Here’s a recap of a sports marketing program that we executed to introduce a new product to a target lifestyle audience. It includes social media, influencer seeding and engagement, community development, brand ambassadors, event activation and product demos and sampling.
Feb
06
Video recap of multi-faceted sports marketing program
Jan
24
Case Study — Tee, Ski and MTB: A Strategic Approach to Getting Creative
Following an unusually late winter that drew skiers into the month of July last year, Mammoth Mountain needed to quickly transition to late-opening summertime activities—specifically golf and mountain biking—while still promoting one more “ski weekend” over the noisy Independence Day holiday.
As Mammoth’s long-time PR partner, we quickly strategized on a dual-message “seeing is believing” media campaign to position the resort’s three-sport uniqueness in a manner appealing to multiple interests. Working against the challenge of selling completely different activities simultaneously and a narrow window of opportunity, Lyman PR went onsite to shoot multiple videos targeted at general travel & lifestyle audiences as well as golf and mountain biking enthusiasts.
Specifically, getting people to understand and buy into the contrasts of a snowy mountain and lush green golf course required capturing the sense of place in order to drive interest.
Video was strategically curated for generating media interest, contributed blog content, and social media sharing. Footage and interviews with resort staff were utilized to highlight Mammoth’s multi-dimensional appeal for broad audiences.
Separate “vertical” videos were also edited featuring the resort’s golf pro and mountain biking expert—each adept at conveying a tone highly relevant to their respective enthusiasts. Finally, lodging-activity packages were created as a call-to-action for bookings.
Media Outcome
Mammoth achieved broad consumer coverage in outlets such as Los Angeles Times, USA Today, MSNBC and Gadling.com (AOL site with 2.5 million uniques), as well as specialty media: ESPN, Bike Magazine, Mountain Bike Action, Hooked on Golf and fairways and Greens. All helped generate awareness and business for the holiday weekend but also enabled the resort to “flip the switch” into summer immediately after.
Jan
10
Hincapie Sportswear Selects Lyman PR as Agency of Record
Greenville, SC and San Francisco, CA (January 10, 2012) — Hincapie™ Sportswear, the family-owned manufacturer of premium road cycling and casual apparel for consumers, teams and clubs, has selected Lyman Public Relations as agency of record.
Lyman will provide strategic public relations and communications services to build upon Hincapie’s presence with cycling and sports media as well as extend the brand’s reach to active consumer lifestyle audiences. Lyman PR will also be responsible for assisting with communications of the new UCI Continental BMC-Hincapie Sportswear Development Cycling Team.
“Lyman PR has a proven track record with consumer lifestyle media relations and communications clientele,” said Kirk Flinte of Hincapie Sportswear. “In addition to their professional experience, Chris Lyman’s background as an avid cyclist and former triathlete provides the chemistry to understand our audience and business needs.”
Led by Rich and George Hincapie, the company offers complete lines of consumer and custom cycling apparel for men and women, and is also the cycling apparel sponsor to the BMC Racing Team.
Lyman PR is a consumer lifestyle agency located in Northern California with related clients including Rhapsody, Sonos, SugarSync, SanDisk, Mammoth Mountain and Santa Catalina Island Company.
For more information visit http://www.hincapie.com/ and http://lymanpr.com.
Jan
03
2012 Analyst Predictions: The Year Digital Overtakes Physical in Music Sales
As 2011 drew to a close, with gift guides put to bed, CES set to go and 2012 planning well underway, we took advantage of the quieter last couple of weeks to assess the larger trends in some of the areas our clients do business in. 2012 is going to be a big year for content services, connected devices and the apps that pull them all together. And it seems it will be the year digital music will finally reign supreme.
Despite tales of its demise and the increasing mindshare of Apple’s iTunes, Amazon’s MP3 store and unlimited access music services like Rhapsody and Spotify, to date physical CDs sales revenue has continued to outpace revenue from all digital sources combined. According to several leading industry analysts, in 2012 digital revenue will finally take the lead from physical and content services will begin to gain momentum.
In 2008, Yankee Group issued a US Digital Music Forecast and was among the first predicting 2012 as the cross-over year, with digital sales reaching $5.34B, driven by the popularity download singles sales. In a January, 2010 report, analysts at Forrester anticipated total industry revenue to begin leveling out in 2011 at about $5.5B a year, with digital sales accounting for an increasing majority of revenue starting in 2012.
More recent analyst reports agree that 2012 will be a pivotal year for music sales, but they also address the increasing popularity of streaming content like Rhapsody that allows consumers to listen to music on myriad mobile devices and throughout the home with connected music systems like Sonos. Jai Wu of Strategy Analytics expects streaming services will begin gaining real traction in 2012 and will account for 14% of all music revenue by 2015.
Gartner’s Online Music Forecast, 2011-2015 (as reported on FierceMobileContent) points out that consumer adoption of connected devices combined with subscription and social media consumption is going to make for an interesting next several years for the music biz. The report, by Mike McGuire and Stephani Baghdassarian, asserts global subscription revenue will reach $2.22B in 2015.
