Here it is the last week of January and I can already see the New Year’s resolution bandwagon starting to lose members at my local gym. I’ll have to admit, I’m not exactly following my resolution at 100 percent, but a campaign I’m working on is giving me added incentive to stay engaged in my goal of improving my wellness. It’s called America’s Wellness Challenge and you can learn more about it at www.lifesupplemented.org.  Right now we are running a $15,000 sweepstakes to incentivize Americans to take that first step in improving their wellness – kind of like health care reform at home. 

All you have to do is take the free My Wellness Scorecard which measures your  overall wellness. I’ve been a WannabeWELL for years but with the big 50 around the corner, it’s time to make a change.  The best way to lower our health care costs is to take better care of ourselves. Now you have a chance to win $15,000 at the same time!

There was a point in time where my mom was either going to check out of technology completely, or make an effort to learn how to use it.  In the beginning, my brother, sister and I would just do whatever it was that she didn’t understand -  “Move out of the way, I’ll attach that for you,” “Scoot over, I’ll download the pictures from your camera.”  But she told us she needed to learn it herself, and that’s when things began to change.  She had the tools (new computer, iPhone, digital camera, etc.), but she needed our patient instruction and then to play around with things herself until she knew how to use them.

In a lot of ways, my mom was like an old-school client averse to social media.  When people don’t understand something new, they don’t see the value and develop a distaste for it.  But it’s our job to teach them.  If we do everything ourselves, our clients will never understand or start interacting on their own. 

The current shift in media is perhaps the toughest transition we will see in our lifetime, and it is our responsibility as PR professionals not to shove our clients out of the way so we can do it ourselves, but to show them, patiently and effectively, how to play in the new sandbox.  Social media will be most powerful when the company’s interaction is integrated and everyone knows how to participate – from the CEO to the summer intern.

Old dogs can in fact learn new tricks.  You just have to teach them.

PS: If you read this, Mom, you’re the most youthful looking old dog I know.

Everyone had always told me there would be nothing more rewarding than having children.  I never fully understood what was meant by this until this summer when my first child was born.  Everything stopped and then it changed – in an incredible way that can’t be put into words.  If you’re a mom, you know what I mean. 

Part of the change included how I communicate with my family and friends.  I refer to them as my target audience.  They’re interested in everything my daughter does – from sleeping to eating and now sitting up, but there is no one channel of communication the entire group uses.  I have important information that I want to share with all of them and have to use many mediums to do so; nana iChats, grandma has a Blackberry, an aunt likes Facebook, great grandparents aren’t computer savvy, and the list goes on.  The same concept holds true for a brand trying to engage its group of target consumers. 

Even though it has become the norm to execute communications via multiple mediums, many clients are slow to jump in, especially to unknown territory.  They may not want to put time and budget behind an approach like social media that they feel isn’t proven, but it is our job as marketers to demonstrate why and how they should get their feet wet (or dive in for those that have started) because members of their key audience communicate and want to be communicated to in different ways.  Before becoming a mom, I had never used so many forms of communication.  Now if I don’t email pictures of my daughter, put them up on Facebook, instant message them with Blackberry Messenger and even send hard copies via snail mail, someone in my target audience would miss out.

Sharing the joy of my six month old is not marketing a product per say, but with so many smart and strategic ways to engage, I find it easier and more important than ever to spend a little extra time and possibly a little more money to reach my target audience.

I recently attended a very helpful presentation training offered by my colleague Brian Ellis. For this session, we were asked to prepare and give a new business presentation to a potential client. We were filmed and critiqued by our colleagues on content, energy and style. Horrifying, perhaps, but extremely helpful.

Besides realizing you should always wear dark colors when being filmed, here are some of my key findings. In reading Brian’s recent blog post on advice in managing crisis situations (http://blog.crt-tanaka.com/2009/11/ellis-rules-of-crisis-management-2/), I was struck by the similarities of these lessons.

