The evolution of Eastman Kodak Co's logo (Kodak.com)

For many, the news that American photography pioneer Kodak had filed for bankruptcy last month came as a surprise.  Surprise or not, it was certainly a depressing announcement.

Founded by George Eastman in 1880 (a high school dropout with big ideas), Eastman Kodak brought “toys” like the $1 Brownie and Instamatic to the mass market.   The company dominated the photography industry for years, building a strong reputation for innovation in the U.S.and abroad.   This strong reputation was enjoyed by employees as well, as the company pioneered motivational HR tools such as a “Wage Dividend”, which gave bonuses to employees based on results.  In 1975, Kodak invented the world’s first digital camera. Even Apple’s QuickTake 100 digital camera – the first consumer digital camera – was produced by Kodak with the Apple label.

The brand also became part of American pop culture.  Remember Paul Simon’s 1973 “Kodachrome”?  And “Kodak Moments”?  As a child, I recall sitting in front of the TV entranced by Kodak’s commercial featuring Cyndi Lauper’s “True Colors.” In recent years, I bought a few Kodak point-and-shoot cameras as I wasn’t interested in committing to a new digital camera (I think it actually makes for better photos because there is something about real film that makes it stand apart from digital + you don’t spend your vacation with your nose to a camera).  But I digress…

Kodal's Instamatic 104 - over 60 million sold by Kodak alone (courtesy of http://camerapedia.wikia.com)

Nostalgia aside, nothing changes the fact that Kodak didn’t, or couldn’t, compete in the digital camera market, despite the fact that they were “there” before anyone.   For Kodak, digital was an afterthought (see Forbes.com’s recent “No More Kodak Moments”), and the company chose instead to continue its focus on film and developing materials.  While all evidence pointed to the growth of digital, it seems that over the years the company simply lost touch with what consumers wanted, leading to its present day situation.  Instead of continuing to innovate, the company fell behind.  After filing Chapter 11 on January 19, it eliminated its digital cameras, pocket video cameras and digital picture frame products, and will now focus on photo printing and licensing its brand name to other manufacturers.

The future remains uncertain but Kodak’s fall from grace offers specific lessons to learn – namely that even companies and organizations with the greatest of brand equity must never fail to evolve and to listen to its consumers.

This blog usually tackles subjects the team at Morrissey & Company is passionate about: public relations, social media, reputation communications, mobile marketing and media relations, among other related topics.

But tomorrow it’s Valentine’s Day, so I’m throwing caution to the wind, setting aside convention and counting on your sense of fun to permit a temporary detour from the norm to share a few thoughts on ways to spend the most romantic of holidays.

Boston Bruins MVP goalie Tim Thomas is a superstar in the crease but not in front of microphones and TV cameras.

If you haven’t heard, Thomas, for the second time in about a month, is being scrutinized for his “personal” opinions on religion and politics.  A month ago his refusal to join his team at the White House, as reigning NHL champions, for the customary photo opp with the standing president of the U.S. drew both praise and criticism from fans.  At the time, Thomas said he was protesting the U.S. government and not President Obama, but refused to elaborate and grew snippy with reporters when they pressed him.

This week, journalists are spilling ink over Thomas’s recent Facebook post in which he states his defense for the Catholic Church by quoting a known anti-Nazi pastor.  This most recent post is Thomas’ response to President Obama’s position that insurers must provide women access to free contraceptives.  This goes for insurance plans connected to religious organizations, such as schools and hospitals.

Following Wednesday’s hockey game, Thomas was engulfed by broadcast and print journalists who cared less about the shutout the Bruins suffered at the hands of the Buffalo Sabres but were salivating over Thomas’ post on Facebook.  Thomas was as consistent in front of the media as he has been in front of the net, and essentially refused to comment citing Facebook as part of his “personal life.” Of course, he said he was happy to talk hockey with the media, but when members of the media continued to press him on his religious and political beliefs, he abruptly ended the session and walked.

