From the Phone Booth: It's okay to be human

Today's perfect pitch session featuring a podcast from maven Margo Mateas touched on a fear that looms over the touch-tone phones of PR people. We don't want to suck, so how do we sell?

Reporters are just as human, if not more so, than we are. Have you ever spoken to a reporter who couldn't communicate a clear sentence or said "um" more times than a Toastmasters member starting out? I always enjoy that because it helps me to conclude this really isn't that hard.

Of course, we can make it seem impossible by a glass-half-empty kind of mentality. "What if they hang up on me?".... better yet... "What if they say "No?" It's dreadful to hear but very common, and it's up to us to recover quickly and move on to our next potential relationship. A word of caution: Don't pitch until you're fully ready. There is nothing worse than a reporter hearing blabber for a minute and then stopping you (and yes, sometimes they hang up too).

You might also want to pitch the script, and I don't mean "pitch" as in "communicate." Throw it away. Work at sounding more like a conversationalist with mutual benefit for both parties.

Does anyone out there have any thoughts on voice mail pitches?

Random Social Media Thoughts

A collection of my social media thoughts for the day:

- It is weird to think that we are engaged in the first election since YouTube's creation. It has been heavily utilized by most campaigns. Most video hits: probably Obama. Most YouTube comments: definitely Ron Paul. For a while it was almost impossible to look at any popular video without a Ron Paul supporter commenting on it.

- Facebook is going the way of MySpam...oops, I mean MySpace. Too many useless applications and now comes a complete revamp of the website along with a slew of spam. I see the temptation for Facebook to converge and become everything social media, but instead I wish they would follow the KISS principle (keep it simple stupid, as in we didn't really need all the 3rd party apps and all that junk).

- Another victim of spam - YouTube. I remember not too long ago when I would check the daily top videos on YouTube and find a collection of unique, creative, and often hilarious videos. Check the most viewed videos today and you will find about 50% of the titles aren't in English, a handful of videos are Japanese cartoons, and the rest are spam or ads for websites. Maybe 10 videos out of the top 100 are now worth watching.

- Pandora might get shut down soon. They are paying outrageous royalties and can't get out of the red. If they do get shut down by the RIAA, expect an uproar from the over 1 million daily users of Pandora.

- Apple still needs to get a better control of the App Store. Only a few applications are released every week and the ones that get publicized aren't that great. Btw, who gave the clearance for the I am Rich application?

- Something will replace MySpace as a music site soon. Currently, MySpace is repeatedly being pigeonholed as a site for 3 different types of people: musicians, spammers, and child predators. Whether it is true or not, it is repeated frequently enough to the point where people will believe it to be true. My prediction for MySpace's music predecessor? Modlife. I will give a review of the website later this week.

Digg yourself a hole

Katie Couric gets involved with YouTube and Digg...For some reason this video comes off a little phony. Like if my parents were to tell me how "hip" or "cool" Facebook is. Make sure you watch until the end for the horrible Digg puns...ugh.

How The Mighty Have Fallen

No one can stay popular or unpopular for too long in pop culture, not even Michael Phelps. Everyone's mad because he's endorsing Frosted Flakes, which are apparently not good for you (who knew?). My initial reaction was apathy, but then I thought about my little sister who is downloading all of his favorite songs on iTunes. I don't know how responsible celebrities should be with hero worship, but it seems like at the least he could have signed with Corn Flakes or something.

Closing Pandora's Box

A sad day may be approaching for online music lovers. Pandora may soon be shutting down its website and music service due to increased royalty fees.

"The Copyright Royalty Board's decision raised a then-current 8/100 of a cent per song per listener to 19/100 of a cent under the same conditions in 2010."

This rate hike is a major blow to Pandora, which is currently losing money due to royalty fees. Of the $25 million of revenue that they bring in this year, 70% will go to royalty fees.

