Airfoil Public Relations

Rage Against the Machine

In an age where we have come to rely on technology to improve so many aspects of our lives, it’s easy to become complacent and trust that what the technology is advertised to do will do just that.  And in our profession, we tend to let the programs that enable us to bang out an accurate press release or e-mail quickly have the final say in what we say.  Because who wants to re-read a 2,000 word byline article for spelling and grammar after we’ve run it through the automated checker? 

But there is something to be said for the human affect on the work we do.

While your machine might whiz through a whitepaper in less than a minute, it’s probably a good idea to take a few extra minutes and read it over with your own eyeballs.  Those computers are smart, but they (so far) lack the one advantage we, as people, retain:  common sense.

After all, who wants to win a contest that’s giving away a plague?

 

-- Brad Marley

E-commerce trends abound at Internet Retailer

A couple of us ‘Foilers attended the Internet Retailer Conference last week in Chicago and it’s fair to say that e-commerce is indeed alive and well.  Airfoil helped launch a major customer announcement for richrelevance – really powerful representative coverage here -- and also hosted media introductions for our new client, RatePoint.  Check out this podcast between the RatePoint CEO and AuctionBites.   Fry continues its commitment to commerce innovation with its recent reveal of Qponix and importantly, provided the free wireless access throughout McCormick - making effective multitasking a reality.

Amidst and among the always random trade show elements (blue Santa or Liberty the Cart Whisperer anyone?), key themes included online brand reach/exposure and reputation management, fulfillment, multichannel inventory management/sourcing and personalization/recommendation functionality.  We heard that most of the educational content was not particularly new and that Shop.org commands a bit of a more sophisticated curriculum, so to speak.  But at least we had a Deion Sanderssighting and got a few free cookies from Santa’s helpers.  Now to rest the weary feet.

-- Tracey Parry

How different these times are! How different are these times?

Pretty much lost in the media tumult over the presidential race has been the fact that 2008 marks the 50^th anniversary of America’s entry into space with unmanned satellites, first with Explorer 1 and then, a couple months later, with Vanguard 1. For those of us who remember that era of Von Braun and Van Allen Belts, it was a particularly exciting period, when our entire lives seemed to be changing because of new technology.

Two years after Explorer, Echo 1 shot into orbit as the first communications satellite, primitive as it was, and communication was never the same. In 1960, the first of the Transit satellites was being tested in orbit. The Transit devices served as the Navy’s navigation satellite system until the development of the Global Positioning System that we now carry around in our pockets and forever changed the way we navigate through the world. Contemporaneously, Tiros-1 was orbited as the first weather satellite; and since then we’ve saved millions of lives, improved agriculture and planned successful cookouts using the images and data communicated to us from satellites observing weather patterns.

Half a century ago, technology was totally reconfiguring the way we communicated, the way we entertained ourselves, the way we worked, the way we traveled. Wait—isn’t that what’s happening now? Isn’t that what we’ve said has made the 21^st century so distinctive in our history? The Internet, e-mail, cell phones, Zunes and all the other gigs we bite into these days? Maybe this isn’t such an unusual era after all.

Just for grins, I checked back 50 more years—to 1908. According to “ Timelines of History,” it turns out in that year the first passenger flight in an airplane occurred (and the Wright Brothers registered their device for a patent), the first Model T Ford was produced (on the new-fangled “assembly line”), a subway linking Brooklyn and Manhattan opened, Count Zeppelin revealed plans to carry 100 passengers in his airship, a wireless message was sent long-distance for the first time from the Eiffel Tower, and—wonder of all wonders—the ball took its first drop in Times Square on New Year’s Eve. How spectacular all this technology must have seemed to my grandparents.

So which era of technological development has impacted our lives most profoundly? Which innovations have been the most important? The airplane? The automobile? Mass transit? Communications satellites? Weather predictions? The Internet? Smartphones?

