Erika's posterous

 

Guy gets lucrative gig for $6 of effort

 Brilliant! Another great post at mashable.com.

HOW TO: Land Your Dream Job Using Google AdWords
 Lauren Indvik 
By now, landing a job via social media is nothing new; we’ve perused the how-to guides and heard dozens of great success stories. There are, however, still plenty of creative opportunities for securing a job with a bit of clever online marketing.
Meet Alec Brownstein, senior copywriter at creative advertising shop Young & Rubicam (Y&R) New York. Last summer, Alec was just another tired, 28-year-old copywriter at a large international ad agency who wanted nothing more than to work at “a really creative shop for really creative [creative directors].”
While Googling his favorite creative directors last summer, Brownstein noticed that there were no sponsored links attached to their names. Since Brownstein Googles himself “embarassingly frequently,” he assumed that the creative directors did so as well, and thus he decided to purchase their names on Google AdWords.
“Everybody Googles themselves,” Brownstein explained. “Even if they don’t admit it. I wanted to invade that secret, egotistical moment when [the creative directors I admired] were most vulnerable.”
Since Brownstein was the only person bidding on the names of the five creative directors he most admired, he was able to get the top search spots for a mere 15 cents per click. Whenever someone ran a search for one of the creative directors’ names, the following message appeared at the top of the page: “Hey, [creative director's name]: Goooogling [sic] yourself is a lot of fun. Hiring me is fun, too” with a link to Brownstein’s website, alecbrownstein.com.
Over the next couple of months, Brownstein received calls from all but one of the creative directors whose names he had purchased. And finally, at the end of the year, he received a job offer from two: Scott Virtrone and Ian Reichenthal of Y&R New York.
The whole campaign cost him $6.
But the rewards for Brownstein’s creativity haven’t ended there. He has also received awards in the self-promotion category at two major advertising awards shows, The One Show and The Clios.
We asked Brownstein if he has any advice for others trying to land their dream jobs via Internet marketing. “Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there in an interesting way,” he said. “The people who you want to work for can’t hire you any less than they already are. So shoot for the moon.”
We couldn’t agree more with his advice. What do you think of Brownstein’s story? Have you or anyone you know used online marketing to land yourself a job?


 

Pizza @ V-Lounge

YUUUMM!!

Dinner break from Kawaii Kon 2010, around 9:15p. We were really hungry after the U.S. anime con debut of anime voice actors Hideo Ishikawa, Masakazu Morita and Daisuke Kishio. My plan was to treat the kids to pizza at V Lounge, which @GenePark says is really delicious.

1st image: The Prima. Yes, that's egg in the center. Those bundles of meat are pancetta. It's like bacon and egg pizza, but there's nothing American-tasting about it.

The second image is the Proscuitto pizza with arugula, (what Jamie Oliver refers to as "rocket,") also delicious. 

The first one we tried did not get photographed (the Sopressata/Pepperoni) because we were SOOO hungry when it was brought to the table we forgot -- and just dug in. Some of the five of us were still hungry after the first three pies, so we got another Sopressata/Pepperoni and AGAIN forgot to snap a shot.

Resoundingly enjoyed by all.

(download)

 

Kumihimo - Tsukushi Gumi

Tsukushi Gumi, a kumihimo braid taught by Nagano-Sensei at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii in Honolulu. (More on her in a moment.)

Tsukushigumi1a1
16-bobbins, 16-steps.

I started with five skeins of rayon embroidery floss; two gold, one purple, one green, one white. I used up all the gold and purple in each of those skeins but had some green and white left over. Finished braid length, 22 inches.

Strands of floss were doubled on each bobbin: eight gold, four purple, two each green and white.
Bobbin/color placement: pairs of gold at the north, south, east and west positions, pairs of purple at the northeast and southwest positions and one each green and white at the northwest and southeast positions, with green and white strands directly opposite each other.

