WhipperSnaPR

By definition, according to my cool dictionary widget, a whippersnapper is:

whippersnapper |ˈ(h)wipərˌsnapər| noun informal

a young and inexperienced person considered to be presumptuous or overconfident.

yep, that’s me! Young, check; inexperienced, mostly; presumptuous, not too often; overconfident, more often than is probably healthy. But, there is an upside… I’m also smart enough to at least recognize my pipsqueak tendencies and I try (for the most part) to keep them in line.

My experiences in my first two weeks at Pod have allowed me to both embrace and manage my inner WhipperSnaPR. First, I LOVE MY JOB and I will tell everybody I meet all about it. I definitely have a youthful energy about this job and my co-workers don’t seem to mind at all. They give me free plenty of room to trot about and stretch my legs like a spring pony.

But, I’ve also come to realize that although they hired me for my specialization in internet communication, they also expect me to do much more than chat online all day. I have much to learn. Fortunately, I have great teachers. First, I have my two bosses, Steve and Liz. They make such a great team both personally and professionally. They are successful and have years of experience, but they are also laid back, relaxed and open minded and they show me respect that I never had the opportunity to enjoy at my previous job.

In addition to my great role models at Pod, I also have the opportunity to work quite closely with the director of marketing, Bobbie, at B*tween Productions (developer of the Beacon Street Girls), one of our clients. I’ve only met her once, so far, but I truly enjoyed our conversation and brainstorm and I can already tell that I can learn a lot from Bobbie. She’s a seasoned PR professional, she has loads of media connections, and she is very level headed when it comes to PR/business strategy. We will be running a PR campaign from August through October and I’m so excited about it!

I hope to write more about this and other cool work activities soon!

So the other night, Ari, James and I went to see Who Killed the Electric Car. To be honest, I didn’t even know the movie existed befor James suggested we go see it and I wasn’t in the best of moods, so I didn’t have high hopes for this trip to the movies (my first in seven months, by the way).

Well, it turns out this was one of the rare occassions when I was wrong, very wrong. I loved the movie! For those of you who haven’t heard of it, it is a documentary about the evolution of the electric car and the business and politics that first spawned the technology and then effectively “murdered” it. Now, I like to think of myself as a left-wing green-friendly citizen of the planet… but in all honesty, I only do the bare minimum as far as saving the planet goes. But, my parents taught me to appreciate natural resources and level-headed politics, so the movie’s message spoke to me.I almost cried when I saw this image:

The first thought that came to mind as I was watching was: If the electric car was killed partially because a car company didn’t want to invest in and market a product that would a) admit their main product was faulty and b) undercut their short-term profits, wouldn’t the solution be to start a new company that produces only electric vehicles? I realize this would require taking bold leaps of faith and raising huge amounts of capital, but if the movie is correct and there really is a market demand for the product, why not by-pass the corporate roadblocks and build the car people are asking for?

On another, slightly related note, I thought this would be a great opportunity to write about one of my favorite companies. I am a loyal member of ZipCar, a car sharing community in Boston (and NY and DC and Toronto and San Francisco and most recently, Chicago).

I like to think I am their biggest evangelist customer. I love to talk about how much I love ZipCar… I LOVE these guys. They have improved my quality of live in Boston by 100%. They even have some EVs in their fleet!
Most days, I don’t need a car to go about my life, but there have been many occassions, for work or play, when I need more than what the bus or T can offer. I am about to renew my membership and enter my third year as a loyal ZipCar customer and so far, the membership has paid for itself in convenience alone. Plus it is just a really cool company… I’d love to do their PR. I wonder if they’ve ever considered an online or mobile game to build brand awareness…

This weekend, Ari and I went to one of my favorite bars in Cambridge, Enormous Room. A friend introduced me to “enormous” over a year ago and I’ve been a loyal patron ever since. Although, I as I noticed during my last visit, the qualities that originally drew me to the bar so frequently have all begun to disappear or transform into traits that I don’t find as appealing. So, it got me thinking…

Enormous Room has done very little advertising (if any at all) and has relied on word of mouth to build its clientelle. They don’t even have a sign on the door; but they have earned some positive reviews in the past. Their approach worked out great at first. They were growing in popularity at a very manageable pace and they were attracting all the right people to fit their persona/genre/style. But recently, it seams the clientelle has changed. All of the people I used to see every weekend have stopped coming (and I stopped going every weekend, myself), the music has changed, and the drinks are more expensive. Why the change?

Now that I’m working in word of mouth marketing, these kinds of case studies have been catching my attention. The enormous room could present a very interesting case against word of mouth marketing: when you rely solely on word of mouth, you relinquish a considerable amount of control over the medium and the message. However, any good PR can quickly become bad PR if the buisness is not prepared to manage an increase in interest and attention.

I’d love to hear the perspective and strategy of the Enormous manager and I’m interested in seeing how they react to the recent changes in their business. I may have to continue my regular visits just to see how things progress…. plus, I have to feed my cravings for their pomegranate margaritas

I’m back in Boston after an 11-day trip to visit Josh in San Francisco. Although I spent some time working last week, my “new” life takes full speed this week.

My good friend Colin, founder and CEO of his own company, Mahoney Communications, has asked me to work with him on a potential account. So, yesterday morning, bright and early, we had a new business pitch. It went exceedingly well. Now, my weekend will be filled with drafting the formal proposal. I’m quite proud of myself, though; I was able to correctly and effectively identify her weaknesses in past PR efforts and offer my recommendations without offending her. In fact, she seemed shocked and excited that I was able to recognize the specific areas where she wanted help. I have high hopes for this project in the coming weeks.

Today is my first day at Pod Design. I’m absolutely loving it so far! The first thing Liz (one of my “bosses”… I only have two as opposed to the 4 before!) said to me was…”We’re pretty laid-back here, so there’s no reason to freak out about much.” I’ve been given my objectives for the next three months… they are ambitious, yet achievable and I’m so excited to get started. I also have high hopes for this position.

The combination of my long vacation away from the real world with all of this positive energy coming from my new work has been an effective detox from my previous situation, which ended only two short weeks ago… it feels like ages! At first, the transition was difficult for me. My last work environment drained me of my enthusiasm and gusto that had been my identifying traits… and the idea for the WhipperSnaPR blog title. I still don’t feel completely like my old self, but I finally feel like I’m headed in the right direction.