Brendan Flynn

Brendan Flynn heads all communication efforts for the LA Auto Show including overall messaging, media outreach, partnerships, social media programs, content development, sponsorships and special event planning. He is the primary spokesperson for the show and also acts as the key liaison for automakers helping to coordinate their product launch efforts. He has been in the communications business for 19 years and previously held senior positions at Fleishman Hillard International, The Rogers Group and Golin/Harris International.

Q. The 104 year-old LA Auto Show attracts more than a million people annually and, most notably, debuts concept and “green” cars. In your position as Director of Communications, how do you manage the global media relations needs of the show? Please describe briefly the structure of this.

A. The LA Show is two events in one – an industry trade show/media preview and a major consumer event. Because of the dual role, we need to first garner as much global media attention for our exhibitors and sponsors as possible. Each is treated as an individual client and we support their PR efforts accordingly. To attract international attention we focus on the global relevance of the show and use agency support in Europe and Asia. We also begin our campaign up to 5 months out in order to allow time for travel and budget decisions to be made by overseas media.

Secondly, we must create local buzz with traditional, digital and social media to drive ticket sales. Social media plays a significant role as we have a very engaged customer base. Multicultural outreach to the diverse communities that make up the greater LA basin is also critical. As the show approaches and debut details are revealed, we have the challenging task of making sense of and creating organization to the hundreds of possible news stories stemming from press days. It’s all about gathering, packaging and disseminating information. Come show time, with the help of our local PR agency, Rogers Ruder-Finn, we manage the media much like a major sporting event as we have nearly 4,000 credentialed members of the press on site.

Q. The LA Auto Show serves several audiences besides car manufacturers. They include aftermarket product manufacturers, limited production vehicle manufacturers, motor sports and concept cars, including “green” concept cars and more. Do you plan your communication strategies for each audience as “silos” or is it simply that the 102-year history of the LA Auto show itself is the draw across the board?

A. It’s true that the Auto Show is such an institution that media often know how and what to cover. However, we plan our communications strategies based on the strengths of the show and how we want to be differentiated in the marketplace. For example, we’ve long been regarded as a luxury and design focused show and recently we’ve solidified our position as the show to make important green announcements. Now we are focused on being a leader in the auto tech space as well as increasing our role as a show where auto business stories happen. However, because the 45-50 major auto brands are also conducting aggressive media outreach, they play a major role in shaping the show’s identity. Part of our strategy is to recognize where the show grows organically and then leverage that growth.

Q. I understand that there is public access for those interested in browsing and then purchasing. Does this mainly attract dealerships or individuals as well? Do the manufacturers or the LA Auto Show itself create special promotions to spur purchase? Also, is onsite selling a goal of the exhibitors or is it the media and industry exposure?

A. For 10 days the auto show becomes the biggest consumer event at the Convention Center and has become a family tradition for many Angelinos. It is about attracting the individual car buyer not dealers. You can’t actually purchase vehicles at the show but it’s a great low-pressure, cross-shopping opportunity. Honestly, I think a lot of attendees come to dream and catch a glimpse of what the future of mobility holds. The special promotions offered at the show primarily come from the factory level but they work with their local dealers to fulfill the offers. Ultimately the auto manufacturers’ goals are two-fold just like ours – garner media attention globally and allow consumers, at least part of the way down the purchase funnel, to experience and physically touch the product.

Q. With the LA Auto Show, your career has veered from that of a longtime public relations executive at several agencies to an in-house Director. What triggered this change?

A. The diversity of knowledge gained and the creative environment in agency life can’t be matched in-house, but to fully understand a business and have the ability to influence decisions as the highest level happens best internally. When you can devote 100 percent of your energy to a single cause you can better integrate consistent messaging across all marketing and promotion channels and really help shape the subtleties of the brand personality. Plus, the Auto Show was at such a turning point in its history that it was too exciting of an opportunity to pass up. In the past five years I have been able to help bring it from an important regional show to a truly global automotive industry stage.

