How do you bring artists, account people, programmers and accountants together?

1. Find out someone’s birthday. (McGavock's, in this case.)
2. Select your favorite local haunt. Ours is Torero’s on Atlantic Ave. Not only is the atmosphere tacky Mexican, but the food is fabulous and the pricing reasonable.
3. Invite everyone to lunch on the selected day of birth.
4. Sit everyone down in front of some chips and salsa and see what happens… Before you know it the accountants are showing their creative sides and the artists are dealing in realities.
5. And of course, make sure to inform the restaurant staff of the special occasion. But beware, the lucky birthday girl (or guy) will be ceremoniously crowned with an oversized sombrero and have whipped cream smeared across the nose... So have your camera ready!

One last thing – don’t try and deny where you’ve been to those who couldn’t make it. Your clothing will have that unmistakable odor of sizzling fajitas for the remainder of the day!

Sheila Connor
Vice President - Marketing and Advertising
Sheila likes to play the role of social activities director, the "Julie McCoy" of the agency. This comes from years of experience raising three kids and running PTA and parent swim groups.

If many Hindus weren’t vegetarians and if it was acceptable to use religious icons as pitchmen (or pitchwomen, in this case), maybe they’d have something to shout about. Instead, they have something to apologize for. Which they did via a statement that began, “Burger King Corporation values and respects all of its guests as well as the communities we serve...”. 

Let’s start there. (We’ll get to the rest in a moment.) If the company really respected its “guests” and “the communities” it serves, wouldn’t it have assumed that the possibility to offend — in a BIG way — was sitting right before them? At what point in the creative process was that missed? Or was it just ignored because someone thought the concept was “simply too cool to kill”? 

The company’s statement continues with, “...out of respect for the Hindu community, the in-store advertisement has been removed from the restaurants.” Another way to phrase the same idea: “Now that we’re done grabbing media attention by any means necessary, we’ll try to present a sympathetic façade that makes us look like ‘good guys’ by taking down the very thing we shouldn’t have put up in the first place.”

So here’s the question. Where does Burger King’s corporate communications function fit in with all this?  Why are company spokespeople called in to apologize for marketing programs after the fact — rather than being brought in to provide a “gut check” on how a campaign is likely to resonate with a given community before it runs? At what point in the fiefdom’s evolution did public relations become a lowly serf and marketing the (flawed, in my view) crown prince?

It all seems pretty greasy. Not to mention tasteless.

Joseph Gaitens, APR, AIGA
Creative Director

Joseph serves as one of Catevo’s creative directors. He’s a long-suffering fan of the Cleveland Browns and looks for small measures of solace in all things related to black-and-white photography and the films of Michael Mann.  

That’s why in an era when the latest mobile, Facebook and Twitter apps are stealing the limelight, it’s nice to see a traditional print piece remind us all where the heart of effective communication really beats.

So hats off to the folks at Euro RSCG Chicago for its fantastic cause-related work for the Juvenile Protective Association. The piece featured here was awarded a special People’s Choice Award in Cannes. Deservedly so. It features a simple concept brilliantly executed. In fact, it’s hard to imagine that there would ever be a better depiction for the campaign’s headline, “Verbal abuse is still abuse.”

You can’t see this image and not feel something. (Try to top that, Twitter.) 

Joseph Gaitens, APR, AIGA
Creative Director
Joseph serves as one of Catevo’s creative directors. He’s a long-suffering fan of the Cleveland Browns and looks for small measures of solace in all things related to black-and-white photography and the films of Michael Mann. 

If only all decisions were so easy. 

McKinsey’s released new research that confirms some thinking that’s been circling marketing circles for the past couple of years. Unlike the traditional model of decision-making where the mind travels a nice, clean, linear path that very predictably — and very stepwise — narrows all available options down to the selected one, McKinsey’s qualitative research confirmed something a little different.

