They say college is supposed to prepare you for the working world. In many ways, my degree in Communication Studies has proven immeasurable when it comes to research methods, knowing media outlets, brand messaging, and distribution platforms for entertainment products.
However, what college didn’t teach me is how the real working world works. There are a few things that college could not prepare me for that I’m learning at my first job at Bender/Helper Impact.
Even with my Communication Studies degree, my communication skills at work are constantly being tested and stretched. I’m learning the dynamics of working in a group and as a team player. While college work was mostly a solitary experience – writing papers, taking tests – I am never really working alone on the job. Everything I do goes through a review process and is refined and improved upon by various members of my team.
This review process also throws my usual time-management skills for a loop. Whereas in college I could get away with procrastination and pull an all-nighter here or there, that isn’t possible when projects require constant feedback and review. Also, in school you’re given all your assignments in the beginning, laid out like a map that’s easy to follow. But in the real world of PR, where seemingly every hour new tasks pop up from the client or as an offshoot from an existing task, you need to be flexible and efficient. This is an industry where you need quality and quantity, and the only way to get to that level is through experience.
In my time here as an account coordinator, I’ve learned so much. My university gave me the building blocks for the real world, but it’s here at Bender/Helper Impact, where I’m using these blocks to form a solid foundation that will help me grow and succeed throughout my career.
[Follow Kristal: @kristal_bailey]
One of the beautiful things about the Internet is that everybody can now market themselves and their content in exciting new ways; and, many are doing a great job of it. One look at Felicia Day’s work over the past three years will tell you that there is something to this whole Internet business. As a sidenote, last night I re-watched the Guild Season 1 on Netflix - awesome.
Anyway, we all know that online marketing is nothing new, but one of the earliest online marketing tools, search engine optimization, can now be used to put Web video content in front of new audiences. While SEO has been around for a long time, Web television is still in its infancy. Today, script optimization presents a huge opportunity for content creators to promote video content; and as far as I have seen, nobody is openly taking advantage of it.
Recently, Hulu announced that they have enabled closed caption search, which means that you can now insert popular search terms into your scripts to help shows index. In addition to Hulu, YouTube and Google have been doing this for even longer. If you don’t believe me, check out the following video to see closed captioning SEO actually work: http://bit.ly/11G2ic
Optimizing YouTube is easy, because a little something called AdWords exists to tell you what people are searching for in Google. Due to the fact that Google owns YouTube, this is probably a good place to start.
Unfortunately, there is no Hulu “AdWords,” so when optimizing a video for Hulu I would stick to what Hulu’s audience is looking for. First, I would look at the Hulu homepage. Outside of that, Hulu users are searching for timely news items and top network television shows.
So, my advice to content creators is this: become a news source. Host a weekly video series discussing the top news or a roundup of network television shows and what you, as independent writers, think about them. Doing this may just land you a coveted spot on Hulu, somewhere between a clip of Peter Griffin fighting a chicken and that Shy Ronnie SNL skit.
My advice to studios - hire some internal Internet savvy people and put them on your creative teams. So far, you are failing in this regard. Put one marketer on your writing staff. Hire junior writers to take background character work and use this to strategically infiltrate the Internet with Twitter accounts, blogs, etc. Let your characters live and breathe online (Hint: all of this activity can be optimized as well). My advice to content destination sites - provide creators with your search data. Sure, you will probably be flooded with a bunch of spam videos but tweaking your search algorithms can filter those out; and, on the up side your site traffic will go through the roof.
Last Thursday, I flew to Houston for the much-anticipated Mom 2.0 Summit – a convention where almost 350 web savvy moms, online marketing pros and even a handful of digital dads congregated to learn, bond and Tweet. For two days, I manned the 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment booth, with the goal of getting everyone excited about Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Strawberry Shortcake and Flicka 2 – but I didn’t expect it to end up being such a great learning experience! I met and chatted with hundreds of bloggers – a handful I’ve worked with and the rest brand new – and also experienced first-hand the influence and power that this community holds.
Just minutes after director and producer Michael and Janeen Damian’s Flicka 2 presentation, @MMIWest
had posted a blog and tweeted about the importance of this family film - even uploading a photo of Flicka from the clip. Within seconds, people were re-tweeting and replying to @MMIWest. In a flash, the power of networking and getting a message out to the WORLD quickly unfolded right there, in the ballroom of the Four Seasons.