Tsukushigumi1b1

I wanted the purple, green and white "stitches" to look as smooth as possible, so I tried to make sure the floss strands did not twist together during braiding. Conversely, I tightly twisted the gold strands on each bobbin to provide texture. While all my fibers (warps, if you like) started out equal in length, twisting the gold strands naturally wound up making them shorter than the others. All that to say, if you do any braid where you are twisting some fibers and not the others, cut the fibers that are to be twisted longer than the fibers that won't be twisted. I had about six inches more purple, green and white than gold by the end of my braid. 
Tsukushigumi1c1
You may notice at the top right, the green and white strands are coming together from the outside. That is the beginning point of the braid and it will be covered by findings, when I get around to putting them on to actually finish the project. (I have waaay to many completed braids that are just braids -- no end caps, toggles, clasps, bails, pendants ... *sigh*.)

Why am I not explaining the braiding steps? I feel doing so would be disrespectful to my teacher. While I pay a nominal amount for my classes, she is a volunteer who shares with us what she learned at the Hakubi Kimono School in Japan in order to keep the ancient cultural craft alive.

Books on kumihimo are available. I recommend any that are authored or co-authored by Makiko Tada. Some kumihimo authors out there were actually her students. Not that that's a bad thing, it just seems more logical to go to the woman they learned from, who is an engineering professor and whose mother was also a kumihimo teacher. I was fortunate to attend a two-day workshop she taught in Honolulu about a year ago.

More on Nagano-sensei:

It was my honor to be able to write this feature about her for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin earlier this year:

As it turns out, a colleague had written about her family and its crafty heritage years ago:

Aloha, and keep braiding!

Tsukushigumi11

 

 

Job posting - Fashion & Shopping mag editor

 

Got an e-mail blast that I need to share with anyone who might be interested. 

Good luck!

-- Erika

Aloha Friends,

 

Here at PacificBasin, we are looking for an Editor for our Fashion & Shopping magazines. Please see the job description and requirements below and feel free to pass along to anyone who might be interested/qualified. Thanks!

 

PacificBasin Communications is seeking an Editor to lead our Retail & Fashion Group. We seek a high-energy, multi-faceted marketing/publishing professional who can deftly balance custom publishing with journalism. With a daily newsletter, a bi-monthly magazine and 2 quarterlies, the Editor will oversee more than 270 issue closings annually. Part client service, part fashionista, part journalist, the Editor is responsible for wearing many hats and serving many stakeholders.

 

Submit Resume/Letter of Interest to: Alyson Helwagen, Publisher

alysonh@pacificbasin.net

No phone calls please

 

Editor, Retail & Fashion Group

PacificBasin Communications

 

Job Description

 

The Editor is the top editorial position on the following titles:

-Ala Moana Magazine (6 issues per year) See current issue at: http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/9845a0bd

-Whalers Village Magazine (4 issues per year)

-CenterStyle section in HONOLULU Magazine (4 sections per year)

-Lei Chic (daily fashion and lifestyle email newsletter and website) Website: http://www.leichic.com

 

Duties include but are not limited to:

-Managing, mentoring and leading an editorial team of 1 Senior Editor, 1 Associate Editor and 1 part-time intern

-Maintaining a pool of freelance writers, photographers, stylists and models

-Contribute to generating content for all 4 publications by writing departments and features and developing story concepts

-Use Dreamweaver and Photoshop software and web interface to update website and code newsletters

-Provide peerless marketing counsel and client relations to General Growth Properties (owners of Ala Moana Center and Whalers Village) executives and their merchants

-In partnership with the Publisher, Art Directors and (where applicable) General Growth marketing executives, setting the shared vision for each title

-In partnership with the Editors and Art Directors, creating, organizing and proofing all editorial content by the set deadlines in accordance with the ethical guidelines established by PacificBasin and the ASME

-In partnership with the Merchant Relations Manager/Ad Director and Art Director, dummying each issue

-In coordination with the Publisher, establishing and managing budgets and controlling costs

