Come for the food, stay for the games—an interview with Joystiq Editor-in-Chief Ludwig Kietzmann

While the concept of “media relations” is just one of many key aspects within the world of PR, it is undoubtedly a more crucial component. However, in all our time speaking with journalists and setting up interviews, we seldom get the chance to really question those editors back in a formal Q & A of our own. After agreeing to an interview because he’d “love to inflict transcription on someone,” I had the chance to catch up with Joystiq Editor-in-Chief Ludwig Kietzmann over a San Franciscan brunch where, between delicious cinnamon French toast bites, we discussed his views on where the games industry is going and how PR pros can get his attention. And one more thing, journalists, this transcription thing you all do—I tip my hat off to you.

David: Thank you for taking the time to chat, I’m sure you’re very busy. You are busy, right?
Ludwig: Umm…I don’t think I have anything to do today. I was going to do my laundry; I probably wanted to clean my apartment.

D: Were you going to do anything with the website at all?
L: What website? Oh crap, that thing… I better go.

D: Well first off, you’re brand new to San Francisco in a sense. You’ve been here how long now?
L: Well I’ve been here multiple times through 6 or 7 years, I usually cover GDC, so I’m familiar with the city but this is my first time living in it. I’ve been living here for about two months and, in one of those months, in the apartment that I’m going to stay in forever.

D: Forever? Sounds like you’ve staked out your district, very cool. Why San Francisco? You came all the way from South Africa, you could have went to New York.
L: I could have. I could have gone to any place in the middle of U.S—Chicago. I could have gone to Las Vegas or Miami. San Francisco seems like the obvious choice because it’s really the industry hot bed. I mean I think there’s a lot of contacts here, a lot of events, a lot of coworkers… oh yeah Dave Hinkle – he works here, it’s nice to have some back up for him rather than have him cover everything.

D: Dave Hinkle… I don’t know about that guy sometimes [laughs].
L: I don’t know, I’m getting to know him for the first time now [laughs], and in close proximity. But like I said, it makes sense to me. We needed someone to cover the news cycle in this time zone because we try to have this side updated throughout most of the day. It slows down obviously when everyone goes to sleep, that’s really convenient. And the city, it’s one of my favorite cities in the U.S. Of all the major cities I’ve visited, I really like this one. I like the weather. I like the architecture, the very nature of the neighborhoods.

D: You’ve been in this… game, as it were, for quite a long time. What are some of the favorite types of games you like to review? What are your favorite genres, if you had to pick a few?
L: I like a lot of genres. I wouldn’t specifically lock myself down to specific stuff because, usually, I’ll be interested in certain aspects of all kinds of games. I find it that the games that are most fun to review are the ones that are sort of middle-of-the-road. We could sit down and write a dashing review like, “Oh my God this game is amazing. It blew my mind, it blew all parts of my body, I can’t believe that the amazing stuff of this game is almost perfect.” Or the game was like, you slam it because you hated it, you hated everything about the game. Those kinds of reviews come out really easily but the ones that are, you know, a little bit more mixed, you really have to think about what you’re going to say. How are you going to convey what’s good and what’s bad about it, sort of give the game a fair chance to be judged whether or not it was successful or what it wanted to do. Those games are the most interesting to review, and those are usually my favorite games—ones that are bold but imperfect.D: What is it that you would want to see more of from developers and publishers, from a journalistic standpoint? What can they do to help you guys do your job? And also from the development side, is there anything that you would like to see that hasn’t been done yet or something that you don’t see enough of?
L: If they want to make my job easier, they would let down some of the barriers. There are many channels you need to go through, which are very regulated and strict and slow. Giving us the access to games and inviting us to studios, showing us how the game is made—we don’t necessarily have to write about everything, we aren’t looking for every single little detail to throw on our front page—we want context and see how a game is shaping up; it increases our understanding of the game. That’s how Hollywood works; Hollywood doesn’t keep quiet about certain aspects of the movie. Like “we can’t tell you who is the actor, we know who it is, but we aren’t going to announce it until two weeks before the movie comes out.” That never happens with Hollywood. They are excited to talk about their movie. I want game development to be like that, more open so that we can see stories that are interesting, have some more transparency so that we can spot those things and write about them and aid the profile of the game; I think that’s a win-win scenario.

As for development, I think the biggest danger facing popular big-budget games right now is that it’s sort of designed by a committee. I feel like there are so many factors that need to be considered in terms of budget, and reach, and satisfying the audience. Studios are almost too terrified to try things that might rub ten percent of the players the wrong way. What may have been an interesting idea gets watered down because there is a need to placate everyone. That pipeline of game design which goes through a bunch of people who test the game and make sure that everyone will be happy with it—that makes a good game, it makes for a good game design, it’s important but you could really stomp some of your passionate ideas flat though. You lose out on spikes, and I think games with spikes that maybe rub you the wrong way sometimes will make you feel some kind of emotions whether it’s frustration or elation. That’s something that you lose when you smooth it all out and put it on a nice curve. Those games are valuable, but I think that the expensive crazy ideas are something that will eventually lose. We’ll see [crazy ideas] in indie games…

D: Definitely. There’s been a huge surge of those in the last couple of years. We’ve seen Limbo, Braid, we have Fez coming out, there’s a lot of creativity out there from a lot of developers that aren’t afraid to try things because they don’t have that high budget. They also don’t have those fans.
L: Exactly. The only studios that maybe don’t get enough credit for making crazy big budget games are some of the Sony studios, like The Last Guardian and Shadow of the Colossus. Those are unusual ideas to be spending a ton of money on. Mass Effect, I think, deserves more credit because they are spending a lot of money…

