• Social Media Indicates the Power of a Publicity Stunt

  By Keith Moehring | Posted Sep 16, 2009 | 12 Comment(s) | Filed in: Social Media

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  If you’ll allow me to don my conspiracy-theory hat for a moment, I will explain why I believe what happened at the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) this past Sunday (9/13), and the days following, is nothing more than an elaborate publicity stunt that was genius in its execution. To support my theory, I look no further than social media.

  So, why do I think Kayne West stealing the microphone from Taylor Swift at the VMAs was a publicity stunt? Three reasons:

  • All the players had a vested interest in generating buzz around their names.
  • The timing of everything was perfect for all involved.
  • And, I believe strongly in Stephen Colbert’s mission “Humble Kanye.”

  Please let me explain my theory.

   

  The Players and Their Motives:

  • Jay Z – His new album hit stores on September 1, 2009
  • Kanye West – Has a vested interest in the success of Jay Z’s new album because he is featured on one of the tracks. Oh, and he hasn’t had his name in the headlines for like two weeks.
  • Taylor Swift – A burgeoning artist looking to shake loose the image of teenie-bopper pop star.
  • Beyonce Knowles – Wifey of Jay Z. Let’s be honest, if Jay Z wins, she wins.
  • Jay Leno and NBC – The Jay Leno Show premiered on NBC on September 14, with a performance by Jay Z, Kanye West and Rihanna.
  • MTV – MTV’s VMAs is in need of a significant shot in the arm to gain back that anything-could-happen appeal it once had.
  • Universal Music Group – The record company of Taylor Swift, Kanye West and Rihanna. — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Universal_Music_Group_artists

  It should be noted here that I’m not looking to bash these people for their roles in this. I’m actually applauding because of its genius and execution. Kudos to whomever dreamt this up — unless it was Kanye.

   

  The Plot

  Here is how I believe Operation “Swift Publicity from the West” played out.

  MTV hosts their annual VMAs on September 13, 2009. Taylor Swift’s label is informed of her upcoming award. MTV floats an idea by them that would build much needed awareness for a number of entities, including: The VMAs, Jay Z’s new album (The Blueprint 3 featuring Kanye West and Rihanna), Taylor Swift, and the premier of The Jay Leno Show (NBC). (Side Note: MTV and NBC have partnered at least twice in the past year — The Action Sports Tour and the reality show “I’m a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here.”)

  During the VMA’s, Kanye is instructed to be himself and cause a scene by interrupting “innocent” Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech, and instead point the spotlight on the lovely Beyonce.

  When Beyonce won her Moon Man later that evening, she is nudged to solidify her class by giving the stage to Taylor Swift, who is conveniently backstage getting ready to perform. Everyone in the audience lets out a collective AWWW and allows their heart to bleed all over their nice, new dresses and tuxes. Swift is now forever tied to the established Beyonce.

  Fast forward to Monday. From major news outlets to small blogs, everyone is actively discussing what transpired and if Kanye would appear on The Jay Leno Show that night like he is scheduled. All the while, NBC continues to promote the premier of The Jay Leno Show, with special guests Jay Z, Kanye West and Rihanna.

  On the show, Jay welcomes out Kanye for an “unplanned” interview. It is here Kayne earns a 2009 Emmy for best Supporting Actor by portraying a truly remorseful talk show guest. The Interview ends and now everyone is sympathetic towards Kanye and applauds him for being a man and apologizing. Cue the performance of Jay Z’s latest single.

  The next morning, Taylor Swift is welcomed on to The View to discuss the incident and for a little additional media exposure.

  The genius of this publicity stunt is everybody involved wins ... even Kanye. The VMAs get their edge back, the performers get their names in the headlines, Swift shows the world she can handle herself in a very mature manner in the face of immaturity, Jay Leno instantly creates buzz around his new show, and Kanye is able to salvage some of his reputation by pretending to show us his emotional side on national TV.

   

  The Result

  For an indication as to how well the stunt actually worked, you need to look no further than the buzz it created throughout social media.

  Twitter:

  The chart below shows how the topics “Kanye West” (red) and “Taylor Swift” (blue) trended over the past week on Trendisitc.com. On Sunday night, 4% of all tweets discussed what happened on the VMAs, and 24 hours later, when The Jay Leno Show premiered, 2% were still discussing it.