Turns out that the ready availability of online information sources means the process plays out a little differently. As illustrated in the animation connected to this abstract in The McKinsey Quarterly, we start with a smaller set of brands already in mind — and then actually expand our consideration set as we seek to use every tidbit of information available to us (Twitter Tweets, blog posts, buyer reviews, Facebook comments, etc.) to evaluate all options. And that process gets a bit squirrely, since new entrants suddenly come on stage and brands we were sure we liked suddenly get cast aside.  I bought a new MP3 player recently, and darned if I didn’t follow the McKinsey model almost by the book. (I bought a Sony Walkman, incidentally, because I needed something that played nice with Real Network’s Rhapsody music service. I love the darn thing.)

So there’s at least one key takeaway here. Top-of-mind brand awareness is still critical, but so too is ensuring there’s more than a dull murmur about your brand on the social media landscape. After all, it’s in that ever-expanding space that the real decision-making may happen.  

Oh, and one more thought. It seems we ourselves have a choice to make: Swallow the blue pill and follow a traditional linear-thinking path or pop the red one and see what marketing adventures unfold before our newly opened eyes.

(P.S. Spoiler alert!  Just as he did in “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure”, Keanu Reeves does, indeed, save the day in the Matrix films. And while George Carlin doesn’t cameo in the “Matrix,” there is a character who, strangely, looks quite a bit like him. Just coincidence?)

Joseph Gaitens, APR, AIGA
Creative Director
Joseph serves as one of Catevo’s creative directors. He’s a long-suffering fan of the Cleveland Browns and looks for small measures of solace in all things related to black-and-white photography and the films of Michael Mann. 

More congratulations goes out to our team - and particularly senior vice president (and my dad) Ray Hornak - on our successful night at the Raleigh PR Society's Sir Walter Raleigh Awards. 

Ray was honored with the Watt Huntley Award for Lifetime Achievement - the third Catevo executive to earn this recognition.

Catevo earned four Sir Walter Raleigh Awards for Excellence in Communication and a Best in Division win:

"Raytheon Integrated Scenarios” – Gold Award for Audio/Visual Presentation and Best in Division

“Splat! The Opening of "The Art Institute of Raleigh-Durham” – Silver Award for Organizational Identity/Promotion  

“Building a Green Reputation for Skanska USA, Inc.” – Silver Award for Promotional Campaign for a Product, Program, Topic or Issue

“In a Neat Little Package: The Reintroduction of Blue Points” for Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina – Silver Award in Open category of Publications

The ceremony took place at Marbles Kids Museum in downtown Raleigh and featured social media guru Peter Shankman as the keynote speaker.

Congratulations to the whole team and especially to my father, whose leadership, calm demeanor and wisdom continue to inspire us every day... especially me.

Don't deny it. We all use Facebook to be nosy. Yes, there is the occasional "Wow, I haven't seen you in forever, let's get together," or receipt of some relevant movie information that makes you say, “I’d like to do that this weekend, I’m glad I befriended Buckhead Saloon,” that takes place, but I still argue we enjoy it so much because we get to all be legal "life-peepers." Or, at the very least, engage in activities that we find socially and personally appealing.  

What we don’t use Facebook for, at least not primarily, is networking with our old coworkers, prospective employers, and industry who’s whos.  That is why we have LinkedIn.  See the difference?  One is for your work life and one is for your personal life.  Facebook can be a very powerful social media tool (if used correctly).  But marketers pretending Facebook is the social media mothership and continually deciding to hop onboard the Facebook train with ads featuring insurance, egg donor opportunities, new printing techniques and the new t-shirt shop are missing the point.  I don't want an insurance quote when I'm looking at my old college roommate’s Halloween pictures. And for the love of Pete, making a fan page, finally reaching 33 fans (who are really just your own employees) and thinking your organization is going to have soaring sales in the next quarter is just not realistic.  Hey, I wish it could be that easy too.  But, as marketers, we need to use this extremely powerful tool in the way users interact with it. 

