But it happened.

Despite shaky signs that the economy, and life in general, are poised for an upswing, brands must remember that the public is still overly sensitive when it comes to relationships. Apple has always enjoyed a strong, loyal and profitable relationship with the public. In return for Apple products and services, we’ve showered the brand with ongoing seemingly limitless fortunes. So when Apple went public with plans to reward whoever was lucky enough to download the 50 billionth app from its store, the public reacted a little indignantly. The reward was $10,000 in App store cash.

The public felt Apple was being cheap. The comments below are from this article on CNN.com.

Jonny: “What the hell are you gonna do with 10k to spend in the damn App Store?! Give me 10k in cash!” continued…

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Newby appeared on a Creative Week panel along with Mount Gay’s global brand director and others from Radical Media’s team on Tuesday in New York to discuss the repositioning strategy and launch of its Black Barrel product. The multimedia effort included new graphics, print ads, video and redesigned website that brought the brand’s history to life. Their brand ambassador program is now spreading the word about Black Barrel.

Strategic evolution: Mount Gay’s earlier print ads featured product shots with the tagline “the rum that invented rum”. The agency tapped further into the brand’s history as the world’s oldest rum, which became a natural strategy, Newby said. The new line, “There’s a time and a place” captures the brand’s provenance and its slow double distillation process in copper stills. Mount Gay’s M.O. is “rum is ready when it’s ready, not before.”

Competition: “Everyone else focuses on flash and beach scenes”, said Justin Wilkes, Radical’s president of media and entertainment. Their biggest competitors include Bacardi and Captain Morgan. Added Fannie Young, Mount Gay’s global brand director. ”We wanted to position the brand in a more premium space.”

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The latest digital toys were on display at Timetoplaymag.com’s spring media showcase event in New York on Tuesday. They feature QR codes, 3-D, augmented reality and gaming, which are similar to those found in grownups’ devices. Digital toys like these could also serve as background props for agency creative brainstorming sessions.

• Scanimalz: This newly launched line of plush interactive animal characters from Scandinavia is for boys and girls aged 5 to 10. They’re collectible, and include a series of colorful characters. Customers buy the Scanimalz mobile app and each character separately. Then they scan a QR code to unlock, play with the character and earn Scantz points.
• Drip Drops: The brand’s Color the World app transforms pre-schoolers’ mobile devices into coloring books. It incorporates 3D animation and augmented reality and also features different characters. The app enables users to turn the items being colored inside out and flip them around. They can also take photos and share them with friends on social media.
• ArtSee Studio: This recently introduced “art creation studio” is for kids 3 years and older, and comes with an app, an iPad case that serves as an easel and a toolkit with a stylus, rainbow crayon for drawing and several colorful stamps. Proud parents can either save their kids’ masterpieces, print or share them on social platforms.

Perhaps if similar creative digital tools were available during former President George W. Bush’s childhood, he might have discovered his penchant for painting earlier in life and gravitated to a career in art instead of politics.

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There was a day when the public feared technology because we felt it would enable the government to spy on us and grant corporations access to our private lives. But thanks to Domino’s Pizza’s latest marketing gimmick, the Big Brother the public fears may actually turn out to be, well, us.

Domino’s has installed a live webcam feed in a Salt Lake City, Utah, store so that online customers can watch their pies being made live from scratch in real time. As PR professionals, we are constantly clamoring about the importance of transparency and the inevitable perils that result from a lack of it. Transparency builds trust, brand loyalty and is the foundation of solid brand-consumer relationships. But is this taking transparency too far? continued…

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Locals are already enjoying movie tie-ins galore, including Tiffany’s ‘Gatsby’-inspired jewelry collection, Prada’s exhibit of movie costumes and Brooks Brother’s new menswear line. The Plaza Hotel’s ‘is unveiling a Gatsby’ suite. Long Island’s historic north shore mansions inspired the cinematic backdrop, so they’re getting in on the action with springtime ‘Gatsby’ galas.

