Pioneers O’ Pioneers

I haven’t thought of Walt Whitman in years, but recently he seems to have made a fairly significant return to my life.  I’m reading Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham…brilliant as always. The story weaves the thread of Whitman throughout, from his poetry to Cunningham’s character creations. Cunningham characters are allegory to Whitman’s poetry.

Now, enter a new Levi’s commercial directed by the amazing Ryan McGeary whose images are set to music and a haunting performance of Pioneers O’ Pioneers, taken from an obscure 1950s album of Whitman’s poetry.

I wasn’t sure what to think of the commercial at first, wondering what Whitman’s words had to do with selling jeans. But the more I thought about it, the more intrigued I was with Whitman’s words against the backdrop of American Youth and the concept of stepping beyond oneself and becoming something more by changing the world, exploring a new undiscovered country within ourselves. So, after googling Pioneers again and reading the poem several times, I started searching out what others were saying about the Levi’s commercial. This blog has some very interesting comments from literary students about the merits of the commercial with some very strong opinions on both sides.  I always find discussions about brands interesting but this one seems to have piqued my interest even more.  Perhaps because of the Cunningham novel I’m reading. Needless to say, some very divergent ideas about Whitman’s poem, the imagery and ideas about neo-socialism and other comparisons. Ultimately though, I think Derek Dukes made the best argument.  He said:

“I too was led to google ‘Pioneers Oh Pioneers’ and discover that it was in fact a Whitman poem.

I don’t really view this as commercialization of Art, the commercial seems to draw a connection between the Levi brand, which came out of Pioneers heading west heading the call of Manifest Destiny. It seems there’s a good case to be made that over the years Levi’s have been the chosen fashion for Pioneers, from the Gold Rush miner 49-ers, beat poets like jack kerouac, 50’s rebels like James Dean & Elivs to today’s urban hipsters on fixies. Like it or not, Levi’s have been a key piece of identity for American Pioneers.

This is the second set of ads I’ve seen that shift from a ‘our brand is awesome’ message to a ‘you’re awesome, we help you be awesome’ message. The other set of ads are the Quaker Oats ‘Go Humans’ ads.”

I’m going to think on this concept of “you’re awesome, we help you be awesome,” and blog about that later.

Without drawing my own conclusions about the meaning behind the commercial, I can appreciate the medium as art and with all good art, it generates discussion.  Truly, the worst thing in the world is to be boring.  It’s great when people talk about you.  Either way.  It’s when the marketing gods smile on us.

Art in many forms, is … well, art. And personally, I love it when art like Whitman’s is revived, shared, discussed and again shows us what it really is…immortal.

What do you think of the commercial? I’d love to hear from you.

The Neo Barber

My friend and colleague Geff Sellers has branched out to a new business venture.
He’s starting a new service called G:Lux at Dylan’s barbershop in the Arcadia district of Phoenix. Forget what you know about Barbershops. Forget the dog-eared pin up magazines, peeling linoleum, wall calendars from 1952 and no women to be found. Instead, think Chelsea or SoHo New York, where glass and exposed brick meet modern garage doors that roll up to usher in Phoenix’s beautiful weather. Think urban hip lofty chic, where you can get a cappuccino from La Grande Orange or a glass of wine and a board of bruschetta from Postino and then stop by for more than the expected trim-and-go. Dylan’s pulls out all the stops for both men and women for everything from a quick hair cut to a lingering style consultation, cut color and style. Skincare and oxygen facials are an unexpected surprise. Or if you’re a guy, you can still expect the same affordable barber cut, style and shave.

I like things that honor tradition yet bring a new and fresh approach. Things that are beyond what is usual and better than what is expected. Congratulations to Geff and to all the entrepreneurs out there who inspire us.

Julia and Me

© Columbia Pictures

I had the lucky fortune of seeing “Julie & Julia,” last night. When I heard that Meryl Streep was cast as Julia Child I remember thinking, “I love Meryl but as Julia Child…mmmm, I don’t know about that.”

What an incredible performance by Streep. She crafted the character with all of the quirkiness, charm and wry humor that one remembers of Julia but she also brought an unexpected lustiness to her that was brilliant. And I loved her all the more for it.

