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Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Museum of Inuit Art
honoured with Design Award by
Canadian Interiors Magazine

The newly launched Museum of Inuit Art (MIA), in the southwest corner of the Queen's Quay Terminal Building at Toronto's historic Harbourfront Centre, was honoured with a Project Award by Canadian Interiors Magazine as part of their 10th annual design competition.

Architect Pat (Patricia) Hanson of Toronto's gh3, a boutique architectural firm, was honoured by her peers for her fresh, stark, angular design that evokes the drama of the Canadian Arctic.

A full-page article appeared on page 42 of the magazine's July-August 2007 issue. MIA is an FPC client.

Saturday, July 7

Taylor'd Bagels, FPC client, featured in The Toronto Star

 "... in Oakville, buzz is building for Taylor'd Bagels (2501 Third Line).

FPC is the proud buzz-builder for Taylor'd Bagels, one of our clients.

Read more about the Toronto Star story about Montreal Style bagels, other Jewish foods for Jews and non-Jews alike, on the Taylor'd Bagels web site, here.

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Gordon Ramsay: 
chef & change agent

British chef Gordon Ramsay has two television programs on right now in Canada:  Hell’s Kitchen, airing on Fox and Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, airing on the Food Network.

There is a lot to learn about running a successful restaurant from Ramsay. And, for corporations, there is also a lot to learn about change management from Ramsay: 

1. Ramsay is actually one of the few who is willing to deliver tough messages.

2. Change management is not for the faint of heart:  crying and screaming!

3. Many supposedly "trained chefs" are actually unqualified to be chefs. Head chefs don’t act like leaders:  cannot plan menus, manage time, delegate or follow-up.  The parallel in organizations is many leaders are equally unqualified.  

4. The effect on the kitchen staff (or organization) of leaders who don’t lead is that team members become demoralized.

5. Team members who don’t respect each other and cannot get along:  chef, head waiter and wait staff are all at odds.

6. Chefs and/or team members who don’t pull their weight, but who have plenty of “attitude” to compensate!

7. Team members who protect each other for the wrong reasons:  because “we are friends.”

8. Restaurant owners who, even when told what they need to do to turn their restaurant around, don’t act on Ramsay’s advice. Why? Because they don’t like to deliver the bad news and fire people.  

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Tips for communicating
in a crisis

Aaron Brown, former ABC and CNN news anchor

The June 2007 issue of Mississauga Business Times has, on page 16, an article I wrote on communicating in a crisis. The article was inspired by a one-day conference organized by Tom Axworthy and the Queen's University Centre for the Study of Democracy. Highlight of the day was the after-lunch keynote speech by Aaron Brown, former ABC and CNN anchorman.

We will reproduce the Mississauga Business Times article here shortly.

Monday, May 7, 2007

MEDIA RELATIONS
Taylor'd Bagels has made its second TV appearance

First Principles client Taylor'd Bagels hosted Real Life television show host Sharon Caddy and her production crew, taping a program shown Wednesday, April 25. Real Life is produced by the CTS Television Network.

It was a great show, with Sharon rolling her own bagels.

PHOTOS: Visit our Real Life television program page on the Taylor'd Bagels web site here to see some of the photos we took during production.

Taylor'd Bagels has since shut down.

MEDIA RELATIONS  2 :
Letterman show a source of legitimate news

Following on the heels of the story immediately below, we learn this week, via "Late Night With David Letterman," the plans of U.S. Senator John McCain to run for the Republican presidential nomination.

MEDIA RELATIONS 1:
Comedy Central channel a source of legitimate news

Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show," that mocks the foibles and faux-pas of politicians and airs nightly is now actively seen by media relations professionals as a legitimate media placement for their clients.

Recent Stewart guests included Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama. And on January 29, Bill Gates announced the new Windows Vista operating system on the show. Gates was trying to answer Stewart's sometimes silly and always mocking questions ... and Gates was keeping up with the comedy program. Why? Because the audience demographic and size warrant that politicians and CEOs alike play along on "The Daily Show." 

And the impressive guest list is sure to grow. When will Hilary Clinton be appearing?

Back in 2004, a poll released by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that 21 percent of people aged 18 to 29 cited "The Daily Show" as a source of primary news. Art imitates life. 

