Disqus - Latest Comments for keithtrivitt

Re: Women of PR: 'Most large agencies are run by men'

Keith Trivitt — Wed, 08 Jun 2016 18:11:41 -0000

This is a longstanding issue in the PR industry and one that, frankly, both the PRSA and Council of PR Firms need to do a better job of working with their members to address. It falls squarely on groups like the PRSA and Council of PR Firms which, collectively, represent the major PR firms and PR professionals in the United States, to come up with proactive measures that address the gender pay gap and provide for more equitable leadership opportunities for both men and women. And it shouldn't be an initiative in which those groups issue a lot of talk and think pieces and continue to work separately. Rather, by combining their respective resources and membership efforts both the PRSA and Council of PR Firms can and should make real progress on this important issue.

Re: Evolution of the Beast: Content Marketing in 2016

Keith Trivitt — Tue, 08 Mar 2016 14:16:55 -0000

Thanks, Bryan, for the shout out about Playbuzz. We love helping publishers and brands create more engaging interactive content. It's our passion to give content creators the most useful tools and content formats to help them achieve their publishing and content marketing goals. And, as you point out, with an average 94% item completion rate, 11% share rate, and 4.5 attention minutes per session, Playbuzz helps content creators engage their audiences in more meaningful ways via content formats that are aligned with how people interact with and consume content today.

Anyone wishing to learn more about working with Playbuzz, which is free to use for editorial and content purposes, can contact me at keith@playbuzz.com

Keith Trivitt
VP of Marketing
Playbuzz
keith@playbuzz.com

Re: Potential 6-Day Layoff to World Series Not Based in Logic, But TV Money; Here’s How

Keith Trivitt — Wed, 21 Oct 2015 12:53:48 -0000

Snow fell in Cleveland during Game 4 of the 1997 World Series with the Indians hosting the Marlins: https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...

Re: A Note to Low-Tech CEOs Voice

Keith Trivitt — Wed, 17 Sep 2014 08:43:03 -0000

Have we gone back to 2010? I thought the issue of whether digital was the next big ad revolution had been long settled.

Re: Trespasser Strikes and Vehicles on the Tracks

Keith Trivitt — Tue, 06 May 2014 09:28:27 -0000

"It also may seem like there are more trespasser strikes this year because many of the ones we have had so far have had a pretty rough impact on the railroad." Really? This seems like a line straight out of the playbook of an insensitive PR rep for the MTA / LIRR. Yes, trespassing on LIRR property and right of way is illegal. But to focus on how the LIRR striking a human has caused multiple delays seems rather insensitive, if not downright ridiculous. It's a person's life ... the train can wait.

Let's try to keep things in perspective. The LIRR isn't exactly a bastion of punctuality (despite its absurd monthly OTP claims). But that doesn't really matter when considering that regardless of whether a person was trespassing on the right of way or not, if someone is struck and God forbid killed by a train, it's still a tragedy. Who cares if the train was late? Someone lost their life.

Re: PRSA CEO Murray to Step Down in June

Keith Trivitt — Fri, 07 Mar 2014 13:14:52 -0000

Bill Murray's successor will indeed have some big shoes to fill. Bill is one of the PR profession's greatest advocates and a terrific business leader. I had the honor of working for him and PRSA for two years as the Associate PR Director a few years back and consider myself very lucky to have worked at an organization led by his stead hand and keen mind for business opportunities and advocacy of PRSA and the PR profession.

The PR industry is losing one of its greatest advocates with Bill Murray stepping down as CEO of PRSA.

Re: Haggling with The Haggler: PRSA Responds to The New York Times

Keith Trivitt — Wed, 04 Dec 2013 16:09:26 -0000

Well said, Bill. A perfect response to a whiny, ill-conceived column that deviated far from The Haggler's usual territory of helping stranded travelers get some money back from those truly annoying airlines.

Re: Forrester analyst Nate Elliot getting beat up over labeling Facebook a failure

Keith Trivitt — Fri, 01 Nov 2013 11:08:54 -0000

Forrester's report doesn't square with reality. It's claim that "Facebook is failing marketers" may sound like a great soundbite, and no doubt it has generated a lot of press for Forrester (although, one could argue not the kind of press Forrester was seeking), but it's a lot of hype. The reality is that Facebook isn't failing marketers; marketers are largely failing Facebook.

