Editor’s note: This is John Reinan’s weekly marketing column for MinnPost.com. To see the original, go to http://bit.ly/aXHLDs. The opening of Target Field is undoubtedly one of the most successful product launches in recent memory. And make no mistake, it truly is a product — a $545 million product that will generate untold millions in [...]

The Federal Trade Commission raised quite a stink a few months ago when it released its new guides governing endorsements and testimonials, which the commission itself said would “affect testimonial advertisements, bloggers [and] celebrity endorsements.” I’m co-presenting at the next Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association event, a discussion about ethics around social media marketing. As you [...]

All too rare, an exceptionally well-written news release is something this writer truly appreciates. It’s not just enough for an inspired PR pro to have an idea that’ll take the piece he needs to write from “poo” to “powerful.” He needs to work that piece through his colleagues’ and supervisors’ revisions and contributions — not [...]

While watching MSNBC in the office yesterday (right in the midst of NBC Universal’s “Green Week“), I caught a segment discussing the amount of carbon emissions and wasted energy caused by — wait for it — spam e-mail. (Unfortunately, as of this writing, the clip isn’t up on MSNBC.com, but the study received plenty of [...]

When looking for good business news in this economy, the housing market is probably not the first place you’d turn.  But we’ve had great success in the last week telling the story of longtime client Marvin Windows and Doors – the family owned and operated company headquartered  just a few miles from the Canadian border.  Thanks to [...]

I caught the opening segment of “60 Minutes” on Sunday night, which introduced the dreaded Conficker computer virus to millions of viewers in a story that instilled more fear than a typical winter weather advisory from meteorologists here in the Twin Cities.  The piece begins: “The Internet is infected. Malicious computer hackers have been creating more [...]

Awards season is in full swing.  The glamour.  The dresses.  The paparazzi.  Yup, next week hundreds will gather in New York to find out who this year’s winners of the PR Week Awards are. Over the past decade or so, the PR Week Awards have taken their place alongside the Silver Anvils as the most [...]

I stumbled across a made-for-media event today that turned out to be a fascinating exercise in spokesmanship. Randall Terry is the founder and director of Operation Rescue, one of the nation’s most visible pro-life groups. I had parked my car on Summit Avenue and was walking down to the Xcel Center when I saw a [...]

An upcoming book written by Matthew Bishop and Michael Green coins the term for the latest wave of do-gooders: philanthrocapitalists. Bishop and Green recognized that donors such as Bill Gates and Bill Clinton are redefining philanthropy, formerly a one-step action of charitable giving, into a business-style model of accountability and results. Appropriately timed for the September book [...]

When Rupert Murdoch bought the Wall Street Journal, everyone was sure it would change — they just didn’t know how. Now some of the early results are in. And so far, at least, it’s pretty apparent that under Murdoch, the WSJ is being pushed to be snappier, newsier, less business-oriented and less analytic. You can [...]