Don’t Eat the Shrimp - Josh Morgan’s Take on PR & Marketing

eBay’s recently introduced corporate blog is being put to good use.  Apparently there is some confusion about the possibility of adoption of a “PayPal only” policy in the US.  According to the post written by Usher Lieberman, a colleague and friend from my Alexander/Ogilvy days (as is much of the eBay PR team), that is not the case. He makes that pretty clear by saying:

“In the US, we are not mulling, planning, or otherwise seriously considering a move to PayPal-only. There are US market-specific reasons why PayPal-only is something we simply cannot do in the US.”

Good use of a corporate blog. Harkens back to GM’s use of their blog to say their peace with the NY Times.

Cathie Anderson the wonderful business editor at the Sacramento Bee is now the features editor according to “Talking Biz News.” Congratulations Cathie!

The bummer part is that no replacement has been named. This makes things even more complicated for local technology companies trying to get the word out via the Bee.  A few months ago, Clint Swett, who was the first reporter I ever pitched left for SMUD. Then Mark Melnicoe took over his beat for a little while. Darrell Smith has taken over the consumer tech beat but no one for the business tech beat.

So, I’m driving down the street by my house after taking my daughter to school and passed a sign for someone running for county supervisor. For some reason it caught my eye….

This is awesome. Harry Norris, he runs the service station where we take our cars for oil changes, is running. But someone went all Billboard Liberation Front on one of his signs.  This one seems harmless and it was a lot of fun.  Also, I would be afraid to take off Chuck’s name.

Think about visuals. The mayor of Seattle did and it really helped get his point across about the environmental cost of bottled water.

Thanks to MegaWattPR for the find.

Ok, not in the WSJ per se but on AllThingsD with Kara Swisher. They just received $30m in funding from a hedge fund. Is this bubble like? Possibly. But, thing is, I think they’ve got some good stuff. By having ‘family-friendly’ content only, people can feel safe sending their kids there. Also, there are revenue streams from the “GodCaster” subscription service.

Don’t write these folks off automatically. Also, some of their content is pretty good. Or maybe it just seems like it is since I identify with it.

A little love for one of our clients.  I met the folks from American Songwriter at NAMM and  voila!  A few months later here we go!

Here’s the part of the review that I love:

“The options available to you as a composer using Sibelius are staggering, but the simplicity at your fingertips is amazing. With a quick look through the manual, it won’t be long before you are creating your next masterpiece.”

As a bonus, in the same issue is a profile of George Strait. Yes, here at Morgan/Dorado we like our shrimp with a little country and a little rock and roll.

Larry Weber founded what became the world’s largest PR firm, and apparently that wasn’t enough for him. So he’s back at it with a firm that describes itself as a “global marketing services ecosystem that helps CMOs in their new role as builders of communities and content aggregators.”

The interview is with the podcast formerly known as “Tech PR War Stories,” (now called Media Blather) with Paul Gillin and David Strom

A few of the best nuggets from Weber:

Two themes:

• PR is not the industry, media is the industry
  Marketing is moving into a phase that PR was always about, which is the influencing of opinion by content

Other points:

• Bonus points for making an analogy between ads for asthma relief and ED
• Everybody’s media now
• Second Life is a ‘B Movie”

I’m listening to the radio this morning on my five minute drive to work and I heard a commercial for Coit Carpet Cleaning.  That in itself is not interesting.  The interesting point is that they tagged themselves, “The man in the shiny black van.”

Growing up I was taught to avoid the man in the van.   Apparently the folks at Coit aren’t familiar with ’stranger danger.’

Why is Brett Michaels on Don’t Eat the Shrimp? What do Brett Michaels and Wayne Brady have to do with the UOP Tigers? All valid questions.

If you watched “Don’t Forget the Lyrics” last night you may have seen Brett’s friend Steve helping him out with some of the songs and even singing “Hit Me With you Best Shot.” Steve lived down the hall from me my freshman year at UOP. He would constantly amaze us with his guitar skills.

To see Steve playing check out:

So this is kind of a “Sacto celebrities” post since Steve grew up in Stockton.

I have no problem with paying taxes on things where I can see their value, but I can’t always see the value and quite often I think the specific taxes may have an negative effect.  Case in point. I have before me a “County of El Dorado Business Property Statement, 571-L.”

What is a 571-L you ask?  It’s a property tax form. My business is being taxed 1% of the value of all of the property we purchased in the past year.  Granted, we didn’t purchase a lot (other than a new MacBook and some office supplies) but we already paid sales tax on these items, why are having to pay again?

I love California. I love having my business based in California, but California sure isn’t friendly to the small business.  Hey LaPlante! Any clients for us over in Nevada so we can move our HQ over there?

Someone, please explain.