InsidEPR

EPR’s Fantasy Football Season: It’s a Wrap

By Molly Reynolds

As we approach Super Bowl weekend, wherein real people play real football, we thought we’d share with you the exciting conclusion of our EPR Fantasy Football playoffs.

When we last left (see Dale’s blog), only four teams remained – #1 Meanie Mathenys were set to play #4 Bitzy’s Bashers II, while #6 A-Bashes were squaring off against #2 Hoya Paranoia. It must be said that while the Meanies and Bitzys were managed by actual football fans, the Bashes and Paranoia teams were selected and coached in the following manner: “I’ve heard of that quarter back (Rodgers and Brees, respectively), so I’ll choose him and see what happens this year.” As evidenced by the final four remaining teams, both strategies have their benefits.

In the semi-finals, Hoya Paranoia eked out an 8-point victory over the A-Bashes, thanks largely to Brees’ 48 points (love you, Drew). The other game saw Bitzy’s Bashers II secure the underdog win to advance to the finals, leading the Meanie Mathenys with a strong San Francisco defense. The A-Bashes went on to crush the Meanies and secure a third place win – if you’re keeping track, that’s the lowest finals seed beating the highest.

Hoya Paranoia beat Bitzy’s Bashers by 47 points in the final game and received the Christmas present of a Fantasy Football league victory (really love you, Drew).

We hope that you enjoy the biggest real-life football game of the year, or at least the commercials and snacks. Happy Super Bowl weekend, everyone!

Friday in the Bay: New York Times thinks you should visit Oakland

By Caitlin Mattias

First, an introduction – we at Engage PR think the Bay Area is a pretty unique place and just about everyone has heard about the hippie, hipster or techie culture prevalent here. Whether you discard gadgets like yesterday’s Wall Street Journal or up-cycle regularly in your urban garden, there’s a place for you in the sometimes urban, sometimes suburban oasis that is San Francisco and the East Bay. In the new weekly “Friday in the Bay” posts, we’ll share the shocking, amusing and down-right ridiculous things that make northern California the place we call home. Enjoy!

Oakland is a scant bridge away from San Francisco, yet it’s widely considered the ugly sister of the Bay Area. No longer! From urban wineries to cultural centers to Michelin-starred restaurants, it’s about time Oakland is recognized for the wonderful place it is.

The New York Times placed Oakland #5 on the list of “45 Places to Go in 2012”—between #4 London and #6 Tokyo. Not too shabby for this port town. The Times calls out Oakland’s burgeoning restaurant scene, hip nightlife and music venues as major reasons why you should pencil in a trip to our neck of the woods. We heartily agree.

Moving clients from tactical to strategic is a two-way street

By Jeannette Bitz

As we enter into the new year, some food for thought on how to begin thinking and planning more strategically...

It's easy to complain about clients that seem firmly set in tactical mode. We're also all aware of clients who have let an agency go because of its lack of strategic insight or inability to drive a successful PR program.

Clients seek PR support because they have a business challenge or a goal in mind, but it is sometimes presented in tactical terms and short time frames. For example, the client wants to launch a product next month, secure an industry award, or garner more coverage than competitors. Or the client may just want you to handle media relations and speaking opportunities. As PR counselors, we need to guide their thinking:

• Ask questions that will help client executives think in larger terms about overall business and marketing goals.
• Establish expectations for PR and educate clients on the role PR plays in contributing to sales and business success. Be upfront and honest about what is and is not achievable.
• Be objective, while showing that we understand the client's technology and industry, that we know market conditions and the competitive landscape, and that we can respond creatively to communications opportunities and challenges.
• Show we understand how PR fits within the larger marketing mix and amplifies and extends other channels. This is critical to building agency credibility and hence the client's willingness to seek out and accept PR counsel.
• Demonstrate a systematic approach to PR planning and goal-setting. Gaining client buy-in to a PR plan that identifies measurable goals and objectives by audience, and that links key strategies and tactics to them, is critical to success.
• Maintain the agreed-upon PR plan as a living document, regularly reviewing and updating it according to results-to-date and changing realities.
• Refer continuously to the PR plan to focus both client and agency on what is or is not a strategic use of time or budget. The agency should spend its time on projects of greatest strategic impact, not on seductive but low-value opportunities or standalone tactics.

Ultimately, being a strategic partner in achieving results and managing resources is the best way to ensure that clients also behave strategically.

Seasons Greetings from Engage PR

By Molly Reynolds

What are your holiday wishes? At Engage PR, we're looking forward to another year with our wonderful clients. As we close out 2011, the team recounted EPR's holiday wishes. Along the way, we ran into a few "blooper moments".  Enjoy that gem of a video here: 
 

 We wish you happy holidays and a very happy 2012!

