VerveCast

If you’re a huge sports fan (read: attractive, male athlete fan) like myself, you’ve probably heard about the new Braun/Rodgers restaurant set to open in Brookfield in June. The original name for the restaurant was launched as 8*twelve, a play on their two numbers. However, it was announced yesterday the name has changed to 8-twelve.

According to Fox 6, the asterisk was removed and replaced with a dash in an effort to avoid any negativity that might be associated with something that looks like an asterisk, given Braun’s hectic off-season.

Umm, eek! Although I personally find the asterisk situation pretty hilarious, I likely wouldn’t if I was associated with the brand. I’m not sure what would have been worse, leaving the asterisk in to be potentially noticed by not that many people, or taking it out and having the media broadcast why the name had changed. The main takeaway here is to make sure you have all your ducks in a row before publicly launching your new brand.

(Side note: this story totally brought to mind my brother-in-law, whom we call “Asterisk” when playing board games, given his inclination to win using questionable tactics.)

Timothy Westbrook working in The Pfister's studio.

Perhaps you’ll recall a post of mine from a few months back about the search for the next Pfister Hotel Artist in Residence. Well, the lucky artist was selected and has now been set up in the hotel for about a month.

Timothy Westbrook is a talented, young fiber artist from upstate New York who made the big move to pursue the Pfister’s residency. If you have not met him, you should make your way to The Pfister and check out his work, which is primarily crafted from recycled materials such as cassette tape (and even The Pfister’s retired bedsheets!).

Here’s a great feature segment from CBS 58 on Timothy and the artist-in-residence program.

Earlier this week, we hosted a media training session for a handful of clients. We invited the “trainees” out to our office for the full sneaky reporter, camera-in-your-face session. And it was fun—for us. In honor of that session, here are some basic tips to keep in mind if you ever find yourself in the media spotlight.

• Remember to smile
• Be brief and to the point
• Think in “sound bites.” Prepare answers ahead of time as you would for a job interview. Make sure to cover your key messages in your responses.
• Stay in control of the interview. Use bridging techniques to bring it back to the point you’d like to make.
• Open up closed questions by expanding upon your answers
• Never lie or say “no comment”
• Remember, nothing is ever “off the record”

As you might guess, there’s a lot more that goes into media interviews, but those are some of the most important points to keep in mind. And don’t forget to relax and have fun!

Several months back, I wrote a post about an article I read from a reporter on how annoyed he was that a huge percentage of news releases he came across used the word “excited” in their quotes. Evidently, Tim Tebow’s handlers haven’t been following Z2′s blog. Here’s an edited version of a press conference Tebow participated in earlier this week.

Clearly a case in which proper media training would have been beneficial. Or perhaps the media training was too good, telling Tebow to keep coming back to his point? Either way, something was off here.

A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon a glorious new product at Pick ’n Save—Peanut Butter Cheerios. Previously I hadn’t been buying Cheerios because I thought the flavors were bland. But I just had to check out this new one. And let me tell you… ah-mazing. I was so happy with my new find that I’ve been eating them every day since. That was, until yesterday.

After work last night, I once again found myself scanning the cereal aisle for a box of my favorite new treat, and what do I discover? Drum roll, please… Dulce de Leche Cheerios! I could not believe my eyes. (Side note: I have a minor obsession with Dulce de Leche after last year’s trip to Puerto Rico in which I found myself eating it daily.) Needless to say, I’m in heaven.

Okay, enough discussion about breakfast cereal. What these recent findings reinforced for me is the importance of expanding upon a brand and its offerings. Yes, it is essential to stay true to your company and product, but in certain cases it is just as important to reinvent yourself from time-to-time. This will keep your current customers interested and draw potential customers back to your product. Now, what can you do to put a new spin on your brand?