The MoPR Blog

Ever witness one of those special moments that make you call all your friends and tell them what you saw? One of those moments that lets you tell people years later, “I was there when…”? Thanks to MoPR’s new client, Talkster, I had one of those moments.

I’m a big hockey fan. A long time ago, when I first started becoming aware of sports and teams, I lived in Toronto. My first memory of supporting a home team was to root for the Toronto Maple Leafs. But I never saw them play at home. Not live anyway.

I was in Toronto over the weekend working with Talkster. A casual mention of my desire to see hockey turned into a very special night. Talkster’s CEO, Harry Borenstein, is a very generous man. Once he heard that I wanted to see a Maple Leafs game “Uncle Harry” called his friend Johnny and got tickets to the sold out game: Toronto vs Calgary. Harry brought Maria of Talkster, Johnny and me to the game.

It was a tremendously special night for me. But I would say it was also special for the Talksterites who came along. It was Uncle Harry’s first hockey game and Maria finally fulfilled her lifelong dream of getting a giant foam finger.

Hockey is the national sport of Canada (it used to be Lacrosse, but lets get real). But Canadians often lament the fact that out of 30 teams in the NHL, only six are from Canada, and they play in only two of the six divisions. Because of the way teams are scheduled, it means that these two divisions only play once every four years in the regular season. So when the Leafs of the Northeast division host the Flames of the Northwest, it’s not just a game; it’s an event.

By the way, we can wax philosophical about the good old days of the NHL when there were teams like the Winnipeg Jets and the Quebec Nordiques. But when I first became a hockey fan there were only three Canadian teams in the NHL: the Habs, the Leafs and the Canucks (which oddly enough was in the East Division although the team is from Vancouver). But I digress.

When Americans think of arenas and stadiums for sporting events, we think of the great fields like Soldier Field in Chicago or Fenway Park in Boston. Americans seem to be less impressed by hockey arenas. There is a reason for that. In America the NHL plays in basketball arenas that also happen to have hockey. The Air Canada Centre is different. ACC is a hockey arena where they happen to have basketball. It is a truly magnificent place to see a sporting event; a cathedral for hockey. It is loud and raucous and when something exciting happens in the game, it reverberates around the arena like the shockwave of an atom bomb.

I know this, because the October 14 meeting of the Leafs and Flames was one of the most exciting sporting events I ever witnessed, certainly the most exciting I witnessed live. Part of this has to do with the rule changes put into effect last season by the NHL after the players strike. The game is just more exciting in general. The refs blow their whistle a lot less frequently and the game moves a lot more quickly. But most of the excitementment happened in the last 50 seconds of the game.

Like true sports fans, we stayed to the end. Everyone did. Maybe six people left at the end of regulation to get a head start on exiting the parking lot. But they weren’t there when; we were.

At the end of regulation, the score was tied 4-4. The Leafs were starting the sudden death overtime period with one player in the penalty box (meaning they were on the ice with only four players while Calgary had five). Toronto played their best line, which includes team captain Mats Sundin. Sundin had already scored twice in the game. Not even one minute into the period had passed when Sundin got his stick on the puck and drove it down the ice. With a slapshot from nearly center ice, Sundin completed his hat trick (third goal in a game by a single player) with an unassisted, short-handed goal, which also happened to be the 500th goal of his career. The Leafs win (later we’ll ask Maria to debate whether the team should be known as the Toronto Maple Leaves rather than the Leafs).

Many thanks to Uncle Harry, Maria, Johnny and Talkster. Because of them, I can say I was there when.

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As PR professionals, we work hard to create opportunities for clients to boast about their products and services. But we provide a service too, and sometimes there comes a moment when we can boast about ourselves. This is such a moment.

Last month Melissa was quoted in a PR Week story about using online communications media to influence opinion. She was discussing how it’s important for people in our profession to be on top of the conversations taking place online to have the opportunity to shape opinions:

“With tools like Factiva, [media monitoring service] Magenta, RSS feeds, newsletter subscriptions, and keyword news alerts, there is no excuse for PR pros not to be on top of the online conversations around their clients,” says Melissa Burns, principal at Mobility Public Relations.

Over the last two weeks, Melissa demonstrated why she as at the top of the game when it comes to using online communications to shape opinion and why it is vital to stay on top of the online conversations. This story begins with our new client Talkster.

Talkster has been emerging from stealth mode with demonstrations a component of their forthcoming enterprise communications service. We began telling this story to a select group of important influencers: the voice and mobility bloggers. In virtually all instances, Talkster’s mobile phone-to-instant messaging service won rave reviews from these bloggers, but there were two notable exceptions.

Our positive news streak came to an end after blogger (and iotum CEO) Alec Saunders wrote a great piece about Talkster, then invited his colleagues at other blogs to likewise post stories about their service. Many of these bloggers echoed Alec’s sentiment. Two did not.

Andy Abramson wrote a piece on his VoIP Watch blog that was less than kind to Talkster. His opinion is based on a misperception of Talkster’s business model.

Ken Camp who blogs at Digital Common Sense is also an important blogger. His take on Talkster, while not negative, was less than enthusiastic. In his post entitled “Talkster - Are they Me Too or Voice 2.0? Maybe another Voice 2.0 Entrant in the Game” Ken summed up his lukewarm initial opinion by stating “I see some value in T@lkster, but not for me.”

The story might end there. A lot of people in the PR business accept that sometimes you get a bad review. Melissa is not one of them.

I was in the back of a taxi with Talkster’s president James Wanless when Melissa called me to say she found the two non-positive posts. She wasn’t calling to inform me. She was calling to get James’ schedule so she can get him on the phone with Andy and Ken. Once she nailed down James’ time, she approached Andy and Ken – within four hours of their original posts – to offer them trial accounts of the Talkster service and to arrange briefings.

