Podcast with Martin Waxman March 24, 2010

I thought what Martin Waxman had to say was very surprising. I expected a person using Skype and being very involved with public relations would be the first to tell you that being tech savvy and writing a blog everyday is a must. Although he did say it would be good and convenient to have some technological skills, he made it very clear that you don’t want to lose the basics when it comes to PR. That is very refreshing to me because I am definitely not a tech savvy person and have always relied on just my writing skills, a pen, and paper.  Times are changing to where it is very important to be knowledgable about a computer, blogging, and definitely social media. It still is relieving to me though that Mr. Waxman is still looking for the basic PR skills that we all learn in college and on the way to our careers.

Another thing that stood out to me was his three stances on PR which were: simplicity, energy, and integrity. These three thing are all so important to have when involved in public relations. Energy is what stood out to me the most because in this type of field, the hours and work can get exhausting so one must have energy to keep pressing on. One must not give up on his/her client so energy is a very important aspect to have when in PR, or for any field in that fact. I think Mr. Waxman was very interesting and even more interesting when I heard he works out of Canada. Most of my family is from North Dakota and some have lived in Fargo, so he hit close to home when he shared where he was from, and I would love to look more into PR firms and practices more around there! I appreciate Mrs. Nixon in sharing Mr. Waxman with us.

Link to get to podcast: http://www.screencast.com/users/barbaranixon/folders/Default/media/2bd677bb-7215-481a-9ba4-18925fb1d0cc

PR Connection: Haagen Dazs Honeybees March 15, 2010

Public Relation Professionals and Reps for Haagen Dazs were wanting to boost the sales of Haagen Dazs ice cream and were wondering how to come up with a campaign to do it. They started asking around to different colleges and researchers how ice cream was made and what was essential to it. Researchers for Haagen Dazs claimed that honeybees were a big help in the making of their delicious ice cream. The researchers from colleges all claimed that honey bees played a huge part in not just ice cream but all of our food. One-third of our food supply including fruits and veggies come from the pollination from honey bees.  The problem was is that honey bees are growing extinct as we speak.  Researchers can still not figure out why there are so many dying. Haagen Dazs decided to act fast and came up with “Help the Honey Bee campaign.”

In the campaign they devoted a special flavor in honor to save the honey bees. Vanilla Honey Bee. They created a web page and started creating a media frenzy around the new campaign and cause. When you buy this new flavor a portion of the profits will go to honey bee and sustainable research programs at Pennsylvania State University and the University of California at Davis.

The PR Practitioners at Haagen Dazs also came up with a unique way to get children and families involved. They suggest on their website to planting a garden to help keep the honey bees around. They also put a page in a magazine that is plantable.Goodby ran a paper insert in Newsweek that was embedded with seeds; consumers could plant the piece of paper, and, with a little water and sunlight, it would sprout into wildflowers.

This not only has helped keep the honeybees around; it has also sky rocketed Haagen Dazs sales and made their name even more public than it already was. It has become a hit in homes with families and smaller children. Not only did the children like to plant gardens to help in saving the bees, no kid will argue about buying more ice cream to save them!