The argument is pointless. Rather, it’s important to understand that we repeatedly reinvent our lives through technology. And, as we do, we revolutionize the way we communicate—whether we travel to meet face to face, phone a colleague, or Twitter our way through the day. Each of us builds on centuries of such mini-revolutions, placing all of us on the front lines of change. Each of us communicates change across our own generation and on to the next. We can be assured that in 2058, our grandchildren will be looking back at this year and exclaiming, “Can you imagine how different life would be without those early-millennium pioneers who figured out modern communications?”

---Steve Friedman

Regional differences define networking events, too

It was very interesting to attend the Midwest Technology Leaders event last night at the spanking new (and quite lovely) MGM Grand in Detroit, following five and a half months of attending Silicon Valley/Bay Area networking events.  Great to see some really familiar faces and celebrate innovation and technology progress in Southeastern Michigan, while the tone of the event certainly suggested we still have a ways to go. 

Congratulations to MCWT champion and tireless leader Rosemary Bayer for her recognition and special achievement award for her involvement in the technology community.  I, personally, and Airfoil as an institution, have enjoyed a strong affiliation with this organization and applaud the group’s commitment to the furthering of education and opportunities for young women in technology.

My team here has asked me about some of the main differences that I observed in the networking and educational events featured in proximity to Airfoil’s Mountain View offices, and I thought it worth noting a few key areas that perhaps we should consider as we continue to champion technology advancement, recruitment, retention and innovation in the Midwest.

·         Quantity of networking and event opportunities – while we all know time is of the essence, in the 650/408, there were educational, tech review, tech predictions and general networking events featured as frequently as three times per week.

·         General spontaneity of events and the idea sharing – as an agency-lifer, I have spent many hours assisting clients in creating incredibly polished and scripted events.  When Q&A sessions are offered, the questions are likely predictable and sometimes even screened by the likes of yours truly to ensure that my clients’ key messages are consistent and remain intact. This notion was turned on its head at events like SF Tech and The Churchill Club where entrepreneurs and the crème de la crème of tech innovators made themselves vulnerable to real-time audience challenges via an interesting ping pong paddle with a green: you’re brilliant; red: you’re an idiot scoring system and unfiltered approach to information sharing and feedback.    These events are an interesting reflection of what we see today with social media – raw, honest, unflinching yet highly influential if the group thinks what you’re doing is really, really cool.

·         Networking and communications via social media – it seemed that the most provocative and insightful events I uncovered came from Facebook by tracking status items from my network or receiving direct invites.  Not promoted via dedicated Web sites or highly polished direct mail campaigns, I found myself elbow to elbow with key bloggers, industry leaders and influencers thanks to a simple text-only email invite forwarded from a co-worker.  As a result, the overall experience was all things social media – authentic, grassroots and quick fire.

It’s definitely food for thought for existing or emerging tech organizations in this market as we look to what others are doing and the impact they’ve had across industry and community.

-- Tracey Parry

Technology agency of the year

We’re pretty proud of that, so why not make it the headline? Airfoil has been ranked as a top 10 technology agency on a few lists for the past few years, but we’re excited to be named the technology agency of the year by the Holmes Report (sub.). We’ve also moved up from No. 58 to No. 53 in PRWeek’s 2008 agency ranking (sub.).

We had a big year in 2007 by expanding our team and moving our Silicon Valley office to a larger location. We added a lot of really great clients who understand and desire our speed-process-measurement approach.

I’m really proud of our employees. We’ve assembled a stellar team here. Each and every person works hard for our clients and has a true dedication to our success as an agency.

With our agency offices situated in often-maligned Michigan and the often-hyped Silicon Valley, we’re able to provide perspectives of the ups and downs of the U.S. economy from every angle. It’s been a great ride so far and the future looks to be even more promising.

