It was the perfect crime or so they thought. Burger King execs launched a major television ad campaign, which shows the King “stealing” the Sausage McMuffin breakfast sandwich recipe from its biggest competitor – McDonald’s.

BK’s hope is to “rob” McDonald’s of its highly successful breakfast business by offering customers the popular item for less. Its sandwich is essentially the same as the Sausage McMuffin, featuring sausage, egg and cheese on an English muffin. In its commercial, BK clearly states the message, “It’s not that original but it’s super affordable…” While we laud BK for taking such a bold move, its copycat crime and efforts to market its “new” product fall short in more ways than one.

See the commercial here:

When launching a successful marketing campaign, companies must focus on the product, brand, target audience, messaging and the overall goal. BK’s campaign shows that the company knows its target audience and its goal, but how much focus went into the product, the brand and the messaging? In the ad, BK states that its new breakfast sandwich is like McDonald’s. The campaign also strengthens McDonald’s brand by inferring that it is “king” of the breakfast sandwich. And, as for BK’s messaging, “there’s nothing really special about our product, except it’s cheaper,” does nothing to boost its brand. In fact, it cheapens it. With the exception of cost, the messaging fails to differentiate the product or build brand awareness. We all know that cheaper doesn’t necessarily mean better.

On the other hand, let’s take a look at how Domino’s Pizza was able to leverage advertising to right its brand and highlight its points of difference. Domino’s offered an affordable alternative to some of its competitors. But, the pizza chain learned the hard way that less cost won’t sell pizzas. The taste of a Domino’s pizza couldn’t compare to its competitors. The company studied its competition then spent millions developing a new recipe, creating a new product, crafting its messaging and rolling out its campaign. Domino’s elicited their customer’s feedback and closed the feedback loop by reengineering their pizza. In the end, Domino’s developed a killer pizza priced right. Consumers applaud Domino’s for its honesty and transparency and are flocking back to their stores.

Companies copy product ideas from their competitors all the time. Just look at the number of brands making computers, smartphones, flat-screen TV’s, shape-up shoes, etc. Products are not replicated. Each company puts its own spin by offering a better picture, more features, user-friendly functions, etc. They are not simply copying an idea. They are making it better. Nowhere in the BK commercial does the company state the product is better.

When launching a new product, companies should study the competition, target the ideal customer, create a unique value proposition, define its strategy, test its marketing approach, and roll out the campaign. BK’s effort to “steal” customers away may not work unless their “new” product is different. If it is, then let it stand on its own, the consumer will be the ultimate judge.

Clearly Domino’s won this “fast food” marketing battle, but the war wages on…

As media fragmentation and transformative new media render centralized broadcast and top-down marketing models virtually ineffective, marketers are looking for ways to leverage the power of online video.

Marketers recognize that consumers are giving less validity to expert reviews and instead turning to their peers for the real skinny. Recent studies show more than two thirds of online users — a whopping 70 percent — prefer product ratings and reviews when researching online to purchase from e-tailers or brick-and-mortar retailers. Knowing this, marketers are asking themselves: If strong peer reviews and high consumer ratings can move more product, how can we best tell our story, differentiate our brands, influence and motivate our consumers, and capture more market share? Consider:

• 72 percent of U.S. internet users watch video clips monthly, making video viewing bigger than blogging and social networking.
• The most widely used platform for discovering and viewing videos online is YouTube, followed by email, music sites, Yahoo, and news sites.
• YouTube is the second most popular search engine after Google.

Without doubt, the answer is video. Clearly, online video is engaging, but before embracing this strategy, marketers must:

