#JOBS Act: Boon for MarCom Pros Serving HedgeFunds & Start-Ups

As noted in today's NY Times, professional marketers who service hedge funds, as well as start-up enterprises soliciting investors should be sharpening their pitch books; as currently written, new federal legislation will provide greater flexibility for the marketing and advertising to prospective institutional investors.

We've been following this story for several months, and [necessarily] have a full arsenal of branding, PR and marcom strategies specifically designed for compliance-centric financial industry clients seeking to extend their reach.

#MadMen Return Inspires Nostalgia-Style Ad campaigns

"..Nostalgic cues in advertising do indeed influence the type of thoughts consumers have during ad exposure, and that these thought processes appear to have an influence on attitudes toward the advertisement and advertised brand.."

The above excerpt is courtesy of a 2004 white paper appearing in the Journal of Advertising, and is presumably  one of many cues that the creators of the hit AMC show "Mad Men" sought to exploit when writing their first outlines for that show.  We know for a fact that the producers were particularly mindful when digesting the 1991 Miami University white paper "Use of Nostalgia in Television Advertising" with the abstract:  

Nostalgia was used by means of theme, copy, or music about 10% of the time according to a content analysis of more than a thousand commercials sampled from ABC, CBS, and NBC. Nostalgic references were to family activities or to the “olden days,” among other themes, and were most likely to be used with food and beverage commercials. The study suggests nostalgia may be especially important in a changing world because it connects us with our past.

This 'theme' in advertising is as ageless as the Coca-Cola logo, if not always used as propitiously as planned (e.g. Honda's 2012 SuperBowl ad featuring Matthew Broderick aka Ferris Bueller).

And, as TV watchers, advertising industry fans, and brand marketers are all aware, "They're baaackkk..", and the new season of Mad Men is accompanied by among other initiatives, a special edition of Newsweek Magazine populated with art-deco style ads and throw-back images and slogans, to an assortment of ad campaigns in a host of mediums courtesy of a broad spectrum of brands that seek to exploit/leverage/capitalize on an approach that touches the individual yearning for an idealized past.

The buzz words spewing from the mouths of your favorite ad strategists are flying faster than a buzz saw right now; "nostalgia", "vintage", "brand heritage" are just a few, but let's be as clear as the black and white films of yesteryear; this blogger LOVES leveraging nostalgia within brand marketing, advertising or any other tactic that captures mind share.

A good update on the state of old images and new ideas courtesy of the New York Times is right here.

"JOBS" Bill= Marcom Bonanza! #Crowd-Sourcing" + Kickstarter-Style "Crowd-Financing"=$$

Some snarly congressman must have been lobbied by the smart marketing guy who has a vision to create a combination of Kickstarter and SecondMarket; after all, the JOBS Act, passed by the House earlier this week, and now waiting for Senate approval, is going to be a bonanza for those who know how to package and promote funding for innovative start-ups. Crowd-sourcing, crowd-funding, micro-financing...all of these new-age concepts are going to benefit.

You're not familiar with the new legislation? This is the one that the current administration insists will stimulate innovation and jobs. Detractors decry the Bill as a roll-back to the days of bucket shops that telemarketed investment in shares of Nigerian gold mines and other such schemes. Suffice to say, its overwhelmingly supported by Democrats and hotly debated by the GOP.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself.  If you don't know what Kickstarter is...the short description is simple: a social network type portal that facilitates [presumably] cash-starved innovators (technology, film, food products, clothing, whatever!) to solicit "micro-funding" for their pending projects.In consideration for donations, the innovator provides a free sample of the soon-to-be-made product, a t-shirt, or some other quid pro quo.

If the [fixed amount] financing objective of the entrepreneur is met, Kickstarter kicks over all of the "donations" that were held in escrow, less a 3% fee. If the financing round falls short before the deadline date, the donations are re-credited to the donators' credit card. If the financing is oversubscribed, the entrepreneur seeking funding can buy himself/herself a Ferrari. That's right, those seeking funding have no obligations and those making the donations have no recourse. It's all done on a trust me basis, and its completely unregulated. (One recent deal from "Double Fine Adventure" soliciting $100k production funding for a new video game delivered $3.4 million to the founder)

Note: This blogger is directly familiar with (2) Kickstarter stories: Chocwasabi, a recently-funded and particularly delicious success story, and an 'in-the-works' "Apple-flavored" device called "JuiceTank", which, after it completes its $125,000 "round",  will be an absolute game changer for anyone that's been frustrated whenever their Apple runs out of juice.  

