School Daze

It’s week three of the early fall semester and I’m still standing, as I hope that most of you are. The IMC 619 class has been challenging so far and I don’t anticipate the deliverables getting easier any time soon. That’s usually a good sign. The more effort I put into my IMC studies, the more information I tend to retain when I need to recall some of the tactics at work. Our focus this week is on creating buzz via viral marketing, blogs and crowdsourcing. One of my favorite viral marketing campaigns of the past year was conducted by Warner Bros. while promoting the summer blockbuster, The Dark Knight. To read more about their work, check out this post on the MGH Word of Mouth blog.

Let’s Go…Mountaineers

Last weekend I participated in a true WVU rite of passage by attending my first Big East football game. From my initial taste of tailgating, to the outstanding aural sensation that is the “Pride of West Virginia” Mountaineer Marching band, the WVU romp over Villanova was truly a great experience from start to finish. If you are participating in the IMC program and have yet to make the pilgrimage to Morgantown to attend a game at Milar Puskar Stadium, than I’d recommend you visit StubHub while tickets are still available. Even though this program is completed online, in my opinion you can’t stake your claim to WVU without at least having some photographic evidence of being surrounded by the sea of blue and gold at least once. A big thank you goes out to our hosts for the game, Chad and Cathy, as well as Rick who showed us how to tailgate in true West Virginia style. My wife and my liver send their gratitude as well.

Katrina Part Deux?

On a less jovial note, my wife and I kept a close watch on the Weather Channel this past weekend as Hurricane Gustav progressed towards our former home, New Orleans. Luckily, the damage rendered to the Crescent City seems to have been minimal.

While the flood waters in the Big Easy may have been held in check, the flood of memories from our evacuation due to Hurricane Katrina three years ago were overflowing. Most of the time our drive from Uptown New Orleans to Houston, TX seems like forever ago. But this past weekend, the memories were fresh, as if we were quickly packing up a suitcase (for what we believed would be a long weekend) just a day or two ago. It’s funny what you remember about certain life changing events. I can barely recall the actual drive out of the city. I couldn’t tell you what time we left, or what hotel we stayed in outside of Houston. What I can remember is the flavor of daiquiris my sister and I grabbed as my pregnant wife drove us to safety. Only in New Orleans can you order a frozen Hurricane from a drive-through en route to evacuating an actual hurricane.

With a concerted effort to evacuate everyone this go round, I was curious as to the integrated marketing tools used by Mayor Nagin, Governor Jindal, and the rest. From what I’ve been able to gather, the local officials put into place a public relations campaign that featured press releases sent to and covered by the local newspapers, radio and television stations, and appropriate Web sites such as www.nola.com. Sometimes we can forget that the tools we are sharpening in the IMC program can be applied to more than just money making ventures…they can be used to alert citizens to a pending crises. Can there be a greater measure of success than saving a life?

Random Closing Thought

Is anyone else receiving the text message updates from either the Obama or McCain camps? So far they’ve communicated everything from their Vice President – picks to requests to support hurricane relief efforts. With over 219,400,000 cell phones being carried around the United States, text messaging blasts seem like a powerful tool for dispersing a concentrated message to a large audience, with a high rate of viewership. Unlike a solicitor’s phone call right as you’re about to put a shovel full of mashed potatoes into your hungry mouth, a text message can be read at any time. And there is no harm in reading it. You can choose to respond or not. Save it or delete it. The only downsides I can see are the cost to the receiver, as well as the ability to get permission to send the messages. Has anyone tried leveraging text messaging at work? If so, what’s been the response? Just curious.