Playoffs?! You Kiddin’ Me?

By Dale Legaspi, Guest Blogger

No…we are not kidding you, and yes, it is that time in the EPR Fantasy Football Season. With week one of the playoffs in the rear-view, let’s take a look at the wild card rounds and see what is upcoming in the semifinals.

In the absentee division, A-Bash, which inexplicably backed into the playoffs as a six-seed despite having the #1 overall player in QB Aaron Rodgers (along with a top-five RB in LeSean McCoy and arguably the top TE in Jimmy Graham), and proceeded to demolish third-seeded Foster’s Hammie, which was victimized by Arian Foster playing like his hamstring was still in week-1 form and Calvin Johnson forgetting how to get open and catch passes.
 
The executive division featured a much more even matchup, as 4-seed Bitzy’s Bashers benefited from huge days from RBs Maurice Jones-Drew and Brandon Jacobs (no…seriously) to outlast the Matt Forte-less Shake’n’Bake, despite a huge day from the Falcons tandem of QB Matt Ryan and WR Roddy White.

With Foster’s Hammie and Shake’n’Bake exiled to the fifth-place game, Bitzy’s Bashers will advance to face the top-seeded Meanie Mathenys, and A-Bash will take on Hoya Paranoia. Winners of those two games will face off in the EPR Fantasy Football Super Bowl, during the NFL’s week 16.

We are Thankful

Complied by Molly Reynolds

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, the team at Engage PR has been reflecting on what we’re thankful for. We’ve compiled a short list; feel free to add your own thoughts.

Happy Thanksgiving from the team at Engage PR!

 

• I am thankful for my great clients and their interesting technology which motivates me to come to work everyday.
• I am thankful for GPS!
• I am thankful for my iPhone – it brings me email, music, connections with friends and family, games, restaurant suggestions and reliable directions to everywhere I would like to go.
• Keyboard short cuts!
• I’m thankful for Google Alerts about client coverage.
• Outlook meeting reminders – I would be lost without them!
• I am thankful for iOS5 and the updated Google Maps feature that shows me three different possible routes for my trip.
• I’m also thankful for the Google Maps app on iPhones because of the “use public transportation” option.
• The Wii Fit that will help me work off all the wonderful holiday food!
• I'm thankful for Facetime on my Macbook; I can still feel close to my family who live far away.

Pumpkins, Spiders and Candy… Oh my!

By Leslie Schmidt

The spookiest time of year has yet again come and gone - but not without leaving a trail of delicious candy behind at Engage PR!

Engage PR has quite a few holiday traditions in the office, but my new favorite is BOO-ing! For those of you who have never heard of this strange tradition, let me take you though the steps. Starting on October 1st, one sneaky EPR employee decorated a colleague’s desk without their knowledge. The next day when the colleague came to work, they unexpectedly walked into a black and orange circus tent full of pumpkins, spiders and candy corn! And so it began. One by one, each employee was BOO-ed until no desk was left un-spider webbed! This year, the BOO-ing lasted all through the month, leaving many employees scratching their head as to who could have done the sneaky decorating!

Once all the EPR desks were decorated from floor to ceiling, it was time to celebrate. On Halloween day, we did what EPR does best - had a festive potluck! Only this time we were eating in style. Costume style that is. On the day of the potluck, the office also decided to have a costume contest. With a witch, a nerd, an Occupy Alameda protester, GI Jane, Michael Jackson, Charlie Chaplin and the devil twins  - there was quite a variety for voting. In the end, the protester and Charlie Chaplin took home first and second place! Congrats ladies!

For even more Halloween fun check out this scary slideshow to see EPR’s Halloween decorating skills!

EPR Fantasy Football Update

By Dale Legaspi

We’re now through three weeks in the Engage PR Fantasy Football League, and it seems like the formula for success this year is going to be “get lucky and not have your players get hurt”.

Peyton Manning’s neck surgery and Arian Foster’s MRI Twittergate (clearly, he needs to read our blog) have turned the fantasy world upside down.The Colts’ offense (and usual fantasy stalwarts Reggie Wayne and Dallas Clark) has been rendered useless; and because no one can get them the ball, the Texans’ run game is a giant question mark. 

Fortunately for the Ragging Royas, which drafted Manning, Matthew   Stafford has proven to be starter-caliber and led the team to a solid 2-1 start.Unfortunately for Probation Nation II, Foster has played one series, leading the team’s frustrated owner to (hopefully temporarily) rename the team “Foster’s Hammie”. This is quite apropos for a team that has limped its way to a 1-2 start. 

