George St-Pierre Partners with Kombat Mobile to Develop Mobile Application

persway — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 20:36:33 +0000

Toronto, September 14, 2010 – Mobile application developer Kombat Mobile announces today that Georges “Rush” St-Pierre a.k.a “GSP” will be launching his first mobile application on their interactive media platform. Kombat Mobile’s applications are readily compatible with the iPad, iPod, iPhone, Blackberry and Android smart phones across the global network. The GSP mobile application is scheduled to be released in Fall 2010.

The customized platform will allow fans to capture up-to-the-minute news, personal updates, exclusive videos and training instructions from GSP himself. Kombat Mobile’s real-time applications can empower end-users with proprietary information from GSP during his reality TV series, send and receive direct messages and even challenge him on Kombat Mobile’s patented Strike Challenge, to compare the velocity of a users’ punch with the reigning UFC welterweight champion.

“It is a privilege and an honor to work with Georges St. Pierre and his amazing team,” says Muzaffar Abbas, CEO of Kombat Mobile. “It’s widely known that Georges fights with intellect and drive, and it’s evident that he applies the same focus in making this application as interactive and educational for fans and mma trainees alike.”

“I am really excited to be working with Kombat Mobile,” said St-Pierre. “This is something new and fun for me and my team to be involved in the development process, and this will help me to stay in touch with my fans.”

About Kombat Mobile

Headquartered in Toronto, Kombat Mobile creates applications for the Android, Blackberry, iPhone, iPod Touch and Windows Mobile products. Kombat Mobile custom designs and builds progressive mobile applications with the intent to transform the way clients can entertain and interact with the public. With a special focus on health and fitness, Kombat Mobile caters to mixed martial arts athletes and its industry. For more information please visit www.kombatmobile.com

About Georges St. Pierre

Georges “Rush” St-Pierre www.gspfightclub.com is a Canadian professional mixed martial artist and MMA world champion who holds black belts in both Kyokushin karate and brazilian jiu jitsu. He is managed by Shari L. Spencer of The Spencer Firm and represented by CAA Sports, a division of Creative Artists Agency.

###

For more information about this topic, please contact Alda Lo at 647.234.2532 or email alda.lo@persway.ca

Per Sway to Provide Public Relations and Marketing Communication Services for Kombat Mobile

persway — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 18:32:35 +0000

A partnership to bring MMA athletes closer to home

Toronto, ON, Canada – Per Sway Inc., a Toronto-based public relations agency, today announced that it has been hired by Kombat Mobile, as agency of record. Per Sway will provide Kombat Mobile with public relations and marketing communications services.

Per Sway has primarily worked with the sport profession and tech industries since its inception. In addition, it has also worked with a wide variety of lifestyle campaigns for companies that range from fashion, health and wellness to green innovative companies and non-profit organizations. Its continued work with mixed martial arts related companies stems from Per Sway’s past success and passion for the sport.

“Per Sway’s work experience with mixed martial art athletes and mobile technology is the combination our company has been looking for,” said Muzaffar Abbas, Founder and CEO of Kombat Mobile. “I am confident that Per Sway will generate a new level of excitement in the app world and help Kombat Mobile excel in a focused direction.”

Kombat Mobile has successfully built a premium mobile application specifically focused on mixed martial arts and sports athletes. Their innovative platform is made compatible with most PDA devices to produce a pioneering platform for clients and the community to interact.

Charles Ruocco, the liaison and face of Kombat Mobile manages all talent relations and business development said, “I’m happy we are working with such a dedicated firm like Per Sway. They go above and beyond our expectations, and will be a strong leader for us in developing our company to the mainstream.”

“Kombat Mobile’s competitive advantage is its ground-breaking mobile application and strong relationships with MMA athletes and their counterparts,” said Alda Lo, president of Per Sway public relations. “We are excited to join its team as it continues to bring pioneering, interactive mobile platforms that will revolutionize the way end-users utilize their mobile device.”

About Per Sway Inc.

