The Art of Obfuscating
Here is another guest post from Per Henricsson of Elektroniktidningen. Per has some strong views on how PR and marketing departments can help journalists - and how they all too often end up hindering the people who want to promote their companies and products. This post is called The Art of Obfuscating.
One of the pleasures with my job as a journalist is that I can pick up the phone and call anybody. Normally, people will happily talk to me about their products or about their companies.
But why shouldn't they? When I write about them, it's free publicity, something that's regarded as more valuable than advertising. Even when companies are in trouble or have gone bankrupt people mostly return my calls and kindly answers my questions.
There are of course exceptions. As a rule of thumb, the bigger the company, the harder it its to find someone who says anything meaningful. In Sweden, there is the telecom giant Ericsson. Our patriotic hearts love it for being successful, but our logical brains hate it for being so hard to write about. One of the world's largest semiconductor company, is in the same league.
Just like Ericsson, this company is keen to talk to you when it calls the shots, but not so easy to deal with when you want to find something out.
Recently, we were planning an issue of Elektroniktidningen and thought it would be interesting to learn more about a new product from this company, espcially since the product is the first foray of the company into this highly competitive market.
I wanted to do the interview mid-January, after all the holidays, so I thought I was pretty early when I sent a request for an interview to their Swedish PR-agency about a week before Christmas.
“No problem, we'll arrange that”, was the prompt answer.
Back in the office after the holidays, I realised that I hadn't heard anything from the PR-agency. It was still enough time to do the article, so I wasn't that worried. When I asked them how things had proceeded, I got a short reply stating that it had indeed been Christmas and now everyone who could answer my questions were at the Show-piece in Las Vegas.
The answer perplexed me a little, knowing the size of the company and also that Americans like to tease us Europeans for taking long holidays. My response was to contact the local office in Sweden, which I hadn't done in the first place as the PR-agency normally handles all the contacts with the press.
The Swedish office sent my request to the US. After a day or two, the Americans wanted to know exactly what questions I had. I explained that I wanted to discuss the applications for the new product, why customers had chosen it and not gone with two separate circuits or why they hadn't gone for any of the well proven solutions from the rivals?
After a day or so I got a written reply. I don't know who wrote it, but it didn't answer my questions. Or what do you think about the following comment?
”The number of design wins we have is aligned with our expectations for where we expected to be at this time.”
Or this one?
”There are really no competing products on the market today that we are aware of benchmark against. Since XX is an YY paired with an ZZ, performance comparisons would be similar to the comparisons of the separate products to their competing products.”
I didn't expect the company to present any real customer cases or the exact number of design wins. But at least I'd hoped for a living marketing manager that could discuss the questions. Let me also state that the Swedish office wasn't happy about the reply either.
The answers made me suspect that the product hasn't done particularly well. Or maybe that the company designed it for one or two customers with high volumes – customers they'll never disclose.
But that's just a guess, only the company knows the true answer.
New sales contact at Elektroniktidningen
Fredrik Soderberg has been a popular figure amongst the European media. He has spend 10 years selling advertising in Elektroniktidningen, and was a co-owner of the publication (together with the editors) for more that half of this time. Today, however, he is moving to be Event Manager at the newly built football stadium in Stockholm, Swedbank Arena. We'd like to wish him the best of luck in his new role, and welcome his replacement, Anne-Charlotte Sparrvik, who has been working at Elektroniktidningen with Fredrik, so she will be completely up-to-speed from day one.
Guest blog post - Per Henricsson
When it comes to effective PR, editors are the real experts. I was delighted that Per Henricsson, editor at Elektroniktidningen sent me the following thoughts about the importance of dates on press releases:
Does the date really matter?
Recently I got a press release about a new ground-breaking product from well known company. Well, actually it was sent by their PR agency, but that's business as usual. I get tons of press releases and when the daily one from a big US semiconductor company appears in my e-mail at 5 pm, I know it's time to start heading home.
Normally, I just read the headlines of the press releases before clicking on the delete button, but this one caught my attention despite the fact that it was fairly long. ”.... world’s thinnest waterproof ...” product of its kind. “This is something that my readers would be interested in and something I can easily turn into a story for our website”, I thought.
