Launch PR

Schneider Associates earns six 2008 Bell Ringer awards

We at Schneider Associates are proud to announce our six Bell Ringer awards presented at the 2008 Bell Ringer Awards ceremony on Monday, June 2 at the Westin Boston Waterfront Hotel. 

Bell Awards:

• Advocacy Advertisement - ESAC/Boston 2010
• Press Kit - Milliken YES Essentials
• Special Event: Single Campaign - 2008 NECCO Sweethearts Conversation Hearts Program

Merit Recognition:

• Magazine/Newsletter (Print) - Consumer Buzz
• New or Social Media - 2007 Most Memorable New Product Launch
• Public Affairs Campaign - d-CON Rodent Risk Assessment

We are also pleased to announce that the William M. Cavanaugh Student Grant was presented to Amanda Mooney, a 2008 Schneider Associates intern.  Each year, the grant is awarded to a junior or senior studying in an accredited journalism, public relations or communications program at a New England college.

In the following video, Schneider Associates Vice President Julie Hall accepts the award with a congratulatory speech on Amanda's behalf:

About the Bell Ringer Awards:

"Since 1969, the annual Bell Ringer Awards competition has been recognized as the region's premier event for public relations and communications professionals.  The awards are a symbol of outstanding achievement and recognize excellence in communications and public relations work in ever field and industry and across all media - print, broadcast, and electronic." - The Publicity Club of New England

NEW PRODUCT POST: Salem's Haunted Passport

Launch Date: October 1

On October 1, Salem, Massachusetts launched Haunted Passport, a discount benefit program to city visitors. The program will be in effect through April 30 with hopes of encouraging visitors to America’s leading Halloween destination, particularly for their renowned October celebration. With interest not only in driving tourism to the destination, but also in developing a relationship with tourists, for one fee of $13, Salem offers you seven months of discounts at more than 75 Salem businesses, which is valued at $350 in savings.

The passport program will undoubtedly increase Salem’s tourism and traffic to local businesses. Now that Salem’s primary holiday season—Halloween—is a wrap, the passport promotion extends tourism beyond October 31 and makes it a year round endeavor. In fact, Salem already draws visitors year-round with its wicked history. With the added promotional bonus of a discount card, we think tourist season is bound to expand further. Travel and tourism are among the world’s largest industries—encompassing transportation, lodging, provisions and services for  travelers. For local merchants, the Haunted Passport will mean new customers, new promotions, new advertising, and new opportunities. 

Will Salem be your travel destination this year? Haunted Passports may be purchased online.

Pfizer’s New Product Launch for Overweight Dogs

Pfizer Animal Health, a global leader in discovering, developing and marketing medicines for companion animals, launched Slentrol in June, launching the first diet pill for dogs. The medicine was approved by the FDA in January and is expected to cost pet owners up to $2 per day. Slentrol target audience is 17 million canines’ owners with dogs considered to be obese, meaning they weigh 20-25% more than the breed’s ideal weight. Beyond the research and development Pfizer has done to bring this product to consumers and their canines, they have lead an impressive public relations and marketing campaign to educate consumers on the health of their pets while introducing the product to the marketplace.

Before the actual launch, two national surveys were commissioned by Pfizer Animal Health and found that only 17% of dog owners believed that their dogs were overweight. Veterinarians, however, indicated that 47% of their canine patients could be classified as overweight or obese. With this in mind Pfizer embarked on a comprehensive national public relations and marketing campaign immediately after the drug was approved by the FDA, even before it was available to consumers to educate pet owners about the health of their pets. Pfizer launched a Website called Stop Canine Obesity, featuring a Body Assessment Rating for Canines (BARC), designed to help dog owners determine if their dogs are overweight, obese or are engaging in behaviors that contribute toward canine obesity. Pfizer’s canine body assessment questionnaire encouraged dog owners to start thinking about their pet’s health and begin a dialogue with their veterinarian. BARC’s short quiz made owners think about their pets weight, visit their veterinarians and ask for the Pfizer’s new pudgy puppy drug.

Running parallel with the launch of the website was an aggressive public relations campaign to get the word out about the drug. The public relations outreach was estimated to have reached over 250 million people before it was even available for consumers to purchase. It was featured in more than 500 newspaper articles, 375 radio/TV segments and as a reference in a monologue of Jay Leno on “The Tonight Show”.

Even if not all veterinarians are immediately prescribing Slentrol, they are definitely hearing about it on the news and from questioning pet owners who are asking if Fido should be on a diet and use Slentrol. 

Given Pfizer’s approach, here are some best practices that contribute to a new product launch’s initial success:

• Find a consumer need and target the new product to a      specific audience (brand marketing),
• Conduct a survey before the launch to evaluate public      knowledge and opinion  (marketing communications),     
• Create strong partnerships with veterinarians,      patients, legislators and public about the existence and benefits of the      new product (public affairs ) and
• Let the press ask for more information and details      (media relations)

If you follow the above, you can take a real bite of any new market.

iPhone—2007’s Most Memorable New Product?

