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Was this ecard in your Facebook feed yesterday?
Today, John Lennon’s 1970s song “Power to The People” has meaning again. The People created an avalanche of social media protest when The Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation (SGK) cut funds for breast cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood earlier this week. No matter where you stood on the issue, it was The People who painted a picture of SGK as a polarizing charity and made many supporters re-assess their continued sponsorship. It was The People who contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to Planned Parenthood – funds it wouldn’t otherwise have received. And it was The People (more women than men, but you gotta love Michael Bloomberg), powered by social media, who incentivized SGK earlier today to reverse its funding decision.
And the best part? Because of the speed and reach of social media this all happened in two days.
Have people used social media to effect change before? They sure have. There was that little thing called the Arab Spring. And last summer, women in Saudi Arabia mobilized on social networking sites to demand their right to drive. This sparked worldwide media coverage and support from female politicians and diplomats in the U.S. and Europe.
The enormous power of social media still thrills me. Maybe because I remember the laboriously slow pace and even threat of danger of the old fashioned protests. How would social media have affected other well-known protests such as the Vietnam War in the 1960s or the HIV/AIDS protests in the 1980s?
Looking forward, there’s one thing of which I’m certain: we are past the time when social issues that large groups of people are passionate about can be swept under the rug or put on hold until next month’s board meeting. Everything happens in real time. And as public relations people, we need to be prepared to react in real time.
Image Courtesy of Carlos Latuff
The Huffington Post published a photo essay today on what they deemed The 50 Best Moments for Women in 2011. Turns out there were a lot of reasons to celebrate women’s progress in many areas, including politics, media, the arts, athletics and more.
I encourage you to click through all of it. But if you don’t have time, here are a few highlights about women’s progress in media that I thought were particularly noteworthy.
- Social networking scores a victory in Saudi Arabia. No, this wasn’t another Arab Spring – it was a campaign for women’s rights in the ultra-conservative kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Women2Drive was created to demand women’s right to drive after a 32-year-old female engineer was arrested for driving. The campaign demonstrated the dramatic impact of social networking sites, as it sparked worldwide media coverage and support from female politicians and diplomats in the U.S. and Europe. While women have not won the right to drive, Saudi’s King Abdullah did grant them the right to vote in elections for the first time, moving women’s progress one small step forward.
- Despite widely available information online, generations of women still turn to the same women’s health reference book. In 2011, “Our Bodies, Ourselves” (OBOS), the iconic and widely-circulated women’s health reference book, celebrated its 40th birthday. Published by the Boston Women’s Health Collective in 1971, when health information was hard to come by, this book helped launch the women’s health movement. Forty years later, despite the surfeit of online information, OBOS remains a go-to resource for women of all ages – from Boomers to Millennials and Generation Z.
- The first ad featuring lesbians airs on national TV. Kudos to KY, the personal lubricant brand, which aired a commercial featuring a lesbian couple sitting on their bed talking about using KY Intense, a new product designed for women because “they say it makes sex more satisfying.” Add this breakthrough to 2011’s passage of New York’s Same Sex Marriage Act and the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act signed in December of 2010 and I’d say the LGBT community had a pretty good year!
- Social Media may thwart another “Oprah Effect.” HuffPo notes that while Oprah single-handedly influenced how millions of women thought and talked about their lives, social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter have so democratized media that “it’s nearly impossible for any one person to have that much control over any conversation again.”
There’s a lot more great stuff in this article, including not one, but two mentions of Ryan Gosling, who was the subject of more buzz than he probably wanted in 2011. You’ll have to go to the site to find out why. Or just check out this blog to find out more about his, um, feminist side.
Happy New Year!
Marina Maher Communications, Inc. (MMC) is delighted to be recognized as a 2011 P&G Business Partner Excellence Award winner. P&G has honored MMC for the second time in the last two years with this award, which recognizes companies performing consistently at high levels within P&G’s internal performance management system.
P&G brands represented at MMC include Aussie®, Clairol®, COVERGIRL®, COVERGIRL® Queen Collection, Head & Shoulders®, Herbal Essences®, Secret® and Venus®.
