Today’s guest post is by Peppercommer Deb Brown.

OK. Of course, healthcare is serious business. But, is it possible to take something serious like healthcare and connect with key audiences via comedy? The answer: Absolutely! By now, you’ve probably seen President Obama and comedian/actor Zach Galifianakis “spar” on Galifianakis’s web-based show “Between Two Ferns.” If you missed it, you can view it here.

The scripted piece between President Obama and Galifianakis is very funny. And, this is different from President Obama’s visits to late night television. In this episode, the leader of the free world allows himself, and his signature initiative – The Affordable Care Act – to be ridiculed. Few CEOs of corporations, let alone Presidents, would ever allow that. So, kudos to President Obama for understanding the power of comedy.

And, the results speak for themselves: Media reported on the show, it received more than 10 million views and, most important, it helped to increase traffic to the healthcare website by 40 percent!

This show is a perfect example of understanding one’s audience and how to reach that audience. A younger audience, which watches this program, does not want to be lectured to about why they should sign up for healthcare. But, if you can get them to laugh, and watch the President be funny and vulnerable, then the target demographic will pay attention.

Comedy is a powerful tool since laughter forges strong connections. And, when audiences connect, they listen and, ultimately, act. Geico and Southwest are examples of two corporations that use humor very effectively. Whether it’s a Geico commercial (pick one!) or Southwest’s flight attendants making the flight more enjoyable from the beginning, smart comedy makes consumers feel positive about the brand and can increase loyalty. Or, in the case of the healthcare website, help to increase traffic.

At Peppercomm, we strongly believe in comedy as well. Everyone here is trained in stand-up comedy and it’s part of our DNA. The skill sets from comedy help us become better presenters and listeners as well as understand how to engage clients more effectively. It’s also helped us create an exceptional culture, which led us to beating out nearly 1000 other companies for the title of Best Workplace in New York City from Crain’s New York Business in 2012.

Using comedy to articulate your message and attract a key audience is smart and strategic. Laughing about ObamaCare doesn’t make The Affordable Care Act any less serious. But, young adults not signing up? Now…that’s no laughing matter.

Let me begin by saying I consider myself neither a Democrat nor a Republican. I vote for the best qualified candidate (which, considering the recent performance Inside the Beltway, would qualify as an oxymoron).

That said, as a public relations and crisis counselor, I am simultaneously amused and appalled by the comments of numerous, high profile Republican office holders (and wonder how, in god’s name, the party ever hopes to win back the White House in 2016).

To wit:
- Representative Pat Garofalo, a five-term Republican Congressman from Farmington, Minnesota, recently Tweeted: “Let’s be honest - 70 % of teams in the NBA could fold tomorrow + nobody would notice a difference w/possible exception of street crime.’
- Steve Martin, a Republican state senator from Virginia, referred to a pregnant woman as the child’s “host” in a Facebook message.
- In the past few months, Republicans have also called Wendy Davis, a Democratic candidate for Texas governor, ‘Abortion Barbie,’ likened Alison Lundergan Grimes, a Senate candidate from Kentucky to an ‘empty dress’ and criticized Hillary Rodham Clinton’s thighs.

There’s dumb. And, then there are the words spoken by Republicans.

Were I the chairperson of the Republican National Committee, job one would be finding a combination word and crisis coach for my party’s candidates in the upcoming races.

Considering the nation’s ever-changing population demographics, it strikes me the Republicans are creating a real-time Harvard Business School case study. I think I’d call it ‘How to alienate key audiences in every conceivable way.’
And a tip o’ Rep’s cap to Thom “Le Poer” Powers for this idea.

If I wielded any real power at Peppercomm, I’d insist every employee read three business books:

- ‘The Outliers’ by Malcolm Gladwell
- ‘David & Goliath’ also by Gladwell
- ‘What’s Keeping Your Customers Up at Night’ by Steve Cody and Richard Harte, Ph.D.

