The Access Point

Under The Bright Lights

As a PR professional, there is no better feeling than watching a client hit a media grand slam, and our non-profit client, Pat House of the Mary Mae Foundation stepped up to bat with Fox Business News on Monday – and hit one out of the park!

After securing a coveted interview, myself and Access CEO Susan Butenhoff accompanied Pat to the Intel Museum in Santa Clara on Monday morning, where she had the pleasure and privilege to be a part of Fox Business News’ ambitious goal – infiltrate Silicon Valley and conduct live back-to-back five minute  interviews with 30 top CEOs in three days for a series titled "Three Days in the Valley". The companies on the roster were impressive. Google, Intel, LinkedIn, Twitter – ever heard of them? The focus of this series is exclusively on Silicon Valley, given that much of what happens just off the 101 freeway between San Francisco and San Jose shapes the technology that people use from here to China and back.

Under the bright studio lights, Pat House sat down with Fox News’ Liz Claman to talk about The Mary Mae Foundation, a multi-million dollar philanthropic effort aimed at building 100 cost-effective, comfortable homes for quality teachers. Liz’ interview and questions for Pat were thoughtful and engaging, and true to form, Pat, the co-founder of Siebel Systems, was smart, charismatic and really brought the Mary Mae Foundation story to life. The experience also reminded me that while so much of the media we consume is either online or user generated, a la YouTube, broadcast journalism is still alive and well, and it’s rather exciting to watch the magic happen.

-- Cristin Zweig

Sharing fried scorpions

I have  talked about spending the last few days in Beijing with PROI (www.proi.com) without going into detail about who this group is. PROI is the oldest international partnership of locally owned public relations firms. It is now the largest global PR network based on fees. PROI only admits partners with proven expertise in their market and the PROI agencies are also among the top firms in their locale including the largest independent agencies in Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Hong Kong and India. With offices in 85 cities and 26 different countries, the PROI agencies work with global brands and more than 3,000 clients worldwide.  This gives Access' clients' instantaneous turn-key abilities in key markets whether it is in Dubai or in Brazil, China or France. PROI is different from other networks where agencies claim global presence based on red dots on a map, but have no real interactions except perhaps at random pitches. Instead, the PROI members regularly meet, share best practices, and are committed to the success of our clients and not to the bottom line of the network. I leave tomorrow from Beijing and whether it is discussing new social media trends or integrated branding efforts across different cultures and countries, the PROI conference has provided us all with opportunities to become a better global resource for our clients (and sharing fried scorpions wasn't bad either, but I drew the line at seahorses and snakes).

-- Susan Butenhoff

Plymouth Sloe Gin Bi-coastal Launch Parties

When we first started working with Plymouth we knew right off the bat that we would be doing a launch event for the arrival of Plymouth Sloe Gin to the U.S. I’ve had the opportunity to work on about 15 events in the past 5 years and always love doing them. However I have never worked on bi-coastal events within a 48 hour span of each other. This was going to be exciting and luckily our team is headed up by PR rock stars based in our SF office.

Out of the gate we knew we wanted the venues to have a speakeasy, hip, distinguished vibe so we chose The Back Room in NYC and Bourbon & Branch in SF. The spaces are fabulous and they are both renowned for their mixology. Our RSVP lists were stacked with stellar media from publications like 7x7 Magazine, Complex, DailyCandy, Food & Wine, Gourmet, GQ, Men’s Fitness, Paper, San Francisco Chronicle, Saveur, Splendora, and Town & Country.

The NYC party was first and the Plymouth Sloe Gin cocktails were received by partygoers with great fanfare. Plymouth’s Head Distiller was our guest of honor at both the NYC and SF events and we were even able to get real sloe berries (used in Plymouth Sloe Gin) for viewing — some even tasted them although they aren’t normally eaten as they are pretty bitter. The party was a huge success and just about the time when the team was about to wind down and pat ourselves on the back — we geared up for round two in SF!

In SF the party went off without a hitch — guests were delighted with the cocktails, there was a great turnout and everyone had a good time. Now that the SF event is over we’re working on the official launch of Plymouth Sloe Gin which is slated to arrive in select bars across the country in May. Next time you find yourself pondering what cocktail to order try asking your bartender for The Wibble or my personal favorite the Gin Genie — you will be glad you did!

