At Version 2.0, we’re typically focused on the business section headlines and the executives behind them. But this week, as the New England Patriots prepare for their divisional playoff matchup against the Denver Broncos tomorrow night, it has been hard to ignore the onslaught of buzz surrounding not our beloved QB Tom Brady, but his contender:  squeaky clean Denver QB, Tim Tebow.

The headlines, however, often focus less on Tebow’s (sometimes questionable) prowess on the gridiron, and instead upon his devout and publically-demonstrated Christian beliefs—like getting down on one knee and bowing one’s head in prayer, which has been widely dubbed “Tebowing.”  Saturday Night Live even went so far as to develop this skit where Jesus appears to ask Tebow to “tone it down” with his religious zealotry and start playing better earlier in games.

Whether you appreciate his commitment to his beliefs or scoff at his public prayer, one thing is clear: it’s capturing a lot of attention. Consider the following statistics:

• 20,000: the number of user-submitted images now featured on the website, Tebowing.com, which launched in October and features images of people Tebowing in their everyday lives—from a fetus and Winnie the Pooh, to those paying homage at famous locations around the world.
• 9,420: the number of tweets per second including  the term “Tebow” following his overtime win against the Pittsburgh Steelers on January 8—including shout outs from Lady Gaga and Kobe Bryant. This broke the previous record held by Beyonce Knowles of 8,868 tweets per second when she revealed her baby bump at the MTV Music Awards.
• 47: the number of different ways internet searchers (mis)spelled the player’s name during the nearly 200,000 searches conducted following the game noted above, according to The Wall Street Journal’s coverage of Salesforce Radian 6 research. Fans’ glee or anguish may have contributed to the misspellings—“teeeebow” was searched for 661 times and “teboowww” was searched 98 times.
• 3:16: as in, the biblical passage John 3:16—“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”—that is a favorite of Tebow and one that he, at times, had painted on his black eye paint. “John 3:16” was also the most searched term on Google last Monday, the day following his heroic overtime win. By coincidence (or was it divine intervention?), Tebow threw for a season-high 316 yards and set an NFL record with 31.6 yards per completion.

But heading into this weekend’s game between the Patriots, which the Boston Herald dubbed a “Clash of Biblical Proportions” in yesterday’s paper, we only care about one number: three—which represents the number of Super Bowl Championships Brady has brought back to New England (compared to Tebow’s zero).

While the value of social media has finally been accepted by many marketers, it’s clear it’s still a long way from reaching its full capacity. Tools and tactics are introduced all the time, and this recent article from The Boston Globe discusses the newest industry embracing the phenomenom: live performance theaters. This is a surprising clash of the old and the new, and unlike TV programs that promote hashtags in the corner, this acceptance of technology is not what one would expect from one of the oldest forms of entertainment.

Theaters throughout the country are struggling to keep their doors open and because of this, they’ve begun to endorse special sections — known as “tweet seats” — where audience members are allowed to use their mobile phones during performances to engage with Twitter (yes, during!) a show. This option gives audience members (and those outside the theater) a way to interact with performances, and it might be a great way to attract young people, whose presence is lacking in theaters around the world.

“Tweet seats” are already being utilized by theaters across the country. At the Palm Beach Opera this month, audience members attending “Madama Butterfly” used the hashtag #pbobutterfly to update followers and share predictions. One tweeter wrote “Butterfly will die. Goosebumps. #pbobutterfly.”

While some may complain that Twitter usage in the theater could distract audience members or even performers, internet enthusiast David Smooke (@DavidSmooke) says, “this is the inevitable shift to real time notes. Priceless one liners are no longer zinged to the monocles and canes of a play’s intermission, but rather can be read — in real time by anyone — inside or outside the theater.”

Do you think audiences should be allowed to tweet at the theater? Will more theaters begin to embrace “tweet-seats” and encourage audience participation throughout the show? We welcome your thoughts.

As we hit the stores or search online to finish up our holiday shopping during these last hectic days before Christmas, it strikes me how significantly brand drives many of the purchase decisions (and gift requests!) that all of us make during the holiday shopping season as well as throughout the year.  According to data collected on global trade by Version 2.0 client Panjiva, Mattel’s Barbie is once again the top holiday import to the United States.  Panjiva’s CEO Josh Green speculates that retailers are focusing on classic toys such as Barbie, Lego and Hot Wheels rather than toys that are unknown and/or have no brand appeal.

In looking forward to 2012, we are excited to continue examining the relationship of CEOs to their brands (see our online survey, if you haven’t taken it yet) and analyzing the role that brand plays in the client programs and successes we’ve experienced in the past year.  For more on Version 2.0’s work with clients, please take a look at our case studies which are now posted on the website.

