DENVER: Quiznos hired Shift Communications as consumer AOR, effective January 2010. The sandwich shop chose Shift out of five agencies that were part of a multiple-round RFP at the end of 2009.

Quiznos is specifically looking to broaden its social media efforts as an integrated part of its PR and communications, Ellen Kramer, EVP of communications for Quiznos, told PRWeek.

“They really came out on top in many ways, primarily because of their social media work and history,” she said of Shift. “Some of the clients that they had, I think, were a good fit for the kind of work we wanted to do.” She declined to name the other agencies involved in the review or the financial details of the account.

As consumer AOR, Shift will work in conjunction with the company’s advertising and digital partners, provide PR and social media strategy, support product launches and events, and work to raise visibility for Quiznos, said Todd Defren, principal at Shift.

The Quiznos win marks the once technology-focused agency’s continued march into consumer PR. The account will be run out of Shift’s San Francisco office by five staffers. The agency already started work on Quiznos’ “Eat Toasty, Be Green” campaign, promoting new, eco-friendly packaging for Quiznos products.

“Quiznos has always been the kind of brand that gets talked about and we wanted to harness that conversation a little bit better,” Kramer said of the brand’s social media work. “I think we need to put it into a more holistic picture and start talking about our company from the consumer perspective in a way that would be more meaningful to them.”

Quiznos previously worked with Crenshaw Communications, on a project basis, and the agency did pitch for the account, Kramer added. Crenshaw did not immediately return requests for comment. Quiznos continues to enlist Coltrin & Associates for b-to-b PR.
“We hadn’t had a consumer AOR with this kind of strategic plan before,” Kramer said, when asked about the length of the new PR contract. “We all entered this relationship thinking this was absolutely a long-term relationship.”

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February 3, 2009
By Todd Defren

Dear CEO,

I am really happy to hear that you’re getting excited by the concept of social media. There’s no question that the principles of social media—in short, embracing a candid and ongoing dialogue with users—constitute an unstoppable trend.

Meanwhile, the tools of social media (blogs, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, etc.) are becoming ever more important components to the marketing mix.

The fact that you want to get personally involved bodes well for your company’s chances of successfully navigating these unknown waters.

I can understand why you, as a CEO, would be interested in “joining the conversation.” It’s an interesting conversation: After all, it’s a conversation about topics of interest to you and to your company, and the people you’ll interact with will self-identify themselves as being interested in what you’ve got to say.

And, for what it’s worth, here’s some more good news: It takes a lot of talent to rise to the CEO spot; you need to be confident, charming, smart, and articulate—and these are excellent qualities in a blogger, too! Done well, your foray into blogging will afford you both personal satisfaction and bottom-line results. So we’re off to a good start.

So, umm, how do you really start? How do you get started blogging, and do it well? Let’s avoid the technical requirements (you’re the CEO, you’ve got people who can figure that stuff out!) Instead, let’s focus on creating the right mindset.

First off, you need to explore your motivations and time commitments before you consider a dual career as a CEO-blogger.

Too many would-be CEO bloggers treat their new toy as little more than a weekly newsletter: a way to broadcast their thoughts, rather than a way to create a dialogue. These execs expect that simply because they are the CEO, people will be magnetically drawn to their words. But then they are crushed to see “Comments: (0)” after each post and their acknowledged industry expertise in the “real world” not reflected in their wan “Technorati Authority” ranking.

And then they give up, pooh-poohing the ballyhooed blogosphere as they munch on sour grapes. Because they couldn’t tame the blogosphere, they lose interest.

Now, all other blog-related projects at the company become suspect—after all, if the CEO couldn’t hack it, who dares think that they could do better? And thus a company loses a golden opportunity to engage with its customers and prospects.

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January 20, 2009

BOSTON, MA -

NEWS FACTS

– SHIFT Communications announced today that it has been selected as the PR Agency of Record for Powered, Inc., an organization that delivers comprehensive ROI-based social marketing programs that drive conversations between consumers and brands. Powered’s customers include companies like HP, iVillage, Atkins, RadioShack and Sony.

– By providing marketers with one source for results-driven online communities, content strategy expertise, robust analytics and strategic program management, Powered has evolved online community development into social marketing, giving its partners everything they need to build rich, long-term relationships with their target audiences.

– SHIFT was chosen for its deep knowledge of and participation in the social media space, placing it in the best position to create greater awareness of Powered and its services.

– The SHIFT team will focus on increasing brand visibility by providing strategic counsel, social media consulting and aggressive media relations execution.

QUOTES

– “With business units converging across the Web, almost all marketers are aware of social marketing, and interest levels in its potential are at an all-time high. However, the actual understanding of the various types of social marketing and community programs is all over the map. Marketers need help determining what will work best for their objectives. We are looking forward to having the SHIFT team help broaden the awareness of social marketing initiatives and making organizations understand the true power behind their customer base.”

