Time To Be Clever

I recently ran across this request on a LinkedIn message board:

I’m looking for some great ideas for developing PR and marketing campaigns to create a buzz with buyers and consumers for a new product . . . the catch is, that it needs to be done on less than a shoestring budget.

Given the current state of economic affairs, I think we're all looking for ways to meet our marketing & sales goals without breaking the bank {since they did that to themselves already}. Here's my response:

"For a shoestring budget give some thought to partnerships. Look for products/companies/brands that share the same audience, are compatible, don't compete for mindshare or $$$. Then, work out reciprocal arrangements -- trades -- so that both brands succeed.

"Let's say you are trying to promote a new sports drink. Offer sampling to health clubs and in turn you might offer a link on your website back to the club. Working with minimal budgets will be a way of life for all marketers for the foreseeable future."

Snake River Cutthroat

That's me, grinning like a fool on the Snake River last summer. I was in Jackson, WY posing quickly with the very first trout I caught fly fishing.

When I was about 6 years old I caught my first-ever fish with a spinning rod on Spirit Lake in Northwest Iowa. It was a fair-sized Northern Pike, all teeth and splattered blood and guts. To this day I remember telling my Uncle Ralph I didn't know that I was going to kill it.

Fast-forward to a few years ago when I decided to take up fly fishing. Don't ask me why. Maybe it was the great Norman Maclean book, "A River Runs Through It." It wasn't a bad flick either.

After a summer on our neighborhood lake I got adept at clumsily casting for small mouth bass and blue gill. I even worked up the nerve to talk about my new hobby with an old friend and colleague who was also self-taught. He started as a kid at Belmont Harbor in Chicago, and shared with me stories about fishing out West, in Wisconsin, Florida and Belize. All that helped me get hooked.

A few summers back I tried in earnest to fly fish in the Black Hills of South Dakota. I got skunked after hours and hours of trying, but no matter. The scenery was beautiful and I learned that the real reward was in trying.

Last summer, after my eldest son graduated from high school, we all traveled to Wyoming to celebrate. One day we went out on the river with a guide. Drift boating on the Snake is a combination of fishing and whitewater rafting. Everything happens fast.

After about 10 casts, my son, Matt, latched onto his first cutthroat. About two hours later, with my right arm numb from casting, I tricked the prize pictured here to my dry fly, set the hook properly, stripped about 20 feet of line and brought him safely to the boat. Less than 30 seconds later he was back in the water, and with one powerful tail flick, off to deeper waters no worse for wear.

Every once in a while I'm reminded of that fish and I break out in the same silly grin you see on this page.

Who's Next?

Recently I couldn't help but pause when I learned that the Christian Science Monitor (CSM) will cease publishing a daily newspaper. I'll mourn it's passing when the last daily edition is printed next April.

As a young PR exec I once hustled down Michigan Avenue to a Christian Science Reading Room to retrieve a copy of the paper after it published a glowing story I worked on for a client. Placing a story in such a venerable institution was a BIG DEAL.

For much of its 100-year history, the Monitor has been a trendsetter although daily circulation has been declining for 40 years. To keep it afloat big annual subsidies are required from the Christian Science church. CSM will still be around via its website, a daily paid email and a glossy weekly newsmagazine.

Virtually every daily paper is slipping in circulation. Ad revenues -- especially in this economy -- are very tight. Here in Chicago, the Tribune has undergone a radical makeover reducing the actual size of the paper and newshole.

In about 10 years, most pundits predict only a handful of daily papers will survive. Give the Monitor credit for getting out in front of this trend. Their experiment will be watched very closely.

Purple Reign

I'm writing this a few hours before the polls close. Today, the longest presidential campaign in history will finally draw to a close. At least we hope so.

The candidates and their supporters will gather in two distinctly different places -- Obama fans will be in Chicago's Grant Park and McCain followers will be at the Biltmore Resort in Scottsdale.

Much has been said about this era of political polarization. Red states vs. Blue states. I was thinking about this over the last few days and realized that no matter who wins, the next president will be handed a wonderful opportunity to pull us all together. I prefer to think we are actually on the threshold of a Purple Reign.

As voters fill the polls today trailing in the footsteps of the record numbers who took advantage of widespread early voting, we have given the next president a mandate before even tallying the votes. We want something else whether it's touted as "Change" or just being a "Maverick."

Sit back, try to enjoy the election returns tonight and know that no matter the outcome, the people have spoken. If your guy wins, be magnanimous in victory. If your guy loses, be gracious in defeat.

And tomorrow, wear something purple, okay?