Everyone at Version 2.0 joins me in wishing you a happy and restful holiday season and great success in 2012.

Maura FitzGerald

The feud that has erupted on social media between Alec Baldwin and American Airlines has already claimed some victims – namely, Baldwin’s Twitter account, which he has decommissioned after a series of rants in response to being removed from an American Airlines flight for refusing to turn off his iPad before take-off.

Not among the victims, apparently, is American Airlines’ sense of pride and righteousness: the company issued a public statement via Facebook to set the record straight, in which is cited FAA regulations that required Baldwin to turn off his electronic devices (he didn’t – apparently he was too engrossed in a word game) and listen to all crew member instructions (we’re pretty sure that insulting flight staff through expletives isn’t “listening”).

Although a good celebrity mud-slinging session always catches our attention, we’ve been drawn to this story because AA has taken a tried-and-true PR approach by issuing a public statement and leaving it at that. Rather than positioning this as an opportunity to bring a disgruntled customer back on board, American seems to be standing behind its employees and backing their decision to kick Baldwin to the curb – or at least back into the airport security line. (Do celebrities get their own security line? We want to know.)

American Airlines may be bankrupt, and its flights may leave some wanting. However, we have to respect the company for staying above the fray so far on this one. It’s a smart move, too, to deliver a traditional press statement through Facebook, not Twitter. This way, American’s “friends” can offer support, and it has fueled lots of supportive Tweets in response. American’s brand perception might be stung by the company’s financial straits, but this kind of statement may indicate a sort of inner brand strength that will help the culture transform and succeed.

We can’t wait to see how this plays out in the media over the next few hours – meantime, however, it looks like Zynga, the maker of “Words with Friends,” Baldwin’s professed addiction, may steal the spotlight with its clever tweetpic of a pro-Alec Words with Friends gameboard . Of course, after the unflattering picture painted of that organization in the New York Times recently, we know they could use some positive coverage…

Following up on my last blog post, I wanted to share highlights of a conversation I had recently with Version2.0 client, Josh Green, the founder and CEO of Panjiva. Panjiva is celebrating its 5th birthday this year. In recognition of this milestone (five years of brand building), and because Josh has been front and center in defining and building the company’s brand, I wanted to get his thoughts on what a brand is, how it gets built and how to leverage and support it effectively.

Brand doesn’t matter?

Josh defines brand as “the starting point for defining the relationship between you and your customers. It’s the promise you’re making to them.” According to Josh, when he started Panjiva, his advisors counseled him that brand wouldn’t be important because he wouldn’t be selling his information and services directly to consumers.

He soon found the opposite to be true. “(Brand is)… hugely important but has to be industry and context-specific. Your brand should meet your customers’ emotional needs,” he says.

Why is brand key to the role of the CEO?

 Josh views the CEO’s role within a company as multi-faceted with brand playing a key part. He notes, “As the leader, the CEO defines the vision, defines and supports the brand, assembles the resources to achieve the vision, and makes sure the resources are deployed effectively to support the company’s business strategy. He or she define the values that govern behavior, both internally and externally, and those values shape the experience that contribute to people’s perception of a brand.”

This is an important dimension to a brand’s integrity, in Josh’s view, because “great companies have great consistency between their internal view of their business and vision, and the external view.” When those views are the same, a company is trusted by employees, customers and shareholders.

And what about performance? Can brand help a company out-perform the competition? “Absolutely!” said Josh. “Take a look at McKinsey. They (command share) because of their brand. And, boards of directors NEVER question their recommendations.”

Who’s doing it well?

Josh cited examples of companies that he admires for the quality of their brands. GE is one, a “company that is both big and innovative when it is equally hard to be both.” Josh pointed out that Apple also fits that description with a key difference. “Most people don’t know who the CEO of GE is. It is the opposite with Apple but I’d argue that both companies have comparable brand equity.”

My two cents

Through our work with Josh and Panjiva, I know that Josh thinks strategically about his brand. Personally, I find that CEOs who appreciate the value of their roles as brand stewards are working the hardest to create and promote a strategic vision internally and externally.

Your two cents

All of this discussion makes me very curious about how other CEOs think about brand and how they view their roles in creating and promoting their brands. I’d love to have you join the conversation – so we’ve created a short 10- question survey to capture your thought on the subject. Please take a few minutes to share your views. (Follow this link to the survey.)

I’ll report the results (anonymously) and my observations as well as some practical guidance on what it means to be an effective brand steward in upcoming blog posts. Feel free to email me if you have thoughts about this post or want to know more about our work in support of brand creation, awareness and stewardship.

