Soup Stop PR Commercial

        I have put together a :30 PR commercial for the Soup Stop in Charleston, Illinois.  This program is non for profit and serves hot meals to people in the community for free.  It runs completely off of donations and volunteerism from the Charleston area. 


       I have been volunteering at the Soup Stop kitchen for almost 3 months and I really enjoy the work and the organization as a whole. 

     Putting together this television commercial spot became a personal interest and I hope my fellow followers get an understanding of not only the organization but also their public relations need in the area. 

     I was able to edit this final project into Final Cut Pro and focused on the fact that Soup Stop needs helpful volunteers in any way possible. 

       A website centered around advertising and non-profit organizations helped me gain additional knowledge and ideas for my commercial. 

        This blog includes information on thousands of non-profit organizations globally.  It is a great network of people who volunteer their time and resources in order to make a difference in a person's life and a difference around the world.

A Communication Organization...with No PR?!

Here at EIU we have an organization called Lambda Pi Eta.  This is a honorary communication chapter for students to not only give back to their community but to also make contacts and support one another in the department. 

Sure our chapter has a Facebook group, but we only have 35 members and only a quarter of that group is actually involved with the organization on a regular basis. I understand that people get busy and there are so many other organizations to get involved with while on campus at EIU.  However; our issue is that a large portion of the communication department are not even aware that we exist.  Those on campus that are aware we are present register us low on the totem poll of organizations on campus.

After a extremely pathetic display of support at the Take Back The Night event at EIU I have decided that we need to get some PR going for our group.  So I started to work on a short one page newsletter.  I figured we could start out relatively small for our first time especially since we don't really have enough information for a two or three page newsletter.
Lambda Pi Eta Newsletter

We are also selling Boo Grams as a fundraiser the week of Halloween in Coleman Hall on campus.  This one page flier will be able to alert students and faculty on campus of the event so Lambda Pi Eta will gain more publicity by using a small public relation campaign.

boo grams

This class is opening my eyes are really showing me how important public relations can really be in the long run with a campaign.  I hope that through my hard work this communication organization will pick up on the EIU campus.

I was able to find an excellent blog that addresses and targets post graduate students in a particular area.  You will have to check out this link to get some great ideas! 

New Logo for Gap-Wait..Scratch That..

Is a new logo in for the Gap corporation? Unfortunately the company is not getting a makeover for their logo after all.  This PR Campaign just simply did not blow over with consumers in a recent poll concerning the changing logo. 

       Consumers were outraged and were voicing their concerns on the logo change via Gap's Facebook and Twitter pages. 

       At the time of my post, the Tweet for the company was "We’ve heard you. We only want what’s best for Gap. No crowd sourcing, but the Blue Box is back."

        Obviously this public relations campaign fell through.  At least the company is listening to what the people and consumers want though!  Their campaign is still trying to remain on good terms with their consumers. (Everyone knows its easier to keep the loyal customers than it is to bring new ones into the store.)

      As with everything, the company just wanted to evolve their logo because their clothes are changing as well.  The new logo was supposed to be seen as a new contemporary look.

      The article in the Huffington Post written by the Gap President, Marka Hansen, takes the explanation to a deeper level.  The company values their costumers so much they are opening the new logo idea to the millions of consumers via Facebook.  Marka Hansen says she wants to keep the close connection they have with consumers and feels that opening this door will help Gap evolve into the new phase. 

According to Lori Wachs, retail analyst, "The Gap has really struggle for the past few years." This is a massive reason in their need to restructure their logo image. 

The Fall of Myspace-and Rise of Facebook

Myspace is continuing to fall in popularity among social network users. 


I am a social addict.  I just joined the hootsuite social network and fell in love. 


Perhaps Myspace is failing because of the neglected pr campaigns that entice the public to keep using their website. 
Myspace has become known more for their spamming and flooding your mailbox instead of a social media network to keep in touch with lost friends.  The spam filters for Myspace are anything but effective which contributes to users going else where to keep in touch.  People are just simply to busy to sift through e-mails and friend requests that could have been avoided. 

It seems that Myspace has become widely known as a place for creeps instead of "a place for friends". 

