The Big Apple Awards is recognized as one of the industry’s toughest peer-judged programs, so we were ecstatic to learn that campaigns for two clients – Omni Hotels & Resorts and dealnews – were selected as finalists.

After much excitement and anticipation, Affect walked away with two honors for the night – a big win for our ‘Omni Understands’ meeting & events social media campaign, as well as honorable mention for our dealnews 2010 holiday shopping season PR efforts.

Events like this are always a good reminder of just how hard people in our profession work in order to generate fantastic results for clients. As we witnessed last night, a little planning, creativity and teamwork can go a long way. Congrats to all the winners!

I’ve joined a committee of PR leaders that do not believe that democracy is being served in PRSA so long as only a small minority of its members can hold elective office. We believe that many worthy members of PRSA who meet national leadership criteria in many other ways are being deprived of the opportunity to serve the organization. We’ve started a petition to remove this requirement and allow all members to serve and shape the organization. If you’d like to sign our petition, or learn more, please visit:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/prsa

The Ad Hoc Committee to Promote Democracy in PRSA;

• Richard Edelman, President & CEO, Edelman
• Bill Doescher, former Senior Vice President & Chief Communications Officer, Dun & Bradstreet, Past President of PRSA Foundation, President & CEO of the Doescher Group
• Art Stevens, APR, Fellow PRSA, Managing Partner, StevensGouldPincus
• Deborah Radman, APR, Fellow PRSA, Past President, PRSA New York
• Sandra Fathi, President-Elect, PRSA New York, President, Affect Strategies
• Dave Rickey, APR, Sr. Vice President Communications, Birmingham Business Alliance

The full list of tips can be viewed on the PR Breakfast Club blog, but I have listed below the sound bites that  I found most valuable:

#3- One person should either operate or oversee all social media. One voice should be heard/read from the company.

#6- We will all finally realize that it’s time to get over the notion that every CEO/C-level needs to be on or “get” social media. They don’t. It’s our job to help them best understand why certain initiatives and accomplishments within social media are relevant and important to the business’ bottom line, and that means putting social media concepts into more traditional terms that CEOs/C-levels readily understand.

#14- Credible sources still rule. Even in real-time crises that are played out on Twitter, blogs, etc., still need to link back to credible sources (e.g. a company’s official blog or some other official info source) so that rumor mill doesn’t continue to spread. Twitter is a link-based economy, and just simply sending tweets w/o credible links will do little to get truth out there to the right people who need to know that info.

#20- Remember: Journalists still have specific ways they’d like to be pitched. Pay attention. Is it now through Facebook or Twitter or still via e-mail or phone?

#28- There will continue to be the struggle of the importance of quantity vs. quality. Is it about how many “fans” you have, or is it really about who’s listening?

#31- People need to realize they can’t be robots. Auto dms and canned responses don’t build & engage the community.  Be human, show some personality in your SM interactions.

#34- Platforms and apps come and go, but the ability to tell a story to people who care will always be our bedrock.

Have any tips to add to the list? Leave a comment or send me an email.

Blog Hosting:
www.wordpress.com

Blog & SM Monitoring:
www.radian6.com
www.yahoopipes.com
www.tns.com
www.dna13.com

Communities:
groups.google.com
groups.yahoo.com
www.ning.com

Photo & Video Sharing:
www.youtube.com
www.vimeo.com
www.schooltube.com
www.flickr.com

General Twitter Resources:
www.twitter.com
http://help.twitter.com
http://mashable.com/category/twitter-lists/
http://twitter.pbworks.com/

Twitter Applications:
www.tweetdeck.com
www.hootsuite.com
www.twitiq.com

Finding Journalists on Twitter:
www.journalisttweets.com
http://prsarahevans.com/mediaontwitter/
www.muckrack.com
www.wefollow.com

Sharing Widgets:
www.addtoany.com
www.tweetmeme.com

Other:
www.compete.com

Current PRSA-NY President Deborah Radman gave Sandra kudos for working tirelessly to help the chapter embrace technology in the practice of PR.

We had an amazing time at The Rainbow Room (which, sadly, may still be closing) at the top of Rockefeller Center, drinking bellinis and rubbing elbows with the other winners.

We also had our own Affect-style celebration a few hours earlier, featuring cookies and a champagne toast.