Image courtesy of Band-Aid
In the last week, three MMC clients have created events during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. The week-long fashion extravaganza is a natural fit for our beauty brands like Clairol and COVERGIRL, which sponsored the Catherine Malandrino show. Models had their hair colored with Clairol’s Perfect 10 and their makeup done by celebrity makeup artist Ashunta Sheriff, using, of course COVERGIRL products.
We also developed a creative and successful program that aligned a feminine care product with Fashion Week. U by Kotex*, a breakthrough line of feminine care products targeted to millennials, stands out from the category with its colorful products and packaging. So this year, the brand challenged consumers to “Ban the Bland” in the world of feminine care. The winners of the Ban the Bland contest had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work with Patricia Field, best known as the stylist for Sex and the City and The Devil Wears Prada, to develop designs they created into inspirations for future U by Kotex* products.
There are many other brands that officially or unofficially align with Fashion Week every year. Here are four reasons why they consider it such a great opportunity.
- Fashion Week has changed. It is no longer exclusively an industry insider showcase for luxury brands. The growth and popularity of bloggers and other social media have made Fashion Week – at least in New York – increasingly “mass market.” The original purpose of Fashion Week, to preview the next season’s collection for buyers, is now just one of many reasons why it exists. Anyone can watch a runway show online and the “real time” nature of the event today is much more fashion-democratic and inclusive for everyday women. Just look at what happened at Target yesterday after the Missoni sale went live. A high fashion brand made accessible to the masses crashed the Target website (although several MMCers still managed to score some fabulous items) and media everywhere, including the Today Show, made it big news.
- Even in an uber-cluttered environment, brands still find spaces to get noticed – and those spaces are a lot more cost-effective than an official sponsorship. Brands create ownable events by partnering with individual designers, or even through promotions during Fashion’s Night Out, the after-hours shopping event held in cities around that world that marks the kickoff of New York Fashion Week.
- Let’s be honest: women are perennially passionate about fashion. Whether it’s haute couture or brands that cater to Middle America, women want to read about, shop for and wear great clothes. What is more aspirational than Fashion Week, an event that brings out a woman’s inner diva? (Okay, I know not every woman likes clothes – but those women are probably not the target for these brands). So if you have a brand that can authentically link to a fashion story, you can touch women at a key passion point. And in doing so, you may overcome potential objections or barriers that she may have about your brand.
- Fashion’s Night Out, which is no longer just the territory of enfant terrible designers and downtown cool kids, offers brands another unique forum to connect to consumers. BAND-AID, a brand that doesn’t immediately come to mind when thinking about fashion, collaborated with designer Cynthia Rowley to create a glamorous collection of designer bandages. They launched during Fashion’s Night Out, since that’s the night where women scrambling to get to as many events as possible suffer from sore feet and blisters. Their solution? A travelling “Glambulance” that featured a hairstylist, acclaimed make-up artist Mickey Williams, and first-aid kits, including Rowley’s designs.
It is often challenging to measure the ROI of such short-term events. But Bon Appétit seems to have done it with a program called Feast or Fashion. The magazine is publishing a style guide at Fashion Week events to promote the chefs who have introduced Bon Appétit-branded menus at their restaurants. The magazine said the program generated $1 million in new business. And non-foodie advertisers like Hermes and CK Euphoria are accounting for almost half of the magazine’s advertising growth since the beginning of the year.
So what brand(s) would you like to see align with Fashion Week next year?
Photo credit: The Weinstein Company
A recent article noted that 88% of this year’s Forbes’ 100 Most Powerful Women are moms. They are on average 54 years old, and have two kids. A quarter of these moms are single. One-third are CEOs. And one in ten is a head of state.
This is the generation that entered the workplace in the 1970s and 1980s, when women were told they could have it all – both a successful work and home life. So a lot of women – me included – just went for it.
When you look at the Forbes list, clearly some have succeeded – perhaps beyond their own expectations. So it was ironic that the same week Forbes published its power list, a study found working women who try to be ‘supermom’ may be more depressed. The study author concluded: “You can happily combine child-rearing and a career, if you’re willing to let some things slide.”
