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It is with sadness leavened by excitement that I tell you that Tony Allegretti is leaving Keymer to take up a position at the Jax Chamber.

It’s sad, because we will miss seeing and working with him everyday. It’s exciting because he is taking his drive, creativity, and abundant talent to a place where he can work in the interests of all businesses in Jacksonville.

His new position entails responsibility for downtown events and is part of the ongoing effort to revitalize and grow our increasingly impressive downtown community. Anyone who knows Tony can see how this is a perfect position for him – he is known as “Mister Downtown” and has run a downtown blog, theurbancore.com, since 2005. He is also one of the driving forces behind Downtown Artwalk which has done more, perhaps, for Downtown than any other single initiative.

Jacksonville is lucky to have Tony and we look forward to more great things from him.

I know our clients, in Jacksonville, across the USA, and in Europe, will miss him. As for our team, we have fond memories. Most of all, perhaps, I’ll miss the constant amusing and creative banter between us that came to define our office environment, but there were highlights too: Long Sunday afternoons working on…. ahem…. highly creative new businesses ideas; a last minute trip to an authentic replica Swiss Village in Utah to give a presentation on Effects-Based Communications Planning; and Tony’s insistence that there was very little in life that could not be addressed with a roll of duct tape and some carefully conceived Facebook ads……

Cheers, Tony – we wish you the very best of British luck and hope the experience that we were able to give you will play a part in your future success.

Simon Keymer

After six years in the Lamppost Building we are moving just up the road to what will be, eventually, a custom restored office:

Keymer, Inc.
3019 Saint Johns Avenue
Jacksonville
FLORIDA 32205
USA

T: 904 434 3186
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The latest from our friend and colleague Frank Salinger in DC. Follow Frank on Twitter @annapolislawyer

March 2012
THOUGHTS ON BUSINESS AND GOVERNMENT

And so it begins…and my pick for VP

The end of Rick Santorum’s quixotic campaign (his withdrawal was the most gracious speech he made to date) begins the next chapter in the election. Governor Romney can now begin the necessary drift to the center to appeal to suburban independents who’ve lost hope and haven’t particularly enjoyed the change promised back in 2008.

Etch A Sketch jokes aside, all presidential campaigns click a metaphorical reset button and begin to tailor their appeal to voters who are neither community organizers nor tea partiers―although it’s hard to sea how President Obama recasts himself as a friend of the same middle class whose pockets he’s been trying to pick for three years.
Like lobbying (and, arguably, much of life), campaigns are about communication. This week’s flap involved Democratic operative Hilary Rosen’s attack on Ann Romney who stayed at home to raise five sons as “never worked a day in her life.”

Beyond the pointlessness of attacking Mrs. Romney, who appears to have charmed audiences during the primaries, it’s hard for me to see what’s ever gained by attacking a mother of five.
Ms. Rosen went on to make things worse by claiming that Mrs. Romney couldn’t appreciate personal ―evidently Mrs. Romney’s struggles with breast cancer and multiple sclerosis are no big deal since the
Romney’s are wealthy. One could only imagine the media outcry had the GOP taken on Elizabeth Edwards. Forgetting the first rule of any self-inflicted crisis: “When you’re in a hole, stop digging,” Ms. Rosen followed up with “spare me the faux outrage.” The latter a statement of non-contrition worthy of Rush Limbaugh.

Not surprisingly, the grown-ups in the Obama campaign quickly distanced themselves from Ms. Rosen’s remarks.

From the communications and lobbying perspective, I see two takeaways. First, get your message straight. Do you really want to trash motherhood? Do you really want to go after a popular person who seems genuinely nice?

Next, assuming the upper reaches of the Democratic campaign really wanted to do this, who should deliver the message? I could see an ad with some single mother in a single-wide trailer in Appalachia claiming the dressage-riding wife of a millionaire doesn’t understand her daily struggles. Don’t know what that gets them, but at least it could appear somewhat believable. But to have an expensive lobbyist and PR flack like Hilary Rosen bear that message is simply absurd.

Ms. Rosen is best known as the former chief lobbyist and CEO for the Recording Industry of America and led the fight against file sharing services like Napster. Her biggest accomplishment was teeing up the enhanced copyright law that allows multi-billion dollar studios to sue families and obtain huge cash settlements from parents whose children violated the Orwellian Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
I have no quarrel with lobbyists, after all that’s what I do. I’m glad Ms. Rosen represented BP after the oil spill and and fights against stronger nutrition laws. I do question is whether this makes her the ideal spokesperson for downtrodden working women.

