INK PUBLIC RELATIONS

The last five days were a whirlwind of activity for INK and several of our clients participating in SXSW. Hats off to our amazing team who worked day and night to make the most out of the event and who still made time for panels and parties, tweeting all along the way! The amazing thing about SXSW is that even though you hardly sit down or sleep for five days, you somehow come out of the event with more energy than you arrived with. The show is undoubtedly a business event (what true consumers do you know that would spend $500-1000 on a show badge?) but it promotes and demonstrates a better side of business, a more human side of technology, and I find that motivating and invigorating. My biggest takeaways from the event and who did it best:

Don’t be afraid to be BOLD
Don’t be afraid to light up downtown, to inject personality and embrace conflict in your storytelling, or if you have the means, bring out Hova.

- To launch the new Fuelband device (with Bluetooth 4.0 I might add!) and API, Nike turned Austin’s tallest building into a mobile app to track the energy level of the crowd at its Diplo/Sleigh Bells party.

- American Express hosted an exclusive Jay-Z concert to promote its Sync service, which allows cardholders to link their cards to their Twitter accounts to earn discounts. The show took place at the Moody Theater, home of Austin City Limits. Granted, you had to get in line at the crack of dawn to get tickets but I hear it was worth it. Doesn’t get much bolder and got American Express a lot of buzz and good will.

- Kara Swisher rocked her Monday panel, “Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Backwards in Heels,” because she injected humor and her personality into her presentation, and she was speaking about a topic she’s passionate about. She does this every day in her writing as well.

Be Human, Be Useful
Some of the most effective campaigns at SXSW were unselfish and helpful for people at the event, leaving a lasting and positive impression with show-goers.

- Instead of offering up music, booze or breakfast tacos (although, do not let me discourage anyone from offering up those wonderful things – very human, very useful , Nokia gave out Lumias to 50 Twitter users as part of its #ijustplantedatree campaign to help rebuild Central Texas after the devastating wildfires last year. The company donated money for 5 trees to be planted every time someone tweeted the hashtag #ijustplantedatree. Thank you Nokia!

- We loved that HBO sponsored a bike share, providing a necessity and, at the same time, moving billboards for its new show Girls (here’s the trailer).

- Mapquest got props for its “Colorado Ranch” offsite hang-out as a relaxed place to connect with Colorado start-ups from Erika Napoletano, author of The Power of Unpopular (which I just started reading, will let you know what I learn) in this Forbes interview.

The biggest FAIL at SXSW this year? Homeless hotspots. Granted it was bold and arguably useful (depending which side of that hotspot you were on) but they overstepped into inhumane territory. I think Jon Stewart said it best last night.

After months of brainstorming, planning and endless logistics, SXSW is finally here! As Starr highlighted last night, our clients have a lot going on down here – make sure to check them out – but we’ve also got something pretty darn cool cooking up ourselves. For the second year, INK is sponsoring the speaker-ready room at the Austin Convention Center where THREE THOUSAND SPEAKERS will filter through over the next five days. We turned some heads in 2011 with our thINK yarn bombing exhibit and the fan-favorite bouncy balls, so we had to come out big to top that. This year for a little added speaker fun, INK teamed with Smilebooth, a little company out of Houston turning heads across the country for its innovative approach to photo booths. For the sensational backdrop and hilarious props (“Call me Big Data” is my fave), we turned to my favorite blogger and crafting genius Leslie Blevins of FeltandHoney.com. Everything came together beautifully and here we are, about to welcome our first speakers. Up first, an all-INK picture. You can see more where this came from by following the hashtag #speaksxsw.

Friends and enemies do not fret, we also have another round of speaker tips cards this year. If you’re going for BOLD and maybe a little kookie, these tips are a SXSW must-have (kudos to the clever and random @jessicanwarren).

Have fun at SXSW, people! Be bold, be social, be just a little bit weird – because remember, you’re in Austin! Enjoy!