-In coordination with HONOLULU Editor, budget, plan and execute the quarterly CenterStyle sections

-Staying current with the marketplace by reading trade journals, daily newspapers and other sources

-Other responsibilities as the market and business dictate

 

Requirements:

-Bachelor's Degree in Journalism preferred, with minimum 5 years writing/editorial, public relations/marketing and/or management experience

-Strong interest in fashion with retail experience helpful but not necessary

-Must have solid, proven management skills

-Must have superior time management skills and ability to juggle multiple projects with many different deadlines

-Must have solid, proven client relations skills, and be fully comfortable producing materials for and collaborating with external clients including mall marketing department, store managers, story sources, national PR departments and others

___________________

Alyson Helwagen

Publisher

HONOLULU Magazine

ALA MOANA  Magazine

WHALERS VILLAGE Magazine

LEI CHIC Daily Email Magazine

Ph: 808.534.7585

alysonh@pacificbasin.net

 

 

Alex O'Loughlin, Daniel Dae Kim, HI 5-0 pix

 Taken by my daughter at Waimea Bay, Oahu, Sat. March 20, 2010. She, her bf and his mom were working as extras.


(download)

 

Kumihimo. Kongo Gumi (hana)
Sakuraearrings3

This is a 16-strand kongo gumi braid designed by engineer and kumihimo sensei Makiko Tada. Her mother was a kumihimo teacher, but Tada-san was largely self-taught, she said, as her mother was busy with students and she was but a young girl at the time. She now does gorgeous and unique kumihimo and weaving work, in addition to being a professor! I was honored to be her student during a two-day workshop in Honolulu in 2009.

Tada-sensei has authored and/or co-authored many books on kumihimo. I have two of them. As a beginning kumihimo student, I purchased "KUMIHIMO, The Essence of Japanese Braiding" by Aiko Sakai and Makiko Tada. (Translated from Japanese by Connie Prener and Ethel Kawamura.) The illustrated book was WAY advanced for my beginner level and remains way advanced for me, as I enter only my third year as a kumihimo student. It features braids on the marudai, kakudai and ayatakedai. Nevertheless, being of shibui color sense (subdued, quiet) and wanting to have a frame of reference for more traditional Japanese color combinations (being half-Nihonjin), I bought the book anyway. I look forward to the day when I feel confident enough and have enough time to take on the 68-step Kyo Kara Gumi braid. It is a flat braid reminiscent of bargello, (a needlework craft I read about and intended to take on when I was in high school), except that of course, it is done on a -dai, (kumihimo loom), instead of with fabric, thread and needle. I should mention right now that my kumihimo sensei Carol, very interested in perpetuating Japanese culture, is a student of Nihon shishu, Japanese embroidery. See examples of the craft found online: <http://www.flickr.com/groups/nihon_shishu/pool/>

I also have Tada-sensei's book "Comprehensive Treatise of Braids VI: Kumihimo Disk and Plate. It is from that book (page 13) that I was able to learn the color placement to recreate the flower-print Kongo Gumi (in the book it is spelled kongoh-gumi). My friend and kumihimo- and shippoyaki-sister Sharon wears the braid and earrings now.

At least one of Tada-sensei's students, from the U.K., (more long-term than a weekend, I think it would be fair to say), has also written a book or two. His name escapes me now, but you're sure to find it via Google, should you be so inclined.


 

Kyo Maru Gumi, my kumihimo homework
Kyomarugumi8color2

This was the homework assignment a couple of us kumihimo geeks requested from our teacher last weekend (3/13/2010).

Rather than try to make something wearable, which is my usual MO, I decided to make a sample piece to goof around with color placement.

The braid is Kyo Maru Gumi (essentially Narabi Kaku Yatsu Gumi using 16 bobbins, sted 8).

I used two yards each of eight colors of 1mm satin cord, so there were two bobbins of each color, each bearing 1 yd of cord.

