Lessons From a Piano-Pounding Entrepreneur

Klydi Heywood

With fingers flying across the piano keys and breath-taking videography in the background, Jon Schmidt’s presentation and lecture on Wednesday Jan. 30 was a feast for the senses. Students filled the auditorium in the Ellen Eccles Conference Center 30 minutes before the show started. And when I stood up to take pictures 10 minutes into the presentation, I had to climb over students who were stuffed into the isles.

He began with his story. Schmidt started performing at benefit events and selling cassette tapes whenever he could. Although he was amazed by the fact that people actually wanted to buy his tapes, he said he acted the part. 

“Fake it ‘til you make it,” Schmidt said. “It really works.” As students laughed at this remark, he continued by stating that people’s perception is reality.

“Your image is what people perceive, and that’s what they believe,” he said. With his humility shining through, Schmidt attributed this factor to his early success.

Schmidt’s second entrepreneurial advice for success was to think of, create or do something that has never been done before. When Schmidt met cellist Steven Sharp Nelson, he wanted to create something different. With their first YouTube sensation “Love Story Meets Viva la Vida,” the innovation for creative, classical yet modern music was born.

Schmidt then played the song for the audience, and the goose bumps on my arms started to rise. In addition to being a very talented pianist, Schmidt was an entertainer. He would bob his head to the beat, sway his shoulders to the melody and even spin around and play upside down.

When asked what got him through the tough times of being an entrepreneurial musician, Schmidt gave credit to God and his gut. He stated that in order to feel good about what he does each day, he has to follow his passions.

I left the presentation with a song stuck in my head and a new determination to reach for my dreams. By being creative and “faking it ‘til I make it,” I think I can do just about anything.

My Day As A USA Today Expert Super Bowl Ad Panelist

Eric Schulz

My Super Bowl Sunday is usually spent watching the game and eating some nachos and cheesesteaks. All that changed last week when I was invited to participate as a member on the USA Today Super Bowl Ad Panel, rating each and every Super Bowl ad for the paper’s annual Ad Meter Ranking.  See:  http://admeter.usatoday.com

It was a very interesting experience having to focus and evaluate every ad.  I kept getting emails from a USA Today staffer asking my thoughts and opinions on different ads as we progressed through the night.  For the most part, my rankings pretty much agreed with the consumer polling. I ranked the Budweiser Clydesdale “Horse and Trainer Reunited” as the top ad, followed by Tide’s “Montana Miracle Stain”, and Kia’s “Space Babies." 

One place where I differed from the poll was on the evaluation of Dodge Ram’s “God Made A Farmer” (USA Today - 3^rd place; My Rank - 9th) and Jeep’s “Families Waiting/Troops” (USA Today - 5^th place; My Rank - 10th). Both of those ads were touching, poignant, and terrific pieces of art — Norman Rockwell paintings on video — which stirred patriotism and pride in the USA.  But where I had a problem with the ads was they didn’t relate at all to their brands.  Either could have been produced by any American company (McDonalds, Bank of America, Coca-Cola, Ford, Chevrolet, etc.).  

Don’t get me wrong, both ads were fantastic, but I’m not sure that they will drive sales.  In my days back at Coca-Cola there were several ads that consumers really liked, particularly “I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing” and “Mean Joe Greene”. Both increased the number of consumers who said Coke was their favorite soft drink, but as the “favorite soft drink” rating increased, actual sales volume was flat or slightly declining.  The gap between these two numbers we came to term as “virtual consumption." Companies don’t like it when advertising creates virtual consumption, they want real consumption. I think the Dodge and Jeep ads will both increase consumers “liking” perception of the brands, but I don’t think it will translate into increased sales – they will create “virtual consumption”. 

Here are some of the notes I made while watching the commercials: 

Budweiser Clydesdales:  It was as brilliantly produced as a Hallmark special. It's hard to strike that emotional chord, but Budweiser nailed it. We all enjoy a good love story, and Budweiser pulled it off in just 60 seconds. The ad was sweet and heartfelt. It was the only commercial that made me cry.

Tide “Montana Miracle Stain”: Brilliant. Topical, fun, and the product is the hero, getting rid of the Montana stain!

