The Flipside by Alternative Strategies

Check it out! Alternative Strategies

Lauren Kennedy, Media Relations Manager


Daniel Lara, Marketing Coordinator

Top Wine Bars in San Diego!

It's such a reward for us to see our clients do well and being recognized by their community.

So we are proud to present to you the mos two of the top rated wine bars in San Diego. Check out this article from The Feast!

 

Wet Stone Winebar was awarded the most underrated wine bar in San Diego!

  Developped by Christian Gomez, Wet Stone Winebar's mission is to offer smoething unique and different though their menu, ambiance, music, and service. It's an unpretentious wine bar for the adventurous foodies and oenophiles.

Wet Stone Wine bar provides an off-the-beaten path, small production, boutique wine list that is a mix of stateside and global producers personally selected by Christian.

 The photo on the left is Agauas frescas, a drink inspired by Christian's childhood. It's a blissful combination of fresh fruit, citrus, water and a light sugar that creates a refreshing elixir that is sure to satisfy your thrist.

 

Congratulations to The Wine Pub for being recognized the least snobby wine bar in San Diego. 

This cozy and comfortable place is perfect for an entire evening out. It’s customer service and commitment to their guests makes The Wine Pub a place where one can drink, taste and experience flavors and characteristics from all over the world while feeling comfortable and appreciated.  

Their Bruchetta is their star apetizer. It's just makes you salivate just by looking at it. 

And if you have a boat in the bay. Guess what? You can call in and they'll deliver you your bottle of wine compliments of the house. 

It's not because they are our clients, but we highly recommend them. Just ask The Feast.

Case Study with the Chula Vista Police Association

I am sure you have all heard the troubles that the civil servants have had to face in the past year. The current situation in Wisonsin is a national inflated version of what has happened. 

Incidentally, this crisis has not only hit teachers, but has hit dearly the people who protect us: Firefighters, and police officers everywhere.

Fortunately, The Chula Vista Police Association (CVPOA) hired Alternative Strategies to tackle the situation and try to save the city from the mistake of laying off 33 police officers.

We are very proud of the work accomplished with them. We were able to communicate the CVPOA's story effectively to the media and reduce the layoffs from 33 down to 11 and to allow other officers to retire early with very advantageous conditions.

Retained to Represent all of the The Verant Group restaurants

We are pleased to announce that our current relationship with the Verant Group is growing stronger. The Verant Group has secured our services to handle media relations and marketing communications for the San Diego based group of restaurant. The Verant Group has six establishments throughout San Diego County. 

Here at Alternative Strategies, we will be responsible for making efforts to secure media exposure for all of the Verant Group establishments by means of television, radio, print publication and online exposure. The agency will also be responsible for handling all of the Verant Group’s social media and additional marketing initiatives.

It all started in July 2010 when we retained West Coast Tavern. Our good work and our happy clients spread the word to the True North Tavern who took us on board in November of the same year. The agency will continue to manage their PR efforts moving forward in addition to assisting the remainder of The Verant Group restaurants in San Diego including The Tavern at the Beach, Sandbar Sports Grill, Offshore Tavern and Grill and Brewley’s Pint.

 

    

  

Does your Facebook page look like this?

Do you even have a Facebook fan page? Do you think your business needs one? In my humble opinion, YES! Absolutely, you should have one. Facebook is not only for teens. The fastest growing population segment on Facebook are people in their 50s. And if people like your brand, why shouldn't they be able to "like" it. It puts your name out there and it provides your customers a platform to have the closest thing possible to a relationship with you and you with them.

So, why not have a Facebook fan page that's appealing and engaging? Here are 10 great examples of Facebook fan pages. The only remaining important thing for you to decide is what of this content is appropriate for your audience.

Good luck and call us if you need help with that.

Celebrating our New Client: West Coast Tavern!

Your Resume Is Your First PR Campaign

By Alex Pridgen

So let me get this straight, I can have a better chance at getting hired for a job if I make a statement such as one particular candidate who claimed to be “Pig Wrestling Champion?”

 When Sara Sutton Fell, CEO of FlexJobs.com, was hiring for a entry level position, this particular candidate obviously stood out from the rest because of her pig wrestling background.

However, the pig wrestler stood out for the wrong reasons.

Fact is, people do want to stand out and be different from the rest in order to get hired. But never forget to highlight the qualities that will benefit the job description.

Consider your resume to be your first, most important, PR campaign.

Job seekers just want to make a statement and stand out from their competition; unfortunately they are often memorable for all the wrong reasons.

 I am just outraged at some of the things people include in their resumes thinking that they genuinely will stand out because of some stupid one-liner.