On to the story.  Although the theme  was to parallel a journey by both characters on separate paths yet united by food and the contemporary character’s sharing of her journey through writing a blog, I found my self disappointed when the film bounced from Julia Child’s story to the present day story line. As sparking as Amy Adams is, I still wished the story was entirely about Julia.

Still, I am left with wonderful feelings for the film. It was one of those rare occasions where I honestly did not want the film to end. I fell in love with Streep’s characterization and wanted to know more about Julia Child’s adventures.

I felt both fulfilled and still hungry for more.

I believe I enjoyed the film on two different levels connected by a common thread. What I mean is, both Streep’s performance as well as the true nature of Julia’s personality could be distilled into one word: authenticity. Julia was about “I am who I am and that’s enough.” Streep dug into that and revealed it in a magically effervescent, genuine performance that could easily be turned out in a lesser actor’s hands as a one-dimensional or over-the-top.

Authenticity is a powerful thing.

Everyday, I celebrate authenticity with my clients.  I want my clients to project authenticity with great story telling.  Making promises that they can keep and telling the truth. As individuals we want to be moved, we want to be inspired and we want to feel important.

Those chords within us are only struck by authentic actions, and the resulting tone is pure, fulfilling and lingers long.

TB4T

Too Busy for Twitter. That’s where I’m at today. After taking a short but very needed vacation, I’m back in the office and probably more overwhelmed than when I left. But that’s a good thing right?

Which get’s me thinking. How much do I let myself get bogged down in details that I could put off for later or for the weekend? Twittering is a very important part of my business, both for my clients as well as myself. I literally had to DRAG myself over to the twitter.com web site today to engage with my tweetpeeps. It got me thinking that I need to institute a morning, noon and night strategy for twitter. Meaning that I will make it a point to engage in conversation and share in the morning, at lunch time and in the evenings to catch up with what’s happening.

Monday night was the third anniversary for our client Ticoz. It was a huge success. As I greeted guests and tag teamed with the host on managing the event, my New Media Advisor, Tony Arranaga was busy as ever taking photos, posting comments on twitter and Face Book and engaging his audience in a play by play account of the action.

Having someone on staff who gets this and who is constantly thinking of ways to make our news vibrant and rich with content is truly a great thing. We’re working together in both the real and virtual worlds.  Yes, social media takes time from your day.  Yes, it can seem less important that other pressing issues.  But the reality is that social media is an essential part of our company’s success as well as the success of our clients.  Enough said.

Now, if I could just make more time for my blog….

I Bitz and Got the Bait and Switch

Come on in, the water's misleading

So I’ve been seeing these commercials for Orbitz with their offer “if you buy a ticket from us we will charge you no booking fees and guarantee your price so that if someone else books a ticket cheaper than yours we will refund you the difference.”  Fine. Sounds like a deal. Yeah right. It’s a deal all right.  Should’ve known there is a catch. See, what they don’t tell you is that when you supposedly choose seats, Orbitz does not send that information over to the airlines. It’s a ruse.

Yesterday, being a thorough and organized travel (or so I thought), I checked to see if the tickets I purchased last month were selling for less. No. Ok. So then I checked our seating assignments on the Northwest airlines site and found that I could not choose our seats even though we had secured seat assignments over a month ago.  So I called Northwest Airlines site directly.  I found that I did not have a seat assignment on the flight but my traveling companion did.  I tried to choose a site but the only seat that I could get was at the back of the plane in the center.

I discovered that when you choose a seat on Orbitz that they do not even send that information over to Northwest.  Orbitz purchases tickets in bulk and only pretends to offer you the opportunity to choose your seat.  What they don’t tell you is that you may not even be confirmed on the flight.  Unless they tell you in the small print somewhere, I don’t remember seeing anything about that. And Northwest? Refuses to do anything to help. Period. Airline policy. Whatever.

So, I called Orbitz and spoke to a lovely woman in India whose command of the English language was, well lets say interesting.  Nothing she could do. Then after much gnashing of teeth on my end she claimed that she was able to seat us together in 9A and 9B.  So, I went to the Northwest site, and again, only one seat confirmed the other with no assignment at all. Did she lie to me?

We called again and got a gentleman with better English and much compassion but no seat assignment.  We were told that the airline might be able to assign our seats together at the gate.  If we are one of the 30 or so passengers to arrive at the gate first.