Doritos: Eating Doritos was clearly the hero, and both ads told the story in humorous, relevant yet unexpected ways.  

Go-Daddy “Kissing”: The ad was intentionally designed to create “water cooler talk” after the game. Go-Daddy regularly tries to offend people’s sensibilities with their Super Bowl ads to get attention. “Say whatever you want about me, just spell my name right” is the strategy. It works. Their entire brand has been built on titillating Super Bowl advertising.

In the Super Bowl, creativity and entertainment value often get in the way of marketing effectiveness. Agencies consider a great spot to be wildly creative and entertaining. But creativity and entertainment doesn't always equal brand communication effectiveness.

Great advertising should show creativity, entertain, and be relevant yet unexpected — making your product the hero.  Tide’s “Montana Miracle Stain”, Milk's " The Rock - Morning Run" where our superhero can't save the world until he's had his milk; KIA's "Space Babies" where the car has an answer for everything — each of these were winners from a brand communication standpoint.  They were fun to watch and made their product standout as the superhero of the day.

Some of the worst ads, those that did nothing to showcase their products, included Cars.com "Wolf", Axe "Lifeguard", and Lincoln's "Jimmy Falllon - Steer the Script."  While creative, their products were secondary, and got lost in the spots. Budweiser disappointed me and made me feel inferior with their whole “Black Dressed Cool People” the “Black Crown party”, and “Coronation”.

And one other thing, the E-Trade baby is tired and needs to be retired. Several Super Bowls ago, E-Trade had one of the best Super Bowl commercials ever, entitled "Money Coming Out The Wazzoo," where a man being rushed to the hospital ER was being hospitalized because he had "money coming out his wazzoo."  They need to find that mojo again.

Here were my ratings of the commercials, along with the overall scores each ad achieved on the USA Today Ad Meter:

Top Ten				USA Today
Company	Description	My Score		Ad Meter Score
Anheuser-Busch	Horse and trainer reunited	10		7.76
Tide	Miracle Stain	10		7.75
Kia	Space Babies	10		6.74
Doritos	Fashionista Dad	10		7.27
NFL	Deion Sanders returns	10		6.68
Mercedes-Benz	Deal with the devil	10		6.11
Doritos	Goat 4 Sale	10		6.71
M&Ms	Love ballad	10		6.34
RAM	God Made A Farmer	9		7.43
JEEP	Families waiting	9		7.2
11-20				USA Today
Company	Description	My Score		Ad Meter Score
Coke	Mirage	9		5.54
MILK	The Rock - Superhero	9		5.98
Anheuser-Busch	Bud Light Voodoo Doll	9		6.01 (tie)
Walt Disney	Oz trailer	9		5.48
Kia	Hot Bots	8		5.51
Wonderful Pistachios	PSY Gangnam Style	8		5.58
SodaStream	The effect of SodaStream	7		5.39
Best Buy	Asking Amy Poehler	7		6.23
Hyundai	Kid assembles team	7		6.65
Audi	Prom	7		6.64
21-30				USA Today
Company	Description	My Score		Ad Meter Score
VW	Get Happy office guy	7		6.19
Toyota	Rav4 wish granted	7		6.16 (tie)
Samsung	Paul Rudd and Seth Rogan	7		6.06
NFL	Thank you	7		6.14
Paramount Pictures	Star Trek trailer	7		5.4
GoDaddy.co	Danica Patrick pilots plane	7		4.8
Speed Stick	Guy doing laundry	7		5.97
Anheuser-Busch	Bud Light lucky chair	6		5.55
Universal Pictures	Fast & Furious 6 trailer	6		5.11
Century 21	Wedding faints	5		4.98 (tie)
31-44				USA Today
Company	Description	My Score		Ad Meter Score
Oreo	Whispering in the library	5		5.88
Walt Disney	Iron Man 3 trailer	4		5.6
Cars.com	Puppy is a wolf	3		5.52
Coke	Security Camera	3		6.38
Pepsi Next	Parents like to party	3		4.81
Subway	Jocks love Jared	3		4.86
Skechers	Cheetah race	3		6.16 (tie)
MiO Fit	Tracy Morgan anthem	2		4.45
Pepsi	Halftime show countdown	2		4.63
Subway	Jocks can’t say Februany	2		4.07The Bottom 5
Hyundai	Passing obstacles	2		6.01 (tie)
E*Trade	Baby getting wealthy	2		5.93
Hyundai	Epic play date	2		5.42
Lincoln	MKZ Phoenix	2		4.66
BOTTOM TEN				USA Today
Company	Description	My Score		Ad Meter Score
Blackberry	My new Blackberry	2		5.16
Gildan	Guy needs his t-shirt	2		4.98 (tie)
Axe	Lifeguard	2		4.33
Lincoln	Jimmy Fallon - Road Trip Story	1		4.19
Calvin Klein	Guy in underwear	1		3.88
Anheuser-Busch	Black Crown party	1		3.73
Anheuser-Busch	Beck’s Sapphire fish singing	1		3.66
Anheuser-Busch	Black Crown “coronation”	1		3.64
Taco Bell	Viva Young	1		6.55
GoDaddy.co	Bar Refaeli  "Kiss"	1		3.3

