If you’ve been following the 2008 Presidential Campaign, you are well aware that Obama sent out his pick for Vice President via text message . This is another way his campaign has stressed Obama’s position as a young, tech-savvy leader who’s in touch with the American people. But as Monica Alleven of Wireless Week points out in her article, “Keynote cites Performance issues B4 Obama Text,” the plan to distribute Obama’s selection didn’t necessarily go as planned.
If you’re on Facebook, you may have come across the many status updates saying things like, “waiting for the Obama text” and then the next day… “didn’t get the text, but I got the email.” As Monica states in her article, Keynote Systems “believes between 40% and 50% of people who subscribed to get the VP selection text message may not have received the message in a timely fashion or “very likely” never received the text at all.” Some may have even received the text message as late as last Sunday.
In Monica’s article, she speaks with several experts who recommend having a back-up plan in place for these types of situations. And while many will agree this was a smart PR move for Obama to make his mark as the first presidential candidate to send out his VP choice via text message, I’ll bet the next time he does it he will have a back-up plan in place. I know I would.
It’s no secret that the economy is struggling. While it seems like everything is being affected by the current economic client – from gas prices and consumer spending to political campaigns – I have to wonder: what about the technology industry?
John Soat of InformationWeek recently discussed this topic in his blog entry, “IT is a Recession-Proof Profession.” According to a survey conducted by Jobfox, 6 of the 20 recession-proof occupations listed are in IT, making tech jobs the largest category on the list.
Other reported findings are mixed; IT jobs are increasing while overall technology spending may be slowing down. The data is tricky, but the trend is clear – decreased spending and increased hiring cannot simultaneously continue forever.
It’s important for companies to focus on high-impact results. With clear messaging for the market and strategic direction, tech companies are in a position to make the right decisions and weather this storm to come out on top. With an effective PR campaign, technology companies can stand out from the competition to not only survive – but thrive in a struggling economy. Although no industry can be completely immune from a recession, technology will continue to evolve – creating opportunities for creativity and growth.
What is your company doing to compete in today’s technology market?
The decision as to when to launch a PR campaign is more about determining your marketing goals than about picking a date. When you launch a PR campaign, you are shining a kleig light on your company and inviting the world to take a look. Typically, this means that your product is available, with website and marketing materials ready.
However, we are starting to see a trend where companies are now looking to raise awareness in advance of having an actual product. These companies tend to be in developing areas of technology where the start ups want to establish themselves as thought leaders and experts in their emerging fields. It is especially important for a start up with products that have long purchase cycles to get on the radar of their potential customers as early as possible.
Another reason to get started with PR early is if the start up is looking for financing. Coverage in publications followed by VCs and angel investors can expand the universe of financing options and create the opportunity to finance on better terms.
And Stephen Wildstrom gives NBC the gold medal…in cluelessness…over on BusinessWeek’s The Tech Beat.
In a world of blogging, microblogging and instantaneous everything on the Internet, it seems NBC Universal really dropped the ball this August when it came to Olympic coverage of events halfway around the world.
In regards to Usain Bolt’s unbelievable feats on the track, Stephen points out, “But the best you can get on nbcolympics.com is a still photo. And don’t think about YouTube either – Bolt videos are being taken down, apparently at the demand of NBC Universal, as fast as they go up.”
What do you think?? Did NBC miss the boat on this, one of the most widely-anticipated Olympic games, possibly ever?? During an era when technology is at our fingertips??
As our online worlds become more and more social, conversational, and collaborative, we are seeing many traditional PR processes evolve as well. One of the most recent changes we’ve witnessed is how our clients submit to speak at industry events. No longer are we simply writing an abstract for the presentation, putting together a bio for a company executive and clicking ‘send’ on an email.
Several events are now actively involving their audience in the selection process, and allowing potential attendees to vote on the sessions they would be most interested in seeing. Some of these shows include Oracle’s OpenWorld, the Web 2.0 Expo, and Enterprise 2.0. Some potential speakers have taken it upon themselves to use their blogs to promote submitted panel ideas- see a good example here.
One of our clients is currently in the running to present at another popular tech industry event, the South by Southwest Interactive Festival next March 13-17, 2009. The SXSW voting process is probably the most technologically advanced and socially-savvy we have seen yet. Their ‘Interactive Panel Picker’ interface allows anyone to go in and browse suggested panel ideas (along with 50-word descriptions), organized by technology area, and rate the panels they would be most interested in hearing about at the event. Loomia’s topic is Privacy and Personalization – Oxymoron or the Perfect Match?, which will expound on the controversy that online ad targeting (i.e., Beacon) and personalization has created in terms of user privacy standards.
If this piques your interest, you can vote for it here- and feel free to pass the word along!