D: Are you saying they don’t get enough already [laughs]?
L: They are spending a lot of money on things that players might have not even seen. That is the most impractical kind of game design that there is. I would be very surprised if we kept seeing games like Mass Effect, like especially to that scale. Ubisoft Montreal, honestly, they do a lot of sequels but one of their games is a historical action game with multiplayer. You know, Assassin’s Creed. Yes, it’s a popular franchise but, in the grand scheme of things, it’s a very unusual concept and they went with it and that is something to be celebrated.D: Tell me, what is the most outrageous pitch you’ve ever received? There’s got to be one out there.
L: You know, there was one recently where someone pitched us interviewing Vern Troyer because he’s a gamer, he can totally talk about games—he has opinions about games, “wouldn’t that be fun to talk about on Joystiq dot com?”

D: So does Ice-T!
L: Right, so does everyone who’s played a game. But because they’re a celebrity now it becomes a pitchable thing.

D: But he is probably the shortest person you might have interviewed.
L: Oh, you know, I should have gotten him because I definitely want to interview someone who is shorter than I am. For once.

D: Where is the game industry headed right now? There’s been a lot of news lately, what are some of the trends that you’re seeing? How do you think gaming will evolve as an industry within the next 5 years?
L: Umm, I think better graphics—I’m kidding. Better algorithms, cooler AI… no, kidding. What’s going to happen I think is that we’ll see a lot more established franchises transition into venues that you don’t normally associate them with, like iPhone—which is a super wide platform—free-to-play stuff, casual-oriented stuff… you’ll see that happening because I think the elephant in the room of the game industry, as it were, is that there are way too many games and you run into the point where there’s a limited pool of resources from your customers that only have X number of hours and X number of dollars in their bank account. Whenever someone buys a sixty dollar game it means they’re not buying the four other games that came out on the same day, and that just isn’t sustainable. And that’s why you’re seeing studios going under, like Bizarre and Black Rock Studio, because that sort of system is rejecting them even though they still have good products and the critical acclaim is there, and even sometimes the marketing is there yet it doesn’t work because you’re just dealing with limited resources.

D: And too many choices.
L: And that’s the problem, the industry is sort of almost over-delivering for the needs of the players and if they could just scale back—not necessarily the ideas—but just scale back in terms of the quantity of games they put out and that some executive approves, because they think it’s a hole that needs to be filled in the market… that’s the problem, that’s why platforms like iPhone are ultra-wide and easily accessible to many people who are more supportive of more games. I don’t think you’ll ever lose hardcore games because the people who make them want to make those kinds of games, you know, just as a creative impulse.

D: So for the PR pros out there, what kinds of subject lines get your attention? Is my “all caps and lots of exclamation points” system not working out for you?
L: [laughs] So, here’s an important thing—and you’ll be surprised that this does not always happen—having a game title in the subject line. I need to know that I’m reading about a game, I need to know that immediately. I think subject lines that are tailored to me, and by people who understand what Joystiq usually covers, that’s how you’ll get our attention. We get a lot of headlines and stuff, or emails and pitches, of things that if someone had read [Joystiq] they would know that we would never write about it.

D: Any examples that you can think of off the top of your head?
L: Like movies, I get stuff about movie stars being in town and if I’d like to interview them and I’m like “well no,” obviously, because we don’t do that. We have a hardcore focus on Joystiq so I think that should guide pitches coming in. Having a prior connection with a public relations person also helps a lot, don’t just kick down my door with a pitch immediately, introduce yourself and tell me who you are and what kinds of games your company is dealing with…

D: You mean, have manners and be proper?
L: Right! And set some sort of context before you blast some email at me, if I know people I’m looking out for emails from them and I know what they represent and what they’re interested in; that’s really valuable. And if you’re wacky, just make sure that you’re not so wacky to the point where it becomes hard to decipher any information from your email.

D: Well that’s about it, thanks for your time! Anything else you’d like to add?
L: Be optimistic! Exclamation point!

Get Your Life In Order With 6 Web Apps

Though many people believe that the web is an ever-growing distraction, many startups have popped up that are seeking to do the direct opposite. In fact, I’ve found that there’s a large crop of great websites that exist to focus your time, bringing peace and harmony to the maelstrom of tweets and Facebook updates that are your digital life. By investing a little time into them, these web apps could easily win you back hours of your time – they have for me.

Get Organized

WorkFlowy (free) is a devilishly simple task organizer built on the principle of the bullet-point. Type in something, then create subcategories for each element. For example, you could create a ‘Personal’ point, then create sub-points for each part of the house – say, ‘dog,’ ‘food,’ ‘housekeeping’ and so on. Then you can separate that entirely from a ‘Professional’ category – breaking down into different categories and clients. You can hashtag different yet thematic points and search through your entire WorkFlowy account. Furthermore, you can minimize everything and focus on one specific point – and break that one down too.

Todoist (free, $49 for premium) is also a similar yet slightly more powerful task manager – with the ability to create reminders and color-code your life’s travails.