Tone it up with six simple steps – no squats or sit-ups involved!

My husband says I’m a tone fanatic.  It makes him crazy that I typically end up focusing on the tone rather than the content of his argument.  (This does not typically result in him using a nicer tone, by the way.) My two-year-old daughter recently answered a request with, “Mommy, ask me again nicely and say please and I will.”  So apparently I’ve rubbed off early.  It’s not just what you say but how you say it, right?  I’m in PR for goodness sake!

In my work environment, it’s not the oral communication that I worry about as much as the written – specifically, work satisfaction enemy #1: snarky emails.  I pride myself that INK is a very low drama work environment.  If INK were a president, it would be No Drama Obama. However we, too, get sucked in to the epidemic of snarky emails, and of reading too much into the tone of emails we receive from others.

In the world of email, it is nearly impossible to accurately read tone and I find that my default reaction – and I think this is the case with many people – is to too quickly assume a negative connotation. And I’ll admit, I’ve sent a few snarks in my day which is why I, along with the rest of INK, will be taking and inviting you to join us in the 30–day No Snarky Email Challenge.  Here are the rules:

1. Be direct and honest.
2. Expect emails you receive to be direct and honest.  Try to read them in a positive tone or just don’t read into them.
3. If you’re addressing a problem, address it in person or by phone. If it’s not important enough to talk about, maybe it’s not that important.
4. If you’re certain someone else is sending you snarky emails, pick up the phone or walk in their office and address what’s at the root of that. See #1 for what to say.
5. Focus your energy on doing a good job.  If you accomplish this, chances are you will have an easier time with all of the above.
6. (This is a toughie.) Don’t use emoticons. Adding a to the end of a bitter comment doesn’t fool anyone.

After 30 days, let’s see if we don’t feel happier, more confident and have better working relationships than when we started.  Come on, you know you’ve got some snark to lose (oops, ok starting now).

INK PR yarn bombs SXSWi with the help of Knitta, Please

Welcome to Austin and SXSWi everyone! We just finished set up a few hours ago and with a few final touches tomorrow morning, “thINK” will be ready to roll.

INK is hosting the green room in the Austin Convention Center throughout SXSWi and commissioned a truly awesome art installation for the space.  Yes, those are four-foot tall letters and 20+ balls covered in knitting, and we agree, they are bad ass.

The goal was to create something unexpected that would grab the speakers’ attention and make them smile. We also wanted to embrace the creative, irreverent, innovative spirit of SXSWi, which we also believe is a reflection of our approach to communications.  I thINK Austin-based artists Magda Sayeg and Catherine Smith of Knitta, Please took this to another level (check out their blog for other awesome projects like the one they just completed for the Blanton Museum and for the opening of the new Austin City Limits).

When Magda first started “yarn bombing” in 2005 with her then-anonymous knitting grafitti, it was her response to the dehumanizing qualities of an urban environment. By inserting handmade art in a landscape of concrete and steel, or in this case, carpet and stark conference room walls, she adds a human quality that otherwise would not exist. To us, the thINK installation represents INK and everyone here at SXSW Interactive who are adding the unexpected and the human quality to business and communications through fresh, innovative thINKing.

Come check this out on the second floor of the convention center (room 4-ABC). We thINK it’s pretty awesome.  We thINK you’re pretty awesome.  Have a great SXSW y’all.

Holy balls, this is cool

***Many, many thanks to the lovely and talented Allison Glass for her tireless efforts on this project as well as my very patient and resourceful husband Dave for handling all the practical elements of thINK.  I can’t wait until you’re speaking to me again .

