The Art of the No

November 11, 2010

This is the first in a series on psychological barriers to your marketing and PR When I was a freshman in high school I had a flirtation with an older boy who had a super hot car. God, I loved that car. It was a lovingly restored Camero. And I wanted to ride in it. [...]

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Unrequited love: a Smarties Tale

October 27, 2010

Once upon a time, it was the mid 1990s. Dot coms and New York real estate was booming. Bottle service was getting big. And just about every Off Off Broadway actor-producer decided that they would be in Vanity Fair. Wait, what? A tiny production in a small theater on the Lower East Side meant that [...]

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Celebrity sells (duh!)

October 20, 2010

I finally caught up with this eye opening piece from the New York Times Magazine about journalism in the age of the internet. The article, part of a magazine cover story on money and “worth,” takes a look at the new financial model of publishing, which is being pursued by scrappy upstart The Faster Times [...]

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Your brain on PR and marketing

October 6, 2010

Hello, my friends. Quick post today–the day job has been kicking my ass lately! But your brain has been on my mind a lot lately. Specifically, your psychological barriers to PR and marketing. Since I launched The Smarties Solution, I have had a number of conversations with different people about the DIY aspect. A number [...]

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Considering the “Reader Review”

September 30, 2010

My friend emailed this Lombardi marketing piece to me this week, with the subject line: “is ‘write a review’ naff?” He was talking about the Reader Review section of the New York Times, where regular people (like you and me!) can add our two cents about a theater production. It runs online only, under the [...]

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Three’s a trend! True Blood, Twilight and the Theater of Terror

September 23, 2010

While journalists often joke about the old adage “three’s a trend!” but trend stories can make for excellent feature opportunities. And while some consider trend stories downright ridiculous, in the world of arts and culture journalism, trend stories are extremely important to a tiny company. If pitching a trend story, the joke is true. You [...]

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The Jennifer Aniston breaks up Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie post

September 14, 2010

Did you see what I just did there? That headline was pure SEO. Search Engine Optimization. I had a client once call me all excited because “we’re the number 1 position when you Google our name!” Good God, I hope so! What’s more telling is what happens when people aren’t searching specifically for you. They [...]

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Are high tech solutions costing you audience?

September 2, 2010

Over the past 12 – 18 months, I have seen more and more companies eschew traditional marketing methods in favor of online solutions. In other words, no postcards are being created, or mailed. Season information is left to email alerts, Facebook and blog posts. One of my clients, however, still funnels a fair amount of [...]

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The dying art of live performance

August 26, 2010

Back when I worked with independent music artists (we’re talking like a decade ago!), Ariel Publicity was based in Colorado and Ariel was the shit. Her band roster was fantastic. But you would not necessarily see her bands in the New York Times, or even Rolling Stone for that matter. First, Ariel understood the audience [...]

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Synergy. Say what?

August 20, 2010

Today, I guest blogged for Mark Blankenship’s excellent pop culture blog The Critical Condition. While the post looks at Nickelodeon’s Tween TV show Big Time Rush, and discusses Viacom’s move into a more synergistic space with the various media properties, I think there is some takeaway for smaller companies. Specifically, the question I pose is: [...]

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