In a recent post, tech-marketing consultant Mark Evans argues that CEO=PR. He acknowledges that it’s difficult for start-ups to get media or blogger attention, and with so many start-ups competing for attention it’s a challenge to stand out. I agree with him on this point – it is hard. (But so is starting a company, getting funding, finding office space, hiring good people, creating a culture, and about 1000 other things.) But where me and Mr. E especially disagree is his claim that “a start-up entrepreneur is the best person to get media and blog coverage – much better than a PR agency/boutique.” 

It would be easy to dismiss my disagreement with Mark given what is assumed to be my inherent bias toward agencies, but really that’s not it. I do not agree with him for practical and tactical reasons. A start-up CEO has so much to do: he has to be available to his team, oversee product development, business development, and staffing issues, and oh yeah – respond to the hundreds of emails that populate his inbox each day. Each of these tasks could be its own full-time job, as even the single task of fundraising can envelope a CEO’s every waking minute. So exactly when is this CEO, who already is maxed-out, going to set aside hours each day to keep up with industry goings-ons across trade, consumer, and business press, identify relevant reporters and bloggers, get their attention, and convince them your company is worthy of coverage, submit for speaking slots, and on and on and on? I suppose there is always the weekend.

After nearly 15 years of working with start-ups, I find it interesting that the issue of hiring a PR firm is still so polarizing.  On one side there are the naysayers who argue that engaging with a PR firm is a waste of time and money (in some cases they’re right). Then there are those who’ve had good experiences with PR folks and understand the value of a successful partnership. My friend (and client) David Mandell, CEO of PivotDesk, did an excellent post on the issues around hiring a PR firm. David has the unique perspective of having lived on both sides; before he was a start-up Founder/CEO he was a PR/Advertising exec. In his piece, “Five Things Every Start-Up CEO Should Know About Hiring a PR Agency,” Mandell addresses the key issues start-up CEOs should think through when meeting with potential PR partners. His points are spot-on (and no, I’m not appeasing him because he’s a client) and a good check-list for start-ups.

Last month in Boulder I had a similar discussion about start-ups hiring PR firms with Brad Feld and Seth Levine of the Foundry Group and David Cohen of TechStars. My takeaway wasn’t so much about whether to hire or not hire, but more around when is the right time, for how long, and to accomplish what. A lot of start-ups are put off by being asked to make a long-term commitment to an agency when they don’t know where their business will be in a year. Agencies should be willing to embrace shorter-term agreements that give start-ups the flexibility required when launching a company.  And in the spirit of compromise, start-ups need to understand that us PR folk are running businesses and the arrangement needs to make sense. My grandfather used to say, “Buy quality. It only hurts once.”  Start-ups do not expect to get a talented engineer for $8 an hour; nor should they think a PR team could be had for the same rate. Something else that makes no sense and annoys start-ups is the expectation from PR firms to have a few months of ramp-up time to learn the client’s business; on this I call bullshit. As Mandell points out in his post – and this is critical –the agency should know what the client does and understand the landscape before the first meeting.

So should a start-up CEO be in charge of PR? Yes and no. They should embrace and spend time thinking about the PR strategy, interface with a professional team as often as necessary, participate in the meetings and events that benefit from their presence, and enjoy the PR wins. What they should not do is attempt to manage all of the day-to-day minutia and the myriad of moving pieces that make a PR program successful.  Like so many other topics I’ve ranted about here, I feel that this debate is rooted in bad PR people peeing in the pool and wrecking it for the rest of us.  No CEO really wants to do their own PR, but the horror stories of start-up CEOs who’ve spent so much and received so little from PR firms causes trepidation.  While I understand the “once bitten, twice shy mindset” of CEOs and Venture Capitalists around hiring a PR firm, we’re not all dogs.  Best advice? Do your homework. Like Mandell urges, ask yourself: “Would I hire them as another FTE?  Do they make the cut?  Do they fit culturally as well as professionally?  Am I prepared to invite them to team meetings and be open to their insight on the business?  If the answer to any of those questions is ‘No’ then I thank them for their time and move on.” 

Howie

During CEO of AOL Tim Armstrong’s keynote address on Tuesday, he talked about the compression of the industry from both the advertisers and publishers, and how for every advertiser dollar, DSPs and SSPs each take a 15-20% cut, resulting in only about 45 cents making it to the pockets of publishers. He asserted that this model needs to change in order to create a more efficient and sustainable industry.

