July 29th, 2010
When Nebraska was added to the Big Ten and people were talking about changing the name, our first thought was: “What about the brand?” Big Ten is much, much more than just a name. It is part of a 100-year-old brand, a tradition, a tone and (in this part of the country) a way of life. To change the name now, in our opinion, would be a mistake.
Here are four reasons why:
(1) Brand equity. The Big Ten Conference is the oldest Division I college athletic conference in the United States. It was founded in 1895, was first nicknamed the Big Ten in 1917 and has used that name consistently since 1949. The Big Ten excels in every aspect of brand equity: awareness, loyalty and perceived quality and the innumerable memories and other associations that generations of Big Ten alumni and fans (football or not) hold precious.
(2) Brand confusion. The Big Ten now has 12 schools, the Big 12 has 10 and the Pac-10 has 12. Nebraska is leaving the Big 12 to join the Big Ten, and the Cornhuskers are not pushing for a name change. Imagine the confusion that would result if the conferences changed their name to reflect the number of teams.
(3) Precedent. Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delaney told Stu Durando of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he assumed the Big Ten would change its name in 1990 when the addition of Penn State brought the number of teams to 11. “I was going on that presumption and found out quickly the Big Ten was a name that carried a lot of meaning to a lot of people,” Delaney said. The fact that the conference has had 11 teams for the past decade is proof that the essence of the Big Ten brand has transcended the number of schools involved.
(4) Better options. The Big Ten opted in 1990 to refresh its brand image but not replace it. Al Grivetti, who was a graduate student at Northern Illinois, incorporated the No. 11 into the logo design. It would be quite easy to refresh the logo again with the numeral 12.
Delaney can be commended for a willingness to hear all sides on the issue, but he will ultimately be swayed by what he already knows to be true: the Big Ten Conference is the most powerful brand in collegiate sports, and there would be far more to lose than gain by changing the name.
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July 29th, 2010
Paul Werth Associates is bringing its senior-level consulting and integrated marketing communications services to the “Second City” — Chicago.
Senior Vice President and Chicago insider David O’Dowd heads up the new office, located in the world’s largest commercial building and Chicago landmark, 222 Merchandise Mart Plaza.
“We are very excited about our continued growth and the addition of our Chicago office,” says Sandra Harbrecht, President and CEO. “We are seeing strong demand for our results-oriented communications in this vibrant market and plan to build on our strong ties and relationships within the business community to further expand our services and client roster.” Harbrecht plans to make monthly visits to the new office to meet with clients and prospects.
In Chicago as in Columbus, Werth provides a full range of communications services to drive client success:
- Public relations, including strategic planning, thought leadership, crisis communications, reputation management, change management, media relations, social media programs, blogger outreach, spokesperson training, message development, trade show support and community relations.
- Public Affairs, including government relations, lobbying, grassroots communications and engagement, ballot issue campaign management and research.
- Advertising, including creative strategy, brand strategy, corporate identity, advertising campaigns, video production, marketing collateral, direct marketing and word of mouth and viral marketing.
- Interactive Marketing, including analytics-based digital strategy, website/intranet development, microsites, e-commerce solutions, e-mail marketing, SEO, SEM, social media integration, online reputation audits, viral marketing, digital content creation and usability studies.
- Research, including needs assessments, strategy development, creative custom research design, communications audits, market potential/opportunity studies, brand positioning/image studies, advertising and communications testing, customer satisfaction studies, executive interviews and public opinion polling.
We welcome visitors to our new office! Call or e-mail David O’Dowd at dodowd@paulwerth.com or 312-297-1416 or Sandy Harbrecht swh@paulwerth.com or 614-224-8114.
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June 23rd, 2010
How do you get noticed online?
In three words, it’s about your Total Internet Presence, or TIP. This post kicks off a series on the seven elements of Total Internet Presence, a process we apply to make your digital brand more exciting, visible, transparent, accessible and competitive.
Today’s post is about the element of measurability — the yardstick for your online presence. There are some very sophisticated tools for measuring your “worth” on the Web, and most often we refer these as Web analytics.
