Cut the Cord-- It's a Wireless World!

Last week, North America's largest wireless industry convention -- International CTIA Wireless -- rolled around to New Orleans. The annual event, organized by CTIA- The Wireless Association, is the second largest wireless conference in the world; the largest is the Mobile World Congress held each February (in recent years exclusively in Barcelona).


How large an industry?  The attendance forecast for this year's event was between 60 - 70,000 persons and it certainly seemed to fill the convention zone...and French Quarter at night.


I arrived Sunday to be in position for two events on Monday.


Our JumpStart Global Advisors partner firm, 151 Advisors, in collaboration with the Enterprise Mobility Foundation, ran an all day educational event on Monday called "APP-solutely Enterprise," a highly interactive, fast-paced learning and networking event bringing together CIOs, IT leaders and corporate decision makers to discover how they can take advantage of the power of mobile applications in their organizations.


Later that day, our mobile security client, Snap Secure (part of Snap MyLife, Inc.) participated in the ShowStoppers private press event at the Astor Crowne Plaza Hotel (on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter).  This event, open to media, bloggers and industry analysts, provided the chance for cutting edge wireless technology companies to present their companies, products and services on a one-on-one basis to the press corp.




Michael Subhan (l.) and Robert Kao (r.) of Snap MyLife

Our team consisted of VP of Marketing Michael Subhan and VP of Product Management Robert Kao. We demonstrated the personal privacy protection features of Snap Secure -- over and over again for three hours.
Come 9 p.m., we were ready for a New Orleans feast which we heartedly engaged in at Bourbon House.


On Tuesday, the exhibition floor opened and I was able to walk the floor to view the more than 1,000 exhibitors on display.  You name it -- and it was represented at CTIA: wireless carriers, handset manufacturers, software companies, credit card and mobile banking firms, infrastructure firms, mobile apps, mobile consumer electronics, retail marketing firms, WiFi and mesh companies, accessory firms and more.

Dan Mead, President & CEO, Verizon Wireless

Dan Hesse, CEO, Sprint Nextel Corporation

Philipp Humm, CEO & President, T-Mobile USA

Ralph de la Vega, President & CEO, AT&T Mobility

Jim Cramer, host, CNBC's Mad Money

Jim Cramer served as moderator

The highlight for me was the afternoon keynote address which features the CEOs of the four major U.S. carriers -- Verizon Wireless, AT&T Mobility, Sprint and T-Mobile.  Each of the CEOs, on stage individually at first, were given the chance to address the thousands listening in the ballroom and share their vision for the industry, address competitive issues and share their company's positioning. The 'soft sniping' at each other was fun -- for those of us in the room -- it was a game of inside baseball.  The fun part, half way in, was when CNBC's Jim Cramer came out to moderator a discussion with all four CEOs. The questions ranged from mild to ascerbic; the cross-banter captivating.


My takeaway -- as rapid as the growth of wireless has been over the last decade -- we haven't seen ANYTHING YET.  As 4G speeds move from marketing hype into reality, and new handsets and applications are developed to take advantage of them (let alone 5G and 6G), watch your wireless device (phone, tablet, PC) continue to morph and dominate our wireless and connected lifestyle. We will become ever more connected and reliant on our wireless gadgets to establish our identity, pay bills, communicate (voice, data, video conference, etc.), monitor our health, protect ourselves and our families, entertain us and much more.


It's truly time to cut the cord.... and enter the brave new wireless world.

The Tease

It seems like more and more companies want to keep us guessing - whether it’s Apple’s on-again/off-again product releases or GoDaddy’s sexual innuendo-filled ads that force us to the website to “see more” of Danica Patrick and Jillian Michaels (um…no thanks!).

Most recently, JC Penney has joined the party by running TV spots of shoppers screaming at sales they’ve missed and being bombarded by coupons and flyers (http://youtu.be/aj3PfcPuauM).  The commercial ends with the tagline, “Enough.Is.Enough.” and teases February 1, 2012 along with a link to JC Penney’s Facebook page.  So, can we assume the company is getting rid of all its couponing?  Is it just a ploy to get people to check out their Facebook page? 

After chatting with a colleague about the commercial (which admittedly is pretty funny), he told me about an article that said JC Penney is getting rid of all promotional sales in their stores. Overall, I think this campaign could be a win for the company – the tease is generating some buzz for both the campaign and the brand…all in anticipation of the “big announcement and full details!”

