A Very Powerful PR Campaign Tactic

This week one of the assignments was to read chapter 8 in David Scott’s The New Rules of Marketing & PR. Chapter 8 centered around viral marketing and highlighted why certain videos gain millions of views so rapidly.

In my opinion, viral marketing is one of the most fun, interesting and entertaining marketing and PR tactics being used in the profession today. Scott identified one reason why viral marketing is the latest craze when he wrote, “for marketers, one of the coolest things about the Web is that when an idea takes off, it can propel a brand or company to fame and fortune for free.". Viral marketing gives companies the opportunity to creatively and effectively reach their target audience or consumers without spending a dime. Scott also pointed out that typically, the most successful viral videos incorporate comedy. People want to watch videos that can make them laugh, which leads me to my next point. Some of the most popular videos are not tied to a company or organization at all, they are videos are of people doing funny things.

Take the YouTube sensation Keenan Cahill for example. Keenan Cahill is a boy who lip syncs popular songs and adds his own quirky dance moves. People find his remakes to be hilarious (myself included). His video featuring the hit "Teenage Dream" by Katy Perry had over 34 million views. The success he experienced on YouTube led to attention from the media, musicians and organizations. In fact, multiple celebrities, such as Katy Perry, recorded short video clips wishing Keenan a happy 16th birthday.

Talk shows such as Tosh.0 and Ellen DeGeneres have incorporated portions of their shows directed toward talking about videos that have gone viral. These hosts pick out their favorite YouTube videos, show them while on air then talk about what they like or dislike about them. This in turn, is helping videos go viral and demonstrates how successful videos can be.

Learning more about the viral marketing has been my favorite part of the class so far. Viral marketing is relatively new but has proven the power to influence large numbers of people. Scott’s last paragraph in chapter 8 stuck with me and I think it is a great quote to use to end my post.

“Viral marketing – having others tell your story for you – is one of the most exciting and powerful ways to reach your audiences. It’s not easy to harness the power, but with careful preparation when you are sitting on the news with clever ideas for what has the potential to create interest, any organization has the power to become famous on the Web."

Pink Glove Dance was a Viral Success

This week, our readings centered around viral marketing. Each of our texts touched on different aspects of this relatively new marketing technique. During class, we spent some time viewing both successful and unsuccessful viral videos. This sparked an interest in me to dive deeper into other campaigns that implemented the use of videos that went viral. After researching, I came across this Pink Glove Dance Video which proved to be a viral success:

This video was lauched in 2009 by Medline, the nation's largest manufacturer of medical supplies, to increase breast cancer awareness. Medline created the pink colored gloves and committed to donating $1 to the National Breast Cancer Foundation to help fund mammorgrams for women who could not afford them. The company wanted to add a unique element to the campaign that would get people talking about breast cancer. According to an article posted on WowElle , "the idea to combine the gloves and dancing was sparked by Emily Somers, a product Medline manager who had a dance background".  This idea took off, and Somers was able to recruit over 200 employees of Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland, OR to participate by putting on a pair of pink latex gloves and dance around the hospital to Jay Sean's song "Down". The video instantly went viral, proving to be a gigantic success.

According to the PinkGloveDance website, "over 11 million people across the globe have viewed the video." Other hospitals, sports teams and universities have used this idea to create other Pink Glove dances. In fact, the Penn State women's basketball team joined with a local hospital, Mount Nittany Medical Center, and made their own Pink Glove dance. Take a look:

The website also stated that, "the YouTube video phenomenon has been featured on CNN, ABC World News with Charles Gibson, Fox & Friends - Fox News Network’s national morning show, and literally more than 100 local TV newscasts across the country." In fact, due to the successful campaign, Medline decided to launch a sequel that features 4,000 people including cancer survivors and hosptial employees from 14 healthcare facilities. The sequel was launched on YouTube on September 16, 2010 and currently has 323,516 views. Check it out:.

Medline was able to take a campaign centered around a sensitive subject and make it fun and entertaining. The people dancing in the videos were laughing and smiling, which as a viewer, was contagious. Medline also selected songs that were positive, upbeat and related well to the subject matter. Overall, Medline created an out of the ordinary video as a tactic for a campaign centered around a somewhat common subject. This campaign reached out to a large number of people because a video went viral. After this week, I have an increased appreciation for videos that go viral because just like this one, most of them are fun, entertaining and unique.

