Movember Tips from a Dedicated Mo

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By Chancelor Shay, Account Executive

While at the supermarket picking up supplies for Thanksgiving, did you find yourself thinking, “What's with all these horrendous mustaches?” Those in the know can tell you it’s no coincidence you’re seeing more mo’s around this time of year as the annual fundraising challenge Movember is in full swing. If you didn't know, Movember is an annual month-long campaign where men grow out their Flavor Savers to raise money and awareness for men’s health issues, particularly prostate and testicular cancer. Proud participants, such as myself, build teams and set up online accounts where friends, family, colleagues and extended supporters can donate some of their hard-earned cash to help the cause.

In my third year, I’m hardly an expert. In fact, that’s not even the point. But I have learned a few things and while I was sharing some tips with NBC San Diego, I decided a more thorough list of pointers was warranted. These guidelines won’t help thicken your Lip Rug, or at least they didn't for mine, but they will help you get the most out of your efforts and have a lot of fun in the process.

Create the conversation! First and foremost, Movember isn't simply an excuse to don a 'stache, it’s a movement not only to help fund research to develop a cure or treatment for a disease that affects one in two men, it’s also to make preventative and proactive men’s health decisions mainstream and acceptable. When someone compliments your Mouth Brow, don’t just say thanks; take it a step further and create a dialogue which will help connect them with the movement. Hopefully, this will have a ripple effect where they start other conversations around men’s health issues (and mustaches) and it keeps going.

Solicit team members, not donations. There are plenty of people with their hand out asking for money and many times it’s for a worthy cause. But if you ask a friend to join your team, they now have a vested interest in the team’s success and bring with them resources and connections that benefit your team and the entire campaign. The more people spreading the message and encouraging donations the more funds your team will raise. It’s simple math.

Share your team’s successes. Fundraising 101 says you don’t actively solicit donations until you’ve raised more than half your goal. While that can’t be true for this type of campaign, apply that concept and announce when you or your team receives a donation. Everyone wants to be on the winning team, so showing your team is doing well will renew interest and excitement in your campaign.

Stay committed! For many new mo growers, there’s a stage of awkwardness where your mustache is beyond stubble, but visible enough to get a few weird looks. Don’t give up! Continue to groom and shape your Muzzy regularly. I promise, your efforts will be rewarded.

Get personal. Compassion rarely translates in the digital world, so stay away from an impersonal social media blast asking for money. While that can generate some donations from others you know that are already passionate about the cause, it won’t inspire others who are yet to care. Talk about it when catching up with friends during happy hour. Your contagious enthusiasm will be more effective in getting friends on board and willing to open up their wallet.

Don’t forget the mo sistas! Just as NFL players don pink in support of Breast Cancer Awareness month, it’s important to include women in your team’s men’s health campaign and capitalize on the benefits that brings.

Say thanks! Say thanks for joining the team, spreading the word, generating donations…for everything! Everyone has 25 hours worth of obligations to fit into 24 hours. So when others create a blog post, send a shout out, even fill out the short form to join your team, they took time away from doing something else — not to mention disposable income is at a premium for most. Every dollar they donate to your campaign is a dollar they’re not saving for travel, using on a date with their significant other or spending on something else that makes them happy. That is worth a quick “thank you” note, right?

Have fun! Cookie Dusters are supposed to be fun, especially for those who don’t rock them year round. So get creative and have some fun with it. Personally, I like to name my mo and adopt a fitting persona. This year I've named it The Errol, after Errol Flynn, whom some say I resemble. I have to admit, I feel like I walk around with a certain air of Old Hollywood pizzazz and sophistication now that The Errol has graced my upper lip. Not to mention, every major city in the U.S. holds an end of Movember party. Hope to see many of you at the SD gala.

These tips are tried and proven, and great to keep in mind during your Movember efforts. But there are other Movember related problems that will arise…such as how to deal with the throngs of women infatuated with your Crumb Catcher. I don’t have a tip for that, but I imagine you’ll figure out a good solution. And to my mustache’s biggest fan: Sorry, but this thing is gone when the calendar flips to December, Mom. 

PR: One Part Legwork, One Part Arm-Twisting and a Dash of Brilliance

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By Julie Wright, President

Albert Einstein quipped that genius is one percent inspiration and 99% perspiration. My formula for PR genius is very similar; however, it includes equal parts sweat and influence. Or, as I like to put it: one part legwork, one part arm-twisting and a dash of brilliance.

With advertising or direct mail, you can control who sees your message, where they see it and when. You can apply metrics to gauge how many times an ad needs to run before the target really notices it, or how many thousands of recipients need to receive an offer before the desired number take action.

But PR pros are in the business of ‘earning’ media coverage and generating positive word of mouth. Let’s just say that a lot of things have to align in the time and space continuum to achieve PR success. Therefore, we sweat the details, probably more so than most other marketing specialties!

Whether the campaign bombs or soars in the end will come down to how well all of our messaging, storytelling, pitching and spokespeople worked to influence the opinions and actions of others.