A few other memorable moments? I learned that the majority of moms miss Strawberry Shortcake’s original look, Alvin is always going to score points with the kids and driving around downtown Houston in the Oscar Meyer wienermobile is as cool as it sounds.
I’m not a daily coffee drinker (tea for me, please), but if I do partake in some java it’s usually in the “coffee disguised as dessert” category. Thus a recent trip to the nearby The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf for a Mocha Ice Blended drink.
Ready to enjoy my beverage, what I instead digested was not up to par with other Ice Blended drinks I’ve had. This one was watery, had little flavor, and was akin to drinking a coffee-colored slushee.
Figuring I didn’t get what I paid for, I wrote an email to the folks at The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, nicely expressing my disappointment in my recent purchase. A few days later, a customer service representative, Katie, wrote me back. Her friendly email expressed her concern, that she would share my experience with her team, and if I’d like to get a certificate for another Ice Blended to “make up” for my recent experience.
Katie’s email reminded me how important good customer service is. We want to be recognized if we have an issue with a company’s product and know that we are being heard, as well as know the company is continually working on improving.
I wrote back to Katie, thanking her for contacting me and the generous offer for a complimentary drink. More importantly, my confidence in the company actually increased.
In the world of PR, we agonize over every decision we make – and 95% of the time rightly so. But if we remember the golden rule (treat others as we’d like to be treated) - we’re likely to get the results we strive for in our profession: a public that thinks well of the clients we represent and turns to them for their services time and time again.
You won’t normally find a lot of video game journalists at a NASCAR event. It just doesn’t happen. And perhaps that is why our recent event hosted by Paramount Digital Entertainment (PDE) at the Toyota Speedway was so perfect; we immersed a bunch of video game journalists in a world that was very different from their own and in the process increased awareness for PDE’s upcoming title – Days of Thunder.
“Days of Thunder” star Michael Rooker and B/HI’s Shannon McPhee just before the green flag drops at Toyota Speedway.
In between rounds of racing through a preview build of Days of Thunder, journalists and B/HI team members took turns touring the NASCAR teams’ garages, meeting drivers in the pit, chatting with “Days of Thunder” actor Michael Rooker – who played the salt-of-the-earth antihero Rowdy Burns in the iconic film — and driving around the track in the official pace car with Hall of Famer Brett Bodine behind the wheel. Following the behind-the-scenes tour, PDE also arranged a screening of “Days of Thunder” projected on a 40-foot inflatable screen in the middle of the track. It was great to show the journalists that even 20 years after its theatrical release, “Days of Thunder” has maintained its cult popularity within the stock car community.
Then came the races.
ESPN’s Aaron Boulding, B/HI’s Megan Kellett, Hall of Fame driver Brett Bodine and Stacy Miles and Nick Parker of B/HI pose in front of the NASCAR pace car after a high-octane lap around the track.
As the cars flew around the track, it was fun to watch as the skepticism of the game journalists slowly gave way to raw enthusiasm. It started with nervous gasps at near misses, and then caged hooting at screeching tires until it became just wild screams and high fives with strangers two rows down. The smoke and steel and hot rush of exhaust enchanted them all. I could only hear one thing over the roar of the engines: “I love this!”
Since the races, the thing we’ve heard again and again was that the day at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale taught a lot of journalists about how to enjoy stock car racing. Within a few hours they went from thinking of racing as a chiefly-Southern pastime, to appreciating its inherent speed, danger and adrenaline. Suddenly, they got it.
This is why people love racing. This is why “Days of Thunder” is such an iconic film. This is why people drive hundreds of miles to see other drivers go in circles. This is why this game is important. Now, it all makes sense.
Written by Shannon McPhee
Thursday February 04, 2010
With Blu-ray’s increasing adoption rates and connected living rooms among the hot topics at CES, B/HI entertainment technology PR team members Jessie Comstock and Shannon McPhee headed to the show with Dreamer Corporation to showcase the Company’s new BluTV service, which provides a full-featured applications interface through Internet-connected Blu-ray Disc players for delivering video-on-demand, widgets, e-commerce, games and more.
Dreamer’s BluTV user interface offers a very familiar menu style that makes it easy to browse content using a remote control.
