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.

To say that 2011 was a big year for the media, technology and PR industries would be a huge understatement. We saw LinkedIn’s IPO, the firing of Michael Arrington from TechCrunch, the firing of Carol Bartz from Yahoo!, the launch of Google+, the unfortunate passing of Steve Jobs and much, much more.

Here are some predictions from several Bateman Group staffers, including yours truly, on the biggest trends and events we believe will unfold in the coming year.

Tyler Perry, Vice President

The Continuation of Page-Driven Journalism — Media properties are fighting for eyeballs, so we will continue to see ridiculous headlines and extensive coverage of the same five brands.

A Backlash on Daily Deals/Group Buying — Many brands are using this as a marketing tactic, but the increasing deal fatigue will make this less of an effective strategy. The incentive must be attached with other value.

More Companies “Doing Well by Doing Good” — Using the digital medium or gaming techniques to help people live better and help solve some of the global issues we are facing, but paralyzed to solve from a government leadership standpoint.

The Mobilization of Business Will Change the World of Journalism — It has already shifted the game with advertising, marketing, e-commerce and collaboration. Now that people are consuming more and more content on smartphones and tablets, will journalism shrink its content accordingly?

 

Lisa Melsted, Vice President

Corporate social media responsibilities will continue to fall on PR…but not forever — Social media responsibilities are increasingly being placed on PR firms and outside teams.  As companies try to figure out what their roles should be regarding social media and struggle with internal bandwidth for implementing these programs, those responsibilities will increasingly fall to their PR teams. This trend will likely be short lived however.  Much like the website building capabilities that fell onto PR and advertising firms with the advent of corporate websites in the late 90s and early 2000s, these responsibilities will likely be pulled back in-house over the next 3-5 years as more people build up expertise in social media and the responsibilities for corporate blogging, Tweeting, etc., become full-time jobs (much like website management). PR and ad firms will lead the way for now and should take advantage of this climate for the time being, but should not count on these programs (and revenue from them) to be within the purview of the outside firms forever.

Siri Will Disrupt the Way We Communicate — Apple’s voice recognition/search technology will begin with a slow build and then skyrocket and totally change the way we interact with our phones once again.

 

Rod McLeod, Senior Associate

TechCrunch takes a status hit, becomes a better publication — TechCrunch and ValleyWag were probably the first two tech blogs that I read when I began working in the tech industry. I always found TechCrunch offered a pretty high level of quality and kept me up to date with trends I found interesting. And after a month of reading ValleyWag, I lost interest after I read a few too many articles that were written in poor taste.

I’m sure everyone has been keeping track of the recent CrunchFund debacle and the exodus of top brass like Michael Arrington, Paul Carr, MG Siegler and now Sarah Lacy, but I think that this will usher in a new era at TechCrunch. I never worked with any of the previous editors, but I’ve certainly heard stories of the rage of Michael Arrington from other PR colleagues (see the comment section on a previous Bateman Banter post for yourself), as well as first-hand stories from friends who work at top-tier startups. However, I have worked with a few of the younger writers in TechCrunch’s stable, and I only have positive things to say about them.

I think that TechCrunch will begin to take a more journalistic approach in 2012 and beyond. I’m talking embargos, no more blackmail or “revenge” and FULL disclosure – yes, I said the “D” word. While this won’t reverse the site’s horrid redesign, it will improve the quality of an already highly-regarded publication, and also make it easier to develop and foster real relationships with TechCrunch writers.

 

Amy Ziari, Senior Associate

Competition will increase over “Celebrity” reporters — Jolie O’Dell goes to VentureBeat. Josh Constine and Sarah Perez to TechCrunch. Robert McMillan to WIRED. Ashlee Vance (an author of one of my favorite books about Silicon Valley) to Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Blogs and news outlets are in a feverish race to add reporters that come with their own loyal audience – and personal panache – into their fold. Expect to see more of this in 2012 as competition heats up among the top technology, business and venture news outlets to acquire the same “celebrity” writing talent. It’s not just about the words anymore.