A great rule of thumb comes also from advice given by Chris Atherton, a UK psychology professor, to his students in a recent blog post:

“When giving presentations, the only rule that matters is the rule of attention.” Good point, Chris. In the end, people have short attention spans. Here are some ways to prepare for this, and other presentation challenges:

1.  “Admit you are Wing-It Challenged”

How often have you practiced your material in front of an audience before a new business presentation? You likely know your material on paper and have practiced in your head, but the delivery could appear awkward without conducting a few dress rehearsals before the big day. Being filmed was extremely helpful in this regard, but practicing in front of a mirror or a friendly colleague would also do the trick.

2.  Harness your Nerves for the Common Good

Everyone is nervous before giving a big presentation. That’s a fact. The good news is rarely are these feelings perceptible to the audience. Instead of letting your fear paralyze you, embrace your nerves and channel them into positive energy and in this case, a lively and passionate presentation.

3.  The Rule of Three

Stick to three messages throughout your presentation. Why not four? Because people can only remember three. According to the American Psychology Association, people are more easily convinced by repetition in sets of three. At the end of the day, you want your potential client to walk away with these three key messages.

4.  Keep it Simple Stupid…and Visual

Don’t fall victim to laziness and simply paste your proposal into PowerPoint slides. All words and no fun…well, you know the rest. Why not use this often abused medium to create something that won’t put our new business prospects to bed!

Keep it simple and visual. Load the PowerPoint up with cool images, videos, graphics, photographs, and very little text. Know your material inside and out, and spare your audience from scrambling to read all the thrilling bullet points on the screen. Instead, they’ll focus on something more interesting…you!

5.  Respect the Time Limits

This might seem obvious, but stick to the time your host has allotted. Keep your presentation short and sweet, be consistent but not repetitive and stick to the point. Time management is key and practicing in front of the mirror or  a willing colleague will help you achieve this goal. The worst thing you could do is not allow sufficient time for questions or socializing with your potential client.

In the end, it’s not your impressive Power Point skills, or even your out-of the-box ideas the client is buying. It’s your sparkling personality that makes the overall package worth the investment.

In Becoming the Alpha Dog in Your Own Home, Times reporter Alex Williams examines that ways in which parents employ the techniques of Cesar “Dog Whisperer” Millan on their own children. Of course no one goes as far as smacking little Johnny on the nose with a rolled up newspaper, but take into account Millan’s mantra that exercise, discipline and affection are the keys to happiness.

 The Dog Whisperer’s various techniques make a lot of sense for childrearing, but also, make a lot of sense for our daily interactions with co-workers, friends and family. So with the holidays, and the inevitable stress that comes with them I thought I’d pass on some of his tips which I happen to think are not only useful but really capture the whatcanbe spirit.

Imagine that this is your boss.

Exercise: Each of us have a different amount of time and effort that we can dedicate to exercise, but rather than worry about making it to the gym everyday, why not simply go for a 15-20 minute walk during your lunch break. For us Type-A’s out there this may seem like a waste of time, but you’d be surprised by how energized and focused you’ll feel after a short walk. A great benefit before that afternoon conference call!

Discipline: Millan has a term that I love: “calm and assertive energy” which he defines as:

 “This is the energy you project to show your dog you are the calm and assertive pack leader. Note: assertive does not mean angry or aggressive. Calm-assertive means always compassionate, but quietly in control.”

 Now replace “dog” with “co-worker” or “client” or “mother-in-law” and you have got a great lesson to live by. Rather than constant deferral, backing down or feeling like maybe your ideas aren’t the best in the room, be confident, assert yourself and express your ideas. Everyone around you (including yourself) will benefit.

 Affection: Here’s where you remember to treat yourself everyday. As a naturally affectionate person, I’m happy to dole out hugs and compliments all day. Kindness towards others is very important, but it’s also key to be good to yourself. Brag on yourself in a meeting when you know you did a great job, eat that extra 5g of carbs for lunch, or just spend a few minutes a day not thinking about an impending project and just “being.”

Air New Zealand CEO, Rob Fyfe

Americans aren’t exactly known for their geographic prowess and as an Australian, I can attest to the frequent faux pas. I’m often commended on my command of English and have been questioned as to whether Australia is that tiny island just off Africa. Uh… no. That would be Madagascar.