With its familiar user interface, the Dreamer technology offers an unique approach to delivering content into the connected living room. Thanks to the B/HI team, Dreamer met with more than a dozen media at the show, resulting in BluTV’s inclusion in show reports on LATimes.com, PCMag.com, Engadget, and numerous home media and technology trade outlets. But it wasn’t all work and no play at the technology industry’s annual adventure in Vegas!
Jessie Comstock of B/HI explains the benefits of Dreamer’s BluTV to a show attendee.
After hours, the B/HI team headed to a number of networking events and CES parties being held around Las Vegas to meet media friends old and new, including WIRED’s event at the Wynn, Boxee’s mixer at Planet Hollywood, and Leo Laporte’s “It Won’t Stay in Vegas” party for the Twitter community, where we reunited with former B/HI clients Levar Burton and Brent Spiner of “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”
Meeting the stars of one of my favorite shows of the ‘90s was definitely a show highlight! CES 2011 is really going to have to try hard to outdo this year’s show, but until then – Live long and prosper.
B/HI’s Shannon McPhee snaps a quick shot with Levar Burton and Brent Spiner at CES.
While MP3s changed the music industry by giving audiences access to smaller acts around the world, musicians now struggle with the medium that quickly turned thoughtful, emotional and often expensive recordings into a free product. As artists face today’s challenges of exciting interest across multiple platforms, many have also found success by propelling their PR and marketing machines using Web video to promote their work and make an honest living.
In a Jan. 2 op-ed for The New York Times, Bono writes that "a decade's worth of music file-sharing and swiping has made clear that the people it hurts are the creators – in this case, the young, fledgling songwriters who can't live off ticket and T-shirt sales like the least sympathetic among us." He goes on to blame Internet service providers for their abuses against the music business, but neglects to mention that artists, even those without record label representation, can seize the medium with a computer, a camera, advertising savvy and publicity support.
As a musician, indie-label-enthusiast and PR professional, I often question which platform would work best to meet my immediate needs without giving it all away. What has become clear to me, however, is that music videos, streaming performances and smart placements across the Web allow artists to promote their talents while remaining sincere, avoiding the dreaded "sell-out" label, and even make enough to pay the rent. While artists test new video, MP3 and streaming sites that launch almost daily, the platform-agnostic approach that many are adopting requires a product that pops.
Meme-jacking was the major video trend of 2008. Big artists embraced viral video and re-appropriated already-successful memes as part of their work. Rihanna and T.I. took on "numa numa," Weezer enlisted the entire Web for their "Pork and Beans" video and Mariah Carey's "Touch My Body" was destined to be a viral hit with a nerdy plot, Mimi at her most diva-licious and "30-Rock's" Jack McBrayer hamming it up in his signature Kenneth the page fashion.
In 2009, we saw a remarkable use of Ustream by Gonzales where he broke the record for the world's longest music concert by playing the piano for 27 hours live from a theater in Paris. Mashable called the performance "a win for the Web and its social broadcasting tools," though the big winner was Gonzales who shared his talents with the world via Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, etc.
John Mayer made an augmented reality music video, Diplo and Lil Jon invited fans into the studio via video stream and DIY band Owl City ranked 16th in top digital sales due to a successful music video that was later featured on MySpace and iTunes. This successful use of video placed a little-known act from Minnesota at the top, among mainstream concept albums, deceased legends and movie soundtracks.
Sony and Universal Music Group's YouTube-powered music video platform, Vevo, launched in an attempt to save the music industry and Hulu is closing deals with still-standing labels for its own music video collection.
In these first few weeks of 2010, Lady Gaga’s spectacularly unpredictable creativity got her a gig as the “new face” of Polaroid and my own client, Scion, launched a music video series, Scion A/V Video, to help indie labels, artists and directors harness the power of Web video.
With a camera, a vision and a solid PR campaign (large or small), musicians can use Web video to expand their creativity and profitability far beyond 129 kbps.
[Follow Maria: @oonceoonce]
I recently watched “The Proposal” on DVD and in one scene Sandra Bullock’s character, Margaret Tate, tells her assistant Andrew (Ryan Reynolds) he can’t travel home over the weekend due to work. In true Hollywood fashion Tate’s cold heart soon melts, however, and we see the warm, caring woman we knew was there all along.
