Miami, Lebron and the Passing of the Boss

Lebron James is now a member of the Miami Heat and I have some comments about the free-agency acquisition and the PR fallout from his departing the Cavaliers.  But, first-things-first, I CAN’T get you tickets.  I often tell people that my firm is more of a corporate public relations firm.  We represent banks, real estate companies, small businesses and law firms.  We don’t do club openings or have any clients on South Beach.  And I always say that I can’t get you tickets for anything unless I buy them myself.

That’s gonna go double/triple for Heat tix.  A friend of mine who already had season tickets told me that Heat tickets will likely go for three-times face value during the season and likely 10-times face value for the playoffs.  Better to invest in a new recliner.

Now the real story: Was I the only one who thought it was an interesting coincidence that George Steinbrenner passed away just days after the "Three Kings" coronation that made the Heat the most hated team in sports not called the New York Yankees?  Was there a passing of the torch?

Miami’s public relations position in all of this is very simple.  We are going to be reviled but very popular.  And we should embrace it.  The Wade/James/Bosh trio will sell out everywhere they go, and we should just hope that they will be cheered for as loudly as Yankee/Mets/Jets fans cheer for their teams when they visit Miami.

It’s unfortunate that James departure was met with such vitriol.  I agree that the tv special was over the top, but James certainly didn’t deserve to be publicly brutalized for making his decision.  I know that Cleveland feels that James was their community treasure, being the hometown boy and all, but he never chose to be a Cavalier.  Remember, James was a lottery pick for Cleveland.  There was a significant amount of luck that played into their acquisition of him in the first place.  Cleveland was fortuitous and Lebron obliged, but he never had much of a choice on who he would play for originally.  A ping-pong ball had more say.

Eventually, time will heal all of Cleveland’s wounds.  If the Cavs can quickly figure out how to win without Lebron, the wounds will be gone even sooner.  (Many Florida Gator fans thought they would never forgive Steve Spurrier for leaving for the NFL.  However, national titles have a way of fixing such things.)

--John

www.miamipublicrelations.com

RANT ALERT: Unsubscribe Me "Pleas"

RANT ALERT!

I am a huge believer in e-mail marketing.  In fact, we regularly suggest e-mail newsletters as a marketing tactic for our clients and believe that marketing using e-mail is a key and growing component of the public relations mix.  It enables a company to keep in contact with its clients and customers and is a wonderful and inexpensive way to offer promotions.

However, I remain shocked that companies still use e-mail marketing services that don't enable one to easily unsubscribe.  Further, how come one-click unsubscribing hasn't become an industry standard? 

I bring this up because I decided to clear my inbox a bit this morning from some of its clutter.  I have no use for South Beach party invitations and one can only withstand a certain amount of social media seminar invitations. 

I will give the industry a little bit of credit.  I would say half of the of the 20 or so lists I removed myself from had simple unsubscribe systems.  But there were still others that asked me to re-enter my e-mail address (which is crazy) and still others made it nearly impossible.

Back to the one-click issue...having to re-enter your e-mail address or go through a bunch of steps to unsubscribe is one of the marketing industry's biggest annoyances -- right up there with junk-mail and (Gasp) telemarketing. 

Maybe I need to start reading the mass e-mails I get from the direct marketing association and make a plea there!  Ha.

RANT OVER

--John


www.miamipublicrelations.com

Client wins arbitration case against Chrysler

The attorneys at Kurkin Forehand Brandes won a big one this week with their successful representation of a Clearwater, Fla. dealership in its arbitration case against Chrysler.

Attorney John Forehand of the firm's Tallahassee office led the efforts in a case that marked only the second victory for a dealer seeking to get its business back from Chrysler through the challenging arbitration process.

We scored some ink for the Miami-headquartered firm in Automotive News.  It's always a good day when the public relations firm can secure a hit for its client in their industry's bible.

Congratulations to the firm and to their client who is now back in business selling Chrysler vehicles in Florida.

