MUNCmedia_Retail_Investor_Targeting

MUNCmedia acquires new client: Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) - MUNCmedia's RetailInvestorConferences.com 2011 into 2012

NEW YORK, Nov. 7, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Aflac Incorporated (NYSE: AFL) the insurance company that helps employers offer their workers a financial safety net at no direct cost to their businesses, has been declared a World's Most Ethical Company for a fifth consecutive year, today announced that their November 3rd RetailInvestorConferences.com presentation is now available for on-demand viewing.

via www.thestreet.com

MUNCmedia acquires new Digital Public Relations / Investor Relations client; Aflac Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) 2011and services will conitnue into 2012.

Aflac Details: Client Sector: "Insurance" (a worldwide leader in individual and group) Services provided: Retail Investor Targeting, Digital PR utilizing MUNCmedia's RetailInvestorConferences.com service along with supporting traditional newswire and digital PR awareness through our over 1,000 news publication which MUNCmedia exclusively powers the breaking news financial updates for. We pride ourselves n simple engagment rules; We do all the "heavy-lifting" and "pick'n shovel" work involved to make clients like Aflac experience not only as easy at possible but effective and complately turn-key. The process involves complete digital Public relations calendar identifying what the monthly or quartly objectives are. Next media relations and retail vestor targeting, capital market and tier-2 analyst coverage education on Aflac's objectives prior to the IR/PR event to ensure maxamin exposure - speak to thousands of pre-registered, qualified and interested investors, media, and analysis all at once. Casting a wider net for Aflac's Investor Relations growth initiatives through RetailInvestorConferences.com and a well co-ordinated Public Relations and Investor education canmapign that drive attendacne. More over the process also supports their corporate Aflac insurance brand. The Nov 2011 conf thousands of investors and media analysts attended, it was their 3rd presentation following their earnings announcements 3 consecutives quarters in a row.

"RetailInvestorConferences.com provided a nice way for me to be able to reach out to individual investors in a cost efficient manner. I was able to reach a group of investors that I likely would have normally not been able to do if it were not in a virtual format."

Delia H. Moore, Manager,
Investor Relations
Aflac Worldwide Headquarters

MUNCmedia's primary focus is iincorporating modern media technologies, news publishers, social media along side your traditional Public Relation and or investor relation inicatives to gnerate s sustainable regional, national and global digital exposure in as many online newspapers, magazines, portals, trade publications, TV news networks and radio stations. Ranging from national publication visibility of client corporate profiles, educating our clients on how to accelerate current social media operations, or manage for them, retail investor education (over 100 million savvy investors), and lastly keeping brand and services integrity across 1,000s of news publications by providing featured exposure. meanwhile managing any negative media pressure by counter digital pr tactics to remove or push unfavorable news off the search engines - while highlighting positive progress, your news and your Services.

 

 

MUNCmedia is here to help you get exposed to the global economy: Phone: (212) 699-0999 x801 or email clientservices@muncmedia.com ATTN Frank Lane or Matthew Bird www.muncmedia.com

RetailInvestorConferences.com is a official trademark of MUNCmedia, all rights reserved. it wouldn't be possible without the collaborative efforts of our partnerships with BetterInvesting.org, PR Newswire & Parent UBM that make RetailInvestorCnferneces.com such a sucess. 

 

 

-- 

Matthew BIRD

CEO

Market Update Network, Corp. 

MUNCmedia 

800 3rd Ave, 17th Floor

New York, NY 10022 USA

Phone: 212.699.0999 ext. 801

Mobile: 646.401.1186

Fax: 425-671-0669

SKYPE: mattbird1

Email: matt.bird@muncmedia.com 

Website: www.MUNCmedia.com

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/matthew-bird/6/8b/159

 

I'm waiting for Investor Relations to converge with their true brethren: Sales

In November 2002, I hosted a Shareholder.com webcast titled “The IR/PR Convergence: Tearing Down the Silos.” It featured a stellar panel  of very smart and dedicated practitioners with a sincere view for the coming utopia. (view original press release here) However, we’re still having that same discussion eight years later. From my work sorting and building out the shareholder communications products and strategies for reaching individual investors, I had my own personal epiphany on the IR and PR convergence. The tangible tools of the two practices are the same: press releases, micro-sites, targeting (historical) databases – but here is the difference (please keep in mind, my perspective is always marketing and sales). PR does not go for “The Close.” IR does. Sorry PR, but you don't close deals. Nor are you goaled or measured as such. To me, IR has a very tactical and essential sales endpoint. The institution (the customer) taking (buying) a position (the product).

Investor Relations is Business-to-Business sales and marketing. It's hard work.           1.) Know how the product works (know what the numbers mean)           2.) Identify prospects from their buying habits (institutional targeting)           3.) Makes sales calls on prospects (roadshows)           4.) Build a relationship (build a relationship)           5.) Bring brochures (financials)           6.) Offer brand and color context (IR website)           7.) Articulate the value to the customer (“ditto”)           8.) Exhibit at trade shows (present at investor conferences)           9.) Send out product emails and regular newsletters (news and earnings reports)           10.) Follow-up via SalesForce CRM (Pinpoint,Thomson One)           11.) ASK FOR THE SALE (“TAKE A POSITION”)           12.) Track success (surveillance) Great companies imbibe their best sales people and their investor relations department with the exact same philosophies: truth, transparency and setting realistic expectations with the customer...sometimes called "an investor." Have a great day. PS: For tools for your sales outreach to individual investors....please contact me here to see the 12-month MUNCmessaging calendar and case studies. Damn right it's a sales and MARKETING calendar.