Blue Barracudas, Banana Shorts and The Clams

Spring is one of my favorite times of the year. The sun finally starts to peak out from behind the winter clouds, the birds start chirping again and you can brave the outdoors without getting covered with snow or nearly blown away by freezing winds. I have noticed when spring rolls around, students become more active on campus. People begin running, walking and rollerblading the green monster. Both of the indoor weight rooms become more crowded with people trying to get in shape for bathing suit season. However, one of my favorite activities that the spring season brings is intramural volleyball.

Volleyball appears to be the favorite of all the intramural sports offered at ONU. This spring, I am playing on three different teams, the Blue Barracudas, Team Banana Shorts and the Clams. After the first week of games, my teams are 1-1, 1-1, and 0-2 (not as good as I was hoping). For those of you that are not familiar with ONU intramurals, teams can choose to sign up in three different leagues. The leagues are A, B and C. Each league has a different level of competitiveness. A is the toughest league, B is mediocre and C resembles a gym class. The rules also tailor to each league, for example, spiking and blocking is not allowed in C league.

Two of these teams I play on are in A league and one is in B league. This year, there are 12 teams competing in the A league and 24 B league teams. If you assume that each of these teams have at least six people on the roster, there are at least 216 students participating in volleyball intramurals. This is without adding the teams from another league too. It is clear that a large number of students enjoy playing volleyball. Volleyball is a team sport that is fun even if you are not very good. It allows people to get away from studying for 45 minutes and get together with friends by being active. This is an activity that allows students to laugh and have fun with friends while playing a sport. I highly recommend gathering a group of friends and signing up for a team. Intramural volleyball is fun, even if your team’s record is not the greatest (like all three of mine).

No NFL Football?!

What things do you associate with fall? Thanksgiving? The leaves changing colors? School starting? Maybe. But for the majority of Americans, the first thing thought of is football. Whether it's at the professional, collegiate or high school level, when fall rolls around, millions of Americans get fired up to watch their favorite teams compete. However, as many of us know, the NFL team owners and players are in quite the scuffle right now which has resulted in a (heart-breaking and depressing to many) lockout for the upcoming season.

In case you are not familiar with this issue, I found this great article called "NFL owners meetings: Can Leage, NFLPA find harmony amid lockout?" posted on USAToday that breaks down the situation in a way that's easy to understand. This article gives a snap shot of what's currently going, a look at what's to come and answers ten different commonly asked questions about the issue.

Whether you're a die-hard NFL fan or not, this issue has gained a ton of media coverage since the get-go and will continue to as the season approaches. To me, it's crazy to think about fall without professional football! What's going to happen to all the people employed by these teams? This article touches on some of the things different departments are doing.

For example, tickets are still being sold (with the hopes that things will be resolved) and you better believe that the PR pros representing the NFL are hard at work. As a communications professional in this type of position, what do you do? Plan for the BIG crisis...that's for sure. I would also guess that planning a campaign directed toward consumer relations (fan bases and toward the players) would be happening too. As a soon-to-be college grad heading into the professional sports world with a B.A. in sport management and public relations...this issue made me analyze how a big happening like this could affect the people behind the scenes. I'm looking forward to see how it all plays out, and I'm crossing my fingers that next fall I'll be able to watch the leaves change colors AND NFL football.

Decisions, decisions...

So I’m a little different from most people. I’m extremely indecisive, and I mean EXTREMELY. Big decisions, little predicaments…whether to eat a peanut butter and jelly or a turkey and cheese sandwich for lunch, dark or light jeans, whether to run or elliptical, what to do on a Friday night…you name it and I spend entirely too much time contemplating all the options and the affects that will occur from making a decision. I spend way more time than the average person anyway. One of the toughest decisions I’ve had to make was which college to attend. I applied to eight different schools and was accepted to each, which put my decision-making skills (lack of) to quite the test.

I decided half way through my senior year that I wanted to attend Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It’s a great school with the nicest campus I’ve ever seen. The housing options are unreal, no matter which complex you end up in you still got your own bedroom…NICE! But, because I am the way I am, I changed my mind two weeks after graduation (which meant no refunds on deposits = angry momma Keough.)

I took a chance and decided I wanted to move to a different state to go to a university that was three hours away, as big as my high school and smack in the middle of dozens of cornfields. I was worried I was going to hate it, but I knew I wanted to go to a good school that was in a new area with brand new people. I loved it the first couple months! At ONU, I made awesome friends, like my classes and majors and was having an absolute blast! However, when winter quarter rolled around this all changed. I got super home-sick and became frustrated with the classes I was taking (stupid gen eds).  This became so bad that I contacted GVSU and made plans to transfer out after the year was over.