Here’s what we’ve gleaned about the glitzy goods and the upcoming festivities:

Tiffany’s Collection: The luxury jewelry brand, where Fitzgerald was a client, is showcasing a series of 1920s era windows at its Fifth Avenue flagship store. On the main floor, dazzling art deco items are on display. The fourth floor is showing clips from the movie and interviews with designer Catherine Martin, wife of ‘Gatsby director Baz Luhrmann. Nearby are cases of crystal bowls, diamond tiaras and chandelier earrings.

Brooks Brothers’ Clothing Line: Fitzgerald was also a fan of the clothing brand, which has long served affluent customers. The retailer designed the movie’s menswear and recently launched a ‘Great Gatsby’ line. The limited edition clothing interprets the film’s period looks with items such as waistcoats and formal wear. Brooks Brothers is also highlighting its ‘Gatsby’ connection with different window displays at each of its New York City stores.

Prada’s SoHo Store Exhibit: Famed Italian designer Miuccia Prada created the “period accurate but modern” women’s costumes for The Great Gatsby. Starting today, those stylish fashions are being shown at Prada’s store in New York’s SoHo neighborhood. Items include dresses and accessories, in addition to sketches and behind-the-scenes photos.

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The Metropolitan Group, a firm with offices in several cities across the U.S., describes itself as “a social change agency” combining “communications strategy with social good to create a more just and sustainable world”. One of its specialties is multicultural/cross-cultural communications services.

Today we bring you our take on a list of eight tips for engaging multicultural audiences via the group’s president and founder, Eric Friedenwald-Fishman.

He advises communications pros working on multi-cultural campaigns to:

1. Check all assumptions at the door. One can’t assume that cultural values/beliefs are universal, and miscommunication can lead to disasters no matter how good your intentions. Friedenwald-Fishman writes of a Portland-based public health campaign to lower infant mortality rates among low-income women by improving their healthcare knowledge:

 “Turns out that these women already knew how to have healthy pregnancies but lacked support from male partners in making changes necessary for healthy babies. So instead, health officials developed a campaign targeting men and infant mortality among these groups declined.”

 2. Do your homework. This is an obvious step too often overlooked by ambitious communicators. Friedenwald-Fishman writes: “The more you learn about the specific communities you want to engage, the more specific and effective your communication and outreach strategies can be”. In short, speak to others with real-world experience in these communities and don’t be afraid to enlist them directly in your outreach efforts.

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This affinity for snow isn’t surprising: the public responds positively to many snow-related expressions and experiences such as snowflake, snow cone, snow globe, snowman and snow days. Even the phrase “snow job” conveys more positive imagery than some other options.

Snow is especially prominent in seasonal promo efforts this year. Below are five unique examples of brands across industries using snow to sell themselves to the public:

Saks Fifth Avenue: the New York department store is featuring 150 snow globes in one of its holiday windows (top left). A Saks executive told The New York Times that the display has been one of the store’s most popular, attracting large crowds of tourists snapping photos. (The fact that snow globes are also luxury collectibles complements the brand nicely.)

Hudson Hotel’s Hudson Lodge: this winter brings a tent to the terrace of this trendy New York bar; every evening at 8PM, its snow machine blasts artificial snow. For urban party-goers enjoying the rustic après-ski decor, the concept of ‘chilling out’ has taken on new meaning.

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Most of us adults still have fond memories of Halloween pumpkins:

We recall those chilly autumn nights carving jack-o-lanterns with our brothers, debating the contours of the sinister mouth or eyes and centering the nose over uncooperative bulges while slopping out heaps of orange guts and slimy seeds onto wet newspapers.

Maybe we still nurse remembrances of being rebellious teenagers and smashing pumpkins with our ridiculous friends at the end of a cul-de-sac, holding our first beers and lying about our girlfriends. Adolescence, ugh.

Or maybe we even remember watching our own children scurry around a pumpkin patch, ebulliently selecting the perfect pumpkin as if it were something they were going to have forever. At least they may have the custom forever; as this article states, “Demand for pumpkins has risen since the late 1980s, with the emerging popularity of pick-your-own pumpkin farms across the country, according to Steve Reiners, an associate professor in horticulture at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.”

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Much like the people who live in big cities such as Seoul and Tokyo, urban dwellers in America are extremely pressed for time; they have limited patience and even less living space. Any invention, idea or strategy that saves city dwellers time, frustration or room will succeed.

