Say what you will about the mindset of Hollywood executives, they do like to reuse and recycle, even if the concept of “reduce” remains beyond their grasp.

We’ve seen the bigscreen reboots of such classics (I use that term loosely) as Charlie’s Angels, Starsky and Hutch, The Dukes of Hazard, Get Smart, The Fugitive, Bewitched and Shaft, with The A-Team on its way in 2009. It’s seen to be a safer bet to hang your hat on a franchise with some pedigree, than try to woo consumers with something entirely fresh and unique. Of course, there’s no shortage of examples where such caution has resulted in a bomb at the box office. Treading the line between attracting older consumers nostalgic for classic television and engaging younger consumers with something updated and current in the same package can be a risky proposition. As is always the case in product marketing, trying to be too many things to too many people can backfire.

All this to introduce the reboot of the mother of all franchises - Star Trek. Yes, I contend, it is bigger than Bond. All that’s left after this is the return of Gunsmoke.  

After six television series (including the animated one) and 10 theatrical releases, the entire franchise is being rebooted with a new movie and new actors in the roles immortalized by the old series, anchored around the characters of Captain James T. Kirk, Dr. Leonard McCoy and Mr. Spock. They have dared to recast these pop culture icons with fresh faces who portray them a few years prior to the time period encompassed by the original TV series. The first trailers have just hit the Internet. This isn’t your daddy’s Star Trek. It’s fast, slick and the starship interior looks like it was designed by Apple engineers. There’s even a clip in the trailer where it looks like Spock loses his temper with Kirk and takes a swing at him. (Where’s the logic in that?)

The studio is obviously hoping to engage a younger audience, after a somewhat feeble response to the last television series and theatrical movie. It remains to be seen if they are beating a dead horse with an offering that will only serve to alienate the core fanbase that has stood by the franchise all these years. With the release date still far off in May 2009, the studio has lots of time to kick the marketing and promotion into high gear (no doubt with the affiliated merchandising to pad any softness in box office revenue).

Whatever the outcome and the general audience reaction to this franchise reboot, I think there will be interesting lessons learned about marketing and managing audience expectations when meddling with such an iconic brand, much like Coca-Cola’s experience with New Coke.

Technorati Tags: marketing, promotion, Hollywood, branding, Star Trek,  Coca-Cola 

A new study commissioned by Microsoft finds that Britons spend about one quarter of their daily television habit flipping channels. But it’s hardly an attention-deficit trend limited to the U.K., or to television for that matter.

Bombarded as we all are by the sheer volume and variety of media each day, it’s a struggle to keep our attention span focused for too long on any one thing. Back in the ’80s and ’90s, there was talk of the 500-channel universe, and while the number hasn’t yet crept quite that high, the Microsoft study confirms that a near-infinite channel selection isn’t necessarily a good thing. As this study found, Brits spend an average of a week of their lives each year trying to make up their mind about what to watch, in the process often missing something they wanted to watch.

What do people do when faced with overwhelming choice? They often limit the options to what they know. The study found that more than 40 per cent stick with a handful of familiar channels, while one in three watched only the five main U.K. networks.

In the media business, channels are replaced by pitches, news releases and breaking news from the big names that demand attention. All the news that’s fit to print (or broadcast, or blog about) is too much to fit. With shrinking budgets and fewer hands on deck, media today are overwhelmed by choice, so much so that good material can get lost in the shuffle and never get fair consideration.

At inmedia, we focus on connecting with the media that matter for our clients to tell each client’s story, regardless of who those media are and if we have ever spoken to them before. We engage in a dialogue that brings our client to the attention of these specific media and educates both the journalist and ourselves on where there is a fit between what the media outlet needs and what our client does. It’s a personalized approach that can be tedious and frustrating, but crucial to rising above the noise. It’s far more effective than hoping for the best with mass e-mail blasts, or relying on ”existing relationships.”

This focused approach is the only way to take a client from being just another channel lost in a universe of hundreds, to being recognized as a useful source of information, news and perspective.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, media relations, pitching, channel surfing

I’m always on the lookout for interesting advice and insights that can serve me as a PR practitioner as well as provide insight to those interested in how things work, or should work, on this side of the fence. Here are some recent links of interest.

