_Mitch Joel is a passionate entrepreneur and speaker who connects with people worldwide by sharing his communications insights, marketing strategies and commitment to building a better community. As well as being co-owner of “Twist Image – Multimarketing Studio”:http://www.twistimage.com, he is an interactive expert, educator, community leader, freelance journalist, blogger and believer in doing the impossible._
*One Degree:* “Mitch, If you could recommend one book to people interested in how marketing is changing, which one would it be and why?”
*Mitch Joel:* So essentially, you’re asking me to choose between my four children. Do I choose “Re-Imagine”:http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/078949647X/imho0b-20 by “Tom Peters”:http://www.tompeters.com/, “Purple Cow”:http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/159184021X/imho0b-20 by “Seth Godin”:http://sethgodin.typepad.com/, “The Cluetrain Manifesto”:http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/0738204315/imho0b-20 by Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, “Doc Searls”:http://doc.weblogs.com/ and “David Weinberger”:http://www.hyperorg.com/blogger/ or “Life After The 30-Second Spot”:http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471718378/imho0b-20 by “Joseph Jaffe”:http://www.jaffejuice.com/ ?
Category: Blogs
_Jennifer Evans is President of “Sequentia Communications”:http://www.sequentia.net, a Toronto-based marketing and public relations firm that specializes in helping companies acquire and retain customers through community building._
*One Degree:* “Have blogs changed the role of PR professionals in the last few years, and if so, how?”
*Jennifer Evans:* The world of PR is changing drastically. It used to be that you needed to use media as an outlet to reach the public, so media relations was one of the primary tenets of a public relations strategy. However, the Internet has completely changed all that – first of all by making it not only possible but economically feasible and efficient to reach the public without an intermediary. Secondly, it’s introduced a new layer of voices and ‘content creators’ that PR strategists need to factor into their planning: the blogger.
I’m not sure that the average Bob and Betty on the street have that much appreciation for the role of advertising agencies in the ads they see. If they do it’s probably a stereotypical “Darrin Stevens”:http://www.tv.com/bewitched/i-darrin-take-this-witch-samantha/episode/13947/summary.html or “thirtysomething”:http://www.tv.com/thirtysomething/show/203/summary.html?q=thirtysomething concept of what goes on.
The reason I ask this is that the folks commenting over at “Gordon and Frank”:http://www.gordonandfrank.ca/ seem to be very quick to talk about Bell’s agency.
For the first week most of the comments on “our post”:http://www.onedegree.ca/2006/02/06/gordonandfrankca were generally negative towards the ads and to Norm MacDonald’s involvement.
Then on Monday February 13th the posts took a turn and became _overwhelmingly_ positive. I’m not sure what might have caused this – maybe the ads changed or something.
Anyway, here are a few representative posts:
bq. Hilarious. It’s about time we show our great Canadian sense of Humour. How about stuffed animal mascots for sale. Great fund raiser for our future Canadian Athletes. I buy a pair. Keep up the great work.I’m proud to be a Canadian and a Bell subscriber.
bq. Hooray to the Bell Marketing department to hire a company with a sense of humour. Enjoy the ads, breaking up the sometimes dry CBC commentary.