Q. Is your “Green Cars/LA Auto Show Ride & Drive” — for journalists only, a major incentive for them to attend, cover and write about the Show? Is there one particular exhibitor sector that attracts the media more than others, such as the Celebrity Car Showcase?

A. The Ride and Drive is one element to enhancing the shows overall reputation as the main stage for important green vehicle introductions. Because of California’s long history as an environmental leader, the LA Show naturally became the place to make such important announcements. To help manufacturers extend that green message we have certain show elements, like the ride and drive, that highlight OE environmental innovation. The biggest draw to the show are the big global premieres that get promoted not only by us but by mainstream media. It’s ultimately the product that makes a company like Hyundai become the fastest growing or Ford become one of the most profitable, and its that product that creates the most excitement for the show among our attendees.

Lindsey Kozberg

Lindsey Kozberg is Vice President for External Affairs at the RAND Corporation – a nonprofit research institution that helps improve policy and decision making. A former attorney, Kozberg was director of public affairs for the U.S. Department of Education and a special assistant to the president at the White House.

Q. At RAND, you oversee a multitude of functions including philanthropic contributions, media relations, congressional relations, community relations, RAND’s Web presence, and the RAND brand. Is your position responsible for developing strategies for all of these functions? How do you structure the implementation and execution within each category of responsibilities?

A. I’ve got a terrific team that includes experts in each of these areas of communication, so I spend my time making sure we are thinking strategically within the groups that make up external affairs at RAND, and fostering collaboration across the groups to maximize the impact of our people and our work. Our own website, RAND.org, search engines, and “push” mechanisms such as email, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have transformed some of our key audiences into channels of communication. That makes collaboration more important than ever before: we need to be using the same key messages, mapping our audience across silos, and collecting feedback on how our work has had an impact.

I’m always looking for “high impact” research in the pipeline – these are reports that will particularly benefit from having a collaborative and coordinated rollout strategy. I also spend my time making sure we are balancing the objectives of our many research units with the needs of the institution as a whole. I’m trying to highlight for our team the work or messages that may be a positive with one key audience but foster confusion or negative impressions within other audiences. And I work hard to be sure that our powerful legacy of work on national security and international relations doesn’t overshadow the important work we are doing on health care, K-12 education, corporate governance, natural resources planning and more.

Q. RAND’s research often ties in with current events such as the upcoming tenth anniversary of 9/11. Does your department, External Affairs, make decisions as to who, when, where and how to include RAND professionals in print or broadcast media interviews or do you have selected experts listed as spokespeople on an ongoing basis? Is it about forming and maintaining individual media relationships?

A. Our team of 13 is organized geographically. We focus on the top 8 European donor countries. We have government relations, finance and communications strategies for each of those countries tailored to achieve specific objectives we’ve set. We also have approximately 200 grantees across Europe, and so our team works with many of these organizations to support their success.

Q. In your position, you clearly work with multilateral organizations including governments in an effort to implement global change as to hunger, poverty and education. Does your position include the actual project and grantee selection or is that the responsibility of your partners?

A. When our research or expertise can help shed light upon or suggest solutions for breaking news issues, we work hard to be accessible to journalists, policy makers and our donors. The 10th anniversary of 9/11 is something we can plan for well in advance. In late July we released a collection of essays (The Long Shadow of 9/11: http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG1107.html) with perspectives from 18 RAND researchers on the military, political, fiscal, social, cultural, psychological, and moral implications of U.S. policy making since 9/11. We built an “experts guide” for media to help them find RAND researchers with knowledge that’s relevant to 9/11 coverage. We are hosting events featuring the essay authors. We’ve developed commentary to be placed in the days leading up to the anniversary. And we are using RAND.org as well as email, Facebook and Twitter to disseminate print, audio and video commentary with our experts.

Other events don’t allow us quite as much time to plan, in which case we are relying on relationships with reporters and outlets, putting out media advisories that link our experts to the news of the day, and sending out alerts to policy makers with particular interest in the area. We work hard to ensure that reporters and producers know that RAND is a responsive organization with experts who are articulate and thoughtful. We also work hard on “push” messages to help journalists connect the dots between their coverage and our expertise, and help policy makers lay hands on the information we have to offer.