• Develop concrete video marketing plans. Video PR can be the “show me, don’t tell me” vehicle that communicates compelling stories to target audiences, including the press, and motivates people to take the desired actions.
• Stay clear of gimmicky tactics like “viral videos” and video news releases (VNRs) and stick to basic, fundamental messages that showcase pragmatic proof-points via video.
• Take inventory and begin to use all your hidden “PR gems.” Most companies aren’t aware of the vast arsenal of resources they possess that could be leveraged for online video, including testimonials, awards, case studies, and media publicity. All these independent third-party endorsements possess greater credibility than any paid advertisement toward influencing target audiences.
• Keep it real. Videos that seem scripted and salesy are the least credible. A quick way to amass powerful video testimonials is to review existing written testimonials from consumers and other credible third-party sources and ask them to record brief videos of themselves. They’ll be more likely to participate if the process is made easy for them and they don’t have to travel anywhere to be recorded. For example, they appreciate receiving guidance as to how to tape the video and being provided with a list of key talking points. It also helps if video cameras, such as the easy-to-use Flips, are shipped to their homes or offices. Although it’s important to keep the videos as authentic and on-message as possible, it’s also important to keep them concise and visually appealing. For this reason, it’s critical to conduct basic video editing to ensure smooth transitions. Also, to support branding efforts, company logos should be tastefully incorporated within the videos.
• Diffuse videos to as many online video aggregators as possible. TubeMogul and VideoEgg are helpful sources. These services also provide great video analytics to track and measure efforts.

Creating effective videos is only the first part. Ensuring they’re seen online is equally tricky. Knowing the challenges of capturing eyeballs on top video sites, marketers are also looking for ways to optimize their videos and ensure they’re SEO-ready. Doing some savvy social media relations in these environments makes sense. Marketers should invest in their companies’ profile pages and make sure the messaging within those profiles is consistent with their overall messaging and positively reflects their brands. They should find, engage, and invite subscribers to their companies’ profile pages and online videos. Patience is key, as videos will begin to rank higher when they receive more views. These aggregator platforms are highly optimized, especially Google’s YouTube. As such, having the right titles, descriptions, and tags can help ensure videos rank highly in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Here are some quick tips to maximize the organic exposure of videos in algorithmic results. On video sites:

• Add compelling titles. “How-to” approaches work very well on YouTube.
• Add keywords to the titles, descriptions, and tags. Don’t leave any fields blank!
• Develop keywords based on keyword analysis or, better yet, the advice of SEO specialists.

On company websites:

• Add meta data to the pages.
• Embed videos on pages, and also encase them with keyword-rich copy to enable bots to read the pages.
• Include keywords in filenames, images, anchor-text links, and RSS feeds to further support page optimization.

Video aggregators are great for hosting videos, but not always great for driving actionable results. Marketers should capitalize on their highest-converting clients on their own websites by showcasing these video testimonials on high-value homepage real estate. Companies with several video testimonials should make sure to rotate them and link the homepage video elements to pages where visitors can view their entire portfolios of testimonials.

A third key to mastering video PR: the social web. Yes, Facebook pages will benefit greatly from video testimonials. Facebook even provides a crafty video box that enables companies to showcase all their videos. It’s smart to invite the same customers who provided the testimonials to the page as fans so that they can disperse the videos to their networks as well. After all, those are the best brand ambassadors for companies. In addition, a short URL for video pages should be generated and posted to Twitter and microblogging environs.

New media marketers understand the power of social media news releases (SMNRs) and e-newsletters. Embedded videos can greatly enhance the effectiveness of SMNRs and e-newsletters. Marketers should include the embed codes to enable online journalists and bloggers to easily plug videos into their platforms. Unlike search, SMNRs and e-newsletters are effective push-marketing vehicles that stimulate demand.

In short, marketers can maximize video exposure by leveraging the following extensions:

1. Video sites
2. Corporate sites/landing pages
3. Social media profiles
4. SMNRs
5. SERPs
6. Email newsletters

In today’s new media world, online video PR is a valuable communications tool that provides companies with priceless credibility that paid advertising cannot buy. The trick is doing it right by developing credible, relevant videos; posting and optimizing them while monitoring dialogues and engagement; analyzing data and metrics; and remembering that measurement should be based on outcomes, not outputs. Smart marketers who do so will effectively brand and differentiate their companies, stimulate demand, and provide their companies with a significant competitive advantage.

Highlights:

• Google uses the same PageRank algorithm to determine organic rankings in SERPs for computers as it does for the mobile web
• Because of slow mobile download speeds, ensure that your site is built with lightweight pages and limited graphics
• Do away with Flash and Java. These protocols are not currently supported by mobile devices and carriers

A spatial shift from web search to mobile search is creating powerful new opportunities for savvy marketers.

