The Access Point

Search Finds Twitter

The announcement from Google (and Microsoft) earlier this week to partner with Twitter was not a shocker – it’s about time. And, it makes sense. Here’s our take at @AccessPR on this newly incorporated offering, and how we plan to use it to help our clients.

Most importantly, this news is an acknowledgement that Twitter is truly the standard for real-time news. Now that tweets are Google and Bing searchable content, they will certainly reach a wider audience beyond Twitter and potentially be viewed side-by-side with traditional media, online media and blogs.

Second, this is a defining moment between mainstream search and social media. For communicators, it’s now more important than ever to stay on top of your brand and your messages, because search rankings mean greater reach and resonance for your company’s narrative. Where messaging was once staid and architected, it will now become more fluid and responsive to customers and communities. Living the brand and the message just took on a whole new dimension.

Finally, here at Access we will need to expand our measurement processes to evaluate the connection between search and Twitter. It remains to be seen whether tweet volume will impact search rankings, but suffice to say everyone will be paying more attention to the intersection of search, traditional media, social media and real-time news.

As a social media PR agency, we’ll be incorporating this new process into our existing proprietary measurement offering which tracks influence and engagement across social mediums. Hopefully Facebook will jump on the bandwagon next and make that trove of consumer content and behavior Google/Bing searchable.

Andrea Holland
Access Communications
@andreaholland

Looking Back on 18 Years

Access Communications just turned 18 years old. In Chinese tradition, the number 18 is 要发 (yào fā), which translates as “that one is going to prosper.” The Hebrew word for "life" is חי (chai), which has a numerical value of 18 and is considered a blessing for a long life. Both of these interpretations of the number 18 apply to Access. We have been favored by strong growth and continued success, as evidenced by the more than 80 people who work at Access in our San Francisco and New York offices. We have prospered working with a wide variety of clients that include Toshiba, Intuit, Citrix Online, 2K Games and 2K Sports, PayPal, Sega, Polycom and Digg. Most important we have always exuded a strong sense of self, and fostered a culture that is anchored in the belief that our greatest strength is our people. As a result, more than 1/3 of our employees have been with Access for 5 years or longer.

I started the agency in humble beginnings – an office in the Potrero Hill district which had no furniture and no clients, yet radiated hope and ambition. Mark Smotroff (a former Ketchum staffer), a temp and I fervently believed that our ability to translate technology from “bits and bytes into glitz and glamour” would serve a great unmet need when it came to public relations. It appears we were right.

Our first client, Revo Sunglasses, wanted its breakthrough lens-coating technology communicated in ways that would get them coverage in mainstream publications and create brand cachet for everyone from celebrities to sports enthusiasts. Our second client, Broderbund, wanted to make moms aware of education software and the benefits of CDs over floppies! And our relationship with one of our current clients, Intuit, started in 1991 when founder Scott Cook was looking to get coverage for a personal finance software product called Quicken in women’s publications and on morning shows. Eighteen years later our passion for strengthening brands with communities on Main Street and Wall Street continues, even as we have expanded our expertise into new forms of social media that were not even a glimmer in an entrepreneur’s eye 18 years ago but which are fundamentally changing the way we communicate.

It’s been a great 18 years, and now, as part of Ketchum, we are stronger than ever and able to offer even more to our staff and to our clients. I can’t wait to see what the next 18 years will bring!

-- Susan Butenhoff

"Managing Your Boss" The Access Way

A unique aspect of the Access culture is the distinctive approach management takes in helping staff to thrive in a fast-paced, ‘think-on-your-feet’ environment. Recently, Access inaugurated our Article Club, a monthly meeting of management that focuses on the discussion of hot topics in leadership and public relations.

The topic of discussion – a BusinessWeek article titled ‘Managing Your Boss’ – centered on the hypothesis that better managing your supervisor can be critical to growing your career, and can lead to mutual success. It also featured this notable quote from Peter Drucker, “Just as an orchestra can sabotage even the ablest conductor, a knowledge organization can easily sabotage even the ablest, let alone the most autocratic, superior.”