The first two are chock full of wisdom, insights and surprises. The third is dull as dishwater, but I still collect royalties and could use some extra spending money.

But, wait! Don’t buy anything yet.

I now have a fourth book that runs rings around the above-mentioned troika. It’s called ‘To Sell Is Human‘ by Daniel Pink.

Pink’s premise is that, with few exceptions, we are ALL salespeople nowadays. We may not be pushing ’64 Chevy Impalas, Tupperware or McMansions, but we’re all selling most of the time. This holds true for doctors, lawyers, academics and, yes, Virginia, even PR practitioners.

Pink says that, because of social media and other seismic social factors, buyers know at least as much, if not more, than sellers. So, stereotypical hard core sales characters such as Arthur Miller’s Willie Loman and David Mamet’s Shelly ‘The Machine’ Levene are as irrelevant as attaining premium class level on United Airlines.

Pink’s book is full of one example after another of the ‘new’ selling, how it works and who is most likely to excel at it.

My favorite section focused on extroverts, introverts and, what the author calls, ambi-verts.

Conventional wisdom holds that extroverts make far better salespeople than introverts. And, research from the University of Pennsylvania’s Adam Grant, proves that assumption to be true. But, and it’s a HUGE but, Grant says the average ‘ambi-vert’ runs rings around an extrovert, introvert and, one would guess, even an antivert (that last one was for you vertigo sufferers).

Ambi-verts are just what the name implies: they’re neither extroverts nor introverts. They’re a healthy mix of each. They know when to speak and when to listen. They know when to empathize and when to be assertive. Critically, they also know when to put themselves in the prospect’s shoes and understand the sales process from the outside-in. When’s the last time you tried that?

As for extroverts, two recent Harvard Business Review articles say they’re the worst salespeople of all. Why? Two reasons:

- “They possess an excess of assertiveness and zeal that led to contacting customers too frequently.”
- “They talked too much and listened too little, which dulled their understanding of others’ perspective.”

So, forget everything you’ve been taught about being extroverted in job interviews and new business presentations.

Pick up Pink’s ‘To Sell Is Human” and become an ambi-vert. And, while you’re at it, skim the Cody-Harte book. It’s a great cure for insomnia.

And a tip o’ Rep’s cap to Eric Morgenstern for suggesting this idea.

Today’s guest post is by Peppercommer Maggie O’Neill.

For the past few years, more than I probably recall, a large focus of the marketing conversation was about the phenomenon of the Mommy Blogger. She was taking over the world with her parenting tips, recipes, product reviews and readerships, that at times, were more than the NY Times.

But as their reach has grown, so have the questions about their stereotyping, their audience and their authenticity. Beyond ad models and pay for play, marketers are taking more time to look at other types of moms, women, and dads (check out Dad 2.0 Summit ), because lumping everyone together doesn’t work for real life or real brands. Wow, sounds like advertising to women in the 50’s. How easily we forget.

This is not to say that the mom bloggers (I am big fans of many) are not authentic, but rather that the assumption that they are all the same is at its tipping point. Just Google Unconventional Mommy Blog and see how many women are creating a new mold for their online voice.

Take yourstoryvault.com for example. This site was created and curated by two moms, who believe a little less in the perfect world of recipes and household tips and more in the “downright messy” parts of life. They have invited women to share their real stories to help other women – and at times men – to navigate through the mess. Their submissions are anonymous (no 15 minutes of fame), and their voice – while not for everyone - takes on topics that feel more real.

In addition, more and more of these bloggers are realizing strength in numbers and becoming curators of other stories to add depth to their advice and insights, and paint a bigger picture of the mom blogger and her universe. These groups are like a big ladies night out - lots of opinions, lots of different voices and sometimes lots of wine.

So are things really changing? I’m not sure. But it feels like the mold is being broken with authors, bloggers, and across media in general. For now, I think we need to take the time to listen and understand that there are many voices of moms with a platform today. That or we can just keep marketing and talking to a stereotype. Again, how easily we forget.

