Every year the Foundation hosts a month-long charity event called Movember, for which men commit to growing moustaches to raise awareness and donations for men’s health. Movember, the namesake which comes from “Mo” (slang for moustache in Australia), specifically focuses on prostate cancer. This year alone, Movember  raised more than $98 million to fund prostate cancer research, as well as outreach and support programs for men battling various forms of cancer.

I’m proud to say that I had a (very) small part in this success, thanks to friends on Facebook and the Merritt Group.

What impresses me most about Movember is the campaign’s tremendous growth since its inception in 2003. The campaign has nearly doubled its participants and funds raised, year after year.

From the communications perspective, I believe that this success highlights several powerful characteristics of today’s most influential campaigns.

• Making it fun
• Making it visual
• Making it easy to share

Surprisingly, in many campaigns, particularly B2B, the “fun factor” is often missing. Though we may forget, we are all human and have similar needs. We want to have fun—and it can be a strong motivator.

Using compelling imagery and symbols is another characteristic of today’s most influential campaigns. These successful campaigns tend to rally around an identifiable image. For Movember, it’s moustaches. For LIVESTRONG, it’s the yellow bracelet. For Susan G. Komen, it’s the pink ribbon. Think about visual ways to make your issue stand out from the crowd.

Finally, especially with the advent of social media, making your campaign easy to share is critical. From my experience, getting set up with Movember was easy. After a brief (1-2 minute) registration, the Movember Foundation issued me my own personal blog/donation page on its website, where I could drive people to view my updates and make donations online. The campaign also integrated seamlessly with my Facebook page and provided suggested templates for donation requests. As a participant, it was a fun, easy and rewarding experience—and for a great cause. All reasons why I’ll be growing again next year! 

1. What’s your new role at Merritt Group? 

I am an account coordinator supporting security and communications accounts. I have already learned so much in my first few weeks and am excited to keep it going for years to come!

2. Where do you come to us from?

Before MG, I interned and worked at Rational 360, a PR/Public Affairs firm in D.C. where I worked on public policy/public affairs issues for a wide variety of clients including Fortune 500 companies, non-profits and top pharmaceutical companies.

3. What’s your proudest PR accomplishment to date?

It is not so much an accomplishment as a memorable experience but, my previous boss was on Roger Clemens’ PR team for his perjury trial. After the trial, I had to transport eight baseballs signed by “The Rocket” worth thousands of dollars to multiple people in D.C. Thankfully, nobody asked me what was in my bag!

4. What is it about the industries you cover that makes you tick?

I love to learn about international technology developments and trends as well as analytics and government IT.

5. Who or what is on your Twitter or Facebook “top 5”?

@FBIPressOffice - FBI National Crime Report

@realpatriots - New England Patriots

@firstworldme -First World Problems

@stoolpresidente - Barstool Sports

6. What do you love about Washington, D.C?

I love the intellectual vibe of D.C. Growing up right outside of Boston, I am used to a completely different type of city. There are so many interesting professionals here that have so much knowledge to offer, I feel like I can always learn more just by meeting new people in DC. Oh yeah, and all of the amazing food!

7. What do you like to do outside of work?

Anything active and outdoors. I am an avid tennis player and love playing any and all sports. I also love traveling, road trips, and music.

With the holiday season upon us, we thought it was perfect timing to kick of our first annual Merritt Group’s Merry Week of Giving - a tradition we hope to carry on for holiday seasons to come. We’ve been fortunate over the years to do pro-bono PR for some really great organizations, and as we continue to grow within the community, we’re excited to do our part to give back.

As such, today we’re delighted to kick off our very first Merry Week of Giving with a firm wide toy drive! Throughout the week, Merritt Groupers in our DC and San Francisco offices are encouraged to bring in new, unwrapped toys that we will be delivering as a firm to children in need within our respective communities.  And to help organize the toys donated by other generous community members, the Reston Groupers will be at Reston Interfaith Church on Friday, December 9^th to help sort and pack holiday gifts as well.

Virginia Merritt Groupers will also be testing their fundraising skills this week when they head to the Giant Food in North Shore Shopping Center on Thursday, December 8^th.  From 9 am to 6pm, we’ve adopted a Salvation Army Kettle and will be doing our best to ring the bell loudly to collect money to benefit this great organization.  If you live in the area, we’d love for you to stop by!

And on Wednesday, December 7^th, California Merritt Groupers will be feeding the hungry of San Francisco at GLIDE Memorial Church.  Every day through its free meal program, GLIDE serves approximately 2,500 local residents who are homeless or economically disadvantaged, including senior citizens and area families.  We’ll be rolling up our sleeves during Wednesday’s breakfast shift to serve hot meals to hundreds of our neighbors right here in the heart of the city.