What happened next was extremely gratifying. Ken wrote a new blog post. The new post was not about the Talkster service. The new post, entitled “How a Startup Shows they ‘Get It’” was about Talkster’s PR team. It reads, in part:

“I say [Talkster is ho hum is] the message I tried to deliver, but to be honest, at that point, I could have cared less if it got any further notice. It immediately dropped off my radar. But not for long. I got email from Melissa with Talkster’s PR team asking about setting up a conversation with James Wanless, the founder. Her message also made it really clear that they, the Talkster team, don’t see VoIP arbitrage as their business model. They see that as a thin slice of the pie, with other values to bring to bear. And they want to talk about it.

Is this anything remarkable? You tell me. Within four hours of a somewhat unfriendly, but certainly not hostile post, they’re in touch wanting to do a briefing. And this has been followed up with coordination work, and a test account because they want me to kick the tires and take a look.

I still have no idea whether I’ll like the solution, or think it’s really a Voice 2.0 hit like Alec does, or even fit the right demographic. But I like the people and attitudes because the folks at Talkster engage.”

The story gets even better. The following day, Alec Saunders posted about Ken’s experience with Melissa on his blog in a post called “Blogs and the New PR.” Check out this excerpt:

“Jim, a PR professional and friend of mine asked me that question last week. What he said was “How do I deal with agency clients who want to shift their PR dollars to blogging”. Indeed! The role of the PR agency has always been to be the eyes and ears of the company in the press, and to shape and deliver messages to the press and analyst community for the client. In today’s environment, however, anyone can deliver that message. I’m doing it right now!

That creates a real challenge for the PR industry.

Blogging buddy Ken Camp posted yesterday about his experience with MoPR, Talkster’s agency, and how much they impressed him. Within hours of his ho-hum reaction to T@lkster, Melissa was on the telephone to set up a meeting with CEO James Wanless. While Ken is still undecided on T@lkster, he’s certainly much more open to hearing their story than he was yesterday.

In contrast, Sears Canada is a bricks and mortar business which has chosen to ignore the blogosphere. In May of last year, at the Saunders household we had a washer breakdown, and a very unsatisfactory experience with Sears. I wrote about it at the time, and since then that page has continued to attract a steady stream of disatisfied Sears customers, all vowing to never do business with Sears Canada again. If Sears had responded to my complaint, I would have written about that as well. They could have turned my complaint into a win for everyone, but they didn’t.

So what’s the lesson for my friend Jim?

1. MoPR are bloggers themselves. They get it.
2. MoPR encourages their clients to run a blog, and uses the Talkster blog on WordPress as a central way to distribute information to those who want to know about Talkster. No need to wait for releases and pitches. Just subscribe to the RSS feed.
3. MoPR engages bloggers actively in order to solicit their feedback, and counter negative opinion in the blogosphere.

MoPR is redefining their role as a facilitator of dialogs, and enlarging the audience they work with. That’s not traditional PR, it’s something new.”

Could this story get any better? Yes, it can. Ken did speak to James this week. He played with the Talkster service himself and he got a better appreciation for what the service is today and where it’s heading. And best of all, he wrote a new post about it, “Talkster - Ken Revises his Assessment” in which he summed up his view this time by writing, “I’m here to tell you my view has changed.”

Andy is busy traveling, but we sent him materials and we hope that we can change his views too. We’ll certainly try.

Thank you Ken and Alec for appreciating what we at MoPR do. We promise to keep doing it!

You can read more of Talkster’s blog coverage on their own blog at talkster.wordpress.com.

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Talkster enlists mobility-focused PR agency to launch wireless service.

TORONTO, ON and LAKE OSWEGO, Ore – October 16, 2006 – Talkster Inc. (http://www.talkster.com/) announced today that it has retained Mobility Public Relations as its agency of record. Mobility Public Relations (http://www.mobilitypr.com/) was selected because of the expertise their team has in the wireless industry having managed media and analyst relations activities for such companies as Cisco Systems, iPass and the Wireless Industry Partnership (WIP).

“Mobility Public Relations blew us away when they presented the program they are building for Talkster,” said Maria Puccio, vice president of marketing at Talkster. “Very quickly the team at Mobility Public Relations created precise product positioning and messaging. It’s fair to say that Mobility PR is playing a major role in transforming our business.”

Talkster is the first company to offer mobile-to-voice over instant messaging (VoIM) calls which can be placed to MSN Messenger, Google Talk and Gizmo Project IM services for free using any mobile phone with a browser, over any network and without requiring software. Talkster’s mobile communications service also lets users place low-cost, carrier-grade long distance calls to any landline, mobile phone or voice over Internet (VoIP) phone – including VoIP phones without direct dial numbers.

“Talkster is an exciting company with innovative technology and a lot of energy,” said John Giddings, principal at Mobility Public Relations. “One of the challenges we will face is differentiating Talkster from a growing field of startups that do only small pieces of what Talkster does. Talkster understands that public relations is a core business function and has dedicated the time to work with us in building an aggressive communications program.”

About Talkster Inc.
Talkster consolidates the many disparate voice-based communications services consumers use today into a single, easy-to-use service that works from a familiar device: the mobile phone.

About Mobility Public Relations
With industry analysts predicting tremendous growth in mobility-related technologies, products and services, three industry veterans launched a public relations agency to serve this explosive high-tech category. By focusing solely on mobile technologies, Mobility Public Relations is better positioned to share expertise and build compelling campaigns across a broad array of clients within the mobile technology space. For more information visit: http://www.mobilitypr.com/.