Today’s guest post is by Peppercommer Kristin Davie.

I come from a family of commuters. Train, bus, PATH service- I’ve taken it all. To make matters worse, I’ve seen it all- at least on NJ Transit. I’ll spare you the horror stories because chances are that you know someone who has one if you don’t yourself. It’s about this time I should tell you something important.

I am a born and bred New Jerseyan, and I’m fiercely loyal to my state. It’s true that I love working in the hustle and bustle of New York City, but I have tremendous pride in New Jersey, some would say sickening.

So, believe me, Ms. Hakim, when I tell you that this is all coming from a good place.

Let’s tackle social media first. I understand how large this responsibility is for a brand like NJ Transit. Countless lines, across different service platforms, and thousands of passengers all relying on up-to-date information- so let’s start small.

I’ll begin with the @NJTRANSIT Twitter handle. Over 43 thousand people follow the handle, but if someone were to look at the left-hand side of the webpage, it reads “These feeds are automated MY Transit alerts updated simultaneously with njtransit.com.” Immediately this conveys to me that there is a machine behind this page, instead of a person actually interested in my experience. Now, here’s where it gets more confusing. According to the Social Community Guidelines posted on your website “Our social media channels are managed by NJ TRANSIT employees and are not automated feeds.”

Wait, what? It gets better.

According to the same document, “NJ TRANSIT’s social media channels are an opportunity for us to communicate with our customers on the channels they prefer!” But not so fast, because your website says that these channels will not address Customer Service issues.

You know quite clearly that a large number of your customers prefer social media, yet you won’t address customer service issues through those platforms?

This brings me to my next point- if there isn’t already a dedicated team of individuals assigned to monitoring Twitter, there should be. Analyze the lines with the heaviest amount of engagement, measure the tone for each, observe peak times of engagement, and then assign a number of different people to appropriately listen, engage, and repeat. Like it or not, customers will air their grievances online.

This is not a job for one person alone.

Not even Governor Christie, who interestingly (and sort of strangely) is the only creator of a list on your main Twitter page called “Storm Preparedness.”

I see what you two did here.

The great thing about lists is that they’re easily accessible, and you can view the relevant individuals for that topic all in one place. The bad thing is that this is your only list, and it’s a blatant reactive response to Superstorm Sandy. There are some proactive things you can do here:

• A list of NJ Transit executives on Twitter
• A list of the different NJ Transit Twitter handles (it’s hard to find otherwise, and these are hyperlinked)
• A list of the attractions along NJ Transit service lines
• A list of prominent NJ celebrities or influencers
• A list of NJ media outlets and reporters who cover transit issues

Simple, easy, and takes minutes. Your YouTube page is a different story. Again, when a major event like Superstorm Sandy or the Super Bowl directly affects your agency and its customers so strongly, it’s understandable to dedicate a large portion of your social media content to providing the most helpful information. But since the Super Bowl is over and Governor Christie has the Twitter list under control, apparently, let’s turn our attention to the other videos on the page.

Most of them are over two years old. I won’t dive into the quality of the videos (we have a great creative and digital team here, by the way), I’m going to stick with content, “How to Ride a Train,” for example.It doesn’t mention anything about purchasing monthly tickets online, or referring to the website or Twitter for updates, or half of what is included on the website in the same section. Make it consistent.

Speaking of consistency, I’d like to bring up your employees. I loved every employee on the 7:37 am train out of Metropark to NYC. They were friendly, they were polite, they enjoyed their jobs, and they were informative. My Hoboken bus driver is the same way. I’m sure that there must be more employees like them across your workforce, but there are definitely a few bad apples and this doesn’t shine more than during a delay. Customers want to know what’s going on, we want to know how it’s being fixed, we want to be told often, and we want to trust the people telling us. Nothing hurts your reputation more than when multiple conductors jump on the speaker system to tell passengers different things, or worse, nothing at all. That leads to angry customers, angry tweets, and angry survey responses.