Get Help

FancyHands and Zirtual are two options for buying the time of reliable personal assistants, with prices ranging from a few tasks a day to a dedicated assistant that you can phone and text to get things done. While many people will say ‘what do I need an assistant for?’ having one around can help delegate tasks that you otherwise would spend hours of your day on. For example, I have used FancyHands to get a very deep understanding of what particular writers have covered over the extent of their working lives – making me better at pitching and a more pleasant PR person to work with.

Quora is a question-and-answer community – like an adult version of Yahoo! Answers, and a very reliable way of having knowledgable and relevant people answer queries related to very specialist subjects. Furthermore, questions often pop up on Google Alerts – meaning that if you’re really curious about a particular company, someone will invariably join in and help you out.

Get Connected

GetHuman is at its most basic a directory of the quickest ways to get through to a human at big companies. It has now matured into a service that will actually wait on hold for you and call you when the other party is on the line. For anyone who has had to cancel or change their phone service, this is heavenly.

Marketing at SXSW: Go Big Or… Don’t?

This was my second year attending Austin’s SXSW Interactive and I’m surprised to say that I was quite blown away with the growth in attendees and content, even from just one-year prior. There was something for everyone: Nike+ court to get your slam-dunk on? Done. Free BBQ Tacos with wet wipes and antacid accompaniments? Easy. A chance to smash guitars with The Office’s Rainn Wilson? Of course!

The “I’m impressed!” neurotransmitters are stimulated to exhaustion and you still keep coming back for more- wanting bigger, better, shinier, free-er things (meanwhile causing increased use of neolexia). No doubt these big flashy exhibits and parties may momentarily grab your attention, but, to be honest, it was the low-budget marketing, random acts of kindness, and the truly personal touches that left the lasting mark for me. Here are a few of the companies that left a positive impression on me without having to throw down lavishly.

AT&T: You’re short one important email, or Foursquare badge to be earned, when you notice a blinking red battery…<gasp> and it’s only noon! We’ve all been in this terrifying 21^st century situation. Thanks to AT&T this year, you didn’t have to be – the company offered free cell phone charging stations in guarded lockers. Now that’s some bang for your (marketing dollar) buck!

Rovi: Skee-ball at Mashery’s Circus Mashimus. Need I say more?

Uber: While they already have a rapidly growing and loyal fan club, it wasn’t Uber’s clever SXSW on demand BBQ that got my attention, it was the team’s generosity. As the happening Crosswa.lk house party came to an end, our TriplePoint group had a realization – we are far away from anything, it’s raining cats and dogs, and the place is overflowing with people (aka cab-hunting competition). Just as we were about to lose hope, our newly befriended crew from Uber swooped in like a team of Robin Hoods, giving us a ride back to civilization… and winning my business.

ToutApp: Tout pulled the best marketing move of all: a product that is actually useful. While SXSW was the beta-testing ground for all manner of apps focused on sales and networking, Tout’s iPhone app shone because it’s as powerful and ubiquitous as email itself. The company recently did a blog post on how Tout can replace business cards (go green!), but it doesn’t have to. Even with traditional business cards, using Tout can dramatically speed up sending and following up on emails. The service is much more than an iPhone app – even if you don’t have an iOS device, Tout offers tight integration with Gmail, SalesForce, and other email clients and CRMs.

Netbase: Ice cream cart and t-shirts proclaiming, “We know what women want” (which apparently is ice cream)… in order to promote their product and panel session the following day. Now they have grabbed the attention of both men and women. For a Ben & Jerry’s sampling, of course I’ll tell you what I want. Good move, Netbase.

(Honorable mention, but disqualified due to large Google budget) Schemer: (Which I didn’t realize WAS Google until after-the-fact…very clever), had me remembering their name by giving me a mustache. Computer program connected to a small Polaroid printer and voila! – Shockingly realistic image of me with a ‘stache (probably not unlike what my dad looked like in the 70s). Potentially regretfully attaching below.

All in all, no matter the size of your budget you don’t need to feel overshadowed by the Fortune 100 throwing down the (thousands of) Benjamins… Hire well and be creative and you’ll still come out on top.

5 Productivity Tools for PR Pros

It’s no secret that today’s PR pro faces substantial challenges. The advent of social networking and the continued proliferation of blogging have proven highly (warning, buzzword!) disruptive to the field, creating countless new influencers in virtually every industry. What’s more, influence is increasingly determined not by the publication one writes for but the ability to share and promote content through social media… thus influencers may “live” on any number of different platforms.

In essence, while an article in the New York Times is almost always valuable, true awareness is more likely to be driven by a critical mass of buzz from specialized, focused blogs (enthusiasts) and linking and discussion via social media.

Tasked with generating this buzz, the onus is on PR to filter through immense amounts of information and decide who to talk to and how. But with new influencers and ways to communicate popping up daily, as well as an unforgiving 24/7 news cycle, this is no simple task. The effective flack must be a lightning bolt of efficiency.

Luckily we no longer have to rely solely on cavernous cups of coffee to give us the edge we need. An ever-expanding internet may bring new challenges, sure, but also tools that allow us to be quicker and smarter than ever. Below are 5 of those tools I love for their ability to help me do more with less time:

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Window-Shopping: Whether to Put Your Game in a Browser

You’re getting ready to unleash the best game ever upon the unsuspecting public. This game is addictive, clever, charming, challenging, and fun as hell. The design is coming together nicely, the art is jaw-dropping, and your focus testers love it – even your mom loves it, and she doesn’t even play video games. All anybody wants to know at this point is, when and where can I play this thing? So, what’s your answer – can they download it, or can they play it in their browser?