Armstrong hailed programmatic advertising as the future of the industry, and also made a case for the need to balance out the machine-driven backend with a softer and more elegant creative approach to ad design.

This is all great in concept, but what does this shift in ad buying and delivery mean for the 15 billion dollar online ad industry?

Think of real-time bidding as a mini stock market for advertisers and buyers, with hundreds of thousands of bids flooding in every second. And those bids — essentially what your attention is worth to advertisers —determine whether you see an ad for, a new Hyundai or a used Scion, for sandals or a toaster oven.

Being able to self-manage your online campaigns or execute online media buying through programmatic methods is believed to be more cost-effective and operationally efficient. As with any new technology, naysayers exist, working to poke holes in the programmatic media-buying paradigm by focusing solely on a short-list of imperfections. And while they may be valid, these doubts may hold back the long-term vision of a streamlined way to conduct business.

This year’s AdTech conference in SF was brimming with behind-the-scenes technologies that people encounter on a daily basis, whether they know it or not. On the panel called Building Mobile Apps That Don’t Suck, BPR client Zumobi presented about the value of native advertising on the mobile platform and how an integrated approach can seamlessly bridge the gap between editorial and advertising content. Zumobi Co-Founder and VP of Product Design John SanGiovanni presented the results of a mobile campaign they created for Chevrolet that resulted in a 37% engagement rate, 3x over industry benchmarks.

All in all, this year’s AdTech SF provided a fresh perspective on where the ad industry is headed, and what advertisers can do to stay ahead of the curve. Now, if I could just somehow replace my convoluted writing process with a set of programmatic algorithms, I would marvel at the speed of my productivity. Yes, that would be cool indeed.

Richard Tso

PS: We can’t stop watching this

Late last month, my colleague Lindsey Bradshaw and I were invited to give a presentation at this year’s Murrow Symposium at our alma mater, Washington State University. Having spent four wonderful years in the Mecca of barely-drinkable beer and mediocre college athletics, I’ll take any excuse I can to go back for a visit, even if it only is for 24 hours.

Of course, this particular trip couldn’t be all fun and games. Our mandate was to give a down and dirty presentation to a group of PR students about how to land their first job in the field, and then how to keep said job. As Coug graduates, both Lindsey and I thought we had a good idea of the classes these students had taken, the skills they had learned, and the genuine fear and panic they were experiencing barely a month from graduation day. However, after three years in the working world away from Pullman, I had completely forgotten how just how ill-prepared college graduates are for the demands of a PR career.

If you’ve spent any time on our website, particularly on this blog, it’s pretty obvious that Barokas PR isn’t into the typical agency dog and pony show (except that one time… but you’ll have to ask Howie about that). Our “No BS” policy applies to clients, colleagues, and even PR students that we’ve never met before. We aren’t the type of agency to stroll into a classroom with the same tired presentation from 5 years ago preaching about “branding yourself” in order to get even a whiff of a job. Bullshit! The fact of the matter, and what the larger PR firms won’t tell you, is that a stellar portfolio and a personal brand are no match for a good head on your shoulders and relevant experience on your resume.

After our discussions with various attendees at the Murrow Symposium, including faculty, students, and fellow alumni, I’ve come up with a few bits of advice that I wish I had known going into my final year of college.

1. Nail the cover letter. There are two types of cover letters that get circulated to everyone in our office: the unique, witty, and personalized letters, and the boring, plain Jane letters that are obviously mass distributed to firms all over the city, and often have spelling and grammar errors.

2. Focus on your resume. I know that WSU places particular emphasis on this in a few Communications classes, but it can’t be emphasized enough. No matter what school you attend, there are nearly infinite resources to help you perfect your resume, and zero excuses for not taking advantage of them.

3. Write, write, write. Write your club newsletter, write for your college newspaper, write the family Christmas letter. As PR pros, most of our days are spent writing in various styles (press releases, blog posts, even Facebook updates) for audiences both internally and externally. Practice your writing any chance you get, because we will test you on it and we will judge you on it.

4. Forget about your brand. It may set you apart in the bigger corporate firms, but a firm like Barokas cares more about what you can bring to the team and to the client, not what you can do for yourself. Emphasize your valuable skills through your resume, including knowledge of our client companies, and your writing skills.

