A constant dilemna for PR and marketing agencies is how much of the creative idea do you "give away" in a new business pitch.

The fear here is that the agency spends a lot of time and money on a new business pitch, only to have the prospective client not choose them for the business, yet walk away with a presentation deck full of valuable creative ideas.

Jerry Johnson, EVP, Strategic Planning at Brodeur tackles this issue head on today in The Firm Voice newsletter from the Council of PR Firms.

He notes:

My recent favorite was several years ago when Wells Fargo did the right and noble thing and actually paid the two finalists (Brodeur was one) for the final program idea and creative. By compensating the finalists for their creative, Wells Fargo not only received higher quality, but also signaled that they would be a good partner once the business was secured.

Has your agency ever been paid for being a finalist? What do you think of this practice? Let us know.

(image cred)

Ten months ago I wrote about the media's bandwagon smack on Crocs (Man Bites Croc(s)), those rubber garden shoes people love to hate. It's a great case study in how a brand can get memed out of existence without a proactive response to bad news. Without a response to PRNewser from the internal PR person at Crocs or their AoR, it's hard for us to say if they faltered in their approach, or didn't react at all.

Though their statement today resulted in well-positioned articles in the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News, the stock price is telling: Crocs (Nasdaq: CROX) is trading at about $10 bucks today versus $57 at the time of our first post.

They're in a tough spot. Denver PR blog attempts to paraphrase what's inside the head of the internal PR people Tia Mattson and Shelley Forslund, "with a cartoon bubble that says, 'Inattentive parents: Give us a @#&! break and don't let your kids shove their feet into the teeth of a moving escalator."

Full text of the statement about escalator safety awareness is after the jump:

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Wall Street Journal: News Coverage Of Obama Irks McCain Team

PRWeb: Vocus Announces Record Results for Second Quarter 2008

NY Times: Omnicom Earnings Rise, but Shares Slip

PRWeek: Social media rules create a political battle

PRWatch: Wake Up and Smell the Product Placement

It was bound to happen at some point, and although there have been hints at some ruffled feathers before, yesterday marked another step in the HARO vs. ProfNet competition.

Not familiar with HARO, or ProfNet? Both services match up journalists with sources, allowing journalists to send queries to lists of thousands of subscribers, mostly PR people.

HARO is free for all, ProfNet is free for journalists, but costs money for PR pros. While HARO founder Peter Shankman stated in January, "I have absolutely no beef with Profnet," that stance has quickly changed to, "Isn't it a little foolish to predict yourselves [ProfNet] to be the 'industry mainstay' when you continue to charge your members for something that HARO gives them, every single day, for free?"

The above comment is part of a back and forth between Shankman and PRNewswire's David Weiner. [ProfNet is a part of PRNewswire.] The back and forth takes place in response to a story by former Valleywag blogger Jordan Golson, titled, "A source is a source, of course, even when it's free and turning an industry upside down," in reincarnated tech publication, the Industry Standard.

Hyperbole can be a blogger's best friend, and Golson certainly deploys it in his story, when stating HARO could "turn an industry upside down."

[Image: HARO Founder Peter Shankman]

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FastCompany.tv Managing Editor and former Microsoft evangelist Robert Scoble thinks tech blogging has lost its roots by focusing too much on, "the business side of things," and not enough on helping, "other people discover these new things and understand how to use them best."

Scoble also lays some blame on PR. He writes:

Tech blogging has become way too controlled by PR agents. You might not realize it, but the top blogs are contacted by PR folks dozens of times per day. This is why you'll see 15 stories all appear on Techmeme at the same time. All with the same news. Only a few of whom slow down to ask "is this really useful."

While Scoble readily admits that he has "played that game," of being the first to blog about an Apple or Yahoo press release, he has come out a bit jaded.

And of course, there are always rewards to playing the game as opposed to sitting on the sidelines. Says Scoble, "If you decide not to play that game then you stop getting invited to the coolest events. It's how the game is played and it ensures that the bloggers all turn into a bunch of news junkies who love talking about the latest Yahoo rumors."