In the PR, marketing and media world, the “tease” can be both advantageous and disadvantageous to a company or news story.  Think of all the times a news anchor teases us to stay tuned after the commercial for the latest household cleaning product that can KILL US!  The anchor comes back and the news is so far out that we snicker to ourselves and become a little more jaded each time it happens.  As marketers and publicists put more “tease” into their copywriting and campaign elements, are we switching our audiences off by overusing this tactic?

With the Super Bowl (of advertising) less than a week away, let’s see how many brands turn to tease tactics.  I have a feeling that our information overloaded generation will be seeing a lot more of this across mediums (i.e. from TV to Twitter) as companies are doing everything they can to draw us in and keep us coming back.

"Top 10 Secrets to Great Analyst Relations" by Judith M. Rothrock

Industry analyst relations are a critical component of most technology companies' external marketing campaigns. Ignore the analysts and you prospectively lose important third party endorsements, inclusion in RFIs and RFPs, citations in the media and more.

In this guest blog, Judith M. Rothrock, president of JRocket Marketing, an analyst relations and outsourced chief marketing officer organization, offers 20+ years of street smarts on how to effectively engage in analyst relations. JRocket Marketing and Feintuch Communications are strategic partners; Mr. Feintuch has known and worked with Ms. Rothrock in a variety of capacities for nearly 30 years.


Recently I was asked by an industry colleague how JRocket Marketing is able to get even small vendors attention by the technology analyst firms….when the IT market is dominated by billion-dollar behemoths. Here is the JRocket Marketing Tip Sheet:

1. Homework: Know the analyst; pull their bio, note prior companies, schools, etc. Connect the dots and build the relationship off of his or her background. For example, knowing that Mint Jutras www.mintjutras.com principal Cindy Jutras is a math and science whiz from Boston University http://www.bu.edu/ … is going to at least get her to take your call if your brother/sister/aunt/uncle went there and/or you have a penchant for engineering!

2. Competitive P.I.: Super sleuth how your targeted analysts report on your competitors; what they like and don’t like, and get a good grasp of where the biases are going to be. A little private investigating goes a long way towards exploiting opportunities and avoiding pitfalls. For example, if you are in the enterprise solutions space and want to speak about “agility,” you need to know what UNIT4 has said on the topic www.unit4.com.

3. Packaging: Spin works. Net clever messages work. Complex acronyms and boring R&D speak (unless you are talking to an architecture analyst) will put your target analysts to sleep. Be sticky read http://www.amazon.com/Made-Stick-Ideas-Survive-Others/dp/1400064287/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321920765&sr=8-1

4. Powerpoint Simplicity: 50 page powerpoints scream one (or both) of these messages: I’m not sure what’s most important about my company/differentiation; I haven’t done this before so I am going to dump it all on you to figure out. Tight net presentations of 20 slides and one hour are perfect for getting key points across to analysts who are overloaded with sometimes 25+ vendor briefings per week. Skip the highly complex slides that deliver TMI. SYSPRO U.S.’s http://www.syspro.us.com/ ‘Einstein Theory’ received more traction than 60 page powerpoints previously given on the same/similar products.

5. I.V. Drips not Overloads: Analysts are often booked hourly (like lawyers) and three hour (unbillable) meetings and ongoing non-urgent information is going to peg you as a time waster to be avoided. Twice yearly face to face meetings, augmented by 2 additional WebEx’s on launches, acquisitions or other hot topics are plenty for a smaller (non-Microsoft) sized company …but share your key press releases via linked emails and/or twitter. JRocket Marketing’s Grape Escape http://www.jrocketmarketing.com/grape_escape.html is a great example of how to showcase your messaging annually and draw big analyst crowds.

6. Hot Topics: Stay abreast of the industry – what’s hot, what’s not, what’s game changing. They package your messaging to pick up on these trends because that’s what the analysts will be writing about. Check out Gartner’s Top 10 Technology Trends for 2012 http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/gartner-10-key-it-trends-2012

7. Travel Tie-Ins: Get the target analysts travel schedule and dovetail it to ANY locales, happenings or home bases of you or your key executives. Build in a lunch, dinner or airport coffee time to build the face-time relationship. Social media is GREAT, but relationships bond across a meal table.

