The Matchbox Blog Latest Posts
Curious about our latest PR/marketing insights, thoughts on market news and other commentary? Visit our blog here, or view these recent posts:
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PR Pulse:
Tips for Success
|  | Byline articles offer valuable thought leadership opportunities for any public relations program, but Young & Associates recently raised the stakes of byline placements for two clients.
By securing prominent online placements in tandem with the publications' opt-in eNewsletters that reach tailored reader segments, the agency clinched valuable media real estate for the articles and more importantly, caught uber-targeted eyeballs.
Coverage included:
-- Maximizer Software:
Direct Marketing News (Database & CRM Insider Newsletter)
-- PeriscopeIQ:
Retail Online Integration (All About ROI Newsletter)
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Young & Associates Focus
Sending Warm Holiday Wishes
and Welcoming New Clients
As the year comes to a close, we are thankful for our top-notch clients, friends and colleagues, and a year marked with many milestones. In fact, the agency recently celebrated the addition of two new clients - IMN, an e-communications provider for SMBs, and Kryos, a mobile enterprise application platform provider. Young & Associates also won a gold MarCom award for collaborating with client Telmetrics on a recent Chief Marketer Data/Analytics article. Capping off the media accolades, PRWeek featured a "Gloves Off" article penned by Assistant Vice President Jennifer Mirabile, about the continued value of press releases alongside (but not replaced by) social media. Looking forward to making 2011 a year of innovation and success. Warmest wishes to you and yours for a magnificent holiday season! |
Marketing Minute
What Makes a Winning Award Entry?
 Industry awards lend both credibility and leadership positioning to a business's public reputation. They can also help sales teams increase their company's competitive position during the sales cycle.
In any case, how do you actually clinch these awards? Start by identifying the ones that lend most credence in your industry. Then, consider these best practices:
Bring Claims to Life - Companies love to tout themselves as the best thing since sliced bread, but without examples or facts to illustrate specific points, these claims often fall flat. Even if you characterize an example (to protect a client name), the added depth is worth it.
Include Business Benefits - Award entries that focus on a product or company can easily get mired down in nitty-gritty tech details. Don't forget to explain the strategic benefits of your company and its offering. Which business problem does it solve and what results does it generate, e.g., cost savings, operational efficiencies?
Showcase Thought Leaders - If the award honors individuals rather than an overall company/product, select thought leaders who can be positioned as industry innovators. Collect the featured person's perspective and interview one or two of his/her colleagues to capture a 360-degree view of the person's unique qualities and why they rise above their industry colleagues.
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 My Two Cents
Has Black Friday Lost its Luster?
by Jennifer MacLeid Qotb, Principal,
Young & Associates
With all eyes on 2010 Black Friday and its outcome from both a consumer deal and economic perspective, I saw a curious media coverage transformation. In years past, local and national news (particularly broadcast) offered insights on how and when to get the best in-store Black Friday deals, including store opening times and related events that would entice the entire family to come in at an ungodly 3 a.m.
This year, however, coverage leading up to the media-coined Black Friday--from broadcast outlets to consumer interest publications like Parenting--showcased how to avoid the Black Friday brick-and-mortar madness by getting the same deals online (no need to wait for Cyber Monday!). Significant coverage also included Black Friday horror stories -- women being overrun by carts and even hair extensions being pulled out.
And the same media were touting deals earlier, with doorbuster offers arriving in my inbox nearly two weeks ago. Sears kept its doors open for the first time on Thanksgiving and Macy's offered up pre-sales incentives a week before Black Friday (pay for it now, pick up next week). Now as Cyber Monday sales ebb into last minute holiday sales, I have to wonder with the deals and offers coming in mid-November and will likely stay until mid-January, when will the media re-coin this evolving 24/7 shopping season? |
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