Bill Bourdon, Senior Vice President

Creating a Google+ Business Strategy Will Not Be a Top Priority — Google recently launched Google+ brand pages, which generated a good amount of fanfare and positive reviews in true Google fashion. But here’s the rub: investing time and resources in Google+ will not be a big priority for businesses in 2012.  At least it shouldn’t be. It doesn’t matter if Google+ is better or even if the SEO value of Google+ brand pages is superior to Facebook. It ultimately boils down to market share, and Google was just too late to the consumer social media game to engage a critical mass of users, let alone the early adopters. I don’t think Google+ will be shut down next year – there’s too much at stake. But the service will definitely need to reinvent itself to become viable. Robert Scoble and others are predicting Google will extend its social software to enterprises that can use it to network and collaborate internally, akin to Yammer and Salesforce Chatter. Seems like a reasonable move to capitalize on their investment to me.

 

Elissa Ehrlich, Director

As Social Media Matures and Shakes Off Some of the Hype, PR Will Get Back to Basics — With the explosion of web content and social media engagement, PR has been increasingly viewed as the more valuable and strategic marketing function when compared to advertising. Indeed, PR is owning more and more the content companies push out to their audiences. Why? I feel its because we’re already engaged in a conversation with these constituencies and can communicate more authentically than our friends on the advertising side. The PR industry has been forced to reinvent itself in recent years and I think we’re almost done with the transformation. I do know this - PR pros are once again in high demand. We can’t find people fast enough and we’re turning down great new business leads due to lack of staff!  This is proof that the approach that many agencies are taking is working, and companies are finding value in the work that we do.

Social Media Fatigue Sets In – Already, it’s the same people on your Facebook news stream posting mundane updates, and no one cares all that much about Google+.  While social media will continue to be important for many brands, perhaps in 2012, we’ll get back to the basics and return our attention to securing quality media coverage in highly credibly publications, establishing our clients as true thought leaders in their industry sectors, and other “old fashioned” PR programs like placing keynote speaking engagements and pursuing awards.

Fred Bateman, CEO and Founder

Facebook will be bigger than Google — Facebook will go public and eclipse Google in market capitalization — perhaps permanently

Silicon Valley Will Be the Next Madison Avenue — Just as technology talent is finding its way to New York City, the reverse will also happen.  As Facebook and Twitter start generating more revenue, advertising and marketing talent will start heading West to cash in.

Cloud Computing Will Continue to Reinvigorate the Software Market — Business applications and data are moving to the cloud at a rapid pace and it’s not going to stop there. The day will come when companies outsource not only their software, but network infrastructure as well. The main beneficiaries will be the SaaS companies with the foresight and agility to go where the market is heading, not where it is today. Just as we’ve seen Salesforce, SuccessFactors, Qualys, Zuora, Taleo, NetSuite, Box and Workday grow into successful companies seemingly overnight, I predict there will be others to emerge to join this group, benefiting all of us who make our living from the tech sector, either directly or indirectly.

Consumerization of IT Will Continue to Impact All Corners of Technology — Soon, it will be standard across the software industry for all vendors, regardless of sector, to offer freemium or very low-end products as a point of entry for individuals or small businesses, including mobility, security and virtualization.

Today we publicly announced our selection as agency of record by Motista of San Mateo, Calif., an El Dorado Ventures-backed start-up focused on providing CMOs and marketers with a one-of-a-kind on-demand consumer connection intelligence solution.  With this win, we add another client to our growing Marketing Technologies practice made up of companies offering innovative products and services to CMOs and other senior marketers.

To quote our own Bill Bourdon, there’s arguably no other business function being disrupted more by technology right now than marketing. Our work on behalf of current clients such as Baynote and Recyclebank, as well as past clients like Passenger and BrightEdge, has made us acutely aware of the unique pressures experienced by senior marketing executives, regardless of the industry sector. We were immediately blown away by Motista’s vision and unique offering — a web-based application that delivers highly sophisticated consumer connection intelligence specific to brands, segments, competitors and industries and puts it directly into marketers’ hands.

Just by logging in to Motista, marketers can find immediate answers to questions, test and justify hypotheses; in addition to discovering and exploring new ideas — all on-demand, in real-time at the true pace of business. Powerful consumer connection intelligence marketers can start using right away, across all marketing programs, campaigns or strategic challenges, just by logging in. The potential impact of this cannot be overstated.