“Flack” Shares Five Secrets For Dealing With Reporters

I was raised, by a father who was a journalism professor, to be a newsman. It’s in my blood. When I go into a newsroom I can hear it calling to me. That’s real life. Like a window open on a cold day, I can feel it in my bones. For now, however, I am in public relations. I’m lucky that I get to work at the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business where the importance of ethical leadership is emphasized and truth is considered central to any PR strategy. Not all in my profession are so blessed.

Many journalists, however, would still call me a “flack.” It’s supposed to be derogatory but it doesn’t bother me. In fact, I’d have that as part of my title on my business card if I could.

Since I’ve been working in public relations I’ve been to conferences and been involved in situations where people try to figure out formulas or approaches to motivate journalists to behave properly. For those who have never worked in a newsroom on a daily paper, I guess the inexact science of working with reporters can appear baffling.

So, I thought I would share five simple tips that can help you be more effective if you ever need to deal with the press.

1. Realize that you are not at the center of the world. Each day when most reporters get in they are under pressure to deliver two or three stories, regardless of how well they did the day before. If you have news that’s worth covering, it will have to compete with whatever else is on their plate. While it may be true that Normon Foddlebaum has won an award that is in his world is the equivalent of an Oscar, that doesn’t mean that your news won’t be trumped by someone or something else that day that is more pressing or interesting.


2. Overall, journalists don’t have a huge bias to the left or the right. They do, however, have a bias toward the negative. Is that bad? Not necessarily. If they do a big story on someone being mugged on Main Street, be grateful. It means that such a thing is still considered unusual. In New York it probably wouldn’t make the paper. In general, reporters get more reward for unearthing corruption, dirt, and scandal then they do for writing about awards, happy faces, and balloons. And while you may not be willing to admit it, a story about the local principal being arrested is more likely to draw you in than a story about him being named administrator of the year. That’s just life.


3. Don’t even try to manipulate journalists. Treat them with respect and try to understand their world. Don’t think you can trick them into running an inflated story or massage an issue by hiding key facts. They are smart and they have absolutely no use for manipulative, dishonest people as sources.


4. When they call, they need help now, as in within the hour. If they tell their editor that they have a story for the day and then they suddenly can’t get the interview they need, life gets very uncomfortable for them. The rest of us operate in a world where we think up work today and finish it four days or even two weeks from now. They don’t have that luxury. Everything is due now.


5. When you write a press release, write it in news style. Follow Associated Press rules. Make it something they could cut and paste into a story if they wanted to. If you really want Normon Foddlebaum to have his day in the sun, don’t fill your release with fluffy, unattributed statements about how great he is. I have rewritten hundreds of press releases as a reporter and I was shocked at how few even came close to being usable. You know why that is? It’s because PR people write press releases to please their bosses. That’s where the reward is for them but if your release only succeeds in annoying reporters and editors before it is deleted, then you are wasting everyone’s time. 

So, it’s not that complicated. You just have to be honest and treat reporters like real people who are under unbelievable daily stress to find and report the news. Sure they annoy, pester and torment us but that’s part of their job. As humorist Peter Dunne once said of newspapers, they “confront the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” Once you understand that things start to make more sense. Then you’ll begin understand why you can never be completely comfortable when dealing with the press and why that’s okay.

— Steve Eaton