Browsing Tag

Miley Cyrus

Third Tuesday: Gini Dietrich

Hot On The Street - Gini Dietrich and Sarah Prince

This month’s Third Tuesday may have been scheduled on a Monday evening, but it was as informative, inspiring and engaging as always. Third Tuesday was generously sponsored by Rogers and Cision Canada and hosted by Thornley Fallis at The Pilot. So far, I’ve only gone when the guest speaker is an author – Mitch Joel, Nora Young and last night, the lovely Gini Dietrich.

While sharing her insights about astroturfing, whisper campaigns and media manipulation, Gini subtly promoted her PR firm, book and blog. It was especially interesting to hear Gini’s perspective as a blogger because I initially learned about her through a Behind The Brand interview on Hot On The Street! I had to laugh when Gini told a story about meeting blog commenters at a conference and referred to them as “Spin Sucks crazies.” Don’t worry, she was just kidding. Most bloggers are thrilled to meet their loyal readers in person!

Gini began her presentation with a simple overview of how Miley Cyrus’ career is a good case study for PR pros. Kicking off a presentation with slides about Miley is a sure fire way to excite an audience, but I wonder how much longer speakers can get away with it. When Toronto has a new mayor (fingers crossed!) and Ellen’s Oscars selfie is ancient history, presenters will need to find a new pop culture reference. When I pay to see a major thought leader, I want to hear their opinion about current events, not yesterday’s news. Marketers are increasingly encouraged to explore real-time marketing, memes and news-jacking and I think keynote speakers should take the same approach when preparing presentations.

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American Music Awards

I enjoyed live tweeting the American Music Awards last night, but I wasn’t all that impressed overall.

It’s great that Canadian singers have garnered critical acclaim internationally, but are the American Music Awards really the right time to recognize Michael Buble or Justin Bieber? We Canucks have our own version of the award show; it’s called the Junos.

1.    I think it would have been more fitting if Miley performed ‘Party in the USA’, but showbiz told her to do otherwise I suppose. In any case, I muted the TV after she took the stage.

2.    I loved when Enrique’s marching band emerged in the aisles. This was also the first time I saw what Pitbull looks like in real life.

3.    Bieber’s sneakers were cool, but his attempt to be the new Michael Jackson – not so much. It was no surprise when the camera immediately panned to Usher’s reaction after Bieber concluded the song by kneeling on the ground, as if he were praying. Anyone could anticipate that Bieber’s mentor would be smiling.

4.    It was nice to see Christina make use of the vocal chords that made her famous when Disney featured her in Mulan’s soundtrack. She was a cute pop star back in the day, but then she started releasing such awful music that I barely take an interest in her new releases. Nevertheless, I can’t wait to see her and Cher on the big screen next week in Burlesque.

5.    Rihanna is beautiful, but what was with her hair?! That shade of red is so unnecessary.