Social media’s birth amongst the haze of pot smoke

	A VERY cool book was announced today, co-authored by my friend and Marketing Strategist David Meerman Scott and Brian Halligan, CEO of HubSpot: Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead. On several occasions, David and I have spoken about his passion for their music and his appreciation for The Dead’s “approach to marketing.” I am not going to expand on the content here too much: go buy the book. I received an advanced copy: it’s a terrific summer Marcom read.  Fun and real. Why I am mentioning the book here (besides an obvious commercial for David) is how what was once perceived as anti-business Haight –Ashbury culture has became what is now coveted by corporate communicators… direct relationship with our fans, which our niche calls “investors.”  (Certainly direct communications is the crux of our Retail Investor Targeting and our client’s needs.) Also, similar to my little post here, what we’re blogging and Tweeting about today -  labeled as “social media”, transparency and access, The Dead, over three decades ago, instinctively called chillin’ and sharin’. Whoda thunked? Have a Grateful day.

Transparency is great marketing. And no one said it was free.

	Jeff Morgan and the NIRI team demonstrated great leadership in regard to the ongoing discussion surrounding the SEC’s 2008 web disclosure interpretation: NIRI asked the IRO for their opinion. To me, the 2008 interpretation was watershed for a single factor. The SEC acknowledged that a company’s website’s value to shareholders as a news vessel is equal to Yahoo’s (for example) value. The SEC's new opinion on disclosure is that the web is flat. Remember, RegFD was penned as law October 2000. Web-years are like dog-years. The new interpretation reflects that the web grew up since RegFD’s inauguration. For example, earnings webcast are de rigor now, in 2000 they were magical. RegFD’s 2000 goal was not to rank different disclosure points – it was to stop selective disclosure to favored analysts. So where does that leave us with the 2008 interpretation discussion? Exactly where the NIRI survey’s said we are.
Using a commerical newswire is no longer a compliance decision for a corporation, it’s a business decision or better yet, it’s a transparency decision. Perhaps even a marketing decision. If a company’s goal is just to be web compliant, here are some handy-money-saving-tips for investor relations. 1.)   Take down your IR website. The only pages required by the SEC are your Section 16 files and recently, your XBRL raw files - no rendered view needed. The rest is just transparency flotsam. 2.)   Post your earnings “somewhere” on your corporate site. Ask your web developer to put it in his work queue – no rush. He’ll get to it right after he posts the CEO’s new photo and bio. And the new lead generation form for sales. Oh wait. He's on vacation this week. 3.)   No more newswire feeds to the Street. Analysts and portfolio managers spend too much time in their Bloomberg, ThomsonOne, etc. terminals anyway. It will good for them to stretch their legs and walk over to the fax machine. They will thank you. 4.)   Stop holding earnings calls!  Simply and simultaneously tell nothing to no one. 5.)   Obviously, nix the annual shareholder meeting webcast! Your board is dull anyway. 6.)   Just file your Ks and Qs with the SEC. Prospective and current investors should show some initiative and just go to the SEC.gov site for themselves anyway. 7.)   No more road shows or investor conferences. Make those lazy analyst bastards come to you. 8.)   And CERTAINLY – don’t fuss with Retail Investors at all. They are a scary bunch, right? Transparency outreach is akin to marketing.  It drives investors (customers) into the investment (sales) funnel, builds their confidence about the company and hopefully compels them to take a position (buy the product). Compliance will not do that. Caveat. I build and market IR transparency solutions and I have a zillion friends, across many companies who do the same. And - (spoiler alert) - we make money from these services. It’s an individual corporation’s business decision whether to value (purchase) these services. Most transparency solutions, like marketing solutions, have costs.  A company does not have to “advertise.” Heck, I love it when my marketing budget is cut. Gives me tons of free time to blog. Have a great day and look for me at NRI / San Diego. I’ll be trying to sell you something in Booth 320.

Companies to use websites to build confidence. News at Eleven.

Interesting story in the New York Times this week about a topic that is de rigueur for investor relations – using the web to build confidence. Yawn. The article offers no real breakthrough advice – I felt it mostly rubbed hindsight salt in the wounds of Maclaren, Toyota, Playtex and Tylenol. For me, (and my inner “IR Website guy”) the take-away is that the companies (especially the listed ones) and their PR team should know this already. The learnings from Investor Relations are not new. The entire IR function revolves around online transparency to build confidence. For example, regardless of the pundits pummeling Toyota’s PR for weeks now, their IR team must be terrific – their stock is trading over $20 higher than it was a year ago. Sure, it dropped after the recall news, but it’s been rising calmly ever since. I can only assume the Investor Relations Department is meeting with the Street with great candor. I am curious on how their retail shareholder base is reacting. I did find one smart bit of advice in the article. Read David Meerman Scott’s book. Being biased and transparent, I brought Meerman Scott to NIRI 2007 for the formal launch of “The News Rules of Marketing and PR” (and my work is a case study in the book). David is a staunch proponent for using the web to communicate (and build confidence) one-to-one with people – that applies to where I work now (Retail Investor Targeting) more than ever.     I love to market and create “engaging revenue generating content” but I am deathly tired of spin. IR knows damn well that you cannot hide on the web. Everything comes out.   Have a great day.