Peapod’s new virtual shopping experience–in which consumers waiting for a subway can add items to their grocery delivery lists by scanning ads with their smartphones–makes sense. Waiting for a train is boring, and though we temper such idle time with Angry Birds, music and books, the allotted window doesn’t allow for much in the way of deep thinking or contemplation. Those few lost minutes, however, are perfect for internally reviewing the contents of our refrigerators and using our smarthphones to stock up on eggs or milk. continued…

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The ongoing dispute between AMC and Dish Network that resulted in Dish’s 14 million customers losing access to the home of “Mad Men“, “The Walking Dead” and “Breaking Bad” early this summer isn’t showing any signs of resolution. In fact, in the above PSA-style ad, AMC takes its side of the argument to next level, appealing to viewers not affected by the dispute in an apparent effort to gin up some positive PR.

It’s basically the snarky, for-profit equivalent of those familiar ads for holiday season charity efforts: “You know how much you love your Thanksgiving feast AMC shows? Well, many others, perhaps even some in your very own neighborhood, aren’t as fortunate. Please consider inviting them into your home to share your dinner ‘Breaking Bad.’”

The ad then points out that Dish customers are still paying the same price for their TV packages as they were before AMC was dropped.

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But in these increasingly health-and-environment-conscious times, consumers are growing more concerned not just with what they put in their bodies, but also what they put on their bodies. Chances are, the label on your shampoo bottle is just as unsettling as the label on your cereal box. With this in mind, several specialty lines of self-care products like Origins, Murad and others have taken full advantage of the trend toward natural ingredients, building their brands by boasting about the ingredients not included in their products.

Now, Johnson & Johnson, which makes a wide range of personal care products including everything from its famous baby shampoo to familiar drugstore brands like Neutrogena, Aveeno, and Clean & Clear, has announced that it will be phasing out harmful chemicals from its products by 2015, and from several of its baby products by 2013.

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But does getting an audience to laugh necessarily get them interested in a product or service?

According to Advertising Age, a study done by Ace Metrix, which used a scoring system based on factors such as watchability, likability, and persuasion, found that while funny ads often get more attention and are better liked by the viewing audience, humor alone does not make an ad effective. In fact, ads that were simply funny were found to be slightly less likely to increase desire or purchase intent than informative, unfunny ones. continued…

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PR professionals know that strong relationships take time to develop. The relations aspect of public relations is more important today than ever.

Budget-minded consumers have adopted a more deliberative and disciplined attitude toward their purchases. Self-imposed austerity measures are the new normal. Today, the very idea of impulse buying feels like a quaint but incredulous cultural phenomenon that lasted about as long as Carrie Bradshaw exorcised her emotional states through purchases of Manolo Blahniks. Most women don’t shop like that anymore. Neither do men. We can’t afford to. Consumers no longer make decisions based on what they want, but on what they need. It’s the PR industry’s job to cultivate that bond between brands and consumer needs.

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“We’re moving away from the word ‘month-long value’ because no one really understood that, to calling it what we intended to do, a sale,” said CEO Ron Johnson during an investor conference last week.

“They realized the word ‘sales’ drives consumers to stores,” added Alexander Chernev, an associate professor of marketing at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.

The word “sale” also brings the shopper satisfaction, which is important when asking people to spend their money with you.

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First we had news that the coffee emporium was expanding its food options with the $100 million purchase of La Boulange, with that company’s pastries replacing the items Starbucks currently stocks. Starbucks also plans to take La Boulange, a Bay-area chain, national.

The Huffington Post says food sales are a $1.5 billion business for Starbucks. The company says it wants to add a French flair to its restaurants.

Second, Starbucks could start selling single serve K-cups in its stores next week. The company began selling the K-cups six months ago at grocers and other retailers. CEO Howard Schultz has called sales figures so far “robust.” It already sells single-serve instant coffee in its stores.

“For Starbucks, the move to K-cups is part of its overall strategy of becoming a broader consumer products company rather than relying so heavily on its cafe sales,” writes Fox Business.

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