With me so far?

After my initial color placement, done by arranging the cords according to the pairings by which they would be moved, I switched color placement eight times, to see what would happen.

Oh, the barstool with the hole drilled in it and the fishing-weight-filled pill bottles? Why, that's my marudai (bar-stool-u-dai) and those are some of my bobbins! (Kinda ghetto and DIY, but hey, they work!)

First color placement, depicted in the first short portion of the braid at top left:
A = purple
B = red
C = black
D = silver
E= green
F = blue
G = gold
H = lt. green

  A B B A
E             G
F             H
F             H
E             G
  C D D C
The braid shows chevrons of the north-south and east-west colors.

Switch 1: colors placed opposite of each other:
  C D B A
G            G
H             H
F              F
E              E
  C D B A
Result, rows of alternating colors. Black and silver are next to each other at the top and bottom of the marudai and alternate in a row, as do red and purple, light green and gold, blue and green.

Switch 2 (at about 9 o'clock): Colors were paired side-by-side.
  D D C C
H             G
H             G
E              F
E              F
  B B A A
Result: Colors continue to alternate in a single row, but two at a time. The back side of the braid is identical to the front, as  you might imagine.

Switch 3: Colors arranged to be opposite each other, but diagonally this time, instead of straight across from each other.
  C D B A
G             F
H             E
E             H
F             G
  A B D C
Result: All colors are seen alternating in the descending chevron pattern from one view point, however, note toward the inside of the braid, the ascending chevron pattern comprises purple, red, silver and black (the north and south colors). The same is true of the east-west colors to the left of the descending chevron pattern in the 7 o'clock portion of the braid.

Switch 4 (6 o'clock point): Color placement to: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H and H, G, F, E, D, C, B, A.
  A B C D
A             E
B             F
C             G
D             H
  E F G H
Result: Chevron pattern on one side is red, green, blue, purple, (continuing). The chevron pattern on the exact opposite side of braid (not on camera) is gold, silver, black light green (continuing). In between the chevron patterns are also chevrons, but the left side of the "v" is purple, red, green, blue (continuing) and the right side of the "v" is light green, gold, silver and black (continuing).

Switch 5 (4 o'clock part of braid): Colors paired, but alternating.
  C B C B
E             A
H             F
E             A
H             F
  D G D G
Result: a "staggered" chevron pattern with the north-south colors (black, red, gold and silver) making up two sides and the east-west colors (green, light green, purple and blue) on the alternating sides (the braid is sort of square).

Switch 6 (about 3 o'clock): Colors are paired up.
  D D G G
A              H
A              H
F              E
F              E
  B B C C
Placement is different but result is the same as Switch 2 (except colors were in different spots). I had left the house for awhile and apparently forgot I'd already done this AND neglected to consult my notes. FAIL.

Switch 7 went back to the idea behind my first color placement, that is, according to pairs of cords I'd be working in each step. I just put the colors in different spots

Switch 8: For the last inch or so (I do wish I'd started a couple inches earlier), I decided to reverse the braiding technique. Instead of moving the outside cords to the middle of the cords on the opposite side of the marudai, I decided to try going from the inside to the outside (taking the middle cords across the marudai and placing them on the outside of the cords on that side, then taking the middle cords on that side and putting them on the outside of the cords on the first side. Wow. For someone who doesn't do kumihimo this would make absolutely no sense. Maybe even for a braider it doesn't make sense. But I digress. The result was a slightly different-looking chevron pattern in which the "v" shape goes in the opposite direction of the braid done in the traditional way. In my opinion, the traditional way to braid Kyo Maru Gumi is much nicer. There was something sloppy about the way the method-reversed braiding point looked, as I was working.

If you've read this far, you might as well go to www.starbulletin.com on Thursday, March 25 and look for our "Young at Heart" special section. It will include a story about my kumihimo teacher, authored by yours truly.

Mahalo for reading, aloha, sayonara, and happy braiding!