Independent analyst and industry pundit, Mark Mulligan, appears bullish on services for 2012, predicting that Pandora will begin adding active users to its 100M+ userbase and that Spotify will break 3M paid subscribers globally this year. Combined with Rhapsody’s 1M+ paying members in the US, new mobile-focused services like MUVE Music bringing 200k+ new subscribers into the fold and dozens of other services adding several hundred thousand more, the digital music audience has reached critical mass.
2012 will be the year that digital distribution begins to dominate. Access-based music experiences will reach the mass consumer market in a meaningful way via mobile phones, tablets and connected devices like Sonos. In 2012, more people will be enjoying more music in more ways than ever.
Dec
30
11 New Year’s Resolutions for PR and Marketing Professionals
As we prepare to ring in the new year, let’s take a few minutes to reflect on what’s most important as a marketer or PR practitioner, particularly as the media landscape continues to evolve. Here are Carm’s PR and marketing resolutions in PR Daily.
Below are some reminders and/or resolutions related to our practice. These are simple rules. And the best part: they’re fairly easy to incorporate into working life, yet as guiding principals can make a big difference.
Resolve to be a better writer—in 140 characters or less. In an age of tweeting, being succinct is key and helps in making your content viral.
Resolve to think outside the confines of “traditional” PR. Instead of relying on an age-old press release, ask if a topic is better suited to a blog or social media post.
Resolve to know your audience. “Beats” are fluid in these days of the continuous news cycle. Know your audience and their of-the-moment interests. Resolve to check your contacts’ latest posts and tweets before reaching out with an idea or topic.
Read the rest of Carm’s predictions here.
Happy New Year, All!
Dec
16
Measuring Against Your PR & Communications Objectives
Last week we wrote about the need for PR measurement, acknowledging the challenges many agencies and their clients have in demonstrating results. The mark of successful PR programs ultimately lies in how well they help you achieve real business objectives, whether that’s generating greater marketplace awareness, increasing sales, or boosting customer satisfaction.
In truth, you can measure PR however you want; it all comes down to goals. While different objectives call for different metrics, once you’ve decided what to measure, you can look at two key ways to help assess your PR performance.
Quantitative Measurement
Whether you’re measuring traditional media placement or social media penetration, tracking the number of clips, hits, and impressions can provide a general sense of success. The greater the pickup, the more people are seeing and reading about your company, product, or service.
Trends can also be identified over a period of time. For example, to measure web traffic, a tool like Google Analytics will show the volume of traffic from one point in time to the next. You can then drill down to see what may have caused the ups and downs, and specifically, if the media program was a driver. Seeing a spike in coverage following an article placement or press release would indicate that those PR programs are driving increase in awareness or perhaps even call-to-action.
Qualitative Measurement
But volume is not all that matters. While clips are great, they don’t mean much if they’re not reaching your target audience with the right message. That’s where qualitative measurement comes in, and it requires a bit of deeper dive into results.
A qualitative analysis of coverage and content will measure things like: number of measurements in key/target publications; number of articles containing a key message; the tone of coverage (positive, negative, or neutral); and the level of thought leadership or influence. Whether you conduct this qualitative analysis manually or using a clipping service, it will point to whether your PR activity is on target –hitting the right audience with the right message—while also indicating where you stand among your competitors.
A Little Bit of Both With Social Media
With social media, we’re seeing somewhat of a convergence of the two. Online reporting tools such as Facebook Insights can provide data on both quantitative (e.g., number of “Likes” and Comments) and qualitative (level of engagement around particular content) measurement data. It’s a bit of a diversion from traditional PR, where you’re simply trying to make noise in the marketplace. As the name implies, it’s an “Insight” that you can use to tweak your content strategy and delivery information in the format that your audience wants.
Based on your goals, you can decide what the best way to measure is: quantitative, qualitative, or both. In many cases today—outside of a specific product launches or calls-to-action—PR is about achieving results over time, and these forms of measurement can be quite useful in tracking your success.
Dec
12
Yes, PR Measurement is Difficult—But Necessary
As we wrap up another calendar year, hopefully chock full of business success, it’s a good time to reflect back on what worked and what didn’t. In fact, most clients expect some form of measurement, whether it’s managed by an agency, an in-house staff, or both. For PR practitioners, however, measuring the effectiveness of programs is a difficult task. Primarily because there’s no “silver bullet”— no perfect single tool or utility to get it done. So, with no widely accepted standard accepted standard for doing so, how do you accurately measure PR?
It really comes down to what you’re trying to measure. For example, if your goal is to increase general awareness of a company, brand, product or service, you will most likely measure the number (and percentage) of media placements in target publications over a specific period of time. If you’re striving to increase call-to-action, you should be measuring the mechanisms in place to generate response. An online “click now” or “book to order” campaign, for example, should be measuring specific website traffic for the given URLs.
Once you know exactly what you’re measuring, based on your program objectives, you can seek out specific tools to help you out. In the second example above, for example, Google Analytics would provide a quick and easy way to gather measurement data.