More than 400 million internet users currently access the web exclusively via their mobile phones — far surpassing those who access it at least part of the time via computer browsers. By 2011, 86 percent of all mobile internet users will be mobile search users. We have reached a tipping point.

Traditionally, internet marketers could focus almost exclusively on optimizing websites for maximum visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) on computer browsers. Those days are gone. The widespread popularity of new mobile devices such as smartphones (web-enabled phones that act like mini-computers) and tablets (fully functional laptop PCs equipped with a touch screen or a stylus) are enabling consumers to instantly find and filter information anytime, anywhere.

As consumers embrace mobile search, so too will advertisers. Annual mobile search advertising revenues are expected to skyrocket from $20 million in 2008 to $1.3 billion in 2013, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 130.5 percent. What’s not as clear is who will win the coveted title of mobile search leader. Major mobile carriers, search engines, and a gaggle of mobile search start-ups will battle during the coming years in an aggressive tug-of-war to capture mobile search eyeballs and revenues. However, these competitors will remain united on at least one point: the need to keep quiet the secret that organic search engine presence is platform-agnostic.

What this means: As long as companies continue to invest in search engine optimization (SEO) to maintain a healthy presence in SERPs, they will not be disenfranchised by the seismic shift to the mobile web. Companies that optimize their websites for search engines and their crawlers will enjoy the same rankings in the mobile world as in the PC world. For instance, Google’s search engine platform is being propagated for the mobile web. Google uses the same PageRank algorithm to determine organic rankings in SERPs for computers as it does for phones (the mobile web). SEO bridges the gap between the second and third screen.

Already considered the most effective online marketing strategy for generating conversions, SEO will become even more critical with the proliferation of smartphones and other mobile devices and as the mobile web surpasses the world wide web in usage. Currently, SEO accounts for more than $1.4 billion in total annual U.S. ad spend.

SEO is even more critical for companies that depend on local sales and traffic, such as retail, hospitality, dining, and entertainment. For instance, it has been estimated that the percentage of mobile searches with local intent will increase to 35 percent in 2013, up from 28 percent in 2008. In addition to the SEO implications, marketers should consider delivering their paid search ads to mobile devices. In the past, most marketers have not selected this option and, instead, chose to deliver their paid search ads only to computers. This outdated strategy must be reconsidered because it leaves out a huge market segment.

So, now that you have opened up the mobile search floodgates to your site, what do your mobile visitors see when they surf your site? Chances are, it’s not pretty. In fact, it’s probably a real eye-sore: strange layout, clumsy navigation, distorted graphics, broken file images… the list goes on. As marketers, we spend fortunes perfecting our sites for the web, and it’s time to do the same for the mobile web. Three key fundamentals to keep in mind:

• Because of slow mobile download speeds, ensure that your site is built with lightweight pages and limited graphics.
• Do away with Flash and Java. These protocols are not currently supported by mobile devices and carriers.
• Ensure that your site is formatted for the most popular mobile devices and platforms. Each device screen has a different size, so it is critical that you offer a version for the most popular devices.

A major turf war is heating up between Google and Apple. With the launch of Nexus One, Google plans to capitalize on the “superphone” to expand its reach from the PC to the mobile phone and ensure its online products and ads get prominent placement on a new breed of wireless Internet devices. In addition, its Android mobile operating system is currently being leased to more than 20 new smartphone devices.

The launch of the iPad will make Apple the world’s most coveted mobile device maker with a huge loyal consumer base. Recently, Apple announced iAd, an advertising platform integrated into Apple’s operating system that will deliver ads to mobile apps. Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, is banking on the idea that ads inside apps will be attractive to advertisers. However, he fails to realize that this is “push” marketing and not “pull” marketing — the latter of which having been proven to convert at much higher levels. As such, Apple has blocked Google’s search app on the iPhone and the iPad; however, one can simply open a browser and access Google directly. Moreover, Bing and Yahoo offer mobile search applications that may be downloaded to smartphones for rapid search results.