Q. Even though trained as a lawyer, you have an impressive background in public affairs, including playing a major role in the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act. What was the lure to move to RAND a few years ago?

A. When I made the move to RAND I was looking to have a greater connection to the public policy issues that were central to my government service, and that were also a part of my work as an attorney, helping clients forge agreement with government at the local and state levels. RAND offers me a remarkable opportunity to make a difference at all levels of government and in private decision making as well – and to do that from Los Angeles, a community that I know well and care about deeply.

Q.RAND remains a nonpartisan organization, yet focuses on issues at hand that are critical to this country such as national security, international affairs, business and the environment. It would seem that the political climate today is making this difficult to maintain, while still focused on improving policy and decision making through research and analysis. Can you briefly comment on this?

A. Our nonprofit and nonpartisan nature could be characterized as a challenge and as an opportunity. There are certainly some passionately partisan audiences who will have a hard time engaging with RAND because they want validation rather than objective analysis and evidence-based solutions. But, using the U.S. as an example, only about one third of the U.S. population today is identified with one of the two major political parties. We are trying to reach decision makers in the U.S. and around the world and in the public, private and philanthropic sectors. And we think the kind of evidence-based research we have to offer has a meaningful audience among the majority of people who are looking for solutions to the issues of the day. You could say that work like ours is more important than ever before because we find the facts in a sea of opinion and make them known to policy makers and the public.

You are waiting in line to order your coffee and while the six people in front of you are going through excruciatingly long orders, you happen to glance at a display next to you featuring a Bruce Springsteen collection you’d never heard of. All you need to do to own the Boss’s greatest hits is take the small credit-card-sized iTunes card to the barista and gladly hand over your $9.99, plus the cost of the latte you ordered, drive that puppy home, turn on your computer, log onto iTunes, type in a 10 digit code, download the album and sync it with your iPhone! In just seven easy steps, you can be listening to “The River” and “Pink Cadillac” and just a few hours prior, you had no idea that you even wanted to.

While it is certain your life is now more enriched, one may ask – why in the world did you go through all of those steps, when you could have just opened up iTunes from your iPhone and downloaded the album? The answer is simple. It’s for the same reason millions of people have bought magazines in grocery stores for more than fifty years, when they could get a subscription for nickels on the dollar.

Impulse zones.

You had absolutely no idea you needed Bruce Springsteen until you saw his mug on a display . . . in the impulse zone. That special place where we, as consumers, lose all of our inhibitions and simply must have whatever it is that is in that place. Magazines have been successful at this for decades; so have candy bars, gum, mints and overpriced flavored water. Impulse zones are the highest revenue generating areas of any retailer and often have sales per square foot that by far surpasses any other square foot in the store. It is also the most competitive part of a store, usually costing marketers a pretty buck to put their product there.

Marketers are increasingly trying to figure out how to reach audiences in the digital marketplace, since that is where a massive upward moving trend indicates buyers are now going. The challenge, however, is that online marketing has a tremendous amount of clutter to break through. If one is marketing a product in a brick and mortar store, they simply need to secure placement near the cash registers to improve sales velocity. Online, the cash registers are embedded with the actual product. So, apart from spending an incredible amount of advertising dollars and implementing extensive word of mouth campaigns, how does one get through the clutter online and be noticed by a potential consumer?

Impulse zones.

Online marketers need to remember that there is a real world too. And in this world, there are plenty of brick and mortar stores. Apple demonstrates this perfectly with its iTunes/Starbucks partnership. All digital marketers need do is bridge the offline world with the online world, using the impulse zone. With that strategy in place, tons of tactics pour forward: coupon codes on countertop handouts, QR codes on countertop displays, promotional giveaways referring visitors to a website, location-based social network promotions, etc.

It amounts old school marketing, but in the new world of communications. Find where your customers are and reach them offline in order to influence their behavior online.

Most would have titled this blog the “ultimate PR stunt” but truly it would be an insult to the Public Relations community to suggest that PR had anything to do with it.

