Every quarter Bradley Gerber at B-M Miami organizes and hosts the NewsFeed, a series of events to which South Florida reporters, editors, and journalists come to the office for open discussions on how the media industry is changing and how B-Mers can best tell the stories of our clients.

On Tuesday, B-M Miami welcomed Mallory Colliflower from MiamiHerald.com.  Mallory chatted with us about how services like Twitter are being used to redefine the journalist landscape, what the future holds for outlets like the Herald, and the typical lifestyle of a digital reporter & blogger.

I do not remember exactly how or when I started following Mallory on Twitter, but it was through this channel that we were able to connect.  About a week before this event, the Miami Herald held a tweetup - it was its first and ironically about 140 people showed up (Twitters will understand the irony).

The conversation was extremely engaging and Mallroy did exceptionally well for her young age (Must be the UF education) - and instead of me telling you how it went - I thought it would be interesting if you heard it from her directly on her blog.

Follow Mallory at http://twitter.com/malcolli or check out her blog: www.mallorycolliflower.com.

Digital Perspective: What role do you see promoting eco-friendly efforts and sustainability playing in the marketing communications industry this year?

Eric Biel: Working with our clients to help them communicate their “green” efforts has become a significant piece of our work at B-M – cutting across practice areas and geographies.  As the Managing Director for Corporate Responsibility, I’ve had the chance to work with terrific colleagues in the Issues and Crisis Group (where our CSR practice is housed), as well as Media, Public Affairs, Corporate, Advertising, Digital, Technology, and other areas.  What that illustrates is the many facets of what clients are looking for from us – and our competitors, of course – when it comes to communicating about their environmental programs and platforms.

But the truth is that it’s about more than “just” communications.  Companies are looking to us to help identify what they should be doing in the “green” space – what kind of projects, what forms of reporting and disclosure, as well as to tell them more about what their competitors are doing, industry “best practices,” who the key stakeholders are and what they care about, and so on.  We’re often working with them at the intersection of policy and communications, which makes it that much more interesting.  Sometimes they just want us to help them understand what “sustainability” is all about – given that it’s a word with a lot of different interpretations and that cuts across environment, social, and economic performance.

Although we’re busy promoting “green” to the press and other audiences, it’s actually a lot more than that.  It cuts across a wide range of companies and industries as well.  We’ve worked with a leading chemicals company on its first-ever corporate sustainability report.  We’ve helped two of our largest clients – neither of which has a huge “carbon footprint,” but both of which face growing pressures to step up on environmental performance from their own employees, clients, and others – with their own sustainability reporting in various ways.  At the same time, we’ve done a lot of promoting of different clients in the renewable energy space – where B-M has a tremendous amount of expertise and is doing cutting-edge work for leaders in biofuels, solar, wind, and other technologies.  So it’s a huge area for us, and across the PR and communications industry – and we’re always looking for new opportunities to grow our business globally.

DP: Are there specific types of ‘green’ campaigns that are seeing greater ROIs in an economy like this?

EB: That’s a challenging question, and you might get different answers depending on who you talk to across B-M.  As a general matter, though, I think the companies that are able to tie their “green” efforts and activities to their core business – those that are able to demonstrate that “green” matters in the C-Suite and is a key organizational priority.  I think of some of the “classic” campaigns like those launched – some still going strong – by GE, BP, Toyota, and others that really created some distance from their competitors.

These days, it’s especially important to be able to demonstrate that “being green” is good for the financial bottom line as well – it’s not a costly luxury, but actually adds to economic return.  I think of a company like SAP, which has strong programs of its own but also is an “enabler” through its products and services for how others can take on green initiatives more efficiently and at lower cost.  I also think of Growth Energy – a group that has helped reshape the battle in Washington and beyond about bio-fuels, after the industry was put on the defensive last year just a short time after it was flying high.  It has a powerful message about green technologies but also green jobs – including in some areas that had been hit hard by the recession.  And finally, I think of the terrific B-M work on the Clear2Go roll out earlier this year – highlighting how an innovative new product enables users to protect the environment while saving money at the same time.

DP: Can you share any other success stories where B-M has involved going green?

EB: In addition to the ones I’ve already highlighted in my previous responses – from working with big global firms to launching a great new product like Clear2Go,  another “success story” in my view is our work with one of our largest clients over the past 2-3 years.  We’ve had the opportunity to help them ramp up their efforts across the board on the environment – from helping craft their first written environmental policy statement to framing employee initiatives to greatly expanding more detailed reporting and disclosure.