If you know Sandra, you know she’s never one to make a big deal about her accomplishments. But please join me in congratulating her on this much-deserved honor!

I’ll link to the official photoset from the event as soon as it’s posted. In the meantime, you can get a taste of the festivities from our Flickr stream.

YAY, SANDRA!

Matt and I walked into the seminar armed with knowledge of the how important a solid awards program is for our agency. Affect Strategies is getting ready to re-launch with a brand new logo and website, and major part of our strategic marketing plan for 2009 is to focus on and expand internal public relations and marketing efforts.  As a former coworker and friend once told me, “The best PR is the PR you do for yourself.”

The seminar was extremely focused and helpful. Emmanuel and Ellen are more than qualified to provide tips for awards submissions, having won awards for their submissions over the years and serving as judges for the Big Apple Awards along with the prestigious Silver Anvil Awards.

Here are a few of my key takeaways:

Follow the Rules: Award submission guidelines are critically important. Oftentimes judges will check over the format of submissions before they dive in and begin reading. A great entry could potentially lose points or be discarded simply because it wasn’t laid out and submitted properly. It’s important for every award submission to be textbook quality, and this means paying careful attention to details like fonts, margins and size.

Tell a Story: Your submission should tell the story of an extraordinary business challenge that your agency overcame by utilizing the power of public relations. Remember that your word choice is extremely important. Make sure that your entry is written clearly to explain the entire process of your public relations campaign.

Research is Key: All award entries should have a section that clearly states the research that was conducted for the campaign. Your research prior to the execution of your campaign demonstrates to the judges that your agency saw a need that your client had, and did the research and work that was necessary to address that need. And, when you think about it, can a PR campaign really be executed properly without preliminary research?

Impact Trumps Tactics: In the end, the impact of your campaign is more important than the tactics that you used to get the results. Make sure that the impact and results of your campaign are clearly defined and well-worded.

Support Every Point: It is critical that every point in your summary is supported in your supplementary materials or binder. Provide as much support material as allowed, including memos, plan overviews, meeting notes, and interactions with the client and/or media. Make sure that all supporting materials are clearly organized and labeled.

I think that the most important takeaway for me was Ellen’s reminder to get back to basics. The main thing to keep in mind when submitting for an award is that you are simply trying to communicate how your agency used the discipline of PR to successfully over come a client’s problem.

A big thanks to PRSA-NY and Emmanuel and Ellen! We hope to see you soon at an awards banquet!

-Katie Safrey

Recently, the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) held a panel discussion called “Meet the Media: Landing Top Morning Shows: Getting the Gold in Breakfast TV” at Fleishman-Hillard. The panel consisted of Tammy Caputo, Senior Producer of the CBS Early Show; Jennifer Cunningham, Senior Producer of Fox & Friends; Christina LaRosa, Associate Producer of Good Morning America Now and Dori Kornspan, Talent Producer of The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet. Unlike other panel discussions I have attended in the past, this was a gathering of highly influential producers who genuinely wanted to give tips and advice on what they are looking for in a good guest and story.

The panel discussion, which ran approximately one and a half hours, was an informative, interesting and entertaining session. I will try to distill what each of the producers is interested in for their respective shows:

Tammy Caputo, CBS Early Show
Tammy is the gatekeeper for story ideas and guests on the Early Show. Generally stories should appeal to women and to an older demographic. She asks that pitches be short and to the point and the subject matter should be eye-catching. As she generally reads her emails via Blackberry, less is definitely more. In an email pitch, please make the subject line clear and straightforward. A cute subject line will get deleted.

As far as booking a story, they sometimes fill grids one to two months in advance. Immediate and breaking stories will require a faster turnaround. Oftentimes they will need to secure an expert quickly for a breaking story, so it’s important to keep an eye on the news cycle and pitch someone who may be a fit right away. Holiday and awareness dates should be pitched one to two months ahead. Never assume you are pitching something too early in this day and age of instant information.

She prefers you not pitch multiple people at the station. If you do, please be upfront about it so as not to waste their time and annoy them. Also, if your client is going to appear on competing stations, full disclosure is recommended. They will oftentimes take the guest anyway but by not being honest, you run the risk of being blacklisted.

Other things to note: the station likes exclusives and by offering them one that works well, you build a solid relationship which will get you placed at the top of the list for consideration. Make sure that pitches are timely and relevant. If your spokesperson has had lots of coverage, let her know that and send links. The more coverage and on-air time your person has had, the better chance they will consider using them.