And here’s another old saw: “you can control everything but the weather and other people.”

Our creativity (that dash of brilliance) can set our client’s message apart and ensure a compelling story that captures attention and generates interest.

But we can’t be truly successful unless we sufficiently influence the client to endorse our approach, the campaign spokesperson to adopt the right messages and get the story across, the targeted reporters to cover it and, ultimately, the readers or viewers who must connect with the content in a way that changes their perceptions or prompts an action.

When we get the formula right and our ideas, effort and influence come together, the return on investment is tremendous with people often amplifying our client’s message through shares, likes, Tweets and yet more media coverage, invitations to speak and positive word of mouth.

With so much riding on our ability to influence other people’s behaviors and actions, what are some of the ways we work to influence our clients, campaign spokespeople, media and our target audiences?

Communicate with Clients

Clients may be the toughest to influence. Start by clarifying their objectives for the campaign or project. What would they consider ‘success’? Next, manage their expectations. They need to know what it will take to achieve their idea of success with a timeline, budget and strategies. Keep clients informed of project status – they should never have to come to you for an update. If you’ve managed expectations, are moving ahead with the project in a manner consistent with the expectations you set for the client and are proactively communicating with them, you are building a platform of trust. And, ultimately, you can only influence your client if you have their trust.

Understand the Role of a Spokesperson

Campaign spokespeople need to be provided with messaging that is short, easy to recall and relevant. When everyone agrees to the key messages in advance, all press materials, interviews and presentations can flow efficiently and consistently from that point forward. For inexperienced spokespeople, media training and ongoing coaching and feedback helps them improve. For members of the agency team that do not have experience in a spokesperson role or as media having interviewed numerous spokespeople to know what’s effective and what’s not, it’s recommended they seek out volunteer opportunities either by joining a nonprofit’s committee or freelancing for news outlets. Expert spokespeople like scientists or technologists, who are unable to speak in layman’s terms, pose a unique challenge. Pre-interview them and ask “what does that mean?” every time they use jargon, and when they make a point ask “why is that important to people?” Eventually, they’ll start telling their story in a manner that’s accessible to people outside of the lab. There are many resources where you can study and read about media interview and presentation best practices.

Get to Know the Media

Knowing how reporters work, what kinds of stories they’ve covered in the past (hint: read their stuff) and plan to cover in the future (hint: ask them), and how to be responsive and accurate in fulfilling any of their requests for information, will go a long way to building your influence with this group. Knowing your client’s business sufficiently well so that you can answer background questions reporters might need answered before they’ll commit to a story is also essential. In today’s electronic era, also know how to write a short email subject line that contains the pitch’s news hook. Be able to set up your client’s story in one sentence and back it up with a few key details. And use hyperlinks rather than long scrolling messages.   

The subject of influencing these three groups – clients, spokespeople and reporters – are blog posts in their own right, but the tips offered here should help. Ultimately, influencing target audiences is as close to a three-word definition of the entire public relations profession as you’re ever going to get, so I would need to write a book to expand on that topic. And I’m too busy sweating, arm-twisting and thinking about client projects for that!

Social media: the ultimate marketing platform

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Why do I call social media the ultimate marketing platform? A couple of reasons:

1. It allows customers to find you and saves you the expense of finding them.

2. It facilitates a real connection with your customers.

3. It leverages word of mouth which is the cheapest form of marketing and the most effective. (WARNING: It can also spread negative word of mouth so don't suck.)

Let's look at how three clever, risk-taking marketers made the most of these social media campaign attributes:

Last year, Tourism Queensland launched a campaign asking for candidates for what they billed as the "Best Job in the World," spending six months on Hamilton Island in the Great Barrier Reef, being paid $140,000 and promoting tourism to the region. The campaign generated tens of millions in publicity as well as many social media conversations where candidates were competing for the opportunity.

One of the serious contenders for this job was an editor from a Vancouver daily newspaper that I follow on Twitter.

This year, an Irish travel agency launched a contest to find two honeymoon testers to travel the world and be paid to review its most romantic destinations. The contest is still ongoing and is generating a ton of buzz on social networks and in traditional media too.

A friend sent me a link today to this article in Canada's Financial Post newspaper detailing how an upscale mall used a similar social media campaign on a regional scale. The 10 winners of the "Yorkdale is Me" campaign would be featured in its spring advertising campaign, get $1,000 to spend at the mall and park in their own dedicated spot at the mall for a year.

But the real winner was the Yorkdale mall which saw visits from its social media, fashion savvy new friends generate 49% greater sales per person. The campaign attracted 1,400 applicants and generated 100 Facebook fan pages created by contestants with 4,500 fans among them.

There are many more examples of creative social media campaigns that generated brand awareness and direct ROI from sales and earned media.

If you're considering such a campaign, you'll need a fresh and creative approach that captures people's imaginations and is worth talking about and competing for. Lastly, make sure the program ties back to your brand and creates stronger connections with your core customers because ultimately that is the point.