It's Earth Day today, and with all of the buzz surrounding our Mother Earth today, BLASTmedia decided to celebrate in style. Everyone (well almost everyone) dressed in their favorite "granola gear" and went out of their way to do something special for the planet today. The award for most environmentally friendly today definitely goes to Heidi Lee, who actually rode her bike to work - an amazing eight mile ride - way to go!!
Other highlights of our eco-friendly ways include Chantal and Ashley carpooling today and Carey bringing recyclables from home as well as filling her gas tank in the evening, which is better than during the day. Mendy also made sure to turn the water off when brushing her teeth, Margie opted not to use her hair dryer this morning and Lindsey packed a 100% waste-free lunch. These are all small things, but every little bit makes a difference. If you need some inspiration, here are some ways you can do your part: 100 Ways to Save the Environment
To really get the party started and enjoy the gift of nature, we all had a picnic lunch out on the lawn in front of our office building. Yes, we may have looked like fools to the bankers inside, but enjoying the sunshine and hugging a few trees just felt like the right thing to do.
Earth Day is a Happy Day, and rather than scare everyone with the extreme ugliness that could be our future if global warming continues at its current rate, I'll just provide you with this site from National Geographic if you want to check it out: Global Warming Fast Facts
We're doing our part to be as green as possible around the office. What types of things do you do to help out? Whatever your method, keep up the good work, and here's to many more Earth Days to come!
As a PR firm that strictly focuses on media relations, we live and die with editorial coverage. While what we do certainly isn't rocket science, we do work extremely hard to hit the right press with the right message to result in a positive review or mention of our clients.
We are also very diligent with providing the correct information to journalists - including images, fact sheets, quotes, tech specs, etc. We love when coverage finally runs and we can pass it on to our client, often after months of anticipation. In the past three months, however, I have been holding my breath more and more often as I page through a magazine looking for our coverage. Why? MISTAKES!
We've been doing this long enough to know that editorial coverage is only controlled to a certain point and that we can never guarantee or predict how something will appear in print. All we can do is answer all questions beforehand and supply factual, detailed information. What disappoints me is that I am increasingly looking at coverage and seeing bad factual errors and rushed oversights. Wrong product shots, incorrect Web addresses and even wrong company name. Printing the wrong company name simply isn't acceptable - especially when the coverage is about the company itself, not even the product!
Again, we know we can't control the tone or outcome of editorial, but we really hope we can rely on our journalists to get the major elements of a story right. Ultimately, our clients blame us for the mistakes, though we have no idea why the photo department went to the company Web site and pulled a random product image vs. using the image that we sent to them. Or how on earth they found the Australian distributor of the product and printed that Web site instead of the Web site listed in all media materials.
Journalists - we love you. We need you. We rely on you. Please "help me help you" and use the info we provide. We won't let you down!
Our friends over at BLAST Outdoors really take their work seriously. They're always looking for ways to experience the outdoors industry first-hand. Check out Katie's adventures in fishing!
Tomorrow's the first deadline for students to apply to shadow us for a day at BLAST's Indianapolis office. We've had an overwhelming response from students interested in summer internships, and while we can't offer every applicant the opportunity to be an intern, we're really excited to have students learn about media relations for a day! If you're interested, email your resume to me and tell us why we should select you to participate in our shadow day. If you've done any cool class projects, be sure to tell us about them!
If you're like me, you love competition. From sports, to work, to random spur-of-the-moment eating contests, I can't get enough of competing against others. That's why it's awesome to work in an office that can make a competition out of about anything - pizza eating contests, "coverage of the week" contests - you name it, we've probably had a contest for it. I think it's safe to say that competitiveness runs through the entire BLAST team.
We recently began two big competitions in our office that has everyone excited. The first is an American Idol contest in which we each drew out of a hat, a male and female contestant, and the person with the last man or woman standing wins a special prize (cross your fingers - we're shooting for a day off from work!).
The second competition was the NCAA men's basketball tournament, which finished up last night. We each filled out an online bracket on Yahoo! Sports and watched as our points tallied up - or in the case of some (Carey, in the above picture), watched as their picks lost one-by-one. For those that missed the unbelievably exciting championship game, check out this shot that sent the game into overtime, and singlehandedly won me $100, as the office winner! Our fearless leader, Kelly, came in a close second. Carey on the other hand, was able to able to come away with her original $10 for finishing dead last with her bracket.