8. Newbie Knowledge: New analysts (often from the vendor or press community) are feeling their way and grateful for any data you can share about their new assignment. Help them, and they help you! Send a welcome letter, start a file about any personal information they choose to share (spouse, kids/ages, hobbies)…and don’t forget the flowers if they have an illness or major accident because they will never forget YOU for it! Recommendations: for women analysts, nothing says it like a personalized “analyst of the year” Vermont teddy bear http://www.vermontteddybear.com/ or Pro Flowers http://www.proflowers.com/ plant and Mrs. Fields cookie combo … I’ve built 20 year relationships from just doing the “right thing” as we New Yorkers say (and it makes YOU feel great to do it!).

9. Scoops: If your company is the first to do something – bring in your most important analyst under NDA and get them a pre-briefing prior to launch. Some firms will allow a press quote, but even for the larger ones (Gartner http://www.gartner.com/, Forrester http://www.forrester.com/, or IDC http://www.idc.com/) an advance briefing will put them in a position to take a reporter’s call to provide color on the topic.

10. Respect (Both Ways): This is the most challenging tightwire act of analyst relations. Not all analysts treat smaller vendors with the same respect they give “the big boys” and there are quite a few egos. On the flip side, there are dozens of wonderful analysts out there who you can cultivate career-long friendships with. I’ve found that (contrary to what’s staffed at most PR agencies) that AR people who have deep, experienced knowledge of their market, their products and their competitors’ actions get the best shake from analysts. I’ve also found that there are some analysts that, regardless of how earthshaking your IT breakthrough is, will never believe that a small company announcement trumps even mundane news from the giants. Read Brian Sommer’s grid on the types of analysts for a good comedic look at the various analyst “types” in the market http://www.zdnet.com/blog/sommer/humor-the-rosetta-stone-of-it-industry-analysts/1089?tag=content;siu-container.

Visit http://www.jrocketmarketing.com/ for more information or follow Judith Rothrock on twitter @JRocketMarket.

 

It’s Race Day in the Big Apple and the Crowd Goes Wild!

Every year since I’ve lived in NYC, I’ve cheered on marathoners running the streets of New York in the beginning of November.  Every year I’ve said, I’m going to run it one day. This year, I did! And, as I had posted on Facebook after the race, two words sum up the experience – awesome and tiring!

The New York Marathon is one big block party. The media buzz all around New York propels and enhances the excitement of the city. Every year various world-class runners and celebrities mix in with ordinary runners. Everyone remembers the Chilean miner who ran the marathon last year.  This year the big news was that Apolo Ohno was running the marathon. With this kind of attention and publicity, it’s no surprise that marathon day is the one day every year that New Yorkers come out in the thousands to cheer on runners of all ages, ethnicities, class level, etc. 

The three months of training prior to the race, were not easy. The foresight, research, organizational and planning skills PR practitioners use in their jobs were put to good use. I researched various training schedules, chose the one that worked for me and plotted out my running schedule for the next three months. When I completed a run, I’d check it off the schedule.  Sometimes I’d have to rearrange my workouts on a weekly basis to fit them in with other commitments. Often, I would leave work on a Thursday or Friday and run anywhere from 13-20 miles around Manhattan and/or home to Brooklyn; many weeks saw me awake at 6am three or four days during the week for a four- to six-mile run; or I’d have to make sure there was time on a vacation to complete my miles for the week.

Sunday, November 6 was race day, and I was excited and nervous. I hadn’t slept well the night before and had set two alarm clocks just to make sure I was up at 5am and didn’t miss the ferry. Despite trying to remain quiet and not wake my parents and sister, who had flown in from California for the occasion, my Dad woke up, kept me company while I got ready and walked me out the door. I was glad for the distraction. Nerves set in again as it seemed like forever for the train to come. Once I got to the ferry station, excitement took over.

It was complete organized chaos - from boarding the ferry until I got to the starting line. For having to deal with 44,000 runners, the New York Road Runners did an amazing job making sure everyone was where they needed to be and when they needed to be there.

The crowds are what make the marathon spectacular. The entire 26.2 mile route had tons of supporters with signs, both funny and inspirational. Spectators cheered everyone on – whether they knew you or not. If your name was on your shirt, they’d shout for you. If you were wearing a shirt with the Italian flag they’d shout “Go Italy.” Worst case, they’d just shout and holler like banshees. When a runner they knew came by, groups would go crazy!  The energy from the crowd kept you going and when you saw someone you knew, it feels as though you could sprout wings in your chest and fly away. There were little kids giving out high fives. Every mile had a different band, DJ, choir group, elementary school concert band or some sort of music blaring. Some spectators took it upon themselves to blast music to help runners along. Others handed out Gu, bananas and paper towels, in addition to the volunteers passing out water, Gatorade and wet sponges. There were people in costumes – both runners and spectators alike. I think the spectators were having as much fun if not more than the runners. I couldn’t stop smiling for the first 13 miles.

