Inside the world of Rob Mclean, Author

Rand Paul (son of Ron Paul) did an interview with his dad regarding the whole debt ceiling. I find Paul's (father or son) messaging strategy to be interesting because it's based around telling people things they don't want to hear (telling it to them like it is if you will). Which is a risky strategy when the powers that be are flooding the market with their talking points because you can very easily come off as too complex and people just tune you out.  It's a strategy based not around winning at all costs, but rather winning without sacrificing what you believe in (which hopefully is the truth). That strategy really hinges on the demographics of your publics - are the American people informed enough to be receptive to a complex message that articulates what is actually going on. Or are they still going to vote for the candidates that use the same old 'small government' or 'big government' talking points. It should be interesting to see. I'v...

Way back in January I posted that I thought Obama was tanking his chances of a second term - Bye Bye Obama . Recently the polls seems to support my thesis - Poll: Big drop for Obama since May. The Pew poll released Thursday showed 41 percent of registered voters would like to see Obama re-elected while 40 percent said they would prefer a Republican to win the White House. The new numbers are significantly closer than the 11-point lead the president held in May. I think Obama continues to dig his hole deeper. He's playing out a very risky strategy with this debt ceiling right now - he's basically using a page from Bush's playbook of fear - telling old people they won't get their cheques if the debt ceiling isn't raised.  That's total hogwash. Yes, not raising the debt ceiling will cause a crisis, but it won't result in cancelled social security cheques. The Fed holds 1.6 trillion in treasury bonds it could sell (which they don't want to sel...

Old Spice has a pretty funny online viral marketing campaign going where the Old Spice Guy takes on Fabio in a series of videos (visit the link above to see all the videos, there are tons of them). Kudos to Old Spice for staying with a formula that works and expanding on it. Got Milk? could learn a thing or two from them. I've never owned an Old Spice product in my life and advertising doesn't impress me. I tend to only try new products until I find a brand I like and then I stick with it. For me Degree is hands down the best deodorant out there. Having said that though, Old Spice provided me with enough of a laugh with their new campaign that next time I'm in Walmart I'll pick up one of their products and give it a shot. Not to say I'll continue buying it, but for some reason I'm actually willing to give them a try now.

If there's one thing that's amazing about US politicians (and politicians in general) is how they manage to keep a stiff upper lip amid all the chaos. Your average person would be tearing through Rolaids and pulling out their hair right about now. Yet these politicians seem to be masters at managing stress. No matter how crazy things get they keep a reserved demeanor. I don't agree with their behavior, but I will say that it takes one heck of a sturdy hand and mental composition to not let all the pressure wear you down. If I were them I'd have bags under my eyes and would probably be grinding my teeth. I mean, check out recent speeches they've made. They look calm, collected, like they just got a good nights sleep actually. Truly mind boggling that they are able to remain healthy in the face of what has to be incredible stress. It almost makes one wonder what type of psychological make-up reacts to impending crisis and endless stress so calmly. It's eit...

I just have to say I love it when tech surpasses your expectations. A year ago I bought a 16G Verbatim usb stick. It cost me 20 bucks or something like that. I figured, what the hell, the thing will probably break in six months but we'll give it a shot. A year later it's still going strong and recently passed the test of all tests. I recently washed my usb stick. Yep, forgot to remove it from my pants pocket and tossed it in the wash. Not only did I wash it but I put it through the dryer as well. I figured one usb stick ready for the trash when I found it during the folding process (let me tell you, it SUCKS when you find stuff in your pocket AFTER the wash is done). To my surprise, when I plugged it in, the thing worked. Go figure. It was dirt cheap, looks kind of ugly, yet this sucker was built to last. I love it when a product surprises you like this. Next week I'll toss my iPod in the wash and let you know what happens.

Giganews recently announced they will be providing their customers with online storage ability through a service called Dump Truck .  There are tons of online storage services out there, so I'm not really sure what Dump Truck will provide that is different than what you can already get. I'm guessing that the selling point will be security. Given Giganews provides access to newsgroups... a file sharing (storage) service that many use as a (technically legal) alternative to Bittorrent... it's my guess that this will tie in to that somehow. It will be interesting to see. I think the next step in online file sharing / storage is to mask all information tied to the user (IP addresses and the like).  The service was developed by a company called Golden Frog, which seems to specialize in keeping your 'digital footprint' to a minimum, hence my speculation. This is an interesting subject because obviously we don't want people to be able to be completely annonymous...

One of the things with PR is that like with anything in life you can take it too far. You can become to myopic, focusing too much on micro-publics and neglecting that those publics are surrounded by other publics, which while they may not be core to you can become a voice that influences the publics you do care about. I know, that sounded a bit complicated. In english, basically your primary audience might be Bill, and Sally might not matter to you in the least. So you focus on Bill, ignoring any impacts your actions and words might have on Sally, because after all, who cares about Sally right? The problem however, is that if you piss Sally off enough, she starts fighting back and that starts to change the way Bill views what you are saying. This is what is happening with the debt ceiling fiasco in the US. Everyone started out by focusing on their core publics. So Tea-Party Republicans took the 'do not raise the debt ceiling' stance, moderate Republicans said 'raise it,...