-- Erika

 

Shake-up rocks a two-newspaper town

Change is the only certainty. I bemoan change, knowing full well that without change, I'd have no job. Will this change put me out of that very job? IDK. It is something over which I have no control. Let go, let God.

-- ee

 

Star-Bulletin to acquire Advertiser

By Star-Bulletin staff

POSTED: 04:14 p.m. HST, Feb 25, 2010

The owner of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin is acquiring the Honolulu Advertiser.

The agreement was announced this afternoon by Oahu Publications Inc., which owns the Star-Bulletin, MidWeek and other weekly newspapers and magazines, and Gannett Co., owner of the Advertiser. Oahu Publications also will get related assets in addition to the Advertiser, including its website, non-daily publications and Gannett's interest in Hawaii.com. It does not include The Advertiser's office building at 605 Kapiolani Blvd.

"We are pleased to be able to purchase The Advertiser, a strong and excellent newspaper," said David Black, chairman of Oahu Publications. "We will endeavor to continue the tradition of good Hawaii newspaper stewardship as exemplified in modern times by Twigg Smith and Gannett."

The deal, subject to regulatory and other approvals, is expected to close during the second quarter. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Because the Star-Bulletin and Advertiser are daily newspaper competitors, Oahu Publications has discussed the transaction with the U.S. Justice Department and Hawaii's attorney general.

Bob Dickey, president of Gannett's U.S. Community Publishing, said, "We have been very pleased and proud to be part of the Hawaii journalism community all these years but felt OPI's offer to buy The Advertiser and its related assets was the right course for Gannett at this time."

He added: "We greatly appreciate all of the hard work and contributions our employees have made and know that they will continue to do a terrific job serving this market in the years to come."

Oahu Publications, established in 2001, is a private company that publishes the Star-Bulletin, MidWeek and other weekly newspapers and magazines. It also manages Internet sites and is engaged in commercial printing. Its majority shareholder is Sound Publishing Holding Inc., a subsidiary of Black Press Ltd. Local shareholders include Jeffrey and Lynn Watanabe, Duane Kurisu, Larry and Claire Johnson, Island Holdings Inc., Dan Case and CS Wo and Sons Ltd.

Gannett, based in McLean, Va., is an international company with Internet, mobile, newspaper, magazine and television operations. It publishes 83 daily U.S. newspapers, including USA TODAY, and more than 650 magazines and other non-dailies. It also operates 23 television stations in 19 U.S. markets.
 
 
 
Find this article at:
http://www.starbulletin.com/news/bulletin/85438317.html
http://hsblinks.com/227

 

Lady Gaga - why all the fuss?

Via Advertising Age magazine. Like her or hate her, the marketing brilliance is remarkable.

Gaga, Oooh La La: Why the Lady Is the Ultimate Social Climber

Leveraging Digital Media and Creative Partnerships Makes Artist a Uniquely 2010 Pop Star

By Andrew Hampp 

 

Published: February 22, 2010

LOS ANGELES (AdAge.com) -- As far as breakout musicians go, few artists have had quite the zero-awareness-to-ubiquity time-warp of Lady Gaga. And as far as brands go, few marketers of any kind have leveraged social media the way she has to drive sales of their core product -- in her case, albums and digital singles.

 

(Aww, the image didn't paste in. You can find it at the URL at the bottom)

 

GLAMMING IT UP: Cyndi Lauper (l.) and Lady Gaga's Viva Glam lipsticks have outsold every launch in the line's history.

Lady Gaga, with her army of nearly 2.8 million Twitter followers and more than 5.2 million Facebook fans, can move product. Since fall 2008, her digital-single sales have exceeded 20 million and her album sales hit 8 million, all at a time when no one under the age of 60 buys CDs anymore (see Susan Boyle breaking the record for highest first-week album sales last year). Now, she's being courted by marketers to do the same for their products.

