If you have interest in attending please email ckellogg@schneiderpr.com:

Public relations is all about putting the right message in front of the right people at the right time.  Traditional media is one of the main channels we use to drive our clients’ messages, but, while a great tool, articles can often dilute the clients’ messages.

Enter the byline.  Byline articles, guest columns and op-eds are great ways to get your clients’ messages directly to their audiences without any third party interference.  Bylines are a great tool for PR, but they can also be stressful for practitioners who may not have a journalism writing background. By following a few simple tips you can successfully write and place a byline and position your client as a leader in their field.

1.    Have a target in mind

Choose a publication before you draft anything.  The outlet will help drive the content of the byline, while providing guidelines for length and style.  If you don’t decide where you want to place a story before you write it, it may end up collecting dust rather than reaching your audience.

2.   You aren’t the expert – your client is

Tap into your clients’ expertise for bylines.  Hop on a call to chat about the subject, email them questions to pick their brains or include prompts in a draft of the piece.  This will improve the byline’s content and lessen the chance of massive edits on the client’s end.

3.   Be mindful of length

One of the first things a paper’s editor will tell you is the word length.  Pay attention to it.  You can say a lot more with 1,500 words than you can with 500, so knowing from the beginning will help you get your points in without going over the limit.  Also, save room for your client, who may add 100-200 words during the editing process.

4.   Don’t be afraid to censor the client

While the client is the expert on the topic, you are the expert on the media, so don’t be afraid to share your opinions.  If something doesn’t fit in the byline, say so, but be sure to offer an alternative solution, such as a blog post or video on the new topic.

5.   Do your research

Make your byline as timely as possible by connecting it to breaking news, current events or holidays.  This will make your piece more interesting to your target audience and up the chances of them reading the byline.

Once you’ve written and placed a byline, the work isn’t quite over!  To get the most bang for your buck, make sure you’re sharing the placement through all of the client’s social media channels, writing a blog post on the topic, exploring other outlets for additional coverage or recording a video of the client discussing the topic.  This placement is your opportunity to get the right message across to the right audience – so make sure you’re getting the word out there!

 

Register FREE ($60 value) with shareable code: 2012TopTen 

It’s never been more difficult to launch a new product. Consumers are more fragmented than ever.  With 40,000 products launched each year, how can marketers make sure their launch will stand out?Join us in this Google+ Hangout with brand experts from the 11^th Annual Most Memorable New Product Launches who will share how they leveraged earned, owned and paid media spend to create a launch that captivated consumers and led to incredible sales.

Launch Expert and Author, Julie Hall, Behavioral Research Expert Aaron Reid, and moderator the Founder of The CMO Club Pete Krainik and brand representatives from Taco Bell, Pepsi, and McDonald’s will talk about the 2012 Most memorable new Product Launch findings, like:

• How “Men Are The New Women’ on Madison Avenue
• Why “Made in the USA” is more important than ever
• How social media may not be considered “earned media” anymore
• Don’t launch your new product in an election year, and
• A look back on the best launches of the past decade what marketers can learn from them

Recently, Texas A&M released its annual “Mobility Report” on traffic conditions in the nation’s 498 largest metropolitan areas. The results aren’t pretty, especially for Boston commuters. According to the study, Boston is the fifth worst area for traffic, with drivers spending an average of 53 idle hours in their cars last year. Only Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York rank worse.

As traffic jams and work days have grown longer, employees have made a reasonable commute a top priority in choosing a job. As a result, the corporate housing model of companies clustered in urban downtowns or remote office parks is changing. Today, businesses looking for office space increasingly require nearby housing and lifestyle options for employees. Consequently, municipalities that offer all-in-one mixed-use developments are more attractive to top companies as corporate headquarters.

This was the case in Marlborough, Mass. where Atlantic Management purchased a 109-acre corporate campus that had housed technology companies such as Hewlett Packard beginning in the 1960s. Atlantic initially looked to lease the space commercially, but companies were hesitant to commit fearing that top employees could be not be retained without more amenities and high-end residential options. The same corporate concerns impacted over one million square feet of office space that were permitted in the area but unbuilt.

In response, Atlantic proposed a self-contained development unique in the Boston-Worcester I-495 corridor, Forest Park, with one million square feet of office space, 350 high-end, amenity rich apartments, a hotel, and retail and restaurant options.

“Today’s top companies want to offer employees the ability to live, work, and play with convenience,” said Riemer & Braunstein senior partner Robert Buckley, who worked alongside SA’s public affairs team, leading the campaign for project approval in the community. “The days of the hour-long commute are ending. And mixed-use developments allow companies the ability to offer the amenities and convenience of city living in a more intimate setting, at a lower cost.”

