Bateman Group has started off 2012 with a bang!  Today we kicked off our new partnership with a company called Adchemy based in Foster City, Calif. and led by CEO and Founder Murthy Nukala, a veteran leader of innovative, technology-driven businesses.

Adchemy’s mission is to help advertisers leverage consumer intent to create more effective digital advertising experiences. The company is backed by Accenture, August Capital, Mayfield Fund and Microsoft and in 2010 was listed by The Wall Street Journal as one of the top 50 venture-backed companies in the U.S.

Adchemy is a wonderful new addition to our digital advertising and marketing technologies practice. The account will be run by a spectacular team consisting of practice lead and Senior Vice President Bill Bourdon, Vice President Lisa Melsted, Account Manager Shannon Hutto and Senior Associate Kathleen Stuart. I feel confident this will be a long and fruitful partnership for both our organizations. Please join me in welcoming them to the Bateman Group family.

Lo and behold the return of the Bateman Buzz Meter, our ranking of recent newsworthy events based on PR and Social Media effectiveness. As always, please comment on any current news headlines or PR stunts you think are worthy of the Buzz Meter.

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We’ve all consumed the horror stories from journalists recounting tales of PR folks sending off base pitches, cc’ing journalists on inappropriate emails, or getting irate when an editor won’t take a briefing. The wind blows two ways, however, so we’ve cobbled together some stories from across the agency of some less-than-savory encounters with the media. Believe it or not, there were many stories to tell, so this is a two part series. Read on, and feel free to share your own anecdotes!

Bill Bourdon: Follow through is a key requirement of any successful PR program, or business for that matter. This includes following up with team members to ensure accountability on everyone’s respective roles, following up with clients on their deliverables, and also following up with media around pitches, client interviews, etc. The latter obviously involves a good deal of tact. For example, bombarding a reporter after a client interview via phone, email, IM and Twitter is a surefire recipe to agitate them and potentially get blacklisted. However, tactfully following up with a reporter a week after an interview with a client about a major launch to determine the status of the story and offer further assistance is a necessary part of what we do.

This is why I was shocked to receive a three-paragraph rant back from a certain editor in chief at a certain knowledge management trade publication upon following up with him very tactfully after arranging interviews with a client and one of their customers. Both my client and their customer had taken a lot of time to prepare for the interview and naturally wanted to know if the story was still planned. After politely following up more than a week after the interviews had passed, I received an ALL CAPS diatribe back from the editor threatening to blacklist me and my agency, and inform my client of my incompetence. Little did he know that little email temper tantrum put him on my own blacklist and I’ve never communicated with him ever since.

Elissa Ehrlich:  A former mobile client had us put out a globally generated press release about an analyst report that named their company as having top share of the CDMA handset market worldwide. A mobile trade publication called us to verify the numbers and asked us to speak to the analyst. When we went back to the client, well, it turns out that the report was not yet issued so they didn’t want to speak to any media about the story. We had to go back to the publication and tell them not to publish the story yet, even though we put out a release about it. The editor of the publication called me, yelled at me and said never in all her time has she ever experience such a travesty of PR (really? never anything worse than that?!). Moral of the story – don’t put out a press release about an analyst report without first checking that it has been published!

Amy Ziari: When good news turns to just plain awkward and sad: An editor from one of the largest national dallies called to say that YES, she would take me up on my offer to do an exclusive story on my client. Cue Amy trying but probably failing to contain her excitement! The high was very short-lived though when she then burst into tears, mumbling something about having a family member recently die, and then immediately hanging up on me. To this day, I can’t believe she still did the story.

Tyler Perry:  We were launching a client out of stealth mode. PR was obviously a major component of it, and the debut was happening at an RFID tradeshow in Vegas in a coordinated sales, marketing and biz dev effort.  Leading up to the launch, we lined up myriad pre-briefings, including one with the venerable Don Clark from WSJ. All were completely in agreement with the embargo, and we were very careful to make sure that each journalist got something “unique” for his/her story – a customer reference, an analyst, supporting product detail and images, etc.

So imagine my surprise when I received an angry call from my client a two weeks before the launch- the blog from a major IT trade had written an article on the company! I quickly scrambled to read it and discovered that the journalist had written a piece with language that looked eerily familiar…from my pitch. We had corresponded about the launch, and after he agreed to the embargo we sent him some additional information. He passed on a briefing as he didn’t feel it was right for his column, but obviously changed his mind. Fortunately we hadn’t sent him anything particularly damaging to the launch, but it did make for an awesome weekend of trying to hunt him down and request that he take the story down. He refused.  The launch went incredibly well, but I have never worked with this journalist again.

I am sure there are many more stories to tell…stay tuned for our second installment, but post some of your craziest scenarios in the comments below!

As the year comes to a close and we reflect back, there’s no denying 2011 has been an incredible year for Bateman Group. The surge we experienced in the fourth quarter; however, has truly been unprecedented. Today, we publicly announced our selection as agency of record by three exceptional companies. These recent additions to our client roster include:

Qualys — Based in Redwood Shores, Calif., Qualys is the leading provider of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) IT security risk and compliance management solutions. Qualys solutions are deployed in a matter of hours anywhere in the world, providing customers an immediate and continuous view of their security and compliance postures.

Antenna Software — Based in Jersey City, N.J., Antenna provides mobile business solutions that enable enterprises to build, deploy and manage applications, websites and content across myriad devices for employees, customers and partners.

Sociable Labs — Based in San Mateo, Calif., Sociable Labs provides on-site social commerce solutions for online retailers to maximize social sharing, referral traffic and conversions.

