Sylvia Park | Communiqué PR
Digonex Attends the Virtual Goods Summit
The virtual goods market is exploding with the sales of in-game items, avatar customization, virtual gifts, digital media and other goods that exist solely in digital form. In fact, leading investment firm Piper Jaffray, estimates that revenue generated from the sales of virtual goods worldwide in 2009 topped $621 million. The firm also predicts that the virtual goods industry will [...]
Filed under: Our Results, Social media, Tech Industry
Smartphone App Stores – Thoughts From Gizmodo
Communiqué PR has a number of mobile industry clients so we thought it would be interesting to provide insight on a blog about smartphone app stores. Gizmodo, Gawker Media's largest blog focusing on gadgets and technology, recently published a post comparing mobile application stores from companies including Apple, Palm, Blackberry, Nokia and Microsoft. While many of the features are similar, [...]
Filed under: Social media, Tech Industry
Whole Foods . . . Not so Wholesome Anymore?
John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, recently found himself in hot water when he published an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal, candidly expressing his personal opinions about healthcare reform. In the article, Mackey argued we should move, "toward less government control and more individual empowerment" and outlined eight reforms that would improve healthcare for everyone. The op-ed piece [...]
Filed under: Crisis Communications
SAM Medical Products Announces CELOX Trauma Gauze
On August 10, our client SAM Medical Products, a privately held developer and manufacturer of innovative medical products used for emergency, military and hospital care, announced the launch of CELOX Trauma Gauze. CELOX Trauma Gauze is a new dual-product hemostatic gauze used to control traumatic bleeding, and cool and protect first- and second-degree burns. The gauze provides two-in-one functionality and [...]
Filed under: Consumer, Our Results, Tech Industry
Aggregator Launches Short Press Release Service
Muck Rack, a Web site that aggregates journalists' tweets, recently announced the launch of a short-message press release service, which enables companies to publish releases, with links, up to 130 characters long at a cost of $1 per character. The announcements are published on Muck Rack's release page as well as its Twitter feed. As many journalists are avid "tweeters" [...]
Filed under: PR trends
PR Review Meeting
We recently participated in a mid-year PR review with one of our clients to review our activities and results garnered. To clearly outline the work we completed, we prepared for the meeting by developing a PowerPoint presentation which included the following information: Review of the client's business and communication objectives The benefit of PR and how it contributes to an [...]
Filed under: Business to Business
Puget Sound American Marketing Association – September Luncheon
Jennifer Gehrt will be speaking at the Puget Sound American Marketing Association luncheon on September 9, 2009. Jennifer will be speaking about how marketing professionals can leverage the power of Twitter with her presentation entitled, "Twitterphoria: Adding Twitter Power to Your Marketing Mix, Today." If you're interested in learning more about how to leverage Twitter to achieve your business and [...]
Filed under: News, Social media
Praise for UW Professor Kathleen Fearn-Banks
Each year, Communiqué PR hosts a visit from Professor Fearn-Banks' Communication 444 Public Relations and Society class. It is a very fun time for us as we get to talk to the next generation of PR professionals about the work we do. This year, six students visited our boutique PR firm. We focused our discussion on the history of the [...]
Filed under: Crisis Communications, News
Transparency Is Not an Option
Transparency is an issue that continues to arise as social mediums and online communications gain momentum. Social media provides companies with a great opportunity to represent their brands and interact and build relationships with key influencers and consumers. However, if a company fails to be completely transparent in its online communications, the result can be devastating to its reputation and [...]
Filed under: PR trends, Reputation Management
Public Relations Lessons From Silicon Valley
A recent article on PR and start-ups in the Silicon Valley by Claire Cain Miller of the New York Times, reminds PR professionals that the media landscape continues to evolve and the role PR plays is crucial to helping clients navigate these new waters. Cain Miller recounts a recent brainstorming session she attended with publicist Brooke Hammerling with Brew Media [...]