I’m reading a book right now called The Next 100 Years by an Austinite and global strategy expert named George Friedman.  It’s fascinating. Friedman boils down economic, cultural and military motivations and trends like a declining birth rate to make bold, unexpected predictions (like forget China and the Middle East, it’s Turkey, Mexico and Russia to watch out for). To sell his readers on expecting the unexpected, he walks through the last 100 years demonstrating how quickly power changes hands.  After all, just over 20 years ago, the US and Soviet Union were at odds, Japan’s economy was soaring, China was an after-thought, and most Americans had never heard of Afghanistan. It’s a natural tendency to forget that the way things are today is not how they have always been and certainly not how they will be in the future.

Now I realize unexpected things happen all the time.  I mean Kelly Osbourne is on the cover of Shape this month (and looks fantastic I might add). But I find it incredible that power can shift so quickly and decisively with huge countries, and companies.

After my two days at D: DIVE INTO MOBILE listening to the top executives from Google, AT&T, Sprint Nextel, Palm/HP, RIM and new entrants like Spotify, Flipboard, Foursquare and OnLive (see videos and coverage of all interviews here), I’m reminded that the leaders of mobile today were not the leaders a few years ago. Apple was not even in the mobile phone business until 2007. Today, they don’t even have to show up to DIVE to be the center of every conversation and presentation.  Google’s Android is nipping at Apple’s heels (Andy Rubin introduced Gingerbread which integrates NFC for mobile commerce and VoIP support) while MSFT tries to play catch-up with Windows Phone 7. Who would’ve thunk it?

RIM was the king of mobile computing and now the Blackberry seems antiquated. The resolution and interface is almost unbearable to me after getting accustomed to an iPhone. Kara Swisher, whose quick wit and humor was a highlight of the event, joked that she used the very first Blackberry model to send updates to Walt while she was in labor and ended up with it gripped in her hand during an emergency c-section (“my doctor said, Kara, you have problems”).  She later told RIM Co–CEO Mike Lazaridis that she ditched her beloved Blackberry because it didn’t offer the same experience and features that the iPhone and Android phones offer. Lazaridis struggled to defend his position that RIM is not slipping.

Palm, now HP, top exec Jon Rubinstein discussed how the “market just moved too fast” and that Palm was forced to sell to the larger entity in order to scale and compete with Apple, Google, etc. The success of that decision remains to be seen but he said at this time next year there would be a WebOS tablet and several smartphones out from the new division of HP.

Driving this point home,  Gadget Guy Greg Harper entertained the audience along with Walt and Kara with a display of phones and gadgets over the last 20 years (including the first Bluetooth headset). It’s no surprise, all those gadgets that thrilled and excited us look ugly and huge today. Even the Motorola RAZR that attracted so many customers for its style looks clunky and dated.  I can’t wait to see what the perspective will be in the mobile industry a few years from now. Look at that iPad! Can you believe we had to actually touch the screen?

Check back – I plan to post more on perspective from AT&T and Sprint on 4G networks, selling the iPhone, usage patterns, net neutrality, tiered billing and other related topics. . .

So the first night of D: Dive Into Mobile is complete. The evening consisted of a cocktail hour, an on-stage interview by Walt and Kara of Andy Rubin, VP, Mobile Platforms, Google, a very late dinner and then shortly-attended “nightcap reception.” I sat down at a table for the main show and was joined by folks from Jawbone and a gentleman from Austin with a very interesting company (who needs assigned seating? .  Andy Rubin may be my new “what TO do” example for media training as Walt and Kara did not disappoint. I wonder how tired he gets of comparing Android to Apple? Rubin introduced some firsts: Gingerbread running on the Nexus S, an NFC demo with a Google print tag (ex. for couponing, ticketing, mobile payments) and a prototype Android-enabled Motorola tablet with a new 3D version of Google Maps due out in days (VERY cool).  He also said Gingerbread would have added VoIP so you could add a SIP provider (how does that work with Google Voice?). No video calling in this version although he alluded to work in that direction. When asked about mobile payments, Rubin said he is “looking at this from an infrastructure perspective” and that Android does carrier billing integration already and operators have an efficient billing system that could create those scenarios.  Not quite the mobile payments scenario consumers have been hoping for but baby steps. There was lots of RIM and MSFT bashing; I feel for Joe Belifiore and Mike Lazaridis that speak tomorrow. . .