Admission- I’ve taken the passenger survey. It wasn’t completely negative (I love NJ, remember), but it wasn’t completely positive, too. You wouldn’t know it, though, from the majority of the highlights NJ Transit chooses to release to the public. As a customer, I have much more respect for a brand that admits it has problems, listens to me, and then tells me how it’s fixing it. The #WeAreListening forums are great, but I’m sure you’ve found out quite a bit from your anonymous surveys where people can be brutally honest. Listen to us, tell us what’s going on, how it’s being fixed, and tell us often in case we forget.

Maybe then the second and third search results for #njtransit on Instragram won’t be #njtransitsucks (305 posts) and #njtransitproblems (108 posts).

By the way, people take a lot of photos on Instagram tagged #njtransit (27,009 posts).

An Instagram contest might not hurt.

Today’s guest post is by Peppercommer Laura Bedrossian.

What you’re about to read may seem harsh, but I say this as a late-20 something Millennial, so hear me out:

I’d like to have the misguided, bratty, Rachel Canning removed from the Millennial Generation.

If you haven’t been following, an 18-year-old New Jersey resident has sued her parents for financial support, money for college and to pay for tuition at her private school.

When I read the headlines describing the case, I was completely dumbfounded. I’ve read about minors who have sued their parents, but those are usually child stars whose parents were mismanaging their earnings or everyday kids being abused by their parents—and both were for rights of emancipation.

What this young woman has managed to do is create a media storm around herself and highlight the spoiled and entitled characteristics some in the Millennial generation possess (and that of every generation), but if you’re reading this, please know that we’re not all like her.

Her best friend’s father—an attorney—gave her some truly horrible advice that I think will come back to haunt her. She’ll forever be known as the private school brat that sued her parents on ridiculous charges.

Let’s look at some of the key details:

1. She wants her parents to pay for college tuition. If you have – or are - a parent that paid for your college tuition, that’s lovely, but parents are not under any obligation to foot the bill. Many of us managed to graduate without our parents’ help. So, here’s some advice to you, Rachel: get a job (and/or keep the one you say you have now). You can work while you’re in school. You can lessen your course load and work at the same time, or you can apply for student/private loans. You could even take a year off and go to community college to save. Or, perhaps you could have asked your friend’s father to give you the money he helped you to sue your parents and put it toward the more useful endeavor of your education.
2. Oh, and she also wants them to pay for some living expenses-$650/week. You’re 18—see point #1.

If she or anyone who supports Rachel believes in her misguided thoughts, then we must look at changing the legal age of adulthood. Many millions of 18-year-olds are capable of taking care of themselves at 18. It’s not always easy, but it’s possible. And as the judge in the case mentioned, this lawsuit has the potential of opening the flood gates of other stupid lawsuits. That’s not verbatim, but I assumed he meant “stupid” because that’s what it is. What/when is the cut-off if not 18?

It seems as though Rachel’s parents, teachers and other adults in her life did her a big disservice if she thinks any of this is really owed to her. It’s an added bonus if people want to provide you with any of these perks, but it is certainly not necessary. It’s unfortunate that this bad behavior has been enabled to this point.

One of the lewd tweets that came flying at her before she made her Twitter profile private coined it well “Little girl, you’re pretty much unemployable . . . “ (You can read more about those tweets, here). I certainly wouldn’t want to be associated with or hire someone like this. Not even touching the other issues of inappropriate behavior, entitlement, frivolity, this is a person who seems to scream “I’ll be trouble,” wherever she may go.

Rachel, I went to a private, Catholic high school, too. I was also captain of the cheerleading squad (I didn’t lose that mid-year, by the way). I had a part-time job during all of high school and worked full-time throughout most of college. I certainly had my fair share of squabbles with my parents, but knew that when you live under their roof, it’s their rules, so I didn’t seek legal counsel or move out. Oh, and I paid (and am still paying) for college on my own. Let me know if you want to talk about creating a stronger work ethic (or any work ethic) for yourself and how student loans work. And please, please, please, stop—you’re making the rest of your generation look bad, and we’re not.