Without doubt, a real land grab is occurring in the mobile space. To take their share, marketers must understand that mobile is simply another platform in the communications ecosystem in which consumers are media-agnostic. Let’s break this down:

• Mobile is just another touchpoint for reaching target markets
• Information in our new complex ecosystem is highly interconnected — from print to web, web to mobile, etc.
• Consumers are in the driver’s seat and consume information how and when they want it, irrespective of the medium.

With tight budgets and time constraints, marketers are scrambling to seize the opportunities created by mobile search and should embrace this mantra: Don’t reinvent yourself; simply leverage your strengths and adapt them to new platforms. In other words, propagate your site for mobile and continue optimizing your site and content for search engines, and your story will be found in the new mobile world.

Just Google “Dell Hell” and you may never buy a Dell computer again. Just search “Kryptonite lock” into Google and one of the first listings is a video that demonstrates how to how to pick a $95 Kryptonite lock With a Bic Pen.  Just search your company’s name plus the word “sucks” and you may be appalled by the results. While you are at it, just Google your own name and hope that people like you.

Unfortunately, most consumers are reluctant to give complements, but they love to complain. The Internet empowers consumers with new user-generated content sites that enable them to speak their mind anonymously and they do: More than 40% of all social networkers said they use social media to learn more about brands or products, and 28% said a “friend” has recommended a brand or product to them through social sites.

So why is this important? Peer reviews are more respected and trusted than expert reviews. Consumer Reports has lost its luster and consumers are turning to social shopping to shape their buying decisions. The popularity of Yelp! Amazon, Ebay and TripAdvisor are the proof in the pudding. Negative feedback in these channels can be lethal to any company, but a positive reputation can be the driver of explosive sales as word-of mouth endorsements become viral and organic.

So, how can you maximize social shopping and protect your reputation at the same time? There are many solutions, but may be to turn to the experts. BusinessWeek recently ordained the online reputation management field as an industry. Reputation management firms are popping up everywhere that purport that they protect and manage your reputation online. Here are some service providers that have built proprietary systems to monitor and manage your reputation.

• Radian6
• MightyBrand
• Attentio
• Buzzlogic
• Filtrbox
• Scout Labs

While all of these companies claim to deliver the best results, their methodology is inherently flawed. Their systems are weak on the upfront information gathering and the social media monitoring phase. How can you know that there is a perception problem if you can’t adequately monitor Internet? The best social media and Internet motoring platform in existence is Google. It is no secret that Google’s search platform renders the most comprehensive results. On the contrary, the new upstarts base their monitoring efforts, not on Google search results, but rather on their own proprietary search technology. As a result, they are not able to capture all of the “chatter” being said about your brand and are not seeing the entire picture. Meanwhile disgruntled consumers continue to harm your hard-earned reputation. In addition, these “reputation defenders” charge a pretty penny for their service- in some cases making it cost-prohibitive to get in the game. While their platforms layer in value-added intelligence and analysis to their findings, such as, sentiment, reach, passion, strength, they lack a key component to any successful reputation management program: crisis communications. One could argue that PR firms experienced in crisis management are best positioned to handle these issues. After all, who is better positioned to use words to turn a sour grape into fine wine?

Revisiting Google, we have found that combining Google Alerts with a RSS reader generates the most comprehensive results and most effectively monitors online conversations. The first step is to conduct a thoughtful keyword analysis that aggregates all of the keywords that drive your business. Be sure to complement these keywords with derivations like ”sucks”, “bad”, “expensive”, “broken”, etc.. to view what the naysayers have to say. In addition, you can complement your online reputation management with a few free sites that specialize in tracking social commentary. Try these on for size: Social Mention, http://www.yacktrack.com, http://www.keotag.com/ and www.whostalkin.com.

Taken in combination, you now have built a solid social media monitoring service. Now, that your platform is established, be sure to man the ship with an savvy communications captain that actively monitors the conversation, surfaces negative feedback to the right stakeholders and takes action to right the ship. Many companies find that their PR team is best suited to handle this function being intimately familiar with your brand and messaging platform. Be sure to select a firm with combined experience in crisis communications, SEO and social media monitoring.