Of course I had to translate it into Swedish first, I couldn't just copy and paste like my English colleagues. In Sweden we have a saying that goes “never check a good story”. The thin and waterproof component sounded familiar, so I did a search on our website.
Bingo! I remembered correctly. One and a half years ago, the company issued a press release saying that the they had developed the world's thinnest and waterproof product of that kind. I had written the piece and I was beginning to feel stupid. The new press release didn't offer that many details, so I still couldn't be sure that it was the same ”product” I already had written about. I gave the part number to Google and my fast and cheap research department rewarded me with a hit. It turned out to be the original English press release issued by the company on December 12 last year. Today was January 25, 2012. Fooled again!
Normally I would just say the f-word, ditch the story and begin with another one, but this time I sent a short e-mail to PR-agency asking them why they had changed the date on the press release? The original was dated December 12 and the one they sent was a more vague “January 2012”. It's hard to express oneself in a foreign language and maybe I wasn't clear enough when I wrote the question. The answer I got simply stated “Did you mean compared to product availability in Japan?”
A similar thing happened with one of the high profile semiconductor companies last spring. Their PR agency changed the date on the press release regarding a soft core from May 2 to May 4, the day they sent me the press release.
The reason? A public holiday in Europe prevented them from sending the press release on the correct date, hence the date had to be altered. We didn't have that day off in Sweden so I had picked up the story from my US colleagues and published it the day before I got the press release.
That's just two examples. I'm sure most of them just slip trough unnoticed. And does it really matter? Probably not. A product is interesting to my readers a long time after it is released. A news story is still “new” if my readers haven't seen it before. But, the world is shrinking all the time. And If I get caught, my readers regard me as lazy and ignorant. And they lose confidence in me in the same way I lose confidence in the PR agencies.
So does the date really matter? I'd love to hear what other agencies and journalists think about this issue.
Bodo's Power launches Chinese edition
It's great to see European publications reaching beyond our borders, and so I was excited to hear about the planned launch of Bodo's Power China. The title will be published by i2i Group, and promises a print circulation of 10,000, an electronic version of the print magazine, bi-monthly email newsletters and a local website - www.bodospowerchina.com.
The magazine will draw on the content generated for the European title, enhanced with local content, and will be published in Manderin. Five issues are planned for this year, launching with the March/April edition.
Danish titles update website and reaffirm commitment to local language
I was pleased to see that aktuel elektronik and Elektronik Nyt are continuing to invest in their website, elektronik-online.dk. The two titles have also committed to continue to publish only in Danish, responding to requests from their readers to continue to support local language content.
Publishing only in local language is a great approach to build a strong community of loyal readers, but it's expensive. Although there is some budget available for translation of English releases, it's pretty clear that if you translate your press releases then you are much more likely to secure coverage - both online and in print. If you are a PR professional in Europe, it looks like translation is going to remain a key part of your campaigns!
Experienced Spanish editor retires
Everyone at Napier sends our best wishes for a wonderful retirement to Eugenio Rey Veiga, the popular Spanish editor from Grupo Tecnipublicaciones, S.L. who has been writing for the company for nearly 35 years. Eugenio has done a great job of educating engineers in Spain, as well as being delightful company at press conferences and other media events. Thanks for all your support Eugenio!
Sanoma Magazines launches general technology title 3T
Although the much-loved title Prosessori will disappear by the end of 2011, the good news for Finnish engineers is that Sanoma Magazines will launch 3T, a general technology title, on 13th January 2012. This weekly title will have a tabloid format, a tablet version that is free for all subscribers and will publish 40 issues in 2012.
3T will be a general title, targeting engineers and managers in engineering organisations. The name, 3T, is an abbreviation of the Finnish equivalents of the words technology, economy and working life, and the publication will address technology, business and economics, as well as providing a strong recruitment offering.
We're "guaranteed" a 55,000 circulation (the publishers project that it will be 60,000), with the UIL (the Finnish engineering association) subscribing all its members to provide the vast majority of the circulation. Looking into the details, however, less than one third of the readers will be directly working in engineering and design or R&D, with other readers in management, administration, IT and technician roles. A little over 10% of the readers will be students. Given the broad range of technologies that the title will cover, I suspect that some advertisers might be a little disappointed when they look beyond the unquestionably impressive headline circulation.