And speaking of tiny islands, how confident would you be placing New Zealand on a map?! Working with Air New Zealand, our LA-based team has been challenged to establish brand awareness for a national airline, the origins of which the U.S. market can barely locate. While Air New Zealand is a household name in its native country, in North America the airline is a small carrier in a saturated market. The competition for the trans-Pacific route is high and the marketing budgets of large carriers even higher; creating a cluttered environment that demands stand-out programs in order to capture market share.

In May 2009, the airline launched a New Zealand-based domestic advertising campaign, featuring eight employees, including CEO Rob Fyfe, stripped down to body paint, providing a very authentic and public point that their airfares have “Nothing To Hide.” Air New Zealand approached CRT/tanaka to provide assistance with the viral dissemination of their advertising campaign in the United States. The goal? Increase YouTube views of the spot from 700,000 to 1.2 million within four days.

Given the tight lead-time, CRT/tanaka focused solely on generating coverage of the 45-second commercial through online and social media influentials, reaching out to the agency’s networks of travel, marketing and advertising, and pop culture contacts with customized social media-friendly pitches. Piggy-backing on the global malaise with airlines that charge fees for passengers to check a bag or have a drink, the agency also made limited, hilarious (if I do say so myself!) pay-per-click social media ad buys based on Facebook interests, and distributed two social media press releases.

Leveraging consumers’ frustration with large corporations’ business practices, CRT/tanaka convinced Air New Zealand’s CEO, Rob Fyfe to issue a challenge to other top executives - to strip down and prove their business practices have as little to hide as his - landing the spot airtime during the fourth hour of NBC’s Today Show.

Demonstrating the value of teamwork and exceptional social media savvy, the bi-coastal project team successfully increased YouTube views of the spot from 700,000 to 1.4 million within the four day period (48 hours of which were over the weekend), exceeding the client’s goal by 29 percent.

Air New Zealand followed this campaign with the release of an inflight safety video in a similar body-painted genre, for use on domestic 777 flights. CRT/tanaka was again enlisted to support the viral dissemination of the video, and the agency collaborated with the client to drive views from zero to four million within four weeks.

Social and traditional media outreach during this time included reference to the two body-painted videos, landing both in Advertising Age’s top viral video list for three consecutive weeks. The original advertising campaign now has 4.5 million views on YouTube, with the safety video generating an additional 4.7 million views.

To date, media impressions for both campaigns total 600 million, generating more than $1,000,000 USD in publicity value, including placements in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, CNN.com, MSNBC.com, America’s Nightly Scoreboard, FOX News, Bloomberg TV and a second run on the Today show

Now… where’s New Zealand again?!

It’s official. I am a full-fledged, born-again social media convert.

 I’ve worked in the wine industry, mostly in wine and food PR, for my entire career. It was the best way to support my food and wine obsession, live in a bustling metropolis AND afford to pay my rent.

It was only really about a year ago, however, that I fully swallowed the idea of social media’s import to my vocation of choice. If you had asked me a few years ago, I would have dramatically rolled my eyes and said I favored old-fashioned relationships over what I viewed as cold cyberchatting on the world wide web. Not that I believe wine and food PR professionals should forsake the former for the latter, but the importance of integrating social media into our core communications strategy is abundantly clear.  

It seems many others in the wine industry have come to the same conclusion, as evidenced by one of the coolest ideas I have seen to combine wine lovers and social media to date. Enter Stage Left: Spit & Twit. As the City Winery website says:

City Winery, Manhattan’s first functioning winery in over 40 years teams up with WineTwits, Wired and Bottlerocket to create the first ever online fully interactive wine tasting. Focused on creating a twitter-powered community bringing together wine and tech enthusiasts in an immersive environment, Spit & Twit will require guests to have a Twitter account and mobile device in order to participate.

Spit & Twit will be the first event of its kind blending together the traditional world of wine tastings with new media and technology. The room will be set up like a traditional tasting, with stations featuring wines from around the globe, from Italy to Argentina, Napa to New York. Representatives from major wine labels will be on hand to educate and inform.