So, now that you have sent the bots to scour the Internet and blogosphere for feedback on your brand, what do you do when they return negative feedback and vibes? You’ll have to stay tuned for Part II as we reveal the brass-tactics to dodge the mud balls and keep your reputation spick and span.

Time was, I really looked forward to getting up every morning and finding a newspaper on my doorstep. More than one, actually; as a news junkie, I made it part of my daily routine to devour at least three papers daily. Boy, have times changed. These days I reach for my mouse and begin scouring news, social media and various other information sites. So do you, I’m betting — according to a Pew Research Center survey, a third of Americans younger than 40 cite the Internet as their main source of news. As the latest rounds of retrenchments, bankruptcies and layoffs demonstrates, the digital revolution has ravaged circulation numbers and ad revenues – and that plus an economy in crisis have shaken newsrooms to their cores. Not surprisingly, those of us in the public relations industry are feeling the trickle-down impact, too.

With circulations at their lowest point in 60 years, the bloodletting has become downright alarming – for example, some of the largest newspapers in the U.S., including The New York Times, the Chicago Tribune and the Miami Herald have dumped some of their most seasoned journalists. As a result, those staffers left behind are facing double workloads; besides meeting daily deadlines, journos are now required to continuously update Web sites, blogs and a growing number of other multimedia sources being launched by their employers in their bids to stay relevant and profitable. Because they’ve got so much on their plates and so little time, getting journalists’ attention has become tougher than ever. As industry experts, it’s up to us to find new and compelling ways to reach these folks, and the only way we’re going to keep securing those all-important hits is by readjusting, refocusing and re-strategizing.

Great, but where to begin, right? First and foremost, put yourself in your contacts’ shoes. As a former television news producer, this is second nature for me. But if you’ve never worked as a journalist, that’s okay. I’ll let you in on five strategies that work for me every single time:

1. Make Pitches Newsworthy No ifs, ands or buts. You cannot just pitch a product; you need a hook. That means selling a plausible trend, a unique angle or a newsworthy topic associated with your client or product.
2. Mold the Pitch to the Beat No generic or blind pitches! Especially these days, there’s just no excuse for it — it’s not hard nor too time-consuming to research a reporter and investigate who’s covering topics relevant to your client. Cision and other media-targeted resources provide just this kind of data for millions of journalists, topics that interest them, how they like to hear pitches, and even if they prefer phone, e-mail or snail mail. Careful targeting is key.
3. Provide A Complete Story Package That includes solid, credible research, images, experts, testimonial-providing customers, and when relevant, product samples. Don’t offer anything less.
4. Do the Legwork for Journalists This is an extension of Point No. 2 above. If you want them to bite, you must make it as irresistible as possible not just in terms of content but also convenience. For busy people, the more work you do, the less they have to do, so offer to coordinate all interviews and spoon-feed them as much usable info and message points as you can.
5. Exceed Expectations This should really be a no-brainer, but it’s important enough to bear repeating anyway. Don’t give in to laziness. Provide accurate information. Don’t miss a deadline. Journalists rely on us to provide good, usable content, and if you prove yourself to be a good contact, I guarantee they’ll come back to you time and time again.

I’ve been asked if some people just have media-pitching “karma.” No such thing: All you need is confidence, knowledge, a certain amount of articulateness and of course a newsworthy topic. Those qualities are going to be more critical than ever in 2009 and beyond, because we certainly haven’t seen the last of the media layoffs. The reality is that both PR providers and consumers will find themselves working harder than ever – but it can be done. So roll up your sleeves, and good luck!

by Jacques Hart

True or False: giving away free online content, services or products will erode offline sales. Conventional wisdom leans toward “True,” but then, Paulo Coelho, one of my favorite authors, is not exactly conventional. For years, Coelho has been distributing digital versions of his books for free over the Internet, a strategy he believes has definitely boosted his offline book sales. Sound familiar? We have seen this story repeat itself in other industries as well, for example:

• The auto industry was initially reluctant to offer pricing online. This gave way to Internet lead-generation companies like Cars.com that jumped to service this need by offering car shoppers online pricing. In turn, they captured car-buying prospects and sold them back to OEM’s and dealerships in the form of leads for windfall profits.
• The music industry has lost millions in revenue to peer-to-peer file sharing companies like Naptster. They are finally developing advertising models around free music content to supplant lost revenue streams.
• 9/11 hammered travel revenue and paved the way for online travel agencies (OTA’s) to offer deep discounting and online booking to stimulate demand. As a result, they converted a foothold in the industry into a stronghold. Because travel suppliers were resistant to change, consumers frequently circumvent travel suppliers and book the majority of their arrangements through OTA’s.