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Change management,
Bond style

Casino Royale, the 21^st James Bond film, opens worldwide on November 17. Casino Royale, published on April 13, 1953, was actually Ian Fleming’s first novel introducing us to the character-turned-cultural-icon of James Bond. As such, it deals with the backstory of Bond and how he became a “00” agent—licensed to kill. Yep, another orphan like Batman and Superman, raised by assorted relatives and inspired to battle evil….

The buzz for months now has been that Casino Royale is a much darker and grittier film than its predecessors. What’s changed? Bad guys have given up world domination in favour of international banking. When the bad guys were killed, but there was hardly any blood—until now. And Q and his magic gadget factory have been sacked (apparently, Q was an invention of the producers).

Although the franchise is unprecedented in its bankability—apparently, they will stop all water traffic on the Thames River for days for a Bond flick, about the only thing that is off limits even for Bond productions is filming at breeding grounds for endangered species—producers Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli felt the time was right to move the character of James Bond in another direction.

Why? Why the change? And why now, given that 2002’s Die Another Day took in an unprecedented $450 million worldwide? Why mess with success?

Maybe Wilson and Broccoli took Bob Dylan's advice:  “The times, they are a ’changing.” Some of these audience changes: 

• The popularity and acceptance of audiences of high realism TV with franchises like CSI, CSI Miami, CSI New York, and the British TV series MI5. We’re moving from spy fantasy (a.k.a. escapism) to reality:  we want to know how the real spy business works.

• Box office success and critical acclaim of recent films with political undertones like Traffic, Syriana, and Crash [Crash director-producer-writer Paul Haggis also did the final re-write of the Casino Royale script.]

• The Bond franchise is so strong that it withstood the Austin Powers parodies.

Bond is actually returning to his roots. Ironic, brutal and cold is what Ian Fleming had in mind for the James Bond character from the beginning.

Wednesday, May 24, 2006 

The art of the
commencement speech

With May 2006 coming to a close, it is time to look back at some of this season’s (and past seasons') commencement speeches. Here are some favourites from a range of celebrities on the commencement circuit. You might want to read and save these in your files.

A very good commencement speech should be personal and inspiring. Equally important, it should use stories and anecdotes to both make the speaker’s points and keep the listeners’ interest. And, it should be mercifully short.

In fact, all good communication has three things in common:  brevity, levity, and repetition. Let me repeat that….  

Senator John McCain
Columbia University, May 16, 2006
TRANSCRIPT 

Christiane Amanpour
Chief International Correspondent – CNN  University of Michigan, April 29, 2006
TRANSCRIPT             VIDEO (15 min)

Bono
Harvard University, June 6, 2001
TRANSCRIPT 

Jon Bon Jovi  (a very good speech)
Monmouth University, May 16, 2001
TRANSCRIPT   

Thursday, April 6, 2006 

Starbucks combines public service and marketing

In the world of cross-over between marketing and branding, everyone is selling everything—or so it seems. Kudos to Starbucks for trying to raise public consciousness about good motion pictures, and not necessarily big budget Hollywood blockbusters, while still remaining true to the Starbucks brand:  the connection with coffee, books, literacy, and the beauty and richness of words in the English language.

Starbucks’ current marketing campaign plugs the upcoming Lionsgate film Akeelah and the Bee, about a precocious 11-year old girl with a gift for spelling. This is not a movie that has $5 million worth of special effects before the opening credits. The film opens April 28^th.

“Akeelah and the Bee is a story that reflects the values of creativity, community, hope and perseverance which we at Starbucks hold dear. We encourage you to see this truly worthwhile film with your family and friends,” states the Starbucks website.

Starbucks has printed up sets of cup holders and coasters with words uncommon English words and their definitions. You don’t even have to use your online dictionary! What a simple and elegant implementation of a very good idea.

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Tom Ford produces
juicy issue of
Vanity Fair’s
Hollywood issue

Tom Ford, Gucci’s longtime marketing guru, art directs a provocative front cover and more than 50 inside pages of the March 2006 issue of Vanity Fair’s annual Hollywood’s “new arrivals and up-and-comers” special issue.

For fans of fun writing—we can’t quite call ourselves literati—the issue affords an extra treat. Canadian Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter’s editorial (page 100) of how the provocative front cover came to about is as hilarious as Jon Stewart’s nightly newscast. 