What are Web analytics?
The Web Analytics Association defines Web analytics as “the objective tracking, collection, measurement, reporting and analysis of quantitative Internet data to optimize websites and web marketing initiatives.”
That sounds very academic, doesn’t it? Bottom line, Web analytics provide answers to a couple of fundamental questions:
- How did visitors find my website?
- What do visitors do once they reach my website?
Why measure?
There’s an old saying, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” Taking that a bit further, you can’t improve what you don’t measure. Some specific benefits of using Web analytics are:
- Allowing you to determine if your investment in website visit drivers such as advertising, SEO and social media is paying off. For example, is the company Facebook page really driving visits to the website?
- Providing historical benchmarking. For example, are visits increasing or decreasing?
What to measure?
All of the data in the world are useless if you haven’t established some specific metrics (i.e., measurements of success). Do you know if you’re winning or losing?
Some of the most common website metrics – and the data used to determine if they’re being met – are:
Increase site traffic:
- Total visits
- Unique visitors
Improve site visibility:
- Traffic sources (i.e., search engines and other websites sending visitors to your site)
- Search engine rankings
Improve Site Engagement:
- Average visits per unique visitor
- Average page views per visit
- Site bounce rate
- Return visitors
Increase Conversions:
- White paper downloads
- Contact forms submitted
How do you measure up?
Drop me a note here if you want to look into assessing your company or organization’s measurability. We can discuss the analytics that will best meet your unique needs.
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May 18th, 2010
 Click for SNL Weekend Update feature Anyone can sell a candle that smells like rose petals, but try selling one that smells like hamburgers. That’s exactly what White Castle set out to do, and with a national media blitz not only did they sell them, they sold out of them in less than a week. The idea was so unique, it even caught the attention of Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update with Seth Meyers.
To celebrate National Hamburger Month, Paul Werth Associates created a sizzling public relations campaign about White Castle’s hot new hamburger-scented candles, with proceeds benefiting Autism Speaks.
Werth’s media strategy helped the story spread like wildfire in just a week, generating 300 million impressions and $2.3 million in advertising equivalency through:
• More than 500 stories in The New York Times, New York Daily News, Chicago Sun-Times, Entertainment Weekly, ABC, CNN, MSNBC and other elite media across the U.S. and internationally.
• Features on Saturday Night Live and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
• Online buzz from The Village Voice, Burger Beast, Slashfood and other foodies and culture mavens.
• Viral momentum through thousands of Tweets, Facebook “Likes” and social bookmarks.
The $10 candles sold out online in less than 48 hours and began to dwindle in restaurants within a week. Hundreds have signed up on a waiting list.
Other campaign elements included a video by Werth Creative telling the story of “America’s Most Distinctive Hamburger” and celebrity “Sealed With a Crave Kits” featuring White Castle swag.
And, if you’d like to talk about how Werth’s public relations team can put some sizzle into your next promotion or product launch, please call 614-224-8114 or e-mail swh@paulwerth.com.
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May 18th, 2010
News or noise? That’s the question facing journalists and those who need accurate reporting …which would be all of us … today. The greatest shifts in standard reporting practices since yellow journalism are accelerating, several recent surveys show.
A great surge among reporters using social media tools … blogs, videos, podcasts and Twitter … has taken place. The latest Survey of Media in the Wired World found that almost 70 percent of journalists use social media, up by 28 percentage points since 2008. Nearly 80 percent of journalists said bloggers are important opinion-shapers, and 91 percent thought social media actually enhanced journalism.
Is that just Putting on a Happy Face? Maybe. Other surveys show journalists are deeply concerned about their profession. The disappearance of gatekeepers (i.e., editors) who monitor objectivity and check facts is not such a good thing. Neither are layoffs, which are frequent among working journalists. Those who are left have much larger workloads, smaller traditional news spaces and many demands to produce content for multiple platforms. Of course, social media have opened up many new sources and given journalists a chance to actually have two-way discussions with their readers and viewers.
