PRNewser Poll

BBH Labs caused quite a stir at SXSW with its “Homeless Hotspots” campaign, which turned some of Austin’s homeless into paid sources of Wi-fi service. The marketing firm said it was a way to raise awareness about the issue of homelessness while offering the participants a chance to earn money. Others thought it was degrading.

We asked for your opinion in the latest PRNewser Poll and 57 percent said though the firm had good intentions, the campaign was “misguided.” Nearly 30 percent said the campaign was “great,” raising awareness about the issue in an edgy way. And about 13 percent said it was a “horrible” idea.

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Marketing firm BBH Labs has kicked up some SXSW controversy for its “Homeless Hotspots” test program. Homeless people have been at the conference wearing t-shirts that announce they are “a 4G hotspot” in order to sell a connection. The seller keeps the proceeds.

According to the firm, the “charitable program” is an extension of another, Underheard in New York, which gave four homeless men prepaid cell phones in order to tweet their stories. In media outlets all over the world and comments on the BBH Labs blog, it has been criticized, with Wired writing, “It sounds like something out of a darkly satirical science-fiction dystopia.”

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The results are in and 50.6 percent of respondents to our PRNewser Poll think that creative alternatives that Google and Zagat used to announce their acquisition news were “great.” We saw lots of people giving the creative “review” and haiku tweet the thumbs up and otherwise endorsing it on Twitter.

But interestingly, nearly 38 percent were simply neutral about the alterna-releases. For all the never-ending calls for the end of the press release, it looks like many people still like a well-written release that gets to the heart of the news at hand, including journalists. An overwhelming number of them said in a survey this summer that they appreciate a “targeted” release, and we offered a few tips to achieve that here.

A little creativity goes a long way to driving attention and media hits when making a big announcement. But even as people continue to rail against them and offer ways to improve them (don’t get so “excited”), press releases aren’t going anywhere just yet.

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Google made headlines last week when it announced it was acquiring restaurant guide Zagat.

Rather than go the traditional press release route, both companies decided to have a little fun with the announcement: Zagat wrote a Zagat-style review of the news (with lots of quotation marks) and Google’s Marissa Mayer said she wrote a Twitter haiku with the news after her press release was called “boring.”

The debate over the death of the press release rages on even as the physical form and various uses of it continue to change. The New York Times says the most creative alternatives are coming from tech companies, but clever announcement-making is something that lots of companies are using in order to grab some attention in an attention-deficient world.

Click through for today’s poll, which takes a closer look at these two methods from Google and Zagat. Polls are open until Friday at noon so be sure to vote.

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A recent campaign from InternMatch.com found that those who used Facebook and other social networking sites fared better in their internship search than those who went the traditional route with a cover letter and resume.

But according to our latest PRNewser Poll, internship seekers shouldn’t sell the power of the resume short just yet.

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Last week’s PRNewser Poll asked “How creative can publicists be with staff titles?” The votes are in, and the majority said, “Somewhat.”

Nearly half, about 48 percent, said PR firms can add a touch of whimsy to PR titles, going a little farther than the traditional account executive and VP labels we’re used to.  One comment on Twitter said titles could have a little imagination, but should stay “professional sounding to outsiders. Perception ≥ Reality.”

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In response to yesterday’s GolinHarris news that they would be reorganizing the company, our first thought was how someone at the SVP level, for instance, would respond to these changes.

“We’re very sensitive to this,” Fred Cook, the firm’s president and CEO, told us. “We’ve been around for 56 years and people are used to a certain structure. And we have a lot of people working for 10 or 15 years and we’re trying to make sure everybody understands their new roles and titles.”

Internally, staffers might be getting used to it, but the titles and the four new groups that are part of the g4 model — strategists, creators, connectors, and catalysts — caused some discussion externally.
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Last week’s PRNewser poll focused on the QR code, which, as we noted previously, are turning up everywhere and have become an important tool for marketers. We asked if this would be the case for the long-term, or whether the QR code would go the way of the netbook, quickly becoming obsolete by newer technology.

The people have spoken and by a slim majority, respondents believe that the QR code will quickly be replaced by the next new thing.

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As we’ve noted recently, QR codes are popping up in a lot of places, and they’re becoming a popular marketing tool for a variety of industries.

However, it has been mentioned by tweeters and in the media that Google is already looking elsewhere, turning to Near Field Communications (NFC) technology. This prompted today’s PRNewser Poll question.

Will QR codes continue to grow in marketing use for the foreseeable future? Or are QR codes destined to be the next Flip cam, serving as a technological middle ground until the next big thing (in this case, smartphones/NFC) comes along and overtakes it?

Let us know what you think by next Wednesday at noon. And, as always, the comments are open.

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The votes are in, and, contrary to what I wrote previously, you say that Twitter is the better platform for publicists.  About 38 percent of respondents voted for Twitter and nearly 36 percent said it was too close to call. About 26 percent said Facebook was the better social platform. Votes were rolling in for Twitter on Twitter as well (natch), with a number of tweets declaring Twitter the clear favorite.

Of course, we’re not the first to ask the Twitter vs. Facebook question.

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