We’ve worked hard over the years to maintain a client roster notable for its diversity — particularly in terms of geography and market position. These recent wins only enhance this by adding an early-stage startup and two fast-growing market leaders that hail from Redwood City all the way to Jersey City. At the same time, Qualys, Antenna and Sociable Labs will strengthen our sector knowledge in IT security, mobility and social commerce markets, respectively. Today we took another big step in our journey to national prominence.

A warm welcome to all three!

The Future of Media Round Up features the top articles and blogs curated by Bateman Group on issues and events related to the convergence of technology, media and communications.

Here’s our take on the most disruptive news, commentary and insights about PR and media from the months of November and December 2011. Please share links to other must-read articles in the comments below if you think we missed anything.

Required Reading:

Redefining Public Relations in the Age of Social Media, The New York Times – From Nov.21 to Dec. 2, the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) sought submissions from public relations professionals, academics, and students and the public to help redefine what “public relations” means. The role of public relations has been significantly transformed by the Internet and social media. PR is no longer about solely managing the message. It has evolved to focus on facilitating the conversation between entities and their audiences. This why PRSA’s “Public Relations Defined” effort is calling for a “modern definition for the new era of public relations.” The last time PRSA updated its definition was in 1982. Interested folks can visit prdefinition.prsa.org to share their definitions.

Social Media Help Bosses Tell Their Story, Financial Times – More than three-quarters of the leaders of the 100 biggest US corporations do not have a Facebook page and only two CEOs use Twitter. But among twenty-something entrepreneurs running online companies, 100 percent are fully involved in the scene. The pros and cons aside, a strong reason to use social media is that can be the ideal platform for disclosing compelling stories that aren’t readily accessible to the public. “More practitioners in business should be out there describing their experiences and giving their opinions. It might help correct some of the misinformation promulgated by anti-capitalists, and the general skepticism about wealth creators expressed by much of the media.”

Occupy Movement Pushes CSR to the Tipping Point, CSRHub – The Occupy Movement is forcing banks to examine whether current  Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) efforts like philanthropy are enough. Facing the movement’s disastrous effects on client and employee loyalty as well as recruitment, financial firms are being pushed to seriously reconsider going beyond old-school deeds to show true leadership in “doing well by doing the right thing.”

Public Relations Won’t Fix Penn State’s Crisis, PRSAY (PRSA) – The multilayered Penn state crisis has raised a lot of questions and challenges around the university’s reputation. From a PR standpoint, “one thing public relations professionals cannot help people understand, and should never have to, are an organization’s moral and legal failings.”  PRSA’s own Keith Trivitt and Arthur Yann give their PR perspectives on the crisis and make the distinction that the crisis is a management issue and not a public relations issue.

Charlie Miller’s Punishment by Apple Tests a Complex Relationship, Huffington Post – Earlier in November, white hat hacker Charlie Miller’s relationship with Apple was damaged when the company said he violated the terms of his agreement after disguising an app to reveal a security flaw in Apple’s App Store. This incident reflects the tension in the partnership between companies and their security experts. Should flaws be disclosed privately to developers or publically? Bruce Schneier, a security expert, thinks that “if researchers don’t go public, things don’t get fixed…Companies don’t see it as a security problem; they see it as a PR problem. And if there’s no PR problem, it’ll never be a priority.”

Follow @BatemanGroupPR for more opinions on breaking news and issues.

Since opening our Brooklyn office in March of this year, we’ve seen our business on the East Coast expand rapidly — both organic growth as well as from some exciting new clients we will announce shortly.  As a result, we’re seeking candidates for a Senior Associate (Sr. Account Executive) position at the firm. Base salary is competitive and dependent on experience, plus a generous benefits package that includes 100% paid health, vision and dental insurance; 401K plan with company match; state-of-the-art technology including the latest laptops and iPhones; three weeks paid vacation the first year; nine paid sick days; new business referral bonuses; new employee referral bonuses; domestic partnership benefits; etc. Last, but not least, a nurturing working environment that supports life/work balance like no other.

The candidate should reside in the New York Metropolitan Area with an ability to work full-time from our offices near Park Slope in Brooklyn. He/she must able to set priorities and deliver results using excellent written and verbal communications skills. The candidate also should be accustomed to working autonomously under pressure, be extremely self-motivated, proactive and deadline-oriented. Furthermore, Bateman Group looks for people who are passionate about new and emerging technologies and social media, have an excellent client service ethic, proven experience with technology trades and business media and bloggers, a strong team orientation, and would enjoy the opportunity to work closely with agency senior management on their own career growth. Finally, he/she must able to leave their ego at the door, but not their sense of humor.

Responsibilities include:

—     Providing exceptional client service, from strategies to tactics

—     Creative, proactive communications and business development, including social media

—     Driving account activities, positioning ideas to managers and clients, implementing programs and presenting results as they follow

—     Content development including: plans, press releases, corporate backgrounders, customer case studies, speaking abstracts, awards submissions, contributed articles, etc.

—     Executing proactive editorial and social media/blogger influencer outreach programs

—     Contributing to business development initiatives and internal training programs as requested

Senior Associates (SAEs) should possess 3-5 years of related PR and social media communications or related professional experience, and have the following:

—     Pre-existing knowledge of at least one of the following subject matter areas: 1) Enterprise Software, i.e., application development, web content management; 2) Wireless/Mobility Solutions, e.g., mobile apps, broadband wireless switches; 3) Green/Sustainability services and/or other mission or cause-driven businesses.

—     Excellent organizational, communications (written and verbal) and time management skills

—     Established relationships with technology trade press/analyst/blogger communities as well as business press

—     Prior client service experience required; new business experience preferred