RELATED: PRNewser Interview: Robert Scoble, FastCompany.tv

NowPublic has launched the "Most Public Index," which identifies the "the 50 most influential individuals in New York." There is at least one PR person in the top ten: Edelman's Steve Rubel. Our own Laurel Touby made the list at #48, just ahead of former Gawker and Galleycat blogger Emily Gould.

Others on the list who you may know: Arianna Huffington, CNET's Caroline McCarthy, AdWeek's Brian Morrissey and Gawker Media founder Nick Denton.

Amazingly, Wired cover girl Julia Allison did not make the list, but her pal Meghan Asha did.

Virgin Mobile's Stip2clothe campaign to get people to strip on YouTube so homeless kids could get some new clothes, was changed to "blank" 2clothe (upload a vid of yourself doing anything inane) under pressure by some of the charities lacking a sense of humor.

Every 5 views gets a kid a piece of new clothing, explains Grammy-nominated singer Ace Young in his own video.

Virgin, way down on the list of mobile providers with about 5 million customers, did get much needed mainstream publicity because of the outcry, including a nice big Wall Street Journal article this morning.

The Journal article mischaracterizes Virgin Mobile's response as "damage control," though they so nicely remind of us of the whacked out "Christmahanukwanzakah" ad from 2004 and include the clip.

I'm currently reading the book Damage Control by Eric Dezenhall and John Weber. Damage control is one of your executives shows up stripping on YouTube, not when your adoring customers do.

Perhaps there is an argument that this is not Responsible Marketing but it's not bad PR.

(Meredith Vieira vs Ann Curry in Beach Tennis)

After just over a month as agency of record, Dan Klores Communications (DKC) has aced some media coverage for Beach Tennis USA.

This morning, the outdoor set of the Today Show was covered with sand for a demonstration of the new hybrid sport--doubles tennis on the sand with no bounces, explained founder Marc Altheim. Altheim is convinced the "addictive" sport could make it to the Olympics one day.

According to Klores VP Dayna Diamond when asked about Curry v Vieira and their respectable skills in the sand:

"as the founder would say, 'it's easy to play, but difficult to
master.' Meredith Vieira couldn't get enough of it really...she stayed
on the court for 10 minutes after the segment concluded and even came back for more during a commercial break. She said 'it's incredible
workout and so much fun.'"

Also the handiwork of DKC, on July 10th, Beach Tennis USA players were featured in the Style section of the Times, reviewing very important pieces of equipment: coolers.

The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) International Conference is coming up this Oct. 22-25 in Detroit. The industry group has announced that Craigslist Founder Craig Newmark will be a keynote speaker at the event and, "will be sharing his views on the future of online community and commerce."

You may recall Newmark was recognized as a "Golden Boa" honoree at last October's mediabistro.com 10th Anniversary party. Read the interview he did at the time, "How Does Customer Service Drive Craiglist's Success."

PRSA conference info is available here.

[Image: Newmark with my "other half," PRNewser editor Jason Chupick at mediabistro's 10th Anniversary party]

(Dogs go bananas over Doggy Tugs, a new JBLH client)

This edition of Spin the Agencies of Record shows the vast diversity of this business, with account wins in funeral services, dog toys, comedy, sleep aids, and an interesting little marketing thing called the iKyp:

JBLH lands three: National Lampoon Comedy House, Mandinez.com and Doggy Tug

Red Square, a PR and ad agency in Mobile, AL chosen by Stewart Enterprises as AoR. Stewart is the second largest provider of funeral services in the world

KYP Systems--maker of the iKyp--hires KCSA Communications

Transmedia signs four, including a calorie reducing drink, and a melatonin sleep aid

(image cred)

PRNewser been told by many people that the BlogHer conference "isn't just for women." And, while we definitely believe that to be true, the pictures and reports from this past weekend's conference in San Francisco, perhaps the largest gathering of women bloggers in the world, show the crowd to be mostly women.