Is Tim Thomas seriously that naive?  Does he really think Facebook is “private” and “personal” and that his recent provocative actions wouldn’t be considered “news.”

I have zero issue with Thomas’ Facebook posting (though I think he should have sucked it up and joined his teammates on the White House boon doggle).  But any public figure — professional athlete, business leader, actor, politician — has to expect interest and questions from their followers and the media when their actions or positions run upstream.  It’s simply part of the deal of being a public figure and refusing to accept this fact typically has negative consequences in the court of public opinion.

If I were Tim Thomas’ PR counsel, I would advise him of these four communication keys:

• as a public figure, your personal and professional lives are inextricably connected.  People read your Facebook page for only one reason:  you are a public figure;
• you can’t be provocative and controversial and then expect to be allowed to run and hide.  Stand up to your convictions;
• you’re a hero to Bostonians because you’re a winner.  You’re enjoying the halo affect of a career season. But like most things, halo affects have a shelf life. And they are typically shorter in Boston than in other towns, and
• be proactive instead of defensive (not a hockey pun).  Let your fans see who you really are — the man behind the mask and the Wall.  How about a “town meeting” for your fans (and the media) after the season, where you can explain your important positions on politics and religion because you clearly have a lot to say.

But between now and then, prepare to back up what you do, say and publish — outside of the hockey realm — or just stop pucks.

When a company uses Twitter to give away free stuff, I’m instantly intrigued. Being a college student on a budget, I’m always looking for deals and steals online. However, what’s even better is when you don’t have to go searching and instead, the company comes to you.

My boss Jim Barbagallo tweeted that Monday, January 23 was the most depressing day of the year (studies show that this day falls on the last Monday of the last full week in January) and he received an interesting response from Pretzel Crisps:

Jim proceeded to send them Morrissey’s address and Pretzel Crisps said we would expect a delivery the next day. And they sure did deliver. Bringing about 12 bags of Pretzel Crisps, they certainly brightened our days. However, we weren’t just part of a lucky few who received hand-delivered pretzels. If you look that their Twitter feed, they’ve been responding to people’s tweets about a variety of subjects, and finding ways to give out loads of Pretzel Crisps.

Pretzel Crisps is doing two things right. First, they are generating a ton of buzz through word of mouth marketing around their brand (born in 2004, according to their website). With over 4,500 followers on Twitter and 115,000 likes on Facebook, a lot of people are talking about the yummy snacks they’ve either bought in the grocery store or sent free of charge. They even have a Pinterest board! Second, the company is making people happy. I was overly excited to hear we would be getting a special delivery of snacks, and decided to share my excitement on Twitter. And since we had so many leftover bags, I brought some home to my friends who also thoroughly enjoyed the snacks. Pretzel Crisps should keep up the great work by encouraging conversation about their treats, engaging with anyone who’d be open to free snack deliveries, and satisfying hunger needs to keep people happy.

Now, the much more powerful and intuitive smartphone and tablet have displaced the PC — at least in the marketing and advertising world — as the “second screen.”  And on Sunday, advertisers will go after the second screen like never before.

Do you have your smartphone or tablet at the ready whenever you’re watching ordinary TV vs. big events like the Super Bowl?  And are you tweeting updates and sharing opinions on Facebook with friends in real-time or are you just “enjoying” the program like we did in the old days?

Remember freaking out when you wanted to watch TV but couldn’t find the remote control? Well, today it’s more about having a smartphone or tablet on your lap so you can text and post on your favorite social media channel while watching TV.  You can even use your smartphone as a remote control if you can’t find the real one.

Nielsen reports that about 66% of us use these devices while watching TV.  And with tens of millions of viewers expected to tune into Sunday’s rematch between the New England Patriots and New York Giants, advertisers and marketers are salivating.