Conversation touched on different approaches to management – the ways that we as supervisors can become better and more well-rounded counselors, and the ways that staff can help us manage their own success. Agency’s leaders discussed our individual management experiences and best practices, focusing on what the core of our agency is – the people. We all agreed that in order for us to continue to grow as effective leaders, we need to remain committed to the transparency and open communication that is a key part of our culture.

Focusing on ‘softer’ skills beyond day to day work is an ongoing discipline at Access. Awareness of the characteristics of a good ‘boss’ that is both trusted and respected is something that the entire management team at Access works to achieve. We provide the skill set training and principles needed to help guide the growth of one’s public relations career and to become better leaders. This ensures that everyone at the agency – from AC and up – has the resources and skills needed to drive results.

Whether it be discussing principles such as leadership or PR fundamentals, we find open communication among all levels of management is imperative to cultivating an efficient and cohesive culture. This has contributed in a major way to the success of Access in an industry that has seen more downs than ups this past year.

Reflections: Dreamcast's 10 Year Anniversary or Why I Hate Potatoes

There are significant milestones in everyone’s life, whether it’s having their first child, graduating college, learning to fashion a shank out of a toothbrush during lockdown, or making it through an entire episode of Kourtney & Khloe Take Miami without a gun to your head. In my life, it would have to be the launch of the SEGA Dreamcast on 9.9.99 (sorry kids, but you were both a close second). 10 years ago today our agency was tasked with bringing visibility to the launch of the console and the efforts behind it were staggering, fortunately with results to match.

1999 was one of the flashier years for the gaming industry, with companies throwing a lot of money into Vegas-styled spectacles. Because of this cash-crazy climate, it was quite the challenge to cut through the clutter, but we managed to do a few things to turn the launch into a successful endeavor.

One little known initiative was a guerilla attack on a Sony event since their PS2 was the Dreamcast’s rival. Prior to either console’s launch, Sony had a media day at a golf course, so we set our sights on taking advantage of the gathering. We ended up hiring a plane to soar noisily overhead numerous times with a banner that read “SEGA Dreamcast 9.9.99.” In addition, we sent in ground troops that included me driving a golf cart around with Sonic the Hedgehog on the back pointing up to the plane as we circled the media. If you are the first to guess which former Access/current EA staffer was in the Sonic costume, I’ll send you a Seaman tin that talks when you open it. As the coup de grace, we had switched out all of the white golf balls with Dreamcast branded ones.

Another event to build awareness was the SEGA Spud Dive held in LA which involved having consumers dive into 2,000 gallons of mashed potatoes to fish out big plastic letters that spelled out SEGA Dreamcast. The winner received a first off-the-line U.S. Sega Dreamcast system, handed to them from Peter Moore, and Sega Dreamcast games for life. There is no greater joy in life than stirring a thick, cement-like pool full of mashed potatoes, except maybe plying a freshly rammed yak out of the front grill of your car with a plastic fork.

Of course the biggest stunts were the retail launch events held across the country. These involved celebrities, like Verne “Mini-Me” Troyer, years before this incident, Baywatch beauty Donna D’Errico, athletes and a lot of party atmosphere. The launch of SEGA Dreamcast on 9-9-99 turned out to be the biggest 24-hours in entertainment history bringing in a whopping $97,904,618.09 and shattering the previous record held by the blockbuster movie Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, which achieved $28 million its first day in theaters in May 1999. In your face Jar Jar Binks!

While the launch was significant, so was the console’s death. It was a system that was home to so many titles that defied categorization at the time, such as Jet Grind Radio, Seaman, Space Channel 5, and Typing of the Dead. There are still games today that push the boundaries of convention, but nowhere near as many as back then. The Dreamcast also went head to head with the PlayStation 2 in terms of quality, with some games even looking better. While there have been many debates about the death of the console, it ultimately came down to SEGA not moving enough units to make it profitable. And why didn’t it sell? Sony had a tremendous base of loyal PlayStation owners who were convinced that they should hold out for a PS2 based on it offering the same features, most prominently a non-existent modem. Sure, the modem was teased by the company in 2000 and 2001, but it didn’t come out until 2002 and by then it was too late. There was also the lack of support from EA which you can read about on Peter Moore’s blog and which I’ve always equated with that scene from Braveheart when William Wallace is waiting for the Scottish noblemen to join a critical battle, but instead turn their backs since they were bought off by the English. I will say this much though, I never met a Dreamcast owner who didn’t love the console. Myself included.

