Dept of HHS ACA Website Snarl: PR Crisis Management Report Card: "D" For Just Plain Dumb

The media has convinced us all that Kathleen Sebelius, President Obama’s designated point person re the implementation of the government website to support the Affordable Care Act,  should be fired for failing to have taken a much more intelligent and well-informed approach to manage the design and roll out of the federal government ‘web portal’ intended to be used for signing up millions of Americans who need affordable healthcare.

After all, we all now know the roll-out hasn’t been simply ‘soft’, the snarled software project has increasingly becoming a harbinger of potentially much worse to come: the possible failure to sign up a minimum number of people required to prove the basic economic thesis of ACA.

This writer has been involved in multiple, enterprise-level technology initiatives over the past 20 years. Most have been related to the financial industry or the insurance industry. Mission critical stuff that has been the backbone to $ multi-billion industries.  The most important thing I learned is that software is called software for a reason, and this particular project is particularly complex when considering the the number of  independent federal and state government databases, as well as insurance company exchange member platforms that need to be linked and synced in order to make the platform work.

That said, when HHS Secretary says “we’re now going to bring in an A-team of technology experts to fix this..”, that’s when heads need to roll, starting with this Secretary–who along the way, has embarrassed herself by appearing on late night comedy talk shows.

Rule #1 re PR Crisis Management: Get out in front of the problem the moment it arises. DO NOT LET THE MEDIA MANIPULATE THE STORY WHILE YOU ARE TOO BUSY HOLDING INTERNAL STAFF MEETINGS DEBATING ON WHAT TO SAY TOMORROW IN RESPONSE TO YESTERDAY’S TWEETS.

Rule #1 re Leadership: DO NOT POINT FINGERS, DO NOT BURY YOUR HEAD IN THE SAND, DO NOT CLAIM TO BE “WAITING ON INTERNAL REPORTS THAT WILL IDENTIFY WHO SCREWED UP”…INSTEAD…YOU NEED TO MAKE AN EXECUTIVE PRO-ACTIVE DECISION AND IMMEDIATELY RECRUIT THE VERY MOST RESPECTED PROBLEM SOLVERS, REGARDLESS OF “ADDITIONAL COST”.

 

Dept of HHS ACA Website Snarl: PR Crisis Management Report Card: "D" For Just Plain Dumb

Financial Industry Marketing: A Social Media Video Lesson From World-Famous Hedge Fund Manager

Known for being secretive and stealth in the course of managing Bridgewater Associates, one of the world’s largest hedge funds, Ray Dalio has been called many things; we know him for (among other things) being someone who embraces video, and uses this tool to extend a broad assortment of messages…including the one below that targets the universe of investors.

Sight, Sound and Motion…a time-tested tool that makes your message resonate.

Financial Industry Marketing: A Social Media Video Lesson From World-Famous Hedge Fund Manager

How The Economic Machine Works by Ray Dalio

Owning Stock in Pro Athletes & Celebs, Just Like Owning Shares in #GOOG!: Calling All Sponsors!

Calling all sponsorship agents!

As noted in today’s NYT DealBook story, start-up “Fantex Holdings” is a new trading exchange backed by executives from Silicon Valley, Wall Street and the sports world that can enable investors to buy and sell equity interests in professional athletes, and ultimately, entertainment industry celebrities. The vision is that investors can participate in the revenue generated by these individual ‘brands’ by virtue of owning stock in them.

[For those not familiar with the machinations of Wall Street, the inspiration to this concept comes from the 1990's, when a financial industry genius created "Bowie Bonds"--a bond issue that paid interest from current of future revenue of albums from rock star David Bowie..]

The latest iteration from Fantex (whose execs include a former West Point grad-turned megamillionaire after selling a software company for $600 mil, a former partner of VC firm Benchmark Capital, a former Goldman Sachs exec and now partner of hedge fund Glenview Capital  and a former technology wizard from E*Trade), envision Fantex as the ‘hub’ for IPOs and secondary market trading of ‘stocks’ whose underlying value is the revenue generated by the individual ‘brand’ celeb.   Sponsorship gurus will necessarily have an ‘axe’ in the equity value of the athletes, as its the sponsors who will serve as a primary source of revenue to that ‘brand’.

If the whole idea sounds convoluted and potentially subject to ‘gaming’, this “pontificator” says:

1. Brilliant Idea. I’d like to be the agent that is selling stock in those athletes.

2. When will Fantex facilitate selling shares in politicians? Once that happens, it will become a lobbyist’s wet dream.

3. Sounds like the SEC will have one more asset class to monitor. Rots of Ruck

 

 

Owning Stock in Pro Athletes & Celebs, Just Like Owning Shares in #GOOG!: Calling All Sponsors!

Sales/Marketing 101: Most Important Form of Communication? Listening!

You talk too much…particularly if your conversations find you speaking for more than 50% of the time.

This astute observation, reported in today’s weekend edition of the WSJ  by Rob Lazebnik (also a writer for “The Simpsons”) is courtesy of Dr. Lynn Koegel, Clinical Director of the Koegel Autism Center at the University of California.

However much the article (and Koegel’s view) may be referencing every day, social setting interactions, it provides great insight for road warrior sales execs and marketing “gurus”–the folks who live to dominate a conversation until the audience waves a white flag of submission.

The same article also inspired an ironic smirk on the part of this blogger, who, in the course of providing consulting services to enterprises of different shapes and sizes–makes it a point to include mentoring sessions with respective clients’ “up-and-comers” and interns. Each of the introductory always starts with this talking head posing my audience with this [rhetorical] question: “What is the most important form of communication?”