Example: The Burger King application that encouraged people to de-friend people (sin, by the way) to receive a coupon for a Whopper. Ingenious*.

People join Facebook to have friends. So, use Facebook to exploit the reason why people join: friends. And then give them a reason to interact with you (in this case, a coupon) and THEN watch sales go up. It was ingenious. In fact, de-friending took off so much so that Facebook forced Burger King to shut down the application. See?  Use the tool the way people want to use it and you see engagement. My Burger King crown is off to you.

I like Facebook. You like Facebook. We all like Facebook (most of us anyway). But let's call it what it is and, as marketers, start using it the way it was designed. Otherwise, our customers are going to de-friend us.

*For a differing opinion on the Whopper Sacrifice, see this past post.

Ann Panaro
Senior Account Executive
Ann became an account executive because she wanted to be Amanda Woodward from Melrose Place (only the most awesome, cut throat advertising executive to grace our television screens in the '90s).  When she's not at work, she's probably enjoying all things relating to entertainment, beautiful weather or a good southern meal. 

The New York Times might be with me on that last one.  Last week, it ran a story on table texters and the people who love them.  Here’s the gist of it:  People who insist on messaging, surfing or inbox monitoring during dinner often don’t see a problem with the behavior.  Their families do.

If you’re one of the former, allow me to set the scene for you.  Your dinner companions are filling their plates and discussing their days.  You, however, thumbs a-flyin’, are distracted – you’re unable to participate in the conversation, you’re unaware of what’s going on, and you’re annoying the person to your right, because the peas, mashed potatoes and meatloaf have all stopped with you.

If this sounds familiar, consider laying off the mobile computing during meals.  You’re busy.  You’ve got responsibilities.  But you owe it to yourself – and to those with whom you share meals – to take a little break now and then.  Do you want to end up like George d’Arbeloff, with your 7-year-old twins forced to convene a family meeting to address your bad, bad BlackBerry habit?  Do you?

I didn’t think you did.  So put down the BlackBerry and pass the mashed potatoes. 

Abbie Kiefer
PR Specialist  
Abbie began her career as a journalist but switched over to PR so she could quit wearing that Fedora with the press pass in the brim.  She's a fan of public radio, spicy chili and the Wake County library system, among other things.

That was before 22-year-old Shane Fitzgerald poked yet another hole — a big, fat, gaping one — in an already exposed industry.  Here’s the short story if you haven’t heard it.

Fitzgerald’s a sociology major at University College Dublin. When legendary French film score composer Maurice Jarre (of Lawrence of Arabia and Dr. Zhivago fame) passed away on March 28, Fitzgerald quickly updated Jarre’s Wikipedia page with a rather profound quote from Jarre on the enduring legacy of music. Only there was one catch: Fitzgerald fabricated the quote.

Wikipedia editors eventually pulled the quote for lack of attribution, but not before U.S.-based blogs and newspapers in Britain,Australia and India had already picked it up as part of their coverage on Jarre’s death.  When a full month had gone by and none of the outlets had noticed their error (i.e., not doubling checking the source for attribution), Fitzgerald started to contact them and alert them to the fraud; as of May 12, just one, The Guardian, has made public reference to its error.

As much as the fourth estate has added to my heartburn over the years (the same holds true for nearly every professional in public relations), the truth is, a free, well-informed and universally accessible press is a fundamental cornerstone of a functioning democracy. Ironically, those variables are precisely what allowed Fitzgerald’s ruse to work in the first place.

Rest assured, lots of hands were probably slapped in newsrooms around the globe and executive editors were probably quick to remind their reporters of proper research protocols. So that same mistake is unlikely to be repeated soon. Meanwhile, here are three takeaways for corporate communications pros on the opposite side of the newsprint:

• If your organization has a Wikipedia entry, keep a close eye on it. Wikipedia’s 1,500 volunteer editors do the best they can staying on top of unattributed sources, but with 2.8 million articles and counting, the numbers don’t point in their favor. Even mischaracterized matters on life and death, it turns out, can slip in.

