At the center of the media firestorm over Petrino was University of Arkansas Athletic Director Jeff Long, who has been praised far and wide for his handling of the situation. Both before and after Long’s news conference to announce the decision regarding Petrino’s future with the U of A, several media outlets contacted us to discuss crisis communications and how well Long had performed under such tremendous pressure.

(Full disclosure: we’ve worked with Long and his team on a handful of projects the past few years, including the highly successful ‘Answer the Call’ initiative, the RSVP football seat licensing program.)

Our own Jordan Johnson appeared on Little Rock CBS affiliate KTHV to discuss exactly why Long earned the praise and what others can learn from him about crisis communications:

As Jordan pointed out in the interview, one key to Long’s success was that he understood today’s 24/7 media cycle and the need to get out ahead of speculation and rumors by taking the lead in communicating about the incident.  It is also worth noting that the University of Arkansas Athletic Department followed his lead by addressing the situation in a direct and timely fashion through social media:

It is important for any organization, whether public or private, to consider the role of social media during a crisis (there are many possible uses) and how they can work it into their existing crisis communications plan, if they haven’t already.  If you work for an organization that is still developing a plan, then social media should certainly have a prominent spot within it.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering why social media should have a prominent place in crisis communications plan, just take a look at recent research that shows social media is now one of the top sources for news, ahead of radio and now neck-in-neck with newspapers.

Brian Kratkiewicz, our (now famous) media director, was featured in a recent Arkansas Business article about billboard advertising and its viability in today’s economic and advertising climate.

As Brian points out in the piece, outdoor is definitely not “out” in this digital day and age.  In fact, he explained that national outdoor ad spending is at about $6.8 billion and likely to grow.  He added that billboard advertising is one of the most – if not the most – cost-efficient media out there.

You can read the full article here , but there’s more to the story.  Brian says the entire “out-of-home” ad medium is growing at a healthy clip.  For those who don’t speak media buyer-ese, “out-of-home” includes all kinds of signage – from billboards to digital signs like you find in airports, hotels and bars, as well as subway and train posters and bus stop posters.

Indeed, according to Brian’s research, total out-of-home ad revenue is projected to grow from $6.8 billion in 2012 to $7.6 billion by 2015, an 11.8% increase.  The 2011 Magnaglobal Advertising Forecast Report states that the most important factor in out-of-home ad growth is that digital out-of-home will nearly double in size, from $2.6 billion in 2011 to $5.2 billion in 2016.  Cinema advertising will also aid the increase in out-of-home ad spending, increasing from $2.9 billion in ad revenue to $4.4 billion over the same time period.  These increases will far exceed the steady increase that will be seen by billboards and posters – 6.8 percent growth each year through 2016.

So, there you have it, marketers.  Outdoor isn’t going anywhere.  If you’d like to check out some of our outdoor work, just go here.

While many companies are pouring time and money into chasing big numbers of followers or trying to reach “influencers” (those with large numbers of social media followers who supposedly hold great sway over others), it may be more effective to concentrate on cultivating smaller, tighter-knit communities centered around particular topics of interest – a place where friends can share with each other and, in turn, share with other, smaller audiences until critical mass is achieved.  As this recent AdAge piece points out, real content sharing happens friend-to-friend, not through “influencers.”

NOW we're engaging...

At CJRW, we’ve found that targeting content or calls-to-action to well-defined groups can be extremely effective when it comes to engagement and spreading of specific messages. For instance, we worked with the Stamp Out Smoking campaign to target the older youth audience in Arkansas through the launch and growth of a unique, content-focused competition called “The Big Pitch” Film Festival.  Begun in 2003, the contest has grown steadily through the years with the incorporation of more social and interactive elements designed to both engage the target audience and encourage sharing.  For the 2011 version of The Big Pitch, middle, junior and high school students across Arkansas were challenged to write, film, star in and produce their own 27-second TV commercials that communicated why their parents should quit using tobacco, why their peers should never start and the dangerous effects of smokeless tobacco.  The results in 2011?  An 80 percent increase in the number of entries over 2010 and a large increase in traffic for Stamp Out Smoking’s website.

The addition of the interactive, voting element (Engagement!) to the contest has been critical in this traffic growth. Prior to voting being open for The Big Pitch Film Festival, stampoutsmoking.com received a monthly average of 1,514 visits and 3,567 page views in fiscal year 2011.  Thus, the month of March saw a 165.8 percent increase in visits and a 99.7 percent increase in page views.  In April, there was a 97.6 percent increase in visits and a 38.4 percent increase in page views.

We’ll be posting more on this subject in the very near future, as well as a closely related topic – content strategy. In the meantime, you can find plenty more on this topic around the web. You can also check out examples of our work with Stamp Out Smoking here or share your thoughts with us.

… Or “Do all of These People Really Like Me? Because They Sure Are Quiet.”

