Schmidtcomm's Blog

MARCH MADNESS: I take Renee Fleming in the final four

I can’t help thinking: what would happen if we treated the arts like March Madness? Imagine picking brackets that have symphony orchestras facing off against each other. Imagine televising opera casts in a sing-off to determine who performs with the most heart, talent and skill? Would Vegas run the odds on ballet dancers who can jump higher or twirl faster? In your fantasy league, would you draft a team with Cecelia Bartoli, Renee Fleming and Maria Callas?

This year, ad spending on the Final Four will generate $1.15 billion (BILLION) which is higher than NFL Football or NBA Basketball (yawn). This year, nationally televised arts will generate this much in advertising revenue: (crickets).

I’m not dissing organized sports or the Final Four. I’m a Badger alumnus and rooted for Wisconsin to win. But I’m a singer, I love the classical arts and happen to think the lessons learned in a practice room or in a band concert are just as important as those learned on a field.

As a culture, we worship the warrior in sweat socks. If we paid even half the homage to the artist mastering Mozart, what would be the outcome?

In this weekend’s contest, we will see the product of organized and well-funded high school sports playing at a very high level with organized and well-funded college athletics. I think of my friends who teach high school music and how their booster clubs scratch to find money to repair uniforms, repair old instruments and send kids to state ensemble competitions. Take that up a notch and think of the local arts groups that operate on budgets that wouldn’t keep sports teams in shoe laces.

When you don your red and white this weekend, please take 10 minutes and think about what the world would be like if we devoted this much time and money to the arts. A sustainable world needs both sporting competition and artistic expression, but we are far from parity when funding the arts.

Your talkin’ English, an’ so?

So English is officially our official language and I think it’s a GREAT idea. In fact, I think it’s so great; all red-blooded American citizens who’ve been in this country for several generations should step up and do their part to actually learn their language. As I see it, there are two issues with English as our official language—one is based in our past; the other is based in our future.

I’m from Mi’waukee (if you’re a native you never pronounce the “l.”) Truth: I’ve asked someone to “come by me once” and my mother asked me to “reach me down the diapers from the top shelf, once.”

When I followed my husband “up nort” I learned an affirmative was “oh, yaaaaah” and punctuated by “fer da crie!” I got used to it when we stopped at a friend’s house for “one, two, tree beeres” but was confused when she ended every sentence with “an’ so?” Until someone told me she was saying “and so” I thought she had recently lived in Germany.

Now add the Dutch, Norwegian, Belgian, and Polish into the mix and the mother tongue becomes even more muddied. And I wonder how it will affect the future.

Our new lingo is fueled by speed and designed for iPads and cell phone keypads. And it’s trickling into tweets, texts, Vimeo and more.

Be becomes B, why becomes Y, see turns into C, okay is K, and two, to and too are all 2. Is it enough that most people interchange your and you’re but in our new shorthand ur is the rule?

We’ve moved from a world where we read the printed word to a world where we listen to it. And we don’t make much time to do either. In business, we ask WIIFM and request to have items EOD before TGIF.

So if you combine the new cyberslang with our Wisconsin dialect, do you get statements like: “CUL8R for beers, once?”

The English language is richly beautiful because it borrows and changes words from different cultures, new immigrants and emerging trends. It will continue to evolve. But we have to remember that you can’t learn to improvise until you first learn the melody, so learn English as a national language for everyone, not just new citizens.

G2G. K?

If you’re interested, find me at mkathrynschmidt@gmail.com.

Tornado, Ice and Storms: oh my!

Welcome to Spring in Wisconsin where a cocktail of ice, snow, rain and winds could knock us off the grid at any time.

Most businesses don’t consider man-made or natural disasters in their annual planning, but ignore at your own peril. Not only do we live in a world of instant business, we live in a world of instant news. If disaster hits your business, there’s a good chance it will be on a media website or blog before you notify your employees or key customers.

The people who are in the business of covering disasters have crisis plans in place. When 9/11 stopped Americans in their tracks, most newsrooms across the country had “plan A” and “plan B” in place and put reporters and editors on 24/7 call. When storms hit, local TV stations are live from multiple locations immediately. The media is ready to cover you if you are the center of a disaster—are you as ready as the media?

The worst time to plan for a crisis is when you’re knee deep in one. There are a few common sense things to plan for—and a few things you might not readily think of.

Define your crisis: Before an emergency hits, determine what types of crises require you be ready for media response. Tornadoes and fires are an easy call—but does a robbery or an employee theft warrant a full-scale crisis response?

Prepare your team: Identify a first response team, usually key executives in your business and a communications or PR professional. If you don’t have PR counsel on staff, consider outsourcing this function during a crisis

Plan your communications: Determine what you will say to your employees, your customers and the media. Identify a spokesperson, but make sure all members of your crisis team are briefed.

Be up front with your team: Make certain all employees know where they can call or check in if there is a disaster so they can stay informed with factual, up-to-date information. In a disaster or crisis, a good reporter will not politely call the receptionist and leave a message for your spokesperson. A good reporter will wander around to the loading dock, start talking to your drivers, call surrounding business neighbors and put your janitor on camera. How do I know this is true? Because I did each one of these things to get a story.

I wouldn’t advocate adding a “disaster” column to your monthly spreadsheet, but a little pre-planning can avert some big problems. And for those of you who are still saying it’ll never happen here; just remember that Noah built the ark before it started to rain.

