Another year has passed and we are nearing to the beginning of the Webit Congress 2012. This conference focused on new trends in technology and on-line marketing is about to take place on 10-11 October 2012 in Istanbul. The organizers estimate a turn out of 6,000 visitors from over 60 countries and key speakers from companies like Google, Microsoft, Adobe or IBM will be present. This year also features a StartUp Challenge designed to attract young professionals.

Entrepreneurial challenge

Start-ups from all over the CEE region can submit their applications and 21 of them will go to Istanbul and try to impress about about 200 investors with their pitch. If this is your cup of tea, check out the challenge at the official web site. “We expect 400+ applications to the SatrtUp Challenge from EMEA and rest of the world,” said Plamen Russev, Founder of Webit Congress. Webit 2012 is trying to allure more start-ups. Compared to the last year, the quota is about twice as many entrepreneurs present.

Topics

The programme follows a pretty broad thrall but there are some interesting topics to be found. Some of them have caught my eye already.

• Social marketing and the art of storytelling
• Hackers & Invention
• Branding as a process and a dialogue
• Best practices and cases in E-commerce for retailers
• M2M (machine to machine)

Even though the programme is not finished yet, you can see the rough draft of what the organizers have in store for the attendees.

Connections

Networking opportunities look also very promising. About 6,000 people will be at the event. Think about these numbers! Webit Congress is divided into six stages, so most of the visitors will be already pre-selected according to their topic of interest. Plus, there will always be an opportunity to network with the speakers like Sandy Carter (VP of Business and Social Evangelism of IBM), Alina Kessel (CEO of DDB Tribal), Tristan Nitot (Founder and President of Mozilla Europe) or Patrick Hoffstetter (Chief Digital Officer of Renault). Some coverage-hungry start-ups should be delighted to attend, for reporters from The Next Web or Forbes are about to visit the event. If you want to get noticed, here is your chance.

In summation, the Webit 2012 is looking good so far – good speakers, attractive venue, interesting topics. Add to that thrilling parties and the good networking options and you are in the clear. There is one thing missing, though. Why the hell isn’t anyone from the Czech Republic among the speakers?

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This text was written for a bulletin PR LIFE, a publication of PR Klub.

The current PROs should be exactly like Amélie Poullain. Before you start judging this statement, let me say that I can predict your next thought. It’s: “What the hell are you talking about?” All right, let me explain.

I haven’t seen the movie Amélie until two days ago. Ever since, I can’t stop thinking about one thing – small changes affecting people’s lives in a profound way that are rampant in that film. Malcolm Gladwell’s readers know I’m referring to his concept of tipping point. At one point of the story, the main protagonist working as a waitress at a local café decides to impact people’s lives. Given she is an apprehensive and a melancholic woman, she does so in a subtle way.

So much potential

For example, Amélie acts as a hidden matchmaker between her colleague and one of the regular tavern patrons. Her work behind the scenes is gratified when both potential lovers passionately get it on. She also helps her father to get out of his shell and stop wallowing in sorrow due to his wife’s death and incites him to start travelling around the world. The waitress also manages to get a man who previously inhabited her flat to re-connect to his alienated family. All it takes is a little push in a form of his lost box of childhood treasures. All these magnificent changes in other people’s lives are induced by little details that the main protagonist sets in motion.

Instead of me groveling on behalf of the movie, go watch it yourselves. Or at least read the review if you are too lazy.

Back already? Let’s move on then.

If the PROs adapt the mentality of a fictional melancholic waitress, it can yield some benefits, particularly improvements in their own work. By focusing on changing the public opinion, the PR practitioners will be more valuable for their organizations or clients.

Behind the scenes

For those who don’t know, let’s recap where PR has its roots. Stuart Ewen wrote a book PR! A Social History Of Spin based on interviews with the father of modern PR Edward Bernays. During extensive drilling for information, he got to learn that:

As a member of that intellectual elite which guides the destiny of society, the PR “professional,” Bernays explained, aims his craft at a general public which is essentially, and unreflectively, reactive. Working behind the scenes, out of public view, the public relations expert is “an applied social scientist,” one educated to employ an understanding of “sociology, psychology, social psychology and economics” in order to influence and direct public attitudes.

