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Why I Will Cancel Advertising Age

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No offense Rance Crain. In my book anything the Crains do is golden, coming from a Chicago girl (no I’m not native, but my child IS, so there). I will cancel after subscribing for many years as a loyal customer of the print edition.

  • I was around when B2B was its own magazine and then it merged inside its sister publication, Ad Age, and then it disappeared completely.
  • I was around when there was at least a smattering of public relations news somewhere in the publication, and then there was none.
  • I’ve been around since the campaigns like ‘how many licks does it take to reach the center of a Tootsie Roll pop’ were the norm and there was more dispersed coverage of all campaigns than just those that cater to the big advertising guns.

Alas, we ‘fair to middlin’ (what my grampa used to say)’ marketers no longer compute. We don’t have the advertising dollars to play in the same sandbox as the big guns, and the reporting shows.

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PepsiCo And Its Earth Day Trifecta

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Had another post all ready to go, and then I opened today’s Wall Street Journal which changed everything.

PepsiCo (and Waste Management) announced yesterday a recycling program called Dream Machine with kiosks that reward users. I didn’t know this until just now. Back track to earlier this morning when I was scanning the morning paper:

Full-Page Advertisement

PepsiCo announced a new recycling program today that I first learned about in a full-page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal in section one.

  • The ad appealed to me because our family voraciously recycles down to a worry about #4 plastics and how we can properly dispose of them.
  • I wondered how I could participate, get a dream machine for me, and whether I had to drink Pepsi to be on board (no pop consumed in my home).
  • The ad piqued my interest on the first viewing; great stats for ROI.

Social Media

The link in the ad referred me to the Dream Machine Facebook page. I tore the page to reference the url later. (I just visited the page and became a fan; 355 members to date — not too many, but enough, considering the program launched April 21. The page is incredibly well done with multi-media.)

Media Relations

Jump to Wall Street Journal in  “Corporate News.” Here’s the light bulb…PepsiCo in Recycling Push, a corner, above the fold story about the Fortune 50 company (along with NYSE: WM), announcing its new Dream Machine program.

  • “Up to 3,000 kiosks are to be put in high-traffic places this year, with incentives for consumers,” says the story call out.
  • “Every time you recycle with a PepsiCo dream machine, we’ll make a donation to help disabled veterans start their own businesses,” says the full-page advertisement.

Why is this significant? Take a look at timing with Earth Day. Look at the integrated marketing strategy with the blending of advertising, public relations, media relations, social media and thought leadership, among many others I’ve not discovered.

I applaud the marketing, advertising, public relations teams (corporate and agency) for their integrated and highly strategic work to launch what impresses me as a campaign exactly right for the time. Review its audiences (disabled vets, eco-conscious consumers, future consumers, Facebookers, corporate partners, stakeholders, and so many more). There’s something in this campaign that resonates with a plethora of audiences.

Nicely done, PepsiCo; nicely done.

Dow Jones and the Media Relations Ad Pitch

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On April 2, 2010, a display ad in the Wall Street Journal caught my eye; the words “perfect pitch” stood out in the headline, and that being my language, I paid closer attention. The advertisement headline “Engage journalists and bloggers with the perfect pitch” declared that Dow Jones Media Relations ManagerTM was the right tool for media relations professionals to “connect with writers who are receptive to their pitch.”

The half-page below-the-fold advertisement to media relations practitioners was the first I’ve seen in a national daily. I read the ad several times because it struck me how odd it was for Dow Jones to waste ad spend targeting me and corporate “flacks” aka publicists. I was intrigued enough to tear out the ad and save it for my later response during which:

  • I attempted to hit the download url for a complimentary e-book called “Monitor and Engage.” There was a typo in the url. The last word “today” was in bold and appeared to be part of the link to access the book; however, it was part of the ad.
  • The download link url included “PRSA” and everyone knows the Public Relations Society of America is our profession’s venerable certifications and standards group.  My initial thought was “Oh, PRSA is collaborating with Dow Jones to offer this new media relations tool.” Oddly, the url re-directed to a Dow Jones url with NO PRSA mention. After Googling the product, there’s still no mention of PRSA on the Web page. Apparently, it may be a hidden affiliation?
  • I downloaded the e-book expecting to learn more about Dow Jones Media Relations Manager. I didn’t really need a dozen pages of tight, cluttered, repetitive information I already knew to ease me into the sale.
  • After hitting the e-book link, I remained confused. The e-book title was “How to Win Friends and Influence Audiences in the Age of Conversation,” although the words Monitor and Engage did match. The ad’s sales pitch told me I could “pinpoint influential writers and keep your executives singing the right tune.” Somewhere along the way, the creative team responsible for the ad lost site of the copywriting for the book. Seems like another disconnect to me.
  • After skimming the e-book, the product is mentioned with nice charts, but what I failed to see is any marketing collateral (e.g. how much does the dang thing cost already?).

Other Thoughts

I’m surprised I learned about the existence of this media relations tool via advertising; although, my take-action-on-the-first-viewing response should be an exciting statistic, eh?

I subscribe to the Wall Street Journal; these guys know my reader profile. Why wouldn’t they pitch me direct via e-marketing?

Dow Jones, you’ve got a boatload of marketing dollars in your budget. If you’re pitching PR people why don’t you treat us like influencers and sell the product like IT people do? Give some bloggers a beta and have them tweet and blog the heck out of it? (Or, perhaps you’ve already done that and I missed it. Or, perhaps we smaller fry can’t afford your product anyway.)

For my first time being pitched by a Dow Jones print ad in a Dow Jones sister publication for a media relations tool I probably need and would like to consider buying…I think a C- is in order. Let’s hope the product performs way better than the grade.