“This year, we’re seeing a whole new level of social media activity for Super Bowl advertisers,” said Tim Calkins of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern Unversity.  Calkins added that advertisers’ won’t know how effective their attempts to connect with you and me on our smartphones will be until the big game.  But they will spare no expense in trying to do so.

According to the AP, on its Facebook page Coco Cola will feature one animated polar bear cheering for the Pats and another for the Giants; Chevrolet’s smartphone application will allow us to vie for pizza and a new car; Toyota wants us to tweet about what other products, in addition to the Camry, it should reinvent. And perhaps in a tactic that takes second screen interaction to a new level, smartphone users will be able to put their device up to the TV to scan a QR code that will take you to the company website, where one can presume there will be other ways to interact with GoDaddy.com.

So if Sunday’s game isn’t a good one, there’s no shortage of ideas from advertisers to keep us watching anyway.

And if the game goes downs to the wire, as many are predicting, everyone wins.

Enjoy the game!   (Go Pats!!!!)

My favs for the week:

Cheers to Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick for standing up for “basic courtesy and grace” in the wake of Tim Thomas’ decision to avoid a photo opp earlier this week with the President of the U.S.  Thomas, superstar goalie for the Boston Bruins, snubbed the President and his own teammates by refusing to participate, citing political reasons, in a White House “meet and greet” for the Stanley Cup Champions earlier this week.  “He’s a phenomenal hockey player and he’s entitled to his view, but it just feels to me like we’re losing in this country basic courtesy and grace,” Patrick said during his annual State of the Commonwealth speech.  “I didn’t think much of President Bush’s policies … but I always referred to him as Mr. President. I stood when he came into the room.”

Jeers to Thomas for clouding his team’s visit to the White House.  In doing so, he reinforced his reputation as a “me first” player instead of taking a sterling opportunity to dispel that notion.  While Thomas has every right to his point of view on the federal government or on anything else, he had to have some idea of what the media fallout from his refusal would look like.  He ignored the ceremony anyway.  In doing so, Thomas put the “I” back in Team.

Jeers to Jean-Claude Mas, the founder of Poly Implants Protheses (P.I.P.), the company responsible for the manufacturing of breast implants filled with potentially harmful industrial grade silicon.  Mas has admitted his company used the unapproved silicon because it was less expensive than the approved silicon.  As a result of his poor judgment, hundreds of thousands of women around the world are at risk as the P.I.P. implants are apt to leak or rupture.

Cheers to health officials in France, German and Czech, which are recommending that the the P.I.P. implants be removed even though it has yet to be confirmed that the leaked silicon may do no greater damage than irritate body tissue or cause inflammation.  And a loud cheer to the country of Brazil which has ordered its health insurance companies to reimburse the insured for the removal of any P.I.P. implants.

Cheers to Apple for another outstanding fiscal quarter.  On Tuesday, Apple posted historical profits and revenue, sending its market cap soaring and it’s stock price to another all-time high.  The results were generated largely on the backs of iPhone and iPad sales.

Jeers to Apple for seemingly ignoring the legions of iPhone 4/4S owners who continue to be plagued by battery issues so severe that many of these devices (including mine) are rendered virtually useless.  Apple has been unusually quiet about any pending fix, and appears to be focused on the yet-to-be announced iPhone 5 and iPad 3 instead.  Halo affects also have a shelf life.

Cheers to New England Patriots wide receiver Chad Ochocinco for noticing and then acting on how glum House Speaker John Boehner appeared during President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday.  In his tweet to Boehner, the football player said, “If all else seems bad in life just remember I love you kind sir.”

Jeers to Boehner for wearing a pout for pretty much the full duration of the President’s address.  While it’s clear Boehner and the President don’t play well together, as the “third in line” showing some positive energy during the State of the Union would be Boehner taking a leadership role.  C’mon Mr. Speaker.