      I'm also dumbfounded to discover everyday all the applications that Myspace seems to be stealing from Facebook.  Come on guys!? Can't you come up with your own new public relations campaign in order to keep your audience. 

Not only has it become very clear that Facebook won this challenge but the social network is staying on top.  Statics are proving this fact as millions of these social bees continue to transfer over to Facebook. 
       The top social network has also launched a blog of their own entitled The Facebook Blog.  I recommend this blog to anyone who wants to keep up to date with the changes Facebook goes through.  Comments are definitely welcomed on the site for feedback and encouragement.

Although this video is a bit comical and slightly unprofessional, you get the drift of how Facebook and Myspace directly compete for your everyday use in the social media network. 



Merger of Verizon and iPhone

      It has become official!  Consumers have been waiting for this announcement and merger of companies!  Verizon Wireless will be working with Apple to create an iPhone for consumers.

     Unfortunately, rumors are still flying around this major pr campaign as details are still unfolding.  According to a study that was conducted last month users of the ever popular iPhone would be willing to make the switch over to Verizon Wireless. 

     The report on CNBC also released information about Apple creating a fifth generation iPhone.  The video below gives additional information concerning the possible new addition to the Verizon Wireless family.

     This new phone is expected to have some minor changes and that does include its appearance.  However; dedicated fans will still be lining up at the stores when the release date comes.

The technology will be slightly different as well.  The network will be using what is called CDMA instead of the AT&T technology of the GSM network. 

The Power of Social Networks and PR

       I have recently been following another fellow blogger that focuses strongly on public relations and the technology used in today's society.  Check out the links below to learn more information!

      An excellent blog created by Kevin Dugan examines PR in conjunction with all sorts of social networks that are available.  The blog, Strategic Public Relations, looks at social networks in the perspective of a company.  Their ultimate goal is to make a profit and money. 





          Twitter is in the eye of all companies wanting to get their name to the public in order to increase revenue.  In a recent post, Twitter is selling promoted Tweets for over $100,000 for companies. Different companies are experimenting with this new form of advertising and may not work well for all involved.  Verizon has issued statements reporting that it seems be be helping with the Droid campaign. 

         The original article in the Wall Street Journal explains the process and how marketers are dishing out the big bucks.  However, the marketers are wanting to narrow their audience according to their ad campaign so that the correct audience is targeted.

         According to the article in the Wall Street Journal, approximately 5% of Twitter users who saw a Promoted Tweet interacted with it.  This exceeds most online ad campaigns. 

        This could become a new platform for advertisers as this video from the Wall Street Journal clearly states.  It all depends on what the consumers like and what works for them in the long run. 

The Old Spice Strategy



         Recently, Old Spice has been promoting several huge campaigns.  While at Wal-Mart I noticed small television sets in the health and body care section.  Naturally, I am one of the pr's dream candidate because I am very easily loured into new messages and campaigns. 

         I though that this is an excellent campaign by showing these actually in the store.  I feel that the ads include the right amount of humor and persuasion into the campaign.  The Old Spice Guy, Isaiah Mustafa, seems to appeal to men and women in a sexual ideal. 

      I don't believe that the Old Spice Guy campaign will be leaving us soon.  The video posted above is entitled "Did You Know" and the video below is "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like".  According to the blog, 12 Unusually Incredible Marketing Campaigns, these videos have been viewed 55 million times on www.youtube.com These videos are continually viewed and the company is choosing to not take down previous commercials. 

      The original campaign started out with the video of "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" which resulted in an overwhelming amount of hits and responses from the public.  Old Spice came out with the return and then the wonderful public relations idea of creating Old Spice Responses. 

 

        Above is a chart showing the incredible growing statistics from the viral video campaign from Old Spice.  This campaign became so hot that personal video responses were made directly to individual fans.

How is this working with consumers?

As you know consumers love to have impact and a voice. However, there is so much that goes into consideration in order to make the Old Spice Commercials.   According to Tait and this article,

 "[Old Spice] brought social media experts right into the creative process." 

  Even though many of the responses have become silly and lost correlation to the Old Spice products the company was able to get people talking and involved with their products and campaign.  Making this campaign very successful and will be around for awhile.