If you’re a social media user (fan, obsessive, or an obnoxious “guru”), you’ve heard the term “engagement” and you know that it’s, well, pretty important.  If you’re new to social media, however, you may be wondering what asking someone to marry you has to do with anything.

While the actual definition of “engagement” is still being debated in some social media circles , you can basically boil it down to this: People/fans/followers talking to you and interacting with your content.  In other words, are they commenting, responding, sharing and otherwise communicating with your brand in social media?

Some people remain obsessed with the sheer number of ‘likes’ their business has on Facebook or the total count of followers on Twitter, but engagement is the real key.  You’re standing in front of a growing audience and offering a killer presentation, but are they looking down at their smart phones or are they listening and reacting to what you’re saying?

The simple truth is that many people are not really responding to what brands and marketers are doing in social media.  Indeed, a new study reveals that this is as true of major, world-famous brands as it is for local shop owners.  I won’t go into all the numbers, but they are ugly (think under 1%) and they show that even larger “passion” brands like Nike, Old Spice and Ford are struggling to get large numbers of folks to do anything more meaningful than “Like” with their posts.

All of that said, things aren’t all doom and gloom in the social world.  In fact, things may be coming into better focus, thanks largely to more focus.  There is now research that shows smaller, more targeted audiences may just be better for engagement anyway.

In Part 2 of “The Engagement Problem,” I’ll share some more information about engagement strategy and provide an example of targeted engagement from some of our work here at CJRW. Stay tuned.

As the article explains, “…quick response codes, or simply QRs, (are) the barcodes for the digital age — but ones that convey far more information, and which can be scanned by consumers with smartphones and tablet computers to open a Web page, play a video or even place a call.”

QR codes have been in nearly every magazine ad produced by CJRW for the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism for the last two years. First brought to the table in 2009 by the Department’s Communications Manager Dena Woerner and Group Travel Manager Renee Robison, the codes were initially used to quickly link to interior pages on Arkansas.com for more information. The Spring/Summer 2011 campaign was the first to link to video—giving us a way to place our 15-second TV ads in magazines and newspapers.

The LA Times story reports QR code scans nationwide are quickly growing—from 80,000 a month in 2009 to two million a month in 2011. For the first four months of 2011, nearly 12,000 of those QR scans took magazine readers to a mobile-friendly page featuring the campaign’s corresponding TV spot on YouTube and direct links to the most desired visitor resources, such as the Free Vacation Planning Kit and Hot Deals and Packages.

Joanne Hinson, Manager of Research and Information Services for the Department, notes that while it is a “…new technology, initial response is encouraging. Consumers are still at the beginning of the learning curve, and many don’t know how to use the technology even if they do have a smart phone.” The Nielsen Co. predicts that half of all Americans will soon have smart phones. Forrester Research reports that of current smartphone users, 25% of Android phone owners and 7% of iPhone owners scanned a QR code in the second quarter of 2010.

Another benefit to Arkansas tourism is the data gathered using the QR codes about how readers respond to our ads. While there are no benchmarks to use as a guide and the number of scans is heavily influenced by circulation and demographic profiles of the publications, we can get nearly immediate feedback on which ads and magazines spur the most engagement. “Southern Living” with a huge readership base generates lots of scans, as does “Bicycling” with younger, more technologically adept readers, and “Garden and Gun” with a more affluent market more likely to own smartphones.

While these numbers are becoming impressive, there is still a long way to go. The Department and CJRW have asked focus group participants what they think of the QR codes in research over the last two years. In 2010, only one participant was familiar with them, while 2-3 in each group were in 2011. All of the participants thought the idea was intriguing, and none of them thought that the codes detracted from the ads.

The ability to place videos and interactive links into paper and ink ads opens up whole new worlds of possibilities, taking us from the age of Gutenberg to the age of Zuckerberg.

While CJRW is proud of our long and illustrious history, we don’t rest on our laurels—we are constantly on the lookout for the next great way to persuade consumers and produce better results for our partners. We were the first Arkansas agency to produce a color TV commercial, and now via QR codes, we are the first to place a TV commercial in the pages of magazines. In the rapidly growing realm of social media, Arkansas tourism has been recognized as the first state to use Geosocial marketing in the book “Social Location Marketing: Outshining Your Competitors on Foursquare, Gowalla, Yelp & Other Location Sharing Sites,” by pioneering social media influencer Simon Salt.

What will be next? One thing’s for certain, Arkansas and CJRW will be leading the way.

When “Queen Z” heard about the Hot Springs billboard she wrote a post:

“Last week when my jockey, MIKE, was going to ride in Arkansas at Oaklawn Park, he called Dottie to mention the huge BILLBOARD he saw with US on it.  John contacted his friends at that race track and was able to get a photo of it for ALL OF US to see!  Mike’s right … it does LOOK IMPRESSIVE!  WIN CITY!  I like that thought!”

The post received nearly 200 comments from her fervent followers in the first 48 hours.