Don’t get me wrong, I definitely hit the wall - at about mile 20 - but the crowds keep you going and make you want to finish, as do the other runners. At no point are you alone, and even though I didn’t know anyone else running, there was a certain camaraderie. Finishing was amazing. You realize you’ve just run 26.2 miles through the closed-off streets of Manhattan in front of two million spectators and the exhaustion and pain settle in next to the euphoria.

When asked if I’d run another marathon, my answer is two-fold: I’d definitely run the NYC marathon again and I might do a different one, but only if I have someone to train and run it with. It was my sister’s first time watching the marathon in person and she loved it so much that she’s trying to convince me to run one with her, so we’ll see…

The Art of Launching a New Company

The following is a guest post by Matt Lerner, VP of product development and marketing for AllStar Deals.  Mr. Lerner and his colleagues are about to launch a new enterprise.  In the post below, he presents an interesting look, from an entrepreneur’s perspective, on launching a firm.  Stay tuned to the Feintuch Communications website (www.feintuchcommunications.com) for future developments!

For the last four months, my team and I have been pushing each day to prepare for our site’s launch. Like any tech start up, new problems arise organically and our strategy to solve them is seemingly ever changing.

After back-and-forth internal discussions as to whether or not we were ready to face the public, last week, we reached our first major company milestone: pushing the pre-launch page live for AllStar Deals.

We did this with the help of LaunchRock, which not only gave us the tools to bring our page online, but also allowed us to begin collecting a database of early users, provide share buttons to those users so they could spread the word to their networks, and track primary analytics such as user sign-ups and page views.

Putting up our pre-launch page was incredibly gratifying and it provided a great lesson: JUST GET OUT THERE, ALREADY!

Stop tinkering. Stop expecting perfection. Stop worrying. You’ll never fully grasp what aspects of your site need more work and require adjustment until you actually put it in front of people. No amount of preparation will be able to act as a substitute for the learning you’ll glean from an actual launch.

There was a fantastic article in New York Magazine called Bubble Boys last month that every entrepreneur should check out. It’s certainly worth reading in its entirety but here are a couple of the quotes that stuck with me:

“Done is better than perfect.”
“Ideas are a dime a dozen. Execution is what matters.”
“If ten people have the same idea for a piece of software, the one who succeeds will be whoever launches it fastest, then iterates as quickly as possible.”
“There has never been a better time to be a geek with a dream. Launching a new product is all but free.”

Since our site will be taking on the online daily deals space, there is certainly no shortage of competitors for us. In fact, there are more than 500 daily deals sites in the US alone. That said, they all do the same thing.

They hire a sales force to try and find as many deals as possible, then they blast daily emails to all their users hoping that everybody buys them. As a result, your email box becomes cluttered with deals for microdermabrasion, helicopter flying lessons, and jewelry making classes.

Our plan is to change this model by not hiring a sales force at all. Instead we will be the first site entirely populated with user submitted deals. If you find a good deal in your neighborhood, we’ll give you the tools to secure that deal and submit it to the site. The incentive to do so is that we will pay cash commission to those who submit and share the deals.

Since our site gains strength by having more people signed up, submitting deals and sharing them with each other, and since this space is only getting more crowded each day, we knew the time was now to finally get out there.

Will there be major problems we have to deal with? Hopefully not, but maybe. Will there be tweaks and changes along the way? Certainly.

One thing is for certain though, we won’t know for sure until we’re up and running.

Follow AllStar Deals on twitter at @allstardeals and facebook.

"My Wallet, or my Cellphone?"

On Friday, in my rush to make a 7 a.m. train from Chappaqua to Manhattan for a partner breakfast meeting, I left my wallet in my car.

I didn't know I was "naked" until we neared Hawthorne and I heard the conductor coming down the aisle asking for tickets. As I reached for my monthly pass (housed in a special pocket in my wallet), I instantly realized what I had done. Terror set in. No train pass. No cash to buy a ticket on board. No credit card. No business card or any form of ID to offer the conductor as "collateral" of my good faith.

The conductor came to my seating group. When he looked at me, I said "I don't know what we're going to do with me... but my wallet is in my car...together with my credit cards, cash and ID."

I held my breath. My heartbeat sped up.

He looked at me and simply said, "okay," before moving on.