After extensive outreach to local leaders and elected officials, the idea of next-generation zoning took hold, and the Marlborough City Council unanimously approved Forest Park.

As traffic congestion gets worse, municipalities and private companies willing to be innovative have an opportunity. The challenge is educating local leadership and the voting public this new live, work, and play concept is viable- and good for the tax base- in their community. At Schneider Associates, we have developed a trademarked Community Launch program that educates and persuades communities and moves the needle for controversial economic development projects.

Leasing at Forest Park has progressed rapidly, with Quest Diagnostics planning to move a thousand employees from Cambridge to Marlborough and other companies showing serious interest. Just one year ago it would have been hard to imagine Marlborough competing with amenity-rich Cambridge for a leading company like Quest, but Forest Park has helped change the dynamic. Ultimately, this mixed-use development will bring Marlborough not only economic growth but improvements in quality of life.

Chris Meehan, Deputy Director of Public Affairs

(Photo courtesy phandroid.com)

Yesterday, USA Today featured the results of the 2012 Most Memorable New Product Launch (MMNPL) survey in a snapshot on the front page of the Money section. The snapshot announced the top five most memorable new products of 2012 according to our  survey. Amazon’s Kindle Fire topped the list with a surprising 30% of respondents remembering the product launch, even though it had been almost a year since the Kindle Fire first hit the market. Taco Bell’s comeback was solidified by the Doritos Locos Taco coming in at the number two spot, followed by Tide Pods, a launch whose huge marketing budget clearly made and impression on consumers. Pepsi Next, the reduced calorie soda, and the Samsung Galaxy Note smartphone rounded out the top five, showing that soda can still compete with big tech products when it comes to making a connection with consumers.

Stay tuned for the release of the full results of the 2012 MMNPL survey, including key consumer purchasing behavior insights.

By Joan Schneider, President and Creative Director, Schneider Associates

At Harvard Business School, they always talk about managing by walking around.  It’s hard to have new ideas when you are constantly sitting in the office—talking to the same people, looking at the same scenery, thinking about things in the usual way.

I’ve found that travel is one way to do this, as well as an excellent way to bring color to my work life. Recently, I attended Art Basel in Miami, the global art fair where in one tent alone were featured $2 billion of art.  Painting, sculpture, experiential works—anything you can think of was exhibited at Art Basel.

Art lovers from around the world gathered to see what’s happening in the art world and to be part of the “in crowd” attending this bi-annual event (also held in Switzerland, where the fair began).

The coverage of Art Basel in The New York Times and the Miami Herald focused as much on the fashion, shoes and people-watching at the fair as they did on the art.  It was a scene.

The biggest takeaway for me is how viewing the art inspired me to create art.  I saw this statue that I fell in love with…it was originally a garden statue that had been re-engineered to have a smooth surface in bright green. When I innocently asked how much it costs, I learned there were only two in the world and each costs $325,000—only slightly out of my price range. The good news is this wacky statue inspired me to buy a small statue (from Homegoods at $39, reduced from $100), plus some bright pink paint to create my own art.

Most importantly, I came back to work feeling energized and full of colorful ideas to launch because of three days spent looking at one of the world’s largest exhibits of first class art.  I believe the art of business can be enhanced and enlightened by the business of creating art.

But next year, I am going to spend more time ‘creating’ my outfit, since fashion is an important aspect of the visual experience at Art Basel.  The smarter your outfit, the more people talk to you—the more people that talk to you—the more you will learn and that’s why one makes the pilgrimage to Miami—to shake up the creative molecules in your brain.

Here’s a picture of the statue I created as a result of Art Basel. Her name is Artemesia and she formerly was beige, but after Art Basel, she’s hot pink.  There’s no doubt she’s way more exciting in fuscia.

Joan Schneider, President and Creative Director

To learn more about how WorldCom and its partners give our clients “The Local Advantage”, watch this 75 second video peek.

In the below video case study, Panasonic‘s Marketing Director Stephen Yeo gives a firsthand account of how WorldCom helped Panasonic solve B2B Communication challenges.

By Catherine Kellogg and Chris Meehan

In January 2010, the Massachusetts Democratic Party was handed a crushing loss when Scott Brown defeated Martha Coakley in a special election to fill the Senate seat of the late Ted Kennedy. Coakley and her advisors made the crucial mistake of relying too heavily on her well-known record as attorney general and their party’s significant structural advantages, and took victory for granted.