Before you answer, take a moment to consider the major differences between releasing a browser-based game and a dedicated, standalone application. Better yet, take a moment to consider how many differences don’t exist between the two as of recently. Browser games have come a long way since the Bejeweleds and Desktop Tower Defenses of the world first began to appear. Not only have programmers gotten more out of Flash, but new platforms like Unity, Silverlight, and HTML5 now allow for the kind of rich game visuals, animation, and sound that one would expect from standalone games. The Chrome Web Store, in fact, offers a browser version of Bastion – graphically and functionally identical to its Xbox and PC counterparts – that will run in one tab while you read this blog in another.

If browser games can deliver everything that non-browser games can, is there a difference at all? Why shouldn’t everybody go with the browser route, and all of the accessibility and compatibility that comes with it? The answer is because, as capable as the browser may be, it is still a platform that isn’t a perfect fit for every game. It’s an issue of presentation: not everybody wants to browse and play at the same time.

Think about the word “Browse.” Merriam-Webster defines browsing as the act of “looking over casually,” or “to skim through.” While most of us frequently use a Web Browser throughout our days with a bit more purpose or direction, the meaning still applies. How many tabs do you have open right now besides this one? Five? Ten? A few dozen? The modern browser user is accustomed to multi-tasking, frequently changing focus and giving each tab only as much attention as it absolutely needs.

Framing and presentation are an important part of an experience. You wouldn’t want to watch Schindler’s List or The Shawshank Redemption at a matinee full of laughing children, nor would you want to try to take in van Gogh’s Starry Night through a telescope. When you play a game in a browser tab, you’re engaging in casual gaming. This isn’t to say that browser games are inherently “casual games” –we’ve already established that browsers can deliver “hardcore” games like Bastion, or 3D MMOs like FusionFall, or games from any genre. It’s that you are playing the game casually, giving it half your attention, and allowing for perpetual interruptions from the rest of your desktop.

This is appropriate for any number of games: any title meant to be consumed in brief, bite-sized chunks of time, or any turn-based affair makes a perfect fit in a browser tab. Being able to flick over to a simple Facebook game like Solitaire Blitz or Triple Town, play for 90 seconds, and jump right back to another task is wonderfully convenient. There are even games which stray towards the “hardcore” side of the fence, with tricky gameplay and emphasis on immersion and difficulty, yet are broken up into discrete instances or turns. For the typical multi-tasker, these experiences are great diversions to keep open alongside their email and news feeds.

Other games, however, demand the full measure of their players’ attention. How is a game like Deus Ex expected to establish the suspense of stealth or the intensity of a firefight if the player keeps glancing up at his Twitter feed? Who would want someone on their Modern Warfare team who kept idling during the match in order to read a new round of Huffington Post articles? There is a reason these games typically run in a full-screen format. More than just idle diversions, these are experiences that are trying to establish stories, characters, and moods, and you’re doing them – and yourself – a disservice if you’re not paying attention.

Some may argue that many browser games, from the average Facebook farming facsimile to the aforementioned Bastion, also give players the option to run in full-screen. If that’s the case, however, then the entire question of presentation is rendered moot. If a game operates as a discreet, non-streaming download, and occupies your full attention when in use, then the only real differences are technical – is your delivery mechanism a browser, or some other digital distribution platform like Steam or Impulse? Which one will provide you with the biggest audience? Is your company able to build a game that fits into HTML5 or Unity, or will you have an easier time developing your own code structure?

As technology improves and these differences continue to evaporate, the question of presentation will remain as the deciding factor for your game. To those who still doubt the value of environment and framing, consider the famous experiment run by the Washington Post, involving world-renowned violinist Joshua Bell playing anonymously in a Metro Station, to the utter indifference of a thousand people. Now, imagine that you’re Joshua Bell, and the game you’ve crafted carries the majesty and spirit of Bach’s “Chaconne.” Do you present it in a proper symphony hall setting, or does your audience pass right by because it’s just one more bit of fluff in their busy day?

Being Intentional About Your Message

I’m reading through the Hunger Games series right now because, at this point, how could you not? In the ninth chapter of the first book, main character Katniss has just been chosen as a tribute, or contestant, in the annual Hunger Games where members from each district fight to the death. The Games are held each year by the Capitol, the presiding ruling class of Panem, to keep the lower-class citizens in check and assert their power. Wait a minute: is this a metaphor for Corporate America? Is every company competing in their own twisted version of the Hunger Games?

In the book, tributes go through a beauty pageant-like contest before entering the battlefield to win the favor of Capitol sponsors, who can send gifts during the Games to assist in the competition. But as she prepares for her first public speaking appearance, it becomes wildly clear: Katniss Everdeen has a PR problem.

“I’m trying to figure out how we’re going to present you. Are you going to be charming? Aloof? Fierce? So far, you’re shining like a star. You volunteered to save your sister. Cinna made you look unforgettable. You’ve got the top training score. People are intrigued, but no one knows who you are. The impression you make tomorrow will decide exactly what I can get you in terms of sponsors,” says [advisor] Haymitch.

How Katniss positions herself at the beginning will affect how much sponsors will give her throughout the competition. Though she might be technically skilled, people still want an image they can easily connect with. For startups, the same advice applies.