3T will offer a comprehensive website, that includes a mobile version as well as the option to read the magazine on a tablet - it's good to see the publishers experimenting with different delivery methods.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about this announcement is the decision to launch a weekly tabloid "newspaper". This goes against conventional thinking in the B2B publishing industry that readers get news from the web, preferring print for in-depth analysis. The crippling print and postage costs of a weekly title are also a huge factor. I suspect that the involvement of the UIL had a major impact on the format, and I'd be very interested to know whether they demanded a weekly publication for their members, or that because of their financial support Sanoma Magazines could afford to go weekly.
Whilst the loss of Prosessori is a huge disappointment, I'm optimistic that 3T will be able to take its place in the market and provide a strong communications channel to reach Finnish engineers.
Finland loses its last dedicated electronics magazine
Sadly Prosessori is to close. The last issue of the magazine will be the November 2011 issue, with the website shutting down at the end of the year. Although the publisher, Sanoma Magazines Finland, will offer a <a href="/index.php?page_id=4985">much broader technology title, 3T,</a> that will hopefully engage the current Prosessori readership, this is clearly a significant blow to Finnish electronics engineers who want to get industry news and information in their own language.
Jari Peltoniemi and Veijo Ojanperä will be employed on the new title, which gives some hope that the new title will have a strong focus on the electronics market, although clearly some good journalists are going to be looking for a new role.
Jari emailed me about the closure, saying
"The Finnish electronics industry has suffered a lot during the last few years. The global financial crisis in 2008 accelerated the trend as the manufacturing of handsets and the export of telecom equipments slowed. The development has had its effect on Prosessori as well."
I'm surprised. Although Nokia clearly has had its problems, and many electronic components companies and their marketing departments continue to demand PR coverage without offering financial support to titles, I haven't seen any desperate attempts to save Prosessori as a publication. Perhaps the clue is in something else that Jari told me:
"During the last few years it has become more and more difficult to financially justify publishing a high quality magazine for the professionals in electronics."
Prosessori has refused to compromise on quality. It has refused to slash the editorial team, and continued to reject the idea of filling the publication with contributed articles. However Prosessori didn't investigate other approaches to cost saving, such as digital distribution. Clearly it's harder for a magazine that pulls in a significant amount of subscription revenue to convince people to keep paying when they don't get a physical product, but I would have expected something to be done.
T3 does have one major advantage - it has been chosen by the UIL (The Union of Professional Engineers in Finland) as the publication it will send to its members, ensuring a first year circulation of 55 to 60,000. Like Engineering and Technology in the UK, I hope that support from the professional organisation will ensure the funding required for a high quality editorial product.
The truth is that Prosessori had a lot going for it. Subscription income, outstanding website traffic and a country with a strong electronics industry (even if it's not as strong as it was). Even with all this, they couldn't produce a high quality magazine that was profitable. I worry that this is a bad sign - there is a clear trend amongst publishers to compromise editorial quality to save cost, although there are certainly a number of publications that retain a strong. Could it really be that ultimately no specialist electronics publication will be able to deliver a product that consists mainly of high-quality staff written articles and make a profit? I hope not!
Elektroniktidningen launches job site
At a time when the economy isn't great [that's an understatement!], it's good to see a publication trying to help people find jobs. Elektroniktidningen has launched a new jobs site that is running as a channel within etn.se.
The new site - a project that started in early spring - has no editorial content, an simply focuses on vacancies for electronics engineers. The site is available through links on the mail Elektroniktidningen website, as well as through the dedicated elektronikjobben.se URL.
Elektroniktidningen advertising and marketing manager Fredrik Söderberg told me that they were, "aiming at becoming the number one source for recruitments of electronic design engineers in Sweden. It’s a high ambition, but we’re certain we’ll reach it through hard work and good relationships." If this means the site helps place more engineers in jobs, I certainly hope they are successful!
Electropages iPad app: Electronics News HD
Electropages, whose iPhone app downloads are in the hundreds of thousands, has launched an iPad app, Electronics News HD. With consumer apps such as Flipboard setting the bar very high for "news", it might feel impossible for a publisher in our industry to compete, but I think Electropages have done a fabulous job.
They've understood that the key to success on Apple platforms is a stunning design: Electronics News HD looks fantastic. The menu navigation is intuitive, there is ample product news to browse, and navigation from one story to the next is quick and easy. The app integrates video as well as the Electropages Twitter feed, and lead generation is built in, with a very simple "two touch" way to request more information.