Whereas a typical tasting involves attendees busily scribbling in notebooks, Spit & Twit participants will be able to ‘tweet’ their tasting notes and thoughts as they walk around the room. The tweet-feed will be simultaneously broadcast locally to plasma screens around the room and globally to the online community utilizing the technology of our partner WineTwits.

I have organized countless wine tastings over the past decade, and can say this is truly the first unique concept to enter into play at what has become a commonplace marketing activity for wine PR professionals. This live Twitter feed could actually encourage social interaction between attendees, putting the social in social media. The most tweeted about wines will be considered for addition to City Winery’s offerings, giving this strategy actual bottom line value and a profit model. I know a few clients that would love this!

Kudos to City Winery (where we hosted an industry Vibrant Rioja Grand Tasting this year), Wired and WineTwits for this wonderful idea. I know it will be on my mind when planning future wine trade tastings for clients.

“Heroic Hospitality”: An Effective Hotel Marketing Strategy for Web 2.0 

Travel has always been a source of joy and inspiration for me. And, I’m not just talking about travel to distant, exotic lands. I’m talking about travel to places like Traverse City, Mich., population 15,000. Traverse City is located in Northern Michigan on Grand Traverse Bay. It’s the “Cherry Capital of the World” as well as a fledgling wine region (it seems that Traverse City is located on the 45^th parallel, same as the fabled Bordeaux region of France, which inspired some savvy folks to explore wine-making in this area). All of this I did not know until I visited Traverse City recently for the grand opening of the Cambria Suites, an upscale, all-suite concept pioneered by Choice Hotels. Full disclosure: CRT/tanaka is the PR agency for Cambria Suites.

The 92-room property has been open since June and is already the #1 rated hotel on Trip Advisor for Traverse City and for good reason. It’s a stylishly designed hotel offering spacious suite accommodations (25% larger than standard guestrooms) and lifestyle amenities such as a barista coffee bar, state-of-the-art fitness center and 24-hour availability of organic snacks and freshly prepared salads and sandwiches – all at a value price.

But, what really impressed me about my visit to Traverse City was meeting executives of Summerside Properties LLC, owners of the new Cambria Suites and other hotels in the area. When I asked them to explain the reason for the success of their hotels. They quickly responded without any hesitation: “Heroic Hospitality.” As a New Yorker used to having to battle for good service I was stunned and delighted to hear this.

Russ Cole, an executive with Summerside Properties, couldn’t control his excitement, beaming ear to ear, when I asked him to elaborate on the concept of “heroic hospitality.” He said, “I challenge our hotel team to come up with ways to “wow” our guests. An example he gave was when he presented his groundskeeper with this challenge. The employee thought about it and came back to him with the proposal that if Russ bought him a good snow brush he’d clean the windshield of every car in the hotel’s parking lot on snowy winter days.  What an amazingly simple but meaningful gesture of hospitality. Imagine the delight of a guest driving off with that kind of thoughtful “travel safely” farewell from Cambria Suites. They’d have my business, my loyalty and my heart!

It seems that Russ and the groundskeeper are only extending the same treatment to their guests that their boss, Alex Mowczan, owner of Summerside Properties, extends to them. Russ beams again from ear to ear when talking about what a great boss Alex is and how caring and thoughtful he is of his employees and how his enthusiasm bubbles over for all to see anytime he hears of an example of “heroic hospitality” towards a guest. Alex’s business and, I’m certain, personal success is based on the oldest rule in the book – the Golden Rule – “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”  

This is the same management philosophy that has built other successful travel brands like Southwest Airlines, which I wrote about recently in a blog post entitled, “Extreme Customer Service: The Most Effective Social Media Strategy,” inspired by a recent experience flying the carrier. Brands like Southwest Airlines and Cambria Suites whose employees are expected to operate by the Golden Rule and who are focused on delivering “heroic hospitality” – not just plain vanilla hospitality – to their customers will be rewarded with success in this Web 2.0 era with its requirements that businesses behave with greater transparency and humanity.