Some “don’ts” not to do when writing a resume:

A. Don’t apply for a corporate position as a part time model highlighting on the resume some pictures of yourself in various poses, like the gal who included lots of bikini shots. She probably got a lot of offers, just not for jobs.

B. Don’t list your abilities at Playstation 3 or XBOX under “special skills.”

C. Please don’t provide an email address that was made when you were in the 7th grade such as hotsexygirl@yahoo.com or pinkpoodlegirl@gmail.com. (It is time to change that). These are fictional examples (hopefully), but you get the point, right?

D. And please don’t tell people that your personal accomplishments include “getting back together with my boyfriend upon release from prison.”

E. Last but not least, please please refrain from actually acting out the scene from “Step Brothers” in which both brothers had a joint interview for a janitor position wearing tuxedos. You will not stand out by doing this.

Tiger Woods’ Horrific PR

By Cassandra Validum

Oh my gosh. How ridiculous is this whole Tiger Woods mess? I understand that getting caught in as a cheater is the worst thing that could happen to a picture perfect golfer, but he could not have dealt with this in a worst way. Whoever is doing his PR should really think about switching careers.

If Tiger was thinking that he could wait it out and have this whole mess blow over, that was his first mistake. In a crisis, it is typically known that you need to make a statement at least within 24 hours. He should’ve come clean right away and admitted everything. Maybe by now the world would have already forgiven him.

At this point in time, however, forgiveness is a very far reach. All that time he wasted staying silent just made it easier for the world to hate him.

Didn’t it seem like every week a new mistress would come out of nowhere? With a new reason to become a Tiger-hater stemming every week, there is no time for forgiveness.

All his silence did was leave plenty of time for the media to come up with a million different Tiger bashing stories. It just got worse and worse for him.

The speech that he finally made – which was a ridiculous press conference that didn’t even allow any questions – was the most anti-climactic speech I’ve ever heard. It was obvious that he had rehearsed that thing a million times over, and on top of that, it sucked. We all know how “sorry” you are Tiger, you’ve said it so many times. We don’t believe you. Give us something else.

Maybe if he just was straight and said, “Hey, I’m a man. I’m weak and I can’t control myself around beautiful women,” perhaps 50 percent of the population (the guys!) would have supported him and maybe a few women as well.

Next time Tiger, take a lesson from Kobe Bryant. When Kobe’s cheating scandal came out back in 2003, he made his apologetic speech to his wife right away (which is critical) and admitted to his infidelities.

He immediately got back to playing some great basketball, and everyone directed their attention to someone else.

It’s too late for Tiger, who now has only one opportunity to get this behind him: Focus on his golfing. But he better win every golf tournament for the next decade if he wants this to be forgotten

Meanwhile, Jesse James seems to have learned from Tiger – sort of. Hours after Michelle “Bombshell” McGee revealed that her alleged intimate affair with Mr. Sandra Bullock, he released a vague apology on Twitter.

Hey, it’s better than nothing.

My Pledge To My Clients

By David Moye

I take my job as a PR pro very seriously. It is my job to get massive amounts of media for my clients.

I consider this to be my sacred duty and, in fact, the reason why I am here (not "here" on this planet, but here at this desk typing out a blog even though it is a beautiful sunny day outside).

When you hire me as your publicist, I take a sacred oath to serve you to the best of my ability.

To that end, here is what I promise to do for you, my beloved client.

1. I promise to have or develop cordial relationships with members of the media who you are interested in having promote your product or service.

I will do this in any way possible (preferably methods that involve food, alcohol or lively conversation). In fact, the reason I got that great placement for you last week was because I did a palm reading to a TV producer and predicted a new relationship was going to come into her life. I didn't tell her that relationship was with you. She can find that out on her own.

2. I promise to defend your honor in the case of inaccuracies or unfair accusations. I might even scream and yell at a journalist over the phone (especially if you are in the room).

3. I will make sure that the media is prepared before they talk with you and make sure you are prepared as well.

4. I will support your goals, but that doesn't mean unwavering allegiance. If I think your concept is lame or asinine or counter-productive to your goals, I will gently suggest you in towards a better path.

5. I will spend every waking billable hour striving on your behalf and ensuring the best possible PR for you.

6. I will be happy to hear from you when you call. Even if your last call was five minutes ago.

Choosing The Right PR Agency

By William Lopez

If there is one industry that has become overly saturated these days it is the field of Public Relations. It seems that PR Firms are cropping up faster than weeds, and the process of sorting through the slush to choose a public relations company of quality can be a daunting and overwhelming process, to say the least.

This article offers you 5 helpful tips that can hopefully make the journey of choosing a PR Firm or a publicist a little bit easier and more streamlined, so that you can get the most bang for your public relations buck, and actually see a return on your investment.

