Blog | Virginia Miracle

Missing Tim

By virginia.miracle | October 9, 2008

Since my last post 2 weeks ago, the world has changed dramatically. The financial world is collapsing, the presidential campaign has turned a very ugly page and I have no idea where to turn to learn each critical fact as it unfurls. Such an uncertain time has changed what had receded into a casual awareness of the lack of Tim Russert on the media landscape and cranked it up to an active longing.

Evidently I am not alone. Maybe it was seeing poor ancient Tom Brokaw attempting to wring value from the final presidential debate, maybe it was running into Tim’s son Luke on the streets of my neighborhood, but I started poking around to see if there are others who feel the same. Tim left us almost 4 months ago now, but the loss to the nation seems heightened because of this nasty election +economy one-two punch.

If you feel the same, check out the official MySpace tribute page featuring a greeting from Luke or 1 of the 187 tribute groups on Facebook. There have been a few new comments on these tributes in these last 48 hours since the debate. But for an immediate pulse on the emotion of the country, there’s nothing like Twitter.

The image above is just a snippet of the interesting Tim related tweets from the last few hours – you can check out the most up to date Russert tweets here – Maybe this is yet an additional use for Twitter – a tool to host a collective, primal scream for what we lost on June 13, 2008.

RIP. Elections and Sunday mornings will never be the same.

Where’s your brand AT?

By virginia.miracle | September 25, 2008

I am a huge, dorky, proud Bruce Hornsby fan. You may say “as in THE RANGE?” and I will just sniff and bore you with Bruce’s phenomenal career milestones since the Range went to pasture nearly 20 years ago. I had plans to go see Bruce a few weeks ago, but the show was canceled due to Hurricane Hanna. While checking his site yesterday in hopes of identifying another date I can make this year, I found this:

I’m sorry – what? “WHERE ARE THE LOCATIONS BRUCE IS PLAYING AT?” Did the webmaster need to go this far out of his way to ruin the construction of this sentence? How about the simple “Where is Bruce playing?” There’s no need to bring locations into this and certainly no need to abuse a perfectly good “at” by forcing it to dangle at the end of the question.

But, does it matter? Does your brand suffer for using incorrect or inappropriate language to communicate with your core audience?

While I was mildly perturbed about the situation, I decided to reach out to a true grammar authority – Jennifer Goff, formerly “Grammar Police” at Brains on Fire – and ask her if she thinks good grammar matters. In fitting style, she put it better than I ever could:

How you say something can be as powerful as what you say. Good grammar/spelling/language,

however you want to look at it, it’s the lowest common denominator of communication. And when I come across a person or a company or a brand that hasn’t taken that minimal time to just proofread, it makes me wonder what other details they’ll miss in my relationship.

Bruce, your music sounds just as sweet. I will still follow you all over tarnation. But please, remind your communications team that they should be vituosos in their own right and live up to the high standard set by you and the Noisemakers.

***AMENDED*** Please see below for an awesome comment from the Bruce Hornsby webmaster. What better quality is there for a brand than the willingness to listen to your customers and make changes? Come to think of it, didn’t Bruce write:

gonna be some changes, changes made
can’t keep on doing what i’ve been doing these days
look in the mirror I see a clown’s face
gotta take it off, gotta get myself straight

WOM-Worthy STAY-FIT @ Hyatt

By virginia.miracle | September 16, 2008

I am writing this in the Denver Hyatt Regency. I had not looked forward to staying here one way or another because, like my rental “oldsmobuicks”, a Hyatt = a Marriott = a Hilton for me. It’s all basically the same satisfactory experience.

The time change, however, has provided me with enough time to work out before my nutty day here. So, at 4am, I looked in the guest services for info on a workout room. Here’s what I found:

“The Stay Fit concierge is available 24 hours a day to assist you with your quest to “stay fit” while traveling. Our Stay Fit concierge can arrange to have fitness apparel, including workout shirts, shorts, socks, and even shoes delivered to your room.”