What does that “www” thing mean?

Hi, my name is Mary and I’m addicted to social media. The first step toward recovery is to admit your problem and I should have seen this coming about 100 posts ago. At least once a week someone tells me social media is a pointless waste of time. Some clients can’t imagine why anyone would spend time on a screen. Spousal Unit moaned in disgust when he found out I was taking pictures of myself and posting them to Facebook and Twitter to stave off boredom in the deer stand during a hunting season. Now, my hunting posts on Facebook are eagerly anticipated by clients and friends alike. Here’s what I have to say to them.

My 75-year old father has a Facebook page. That either makes him a hip adaptor or it makes Facebook terminally un-cool, but you can’t ignore it.

I’m showing my age, but as a TV reporter in the 80s, we laughed at the idea of 24-hour news on a cable network. What would they cover? In the early days of the internet, employers and clients told me no one would ever get product information on a screen much less write and send letters over a computer.

The idea behind social media is to connect, participate, discuss. No restrictions and opinions interpreted as news. Is it perfect? Nothing is perfect and I’ve found that people who make questionable decisions in other parts of their lives will do the same thing on social media. But like they say, you can pick your friends.

So how can I get on TV?

It’s one of the top questions I get from clients and it’s actually really easy: do something stupid, do something immoral or do something illegal.

My favorite example is the Polar Bears. If you live in the North, every winter many otherwise sane people are compelled to put on swimming suits or costumes and jump through the ice on New Year’s Day into frigid inland waters or painfully cold Lake Michigan. The event is usually punctuated by Wisconsin’s favorite beverage, beer. Or brandy. Or both.

In the 30 years I’ve been a reporter or associated with reporters, this is the lead story on every newscast on New Year’s Day. Barring any really important news, this story runs as the top or the lead into weather or as a kicker. Never fail.

Unless you’re going to jump in the lake it takes a bit more planning—and most businesses are not aware of the basics of getting news coverage.

Start with what makes news.

News is about the fringes of an issue. The status quo doesn’t make an interesting story and reporters and editors are on the prowl for what’s new, or unusual. Just doing business as usual is dull; being the first, the best or the most innovative is news.

If a reporter is going to do a story on you, you better be able to tell a story that has human interest or an emotional pull. Your business might have a 3-generation history in a market, but unless you find nuggets that humanize your track record, you won’t get covered.

I work with many businesses that dismiss awards or industry recognition—but it really does matter. Have you won any awards or recognition? These items are often time sensitive and if you can provide business press with a “what’s happening now” story, it increases the chances of getting covered.

Are puppies or children involved? Although this is more than a little cynical, my experience has proven that if cuddly furry things or little kids are involved in your story, local reporters are a bit more likely to cover it.

Above all, reporters and editors have a very low boredom threshold—chiefly because they see so many press releases and claims of “new, improved,” that are really rehashed and stale.

Remember your first information gatekeeper is the reporter and editor—understand what they want and you open the first door.

What’s the payoff on branding?

Think of a future where you never ask “where’s my next client coming from?”

Most small businesses, think that brands and brand equity are something best left to the corporate giants. You probably think creative development, integrated messages and planning are a waste of time and money when the printing company down the street will design a logo for free.

Why bother? Because every year starts anew with the same issues: you have to create a steady cash flow stream, you need to take care of the customers you have but attract new customers, you need to find business and at the same time you need to keep working as the CEO/CFO/HR exec and top project manager. It’s all about working smarter and a consistent brand image will act as a revenue generating tool rather than a short-term expense.

A brand identity is more than just a visual symbol or logo design – it defines your company’s unique service promise, builds lasting brand recognition and invokes positive recall. A strong brand enhances your company’s credibility by integrating your brand strategy with consistent graphic application across all markets and customer contact points.

Think about this – if your brand communicates more than price by defining the value you build within your product and service, you have created a value proposition. Your customer may be motivated to pay a premium if he/she believes your brand stands for something. By occupying a value-added position in the customer’s mind, you stand above the competition and can command a premium for your product/service.

What goes into creating a brand?

It’s much more than creating an eye-catching logo. That’s part of it, but the logo has to stand for something significant in your business, it has to work in a visual communications system and it has to be more distinctive than your competitors. Above all, it has to be appropriate for your business sector.

When you create a brand these are the steps advised:

Visual brand identity: This step encompasses creating a logo, a graphics system and standards, layouts for stationary/business cards, a sample web page, a brochure and/or sales kit. To be effective, these materials should work together to communicate a coordinated image. Small businesses think they are saving money by having a printing company design a free logo; then wonder why their business cards, brochures and websites never really seem to match. To create a brand that works for your business, you need to identify a brand director—either a person or a team who creates and manages your brand identity to ensure consistency. Some businesses do this with a marketing agency; others work with a team of consultants.

Message identity: This process defines a statement about what your company does that the customers value—the benefit you provide from selling or delivering your product/service. This is further defined in a set of key messages that clearly answer who you are, what your customers value and how you provide benefit.

Communications tools: These range from printed materials to video, websites, advertising, even blogs and podcasts. Most small businesses have a “do-it-yourself” approach to marketing and this is the cause of most branding mistakes.

You wouldn’t fill your own cavity,so why do you think you can create your own marketing materials?