As my Matomy colleague David Serfaty has argued (http://ow.ly/qoKQ1) Facebook is no longer just an engagement platform. Like the rest of the online advertising world, it is embracing the trend of delivering real, measurable business results. Marketers
need to understand that running a Facebook campaign just to build brand
affinity or cultivate likes and shares is not a viable social advertising
strategy.

Keith Trivitt
Director of Marketing and Communications
Matomy Media Group
http://www.matomy.com/

Re: In Memoriam Arthur Yann

Keith Trivitt — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 19:25:15 -0000

Well said, Judy, and very moving. Arthur was far more than your typical PR pro, not only in the wisdom of his counsel and expertise, but in terms of the person he was as he worked with you on a professional level. The PR professional could use many, many more Arthur Yanns within its ranks. He will be dearly missed.

Re: PRSA comms leader Yann dies at 48

Keith Trivitt — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 13:29:41 -0000

Arthur Yann was one of the truly great PR professionals of our time. For anyone who knew him -- whether as a friend, colleague or mentor -- he was someone who always went out of his way to make the lives of others better. I was incredibly fortunate to call him my boss for two years. He changed the course of my career in such a profound and positive way. My heart goes out to his wife, Amy, and their beautiful daughter, Sofie. Arthur will be terribly missed by the many in the PR community who had the pleasure of knowing or working with him. Rest in peace, my friend.

Re: In Memoriam Arthur Yann

Keith Trivitt — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 17:43:07 -0000

Well said, Bill. Arthur was a wonderful PR pro but an even better friend, father and mentor to many. As someone who had the privilege of working for him for nearly two years, I saw firsthand many of the qualities and attributes you describe above, both about his professional life with PRSA and the love he always expressed for his family. He found great humor in the absurdities of life, whether that be the banality of a random remark in the office or some great story he had about a random encounter on the subway or Metro North. A day in the office with Arthur was never dull.

But more than that, he brought out the best in people. As you said, he spoke the truth and was quick to point out when he felt like others weren't giving him that same courtesy.

After I left PRSA, Arthur and I became close friends. But more than that, I consider him my greatest mentor. He profoundly changed the course of my career and did so in a way that will forever leave a positive lasting impression on me. I look back at much of my time at PRSA and consider how Arthur shaped so many important initiatives, from reshaping the organization's now very strong advocacy program to delivering a picture-perfect communications campaign for the dues increase and many other important efforts. He not only knew how to effectively communicate to many audiences, but he had a terrific sense of how to do so in a strategic and common-sense manner that ensured all sides were pleased with the outcome.

Amy and Sofia - Your husband and father meant so much to so many people. For those of us who worked with him, called him a friend and learned from him, we share in your pain and sorrow. Please know that he made the lives of those around him better and happier. I'll miss him dearly.

Re: CIPR president election for 2014

Keith Trivitt — Wed, 08 May 2013 08:50:11 -0000

While I can't vote for the new CIPR President (being located outside of the UK causes an issue with that, apparently), if I could, Wadds would most certainly have my vote. In the several conversations I had with him while working at the Public Relations Society of America and outside of that realm, I have found him to be one of the most knowledgeable, earnest and engaging PR professionals. He's truly someone who understands all facets of the business and has a very good sense of where the future of the PR profession lies, both in the digital and traditional sides of the business.

All the best with the election, Wadds!

Re: Starting A Performance Marketing Program

Keith Trivitt — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 14:55:46 -0000

Hi Kelly,
Thanks for your post recapping Peter Klein's presentation. We really appreciate you taking the time to summarize his thoughts. I would be happy to send you the presentation deck for you to embed in this post. Please email me at ktrivitt@mediawhiz.com.

Thanks.
Keith Trivitt
Director of Marketing
MediaWhiz

Re: native ads

Keith Trivitt — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 16:15:07 -0000

It doesn't surprise me that marketers and advertisers are having difficulty properly defining and classifying native ads. The reality is that while they are the sexy topic du jour of the moment in adland (along with real-time marketing and content marketing) the hype surrounding native ads often far outweighs the actual benefits to brands or consumers.

