Novmagazine:Layout 1 11/1/11 11:52 AM Page 1 pg. 12PR highlights from pg. 17Communications lessons pg. 19Congloms report the Louisville U.S.O. from Occupy Wall Street big Q3 PR earnings Communications & new media Nov. 2011 I Vol. 25 No. 11 THE TECHNOLOGY ISSUE SOLYNDRA: HOW A CLEAN-TECH BUST COULD REAWAKEN THE INDUSTRY GOOGLE+ AND PR: WHY THE GAME HAS CHANGED A NEW FRONTIER FOR SUSTAINABILITY PR November 2011 | www.odwyerpr.com MARKETING IN AMSTERDAM: O’DWYER’S RANKINGS OF TOP A SPECIAL REPORT TECHNOLOGY PR FIRMS PG. 37 Novmagazine:Layout 1 11/1/11 11:52 AM Page 2 Novmagazine:Layout 1 11/1/11 11:52 AM Page 3 Novmagazine:Layout 1 11/1/11 11:53 AM Page 4 Vol. 25, No. 11 November 2011 EDITORIAL Q3 PR REVENUES STRONG Wall Street protests shine a light on DESPITE ‘UNCERTAINTY’ U.S. business, media. Third quarter earnings from the world’s 6 19 biggest ad/PR conglomerates show big FINANCIAL PR PIONEER gains despite global economic concerns. PINCUS DIES AT 78 Jack O’Dwyer remembers PR legend BRANDS AND MEDIA: A Theodore “Ted” Pincus, Founder of 8the 17 Financial Relations Board. SYMBIOTIC LOVE AFFAIR As our media landscape continues to 20 evolve, professionals and brands have TECH INDUSTRY SHOULD been forced to change their approach- CELEBRATE INNOVATION es to delivering compelling content. The industry most responsible for changing our world could benefit from10 its AMSTERDAM REVEALS NEW own penchant for innovation. GLOBAL MARKETING HUB 22 A surplus of local creative talent and a CONCERT REVEALS NEW series of attractive new tax incentives TWIST ON OLD FAVORITES have transformed Amsterdam into one of 22 PR pros worked the U.S.O.’s first Europe’s biggest marketing centers. www.odwyerpr.com ever Homefront Concert with an array12 of Daily, up-to-the-minute PR news new technologies backed by old school PROFILES OF HIGH-TECH & know-how. 26 TECHNOLOGY PR FIRMS Inside photos: Jon Gingerich THE EVOLVING WORLD OF RANKINGS OF TOP HIGH-TECH SUSTAINABILITY PR & TECHNOLOGY PR FIRMS Simply “being green” used to be a boon for companies looking to14 differ- 37 entiate their brand. Now it’s not enough. WASHINGTON REPORT SOLYNDRA FLARE-UP COULD MAKE RAIN 44 Solyndra’s highly-publicized bank- COLUMNS ruptcy proves the company misread16 its own market. PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT 38 Fraser Seitel FIVE PR LESSONS FROM OCCUPY WALL STREET GUEST COLUMN PR pros can take a few lessons from 39 Kevin Foley EDITORIAL CALENDAR 2011 Occupy Wall Street’s numerous blunders17 and January: Crisis Comms. / Buyer’s Guide successes. GUEST COLUMN Wes Pedersen February: Environmental & P.A. 40 March: Food & Beverage GOOGLE+: WHAT PR PROS FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT April: Broadcast & Social Media NEED TO KNOW 41 Richard Goldstein May: PR Firm Rankings While Google+’s benefits for con- June: Global & Multicultural sumers are clear, the vote is still 18out for OPINION July: Travel & Tourism what implications it will have on businesses 42 Jack O’Dwyer August: Financial/I.R. and the communications industry. September: Beauty & Fashion PR BUYER’S GUIDE October: Healthcare & Medical 46 November: High-Tech December: Entertainment & Sports ADVERTISERS Airfoil...............................................11 Fahlgren Mortine............................15 Log-On...........................................29 Omega World Travel.......................35 Atomic PR........................................5 The Hoffman Agency........................9 Merritt Group..................................13 Ruder Finn......................................25 Catapult PR-IR...............................16 Kaplow..............................................7 NAPS........................INSIDE COVER Shelton Group................................17 Edelman.........................................21 KEF...................................................3 Ogilvy..........................BACK COVER TV Access......................................43 O’Dwyer’s is published monthly for $60.00 a year ($7.00 for a single issue) by the J.R. O’Dwyer Co., Inc., 271 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016. (212) 679-2471; fax: (212) 683-2750. Periodical postage paid at New York, N.Y., and additional mail- ing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to O’Dwyer’s, 271 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016. O’Dwyer’s PR Report ISSN: 1931-8316. Published monthly. Novmagazine:Layout 1 11/1/11 11:53 AM Page 5 www.odwyerpr.comDaily, up-to-the-minute PR news Inside photos: Jon Gingerich Novmagazine:Layout 1 11/1/11 11:53 AM Page 6 EDITORIAL Wall Street protests shine light on business, media or more than a month, the Occupy Wall Street protests in Zuccotti Park have raged on, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF seemingly with no end in sight. In case you’re unaware, the movement has actually gone Jack O’Dwyer Fglobal now, with a series of longstanding satellite protests in San Francisco, Portland, [email protected] Chicago, Washington D.C., Seattle, Philadelphia, not to mention an international glut of sim- ilar uprisings with every city from Paris to Santiago joining the fray. ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Contrary to what the media will tell you — and boy, they will tell you — Occupy Wall Kevin McCauley Street doesn’t suffer from a “lack of message.” And this isn’t a partisan movement either (an [email protected] ideological one yes, but one trip to the park will show you anti-Obama sentiment is de rigueur EDITOR of the cause). The Occupy Wall Street protests are the logical result of years-long percolating Jon Gingerich contempt and disillusionment with a sliding scale of economic favoritism in this country that [email protected] provides a red carpet for one group while handing out brooms to the rest. Ever get the feel- ing you’ve been cheated? SENIOR EDITOR The media has been predictably pitiful in their response to all this. For the first week of the Greg Hazley protests they couldn’t even be bothered to make the trek twenty blocks south to cover it. It [email protected] wasn’t until several poorly behaved NYPD officers responded with unnecessary force and the local news was forced to cover the event that the national press realized something of impor- CONTRIBUTING EDITORS tance might be going on. Two weeks late to the story. Is there any wonder why no one buys John O’Dwyer newspapers anymore? Fraser Seitel When national TV crews did arrive they came prepared, as they always do, with a laundry Richard Goldstein list of preassembled narratives. The gross hypocrisy in their treatment of modern civil disobe- dience cannot be understated. When the Tea Party organizes by bringing loaded guns and mis- spelled signs to public parks they’re “patriotic” participants in the democratic process. When ADVERTISING SALES liberals do it they’re a “mob” that “doesn’t know what they’re protesting.” The only thing John O’Dwyer Advertising Sales Manager more offensive than Fox New’s irresponsible coverage of this issue is their hilarious presump- [email protected] tion to think we’re stupid enough to fall for these hillbilly Jedi Mind tricks. The principle tenants of the Occupy Wall Street movement are obviously, abundantly, Jack Fogarty painfully clear. Current U.S. economic policies have given the top 95% of earners in this National Advertising Representative country carte blanche to repeatedly run our economy into bankruptcy and financial destitu- [email protected] tion through increasingly shady, irresponsible and woefully unregulated business deals that often bordered on illegal (sometime they were illegal outright). What’s worse, they made money doing it, with the tacit understanding that the jobless, the lower class and those recent- ly foreclosed upon as a result of the very mortgage mess our financial community created O’Dwyer’s is published monthly for $60.00 a year ($7.00 for a single issue) by the would pay for it. And we did. Now, those who bailed out the top earners find themselves with J.R. O’Dwyer Co., Inc., increasingly fewer resources and absolutely no legal recourse available. Add insult to injury, 271 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016. those very top percenters are now running to their favorite in-pocket Congressman to slash (212) 679-2471 social services and regulatory safety guards — benefits for first responders, Medicare, bank Fax (212) 683-2750. disclosure — because they messed up their investments and ran us into two wars and now claim they operate in a regulatory environment that is “anti business.” What part of this don’t you understand? Do I have to explain it with puppets? © Copyright 2011 Sadly, too many are still covering their ears. There’s this proclivity for Americans to roll J.R. O’Dwyer Co., Inc. out blanket statements of support and empathy for those who stand up against tyranny in third-world nations, yet when we have the gall to question our own increasing economic dis- OTHER PUBLICATIONS & parity we’re simply Marxist hippies enacting “class warfare.” Our collective lack of critical SERVICES: thinking in times like these is paramount to a diseased, crippling stupidity that affects us all www.odwyerpr.com breaking news, as a culture. commentary, useful databases and more. I’m tired of it. I’m tired of people who make a hundred times my salary use their K-Street influence to pay a smaller percentage in taxes than I pay, I’m tired of electing leaders that Jack O’Dwyer’s Newsletter An eight- force the foreclosed and unemployed to bail the rich out after their foolish investments page weekly with general PR news, media inevitably flop, I’m tired of corporations asking for tax breaks so they can ship more work appointments and placement opportunities.