By Alyson O’Mahoney, Executive VP/Partner

If you’re launching a new brand or product, the natural inclination may be to announce and support it via Facebook, matching the newness of the brand with the coolness of this technology to market products, and that’s almost expected. However, I believe that older, heritage brands – perhaps those with brand managers who may not feel their brand is new or cool enough to go social – have an even bigger opportunity for resurgence in this space for the sole reason Facebook exploded to begin with. Think about it….tens of millions of people go on Facebook each day to connect – with old friends from their high school football team, grammar school crushes, sorority sisters, past work colleagues, you name it. That’s the primary role of Facebook, ultimately, and it allows us to connect with what is ultimately the history of our relationships. In this space, we are more apt to friend/trust someone we haven’t spoken to in 30 years (like a heritage brand that, say, grandma always had in her house or mom used when you were a kid – something you connect with from the past that you trust) than we would an actual stranger (say, like a new brand that we need to trust first).

Facebook may be a new channel of communication, but it really taps into and reconnects us with our trusted histories (let’s face it, we avoid friending the crazy old boyfriend!). Products from our past – say that remind you of childhood or something special about how your mom – are trusted.

So, if heritage brands, even with small budgets, began positioning themselves as old friends, while at the same time delivering new content to freshen up their perspective to new, younger consumers, old friends could surely become new again.

By Anne Carlantone

I have always loved magazines. It started in childhood when I would look through my grandparents’ collection of what I think may have been every National Geographic issue ever printed. It progressed to when I discovered my older sister’s copies of Seventeen and Glamour and has grown from there to include everything from news magazines to home magazines to (yes, I’ll admit it) entertainment/tabloid magazines.

That’s why it was interesting to me to read the announcement last week from five major magazine publishers that they have united to launch an ad campaign that will promote the continued “vitality” of magazines as a medium in which to advertise, and, basically to communicate that people are still reading them.

Personally, I have never felt that magazines would go away. True, they have been dropping like flies (this article puts the death toll at a total of 1,466 nationwide from 2007 to 2009), but the publishers’ campaign also points to statistics showing that magazine readership has actually risen over the last five years, and this includes a growing number of 18- to 34-year-olds (whom everyone seems to assume are internet-only when it comes to information). I think what we can tell from all of these stats is that while hard-copy magazines may now face much more competition for our attention, they definitely still have their place.

Why? I think it’s because, like me, a lot of people just simply like magazines. Magazines are pretty and glossy. They appeal to several senses – the visual appeal of the photo layouts, the sound and feel of the flipping pages, even the smells of the perfume ad inserts. Magazines are a source of affordable, instant, curl-up-on-the-couch “me time,” (as many of my fellow moms will agree), and best of all, they are a pleasant escape from the computer, Blackberry and TV screens we’re tethered to all day. And let’s face it — no one is going to browse the online version of People on the beach!

As PR people, we can definitely see the reaction that a nice magazine placement still elicits from a client. While online placements are fantastic and very important, there’s still a special “something” about a great photo or mention of your product or service on the pages of a popular glossy magazine. So while we do spend a lot of time staying on top of, and, talking about the latest developments in digital media, this blog post is a tribute to the continued importance of “traditional” media. There’s a place for it all in a well-rounded PR program!

By Laurie Lindenbaum

Growing up, it was always exciting to watch major sporting events, though I was never one for bundling up, going out in the freezing cold and participating in winter sports. Watching the winter Olympics was always a highlight when it came to sports on TV and ice skating was, by far, my favorite event. While I can no longer rattle off the names of all the current figure skaters, the media have kept me abreast of some of the big names to watch – Apolo Ohno,¬ Lindsey Vonn, Shaun White.

With the explosive growth of the Internet and social networking along with general media coverage, I can be kept updated on all Olympic activities 24/7. The official Olympic Facebook page, for example, has nearly one million fans, with updates and images posted regularly. Not to mention the Tweets taking place around the clock and the videos on YouTube.

But for these athletes, it isn’t just their athletic ability that is being monitored and reported about. While all athletes are hoping for gold – or silver or bronze – there is more on the line for leading athletes than standing on the medal stand – they are building a great brand – themselves! After all, endorsements are on the line, and to get endorsements they have to be the complete package – the personality, likeability and relatability of a star.

It goes without saying that you have to be a great athlete to compete in the Olympics, but the personalities and stories that go along with the players are what the fans love. Learning the behind-the-scene stories of leading athletes, we connect with them emotionally and root for them regardless of their nationality, either because they overcame a major obstacle to get where they are today, or they are young with a promising future. Marketing products and communicating about them is very similar – there needs to be an emotional connection to products of interest.

Once the competition is over and the torch has been extinguished, for many athletes, the “games” will first begin, as the business and marketing deals take shape. As the athletes’ loyal supporters, we will continue to follow them as I am pretty sure many of these athletes will not only go home with medals, but will get to enjoy sizeable endorsements as a result of their successful “brand” marketing. Whether Ohno winds up on a box of Wheaties or Vonn endorses Chapstick (remember Olympic skier Picabo Street), these athletes will continue “selling” themselves to potential customers, and we’ll continue listening.