The line up tomorrow is amazing which is why I should get to bed and rest up! Follow updates on Twitter at #dmobile and @karihernandez.

I am on my way to San Francisco today to soak up some knowledge at D: Dive into Mobile.  I can’t wait for tonight’s opening session with Google’s VP, Mobile Platforms, Andy Rubin who is rumored to be formally announcing Android 2.3 Gingerbread. Dive into Mobile is the first spin-off event of the influential D: All Things Digital conference put on by WSJ’s Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher and is positioned as a more intimate gathering to drill down on the mobile space and the opportunities/implications for the next year to 18 months. If anyone can provide this, it’s the heavy hitters on this speaker list.  Here are the questions Walt Mossberg highlighted for the event:

Can Google’s Android keep surging without fatally fragmenting? Can Research in Motion get back its mojo? Can Palm be revived inside the Hewlett-Packard monolith? Can Microsoft resuscitate its mobile business? Will local apps and mobile Web sites fight to the death or co-exist? Is the Apple iPad a fluke or will tablets spread like wildfire, threatening laptops? And what will it matter without better networks, must-have software and a viable advertising model?

As the mobile industry continues to converge and innovate, the same issues and key players are affecting all of our clients as they move to provide new mobile capabilities such as mobile VoIP, mobile commerce, voice control, hands-free, digital health and mobile advertising, to name a few.  I expect insights from this event to be of value to all our technology clients and help us shape strategy for their PR programs, as well as point out new areas of mobile that we should be targeting from a new business perspective.

I’ll be sharing key insights here and via Twitter (@karihernandez) so stay tuned.

This month we have an ad in the O’Dwyer’s technology issue.  This is a first for us and a way of celebrating our recent Best Small Agency award from PRSourceCode and the 800 tech journalists that participated in their annual Top Tech Communicators survey.  It’s funny how a little award can make such a difference.  On a personal note, my extended family finally believes I have a real business.  At my sister’s recent wedding, instead of answering the many “how’s business?” questions with “good, busy,” I had something concrete to throw out there.  They ate it up.

It’s that third party validation that we always talk about with our clients.  You know you’re doing well.  Hopefully your customers know it too.  But to have a respected authority put a stamp on it, especially if that stamp includes the word “best,” well it’s a small but powerful thing. It’s great marketing of course and we’ve had a few calls we wouldn’t have had otherwise but it’s also psychological.  We’re realizing people are noticing what we’re doing and they like it.  Yeah we’re small,  but we’re exceptional at what we do.  It’s given us a shot of energy and confidence to take our business to a new level.  Which is good because I have to have something new to tell my Aunt Winnie at the next family gathering .

Inc.’s Tim Donnelly hit the nail on the head with this insightful story on how to get the most value out of your PR agency. First and foremost, open up to them! My favorite quote is this because it’s so true:

The kind of constant contact required is why having an amiable personal relationship is key, Leong says. “You’re going to spend a lot of time with your public relations firm,” she says. “You want to actually like the people and have a good working environment.”

See full story here.

“This is such an important time for the industry,” was the first thing said to me by Acciona Energy North America CFO Susan Nickey, who was fresh from meetings in Washington, D.C.

It’s an important time because the Gulf oil spill has revived hope for the once lost-cause energy-climate legislation — and because the renewable energy industries are desperately in need of such legislation.

After sustaining growth in 2009, some of the renewables’ most important incentives are set to expire at the end of this year. Nickey’s meetings with Republicans have revealed that there are Republican votes for new legislation.

“There is bipartisan support both on the Senate and House sides to pass a Renewable Energy Standard [RES] to create long-term growth and to also extend the grant-in-lieu of the ITC program to maintain last year’s expansion,” Nickey said. But, she stressed, only if the administration and the Democratic leadership forego action on greenhouse gas emissions.