  

  For some perspective, when President Obama addressed the joint session of Congress regarding healthcare, the topic made up 5.5% of all tweets but dropped to below 0.5% 24 hours later.

  Online Video

  According to Google, 3,520 Kanye West-related videos were posted within 48 hours of the event. 

  • The Hitler Parody - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0PwqvwyG54
  • This response video by a YouTuber named TechNewz received 1,310,252 views between 9/13 and 9/15 at 10:23 p.m. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-YpzMgGifA
  • Yo Obama - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxKIcrDsJAs&feature=player_embedded

  Blogs

  The chart below from Technorati shows how many times Kanye West was mentioned in blog posts over the past 7 days. On September 15, almost 4,500 posts contained his name.

  

  Sales and Viewership

  Yeah, but did it result it viewership for the VMAs and Leno, and album sales. The viewership numbers are not out yet, but check out number 1, 7, 8 and 9 on the iTunes top 10 songs chart on Sept. 15 (right).

   

  The Takeaway:

  It’s pretty amazing how quickly buzz, news, gossip, etc. can spread throughout social media — whether its planned or not. Either way, it’s important to make sure you are monitoring and staying up-to-date with the trends in the social media sphere.

  If circumstances arise and you believe it’s in your, and your organization’s, best interest to respond to something online, it important that you already have an established presence in social media, whether on Twitter, a blog, YouTube and/or Facebook.

  It will be virtually impossible to deliver a timely response to prospects, customers, employees and media via social media if you have not taken the time to establish yourself and build a following. For this reason, it is of the utmost importance to start participating now, so when something does happen and people want to hear what you have to say on the topic, they'll know where to turn.

   

  Some others who share my publicity stunt view:

  • PR Junkie — Rapper’s Outburst on MTV Stage a wonderful PR Stunt
  • Kalen Brest’s Blog – Is Kanye West a Genius?
  • LA Times – Gold Derby by Tom O’Neil

   

  Keith Moehring is a consultant at PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. Follow Keith on Twitter @keithmoehring.
  

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  Photo Credit: Kanye West - Originally posted to Flickr as 8. Billy Dec - Kanye West - Underground - 8.3

• PR 20/20 Honored as a Top Content Marketing Blog by Junta42

  By Paul Roetzer | Posted Aug 3, 2009 | 0 Comment(s) | Filed in: Media Room, Press Releases

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  CLEVELAND — Aug. 3, 2009 — The PR 20/20 blog has been ranked as the #21 content marketing blog on The Junta42 Top 42 Content Marketing Blogs list, which highlights the best bloggers on the Web discussing content marketing.

  “In order to build powerful, lead-generating Websites, organizations must commit to regularly publishing relevant and link-worthy content,” said Paul Roetzer, PR 20/20 president. “The Junta42 list is an excellent resource for organizations seeking the knowledge and tools needed to boost their search engine rankings and differentiate themselves through content.”
  
  To choose the Junta42 Top 42, three hundred blogs were rated in terms of content strength, depth, regularity and, to a very small extent, popularity. Junta42 looked at the number of content marketing posts each blog published within the past quarter, whether these posts added value and their Google PageRanks.

  About PR 20/20

  PR 20/20 is a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm specializing in public relations, content marketing, social media and search engine marketing. PR 20/20 publishes its service and pricing guide, which features set pricing on more than 100 public relations and marketing services, at www.PR2020.com.

   

  # # #

• Social and Traditional Media Team up at Cleveland Presidential Debate

  By Laurel | Posted Feb 28, 2008 | 0 Comment(s) | Filed in: Public Relations, Social Media

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  As a PR professional, I tend to hear and read a lot about the battle of traditional media vs. social media.  Agencies and individuals are constantly re-evaluating where to focus their efforts – should a release be sent out to targeted media contacts, or optimized for search engines and distributed to online newsrooms?

  
  Last night during the democratic presidential primary debate, we had an opportunity to see what, in my opinion, is the more realistic example – that our work with media isn’t either/or, but must combine both old and new.  Social media and traditional media are influencing each other, and working together, to create a rich pool of information that people can access, and participate in, as much or as little as they desire.
  
  Not only were news reporters from traditional outlets on hand for the debate at Cleveland State University, so were members of the Cleveland blogging community. The Cleveland Plain Dealer also had some of their own journalists blogging live from the event.
  
