Responce: MY LAST BLOG POST!

Might be a confusing title but I am actually responding to Taylor’s post about Justin Bieber… https://wordpress.com/read/post/id/60110403/1053/

I do agree with Taylor that this would be a really bad PR nightmare in any situation, this video is like 6 or 7 years old and people are freaking out about it.

But after reading Miss Taylor’s post I had a thought…

Why have we seen so many public apologies lately? The top three most recent apologies have been for making rude racist comments… Really?! Did all the celebrity/rich people just decide that they are just going to say (or release) what they want and think they won’t have to suffer the consequences? Hmmm I’m not sure but I have heard a few news media outlets say that it may not be a coincidence. 

This is probably one of the biggest reasons that PR people have jobs because some people just can’t keep their mouths closed, but as for PR people always stay on your toes and be prepared for when s**t hits the fan. 

Food for thought…

~Chelsea

Compare and Contrast

The story that is being compared is one of the world headline news stories of whether or not Brazil is going to ready for the summer Olympics in 2016.

The US world news media outlet CNN portrays to the public that no Brazil will not be ready or that they are very skeptical because the opening shot in the video clip is of armed army gunman patrolling the streets, we are told that the water that the sailing athletes will be sailing in is like a toilet, it is said that the building of the Olympic stadiums and villages is only 38% complete, that some of these building wont be built for another six months. Brazil’s biggest concern is its clean up efforts they now have a 16 billion dollar budget on the overall construction but Brazil’s mayor says most of that money will be spent on getting the city cleaned up and ready to go.

CNN video clip link http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/world/2014/06/05/cnni-darlington-pkg-brazil-olympics-preps.cnn.html

Next I took a look at how BBC is covering this story and actually there is only one small mention of the 2016 Olympics in the most recent article regarding Brazil. The article talks about public transportation strikes that have started one week before the beginning of the World Cup, this has a huge impact on how well they World Cup event goes because public transportation is the only form of transportation that can be used to get to the stadium. A public transportation strike during the World Cup would cause tons of chaos for fans and be a huge embarrassment for Brazil. The one small mention about the 2016 Olympics was questioning a little bit of how the games were going to go but because of protests instead of clean up and construction.

It was kind of eye opening for me to do this exercise because I figured it would be a similar story just something that pertained more towards a British audience. But they were two completely different stories, and I thought it was interesting that the BBC new covered something that was more time relevant rather than CNN that was covering something that’s a year and a half away. 

~Chelsea

The X Games Starts Today

The X games are being hosted in Austin Texas this year for the first time and they have done a ton of cool PR stuff to help promote them event.

Spectators and athletes can use the #XGAMESAUSTIN during the duration of the event which can be followed on twitter, Facebook, google plus, and youtube. With that hashtag the user can see live updates of event functions, athlete interviews, photos, and video. All of which can be seen on the X games website. http://xgames.espn.go.com/social/

There is also a competition being put on that spectators can pick who they think will win the competitions and then have the potential to win prizes. Someone can post their predictions on Facebook if they log in through the X games website to participate.

Also they are promoting a new TV show that will be airing on ABC through the X games website. The show is called the world of X, there is a little pitch promo paragraph on the webpage as well as some promotional video clips.

The X Games have been around for almost 20 years now and through all their PR and strategic marketing they have really built up their brand and the extreme sports that are featured throughout the event.

Most of the time we talk about what companies and brands have done wrong with the use of their PR, but I think the X Games has really done it right.

~Chelsea

Fun PR Facts and Advice

I thought this would be helpful to us since we are graduating college within the next 12 days! A little article on what companies are looking for when they are looking to hire a PR firm. http://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/16682.aspx These may be qualities we could work on ourselves to better prepare us to become exactly what the company is looking for.

Here is a small tidbit of what companies are seeking:

• A creative team that interacts regularly with the public and stays on top of all the latest cultural and industry trends.
• A group of hip strategists that chat on the phone for hours a day; they are everyone’s best friend and take the time to understand new phenomena.

• Most important, an agency that gets them results.

As this article goes on to explain, this is a very old school PR agency model but these are all very good qualities to possess as a PR agency and as an individual looking to work in the PR industry. 