5. Relax. Yeah, applying to be a real adult with a real career is a pretty daunting task. You’ll be nervous in your first interview, and you’ll likely have answers to typical interview questions already memorized. Throw that all out the window. In your first PR position out of college, whether it is an internship or an entry-level job, most everyone is on an even playing field as far as their skills go. What we value most is how well you’ll fit in with the rest of the team, and how confident you can talk about the subject matter when you’re in front of the CEO of a multi-million dollar tech software company.

Please do feel free to share what’s worked for you and what hasn’t at @dansjensen or Daniel@barokas.com, I’m always looking to hear about the experiences of others.

Dan

But how to choose the stone?  Where do you even begin to look?  How will you know when you see it?  If you look to some of the most resonant “Big Ideas,” you’ll see that they share a common thread. In different but deeply profound ways, they all reflect on a critical element of what it means to be human.

Go out to your driveway and look at your car.  Two headlights, wide set above a front grill panel that spans the width of the vehicle. It’s familiar.  You’ve seen this design on this car, and on every other car you’ve ever owned. And it’s not an accident. Cars are designed to be an abstract representation of the human face: two eyes, a mouth, a windshield expanse of forehead. They’ve looked this way since Henry Ford rolled his first Model-T off the line in Detroit.  A few attempts to alter this design have been cataclysmic failures – people simply do not accept them as aesthetically pleasing or reliable.

But why?  What Henry Ford knew inherently, and what so many studies and experiments have since proved, is that people view cars as an extension of themselves: face forward, eyes wide open, recognizing and responding to surroundings with swiftness and agility.  We are comforted by these similarities.  They resonate.

When IBM created Watson, they too sought out to create a machine that bore a unique set of human characteristics, and the ongoing fascination with Watson – which has, among other things, truly been a PR machine for IBM – is rooted in this humanness. Like humans, Watson is capable of contextual learning.  It can make quantum inferential leaps, see connections, understand nuances, read between the lines.  Puns are not lost on it.  It can play Jeopardy.  In it, we see a machine created in our own intellectual image.

Like Watson, Ericsson’s Connected Tree bears some intrinsically human qualities – mirroring our socially triggered emotional responses using Twitter as a medium. When someone walks away, it expresses loneliness. When someone approaches, it is hopeful and happy. When it is overwhelmed by a crowd, it expresses a desire to scale back the socialization. Touch the tree, and it speaks directly to you via SMS text. Unlike Watson, Connected Tree is not finessing complex context. It is conveying primal responses to social interactions.  Where Watson has IQ, Connected Tree has EQ.

One could posit the argument that all of these big ideas underscore our narcissism: we are vain creatures forever seeking a new pool reflecting our own image.  There is another way to see it, however, and it boils down to the emotional, biological underpinnings of procreation.  As humans, we are biologically and socially conditioned to want children – humans created of our own flesh and blood and DNA in our own image.  But ask someone if they would ever consent to be cloned, and the near universal reaction is horror.  Or consider the Uncanny Valley – the theory posited by Masahiro Mori that the closer artificial humanity gets to real life, the more unsettling it becomes.

At the end of the day, we want to create things that extend our horizons, not things that perfectly mirror our own image.  Watson and Connected Tree and so many other Big Ideas do just that. They take a part of what makes us human and extend it, enliven it, re-imagine it.  In that, we see a future – ripples extending all the way to the horizon.

Rachel

Since the subject is top of mind, I thought it would be interesting to look at what makes a good VP of Marketing, especially from the perspective of a PR flack. I know this is a topic most agencies would not discuss since they might offend someone, but I feel a professional obligation to shine light on this issue.

Having a really good marketeer can genuinely make or break a company, especially true for emerging tech start-ups. This person points the organization in a unified direction and makes sure everyone is marching toward the same destination. As I write I have visions of Scout Master Ward, played brilliantly by Edward Norton in Moonrise Kingdom. Each morning Scout Master Ward rallied his troops, even if they didn’t want to be rallied, and led them to accomplish the task at hand.  Like Scout Master Ward, a solid marketing veep should have the ability to motivate others and lead the troops through whatever may lie ahead. It’s also critical that this person have ideas of their own (read: original thoughts) and be able to demonstrate to the team  “I still got it.”