– Aaron Strout, VP marketing, Powered, Inc. — click for The Engaged Consumer blog

– “With its impressive client roster, Powered is positioned for recognition in a market — enterprise social media solutions — with no established leaders. We plan to help turn Powered, with its social marketing approach and deep bench of executive talent in the management team, into an acknowledged market leader.”

– Todd Defren, a principal at SHIFT Communications — click for Defren’s LinkedIn profile

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By Aarti Shah
January 5, 2009

NEW YORK: Virgin Mobile has named SHIFT Communications as its AOR. The agency will focus on broadening the company’s message to fit with the current economy, as well as promote its expanded offerings.

Virgin Mobile offers prepaid and pay-as-you-go cell-phone coverage, but the company added post-pay service after it completed its acquisition this past August of Helio, which included its product offerings like Ocean, as well as its almost 200,000 customers.

SHIFT, which was expected to commence work on the account January 1, will assist Virgin Mobile on three major challenges facing the company. Among them is changing the perception of prepaid cell phones in the consumer marketplace, according to Jayne Wallace, VP of corporate communications at Virgin Mobile.

In addition, the agency will be tasked with maximizing Virgin Mobile’s social media opportunities and raising awareness of its post-paid cell-phone offerings.

The company’s previous messaging carried an anti-contract sentiment, but it will now emphasize that consumers can have any wireless service and on their own terms.

“We are developing a new campaign and branding to be broad enough to encompass prepay and post-pay,” Wallace explained. “But prepay is still our bread and butter and we want to let people know that in this economy it’s a great alternative, not just a second-best option.”

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By Todd Defren
December 15, 2008

Peter Kim, the former Forrester analyst, was kind enough to invite me to join several other smart folks in looking ahead to Social Media’s likely evolution in 2009.

“Community and collaboration are wonderful things,” he says. And then I realize that the 14 voices Peter’s lassoed into ginning up their ideas could’ve been 15, if Peter himself had hazarded some predictions! Crazy like a fox, that guy.

Without further ado, with true thanks to Peter, “fourteen great minds on social media have shared thoughts on what 2009 may have in store for us.” Here’s some of what they’re thinking:

“Although it is now cheaper to launch an initiative leveraging Web 2.0 technology - it requires qualified and passionate people to make them successful.” - David Armano
“You may not always start the year as a leader, but you can certainly finish it that way.” - Rohit Bhargava
“Intimacy touches emotion; emotion powers conversation.” - Pete Blackshaw
“Doors are going to close all over the social web. Why? Because the money didn’t come the way people thought it would.” - Chris Brogan
“The tipping point has not only *not* been reached, but could still tilt *away* from Social Media.” - Todd Defren
“There’s a lot of fixing that needs to be done.” - Jason Falls
“Dwindling budgets suddenly make low-cost social media look like the pretty girl at the ball.” - Ann Handley
“We’re going to develop a set of better metrics to help guide, direct and validate ‘commitment’.” - Joseph Jaffe
“The movement is rooted in a desire to have quality, not quantity, as people cocoon in the face of the economic crisis.” - Charlene Li
“After a pre-qualifying wrestling match…” - Ben McConnell
“These will be cumulative events and interactions that will build brand loyalty for the companies that pay attention to them.” - Scott Monty
“The recession will force revenue results out of social technologies.” - Jeremiah Owyang
“Companies that focus on earning love will thrive during hard times, and kick ass when good times return.” - Andy Sernovitz
“Suddenly, being Facebook friends with your mom will seem less ridiculous than following 4,000 strangers on Twitter.” - Greg Verdino

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By Neville Hobson
November 7, 2008

Content summary: The live call-in episode on BlogTalk Radio. Panel discussion addressed the value public relations professionals bring to startups. The topic was a response to several posts dismissing PR’s worth, suggesting startup CEOs can handle their own public relations (the post by Jason Calacanis served as the focal point of the discussion).

Panelists included Rob Lane, CEO, Overlay TV; Katie Paine, president, K.D. Paine & Partners; Todd Defren, partner, Shift Communications; Sherrilynne Starkie, from Strive Public Relations; and Michael O’Connor Clarke, from ThornleyFallis Public Relations.

Click to listen to FIR Live Now episode…

By Lisa van der Pool
October 24, 2008

Looking to shave discretionary spending where he can, Jim Joyal, principal at public relations shop Shift Communications LLC, has drawn up a list of more than a dozen spending cuts. Among them, curbing corporate travel, paring back on outsourced IT services and employee expense accounts, shutting down two of the company’s printers to save on toner, encouraging staff to use porcelain mugs rather than paper cups and hosting a “more modest” holiday party this year.