The pinnacle of poor judgment was recently exhibited by an Australian laundry detergent brand, Vanish NapiSan, in their attempt to become the official detergent of the White House. Yes, believe it. Literally.

The company created a video for President Obama, hoping that in light of the stock market woes of this week, perhaps the President would actually consider the deal –
$27.3 million to sponsor the White House for five years. Just imagine a huge banner over the White House with the laundry detergent brand boldly displayed.

Incredulous.

Now — clearly they had no hope whatsoever that this would ever become a reality. So why do it? To grab attention, stand out from the crowd, generate buzz and grow brand awareness — all the right stuff with the wrong tactic. They did get the buzz, though. Yes, the video is doing very well indeed virally, mostly because of the ridiculousness of the premise.

And I am guilty of aiding and abetting in this comedy… By writing about it, I am giving this campaign credence. Couldn’t help it. The foolhardiness of it was the lure.

But what did the company actually hope to get or achieve? What message was it supposed to send? That the company has “chutzpah” or gall? It certainly did not intend to endear consumers or trigger trial, with hopes of adoption as to its product.

I recognize that all this is but a blip in the greater marketing landscape. But there is a lesson to be learnt here that comedy for comedy’s sake without a message or take away may have worked back in the 80′s and before, but now in this world of interactivity, it will not work even as a stunt that will never be realized.

As everyone in the industry knows, using comedy is an easy way to make a brand more relatable to consumers. It helps the brand stand out from the crowd. Taco Bell is a great example of this. This company uses comedy through its Twitter handle to engage with customers, helping them to stand out from their competitors. Delta, among a slew of companies, also stands, likewise engaging conversations that trigger customer loyalty.

There’s no argument that stunts can attract, if only for a nanosecond. But a $27.3 million campaign needs to go past the first “WOW and attract something more lasting.

Like — maybe customers?

Joe Cerrell

Joe Cerrell is the director of the foundation’s Europe office. In this new role, Joe will oversee the Gates Foundation’s policy, advocacy, and communications activities in Europe. His team will expand the foundation’s partnerships with European non-governmental organizations, foundations, governments, multilateral organizations, and other groups, and manage a portfolio of policy and advocacy grants.

Q. The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation is today so broad that it addresses multilevel global humanitarian needs. As the new director of its European office, what particular aspects will you be overseeing?

A. Ironically, a lot of what we’re doing is fundraising — not for the foundation but for the issues we care about. A lot of people ask why a foundation of our size would need others to contribute funding to the areas we work in but when you consider the challenges in global development, we’re a drop in the bucket. So it’s crucial for us to get other governments to increase the amount and quality of their foreign aid giving.

Q. Assuming that you have a large staff of managers that focus on diverse projects, could you briefly describe how this is structured and what their responsibilities entail in the overall?

A. Our team of 13 is organized geographically. We focus on the top 8 European donor countries. We have government relations, finance and communications strategies for each of those countries tailored to achieve specific objectives we’ve set. We also have approximately 200 grantees across Europe, and so our team works with many of these organizations to support their success.

Q. In your position, you clearly work with multilateral organizations including governments in an effort to implement global change as to hunger, poverty and education. Does your position include the actual project and grantee selection or is that the responsibility of your partners?

A. While we manage a portfolio of grants across Europe, nearly all of these are policy and advocacy grants to organizations like ONE, Oxfam, and Save the Children that are trying to rally governments to do more to curb global poverty. Most of the programmatic grantmaking — like the development of a new vaccine — happens in Seattle. However, we measure our success in terms of whether our work is helping our teams back in Seattle to reach their goals more quickly by attracting more support and more funding.

Q. It was recently announced that the Foundation has added a focus on helping to “bring safe, clean sanitation to billions of people in the developing world,” or in more common language, launching the project coined, “Reinventing the Toilet Challenge” aimed at helping those whose sanitation is clearly a health threat. As the European Director, do you work cooperatively with the Foundation’s Global Development Department in seeking partners and donors for third world needs or is that a separate entity?