Even though your startup’s product might be amazing, how you position your company can greatly impact the attention you receive from investors, especially if you’re eyeing that grand prize: an exit. To go even further, imagine how much more of an impact you make when your position is pre-meditated and intentional. It means that much more to your company in shaping its identity, and it means a whole lot more to your audience. Are you the “fastest growing startup with a quirky personality” or “the brand that sells a lifestyle of thinking differently?” You might be tempted to go with the flow, figure out messaging when you’ve perfected the product and solidified your business model. Chances are you’ll be so busy you won’t have time to think about it.

It’s best to have the defining characteristics of your company set from the beginning. Instead of allowing the press, users, and influencers to form your corporate identity, create it yourself. Be intentional about creating it and letting people know about it. Remember to be consistent, bring it up in every interview, place it on your website, and make sure it’s included in your elevator pitch. Performing this exercise at an early stage of your startup can help you go a long way when it comes to public perception and identity.

Right before the start of the Hunger Games, Katniss solidifies a strategy with her prep staff: her fighting spirit is her shining feature and sets her apart. Every story she tells in an interview and how she acts in the Games speaks to that particular feature. How do you think she fares in the Games where only one survives? I don’t want to give away the ending but let’s just say… there’s a second book.

South By Super Sad True Love Story By Southwest

In Gary Shteyngart’s novel Super Sad True Love Story (Random House, 2010), the schlubby protagonist clings to his old-world ways, doing his best to resist the overabundance of technology and information that barrages him in a not-too-distant-future version of New York City. He is starkly contrasted by his love interest, a younger woman who has grown up with these perpetual streams of stimulus and embraces them without question. The book tells a cautionary tale of personal connections and human relationships gone awry, replaced almost entirely by digital communication and instant, unlimited access to data. While I’m tempted to shrug off this dystopian future, a startling amount of this tech exists already and is gaining popularity. In this way, Shteyngart’s novel feels uncomfortably akin to nonfiction.

Highlight & Glancee were recently deemed the kings of South By Southwest (SXSW 2012), while peripheral nods were given to their competitors like Banjo & Sonar. These apps show you information about those around you. More specifically, they display location-based Facebook interests and Facebook friends-of-friends of people who are physically near you, in the same bar or on the same street. The impetus to browse search results, judge potential connections and act upon them is up to each individual user, but these apps provide opportunity. For more information, Robert Scoble gives a stellar rundown on The Next Web.

Info and images, social networks and video chat, newsfeeds and live-streaming, and above all the shopping, Shopping, SHOPPING – all of this is beamed to äppärät users in real-time, a userbase that includes basically everyone on Earth, minus the destitute and the elderly. While specifics are never given, the äppärät is described as a futuristic iPhone where a haze of holograms replaces the touchscreen and display real-time information on and around the user. The latest äppärät is a small pebble-like device worn like a trendy necklace, a cell phone immune to the battery woes of today. Nothing in the book is so futuristic that I can’t imagine it becoming commonplace in the next year or two.

With these new apps, the data used for comparing and ranking your nearby peers is pretty mundane: movies and bands you like, your favorite cuisine, perhaps the schools you attended. These are things that any Facebook friend could learn about you, but when this info is automatically sent to strangers in text-message-like pings, it changes from passive to active data. You are broadcasting information about yourself to anyone who has downloaded a free app – I can wait while you go update your Facebook “likes.”

The data being sent around by apps like Highlight is rather innocuous – it’s strictly qualitative stuff. But Super Sad True Love Story takes data-sharing to the extreme, where anyone with an äppärät can see quantitative data like your credit rating, your cholesterol level and even your annual salary. In this novel, not only is privacy dead, it’s been long-forgotten.

Before apps like Highlight can gain widespread adoption, they’ll need a filter system (such as a minimum number of friends in common) to weed out the surge of false-positives. For instance, you’d be more inclined to chat up someone with 6 common Facebook friends than someone with only one third-degree connection. Similarly, you might not shy away from approaching a stranger if you had a very specific interest in common; millions of people like Radiohead, but as a New York City resident, I’d happily chat with another fan of Portland, Oregon’s DJ Copy.

In the not-too-distant-future, speaking to another person… out loud… face to face will be so uncommon that it gives rise to the term “verbal-ing.” In the novel, everyone is surrounded by three-dimensional clouds of information, images, advertisements and videos. Even today, it’s too easy to get sucked in by the distractions of a smartphone and miss the real world around you. But apps like Highlight are not as ominous as they may initially sound. By encouraging people to socialize and meet new friends, these apps turn a few common interests into the potential for a friendship, as it was in the pre-smartphone era.

For more info, check out a video interview with Shteyngart on the äppärät via TechCrunch.

Organic Twitter Buzz Beats All

Organic vs. non-organic buzz – Celebrities (and ordinary players) create both types of buzz for Temple Run. Non-organically speaking, they simply tweet their score using the in-game prompt. Organically speaking, they go out of their way to create original content.

Free PR tip! All mobile games should have a social media sharing element integrated in some way because, put simply, people love to brag. Who better to broadcast your skills and high scores to than a horde of Twitter followers? If it’s quick and players don’t have to log out of the game to use it, players will be more likely post a score. Also, if they use the prepared message that’s auto generated, the product’s positioning is conveyed to an audience exactly as intended. This may then in turn lead to more organic conversations down the line and organic buzz gives more tangible, relatable validity.

Why is organic chatter is the best kind of chatter? Especially among celebrities with a fan following?