New York Times reporter Adam Bryant’s new book, “The Corner Office,” offers up words of wisdom curated from more than 70 interviews with successful CEOs from Bryant’s weekly Sunday New York Times column .  The book is terrific, a master class for those currently occupying the corner office as well as executives who aspire to do so.

The interviewees range from entrepreneurs embarking on their first venture to seasoned CEOs who have headed up multiple global organizations.  What they all have in common is that they have something instructive to share about what CEOs need to excel.  Topics include getting and/or giving feedback, management by walking around, succession planning, failure, managing through a crisis, hiring, communication, mentoring…and many others that can prove challenging for CEOs.

I read Bryant’s column religiously and found the book fascinating but was amazed that Bryant had not addressed the relationship between the CEO and his/her corporate brand.  We have all been focused on the relationship of Steve Jobs to Apple and what, if anything, will happen at the company when Jobs is no longer a day-to-day fixture.  Even Rupert Murdoch appeared to recognize his responsibility to repair his brand when he told Parliament that he, and only he, would be able to fix the problems at News Corp.

I decided to get in touch with Bryant and ask him why, when he’d asked about so many other key areas where the CEO has a big responsibility, he made no mention of CEOs and their role in defining, building and protecting their brands.  This was his response.

“I guess the reason is that, in my interviews, I never ask the CEOs a single question about their companies. Inevitably, the company comes up in the context of their answers, but I’ve never brought up the issue of brand steward with them. It’s a good thought, though. I’ll keep it in mind for future interviews.”

I decided that if this was a topic that fascinated me, it probably would interest a lot of other people.  At Version 2.0, we have a wide network of CEOs and they would probably have lots of interesting things to say about the role of CEOs as brand stewards.  Why not begin reaching out to them with a series of questions, a la Adam Bryant, and publish their responses in our blog?  In the coming weeks, stay tuned, because I’ll be doing just that.

-Maura FitzGerald

Last night and early this morning, people around the country were glued to their smartphones, TVs and radios after hearing the news that South Boston mobster James “Whitey” Bulger and his girlfriend Catherine Greig were arrested in Southern California. Whitey, accused of 19 murders among various other federal charges, skipped town in 1995 to avoid being indicted for federal racketeering.

In the midst of this latest breaking news, what we as PR professionals find most interesting (beyond the details of how he’s evaded arrest for so long!), is how this news was revealed; Whitey’s arrest was announced without an official press release, press conference or exclusive to a high-profile media outlet. Rather, the world found out from a 136 character tweet via @FBIPressOffice, the FBI headquarters’ official twitter handle.

The tweet, which simply read “FBI Agents in Santa Monica, CA have captured Boston Fugitive James J. “Whitey” Bulger and his girlfriend Catherine Greig. boston.fbi.gov,” quickly spread all over the social media site and within hours the hashtag #WhiteyBulger was trending across the nation according to WhatTheTrend.com.

What was the FBI’s reasoning for announcing the news this way? Will announcing high-profile news, including arrests, on Twitter or other social media sites become the norm? And will Twitter also break the news about what Whitey’s been doing all these years? We welcome your thoughts.

What PR Pros can takeaway from the Bruins’ Stanley Cup run

After 39 years, the Boston Bruins finally proved they are champions, defeating the early favorite Vancouver Canucks to win the Stanley Cup. In between our nail biting, cheering and celebrating, the team at Version 2.0 paused to think about what PR pros can learn from the Bruins’ success.

The finals provided their fair share of drama, from Vancouver’s Alex Burrows biting the fingers of Boston’s Patrice Bergeron to Bruins favorite Nathan Horton getting taken out of the playoffs with a severe concussion after Game 3. What’s the lesson for marketing and PR pros?  Don’t over think the competition.  In PR, it is tempting to pay close attention and sometimes react to what competitors are doing, but as the Bruins proved, it is so incredibly important to play your own game. Sure, the competitive landscape is important, but you have to develop your own playbook first, one that focuses on your own expertise and differentiators. Then you can set the tone.

Two players and their unconventional ways were especially crucial to the Bruins’ success. At 5’9”, Brad Marchand is the smallest man on the Bruins, but it certainly doesn’t stop him from going head-to-head with players both bigger and more experienced than himself. What can we learn from his dogged pursuit of success?  Working with several startup technology companies, we know it can be daunting to market and sell against well-known, established companies. But it helps to organize your marketing and communications activities (and perhaps other business functions) so that you look and behave like the large company you will become. Several of our clients, including Panjiva and HiveFire, are great examples of how a startup can disrupt a market, spark a dialogue and capture high level attention.