However after tons of heart-to-hearts with my parents and friends, I changed my mind yet again and stayed at ONU. During this time I realized a couple of different things. One, I need to start making decisions, big and small, because the older I get the more important decisions are going to be. Two, just because things are difficult and you may be unhappy in a situation you may be in, it can turn around and completely change in no time. Three, I am so glad that I decided to stay at ONU. This has been a great place for me to go to college. The treasures, memories, friends and experiences I’ve made while I’ve been here are irreplaceable. They’ve helped mold me into the person I am today. In May, I’ll be walking away as a graduate of Ohio Northern University, and I couldn’t be more pleased with that decision.

Thou Shalt Be Transparent

The deeper I dive into Paul Gillin's The New Influencers, the more I grow to like blogging. This week, we needed to read chapter 2 for class. Chapter 2 was super interesting and elaborated on some big blogging "No-No's". One thing Gillin hammered home in this chapter was the importance of transparency. On page 23, he defined transparency as "a kind of mashup of principles that include honesty, integrity, humility, open-mindedness and fairness." This was a perfect definition for a new blogger like me...dumbed down enough so I can understand it. He continued to point out some things that a blogger shouldn't do that I was unaware of like:

• You shouldn't revise a post once it's posted
• If you do want to correct something, you should comment on your own blog
• You should only delete a post when you believe it may do harm or mislead readers

All things that go along with transparency that I just learned. He then goes on to say "the idea is that blogs, like diaries, should lay bare the thoughts of the author and chronicle the development of his or her ideas over time without revising the process that got the person there." This is the reason I enjoy blogging. People write how they speak, which to me, makes it easier to relate to whatever the person is blogging about. It's nice to be able to have this sort of freedom to express thoughts and opinions. Gillin also highlighted the importance of commenting. I like to comment on other people's blogs. It has to make them feel good that someone is reading their posts and it generates conversation. Even if someone disagrees in a comment, it will likely spark another comment from someone else, which is great! Overall, I really enjoyed this chapter. It was easy to read, interesting and valuable. I'll end with a portion of the chapter that I highlighted, circled and starred...

"Transparency is about a lot more than just not lying. It's about opening yourself to inspection, analysis, judgment, praise and ridicule."

The New Influencers Chapter 1 Response

Confession: Before this class, I was a little nervous. Although the world of social media (specifically blogging) interests me and I understand the usefulness it has...I had absolutely no idea of how to write a good blog.

Questions were firing off in my head like: What kind of blog do I set up? Are there different kind of blogs? What are the "no no" things you cannot do when writing a blog? Is anyone going to read anything I write? Is it hard to maintain? How in the world do I get started?

Thankfully, the beginning of my blogging journey has been smooth, thanks to Aggie and this text. The introduction and first chapter of The New Influencers answered nearly all of my lingering questions about the world of blogging.

I want to start out this post with the sentence in the book that stuck out to me the most. The author wrote, "What's captivated me about social media is the extent to which new centers of influence have emerged in communities that have no rules, no governing structures, no standards and no hierarchy" (p. xxi) How awesome is that? Social media is a web of somewhat structured chaos. Users can do, say or write whatever they want. Looking at it initially, it seems uncontrollable and unmanageable, when in actuality, the world of social media has turned out to be the complete opposite.

The book points out that this is a new way to advertise that companies need to embrace. Social media has changed tactics into "conversation marketing." This type of marketing "creates a dialog with customers where useful information can be exchanged so both parties benefit from the relationship." Does that definition sound familiar?? No wonder the world of PR has benefited so much from the development of social media!

While reading I also learned that to people my age, (18-25 year old) the value of our peers is HUGE!! Blogging allows individuals to voice their opinions, which could be extremely beneficial for different companies. My age group is also the most likely to engage in blogging and social media as well.  I was also surprised to read that "79 percent of Americans (ages 9-28) spend 20 hours using social media per day." Amazing.

This first chapter was easy to read and opened my eyes to blogging. The author does a great job of breaking concepts down so they are easy to understand. The use of different cases, like the Ferrari/AOL incident, are wonderful. They are real life examples that depict the power of social media. After reading the first chapter of this book, I cannot wait to read more!

Where have the last four years gone?

Wow!

One quarter left...

10 weeks...

64 days...

Until college ends and I officially enter the "big girl world."

