» Erica Iacono - The Cycle

A night to remember

Posted March 6, 2009

Last night was my fifth (!) PRWeek Awards, and I have to say that it was definitely one of the best. It’s always good to spend some time with some of my favorite industry contacts, and last night was no exception. In addition to the host Ralph Harris, who actually managed to keep the attention of the crowd, the highlight of the evening was definitely Coyne PR’s win for Midsize Agency of the Year. Having the entire agency there brought an infectious level of enthusiasm to the festivities. It’s always exciting to see how important the PRWeek Awards are to the the industry. Especially given the tough times nearly everyone is facing right now, it was a good opportunity to concentrate on all that is good in the PR industry and celebrate the outstanding work being done. Congratulations to all the winners!

PRW Awards: First timers
I remember my first time like it was yesterday. I remember the akwardness of not knowing what to say...
PRWeek Awards - who wasn’t excited?
I didn't know what to expect going into the PRWeek Awards last night - it was my first year attendin...
Rich Little, anyone remember him besides me?
I remember watching Rich Little doing impressions of Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan when they was st...
Your friendly neighborhood bank
Sports greatest trophy

Filed under: PRWeek Awards

Making the case with music

Posted December 4, 2008

The latest viral video to make its way around the Web? This one featuring a group of celebrities, ranging from Jack Black and Margaret Cho to John C. Reilly and Neil Patrick Harris, breaking down the debate on Proposition 8– in full song and dance numbers, of course. While the video is humorous, it ultimately directs viewers to the Web site for JointheImpact, an LGBT organization whose mission is to “to encourage our community to engage our opposition in a conversation about full equality and to do this with respect, dignity, and an attitude of outreach and education.”

Is press making mountain out of mole Hill?
The country music crowd showed their support for one of their own when they gave Keith Urban a stand...
NIN new album comes at varying cost
Nine Inch Nails (NIN) is trying a new strategy for getting listeners to part with the money to down...
The Internet: The new destination for all your favorite (and new) shows
It used to be that TV-deprived college students would go to the Internet to find the recent episodes...
Just a Blip on the radar
Music industry slowly embraces the draconian

Filed under: Arts & Entertainment, Politics, Viral Video

Tags:LGBT, Proposition 8

The digital side of the ‘Street’

Posted November 12, 2008

Sesame Street, that staple of PBS television and children’s-and parents’- lives for nearly 40 years, is making its next step into the world of Web 2.0. On Monday, Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit that produces Sesame Street, announced that for the first time full episodes of the show would be available on Hulu, YouTube, and iTunes. This move coincides with the recent launch of a new Web site in August, just before the debut of the 40th season. It also falls in line with what Gary Knell, Sesame Workshop’s CEO, told me about the company’s digital plans when I interviewed him for the recent PRWeek/Burson-Marsteller CEO Survey article.

Digital staying power
If the PR industry needed any further proof that developing digital capabilities is essential to its...
The future of digital
Peter Kim asks his readers the three questions he'll be asking panelists at our Next Conference. Som...
Window of opportunity in digital, but for whom?
Keith O’Brien’s column in today’s PRWeek raised the issue of PR firms needing to draft creativ...
‘Rolling Stone’, Hef go digital
Ogilvy attempting to duplicate digital success

Filed under: 1, Arts & Entertainment, New Media, Social Media, Viral Video, Web sites

Tags:Gary Knell, Hulu, iTunes, Sesame Street, Web 2.0,

L’Oreal gives back

Posted November 11, 2008

Last night, I attended the L’Oreal Legends Gala, held at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The event is a fundraiser for the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund -last night’s event raised more than $4 million dollars alone. But it is also a celebration of L’Oreal’s commitment to the cause of ovarian cancer research, one that can often get lost in the “sea of pink” that is corporate support of breast cancer research. L’Oreal has supported OCRF for 11 years, through events and its Color of Hope makeup collection, raising $18 million in that time.

Not only was the event a great opportunity for some star gazing- Diane Keaton, Andie MacDowell, Pierce Brosnan, Milla Jovovich, and Kerry Washington were among the attendees- but it also was extremely comforting to see that even in a struggling economy, corporations and individuals are willing to give back to causes. It’s something that PRWeek discovered in its 2008 Cause Survey, so it was nice to see it affirmed with a real-life example.