This election cycle, Massachusetts Democrats ran a candidate, Elizabeth Warren, whose national reputation dwarfed even Coakley’s well-known career. This time, the party did not rely on its candidate’s name recognition or take her local appeal for granted. To win, Warren’s campaign and the state party built a “remarkable grassroots operation that took voter turnout to new levels,” according to state Democratic Chairman John Walsh. Thousands of hours were spent gathering voter information, canvassing across the state, calling supporters and undecideds, and developing targeted outreach strategies. The coordinated Democratic campaign registered thousands of new voters and targeted those who were registered but had not voted in many years. Volunteers visited an estimated 242,000 households throughout the campaign. On Election Night alone, about 20,000 volunteers, a number ten times the 2010 effort, continued turning out pre-identified supporters. Through these strategic grassroots efforts, the Warren campaign and the state Democratic Party were not only able to build Warren’s popularity and dilute Senator Brown’s support base, but generate record turnout in cities and towns across Massachusetts.

Too often, political candidates and private companies assume their good reputations and positive platform will translate into community support, and do not take the time to truly engage the community from which they seek approval. This is when the true value of grassroots campaign efforts can be seen. It’s our belief at SA that no one candidate or issue, no matter how popular or prominent, can win a campaign based on merit alone. Massachusetts Democrats learned this lesson the hard way in 2010, and made sure this election cycle would end differently for Elizabeth Warren. In the end, local engagement through grassroots network-building won out and Democrats found victory.

Chris Meehan, Deputy Director of Public Affairs

Catherine Kellogg, Account Coordinator, Public Affairs

Marketing experts discuss new focus on the customer as a channel for new product launches at FutureM

Boston, MA – October 23, 2012 – Julie Hall, EVP and partner at Schneider Associates, the global leader in Launch Marketing, and other prominent Boston-area marketing and communications leaders participated in a panel discussing the important role of “Social Launch” at FutureM during Boston’s Innovation Week on Wednesday, October 23 at Hynes Convention Center.

With more than 40,000 new product launches every year, it is increasingly difficult to introduce a product in the new global, 24/7 marketplace. Understanding the customer has always been key, but involving the customer deeply in your launch hasn’t been possible until now.  Marketing in the new millennium uses the customer as a channel and mandates “Participation” as the fifth “P,” connecting Product, Placement, Promotion and Price. Leading global brands are already encouraging customer collaboration in their marketing, but forward-thinking companies will soon need to harness their social media communities as an additional channel during the launch phase.

The “Social Launch” session at FutureM, which focused on harnessing the power of social communities when introducing a product, was moderated by Hall, who has held strategy and account leadership positions at Arnold Worldwide, Cone, and Manning Selvage and Lee prior to joining Schneider Asssociates.  During Boston Innovation Week, she collaborated with Boston’s top marketing experts to guide the conversation and debate various topics.  Panelists included:

• Aaron Reid- Founder and Chief Behavioral Scientist, Sentient Decision Science- With a Ph.D. in experimental psychology and a published research record in consumer decision-making, Aaron Reid has developed advanced methods of assessing the subconscious drivers of consumer behavior at industry and academic conferences.

• Stephen Springfield- Senior Director, Marketing Strategy & Analytics, PepsiCo/Frito-Lay- With 20+ years of experience and a career spanning Music Retailing, Foodservice & CPG roles at both Coca-Cola & PepsiCo, Stephen Springfield has worked as a strategist andconsultant for some of the world’s largest brands.

• Rich Armstrong- Co-founder, my-take, LLC- Rich Armstrong is an executive with a track record of success in a variety of roles with experience in Marketing, Product Management, Sales and Business Development.

• Todd Hoskins- Co-founder, my-take, LLC- A seasoned marketing executive, Todd Hoskins has led brand revitalization efforts, developed and launched successful new products, launched an Effie award winning advertising campaign and introduced grass roots mobile marketing programs.

For more than a decade, Schneider Associates and Sentient Decision Science have been conducting the Most Memorable New Product Launch Survey, which forecasts trends in marketing, from word of mouth to social media.  In 2011, more consumers cited social media, like Facebook, Twitter, blogs and forums, as the way they found out about new product launches, collectively rivaling television advertising for the first time in the survey’s ten year history. To harness the power of social media, using the customer as a channel and partnering with them in a meaningful way is not only possible, it has become mandatory.

Schneider Associates is using Most Memorable New Product Launch findings and putting Social Launch into practice at its office in Boston’s Financial District. The agency views Launch as applicable to a wide array of clients and industries – whether they are launching a new product, service, company, technology, organization or community – and applies the lessons learned from marketing new products to all practice areas.

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