If you’re on Facebook, you’ve probably seen the story of “Jenny Dry Erase” a woman who quit her job for various reasons that most people seemed to applaud her for (at least most of my friends on Facebook).  And if you’re like many of my friends (and myself included), you thought the piece was real… or almost real.

Well, it wasn’t. See here for Tech Crunch’s follow-up.

Jenny was a hoax… like the Taco Bell buying the Liberty Bell (something a previous agency I worked at came up with – but I was not involved in the campaign).  The company involved fooled a lot of us with “Jenny Dry Erase”.  Or just me and my friends. I feel a little ripped off because they didn’t sell me something in the process… but I digress.

“Jenny Dry Erase” is a prime example of why we should never allow real journalistic-based media to go away.  Media outlets that check sources, follow-up on leads and vet ideas for newsworthy-ness prior to even considering them for publication are incredibly important.  Sites such as Wikipedia are great for looking things up, but whose to say that 10 minutes before you looked up “public relations” I didn’t go on there and make a post about BBPR or all of the great work we’ve done (some of which can be seen here).

What’s real anyway?  Many people agree that you should support “official” charities rather than say, give money to a homeless guy on the street.

But how do we know this guys family really wasn’t killed by ninjas?  Ok, they probably weren’t.  But how do you know guys with more believeable signage are really homeless veterans or are going to spend the money you give them on food instead of booze, etc.?  You don’t.  But at the same time, we’ve seen in the news that not all charities are what they appear either… but since they seem more official, some people are more comfortable supporting them.

Now I’m not saying that everything media outlets publish is factual or without slant.  There are things to consider, such as personal agendas (CNN is very different than Fox News and Transworld SURF is different from Surfer, etc.), advertisers and the influence of PR people (ahem).  BUT, before you begin citing what’s on the SLAP message boards or Joe Blog.com as fact, keep in mind that you may really know where this information is coming from or if the person behind the writing has a personal reason for creating the content.  What’s their track record for reporting the facts, embellishment and/or glorification of sensationalistic stories?

BTW – this is NOT a slag on bloggers.  We work with online media… bloggers and others… regularly.   Just wanted to draw attention to this recent example of how something posted on the Internet was assumed to be true… because it was posted on the Internet and looked “nice.”

If you believe this JPG, we have a $20,000 a month retainer contract just waiting for you to sign…

When it comes to editorial, we constantly tell clients there are going to be things out of their control. Sometimes doctored photos make better news and… well, here’s where it gets interesting.

Steve Casimiro from The Adventure Life (a site worth reading for sure) pointed this out recently that the new cover with Lance Armstrong has been doctored, but at the same time, the adjustments were revealed.

Right off the bat, I didn’t realize what 38 BFD meant… which is a shocker, since I speak in acronyms all day long.

We’ve seen similar things happen to clients in the past, but without the disclosure on the cover.

Sooooo… who is in the right here?  Steve & Lance aren’t feeling the cover. But Outside did disclose the manipulation, on the cover itself, that the photo was doctored.

Know what the worst thing about PR/media relations is?  The lack of control.

Ask anyone who is realistic and reputable in the public relations game and they’ll tell you that they can’t guarantee coverage.  If they guarantee you coverage, they’re evil gnarly humans lying.  Personally, I’ve got a ton of long-standing relationships with media, some of them even positive, but regardless, what a reporter or editor writes about a brand that pays BBPR millions of dollars for little results that partners with us is out of my control.

From time to time, media will miss something in the fact-checking portion of their story production.  That could include putting a typo in a brand’s URL or using the word carbon instead of Kevlar.  That’s disappointing, but it happens.  People make mistakes.  I make a ton just walking from my office to the coffee shop around the corner.

What’s tough to stomach for PR people, and even tougher for clients,  is when media omit facts or manipulate them with an agenda.

Take for example, ABC News’ coverage of what’s going on with Toyota and their accelerator issue.  If you’ve read Gawker recently, you may have seen their story uncovering of some interesting things about Brian Ross’ piece.

I’m not saying that Toyota’s recall isn’t warranted, but staging visuals is a little suspect, at least in my book.

With project BLUE, we’ve recently had an incident with the guys over at Drift Surfing.  Nothing was staged, but facts were not officially checked and some feedback left on their comment section by Vipe Desai (project BLUE’s founder) was deleted.

Last week we saw this article by Howard Swanwick about conscious shopping in the surf industry.  He makes a small, erroneous mention of Billabong in relation to project BLUE.

(note: at Vipe’s request, he has since updated it to say “Take Billabong’s involvement in Project Blue.”, which is more factual since project BLUE is a collaboration between numerous brands)

Howard’s is entitled to his own thoughts on project BLUE, but he missed a lot.  A simple visit to the About section of project BLUE’s site would have given him more info.  A Google search may have revealed a lot more, including that more than $140,000 has been donated to Surfrider as a result of the project BLUE partners, answering his question about “What has this much-shouted-about project achieved since its launch in 2007?”