Ya gotta love American Millennials.

According to a new report set to be released at SXSW and entitled, ‘The Millennial Compass’, more than 40 percent of Millennials expect to be in a management position within two years of graduating from college.

I say again, they ‘EXPECT’ to be in a management position within ‘TWO’ years of graduating from college! Whatever became of patience being a virtue?

Ya also gotta love this stat:

Only 18 percent of American Millennials have “foreign” work listed in their future job plans. Compare that with the 65, 47 and 37 percent of their counterparts in India, China and Brazil, respectively, who plan on gaining international work in the next five years!

So, while our young executives want the perks and responsibilities of management RIGHT NOW, they don’t want to put in the hard work, loneliness and yuckiness that accompany international assignments.

They also like job-hopping.

American Millennials are more eager to leave their current employers than their international peers. Four out of 10 plan to bolt in the next year, while only 30 percent of their global peers plan on a change of scenery.

U.S. Millennials want to succeed, they just don’t want to work as hard and they’re more likely to job hop in order to make more bank.

Just to put all of this in some sort of perspective, I can assure you that, when my peer group graduated from college, we most certainly did NOT expect to be managers within two years. Nor did we job hop from one gig to another. In fact, job hopping used to be the kiss of death.

I can also tell you we killed for overseas assignments. I accepted one job specifically because it would call for me to located, on-site, in such countries as Singapore, Brazil and Belgium.

Ah, but that was then, and this is now.

So, what’s your take on this latest take on Millennials? Should we admire their short-sighted, all-about-me ways?

Or, should someone sit them down and explain the importance of paying one’s dues AND gaining a global perspective at the same time.

I’d go on, but I’m off to gain a fresh perspective of my own on a warm, sunny beach in Puerto Rico.

A recent AdWeek article entitled “BBDO Is Pitching Like Crazy in the Next 4 Weeks” reminded me of two things:

- My former life at a holding company
- The movie, ‘Glengarry Glen Ross’

The AdWeek article shone the spotlight on a grim reality of life inside a holding company. BBDO’s owner, The Omnicom Group, is putting tremendous pressure on the ad agency to replace some $40 million in billings it lost in 2013.

As a result, BBDO staffers are “working long days, nights and weekends” in an attempt to land Wells Fargo, Legacy, (the anti-tobacco foundation,) Papa John’s and CVS.

Even if BBDO is able to run the table and win all four accounts, staffers will be fortunate to hang onto their jobs. That’s because, as AdWeek says, “…all Omnicom and Publicis Groupe shops feel extra pressure to deliver amid the pending merger of their parent companies, which is slated to close by midyear.”

Prospective clients can sense desperation.

I remember when I worked for a division of J. Walter Thompson in the mid-1990s. Like BBDO, we had lost a ton of accounts the previous year and our parent, WPP, was squeezing us to replace the billings ASAP. As a result, we cut staff as we pitched new accounts. The strain was unbelievable.

And, when prospective clients did visit our offices, they could sense the tension. In an effort to make us look busier and happier than we were, our CEO actually ‘borrowed’ staffers from sibling agencies who sat at empty desks and pretended to do real work.

Prospects saw right through the ruse. We didn’t win any new accounts, Ed and I split and the agency eventually went belly-up.

I’m not suggesting the same fate awaits BBDO. But, I’ll bet their CEO said something similar to the lines spoken by Alec Baldwin’s character at the beginning of Glengarry Glen Ross.

After announcing a new sales contest, Baldwin told the beleaguered sales force. “… first prize is a Cadillac… second prize is a set of steak knives…third prize is you’re fired.”

I wish the BBDO folks well in their stress-filled pursuit of new business. Having been there and done that, I must say I don’t miss the global holding company world one bit. That said, I wouldn’t mind winning a new Cadillac.