-Beth Gardiner

Case Study Palooza 2008

Let’s just start with this: I was dreading the thought of having to present a case study in front of all of the Senior Vice Presidents, Vice Presidents and the CEO of Access. I haven’t spoken in front of a group since college public speaking 101, and honestly, I got a B- in that class.

The Case:
2K Sports’ ‘Urban Hour’ – An event held in New York’s hottest club that reached the urban media, an untapped resource for 2K Sports and NBA 2K8. 

Prep Time:
Some of my fears were lessened when I sat down with my CSP team, Clint and Ami, two seasoned presenters and patient teachers. We got started right away, having the skeleton of our presentation done before the holiday break.

In checking the versions of our PowerPoint presentation there are more than 15 versions – needless to say there was a lot of refining and rearranging over the next month.

About two weeks before D-Day, January, 16, the 2K Sports Team started running through the presentation – we’d rehearse in front of any staff member that would listen and eagerly await their constructive criticism. We made a conscious decision to not rehearse scripts as we wanted to present the cast study as a story.

D-Day:
An hour before our presentation we decided to practice two more times – expecting to hone our skills – to our surprise we butchered the entire presentation, complete with mid-slide emotional breakdowns and cursing. We were nervous heading into the boardroom, still shaking from the botched rehearsal.

To our delight – we presented seamlessly, tip-ins and all. And then it was time for the Q & A, none of us were actually at the event or even on the account at the time so we didn’t know whether or not we’d be able to answer the questions convincingly. After 11 painful questions we exited the boardroom to await our evaluation. While waiting we were still reeling from the Q & A but feeling really confident about the presentation portion.

The evaluation was less scary than I had anticipated: it only lasted about 10 minutes and we all received great compliments on out public speaking and were given some areas to work on. I still need to work on my fidgeting and my ‘likes’ and ‘ums’ while in front of a crowd.

As if this wasn’t enough – we still had the award ceremony! Team 2K Sports ended up winning Best Q & A! We were shocked!

Looking Back:
I’m already looking forward to next year’s CSP – although “Rookie of the Year” isn’t possible anymore there’s always that elusive first place! I also learned that although CSP was incredibly difficult, even painful at times – I got through it, I didn’t freeze and die. I’d tell CSP first timers to enjoy it – there’s nothing like presenting to all of your bosses and then partying with them mere hours later.

Jenna Galloway

Stepping Up for Case Study Palooza

Yesterday at Access we kicked-off our annual two-day review of client work that we call Case Study Palooza. 

“Palooza as it is known, or just “CSP,” is time for us as an agency to step back, review and contemplate the great work we have done for our clients. CSP is a lot of hard work, grinding deadlines and late nights over pizza and Chinese takeout as our entire staff from Account Coordinators through Account Supervisors, pull together case studies based on actual client work and prepare to present them in front a panel of judges comprised of senior agency leaders and an outside judge. CSP is characterized by high energy and tough competition as teams compete for cash, prizes and year-long bragging rights. Doing this of course while handling a full account load.

Each three person team must prepare and present a PowerPoint case study highlighting a real client’s communication challenge, describe how Access creatively and strategically addressed the problem and showcase the communications results and business impact achieved. The goal is to convince the judges (acting as prospective clients in a new business scenario) to “hire” Access based on the quality of the case study and the presentation skills of the team.

Teams are judged based on a published scorecard and often endure withering questions from the judges on every aspect of the case study, the clients’ business model and competitive landscape.

As CEO, what is really exciting for me, beyond seeing the great work we’ve produced in the past year, is to watch is how each staffer, whether they have three months of PR experience or seven years, steps up and brings their A-game. I continue to be impressed with the talent, creativity and intelligence of our team.

Palooza is tough, it’s meant to be, and I know it can be intimidating for some of our staffers, but it is also a rite of passage and rallying point for our agency each year and is part of our strong commitment to training and staff development that is unmatched in the industry. I’m so incredibly proud of everyone who presented this year and I’m deeply grateful for your passion, dedication and enthusiasm.

