On Our Radar.

March 18th, 2011 | Posted By Cassie Boorn

Each Friday we work hard to bring together the hottest topics in the world of PR, media, marketing, and pop culture. The best finds on the Web are contributed by different members of the agency and brought together to create a list of must-see topics. This week’s links were brought to you by Senior Account Executive Jessie DuPont and myself.

If you are spending anytime at all on Twitter you should know that this week was the annual SXSW conference in Austin Texas. Following this conference are posts laying out the hottest trends this year inspired by what they saw at SXSW. Mashable brought together a great collection of trends that will be important to every marketer in the coming year.

Our own Executive Vice President Rebecca Dickson had the chance to speak on a panel at SXSW. The panel, “Branded Documentary: A Case Study, Concept to Cannes,” was a discussion about how to develop and leverage documentary films as a means to spark consumer engagement and business results for brands and was attended by a mix of filmmakers, content creators and marketers. Rebecca joined the film’s producer, a Downy Assistant Brand Manager and a digital media expert and moderator, Lisa Pearson (a DVPR alumna) on the panel; the Downy Touch of Comfort short film was utilized as a case study.

One of the most talked about new services that debuted at SXSW was this new focus on mobile gaming, specifically scavenger hunts. Brands are already jumping on this trend and finding ways to apply it to their marketing tactics. Neiman Marcus partnered with mobile app scvngr to create an in-store scavenger hunt.

The hardest part of attending large conferences such as SXSW is keeping track of your contacts and new people you meet. There isn’t much time for taking your business cards and organizing them in an effective way so that you can follow up later. This year a new application was released that made trading information and organizing contacts nearly seamless. Hashable allows you to meet new people and keep track of their social networks in a simple one step move.

We have seen online video content grow in popularity over the past few years. With the ability to watch online video on computers, smart phones, and tablet devices the act of consuming video content is nearly seamless and can be a powerful tool for brands. As we saw with Smart Waters viral video tactic their short YouTube film garnered over 7 million views. Tech Crunch released an interesting article sharing some statistics about online video watching habits. Also, Fast Company brought together a list of the 10 most innovative video companies.

The DeVries Career Reboot Competition will be ending this Sunday. Make sure and submit your career story and resume for a chance to win a trip to New York and a day in the DeVries office learning from top executives! Also, follow #DVPRreboot on Twitter for career articles, advice and tips!

Cassie Boorn is the Social Media Coordinator at DeVries. You can also find her writing regularly at her personal blog.

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On Our Radar.

March 11th, 2011 | Posted By Cassie Boorn

Each Friday we work hard to bring together the hottest topics in the world of PR, media, marketing, and pop culture. The best finds on the Web are contributed by different members of the agency and brought together to create a list of must-see topics. This weeks links were brought to you by President Stephanie Smirnov, Managing Director Meryl Cooper and myself. Here’s what’s on our radar this week.

So many marketers are struggling to figure out how to navigate the digital space that they are beginning to turn to younger generations. The idea of reverse mentorship has become quite popular over the past year. Sometimes you are able to see technology in a new light when you talk to someone from a different generation. Some brands are now partnering with colleges for social media outreach.

LinkedIn has always been a great tool for professionals. The online network helps connect professionals with each other, share job openings and create groups with shared interests. This week Linked-In made an announcement that it would be entering the content sharing business. You can now follow topics of interest and Linked-In curates the articles that were most popular in those categories. LinkedIn has officially made figuring out what people are talking about a whole lot easier.

Charlie Sheen has been one of the hottest topics on the web this week. After he broke the world record for gaining the most Twitter followers and hosted a sponsored ad for Internships.com the discussion of influence once again ignited. Do we simply rely on numbers or is there another way to look at the influence a person has?

There are millions of great ideas floating around the Web. It is hard to keep track of who is doing what and what is working and what isn’t. Sometimes the best inspiration come from seeing what other people did that was successful. Inc has put together a list of the 10 most unique marketing events and Mashable has collected some really interesting mobile campaigns. Also, American Red Cross is doing some really interesting work on their Facebook fan page and Chevrolet did something fun with Play-doh!

Make sure and check out the Career Reboot Competition that we launched this week!

Cassie Boorn is the Social Media Coordinator at DeVries. You can also find her writing regularly at her personal blog.

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DVPR Career Reboot Competition

March 9th, 2011 | Posted By Stephanie Smirnov

Here at DeVries, we’re starting to feel spring awakening. Finally, the economy is on the upswing. Even better: PR is poised to be one of the fastest growing industries through 2018. Yet, as anyone will tell you, an economic upswing doesn’t eliminate the need to find a way to stand out from the competition, whether you’re looking for a new job or to get noticed at your current one.

A deep commitment to collaboration and community runs through everything we do at DeVries. Today, we are once again giving back to our community with the launch of the DeVries PR “Career Reboot” (#DVPRreboot), a month-long competition designed to help revamp the professional persona and pump up the prowess of one lucky PR professional. The “Career Reboot” program is our way to help cultivate talent and support the positive momentum that we’re seeing in the industry.