A national RES would require regulated U.S. utilities to obtain 20 percent to 25 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2020 or 2025. The Treasury’s grant program allows unused tax credits to be exchanged for federal grants.

Nickey is in a unique position to see the legislative dilemma clearly. Because Acciona, one of the biggest players in U.S. solar and wind, has a major manufacturing facility in Iowa, Nickey has had meetings with the staffs of Iowa Democratic Senator Tom Harkin and Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, as well as other Republicans. Iowa is a wind powerhouse and one of the first states to pass an RES. But it is also a conservative state and not inclined toward climate change-fighting cap-and-trade legislation.

The cap-and-trade plan would limit the greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) emitted by major power producers, which many climate scientists have pinpointed as the leading cause of global climate change. The measure would also create a market mechanism to facilitate the emitters’ ability to meet their caps. Seen by many environmentalists as vital to the fight against climate change, cap-and-trade has been successfully branded as an overly complicated stealth tax by its opponents.

What Nickey learned in D.C. is the very significant news that Republican senators might support energy-only legislation and an RES. Grassley, she said, has long supported the wind industry and “helped put together the production tax credit [PTC] a long time ago.”

The PTC is the key incentive with which the wind industry built its 2005-to-2009 “boom,” but it is a short-term incentive whose withdrawal has been held responsible for causing the wind industry’s three “bust” years (2000, 2002, and 2004).

Having a long-term incentive like the RES will thrill the renewable energy industries, but some environmental groups will not be pleased if Congress is unable to pass climate change provisions along with it.

“The Bingaman bill would do more harm than good, by promoting more off-shore and ultra-deepwater oil and gas drilling in the Gulf, as well as other dirty energy industries such as nuclear power, coal with carbon sequestration and ‘biomass’ incineration,” according to Mike Ewall of the Energy Justice Network. “The bill’s main selling point — the Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) — does nothing that the similar existing policies in 30 states would not already accomplish and it is riddled with loopholes. We support addressing climate change with good energy policy that isn’t full of dirty energy subsidies, but our corporate-controlled Congress is not up to the task.”

“A bundle of energy policies alone cannot accomplish the three-fold task of curbing pollution, creating jobs, [and] cutting our dependence on foreign oil,” wrote David Doniger of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). “An integrated bill will reduce global warming pollution, while a piecemeal ‘energy only’ bill could make carbon emissions worse.”

But Nickey, fresh from D.C. and impressed with the Republican senators’ insistence that there are not enough Senate votes for a bill with climate provisions, nevertheless sees something very valuable in the compromise measure.

Acciona has, since 2006, invested a billion dollars in the U.S. wind and solar sectors and has created more than 2,300 direct and indirect jobs. It sources more than 60 percent of its turbine components domestically and could grow U.S. manufacturing much more with the extension of the Treasury grant program and the long-term RES that may be within the reach of this divided Congress, despite election-year tensions.

“We’re supportive of carbon legislation,” Nickey said. “But it’s a complicated policy.”

“They,” meaning the Republicans she met with, “were supportive of a bill that had a Renewable Energy Standard like the Bingaman bill. And we also focused on having not just 20 percent or 25 percent by 2020 or 2025, but also [implementing] an increase in the Renewable Energy Standard in the near term, the 10 percent by 2012, because it’s about creating momentum, investment and jobs today.”

Congress-watchers say the floor fight must happen by the week of July 19 if it is going to happen at all before the August recess. Nickey said the key will be whether the Democratic leadership is willing move off comprehensive carbon legislation.

To Nickey, such legislation would be no defeat. “In the U.S. market, we start out with wind comprising less than two percent of our energy portfolio,” Nickey concluded. “With a mandate to get 25 percent of our energy from renewables by 2025, we’ll create a large and growing industry opportunity.”