According to a recent report by Nielsen BuzzMetrics and BASES, “there is a strong correlation between ad spending and buzz generated in the blogosphere, one that shouldn’t be ignored when it comes to making media planning decisions.”

Among 80 consumer packaged goods brands launched in 2005 and 2006 that Nielsen studied, the top 10 percent of products with the most buzz spend nearly $20 million in advertising. In contrast, the products that accounted for the bottom 50 percent of buzz generated spent roughly $5 million, or a quarter of what the most buzz-generating brands spent.

That means that the more money is spent on online media, the more likely there is to be “buzz” around that new brand or product.

The study does caveat this statement by saying that some brands are just prone to more buzz.

While some of this is common sense (heavy online spend = more online awareness), the conclusion can be drawn that if paid media and word-of-mouth management are both managed by the same entity, the resultant buzz can be much greater than if these tactics were executed individually, by different entities.

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Blogger extraordinaire Steve Rubel says that unless PR firms participate in the conversation, rather than just trying to pitch new ones, the discipline will die.

Unfortunately, the biz is not evolving quickly enough. Many in PR seem to be treating Web 2.0 as simply an extension of the traditional media - another venue for buzz. They are pumping thousands of email pitches into the community every day. I know because I receive hundreds of these emails every day, as do many other bloggers I have spoken to over the last several weeks. Some are good, most are not. And many are getting fed up.

Bravo, Steve.

If any of you has ever had a PR-focused conversation with me, you know I’ve been saying this for years.

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It’s taken a while. A long while.

But the podcast from my panel at SXSW is now available for download. It’s a good one. From what I understand, one of the best at the festival

Here are the details:

With the click of a mouse, you can reach millions of fans without spending millions of dollars. Movies are now sporting their own MySpace pages and blogs during production. Fans and moviemakers can connect from all over the world. Is the online presence of movies the new frontier for filmmakers?

Moderator: Scott Kirsner Editor, CinemaTech
Scilla Andreen Co-Founder, IndieFlix
Jim Miller Executive Director, Brave New Foundation
Ian Schafer CEO, Deep Focus
David Straus CEO, Without A Box Inc
Joe Swanberg Dir, Hannah Takes the Stairs
Lance Weiler Filmmaker, Workbook Project

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Peter Bart, Variety’s Editor in Chief, is a Hollywood legend. No one would argue his contributions to cinema or journalism. One of the great things about him is that he’s been very outspoken (in one way or the other) on many issues of importance to the movie industry.

But he’s got to stop saying things that make me think he’s losing his relevancy.

In an article in today’s Variety, Peter Bart, a man who blogged once (once!) for the Huffington Post, manages to write an entire article on how to define the Blogosphere without giving an opinion. All he says is that it needs to be defined.

His article closes:

Clearly, the landscape is crowded and confusing, but decisions have to be made: To whom do you grant interviews and credentials? Do you reach out to individuals who consistently defy your rules of engagement, or do you scrap the rules entirely? From the Hollywood perspective, do you invite people to screenings who consistently thumb their noses at review dates?

The problem is, is that it’s not bloggers that need to redefine themselves. It’s not studios that need to make decisions on whether or not to deal with them. It’s about adaptation. The world of online publicity is different than the world of publicity has operated within for the last hundred or so years, as I’ve stated before.

Studios, and everyone else for that matter, have to change. Bloggers are not journalists, by definition. But they are every bit as (and maybe more) influential. Figure out how to work with them — or find someone that does. It’s not a do or don’t decision.

The only decision to make is whether or not to evolve along with your consumers.

**UPDATE**
Anne Thompson at Variety gets it right.

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The world of online public relations and publicity is a strange one to many - even to publicists and PR professionals.

I get calls all the time from companies looking to change or shape the perception of consumers via online PR strategies. I often have to clear the air and explain just what it is that we do. So what better way than to do it in a public forum.

At Deep Focus, we’ve pioneered the adaptation of the “old” publicity model and have made it more relevant. In doing so, we’ve adopted a set of beliefs.
(more…)

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From the what-not-to-do files…

Let me preface this by saying that Steve Rubel (now at Edelman PR) is one of the most important and influential advocates of online PR, blogging, and general do-gooding when it comes to opening up dialogues between companies and consumers. This industry needs Steve Rubel.

Steve has historically praised transparency, but took a foolish misstep in being a little too transparent, thanks to his itchy twitter finger. He literally trashed PC Magazine in plain view of everyone — and is now paying the price.

Check out FakeSteveJobs’ take on this fascinating and developing story.

And stay tuned for a blog post from me that will redefine the way you think about online PR.

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This is so wonderful, brilliant, amazing, and perfect. It’s AskANinja interviewing Jon Heder and Will Ferrell at the Blades of Glory junket.

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