Image from AdWeek

If you think the below was a one off or a deflection of a real customer concern, read the below from AdWeek, they followed up also with a contact for customer service.  Basic customer service, de-escalate, then solve the problem.

Sainsbury’s has this whole Twitter thing down cold. Earlier today, popular U.K. blogger October Jones complained that his chicken sandwich from the grocery chain “tastes like it was beaten to death by Hulk Hogan.” The company’s official PR account promptly responded: ”Really sorry it wasn’t up to scratch. We will replace Mr. Hogan with Ultimate Warrior on our production line immediately.” (If you’re not a child of 1980s pop culture, you canrediscover both of the poultry pounders here.) Completing a nice Twitter tandem, another Sainsbury’s corporate account replied with a phone number for Jones to call and said the company sincerely regrets that “you had to wrestle your way through the sandwich.”

I was going to be happy with one of these this week, then saw the below exchange, via Mashable, between Drake and T. Boone Pickens (now that’s a pairing for the ages).  This response gave the experienced tycoon serious credibility and increased awareness with a whole new audience and served as a great plug for his book, “The First Billion Is The Hardest.”

Well played folks, well played.

Image from Mashable.com

I feel that the above also warrants a plug for one of my favorite mid-90′s novels about Silicon Valley by Po Bronson, “The First $20 Million Is Always the Hardest.“

I haven’t been documenting all of the agency lessons from Mad Men on AMC this season but there was one in episode 511, “The Other Woman,” that I had to touch.

This seems pretty straightforward, “Don’t be a pimp.”  This sounds easy but in the real world we aren’t often asked to have a colleague sleep with a prospective client as was asked of Pete Campbell in regards to Joan Harris to secure the Jaguar account.  We might be asked to do something else that goes against our morals or even just against our gut.

When money is being waved at you, it’s sometimes may seem easy to bend your code to make something happen.  It’s not worth it.  In my experience, it will come back to you. Maybe not right away, but it will bite you.  If you need more support, just listen to the advice of the “narrator,” in “True Romance,” “Every pimp in the world gets shot.”  In this case, given Pete’s foreshadowing with guns this season, I wouldn’t bet against it.

In college I took several public relations courses. In one of these classes, we had a final project where we put on a event and “owned,” a theme night at the Stockton Ports, a local minor league baseball team.  As part of the planning, t-shirts were created for “staff,” that included a mention of the class hosting the event, which was the “Public Relations Administration – Spring……”   The shirts were ordered, logos were checked and when picked up the morning of the event read, “Publuc Relations…..”  Now, this was a single line on a busy back of the shirt.  Good? Not even close, but “Public,” has many unfortunate ways it can be incorrectly spelled.

Take a look at the Twitter feed from this weekend from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at UT-Austin:

Wow! What could have prompted that?  One of the other, “unfortunate,” incorrect spellings of “public,”:

Image from JimRomenesko.com

On May 7th, 2012, San Francisco Giants pitcher Guillermo Mota was suspended for 100 games for repeated violation of the leagues’ substance policy.  This morning, 5/18/12, this was at the top of my #SFGiants search column in Tweetdeck:

The fans here look pretty bummed they haven’t been able to wave their pom poms.

— LA Kings (@LAKings) May 16, 2012

This is damn near the perfect tweet. It uses access—a dispatch from a road game—to gently sass the opposing fans.

This isn’t the only on.  This is the latest tweet:

#LAKings have outscored their opponents 37-17 in the #StanleyCup Playoffs (13-5 in the 1st, 13-4 in the 3rd). So there’s that.

It’s got a little attitude, but most importantly they are speaking in a voice the fans can relate to.  That’s what we all shoot for, finding that voice.  According to the article it’s run by “Pat Donahue, 27, the Kings’ digital media coordinator, who co-writes the Twitter account with Dewayne Hankins, 31, the Kings’ director of digital media.”

Pat and DeWayne, take a bow. Everyone else, take notes and follow these guys.

Sacramento is only 90 miles from the SF Bay Area and Silicon Valley but often seems worlds apart. One of the ways this is most evident is that it seems like everyone here works for government in some way. I thought that maybe this was just my impression, but according to a story today in the Business Journal, it’s true. According to a new study nearly three out of every ten workers in the Sacramento metro area work for state, federal or local government.  While those might unfortunately be growth industries, it’s not the kind of growth that should drive an economy.

What we need in the area are more growth companies.  Now, growth companies are often technology companies and there are many groups in the area that have been trying to nurture this this type of company for awhile including SARTA, SacStarts (my favorite) and the Sacramento Angels.

There’s a new group in town, the Hacker Lab.  On June 2nd and 3rd, they are sponsoring a two day mobile hackathon where teams will cram together and create apps on the fly.   This is awesome, this is what we need. If you can code, go in there, hack, make stuff, and who knows maybe knock us out of that #1 slot that really isn’t helping our local economy.

Here’s the thing, if you missed it when it ran, don’t worry, you can now watch the entire documentary, including a new epilogue from Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, on Youtube.

So, now, go watch Small Market, Big Heart.

Greatness isn’t about flash, it’s about being great when you need to.  Being great when you need to, happens because of hard work…every day.  Find your hill, and run it, every day.

This is what it looked like out the window. That’s a lot of bees.

We ended up calling several local “bee removal”  folks and went with Master Pest Patrol and Paul Baumeister.  I can’t recommend this guy highly enough.  He was on time, very professional, and ended up actually costing about 30% below his initial estimate.

You see from the outside we weren’t sure exactly where the bees were building their hive and thought that it might need to be accessed by cutting a hole from the inside of the house.  Now, since, this at the roof line and our entry way is pretty tall, this would be a big job. Here’s a look at the inside of that wall.  See that window at the top? It’s above that.

When Paul got here and took a closer look, he was able to get to the bees by just removing a piece of the framing, OK, not sure if that’s the right term, perhaps the edging right below the roof line.

When he was up on that ladder, this is what he saw:

Yes, that is three separate pieces of honeycomb you see there that the bees created within 3-5 days.

The estimate was that there were maybe 5,000 bees here, which is apparently a smaller group.

Once they were removed, the single piece of wood can now be replaced. So, if you are in Sacramento and a whole bunch of bees show up at your house, call this guy.

Image from AMCTV.com

Mad Men continues to include real issues faced by advertising (and yes PR firms) in an incredible show. If I wasn’t in this industry, I’m sure I would still be a fan of the show, but for me I get a bonus. I get to watch situations I encounter all the time dealt with by others.

The agency lesson for me from “Tea Leaves,” is given by Peggy Olson.  She is tasked with hiring a new copywriter for the Mohawk Airlines account, “someone with a penis,” according to Roger.  As Peggy is flipping through portfolios of applicants, art director Stan Rizzo suggests she just choose one, any one.  Peggy’s eye is caught by interesting work by Michael Ginsburg.

Ginsburg is annoying, uncomfortable to be around and…incredibly talented.  Peggy passes up many adequate candidates and chooses Ginsburg. Why?  She thinks he is better than her at writing.  That is a huge business lesson. Hire up.  With better people around you, you’ll create better work and everyone will benefit.