Denver Public Relations: Pushkin PR

Behind the Scenes With Cheyenne Frontier Days' Marketing Director Nicole Gamst

by Jon Pushkin under

By Maribeth Neelis

Cheyenne Frontier Days Marketing Director Nicole Gamst is an east coaster. Well, she used to be. Born in Texas and raised in Boston, the western lifestyle always appealed to her. So in 1999 when Cheyenne Frontier Days called, she packed her bags and headed west, something she always envisioned herself doing.

What drew her to Cheyenne Frontier Days in particular: its celebration of the western lifestyle, heritage and culture.

That, and the fact that she gets to wear many hats.

"I like the variety," she says. "I get to do everything from research to social media to advertising. I get to see the full scope of the marketing function, not just a sliver."

Nicole is pretty much always on call during the event, which runs mid-summer every year. But her work is cyclical; there's never much downtime, even after the event ends.

Currently, she's outlining the 2014 strategy. In late fall, she will announce the artists for next year and promote them through events and press releases. The winter months are dedicated to developing advertising. In the spring, they shift to executing their strategy, hitting consumers with advertising and web features as they are starting to think about their summer entertainment.

"That's one aspect I enjoy the most," Nicole says, "There is always something new."

She also appreciates the event's historical significance for Cheyenne. "It is a well established event in the community. I get to work with volunteers who have been involved in producing this show for generations."

Come check Cheyenne Frontier Days next year July 18-27, 2014.

Everyone, Meet Healthcare Reform

by Jon Pushkin under

By Maribeth Neelis

Until recently, I kind of put healthcare reform on the back burner in my mind, filed it with The General Theory of Relativity and Quantum Mechanics under things I am definitely going to sit down and figure out one day.

Well, that day has arrived, at least for the healthcare part.

Just like physics theories, healthcare reform is not incredibly intuitive. But we have access to a whole division of experts who haven't been procrastinating like we have, The Colorado Division of Insurance (DOI).

Colorado Is the Best
In addition to sunshine and mountains, Coloradans have one more thing to brag about: a state government that has been proactively planning for healthcare reform.

Communications Manager at the Colorado Division of Insurance Vince Plymell says, "Coloradans are lucky, because our state is adjusting to healthcare reform in a positive way, trying to communicate to citizens their choices, creating a state exchange instead of allowing the feds to create one, as other states are doing."

To see the latest health plan choices offered through the exchange, check out Connect for Health Colorado.

Getting the Word Out
The task of preparing consumers for the changes they may face over the next few years is daunting. First of all, health insurance isn't necessarily riveting subject matter.

"It's a complex subject to communicate, so people procrastinate and don't deal with it until they absolutely must," Vince says. "Just engaging people on this topic is difficult."

But time is on the DOI's side. Love it or hate it, Obamacare is becoming a reality.

"Just the march of time is helping us to get the information out. This is happening, and people are starting to realize that, as we get closer to 2014. People must have health insurance or they will be fined."

And with a decidedly consumerist angle, health insurance has piqued the media's interest as well, which never hurts.

What Vince and the DOI Want Consumers to Know

The DOI is here for you.
The Colorado Division of Insurance (DOI) regulates the insurance industry and helps consumers with insurance issues. First and foremost, they are here for you.

Healthcare reform is going to be OK.
People will have options and choices, and should explore them. The DOI can help those dealing with health insurance for the first time. Its goal is to help educate consumers to ask the right questions and find answers about terms, benefits, and the truth about those rumors they heard around the water cooler.

There are advantages.
Now, no one can be denied coverage for pre-existing conditions or health history. And, individuals can get much more affordable coverage through the health insurance exchanges.

Please, use the DOI as a resource.
There is a ton of information on the DOI website. But Vince also encourages people to call and speak with an expert at 303-894-7490 or toll free at 800-930-3745.

The New Wave of Social Media

by Jon Pushkin under

By Maribeth Neelis

When my dad begrudgingly set up a Facebook account “to keep track of what you kids are up to,” I thought, social media has finally reached critical mass.