As my MediaWhiz colleague Sultan Riaz wrote in a recent blog post (http://ow.ly/i9bEk), at its best, native advertising blends seamlessly with the editorial content of a website while providing content that is valuable to the target audience. But where things go wrong, and where native ads begin to lose their value and luster, is when marketers and advertisers don't place an actual business objective behind them. If native ads are created just to blend into editorial content, and not to generate any type of action, then what is the point? A more efficient and less time, resources and labor intensive form of online marketing, such as programmatic buying, is more useful in that respect.

That disconnect is what marketers still need to overcome when utilizing native ads and sponsored content. Blending their brand’s messaging and imagery with a publication’s editorial content is great, but if the business purpose between the article and the sponsor isn’t clear, the ad will do little to convert potential customers into actual buyers.

Keith Trivitt
Director, Marketing and Communications
MediaWhiz

Re: In Enhancing AdWords, Does Google Diminish Innovation?

Keith Trivitt — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 08:41:26 -0000

Google AdWords Enhanced should help marketers by providing new bid adjustments, customizable ad formatting and simplified reporting. If you have been hesitant to push towards mobile ad distribution, fear no more. Google will help you adjust ads to fit almost all devices, and report back on performance. All of this, of course, should translate to more distribution, more bids, higher budgets and higher revenues (at higher margins) for both marketers and Google.

There are certainly a lot of questions this latest Google update does not yet quite answer. It does, however, open the door to a new world of mobile distribution for many advertisers, and certainly does take us a step further in understanding, as an industry, how consumers make decisions, and what role do different devices have in that process.

Keith Trivitt
Director, Marketing and Communications
MediaWhiz

Re: A Picture is Worth...140 Characters - Direct Marketing News

Keith Trivitt — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 08:17:12 -0000

We have started to use more stock images in our content marketing pieces, especially in white papers, brochures and other high-res pieces. We find they are far more interesting to the reader and more likely to grab people's attention when someone shares that content. Not surprisingly, the content marketing pieces we produce that use engaging and interesting stock photos get more engagement -- and downloads -- than the pieces in which we use simple images.

Keith Trivitt
Director of Marketing
MediaWhiz

Re: Content Marketing That Gets You Buyers

Keith Trivitt — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 16:17:23 -0000

Good point, Chris. At the end of the day, the time and resources that go into the content marketers generate has to be paid for in some way. Generating goodwill and building trust with customers and partners is a very worthwhile endeavor. And it will enhance a business over time. But it is
a very long-term effort that requires a constant influx of time and resources to maintain. But for short-term business gains, whether actual sales, leads, downloads, page views, etc., marketers need to eventually make an ask. Otherwise, few customers are going to be inclined to take some type of action.

Take NPR, for example. In almost every program it
airs it has some "ask." Often, that is couched in a very clever way, whether the ask is read as part of a member haiku saluting the station (such as is done on my local NPR affiliate, WNYC) or as part of a larger donation drive. Sometimes, it's as overt as a hard sell (a request for donations). Other times
it's as soft as reminding listeners that their contributions are what keep NPR running.

Bottom line: There isn't anything wrong with putting an "ask" in your content, so long as you do so strategically and understand your audience so do not offend or annoy them.

Re: Facebook Unveils Graph Search

Keith Trivitt — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 19:39:14 -0000

Nice roundup and analysis. Today's new is certainly big for brands and marketers. Whether it ends up having a significant impact on Google's search business, as all the hype surrounding this news seemed to think it would, remains to be seen. But it no doubt makes Facebook a major player in the search business. And it offers an entirely new advertising ecosystem for Facebook. That may end up being the biggest impact of this announcement.

Keith Trivitt

Director, Marketing and Communications

MediaWhiz

Re: Monday Odds and Ends

Keith Trivitt — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 17:17:43 -0000

MediaWhiz was formerly aligned with SolutionSet (as part of the SolutionSet MediaWhiz partnership) from August 2011 until the two companies merged with D.L. Ryan Cos. in January 2012 to form Hyper Marketing Inc. HMI was sold to Alliance Data's Epsilon business in December 2012; however, MediaWhiz was not part of that acquisition. Thus, MediaWhiz was no longer aligned with SolutionSet, Ryan Partnership or any other HMI agency and was once again an independent agency, precipating today's news of its acquisition by Matomy Media Group.

