Zagat, the omnipresent restaurant raters, recently came out with their list of the best 20 movies ever made. 

I know everyone is thinking – what’s mine? Good question. Here’s my top 20:

1. The Godfather.  The wedding scene alone is worth the price of admission.  It’s the best movie.

2. Casablanca.  The original classic film.

3. The Searchers.  The best western ever made.  Period.

4. Gone with the Wind.  Epic story and great stars; who needs more?

5. Lawrence of Arabia.  Broad canvas.  A big picture that works. (more…)

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Milwaukee has many things going for it...including the Bronz Fonz!

Does it matter where you do your work? Is a press release about a socket better if it’s written in New York or Baltimore versus Milwaukee? Will I get more placements if my PR maven is in Manhattan and not on Water Street? Is there some kind of East Coast edge?

Well, in a word — no. We here in the fly over zone of the Midwest are pretty smart folks. We live in a region with plenty of water, great schools, a good transportation network (Chicago not withstanding) and a strong supply of knowledgeable professionals who want to dwell here. We’re in close proximity to major global manufacturers in a variety of markets, which makes it easy to visit them on a regular basis — that means face to face. Skype is great and GoToMeeting is a terrific resource, but they pale in comparison to actually being there. (more…)

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In recent weeks I have made a concerted effort to talk with government agencies, schools and other non-profits about our agency’s capabilities on the training front. Media training is a good example of this outreach.

We have a valuable service to present, especially for small businesses, entrepreneurs and technical professionals who have never considered marketing voodoo at the forefront of their business proposition. On the services side of the fence, we know it’s critical. But if you’re an entrepreneur digging for VC funding in the sand all day, a stray conversation with a blogger at a trade show doesn’t seem like that big a deal. (more…)

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That big open piece of paper is sitting there like dog doo on your desk.  It’s time to talk to your customers about your company, your ideas and your uber widgets.  What’s your message?  What’s your process?  How to start…

 Ah.  You need a message platform.

A message platform is a format that organizes your thoughts about a campaign, program or project into a logical, at-a-glance concept in a document (or on a napkin, if you like).  The idea is to capture the DNA of the campaign and construct it in a way that everyone can follow.

A good message platform is a living document.  It changes with new ideas, new products and a fast-moving marketplace.  And it drives content for everything from advertising and public relations outreach to trade show presence. (more…)

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Media training is like milled corn to a rodent, one time at the trough is never enough…or something like that.

The art and science of media training is the healthy respect that comes from knowing that the mic is always hot and that the reporter (or blogger) is not your long-lost buddy from college. It’s about understanding the 24-hour news cycle and knowing how you fit into it. And the focus is on getting as much value out of the media confab as possible. (more…)

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Peter Frampton

What does an aging rock star have to tell us about redefining the brand?  Well, in the case of Peter Frampton, quite a lot.

I recently saw the icon at Milwaukee’s Summerfest, the world’s largest outdoor music festival.  There he was on the banks of Lake Michigan, close-cropped hair, receding hairline – blue jeans and a long-sleeved shirt on an 80-degree night.  The last time we saw Mr. Frampton he was decked out in silk on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, bare-chested and blond locks flowing.  He had more the look of a teeny-bopper idol than a rocker.  And he paid the price in falling record sales, unhappy show goers (water jugs flung at the stage in Chicago; not good with all the electric wiring), few tour opportunities and diminishing capital. (more…)

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Here’s something that has never occurred to me before:  How many life-threatening “opportunities” does anyone navigate in a lifetime?  One, maybe two?  I would anticipate that the majority of folks don’t go out of their way to confront these situations, but there’s something to be learned from finding yourself there.

I recently had the chance to climb a switch-backed Montana mountainside.  It was steep, but my party made it to the crest of the first level without issue following the century-old path.  But then there was a secondary route to the jutting rock above the landing.  Why not? (more…)

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TNT announcer and former NBA player Charles Barkley can say anything...you can't.

On the heels of controversial comments made by BP CEO Tony Hayward about the ocean essentially repairing itself and that he’d like everything in his life to be normal again, company chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg leapt into the void… to make things better. He promptly made them worse by mentioning that BP cares about “the small people” injured by the oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico.

Do these two executives not have a legion of PR folks? (more…)

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In the wake of NBC-branded Ann Curry’s commencement speech gaffe (uncertainty about which Wheaton College she was really addressing, there’s one in Massachusetts and one in Illinois), here are some thoughts for our news brethren from a regular-guy flack:

Everyone in a coat and tie who works in an office building is not an executive.  If I’m 22 years old, it’s my first day on the job working as a file clerk at XYZ Company and I wear a tie to work, am I an executive?  If a reporter from channel Z catches you in front of the building while it’s burning and talks with you, you are. (more…)

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The brats are boiling in beer you would never drink, a Cancun-like heat is rolling across the deck and you’re thinking about not mowing the lawn. This is Memorial Day, right? Well, maybe it shouldn’t be. (more…)

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