Internet, traditional media and social media make communicating with citizens easier today.

Stanley McChrystal’s TED Talks video is called “Listen, Learn… Then Lead.” McChrystal looked over his 27-year military career and discussed how things have drastically changed on the battlefield and in communications.  He concluded, “A leader isn’t good because they’re right; they’re good because they’re willing to learn and to trust.  You can get knocked down, but if you’re a leader, the people you’ve counted on will help you up.  And if you’re a leader, the people who count on you need you on your feet.” McChrystal’s and Dudley’s perspectives apply to all aspects of life.  Managers, supervisors and executives cannot lead without effective internal communications to start with. Nowadays with so many amazing technology advancements, communications within an organization can easily take place and allow everyone to communicate, get the information they need and work toward success.  The improvement in leadership between my early jobs and my present one is a result of better communication through things like the Internet, email, and social media. Back then, I guess it was a task to disseminate ongoing information to every worker. Now management can simply produce one memo or announcement and send it to hundreds instantly. Management can also get creative like the South Korean company we read about. For internal communications they use BizTweet, a less formal Twitter-like tool to help workers discuss things like seminars and meetings, solicit ideas for customer problems and do feedback. Organizational leadership is about listening, informing, seeking and responding to feedback. The lollipop moments will come when management is doing everything possible to promote harmony with all stakeholders by simply keeping vital internal and external cultures well-informed and happy.

The instructor I mentioned in the beginning was me.  The student I helped to realize that he was a leader has become a great high school coach and stays in touch years later.  My pointing out that he was a leader made a great impact on his life.  That afternoon he brought me ice cream and we developed a great friendship. That, in turn, changed my life and encouraged me to always find something positive for every student to take away from me through effective leadership.  I try to always do my best to make ice cream moments.

 

 

 

Along Came the Internet and Changed My PR of Years Ago

This week our focus is on how the world of public relations has changed so drastically because of social media.  When I graduated college with a bachelor’s in public relations, I was well trained on the ins and outs of dealing with the media, our consumers, employees, and whomever else with which I needed to communicate. Pitching ideas and events came easily to me because I could write the most intriguing press releases and draw in publicity from many angles.  I never got to put my training into use because I got a great job doing post-production editing of TV shows, movies and commercials.  After over 10 years, I was forced to leave this amazing job because of repetitive stress wrist injuries.  My second career would begin in education.  This was extreme going from working in entertainment to educating teenagers, but the transition was easy because my main job was preparing students for college, teaching them how to produce the news, and doing light publicity for the program.  Years later, I still work in education, but I am pursuing my master’s in strategic communications and here I am learning the new ins and outs of public relations. The Internet was just becoming popular when I graduated college, and social media had not been introduced yet.  Social media has changed public relations in so many ways since my initial training, and this revolutionary communications tool can help an organization as well as hurt it. 

            Nowadays public relations can happen instantly, whether your organization was planning it or not.  Soumitra Dutta points out in an article What’s Your Personal Media Strategy in Harvard Business Review that your social media presence is important and that it can bring your organization invaluable exposure that is often positive but sometimes negative. She states that now some of the best businesses have social media strategies to help them reach their goals and their decision to use social media proactively or reactively is most important.  This morning in a technology conference, a leading educational technology expert told us that studies show that 75% of the U.S. population has a social media presence.  That was much higher than I expected, but considering this high number of participants, having a social media presence is a no-brainer for any company wanting to pitch an idea, a new product or seek information or feedback from the public. If a company wants exposure, joining Facebook, Twitter or putting videos on YouTube are creative and inexpensive ways of publicizing your brand. 

It is vital that you communicate with your audience. Having a social media presence makes public relations so much more interactive now because feedback, good or bad, can be instantaneous through social media and the Internet.  Leading companies such as BP and Nestle very well know the importance of a social media presence and how monitoring and nurturing that presence can make or break your brand, especially during a crisis.  When I was studying PR, we learned the importance of having a crisis plan.  In the article Corporate Facebook Pages: When Fans Attack, the authors tell us that in order to handle a crisis situation with care you should first listen to the public’s complaints and suggestions of how to fix a problem before you fix a problem. Showing compassion and listening to your audience gives them a chance to vent and usually allows your company an opportunity to gain more credibility and trust in the process of crisis management.  Inconsideration and not showing enough care to respond to your audience on social media is a good way to lose credibility and gain a bad reputation with the millions of members that use this communications tool.   

            I want to learn more about strategic communications and put my entertainment and writing background together to be a better public information worker in education. Tools such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have possibilities that I never cared to investigate.  For years now, I have looked at them as distractions that my students use to escape the real world.  Now I am seeing that social media is actually bringing the world to this generation in a way that my beloved television did for me when I was their age. I’ve mentioned that I was a laggard when it came to technology, but now I am opening my eyes to the vast possibilities of social media and how it can help me professionally.  In order to pursue my career and help my current organization to grow, I will use some of the many tools listed in the HubSpot article How to Leverage Social Media for Public Relations Success.   I already produce creative videos to help my students learn and showcase their talent.  We already have a Facebook account.  Now I can put those videos on Facebook and YouTube and help my organization to receive recognition for the work that we do in helping our students.  Who knows, something could go viral and help us gain sponsors and help our students to be noticed and win scholarships for college.  We can also utilize their tech savviness and knowledge of today’s trends to make our social media sites creative and attractive to students of all ages.

            Once again, the subjects in my class are introducing me to amazing possibilities.  My undergraduate experiences along with my work experiences are coming together with what I am learning here. Public relations has in some ways remained the same, but with the help of social media and the Internet, the practice has changed and improved drastically.  Thanks to this growth in technology and the awesome possibilities that lie ahead, the projects and ideas that I am imagining are something that I look forward to creating.