This OFFICIALLY takes away any excuse you might have come up with to stay in bed. And when you get to the gym? Big, modern, clean, loaner headphones, nice fluffy towels – the works. The result for me is that if I am in a city where I can not stay Kimpton, I may look for a Hyatt instead. This expereince has changed my brand impression more than any combination of ads could.

Have You Heard The Story of Rody?

By virginia.miracle | September 14, 2008

On a recent trip to Austin, my family paid a visit to my favorite toy store on the planet – Toy Joy on 29th & Guadelupe. While I have been making excuses to frequent Toy Joy for almost a decide, I feel totally justified shopping there now I have an actual child for whom to buy toys!

When we walked in, baby in tow, we saw a row of brightly colored blow-up…somethings – burros? ponies? It wasn’t clear. We were staring at them quizzically when one of Toy Joy’s incredible helpful sales staff directly asked us “Would you like to hear the story of Rody?” Who doesn’t love a great story? Here is what she told us.

Rody is made in Italy (subtext: not China).
The company that makes Rody ONLY makes the Rody – it is their specialty.
Rody is safe for small children but can be inflated further as the child grows – safe to 400 lbs.
They keep one of the store models a little more inflated so the adult staff can play.

By the time she got to her last point, 2 things had happened:

The saleswoman had mounted a blue Rody and was happily bouncing away.
I was whipping out my credit card convinced I would be depriving my child if he did not have one of these to play with on his first birthday.

When was the last time a salesperson told YOU a great story? Did you buy?

Storm Preparedness: Another Take on the Power of Community

By virginia.miracle | September 1, 2008

Last week I had the pleasure of joining the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes (FLASH) for their annual conference in Orlando, FL. Little did they know when the conference was scheduled, a huge opportunity for national communications about storm preparedness would be headed to the Gulf Coast just as the conference would be taking place. I was very impressed with FLASH’s surround sound approach to the influences on whether or not a community is prepared when a storm hits. Included on the speaking docket were:

TV meteorologists and severe weather experts who largely control how the mass media carries messages about weather and preparedness
local officials who most directly deal with the aftermath when communities are not prepared for a storm
insurance executives who can encourage preparedness through discounts for those who “harden” their homes
contractors who can influence their clients electing storm safe materials instead of chosing minimum building code standards
legislators who want to encourage private markets to solve the preparedness problem so it does not become public debt
home inspectors who can be trained to identify building weaknesses that would be vilnerable in the case of a storm
a Disney Imagineer who encouraged us to think differently because, in a world where Al Gore can win an Oscar for a Powerpoint presentation, preparedness could be made cool too. He has put his money where his mouth is by guiding FLASH’s creation of an Epcot experience illustrating the difference that fortifying a home can make called StormStruck.

If you are anything like me, you are probably thinking that I, with zero storm experience, was not qualified to join the above cast of characters. Technically, you’re right. It was, however, a great opportunity to discuss the role that social media can play in promoting preparedness. If a parrot dancing to the Backstreet Boys can “go viral”, why can’t the concept that your neighbor’s backyard junk can become a missile of airborne debris headed straight for your windows in a storm? Preparedness is not an every-man-for-himself game. There is power in communities and neighborhoods preparing together- be it a storm, a terrorist attack or a viral epidemic. But what role could social media play? Some starter ideas:

Empower communities with wikis that will indicate what homes have been fortified for storms and visualize the % to goal on a neighborhood basis. This type of accountability could add some positive social norm pressure to the goal of building strong homes.
Allow for those in hurricane prone regions to share referrals on contractors who are certified to build new or to bring existing home up to fortified “Code Plus” standards. Customers should be able to include their personal experiences with hose contractors.
Before a storm strikes, encourage your local community to get organized via mobile so that you know how to get updates on the status of your immediate neighborhood even while you are evacuated.
Identify and organize a single day (before hurricane season) around which to discuss Storm Preparedness that could be recognized on an annual basis. Create widgets that include instructions on assembling an on hand storm kit and the steps to fortifying your home. These could be distributed through the websites of local TV stations and then added to social networking profiles or blogs of those who care about preparing their community.

Other thoughts on new idea or best practices? How do you think social media could power storm or any other type of preparedness?