It’s no surprise that a recent survey showed most journalists find that public relations firms are more important than ever to their work. Public relations professionals, often former reporters themselves, can help working journalists find good ideas for stories, provide accurate relevant information, and locate experts and others who are good, solid sources. Working together, we can make sure legitimate reporting will be heard over all the noise online and in traditional media. And that’s good news.
What are your thoughts about this shift? Contact me by commenting here, or e-mail me at ktwinem@paulwerth.com.
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January 21st, 2010
Today’s news media are a far cry from what my mother experienced in the Walter Cronkite-era of my youth. Social media invigorate our communications, broaden our networks and make content-sharing much more immediate.
How will our communications possibilities be transformed by the mainstreaming of social media this year? Here are my thoughts:
- People will continue to gravitate toward news that is shareable. We are social beings, and there’s power in using our social networks to share news in real time. On Sunday mornings, I curl up with my newsreader and share content with friends separated by time and space. Big news organizations realize this and have made the ShareIt icon ubiquitous, because news shared in context takes on greater meaning. There are more news stories out there and more in-depth discussion as a result of sharing content.
- News publishing that encourages us to be the correspondent isn’t just more engaging – it has more impact for the news audience. This interactive map from The New York Times’ site is a good example. The before-after impacts of the Haiti earthquake are palpable. It’s clear that we like to share the news with our friends, and we like it even more when it’s combined with visuals that “take us to the news.”
- Action-oriented news can make a difference. Recent fundraising for Haiti relief efforts and geo-targeting police abuses in Iran give us practical ways to use Twitter for human benefit. When news becomes meaningful information that people care enough to do something about, it makes a measurable difference.
Simply reading a two-dimensional paper at the kitchen table in the morning like my mother used to do is no longer enough. We must be able to experience the news through our senses, in multiple dimensions – along with friends on the other side of the world.
The kitchen table “newspaper” experience just got personal, global and substantive. And, because new media are breaking down communications barriers, even my mother is tapping into the possibilities. She recently joined Facebook.
If you are marveling at the new media mix and relishing the possibilities, drop me a line at kratcliff@paulwerth.com, or comment here. I look forward to reading your thoughts – and starting the dialogue.
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July 20th, 2009
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Paul Werth Associates has announced the promotion of Kristin Mack Deuber, APR and Dace de la Foret. The Columbus-based public relations, public affairs and marketing firm has promoted Mack Deuber to vice president and de la Foret to account supervisor.
Kristin Mack Deuber, APR
Kristin Mack Deuber, APR has been promoted to vice president at Werth following a distinguished history of success with the firm. Mack Deuber leads the firm’s health care practice and manages client relationships throughout the firm. Prior to joining Werth she was the director of marketing and public relations for Columbus-based real estate development firm CASTO and began her career working with e-Merging Marketing and The Tomasi Marketing Group in Columbus.
Mack Deuber serves as an adjunct public relations professor to several area universities and is a member of the board of directors of the Central Ohio Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America. She also volunteers for The Women’s Fund of Central Ohio and The Columbus Art Museum’s ArtFUSION event. A recipient of the 2005 40 Under 40 Award from Columbus Business First, Mack Deuber holds her MBA from Franklin University and earned her journalism bachelor’s from The Ohio State University.
Dace de la Foret
Dace de la Foret has also been promoted several times at Werth, having risen to the position of account supervisor from his most recent role as senior account executive. de la Foret has most recently provided service to Werth’s media relations practice. Prior to joining Werth, he worked as a producer at WBNS-TV, and began his career working in production for NBC News’ Washington, D.C. bureau. He is a graduate of Miami University, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in communications.
About Paul Werth Associates
Founded in 1963, Paul Werth Associates is a full-service public relations, marketing and public affairs firm counseling clients throughout the United States. The firm has offices in Columbus, Ohio and Washington, D.C.
Paul Werth Associates has previously received nine Silver Anvils, which is the highest level of recognition in the public relations industry. The Silver Anvil Award recognizes complete programs incorporating sound research, planning, execution and evaluation. They must meet the highest standards of performance in the profession.
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