Pickie Pie and Bonefish Grill in Texas

BFG Managing Partner Steve Padgett, CIS Development Director Angela Jenkins, Pickie Pie Founder Rachel Elsberry and BFG Joint Venture Partner Ben Miller

Pickie Pie Productions facilitated the Grand Opening of the first Bonefish Grill in Texas with a ribbon cutting and a charity night.  Still to come are several nights inviting and hosting local media at the restaurant.

   

The soft opening charity event which took place on Saturday, July 21, benefited Communities in Schools-Bay Area.  Our goal was to raise about $5,000.00 for the non-profit.  However, our efforts exceeded expectations as we were able to help the group raise $10,795.00.  Those proceeds will be used to support drop out prevention programs within Clear Creek and Dickinson ISD schools.

Pickie Pie is on tap to help Bonefish Grill launch more restaurants in Texas in 2012.   Congratulations, Bonefish Grill!  Welcome to Texas!

 

How Ad Agencies Can Use PR to Drive New Business

 No other marketing tool replicates what PR can do when it comes to building trust with important audiences. 

This is a guest post written by Don Beehler. Don is president of ABC&D Communications, a public relations agency in Franklin, Tennessee. His blog provides PR tips, tactics and tools for small and medium-sized ad agencies and businesses.

After more than two decades in the public relations business, I’ve come to believe that the most important thing PR can do for an ad agency is enhance its credibility. 

Strategic use of public relations can help small and mid-sized agencies—even a one-person operation—level the playing field with larger competitors.
How is that possible? Because people quoted by the news media and influential bloggers are perceived to have expertise in the topic being discussed, regardless of the size of they firm represent. The impression the audience gets is that the person quoted is among the cream of the crop in his or her profession.
That may or may not be true, but perceptions don’t have to be true to be effective. 
Can you think of a better advantage over your competitors than being positioned by a credible third-party source as a leading expert in your field?
Here’s a real-life example from one of my clients who runs a successful hedge fund. After I made several introductions to financial publications on his behalf, he started getting contacted by finance reporters and quoted in their stories. As a result of this coverage, a business writer for Associated Press found him after doing an Internet search for a source and contacted him for an interview. That led to a good deal of national coverage and more spin-off interviews.
National news media discovered him through these stories, and because he is responsive, articulate and competent, reporters keep coming back to him for his insights and analysis. He now has regular appearances on a national TV business program, giving him instant credibility with prospective hedge-fund clients.
Here’s the kicker: His firm is a one-man show, and three years earlier he was still in college. Yet, he now enjoys a distinct name recognition and credibility advantage over scores of hedge-fund managers with larger client rosters and decades more experience.
It’s no different for ad agencies because targeted publicity allows an objective secondary source–the news media or bloggers–to position your agency or CEO as an expert in a particular niche.
John Sonnhalter, CEO of The Sonnhalter Agency near Cleveland, Ohio, is a shining example. His business-to-business agency used social media, especially a niche blog called “Tradesmen Insights,” to target a very narrow audience: Manufacturers that are trying to reach professional tradesmen.
His agency has gained expert status in its niche and routinely gets requests to do interviews, guest posts and take part in industry-related workshops and seminars. He’s also frequently asked to either contribute an article or be part of an industry story in key trade media outlets.
As is the case with my hedge-fund client, the news media and bloggers that reach his audiences now come to him.
PR helps make you “discoverable” through . . .

• Local, regional, national or international consumer media coverage
• Niche industry trade publications and websites
• Blogs your clients/prospects read
• Online buzz

While public relations is a great way to generate awareness, positive associations and credibility in the eyes of a skeptical world, in my experience few ad agencies use PR strategically to drive new business.
In fact, it’s not unusual to find agencies using PR to promote themselves without having a carefully thought through plan for what they really want to accomplish and how PR can help them meet their objectives.
If properly targeted, your PR activities will get the attention of decision makers. But if you use a shotgun approach or try to be all things to all people, your PR efforts will fall short of their potential.
The key is to have a PR plan that compliments new business development initiatives with a clear focus, target and purpose.
The flip side of all this is if your agency lacks PR capabilities altogether, you may be missing out on some wonderful new business opportunities. Put yourself in the client’s shoes: If two agencies are perceived as equal in capabilities and service but one has PR capabilities and the other doesn’t, and you have a product or service you believe is newsworthy, which agency would you choose?
Clients know that you can’t have a truly integrated marketing communications campaign without a PR component to take advantage of publicity opportunities.

 One final word:

A successful agency PR program is a consistent one. A start-and-stop publicity effort makes about as much sense as running a print ad once every six months—there just isn’t enough ongoing exposure to make it work, even if the ad itself is great.  Advertising and PR both require a certain amount of frequency to be effective.