According to The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project, 72 percent of online adults now use social networking sites, like Facebook and Twitter. And those 65+ have tripled their use in the past four years—from 13 percent in 2009 to 43 percent in 2013.

But while we were figuring out how use hashtags, wrapping our heads around Facebook’s new timeline layout or asking the teens in our lives how to hide annoying status updates from our newsfeeds, they were moving on to new social media platforms.

TechCrunch reports, interest in Facebook is declining among teens. The new cool tools among the younger demog: Wanelo, Vine, SnapChat, Kik and 4chan.

This cohort not only has unprecedented online influence, they are generally the early adopters of trends and tools later embraced by the masses. (Remember when Facebook was exclusive to college students and recent alums?) So whether you want to be in the know for professional reasons or pick up some conversation fodder for your teenage niece, here’s the scoop on these emerging social apps and sites.

Wanelo, a portmanteau of Want, Need, Love, is a community for shoppers.

How It Works
It merges stores, products and people into a sort of giant internet mall curated by its users. Every item posted links back to the original product for easy purchasing. It’s kind of like an RSS feed of products the users you follow are buying.

Why It’s Cool
The site taps into the human desire to see what our friends and acquaintances are buying and where. Who hasn’t uttered the words, “Love that shirt. Where’d you get it?”

Stats

Over 8 million users as of May 2013
Over 6 million products saved 8 million times a day
Products from over 200,000 stores, from major retailers to small independent shops

Vine is Twitter’s video app that allows users to create looping videos and share them on Vine as well as Twitter and Facebook.

How It Works
Just download the app, create a profile, find something to record and start filming.

Why It’s Cool
Follow Editors Picks, spend a few minutes watching the videos, and you’ll see some impressive work and probably wonder where these people find the time. The skill level and content choices vary greatly, but it's a fun creative outlet and innovative way to share scenes from your day.

Stats

14 million users in just six months
Five Vine videos tweeted every second

SnapChat is the digital equivalent of passing a note in class, explains the company's co-founder Bobby Murphy. Well, a note that self-destructs after a few seconds.

How It Works
Snap a picture with the app, add a caption and send it to a friend, or a group. After they view it for a few seconds, the message disappears…(as long as the recipient doesn’t take a screenshot.)

Why It’s Cool
My first thought: teenagers don't want their risqué shenanigans broadcast for all to see. But the app's co-founders assure (maybe concerned parents) of its more wholesome intent.

They say, younger social media users are growing tired of the uber-polished profiles and contrived images shared on many social media platforms. And SnapChat, in its ephemerality, is more akin to a real conversation. Either way, SnapChat is the antithesis to an online world where each photo, update and comment lives on in perpetuity.

Stats

More than 60 million photos or messages sent each day
$13.5 million raised in venture capital funding

Kik Messenger is an instant messenger app for smart phones.

How It Works
Like iMessage, Kik uses a smartphone’s data plan or Wi-Fi to send and receive messages, allowing users to avoid the text messaging rates set by service providers.

Why It’s Cool
In addition to free messaging across operating systems, users can share photos, sketches, voice messages, and other content. Kik Messenger requires users to register a username as form of identification.

Stats

Reached 1 million user registrations in 15 days
50 million unique users registered as of April 2013

4chan makes me feel old, slightly confused and kind of grouchy.

How It Works
The website is just a simple, image-based bulletin board where people can post on various topics, like Japanese animation, music and photography. Browsing the forums feels like hanging out with a group of teenaged boys all laughing about an inside joke I don’t understand.

Why It’s Cool
It may look like a chat room from the mid-nineties, but it's one of the internet’s most trafficked image boards, according to the Los Angeles Times. And its users are behind some very popular Internet memes, like LOLcats, Rickrolling and Chocolate Rain, as well as countless others. I guess teenaged boys can be pretty funny sometimes.