Too often and out of desperation start-ups become intoxicated by an ex-big company dude laying claim to being the driving force behind the launch of XYZ product, from gigantic company with multi-million dollar marketing budgets. Maybe that person actually was the driving force but without the Benjamins spent on advertising, PR, product placement, launch parties, branded merchandise, lighting up skyscrapers in corporate colors, celebrity endorsements etc. the outcome of the launch would not have been the same.  This brings me to the subject line of this story. I’m not picking on the fine folks from Microsoft, it’s just that in these parts of the woods it’s almost inescapable, the dreaded sentence no PR person wants to hear from a marcom VP: “When I was at Microsoft we…(fill this in with outlandish statement of accomplishment)…”   To this I say “Well a) no you didn’t and b) you’re not at Microsoft.”  For the purposes of this exercise I’d like to focus on what, from a PR perspective, makes a great marketing veep/director/manager/CMO.

Understands What is Real News:  In an ideal world PR folks would not need to spend much time educating the client on what is and what is not newsworthy. A smart marketing exec understands that press do not care about product (point) upgrades, website redesigns, or new branding/taglines.  Just because you launched a new site doesn’t mean its news. Marketers understand this and wouldn’t want to waste cycles trying to promote.

Willing to Take Calculated Risks: We often hear clients say how they want to be different, really shake things up, stand out, make noise, get loud; we love hearing this. But then the fire in their belly is diminished to a smoldering ember by the time execution rolls around. Good marketing folks embrace risk and take it – even if it means going against what company execs and investors might deem appropriate.

Understands the Difference Between PR and Marketing: One of these things is not like the other: briefing document, press tour, sales collateral. Skilled marketing folks know the difference between what’s considered PR and what’s not. As a species us PR people tend to be very helpful; we’ll run errands for you, buy clothing for you to wear on TV, watch your kids if you’re in a bind, whatever you need.  I’ve written everything for clients from obituary notices to a best-man speech. But on a regular basis it’s best if PR people do PR work and a good client understands the difference.

Knows What is Realistic: “I want 59 top tier pieces of coverage this quarter.” Okay so I’m taking creative liberties but we’ve heard absurd comments like this. Smart marketing folks have realistic albeit aggressive goals and realize they shouldn’t tie their ego or path up the corporate ladder to a ridiculous metric that would never be met.

Not Blind to Company’s Position In The Market: We are tremendous advocates and fans of our clients, which is easy since we only work with companies and people we like. We’re also realists and know when a company is “a” leader vs. “the” leader. One of the most frustrating characteristics of a less than savvy marketer is the delusional thinking that their company is NUMBER 1. A great client understands their place in the competitive landscape and recognizes what it’ll take to get to the next level.

Has a Spine: It’s amazing that some marketing folks hold the big-title but are spineless and fearful when it comes to standing-up to the CEO or Board of Directors.  To wear the badge of Marketing Sheriff the ideal person should confidently and respectfully be able to push-back on members of the executive staff when they believe their recommendation is the right approach. In order to do this effectively they must earn the trust of the CEO, which of course comes over time and by doing great work.

Is a Thought Leader: Being a thought leader requires constant work including an active voice in discussions relevant to your business and beyond. Thought leadership doesn’t happen overnight or because of a creative sound bite. Rather, it happens by making investments in activities such as conferences, panels/keynotes, bylines, social media channels, standards organizations, etc.  As a PR person it’s great to work with a marketing veep that does the hard work to become a thought leader rather than simply referring to themselves or the CEO as one.  There is no silver bullet to thought leadership; it takes time, consistency, and dedication. You’ll know you’ve arrived when you’re declining speaker invitations and interview requests.

Builds a Great Team and Has Their Back: Show me a successful VP of Marketing or CMO and I’ll show you a person that’s done an excellent job of surrounding themselves with smart, loyal people. The marketing gig is tough; a job where budgets, ideas, and teams are constantly questioned.  We’ve worked with enough good and not so good execs to recognize how critical it is to have a leader that supports the team through thick and thin. There will be days when everything falls to pieces regardless of the amount of planning; shit happens. What’s important is how the veep rallies his troops (internal team and outside partners), supports them under harsh scrutiny and builds loyalty in times of adversity.  If this is done, they’ll have the lifelong devotion of the team, a group likely to follow them throughout their career.

Happy Trails.

Howie

I asked Bernie what the deal was with no bell. He said in many locations, malls especially, the management asked that they not ring bells. And guess what – donations aren’t as robust at the silent kettles.  Of course this immediately made me think about PR – but first a quick history lesson. The Red Kettle campaign started in San Francisco in 1891 and has traditionally been the Salvation Army’s most prominent fund-raiser.