For those not aware of SecondMarket, this is a securities industry and SEC-regulated firm that's become famous for brokering shares held by employees of private company start-ups and selling those stakes to 'sophisticated investors'--ostensibly looking to own a stake in a company that will soon go public and make everyone a zillionaire. Think "Zuckerberg", and you'll appreciate that SecondMarket has been the vassal serving among others, Facebook insiders and early-stage investors in the course of their cashing out early.

Combine Kickstarter and SecondMarket..and the Occupy WallStreet movement will need to move--because Wall Street, at least as far being a source of venture-round financing, will be be much less occupied.  That's this blogger's opinion, anyway.

There's lots of pages to the pending JOBS legislation, and below is a bullet-point take-away for the operators of Kickstarter and SecondMarkets--or more likely, any smart disruptor who wants to capitalize on the burgeoning boondoggle that's leveraging the combination of social media, the ethos to democratize the capital raising process and the "I-don't-want-to-be-bothered" issues faced by the spectrum of up-and-coming entrepreneurs that don't want to be hamstrung by regulations relating to soliciting and securing funds in consideration for equity shares in their company..

What the final form of the JOBS bill will be remains to be seen, but in its current iteration, this is going to create lots and lots of jobs for smart marketing/communications and PR industry professionals.

First, the bill would allow “crowd-financing” under astonishingly flexible conditions. It would displace current Securities and Exchange Commission disclosure rules for public offerings, allowing a new venture to raise $1 million through widespread Internet solicitations as long as no single investor put in more than $10,000. According to some, the loosened regulations would also make it easier for future Bernie Madoffs to create, say, 50 fake firms, steal $50 million from unsuspecting investors and retire to a tropical island.

The bill would eliminate the existing ban on general advertising, which limits most private-securities offerings to the relatively small number of accredited investors who can be contacted through private channels. This is where the rubber will meet the road for marketing experts that will surely be needed to help package and promote new enterprises and innovative ideas. 

Yes, absent this ban, unscrupulous promoters will, without any SEC oversight, market stock via the Internet and launch mass mailings to millions of unsophisticated investors. [That's where/when the marketers and PR people will be benefiting.]

Third, the bill would raise the threshold requiring companies to issue public financial reports from 500 shareholders to 2,000. This legislative exemption would also exclude from this 2,000 threshold any shareholders employed by the company. These changes would dramatically reduce the number of public companies required to publish annual and quarterly reports for investors

The bill encourages initial public offerings by reducing regulatory requirements. For example, the bill would require only two years of audited financial reports, instead of three years, for offerings by small companies. Once public, these companies could avoid some burdens imposed on large companies, such as auditor attestation of internal controls and shareholder advisory votes on compensation.

Thanks#God for #GoldmanSachs

That's right. You don't need to read the title twice. Every PR crisis mgt. guru, brilliant brander, and marcom maven from here to Timbuktu (at least those with a following) would have nothing intelligent to say today, were it not for the soliloquy in the op-ed section of today's NYT written by a former [disgruntled?] GoldmanSachs veep.

If you don't subscribe to the NY Times, or if you don't watch CNBC non-stop throughout the day, you might have missed the story that was mentioned at least 200,000 times across the web, and tweeted about close to a trillion times.

The short version: a spawn of the notorious squid took the indelicate approach to sound off at the end of his tenure from the world's most talked-about investment bank/trading firm by somehow scoring op-ed real estate in the world's most read newspaper. One can only guess that his exit interview didn't go as well as hoped for, but his fare-well note was a barn burner..

(Note: Dodd-Frank has actually outlawed combining "investment bank" and "trading firm" within the same letterhead, but we take poetic liberties here). 

We could opine almost endlessly as to what GS should or could do to manage the backlash, from internal memo strategies (don't put anything in writing!) to CEO Blankfein having a fire-side chat with NYT's Dian Henriques--or for a better visual, CNBC's Maria Baritoromo.  We'd opt for GS sponsoring and producing a reality TV show with Maria exposing herself, but we haven't received any RFPs just yet.