Headquartered in Toronto since 2007, Per Sway Inc. is a public relations company specializing in strategic planning, media relations, corporate communications and community relations. Per Sway is a hands-on team committed to strengthening their clients’ awareness, enhance reputation, and help clients build strong relationships with their public. Most of their clients range in the industry of sports, entertainment, beauty, technology and green business. For more information on Per Sway and its services please visit www.persway.ca

About Kombat Mobile

For more information about this topic, please contact Jocelyn Blandford at 416.996.6090 or email Jocelyn at jocelyn.blandford@persway.ca

The Future Of Press Releases In Social Media

persway — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:30:48 +0000

Some people speculate that with the fall of traditional media, the press release may soon follow. Sharing a press release as a blog has been scoffed, which could allude to why many have drawn such a conclusion. So how does the press release become incorporated with social media – if at all?

Relationship building and developing credibility are key strategies to social media, so the easiest solution is to develop your own network and follow the same strategy as traditional pitching. For instance, on Twitter, following a reporter, commenting on his/her tweets or articles and developing a relationship, will create a connection so that when you do post a link to your press release, you have a better chance of it being read, RT’ed or even covered. Twitter also offers @pressreleases for press release exposure – although less personal, reporters can access information when and how they prefer.

There are many online sites that host and/or distribute press releases at no cost to you including PRWeb, Press About and 1888PressRelease – and they also lend a helping hand to your search engine optimization. Creating and posting shortlinks for these are a great way to get the social media word out. There are also a number of emerging sites that maintain the importance of the press release at a minimal cost:

Fast Pitch is a social site that offers many elements of social media from networking, blogging and personalizing your profile, while optimizing accounts for search engines. Similar to LinkedIn, it also offers the added feature of posting press and distributing it.

Pitch Engine allows you to build and share social media releases. Users can incorporate embedded video, images, powerpoints and more into a hosted “microsite” or SMR, that can easily be shared via the social web using apps like Facebook, Twitter and more.

The succinct information a press release delivers cannot be replaced, however, the method of presenting it can. I’d be interested to hear of other ways information is being shared. Your comments are more than welcome.

Diane Marangoly

Letterman Extortion Gone Well

persway — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 22:03:45 +0000

Whether you conduct your own PR or rely on a publicist to manage your reputation, there is always a point where you’ll be tested on your ability to shift unnecessary attention away – and look good doing it while under hard scrutiny.

David Letterman was put to the test on Thursday’s segment when he shared with his audience that he had been a victim of an extortion attempt over relationships with his female staffers, and admitted that the charges were true. The mannerism in which he delivered the message was in the order of humor, candor, vulnerability, and then ease. He took control of the situation by initiating the topic then concluding it at his pace.

The Business Insider’s coverage of the case shows how well Letterman handled the shakedown, when the news group position Letterman’s case as a ‘get-rich-quick scheme’ gone bad. Instead of putting David Letterman’s character in question, attention was placed more on his show’s recent surge in ratings and his triumphant viewership over Conan O’Brien.

Did Letterman play it perfectly? I’d say yes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/02/business/media/02extort.html?hp

Collaboratively Leveraging And Monitoring Your Social Media

persway — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 21:52:26 +0000

Social media presence and reputation monitoring tools have gained increased importance in building customer loyalty and handling conflict resolution. From spending $0 to top dollar, there are a number of ways to measure a company’s impact in the webosphere and even address issues or take advantage of opportunities quickly and effectively. While we’re all familiar with Twitter, Facebook, Google news and blog alerts, Technorati and digg, the new wave seems to be tools that help streamline social media efforts:

Tweetdeck:

Enabling you to follow your Facebook, MySpace and Twitter accounts, you can easily update all of your accounts in one simple entry – now that’s a relief when distributing time-sensitive information! Including Twitter’s official search engine and the infamous TweetBeep, users can also monitor who’s writing about them and what they are saying. You may also want to consider Facebook’s Lexicon, where you can search any keyword and see how often it’s discussed on Facebook users’ walls.

LookingGlass:

Microsoft has also entered social media analysis with a new tool code-named LookingGlass that is currently at the proof-of-concept stage. Offering similar functions as Tweetdeck, users monitor various sites such as Flickr and MySpace and can also post responses on Twitter, Facebook or the like. From monitoring tagged images to videos; reputation monitoring is made easy – and visual data is even easier to retrieve.

LookingGlass offers analytics to determine ROI and even compare internal data to integrate communications strategies. Users can also gather sentiment data through its AI search engine that can detect positive and negative coverage.