For those of you who follow my rants this is not a new topic, nor one limited only to US PR teams. I met with our partner agency located in Paris a few weeks ago and heard from my French colleagues that they too struggle with PR “bell ringers” who don’t like to ring bells; instead waving electronic signs in the form of tweets, emails, and LinkedIn requests as an attempt to get the attention of media. And guess what? The results aren’t as robust at the PR kettles.  Like mall managers, press folk have asked for no bell ringing and too many PR peeps are obliging, IMHO. While this all may seem trivial it scares the hell out of me that an entire generation of PR folks accross the globe are coming up and they’re fearful of real conversations. They’d rather be pinging than ringing.

It’s unfortunate that, with all of the technological advancements available for reaching each other, we’re collectively moving into the communication shadows preferring to ping, pin, voyeur, and creep.  In the PR world I blame a few factors – technology being one. Most PR newbies fall in the Gen C (18-34 year old) range and as such have been raised with Facebook and SMS as their primary means for communicating. For Gen C’ers it’s a real drag to actually have to talk to someone – even to wish a friend happy birthday –  let alone talk to a reporter who likely doesn’t want to hear from them. Next, too many PR folks have peed in the pool with lame pitches making it so reporters loathe the thought of getting a call from Buffy or Skippy just following-up. C’mon people, read what those folks write – it’s amazing the clarity it provides. Finally, shrinking editorial staff sizes place massive pressure on reporters to do twice as much, twice as fast. Who has time for a call when deadlines loom? After all, the stories aren’t going to write themselves. Still there is no better way to inform and engage than through a human-to-human interaction even if it’s just a 2-minute call. So many nuances are lost in an email or a tweet, and say goodbye to tone. Besides it’s so easy to be ignored when there are hundreds of notes that sound like yours with news of a new, end-to-end, scalable solution that marries best-of-breed technology with a hybrid cloud infrastructure offering rapid deployment for the enterprise. Oh and don’t forget the third paragraph with the “thrilled CEO” barely able to contain himself with excitement over the latest product release. Yawn.

If you’re a PR person who doesn’t get on the phone, you’re not a PR person. Just like a bell ringer without a bell isn’t a bell ringer.  As an industry we need to do a much better job filling the PR kettle with thoughtful pitches, and coverage that makes a meaningful difference. And to do this – you’ve got to make noise.

Happy Holidays.

Howie

Sample Interview Process:

Interviewer: “So EXACTLY how well do you know Walt?”

Interviewee: “Well my mother used to know his youngest sister in college and I’m pretty sure she can get his number…”

Interviewer: “HIRED!”

All joking aside, there tends to be a very small degree of separation between those in the PR industry and their cohorts. This leads to a lot of name-dropping, the occasional embarrassing holiday party story, and more frequently, a lot of chatter behind the backs of those around us. Working in a predominantly female industry accelerates this process – after all, we are in the business of communication. Heck – gossip is nearly the name of the game.  It’s also no secret that the once-assured right to privacy is a thing of the past. It only takes one cell phone camera, email or ill-advised text message to ruin even the brightest of careers (political or otherwise – look at the most recent ‘Mitt slip’).

This brings me to the point of this post – when did we get so scared to confront each other? It’s hard to hit a bullseye when you’re trying to weave an arrow around multiple other targets. What I mean is that most conflicts can be resolved by going directly to the source, given there are two reasonably mature, intelligent people at the center. Let’s be honest – being a straight shooter is a hard quality to find in people these days and one that’s often undervalued. It’s much easier to be the “run and bitch to the boss” person or the “undercover gossip” or even the dreaded “I’m going to act like everything is fine even though it’s not” person. It’s more convenient to chat with coworkers via Skype or shoot funny emails than to actually directly communicate our frustrations with another person. Conflicts are uncomfortable; they’re messy and feelings could get hurt and you might actually have to make eye contact.