There is a significant amount of sponsored content, with a "featured news" as well as sponsor news "channels". As you can just view the main stream, this sponsored content doesn't become annoying.
The app is really well thought out, right down to recommending other electronics industry apps that you might want to download (promoting the advertisers/sponsors).
Electropages has a real challenge on its hands, as the content it provides is not original editorial, but effectively the same press releases that every other site can publish. They've clearly recognised this, and decided the way to succeed is to offer the best experience to the user, and so far they definitely have achieved this goal on the iPad. I hope other publishers will learn from this app, which has had thousands of downloads in the short time since it appeared in the iTunes store.
Austrian magazine adds sales to editorial role
Ronald Riska, Editor in Chief of Austrian title Elektronik Report will now have responsibility for sales, alongside his existing editorial role. Ronald will work with Stefan Teubel, who remains sales manager.
Whilst my heart says that separation of the editorial and advertising roles has to be the best approach, I'm realistic enough to appreciate that this isn't always possible. In fact in much of the B2B trade press editors are obviously driven by commercial as well as editorial considerations. So rather than condemn this move as a degradation of standards in the electronics media, I'd like to see it as an honest assessment of Ronald's role.
Although I'm not getting upset about this change, I will be watching closely. Once editors are openly involved in advertising, it is essential that they continue to think long term: creating a magazine that has the high-quality independent writing that makes engineers want to read it, and therefore advertisers want to buy space in it. I'm confident that Ronald knows this, and will be strong enough to ensure that the long-term future of the publication is never sacrificed with short-term puff pieces about advertisers.
Call for papers - Smart Systems Integration 2012
Mesago, organisers of Smart Systems Integration, which will be held from 21st to 22nd March 2012 in Zurich, have issued a call for papers. Papers should address the latest research and industrial applications of smart systems, particularly within the automotive, aeronautics, logistics, telecommunications, medical technologies and security industries. The deadline for submission of abstracts is 14th October 2011.
Electropages to launch iPad app with video
After creating a very successful app for the iPhone, we understand Electropages are working on an iPad app. The publishers have been asking for video content from various suppliers, so we're looking forward to an app that will contain a rich mix of content in both text and video formats. We understand that the launch date is currently slated for early August - keep checking back here for more news!
Is Apple now the most valuable brand?
Increasing brand equity is a goal for many marketing campaigns, and perhaps the best measure of the value of global brands comes from Millward Brown's Brandz Top 100 list. This year, Apple has shot past Google to take the number one spot. I'm not surprised about this - Google's stellar rise seems to have hit some speed bumps as it deals with challenges ranging from privacy to the fragmentation of the Android OS.
Other technology companies have been big movers in the study, with Facebook growing brand value by 246%, whilst Blackberry is going the other way with a fall in brand value of 20%. Blackberry, however, is ranked 25th, whilst Facebook is ten places behind. And this shows the problem of any study trying to establish an absolute value of a brand - it's intagibility makes it rather... intangible. Looking at the trend in valuation is interesting, but comparing one brand to another is very difficult: with Facebook's incredible valuation, who would honestly say the Blackberry brand is worth 30% more?
This is a great lesson to anyone working in marketing. Whilst putting numbers and values on activities are great to ensure accountability, never forget the limitations of your formulae. However, despite the difficulties of creating accurate measures I still believe in metrics: whilst the value you calculate for any marketing activity might not be perfect, it's better to have some illumination than to stumble about in the dark!
Austrian advertising awards
Readers of Technik Report, Elektronik Report and Dispo will be voting in the advertising awards run by Weka Austria. You'll need to buy an advert in the relevant issue, but the awards will provide good feedback on how well your adverts are perceived by the audience. A flyer describing the awards (in German) is available online.
Elektor celebrates 50th anniversary
Congratulations to Elektor, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this month. The magazine started in April 1961, and was initially called ‘Elektronica wereld’ (Electronics World). In 1965 the name changed from ‘Elektronica wereld’ into Elektuur.
Over the years the magazine has expanded internationally, launching German (1970), English (1975), and French (1978) editions (named Elektor). In October 2007, the Dutch edition also rebranded as Elektor.
Recently Spanish and a US English editions of Elektor have launched.
