Blog Line

Over this past Saturday I spent several hours helping to judge the CPRS Ace Awards recognizing outstanding work over the past year. Congratulations to the organizing committee for their great job and as a member of CPRS I am very grateful for the thoughtfulness that went into the entire process. Over six hours my judging partner and exchanged six binders and then engaged in a two-way discussion to get to consensus so we could complete each assessment form. Other judging pairs were going through the same process around us. It was a very stimulating exercise. The added benefit, of course, was the opportunity to get out of my day to day role in an agnecy and get a greater sense of what is happening across the industry in government, not for profits and corpoprate life.

A thank you to Wendy Cukier of the Ted Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University for inviting me to speak at the MBA class, “Global Technology Markets”. She asked if I would chat about why marketing communications companies need to keep up to date on new technologies. Obviously a very easy task for me, particularly at this point in time - what does copyright real mean, the decline in mass market communications vehicles, the impact of user generated content etc.. It was a very interesting evening and a special thank you to all the students who asked such great questions and allowed me to share some war stories.

I was sent today a pretty compelling viral campaign video produced by Obama supporters - http://my.barackobama.com/yeswecan. The video was sent to my friend from an email address entitled “Michelle Obama”, the name of Barack Obama’s wife. The video is built around the theme, “Yes we Can”, that Obama introduced during his New Hampshire concession speech. Pretty well done.

We’re off to a great start and are looking for some amazing agency talent with Consumer experience. Specifically we are looking for a Senior Consultant, Consultant and Account Co-ordintor to join our Consumer team but they would of course have the opportunity to work on our Technology and Healthcare accounts too. Only team players need apply. Life is too short to have it any other way.

There is an interesting article in today’s National Post about a banking crisis that is happening on Second Life. Similar to the “real” world, some financial institutions on Second Life appear to have been offering “eye-popping” interest rates on cash investments. Some of these virtual institutions are now on the verge of collapse and their store fronts are being surrounded by mobs of angry avatars. On one level humourous, on another level satisfying that there is not much difference between our physical and virtual worlds and, as always, there is no free lunch.

Last week I had the opportunity to hear former British PM Tony Blair speak on his views regarding “Building Global Relations”. Regardless of anyone’s views on Mr. Blair’s politics or his political legacy he is a very gifted communicator - no powerpoint, visual aids or teleprompter. He held an audience of 2,000 or so enthralled and throughout his talk received several standing ovations. It was a very unCanadianlike love-in. According to Mr. Blair, subprime mortgage are having a global economic impact well beyond US borders (as we are clearly seeing today), the question of appropriate immigration policies and strategies are being grappled with across the world and is the silent, real issue in the US Presidential race. He touched on the growing impact of Severeign Wealth Funds (this week’s “Economist” cover story topic) and of course global terrorism. Mr. Blair believes on the subject of global terrorism we are all really in the fight for what global values will dominate in the new world order. He was candid, self-deprecating,engaging and with a powerful message. Like all great communicators.

I posted previously regarding our “Plan to Vote” widget that we developed for the Elections Ontario referendum public education campaign. Guess what? As of October 10 it was viewed over 250,000 times and supported by over 200 web locations. Thanks everyone!

This morning the team was chatting about the internet and social marketing. Sarah and Matt had gone to a gathering on Monday night where the speaker was talking about internet fundraising. One of the most impressive examples I know is Kiva.org. Kiva lets you connect and loan money to unique small businesses in the developing world through mirco-lending. I have loaned to funds to micro-entrepreneurs in Azerbaijan, the Ukraine and Mexico. Kiva.org features a great video of a New York Times reporter who visited his lending beneficiary in Kabal.

Kudos to “The Agenda”, Ontario public broadcaster TVO’s nightly public affairs program. Last Wednesday “The Agenda” ran a segment debating the impact of social media on politics, particularly the upcoming Ontario election and referendum. I found the segment so engaging that we ran a tape of it at Friday’s GCI staff “Lunch and Learn”. With panelists from both Ontario and the US, the group was divided in their views but the Ontarians seemed to agree that social media had had a limited impact in shaping the debate or outcome of this Wednesday’s election and referendum. The discussion was wide ranging from why the impact was seemingly different in the US from Canada, based on political culture and history, to the fact that we were entering an age of “radical transparency” for politicians. They were divided as to whether this “radical transparency” would be accepted willingingly by politicians and they would modify their behaviours or rather lead to extreme secrecy and highly centralized, scripted communications. A great discussion.

Andy Lark, the new VP, Global Marketing and Communications for Dell, has a fairly eclectic blog - www.andylark.blogs.com. Andy is particularly well known in technology PR circles based on previous stints with Nortel and Sunmicrosystems. His blog suggests a high energy guy with a personal passion for rugby, commentary on the field of public relations and technology PR hits and misses. One of the books he is currently recommending is “Don’t Think of an Elephant: Know your Values and Frame the Debate” by George Lakoff. The book’s focus is the use of langugage in debate and messaging and is apparently draws a great deal of its argument from commentary on the former success of US Republicans versus Democrats in driving public support.