Be heard

As a PR gun, you are the gatekeeper for your client. It’s not only your job to take the client’s story to the media, but also to qualify and investigate media opportunities when they come knocking. Not all media opportunities are ideal for your client and some can in fact be a well-disguised sales pitch that’s nothing more than a nuisance. Even when there is an ideal fit, you must still ensure your client is prepared for the interview with an overview of what ground the journalist wants to cover and how specific questions should be answered.

This requires that you, as the PR gatekeeper, interview the journalist to some degree. As Cece Salomon-Lee at PR Meets Marketing says, you can’t be afraid to ask questions that put your client’s best interests forward. 

Communication works two ways

Meanwhile, Richard Edelman articulates the evolution of the PR function into a critical tool for public engagement that must be part of business strategy and policy formulation. His particular point that strikes close to one of our key foci here at inmedia is positioning the client as a go-to expert in certain areas relevant to their subject matter expertise to become part of a public discussion on broader issues. Maybe this kind of content doesn’t talk about your client’s products or services, but it still contributes to the marketing effort.  

Sometimes, silence is golden

Lastly, there’s much to be said about pitching your client’s story to key media in the context of current events. Under the appropriate circumstances, it can be an excellent means of demonstrating the value of your client’s product or service using a real world example of what pain point it addresses or problem it solves. It can also give teeth to that story pitch you have in mind that demonstrates your client’s authority and thought leadership in an area relevant to their market.

But note my use of the word “appropriate.” It may be wise to give hard thought to putting out a news release that references a recent event in which lives were lost, no matter how strong the case that your client’s product could have made a big difference.

This may seem like common sense, but as the folks at the Bad Pitch Blog point out, common sense doesn’t always prevail. Of course, if you are interested in finding out how quickly you can have a cocked and ready shotgun in your hands in the middle of the night, this may be just the thing for you. 

Technorati Tags: public relations, media relations, PR 101, pitching

Most of us in Canada are no doubt familiar with that amusing commercial from Rogers about a fellow bragging to his friend about his new high-definition flatscreen television, despite the fact that the picture quality is horrible because he lacks the HD box for his television to display a true HD signal.

Well, this week my eight-year-old antique gave up the ghost. I had long ago decided that, should the day come, I would go with a Sharp Aquos 1080p LCD television. Within 24 hours of the old TV’s death, I had the new one on the wall.

Now, to set up the new TV, I simply connected my standard cable without any HD box, fully expecting to be confronted by god-awful picture quality that would be unbearable to watch.

But, to my utter amazement, the picture quality was at least as good as it was on my old TV. There was none of the blurry distortion dramatized in that Rogers commercial. Maybe I am not enjoying the full HD experience, but I certainly do not feel a pressing need to rush out and buy the HD box.

Granted, this is my personal experience after having the new TV set up for only an hour. Perhaps I am missing something.

But before I even got the TV home, I was in the electronics store shaking my head at a split screen comparison of the quality difference between a regular DVD picture and a high-definition Blu-ray disc picture. Again, there appeared to be a little exaggeration at work. Later at home, I played a standard DVD movie on my standard DVD player through the new LCD TV. When compared to the split-screen comparison I saw in the store, the picture quality was much closer to that of the Blu-ray than it was to the standard DVD as it was portrayed.

Comparisons can be a very effective means of selling buyers on the merits of your product or service, but in the bid to create that ”wow” factor that allows your product to fly off the shelves, be cautious about massaging the facts. Your product may clearly be better than your competitor’s, or the status quo, but be careful about trying to present those advantages more dramatically than they really are. Sure, you may dupe the unsophisticated buyer, but, guaranteed, there are plenty of savvy people who will see through the gimmick and out you on — oh, I don’t know — a blog, perhaps?

Technorati Tags: high definition, HD, Sharp Aquos, LCD, Blu-ray,  DVD, Rogers, marketing, advertising, product comparison

Labarge Weinstein hosted yet another well-attended and informative Startup Drop-in event last night for The Ottawa Network, and the theme of the evening demonstrated how seemingly innocuous things can have a most profound impact when duplicated on a large scale.

The theme was cleantech, featuring Ron Dizy of Sempa Power Systems, a Vancouver firm that specializes in hybrid power systems that help cut utility bills for commercial and industrial buildings. Ron talked about how customers can cut their power bills by 10 to 30 per cent by switching to electrical heating during off-peak hours and back to fossil fuel-based heating when the demand for, and the cost of, electricity is at its highest.

The evening also featured three of Ottawa’s rising stars in the cleantech sphere.