Celebrities use Twitter to inform their fans about everything – what they’re doing, where they’re going, when they’re performing, and most relevant here – what games they’re playing. Often times, they’re playing incredibly popular mobile games, Temple Run not being an exception. Temple Run has made waves with players through its viral features and “just one more run” gameplay and it’s an interesting case study to examine some of the celebrity chatter about it—just try and beat LeBron James or Mary J. Blige’s high score!

Celebs are starry-eyed when talking about Temple Run, and if you pay close attention, they’re “talking” about the game in two different ways: (1) non-organically reporting their score with the in-game prompt and (2) organically tweeting new content.

Non-organic (boring ole) buzz
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I got 1,042,734 points while escaping from demon monkeys in Temple Run. Beat that! t.co/eD4FAOsj

Erin Sanders

Wed, Feb 01 2012 03:35:07

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I got 7,740 points while escaping from demon monkeys in Temple Run. Beat that! t.co/1XwwxKAk

Mary J. Blige

Sun, Feb 12 2012 04:37:29

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Reporting high scores to fans/followers is made possible with the tweet icon that presents itself after you’ve completed a temple run. The button makes it easy and quick to share your score with friends, which takes no effort as the tweet is auto-generated for the player with their score and a taunt inserted. The reach of a celebrity’s tweet is further extended when fans retweet to their followers, giving the game buzz legs and longevity. The tweet below from NBA star “King”LeBron James had 50 retweets and favorites. In addition, 3 million followers could equal 3 million potential impressions, and they may in turn also go download Temple Run.
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I got 1,032,164 points while escaping from demon monkeys in Temple Run. Beat that! t.co/bRr0HnMx

LeBron James

Mon, Jan 23 2012 02:26:19

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Though this type of social buzz is great, there is better…

Organic (from the horse’s mouth) buzz

Conversational chatter also exists among celebrity Temple Run players and it has even longer legs than auto-generated score updates. For example, soccer star Tom Cleverley’s tweet had 50 retweets and 27 favorites, and Wayne Rooney’s tweet had 50 for both forms of feedback.
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Only gone and smashed 12.1 mil on temple run!

Tom Cleverley

Tue, Feb 28 2012 10:13:46

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4.5 million on temple run. Pogba young @tomclevz23 and welbeck beat that.

Wayne Rooney

Mon, Feb 06 2012 14:47:05

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Wow just got 12.5 million on temple run @tomclevz23

Wayne Rooney

Tue, Feb 07 2012 08:54:32

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This kind of conversation is pure product promotion without sounding like it. (AKA: PR gold.) It’s actually integrated into the discussion and looks natural, not “in your face” promotional. Not only do celebrities challenge each other’s scores, they vent their frustrations about the game…
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Man I am bad at temple run going to throw this phone at te wall

Henri Lansbury

Wed, Feb 29 2012 09:20:10

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Their love…
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Man I’m seriously addicted to #TempleRun #GameApp

LeBron James

Mon, Jan 16 2012 02:51:06

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And they even use it as a pick up line…
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Hey baby I broke 3 million on temple run wanna make out?

Vinny Guadagnino

Fri, Feb 10 2012 18:01:19

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Temple Run social buzz isn’t exclusive to Twitter either, check out the Instagram photo above — think you can beat Justin Bieber’s high score?

Temple Run has made enough of an impact on these celebritiesthat they’ve actually gone out of their way to write original content about it -not just send out the preset tweet. You cantell this content is uniquely/organically from the celebrity because you can see where the tweetsoriginated. When tweets come from the in-app option, it says so. However, the original tweets (shown here) were sent via Blackberry, iPhone, Twitter, etc. Long story short, Temple Run is interesting enough to generate organic buzz among celebrities, and, whatever this is…
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I done messed around and played Temple Run on the toilet and my legs went to sleep. Smh

Charlie Bell

Thu, Feb 23 2012 08:16:08

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Organic buzz is important,especially when it comes from someone with a large following, but no matter the reach, it gives additional validity to the product you’re promoting without outright promoting it. It’s getting the product name out easily and when you have celebrities tweeting, their posts will most likely have legs, get “favorited” and retweeted many times over, exponentially increasing viral reach.

Thanks to Storify for making this blog post pop.

Imangi (Temple Run developer) is a TriplePoint client.

TriplePoint Newsroom: Press Releases for the People

Wait just a darn minute. Did I just use “press” and “people” in the same headline? Yes, yes I did.

That’s because TriplePoint is made up of people. Actual people! Sure, we do PR, but that doesn’t make us any less human. Just like reporting on news doesn’t make reporters any less human.

So one day, we all got together and thought, “hey! What if TriplePoint had a client press release service that actually catered to press?” And then we laughed, because that was an impossible dream.

OR WAS IT?

http://pressreleases.triplepointpr.com/subscribe/

Look, I don’t know that we’re changing the world with this new Newsroom, but I know that it will make things easier for people who have been using VerticalWire.com. They say email is dying, but not for PR and press people. And no, I won’t quit calling flacks and hacks people, because that’s what we are.

We’re (all) people who like things made simple and that’s what the TriplePoint Newsroom aims to do.

If you’re one of those people, I respectfully urge you to sign up for relevant tags now, so you’re ready for the big switch next week.

Meanwhile, we’ll be here holding hands and singing campfire tunes. Or relating to the public in some such capacity.

The Practice of Persuasion: Lessons from Mom [INFOGRAPHIC]

It takes a special breed of influence (and persuasion) to inspire others to WANT something (on their own, for themselves) from within.