Chase
Official member of the Dreamcast Launch Team

Bloggers: The Good, The Bad & The Sponsored

The commercialization of blogs is in full effect. A recent and high-profile example of this is the BlogHer Conference, held last week in Chicago, a gathering of over 1,400 influential, thoughtful and creative voices in the women-focused blogosphere.  

Indeed, the bloggers present at the conference represented a wide spectrum of marketing savvy, editorial prowess and journalistic integrity: on one end were packs of bloggers roaming the expo hall looking for freebies, and on the other end were bloggers blatantly refusing swag bags and tweeting their irritation at the level of sponsorship they were seeing.   

Clearly there are discrepancies between the bloggers elbowing to the front of crowds for freebies and the ones shunning marketers and snarking that the conference had become “SponsHer.” But there is also a vast middle ground that are amenable to working with companies but are resolute in maintaining their own integrity, and will likely uphold the integrity of whoever or whatever they’ve agreed to represent.   

This middle ground is a sweet spot for anyone deciding whether or not to sponsor a blogger at BlogHer or any other conference. But in order to have a successful partnership with any blogger, it’s important to create certain parameters. Here’s what we suggest:  

• Show them the product or provide a demo, and offer to let them use your product or service for a couple of weeks before the conference so they can get familiar with it.

• Conduct a simple, stripped-down messaging session with your blogger. Nothing fancy, just make sure that they’re armed with 3-5 main points that you want them to convey.

• Set expectations, create objectives and suggest tactics that will make all parties happy. Discuss what they should do if they encounter negative remarks or criticism. 

• Assign one PR person as their key point of contact and have the PR contact accompany them to any event or conference at which they will be representing your brand or product.

• Leave some wiggle room. Sponsoring a blogger is not the same as hiring a spokesperson – they are less polished, have their own opinions, and rely on their personality to network. Bloggers are incredibly entrepreneurial as well and will react badly if micromanaged.

• Trust them. If you’ve prepped them enough and have come to a mutual understanding of what to expect, then let them do their thing. It’s why you’re working with them. 

Ashley Seashore
Access Communications

Public Relations is a Full “Contact” Sport

Here at Access, we take the “relation” in public relations very seriously, and we’re lucky to call some of the most esteemed names in media friends. It comes from 17 years of being committed to our clients, their stories, and to the media that help us best tell those stories.

As you can imagine, 17 years in the business has allowed us to build some truly phenomenal relationships with print and broadcast contacts alike, and one of the most long-standing friends of Access is Gary Kaye of Fox Business. Formerly of ABC “World News Tonight,” Gary is a 40-year industry veteran whose career is seemingly one constant deadline. Most recently he was the power beyond the broadcast hot ticket "Three Days in the Valley"  an annual, multi-day series featuring the biggest names among the Silicon Valley elite.

Gary was gracious enough to spend an afternoon at the Access San Francisco Office, letting staffers pick his brain on what works and what should be banished from the playbook when it comes to pitching broadcast media. We talked “do’s” and “don’ts,” but we also got into the bigger picture of how journalists and PR professionals can continue to help each other do their jobs better. 

One of the lessons he imparted was that PR is one of the professions that definitely requires free and creative thinking, and you “don’t always have to be a square peg in a square hole.” Journalists are a creative bunch themselves, and they appreciate fresh thinking and ideas that sell and tell compelling stories. Failing to do this and committing the greatest PR sin of spam blasting media without any intelligence about why they cover and how they cover it will land you in the worst PR limbo – being told by a journalist to be added to a “do not call list.”  Also, with broadcast, a picture paints a thousand words. Remember to include them as part of the pitch and realize that in this day and age of broadcast cuts, b-roll is now more important than ever.