Today marks the one year anniversary of Zenyatta’s second Apple Blossom win, and tomorrow will be the 75th running of The Arkansas Derby with another record crowd expected to come out to conclude The Racing Festival of the South.

In August of 2010, CJRW staffers Ross Cranford and Nicole Boddington Hunnicutt started a blog promoting upcoming shows by favorite bands, whimsically registering thehipsteralert.com when they found the name available.

Last week, we were pleased to see a number of visitors coming in from a link on the Arkansas Times site, and discovered they’d named The Hipster Alert one of Arkansas’s top three Entertainment blogs, along with their own Rock Candy, and Phillip Martin’s Blood Dirt and Angels.

CJRW is proud to see our associates taking the initiative to explore new media. Heck, we’ve even used it to promote clients like Oaklawn when the time is right. Follow the Hipster Alert on Facebook so you can get all the latest news and updates, too.

We’re proud of our association with the Peabody Hotel Group. CJRW has worked with The Peabody Little Rock since it opened in 2002 after a $43 million renovation in downtown Little Rock.

The Peabody Little Rock was recently awarded Arkansas’s first and only Four Star rating by the Forbes Travel Guide for the second consecutive year. The leadership of Mr. Belz and the Peabody Hotel Group provides a powerful draw for meetings and conventions in The Natural State’s capital city. CJRW gladly walks beside the famous Peabody Ducks as this legendary brand continues to make waves in the hospitality industry.

Picture of our two favorite balloons by Oaklawn's Bobby Geiger

The Hot Springs Advertising & Promotion Commission recently approved the $1.3 million 2011 Marketing Plan presented by CJRW by a unanimous vote. This will mark the 10^th year that we have represented this legendary resort town, one of the premier tourism destinations in the South and hometown of President Bill Clinton.

Over the past decade, working with Steve Arrison and the Hot Springs Convention and Visitors Bureau team, we’ve helped increase tourism tax revenue by almost 30%. Just this summer, Hot Springs recorded its best June ever, setting a new monthly milestone by breaking the half-million-dollar mark.

In addition to fully integrated multi-media campaigns, we’ve coordinated the research that led to the brand positioning of “America’s First Resort,” printed the wildly successful Bill Clinton trading cards, designed and published the Summit Arena Image book, developed marketing co-ops with Oaklawn, Garvan Gardens, Magic Springs, and more.

The “Spa City/Excitement City” campaign introduced in 2010 has generated such good results, we are continuing its run for another year with only a few tweaks. Below is the thirty-second spot from the campaign that ran in 2010.

Hot Springs | “Excitement City” :30 from Jones Film Video on Vimeo.

2010 also saw the sudden emergence of “A Race for the Ages” when Oaklawn President Charles J. Cella offered $5 million to get the undefeated Zenyatta and reigning Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra to meet in the Apple Blossom Invitational. CJRW’s Interactive team developed a microsite promoting the race on an extremely tight deadline. Unfortunately, Rachel Alexandra backed out, but the Apple Blossom website attracted hundreds of thousands of hits from all over the world bringing invaluable attention to Oaklawn and the Spa City. In 2011, CJRW will produce another microsite promoting Hot Springs’ unique, “First Ever Eighth Annual World’s Shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade.”

This year also saw the introduction of Hot Springs’ new hot air balloon. The city asked fans on Facebook to suggest a name, and I’m proud to say that my crowd-sourced suggestion of “Spa Force One” was selected as the winning entry (just another added value for our client).

We at CJRW pride ourselves on the length of our client relationships, and we hope 10 years is just the beginning. We’ve worked with Oaklawn and the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism for more than four decades, a record that perfectly illustrates our motto of “Relationships backed by performance.” We have retained this business all of these years because our work is creating the kind of results clients need to grow and thrive in a fast-paced and ever changing world.

The introduction of caller ID gave reporters and editors the ability to identify their suitors. Calls from unknown public relations people often brought groans from the writers around the newsrooms in which I worked. Even before answering, writers would start looking around the newsroom for an unsuspecting colleague to whom they’d forward the call.

The gem in a journalist’s day is the rare nugget that warrants a story, and it is the responsibility of the publicist to expose this sense of newsworthiness. Many public relations professionals believe this is the most difficult — and most important — part of their job.

Says Marc Cowlin, public relations manager at cafepress.com: “When working on a story you plan on pitching to the media it is imperative to think about the story from the point of view of a reporter, and their reading/viewing/listening audience.”
Cowlin lists the following as contributing factors to the newsworthiness of a story: proximity, impact, timeliness, prominence, conflict or controversy, uniqueness and human interest. One or more of the aforementioned elements can reel in the most skeptical of writers.

In haste to get the word out about our clients’ purpose and products, it’s sometimes easy to lose sight of the journalists’ desire to deliver interesting content. It helps to think back to my days in the newsroom and my conversations with public relations professionals. Thinking like a journalist when pitching a story really is in the best interest of those we represent.