In today’s social media world, it’s getting a bit easier to leverage built-in tools to see how well you’re doing. An increase in “likes” on Facebook, number of followers on Twitter, or comments to your weekly blog demonstrates engagement—and an important sign that you’re hitting your target audience with the right content and messages.
Of course, traditional media monitoring still has its place in PR measurement. In fact, most PR agencies and their clients emphasize publicity results and the number of clips they generate. This remains a predominantly manual, “heavy lifting” task to measure success but can provide an accurate quantitative (volume) and qualitative (message relevance, tone of coverage) analysis on your PR effectiveness with target outlets and audiences.
Because PR measurement is such a broad concept, these are just a few examples of how you can achieve some form of tangible measurement. Yet while measuring specific PR programs is necessary and valuable task, at the end of the day—or year—your success will hinge on how well PR helped move the corporate sales needle. In our next post, we’ll provide some examples of this type of true end results.
Dec
02
Lyman PR Pick of the Week: Rockin’ Rhapsody’s 10th
At Lyman PR we like music. On occasion, we also like parties. Since Rhapsody’s 10th Anniversary Party on December 7th combines both, it’s our Pick of the Week.
The deets: Celebrate 10 years of Rhapsody at Showbox at the Market, with performances by Built To Spill, Thao and Mirah and a DJ set from John Richards of KEXP. The party is December 7th, 2011 and doors open at 8pm. This show is free and 21 and over only. RSVP at http://rhapsody10year.eventbrite.com/.
Nov
30
Speaking Opps are a Daily Opportunity Thanks to Social Media
For those of us who like to talk—and, most important, be heard—social media presents myriad opportunities to “speak” with greater frequency and to a much broader audience. Following up on our previous post, Leveraging the Long Tail of Speaking Ops In The New World, there’s significant value to business and marketing leaders who can deftly utilize blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the like.
While social media represents a much less formal platform than traditional presentations, panels, and other speaking engagements, they offer something much greater in return: the opportunity to voice your message to millions on a daily basis. Whether you want to promote a brand, share thought leadership, or simply express your opinion, you can do so through a blog, post, tweet, or video—at a fraction of the time and cost associated with in-person venues.
Beyond frequency, social media also enables you to engage more people over a longer period of time. You can talk to virtually anyone online, versus speaking on a single topic to a limited physical audience.
For example, by posting a comment on an industry article—ideally a message beneficial to your company or brand—you are immediately connecting with an audience that shares an interest on the topic. A YouTube video touting your product or service is yet another simple way to attract an audience that is searching a particular subject related to your business. In short, you can quickly gain a following by making yourself and your company present through social media.
When leveraging social media you have a variety of “podiums” from which to speak. Send a quick tweet (at 140 characters or less). Post a message on Facebook, integrating multimedia. Write a blog to pontificate at greater length. And don’t be afraid to try something completely new, such as a Google+ Hangout for a real-time, interactive dialog on a given topic.
All of these formats can nicely compliment your existing marketing and PR efforts, and perhaps even transform the way you are viewed—er, heard—throughout the industry.
The take-away: Rethink what a speaking opportunity really is, and consider leveraging social media as an omnipresent podium to get your voice heard more often, by more people.
Nov
23
Leveraging the Long Tail of Speaking Ops In The New World
Once upon a time, in the heyday of events and tradeshows—and we’re only talking a decade ago—companies flocked to the podium for a chance to tout their wares in front of massive audiences. But like many good things, speaking opportunities took a hit on the heels of the dot-com bust and subsequent years of corporate belt-tightening.
Not only did the number of events and tradeshows dwindle, but even the surviving opportunities saw a significant drop in attendees. For their part, marketing and public relations departments struggled to justify sending an executive or subject matter expert to speak to, in many cases, just a handful of attendees.
Today, however, as companies work to pull out of the economic downturn, we’re seeing a resurgence of speaking opportunities. It’s not so much a numbers game, as the volume of events, tradeshows and speaking venues remains a fraction of what once was. But the more savvy and creative PR practitioners are realizing the value of speaking opportunities in the new world.
Beyond the Seats
The success of a speaking opportunity can no longer be measured by the physical audience. Whether there’s tens or thousands in attendance, it’s important to realize the broader reach of a speaking opportunity. The ability to post presentations, webcasts, videos and the like online now create a virtual audience of millions for your content. Moreover, most program directors will provide marketing of your content and company through their promotional tools.
You Have What it Takes
How many times have you attended or viewed a presentation yourself and thought “I could do as good, if not better, job than this speaker!” Chances are, you can—so what’s stopping you? PR departments should leverage their well-spoken leaders and content experts to get their company, products and services out there. Not only does it create a perception of market leadership, but it’s often a great networking opportunity with your industry peers.
Splash it Everywhere
The content you build for a speaking opportunity can, and should, be presented, published and promoted at every turn. Seek ways to deliver the same content in different ways—through your website, a white paper, an industry article, and certainly social media. Just posting it online or writing a blog, for example, extends the reach of your material, as web crawlers and search engines will pick up the keywords and surface it to a much broader audience.
Speaking of, our next blog post will go more in-depth on how to get your voice heard through social media, including blogs, Facebook, Twitter and the like. Until then…