Just thought I'd prop a really good three-part documentary out of the UK called  The Life of Muhammad . Really interesting watch and great production value. Apparently it's the first ever non-muslim documentary on Muhammad. You can also watch it on YouTube (part one and two have been posted. Part three isn't up yet, I believe it only aired last night).  If you are in the UK you can watch it online at the above link also. For everyone else that only watches things that come through their television cable package, what are you thinking, it's not 1999 anymore. I'm sure it will appear on Western stations in a few months, but why wait, just watch it online (assuming you aren't with a crazy provider that caps you and charges you insane rates on a per gigabyte basis).

Microsoft apparently apologized for a tweet they made about Amy Winehouse . Apparently they tweeted that users should go buy Amy Winehouse's latest album in honor of her memory and they linked to Zune (Microsoft's online music offering I guess - I thought Zune was just an mp3 player, didn't know they still had an online store for buying music associated with it). They apologized for looking like they were taking commercial advantage of her death - she dies, they tell folks to go buy AW music to make a buck. While it was probably a dumb tweet, there's no need to apologize for heaven's sake. If people don't want to buy her album, I'm sure they will just ignore the tweet. If they do want to buy the album, they will probably appreciate a link advising them how they can do so. Not to mention, the biggest complement someone can pay to an artist is buying their art. I'm pretty sure Cobain, Winehouse, Joplin... would all be smiling if (the one good thing) ...

Over at PR Breakfast Club, Keith Trivitt had a blog entry that caught my attention - Latest ‘Got Milk?’ Campaign Shows Worst of Marketing . Basically the California Milk Processor Board ran a 'Got Milk?" campaign where the theme was that milk helps women with PMS and as a result helps men who have to deal with women with PMS. The microsite associated with the campaign can be found at www.gotdiscussion.org This kind of reminds me of the time Nike ran a commercial where a woman was being attacked by Michael Myers. That commercial got banned, but I believe they also have a commercial where a woman gets mugged on the street, but outruns her mugger. Or I think it was actually a woman was being chased by a mugger, but by the end of the commercial there isn't a mugger and the message was that with Nike shoes you run like you are running for your life (although I can't find that particular ad on YouTube). Anyway, "Got Milk' and 'Just Do it' are perh...

I've always loved 'ideas'. That's perhaps why I love PR, because you get to interact with so many different ideas and help communicate them to the world (if you are lucky that is). Today I stumbled on a site dedicated to ideas - www.ted.com . This is the kind of stuff that one has to ask why there isn't more of? Sure, there's Through the Wormhole (which I watch every week), but that's about it, and even that is just about science. So this site looks really cool, with unique videos on all kinds of different 'ideas'. It's also a great example of stimulating, interesting content that you just can't find on television (but you can on the Internet).  One of the things that sucks about growing up is that you don't have time or access to lectures on things like you did when you were in university. But why do people have to go to university to access this content? Why can I hear experts on any subject whenever I want? I mean, in the pa...

Check it out - www.wtfnoway.com - a visual representation of how much the US debt is if you used 100 dollar bills. I like the picture of what 15 trillion dollars is: Remember, those are 100 dollars bills. If you were talking 20 dollar bills you'd have to make that money structure five times taller and wider.

Yahoo recently posted an article -  Top 5 Tips to Build Wealth and Success . Their top 5 tips for success were: 1. Live Below Your Means. 2. Bounce Back From Defeat 3. Self-Promote 4. Have Street Smarts 5. Buy Cheap   I find it annoying when the media serves this drivel up to folks. Half of those traits you could argue are the traits that people living in poverty possess. From what I've seen of those who are successful and wealthy, better tips seem to be: 1. Have a vision - a vision is the compass that keeps successful people heading in the right direction (Vision) 2. Never burn bridges with people unless absolutely necessary (Reputation) 3. Don't worry about stuff like failure or what others think - worry, anxiety and fear are huge no no's for successful people. (Confidence/Optimism/Positive Attitude) 4. Self Promote - I agree with this one big time (although I'd call it networking). If people don't know you exist they can't give you busin...

I just thougth I'd post how amazed I am at how well Google picks up blogs posted using Blogger. My post on RIM comes up on the first page if you search "RIM public relations". My post on Murdoch comes up as the first hit if you search "Murdoch crisis communications" Kind of mind boggling when both those topics have articles in major tier-one publications.  I mean, Reuters did a piece on Murdoch's crisis but it doesn't pop up until the second page of results. If you search "Murdoch crisis PR" my post comes up as the third hit. Lesson from all this, companies should really consider using Blogger for their blogging (you can still customize your blog and brand it in many ways). I suspect it heavily jacks up your placing in search results. Combine using blogger with titling your blogs with key words you know your publics will be searching on and you will reach way more people with your message than if you host your blog off your corporate...