Smart TV is not just about the pitch however, it is also about making sure your spokesperson converts any broadcast opportunity into more than a propaganda piece. Kaye make it clear that it is time for companies to rethink the canned messaging that spokespeople look to communicate at all cost. The first obligation of any interviewee that wants to be booked again is to be relevant and interesting, and look to insert company messaging as part of a larger topical discussion rather than at the expense of it.

Working both smart and hard, being persistent to a point, keeping pitches brief and concise, and retaining a commitment to fostering exceptional relationships are Gary’s biggest “musts” for PR pros. When you picture the shrinking media world alongside the increasingly tough world of public relations, it’s evident that media relations is a full “contact” sport – meaning that who you know is everything, and the strongest currency an agency can have is relationships.

- Cristin Zweig

Digg Meetup and Live Diggnation

More than 3,000 Digg fans, bloggers, media and music enthusiasts crowded Webster Hall on Thursday for the Digg Meetup and live Diggnation show. For those of you who don’t already know, Digg (www.digg.com) is the leading destination for people to discover and share the best content from anywhere on the Web, and also the biggest online news site, by traffic This was a special occasion, as it was a part of Internet Week here in New York. The Access team helped out with event logistics, welcoming attendees and hooking VIP guests up with their all access passes. We also got to enjoy great music from bands such as Fort Knox Five and Ursula 1000 as well as catch the live Diggnation show hosted by Digg founder Kevin Rose and his Diggnation co-host, Alex Albrecht.

What I found most fascinating was how much this event resembled a rock concert. Granted, some of the event was comprised of music, but the majority of it was technology talk - delivered by two total geeks in a legendary NYC venue with screaming fans…but tech talk nonetheless! I found it amazing how electrified the crowd got when Digg CEO Jay Adelson got on stage to give an update on Digg happenings and throw some swag out into the crowd -- they literally screamed and waved their hands like he was a rock God. They were begging for Digg t-shirts and other giveaways. Actually, I was pretty glad I was upstairs in the VIP section, as I was afraid I’d be squished down below in what was quickly turning into a mosh pit (although the crowd was definitely better behaved than a rock concert – no one wanted to sprain a wrist or break a finger and keep themselves from tweeting or Digging the latest story!).

For those of us who have grown up loving both rock music and the latest, coolest technology, the cultural implication that’s most compelling here is that tech gurus and geek elite like Jay Adelson and Kevin Rose at Digg are quickly turning into the next rock stars. Being a recent Bay Area transplant, I’m happy to report that it’s not only happening in Silicon Valley, the trend is also moving east, to Silicon Alley.  

- Meagan McCrystle

E3 2009 – Access Gaming Practice Mixer

The reborn E3 of 2009 marked a return to the booming, bustling style of the show’s heyday, and the spirit of the revitalized event was evident in the energy and enthusiasm of the 41,000 attendees. And while the hundreds of games on display in elaborate booths (often promoted by celebrities and attractive booth models) are the main focus of the week’s festivities, the chance to meet face-to-face and share a pint with distant colleagues, old friends and new contacts is surely one of the best parts of E3.

On Wednesday evening, June 3rd, the Access Gaming Practice hosted a mixer at the Moroccan-themed Hotel Figueroa, where top members of the gaming and consumer press rubbed elbows and reminisced with executives and game designers from some of the industry’s top publishers and development studios. Writers and editors from outlets like the New York Times, Kotaku and GamePro shared stories and enjoyed drinks and taquitos with the folks from Disney Interactive Studios, SEGA, 2K Games and 2K Boston (famed creators of the original BioShock) while the Access Gaming Practice team mingled with old friends and forged new relationships.

It’s hard to overestimate the value of these rare, casual, face-to-face meetings between press, publishers and PR professionals. Too often, busy schedules and crushing deadlines can cause the relationships between media and the PR people who pitch and assist them to devolve into cold, “just business” associations – which ultimately hamper the opportunities for inventive games journalism. Events like the Access Gaming Practice mixers offer a fun and informal way for people on both sides of games journalism to learn about the people they work with, but rarely get to see (mostly without the burden of media being pitched or PR folks being prodded for secret information). When media and PR people get to know each other (which games they are playing these day, what they’re looking forward to most, and even who they’re rooting for in the NBA finals) a professional bond is formed that allows both sides to be more creative and ambitious in their collaborations. 