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By Sarah Wurrey
September 26, 2008

For this episode of the Roundtable, my usual co-host Jen Zingsheim was out on vacation, so I needed two special guests to fill her venerable shoes. I am joined by Valeria Maltoni and Doug Haslam. Valeria, whose blog Conversation Agent is one of my favorites, is the director of marketing and communications at Sun Guard Availability Services. Doug, who is joining us on the Roundtable for the second time after serving as one of our first guests several months ago, is an Account Director at Boston’s SHIFT Communications, and blogs at DougHaslam.com (and naturally, Doug’s blog is one of my favorites too!).

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SAN FRANCISCO: Watercooler recently named Shift Communications its AOR to help raise its profile in the social networking space.

Created in 2007, Watercooler is a platform for sports and TV fans that allows users to access the application from social networking sites, including Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Hi5, and Friendster, so that the content created with one post is duplicated on all the user’s sites.

Kevin Chou, CEO of Watercooler, said that more than 20 million have downloaded its application or joined its communities, but now it needs to focus on a branding plan.

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Shooting down a launch. The highest-profile website launch in a long while was last Monday’s unveiling of Cuil.com (pronounced “cool.”) The new search engine was built by former Google and AltaVista engineers, who say it searches three times as many pages as Google. But by the end of the site’s first day, many bloggers and journalists seemed to have found something to dislike, whether it was a prominent site missing from a set of search results or Cuil’s propensity to match photos of one person with Web pages related to someone else. Public relations executive Todd Defren of Boston’s Shift Communications had some advice on how things could have played out differently.

The [PR] agency should have insisted that Cuil slap “BETA” all over the site and any other outbound communication. I checked lots of different sections of the Cuil site, and never saw any hint from the company that they might not be ready for prime time. The messaging is marked by ambition and (in retrospect) arrogance. The agency should have enlisted the search community’s aid. There are plenty of search algorithm experts, [search engine optimization] experts, online marketers, etc., who might be willing to offer free advice for such an ambitious start-up. Taking on Google is a big, hairy, audacious goal: this community could have gotten excited about collaborating on something so audacious. This longer-term, inclusive approach could have cushioned the launch with some built-in compassion for the Cuil engine’s lapses.
www.pr-squared.com

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“The SEC is taking the right steps to embrace the new tools and services that reach people in addition to wire services. With the recognition of blogs as a viable form of disclosure, under certain circumstances of course, the SEC is officially recognizing Social Media and in a sense, socializing the rules associated with Reg FD.

Perhaps, the most significant change stemming from the new SEC guidance is that Web-based disclosure does not have to appear in a format comparable to paper-based information, unless the Commission’s rules explicitly require it.

This is music to my ears as it finally opens the door for the Social Media Release.

For a few years, Todd Defren, Chris Heuer, and I have not only defended and charted the opportunity for Social Media Releases (SMRs), but also fielded emotionally-charged questions from the financial and IR communities asking about whether or not an SMR would ever meet disclosure requirements for Reg FD, and without it, what good would it ever be…”

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“Mr. Penn, who isn’t looking for a job, got the idea for the social media résumé from Todd Defren of Shift Communications who created the social media press release, a template for a Web 2.0 news release that he made available free to others in the public relations industry.”

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Todd Defren created a collection of resources and posts for public relations 101. It encompasses social-media tactics, free online services that appeal to small businesses and creating a news release for an online community.

Scott Monty
relationship director, Crayon

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Todd Defren
Principal, Shift Communications

“Let’s screw up intelligently,” Todd Defren dares the industry.

Defren envisions a PR industry that is willing to take risks - and perhaps make some mistakes - to get things right.

I’d like to see us experiment more,” he adds.

And the industry may not have a choice. As media grow increasingly sophisticated, Defren believes bad PR - e-mail blasts, unsolicited attachments, and uninformed press releases - will disappear.

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Hailed as “the business world’s own Oscars” (New York Post , April 27, 2005), The American Business Awards are the only national, all-encompassing awards program honoring great performances in business.

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Todd Defren, principal at Shift Communications, said the agency will be conducting traditional and social media programs for all of RealNetwork’s divisions including Rhapsody, RealPlayer, RealArcade, and Technology Products and Services—the company’s mobile division.

“We’re helping develop a blog outreach strategy, blogosphere monitoring, and advising them on how to best respond to comments and bloggers themselves,” Defren said. “We already help them set up the RealPlayer blog for the launch of the newest version of RealPlayer.”

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…I contacted Todd Defren - since he’s the recognized expert on SMPR templates - and he offered this powerful thought, “It’s important to understand that the Social Media News Release is not intended as a replacement for the traditional news release. It’s an evolution. The SMNR’s core function is simply to allow creators of news to leverage the Web familiarity that is now ingrained in consumer audiences. With 50+ percent of consumers now creating and sharing content online (Pew Research), it just makes sense to democratize access to corporate news and multimedia assets to anyone (reporters, bloggers, laypeople) who might be interested, and, to create a forum for community and context that - to date - has been unavailable via old-world press releases.” Amen.

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