As 2009 approaches, clients and prospects alike are looking at their marketing communications mix and asking the same question – how do I get my message out WITHIN my new (probably lower)budget?

Options on the table include:

- Scale back big ticket items like print advertising in favor of more targeted online advertising
- Scale back tradeshow activities to limit costs on transportation, drayage, design costs as well as staffing
- Rebalance your communications mix to include more PR activities – more releases, more editorial calls, more articles
- Add Social Media to the mix – blogging, commenting on blogs, podcasts etc.

No doubt, these are challenging times for marketing communications. But for PR, these are exciting times – times when we can push the envelope for our clients to cost-effectively get the word out.

What creative ways are you looking at in 2009 to get the word out for your clients?

Technorati Tags: PR, Social Media

It’s always gratifying when our clients receive positive reviews for their products. Based in Marina del Rey, California, Language Weaver was founded in 2002 by scientists at the University of Southern California who were and continue to be on the forefront of statistics-based automated language translation.

Global Translation Weblog just gave Language Weaver partner Babylon a rave review for Babylon’s free online translation website (powered by Language Weaver), which is available at http://translation.babylon.com:

The result is impressive. The website design is pleasing to the eye and the user interface is very easy to use. Translation speed is excellent and you can see your results in near real-time. Translation quality of the few languages pairs we tested was high (considering that it is a machine translation). And the number of languages is staggering, perhaps offering the most language combos of any of the free online translation services available on the net.

This year Language Weaver reintroduced itself as a human communications solutions provider and now offers translation-powered business solutions in three core areas: customer care, digital content and business intelligence. They also continue to offer government solutions.

Language Weaver’s robust enterprise solutions are “trained” in vocabulary and usage based on the industries and specialties in which they are used. The training provides additional translation power to the system that’s unavailable with off-the-shelf services. Nevertheless, Language Weaver’s propriety translation technology offers a valuable experience for retail consumers as well, even those who’ve felt burned in the past by conventional rules-based online translation systems.

You can read the full review here. Congratulations Language Weaver!

Technorati Tags: Babylon, Business Intelligence, Customer Care, Digital Content, Language Weaver, Translation

Ira Tenowitz from Ad Age published a provocative story today. The morning after the historic election of our first black president, Tenowitz’s topic of the day is regulation anxiety for the ad industry, opening with this thought provoking line: “Now that the election’s over and Sen. Barack Obama is the president-elect, the real fighting can begin.”

Tenowitz raises legitimate issues that were already controversial long before Obama even announced that he would run for president; for example, the consumer backlash against direct-to-consumer (DTC) ads from pharmaceutical companies. Consumer advocacy groups have long been pushing for tighter regulation of many pharmaceutical ads that they deem misleading. Tenowitz’s main theme seems to be that a Democrat president and Congress will likely tip the scales toward tighter government control and regulation, which could hamper advertisers and marketers.

The article goes in-depth on a number of other hot-button issues relevant to anyone in the media and advertising industries. Whether or not you agree with Tenowitz’s portentous tone, it’s definitely worth reading.

Please share your views and comments.

In my view, Tenowitz is jumping the gun and feeding the fear mongers out there. He’s also doing his job by putting together a provocative headline and story to engage readers to react and respond.

Technorati Tags: Advertising, Advertising Age, Congress, direct-to-consumer, DTC, Marketing, Obama, pharmaceutical, regulation