Until next time…

Yet, we see time-after-time leaders putting a foot in their mouth because they did not properly prepare for a planned media engagement.  There’s no room for an undisciplined, shooting-from-the-hip approach to talking with the media.  Just ask BP’s ex-CEO Tony “I’d like my life back” Hayward, ex-GOP presidential and vice-presidential candidates Herman Cain and Sarah Palin.  And compare their performances to former President Ronald Reagan, Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos, among others.

Part of a media specialist’s challenge is convincing the boss that he/she actually needs media training.  Executive ego often gets in the way of skills assessment, as we know.  “Media training?  I have been talking with the media for years.  I don’t have time for media training,” is a familiar refrain for senior leaders.

In my experience, executive spokespeople almost always think they’ve done a great job following a phone or in-person interview with a journalist.  The reality is, the better interviewee has always been the one who committed to preparation (and listened to their media specialist!).

Media training doesn’t have to be a painful experience. Execs liken it to going to the dentist (no offense to the DMDs out there), especially the part where they are captured on video in a mock interview (which is an absolute must).  But navigating your spokesperson through a few straightforward guidelines will successfully get the boss through myriad media engagements.  Here are a few key ones:

• Know your story – the spokesperson must have an agenda that includes the communication of 2-3 key messages which need to internalized in advance and supported with specific data and examples.  Each question is an opportunity to deliver — concisely, coherently and clearly — a key message.

• What works with the media – responsiveness, modesty, straight talk, knowledge of their media outlet (target audience), an educational tone, a sense of humor, being genuine and honest,  and a personal approach.

• What doesn’t work – jargon, too much ego, over-talking and steam-rolling, trashing other organizations.

• Preparing for the interview – review the media outlet, be certain of  facts, be bold, get to the heart of the matter with an opening summary (key messages), think in headlines and sound bites, focus, close with key messages.

• Avoid the “off the record” trap — instead, try something like, “You know, that’s not something I’m at liberty to discuss, but what I am here to talk about is …

• Remember, you’re in control – use every question as an opportunity to tell your story/bridge to your messages, be prepared with key message detail to back up your story if challenged, and project confidence.  You’re the expert.

A successful media engagement is never about luck.  It’s always about preparation.

A successful public relations campaign serves to define a brand in ways that educate and inform markets so that the target audience(s) is motivated to act after experiencing great content.  For the target audience to act, the story must be compelling and be brought to life in content best-suited for that particular audience — eBooks, events, blog posts, white papers, news releases, etc.  And in the case of the subject of this post — video.

After watching New Hampshire Chronicle (a repeat but timeless episode) earlier this week, I was motivated to share the story of Peter Limmer and Sons.  If you’re a serious hiker, you probably are familiar with Peter’s story.  If you yearn for a pair of his custom-made boots, you’re at least 18 months away from receiving them.

Here’s the rest of the story.  If you find a better example of a compelling brand story, consciously developed or not, please share it with us.

The request garnered only three public responses from the group’s membership of more than 800 public relations professionals.  You can interpret whatever you’d like from the dearth of responses.  Whatever the reasons may be, there are still hundreds (perhaps thousands) of U.S.-based PR agencies that bill themselves as “pay-for-performance” firms.  Essentially, this means that they measure success, and how much they should be paid, on their ability to generate media coverage for clients.

“Pay for placement agencies charge clients only for articles that actually make it into print,” says Alexander Konanykhin, president of Publicity Guaranteed, a pay-for-performance PR firm.

A competitor, INK inc PR, says on its website:  “Our job is to get you positive media coverage in the outlets that help you the most. When we get you lots of great media coverage, you pay more. When we don’t, you pay less. … You pay for results.  No tricks. No gimmicks. Just real accountability for real results.

The pay-for-performance PR agency model works for some. But the vast majority of agencies work on a fee-for-service, or hourly billing basis, based on approved annual or semi-annual programs — much like lawyers, accountants and other service professionals do. With this approach, clients pay for actual time spent on their accounts and allows the agency and client to easily track billing against activities.  Typically, account team members are held accountable for the time they bill against the PR program and are measured against their performance.