Public Relations Prequel

One of the first metaphors – and one of the first PR lessons – I remember was at age 12 when my mom explained how and why I needed to “plant the seed” with my dad about getting a puppy. I did…

Mere weeks later, we got a puppy.

“Planting the seed” is more than just a handy, widely-applicable analogy. It is the heart and soul of persuasion and the foundation of great public relations.

When done correctly, it makes everyone a winner.

The thing is – when you feel passionately about something, it’s hard to fathom any approach (to management or persuasion in general) that doesn’t involve stating your case. Why does it matter so much? When you care, it seems like other people should feel naturally compelled to act. It would be crazy not to be as passionate as you.

If your case is truly worthwhile, this is a valid thought process.

“PLANTING THE SEED” IS THE HEART OF PERSUASION AND THE FOUNDATION OF GREAT PR.

Sidenote: If you question whether or not my puppy quest was worthwhile, I urge you to Google “child with puppy” and tell me that’s not the happiest collection of photographs you’ve seen all year.

Be Contagious

Whether it’s convincing your dad to get a puppy or convincing a reporter to write about your tech start-up, effective persuasion involves patience – lots of it. (On top of a compelling argument and the strategy, diplomacy and determination needed to communicate it.)

Chances are, the first time you suggest something, people WON’T be compelled to act. Don’t be discouraged. It doesn’t mean they aren’t listening.

Flattering Imitation

The best kind of influence happens weeks or months later, when your message sinks in and people start “stealing” your ideas as their own. If the end result is what you aimed to accomplish, this is (humbling, but) effective.

And if accomplishing your goal isn’t satisfying enough, take comfort in this – as long as you’ve voiced yourself loudly and clearly enough, it doesn’t go unnoticed that you were the seed planter. It doesn’t take long before people take you very seriously.

Wait, what?

It’s usually not until you’ve successfully influenced someone that you realize a seed was ever planted. In fact, the only main difference between my puppy story and day-to-day PR is that in this case, I was consciously aware of planting the seed.

It’s easy to take process for granted when you’re going through the motions. It’s also easy to get discouraged and feel helpless when you’re at the mercy of someone else. But when you practice persuasion objectively, you start to recognize the many times you can’t strong-arm your way through. Perhaps the world’s longest flowchart would be helpful in illustrating real-world application?

You simply can’t expect others to accept your idea as fact right away every time. And that’s not a bad thing. If you’re thinking three steps ahead of everyone else, then it only makes sense they’ll need some time to catch up. And if you’re not forward thinking, you’re going to have trouble influencing people, approach notwithstanding.

Further Reading

How does a 12-year-old seeking puppy compare to a tech startup CEO trying to get coverage for his company? Check out this step-by-step breakdown of persuasion gone right:

Can’t Buy Me Klout

A lot of chatter about content creation lately…

Do you consider content management a key factor for your company’s PR efforts? Or perhaps you’re one of those “the future is all about content” marketing soothsayers?

Hey – wake up! Content creation is present-day PR and it always has been. What’s changed/changing is not that public relations people are writing the news; it’s the rate at which news cycles flow, and what media people use to get their news. It’s rapidly changing, expanding, more immediate and more high-tech than ever.

Content creation isn’t just about the news * in words * anymore; it’s about delivering the * content * people want, which includes photos, videos, audio, graphics, tips, tools and further interactive resources. News is on a beeline for multimedia diversity and PR has to make content that leverages that, to be successful in today’s media landscape.

Companies aren’t reliant solely on traditional press/journalism to make their voice heard anymore… PR can travel through any number of social and direct-to-consumer channels – Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and corporate blogs being just the tip of the iceberg. Now we’ve got Instagram, social games (iOS a la Foursquare and Words with Friends, XBLA, etc.), YouTube, LinkedIn, Flickr, Spotify, Turntable.fm, newsletters and proprietary forums… You get the idea.

But if you want to influence consumers, you have to earn some social R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

Why Klout will inevitably matter once it goes mainstream >>> “Anyone can ‘do’ social media, so which ones can I trust?”

I won’t attempt to distill social media strategy into a blog post, but here are a few takeaways –

Know your audience and speak to them – Ask questions and join in the conversation when your network responds.
Stay on topic – Don’t abandon your area of expertise because you think your fans are getting bored. That’s probably why they followed you in the first place.
Be consistent, not boring (voice/tone) – Be sure to insert some added value of your own too.
Be timely – Old news sucks. News travels faster than ever. Take heed.
Keep it simple stupid – I refuse to explain this point.
SEO – Still a go in social media. #andhashtags

Klout makes R-E-S-P-E-C-T quantifiable, visual, comparable and standard for everyone. You may not understand how it works, or believe in the way Klout approaches metrics (or believe they are accurate, for that matter), but Klout metrics are consistent for everyone and thus a valid corporate and consumer measurement tool.

Tips for Klout are applicable to any good web content creation, or PR in general, once you get right down to it. Using social media as a direct marketing channel ups the ante on what you present. Likewise, Klout’s metrics system magnifies the results (along with other analytics like tracking web traffic, incoming requests, etc.) if you use social media to connect and promote your brand – like any good business does.

It is no longer acceptable not to be interested in Klout, or to say its superfluous. It’s also not sufficient to simply sign up and check your score every few months. The feedback from data is too valuable not to use it.