There are, of course, a number of similar dashboard solutions including Hootsuite, Seesmic, Viral Heat and Social Smart to name a few. With all the increased competition, I am interested to see if Google will add to their services…

Diane Marangoly

Typo’s or PR Pros?

persway — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 21:36:54 +0000

Many of you have likely heard of the Best Buy $9.99 52″ tv offer listed online last Wednesday morning. Although many hoped the retailer would honor their pricing blunder, the company chose to issue refunds instead. The amount of publicity this “error” generated offered amazing ROI for Best Buy – leading one to wonder if this was a mere typo or a pretty well-executed PR campaign. I have to commend the fact that Best Buy managed to get its name splashed all over traditional and social media – whether or not comments were good or bad. You may wonder how I can disregard the bad, but because of the way Best Buy handled the mishap, it was easy to look over. Best Buy disseminated the correct information rather promptly through every possible medium. I do wonder, however, how much more publicity could have been gained if they turned it into something more. A redirection to $9.99 deals on the site or a draw amongst those who did find the great deal for a chance to actually buy the tv for $9.99 – and even tying it in to September 9/09 would have been more creative.

Oddly enough, the Crown Plaza in Quarto D’Altino near Venice also followed-suit by accidentally offering 1-cent hotel rates. Over 1,400 rooms were booked before the error was noted, however, Intercontinental Hotels Group (the hotel’s mother company) plans to honor the pricing. Recognizing the difficulty of booking vacations and co-ordinating every detail, I do believe IHG made the right decision to avoid any conflict with consumers. In this case, there is no negative coverage, and some customer loyalty may have been developed with the hotel chain because of their reaction. Again, I would suggest spinning a PR/marketing campaign from this – from holding a mystery booking hour each year for this 1-cent deal to a microsite for consumers to blog about how they spent their trip with the money they saved. Taking advantage of the coverage they are already receiving is key, and there is no better time than now to announce any future plans and create more buzz.

On a side note, I am curious to know what is happening with the employees who made these errors – if that is what really happened…

Diane Marangoly

Will Business Owners in Vancouver, B.C.’ing IKEA in Court?

persway — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 23:26:25 +0000

The Swedish furniture giant actually faltered in its most recent 400- sign national ad campaign. Using guerilla tactics, hundreds of ambiguous signs were spray-painted on sidewalks and buildings, directing viewers to a company micro-site for the chance to win a free interior home makeover. Strange, but true, the company actually launched this campaign without doing its due diligence of researching city bylaws and/or even asking for permission to paint such ads on various public and private properties. The negative publicity IKEA’s vandalism is generating is not nearly as concerning as their crisis management.

Offering a mere apology and a less than impressive clean-up job upon certain requests to remove their ads, one has to now question if their PR is also being poorly executed. Seeing small business owner Kevin Kelly share his distaste with the national news, it would be wise for IKEA to help him with his skateboard shop opening, maybe by even creating a temporary skate park from IKEA products – with city permission, of course. That may be a bit much, however, IKEA has been known for their community relations and now is a better time than ever to make a good impression. The more they can appease everyone, the better they can contain this situation, so I suggest some follow-up to ensure a satisfactory clean-up, extending IKEA products to help the businesses that may have been effected by this (if suitable), and even consider involving community artists to cover up this campaign with IKEA inspired street art – if approved by the city.

Not that they will necessarily avoid a law-suit by these actions, but demonstrating such an effort may ease the blow.

Diane Marangoly

If Katherine Heigl Represents Poor PR – Santa Clause Doesn’t Exist

persway — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 04:47:35 +0000

America’s supposed sweet heart has grown quite tart in my books, and watching her falter has been more painful than learning Santa Clause isn’t real. I for one feel that her attempts at being noble or knowledgeable have actually made her less marketable, and portrayed her as downright foolish.
No matter what your relationships are with your company or crew, when you’re in the public eye, you need to know when, what and how to express yourself. Done incorrectly, the stellar reputation you’ve built up over the years will fall in shambles by a wrong flick of the lip. Katherine Heigl needs to learn how to think before she speaks – actually, it’s better if she doesn’t say anything at all. Heigl’s careless delivery has single handedly burnt down her bridges with producers, writers, directors and even Emmy award nominators. At what point in this downward spiral will her publicists throw themselves at her before the freight train hits? Or has it….