The Internet sorts the winners from the losers. Reactionary companies that have not adapted their models or adequately invested in online channels have been forced to downsize or disappear. Conversely, those that have embraced the new realities have solidified their positions of dominance and profited from the medium’s proliferation.

Case in point: The Conrad Group, one of Roar Media’s clients and an emerging market consultancy. TCG has solidified its position as experts by leveraging the Internet. Instead of hoarding their expertise and insight on global business trends and market conditions, they share it openly through their blog and downloadable whitepapers. These tools substantiate their predictions by date-stamping and recording their claims before trends become reality. By sharing its collective knowledge, TCG allows prospects to preview the value and services it provides, and these curious prospects regularly convert into long-term clients. Owner William Nobrega recognizes that the Internet is the great equalizer and enables his company to compete against conventional industry stalwarts and flourish in the new media economy.

While many blame the Internet for disintermediating their marketplace, the true disintermediaries are the consumers who leverage the utility inherent in the World Wide Web. Self-expression, self-awareness and self-realization are the true drivers of the new millennium of customer acquisition and retention.

As marketers, company owners and executives, we can longer afford to force customers into the channels of our choice; rather, we must provide them with the medium in which they want to interact with our brand. We must empower consumers to discover, engage, purchase and use our products. The business community must infuse the Internet into its company’s DNA, not just as another ancillary touch point, but rather as an integral part of our overall go-to-market strategy. We must think holistically and ensure that our brand’s equity is equally represented online as it is offline. After all, what happens in the digital world does not stay in the digital world.

Coelho says it best: “the Web … is imposing a new way of sharing ideas and defying old economic models.” His business acumen is just as eloquent as his expression of humanity.

By José Balido

SEO! Key words! Links! Backtracks! As we wind up the first decade of the 21st century, public relations copywriting plunges ever deeper into a jargon-strewn digital thicket that has become a crucial part of doing the job for our clients and ourselves. I have always taken pride on crafting crisp and effective copy no matter who the audience, but as search engine optimization increasingly thrust its technical demands upon me, I started to worry: would writing for machines lead to a stunting of imagination and expression, reducing all copy to a clunky, mechanical pastiche?

After all, I’ve been a professional writer for nearly a quarter of a century, and for most of that time my work on the journalistic side of the equation always had one overarching element in common, something so obvious at the time that it wasn’t even worth mentioning: my words were meant for the eyes, intellects and esthetic sensibilities of those whimsical, fickle creatures called human beings.

How the world has changed! These days, when writing PR or marketing copy, I also need to catch the figurative “eye” of the search engine bots and algorithms that relentlessly prowl the vastness of the Internet. The smooth integration of key words and phrases into copy that will also please the human eye is, of course, no mean feat, but to my relief, I have found that, especially in the proverbial right hands, one doesn’t have to squeeze the juice out of the other.

I was reminded of this recently while reading, of all things, Shakespeare’s love sonnets. Like any other art form with rigorous technical rules – the complex contrapuntal interplays of Baroque music, for example – the constraints of iambic pentameter, or in our case the need to work certain key words in, challenge us to produce an even better poem or marketing copy.

Bottom line: good content and good digital technique can complement each other, rather than work at cross purposes. Ultimately, we still need to write to interest and please human beings (and as time goes on, not only will those algorithms grow to reflect that need better and better, but alternate models will arise, such as Wikipedia’s promising new Wikia search engine, now in beta). Thus, while penning my prose, I refer regularly to a keyword generator such as Google AdWords Keyword Tool, tweaking the copy as needed while always keeping grace and readability front and center. Sometimes it does take a little more work than others, but the rewards – both in terms of positive reader response and the writer’s own satisfaction – are the very model of optimization.