Competition may not be your thing, but here at BLAST, it's part of the culture. We compete with hundreds of other PR people every day for coverage, so it's par for the course. Don't get me wrong, we work together as a team in everything we do - but watch out when a contest arises! American race car driver and two-time Indianapolis 500 winner, Al Unser, Jr., might have said it best when he said, "Besides winning, [the most fun thing is] getting out there and mixing it up with friends; it's the competition." What competitions have you been in lately?
Per usual, it was an exciting week at BLASTmedia, but last week came with a little something extra. The news broke recently that Blast's own Chantal and Ashley have been selected as members of the Indiana Generals Dance Team!
You read it here first, Chantal and Ashley will be pumping up the crowd at the semi-pro football team's weekly games - spirit fingers, high-kicks, pom-poms and all. Check back once the season starts in July and we'll keep you updated on their experience as members of the inaugural team.
We always knew Blast was cool, smart and tech savvy, and now we can add "rhythmic, spirited and peppy" to our skill set! GOOOOOO TEAM!
I had the distinct pleasure and honor of attending Ball State's National Journalism awards last week. For the past 50 years, Ball State has awarded individuals in the Journalism field with National Journalism Awards. Each year they award the Eugene S. Pulliam National Writing Award for a journalist who has excelled in his or her field. Notable past winners include: Ted White, Hoag Lewis, James Neal, The New York Times and the Associated Press to name a few. -It's a big deal! There were close to 200 people in attendance for this year's award ceremony.
This year was a special year for us at BLASTmedia, as our very own Heidi Monroe Kroft was being recognized as an Outstanding Journalism Alumnus. Each year, Ball State awards two individuals who exemplify the ideals of the Ball State Journalism School and have excelled in their field. It was a great honor for me to be in attendance with Heidi's parents and husband to witness Heidi being recognized for this great honor.
Prior to Heidi's award, Jason Whitlock, of Fox Sports was awarded the Outstanding Journalism Award.
Since graduating from Ball State, Heidi has demonstrated a great dedication to the field of Public Relations. She has excelled at her profession and, more importantly, has mentored and taught many new entrants to the field of PR. Heidi leads by example and has never shied away from a challenge. She is a pleasure to work with and her work ethic is second to none.
Heidi, all of us at BLASTmedia say congratulations and we are all proud of you!!!!
The San Fran office isn't the only place with firefighter action! There was some excitement at the Indianapolis office building last Friday afternoon that prompted a response from Naptown's finest. Unfortunately, we didn't get to go on a joy ride like the girls in San Fran, but Mendy, Carey and I took the opportunity for a fake photo opp. with the fire truck from our conference room. P.S. Lindsey - We're pretty sure one of the firefighters was named Peter Haaaaat!
We love to have fun on any day at BLASTmedia, which makes a day like April Fool's one of our favorite holidays. The festivities began the day before as we plotted our trickery against Kelly, who has been difficult to trick ever since he was duped by an extreme hoax a few years back. For our own protection, I won't go into too much detail, but I can tell you that a false Gmail account and a fake lawyer were involved. In the end, the pranksters were the ones who (almost) got pranked and we waved our white flag (or white board, see above) in surrender.
Today's events made me think about how April's Fools Day came to be. Did a medieval ruler ever put soap in the moat? Maybe Jesus had a whoopee cushion at the Last Supper? Upon further inspection, I came to find that it actually began around 1582 in France with the reform of the calendar under Charles IX. New Year's Day was moved from an eight-day celebration between March 25 and April 1, to January 1. The news didn't travel fast, so some were left in the dark and others refused to change. Those that continued to celebrate on April 1 were label as fools and were subject to ridicule. You can read more about it here
Though not quite the exciting tale I had imagined, I'm still a fan of "All Fool's Day" and can remember falling for my mom's, "Look! There's a giraffe outside your window" trick every year growing up. It seems the media also likes getting involved - check out Google's latest offer on its homepage, inviting visitors to "enjoy a rosier future as a Virgle Pioneer" The site claims that Google co-founders have partnered with Virgin mogul, Richard Branson to create the first permanent human colony on Mars. They even go as far as to have an online application to be a pioneer.
Here are some other places where you can check out some of the top pranks, hoaxes and jokes of all times. Maybe you'll even get a few ideas for next year, only 364 days left to plan!