Also an interesting piece of information the PR workforce is mostly made up of female employees! 73% according to this article, but 80% of upper level management is predominately male. But in recent years there has been more emphasis put on developing female executives.

Did you know that the PR industry is a $13 billion dollar industry and has continued to grow at an 8% growth rate.

As we know social media has been a game changer for the PR industry and as for PR agencies if they don’t join with the changing trends they will die. A person looking to work in the PR industry must be open to change and continually keep up with trends and new information to stay afloat in this industry, turn around time should be as quick as possible.

I thought is would be some fun information for us graduates and help to remind us why we went into this field in college and what we have to look forward to.

~Chelsea  

Plus sized swimsuit calendar already has over 20,000 views

http://www.today.com/style/all-bodies-should-be-celebrated-plus-size-models-star-swimsuit-2D79748003

Swimsuits For All is a plus sized swim suit company that recently recreated the Sports Illustrated swim suit edition photo shoot from last February. They used plus sized models and created a swim suit calendar to prove that skinny figures are not the only ones that belong on a calendar or in a magazine.

This calendar was created in response to this years Sports Illustrated swim suit edition magazine. Sports Illustrated had the original idea to use plus sized models to go along with a theme that all bodies should be celebrated. But Sports Illustrated did not follow through with this plan and did their photo shoot with three thin topless models instead.

I think this was a great PR response for the Swimsuits For All swimsuit company to create they were still able to get their point across that “bikini-ready” bodies can come in all shapes and sizes and show up Sports Illustrated for not following through. Also I personally really agree with these type of campaigns celebrating all kinds of women no matter what they look like, it’s a great campaign that many people like to be involved with and are happy to support. 

~Chelsea 

Rest in Peace Maya Angelou

Maya was a very well known writer who recently passed away. She was a civil rights activist and teacher to which many people admired and looked to her for wisdom and advice.

In this article http://www.prnewsonline.com/water-cooler/2014/05/29/communications-wisdom-from-maya-angelou/ we are given some advice about communications from Angelou.

The quote that best related to PR was “the idea is to write so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart.” It immediately made me think of what we have talked about quite often in class, how do you reach people? how do things go viral? Do just as Angelou says pull at peoples heart strings, which has been an answer that we have brought up in class as well.

the other quote mentioned in the article that I have always liked but never knew who said it was “at the end of the day people won’t remember what you said or did; they will remember how you made them feel.” Which I believe is very true in both the personal and professional aspects of life and it is a good reminder to people to always strive to treat others with kindness. 

Food for thought…

~Chelsea

In Responce to Kate Marez

Kate’s post about the American Girl dolls discontinuation was appealing to me because I had two of the American Girl dolls when I was younger. I had one doll that was Caucasian and the other was native American. As a young girl I really liked to play with those dolls and my mother liked the dolls because of the diversity of the dolls they offered and the history behind each doll.

I think it was unfortunate that American Girl discontinued these dolls and had such a negative response in return. Maybe these dolls were the least sold dolls and that why they decided to discontinue them. American Girl has held such a great public reputation for selling a large variety of diverse dolls which all have their own historical background. As each doll comes with a small chapter book that tells the dolls story of their historical time period and diverse background. 

From a PR stand point I think it was good that they reached out to address the issue although it was unfortunate that their wasn’t a well thought out plan of how to handle a situation like this one. But overall I do agree with Kate that they should have made new dolls to replace the ones being removed and they should have apologized to their audience.

Here is a link to Kate’s Blog post https://wordpress.co/read/pot/id/6625005/213/

~Chelsea

Bring the Clippers to Seattle!

As of yesterday Steve Ballmer is set to purchase the LA clippers for two billion dollars.

Ballmer is a former Microsoft CEO and all the Seattlites and sonics fans want Ballmer to bring the Clippers up north. This would be another huge franchise for Seattle and could bring in more revenue to the region.