  Local NBC-affiliate, WKYC, had correspondents speaking with professionals in the spin room immediately following the debate, as would be expected.  But they also went in to chat with the live bloggers, who were able to provide real-time insight into what the general public thought about each candidate’s performance.
  
  Smart, forward-thinking PR professionals across the board are (rightfully) stressing the importance of social media in today’s world for successful PR campaigns.  This new outlet is fun and exciting, but must be viewed as a complement to the tried and tested services PR firms have been offering for years – not a replacement.  
  
  It’s becoming quite apparent that the traditional media outlets aren’t going away, they’re just adapting to new technology, and evolving with the Web 2.0 world.

• Study Shows Blogs, Social Networks Fuel Online Sales

  By Paul | Posted Feb 10, 2008 | 0 Comment(s) | Filed in: Marketing, Social Media

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  A study by two researchers - Vasant Dhar and Elaine Chang - from the New York University Stern School of Business shows a direct correlation between user-generated content in blogs and social networks, and record sales.

  In the study, they examine how online "chatter" impacted a sample of 108 albums for four weeks before and after their release dates.

  "If an album has more than 40 blog posts it will have an above average level of sales. . . . Interestingly, though, if blog chatter is extremely high – above 240 posts – it is possible for an album to overcome the disadvantage of being released by an independent label. In fact, albums with such extreme highs in chatter correspond to sales even higher than major label, high chatter albums. However, even if chatter is relatively high for an independent label (above 40 posts), sales will be higher than the average for the sample. . . "

  While the research applies specifically to the music industry, it presents a compelling case for businesses in all industries to consider how social media impacts marketing strategy. And for the underdogs and innovators, the study is an excellent example of how social media levels the playing field, and makes the size of your marketing budget less relevant.

  See the full study here: Does Chatter Matter? The Impact of User Generated Content on Music Sales

• Survey Says . . . Mainstream Media Increasingly Turns to Blogs

  By Paul | Posted Jan 8, 2008 | 0 Comment(s) | Filed in: Social Media

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  Blogs have given individuals and organizations the power to contribute content online and reach audiences on a grand scale, and according to a recent study from communications firm Brodeur, mainstream media (TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, etc.) is taking note.
  
  “A survey of U.S. journalists by Brodeur, a unit of Omnicom Group (NYSE: OMC), suggests that blogs are not only having an impact on the speed and availability of news, but also influence the tone and editorial direction of reporting.”
  
  Brodeur’s head of strategic planning, Jerry Johnson, revealed the survey results yesterday during a seminar at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

  Key Findings: 

  
  Blogs are sources.

  • More than 75% of journalists surveyed use blogs to find new story ideas or angles, and to better understand the context and tone of issues.

  Journalists read blogs on a regular basis.

  • More than 20% spend at least one hour per day reading blogs.
  • More than 50% read blogs at least 2-3 times per week.

  Journalists are becoming more active participants in social media.

  • More than 25% of respondents have a blog.
  • More than 15% have a social networking page. 

  Are you a thought-leader, innovator or expert? Then in this Web 2.0 world, you better have a blog!
  

• Blog Bought by NY Times

  By Paul | Posted Dec 30, 2007 | 0 Comment(s) | Filed in: Social Media

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  The convergence of social media and traditional media took another leap forward today as the New York Times acquired the popular Freakonomics blog.
  
  "This will be the first blog that the New York Times acquires and adds to its larger media family, but there’s word that the newspaper plans to acquire even more blogs in the not-too-distant future. . . ." Visit Mashable.com to read more.

• Corporate Blogging Resource

  By Paul | Posted Dec 30, 2007 | 0 Comment(s) | Filed in: Marketing, Public Relations, Resources, Social Media

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  Corporate blogging is changing the public relations industry, and the business world, at an astonishing pace. Odds are that blogging is already impacting your business whether you know it or not.
  
  Technorati, a leading blog search engine widely known for its quarterly State of the Blogosphere reports, is now tracking more than 70 million weblogs, and is seeing about 120,000 new weblogs being created worldwide each day. That's about 1.4 blogs created every second of every day.
  
  This is the first of many posts to come about corporate blogging. At PR 20/20, we are constantly adapting our model and service offering to meet the growing demand from clients for blog consultation, services and resources.
  
  Check out this excellent posting from blogger Robert Scoble for organizations looking to launch corporate blogs: The Corporate Weblog Manifesto
  
  If you haven't considered how blogs are impacting your business, now is as good a time as any to get started!

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