If there is a point that she’s trying to drill home, what she needs to understand is her audience – her television watching, movie going audience. People are far more intelligent and objective in forming an opinion than what is thrown at them. Ranting on Letterman about long working hours just so she can “embarrass” Grey’s show runners is counterproductive and done in bad taste. Passive aggression, back-handed comments will not score credibility points with the public nor gain supporters.
I can take a guess to what her publicist decides to do. If by letting Heigl say and act as she wants, she’ll continue to get coverage and paparazzi interest…however, I doubt we’ll see the words “America’s Sweetheart” appear next to her name again. Even if she successfully rebrands herself as a different persona, she will require a serious case of stakeholder relations to sustain her acting career.

Alda Lo

Eminem’s Last Tongue-In-Cheek Performance? (excuse the pun)

persway — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:11:19 +0000

This has been gnawing away at me for the past week, and as much as I hate to give more attention to Eminem, I have to address the tea-bagging stunt with Sacha Baron Cohen at the MTV awards. One has to wonder if the whole skit was planned, and WHY?

Staged or not, this was a fine example of bad publicity. Eminem’s image as a hardcore, super-masculine rapper, that he has worked so hard to attain was surely marred. Publicity stunts are only effective if they are consistent with branding, and although his music and videos are entertaining and comical at times, this encounter did not align with him – or any of his alter egos – in the least. Someone like Will Ferrell would have been better suited for this, and the buzz would’ve been all but negative.

I think Eminem stating he was in on it was a bigger no-no, and has left him to further speculation. Furthermore, if the stunt was staged, was it rehearsed? Someone should’ve advised him otherwise, but for some reason agreeing to this farce for millions to watch (and shudder at!) was a better option. I’m sure the rap scene will pounce on this, and whether a rap battle ensues, Eminem will have a lot of work to do to defend himself. I wouldn’t be surprised if this unfortunate event leverages his opposition. One has to wonder if he really weighed the pros and cons of this stunt and whether admitting his involvement in the planning of it was the right decision…

All criticism aside, I will give him kudos for the VIBE Verses contest launched prior to this, which was a great way to involve his fans, and increase CD sales. The key word, however, is prior. This demonstrated that he had a huge following, but I believe there are listeners out there now questioning how shady slim really is.

Diane Marangoly

Weighing In On United

persway — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 21:46:07 +0000

Is there a more tactful way that United could have approached their new policy for passengers requiring extra space? YES!

Positioning their new policy as a safety precaution versus insulting nearly two-thirds of the US population would have been one strategy. By stating that the airline must adhere to a certain weight capacity and/or distribute weight accordingly, as well as ensure proper and safe evacuations are possible in case of an emergency, they could have deflected a lot of the negative coverage they are receiving. Furthermore, by placing comfort (and in comfort, I don’t mean being able to fit in a single seat/put the armrest down/or use one seatbelt or extender!), but rather the safety of passengers at the forefront of their messaging, they surely would have gained more support.

I’m somewhat appalled that the marketing geniuses of United thought that insulting their passengers and then requesting more money would increase their business. United could take a nose dive for their careless and inconsiderate approach, and during an economic crisis, the timing and messaging seem more damaging than helpful. There aren’t many tactful ways to address someone’s weight, but I would be less offended if there were simply a clause stating that there is a 250lb weight limit per seat (whatever the plane can/should hold within the given space), to ensure the safety of passengers. It sure beats pointing fingers, embarrassing customers and discriminating against people during a sensitive time – on a sensitive topic!

The rest of United’s approach seemed somewhat reasonable, however, seeing that this is such an issue that a policy had to be made, maybe they should consider seats with more legroom, etc. Maybe that doesn’t quite fit in their budget, so in the meantime, why not keep aside a certain number of business class seats for these instances? They may also want to begin including healthier snacks on the plane, a fitness center in their waiting area or sponsor a walk-a-thon promoting health, etc. Seeking the betterment of their customers can show they aren’t as heartless as they seem to be now, and may help them out of the abyss that’s about to swallow them…

Diane Marangoly

United Policy Information:

http://www.united.com/page/article/0,6722,52985,00.html