A. Sanitation has indeed become a bigger part of our international strategy. There are a lot of organizations working on water but sanitation is really a neglected area that has a huge impact on health, education and other areas. In fact, four out of ten people worldwide don’t have a safe way to poop. I hope people will watch a great video that our communications team produced called Reinventing the Toilet (http://bit.ly/mTsaOK)

Q. Prior to joining the Gates Foundation, you held several prestigious positions including as press secretary to former Vice President Al Gore and communications support for various presidential campaigns. What was one of the toughest PR challenges you had in your past positions?

A. Working for Al Gore was one of the best experiences of my life. While President Clinton had a communications staff of about 75, our press office was about 5 people, so we had to be prepared for almost anything. One day the news would be dominated by a foreign policy priority the Vice President was working on and the next could be a breaking domestic environmental issue. One of the projects I’m actually most proud of happened after I left the White House. I was working for a progressive agency called Pyramid Communications in Seattle, and we were asked by a Native American tribe called the Washoe who live near Lake Tahoe to work with the U.S. government to try and have some of their ancestral land returned to the tribe. Coincidentally, there was a conference that President Clinton planned to attend in Lake Tahoe a few months later, and we used that opportunity as a forcing mechanism to get the Administration to deed a large parcel of lakefront land back to the Washoe Tribe.

They say mistakes are often the cost of learning what not to do…

But sometimes the price of those mistakes are simply too steep. Such was the case with the Gap when it rolled out its new logo design last October. It received a very public outcry of protests that flooded the Internet with derisions, mockeries, parodies as well as amateur re-design suggestions. It cost the company two years of work in developing the new logo, oodles of money for its retraction as well as damage control, not to speak of a solid dent in reputation and loyal customer base.

The lesson learnt at that time had little to do with the logo itself and everything to do with the manner in which the new logo was introduced — autocratic and not inclusive. In short, they misjudged their 2010 customer. In my blog of October 12, 2010, and similarly in a blog about the Starbucks logo change, I posed the question as to who owns a brand — the company or its customers?

The answer became very clear, very quickly…

So now in mid-2011, and in the face of poor quarterly profit showings, the Gap is happily changing course, with a new focus on Millennials – the more than 60 million 18-to-35-year olds in the United States, about 20 percent of the population, according to the recent census. This is a sharp shift in focus for a company that had traditionally lured a wide audience with neutral workplace basics, classic denim and bright scarves. The clothes, however lost their allure in recent years. Still, anyone under 30 has most likely never worn Gap jeans and it could either be an uphill battle to unseat that generation from its favorites such as Abercrombie & Fitch Co., American Eagle Outfitters Inc., Aeropostale Inc. and Urban Outfitters Inc. or prove to be a lucrative untapped market.

But this time around, the Gap’s campaign seems to be heading in the right direction, making engagement a key component of its new campaign roll out.

The focus is on interactivity, inclusivity and transparency — much valued elements by this generation. Videos showing “real” stories of how Gap clothing is designed and manufactured in their redesigned “start-up look” LA design studio, will be released on blogs and social media websites, making them available to influential bloggers and other social media mavens. The videos will appear on websites frequented by the young crowd such as Daily Candy, Hulu, Pandora and Rolling Stone. Even the traditional aspects of the campaign have social, digital tweaks in that Gap’s new print ads will feature real-live people dressed in Gap clothes found on the street, in places from NY and Texas to Manchester, England and Nakameguro, Japan, for they will direct people to the online videos.

But the Gap is not above using some time-honored lures, as in feeding people. Taco trucks will be parked in front of stores in major U.S. cities, some with celebrity chefs on board who will create gourmet concoctions at cheap prices and offer free food to anyone wearing Gap clothing, And yes, the photographer will be waiting to take their pictures of anyone wearing Gap clothing for the Gap’s Facebook and Twitter pages.

Clearly, Millenials will decide for themselves if the Gap is to become a cool brand once again. But wouldn’t it be cool for the marketing “poster child” of 2010 to now roll out a marketing template for engagement that other manufacturers could adopt as their own?

It’s always true that a good idea bears repeating…