Jennifer Cunningham, Fox and Friends
Jennifer Cunningham is the Senior Producer and decides who will appear on the show. She is looking for new twists to old stories (for example, ‘What Father’s Day gift should dad get when he exchanges the ugly tie he got?’). She is also interested in stories that are more news-oriented and less feature-oriented. They also want stories that are human interest or outrage stories. An outrage story is one that makes the viewer demand a call to action.

When pitching, note they have Blackberries so keep it short and to the point. They are rarely sitting by their phones and so the pitches should briefly bullet the following: who, why, story hook, background nugget and whether the guest will be in-studio or remote. She also asks that you anticipate what they will want to know and give as much information in a short format. The more attractive the subject line, the better chance it will be read.

Jennifer also asks that if your spokesperson is booked, do not contact her multiple times. The show will contact you the day before. By calling and being a pest, you are ensuring that they will not take your clients in the future. She also commented that putting conditions on what a spokesperson will or will not discuss is a sure way of getting canceled and never getting on the program in the future.

Finally, Jennifer said the best way to pitch a story is to ask yourself, “Is this a story that I would stop what I’m doing to watch. If I wouldn’t care about the subject, why should they?”

Dori Kornspan, The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet
Dori is the talent producer and responsible for the guests and content of the show. Generally, the subject matter is racier, sexier and more adult. Their demographic is women 25-54 and more urban-oriented. The stories they cover are fun, upbeat and entertainment-based. You won’t see cooking segments, product showcases or relationship experts. They do like debatable topics or segments that skew more controversial. They like medical breakthrough stories and are always looking for experts to have on tap at a moments notice.

When pitching, email in bullets is preferred with no attachments. Voicemail messages should be very short with the contact information at the very top. It is ok to follow-up with a call but not ok to be a pest. Also, when pitching, take into consideration they generally book a week or two ahead. If pitching multiple people by email, she asks you copy everyone on the same email so there is no confusion during their booking meetings.

Christina LaRosa, Good Morning America Now
Christina stresses that stories should be webby, or web-friendly. She is always on the lookout for fashion, cooking or top tips stories, as well as stories that have a great visual aspect.

When pitching, she asks that you package the story idea for the web. She wants to see slideshows, PPT presentations, video excerpts and images. She prefers emails that are mostly bullet points for quick scanning and stresses she is rarely ever near or on the phone. If sending something by snail mail, which she does accept, always email her to let her know to be on the lookout for the package.

With so much content needed to fill space, she asks that you pitch for the next day or a 1-2 week timeframe. She often needs to fill a hole at the last minute. She may ask for a guest the same or next day. Christina also can help with GMA Radio and guests for the first two hours of the televised show. She usually needs to slot people late in the day, so pitching afternoons and evenings are welcome.

In Short
If there was one thing that was stressed by all the panelists, it was that including a link to video of the spokesperson is the best way to get their attention and be considered. They need to know the person on camera will not only look good but also be able to communicate in a clear and interesting manner. Television is, after all, a visual medium and they want to be able to “see the product before buying”.

Overall, I want to say this was a highly informative session that was well attended by a capacity crowd. As a person who has been in the field a number of years, I can say I learned a lot about what works and doesn’t work when pitching morning shows. As I walked outside that evening, I couldn’t wait to jump back on the phones and put what I learned to practice.

-Walter Ocner

It was a great event by all accounts with more than 80+ PR professionals and bloggers enjoying a combination of good conversation and premium liquor. The event was organized by Heather DiRubba, Laurie Shulman and myself on behalf of PRSA-NY’s New Professionals Group and New Media and Technology Committee. The ladies did an amazing job bringing in the crowd, organizing the venue and making everyone feel welcome.

We plan to have more in the future. If you’re not on the mailing list, drop me a line and I’ll add you. If you’d like to help join one/both of these committees and plan future events, we’d love to hear from you.

About T3 PR:

“The T3 PR Conference will take place in NY on 9/11/08 and will be devoted to issues facing today’s practitioners who specialize in public relations for organizations in technology industries. The Conference will also feature the annual Awards for Excellence in Technology Journalism.”

To download an application and view additional information including application instructions and rules please visit:

http://www.prsa.org/networking/sections/technology/callforpresentations.html