A "Guide to a Perfect Day in L.A.," an incredible piece of product marketing sponsored by L'Oreal, is included in the March 2006 issue of Vanity Fair.

Worth deconstructing for trends, visuals, and themes.

Tuesday, February 21, 2006 

GlaxoSmithKline conscripts employees as PR ambassadors

In a bold move to use public relations rather than marketing, advertising or branding, $35.4 billion pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline has conscripted its 8,000 U.S. sales representatives as “public relations ambassadors” to lift its image and that of the beleaguered industry.

GSK’s effort is the convergence of several factors including:  Word-of-Mouth (WOM) marketing concept in The Influentials by Ed Keller and Jon Berry;  Seth Godin’s All Marketers are Liars concept of story and storytelling;  and Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point.   

This is leading edge employee communications:  to use the tools of PR to affect behaviour of GSK’s employees to the benefit of the company. Leveraging 8,000 employees to help advocate on behalf of the company, the profession, and the industry is new and ambitious.  

The initiative, dubbed the ”Value of Medicine” was created by Michael Pucci, GSK’s VP-External Advocacy, to respond to overwhelming criticism and negative perception of the pharmaceutical industry.

“Reputation matters,” Mr. Pucci said. “In this industry, it’s so important. We have to tell that story of how we’re investing for the future.”

Full article in Ad Age here. 

Monday, February 13, 2006

Internet savvy rodents are new Bell Canada pitchmen  

Two digitally created beavers, Frank and Gordon, are popping up on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s coverage of the winter Olympics from Turin, Italy. Why did Bell choose beavers? Beavers are industrious, reliable, naturally good-looking, and completely Canadian.

Frank and Gordon are not only internet savvy, they are also sassy with lots of snappy 1-liners. Bell made a smart marketing move for animated characters, which are more popular now than ever:  Shrek, Madagascar, Hoodwinked, and Wallace and Gromit-—the wacky inventor and his faithful dog.

The campaign was conceived by Montreal’s Cossette Communications late in 2005, test marketed in Quebec, and then launched nationally in Canada during the Super Bowl on February 5, 2006.

Check out:  www.FrankandGordon.ca

Monday, February 6, 2006

The power of touch
in communication

In the age of Internet, text messaging, video phones, and free Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), recent research on the power of touch by Vaseline Intensive Care (incidentally, a brilliant marketing hook for Vaseline!) sends us back to basics.

The research of Patti Wood, anthropologist Ashley Montagu, and professor Albert Merhabian, all point to the importance of gestures, touch, and voice tone in effective interpersonal communication.

What’s that old saying? The more things change, the more they stay the same.

There are four benefits of touch:  biological, communicative, psychological, and social. There is no more effective way to communicate than through touch. In fact, science has proved that touch produces a series of neural, glandular, muscular and mental changes that we interpret as emotion. And during a study where subjects were only able to communicate using their hands, the sender was able to communicate five separate emotions:  detachment, mothering, fear, anger and playfulness—using only their hands.

More info at:  www.vaselineskin.com

Thursday, January 26, 2006

Objective news
versus ratings

Veteran news reporter and anchor Aaron Brown, who was axed by CNN in the wake of Hurricane Katrina coverage last fall, gave a sobering speech titled “Media and Politics in a Changing and Chaotic Time” at The Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach, Florida, on Tuesday, January 24, 2006.

Brown’s NewsNight 10 p.m. timeslot was given to Anderson Cooper in a bid to capitalize on Cooper’s popularity, which spiked during his coverage of Hurricane Katrina. Eighteen hour days, pulling bodies out of flooded homes and trying to nail officials on-camera is Cooper’s younger and more hip style. The goal was to connect with a younger demographic. This was CNN’s gamble:  to out-fox Fox News. According to latest audience statistics, the gamble has not translated into increased viewers. 

In the speech, Brown made some stunning observations:

"Truth no longer matters in the context of politics and, sadly, in the context of cable news," said Aaron Brown.

“Television is the most perfect democracy,” Brown said. "You sit there with your remote control and vote." The remotes click to another channel when serious news airs, but when the media covers the scandals surrounding Laci Peterson, the Runaway Bride or Michael Jackson, "there are no clicks then," the journalist said.

Read the story in the Palm Beach Daily News here.