While Beijing has been the world focus for the Olympics, China also has been one of the fastest growing PR markets. High tech companies are eager to enter the Chinese market for its endless opportunities, and successful PR will help them to engage the local markets.
Coming from a PR agency in Asia, I can say that PR there is more event-oriented from my perspective. I used to support many in-person product launch events and press conferences, handling materials, providing hospitality, talking about the news to generate coverage. PR agencies were in charge of every event detail from the beginning to the end. On top of it we had daily PR tasks such as drafting press releases, pitching as well as media monitoring.
On the other hand, in the U.S we do a lot of individual phone briefings and meetings at tradeshows for press outreach. PR professionals must be creative to rise above the noise to provide fresh ideas and grab attention from the press. PR in the U.S. involves more strategic thinking which is one aspect that I really enjoy working here. We work with our clients to come up with the best message and strategy to go to the market.
It is interesting how PR is different from the east and west, and PR professionals should always keep in mind that the cultural differences play a significant role in global PR. Here at Vantage, we know those differences first hand, and partner with our clients to make sure we are properly their message in each country.
EE Times has had some great articles over the last few weeks, leading up to this monumental Olympics. Laurie Sullivan, a freelance writer, contributed a great article a few days ago entitled, “RFID’s the ticket for secure Games.”
In the article, she points out some amazing stats to make the case for RFID – “It is estimated that 3 million athletes, journalists and spectators will gather in Beijing for the Games. Millions more around the world will watch on television. As China savors the attention, AIM Global president Dan Mullen believes the interest in RFID reinforces the idea that the technology has matured enough to support major large-scale events.”
This is great news for the RFID industry. And shows the momentum this industry is gaining in the mainstream, despite rumors of privacy invasion and other false reports.
Laurie states, “The XXIX Olympiad incorporates the ‘latest domestic and international scientific and technological achievements’ and serves as a window to showcase the city’s own ‘achievements and innovative strength’ as millions descend on China, according to the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games.”
From this we can deduce that RFID is a “technological achievement” and, much like the Olympian athletes that will be competing this week, RFID is ready for the world.
On Friday, our website was hacked with something called an SQL Injection that installs a back door trojan on the computers of people visiting the site. Evidently, this is a known vulnerability for SQL databases in websites and is reaching epidemic proportions.
SQL Injection happens when a developer accepts user input that is directly placed into a SQL Statement and doesn’t properly filter out dangerous characters. This can allow an attacker to not only steal data from your database, but also modify and delete it. Evidently, hackers now have a tool that automates these attacks.
In the last week, we have had three computers that have needed to be rebuilt due to malware infestation. I thought that, for the most part, we were past these basic types of security issues. Maybe, we are getting lazy.
There are also easy tests that you can use to check your website for SQL injections. Also, it is imortant to keep your anti-virus/antimalware software up to date. Most importantly, don’t open anything sent by anyone you do not know.
Unless you have been living under a rock for the past year or so, you are already well aware of the so-called “green” buzz going on around us. From light bulbs, to eco-friendly clothing lines, we are being inundated with products claiming to be environmentally safe. With this latest trend comes the inevitable - greenwashing, which is basically misleading consumers by claiming a product is eco-friendly or environmentally sound without any definite proof.
Regulators are now starting to wisen up to these sneaky tactics, TerraChoice a Canadian environmental marketing agency recently came out with top six sins of greenwashing. This list helps consumers see how products are currently being marketed to make us believe we are helping the environment by buying their products, when a large percentage of the time the companies are falsely advertising.
At Vantage, we have seen this trend grow into a monster over the past few months, so to help our clients avoid making false claims; we ALWAYS make sure we discuss all aspects of their “green” products before presenting it to the media. Since our reputation is very important to us, we ask our clients the tough questions when in comes to the “greenness” of their products. For instance, is this product manufactured in an environmentally sound warehouse and are the performance statistics realistic for all circumstances? As companies continue to tout their products as “green” it is our responsibility to ensure we are presenting the public with FACTUAL information.
On a popular industry website, Tech Observer, industry expert Blaise Zerega links to some interesting statistics from the New York Times for online video. “As reported by the New York Times, the number of people watching video inched up from 132 million in May 2007 to 135 million this past April. But the amount of time spent viewing video skyrocketed from 158 minutes per user in May of last year to 228 minutes per user in April.”
So as we can see, not only are more people WATCHING videos online, but this larger number of people is watching videos for longer periods of time. So now is the time to take advantage of this type of media.
If you haven’t yet thought about posting videos on sites such as YouTube and Revver for your company, you may be missing out on some BIG opportunities to get the word out. With Vantage Video, we shoot and produce quality videos for our clients (like the one below)…from additional news about a recent press release to expert videos and how-tos for the industry.
So hop on the video train, and take a ride to more coverage.