Now, on to the fun stuff…the awards ceremony, cash distribution and of course the after-party and celebration.

Video Good, Yahoo Bad

The evening was dramatically entitled “Media Predicts 2008!” and so with great anticipation I accompanied several Access staff and clients (Disney, PayPal and Intuit) to our sponsored table at the Silicon Valley PRSA dinner at the Computer History Museum. Although the attire was black tie optional, there was more Abercrombie than Armani on display. Another only in San Francisco feature, was that we were entertained during the cocktail hour with the musical stylings of “Off the Record” a band compromised of journalists who seemed to have a better time at their mics than at their keyboards.

With great anticipation, hundreds of us waited to hear the wise words of journalistic luminaries that included Victoria Barret from Forbes, Don Clark of The Wall Street Journal Jim Goldman of CNBC, Rob Hof of BusinessWeek, Robert Scoble of the highly influential blog Scobleizer, and Kara Swisher, co-executive editor of The Wall Street Journal. While there were no stunning revelations about future predictions, the panel was thoroughly engaging and caustically funny, and provided an excellent reminder to the PR folks in the room that we are very lucky to have the opportunity to interact with such lively intellectuals who are sadly frequently inundated by poor pitches (Note: Clark claimed to get 100s of pitches a day, many of which should have been directed to other writers at the paper or were just not good. Tip of the day: do not pitch him on one company but on multiple companies that support a compelling trend.)

The friendly combative exchange between the journalists was intriguing. Swisher (who refuses to read or participate in anything that is traditional media) and Scoble (who is adamant that video is the next dimension of communications) punctuated their commitment to new media by using their cell phones to video record the panel responses for use on their blogs.

Other unconventional moments included multiple very, very disparaging comments about Yahoo. Comments ranged from the observation that Yahoo made the biggest mistakes in 2007 and needed to fix things fast, to the prediction that Yahoo will get acquired in 2008. What made these comments especially bold (and a tad uncomfortable for the audience) was the fact that Yahoo was the supreme sponsor of the event and had a very large version of its logo posted on the wall behind the journalists and a large table of guests right in front of the panel. (Note to PRSA: recommend that in future you remind the panelists who the sponsors are in advance of the session.)

By the way, very big shout out to Swisher who held nothing back and entertained us with comments like “Of course we are going to cover the green revolution like the ridiculous sheep that we are”, as well as calling Google (in what was supposed to be a compliment) “the Pablo Escobar of the tech industry”.   

For those who didn’t have the opportunity to enjoy the evening (with surprisingly tasty catering), stay tuned for my next posting, Tuesday (the 11th)

Spreading the Love

Our fearless leader, Susan Butenhoff, is quoted twice in PRWeek in the last 3 days. That's got to be some kind of record.

The first time is in an article called, "Startup Culture" by David Ward (and even features a photo of Susan for the curious -- but alas, only in the print version -- what's up with that?).

The second time is in an article called, "Clean Tech Becoming Next Buzz Practice" by Celeste Altus (sorry no photo this time).

Go Susan! Spreading the wisdom, spreading the love.

The Definition of Client Service

Here it is, the definition of client service. We got our client, Shopping.com, featured on the Fox and Friends TV show in a Halloween costume spot. Nice job team!

But wait! The show needed models for the costumes! What's a poor PR person to do? Go down to the studio and dress up in a silly costume of course.

Kudos to our own Normalinda Gonzalez who not only had to dress up as the sexy referee, but had to work with a dog as well!

Click here to watch the video.

New Staff Making News

Our newest Vice President, Danielle Cass, made a splash by being featured in the "People on the Move" section of yesterday's San Jose Mecury News. Danielle will be playing a lead role on the PayPal, Ingenix and iRise accounts here at Access. 

Welcome Danielle and way to go!

15 Years and Going Strong

We're happy to announce that we've just celebrated our 15th anniversary as an agency. We all reminisced about what we we're doing in 1991 over Thai food at lunch. Some of us are way too old, others are way too young!

Finally, we pulled a fast one on our CEO and suprised her with a gift. She hates suprises, but didn't mind this one too much!

We're fifteen! We rock! Champagne and cake for all!

(One more year and we can get our driver's license. Sweet!)