Unique technology, defensible IP, a real problem to solve — Motista has it all.  This partnership has gelled seamlessly, largely due to the efforts of the stellar team of Bill Bourdon, Lisa Melsted and Rod McLeod working side-by-side with our fantastic marketing contact, Paula Cavagnaro.  Now, if we could just find 30 or 40 more companies just like Motista…

Another week, another ethics scandal here in Silly Valley…

Last week we were all a-Twitter about a PR debacle featuring Facebook and PR firm Burson-Marsteller each throwing mutual blame on the other for a smear campaign that was undertaken against Google. The campaign in question?  Planting stories with the press about Google invading people’s privacy and encouraging influencers to dig into the company’s privacy policies in an attempt to divert some of the negative attention related to privacy away from themselves.  Burson got caught with its pants down when a blogger exposed them and The Daily Beast broke the story, accusing Burson of starting a whisper campaign against Google.

This is ugly on so many levels, not the least of which is how it undermines the already tenuous relationship that we as PR practitioners have with reporters. We have a symbiotic, but sometimes tenuous relationship with each other already—and for a supposedly “world-class” PR firm to be caught planting smear campaigns on behalf of a client doesn’t help those of us who do honest work on behalf of our clients on a daily basis.

This one should be pretty simple, folks.  Don’t spread mistruths, don’t work with companies who want to hire you just to muck rake against others.  I’m sure every PR firm in Silicon Valley and elsewhere can tell you stories about potential clients that have come to them with “projects” that are not on the up-and-up.  I know we’ve gotten calls like that before—and we’ve turned them down.  And if you do have the lack of principle to take such an assignment, at least own up to it when you’re caught (and you will be caught eventually). And then don’t throw the client under the bus to deflect blame. (Both Facebook and Burson are now trying to throw each other under the bus, each blaming the other for the incident—in the words of my 10-year old self: “How gross.”)

I’d like to think the majority of us who do practice PR for a living go about promoting our clients and their products in an ethical way. Does that include presenting them in the best light possible? Sure, but I’m not about to lie or spread rumors about other companies on behalf of a client.

It’s an industry cliché that PR is all about “relationships,” but when it comes down to it, it often is.  When we are fortunate enough to be able to build relationships with the reporters we work with, it’s because we’ve put a lot of time and effort into doing so and because those reporters know that we can be relied upon to give them the stories they need. They trust us to do that.  As with any relationship, trust is key. Breach that trust by lying or cheating or not being reliable and there goes the relationship.

As embarrassing an episode as this is for our industry as a whole, it’s both Burson-Marsteller and Facebook’s reputations that will ultimately suffer. I suspect Facebook will recover faster—Mark Zuckerberg has already proved himself to be a Teflon executive despite the company’s controversial beginnings and Jesse Eisenberg’s portrayal of him as a sniveling weasel in The Social Network. As TechCrunch’s MG Siegler points out, Facebook’s deflection of this situation is smart and they’ll come out relatively unscathed because the company is a bell weather of the second Internet boom and a part of the fabric of the tangled Web. This despite the fact that the company has an all too well-documented habit of not always doing the right thing.

Instead, it’s the PR firm that will likely end up taking most of the heat for the client, which is unfortunate because each party is equally to blame.  For Burson, it’s going to take a long time until reporters look kindly on pitches they receive from anyone with a Burson-Marsteller address again.  For a firm whose purpose is to manage reputations, they should have known better—theirs will be stained now for quite some time.

Earlier this week on Tuesday, March 1^st, Bateman Group along with fellow boutique PR agencies Mindshare PR, Kulesa Faul, Page One PR and Borders+Gratehouse co-hosted the third in an ongoing series of professional development events. The events — jointly organized and produced by all participating firms — are informal, intimate learning opportunities designed to encourage authentic interactions and, ultimately, cultivate stronger, mutually beneficial relationships between and among PR professionals and industry influencers we serve.

This most recent panel discussion brought together three of the most prominent names working in IT trade journalism today — Eric Knorr, the editor-in-chief of InfoWorld; Doug Dineley, executive editor of the InfoWorld Test Center; and James Niccolai, deputy news editor for IDG News Service. Yes, all three work for the powerhouse publisher IDG; however the similarities truly end there. Each panelist hailed from a different corner of the IT trade eco-system, including editorial direction and oversight, product testing and reviews; and breaking news. The result was a lively discussion moderated by Bateman Group Managing Director Lisa Melsted and attended by more than 30 PR professionals of all experience levels.