As a firm, we’re looking forward to incorporating even more ways to give back to our community after the holiday season.  We’ll keep you posted on all of our great ideas as we head into the New Year and in the meantime, we’ll be sure to update our readers on our progress throughout the week, so stay tuned!

Happy Holidays!

Happy Thanksgiving to you - Gobble, Gobble!

Washingtonian Magazine cited Merritt Group’s continued commitment to establishing a healthy work/life balance, exceptional benefits, and allotted community service paid time off as major contributors to its repeat recognition. Additionally, Merritt Group stood out for offering a strong performance management program, allowing employees at all levels the opportunity to grow both personally and professionally. Other recognition and morale building activities, such as monthly spot bonuses for above and beyond work, and frequent happy hour events, reinforced Merritt Group’s employee-centric atmosphere. 

“We are especially honored to be recognized for the fourth time running by Washingtonian Magazine, as a great place to work,” said Patty Groce, Vice President of Organizational Development at Merritt Group.  “It’s a real testament to the amazing group of people at Merritt Group and their dedication to this agency’s success. We hire smart, passionate, nice people who are excited about doing great work for our clients and who are fun to be around every day. This is what really sets us apart as a firm.”

Since 1999, Washingtonian Magazine has been announcing great work places in the Washington, D.C. area every other year. This year’s winners were chosen based on a number of different qualities: generous pay and benefits, challenging and interesting work, and recognition and respect given to employees, to name a few. Merritt Group was selected out of more than 200 companies and over 13,000 employees surveyed.

In addition to Washingtonian Magazine, Merritt Group has been continually recognized by PRWeek, PRNews, AMA, PRSA and other organizations for its service and workplace excellence.

About Merritt Group, Inc.
Since its founding in 1996, Merritt Group has helped companies drive awareness for their innovations. This includes a unique combination of market research, strategy, execution and measurement for established and emerging companies. Our expertise is focused in five practice areas - Enterprise Technology, Communications & Networking, Government IT, Security and Healthcare - each with a team dedicated to the issues, trends and influencers relevant to the industry segment. Merritt Group's offices are located in Reston, Virginia and San Francisco, California. For more information, please visit www.merrittgrp.com.

But does the judgment of the media always match up with the priorities of the security professional? As two professionals who study the news closely – one from the public relations side, one from the journalistic side – we agree that the answer is no. In this blog – and in our forthcoming panel, “InfoSex Sells: The Impact of the Media and Public Opinion on Security” at BSides Las Vegas next week – we’ll be discussing the way in which media may skew security priorities and create problems for security professionals.  And we’re soliciting the help of two other experts – Mary Catherine (MC) Petermann, who runs PR and corporate communications at Barracuda Networks, and Mike Mimoso, Editorial Director for Information Security/SearchSecurity.com – to give varied and interesting points of view on this topic.

On the news side, journalists are typically taught to seek out unique, important, and immediate stories for their audience. In security, these requirements often draw reporters to threats that are new (think zero-day exploits), that affect the most users (malware and spam), or that are different from previous attacks (Stuxnet, Project Aurora). All of these are considered “hot news,” because they are timely or because they could potentially affect large numbers of users.

On the security professionals’ side, however, a different picture is painted. In the recent listing of the Top 25 Most Dangerous Software Errors, the SANS Institute and Mitre Corp. described the top three threats as SQL injection, buffer overflows, and operating system injection attacks. These types of exploits are as old as the hills – and not particularly sexy from a news perspective – and are seldom written about. The security audience is clearly being underserved by the media in some areas, while perhaps being overserved – and overhyped – in others.

From a PR professionals’ point of view, the problem is that there are so many factors that influence a security reporter’s decision on what to write about and how to play it. Unlike other areas of IT, the security industry is highly influenced by a core group of “rock stars” called security researchers. The most well-known of these can create a wave of news all by themselves, by revealing a few vulnerabilities that might lead to security breaches. Similarly, a Twitter message, placed at the right time by an influencer in the security industry, can create a wave of reaction, both in the media and among security professionals.

Mainstream media, too, play a part in security priorities.  While a security industry trade publication might write about a nasty threat that’s emerging on the horizon, that story may never be seen by top executives. When “60 Minutes” did its story on Conficker last year, however, you can bet there were CEOs all over the world calling their IT security people, asking them what was being done and how fast. That’s a case where a mainstream news story may change the priorities of the security team – whether the threat is real and imminent or not.

Journalists’ priorities – and the many sources that influence them – don’t necessarily match well with the security team’s priorities. Some stories may be overhyped, causing executives and security teams to place them too high on the task list. Other threats may be underhyped – or not written about at all – because they don’t have the “sex appeal” to draw in large numbers of readers. In both cases, the security professional is left with an inaccurate picture of the problem – and frequently, a skewed notion as to what to do about it.