An understatement, to say the least. There is no such thing as “having it all.” If you’re a mom who works outside the home, you’re either guilty about being at the office or guilty about being at home. But lots of moms do it – about half of the workforce is women. In the 1980s, the movie Baby Boom portrayed a high-powered Diane Keaton bending the rules to succeed at both. And next month, Sarah Jessica Parker will presumably do the same in I Don’t Know How She Does It.
So how can you bend your own rules to succeed:
- Rethink the notion of “Supermom.” You have to figure out how to get things done for your family; but you don’t have to do it all yourself. Think creatively and be flexible. If you can’t make it to your son’s doctor appointment, listen in by phone. Ask a neighbor or a family member for help. Or pay for services like cleaning and gardening that take you away from having fun with your family.
- It helps a lot if you like your job. In this economy, that’s not always the case. But if you are happy with what you do at work, you’ll be happier at home.
- Get organized. Perhaps better said than done, but the more you can put certain routine chores – like food shopping, cooking, laundry (all of which can be outsourced) and carpooling on autopilot, the more time you’ll save.
- You’ve got technology; use it. Skype with your kids at least once during the day. Same goes for your significant other.
- Learn how to say “no.” Whether at work or home, recognize when you’re taking on too much. Delegate it to a junior who may see the project as an opportunity.
- Save some time for you. This probably sounds selfish given all the responsibilities of being a working mom, but if you don’t have any down time, you won’t be able to recharge.
It’s hard being a working mom. But if you want – or have – to work, there really is no other choice. As Virginia Satir, the so-called Mother of Family Therapy once said, “Life is not what it’s supposed to be. It’s what it is. The way you cope with it is what makes the difference.”
Secret’s “Mean Stinks” campaign for Secret deodorant is boosting consumer engagement as well as sales, reports an article in today’s AdAge. The campaign is an integrated effort supported by several Procter & Gamble agencies, including MMC for public relations, Leo Burnett Co. for advertising, IMC2 for Digital, UEG for entertainment and iProspect for search.
Mean Stinks, a program that combats bullying launched in January, has garnered 222,000 fans on its Facebook page. And according to the AdAge article sales are up 9% for the 26 weeks ended June 26.
The article also notes Secret’s fan base is growing faster than male brands in deodorant, including the P&G sibling Old Spice “Old Spice Guy” campaign, (currently pitting incumbent Isaiah Mustafa against Fabio) despite competing in only deodorants, not body wash (like Old Spice).
AdAge quotes P&G spokeswoman Laura Brinker explaining the rationale for the campaign: “Secret as a brand inspires women to be more fearless. … Bullying is one area that we know is of great concern to our target consumer (both young women and mothers), so understanding how to identify these behaviors and stand up for yourself and your friends is one way to express your fearlessness. On a more simple articulation, Secret stands against things that stink, whether it’s body odor or mean behavior like girl-to-girl bullying.”
This month I attended the annual global meeting of Worldcom Public Relations Group, the world’s leading partnership of independently owned PR firms. MMC has been a Worldcom partner for almost two decades and our partnership allows us to offer clients local access to 93 markets worldwide through 112 partner agencies.
A key theme at the meeting was forging productive relationships with our partners to better serve clients. It’s not an uncommon global meeting theme. As Worldcom’s global chair Matt Kucharski from Padilla Speer Beardsley reminded us of Worldcom’s partner protocols, I was struck by how relevant they are to any partnership – be it with an agency half a world away, your clients, or your colleagues down the hall. It’s one thing to hear these values; it’s another to really live them. Here are some of the highlights I thought were worth sharing:
- Clearly establish roles and responsibilities – and adhere to them
- Provide specific direction for program deliverables, including a sample of the format you or your client needs and a realistic deadline
- Respect the lead partner’s role
- Take time to understand what common practice is in other markets
- If possible, strive to “do it their way,” and if you can’t, explain why
- Be sensitive that a “big project” for you is not a “big project” for everyone. On the flip side, recognize that even though a project may be small for you, it’s important to your partner
- Request nothing that you yourself wouldn’t do
- If you’re too busy to help, provide alternative resources
In other words, do unto others as you would have others do unto you. That’s what partnership is all about.
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