It's been probably four months now (maybe more) since I dumped Rogers and went with Teksavvy .  I'm really happy with the service so far. Best decision I ever made. For 36 bucks a month (after taxes) I'm getting better internet than I had with Rogers (and more than three times the download cap).I'm thinking of upgrading to their cable offering (15megs down, 5 up, 300 gig cap) which is less than Rogers, but my dsl is servicing my needs so well I haven't looked in to it yet.  What I found really cool was tonight I was on the tech support line with them (more on that in a minute) and they have an option while you are waiting in queue to simply press '2' and they will call you back when an agent is available (and you don't lose your spot in queue either). Reminds me of that company I stumbled on a while ago - Fonolo - they enable call centers to do that kind of thing (I don't know why every company doesn't do it - why would you make your customers...

The Wall Street Journal covered the departure of a product marketing manager from RIM - RIM Loses Another Executive.  Really? We're now covering departures of manager-level personnel and calling them executives? What's even more odd is how the story was shortened from what originally ran. In the original story it stated that RIM's VP (I think it was VP, may have been a CXO) of marketing went to Samsung. So the big story is some guy who worked for the VP at RIM jumped with his boss to Samsung. Big whup.  This goes to show you how eager the media is to report every little thing that implies RIM is falling apart. Which is misleading if you ask me because RIM losing marketing folks isn't a bad thing. It will give them a chance to get in some agents of change when it comes to marketing (which is obviously one of their major issues in the market). Not that I'm a bull on RIM, but I really fail to see how a product marketing manager leaving RIM is 'news'.

Ya, I just couldn't leave it alone. So I fiddled around and I think I've got something I really like now. Logic behind the changes... While the green and black two-tone was alright, it lacked style, it didn't 'pop'.  This new design separates out various themes. It puts "grow, manage and live' as one theme, YOUR brand as another theme, and articulates the segregation of services using different block coloring as background (impressing that there are three distinct activities RMCC addresses).  While I think it 'pops' now, it's not flashy (which I don't want). It still has a subdued vibe to it, which is what I was going for. I tried some flashy colors and while they do 'pop', it's a misrepresentation of the what RMCC brings to the table (I'm more about the serious things you need to do, not just the razzle dazzle or the sprinkles on the cake).  I did break the two-tone rule of designing. When you toss more than two colo...

So here's my new business card design. Not sure if I'll stay with it. It's alright - clear message, simple two-tone color scheme, communicates what clients can expect from RMCC. I tell ya, I'm glad I'm not a graphic designer. I can pick away at graphic stuff for days. As it is I'm probably going to fiddle around with this design some more tomorrow (I might switch out the green color for a nice blue).  I'm the same way with news releases (perhaps that's why I always gel with graphic design folks so well, I know they go through that artistic perfectionist stage also). I always joke to folks just starting out in PR that when you have to write 'a' news release, you can expect to write the equivalent of five news releases just to get to that 'one' final news release copy. Yes, you can whip a release up fast, but they lack that finished touch. They fail to flow and hold the reader. This is why I say that there is a certain element to PR...

Just a quirky little note regarding Murdoch's appearance before parliament and something that really only PR folks will find interesting. When managing a crisis you want as few 'suits' around you as possible. The more suits, the more it looks like you are trying to 'control' the crisis - which as discussed in my previous post is the opposite of appearing honest and accountable. But if you ever find yourself on television managing a crisis, if you can, be very aware of the background. While you can't quantify it, the human mind processes TONS of information outside of the executive / frontal cortex or conscious level. Some poo-poo this kind of stuff. Myself, my view is why risk it? Additionally, why not take advantage of it? The overall 'image' and environment - foreground, background, noise, etc. - all enter a viewer's eyeballs and ears and then get stored in the brain and later drawn upon (in processes we don't yet understand) to come up w...

To recap for the folks who haven't heard (which I assume is no one), Rupert Murdoch, media mogul (CEO of News Corp and properties such as Fox News ), is under fire for phone hacking that his UK-tabloid property News of the World engaged in. If you want to know more google any of the 3.2 billion stories on this. On the PR front, Murdoch has hired Edelman to help manage the crisis.  Murdoch has released an apology in many of his newspaper outlets, apologized to some of the victims face-to-face and today appeared in front of a parliamentary committee.  To top it off, apparently Murdoch got attacked from someone at the hearing who threw a plate of some sort at him (paper or tin, I don't know, but Murdoch wasn't hurt) Here are six highlight videos of Murdoch's meeting with parliament (curteousy of the Daily Beast) : So the interesting question in all this is why do these guys always miss the boat on crisis PR? Whether it's Murdoch, or BP, or An...