But, as we noted here in an earlier blog, Goldman's got a new PR maestro that wouldn't march to my, or anyone else's band, other than Lloyd and the Chipmunks Muppets (Not my annotation! "Muppets" is a phrase that the former Goldman employee claims was commonly used to describe Goldman clients..).

If you've read this far..you might want to click on this link bringing you to an unrelated blog that does a solid job of striking at the heart* of the issue that former Goldman staffer Greg Smith made reference to while exposing himself to the world that we know.

*Actually, there were several issues that were alluded to, but since a squid has 8 tentacles, let's keep playing along with the play on words and suggest there are as many as 8 hearts that were struck in the parting soliloquy.

Building #Brand Equity: Re-Defined. With a Dividend Kicker:# Loyal3

Were it not for Holman Jenkins over at WSJ, this former securities markets brand marketer might have missed the evolving story of Silicon Vallyey start-up "Loyal3" until their ads started appearing during Superbowl XLVII (47). From this viewer's vantage point, Loyal3 is on track to blend the most important elements that drive brand loyalty for big companies by giving those corporates a marcom strategy that simply makes sense.

Loyal3 has found a nice blue ocean for itself, even if the WSJ article is portending high probability that its likely to become polluted by spills from Wall Street pools. Whatever. I really like what Loyal3 is developing, even if the primary reason is that the platform allows my child to buy a stake in a company that she loves with the limited money that she has.

But the real story is that Loyal3 strikes at the heart of brand marketing and its a fast-paced vehicle for enhancing customer loyalty. Its Disruptive ( particularly to Squids on The Street who have likely placed listening devices and inserted sniffers on this company's network), its [mostly] Innovative, and it could be the exact Elixir needed to drive retail investors back into the stock market. Its also got a solid slogan that they somehow managed to get trade marked. If only I could get the premium merchandise concession for the T's, totes and caps!
What's with the subliminal, coded message above? Loyal3's memo To The Competition: DIE
Their slogan is soft and sweet...appealing to everyone!

WSJ's opinion piece (entirety can be read by clicking on the title link) 

NBC Reflects on "What is the Internet??"

Courtesy of NBC Talking Head (not to mention Great Legs..) Jane Wells's blog..

6 Things That Social Media Can Predict

The new game of predicting what social media can predict is percolating. Neuroscientists, spies, pollsters, product promoters, news publishers, and stock market savants are all on the bandwagon. This week's "shocking" disclosure that the F.B.I. is recruiting talent from M.I.T. for its initiative to scrape social media and root out evil-doers is hardly a surprise will certainly open Pandora's Privacy Box, but most would argue that horse left the barn long ago.

In any case, the smarter of the new generation of PR pundits and advertorial alchemists who work hand-in-hand with CMOs are not far behind. One of the more interesting take-aways from this posting's title link story is predicting what people will read. The study referenced in the article found the most important predictor was who published the article, followed by its subject category. Credibility is King, and its easier every day to quickly figure out what's topical, and what's not.

Seeing (and) Hearing Is Believing-Print News Media Embraces Video: Attn:Corporate Communicators

"Boo Ya" to Brian Stelter over at the NYT for today's piece profiling a topic I've been pounding the tables about for as long as I've been writing this blog: leveraging video. Stelter's article focused on the burgeoning growth of live videocasting by the once traditional news outlets (you know, those people with print smudges on their finger tips, as well as the computer-pounding Carpel Tunnel crowd and card-carrying members of   "WOC", aka Writers that Occupy Cyberspace.

Live (and canned/programmed) video content is where its at. Why/How/Where?

1. The cost of programming can be peanuts (get yourself a few high end video cams, good backdrops and retain a video programmer/editor from your local high school),
2. The cost to deliver (bandwidth) is benefiting from the race to zero.
3. Mobile Devices continue to command increasing hours of mind share--that said--pushing ads through mobile remains challenging--an issue that Facebook is particularly familiar with..
4. The ocean of Content is virtually limitless.
Lets take it one step further--to the corporate cubicles. We're here to say that those businesses that embrace the bullets above will bet on board--by producing live segments populated with a broad range of infotaining content targeting customers, vendors, partners and the like.

You read it here first :)

Data Mining, Marcom and Overcoming Analysis Paralysis; The Last Mile

Narrative Science, the Chicago-based start-up that specializes in converting mines of data into understandable objective commentary and narrative is on to something big.