My recollection is that many pay-for-performance agencies launched en masse in the aftermath of the dot.com bubble and subsequent tech meltdown of 2000-2001.  New agencies were formed from the ashes of big agency layoffs. The pay-for-performance business model was viewed as a means to differentiate in an era when marketing and PR budgets were getting hammered.

The problem with the model, from my perspective, is that it serves to further commoditize our profession and shift our reputation to that of tacticians vs. strategic, hands-on communications counselors.

I’m always a little leery of customers who are singularly focused on media coverage.  I remember a client from the not-too-distant past who’s bonus was based on the agency’s ability to generate national business coverage on a quarterly basis. Nothing else mattered to our daily client contact.  National media coverage put money in his pocket in some fiscal quarters, and not so much in some other periods of the year.  His compensation model made for a few interesting weekly update calls.

While media coverage and media relations certainly play a significant role in most communications campaigns, they are still only pieces of what agencies should be providing for clients.  And it’s a complete misnomer that a fee-for-service agency/client relationship means that clients are primarily paying for effort, are chained to boated budgets and account teams who lack accountability.

I wouldn’t want to work with or for an agency like that either.

Umi/Aki Java Calendar 1997 digital media | CD-ROM by John Maeda. Source: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Recently I came across a TED talk by John Maeda, president of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and formerly of MIT’s Media Lab.  The subject was finding simplicity – the simple life – in a complicated digital age.   As a communications professional, the idea of simplicity is both timely and applicable, and it adds needed perspective to all of our professional lives.

Here are 5 ways to get back to basics in 2012.

1. Get quiet.  This recent NY Times opinion piece “The Joy of Quiet” says: “The only way to do justice to our onscreen lives is by summoning exactly the emotional and moral clarity that can’t be found on any screen.”  So for some period of time each, day, put down your smartphone and tablet and turn off the TV.  Use the time to re-focus and to reconnect with current projects, clients, friends and family.  Listen to your own thoughts and not the constant stream of content feeds; perhaps then you’ll see the bigger picture. 
2. Let go of ego.  Before posting anything on the social media networks, ask yourself what it will add to your followers and “friends.”  If it is not imperative that it be posted, think again.  In the long run, your opinions will be more valued for consistency of thought then sheer consistency.  Letting go of ego also means reconnecting and fully optimizing your team.  Lean on them, and learn from them.
3. Learn something.  In his TED presentation, Maeda jokes about the “For Dummies” or “Complete Idiot’s Guide” manuals, which he calls a “business model around being stupid.”  Buck mainstream and resolve to learn one new thing a day – something that interests you.  It might not be directly relevant but you will walk away smarter and have more to offer than yesterday.  Start with team brainstorming sessions.  We have all done them, we all know they work and make us collectively smarter/sharper, so why don’t we make more time for this? Which brings us to #4.
4. Take time. Your time, that is.  No one ever gets through a project and says that they wished they rushed more.  In part, I believe we’ve lost that “don’t send anything unless it’s perfect” mentality in our haste to deliver.  Imagine all of your content will go to the CEO.   Exaggerate your preparation for all occasions when you’ll be presenting to clients and colleagues alike, and you’ll make a better use of your interactions (and maybe have time for an impactful brainstorming session).
5. Find/reconnect with a mentor: If you don’t already have a mentor, choose one.  This should be someone you admire and look up to, and most importantly, someone you trust.  Human relationships are complex by nature, but connecting and communicating with a mentor can actually help simplify your life and keep you focused on the higher goal.  This is an evergreen tool which is free and directly impacts your professional life.  

Give yourself more credit in 2012

I hope these ideas serve as a palate-cleaner to the noise of the Internet and media buzz on social media trends and future of the public relations, marketing and advertising industries.   How are you planning/or not planning on making your life simpler in 2012? I look forward to your ideas.

Wishing all a prosperous New Year!