Of course there are many areas of controversy over moving basketball teams around, let alone the baggage that this basketball team has. So of course all issues involving Donald Sterling and his family are being brought up again and it has been said that Mr. Sterling is now deemed mentally unfit to have any input as to what happens with his families trust funds. More can be read in the article below.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/clippers/2014/05/29/steve-ballmer-los-angeles-bidding-shelly-donald-sterling-sale-microsoft/97417

More interesting publicity about Ballmer has come up as well but lucky for him more that half of what is said about him is good publicity, like what was written in the article posted below. 

http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/30/us/clippers-who-is-steve-ballmer/ 

Being from the pacific northwest region myself I think it would be really cool if Ballmer brought the team to Seattle (even though he said he isn’t going to) I think it would be good for the city of Seattle itself and for the people who live there. I was never a sonics fan but I think it would be something I would be interested in getting involved in.

It will be interesting to watch how everything unfolds for the Clippers and Ballmer PR wise, as this was just recently mad official.

~Chelsea

National 9/11Museum is dealing with some bad PR

This blog post is my submission for the assigned blog post.

The advantages of being a privately owned company include shared ownership of the company, there is limited liability, the investors hold managerial control over the company, and a company can fluctuate in and out of stability with out any pressure from the media.

The advantages of being a publicly traded company include the ability to earn more money, the company can be traded on the stock market, the company can have access to more money in case of any future financial needs, and it is easier to promote the company as a whole.

In 2013 Best Buy differentiated itself from the rest of its competitors by creating a commercial for the 2013 superbowl featuring a well known comedian and focused on promoting the “blue shirt” experts in electronics and customer service. Also in 2013 Best Buy issued a news release that announced its ending of “showrooming” and its new focus of a low price guarantee.

“Showrooming” became a problem for Best Buy because its customers would come into the store test out the products in the store then order them online for a cheaper price than what was offered in the store.

Some other issues that affected Best Buy’s financial performance was when the CEO resigned due to improper relations with a co-worker and the founder also quit at the same time the CEO left. The best buy stores were too massive in size. Best Buy also declined any buyouts.

The former founder of Best Buy was working with a group of investors to purchase a minority stake in the company to help enhance the company’s financial position.

Best Buy, got rid of the showrooming problem and began to focus on offer best price guarantees, and have great customer service. They also developed connect stores a scaled down version of the massive brick and mortar store all apart of the overall marketing strategy.

The role of financial analysts for investors is to gather all the necessary information about a company and advise the investor about making good financial decisions.

Best Buy’s investor Relations website looks good to me, I have not looked at any other investor relations websites before. But this one isn’t over the top but it also isn’t lacking in information either.

Here is a link to the website:  http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=83192&p=IROL-IRhome

~Chelsea

Best Buy Case Study Post

This blog post is my submission for the assigned blog post.

The advantages of being a privately owned company include shared ownership of the company, there is limited liability, the investors hold managerial control over the company, and a company can fluctuate in and out of stability with out any pressure from the media.

The advantages of being a publicly traded company include the ability to earn more money, the company can be traded on the stock market, the company can have access to more money in case of any future financial needs, and it is easier to promote the company as a whole.

In 2013 Best Buy differentiated itself from the rest of its competitors by creating a commercial for the 2013 superbowl featuring a well known comedian and focused on promoting the “blue shirt” experts in electronics and customer service. Also in 2013 Best Buy issued a news release that announced its ending of “showrooming” and its new focus of a low price guarantee.

“Showrooming” became a problem for Best Buy because its customers would come into the store test out the products in the store then order them online for a cheaper price than what was offered in the store.

Some other issues that affected Best Buy’s financial performance was when the CEO resigned due to improper relations with a co-worker and the founder also quit at the same time the CEO left. The best buy stores were too massive in size. Best Buy also declined any buyouts.

The former founder of Best Buy was working with a group of investors to purchase a minority stake in the company to help enhance the company’s financial position.

Best Buy, got rid of the showrooming problem and began to focus on offer best price guarantees, and have great customer service. They also developed connect stores a scaled down version of the massive brick and mortar store all apart of the overall marketing strategy.

The role of financial analysts for investors is to gather all the necessary information about a company and advise the investor about making good financial decisions.

Best Buy’s investor Relations website looks good to me, I have not looked at any other investor relations websites before. But this one isn’t over the top but it also isn’t lacking in information either.

Here is a link to the website:  http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=83192&p=IROL-IRhome

~Chelsea