Regardless, BlogHer is growing at a nice clip. The network counts 2,200 bloggers, up from 180 last year. They also recently announced a partnership with NBC Universal's iVillage.com, which will deliver content to sites like BravoTV.com and Oxygen.com.

As CNET's Stefanie Olsen notes, the big sponsors at BlogHer were not the usual tech show suspects such as Microsoft, Yahoo or Google, but instead companies including Chevrolet, Macy's and Sesame Street.

"This is a hugely important audience for us," said Ellen Lewis Gideon, vice president of corporate communications for Sesame Workshop, which ran numerous promotions at the show.

Click here to scan Twitter updates from the conference.

[Geoff Livingston and Maggie Fox, CEO of Social Media Group]

Livingston Communications, the social media focused DC agency led by Geoff Livingston, has been sold to Toronto agency Social Media Group.

The deal was for an undisclosed amount of cash and stock. Livingston of course penned an amusing "Top Ten Reasons Why I Sold Out" post on the agency's Buzz Bin blog.

You may remember PRNewser's interview with Livingston from this past November.

It seems that things at Livingston Communications will be mostly business as usual, as the Social Media Group acquired the agency to expand their North American footprint. Says Livingston, "Now I get to do what I like, and pass the bills, HR matters and computer problems to Maggie [Social Media Group's CEO]. What a great lady!"

Full release here.

(The not so coveted Golden Poo)

The "Golden Poo" will be given to either Comcast or Countrywide Home Loans on Monday when Consumerist readers cast their final vote of the Worst Company in America season.

Using an NCAA-style bracket system, Comcast and Countrywide have knocked out top seeds such as Exxon and DeBeers as well as upstarts such as Monster Cable and the Video Professor, all through heavy reader voting.

Seriously though, Consumerist is a force to be reckoned with in terms of outing bad customer service policies and shoddy products, prompting the sometimes overcooked responses by internal PR people.

Maybe without Consumerist as well as the efforts of NPR's Bob Garfield and his Comcast Must Die site, we wouldn't have ComcastCares Twitter feed. Countrywide however, is in much deeper poo.

We just received a Facebook event invite for a Hacks and Flacks happy hour at New York bar Sweet & Vicious. The organization's Facebook Group (which we are a member of) includes this description: "We're a group for Reporters, Editors, Politicians, Consultants, Communication Directors, Press Secretaries, Interns, Stenographers, Whistle Blowers, Scriblers, Spin Doctors, Ad Men, Groupies, Readers and anyone who's daring enough to associate themselves with us."

Sweet and Vicious is the same place where the monthly Media Meshing event takes place. Reached for comment, Gawker video editor (and Media Meshing organizer) Richard Blakeley told PRNewser, "I need to move my party anyway because it's far too popular for Sweet and Vicious. We're off to bigger and better things, new venue TBA."

Hacks and Flacks could not be reached for comment as of the time of this post.

(household products likely to contain BPA, via Science News)

The issue of the chemical Bisphenol A (BPA) has been brewing--or leaching out--in to the media for some time now. Found in some clear hard plastic products, it's bad stuff that can act like estrogen. The main scare is the affects BPA may have on babies nursing on plastic bottles.

I've argued that Wal-Mart is at its best on the PR front when it flexes its corporate might in ways that benefits the consumer--a great example is how they pushed compact florescent bulbs in spite of GE--and the move by the company to remove baby bottles with BPA has snared some good publicity. The megastore's unlikely bedfellow is Fenton Communications, whose formadible client list has put them on the same side, according to a Fortune article on BPA:

Fenton Communications, a Washington, D.C. PR firm, is another key warrior against BPA. Fenton's clients have included Born Free and its BPA-free bottles; the Environmental Working Group , which has led the fight against BPA for years; and trial lawyers. Fenton also works for liberal advocacy groups like MoveOn that support Democrats in Congress who have sponsored legislation to ban BPA from children's products.

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