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Community involvement
& social responsibility

Lattes for literacy

Today, buy any size latte and Starbucks will donate 100% of the purchase price of each latte to support local literacy initiatives developed by ABC CANADA Literacy Foundation and Frontier College.

This is community involvement done right. Here’s what right about it:  you can have all 500 yummy calories of your usual latte, not spend any more money (or bother mailing in cash register receipts or UPC codes!), and feel like you have done something useful for literacy—well, you have.

Lattes for Literacy is one of a number of community involvement projects that Starbucks does throughout the world. It’s all part of The Starbucks Foundation and their connection to Jumpstart, an American movement to program success into school children. 

Impressed by Jumpstart's dedication to children and its proven results, The Starbucks Foundation signed on for a four-year, $1 million partnership with Jumpstart in April of 2001. Building upon the success of this four-year partnership, The Starbucks Foundation committed to renewing its support in April 2005 with cash and in-kind contributions totaling $1.5 million over three years.

Friday, January 6, 2006

The Googling of the
marketing Industry

Marketing guru Al Ries writes a column in Ad Age. His January 3, 2006 article on Google is particularly interesting.

...CEOs even acknowledge that the first brand in a new category generally goes on to dominate that category. As a result, the brand is widely perceived to be the better product or service, proving Scenario "a" right. The better product wins in the marketplace.

It’s the death-row dilemma. If you say you’re innocent, we execute you because you show no remorse for your terrible crimes. If you say you’re guilty, we execute you anyway, secure in the knowledge we didn’t send an innocent person to the hereafter.

The marketing dilemma operates the same way. If you’re first and become the market leader, you had the better product. If you’re not first and didn’t become the market leader, you didn’t have the better product. Touché.

Back to Google. This is the one of the most interesting case histories of all, because Google wasn’t first and did become the market leader, apparently overturning all of my marketing concepts and proving once again that the better product wins in the marketplace.

I say “apparently” because when you dig behind the facts it paints a different picture.

Read the rest of story in Ad Age here.

Wednesday, November 9, 2005
Louis XIV branded elegance
as French—now that’s marketing genius

Louis XIV, the first metrosexual, was the visionary who created the first economy driven by French luxury goods of all types. His plan was to firmly entrench everything French as the final arbiter of style in fashion, shoes, food, nightlife, coiffure, perfume, and diamonds. The marketing strategy was simple: If it’s French, it must be the best—and expensive.

In Essence of Style: how the French invented high fashion, fine food, chic cafes, style, sophistication and glamour, author Joan DeJean gives intriguing anecdotes about how Louis XIV actually went about implementing plan.

Louis’ tactics included creating the profession of “coiffeur” and using industrial espionage to lure Venetian glassblowers to France to invent plate glass—the foundation for mirrors-making—and integral to fashion.

And yes, apparently it cost the equivalent of $6 for a café au lait and to see and be seen, making Starbuck’s looks like a bargain.

Marketing tips from the 17th century

It took more than 50 years to establish French elegance as a brand. It takes a long time to get marketing traction. Louis reigned from 1643 to 1715. Contrast this to the tenure of most marketing vice-presidents who want to change whatever their predecessor put in place. Seems they are more concerned with putting their own “brand” on a company than selling the company’s products.

Le Mercure Gallant was the first lifestyle marketing magazine. Like Vogue and Cosmopolitan, it told women readers what was “in” and what was “out” seasonally, thus forcing the purchasing decision.

Louis established the exclusive boutique (with décor, ambiance and appealing displays) as the way to sell high-end merchandise. Where you buy is important because it adds to the customer experience.

Louis worked hand-in-hand with his finance minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, who never let his eye off the bottom line.

The Easy Button from Staples Business Depot
is a great combination of branding, fun, and corporate social responsibility.

Staples Easy Button is a
wonderful thing

Staples Business Depot is a giant Canada-wide chain of office supply stores. There are other stores in the chain in other countries too, but I don't know how they promote themselves.

In Canada, ads and flyers feature the easy button; the idea is that Business Depot has an easy button --it's at the top, left, of this page -- and therefore solves your problems, easily.

But now, you can buy your very own button, for six bucks. Tap it, and a voice says, "That was easy."

Tap the easy button when things go right. Take out the garbage, tap the button, and everyone smiles. Heat up a cup of tea, find a clipping about a client in the morning paper, ... etc.
 

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