The death of my favorite App from the AppStore might be approaching soon. Will this further anger music fans? Of course. Pandora has over 1 million daily users, including me. I have spent at least $20 on music after hearing it first on Pandora. Hopefully, the CRB comes to its senses before it is too late...

Read the full article on Pandora here.

Mesmerizing

This Schweppes ad is beautiful. It's a nice break from annoying, gimmicky ads because it is quality artwork.

LA Times Goes Commercial

After making tons of cuts and struggling to survive, the LA Times has given up and brought in a TV exec. With no newspaper experience, Eddy W. Hartstein is going to figure out what it takes to keep this paper in tact. We hope he can get it done without sacrificing content that this pub has had in the past. (NYT)

New, Better Face of BK

Burger King ads have been terrifying me ever since they came out with the guy with the head *shudder*. Now they’re taking a new step in advertising by hiring Family Guy’s Seth MacFarlane to advertise. He’ll work on animated clips to be premiered on YouTube, which will ideally draw MacFarlane junkies in to willingly watch commercials. This could be a win-win if it’s pulled off correctly: advertisements that actually draw the viewer in (of their own volition), and no more of the BK king. (NYT)

Print Media: Decay Brings Embitterment

Our erudite friends over at the Times have sort of, kind of congratulated those lowbrow goons at the Enquirer. Mr. Carr suggests that there may be some value in a pluralistic journalist society; perhaps the methods at the Enquirer aren’t entirely without value. A few weeks ago this op-ed would have been a nice gesture. However, with the advent of the Edwards affair and the embarrassing lag between coverage on blogs and coverage in major media, the piece comes off as an obnoxious attempt at turning apology into a chance for condescension.

Cute Overload is Nauseatingly Lucrative

Cute Overload, which features pictures of fluffy animals, is selling premium ads at $2000. Compare to Daily Kos, at $7500 per premium. Apparently there's a huge market for adorableness.

Being all-out Gen Y, I prefer LOL Cats or Kitten Wars (Check out the losingest kitties on the Left sidebar!). (NYT)

Sampling Products 101

In my whole life span I cannot remember ever consistently buying a product after trying a free sample. Most products I sample are either disappointing, mediocre, or not good enough to break my normal buying patterns. I have finally caved in and become a repeat buyer of a product I sampled. Why now?

About two weeks ago I attended Warped Tour. It was a very typical hot and humid summer day. After about four hours of standing in the sun, I decided to weigh my beverage options. I could either pay $4 or more for water or pop. As I was debating what to get, I noticed a tent handing out free energy drinks.

Being fatigued, thirsty, and not wanting to pay $4 for a water, I ventured over to the tent. The energy drink I sampled was a hybrid: half energy drink, half fruit juice. Needless to say it was very satisfying on such a mucky day.

Fast forward two weeks later and now every time I am about to buy an energy drink, I search out for the "Lost" energy drink. Why do I have such a strong urge for it? I sampled it while I was tired and thirsty. Thus, this is what sticks in my mind. It wasn't that it only tasted good. It was that I associated it with curing my thirst and giving me energy.

Now for a real life example from an economics course I took:

When Coca-Cola began taste testing "New Coke" it was met with overwhelmingly positive feedback. Nearly everyone preferred New Coke to the Classic Coke. As I'm sure you probably know, New Coke was an absolute bomb. I don't think any drink has received such a backlash from the general public. So why did people prefer it in taste tests but not in daily life?

The short answer is: people sampled New Coke when they weren't thirsty. They enjoyed it, but when they were actually thirsty, it wasn't satisfying. They associated New Coke being just another sample and Classic Coke for being satisfying when they are thirsty.

Something to consider when handing out product samples:

Hand out samples when the customer would normally crave them. You want the consumer to associate your product with something. And you don't want that "something" to be just another free sample. If it is food, give out your sample when the consumer would be hungry. If it is a drink, hand out your sample when people are thirsty. The mind is a powerful tool. Secure a spot in the mind and the consumer is yours.