I got to thinking - Geez, we spend half our lives staring at a computer monitor - which then made me think how valuable that real estate actually is. So I decided to start a PR desktop wallpaper series. A series of walllpapers (the goal is 100) which will act as little reminders as to what is important to remember when it comes to PR. You'd think someone would have done something like this at some point, but nope, there's absolutely nothing out there. Who knows, maybe other PR folks will join in and we'll end up with a huge series of PR theme desktop wallpapers out there (which PR folks can then give to their CEO's to use on their computers and grow mind share as a result - I'm partly joking here). I really like what Paver Smith did a while ago with daily PR tips on the iPhone .I think we need more of that knowledge capital sharing - because after all, a certain percentage of PR you can't learn in school (it's best practices and a thought process y...

So Netflix, the face of Internet-based access to video content (ie. tv and movies), has just stepped on a bit of a PR landmine - Netflix price hike angers users, some drop pla n. The problem with them hicking their prices (recession aside) is an age-old mistake that is more a PR mistake than anything else. Here is what happens. Basic profit theory 101 (let's use a little math as an example)... Original Pricing  You have 100 customers each subscribing to your service at say 10 dollars a month. Total revenue per month = 1,000 dollars You do an analysis as to what would happen if you raised the price and you estimate that you may lose a certain percetange of your customer base. New Pricing  You lose 10% of your customers, leaving you with 90 customers You raise your service pricing to 15 dollars a month 90 x 15 = 1,350 dollars As you can see, having less customers at a higher monthly cost is more profitable. Now, often times part of the analysis shows that wh...

I'm really enjoying the online news station - The Real Network News . They did a short interview regarding Obama's press conference on the debt ceiling and the exchange of information is far better than anything you get on the major news networks. Perhaps it's because instead of talking to pundits, they talk to university professors and give them enough time to elaborate on things such that you walk away with a better understanding of at least one way to view the situation. As opposed to the mainstream media where you walk away with some stale theme such as "Obama is a socialist' or 'Republicans want to take away your healthcare'. Anyway, the interview I watched today is embedded below (after watching this you might not think I'm all that nuts to think Obama could very well lose the 2012 election).

If you just starting out in PR one of the things you will encounter if you are working in a corporate setting is financial and industry analysts. Often these functions are specialized functions which you won't be asked to engage in. Yet, if you are good at PR, it's very common that you may find yourself doing working with both industry and financial analysts (I know I did). After all your core messaging should be the same for the media as it is for financial and industry analysts. If you have time it's worthwhile watching two recent interviews on BNN. One is with an industry analyst from IDC (Brandon Mensinga) and the other is with a financial analyst from Jefferies and Company (Peter Misek). (sorry the videos aren't embedded, BNN doesn't offer that ability - very annoying, but what can you do). Anyway, both Brandon and Peter gave great interviews. But as you can see, industry analysts focus exclusively on the technology. As such, they tend to be more open m...

So it looks like Cisco will be shedding up to 10,000 jobs in the near future (or 14 per cent of its workforce). This is a text book example of what is happening in the economy and why I think there is still another tsunami on its way. The equation is really simple. Cisco has $43 billion of cash that it is just sitting on. Let's do some quick math. 10,000 people at say an average salary of 100,000 each. That costs the company $1 billion a year (10,000 x 100,000 = 1,000,000,000). So technically, Cisco could employ those 10,000 employees for the next 43 years until it had used up the cash that it currently has just sitting in the bank. So why cut so many people? After all, surely they aren't a pure 'cost' to the business - they are 'working' all day, hence doing something that helps the company make money right? So they cost you $100k but they may be tied to the generation of 200k of revenue right? The answer is simple. You have x amount of people in y...

Now this is good PR (or bad PR depending on who created it) http://www.usdebtclock.org/ Just mind boggling that the US debt equals almost $130,000 per tax payer. Just as mind boggling that the US has 75 trillion in national assets and 114 trillion in unfunded liabilities. I guess I should be proud to be Canadian. Our debt clock shows that it breaks down to about 16k per citizen (mind you, the US would be 46k per citizen if you included everyone). So I'd guesstimate that per Canadian tax payer the debt is probably more like 27k or so (versus $130k in the US).

I'm not much of a fan of iPhone apps, most of them blow. But I stumbled across one that I actually liked - it's called Scatterbrain . It's just a simple reminder app. I've tried others in the past and they are always too annoying to use on a regular basis. But this one is just dirt simple - input whatever it is you want to remember, give it a color code if you want, and you're done. Great app for PR folks. One of the most annoying things in PR is when you have an idea, get busy for the next couple of days, and then try to remember the idea you had only to have lost it somewhere in your short-term memory bank.