When an online article is published with some information that’s either wrong or you don’t agree with, a brand can either opt to let it slide or provide feedback.  Vipe opted to provide feedback, elaborating on the initiative and $ donated.  Drift opted to delete Vipe’s comments because, according to Drift,  they did not meet the two criteria the site abides by, specifically:

1. They have to be constructive, whether they’re critical or complimentary.

2. They do not constitute commercial promotion for brands.

Vipe tells me there was some back and forth between himself and the people at Drift, but in the end, the article remained intact and Vipe’s comments deleted.  It’s their site and they can do what they want.  project BLUE doesn’t support them in advertising and even if they did, that doesn’t always mean you can get your agenda across in editorial.

Short story long, these things happen in the world of PR/media/editorial relations.  Not every piece that’s come out about project BLUE has been to my liking and there was one year that it seemed every journalist (ok, maybe four) who covered Rome SDS in the non-endemic media titled their article “When in Rome…” or “Rome, if you want to…  The guys @ Rome let it slide and so has Vipe.

As PR people, we have to be truthful with our clients in counseling them that negative pieces may appear and sometimes, there’s very little we can do about them.  Besides a long post on Experts & Insiders.

Want a piece of marketing you can have total control over?  Then buy an ad.  In fact, please do buy ads… they’re a valuable piece of the marketing mix and one I’ll get into justification for later.  Heck, I actually wanted to work in advertising when I graduated college!

If you want to get into the PR/media relations boat, welcome aboard, just don’t think you’re always going to be able to steer the ship.

Does anyone else think that there’s a glut of press releases out there?  Even though some see PR (wrongly) as “free advertising,” a bad or unwarranted press release is going to turn off journalists (supposedly the intended targets) as quickly as a bad ad would alienate consumers.

Perhaps the relative ease of production and distribution, either via email or one of the many wire services, makes it too easy to turn distribute news these days.  However, blasting out a press release to your “list” doesn’t equate to a PR campaign and those that do it are possibly harming their clients more than they’re helping them.  We’ll be doing a bigger well orchestrated rant post on that down the line.

For many of our clients, we don’t do formal press releases unless something really warrants attention.  You’ll see the occasional one in the action sports trades surrounding a new team rider or ASR event, but when it comes to everything else, we keep it to the facts and then send it to just the media who definitely hopefully care about what our clients have going on.  And while we have a big “list” of media here at the office, we don’t just send news to everyone we know.  There’s a lot of news coming out of BBPR’s clients that we just don’t send to Chad @ Malakye for his news section, Kailee @ Transworld Business, JB @ South of the North or Joe Schmoe @ Major National News Outelt.  Why?  It’s not because we don’t like them.  Usually because it’s just not relevant to them and they know when we do send them something, it’ll always hopefully be something they can use.

Before you blast everyone you know with a release that your widget is now 2 percent lighter (which IS a big deal if your widget weighs 20 tons) or comes in a lighter shade of pink, ask yourself “Does anyone really care?”

The strategy of consumer brands becoming media isn’t anything new, but it is something that many brands could do better.  Sony had (has?) their Sony Style Magazine, Lexus has their own magazine and L Studio video channel, NHS has been doing Strange Notes since I was a kid, Rome has made it easy-ish for shreds to interview their riders via Twitter, Mike West has his column on Malakye… heck so do I (and I could do a much better job of writing for it too).  And the list goes on.  Depending on the initiative, some of these are more commercial than others, but they all serve a similar purpose:  to generate additional exposure for their brand outside of ad buys, events and PR opportunities.

Anyway, while cruising Rad Collector today, I saw New Era is in the brand as media game too.  They’ve launched a new magazine and on the cover is former Vernon Valley shredder Danny Kass (one of many in a long line of industry-tied former Vernon Valley shredders, including myself, Rob Campbell and I think Tim Swart too).

What this magazine about?  I have no idea, I haven’t read it yet.  But, if it’s anything like the other efforts I mentioned above, it probably has some content that touches on New Era (new designs, how to fix dented hats, debates on if you should leave your size sticker on, etc.) and a lot of content focusing on what the folks @ Lexus would call “the Lexus Lifestyle” which Justin and Braden probably call something else (survival of the fitted?).

Kudos to New Era on expanding your marketing mix in this direction.

If you want to check out a digital edition, click here.  If you want advice on fixing dented hats, I read online that holding them over a steaming tea kettle will work.

Disclosure:  Anyone that’s a Facebook friend of mine (or a real friend for that matter), knows that I hate when PR agency types sneak in little promos for their clients under the “hey, look at this cool thing I saw online” wall updates.  With that in mind, I’ll let you know that in the past 12 years or so, I’ve worked with Sony, Rome SDS and Lexus in one capacity or another.  I wasn’t trying to plug them as much as it’s simply easier for me to reference brands I’ve worked with on marketing projects vs. researching those I haven’t, but regardless, it’s still a plug.