The iPhone is the most heralded new product launch of the year with sales expected to reach 3 million by 2008. Our thoughts are that the iPhone will surpass all other new products launched this year when we conduct the 2007 Most Memorable New Product Launch Survey in December.

After using my husband’s iPhone, I understand why. This phone is amazing. You just touch a button and the world is at your fingertips. I particularly enjoy watching the most popular YouTube favorites and new postings. It’s addictive and so easy. You just sit there and are entertained, 24/7.

Since we began our Most Memorable New Product Launch Survey five years ago, we have seen drastic declines in consumer recognition of new products. When we asked consumers in December to name a new product that was launched during that year, 81% could not name a single product launched—up from 57% the previous year.

We feel confident the iPhone will undoubtedly change this statistic. With all the hype around the launch of the iPhone, consumer recognition will improve dramatically in the 2007 survey. When we ask “please name a new product that was launched in 2007” without hesitation (unless they have been living under a rock) consumers will immediately reply “iPhone”.

Julie Hall’s Expertise Featured in CNN Money and Brandweek

Julie Hall, vice president of our Consumer Group was interviewed by CNNMoney.com in a special report highlighting the top 10 product launch hits and misses. In addition, she was interviewed for a piece in Brandweek on how smart brands are jumping on the “wholesome for you” bandwagon. 

On CNNMoney.com Julie shared her insights on why some of the product launches being featured were successful and how to create demand by playing off nostalgia during a new product launch. Product launches that were considered hits were Nintendo Wii, Tickle Me Elmo, Mini Cooper, Ford Mustang and the iRobot Roomba.

In Brandweek’s “More Get-Wholesome-Quick Schemes” article by Amanda Baltazar, Julie commented on how the government is considering banning junk food in schools and how food manufacturers can benefit from this trend. If the government does in fact ban junk food there will be a huge demand by schools for healthier alternatives to offer students. According to Julie, companies need to start developing more wholesome portion controlled alternatives as the writing is on the wall—schools are committed to fighting childhood obesity and are going to turn to companies which support that mission. If you haven’t seen any of our Most Memorable New Product surveys yet, click here to see which product launches consumers most remembered in 2006.

Unhappy Airline Customers Seek Retribution

Online chat rooms have long been forums for users to meet new people, discuss their interests and give advice. Now, the power of the chat room is being harnessed by disgruntled consumers to get the attention of giant corporate entities. Airline customers in particular have been harnessing the power of chat rooms and blogging to talk about their negative experiences, as customer service has been dwindling in the wake of cutbacks.

United Airlines in particular has had its share of customer service complaints, and customers are starting to fight back using the internet. Blogger, Amy Levine- Koman, points out how the chat rooms are getting noticed by airline executives, who even go so far as sponsoring events for FlyerTalk members. FlyerTalk, the leading site for airline complaints, is grabbing the attention of airlines like Continental Airlines. According to Continental, costumer service representative executives would be crazy not to pay attention to a site like FlyerTalk because of the insights it provides into how customers currently really feel about their airline experiences. Flyer talk is not alone though, and various sites such as Airline Complaints let customers chose an airline and specific category where they can post their grievances.

While these sites harbor a concentrated amount of negative feedback, it is an opportunity for airlines to target how their customers feel and what services they need to improve. These sites give the internal public relations department the ability to address the most common concerns and most vocal complainers. It is also a rallying call for the Department of Transportation to improve their complaint process, so that people will more willingly go though that avenue instead of publicly uniting against the airline.

Geographically Based Blogging

Blogging owes much of its dynamic nature to its boundless territory in cyberspace, but it seems that as the blogging phenomenon matures, some want to bring it a little closer to earth. And that may present new opportunities for public affairs practitioners.

In Brooklyn, NY, blogger and writer Steven Johnson and some of his colleagues recently launched outside.in, a blogger’s forum that is arranged by ZIP codes and provides visitors with a menu of bloggers to read within the visitor’s geographical, real-world community. Outside.in also gives cyber visitor access to an array of stories about everything from nearby crime to local restaurant reviews. The site encourages contributors to join the blogging commuity by finding and posting news stories about their neighborhood and ultimately building a geographically based blogging community.

In Boston, in a trend noted by the New York Times, the new daily commuter newspaper, Boston Now, runs subject-related blog excerpts next to news stories. John Wilpers, editor in chief of BostonNow, told the Times his aim is to try to address the difficulties newspapers have in connecting with the communities they cover. The experiment links the print news to area bloggers, providing better exposure for the latter.