And that brings me to B-M itself.  These days, you have to “walk the walk” because current clients, new prospects, suppliers, and others increasingly are choosing to do business with companies that are committed to being green.  The good news is that we’ve taken some significant steps to reduce our own carbon footprint – cutting energy use, increasing our recycling, and so on.   We’ve seen real progress across geographies – and we’re continuing to get pushed to do more by our parent company, WPP, which of course is a good thing.  And here in the U.S., we had the chance to bring these efforts together back in April through “Green Week” – which highlighted both some of our successes to date and how much more we all still can do to make B-M an even greener place.

I personally think it is a successful social media case study – Dell has identified a community on a platform, engaged them, and offer something worthwhile.  And let’s not forget that @delloutlet still has conversations and helps their customers…case and point:

“@Sc00ter Did you order it from the Outlet? DM me your order# and I can see if I can help.about 24 hours ago from HootSuite”

The only thing that I did notice is that in March, each follower was worth $10, now they have dropped to $4.4…so adding more followers exponentially does not guarantee revenues to do the same.

New York-based handbag designer Rachel Nasvik has become one of the many new entrepreneurs benefitting from Twitter, with the launch of her local marketing campaign “Thrill of the Chase.”  Playing off the notion of losing bags during a night out on the town, Nasvik invites interested parties on a scavenger hunt to search for one of the designer’s coveted and oh-so-cute Alice Bond bags.  Through a series of tweets, Nasvik provides real-time hints to NYC hotspots for each bag’s location.  Shelling out clues day and night as followers grow by the hour, Nasvik not only communicates with her following, but allows followers to respond and ask for hints or express their feelings for the game.  She encourages her audience to engage in all the wonderful places and activities New York City can offer.  Because the Alice Bond bag is elusive and equipped with all the necessary items for a fun night out, the search has lured fans new and old to join in on the hunt.

With my own Twitter account, I became engrossed in the game.  Where could I get a bag? What could I do to get a bag? I checked the Twitter homepage and my cell phone obsessively, making use of the device setting so that I could follow Nasvik’s tweets everywhere I went.  Through correspondence, persistence, and luck, I finally claimed a bag.  This particular use of Twitter included the human factor that reinforces online relationships unlike many other digital tools.  By motivating online followers to move beyond their computer screens or digital devices, the game has created both an online and real-life relationship.  I also realized through the “Thrill of the Chase” the way Twitter could become anything I wanted it to be.  Hunting for an Alice Bond bag was merely one of an endless number of ways I could have fun with Twitter.  From information portal to communication mechanism, I learned that Twitter and its many other social media counterparts involved so much more than just signing my name up and finding peers, followers, or friends.  Each successful utility involves continued multi-faceted interaction and conversation that can move beyond the digital realm.  My first week here has and continues to transform my digital perspective.  As someone new to this arena, I realized that the only notion that remained constant was that everything digital is going to change and change quickly.

This reminded me of B-M Europe’s current platform to follow the various European elections: http://tweetelect09.eu/.

I like the idea of having a Twitter platform integrated with a TV show / event and having the possibility of interacting with others (What Read/Write is calling a backchannel) - something that Joost TV was supposed to exploit but never really did.

How do you think this will continue to evolve?

On a personal note - I would like to send my sympathies to Bill K. for the ManU loss in the finals of the Champions League - Go Bayern.

One of our local clients is McDonald’s Denmark and we have done some cool work together through time - also when it comes to adopting a more digital view on communication. McDonald’s Denmark is like most large companies subject to massive online chatter and quite a few of their stakeholders are more or less only online. This presents new challenges and even though McDonald’s is a youthful brand using digital PR to improve communication and interaction with stakeholders it is a process to master the newest paradigm of PR.

Unfortunately, we are not so lucky that all companies in Denmark share McDonald’s interest in and curiosity of digital PR – as seen in our own BM Nordic blog survey among listed companies: 0 of 20 public listed Danish companies blogs… I can imagine that we are not the only ones experiencing some sort of scepticism towards digital PR still. We have often sought for a good digital ram to pierce a hole through this “digital hype” perception and therefore, I would like to share the digital PR campaign that we have just completed for McDonald’s Denmark - a digital employer branding campaign designed to attract new employees with manager potential to the McDonald’s Denmark restaurants.

As in many other countries, McDonald’s Denmark employs young talented people and to a lesser degree this group can still be reached through the traditional media. We urged McDonald’s Denmark to consider a more digital platform for communicating their messages. We created a micro site where potential employees could learn more about a career at McDonald’s, we created a digital teaser movie to attract attention of the digital youngsters pushing that at McDonald’s you will have a fast track to a managerial career. Besides these two larger digital projects we did online banner ads at youth sites, a downloadable ring tone and of course PR in the more traditional sense. (All sites are in Danish … I am sorry but check them out anyway.