Data mining and extracting metrics for analysis is integral to just about every business; its fair to guess that most enterprises allocate increasing amounts to algorithms that sort and parse data so that decision makers can draw conclusions based on an ever broadening spectrum of inputs--much of it courtesy of the Internet.

Metric analysis is as mainstream as vanilla ice cream; its long been a practice area extending across among other sectors, manufacturing, procurement, sales forecasting, political campaigning, sports, and more recently, the world of advertising.

But..the other side to this coin is commonly known as "analysis paralysis"--too much of anything is no good..and more importantly, without being able to crisply articulate the conclusions drawn from factual findings, the entire exercise becomes, well, an entire exercise.
Below white paper courtesy of Narrative Science points to an important imperative; the science of casting data interpretation into easy-to-read and easy-to understand narrative. Kudos to this group, one that is arguably positioned to upend the traditional publishing industry by introducing automated editorial applications..

Data Mining, Marcomm & The Last Mile

PR 101: Bank Spokesman Should Refresh Message: #BofA Case Study

I don't know Bank of America spokesman Jerry Dubrowski, I don't have any position (long or short) in BofA stock (NYSE:BAC), and I certainly don't expect BofA to retain my services re: public relations advice. So, I'll offer it pro bono, even if Uncle Sam has plowed plenty of taxpayer money (mine included) into this company. The 2-rule advice is pretty simple:

1. PR people should take their Asperger meds before responding to the media.

2. If your PR person has not been tested/diagnosed with Asperger's, the rule of thumb would be to test them for this syndrome before giving them the keys to the "publish" button.

In today's NYT article profiling investment advisory Tangent Capital Partners' focus on small banks and eschewing the behemoth banks such as BofA, Times reporter Bill Alden quoted BofA spokesman Dubrowski with the following statement: [the bank is] “a stronger company today than it was during the height of the financial crisis..” 

Aside from the fact the phraseology used by Dubrowski is as ubiquitous as the phrase "toilet paper," it is the exact same, questionably-credible statement Dubrowski has used on prior occasions (most recently August 2011). Not coincidentally, but sort of funny anyway, these are the exact same words uttered last year by Angelo Mozilo when referencing BofA. For those not aware, Mr. Mozilo is the former Chairman of Countrywide Financial, the mortgage issuer acquired by BofA "during the height of the financial crisis."


While this blogger (who happens to include the financial services space within my firm's practice area) doesn't take exception to spokespeople sticking to certain types of corporate statements, one could argue that financial service companies in particular need to be topical and circumspect, and should certainly update their auto-reply messages to media.

Rule 1. Avoid the "duh!" factor. One would like to think hope that a company such as BofA would necessarily be a stronger company within no more than 3+ years after receiving $45 BILLION in government (taxpayer) bailout funds, especially after using much of that money to acquire, among others, one of the industry's biggest and profitable investment banks (i.e. Merrill Lynch). Further, one would think hope that the $4bil +/- BofA employees received as compensation courtesy of the bailout would have been a big incentive for those employees to help make BofA a better business.

Rule 2. Get the Facts Straight--Unless You're a Presidential Candidate.Alas, per the image below, BofA's stock price doesn't exactly support the contention that BofA is any stronger now than it was at the height of the crisis. If judging from the chart, it would appear this company is noticeably less strong than it was during the height of the financial market's fiasco. (Note: the handicap of acquiring Countrywide has undoubtedly hampered BofA's balance sheet, and, as Warren Buffet has proven more than twice, stock prices don't always reflect the internal strength or the potential break-up value of a company.)

For PR professionals catering to the financial services space, or any other PR professionals, two additional lessons to be learned are self-evident:

1. BEFORE PROVIDING THE MEDIA WITH A STATEMENT OF ANY KIND: Make it a practice of revisiting prior statements made and the context in which they were made.

2. Unless your slogan or tag line is truly "multi-tasking" (i.e. can be seamlessly incorporated into a PR statement to the media), keep your corporate comments to the media on point, in context, and appropriately topical.

To Jerry D at BofA--I necessarily apologize for spotlighting you in particular, and I am thankful that I don't have a mortgage, a line of credit or credit card issued by BofA-if I did, I'm sure it would be yanked as a result of this posting, leaving me in a lurch!