Stats

Over 25,000,000 unique visitors per month
One of the highest-trafficked US sites, according to Alexa

It's hard to see how this new wave of social media will be relevant to businesses or any of us born before 1995. But then again, I never thought I'd see my dad on Facebook.

Cowboy PR

by Jon Pushkin under

Last month I had breakfast at the Holiday Inn in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The waitress suggested the breakfast buffet. I asked what was in the breakfast buffet. She said “Well, we’ve got ham, bacon, sausage…’’ “Hmm, I don’t eat those,” I said suspiciously. “She said, “Well, we have fruit, cereal, eggs…” So I ordered the breakfast buffet.

The truth is, we all have to make adjustments sometimes. When things don’t go your way, when a client doesn’t agree with everything you recommend, and especially when people look at you like you must be from Mars because you don’t eat bacon, ham or sausage. That ability to adjust your saddle or even change horses in midstream when you need to find some common ground is a lost art these days. That’s one thing that really impressed me about the people who run Cheyenne Frontier Days.

The Cowboy Way is no bull. These people really practice the art of Cowboy PR. They are straight shootin’ communicators who say what they think and mean what they say. Their core values include honor, respect and courtesy. It might sound old fashioned, but that culture is fundamentally what PR is all about. You may not agree with them, but at least they will respect you enough to let you voice your opinion, as long as you do it in a respectful way. If you choose to be ornery about it, they’ll just get up and leave until you calm down. In Cowboy PR, there is no time for showboating. They are too busy rounding up the truth.

For too long, Cheyenne Frontier Days let other people tell the story of how animals are treated at rodeos. Often that story has been negative. It’s been told by people who truly believe that their perspective is the only one that matters. They make a lot of noise and they fire a lot of cheap shots. Now, CFD tells its own story in its own words and lets whoever wants to decide which story they like best.

In just three years, CFD has built a loyal following on Facebook

with over 77,000 fans. They have dozens of their own videos on YouTube and over 6,000 people following them on Twitter. Instead of only negative attacks, the media coverage also includes features on CFD’s commitment to keeping rodeo livestock healthy and safe. Most of all, the 2,500 volunteers who run the organization feel better because they are finally being listened to instead of just hollered at.

Honor. Respect. Courtesy. That’s straight shootin’ communications. That’s Cowboy PR.

Serenity Now!

by Jon Pushkin under

Every day I walk my dogs in a beautiful park near my house. It’s in the city, but there are areas of the park that make you feel like you are out in the country. It’s secluded, quiet, green and peaceful. Until some idiot comes along talking on their headset, smart phone in hand, poor neglected dog by their side, unaware that they are missing their only opportunity to enjoy a perfectly serene moment in an otherwise chaotic, stressful day.

Technology makes us smarter and also dumber. It makes our lives easier and also much more complicated. It frees us and also makes us slaves. It allows us to be everywhere but present.

The 2013 Gallup State of the American Workplace Report found that only 30 percent of employees said they were engaged and inspired at work. Out of 150,000 full and part-time workers surveyed, more than half said they were not very excited at work, and 18 percent said they were actively disengaged, or in the words of Gallup CEO Jim Clifton, they “roam the halls spreading discontent.”

Now, I love my iPhone as much as the next guy, and I have no idea how I survived so long without the ESPN Score Center app, but I don’t think it’s a huge leap to connect the fact that the more we connect to technology the more we disconnect from the people we should be relating to every day. While technology has opened up our world, it has also confined us to a world devoid of human interaction. A world where employees never leave work.

Public relations by definition depends on relationships. If we lose our ability to relate, to develop relationships, to have conversations with other humans, then don’t we also lose our ability to communicate? If we never disconnect from work and enjoy some down time, is it any wonder so many of us are disengaged at work, roaming the halls spreading discontent?

As I pass those people in the park with smart phone in hand, I imagine their dogs are telepathically communicating an important message on my behalf: “Put down your phone. Put it down now and no one gets hurt! Put it down now of that guy over there with the Mets hat is going to come over here and slap you silly.”