At the end of the day, the essence of messaging, whether in direct lobbying or via public affairs program, is simple: First, understand the substance of the issue. Next, distill your position to a clear, truthful message. Finally, advocate for your position in the offices, committee rooms, halls and, yes, even the lobbies, of Congress and the agencies or in the media (both old and new).

But even the best crafted message becomes garbled with the wrong messenger. This week the Democrats had both the wrong message and messenger.

In the world of political campaigning, the ultimate messenger is often the vice presidential candidate. They get to say more outrageous things and can keep their party’s base happy. The vice presidency is one of those things, like Velveeta or Pop Tarts that everyone claims not to like or want but no one turns down.

I believe this will be a close election and history teaches us that the road to the White House for a Republican nominee cuts straight through Ohio. No surprise seven Republican presidents were from there (as was one Whig). That’s why I believe, while Marco Rubio has more glamor, the GOP will nominate Ohio Senator Rob Portman. It may be the least flashy ticket since Harding-Coolidge or Carter-Mondale but, hey, they won.
Portman is a former congressman, US Trade Representative and head of the Office of Management & Budget. While doing so gave talk radio hosts a collective hemorrhage, he supported the automobile industry bailout―a position that helps in the auto states of Ohio, Michigan and Indiana.

One thing for certain, to will be a fascinating remainder of the year. Let’s get started.

Frank Salinger

At Keymer, we are mindful of the potential glory and tragedy of a serious publicity stunt. One must consider all of the possible outcomes when it comes to a coordinated stunt. Today, a stunt must have a positive outcome to be considered successful.

One of the most outrageous stunts in American history happened on September 15th, 1896. William G. Crush, a passenger agent for the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railroad (also know as “Katy”) came up with a humdinger of a promotion to set the Katy apart in a competitive passenger rail market. Mr. Crush’s idea was to make a spectacle of two recently obsolete locomotives facing one another, hurtle themselves toward each other with a crash in Crush, TX, a fictional town of the railroad’s making. That day, as many as 40,000 people arrived via Katy trains, to see what would happen when locomotives roaring at a combined speed of 120 miles per hour collided. Right up until impact the stunt seemed a huge success. Because of some great stunt attributes like free admission, no train tickets over $5 and zero tolerance on lunch gauging, the air was abuzz with excitement. The overnight town of Crush, TX was also named the second biggest city in Texas that day. Reports came in from the Dallas Morning News. “The smoke was pouring from their funnels in a great black streak and the popping of the steam could be distinctly heard for the distance of a mile. The rumble of the two trains, faint and far off at first, but growing nearer and more distinct with each fleeting second, was like the gathering force of a cyclone. Nearer and nearer they came, the whistles of each blowing repeatedly and the torpedoes which had been placed on the track exploding in almost a continuous round like the rattle of musketry.”

And then the stunt created the unthinkable, at 5 pm, in front of the huge crowd, at almost exactly the spot expected, upon a glorious impact one or both of the boilers on the locomotives exploded, sending debris in every direction, and killing at least two women and a child.

Mr. William Crush was summarily fired for his idea, but according to most accounts was rehired nearly immediately as publicity of the crash and revenue from the stunt had been a boon for the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railroad.

Here is a dedication to the Crash at Crush held last year in west Texas.

The latest from our friend and colleague Frank Salinger in DC. Follow Frank on Twitter @annapolislawyer

February 2012
THOUGHTS ON BUSINESS AND GOVERNMENT

Congress, the Establishment & the Election

The GOP Presidential election race has been a hoot. I’ve been amazed at the challenges to the “establishment” from candidates who are embedded in the Washington establishment—to the extent there is such a thing. Newt Gingrich was the Speaker of the House and third in line to the Presidency. Rick Santorum served in Congress for 16 years and chaired the Republican conference. After leaving office, they didn’t scamper back to Georgia and Pennsylvania. Even Ron Paul, who at least lives in Texas, is hardly an outsider. He was first elected to the House in 1976. I can’t blame them from posing as outsiders. Recent polling data show the Congressional job approval rating is as low as 9% To put this in perspective, that’s two seven point below the approval rating for BP after the Gulf spill. Even the beleaguered banking industry has an approval rating of 23%.

It’s hard to defend Congress, but I do dispute the story line that we have a “do-nothing Congress”—the Obama campaign’s main message point as the President is channeling his inner Harry Truman. Instead, I believe we have a do-nothing Administration that offers little in the way of a domestic agenda. That’s because most of their accomplishments, such as they are, have already been enacted. Not the failed stimulus bill (when is the last time you heard that mentioned?), but the health care and Wall Street “reform” bills that are the centerpiece of the Administration’s reelection campaign.