As we’re in the midst of the holiday season, the movie made me think of two things. First, the importance of being grateful and caring, and two, we might have avoided debacles such as Enron and WorldCom if more businesses considered incorporating workplace spirituality. No – workplace spirituality has nothing to do with religion or New Age practices. Rather, it is where a company recognizes people have an inner life that deserves to be nourished and consequently deserve to work in a place that is based on the principles of trust and respect.
Dr. Kent Rhodes writing for the Pepperdine University Graziadio Business Report states, “conversations around the value and place of spirituality in the workplace have been further encouraged by the need for managers and leaders to behave more ethically in the world and to foster ethical decision-making in their workforces.”
Imagine taking the spirit and positive feelings of the holidays and transferring that into the workplace. Americans are, in general, skeptical about major corporations. From the bonuses for AIG executives to risky mortgages offered to unsuspecting consumers, 21st century corporations seemingly play by a different set of rules. The good thing is that incorporating workplace spirituality does not have to be extreme, or a signal a company is “going soft.” While it is not a cure-all, if leaders sincerely champion ethics over greed and harmony over clashes, while also keeping an eye on the bottom line and implementing solid business practices, corporate American can begin to restore consumer perceptions and promote positive change. Now that would be a happy ending.
If Enron adopted workplace spirituality and was
less focused on unethical means, perhaps Enron CEO Jeff Skilling
(pictured) would not have found himself behind bars.
Written by Miranda Gooding
Friday December 18, 2009
If you read my first post on the B/HI Bat Asses, you probably thought our season was coming to a fast close. Well, you thought wrong. In a stroke of luck (or a clerical error), our softball team made it to the Culver City Adult Softball League playoffs!
The game took place at Veterans Field in Culver City, Calif. at 7:45 p.m. on Friday, December 4. While the team had a rocky season, we were all excited to get in the game and see what would happen! We had a great line-up including Bender/Helper Impact Partner Dean Bender as pitcher, Account Coordinator Whitney Champion at second, Account Executive Frances Kregel, Senior Account Executive Gabriel Del Rio and Director of Social Media Matt Meeks in the outfield, VP of Digital Entertainment Melisa Rodriguez at third, myself (Account Executive Miranda Gooding) as catcher and numerous friends and family playing various positions on the field.
The game started strong with the Bat Asses leading 10-2 against the highest ranked team in the league! For most of the game we held on to our high score, but as the game wore on it became apparent the opposing team wanted to go all the way. While we made it difficult for them to score runs and get us out, in the end the better team took home the W. They did, however, acknowledge that we had given them a run for their money (which was an amazing compliment after the season we had).
We finished the night with a team trip to Shakey’s Pizza where we relived some of the amazing, hysterical and downright ridiculous highlights of the past three months. And by ridiculous, I mean players falling all over each other in the outfield and swan dives over the catcher at home plate. While we may not have taken home a trophy, we all really enjoyed our time together. As we joked around about what a difficult season this was for our new team, our fearless leader really summed it up by stating the obvious, “It was a good effort, but in the end we just weren’t good enough.” Spoken like a true champ!
Written by Gabriel del Rio
Thursday December 17, 2009
As an entertainment publicist, I often consider myself a tribal storyteller around a metaphorical campfire. Successful campfires need a crowd and my guests represent various publications that reach a very targeted demographic. If I’m doing my job well, I leave a lasting impression and those around me will carry a similar story to their next campfire.
Today’s modern times have produced a 24/7 news cycle that has placed an incredible burden on journalists to meet the interest of their readers. They’re slammed with deadlines and are being chased by hundreds of publicists who are eager to share their own story, around their own campfire.
Each outing needs to be unique in order to differentiate itself from others and my “tribe” is often tasked with having timely guests, accessible seats and even lavish treats. As storytellers, we’re valued by the frequency of our fireside visits and the scope of our story. In such a competitive arena, it’s our job to cut through the clutter, create urgency and most importantly, keep the audience top of mind. Next time you read an entry by your favorite journalist, remember everyone values a good story and chances are, his hands are still warm from his last campfire visit.
B/HI Blab 
I’m not a daily coffee drinker (tea for me, please), but if I do partake in some java it’s usually in the “coffee disguised as dessert” category. Thus a recent trip to the nearby 
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