Song For My Father

by Jon Pushkin under

I love City Slickers. It’s got cattle drives, lots of talk about baseball, and Billy Crystal wears a Mets hat. What’s not to like? One of my favorite lines from the movie is when Daniel Stern’s character, Phil, talks about his father.

“When I was about 18 and my dad and I couldn't communicate about anything at all, we could still talk about baseball.”

Like Phil, I also had a period when my father would refer to me as “the contrary son.” I was rebelling, he hated my attitude, and we didn’t have much to talk about. Except of course, for baseball. My best childhood memories are the days my Dad took me to a Mets game in New York. He’d buy me a hotdog and a hat, we’d keep score and it was heaven. Even in the worst of times we could watch a game together and find some common ground. Love of baseball is just one of the many gifts my father left me.

My father died on Memorial Day in 1991, which was fitting because like other members of the Greatest Generation, the thing that most shaped his life was his service in the Big War. He never talked much about his experience in the Battle of the Bulge. I only learned the details after he died. But one of his proudest moments was years later at a reunion of his battalion, when he and many of his band of brothers got the Bronze Star they earned in Europe during the brutal winter of 1944-45.

For as much effort as I spent tuning my father out, he would be pleased to know that a few valuable lessons he taught me managed to sink in. Work hard. Pay your bills. Always treat people with respect. Never stop learning. Nothing is more important than family and friends. Be honest. Pick your battles. Be proud but not prideful. Stick with your team, even when they suck.

As Steve Goodman sang, “Now the old man’s gone, and I’d give all I own, to hear what he said when I wasn’t listening to my old man.”

Happy Memorial Day, Dad. This song’s for you.

Back to School

by Jon Pushkin under

Rutgers, my alma mater, is the state university of New Jersey. For many years, the school had a perception problem. While Rutgers enjoyed a strong reputation academically, athletes from New Jersey often went out of state. That began to change in the past decade or two. Recently the school has taken a huge leap in its ability to attract the state’s top student athletes.

All that progress is now threatened by the mishandling of the current crisis involving head basketball coach Mike Rice. Clearly, the administration failed to understand the seriousness of the problem when it first came to light months ago. Rutgers made some classic crisis communications mistakes. Now its reputation will endure long-term damage unless it takes some important steps to manage the crisis.

To review, last November the Rutgers athletic director received a video from a former athletic department employee showing Rice physically and verbally abusing players at practice. The AD suspended the coach for three games and fined him $50,000. He also required Rice to attend anger management training. In March, the AD said that the coach would be back next season.

Last night, ESPN’s Outside the Lines played the video. Viewers were shocked. Politicians (Rutgers gets state funding) were outraged. Sportswriters demanded the firing of the coach, the AD and the school president amid questions about why parents would send their kids to Rutgers after this.

The crisis might have been avoided if Rutgers had handled it better months ago. Letting it linger only made it worse. If the administration had conducted a more thorough investigation, handed the coach a stronger punishment, and made significant changes in the athletic program, it might have avoided the situation it finds itself in today. Which is scrambling to put out the fire that threatens to hurt its recruiting as it prepares to enter the big time Big 10 conference in 2014.

Because Rutgers wanted to protect the reputation of its athletic program, it allowed the reputation of the university to suffer serious damage that could take years to repair. Today the school fired Mike Rice. More heads are certain to roll. The crisis is far from under control. And it all could have been avoided.

Every organization is vulnerable to a crisis. Every organization needs an effective crisis communications plan that is adaptable and frequently updated. Crisis communications training should be practiced regularly. But even if those steps are taken, all of that will fail unless the organization is determined to act quickly, responsibly, ethically, honestly and transparently.

The educators at Rutgers learned some valuable lessons this week. The test will be seeing if they take those lessons to heart

Pages

Behind the Scenes With Cheyenne Frontier Days' Marketing Director Nicole Gamst

Everyone, Meet Healthcare Reform

The New Wave of Social Media

Cowboy PR

Serenity Now!

Song For My Father

Back to School

Denver Public Relations

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