In our BSides talk next week, we’ll take a closer look at some of the disconnects between news priorities and security priorities, as well as how the news is created in the security industry. We hope that by showing attendees the news process – and the many factors that influence it – we will give security professionals a filter for reading the news, and a realistic view of what news stories should (and shouldn’t) change their agendas.

If you’re at BSides Las Vegas, please stop by and join the discussion on Thursday, Aug. 4 at 1:30pm PT. If not, we hope you’ll take a look at the recordings of our session that will be available after the event. If you’re a security professional, your view of what’s news may never be quite the same.

--By Michelle Schafer, Security Practice Director, Merritt Group & Tim Wilson, Editor, Dark Reading

In case you’re still catching up, QR codes or “Quick Response” codes, work similar to a barcode that you’d find on most products. Any smartphone user who comes across one can scan it with their phone’s camera, unlocking the data embedded within the code. The embedded information can be anything, from a message to a coupon to a link to a website. The technology first appeared in Japan; now it’s here in America, most prevalently in promotions (posters, magazines, T-shirts, etc.) for consumer goods.

However, QR codes are no longer limited to the realm of soft drinks and tennis shoes. Today, they are showing up in the world of healthcare, providing unique opportunities for companies and government organizations to interact with the public.

This past March, Medica, a health insurance provider with more than 1.6 million enrolled members, launched an advertising campaign in Minneapolis, MN, that featured QR codes displayed prominently on metro billboards, bus shelters and skyway signs.  People who snapped a picture of these QR codes using their smartphone were directed to a streamlined health insurance application, where they could get a quick price quote for a Medica health plan. The application has allowed the healthcare provider to connect with prospective customers in a unique and meaningful way, empowering them to make faster, more informed decisions about their health.

In government, a great example of how agencies are using QR codes to share public health information can be found at AIDS.gov. The website, which is a  collaborative government effort led by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), aims to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS and boost testing rates across America. In promoting the site, HHS has included QR codes in a variety of promotional materials (brochures, posters, etc.), linking to HIV/AIDS information from the website. One example that stands out is HHS’ use of a QR code that takes users to the website’s interactive map of HIV/AIDS service providers nationwide. By linking to this feature via QR codes, users can locate testing centers, counselors and health centers in their neighborhoods. This unique application demonstrates the potential that QR codes have to make a real impact on people’s health, by providing them with the tools to become more proactive about preventative care and treatment.

While some may argue that QR codes are a fad that will soon pass, one cannot deny the potential impact of this technology, and how it is already reshaping the interactions that people have in healthcare. Specifically, by increasing the number and quality of interactions that people have with healthcare companies and public health organizations. Where is the future heading for QR codes in healthcare? We’ll cover that topic in Part 2 of this blog series.

Written by: Aris Lazdins, Senior Account Executive, Healthcare Practice Group

And what a journey it has been! From our humble beginnings at a little town house office complex in Herndon Virginia, to now a nationally recognized firm with offices on both coasts, an impressive client list, and some of the best and smartest staff in the industry. We are truly the "Little Engine that Could," and I marveled last night at how the dream of building a great firm has come true.

Merritt Group, more than anything, is a company that cares, about each other, about our clients, about trying to make a difference each and every day. We have a certain magical spirit at our firm that is uncommon. But more than anything, I think it has to do with being a part of one big family, where we are all partners in the process, where we share in the challenges and successes, where we all share the same passion for shaping the world with great ideas and innovations.

For me, it really is the thrill of the hunt. And I pinch myself because I get to go to work every day, working alongside the great people in this firm who get to work hand-in-hand with our clients -- some of the best and brightest minds across multiple industries – in technology, government, healthcare and cleantech. When I was a journalist, I got to write and tell stories. And I have seen so many stories unfold with so many amazing clients and so many amazing people.

And while it may come down to telling stories, building mindshare and awareness and brand and image, what all this really comes down to is one word - accountability. We are a company that more than anything is accountable. We are accountable first and foremost to building a great culture that continues to attract and keep the best and brightest people in our company. We have created a culture here that empowers people to be the best at what they do. Where people are encouraged to push the envelope, to try new things, to not be afraid of failure, because in trying new things, that may or may not work, we find success and focus.

And in return, we feel so very fortunate to work with some of the best and smartest companies, accountable to us to deliver innovations and ideas that continue to change the world and profoundly impact how our society moves forward. And the idea that we can be a part of that, to be in the thick of that, to help shape the ideas and innovations, and the messages and the strategies and tactics behind that, is just an incredible and rewarding experience for us all.

So I thank everyone for making this dream come true. And especially my two incredibly valued partners who, if it were not for them, this company would not be the company it is today.

I feel very humbled and overjoyed to be a part of what is truly this wonderful family called Merritt Group.