Five Tips For Choosing The Right PR Firm For You

1. Size - Are you seeking a large corporate PR Firm, a mid-size firm or a small or boutique firm?

The question I pose is not a black and white one. The answer to this question must be determined by several things. Your budget, how much hand holding and personal attention you require, how far you want your public relations outreach to be, and your desire for a team working on your account or for just one or two ambitious publicists working on your account.

Large corporate public relations firms generally charge between $10,000 and $20,000 per month for their basic retainer services, so budget is a huge factor here. To a company like Microsoft or Johnson & Johnson this is a drop in the bucket. But to a small- or medium-sized company, that type of fee is far out of reach.

The benefits of a large national and sometimes international firm is the wide reach your brand can achieve, a large team working on your account, a large pool of other clients who are with that firm from that your company can possibly network with and benefit from.
These large firms generally have a ton of experience on their side. Many of these large PR Firms are 20, 30 or 50-plus years old.

The downside of these large firms aside from the hefty monthly fee is the amount of bureaucracy and red tape involved in the day to day functions of the company, and unfortunately this can often lead to smaller clients falling through the cracks.

Another minus to working with large PR Firms is the lack of personal touch and attention, which is fine for established companies but not as good for start ups, small and medium sized companies who require more nurturing, more brand development and other complimentary services like writing and basic marketing assistance.

Smaller public relations firms tend to offer monthly retainers that can range anywhere from $7000 all the way down to about $2,000 depending on how much overhead that firm has, their level of experience and expertise, their particular public relations niche, their contacts and how much time they plan to devote to your account.

Most PR Firms out there tend to fall into the mid-size, boutique or small category and are also very effective at doing their job.

2. Ignore the Hype and Look at a Public Relations Firm's Portfolio of Work!

I cannot stress this enough. In perusing some colleagues' Web sites recently I was shocked to observe that some of these websites have flashy graphics, catchy promotional copy about their services, and glossy images but NO examples of their media placements, marketing case studies, writing samples... nada!

Where is their work? Don't fall for public relations firms that are all flash and no substance. Always, and I mean always look to see if their website is packed with examples of past projects, past examples of media placements and other examples of work created by the firm. Look over the work that is displayed on their website and when speaking with a representative from that public relations firms ask them to elaborate on their body of work. Some great questions:

What media placements are you most proud of?

How was that media placement achieved by your firm?

What is your firms biggest strength?

Can you tell me some of your contacts in the media?

Can you give me some marketing case studies?

Some public relations case studies?

What sets your firm apart?

3. Make Sure You Are A Match: Assessing Values, Vision And Creativity

The above sentence is pretty self-explanatory but I will elaborate.

This publicist or PR team will be your brand ambassador. You want someone whose values reflect your own values. You also want to be sure that your publicist understands, appreciates and shares your vision for your company or organization.

If a PR Firm wants to pitch your beauty brand as an elite, untouchable, prestige brand and you want your beauty product to speak to the every-woman, showing her how beauty can be accessible to all women, then that publicist may have a vision that is not in line with yours and things will likely go from perplexing to downright tense.

A good trick when speaking to a potential publicist is to ask him or her how they see your product, who they think your audience/demo is and how they envision positioning the product to the media and to potential consumers.

Don't expect them to go into too much detail before really delving into the product line, but they should give you a basic pitch that falls in line with your own vision. If not, move on.

4. Are you in it for Website traffic, magazine placements, TV appearances? What is it you want? Be specific!

Don't be shy about what it is you want. Why are you searching for public relations services in the first place?

Really sit down and think about it. And don't be shy about your needs. Is your main objective to build a strong targeted online following to drive quality traffic to your website and convert visitors into sales? Is your main objective someone who can write outstanding copy for your business like press releases, articles, pitch copy to send to media outlets, etc.? Is your main objective to become something of a personality and expert in your field and to build a resume as someone who makes appearances on television news programs giving advice to promote yourself as a brand and an expert?

Figure out what your goals are and choose a PR Firm that is strong in your area of interest.

5. Location, Location, Location

In the age of email, fax machines, long distance phone plans and inexpensive air travel the location of your public relations firm may not matter to you... or it might.

Do you want lots of face time with your publicist or do you not care if your publicist is in Timbuktu as long as they can get the job done, and get your company press coverage?

Everyone's comfort level with location is different and there is no right or wrong. If you are looking for entertainment public relations you may set your sights on a PR Firm that is in Los Angeles or in New York.

If you are an up-and-coming Internet company you may find value in a San Francisco based PR Firm. Fashion? New York may be the way to go for you. Or you may simply look for a public relations firm with a rolodex of contacts in a particular city or industry, regardless of their brick-and-mortar location.