Vermont wants them back
According to USA Today, Vermont officials are unleashing a PR effort to lure young technically skill...
Pokemon playing games again
About a month back, I wrote this blog entry about the efforts to revive interest in Tamagotchi digit...
365 Main responds
Last week’s power outage in San Francisco also created a PR crisis for 365 Main. The data center'...
That first job
Bringing back the Gap

Filed under: CSR, Events

Tags:cause marketing

Self does good

Posted September 25, 2008

Last night, Jaimy Lee and I attended Self magazine’s first-annual Women Doing Good Awards ceremony, held at the fabulous Top of the Rock in New York City. Self is no stranger to supporting causes; it originated the now-ubiquitous pink ribbon that has become synonymous with breast cancer awareness in 1992 and has published the annual breast cancer handbook in its October issue since 1991. Last year, publisher Kimberly Kelleher worked with executive director of marketing Cynthia Walsh to develop a piece of research titled “Good: Cause Marketing from the Consumer’s Point of View”. As Self editor-in-chief Lucy Danziger noted last night, that research was ultimately the impetus for the Awards. Self readers were invited to submit stories of women in their lives and hometowns that were doing work on behalf of a good cause.

The 2008 winners were Ann Cooper, a chef who works with F3: Food-Family-Farming Foundation to provide school children with healthy lunches; Dian Ross, a woman working with First Book to donate books to children in rural, low-income areas; and Jennifer Goodman Linn, a cancer survivor who founded Spin4Survival to benefit Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Maybelline New York and Kashi served as partners for the event.

Good cause, good CSR
Sunday's Night of Too Many Stars, a Comedy Central benefit for autism education, featured the usual...
A night to remember
Last night was my fifth (!) PRWeek Awards, and I have to say that it was definitely one of the best....
A good time was had by all
Last night's awards ceremony seemed to start on a note of exuberance that escalated as the night wor...
‘Amazing and awe-inspiring’
A non-scandalous celebrity site

Filed under: Awards, Events, Media

Tags:cause marketing, Kashi, Maybelline, Self magazine

PR advice for the Obama campaign

Posted September 10, 2008

Leah McElrath Renna, managing partner at Renna Communications, posted an Op-Ed on the Huffington Post yesterday titled, “For God’s Sake , Get on Message! Ten Tips for the Obama Campaign.” She writes: “As a Democrat, I am nervous and on the verge of desperation. As a media relations professional - someone who does messaging and media training for a living -I am simply puzzled. This is not hard stuff.” She then proceeds to give the Obama campaign advice it needs to follow if it has any hope of defeating Sen. McCain. While Renna’s political leanings are clearly Democratic, the points she makes are useful for any political campaign, or for that matter any campaign at all. It’s a reminder that in politics, a little PR 101 can go a long way.

Heeding Penn’s advice
Well, apparently, the Penn contingent (see below) won out. Clinton continues despite Obama reaching ...
Obama’s e-mail list finds home with DNC
Many have speculated on how the Obama administration would leverage its massive e-mail list - some 1...
Obama might have to shift social media strategy now
Most communicators agree that the Obama campaign understood social media. David Almacy, former Inter...
Penn urges fight, says Newsday
Obama’s comms team looks to the ‘Bush model’

Filed under: 2008 Campaign, Media, Politics

Tags:Barack Obama, Huffington Post, John McCain, Renna Communications

Jon Stewart, journalism professor?

Posted August 26, 2008

In my column this week, I wrote about a recent article in the New York Times that discussed how The Daily’s Show with Jon Stewart has, over the past eight years, become an almost trusted source of news and desired pit stop for celebrities and politicians alike. Even so, it was a little bit surprising that Stewart’s criticism of the cable news media, including his spat with Fox News is something that is being reported as though it is coming from a legitimate media critic. Come on people! Stewart is lampooning the media in the same way that Saturday Night Live has satirized TV shows, newscasts, and movies for more than 30 years. The fact that the media has devoted so much space to his criticisms, and has taken it so seriously, just proves his point further. Thoughts?