Tim Thomas has also proven to be reflective of our PR philosophy (really, is there any way we could write about the Bruins and not include this guy?).   Just as Thomas tends to play “outside the crease” we need to always be thinking outside of the box. Trying something different from the norm can often pay off in a big way. For us it could be gaining coverage for clients in a creative way (like we did for tech client Cymtec during the Royal Wedding ), for Thomas, it was a championship and the Conn Smythe Trophy for the most valuable player.

The Stanley Cup Finals series is a long ride and requires patience. It’s game after game, each one moving closer to the overall goal. In much the same manner, a PR program requires diligence, stewardship and patience to “move the puck down the ice” through a variety of vehicles (releases, media relations, social media, etc.)

The best part about any stretch of hard work is obviously the celebration when it’s over. Providing clients with measurement is a rewarding way to see how all of our activity across programs for our clients has helped them reach their goals. As for the Bruins, it looks like they celebrated plenty, from hoisting The Cup to drinking champagne straight from it. We’re so excited to celebrate with the team at Saturday’s parade, where we’ll try not to think too much about pitching our client’s latest product launch or that measurement.

They are mindless and decaying, they want to eat your flesh, and they signal the end of civilization as we know it. Zombies are pretty freakin’ scary. But for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), enlisting their help to raise awareness of emergency preparedness was anything but horrific.

Last Monday, the CDC posted an article entitled Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse on its blog, outlining the actions Americans should take to get ready for a zombie attack as a way to draw attention to how to prepare for real-world disasters like hurricanes and earthquakes. The public quickly took notice: the warning temporarily crashed the CDC’s website, was among the top 10 trends on Twitter as of Thursday, and received over 1.2 million page views (a record-breaking increase from the 1,000-3,000 average hits a CDC blog post receives, and still growing).

Assistant Surgeon General Ali Khan, who wrote the post, may just be lucky that his campaign captured interest due to its timing with the now-defunct Rapture that was top of mind for many last week. More likely, though, is that Khan followed many of the same best practices we recommend to clients who want to leverage social media to make their messages go viral: start with engaging content, be willing to defy the status quo, and have fun.

As the CDC proved, even very serious topics, like disaster preparedness, can benefit from an out-of-the-box approach. Take, for example, this advice for planning an evacuation route: “When zombies are hungry they won’t stop until they get food (i.e., brains), which means you need to get out of town fast! Plan where you would go and multiple routes you would take ahead of time so that the flesh eaters don’t have a chance! This is also helpful when natural disasters strike and you have to take shelter fast.” The content is compelling and certainly tongue-and-cheek, but the message is still very clear.

And it’s just the beginning for the Living Dead’s social media stardom. The CDC is building off of the initial momentum with a video contest that encourages people to create 60-second videos showing how they are preparing for an emergency—from zombie attacks to floods and tornadoes.

Thanks to the CDC for showing how any organization can make a message spread on social media—and for helping to keep those Zombies at bay.

Business Insider: How Kate Middleton Will Demolish Your Workplace on April 29

Amidst countless stories about the pending Royal nuptials (our favorite: “Unemployed English Girl to Marry Soldier from a Welfare Family”) we’ve considered how best to insert our clients into the massive Will-and-Kate news cycle.  After all, good PR is all about understanding the news cycle and taking advantage of it, when it makes sense.  Not an easy task to be sure, but the V2 team kicked it into high gear last week to ensure we capitalized on this once in a lifetime PR opportunity for our clients.

What’s the secret to successfully executing a winning PR campaign tied to a news cycle such as the Royal Wedding?  It’s really pretty simple: find the connection.  PR pros need to figure out how their clients products or services – or their executives’ insights – can add color to the story.  And, understanding how the story can apply to even the most unlikely readers (why ever would enterprise IT media care about the Royal Wedding?).

GigaOm: Will the Royal Wedding Break the Internet?

Our client Cymtec is a top player in the enterprise networking space.  Its hardware is used by corporate customers to optimize bandwidth and ensure essential applications—from CRM to sales enablement and other tools – are never compromised even when network traffic spikes.

What’s THAT got to do with William and Kate?  On the surface, not much.  And that’s where the fun (and the work) begins.  We uncovered a stat that surprised us all: over 400 million people around the world will watch the wedding online.  Most of them will do so at work.  And the sheer crush of bandwidth-intensive video inundating corporate networks is enough to stop many networks in their tracks.

The Cymtec team immediately worked with the client to identify several tips and tricks that could be deployed easily and could save network managers and CIOs a lot of grief – while ensuring their workers could watch the extravaganza on their computers.  The campaign – comprised of a news release, a blog, updates across the company’s social media channels, and an aggressive round of outreach to Cymtec’s target media – has taken off.  See below for a snapshot of the coverage in Business Insider, GigaOM and Washington Technology.

Now, we’ve got to scoot.  There’s a wedding to watch!

Cheers,

The V2 Team