Let Machiavelli sleep

To avoid misinterpretation, it is vital for you to understand that I am not implicitly advocating elitism and manipulation, like old Eddie did. Neither am I suggesting we should all become Machiavellian bastards like Connie Brean in Wag the Dog. What I am driving at, is that we should stop evaluating our success merely in terms of media outputs.

The changing nature of Public Relations in the current economic and social climate should make us start thinking about our profession differently. We should be evaluating ourselves according to what changes in public opinion we have contributed to or caused; not how many news outlets published our press release.

Stop the publicity, unleash Public Relations

I know that the sound of a coverage book slapping on a client’s table sounds sweet. I know that even sweeter sounds the cash register when you earn that much-coveted success fee. But nothing beats the feeling of success when the target audience starts thinking differently about your product or a brand. Isn’t it high time to stop doing publicity and start practicing Public Relations?

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Aside of writing news releases, every PR practitioner has to get his hands on external or internal publishing. Writing magazines, bulletins, newsletters or flyers is not as intuitive as it may seem. For that reason, I have prepared a set of best practices that have been working for me ever since I started writing.

Avoid passive voice as much as you can

There are only a few things in the world of writing that irritate me as much as using passive voice. Compare these two sentences to each other.

NO: The mat was sat on by the cat.

YES: The cat sat on the mat.

It is clear that the first one is easier to digest. Human brain likes simple and easily understandable messages and texts. That applies doubly so when reading – the readers have a limited attention span and what is not instantly recognizable, goes to the mind’s trash can. If you want the readers spend enough time on your text, make it comprehensible.

Write like a journalist

Using the inverted pyramid is a must. Put the most important information up front and dress it up in a sexy outfit so the reader gets hooked on the text and continues reading.

Study the work of journalists who are writing about your topic. Look at how they structure their stories, what information precedes what. Know the narrative theory and utilize it in your works often. Practice. Fail. Repeat until you succeed.

Use sub-headlines

Coming back to usability of the article, we know that human brain gets scared by information overload. That’s why it’s better to divide the text into chunks. Consider the difference between a text without clearly defined sub-headlines and one that utilizes them properly.

Don’t just divide the text into chunks randomly. Each section of the article divided by the sub-headline must have an enticing beginning, a meaty middle and a logical ending. Make the chunks thematic and definite.

Don’t “et cetera” the reader

The readers like definite reality in a text. Clearly defined sets of examples or finite lists help to make their comprehension easier. When enumerating, make sure you do not leave loose ends in the copy.

NO: This wheel loader can be used in a variety of applications like stone quarries, construction sites, mines, etc.

YES: The operators can use this wheel loader in stone quarries, construction sites and mines. This versatile machine will also find its place in a variety of different applications.

Use full names

Describing a person just by a surname is rather limited and it strikes me as rude. The AP Stylebook condones using just a surname in a story, and some journalists obey it. Perhaps it is a cultural phenomenon of the Eastern Europe to use full names, but it makes the text more polite.

NO: “First names suck,” said Smith.

YES: “I like the idea of using full names,” said John Smith.

Make titles optional

This applies less to American organizations than to British or from continental Europe. Some people want to have academic degrees or academic ranks added to their names like PhD., M.A., Ing., Mgr. or MSc.

While it is principally not wrong, you do not want the audience to respect the person in question not because of his or her title, but because of the weight of the message he or she is transmitting to the audience. Therefore, use the academic titles sparingly.

Use common sense

When you finish the interview, don’t thank the interviewee in print for his time. This practice came out of fashion 15 years ago.

I am sure the list will grow and become more exhaustive. In the meanwhile, feel free to contribute some of your writing advice regarding internal and external publications in the comments.

Rory Sutherland, a Chairman of Ogilvy Group,  is quite a frequent guest at TED. In this talk, he is focusing on re-framing the way we think about a value. Citing Ludwig von Mises and wondering why accountants don’t ask creative people for advice, Rory argues that tinkering with perceived value can improve our lives much more than fixing the problems of reality.

“When you can’t smoke, if you stand and stare out of the window on your own, you’re an antisocial, friendless idiot. If you stand and stare out of the window on your own with a cigarette, you’re a fucking philosopher.”

As the quote above states, Rory will also talk about dinner parties and tax policy. Enjoy!

After meeting a couple of high-placed in-house Marcomm practitioners, having been exposed to corporate environment for a year and reading a whole lot of Dilbert strips, I have decided to put together a process of transformation to a good member of the corporate society. There is not much of ranting involved. Should the tone surprise you, it is because it’s devoid of fancy words and the verbal candy wrap.