Just the Facts: the Changing Media Landscape in 2011

Last night TriplePoint NYC attended the Changing Media Landscape 2011 panel at Columbia Journalism School in New York. The series, now in its fifth year, invites senior media professionals to share their take on the ever-evolving face of journalism online, in print, and on television. With a diverse group of panelists representing outlets from Yahoo! News (with an astounding 180 million unique monthly viewers) to Facebook to the upstart Texas Tribune, the panel presented a two hour debate to a standing-room-only crowd.

The night’s sentiment was best summed up by Alfred Edmond Jr., Senior VP of Black Enterprise who observed, “There’s no such thing as old media or new media, just media. To excel, you must know and master them all.” This sentiment was echoed across the panelists; diversification of platforms is key to reaching the widest possible audience. If one person wants an RSS feed and another wants to leave a comment on YouTube, it’s vital to provide both of these options. In short, the role of community manager will be increasingly important in the years to come.

There was one pertinent question that was posed but not necessarily answered… do these news websites and blogs fuel technological innovation for innovation’s sake? Or do things like social media actually make readers more knowledgeable about current events? Vadim Lavrusik of Facebook commented that users are posting double the amount of content on Facebook as they did a year ago, implying that users are becoming increasingly tech-savvy and accustomed with posting on the site. While this doesn’t suggest increased comprehension, Texas Tribune’s Mark Miller noted that their site has outlawed word clouds because “they look nice and don’t actually accomplish much.”

And while Facebook may not be focused on the in-depth reporting that journalists aspire to, it’s impossible to deny the social network’s rapid growth. Lavrusik pointed out that Facebook has 4 billion-with-a-b pieces of content posted every single day, equivalent to half the world’s population. That’s a lot of “likes.”

Above all, Leila Cobo, director of Latin programming at Billboard best summed up the current state of media. “These days, everyone, and I mean everyone, needs to be tweeting and posting, checking in and Twit Pic-ing, from the intern level up to the top. I work twice as hard as I did two years ago!” and it’s worth noting that Billboard’s website has been live for exactly two years. While today’s always-connected world may feel exhausting, it’s refreshing to hear that traditional journalism is still alive and well. Cobo closed out the panel with a statement echoed by most panelists: “Metrics and ‘likes’ and clicks do not determine our coverage. At the end of the day, we’re still committed to quality, old-fashioned reporting.”

A full video archive will be found at this link.

A big focus of the event is building up people’s Twitter networks, so I’d love to pass along everyone’s Twitter info.

Leila Cobo, director of Latin programming, Billboard @leilacobo

Derek Dingle, editor-in-chief, Black Enterprise @dtdingle

Mark Miller, editor of Texas Tribune, a nonprofit news site @markmillertrib

Angela Morgenstern, senior vice president, digital at Current TV @angelamedia

Jai Singh, editor-in-chief of Yahoo News, the world’s largest news site @jaijs

Moderator: Sree Sreenivasan, dean of student affairs, Columbia Journalism School @sree

It stands to reason that the representative from Facebook would prefer that you look him up on that network… Vadim Lavrusik, Journalist Program Manager, Facebook https://www.facebook.com/vadim

To Tokyo We Go!

13 million people, 844 square miles, the epitome of modern Japanese culture and the world’s leader in technological innovation—this is Tokyo. For decades, this fascinating city filled with vending machines and delicious ramen restaurants has been the epicenter for console gaming on both sides of the ocean, since giving birth to the Famicom (known here in the states as our beloved NES), so it comes as no surprise that Tokyo Game Show is the premier event in the East that Westerners look forward to each year. TriplePoint was in attendance at this year’s monumental show to experience the event firsthand, meet with fellow colleagues and clients in the gaming space, and note new trends in the gaming world. Continue reading To Tokyo We Go!

Don’t Work…Rework!

A book full of “Don’ts” and “No’s” sounds a little exhausting and damp, yet Rework is inspiring — a breath of fresh air. Fortuitously, this book reminded me of

my year living abroad in Indonesia. I struggled to grasp the culture there when some things just seemed opposite to what I’d been told and done my entire life. Touching someone’s head: offensive to an Indonesian, yet a sign of affection at home. Shaking someone’s hand with your left: abhorrent in Indonesia, indifferent back home, and so on.

This same pattern is found inside Rework as authors Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson try to unteach all of our bad habits and misbeliefs.

A sampling of the book’s “radical” statements:

1. Ignore the real world — it’s not a place, it’s a justification
2. Think and review reasons you have to quit… frequently
3. Meetings are toxic — the worst form of an interruption
4. “Good enough” is fine, because flexing your intellectual muscles can be exhausting
5. Underdo your competition — instead of one-upping your competitor, try one-downing
6. When hiring: pass on great people, skip the rockstars, and remember resumes are ridiculous

I know what you’re thinking, and the answer is “no,” happy hour has not commenced. These are actual pieces of advice taken from the New York Times Bestseller.

The conclusion? There’s not a hard set of rules, or a magical recipe for a successful business, otherwise we’d all have our own Microsoft, Google, or Starbucks franchise under our belt. Rework isn’t the key to the billionaire’s door, but it rejuvenates the mind like a tropical vacation does for the soul, returning one fresh, clearheaded and ready to take on the world… or at least ready to start thinking about what you can rework in your life (given that there are no “rules”).

What would you rework?

Shoot me your thoughts; let’s get this virtual “book club” rolling.

Category: PR Trade

“PLANTING THE SEED” IS THE HEART OF PERSUASION AND THE FOUNDATION OF GREAT PR.