Publishing is a challenging business, and I've enormous respect for the team at Elektor, who were one of the initial sources of inspiration that made me choose a career as an engineer, and continue to inspire and educate engineers today.
TechMedia launches dedicated Danish electronics site
TechMedia A/S, publishers of aktuel elektronik and Elektronik Nyt, has launched a new site dedicated to electronics design, Elektronik Online. they have also begun a weekly email newsletter, which is distributed every Friday.
The launch of this site has to be a good thing for electronics engineers, and with editorial content being provided by the larger-than life toy train aficionado, Rolf Sylvester-Hvid, as well as Allan Malmberg, there will be some great content that is going to be welcomed by Danish engineers.
What do corporate slogans achieve?
Corporate slogans are very much in fashion, but as Seth Godin points out they're usually meaningless and generally ignored. Seth thinks corporate slogans simply show the company's size:
It's a signal, a sign that the company is big, that it's able to waste time dreaming this stuff up and waste money yelling about it.
This is all very well, but I'd like to think that great slogans can do much more. One of my favourite is "Building brands, one story at a time" which is a great description of what HB, an agency in the USA with whom we have partnered several times, actually does for clients. Perhaps it's time for the Napier creative team to start work on our new corporate slogan?
New Bulgarian publication for energy industry
TTL Media, publishers of the Bulgarian title Energy Review, have launched a new publication, Energy Info BG. Available online and as an annual printed catalogue, Energy Info BG provides a catalogue of the companies supplying products and services for the energy sector in Bulgaria, including renewable energy and energy efficiency equipment and service providers.
It's always good to see new launches, and particularly pleasing that publishers believe they can make money outside the main European countries. With the energy market likely to show some of the biggest growth potential, I'm not surprised that TTL Media and others are launching publications to serve this dynamic sector.
Peak boosts frequency
The economy must be getting better - print magazines are increasing frequency!
I was delighted to hear that Peak Magazine has increased its print frequency to six issue per year. It's great to see magazines having the confidence to produce more issues, and I'm sure that Norwegian engineers will also benefit from more of the great information provided by this publication.
Electronic Components switches back to ASA Media
Electronic Components Russia will be represented by ASA Media from January 2011. With a reduced portfolio of publications, Alastair Swift should have more time to devote to the Russian publication, so hopefully the return to a partnership with ASA will drive an increase in sales.
UK publisher launches Chinese title
Energy Storage Publishing will launch a Chinese version of BEST (Batteries and Energy Storage Technology) magazine, starting with the November issue. This comes after a trial where A taste of BEST was distributed in China to over 3000 people.
The new publication will be printed on a quarterly basis in Chinese Mandarin with English abstracts and will have a circulation of "more than 3000". With China now the largest battery producing nation, each issue is expected to run for at least 60 pages.
It's always good to see new publications, particularly when a publisher feels confident enough to launch a print magazine. With battery technology a key part of any portable product, I'd expect this title to go from strength to strength.
Rolf takes over at Elektronik Nyt
The well known Danish editor and toy train aficionado, Rolf Sylvester-Hvid.has taken over the editor duties at Elektronik Nyt. Rolf also continues to hold his editor role at TechMedia’s other electronics title, Aktuel Elektronik.
Elektroniktidningnen recruits sales manager for local advertisers
You’ll sometimes hear the comment that publications in Sweden and Finland exist only to allow overseas companies to sell to the big customers in the region such as Nokia, Ericsson, ABB and Saab. It’s not true – at least according to Electroniktidningen, who has appointed Anne-Charlotte Sparrvik as sales manager for the region.
This has to be good news, reflecting the view of the publication that the market is recovering. Perhaps more interestingly they also cite a rapid growth in online advertising, which local clients have adopted in growing numbers over the last six months.
It’s great to see ETN doing so well, and from my point of view I’m delighted to be able to post such a positive story on Napier News after a fairly depressing time in the industry.
National Electronics Week South Africa attracts 1700 visitors
It sounds like the first National Electronics Week South Africa proved to be a very successful event, with 1700 visitors attending over the two days. This is an impressive number, given the size of the industry in South Africa. The organisers also managed to sell out all exhibition space, ensuring that the event was not only successful, but presumably pretty profitable: not a bad achievement for the first year of a show in the current environment!