In the financial services arena, where I practice, this is abundantly clear. Let me contrast the actions in the GOP run House Financial Services Committee with those of the Democrat’s Senate Banking Committee. The House Committee has held numerous hearings and reported a number of bills some of which, I admit, have zero chance of ever being enshrined in the United States Code. Many, however, address real issues and, in a less partisan world, would easily been enacted. Importantly, the committee has held extensive oversight hearings over federal agencies and the early effects of the ill-conceived Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (which the Economist magazine aptly described as a “wet blanket on the American economy”). In contrast, the Senate Committee has held a few desultory hearings and offered up virtually nothing. Why is that the case? It’s not that the Senate Committee lacks leadership. Chairman Tim Johnson (D-SD) is a competent pro-business senator who represents a state with substantial credit card related employment. Neither is it an ideological issue. Rather it’s emblematic of how one house of congress, when controlled by the party in the White House, is loath to conduct real oversight and cannot correct or undo legislation when it is one of the Administration’s top accomplishments.

Let me give you an example.

The Dodd-Frank Act contains an ugly critter known as the “Volcker Rule.” Named after the legendary former Fed Chairman, this was supposed to limit proprietary trading by banks (in the simplest guise it was to stop speculation using insured deposits). In reality, it resulted in proposed federal rules of startling complexity that will impact every business liking for capital—the agencies’ request for comments was nearly 300 pages and posed 1300 questions. In fact, it’s so out of control that Paul Volcker has doubts about his own idea.

Easy to fix? No. It can’t be tinkered with because the Administration will not countenance any changes in the bill. (The Dodd-Frank Act also reinforces my theory that bills named after their sponsors generally are bad ideas —How’s that Sarbanes-Oxley Act working out for your CFO?) In this instance, while Senator Dodd retired to lobby for Hollywood, former House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA) is still on the committee as the senior Democrat until he leaves office at the end of this year. Frank has resisted any changes, both to protect the Administration and to preserve what he views as his legacy. It’s The Godfather I school of politics: Remember, Fredo couldn’t be whacked while Momma was alive.

One of the enduring myths in Washington is that most legislation springs from the minds of members of congress and their staffs. The reality is that much, and generally the most important, legislation comes from the Administration and the agencies and we are simply aren’t seeing that. The Treasury Department has offered up nothing. Fed Chairman Bernanke is busy printing money like an all night Kinkos. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (which regulates national banks) has an acting Comptroller. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has an acting Chairman. The new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has a director whose recess appointment is, at best, constitutionally dubious. All in all, not a group to launch, even necessary, new initiatives.

If there was any doubt that the White House thinks the Dodd-Frank bill is a major accomplishment, look at videos of the President’s appearance at the CFPB the day after he appointed the new director. It looks like a political rally, albeit on that uses nonpartisan civil servants as props.

I get periodic questions about the role “super-PACs” play in the election. It’s clear that without their supportive millionaires, neither Newt Gingrich or Rick Santorum would have made it this far. I confess, while I appreciate the free speech arguments, I’m not a fan of zillionaires funding campaigns. They’re supposed to buy NFL teams or mega-yachts. I particularly don’t like the benign names they hide behind. For example “Restore our Future” supports Romney while “Winning our Future” supports Gingrich. The “Saving Ohio’s Future” and “Saving Florida’s Future” super-PACs are liberal. Vague names abound in politics—in DC we see this in coalitions and faux-grass roots campaigns. One of my favorites was the Coalition for Affordable Reliable Energy which used to run radio spots in morning drive-time on DC radio stations. They featured children of different ethnicity extolling the virtues of electricity—as if there’s much need to do that. I confess I liked the group’s real names better. They were really the Coal Institute and the big utilities, but I suppose CARE was less redolent of cave-ins, underground fires and trapped miners. Talk about rebranding.

It’s going to be long year.

PR blogs are a dreary read, generally. They typically fall in to two camps – the zany ramblings of self-described “social media mavens” or the nest-feathering of the Omnicom, WPP giants; on the one hand hyper-tactical, on the other, barely relevant to those of us at the coal-face. There are exceptions of course, but it wasn’t until our friend, erstwhile partner, and seasoned flack John Doyle set up Flack Ops that we felt like someone was speaking truth to the industry in a way that merited attention.

Doyle has chops. He was at Ruder Finn in DC and prior to that at ‘edgy’ Rick Berman’s, Berman and Company. He’s been in the trenches, but like every good soldier, has managed to keep his weapons clean and his morals intact. Flack Ops has been syndicated by O’Dwyer’s – perhaps the public relations industries leading (and most useful) newsletter.