 

Gaga's rapid ascent to the pop-culture stratosphere is often compared to Madonna's, right down to their shared beginnings in the downtown New York club scene before their big record deals. But what makes Gaga's star status, particularly in the marketing community, so uniquely 2010 is that she has achieved as many milestones (if not more) in 18 months than her idol did in nearly a decade. Madonna's notorious endorsement for Pepsi in 1989 -- cut short after her controversial "Like a Prayer" video aired on MTV -- came seven years after the debut of her first single in 1982. Within a year of her out-of-the-box rise to fame in September 2008, Gaga had already lined up Virgin Mobile as a sponsor of her Monster Ball tour; created her own brand of headphones, Hearbeats by Lady Gaga, with record label Interscope; and landed her own (cherry pink) lipstick as a spokeswoman for Mac Cosmetics' Viva Glam, benefiting Mac's AIDS fund. And by January, she was tapped by Polaroid to become the brand's creative director, hired specifically to create new products and inject life into a brand that hasn't been hip for years -- save for maybe a popular reference in Outkast's "Hey Ya!"

 

Old school meets new media

How did a 23-year-old singer/songwriter achieve so much in so little time? Two words: social media. Sure, Gaga had a fair share of old-school artist development -- radio play -- to become the first artist to score four consecutive No. 1 singles from a debut album. But she's also put a new-media spin on her distribution strategy. The November premiere of her video for "Bad Romance," for example, debuted on LadyGaga.com before MTV or any other outlet could play it -- resulting in a Universal Music server crash, a Twitter trending topic that lasted all week and a cumulative 110 million (and counting) views on YouTube to date, more than any viral music video of yore (OK Go, anyone?) could ever claim. Vevo, a music video site co-founded by Universal Music Group, also recently reported a whopping 20% of its traffic came from just Lady Gaga videos -- as in 1 in 5 videos streamed on the site was likely to be a song such as "Poker Face," "Just Dance" or "LoveGame."

Gaga has already had a similar halo effect on her Mac Viva Glam lipstick. Less than a week into its launch, the lipsticks created by Gaga and her campaign cohort Cyndi Lauper have outsold any launch in Viva Glam's 16-year history, said Estée Lauder Group President John Demsey, thanks to a groundswell of social-media impressions. The launch day of her Viva Glam lipstick ad campaign alone generated nearly 20 million unique views in traditional media, including print and web buys and an appearance on "The Today Show," as well as an additional wellspring of social-media hits per Gaga's tweets to her fans.

"Her fan base and our customer base are very similar in that they are drawn to the outrageous and outspoken, so we could not ask for a better partnership," Mr. Demsey said.

Taking credit for Gaga's sudden assault of the zeitgeist is a relatively easy task, as all parties who work with her on her label, management and marketing teams cite Gaga herself as the ultimate brains behind many of her creative and social-media ideas and tactics.

"When you're dealing with someone as good as Gaga, a lot of it is how to stay the fuck out of the way," said Steve Berman, Universal Music's president of sales and marketing. "Gaga has worked tirelessly in keeping up daily if not hourly communication with her fans and growing fanbase through all the technology that exists now."

 

Gaga in control

Troy Carter, Gaga's manager since 2007, described their dynamic as "95-5." "The only thing I do is manage the vision," he said. "Ninety-five percent of the time I won't comment on creative, and 95% of the time she lets me run the business. The other 5% is where we debate about things like, 'Do you really want to bleed to death on stage at the [MTV] VMAs?' She wins even when we do have those debates 5% of the time."

Dyana Kass, who heads pop-music marketing for Universal, has teamed with marketing firms like Flylife for Gaga's outreach to the gay community and ThinkTank to supplement her online efforts, but otherwise lets Gaga maintain a hands-on relationship with her fans and marketing empire.

"Lady Gaga has truly turned culture on its head and has done so from the ground up on her terms," she said. "You can't buy that kind of authenticity, and as a result the demand for her involvement in projects is staggering."

