I’ve been reading Bear Grylls’ autobiography. Bear, of course, is the host of Discovery Channel’s Man vs Wild. This book is specifically about Bear’s successful attempt to climb Mount Everest, the world tallest mountain peak at just over 29,035 feet. It is said that 1 in 6 who attempt to climb the mountain die- either by physical accident or altitude-related illnesses.

I’m still early in the book, reading about how Bear raised the $20,000 through corporate sponsors to obtain a spot on the Everest team. After hundreds of rejections (including a rather humorous episode with Richard Branson) and failed attempts to convince corporate CEO’s to foot the bill for his adventure, he stumbled across a firm called David, Landon and Everest. Simply because of the name of that firm, he decided to go in and leave his brochure.

This time, he got called back for an interview. As it turned out, the “Everest” in the company name was descended from George Everest, the Surveyor General of India in the 1830’s. George Everest had been the first man to accurately measure the height of the great mountain, and the one for whom the colossal peak is named. So, yes, the company was interested in sponsoring Bear’s trip. But not for the reasons you might think…

There’s a lot of spin on both sides of the political isle today, as the House approved a whopping stimulus package to help boost the economy. So let’s think about this in everyday terms. What needs to be stimulated? Some say banks. Some say businesses. Some say the top of the ladder, so it can trickle down. Others say the bottom of the ladder, so it can filter up. So…in layman’s terms…PEOPLE.

You. Me. The guy next door. The girl that owns the shop around the corner. The person that pays, and the person that gets paid. After all, we’re all connected. None of us lives in a vacuum. So ask yourself…once the Senate passes this bill, will you feel better about spending money? About hiring a new employee? About withdrawing cash for furniture or taking out a loan for a car or a house? Will you feel better about your job? Your future? Your retirement? Are YOU stimulated?

Mac & Bones is a new family destination in Jackson featuring ribs, mac & cheese, barbecue nachos, mini-golf, and much more. The restaurant is targeting kids, tweens, and teens. The USPMGA (US Professional Mini-Golf Association) is endorsing the mini-golf facility, which promises to be second to none. The restaurant will also have a sports twist, with endorsements here in Jackson by Deuce McAllister and Tracy McGrady. Mac & Bones is opening for business in mid-April in Pearl with a second location this summer in Orlando, Florida. The company plans to offer franchise opportunities within the year.

Mojoloco has been retained by Mac & Bones to build the corporate identity. We’ll be creating the corporate and franchise logo marks, as well as developing slogans and the corporate identity policy. We’re excited to be working with the Mac & Bones team and look forward to more opportunities with them as the year progresses.

Mojoloco has agreed to provide creative due diligence for the 2009 Sante South Wine Festival in April, an annual event for the Mississippi chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association. This will be the event’s 5th year, and all signs point to a larger turnout. Last year over 30 vintners from vineyards across the globe attended, along with the finest restaurants in the state. Sante South will again be held at Highland Village, with double the space reserved over last year. Mojoloco will be providing all creative assets for the event. We’re excited to be working with Ian MacDonald of the Alzheiner’s Association, and we look forward to another successful event.

Outsourced services like those provided by agencies and consultants are often sacrificed during economic downturns in favor of perceivably less expensive in-house resources. But when you examine which resource is planning and executing programs more effectively, it’s not surprising to see that agencies and consultants who specialize in social media marketing and PR are at least 19% more likely to plan and execute effectively than in-house teams and agencies or consultants who are not specialized in social media.

More than 90% of companies believe that social media is effective in accomplishing branding-related goals, followed closely by goals for generating traffic on websites. Objectives that tend to fall into the category of direct marketing, like lead generation and sales conversion, are second tier expectations. You might expect the revenue producing goals of direct marketing to be ranked higher than branding during a recessionary period like this. However, the conversational and relationship building nature of social media is more synonymous with PR and, accordingly, more likely to help build brands.

The chart in Preview 3 showed that the “Inability to measure ROI” was the second most significant barrier to social media adoption. But as this chart shows, the ability to accurately measure ROI has nothing to do with the effectiveness of the tactic. In fact, “Advertising on blogs or social networks”, which was the tactic rated as the most accurately measured (32%), was also rated least effective (16%).

Social media measurement is one of those topics about which everyone has an opinion, but nobody agrees. Like any tactic that is more aligned with PR than direct marketing, results are difficult to measure quantitatively. What marketers can do is measure the value of the resulting conversations and relationships qualitatively, and not focus on moment-in-time transactions like traffic, conversions, etc. Marketers obsessed with only tracking social media results quantitatively are missing the point and may find themselves employing much less effective social media tactics for the sake of measurability.

Whether an organization has used social media marketing and PR or not, the most significant barrier to social media adoption named by 46% of respondents is the “Lack of knowledgeable staff”. One of the dangers to the effective adoption of social media as a marketing strategy is the large percentage of those who consider themselves knowledgeable – but have no social media experience. When marketers at organizations that have not used social media marketing or PR were asked how knowledgeable they were about the subject, two-thirds replied that they were “very” or “somewhat” knowledgeable. Without social media experience, this level of knowledge is unlikely, which may be the reason “Lack of knowledgeable staff” was named as the most significant barrier to social media adoption.

During this period of continued economic uncertainty and the resulting pressure to cut marketing budgets further, social media has benefitted from the perception that it requires minimal capital investment to implement effectively. As one marketer told us, “I don’t understand big budget social media tactics. We use social media because it’s effective and FREE. The only cost associated with it in our organization is time (employee salaries), design (in-house) and occasional programming (in-house).”

The practice of marketing communications and public relations as we know it is certainly not dead, but it is just as certainly changing. Social media, and its ability to create virtual communities of common interest and trusted conversations between companies and their prospects and customers, is the catalyst of this change. Cumulatively, 68% of the 1886 marketing and PR professionals responding to our recent benchmark survey agree. 37% of decision makers strongly agreed compared to 26% of those who influence or implement social media marketing and PR programs.

The impact of this change is not limited to the way marketers communicate with customers and prospects; it is having an even greater impact on how PR agencies and in-house publicists communicate effectively with journalists and other influencers. In delving deeper, we found that 83% of agencies and consultants, whose opinions are based on a broader range of client experience, agreed with the question of change compared to 70% of client-side marketers.