Our lesson.  I find it crazy that with airlines and air travel in the tank that 1) Orbitz would mislead customers and 2) that Northwest would offer such crappy service.  Even though I was told by the NWA agent Northwest controls 70% of the seating arrangements online or over the phone I would still have to go to the airport no more than 24 hours before the flight in order to confirm a seat assignment.  So much for hanging on to customers and encouraging Americans to travel again.  So, the bottom line: 1) no seat assignment or confirmed seat as of today, 2) $35 in handling fees for 2 checked bags and 3) If I’m lucky, one of us gets to sit at the back of the plane between two strangers.  Am I being unreasonably picky? Our tickets are just under a thousand dollars round trip.  I don’t think so. Is it unreasonable to want to sit together when the chief part of the travel experience is to enjoy the exploration together?

What do you think?

Pssst…I’m talking about you.

I read a blog post by Linda Vandeverde today at Valley PR Blog about the changing world of old school PR and this new social media covered by the New York Times in regards to PR in Silicon Valley.  So, it got me thinking this would make a good post on my own blog.  See, we’re not talking just Silicon Valley here. This new kind of PR is everywhere, the point Linda makes.

Yesterday I *twittered* that, as I was writing the marketing and PR plan for a new client, I realized that the days where social media had its own section in the plan are gone.

Instead, we are motivated to reach specific audiences in support of various strategies by incorporating both the real and virtual worlds. Why? Because people are having conversations instantly and shaping the way we think about other people and brands every single moment.  But haven’t we always done this? Of course.  But now, technology gives us the opportunity to share these conversations with others, around the world, instantly.  Not just with a few friends over long stretches of time.  Instantly.  Now that’s a helluva word. Instantly.

Social media–this hybrid between print and verbal communication– is fascinating.  Just this weekend, out with friends, many of them were taking pictures and posting them to Facebook, real time, and talking about where we were and what we were doing. All the while, they were mentioning the name of the restaurant and commenting on the experience we were having. This was all to the benefit of the restaurant whose owners had no idea we were talking about them.  Basically, free PR and advertising. And who doesn’t want that?  Hold that thought.

So this got me thinking: how will this new social media affect not just PR but customer service and experience marketing?  Is anyone thinking about that?  They should.  Because, the stakes are higher. Here is where every second you interact with your customer is more important than ever.  You can’t afford to give lousy customer service.  You have to back up your product and service and make the whole experience fun. Memorable.  Something to talk about.  Are you doing that? Are you sure?  Every second?  Every employee buys into that idea? Why?

Because that diner over there in the corner, the one siting by himself, is talking about you right now…with thousands.

My Top Five Tips for Social Media

In social media, there are “rules of engagement” like any other type of social interaction. These common-sense rules are a must when engaging others and building an audience. It’s best to think of this like you would a networking event or a party. Would you approach someone, interrupt their conversation, start talking about yourself or selling your product with no introduction or relevance at all? Unlikely. So too, your foray into social media requires you to behave yourself.  Remember, people can’t see you or hear your voice (video cams/chat aside).  They don’t know you are a fun, likable person. So, you could be putting your virtual foot in your mouth so to speak. The appendage, a fait accompli in your social faux pas.

With that, here are my personal views about online interaction.

1. Be relevant (on topic)
2. Be timely (don’t go back to a conversation from four days ago and comment)
3. Be respectful (don’t jump in on other people’s conversations unless you are really good friends)
4. Be thoughtful (share insight, news people can use).
5. Be lighthearted (share anecdotes, funny stories completely unrelated to you or your brand)

If you follow these sensible rules than you will know instinctively when you can safely interject stuff about you and your brand.  Toot your own horn when you feel it’s worthwhile or newsworthy.

Whether you are on Facebook, Twitter or other social sites it’s important to remember that you only get one first impression and you can quickly become irrelevant and even annoying if you diminish the value of others around you.

And folks, please don’t share with us how many followers you have, what your twitter rank is or how many friends you have on Facebook.  Popularity grows from the value of your interaction, not the number of people who follow you.

These suggestions apply mostly to business and brand interaction with audiences though common courtesy is appropriate in any situation.  See you online and I can’t wait to see what you have to say.

Take the Shop Local Pledge

Click here to view and print the ticket

PLEDGE: YES! I understand that my dollars can help build a sense of place, a higher quality of life and a stronger economy!