The discussion was successful in preempting the iPad 2 announcement, which took place on March 2^nd, and focused mainly on the changing tech journalism landscape, i.e., what’s driving it, what’s shaping editorial content, what are the hot trends, etc. Without further ado, here are some highlights from the panel:

1. Biggest challenges in the tech media landscape: The first question set the tone for the discussion by addressing how quickly media is evolving. Eric spoke about the shift from print to online that has caused journalists to rethink what content they publish and how they publish it. To the dismay of many of our clients, Eric reiterated that IT journalists are no longer covering product news like they used to, but now tend to focus more on larger trends. James expounded on Eric’s initial thoughts by stating how the need for immediacy has directly affected journalistic accuracy. He also mentioned the need for journalists to develop their own voice while still maintaining impartiality since the advent of blogging has led more journalists to create narratives and styles of their own.
2. Rest assured the Internet still rewards value: Amidst an ϋber-plethora of Facebook, Apple and Groupon articles, many of us in the PR industry have a hard time getting coverage for lesser-known brands. Eric Knorr told us that quality content is still the biggest driver in tech journalism. Doug chimed in saying that the advent of online metrics, such as article page views and organic search rankings, has caused journalists to consider keyword usage in headlines, but the body of the articles remains mostly unchanged. The panel agreed it will be interesting to see how tweets and Facebook “likes” will be measured moving forward.
3. New delivery platforms translate into new rules of engagement: Today’s iPad announcement emphasizes new delivery platforms that are becoming increasingly mobile. Tablets are built on multimedia capabilities, while mobile devices such as smartphones clearly point to a trend of needing information at one’s fingertips. Gone are the days when journalists were only expected to produce compelling content because they are now being expected to expand their capabilities to include podcasts, video production and active tweeting. The promising aspect of this trend is that journalists are learning to deliver relevant content based on the context of their audience, which bodes well for our clients Baynote and CoreMedia.
4. Hot trends in the tech industry: According to the panelists, emerging trends other than cloud computing  and the omnipresent “mobile everything” include “Big Data,” new open source distributed software frameworks such as Hadoop, the consumerization of IT, power efficiency, desktop virtualization and browser-based computing. Eric asked the obvious question, “What’s next for Windows now that its truly losing relevance” due to the shift to web-based services. In an audience of PR professionals, the inevitable question was asked: “What articles drive the most traffic?” The answer: “Best of” and technology awards articles have perennially done well at InfoWorld, and Doug shared that any article on free tools or Open Source were quite popular as well. (As an aside, I have to agree with him–thinking about how that applies to my life, at least 25% of the apps on my iPhone were downloaded after I read a “best iPhone app” article, and probably all of them were free!) Eric mentioned that articles about IT culture were also popular, such as the world’s “dirtiest IT jobs”. The Quora question that asks about the preferred alcoholic beverage among the IT security community would be an interesting one if it ever takes off – I’d have to go with Cosmos as the dark horse here.
5. PR Pet Peeves: After seeing the flaming of an unprofessional PR flack on TechCrunch earlier this week, we had to ask about PR pet peeves. James mentioned ambiguous press releases that leave journalists wondering what they’ve read after they read it. Okay, it’s a “solution” but is it software, hardware, a web service or what? Doug’s pet peeve was being pitched on a technology that he doesn’t cover (read: PR people need to perform their due diligence before pitching targets). It was assuring that all of the panelists actually do read emails from PR professionals, but lack the bandwidth to always reply.

Based on all of this great insight from Eric, Doug and James, it’s no wonder why IDG and their mainstay tech media properties like InfoWorld have not only survived but actually thrived during this difficult transition to digital publishing. They’ve done this by having foresight on those trends expected to dominate industry discussion in the future and being the first to put a stake in the ground on these issues. Case in point: Search for “cloud computing” in Google and you’ll see InfoWorld’s “What cloud computing really means” article from a year ago ranks second in the organic search results. They have also evolved quickly. When InfoWorld moved their entire content model online a few years ago, many assumed it was the end for them, but this couldn’t have been further from the truth. IDG publications have also been early adopters of social media channels like Twitter and Facebook to drive traffic, and are quickly adapting to new user devices like the iPhone and iPads. But what’s most at the heart of their success is that each of their media properties has stayed true to their core audience and brand.