Give Flack Ops a try. We think you’ll like it. Feel free to suggest other PR industry blogs that you like.

One of the challenges that businesses face when looking to maximize the effectiveness of their strategic communications is an abundance of supposedly brilliant ideas, generated both internally and externally. These flashes of brilliance purport to harness this, leverage that, and focus on the other, all on a skateboard while vogueing in a silver catsuit. In reality, most are of marginal true communications value. We have come up with a methodology for a simple assessment which could save money and time (usually our time….)…… (SK).

We are pretty certain it is. But we’ve got so much going on in our lives, sometimes it is hard to pick which causes to support. And it is interesting to see where those causes might lead. For example, I was first introduced to Keymer (where I obviously now work) via a press release I received for my blog. What I’ve found helpful, is finding out what your friends and clients love, and then leveraging your skills to help their causes out.

With that in mind we’ve found a way to support the St. Johns Riverkeeper and Atypical Arts upcoming kids concert at tonight’s Art Walk. Our client Black Sheep Restaurant Group, was moving out of their downtown space to prepare the opening of their historic new construction project at 1534 Oak in 5 Points. They needed to move out their stock of fancy soda pops from their downtown location. Within minutes we had a low-fi phone-generated graphic (below) hawking the availability of delicious sodas for $1 outside of Burrito Gallery tonight. All proceeds will be dedicated to the two non-profits. We’ll even recollect the glass bottles and donate them to my mom who uses them in her reclaimed glass art.

Hope to see everyone downtown

(TA)

I recently had the pleasure to speak on behalf of the Chamber newest project called Jax Boldest. I was on the best-of-class show, First Coast Connect with Melissa Ross. You can hear the show here, click the Tuesday button, my segment starts at 23:00, its worth listening to as there are numerous call ins and anecdotes.

Jax Boldest is an interesting look at amazing things that are happening here on the first coast. What has blown me away is the rapid adoption of this contest. Typically video contests and user submitted content projects are slow to gain steam. I thought this might be true of the Chamber’s demographic (formed 1885). Lets face it, many businesses and non-profits are trying to hang in there and probably don’t have a lot of time for self promoting video initiatives. But something different is happening here. There are already dozens of submissions. This is very encouraging. As a firm who is always looking to help innovators tell their story, we have found, at times, Jacksonville can be very comfortable, maybe even reserved about exciting things happening in our area.

We love that the Chamber has dusted off its shoulders (a bit) and is aggressively looking to promote all levels of entrepreneurship and invention and is using an avante-garde approach to illustrating what is so great about who we are and where we call home.

Tonight is the Chamber’s 127th Annual meeting. I’m going as a guest of my great friends over at Content Design Group. I can’t wait to discuss this project with folks and with any luck meet Mr. Kahn!

(TA)

As I write this blog post, in another tab in my browser, I have a live feed from One Stadium Place where a press conference is about to start to announce the Jaguars new head football coach. Coach Malarkey will presumably say a few words but, like the rest of Jacksonville, my eyes will be searching for a certain mustached billionaire. Mr. Kahn, who only recently bought the Jaguars has become an instant celebrity in our fair city. He has made a few strong moves already including the hiring of Malarkey. There is something beguiling and yet comforting about Mr. Kahn’s mustache that really connects to Jacksonville. It can’t hurt that the deal to buy the team was announced in Movember. The iconic turn-of-the-century-before-last stache has spawned a flood of twitter-fueled marketing love and hipster fitted screened t-shirts. One is not sure whether to believe Shad Kahn when he says he didn’t know his mustache had super powers.

The energy around the stache, the Jags and Jacksonville itself seems palpable right now. Our business community is gaining steam on several fronts. When you combine the sale of the Jaguars to Mr. Kahn, the sale of Winn Dixie, and the announcement that Embraer will be building their jets in Jacksonville, you are looking at more than a billion and a half dollars in business and transactions in December.

So what can we do be a part of this amazing Jacksonville and Jaguar renaissance? Here is something! With a click of the link you will find the first of many opportunities to see Mr. Kahn and Coach Malarkey together with some key Jaguar players, the Roar, and thousands of your closest Jaguars friends.

But how do we know Mr. Kahn knows and loves this city?
Discounted concessions and $2 beers! Clicking the link now aren’t you?! That’s turn-of-the-century-before-last beer pricing!

Please join the Keymer crew as we welcome Shad Kahn and Mike Malarkey to Jacksonville on Tuesday the 17th at the ‘Bank, and lets keep this momentum rolling like Jones Drew on 3rd and short!