I hereby take the pledge to buy locally during National Independents Week, June 29 through July 5, to help celebrate the diversity and vibrancy that makes me proud to call Arizona Home.

Don’t you feel better already?!

10 Tips for Shopping Local

Thank you for taking the pledge to shop 100% locally from Monday, June 29 – Sunday, July 5. With a little planning, you’ll find simple, local solutions for your every day needs.

1. Plan your week:
List all the things you do on a regular basis – lunch, groceries, etc. – and figure out a local alternative to the usual chain coffeehouse or mega-mart

2. Check out the Golden Coupon participants and download your ticket to saving 20%: Can these businesses help you hold up your end of the pledge this week?

3. Download the Small Wonders map for shopping and dining destinations in Central Phoenix.

4. Ask friends, family, colleagues for local recommendations.

5. Review the Top 10 Lists of Favorites from Arizona leaders for their recommendations.

6. Visit a Farmer’s Market to buy locally grown produce this week – or visit the Arizona Farm Bureau’s www.fillyourplate.org website to find local farmers and ranchers.

7. Look for the round, black and red Local First stickers in store windows to be sure!

8. Check the labels on the products you buy at local stores – and see if these items are made or grown in Arizona to double your impact.

9. Always use the serach directory at www.localfirstaz.com to look for products and services in a variety of categories and search by keyword, city or ZIP code.

10. Tell your friends and family that You’re Going 100% Local and ask them to join you!

Tony Arranaga joins Tony Felice PR & Marketing

Tony Arranaga
Advisor, New Media

Please join us in welcoming our newest team member, Tony Arranaga.  Prior to joining our company, Tony was an on-air reporter with ABC-15 where he helped KNXV-TV grow a morning show audience.  Popular with sources and viewers alike, Tony has a talent for finding the right stories that appeal to viewing audiences. Whether reporting on consumer alerts, breaking news or lifestyle segments, he has a talent for connecting with viewers and bringing his likable and relate-able personality to the story. Since 1995, Tony has worked in television newsrooms around the country.  He started his career on the assignment desk at the West Coast Bureau for ABC News in Los Angeles, then spent several years covering politics in both Tampa and Washington, D.C. before landing in Phoenix and joining KNXV-TV.

Tony will work with clients to develop public relations strategies, coordinate stories with the news media and advise clients on new media including viral marketing and social media.

Tony’s new passion is mass transit and blogs about the light rail system in Phoenix and his experiment with living car-free in the desert.  He’s also developing a website on healthcare.  Tony has a degree in Journalism and Political Science from the University of Arizona.  Tony was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA.

May I have a minute of your time?

Last Wednesday night my client, Howard Fleischmann from Community Tire & Auto won the Better Business Bureau’s Business Ethics Award in his category. The evening, hosted at the Biltmore included a special key note speaker, Ken Blanchard, author of The One Minute Entrepreneur. Ken shared with us his brilliant insight into what makes a true entrepreneur and what success really means. Success is not about what you achieve, but what you give to the world. The content of one’s character is measured by how much one loves not how much one gets.

I wish I could go into his entire presentation but instead I urge you to read his book. These are the main points I took with me from that evening.

What every entrepreneur should practice…the four Ps.

Purpose: lengthy, sleep-inducing mission statements aside. What is your purpose? You should be able to describe it in just a few words. For me, it’s: Delivering results for my clients by telling great stories.

Principle: When faced with any decision ask your self these three questions. 1) is it legal? 2) is it fair? 3) is it something you would want to see written about you on the front page of the newspaper?

Persistence: Instead of hanging a shingle out there and expecting business to come your way you have to go after it and have the tenacity that delivers results.

Perspective: Be willing to look at the big picture and cast a critical eye on yourself, your company, your purpose and your people. Surround yourself with people that complement you. Personally, my own belief is “there is no one smarter than all of us.”

I will add one more P, Positive. Humans are the only creatures in existence gifted with the power of speech. To speak words is to give them and the ideas they express, power. We hear about the power of attraction, and of course “the secret,” was part of nearly every water-cooler conversation last year. But being positive also includes personal responsibility and action. Speak only positive things. Remove no, not and don’t from your vocabulary and instead focus on what you do want. Be kind and generous with your mind, your talent and your time. The five Ps will eventually culminate into one P

… Peace.