Keith Trivitt
Director, Marketing and Communications
MediaWhiz

Re: Search Engine Land Turns Six, Celebrates With New Editor-In-Chief & Expansion Plans

Keith Trivitt — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 14:24:39 -0000

On behalf of my colleagues at MediaWhiz, a very hearty congratulations to you, Danny, and the entire team on 6 successful years. Also congratulations to Matt on the new job as Editor-in-Chief. Here's to many more years of success.

Keith Trivitt
Director, Marketing and Communications
MediaWhiz

Re: 2013 Performance Marketing Trends

Keith Trivitt — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 11:00:24 -0000

Val - Thanks for sharing the predictions of MediaWhiz's Peter Klein. We're certainly happy you enjoyed reading his thoughts on what 2013 will hold for performance marketing. As you say, "Happy Marketing!"

Keith Trivitt
Director, Marketing and Communications
MediaWhiz

Re: Marketers, Go Back to Basics

Keith Trivitt — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 17:40:56 -0000

Thanks for this excellent post, Dorie. As a corporate marketer, I found myself shaking my head in agreement with much of what you write, particularly about bucking the current hot trend in favor of tried-and-true marketing strategies and tactics. It's something many of us, myself included, fall into when we try to go after the "next big thing" instead of keeping our sights focused on what continues to work effectively for our brands and customers. That's not to say we shouldn't open to new ideas, techniques and technologies. We should. But marketers shouldn't abandon their time-tested programs just because a hot new technology or social network comes around that captures everyone's attention. When your competitor zigs, it's time for your brand's marketing strategy to zag. This is particularly the case in an ever-crowded and noisy marketplace.

Keith Trivitt
Director of Marketing
MediaWhiz

Re: How do brands get millions of Twitter followers? Tweet more.

Keith Trivitt — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 10:41:42 -0000

"If engagement is the holy grail in social, a simple fix may simply be to post more." That statement seems to reduce brands' use of social media to little more than a loud and active public forum. I would hope that for many marketers we are long past the days when we think of social media use just as an engagement tool or that engagement is the "holy grail" and nothing else matters. Brands should think of social media as one part of their broader digital marketing strategy. But they should also use it to tee up advocacy, customer acquisition and, yes, sales.

The problem with trying to get "millions of followers" is that unless that effort fits within the ethos of the brand it has little value to its overall marketing strategy. Any brand can get a lot of followers (there are plenty of services out there where a brand can buy Twitter followers). But what I think Whole Foods really shows us is that it's not how often a brand tweet but what it tweets, how it engages with its followers and the value those followers find in that engagement. That doesn't necessarily require a lot of tweets each day but it does require a strong social media strategy built with goals in mind beyond acquiring a lot of followers.

Re: The ups and downs of today's direct marketing

Keith Trivitt — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 16:52:31 -0000

Thanks for sharing this perspective. I'm not so sure the term "direct marketing" needs to be redefined, per se, but reconsidered by marketers, agencies and advertisers and repositioned within the broader marketing industry. It is true that the industry suffers from a reputation of being focused primarily on junk mail, DRTV and other forms of outdated and/or very traditional forms of marketing. But the digital-focused direct marketers are doing some amazing work in lead-gen, direct-response creative, site development and analytics that help to make direct marketing one of the most fascinating forms of modern marketing.

What is needed more than a new definition is an expansion of the concept of direct marketing to encompass all aspects of the field (including media-mix analytics, direct-response creative, lead-gen, etc.) as well as a better education effort on the part of direct marketers and the industry. Doing so should help consumers and brands understand and appreciate the industry's broader modern role and value.

Keith Trivitt
Director, Marketing and Communications
MediaWhiz

Re: 22 days after its IPO, Eloqua’s Joe Chernov departs to lead marketing for Kinvey

Keith Trivitt — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 09:25:20 -0000

Congrats, Joe! Ever since we participated on a WOMMA panel together last year I've been a big fan and follower of your success. I'll be keenly watching how you help turn Kinvey into a well-known global brand.