1. Before you get into a corporation, make sure you know what your profession is about. If you want to do marketing, get some experience in an agency or in some internships. Chances are you are going to like the relationships and the scope of work at the beginning.
2. As time goes by, you will start feeling that you are not really influencing the brand and so much more could be done from the inside. So you switch sides. Welcome to the Acme, Inc.!
3. Your first observation will be that the relationships suck in comparison to your previous place of employment. It will be a well-founded one. Due to having a lot of money in the marketing budget, people in corporations are often vying for power and control.
4. Thanks to the point three, you will not get enough of power to make a difference to your brand. Feelings of desperation ensue.
5. Then you fail. Early or late, fast or slow – it doesn’t matter, but you will fail multiple times.
6. Failure will prompt you to start building relationships with the “right” people. If you manage to stay put for two to three years, you are safe.
7. Here is a truly diabolical part of functioning in a corporation. You start doing work that will please your bosses. That doesn’t mean it is going to be good work. Due to good relationships with them, you won’t care, but you will be safe.
8. Evolution complete!

Feel free to rip me into shreds in the Comments section.

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A somewhat disconcerting news hit my mailbox today. Cristina Muntean is no longer at the helm of the PR Klub (a Czech association of PR practitioners). She has resigned from her presidential function today, citing personal reasons. The association has not appointed a new leader yet; elections will take place at the end of May. The executive committee remains in an unchanged line-up.

I am worried that Cristina’s leave will destabilize the organization, especially now when the commercial magazine competition Zlaty strednik is about to take place. On the other hand, she is leaving capable people in charge of the the executive committee and by extension, the whole NGO should be fine.

During her time as the president, PR Klub has leaped forward by miles. The organization has started to run lectures for PR leaders and juniors alike, begun a mentoring programme and re-invented its brand. Aside of that, the institution also evangelizes PR a lot more among students than before. Thanks to joint effort, the association is moving forward.

I hope that PR Klub will elect its new President wisely and wish Cristina best of luck in her future endeavours.

The generation of the current teenagers has changed. They are more likely to have same sex than to graduate from high school, according to Mike Driehorst’s infographic.

Guess how things are going to be different when this generation hits the workforce. I am confident that the current teenagers will be more like Nikita and less like Amélie Poullain.

From: BestEducationDegrees.com; hat tip: Karen Russel

Somebody is doing product placement right. And that somebody is SKYY Vodka when it joins with DJ Antoine. Check out the music video and guess why they have done it right.

Audience & Reality Check

SKYY is a FMCG brand, so they need to sell a lot to make the ends meet and even more to be profitable. The brand positions itself as a party vodka and a key ingredient to mixed drinks and cocktails. Their main target audience is the posh people. Forget the hipsters, the punk rock fans or the aging population over 55.

SKYY wants to get people between 18 and 30 who attend house parties in high-end apartments or villas intended only for a selected audience. Chances are they have rich parents, high-paid jobs, drive a Porsche and have a lot of free time on their hands. At the same time, they can be depended on (always on time, pay their bills, are no freeloaders). They live in the world of perfect models, skinny girls with impeccable make-up and very very hot bodies.

Wait a minute… If that were the target audience, SKYY would have sold only a couple of bottles per quarter. No, they are going after people who are aspiring to be like those free-spirited high-earners. So, the description still stands, but you need to bump the target market down a notch in terms of limited disponible income.

Picking The Right Vessel for The Message

Given that SKYY wants to be the ultimate party vodka, they have to partner with someone whose music gets played at the parties and in the clubs. DJ Antoine is a very good match.

• The target market perceives him as sophisticated, popular and cool.
• He plays simple yet addictive tunes.
• His music is well-known and frequently played at parties all over the U.S. and Europe.
• Video clips of his songs on YouTube reach a million of views without any significant effort. The viral potential is high.

Product Plays A Central Role in The Video

Without a strong involvement of the product or a brand in the story, the effects of product placement efforts are minimal. The brand needs to play a central role to make an impact, according to a review paper on product placement by Williams, Petrosky, Hernandez and Page. And that’s exactly what SKYY does.

The bottle of vodka becomes a catalyst for the main protagonist to find his partner (either for the night or for the entire life; the video doesn’t specify that). You can also see that SKYY is in every key moment of the video – the main protagonist uses it to play “spin the bottle” and every shot to the past features the hero looking at the bottle before paying for it (some extra exposure for SKYY).

