He's sipping a cappuccino. How adorable.

It’s no secret — me likey pork. Whether in chop form, thicker chop form, bacon, ham, you name it — I’ll probably enjoy it. But now this whole swine flu thing is giving pigs a bad rap. Now, nevermind kooky theories that this flu may be some zombie version of the 1918 Spanish flu that nearly toppled Europe, but it’s about time for pigs to hire a PR agency or some marketing consultants to sort this whole thing out.

We, as marketers, spin things in our favor; it’s really just a matter of trying to even the playing field. Pigs have always been in a tight spot: they’re widely considered to be filthy animals, there are entire ethnic /religious groups that look past the deliciousness quotient and refuse to even eat their flesh, and now they’re being associated with something entirely sinister that could bring the civilized world — including pig-abstainers — to its knees.

Pigs — with the assistance of communicators — could do a few things in this situation:

Distance themselves from the subject – A simple press release claiming no known connection to the illness would do some good. At least the news stories would be more “Swine Decline Ties to Flu” than “People Dying of Swine Flu.”

Blame someone else – This could fall right into that press release. Lay the blame on the birds — after all, they’ve been known to cause flus, too. Or say it’s SARS 2. Blaming terrorists or the economy could also work.

Rename the illness to something hip and/or delicious - This clever little marketing trick might come alongside a full-scale re-branding effort. Here you could actually try to boost consumer demand for the disease by calling it something like “Xtreme Baconation” and going on a big press tour with the Jonas Brothers (do they eat bacon? I don’t know). The kids would eat it up. YUM.

Make an iPhone app – Why not, right?

Open a Twitter account - Why not, right?

Limit supply – You could pull a Palm and limit supply of this Xtreme Baconation, again driving demand. “Where can I get it?” people will ask, and you’ll say, “sorry, all out.” Eh? Sounds pretty sweet.

Those are really just a few of the tools at the disposal of the pigs. By combining these tactics in a comprehensive marketing plan, they may soon see us eating more pigs, wearing pig hats, lining up outside the Swine Store and more. If any Elder Swine are reading this, holla atcha boy – I need some work.

UPDATE: It seems the fine folks at the World Health Organization read this blog and have decided to rename this horrible swine flu to something less offensive to the porky population. Now dubbed H1N1 influenza A, this illness is surely not going to get the headlines it did with the bacon connection.

Surprisingly, not an acceptable qualification for video game PR work.

Before we all get too deep into the details and theories of PR and marketing, I wanted to thank Tom for setting all this up.  He’s got a nice group of PR, marketing and media people involved here – many of whom I’ve worked with before in some capacity – so I /clap for him for doing this and thank him for including me.

I’ll spare you the details of my bio in this post – you can read all about me on my company site HERE or by clicking on my name on the right side of this page… suffice to say, I’m not only brilliant, I’m also incredibly good looking.

I’d like to start off by jumping a bit deeper into an “overview” topic that sprang out of my Twitter update yesterday:

“Being successful in video game PR is about being REALLY into PR, not video games; loving games is what turns the job into a career.”

Because of the writing that I do both on my personal blog (prflak.wordpress.com) and on the official Maverick PR site (mavpr.com) [beware of that shameless plug], I get a pretty solid stream of email from aspiring video game PR professionals from around the world who are interested in learning more about how the industry works and what you need to do to be successful.  It’s a real pleasure to share my advice and thoughts with them and I was really thinking of them when I made that Twitter update as a reminder as they move forward.

Given the list of contributors on this site, I’m pretty sure we have experienced very similar reactions from strangers when we inevitably tell them what we do for work.  Let me demonstrate with a short scene:

ME: Me?  Oh, I do PR for video games.

THEM: PR?

ME: Ya, you know… Public Relations.  Essentially… I… promote video games.

THEM: Oh, awesome!  So you get to play all the games before they come out and, like, make the game?

ME: No, no.  I work to get press to write things about the games. Hopefully nice things.  I call and email people. I visit offices and events and show off games before they come out.  Then, press write about the game.

THEM: Oh… that’s cool… Huh… it must be awesome to get paid to play games all day long!

Yikes, I guess it's too soon to make Vick dog jokes?

This happens on an almost weekly basis.  People have about as much understanding of “PR for Video Games” as Michael Vick has an understanding of “Human Decency.”  Oh snap! I went there!

Part of me wants to think that it’s willing misunderstanding; that people hear “games” and just want to think “fun.”  And our work, for the most part, is fun, but if someone told me they did PR for the Celtics, I wouldn’t say “Wow! It must be awesome to shoot around with Paul and KG before every game!!”

Most of the people who email me for advice are legitimate PR/marketing students who just want to work with products that interest them.   And that’s an important goal for any career – work with something that interests you.  But I do occasionally get emails from people just looking to “get into video games” because they love Halo or they’re a really active forum leader or they have a Guild and they’re thinking “Wait a minute, I can talk about games… maybe I can just get into PR and play games all day and eventually become a designer!”

To these people, my Twitter update was a wake up call — video games is a business like any other.

You need to work hard, produce results and excel at your craft.

You need to execute against a plan and fulfill measurable objectives.

You need to work within a budget and utilize creativity in ways that provide a tangible return on your investment of time and resources.

You need to strategically plan information reveals, exclusives, previews, reviews, features and more with multiple press segments and niche vertical publications over the course of 8-18 months and then fulfill that plan while updating it nearly weekly along the way.

Oh, and by the way… the game needs to perform strongly on Trax and Metrics AND reach sell-through targets set by sales and executives.

That’s about as far from sitting in a room playing video games all day as you can get.  One of the first things out my mouth to kids who ask about how to get into the industry is: Go to college.  Get good grades.  Be the best student in your class.  Take an internship in consumer products.  Then think about getting into the VG industry by entering your chosen field.

But don’t get me wrong — as I’ve said before, in this industry, playing video games – both the one you’re working on and competitive titles – is critical to becoming a true success.  Here’s what I said in a previous blog post on MavPR.com:

I know, there are PR people out there who say “I’m a PR person first, not a developer.  Show me a product and I can promote it; I don’t need to be able to actually play it.”  To that, I politely say BULLSHIT.

If you aren’t playing the game as well as competitive titles, you are not going to be a great video game PR person.  I wouldn’t hire you… in fact, I would fire you.  You’re doing just enough to complete the job rather than trying to excel.

My general rule of thumb is… if I’m on a PR trip and my producer becomes ill, am I confident that I can demo the game myself and be effective? Can I execute the key moves, finish the entire level without dying (without cheats), and talk at length about game details and competitive advantages? If the answer is yes, you’re on top of things, if you aren’t sure – you aren’t playing enough.

The bottom line is this:  if you don’t play your own game then you’re more full of shit than PR people are generally accused of.  And yes – I’m looking at YOU… oh, you know it, don’t you?

So remember – be a MARKETER or PUBLIC RELATIONS PROFESSIONAL first.  Be prepared to constantly learn from others, tweak the way you plan and execute, and refine your abilities.

The fact that you are working on video games should not be the end goal, it should be the supportive inspiration that helps to drive you to become the best PR or Marketing person you can be.

If anyone has any thoughts or stories of applicants, share ‘em here.  I know there are funny ones out there.

- PR_Flak