I mentioned digging for unique stories in the action sports world a while back on the BBPR blog, but since USA Today did a piece again last week, I’ll bring it up again.

Quiksilver is really good at non-endemic PR.

Yes, they sponsor some guy named Kelly Slater who is supposedly really good at golf, but that’s an easy story to pitch.  I’m talking about all the coverage they’ve scored on Clay Marzo, such as this USA Today piece.

Before the hate emails start (are they called “hemails”?), let me say that Clay is a talented surfer and deserves all the coverage he gets.  Likewise, I don’t think that Quiksilver is being horribly opportunistic by highlighting his Asperger’s Syndrome as a pitch point for media coverage.  Now if they went out looking for surfers who had various syndromes and ailments to sponsor, with the goal of building a a super team of media-genic athletes, that’d be something else.  However, based on the article, I don’t think that is the case.

I take that back.  I base my opinion on the ARTICLES covering Clay.  ESPN The Magazine, their online extension, and Outside magazine.  Holy CR*P did Quik get a lot of coverage out of this pitch.

I realize not everyone has an incredible surfer such as Clay on their team, but what I’m trying to circle back to is that most of the brands in our industry have stories to tell and you don’t need to have a world champ, squeaky clean image or million dollar budget to tell them.  For example, Erik Ellington’s appearance in Inked.

I’ve found that the non-endemic media are very open to pitches about kids in the extreme world, but we can’t expect them to come to us.  The brand or event you work for probably has a great story to tell, but sometimes you have to point it out to others before they’ll tell it for you.

Some of know me already, but for those who don’t, I’ll give you a quick 101 on this blog, myself and the background on the banner.  Sit tight, it’s a very compelling story.

The Banner

I cobbled together something from old photos on my hard drive that shows a little about who I am and people I’ve worked with since launching BBPR in 2006 (of course, this isn’t ALL the people I’ve worked with… I’d need a much bigger banner!).

Going from left to right, the first photo was taken of me in the offices of Vapor Studio during an editorial project I was working on. Ricardo Camargo and the Vapor team have helped build (literally) or launch products that many of us have worn on our feet, put on our backs or sat in over the years.

The next photo is of a piece Banksy did that I saw Mike Paddock of the Rome SDS post online somewhere.  I’ve always found this particular one amusing.

The griptape on my skateboard is courtesy of Tim Swart, the man behind UNIV in Encinitas, as well as a bunch of other brands you’ve heard of during the last 15 years.  Tim also happened to connect me with the fine folks at IPATH.

The last picture was taken at Mt. High during last year’s Industry Day, which was equal parts fog and fun.  On the left is group Y’s founder, Liz Randall who has been a great friend and collaborator the last three years.  Next to her is Ty Smith, from Propaganda HQ, the brand consultancy behind project BLUE, among other creative initiatives both in and out of the action sports industry.   The guy on the end in the helmet is me.  Some people have told me the cool kids don’t wear helmets or run stomp pads, but I heard helmets were the new black, so I’m all about them.  BTW – Mt. High has a pretty sweet deal on season passes going on right now.  If you like fun, snowboarding and Southern California, you should consider getting one.

The BB

In 1997, I began my career in the wonderful world of public relations.  My first job was with an agency in NYC (big thanks to Ann P!) working on, among other things, the Burton Snowboards account, helping them gain media exposure beyond the endemic media outlets.  In addition to Burton, my NYC days had me working with a range of brands that included Duracell, LG Electronics, Old Spice, Hoover and Intel.  Occasionally I had to order lunch for brainstorms, get coffee and send Fed-Ex packages for higher-ups.  That sucked was incredibly rewarding, but and it’s often part of paying  your dues at a larger agency.  Working with brands outside of action sports has really helped me develop some creative ideas for my action sports clients as they look to broaden their exposure.  Learning how to send Fed-Ex packages has come in handy too.

I relocated to San Diego in late 2005 and after my dot-com job failed to generate the millions of dollars I was told very passionately that it would, I started BBPR.  Since launching BBPR, we’ve helped quite a few lifestyle brands grow their public awareness beyond their endemic media through traditional and new/social media initiatives.  We also help non shred-focused brands with their media relations and social media strategy, including big players in the automotive, adult beverage, entertainment and health care spaces.

The Blog

The plan for this blog is to discuss marketing, more specifically, public/media relations and social media, since that’s where my professional background is.  Similar to the BBPR corporate blog, this one is going to focus on what I see out there in the greater marketing world, not just action sports or lifestyle brands (I expect there to be some overlap between the two as well).  Compared to the BBPR blog, this one will be a little less about BBPR client successes or how great of a PR consultancy I run (if you are interested in that, please feel free to visit the other blog or just send me an email for my unbiased opinion on the value BBPR brings).

I’ll probably use spell check on this blog too, if I can remember.

Pic courtesy of Becky McMichael

Big thanks to Chad for giving me this forum to spout propaganda on.

Your check is in the mail!