The Access Gaming Practice will continue to host our media mixers at E3 and other industry events like GDC, so look for your invitation. We’re always eager to talk about games and enjoy making new friends – especially when food and drink are involved.

You can check out the invitation to the E3 mixer (featuring our trademark beer dispensing robot) here:  http://www.accesspr.com/acc/e309/

- Ryan Jones

  

At PRSA’s Media Predict 2009: Finding the Silver Lining

Last week, Access sent a team of PR pros to soak up platinum media predictions at PRSA’s “Media Predicts 2009.” The event featured an insightful panel of influential journalists and bloggers.

Panelists included Elise Ackerman of the San Jose Mercury News, Michael Arrington of TechCrunch, John Markoff of The New York Times, Mark Veverka of Barron's and Richard Waters of the Financial Times.

As expected, much of the discussion surrounded the future of technology during the economic downturn, which the panelists generally agreed would continue past 2009. I don’t have a particular problem with that line of thinking, but I was irked by one particularly gloomy assertion from Elise Ackerman – that in the not so distant future, journalists and PR people will be out of work.

Really? Is Media Predicts 2010 going to be a room full of empty chairs and poorly concocted dinner plates?

I can see where Ackerman is coming from – after all the Merc has laid off a huge component of their editorial staff within the last year.

Newsstands are brimming with publications, online media flourish and mainstream media outlets are revamping and retrenching with new strategies to help them survive. Also, perhaps Ackerman is forgetting about the trades, business outlets, broadcast, radio, etc none of which have the large unionized workforces which have spelled the death of the broadsheet and soon the automaker.

Mainstream media may continue to contract, but I don’t think that means PR will. It means that we need to be smarter and more strategic. It means we need to understand social media and continue to build our blogger relationships. It means we need to utilize social networks as a way to spread our clients’ messages through word of mouth.

The media landscape is pretty “doom and gloom” right now – any PR person could tell you that. What’s really going to be interesting to me in 2009 is how PR is going to respond. Are we going to wring our hands at the almost daily folding of major publications or are we going to respond by finding new and intelligent ways to get our clients noticed?

Happy holidays to everyone and keep your eyes peeled to see how PR evolves in 2009.

--Victor White

A Slam Dunk in Soho

Product launch parties are like Facebook pages – everybody has them and without close examination, they all look the same. Since that wasn’t the case with an event we recently coordinated in NY’s Soho district for NBA 2K9, the new hoops video game from 2K Sports, I thought I would blog about it.

Rather than just filling a room with game kiosks and alcohol and hoping the attendees would take home key messaging through osmosis, we turned the party into a press conference, while still maintaining an intimate, casual and hip aesthetic. This was achieved by creating a two-part event.

The first part was for media only and involved a multi-media presentation, with the latter half of the evening open to other industry contacts and featured a live performance from various rappers and DJs.  The presentation - which alternated between spokespeople talking about NBA 2K9 to game footage and commercials broadcast on three wall size screens - was conducted in front of the DJ booth on a slightly raised platform, so we were close to the crowd, but not obscured by them. For paparazzi appeal, we peppered our presentation with celebrities tied in with the game, including cover athlete Kevin Garnett and soundtrack contributors The Cool Kids, who also performed later that evening.

During the party portion of the evening, there were celebs galore mingling with the crowds, like pro-ballers Andre Iguodala, Brook Lopez, Rajon Rondo, and at least four of the Knicks, as well as Olympic gold medalist Usain Bolt! In addition, The Cool Kids and DJ UNK did powerful hip-hop sets, while the legendary Bobbito spun music deep into the night.

When all was said and done, more than 60 top sports, urban and lifestyle media attended the event, including MTV, Maxim, SPIN, Yahoo Sports, SI Kids, ESPN and many more. BallerStatus provided one of the more detailed write-ups of the night, so that’s a great story to check out.

~ Chase