Energate, which helps consumers and utilities manage and reduce energy use in the home, was represented by chairman and CEO Niraj Bhargava. He emphasized the simple truth that we’re all creatures of habit unlikely to adopt methods of energy conservation if they mean curbing our use of the domestic comforts we’ve all come to take for granted, such as heating and air-conditioning. Energate’s speciality is managing energy use in ways we can bear to live with.

Dave Gerwing, president of Menova Energy, talked about how much power there is untapped in the rays of the sun. (I believe he said enough sunlight strikes the earth in one minute to power the planet for six months. Any error in that statement is entirely mine). But the trick is to capture it. Menova has developed a high-efficiency solar concentrator that captures this clean power source for electrical power, heating and lighting, hundreds of times more efficiently and at a fraction of the cost of traditional solar power technology.

But the most profound illustration of how the little things can add up to monumental proportions came from Scott Feagan, CEO of TireStamp. His company is in the business of making devices that allow corporate fleets to monitor and manage tire pressure and condition. Sounds like a practical enough solution, but not much of a “Wow” factor, is there?

Well, then Scott started talking about how quickly an under-inflated tire wears out, how under-inflation impacts fuel efficiency, how many gallons of oil are needed to make a replacement tire, the highway fatalities attributed every year to blowouts on commercial vehicles, and the billions some of the big parcel companies pay each year in fuel, no one in that room was left with any doubt that proper tire inflation and maintenance is a huge factor in reducing global pollution and resource consumption.

As individuals, we often wonder what we can do to make a difference. The truth is, there is no magic bullet to cure our environmental challenges. But, as last night’s event demonstrated, all those little things we can do, either at home, on the road or in the workplace, can add up in a big way.

Technorati Tags: The Ottawa Network, Start Up Drop-in, Labarge Weinstein, Tirestamp, Energate, Menova, Sempa Power, clean tech, green tech

The Ottawa Citizen’s Mark Anderson wrote an entertaining and insightful piece this week about the tribulations of being a generalist business and technology reporter confronted by media releases loaded with tongue-twisting jargon.

As a former business journalist, I can certainly empathize with the challenges faced by those on the receiving end of the pitch machine. Attention spans are pinched by the news demands of the day and the host of other pitches clogging up voicemail and email inboxes. That which isn’t easily understood is easily trashed in favour of that which can be deciphered in five seconds or less.

As Mark emphasizes, this doesn’t mean that you have to try and provide the Dummy’s Guide to your client’s technology in the brief time you have to make your pitch. What you must do is convey in clear dollars and cents terms the significance of the news. Companies don’t peddle products and services unless there is an obvious financial benefit (well, they shouldn’t anyway). There’s the benefit to themselves in terms of the value they are bringing to the market, and there is the value to their clients to improve their own service offerings or drive greater efficiencies that will boost profit margins.

As we say at inmedia, it’s about the business case for the technology. Follow the money and find your story.

Technorati Tags: public relations, media relations, pitching, jargon, Ottawa Citizen, Mark Anderson 

Before I head off to a long weekend of turkey, ham and all the various and sundry other foodstuffs that go along with it, I’m joining what promises to be an A-list crowd peppered with big names from the NHL for tonight is the annual CEO of the Year gala hosted by my former colleagues at the Ottawa Business Journal.

It promises to be a memorable evening, even for one such as myself who has only a lukewarm interest in the professional hockey season, with tributes from Wayne Gretzky and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman.

They’re coming, of course, to honour the 2008 CEO of the Year, Ottawa Senators chief executive Roy Mlakar. This year’s pick, as determined by OBJ senior staff and the winners from previous years, is a departure from the typical private-sector executive one would expect in a tech-heavy town like Ottawa, but as this week’s profile in the OBJ attests,  Mlakar has proven himself a savvy and successful CEO who has confidently guided the franchise through some shaky times.

Congrats to Mlakar and hats off to the team at the OBJ for the work they do to recognize business excellence in our fair city.

Technorati Tags: Roy Mlakar, Ottawa Business Journal, CEO of the Year, NHL, Ottawa Senators, Wayne Gretzky, Gary Bettman

All right, just to make sure everyone is caught up and on the same page now, Apple CEO Steve Jobs did not have a heart attack over the weekend.

But all it took was a bogus posting to CNN’s online citizen journalism portal to demonstrate once again just how viral the web can be and and sucker punch Apple’s stock price. This has sparked plenty of commentary and navel gazing today about the risks of allowing average citizens to break so-called “news” without their scoop first being subjected to scrutiny and third-party verification. Check out Scott Karp’s take on how this was a failure of open systems and Matthew Ingram on how this was not a failure of citizen journalism.