It’s too early to tell if these attempts to connect social media mediums and traditional media outlets will work out, but it’s an area to watch for geographically based practitioners looking to better leverage the growing power of blogging.

Fries Please and Hold the Trans Fats

As America's waistline continues to expand and blood pressure readings go through the roof, fast food franchises in the United States are feeling a different kind of pressure. Resulting from an ordinance passed last month, all New York City restaurants are banned from using artery clogging trans fats, and have until July 1 to make the switch to trans fat free oil. Locally the township of Brookline in Boston is also considering making it illegal for any restaurant to cook with trans fat.

This demand for change is not coming solely from state legislators. Consumer groups, such as the Center for Science in the Public Interest have been pushing popular restaurant chains to use healthier cooking oils. Guilty of lowering good cholesterol and raising bad cholesterol, trans fats may increase the risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes and other complications. “To get rid of this one problem improves their customers’ health automatically, without the consumers doing anything,” said Michael Jacobson, the group’s executive director.

To comply with the New York City ordinance, companies including McDonald’s Corp., Starbucks Corp., Wendy’s International, Burger King Holdings Inc. and Yum Brands (representing Pizza Hut, KFC, and Long John Silver’s) have revealed plans to remove trans fats from all products throughout the country. "Adding nutrients to junk food is all about marketing," says Margo Wootan, nutrition policy director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington. "Nutritionally modified junk food is better  than regular junk food, but it's not going to turn cookies into apples."

With over three quarters of Americans trying to eat more healthfully, the negative sentiment associated with trans fats marks the beginning of a trend toward making consumers more health conscious without the pain of making different choices.

This trend is also causing PR pros to cook up a wide variety of strategies for quick service restaurants (QSR’s) to be responsive to this change. Removing trans fats, or adding vitamins does not transform fast food into health food. Remember, consumers are being bombarded with so many health claims they are starting to get smart about which of their favorite drive through delights say they are healthy and those that are really good for them.

PR and Consumer Trends

Some people think PR is all about writing press releases and pitching media but our span of expertise extends way beyond traditional media relations. We have our finger on the pulse of consumer trends—we conduct consumer surveys and studies and apply those insights to build innovative, successful campaigns for our clients. We understand the importance of consumer trends and how to leverage them.

Take Kimberley-Clark Corp.’s new Huggies Pull-Ups campaign—Discover the Magic Game. The company conducted research and found that family travel is on the rise. This presented an opportunity to use the brand to celebrate family vacation memories. Kimberley-Clark leveraged their consumer research on family travel to spread the word about the brand. The resulting one month PR campaign included a contest where each day a participant, who enters a UPC code from any Huggies Pull-Ups brand package, can win a trip to Disney world for the entire family. To bring additional interest to the campaign, they recruited Eileen Ogintz, a family-travel expert, to provide travel tips on the brand’s websites. 

With the help of PR, the Huggies was able to connect itself to and be the source for expert travel advice geared toward its primary audience—parents who would love to take their kids to Disney World.  Monitoring emerging trends and aligning your brand with current consumer behavior is a strategy that reaches consumers and incites enthusiasm for your brand. When you want to strengthen your relationship with your consumers… reach out to a PR agency for help.

Social Network for PR Pros

As communications professionals, we are constantly looking for new ways to reach our audiences in the most engaging and effective ways. Though traditional media still acts as an important avenue to reach target audiences, there’s no denying the recent evolution of social media and its impact on the PR world.

It only seems natural to build an online community to facilitate communication among the people who actually communicate for a living. Ragan Communications, publisher of corporate communications, public relations, and leadership development newsletters, has developed “the Facebook for PR and communications industry”(link to myragan.com). Creating this network to share tips and ideas about campaigns and practices is a huge resource to PR professionals for a variety of reasons.

First, the site allows communications professionals to create a profile and network with other communications professionals they’ve met at previous jobs, internships, trade shows, conferences, and industry workshops. Though face-to-face networking events are helpful, an easy-to-use online site that helps build local, regional and national relationships is more cost and time efficient. 

Second, the site gives communications professionals the opportunity to easily contact other practioners around the globe. Mark Ragan, CEO of Ragan Communications, notes this site benefit . “If you're a PR pro or internal communicator in Sydney Australia and you need help with a problem or want to benchmark something, you can put together a network of other communicators from around the world with a few keystrokes and get the information you need in record time.”

Networking with other professional communicators overseas could be a tremendous service to PR professionals. Certain messaging or campaign ideas that may have been successful in the United   States might be misinterpreted once different cultural and social barriers come into play. Having a connection with a professional in another country could avoid the pitfalls of implementing a program that is not appropriate for a specific country or population.

Myragan.com is another important way that social media is helping to connect people with one another. In an industry that thrives on connections to spread the word, we are delighted to have another forum through which we can communicate.