Networking on Marthapedia
Homemakers who find that MySpace (or Facebook) just isn’t their cup of coffee may soon be able to ...
Ex-NBC hack decries freedom of speech
David Hazinski, who once toiled as a less than telegenic NBC News correspondent, is fed up with all ...
And that sound was a score of journalists sighing
Wired, on the (mostly lack of) successes from pro-am crowdsourcing media experiment Assignment Zero....
Gershon Kekst rubs elbows with Martha Stewart
Is this the future of journalism?

Filed under: 2008 Campaign, Arts & Entertainment, Media, Politics

Tags:Fox News, Jon Stewart, The Daily Show

Some respect for fake news

Posted August 18, 2008

The New York Times recently published a lengthy-and according to the most e-mailed list- very popular on The Daily Show and how it has transcended its original charter as a fake news show, to become a legitimate and respected news source. And it isn’t just the show’s target “stoner” audience that sees the value; The Daily Show has become a must-stop for authors and politicians, especially in this election year.

FEMA wins a (dubious) First Amendment award
Remember the fake news conference staged by the Federal Emergency Management Agency - the one during...
‘Fake Steve’ Blogger Revealed
The New York Times came out with an article today that revealed the identity of the blogger behind f...
This is probably going to be a big deal.
A Clinton supporter - and former Commerce Secretary - allegedly saying some bad things about Indiana...
Cloned cow milk marketing site, Ben & Jerry’s prank
Fortune Radio’s a cheap date

Filed under: 2008 Campaign, Media, Politics

Tags:New York Times, The Daily Show

40 Under 40 2008

Posted August 1, 2008

PRWeek is now accepting nominations for its second-annual “40 under 40” feature, to be published in the December 8 issue. This special feature will profile 40 agency, corporate, and nonprofit professionals, as well as educators, under the age of 40 that are doing outstanding work for their clients/companies and for the PR industry as a whole. Individuals featured on the list will demonstrate innovative thinking, strong determination, and results that indicate a long and successful career in the PR industry. Those individuals profiled on last year’s list are not eligible for inclusion in this year’s feature.

To nominate someone, please download the entry form here and e-mail to . Individuals nominated must be under the age of 40 as of 12/8/08. Entry forms must not exceed two pages. Please contact Erica Iacono at erica.iacono@prweek with any questions. All nominations must be received by 5pm EST on September 15.

Clinton campaign memos make the rounds
The Atlantic's exhaustive piece on the internal memos from the failed Hillary Clinton presidential ...
One last item about the 2008 Super Bowl ads
Cision has released findings that show that advertisers who spent their millions for a 30-second slo...
Big Brown gets another big sponsorship
Forget UPS. Hooters jumped in as a sponsor for horse Big Brown, as the Belmont Stakes take place thi...
SEC goes global
Blogs in print

Filed under: Announcements

Ben’s new role: journalist?

Posted June 27, 2008

So, do we live in a celebrity-obsessed culture or are celebrities obsessed with journalism? Next Thursday, Nightline will air a report from none other than Ben Affleck. The actor apparently approached the program with the idea of doing the report as a way to raise awareness about the violence, starvation, and disease that is so prevalent in the region. Affleck joins a long list of celebrities that have tried their hand at journalism, including U2 frontman Bono, who edited an issue of Vanity Fair last year and Sean Penn, who wrote a series of articles about Iraq for the San Francisco Chronicle.

Chinese media oversight provides pitch angle for architecture firm
China’s well publicized media restrictions are putting the press covering the Olympic Games in the...
Bernanke, Federal Reserve looking at changes in comms strategy
The Wall Street Journal takes a look at Ben Bernanke's PR campaign and how it has placed him in the ...
Kazakhstan vs. Big Bad Borat
Quick! What's the capital of Kazakhstan? For all of the legal threats and angry statements from Ka...
PRWeek film of the week: ‘The Harder They Fall’
From one colossus to another

Filed under: Media

Tags:ABC News, Ben Affleck, Bono, celebrities, Nightline, Sean Penn, U2, Vanity Fair

A night to remember

Making the case with music

The digital side of the ‘Street’

L’Oreal gives back

Self does good

PR advice for the Obama campaign

Jon Stewart, journalism professor?

Some respect for fake news

40 Under 40 2008

Ben’s new role: journalist?

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