Filed under: Execution, Media, Social media, Tech Industry
The Fate of Daily Newspapers . . . Sinking or Swimming?
It's evident that the current economic downturn as well as the changing media landscape has dramatically affected daily newspapers - this can be seen in the closure of many newspapers across the country as well as many cost-cutting measures such as layoffs. A report from the Inland Press Association states that print dailies have "seen an erosion of revenue and [...]
Filed under: Media
Today’s Parent Contributed Article
With the demise of print publications, magazines and newspapers are becoming increasingly dependent on outside content such as contributed articles from industry experts and public relations professionals. Contributed articles offer organizations a great way to establish thought leadership, discuss a topic it's passionate about and retain ownership of key messages. Jennifer Gehrt, co-founder of Communiqué, recently wrote a contributed article [...]
Filed under: Media, News, Our Results
Reader’s Digest Searches for Niche Audience
For the past 87 years, Reader's Digest has been a prominent general-interest family magazine intended to appeal to the broad American public. In an effort to revamp and reorganize its image and survive the changing media landscape, Reader's Digest announced it will shift to a more conservative focus and will increase its coverage of inspiring spiritual stories. According to Tom [...]
Filed under: Media, Strategy
Hulu vs. TV: The Future of Broadcast Media
"Hulu, an evil plot to destroy the world. . ." While Hulu may not be destroying the world, it is undoubtedly impacting the broadcast media landscape with its customizable online video service that offers free TV shows, movies, clips and other online destination sites. Hulu was founded in March 2007 and is co-owned by NBC Universal, News Corp. and Providence [...]
Filed under: Media
When Playing to Stereotypes Goes Too Far
Gender-focused public relations and marketing campaigns can be effective - if executed properly. However, some companies have found that targeting specific genders can cause controversy and negative consumer feedback. Just recently, Dell launched a new Web site targeted towards women called Della. The site, which soft launched on April 30, is being criticized for "pandering to female stereotypes" with its [...]
Filed under: Branding, Consumer, Crisis Communications, Social media
New Search Tool Better Than Google?
As PR professionals, we are always interested in learning about new search tools that will impact the ever-changing digital media landscape. Virtually everyone utilizes search engines for research including journalists and PR professionals. WolframAlpha, which made its debut on May 15, could change how we find information through search engines. WolframAlpha is a powerful search service that computes answers to [...]
Filed under: Media
Digital Strategies are Not Cutting It for CMOs
Heidrick & Struggles, an Atlanta-based recruiting firm, recently conducted a survey to evaluate the success of digital strategies in marketing activities, such as social media, search engine optimization (SEO) and business intelligence. They surveyed 111 senior marketing executives at firms with $1 billion or more in annual revenues and found that while many marketing executives acknowledge the wealth of information [...]
Filed under: Social media, Tech Industry
Alaska Airlines Announces Key Findings of Inflight Wi-Fi Service Trial
On February 26, Alaska Airlines announced the trial launch of its new satellite-based wireless Internet service, Alaska Airlines Inflight Wi-Fi. The launch of this service, which can be used by passengers to browse the Web; access online music, games, podcasts and webcasts; send and receive e-mail and connect to Virtual Private Networks (VPN), garnered more than 45 print and broadcast [...]
Filed under: Consumer, Our Results, Tech Industry
Associated Press Reins in Content
The Associated Press (AP) announced on Monday, April 6 that it would crack down on Web sites and search engines that use the work of the news organization without first obtaining permission from them and agreeing to share profits. In an effort to "exercise some control" over the practice of reposting articles and gaining profit from selling packaged news feeds, [...]
Filed under: Media
Value of Press Hits
The uncertain economic climate continues to affect marketing and public relations budgets. However, a recent study from Text 100, a global boutique PR consulting firm, illustrates the positive impact public relations can have on a company's brand value. The study, outlined in a recent PRWeek article, found companies that produce more complicated products benefit more from PR than those companies [...]
Filed under: Media, Monitor and Measure