EIght Years Young

Eight years ago today, on August 20, 2001, JS2 Communications was born. The place of birth was Hancock Park, a leafy Los Angeles neighborhood.

Jill and I named the company after ourselves … not the most original idea in our business, but certainly fitting for us as we both share the same initials (JS, natch, short for Jill Sandin and Jeff Smith). Our first offices were in a wonderful old 1920’s Spanish building. It was a perfect set-up … we worked there for a couple of years until we’d reached six employees and, bursting out of the seams, moved to our current offices on Melrose Avenue.

And then, just 22 days after starting our fledgling business, 9/11 happened.

Looking back on that period, it’s hard to believe we didn’t implode. Thankfully, we had a few super-steady clients (Jamba Juice, Wilmington Trust, Nike, et al) and we survived, just as we’ve survived the current financial crisis: With a lot of grit, perseverance and excellent work.

PR has changed so much since the summer of ‘01 … the past few years have seen huge swings in our industry. In 2001 social networking meant drinks at the Standard with a client and tweet was something you heard, not did. Print media was still relatively strong and secure and we paid far less attention to the blogosphere than we do today. Still, the principles of our industry have remained the same. I believe – as my colleagues have heard me say countless times – that what we do for our clients is very important. Raising the profile of a product or service to appropriate audiences is key to their survival. It’s not rocket science (never was), but it’s trickier and more complex than what one might think after, say, the 15th viewing of a favorite “Ab Fab” episode (“PR, dahling – PR!”).

So, as we enter our ninth year, we are thankful to our clients (and there have been many) who have given us the opportunity to become better and better at what we do. The ArcLight Cinemas and UNICEF’s of the world, the Patina Restaurant Groups and Coffee Bean and Tea Leafs have all required us to be the very best we can be at what we do. It’s been a great eight years.

Happy Anniversary to us!

Celebrity PR and Lee Solters

I’m currently ½ way through the August edition of PR Week which is largely devoted to social media. The pub also lists its “40 Under 40” superstar picks and, again, I missed it. Oh wait, I just turned 49…whatever. (I was once named by Los Angeles Magazine as one of Los Angeles’s 101 Hottest People, but that was when I was, myself, under 40 and, frankly, not really the same thing. In any case, it didn’t do much for my professional or dating life, but I can report that the then relatively-unknown Ryan Seacrest was also named and had his photo just above mine on the page.) Exciting stuff….

Anyway, in the current issue I read a couple of excellent, non-social-networking-related opinion pieces; one about the premature, Mark Twain-like reporting of print journalism’s death, and the other about the need to have good, solid and (yes) old-fashioned media pitching skills. I rather liked the pieces and they made me think of my early PR training in the pre-Twitter dark ages of the (early) 1990’s.

My first job in PR was for PR master Lee Solters. Lee, who died in May at the age of 89, represented Michael Jackson, Barbra Streisand and Pia Zadora when I worked for him … and, at one time or another during his long career, repped every other major star – from Frank Sinatra to Led Zeppelin – in Hollywood. He was even credited with helping to introduce The Beatles to America! He was a legend.

Lee was very proud of a loose-leaf notebook he used to keep track of his media contacts in which he had glued the masthead for every outlet imaginable. Page after page, name after name, number after number, it was his own personal media map; his Bible. In the book's margins, he’d hand-written information on who had written about what client, when, etc. As most know, journalists flit back and forth from outlet to outlet, so you can imagine the hieroglyphics that resulted – I don’t know how he kept track of who was where, but he did!

One day, I borrowed the book to copy down some information into my own Bible. The phone rang - it was the manager of a client. During the rather long conversation, I absentmindedly began doodling … on Lee’s “New Yorker” page! By the time I’d finished the conversation, I’d added my own artistic renderings to Lee's … and completely covered some of the information! Oy vey! I was mortified.

The only thing to do was leave, but of course I couldn’t do that. The only thing to do was be a man and fess up – but first I went out and bought a new New Yorker. I tore out the masthead and pasted it onto a new page. I got out our media books (yes, boys and girls - we had media books ... they were published by Bacon's) and started looking up phone numbers. Then I called The New Yorker and verified every single person on the list and clarified their information. I then saw that he’d had freelancers listed – some were also obscured – so for extra measure I went through several back-issues of the magazine and identified every writer who was not on the masthead. Then I started calling and somehow managed to get information for many listed. This, remember, was pre-internet. No Google searches. No Twitter lifelines.

When I was mostly satisfied, I brought his bible back to Lee who was, no doubt, listening to some Steve and Eydie CD, and presented my case. I showed him his Bible and the graffiti I’d added to the New Yorker page and then presented my new page with what I hoped was the right combination of remorse, humility and triumph. He looked up at me over the tops of his glasses and held my gaze. Then, he opened a drawer and pulled out a thick stack of hole-punched papers. Without saying a word, he found what he was looking for, removed the bastardized New Yorker page from his Bible and replaced it with a clean one: the exact copy of what I’d so skillfully (I thought) replaced! He had copies of everything! Then he said something I’ll never forget: “I appreciate your honesty and I appreciate the work you did on getting the new information. But never forget that you and only you are responsible for your resources. Protect them – always!”

There is no need for hand-written media bibles any more (that’s what databases are for) but
I will always remember that valuable lesson.

And God save Print Journalism!

RIP, Lee.