As excited and eager as I am to begin my professional career, I can't help but stop and look around at all the things I'm going to miss at ONU. I never thought I'd say it, but I'm even going to miss things in Ada. There are so many things here that have led me to where I am today. I've made countless memories and amazing friends, all while obtaining a spectacular education along the way.

All right, I need your help here. Before I started to write this blog, I tried to brainstorm all the random things that make Ohio Northern so unique. Here's what I came up with (and please comment if there's something I missed :-) )

*The Green Monster (3.5 outdoor cross country course that circles campus - I have a love/hate feelings toward it )

*Mac Attacks (...you know)

*Klondike (who else has a Polar Bear as a mascot...NO ONE)

*Black Swans (beautiful creatures but dangerously aggressive. Don't let them fool you)

*The Tundra (awesome grassy area smack in the middle of campus. A prime location for tanning when it's finally sunny in Ada)

*The Townies (aren't they wonderful? They may act like they hate us, I'm convinced there's no way they could)
*The ICE Buffers (those contraptions that Physical Plant bust out when it snows. The machines are supposed to brush away the snow but instead they move it around leaving just a small layer of snow covering the 2 inch layer of ice, making it invisible until it's too late and you've already taken an embarassing tumble)

*Where we have to buy our groceries (slightly random I know, but we have all purchased our groceries at either Rite-Aid, Community Market or Dollar General because we are too lazy to make the drive to Wal-Mart in Lima. Outrageously expensive...but convienent because those are the only places in the village)

*The Regal Beagle (Yes, our one and only magnificient hole-in-the-wall bar in town...can't knock it 'til you go there! It's not directly associated with ONU, however, this place helps ONU students every weekend, finals week and Tuesday evening deal with the demands of college)

*Student to Professor Ratio (One of the reasons I decided to come to ONU. The professors care about you and truly want you to succeed, I know for sure my friends at state schools cannot say the same)

*The Students (I know this is kind of cheesy, but it's true. We are a different breed of students. People are involved, ambitious, helpful and eager to make friends. These qualities accompanied with our kick butt education set us up to be incredibly successful)

Coming from good 'ol Howell, Michigan, I was a little worried about being tossed into the middle of a cornfield to go to college at for the next four years. Compared to all my friends who are attending big state schools, I became one of only 3,750 Polar Bears, and I could not be more happy with my decision.

Klondike

Breaking The Rules

Let me start out by saying, I am an avid sports fan. I am a March Madness fanatic and a college football junkie, so as you can imagine, I have been completely glued to ESPN all week. The combination of the conference basketball tournaments going on, the NHL in the last grind of the season before playoffs, and the Heat's losing streak, I've found myself watching sports tv any chance I can get. However, among all the athletic happenings, nothing has caught and maintained my attention more than the chaos with Ohio State Head Football Coach Jim Tressel.

Just so everyone knows, I am a Michigan fan...so of course I am bias. However, this is by far the biggest sports related public relations issue that has gained an immense amount of media attention, and it would have had my attention even if it was a different school. This week, Tressel was busted for not reporting his knowledge that six of his players were involved in the sale of memoribilia. Ohio State suspended Tressel for the first two games of next season and fined him $250,000. However, the NCAA still has not dished out their punishments. The big question is, how severe will the punishments be?


The PR aspect in this whole ordeal can really be seen through the press conference that was held earlier this week. On camera, Tressel appeared to be repentful however he never once CLEARLY apologized for breaking the rules by knowing what his players had done. It is publicly known that he recieved emails with this information in April, so why not admit you were in the wrong? To me, this was a big crisis control/PR problem and his image is going to take a hit. Another part of this whole thing that stuck out to me is how the University is handling the situation. When the OSU President E. Gordon Gee was asked whether he was considering firing Tressel or not, he responded: "No, are you kidding me? Let me be very clear. I'm just hoping the coach doesn't dismiss me." Hm...even if you feel this way...why would you say in on camera? I respect the loyalty that the OSU staff has for Tressel, but some of the comments that were said made it appear as though no one saw this as a problem. I credit OSU for taking action, although the way they have dealt with the press through this hold thing has me scratching my head.


All in all, this is a great example of crisis communication and media relations. Not only is Jim Tressel taking a swift PR hit, so is the football team, athletic department and University as a whole. I'm interested in how everything plays out.

JAMBO! :-)

This is my new blog I set up for a social media class I'm taking at ONU. Super excited to get started! My classes this quarter are going to be interesting and fun. Going to be an awesome last quarter!