Here's a link to the article: http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100603/RETAIL07/100609935



--John


www.miamipublicrelations.com

Kennedy's All-American Barber Club on WPTV

Nice story about our client Kennedy's All-American Barber Club on WPTV in West Palm.  The club gave away haircuts and straight-razor shaves to veterans, active military and first responders on Memorial Day.  My kind of public relations!

--John

Stretching Your Social Media, Public Relations Network from Miami into Twitterspace

I had yet another fun experience on Twitter today.  Those of you who have read our blog might remember my online “encounter” with Rick Sanchez of CNN last year.  I tweeted about an interesting story in the Miami Herald about Fidel Castro.  Sanchez re-tweeted it, and I ended up with a whole bunch of new followers.  Today, I had a similar experience which shows how a public relations guy in Miami can be seen and heard all around the country in a few moments.

When I read an interesting news story online, I often pull quotes to tweet with a link to the story.  Sometimes I write successive tweets if I find something particularly amusing or relevant.  Today, while reading The Wall Street Journal’s story about the oil spill, I was surprised and saddened to read about the number of sea turtles, dolphins and birds that have been killed by the giant glob of toxic goo.

I tweeted the following:

From @WSJ documented 156 dead sea turtles, 12 bottlenose dolphins, and 35 oiled birds—23 dead—since the spill. http://bit.ly/ciZi6W

A few minutes later, someone at The Wall Street Journal decided that my tweet about their story was interesting enough to re-tweet themselves.

And they did:
 
Killed by the Gulf oil leak: 156 sea turtles, 12 bottlenose dolphins, and 23 birds http://on.wsj.com/a1B9US via @johnpdavid

Within moments, I had some new followers, including a former Miami-area reporter and friend who now works in North Carolina.

All in all, 85 people re-tweeted the item, most of them equally saddened by the news.  The power of social media continues to surprise me.

--John
www.miamipublicrelations.com

Yes, Business Can Be Fun....

2/25/10 -- As a public relations consultant, and one in an interesting city like Miami for 20 years, I have had some extremely interesting clients. We have helped keep really bad news out of the paper, promoted wild and wacky lawsuits and even helped launch a new Navy warship. I have to admit that many clients have said to me: "John, I have to be your most interesting client." I have learned to artfully demur.

Today, however, I think Chris Hurn and Mercantile Capital Corporation have edged into the lead. How? Why? Well, he's the "World's Most Interesting Commercial Lender." You don't believe me, ask YouTube.

--John




www.miamipublicrelations.com

Tiger Had to Say Something…Didn’t Matter What

I haven’t spent much time studying the Tiger Woods situation. I gave my opinion when the story broke to those who asked me. My main thinking was that he should have acted faster, but it was clear that he couldn’t say more early on because he knew the story was deep, and riveting and very damaging.

Fast forward to this morning and I will admit that I expected very little. Even with this low level of expectation, I was struck by how unfulfilled his statement left me. He didn’t shed any light on the Thanksgiving crash, and he largely figured out ten different ways to say he was sorry.

As I thought more about it, I realized that it didn’t matter at all what he said. We all knew he was going to be extremely apologetic and disappointed in himself and that he let his fans, friends and family down. But in my opinion, the details didn’t really matter.

Because he has been virtually silent for the past three months, most people have already made up their mind about him. Everyone is disappointed in him – he has lost an opportunity to deeply transcend his sport. Some will never forgive him and always view him as an adulterer. Many have already forgiven him -- he's a golfer, so let him continue to be one. Still others will say: Let him go play golf with former president Clinton and learn the art of discretion.

Today, Tiger Woods had to make the obligatory mea culpa. He and his people chose the prepared statement vs. Barbara Walters or 60 Minutes.

Everyone will remember that he looked stiff and uncomfortable and that he apologized – a lot. That’s it.

He had to say “something” so that he can move on. And he had to sound somewhat genuine and not say anything ridiculous like, for instance, Mark McGwire did about steroids.

All Tiger had to do was tee-off and hit in the fairway – between the ditches as my brothers and I say. No monster drive was required. And he didn’t deliver it.

Now he can move on. Each public step after this will be geometrically easier – which is all he needs right now.

--John

www.miamipublicrelations.com