Hit of the Week

On July 3rd our client Improv Aware Driver, an online defensive driving course received a fabulous placement on Examiner.com. The article was a homerun because it emphasized the course’s points of differentiation, including its fun and humorous approach to what is a traditionally dry subject matter. It also gave readers a complete overview of course and highlighted the course’s two main benefits – a mandatory 10% insurance discount for three years and qualification for point reduction on the participant’s license.

Examiner.com is a daily news and entertainment hub comprised of several regional editions and has over eight million visitors per month. The site covers every topic you can think of, so when we found the national insurance industry writer we knew it would be the perfect fit. Our client was thrilled with the placement and expressed how this is exactly the type of placement we were hoping to achieve.

Check out the course’s website, it’s definitively something to laugh about!
www.myimprovnewyork.com

Square Offices

There is a wonderful, line in Stephen Sondheim’s "Company" about all of New York converging on 14^th St. It was not until I moved offices to JS² that I realized how true it is.

For the past year, I have worked on 29^th and 6^th . Many know the area as The Flower District despite its attempts to re-brand itself as Chelsea North. The neighborhood is somewhat fashionable when you arrive from 7^th Ave, but coming from 6^th Ave, it’s a disaster. Whatever way you slice it, it's not Union Square.

My first day down in Union Square was eye-opening to say the least. Much of my experience in Union Square has been later at night, so I never saw the hustle and bustle of the late morning and early afternoon. The sight of the vendors, the artists and the community reminded me of a place that could not be New York, yet the whole scene was so essentially New York. I fell in love immediately. After four days here, I learned that Union Square houses some of the best food and the most interesting people.

Let’s start with the food. One of my favorite lunch places, Spice is literally a stone’s throw away from the office; Grey Dog Café is a fun joint to hang out and grab a drink and something to nosh on; then there are the delicious dinner restaurants that line University – El Cantinero, with its sinful sangria and large plates, satisfies my Mexican loving stomach. My diet was shot to hell after two days in this neighborhood!

The people in this area are even more eclectic than the food. On my way to the subway yesterday, I passed a woman selling poems she writes on an old-fashion typewriter. What made it more interesting was that her client at the time was a man in a suite with a briefcase. Of course, I could go on describing more of the interesting people I spotted around 14^th St, but I’ll save it for the spin off blog.

Well, since I began the post with a musical theatre reference, it seems only appropriate to end it with one as well. So, as Little Orphan Annie sang, “I think I’m gonna like it here.”

JS2 Explores The Proust Questionnaire

In an attempt to get to know our team members a little bit more intimately, JS2 decided to pull out the old Proust Questionnaire. Partly inspired by flipping through the latest issue of Vanity Fair (yes, the delicious one with Johnny Depp on the cover) and a reference to Proust's "Remembrance of Time Past" (A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu) we paired up and got the whole truth and nothing but the truth out of our fellow team members. We discovered many fun facts about each other and ultimately this helped us get to know how to work better together and create a stronger team foundation. I suggest you try this with your friends, family and co-workers in order to further peel back layers of the onion that we all are. To view the questionnaire: Proust Questionnaire.

July = Singapore Food Festival

July marks the annual national Singapore Food Festival and the Southeast Asian culinary specialist and James Beard nominated author, Chef Robert Danhi is on hand to help you prepare for this festive occasion with a collection of sweet, salty and tangy recipes similar to the ones that rule the streets in Asia. With the reputation for some of the best street food in Asia, and a cuisine as diverse as its inhabitants (ethnic Chinese, Malays, Indians and Eurasians make up the general population), Singaporean cooks are known to experiment and combine flavors, techniques and ingredients resulting in a national cuisine that is unlike any other.

To learn more about Chef Robert Danhi and to view more of his Southeast Asian inspired recipes feel free to visit: www.southeastasianflavors.com

My Failed Social Media Experiment

Last Wednesday, while laying (or is it lying?) in bed thinking about my sister having to put her dog Curtis to sleep the next day, I had an idea that made me feel much better – how cool would it be if I could create a viral campaign whereby people the world over would tweet about pets they have loved and lost with the hashtag in memory of curtis? I don’t think my sister is even on Twitter so I don’t know if it would have been a consolation for her but I loved Curtis too and I envisioned it being the perfect way to honor his memory, along with a recognition of the power of animals in our lives (full disclosure: I am obsessed with dogs and cats).

So how would I go about creating this viral campaign when by its very nature, viral is something you can’t control? Not to mention that I am a Twitter novice who is still just trying to figure it all out. Enlisting the help of Liz (a social media enthusiast), I set about my mission. First I signed up to follow some of the biggest Twitter influentials, from Ashton Kutcher and Ellen Degeneres to Pete Cashmore of Mashable and Drew of #BlameDrewsCancer and asked them all to encourage their followers to use my hashtag – no response. Next, I asked all the JS2ers to RT my request in the hope that their followers would catch on – nothing (thanks for trying Liz, Gina, Jamie, Amy and Amanda). While I gained followers throughout the day, not one even acknowledged my request. And then it all went to hell – Farrah Fawcett died, followed by Michael Jackson and sweet Curtis didn’t stand a chance.

While it didn’t go viral (not even close), it was a valiant effort. I guess if I knew what made something go viral, I would be a millionaire, sought out by corporations the world over to consult on their marketing initiatives. But I don’t and I don’t believe anyone does. So at least it made me feel better about the passing of sweet Curtis – RIP little boy, you will be missed.