These panels allow us to look at things from the journalist’s point of view, leading to more thoughtful angles and pitches that will ultimately translate into improved media relations. If you’re interested in attending our next panel discussion, please feel free to contact us.

On June 25, 2009, we launched Bateman Banter, the Bateman Group‘s official blog on topics and trends in communications, public relations, marketing, social media and technology  – and the areas where those topics intersect.  We thought our growing readership would appreciate a recap of the blog’s most popular posts from our first six months. For those of you visiting Bateman Banter for the first time, this post will do a good job catching you up. We’re looking forward to seeing all of you return for more Bateman Batner in 2010.

Bateman Buzz Meter – Editions One, Two and Three. The brainchild of our very own Shannon Walsh, Bateman Buzz Meter is our take on the best and worst industry headlines and PR campaigns . From the Tiger Woods fiasco to Facebook’s new privacy settings and lots in between, the Bateman Group organizes the latest news, PR stunts and blunders in a colorful and easy to read matrix each month.

12 Days of Christmas in Silicon Valley. If you haven’t seen it yet, our holiday video card features the Bateman Group’s special rendition of the 12 Days of Christmas performed by the amazingly talented Gale Bradley Singers. Fred put it best when he described the video as “a parody of what we can only call ‘Silicon Valley values’ at a time we can all use a good laugh.”

Open Social Media Strategy Pays Off for Panda Security. This post highlights how the Bateman Group’s client Panda Security has embraced social media to transform itself from an introverted and technology focused company to an open organization that is able to better interact with its customers, partners, and employees.

Are spokespeople going the way of the dodo? In this evocative post inspired by a Wall Street Journal article, Tyler Perry (not to be confused with Tyler Perry) answers the question: Will corporate blogs replace company spokespeople?

37 Signals Satires Twitter Valuation: Why Didn’t I Think of That?! In this post by yours truly, I call out the best tech industry PR stunt of the year: 37Signals’ satirical press release about its billion dollar valuation in response to Twitter’s one billion valuation. 37Signals’ CEO Jason Fried jokingly justifies his company’s valuation based on investors who are paying $1 for 0.000000001% of the company. Brilliant.

Facebook vs. Twitter: Which is Better for Marketing your Business? In this controversial post inspired by a New York Times article, Lisa Melsted offers her prediction about how B2B versus consumer brands will get utility from Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter in the future.

To Embargo or Not to Embargo? Prompted by the Wall Street Journal’s decision to no longer honor  embargoes,  Tyler Perry discusses the implications of this policy shift for brands, PR, and the broader media landscape. Only time will tell what embargo policy shifts are in store for 2010.

PR or Advertising: Who Should be Managing your Sponsored Conversations? In this post I introduce the emerging and somewhat controversial concept of ‘sponsored conversation’ and explain which camp, PR or advertising, is better positioned for success in these new waters. And the winner is…PR.

Bateman Group speaks out on information overload. The fragmentation of the media landscape and explosion of the blogosphere has made it increasingly challenging for PR practitioners to stay on top of not only the news, but the conversations most relevant to our clients. In this great video post by Amy Ziari, she interviews some Bateman Group employees about the history of how PR firms have monitored media and what tools they use to stay productive in an era of information overload.

Finally Putting “The Article” to Bed. In this witty and insightful post, Fred weighs in on the heated debate sparked by Claire Cain Miller’s July 4^th New York Times article on the Evolution of PR in Silicon Valley. Fred offers some great perspective on the different styles of PR, comparing and contrasting approaches perfected by new kid on the block Brooke Hamerling and industry veterans like Andi Cunningham.

Introducing Bateman Banter, the official blog of the Bateman Group. Fred pens the inaugural Bateman Banter post and lays out our editorial mission and unique P.O.V.

Thanks for your feedback and inspiration over the last six months since Bateman Banter has been and please continue to join the conversation by sharing your thoughts and perspectives with us.