The campaign has just ended and the results of the digital PR campaign are quite uplifting. Before the digital campaign McDonald’s Denmark’s 83 restaurants had on average 500 job applicants per week combined. The first week after the campaign had ended in April 2009 the figured had increased six fold to approx. 3,000 per week. For McDonald’s this is what mattered. They could see a quick ROI, that the target group was exposed to the messaging and found it interesting and acted upon it. Furthermore, for McDonald’s Denmark it is equally important to continue to nurture its image as a good workplace and a good place to start a career.

We will still encounter some sceptical clients when throwing digital PR tools on the table. However, as our track record grows companies listen more and more and I believe that we are well on our way to transforming a giant bit by bit…

Just a few of the results that I found interesting -

• 82% don’t own a smart phone for personal use. I guess this makes sense. I have an iPhone but I rarely use it as I have my work blackberry. The implications for companies around mobile marketing are significant given that people are relying on work-issued technology - how does that impact what they are willing to download and how they use their device? Clearly this is a growth opportunity for the telecomms, but also for marketers.
• It isn’t surprising, but people are using MySpace less and Facebook more. The question is, how will MySpace reinvent itself to regain audience. I’m starting to hear some talk of Facebook users losing interest, but these same people feel that they are so invested that it would be tough to change.
• When it comes to consuming media, 45% have visited the website for a newspaper in the last month. And, 34% say they are willing to pay for some news content.

There is a lot of additional information available in the booklet that PSB produced. If you’d like additional information on the survey and the results, just let me know and I’ll connect you with my colleages at PSB.

Digital Perspective Blog: What is Burson Digital?

Erin Byrne: Burson Digital is Burson-Marsteller’s in-house digital media capability. We are a global team with digital strategists available to every office in our network and a full team of designers, programmers available through regional hubs. The team focuses on four core product and service areas to help clients meet their needs. They are:

Digital Reputation Management – given so much information is gleaned online, it is critical that company’s manage their online reputation. We provide digital check-ups, blog monitoring and influence assessment, blogger and social media outreach, search marketing, and online dialogue development, among other digital reputation management services.

Interactive Experience Design – this is all about creating experiences that deliver desired messages and drive to measurable business actions and includes website design, online advertising, online video, Flash animations, digital advocacy tools, and CRM to name a few.

Social Media and Community Development – it is critical that organizations participate with their constituents in online communities. We work with clients to contribute to their communities and do social media monitoring, applications development, community management and content development.

Mobile Marketing – mobile allows an opportunity to have a persistent presence with stakeholders and we facilitate that through text messaging programs, mobile advertising, mobile application development, and promotions/mobile events.

DP: Why a digital practice?

EB: Communications have dramatically changed and the way people get information has shifted to digital media. From major decisions like who to vote for to simpler buying options, people seek out information online, often through interactions with other people. Mark Penn’s recent InfoShopper study [WSJ article and PDF study] showed that as many as 23% of people even research which shampoo to buy online! Digital media also helps clients reach key audiences with important messages more cost effectively than every before possible. For both the reasons (and many more), we believe that every successful communications program must have a significant digital component. We have made a significant investment over the last three years in ongoing digital competency training and are proud that all of our employees are delivering value for clients via digital media. But, there are still specialty areas where have people who are digital experts and work in the space all day every day is critical. These people live in Burson Digital and partner with colleagues in all of our other practices to help clients generate business results.

DP: What is unique about the new practice and Digital as a whole?

EB: Burson-Marsteller in general is differentiated by our global footprint as well as our integrated approach to client problems, especially given our sister firms including Penn, Schoen & Berland for research, Direct Impact for grassroots, BKSH for lobbying and Marsteller for advertising and print design. Having a global team and broad expertise to draw on lets us bring perspective to digital strategies that make the recommendations more meaningful and ultimately more successful. Also, we are an agency of hard working, hands on executives. We are comfortable with complexity. Organizations today face difficult challenges and we have strategic bench strength in Mark Penn, Karen Hughes, Don Baer, Gary Koops, Josh Gottheimer, Pat Ford and others (I could go on and on!) that is unrivaled. Lastly, we truly believe in education as a platform to meet client needs and grow our business. Digital media is so frequently changing that providing clients with ongoing digital education is critical to their success and ours.

DP: Can you share any plans for Burson Digital in 2009?

EB: We have big plans for this year that are already well under way. We will be launching several new products and services and will introduce new partnerships as well. You’ll have to stay tuned to hear more. In the meantime, you can check out a recent project we unveiled tracking, aggregating and visualizing Twitter discussions for the European Elections. Stephanie has more information on TweetElect09.

Tweets are filtered by country, political party and by number of times different candidates are mentioned. News will also be streamed on election night by news channels for example France24, alongside the Twitter stream.

TweetElect09 has already analyzed more than 13,000 tweets referring to the election and France is the most active country followed by Sweden in second place and Germany in third. Please join the discussion and have tweets appear on TweetElect09 by using the #eu09 hashtag when tweeting.

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