• Cultivate a fact-checking culture within your own organization. Charge those with conducting secondary research with following systems and procedures that avoid the same pitfalls that Fitzgerald exposed.

• Hire people like Shane Fitzgerald — those who: (a) know how to write (his manufactured quote for Jarre was so good that some obits actually led with it); (b) are well-versed in new media; and (c) have a genuine concern about journalistic integrity in a world where there are too many stories, too few reporters and too little time.
  

Joseph Gaitens, APR, AIGA
Creative Director
Joseph serves as one of Catevo’s creative directors. He’s a long-suffering fan of the Cleveland Browns and looks for small measures of solace in all things related to black-and-white photography and the films of Michael Mann. 

Think about the process for purchasing car insurance. These days most research is done online with one, maybe two, carriers seriously considered. The reason for the small consideration set is the arduous process of entering the information needed to obtain a quote.  Even more so than with other products, the first insurance provider considered is typically the company that earns the sale. After the purchase, people place the obligatory paperwork in their glove-box, and hope that they never need to see it again.

GEICO understands this process, and tailored its commercials to capitalize on their insight. Their advertising strategy is one of media saturation, displaying messaging that is high on name recognition, but low (and sometimes non-existent) on product benefits.

The advantage of this type of advertising can be summed up in a recent exchange I had with a classmate. In a discussion about commercials, he mentioned how much he hated GEICO’s caveman spots.  But when asked what type of car insurance he owned, he reluctantly admitted that he was insured by GEICO. Regardless of how my friend felt about the company, GEICO was the first name he thought of when he needed insurance, and their online quote was close to his price expectation.

Love or hate the cavemen, GEICO doesn’t really care. Their primary purpose is to drive unaided recall of the GEICO name, and reap the benefits of understanding their customers’ purchase behavior.

*For a differing perspective on the Cavemen, check out this past post.

Mike Norland
Intern
Mike is a first year MBA student at Duke University, and has been interning with Catevo the past four months. He is a rabid fan of Washington Nationals baseball… first in war, first in peace, last in the NL East.

From left to right, Evie, Ann, Abbie, Katherine and Tracy pose with some of their crystal trophies at the first annual NCPRSA InSpire Awards, presented at Brier Creek in Raleigh on April 30.

Rewarded with six Awards of Excellence and five Best of Category wins, Catevo congratulates all its employees who helped make this recognition possible.

Catevo VP McGavock Edwards, president of NCPRSA, kicked off the ceremony with a quick welcome speech before WRAL anchor Kelsey Carlson took the stage to announce the winners.

"I couldn't be more proud of both my Catevo team and the NCPRSA board for the success of our first awards ceremony," said Edwards (pictured at right).

Silver awards recognized campaign work and Bronze awards were designated for tactical success. Catevo's winning entries were:

Silver (Campaigns):

• "Splat! The Opening of The Art Institute of Raleigh-Durham" in Events and Observances -- Award of Excellence and Best of Category
  

• "MediClick for Contracts & Analysis Product Launch" in Marketing - Consumer Products or Services, Business-to-Business -- Award of Excellence and Best of Category

• "Building a Green Reputation for Skanska USA, Inc." in Reputation Management -- Award of Excellence

Bronze (Tactics):

• "Splendor in the Asian Grass" (a speech for John Deere Worldwide C&CE Divison) in Speeches -- Award of Excellence and Best of Category 
• "Raytheon Integrated Scenario" in Multi-Media Communications -- Award of Excellence and Best in Category
• "Charlotte School of Law" in Media Relations -- Award of Excellence and Best in Category

Congratulations to everyone!

Evie Hornak
Marketing Communications Manager
Evie is always looking for a great story, whether she’s watching it, reading it, writing it or living it.  Some of her favorite tales center around sci-fi/fantasy, her friends, her family and of course, her horse Summer Saga.