Category Archives: public relations

it’s all about the buzz

we want homer! now!

I’m sometimes asked, “What, exactly, is PR?” Much more than the latest product release, public relations at its core is called on to put a public face on corporate behavior.

The latest, and best, example to date of seat-of-the-pants we don’t need no stinkin’ pr came when The Not So Big Three ambled their way to DC for some help from the public.

Forget the ordinary workers and businesses across the country who were depending on them. Ford, GM and Chrysler ceos landed clueless, cozy and comfortable just in time to be ridiculed from the cheap seats for their chutzpah.

For comparison, imagine if the airline chief execs showed up begging for help in Bentleys and Rolls Royces. Jeez, a blind man on a galloping horse could’ve seen this coming.

But no, Detroit’s elite decided to ignore what we surely can imagine were impassioned pleas from corporate public relations folk begging them to brown bag it to Washington.

So what happened? No money, honey, and probably less than they would have gotten when they finally do get their paws in the public coffers.

Perception counts, in any industry.

fix it in photoshop?

As ESPN’s Lee Corso says, “Not so fast, my friends!” The Associated Press recently suspended its distribution of source material from the U.S. Army’s Public Information Office after receiving this clumsy alteration of Ann Dunwoody, the first female four-star general.

What’s the powersports connection? PR 101 teaches that above all never poison the well. Product enhancement is not only routine but expected, but if your goal is communicating actual events and one of the proofs is an authentic visual record, risking acceptance by changing content is a big no-no. Continue reading →

pickens plan proves populist

There’s a lot to mull over when T. Boone Pickens starts pushing his part public service, mostly private profit plan for achieving energy independence.

What I like, aside from the mostly common sense approaches to a rational energy policy, is the sophistication of the site itself.

Public relations? This campaign defines the genre. He’s out to change the way our country thinks, and he’s having some success.

Web design? Over the top. Clever and sophisticated without seeming elitist, the modules are quick to load and nothing short of brilliant in execution.

Continue reading →

harden to husqvarna

Powersports industry headliner Scot Harden moves from KTM back to Husqvarna, where his corporate involvement with off road riding first got its start.

After charting KTM’s performance course for the past 20 years, a stint that includes significant Baja and Dakar marketing coups that linked the orange and black mark with energy drink apex predator Red Bull, Harden will now split his time between his West Coast home in Temucula and Husqvarna’s New Jersey headquarters.

pr, schme-r – you say tomato, i say rutabago

Hollywood gospel says there’s no such thing as bad p.r. Unless it’s no p.r. Which is exactly what happened to Clearwater Wednesday night, as the A&E (originally named for arts and entertainment – how far we’ve fallen) cable channel beamed live footage of illusionist Criss Angel ‘s escape from a blown to smithereens beachfront hotel.

Except that the on-air program guide described the hotel as a condo. And the location as Miami. Be assured this was not what the city bargained for when they put up the security and such needed to accomodate a live feed and a crowd estimated at perhaps 50,000. I know this because I’m right down the road from an event that dominated the local papers. As Casey Stengel said, “You could look it up.”

don’t mention it – just kidding

We provided stick and ball manufacturer Shock Doctor with sorely needed ink and a few public relations hookups at Dealer Expo this year.

Despite brand recognition in the motorsports venue, as recent entrants in the powersports industry they’ve been acutely invisible, lacking minimal awareness among dealer and trade attendees about their line of gear bags.

We connected them with

  • off-road vendors,
  • b2b and consumer publications,
  • a distributor,
  • and a major OE.

They left Indy with a pocket full of key contacts to go with their freshly minted status as fully fledged two-wheel participants.

Building recognition with connections and communications – all in a day’s job that starts with the industry and extends to the marketplace.

scooters ride the wave

Cha-ching goes the gas pump and another pissed off motorist does the long hard look at the increasingly not that crazy scooter buzzing by at 70-mpg. All over America these two-wheeled sippers are hitting mainstream stride, cashing in on a flurry of coverage from editors eager to exploit Top Ten lists on how to beat the prices at the pump.

For instance. Last week the local paper’s Saturday automotive section front page was devoted to scooters. Can’t imagine the stalwart page advertisers were too thrilled, but there it was, a four-color shoutout to the virtues of minimalism. And style, and just plain hipness. We call it pr on a platter, there for the plucking.

going green – or just going?

When we read the April email from Dealernews alerting us to the fact that, “Unless you live under a rock, you’re aware of the increasing awareness and need for all of us to find better ways to deliver the products we produce using fewer of our natural resources. The popular term for this is “Going Green”,’ we first assumed Advanstar would lead the industry in environmentally responsible publishing through such actions as certifying that paper was 100% recycled, all inks were soy based and no animals were harmed in lab testing. (And yes, we’re aware of the awareness. We saw the movie.)

Wrong. Instead we learned that all but the most recent – last 12 months to be exact – advertisers and agencies who receive the “complimentary subscription” were being given the heave ho. Dealers not included. How’s that for qualifying the herd? The practical side of how the circ list would be worked out is beyond our ability to comprehend, but suffice to say that as an agency required to pay $100 for the privilege of admission to Dealer Expo that badge should at the very least grant us some clemency. Hah!

Add this latest Advanstar gambit – transparently hypocritical in trying to cash in on the legit green movement yet leaving a Hulk sized carbon footprint as evidence – to what seems like a string of perhaps well intentioned yet seriously off course trip ups which simply serve to call into question overall corporate goals and vision.

new familiar face at v-twin news

v-twin news names new editor

When industry insider Robin Hartfiel was abruptly ousted from his Motorcycle Product News editor’s chair last March, we predicted it wouldn’t be long before he lined up a new gig. It wasn’t.

Paisano Publications announced his appointment Wednesday as the new editor-in-chief of their b2b dealer pub, V-Twin News. He takes over from Ben Lamboeuf, who now moves to retail publishing as associate editor on Paisano’s core bike titles – Easyriders and V-Twin – along with new responsibilities for an as yet unnamed automotive title.

It’s expected that Hartfiel will leverage his considerable reach in the powersports community to develop external revenue opportunities, along with a fresh look and veteran insight, to the primarily domestic v-twin publication as Paisano explores new channels in what is generally acknowledged to be a particularly troubled segment of an overall sluggish market.