The constant connectedness created by social media (and about a million other technological advances) has resulted in a very distinct bifurcation of communication. It’s a rare day when I make a decision, address a conflict or even send an email without discussing it with someone else first. Our generation is hinged on a nearly crippling need for approval and validation from those around us. We seek peer support when resolving conflict – whether it’s between coworkers or client facing. While bouncing an idea off another person or gaining some outside perspective is hardly grounds for an entire blog post, the need to rally the village around a cause is an epidemic that only seems to be spreading. I challenge everyone to try this ‘new’ ‘revolutionary’ and ‘innovative’ way to solve a problem the next time you find yourself in a bit of a clash:

Step 1: Find offending person

Step 2: Remove offending person from public situation (may be optional)

Step 3: Discuss

It may not always result in the resolution of all issues, but at least you’ve taken the teeniest, tiniest step toward common ground. Or maybe you didn’t. Maybe the offender flipped shit and poured a cup of coffee in your lap – congrats! Now you have an excellent story to tell over Skype that is guaranteed to amuse your coworkers during the 2pm lull. In any case, it’s never a bad thing to be the person who went out on a limb. After all, I hear that’s where you find all the best apples.

Ashley

On September 28, 1998 I along with BPR employee number one, Andrew Cullen, set up shop in a 100-year old building at First and Cherry in Seattle’s historic Pioneer Square. Andrew graduated from the U of O about a year prior and I brought him on as an intern while at Imagio PR, where we worked before starting the agency. BPR occupied 800 square feet, and Andrew and I each had our own offices connected via a barn-door, and two Packard Bell PC’s with monitors that weighed 90 pounds each. We had @speakeasy.com email addresses and really expensive, really slow Internet access. It was awesome. We started with one client, ShopNow.com – a “virtual shopping mall online.” Great idea -but try convincing people to use their credit card on the Internet in 1998!

Soon after we started word spread about our no-nonsense approach and the phone began to ring –  companies wanted to hire us! Before we knew it we had 5 employees, 3 clients and were running out of space. Karli Overmier was employee #4 and somehow I’ve convinced her to grow old with me; she’s just about to celebrate her 14th year with BPR.  My dear friend and former client Frances Bigley has been by my side for nearly 11 years helping to make the very complicated – very simple. Finally I can’t imagine the business without the man who has counted the BPR Beans since day one, our awesome accountant Gary Grayson. But, I digress.

By 2001 we were working with Cisco Systems and had more work coming at us than we could possibly handle. Venture money was still flowing and opportunity was abundant.  We made the decision to grow, but grow carefully. We saw what happened at other PR firms and had no interest in duplicating the model of taking on a lot of clients, doing uninspired work, losing clients, laying-off staff, and repeating the cycle. We vowed that our only source of new biz would be referral, we’d pitch nothing proactively, and we’d never waste our time on the brain-dead work of PR Agency Awards – because really – who cares about that stuff? In the following few years the dot.com world crumbled and we witnessed a lot of agencies shrink or disappear. As if tucked safely into a bomb shelter, the BPR team was unharmed by the turmoil at the beginning of this century and for that I credit the team and our approach; do great work, don’t bullshit your clients, the media, or each other, and charge a reasonable rate.

As the first decade of the 21st century came to a close we had some of the biggest names in technology as clients and friends (they tend to go together in our world). We worked with companies including Opsware/HP, Redback/Ericsson, RealNetworks, Concur, Classmates.com, and many more. We worked with fascinating people like Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz, Steve Singh, Sunny Gupta, Michael Schutzler, Martin Tobias and others. We challenged the norm – and proved that not all PR people suck. We had a great time and the business thrived.

As I glance in the rear-view mirror I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished and for all the companies we’ve helped grow. Sure there have been some bumps along the way including clients that ran out of money, employees who wanted to zig when I wanted to zag, and some really weird shit in 2003 – y’all know who you are.  But through it all the agency continues to grow – busting out of our tweens and heading deeper into our teens. While the faces have changed (some, not all) and the address has changed (totally cool space) the principles of BPR have remained the same. We’ve grown 100% organically – we don’t have a new business department – we maintain honest and direct relationships with our clients (which means we tell them things they don’t want to hear sometimes), we spend absolutely zero time promoting the agency, and we embrace the belief that “the squeaky wheel gets the grease.”  There it is – the BPR secret sauce. I know we must be doing something right because it seems not a week goes by without someone from Waggener Edstrom, Edelman, Porter Novelli, Weber, and others trying to recruit my teammates.  You big, fancy, silly people. 