This incident does reinforce the importance of trusted and reliable sources to bring us news and information that has in some way been confirmed and verified. The fact that CNN’s citizen journalism site, iReport, allows such misinformation to be uploaded and broadcast to the world, should serve as a wake-up call that content that’s been judged in some way is more important now than ever.

Sure, the nature of the web allowed this false report to be corrected as quickly as it was initially broadcast. But that’s irrelevant. For a period of time, those who were paying attention believed the CEO of a major publicly traded company was in a potentially life-threatening condition, with the hit to Apple’s stock price only the most obvious example of the chaos that can quickly ensure from such misinformation. As Karp says, such uncensored citizen journalism is an open invitation to those with malicious intentions to manipulate the public for their own ends. And the intent doesn’t have to be malicious for damage to be done. Someone with the most honourable of intentions can do similar harm simply by being wrong.

Of course, there should be a distinction made between eye-witness news – such as providing an account as a bystander or participant, or capturing on video a disaster or other dramatic event –and broadcasting unconfirmed rumours or outright lies. Even in this always-on world, we still need gatekeepers of some sort to make that judgment call.

Technorati Tags: citizen journalism, media, Steve Jobs, Apple, news reporting

I’ve commented before on the impending death of print and how this funeral dirge has evolved to include all traditional media since the rise of social media in all its various incarnations. Many enthusiastic proponents would have us believe that social media will soon emerge triumphant as the medium of choice for people to keep abreast of the latest news and information.

Who needs such staid institutions as daily newspapers and national television networks when citizen journalism can deliver in real-time a street-level perspective of what’s going on in the world through such avenues as Twitter, YouTube and the blogosphere?

Well, perhaps we’re turning in that direction, but there’s a long way to go yet, at least according to a report carried this week on Bulldog Reporter. According to a survey of more than 1,000 adults across the U.S., television, newspapers and radio (in that order) are still considered the most reliable sources of information ahead of online sources.

Now, we are left to assume that “online sources” refers to sources on the web other than the websites of those same television networks, newspapers and radio stations.

I contend that there will always be a distinction between in-depth coverage and analysis of the day’s news and events and the quick blurb or sound bite, from whatever source, that can be easily digested while on the go. They compliment each other, rather than cannibalize. And when it comes to seeing social media displace traditional media, I wholeheartedly agree with the viewpoint that there will always be a need for trusted sources of information with a track record of accuracy and impartiality.

As we increasingly turn to online sources of news and information that we can readily access while mobile, non-traditional sources of information will compete for our attention with the traditional. And print, radio and television will increasingly have to offer competitive online services to grab and hold readers. But it’s the commercial printing industry, in the business of killing trees, that will feel the most profound pain from this shift in our habits as consumers of news and information.

Technorati Tags: media, social media, journalism, Bulldog Reporter, radio, television, print

Kudos to Ian Graham and TheCodeFactory for renting out the entire fourth floor of the premises at 246 Queen St. in downtown Ottawa.

I had the honour of being among a select group of friends, family and supporters that celebrated the milestone last night over wine and cheese.

With the fourth floor fully rented, the facility now has a firm foundation on which to proceed as it works to drive up the volume of users for its informal co-working space on the second floor. With the start of the school year, Ian says the amount of foot traffic is rising steadily, as word gets out that this is the place to come for collaborative work, complete with full Internet access and a coffee bar as well as a Wii and a foosball table to let the steam off.

Ian launched TheCodeFactory in May to serve as a private business accelerator and incubator intended to help fill the gap between a great idea and a commercial product gaining traction in the marketplace.

TheCodeFactory’s fourth floor is the incubator space, offering office space for startups looking for a desk without all the administrative and costly aggravation of setting up their own offices. The co-working space on the second floor is intended to serve as a proving ground for entrepreneurship and innovation, for entrepreneurs at every stage and code warriors from local schools to network, collaborate, troubleshoot and refine their ideas, even connect for potential employment opportunities.

It’s a great addition to the local tech scene and Ian should be commended for his dogged persistance to get TheCodeFactory off of the ground. To say it’s been a labour of love is a gross understatement.

Congrats, Ian.

Technorati Tags: TheCodeFactory, entrepreneurship, co-working space, business incubator, accelerator