Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Join Us for YP's December Mixer!
December 12, 2007
6:30-8:30 - Mixer
Busby's - Santa Monica
3110 Santa Monica Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 90404
Parking:Valet and street parking on Santa Monica
Cost (pay by cash or checks at the door):$10 YP Members; $15 for Non- members; $5 for PRSSA Members
RSVP:To RSVP, please email yp_prsala@yahoo.com.
If you have any questions, please contact Phyllis Hu at phu@iwgroupinc.com or Bonnie Berkes at berkesb@RuderFinn.com.
We Hope to See You There! Phyllis Hu (IW Group) & Bonnie Berkes (Ruder Finn)
Program Co-Chairs, PRSA-LA's Young Professionals
Tips for PR Pros: December
Recommended Reading
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In Case You Missed It: November Meeting Recap
On November 7, The Rogers Group hosted a creativity workshop, Tap Into Your Creative Side. The speakers, Brenda Lynch, SVP, The Rogers Group, and Rose Maciejewski, SVP and leader of the technology practice, Ruder Finn West, offered tips on how to bring out personal creativity and how to create out-of-the-box PR campaigns. Below are a few words of wisdom they shared with the group of over 20 young professionals.
Brenda Lynch discussed the root of being a creative PR professional – tapping into your personal creativity. She offered the following tips:
· Be a kid again - discover things and places in a new and interactive way. Be insatiably curious. It helps to actually play with kids regularly.
· Seek inspiration at all times - examples include looking at billboards and bumper stickers, reading, experiencing nature and interacting with others. It's important to be a pop culture junkie too. Have your finger on the pulse of today's trends.
· Recharge your batteries - research shows that exercise and being stress-free help your creativity
· Hold a brainstorm with colleagues - PR professionals rely on brainstorms when beginning or re-evaluating a campaign, or sometimes to get short-term ideas. A few types of brainstorms are:
Switch or Dueling Brainstorms - two separate brainstorms occurring at the same time in different places
Spider - a variation of Switch - Groups of 8 switch one member out every 8 minutes
"Taking" From Others - focus on what is going on in the news/culture, then hone it to the best ideas for the client
Field Trip - get into character by visiting a place where the target audience frequents
Informal or Stealth brainstorms - take colleagues to lunch to discusss your current challenge, send out an email for ideas or post papers in the office kitchen for colleagues to write down ideas when walking by
Rose Maciejewski discussed implementing creative ideas into PR campaigns by highlighting several of her agency's recent campaigns including:
· The Launch of Myride.com - to fit Myride's consumer-driven style, one of her team's creative pitches used for driving traffic to Myride was naming the best and worst car names and including an opportunity for visitors to vote on the worst car names.
· Support.com's YouTube Video - a funny video was created by Rose's team to promote Support.com's services using the classic attention grabber - sex. The video has had more than 4,000 views to-date.
· Hook up with TiVo - Ruder Finn's client, TiVo, partnered with The Bachelor host Chris Harrison to offer one lucky contest winner the chance to be the "perfect match" for a new TiVo HD DVR (in other words, to win the product).
Meet Phyllis Hu - The Incoming YP President
What is your role at IW Group? What are the main facets of your job?
What has been your favorite PR moment?
I have had a number of memorable experiences, but one of the most fun accounts is our work for the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority. For the past few years, we have been organizing familiarization tours for some of the top APA media outlets to experience some of the best restaurants, shows and entertainment in Las Vegas. Last year we were given private cooking lessons at Aureole and had the chance to meet and interview some of the cast members of Cirque du Soleil's KA.
What are you most excited about for YP next year?
I'm extremely excited to work with the new board members and to brainstorm some new ideas that our members will enjoy and find helpful. The incoming board members have some great ideas and it will be exciting putting those into motion.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Join Us for Tap Into Your Creative Side - Nov. 7
November 7, 2007 - 6:00-6:30 P.M.
- 6:30 - Networking
- 7:30 - Program
The Rogers Group
1875 Century Park East
Suite 200
Los Angeles, CA 90067
The Rogers Group's Website
Brenda Lynch joined The Rogers Group as a senior vice president, heading up the Consumer Marketing Group, working with Bandai America, Whyville.net, Move, Inc., the Kellogg Company and White House Office of National Drug Control Policy's National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign. In addition to her award-winning marketing work, Brenda has provided extensive media coaching and training to several top-tier companies. She currently serves as an Adjunct Professor in the Graduate Program at Annenberg School for Communications at USC, teaching integrated marketing and crisis communications.
Rose Maciejewski is senior vice president and leader of the Ruder Finn West Technology Practice, where she develops and oversees award- winning communications initiatives that increase the visibility of consumer technology companies. Rose is an expert in creating multi-faceted communications campaigns that resonate with consumers. She currently works with SupportSoft, a tech support service; Autobytel, the first online automotive marketplace; StubHub, the largest online ticket marketplace in the world; and Voce, the premium wireless services provider.
Parking: Enter the Watt Plaza Garage on Century Park East. Please bring your ticket with you for parking validation.
Cost (pay by cash or checks at the door): $10 YP Members; $15 for Non- members; $5 for PRSSA Members
RSVP: To RSVP, please email yp_prsala@yahoo.com by Monday, November 5th. If you have any questions, please contact Phyllis Hu at phu@iwgroupinc.com or Bonnie Berkes at berkesb@RuderFinn.com.
Tips for PR Pros: October
KDPaine's PR Measurement Blog - provides information about how to measure public affairs, media relations, social media, internal communications and blogs.