Mr. Carter, who manages Gaga's marketing partnerships, added that he doesn't want Gaga to ever look like she's endorsing a brand -- hence why she's created products for Universal's Beats By Dre headphones line, Viva Glam and now Polaroid as its new creative director.

"You won't see her face plastered on any packaging or anything. We're comparing it to when Tom Ford went to Gucci or Steve Jobs went into Apple and brought a different thought process and taste level in. We're looking for her to do the same exact thing at Polaroid," he said. "It's not about her putting her name on something -- it's reinvigorating a brand."

 

Copyright © 1992-2010 Crain Communications

 

http://adage.com/digitalalist10/article?article_id=142210

 

"No comment" = lost (sales) opportunity!

From a pizza industry site, cited below. Great advice for anyone, not just restos, wanting to be media-savvy!

Commentary: Why 'no comment' is never good for restaurants 

Jennifer Litz

08 Feb 2010

 

For most multiunit pizza operations, media relations are a regular part of business. From limited time offers to earnings reports to damage control, how these milestone events are portrayed in the press largely determines how a brand is perceived by the public.

What, then, does "no comment" say about a company?

According to many media experts and a growing number of restaurant executives, nothing good. Especially in this age of unbridled social media chatter and even more so since Domino’s recent campaign has shown how responsiveness resonates with reporters – and consumers.

Domino’s is particularly pertinent here because vice president of communications Tim McIntyre is known by the media as one of the most open and responsive PR representatives in the industry. McIntyre said that's simply part of the company's corporate culture.

Contrast that with Pizza Hut, whose PR person, Chris Fuller, is known to require an inordinate amount of pursuit to return most media inquiries. Or BJ’s Restaurants, whose PR company sent out press inquiries about the pizzeria-brewpub’s stellar employee retention rate months ago, only to stonewall reporters who tried to follow up on the lead due to policy changes thereafter. 

To Dr. Chuck Tomkovick, professor of marketing at the University of Wisconsin, none of these no-comment strategies minimize whatever damage or lost time companies are trying to mitigate through their use. “If you have a brand, and someone is interested in talking about it and you say ‘no comment,’ you've lost a selling opportunity,” he said. “You think Sam Walton would lose a selling opportunity? Giving away the family jewels isn’t the same as recognizing an opportunity.” 

Tomkovick illustrated the point via the current Toyota fiasco. He believes the company could have pre-empted a lot of bad press about its recent pedal recall by being more open about it instead of denying curious reporters access.

Domino’s McIntyre agreed with that concept. In fact, he can point to a time where being vocal in times of company crisis benefited the brand immensely. Around 1993, the company’s 30-minute delivery guarantee came under fire when a jury held Domino's responsible for a delivery-related crash. The company responded publicly by rescinding the besieged promise, an act McIntyre said allowed it to continue telling its side of the story.

“Domino's went from being a 'reckless' company to being yet another victim of a 'runaway' legal system,” he said. “In nearly 300 interviews I did personally the week following our pulling the guarantee, I was able to share all of the facts surrounding our driver safety programs. We had an audience we hadn't had before then.”

McIntyre said that the company’s responsive culture can prove difficult when it compels him to return calls that other pizza companies don’t. Last year, Domino’s became the de facto poster child for the consequences of rising gas prices because of this fact.

But he says the benefits far outweigh such drawbacks. “That's a minor downside versus the upside, which is being able to build relationships and being credible,” he said.

Cases in point: London's Evening Standard recently said the Labor Party could learn from Domino’s Pizza. And after Robert Redford’s admission that the Sundance Film Festival needs to start getting back to its roots, the Los Angeles Times summarized the move as “pulling a Domino’s.”

“As you've seen from our current advertising campaign, we are putting out there something that's very open and honest,” McIntyre said. “And we're seeing that becoming sort of a phenomenon. We're almost becoming a verb.”

26
To Posterous, Love Metalab