About Michael Gass
Michael is an international new business consultant to advertising, digital, media and PR agencies. Since 2007, he has led in the use of social media and content marketing strategies to make agency new business EASIER.

4 Reasons Pinterest Wins with Women (And Facebook Loses)-from Forbes

From Forbes:

Look out Facebook. A picture is worth a thousand words especially if you are looking to speak to female consumers. That’s why Pinterest boasted 104 million total visits in March, and is now the third most popular social media platform behind Twitter and Facebook.
Women are almost completely responsible for Pinterest’s success—according to Inside Network’s AppData. In fact, 97 percent of the site’s users are women.
Women trust recommendations from Pinterest more than any other platform, per BlogHer’s annual study on women and social media. Eighty-one trust Pinterest versus Facebook (67 percent) and Twitter (73 percent).
Why? Because women trust other women in their circles more than anyone else. As a result, 47 percent of women bought something based off a recommendation from Pinterest where as only 33 percent bought because of a recommendation on Facebook.
It’s no surprise that brands have been jumping on the Pinterest bandwagon in troves and have seen their followers grow over night. Many products are getting more exposure than they ever could on Facebook and Twitter, and it’s relatively easy to see why.
To sum it up, here are four reasons why Pinterest is superior to Facebook when targeting women:
1. It is simple, clean and fuss free. This makes browsing delightful and easy: two main components to marketing success. Because of Pinterest’s visually appealing layout, consumers just see a picture with very little text. Facebook on the other hand is very word heavy and can turn off potential consumers.
2. Marketers have an open window into consumers’ interests. They can easily see a gold mine of information on potential customers. For example, an interior design marketing team can see who is influential in the ‘home decor’ section. They can then start following and see what trends people are repining and liking.
3. It’s relaxing. Pinterest creates a curated experience for its users in a fairly anonymous way. No constant updating of feeds, no overload of people’s lives. On Pinterest it’s about enjoying your hobbies—not having to like someone’s status or wish anyone a Happy Birthday. It lets users share experiences in a negative-free zone, briefly comment and move on without the weight of Facebook etiquette.
4. Brands have found cool ways to use it. Martha Stewart Living and Kate Spade are pinning like crazy with overwhelming response by adding more than 19,000 and 34,000 followers respectively. Kotex even has bragging rights for hosting one of the first Pinterest campaigns. The brand found 50 “inspiring” women in Israel and looked at what they were pinning on Pinterest. Then, Kotex sent the women a virtual gift. If she pinned the gift, she then got a real one in the mail that was based on something she had pinned. The result: success—nearly 100% of the women pinned and commented on their gifts.
All told, Pinterest has brought women together online in a way never seen before and tapped into an extremely influential consumer market without even trying. In many ways, this makes Pinterest genuinely more appealing than Facebook and far more trendy among women consumers who get the picture.

Melissa Pitts is a marketing intern at gyro. She blogs regularly at Newstaco.com, FlamingTortillas.com and Americas Quarterly.
Follow her at @mpittsm

What's Your Flavor?

Leveraging Social Media in Food Marketing

by Karlene Lukovitz, Jun 29, 2012, 1:32 PM

food, research, retail, social media

When it comes to learning about food, nearly half of consumers use social networking sites, and 40% use Web sites, apps or blogs, according to a new study from The Hartman Group and Publicis Consultants USA.

“Consumers used to rely on mom and family traditions for meal planning, but now search online for what to cook, without ever tasting or smelling,” said Hartman Group president and COO Laurie Demeritt.

In addition, nearly a third of Americans overall -- and 47% of Millennials -- use social networking sites while eating at home. 

So how can food makers and retailers best leverage this social media power?

According to the researchers, they need to understand that consumers’ social media behavior falls along an engagement continuum, and create tailored communication strategies relevant to each type of three users:

* "Spectators” use social media as an extension of their network of friends, family and peers. They use social media for product reviews, recipes and good deals.

* “Dreamers” curate and push food-related content through social networks. They aspire to have larger followings and more influence than they currently do.

* “Doers” are the most engaged. They are the core of food and social media, creating content that inspires followers.

There are many possible brand opportunities for each type of consumer. “For example, a brand may entice Dreamers by incorporating their recipes on its site, or appeal to a Spectator by offering incentives in exchange for a video review,” pointed out Steve Bryant, president of Publicis Consultants.

The study, “Clicks & Cravings: The Impact of Social Technology on Food Culture,” was conducted in October and November 2011. Qualitative ethnographies were fielded in two major U.S. markets, and more than 1,600 U.S. adults participated in an online survey.

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/177904/leveraging-social-media-in-food-marketing.html#ixzz1zU7H00ay