We were inspired to create this program by our own Managing Director Meryl Weinsaft Cooper, co-author of Be Your Own Best Publicist, the recently released book about leveraging PR skills to get hired and rewarded at work. The “Career Reboot” will offer one lucky PR person with a career “makeover” guided by some of the agency’s top executives. This full-day coaching session will include tips on acing an interview, networking successfully, revamping a resume, developing a strong social media profile as well as other skills needed to succeed in today’s crowded marketplace.

The competition is open to continental U.S.-based professionals with at least two years of professional work experience, currently in or looking to transition to the field of Public Relations.

Want to enter*?

Email reboot(at)devries-pr.com before March 20th with:

•          A 200-word career story: “Why I need/want a career reboot”
•          Your current resume with two (2) professional references
•          Links to social media profile (at least one)

A panel of PR executives will review and evaluate all entries. Five finalists will be selected based on the most compelling entries, which will then be posted on the DeVries Facebook fan page on March 22. Page visitors will have until March 28^th to vote for their favorite, most deserving entrant.

The person who receives the most votes will receive:

•          Transportation to/from New York
•          A one-night stay in a hotel
•          A full-day coaching session at the DeVries offices
•          Lunch with senior DVPR executives

Results will be announced on March 30th.

Watch this blog, or our Facebook and Twitter (#DVPRreboot) accounts for more details, and click here for official program rules.

Good luck!

* IMPORTANT NOTE: By making a Submission, you understand that your career story may be posted online if you are selected as a finalist, in accordance with the Terms & Conditions.

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Social Media Keeps You Young

February 24th, 2011 | Posted By Adrianna Giuliani

We are obsessed with being young. While we nip, tuck, diet, exercise and groom to turn back the clock–why don’t we consider friending, tweeting and commenting as equally important rituals in returning to a youthful state? It’s been my humble observation that people who are young at heart have discovered the most accessible fountain of youth—the internet. Below you’ll find my “theory” on how social media can be our digital botox.

1. Let’s You Hang Out with Your Friends: Remember high school days when we would clock hours on the phones with our friends every day, pick them up for school and pass notes between class? Well thanks to Facebook, email, IM and texts we can create a sense of digital togetherness by sharing experiences, humor and support. Even though you might not be able to get together to watch the Oscars you can still gossip about Natalie Portman’s laugh, in 140 characters.

2. Forces You to Channel Your Inner Optimism: From slacktivism to activism, we’ve seen the power of social media raise 38 million dollars for Haiti, fill 22 million bowls of rice for families around the world and generate 104K tweets per hour during the triumphant rescue of the Chilean miners. It’s almost enough idealism to make us believe we can help humanity with the click of a mouse .

3. Helps You Keep Up with the Kardashians (and the Beliebers): Was it Kim, Kourtney or Khloe that launched that perfume? Which mass retailer carries nail polish-inspired by Justin Bieber’s “My World?” You better find out — your niece’s 12th birthday is coming up.

4. Makes You Laugh: Weather it’s a sarcastic status update from an old friend, a cat playing the keyboard or Zach Galifinakis interviewing Jon Hamm Between Two Ferns, the internet provides an endless stream of content to ensure you are LOLing during the most mundane days. Plus the only thing funnier than discovering the hipster Ariel meme is passing it on.

5. Fuels Social Promiscuity: As we get older and enter into relationships it’s shunned upon to make new friends if there is a possibility of attraction. But social media provides a loop hole where meeting new people is embraced and relationships are centered around sharing ideas and networking. Who needs “monogamy” when you can have more followers?

Adrianna Giuliani is a Creative & Strategic planner at DeVries. She blogs about how technology and social media can create, crumble and confuse meaning in modern relationships. Read more on her blog Techromance or on the College Crush.

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On Our Radar

February 18th, 2011 | Posted By Cassie Boorn

Each Friday we work hard to bring together the hottest topics in the world of PR, media, marketing and pop culture. The best finds on the Web are contributed by different members of the agency and brought together to create a list of must-see topics. This week’s topics were contributed by Managing Director Meryl Cooper and myself. Here’s what’s on our radar this week.

DeVries works with a number of brands that have long histories of creativity and entrepreneurship. Last year we helped to launch a conversation surrounding one of our clients Pepperidge Farm and their interesting history. This week we were excited to see another client’s innovation and history being discussed. Business Insider highlights how Procter & Gamble invented the idea of branding.

Whenever we talk about innovation and creativity in the business world we cannot help but think about Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs has a long history of taking career risks and exploring innovative ideas that allowed him to create some of America’s favorite products. Here is a great slideshare full of stories and quotes from Steve Jobs showing how you can implement his techniques into your life, career, and business.

Mashable took us through a step-by-step look at the campaign behind the latest Toy Story film and how their social media efforts paid off.