Crisis averted. And then I thought ahead to what the absence of my wallet meant. How to pay for breakfast. How to enter my office building. Who's paying for today's staff lunch. How to get home tonight. I thought about exiting at White Plains, grabbing a northbound local and starting all over again. After all, that's what I did a couple of years ago when I left my BlackBerry in my car.

On that occasion, I had similary weighed my options. Client calls? They'd go unanswered. Family calls and emergencies... no answer. Text messages...forgetaboutit! Facebook..LinkedIn...Twitter...other apps... no... too scary... I couldn't make it through the day. Back to the parking lot to get my phone. Not even a second thought.

Yet here, in 2011, I knew I could get by without my wallet. An email to Christa and Savannah, my work colleagues, produced two offers of we'll meet you at the restaurant to bail you out. And with that, I knew I could make it through the day.

Breakfast with Lito Bunag, of the Phillipines, went off as scheduled. When Christa walked to our booth, and discretely slid $80 and her gold AMEX to me, I noted the puzzled look on Lito's face. I explained my morning's angst and he smiled and said, "I was paying for breakfast anyway."

The security guards at 245 Park Ave. were sympathic but officially needed someone to vouch for me. But then, they noted that my staff had guest-signed me into the building. They produced a temporary paper badget. I was in!

I made it through the day without any other surprises. Lunch -- no sweat. New client meeting -- positive. Christa's micro-cash loan worked fine to buy my one-way ticket back to Westchester. My son picked me up with my car and I was finally reunited with my wallet.

So, in my own modern version of Frank Stockton's short story "The Lady, or the Tiger," my cellphone wins. I can make it through the day -- with a little bit of help from my friends -- without a wallet. But touch my cellphone? We need to have a serious conversation about that!

My lunch with Warren Buffett (and several hundred other clients/partners of Business Wire)

Warren Buffett and I had lunch together on Friday!

We were joined by several hundred other clients, partners and guests of Business Wire -- all invited to lunch at the New York Stock Exchange and the chance to see and hear the "Oracle of Omaha" in person. The occasion was the 50th anniversary of Business Wire, a Berkshire Hathaway Company, the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure. The day was marked with a proclamation by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg making September 30, 2011 "Business Wire Day" and a smart news release chronicling highlights of the company's history and numerous industry firsts.

The company's senior management team talked about the evolution of the company and its services both on stage and in a fast-paced and engaging video, "50 Years of Innovation," that provided a great historical perspective.

Leading up to its 50th anniversary (officially Oct. 7), Business Wire held a "Future of Public Relations and Communications" college video contest challenging full-time college students to submit short videos answering the question "What is the future of public relations and communications?" 21-year-old Jenna Marie James (photo/left at podium), a senior majoring in telecommunications at Ball State University in Indiana, was the winner of the contest. Her prize package included a trip to New York (her first) to meet and have lunch with "Warren" -- as well as to speak at the luncheon (preceding Warren). Her video is refreshing, creative and engaging -- I strongly recommend you view it!

And then, it was Warren's turn. He was "interviewed" on stage by Business Wire President & CEO Cathy Baron Tamraz followed by questions from the audience. What's amazing is his mental acuity at age 81 and ability to go from questions on the stock market to investor relations to communications to business in China and politics without missing a beat.

His answers were peppered with facts, figures, dates and plain spoken clarity not typical of most captains of business. He ... and Cathy... spoke about the period Berkshire Hathaway purchased Business Wire (following a "sales" letter he received from Cathy).

One questioner wanted to know how long the recession would last. Warren talked about the housing market and housing starts as the key indicator given their direct importance and ripple effect on the economy. Another questioner asked about governance in Washington. Warren indicated the problem was neither party was governing and instead all were obsessed about their re-election prospects rather than doing the right thing for the people. He brought a chuckle to the room when responding to a question about President Obama's proposed millionare's tax. "I"m not so sure it's good to have a tax named after you," he mused.

No matter how long and nuanced the answers to the questions, he always circled back and answered each question fully. It was an awe-inspiring performance of a genuine business leader, straight talker and straight shooter.

My thanks to Sarah Shepard, a former colleague and director of sales, NY Region at Business Wire for inviting me to this sophisticated celebration.

P.S. The menu was an appetizer of candied walnut, gorgonzola and mesculun salad with sherry walnut dressing; choice of pan seared French cut chicken breast with rosemary jus or pan seared sea bass with gingered pineapple and papaya (my selection) and New York style cheesecake.