Photo by Adam Kalsey

I recently moderated a panel of local Sacramento startup founders on guerilla marketing and what we called PR hacks.  How to breakthrough and get the word out without breaking the bank.

Along the way we talked about the use of faux-protests, by Salesforce.com when they launched, Oreo’s recent a cappella flash mobs across New York and heard from people on the front lines of making people learn about their business including:

• Robb Moore, CEO of ioSafe, who has made a business out of building indestructable hard drives and a career out of devising ways to show them off;
• Brett Owens, CEO and founder of both Chrometa and LeadDyno, who shared his methods for getting the most out of a trade show experience without blowing budget on a booth;
• Beth Dodson, co-founder of HomeZada, who uses partnerships to help get the word out;
• Alex Lowe, CEO of iSnap, who has created a product that itself is intrinsically guerilla and are now placed in cool places all over the US; and
• Aaron Klein, CEO of Riskalyze, who pivoted from his initial customer target and marketing plan and now spends a lot of time using web-based guided tours and face to face meetings to close deals.

The whole panel runs about an hour and can be viewed on the Social Media Club Sacramento channel on Ustream.  if you don’t want to watch the whole thing here’s a few tips from the panelists:

• Sure, it’s fun to blow things up, but if you are going to do a stunt make sure it maps back to what you are trying to show about your product;
• If you can’t be good, be really, really bad. Example, don’t go halfway at a trade show. Stand out, at either end of the spectrum;
• If you’re measuring, don’t be afraid to try something risky. If you see a positive result, do it again; and
• Be a source of information for reporters before you ask them to write about you.

Image from RunnersWorld.com

Everyone has a different reason for running.  I read an article over the weekend about a man named Bret who runs.  It’s what he does.  Bret Dunlap suffered a traumatic brain injury when he was hit by a pickup truck at age six.  It’s an amazing story, powered by tremendous writing.  Bret’s a runner, and Steve Friedman is a writer. Together, they have shared greatness.

Bill Gates. Image from NPR.org

I’ve probably heard hundreds of Bill Gates interviews over the years.  In many of them, he was somewhat awkward, sometimes combative and sometimes he jsut walked out when interviews didn’t go his way.

While driving home tonight, I heard Bill Gates being interviewed on NPR about trying to help eradicate polio (note he gives incredible kudos to Rotary International for their amazing strides in this cause).  His passion for this cause surpassed anything I’ve heard him talk about in those hundreds of interviews.  Accordingly he spoke more convincingly than at any time I’ve experienced.

If you have problems as a public speaker, find out why.  Apparently for Bill Gates, it’s because he cares a lot more about keeping kids from becoming paralyzed than he does about making more software. After hearing him tonight, I’m on board with wherever he is going.

Christopher Stanley as Henry Francis in an image from AMCTV.com

Over the past few years, I’ve written posts about “Agency Lessons from Mad Men.”  I haven’t written about this season yet.  Part of it, is that nothing has jumped out at me.  Last night there was a point made offscreen about crisis management.

A driver of the episode was the tragic murder of  Martin Luther King Jr. and how this impacted the characters and New York.  That night and over the following days, riots ripped through many cities across America, but not New York.  Why?  One of the reasons was planning.  Mayor Lindsay had been building relationships with leaders in the African American community in Harlem for months.  Not just high profile leaders, but the people who were real influences on the streets.

When he heard about the assassination, the Mayor immediately went uptown to Harlem, jumped out of his car and walked through the streets talking with people. This was told through the voice of Betty‘s husband, Henry Francis, a Lindsay aide.  Here’s a great article from The Morning News about “The Night New York Avoided a Riot.”

Why is this applicable to agencies and PR?  I spend a lot of time right now on crisis communications, and one of the core tenets of effectively dealing with a crisis is having built alliances and relationships before you need them.  There’s a line in “Spy Game,” which is a somewhat forgettable movie but has a great quote delivered by Nathan Muir where he asks his assistant, “When Did Noah build the ark Gladys? Before the rain..before the rain.”

The other lesson in crisis communications, is showing up, being real and being accessible.  People are less likely to strike out when the object of their rage is a real person.  If it’s a faceless corporation, or a lack of authority, it’s easier for a mob mentality to take control.  By jumping out of the car and being there, Mayor Lindsay did the 1968 equivalent of a Reddit AMA or Twitter availability to deal with an online crisis in 2013.