-- Janet Tyler

Technically Speaking, We’re All Better Off

A third of the year has spun by and the headlines on the news sites remain almost universally frustrating. It seems like we just aren’t making any progress in so many fields—war, the economy, global warming, poverty, the whole slate. Until we look back, say, to 10 years ago to remember how we lived then. We sometimes forget how much of an improvement technology has made in our lives in just a decade or so. From a site called The People History, here are some of the devices and developments of 1998 that changed us forever:

• Microsoft released its Windows 98 operating system
• E-commerce began to emerge, with an eruption of online stores
• With its MSN site, Microsoft launched its first online search engine
• A search engine called Google was founded
• The FDA approved Viagra
• Apple began selling a computer called the iMAC

What a different world we live in now! We take for granted our ability to go online anytime from anywhere to shop in seconds, to find out everything about anything or anyone with a few keywords, and to direct our physicians toward the pharmaceuticals we want, rather than just the ones they recommend.

Our society may be deteriorating around the edges, but I think it’s stronger at its core with the technology that has continued to expand as a foundation for our lifestyles and productivity. What inventions over the past year will mark yet more technological tipping points when we look back in, say, 2018? Here are a few nominations from 2007-08:

• Microsoft’s unified communications, tearing down the boundaries between computers and phones
• Apple’s iPhone
• Hulu.com, a site where several TV networks aggregate full episodes of their current and past TV shows for viewing on computers.
• Transformation of the “green” movement into green technology, from sustainable materials in vehicles to HFC-free, superefficient Coke machines

What innovations would you nominate? Perhaps it’s too early to be listing nominations, though; the pace of technology has sped to the point where, eight months from now, we’ll have new devices, new versions and new approaches that make April, 2008 seem “so yesterday.”

-- Steve Friedman

Helping others with environmental awareness

In honor of Earth Day, here’s a fascinating story about a Michigan couple who not only go green at home but find opportunities for their local school, too.

Kathy scours Web sites looking for state, federal and foundation grants. Her grant-writing abilities have brought Laker schools a composter; wind turbines; a science lab where kids learn how to make their own wind turbines; grants for a turbine; solar panels that track the sun's movement; a new biomass boiler for the superintendent's home; processors to make biodiesel and seed oil, and a program to use 20% biodiesel on buses and retrofit old buses with equipment to clean up their diesel emissions.

-- Tonja Deegan

Healthcare industry turns to communities and direct feedback

In the conclusion of our two-part series on “The Prognosis for What’s Next in Healthcare,” we examine the importance of building communities of interest with consumers and maximizing the healthcare provider’s presence in the online world.

Listen to part two of our discussion here or subscribe to our podcasts here. You can download the PDF version of the white paper here.

The Importance of Media Monitoring

Here’s a quick tip for all of you aspiring PR professionals out there:  Don’t pitch a company as a third-party source that has filed for bankruptcy and is shutting down in the near future.

Contrary to popular belief, a technology reporter will likely not want to write about a company that recently underwent a technology transition and saved thousands of dollars if that company has also indicated they can no longer compete due to various economic issues.

This drives home how important it is to stay current on your news – both for your client and their customers.

Thankfully, the reporter laughed along with me at the unintended irony of my pitch.  I had to admit I had not actively monitored the customers’ news since last week.  While you wouldn’t expect such a swift change in a company’s fortunes, it does happen.

If it were a less-sympathetic reporter, I may have ended up in the Bad Pitch Blog.

-- Brad Marley

The Prognosis for What’s Next in Healthcare

As social media becomes integrated in many people’s lives, we have taken control of the very institutions that once controlled us. Everything from media to brands has been seized by consumers. Now we write large portions of the news ourselves and we shop anytime from anywhere for anything we want and many times have input directly on the products themselves.

This shift is emerging in the healthcare industry. Healthcare finds itself in the throes of the same consumer-driven relentlessness that changed the way we work, play and socialize.

In this first part of our podcast on “The Prognosis for What’s Next in Healthcare,” we examines the implications for the demand by consumers for increased control over their own healthcare and the role that technology plays both as a challenge and a solution for the healthcare industry.

Listen to part one of our discussion here or subscribe to our podcasts here. You can download the PDF version of the white paper here.