Heading into week four, everyone’s chasing the two teams sitting at 3-0—the newcomer Mighty Ducks and the Teflon juggernaut Hoya Paranoia, which has shaken off Jamaal Charles’s season-ending ACL injury and survived the lost points from a kicker who has yet to play this season.

Joining the Raggings in the 2-1 group are returners Shake’n’Bake and Bitzy’s Bashers.  Romo’s ribs and Britt’s ACL aside, all three teams have put up solid numbers out of the gate and look poised to challenge all season long.

The frustrated half of the league includes the 1-2 trio of returners in A-Bash, which has (wisely) ditched last season’s World of Warcraft-inspired nickname; the Meanie Mathenys, which has been a puzzlingly feast-or-famine team and PNII/Foster’s, which in addition to its other issues, has also neglected to draft a quarterback.

Down in the cellar, we have Room for Error, which really doesn’t have any at this point, and the Flying Squirrels, which have not only been grounded but look like roadkill thanks to another key injury saga unfolding this season—Michael Vick.

The season takes an interesting turn now, though, as bye weeks start. Numerous questions remain as to whether or not some of the younger teams can bounce back from sluggish starts after a shortened preseason. Hidden gems always unearth themselves over the course of the NFL season, and this savvy group of fantasy superstars will undoubtedly be ready to capitalize. 

Saving the Bay, One Plant at a Time

By Leslie Schmidt

It’s volunteer time here at Engage PR! Each time we volunteer, we choose a new way to support the county of Alameda and the surrounding areas. This year we decided to save the bay. Okay, maybe not the whole bay but we definitely did our part. Through the “Save the Bay” organization and their community-based programs, we were able to participate in their ongoing wetland restoration project. Our volunteer activities included plant propagation and transplanting, fertilizing and other maintenance associated with growing native wetland plants.

So as you can imagine, we got a little dirty.

These plants that we spent so much quality time with (which we were told amounted to around 1,100 plants!) will eventually be planted around the edges of the bay later this year – most likely by other awesome volunteers. And even though we won’t know exactly which plants we helped come back to life, we know that our efforts will help save our bay – even if by just a little.

As it turns out, this year is “Save the Bay’s” 50th anniversary! Fifty years of fighting to keep our bay beautiful is definitely something to celebrate. Finding this out made the entire experience a million times better! Our Save the Bay guide for the day, Dylan, gave us a crash course of the history of the bay and the organization’s last 50 years.

So here is your crash course, from me to you: “Save the Bay” was founded in 1961 as “Save San Francisco Bay Association” by three East Bay women who were watching the Bay vanish before their eyes. The organization was focused on stopping the city of Berkeley’s plan to extend their city into the shallow Bay off-shore. Thousands of people from the East Bay and surrounding areas came together to stop the project and as a result, numerous projects similar to “Save the Bay” sprung up throughout the region. Since then, “Save the Bay” has easily become the largest regional organization working to protect, restore and celebrate this great natural treasure.

Please enjoy the beautiful pictures of the bay accompanied by pictures of dirt piled high in this fun slideshow!

Are you ready for some Football? Engage PR is!

By The Commish (aka Neila Matheny)

Luckily, it is that time of the year again. The NFL avoided extending the summertime lockout into the  regular season and all of us fantasy football junkies can get our fix of speculating, drafting and smack talking at the right time of the year. For the third consecutive year, the Engage PR crew is taking part in the fantasy football tradition, holding the annual draft this month.

The Hoya Paranoias are returning as the regular-season champions from 2010, who fell just short in the  playoffs last season. Many of the other regulars are back for 2011, such as Shake N Bake and Bitzy’s Bashers, who are always tough foes and postseason veterans. New this season are three recently formed teams named Room for Error, the Mighty Ducks and the Flying Squirrels. With some of the league’s star players on these teams, including Michael Vick, Tom Brady and Larry Fitzgerald, these newbies are primed to make an impact.

Hopefully, I can avoid the curse of the Commissioner this season and avoid any early injuries to my top few picks. However, after winning the first overall pick, it feels like other shoe will eventually fall.

Will a newcomer emerge as the league leader or will an old favorite rise to the top?

Will Probation Nation II overcome the preseason loss of Ryan Williams?

Will the Ragging Royas and A-Bashes remember to change their lineup during the bye weeks?

Stay tuned to the InsidEPR blog for more updates from the Engage PR 2011 Fantasy Football season and the answers to all of these questions.