Invariably, the answers from my ‘students’ include the3-4 pat responses indoctrinated by those top”B-schools”; with the most likely suspect answers being:  ”good eye contact”  ”speak clearly”, “appropriate body language.” As spotlighted by today’s WSJ, I argue those pat answers are wrong; Listening is the Most Important Form of Communication. Period.

Sales/Marketing 101: Most Important Form of Communication? Listening!

#TwitterIPO: #Marketers Battle #Bots; Investors Solicited to Buy Parkay or Margarine?

Today’s WSJ story by Tom Gara, “Twitter Users: Real or Fake?” leads this blogger to suggest that Mr. Gara might have tripped over this blogger’s recent tweets (and posts) that question the viability and integrity of Twitter’s advertising model-the key ingredient for those contemplating investing in the unprofitable company’s upcoming public offering.

Per the WSJ article, “An undetermined millions of Twitter’s 215 million  accounts (which is who advertisers target) are of questionable legitimacy..” The article suggests that 5% of Twitter’s “audience” are so-called “bots” –which are not human eyeballs, but merely artificially-created. We, along with industry experts, believe the real number of ‘fake users’ is upwards of 15%.

What’s the big deal? Well, the big deal is that brand marketers and advertisers are the bread and butter of Twitter’s business model. If many of the targeted audience are not really real people, where’s the beef for the business?

Reminding us of the iconic branding campaign courtesy of Parkay Margarine

#TwitterIPO: #Marketers Battle #Bots; Investors Solicited to Buy Parkay or Margarine?

Brand Valuation Metric for VCs: Your Start-Up's Social Media Presence

According to the WSJ, start-ups  seeking venture capital should know that the value of your aspiring brand is directly correlated to your presence on Twitter, FaceBook and other social media platforms.

The article included 10 basic rules for start-up marketing gurus, including “Rule #8: It’s better to have a huge following on one platform than to have a mediocre following on several.”

The article caused me to smirk, as the first thought that came to mind while reading the article and and simultaneously thinking about how Twitter and FB are so easily manipulated by robots, was Forrest Gump’s fav: “Stupid is As Stupid Does.”

During the better part of the past 20 years (starting well in advance of the “Internet Bubble”), this blogger has led various start-ups and has worked with a broad universe of VCs and private equity icons in the course evaluating multiple enterprises who sought (and still seek) to disrupt the norm with innovative approaches and cutting-edge technology.   I’ve huddled with prescient grey beards as well as a multitude of B-School geniuses, the latter of whom like to believe they know everything there is to know about..well..everything..And, that latter group is necessarily fixated on current trends and what’s next..often courtesy of their schoolmates who aspire to be the next Mark Zuckerberg.

I’ve also interfaced with more than a few corporate marketing execs who are responsible  for driving brand strategies for their respective companies…many of which are Fortune-level corporations.

For those who don’t know it, when  it comes to investing, the herd mentality (which is what the WSJ article profiled), sheep are influenced by what all of the other sheep are doing.  Because VCs are making bets on companies with significant social media presence (however fleeting that presence actually is), they could easily be using the same capital to day trade commodities..which are much more liquid.

 

 

 

 

Brand Valuation Metric for VCs: Your Start-Up's Social Media Presence

Militants & Dictators Buy In To Twitter IPO

Makes sense that the world’s best-funded anarchists are hoping to capitalize further on Twitter; according to un-named European and Mid-Eastern bankers and brokers, a bunch of them are lining up to buy into the upcoming Twitter IPO.

For those not already in the know, Twitter–which is still trying to figure out its product and revenue model to justify its entree into the favored-nation world of multi-billion-dollar-valuation tech companies—this social media weapon is not just “all the rage” among democratic nation politicos and the universe of celebs, pontificators and opinionators, Twitter is the propaganda tool of choice for a broad spectrum of road-raging dictators and evil-doers….

Did we forget to add: recent studies have determined that easily more than 10%–and perhaps as much as 20% of “tweets” are created by artificially-intelligent robots who churn out chum in a systematic fashion–with the obvious goal of both influencing and luring unsuspecting dolts who believe what they read.

Here’s a good news clip profiling “terror on twitter” ..For those who aspire to own a piece of the next big IPO, be careful what you wish for.

http://jn1.tv/video/news/terror-on-twitter-how-militants-turn-to-social-media.html

 

Militants & Dictators Buy In To Twitter IPO

#Native-Advertising: A Boon or a Boondoggle? Do Storytelling Ads Usurp The Fourth Estate (Journalism)?

Per today's insightful article by New York Times' reporter David Carr, product-placement techniques that have always been the rage within the framework of film/television (as well as selective use within novels) are permeating traditional journalism via "native advertising"(aka "sponsored content")--to the chagrin of among others, The Wonderfactory's Joe McCambley, the fellow credited with introducing the web's now ubiquitous application: banner advertising.

Similar to the notion of "narrative persuasion"--Carr spotlights  the "Fourth Estate" increasing trend towards delivering content that subliminally masks the ultimate agenda of articles that appear to be unbiased, but necessarily put a hopefully powerful spin in favor of the referenced product or service.

When the lines between advertising copy and journalism intersect, that's when audiences might/should cry "foul"---or so McCambley argues. Can you say "Pandora's Box" 5x times in rapid succession?

Ironically, the New York Times, along with Forbes Magazine and a roster of other mainstream news outlets, is now full steam ahead using this very strategy to serve its advertisers. Without intending to endorse advertisers that appear on the page, here's the link to the story:  

While you're at it, an informative (non-sponsored!) article re storytelling and narrative persuasion can be found by clicking this link.

Great News: We're Moving to a New Location

Thanks to my pals at Golpik.com--visit our new website at www.thejlcgroup.com~