Social media is always taken with caution in order to protect brands from any sort of crisis. This week the American Red Cross had a bit of a social media crisis when one of their employees accidently sent a tweet that was meant to come from their personal account. The honest way that the Red Cross handled the crisis led them to be somewhat of a hero in the social media crisis communications world.

We have all heard about the love-hate relationship consumers have with Facebook. This interesting relationship is being outlined and discussed over here.

More and more brands are trying out new social networks, specifically picture sharing services like Instagram. Brands have begun using Instagram to share stories and information with their consumers. This week MTV took to Instagram for Grammy coverage.

Cassie Boorn is the Social Media Coordinator at DeVries. You can also find her writing regularly at her personal blog.

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On Our Radar

February 14th, 2011 | Posted By Cassie Boorn

Each Friday we work hard to bring together the hottest topics in the world of PR, media, marketing and pop culture. The best findings on the web are contributed by different members of the agency and brought together to create a list of must-see topics. This week’s topics were contributed by Senior Account Executive Jessie duPont, Vice President Ryan Murphy and myself. Here’s what’s on our radar this week.

This week is Fashion Week in New York and designers, editors, and bloggers from across the world come together in celebration of fashion. Of course, not everyone can make it to all of the events and Mashable wanted to make sure that no one had to miss out on all of the fun! Here is a great guide to following Fashion Week online. Many brands are using Fashion Week and social media to support their marketing efforts in an organic way. K-mart launched a creative campaign in which they will be at many key Fashion Week spots handing out survival kits for bloggers and influencers. These kits include everything from Band-Aids to Chapstick making sure that Fashion Week is both fashionable and comfortable.

Facebook rolled out yet another new change this week. However, this time around the changes won’t affect most Facebook users but will affect brands. Facebook fan pages are going through some major changes that will both affect the way that your fan page looks as well as the way in which you can use it.

Anytime that you begin talking about social media you immediately find yourself in a conversation surrounding ROI and the benefits of the online space. Mashable released an article this week stating that marketers are optimistic about finding social media ROI. AdAge also released an article this week where one brand states that Facebook and Twitter have actually been more valuable to them than television!

At DeVries we spend a lot of time talking about moms and female consumers and what influences their purchasing decisions. There was a really interesting article published this week talking about moms online and how they use social media to make purchasing decisions and how this has affected the way that brands use social media to reach this target demographic.

In case you need some inspiration: An Experiment in Advertising Social Media Strategy.

In case you need a little laugh: Reunite Barbie and Ken.

In case you are looking for something new: Introducing Mashable Follow.

Cassie Boorn is the Social Media Coordinator at DeVries. You can also find her writing regularly at her personal blog.

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On Our Radar.

February 4th, 2011 | Posted By Cassie Boorn

Each Friday we work hard to bring together the hottest topics in the world of PR, media, marketing and pop culture. Here are a few things that are on our radar this week.

There has been a ton of buzz about websites that offer coupons and special deals to consumers. The pioneer of these group coupon sharing sites was Groupon. Recently, we have seen a number of these types of sites popping up. This week Walmart launched a program using their social media platforms to offer Groupon-like discounts and increase brand awareness.

Group sharing sites are not the only way that brands are offering consumers incentives and deals using the digital space. Facebook Places has partnered with retailers to offer deals to their users. When Facebook users “Check-in” to certain retailers they receive a discount or incentive from the retailer. This great article from PSFK breaks down how Facebook Places works for brands and how it will probably change and grow in the coming year.

There is always a lot of talk about using the social web as a listening tool. There are so many options when it comes to tracking conversations about your brand. Content and information is constantly being updated on the web and keeping tabs on the relevant conversations can be a major challenge. Ad Week published an article discussing the different ways in which brands can monitor conversations and what brands can do with that information. This is one of the best articles I have found on the topic and really explains social listening in a way that is helpful for someone completely new to the topic as well as someone who is well-versed.

Mashable announced a panel that will be taking place in the New York area very soon. A group of journalists are coming together to discuss the skills that emerging journalists will need to have in order to succeed. This is a very hot topic across the field of communications that we will continue to have as technology progresses.

New York Fashion Week has spawned a lot of conversation online from both brands and bloggers. Our own client Ecco Domani just launched their Facebook Fan Page in time for fashion week where they will share exclusive video content as well as tips from their Style Squad which is made up of four very influential fashion bloggers. Aside from that Blog Lovin just announced their first ever fashion award program: the Oscars of Fashion blogging. Blog Lovin will award fashion bloggers for their efforts in a number of different categories.

Cassie Boorn is the Social Media Coordinator at DeVries. You can also find her writing regularly at her personal blog.

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There are some great beauty tips being shared at our #client #039;s event today, follow the conversation at #PGVisionhouse and via @PGBeauty
2012-10-10
Here's some exciting news! We're crossing the pond: "DeVries creates London office after merging with IPG's @SlamPR" http://t.co/iZGTORRE
2012-10-08

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