So, the lessons from this week:

• Build the ark, or make friends, before it rains; and
• Don’t be afraid to be in front, be a person and be real.

They do a great job of communicating with fans, and do it with an eye to backstage access as well as humor.  Last night, a player from the San Diego Padres charged the Dodgers pitcher after being hit with a pitch. Benches cleared. This morning the official LA Dodgers Twitter account posted.

See you on Monday in Los Angeles: http://t.co/y2E5e4TBzq—
Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) April 12, 2013

Image from Getty via OnTheMedia.org

One of the byproducts of the democratization of online content publishing is that anyone can easily publish and share their own information.  This is true if you are an individual, a company, or a politician.

The “owned” channel of communication including a blog, or other social channels makes direct communication possible without having to work with the media to transmit news or a message.

According to a recent segment from “On the Media,” from NPR, “frustration is growing in the White House press corps because of limited access to the “transparency” president. Bob goes to the White House to find out how the role of the press corps is changing under this media savvy administration.”

Listen to the whole segment about frustration in the White House press corps, then go out and see how you can better communicate directly with your audiences.

Note the irony of when I listened to the segment from On The Media, it was sponsored by Squarespace.

Jim Valvano’s speech from 1993. It’s 20 years old now. Still amazing. No matter what it is you are doing. Don’t give. Don’t ever give up.

A few notes:
- He explains why his speech will be the way it is, no cue cards;
- Breaks things up in segments, first with three things you should do every day. You should laugh, you should think and you should cry;
- Next another list of three, where you started, where you and where you’re going to be;
- Next he tells a humorous story about Vince Lombardi firing up his team with a speech about focusing on three things, your family, your religion and the Green Bay Packers;
- He establishes himself as human with a humorous anecdote;
- He recaps the advice, and ends with a memorable call to action. Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up.

He is a master at telling stories about average people doing cool things.  Tonight I ran across an article he wrote in 2009 about a group of people who have the goal of building a better stove.  I’m not talking about a fancier La Cornue.  These folks are trying to build stoves for the other 50%.  The 50% of people who burn solid fuel every day for warmth and for cooking.  

According to the article,”The average cooking fire produces about as much carbon dioxide as a car, and a great deal more soot, or black carbon—a substance 700 times as warming ,” that’s atmosphere warming not by the fire warming.

With four billion people building a fire this way every day, it’s a huge impact, on fuel, on the atmosphere and on their lungs.  Well to make them better and make a global impact they need to:

1. Reduce fuel use by more than 50 percent.

2. Reduce black carbon by more than 60 percent.

3. Reduce childhood pneumonia by more than 30 percent.

4. Be affordable (US$10 retail or less).

5. Cooks love it.

6. Gets funded.

The problem is described as “Building a stove is simple. Building a good stove is hard. Building a good, cheap stove can drive an engineer crazy.” 

No problem. Um no.  I’m fascinated by this. This applies to marketing as well. Marketing is easy.  Good marketing is hard.  Good marketing on a tight budget can drive people like me crazy.

I’m going to see how I can participate.  Who wants to try and build some stoves?

I thought I was ahead of the game. I called on Tuesday February 12th to order flowers from Verbena in El Dorado Hills for my wife on Valentine’s Day.  I figured I would stop by on my way home on the 13th and pick them up. Put them in the fridge in the garage on Wednesday night and boom, I’m good to go with flowers when she wakes up.

As sometimes happens, I was a little late getting out of the office and wasn’t going to make it.  While driving, I received a call asking if I was going to make it before they closed. I said probably not. They offered to wait for me, but given traffic I said, thank you but I’ll pick them up tomorrow.

Well, tomorrow is today and I’m running late again.  While driving from Sacramento to El Dorado Hills, I’m on a conference call and see that the florist calls again.  It’s well past their closing time when I roll in to the parking lot and all the lights are off.  At that moment, when I’m rolling through the options of picking through the carnage that would be left at Safeway at 6 pm on Valentine’s Day, a message pops up on my phone.

It was the florist. They had left the flowers out for me and told me where they were.  Just stop by or call and pay us when you can.  I had never been there before. Never bought anything from them.  They now have a customer for life.  Well done Verbena.