I know it’s so cliche to say “we’re just getting started” but ya know what? We are just getting started. At 24 strong and with clients in the Northwest, Silicon Valley, and Europe BPR is poised for fantastic growth. We’re the largest (and more important the best) mid-sized technology firm in the Northwest and, while the companies we represent are on the cutting edge, our approach is old-school: do great work, take care of your clients, have fun, do more. Thanks so much to all the people in the BPR family; teammates, clients, and all those who play a supporting role in our cast of characters. Thank you to our former clients and employees, for without whom we’d be different than we are today.  Thank you all who’ve stuck by my side through the partly cloudy days and helped the agency be the best it can. And of course thank you Mom and Dad Barokas for all the support over the years - even though you still have no idea what we do at BPR.

I’d be remiss if it didn’t wrap this with a line from my favorite song (Two Step) from my favorite artist (Dave Matthews):

Celebrate we will 
Because life is short but 
Sweet for certain 
We’re climbing two by two 
To be sure these days continue 

Happy Birthday BPR!

Howie

Right now it’s possible that a future President of the United States is entering their senior year in high school somewhere in one of our fifty-nifty states. This future POTUS likely has a Facebook account and is probably a pretty social person, which means he or she frequents parties where photos are taken of folks doing everything from beer pong to bong hits, or the occasional dance party with a little help from a friend named Molly. Whatever it is, “it” is being photographed, recorded, tagged and archived minute by minute, and it’ll  outlive the very subjects it displays.

In the not so distant future we’ll not rely on former roommates, neighbors, business partners, or teammates to provide a glimpse into the past doings of a candidate, we’ll find it on or own – or it will find us. We’ll not hear from a third party about what someone did, we’ll see a FB post in 2042 from something the candidate wrote back in 2012. Fifty-years from now, 77 year-old Prince Harry will still be reminded of  his wild August night in Vegas including a competitive game of strip billiards. This stuff will never go away and that’s what will make future elections so exciting.

You’ve heard it before, necessity is the mother of invention, and I’m confident an entire industry will grow to scrub/sanitize/disinfect our past – but it will never (completely) work. Even if a Stanford grad creates a Neuralyzer like the one used by Agent K, nothing can erase our digital past. For now we’ll have to be patient while being bombarded with the constant “he did that – she said so” dribble that’s likely to come from both political parties. But the future is coming and even better, so is the past. I can’t wait!

Howie

Tech addiction is receiving a lot of attention and is often inextricably tied to work and our increasing need to feel connected, productive, share everything, and multitask during each hour we’re awake. Do you sleep with your phone next to you? I do. Do you check email before your head hits the pillow? I do. When you wake – do you check email before your feet hit the ground? I do. And apparently so do millions of people just like us.  Is this unhealthy? Is it an addiction or a way of life? That answer depends on the individual. For me I’d put myself in the camp like smokers who say “I can quit anytime I want – I just choose not too.” And like smokers who find the nearest place they can light up, we tech addicts are constantly on the lookout for power outlets and WiFi.

My travel companion

Much of what’s being discussed around tech addiction are the effects of the addiction; it’s not the cigarette it’s the cancer.  The cancer ranges from lost productivity, anxiety, Attention Deficit Disorder, and sleepless nights (sounds like the symptoms associated with tech PR). I was surprised to not find mention in any of the recent articles how technology has set us free, allowing us to finally be in two places at one time; at a baseball game and on a con-call – or – at the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale and responding to reporter emails.

In a piece in The Atlantic Alexis Madrigal asks “Are we addicted to gadgets or indentured to work?”  He argues blaming the gadgets for our 24 hour workday would be like factory workers blaming the clocks for their long days.  In the NYT article, Matt Richtel talks with Silicon Valley folk who worry about addictions to gadgets. Richtel comments “But hearing it from leaders at many of Silicon Valley’s most influential companies, who profit from people spending more time online, can sound like auto executives selling muscle cars while warning about the dangers of fast acceleration.” 

I believe for us in the tech industry we could debate either side of this argument; blame the gadgets or blame the work. Or we could just suck it up and accept that it is what it is and move on. It’ll be interesting to see how this conversation plays out, if more tech detox centers open, and if we continue to search for the elusive balance in the digital age. Until then, if you’re looking for a place to plug in, Starbucks has an ample supply of outlets and if you’re in Seattle at SeaTac Airport there is a cluster of outlets outside the ladies restrooms, beside the shoe-shine stand at the S gates, next to the vending machines; 5 beautiful outlets that accommodate larger sized power cords. Ahh.

Howie

PS: ARE YOU A TECH PR PRO? WE’RE HIRING.