In the end, it’s the SKYY Vodka that determines compatibility of the story’s hero and his mate. The process for the guy then goes as follows:

1. I see a beautiful girl stopping because of the bottle of SKYY I kicked close to her feet.
2. I see a bottle of SKYY. Wow, that’s familiar. I buy these myself. She must like it.
3. We remember each other from the store, where she bought the same vodka as I did. We must have something in common.
4. She smiles at me, therefore, she thinks the same.

As you can see, the bottle of vodka plays an important role as a social object that gets the man laid in the ideal scenario. In the real world, he would either have to impress with brilliance or baffle the poor girl with bullshit to get her in his bed. Not so in the video – it is all implied, but not explicitly shown.

This video persuades the viewers to buy SKYY Vodka not only by appealing on similarity and liking of the protagonist and the girl he meets at the end. It tells the viewers: “Our brand is so well-defined and distinct that its buyers recognize each other’s values only by looking at the product they have in common.” By definition, similarities attract.

The aspirational visual settings of the video also appeal to the viewers. Luxurious watches, spacious surroundings, apparently expensive suits, staff and entertainment at the party are the best ways along with plenty of trophy girls to create the impression of exclusivity and high society. We don’t see there any cars due to the fact that SKYY is a brand priding itself on responsibility and not promoting drinking and driving.

Well done, guys!

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When I had started my Master’s degree in PCPR, I was scared. In the first several encounters with classmates, my fellow communicators have never failed to impress me with their argumentative and persuasive skills, especially when working within groups. Everyone was so assertive and good at getting his or her point across. The only flaw of that arrangement was that group work yielded unsatisfactory results in terms of grades. The cohort had too many individuals and not enough of team players.

Human connection builds winning teams

As time went by, my seemingly strong and confident classmates have started to unearth and combat the same issues with which I had been struggling – anxiety, nervousness, procrastination, prioritization or inadequate time management. We got to know each other better and became aware of our weaknesses as well as our strengths. We connected on the emotional level. And then a miracle occurred. When divided in groups for class assignments, working together for the benefit of the group became the norm. It startled me to witness this change, but I was very happy. The cohort made of formerly adamant individuals transformed into a team of versatile building blocks that added value no matter with whom they worked.

Synergy reigns supreme

“In PR, you pick each other up. That’s what you do,” told me my PR Link mentor Brendan Donnellan. And that’s what we did. Knowing each other’s weaknesses did not lead to exploiting them and starting a game of thrones in real life. Being aware of each others’ soft spots helped everyone from our cohort to become more respectful towards each other. Understanding who does what best also became conducive to efficient problem solving of tasks at hand and helped the whole learning process. In the end, we all love to be empowered and feel good about our work. The happiness multiplies when there is someone to share it with!

Onwards and forwards

The 2013 cohort is now moving towards the more difficult part of the programme full of stressful assignments, tight deadlines, intellectual challenges and demanding teamwork. We are going to explore and plan successful PR campaigns, try to pull through crisis communication and learn about proper project management. On a positive note, our team is not entering the second half of the theoretical training unprepared. Equipped with an array of communication skills, intercultural sensitivity and ability to work efficiently in groups, we are ready for the second portion of our graduate programme.

Let’s see what secrets have the brilliant minds of the blogosphere shared about marketing, Public Relations, communication and career development in October.

Google+ became available for Apps users and Jon Mitchell quickly summarised this development in his article. About time, Google, about time. If you’re on Google+, let’s connect!

The last day in October brought an insightful talk by Malcolm Gladwell about Norden bombsight. I am obsessed with Gladwell, his style of writing and his storytelling. This is impossible not to share.

Louise Fletcher started a new series called The Smart Job Search. Throughout the course of ten posts, she will guide you through marketing yourself in order to get a job you enjoy as opposed to getting one just to pay your bills.

Maintaining relationships with bloggers is not easy, but Ben Matthews tells us how to pitch to them right. I am sure you are going to love his example with The Bloggess.

Czech marketing magazine Strategie redesigned its layout. It now looks more like a lifestyle publication. There have been also some substantial staff changes – the old Editor-in-Chief is gone and Miroslav Honsů took his place. You can find more at mediar.cz (in Czech).

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