More on Promoting Content:ReDefining "Exclusive"

"Exclusive" is one of the big "color" words that when used around journalists media savvy technologists or technology investors often elicit a violent reaction. On the order of say walking into a room full of gas fumes and using a welding torch for a light ource.

The reaction was that predictable as I found out yesterday when I posted a piece on a new pod cast from Chris Shipley’s GuideWireGroup with Palm's founding trio and which can be downloaded at http://www.guidewiregroup.com/site/services/podcastLib.html.

Within three hours of my post, I began to get a series of emails demanding an explanation of the word "Exclusive" that I had used in my original headline. Those emails quickly spread into discussions of the advantages of exclusives from the standpoints of a company and a reporter, publication, or similar organization. 

To most technology marketing professionals, the word “exclusive” means a company controls the flow and nature of information, often attaching an NDA agreement with a specific date. From a corporate standpoint, exclusives let them target specific audiences using specific media. From the media’s standpoint, it means getting a decent story without the overhead expense of an enterprise news gathering operation.  But in today’s world the word “exclusive” also has a stringent “channel” definition.  In the GuideWire Group’s case the agreement was for a pod cast.

Back to the issue at hand: GuideWireGroup's Palm content, which includes content from Palm’s initial troika on the paste past and present as well as the future of the company. Palm doesn't give away the store in its interviews, which is not surprising given how closed mouth it's three founders, Jeff Hawkins, Donna Dubinsky and Ed Colligan have been in the past. But, once you get past the need to have everything you're not supposed to know about a company presented neatly in a 35-word inverted paragraph lead (and generally attributed to someone who is never named in a story), there's a lot of meat in this pod cast series, presented for the first time in a pod cast and available exclusively on GuideWire's site.

What was most surprising to me about the reaction to my earlier blog on GuideWireGroup’s' Palm pod cast was that none of the people who commented on the story appear to have listened to it. Despite this, they wanted to question what was exclusive and whether or it was actually "advertorial" content distributed by GuideWire at Palm's behest.

GuideWire-- which is as much a research company looking at new trends as it is a producer of worldwide technology showcase events openly discloses Palm is a client. In talking to Chris Shipley about the Palm Pod cast I wanted to know how it came about, and whether or not Palm determined the content.

Here's the short summary: Palm --AGuideWireGroup client --had talked to firm about its plans for the 10th anniversary of the introduction of the Palm Pilot personal organizer. Ms. Shipley submitted a plan detailing GuideWireGroup recommendations. Palm agreed with the idea and gave Cathy Brooks, GuideWire's pod casting Executive producer and Chris Shipley access to the company's start-up team as well as some lesser-known figures within Palm. GuideWire demonstrated what its pod casts sounded like, and how they would be distributed. This was the lure GuideWire needed to hook Palm.

After they finished producing the pod cast (which in its entirety is actually an audio white paper) GuideWire previewed its audio production to Palm (which Ms Shipley reports had some "very small suggestions.”

GuideWire went live with Palm pod casts on its site promoting it using the word “exclusive.” I rose to the bait and having been interested in Palm since its founding wrote a blog entry about the pod cast using the word “Exclusive” in my original headline.  The emails and pone calls started within two hours of the post.

I admit I didn’t do a good job of explaining my headline. However, I think trumpeting the exclusivity of content on a specific site is a great promotional tactic.

I was astounded when I realized that the critics of my story hadn’t even bothered to listen to the pod casts. If you’re going to take me to task for something, at least make yourself familiar with the base material.

Pod casting is still in it infancy. There are pod casts put out by amateurs with inexpensive digital microphones and a cassette recorder given to them by their grandmother for their 21^st birthday and then there are pod casts produced by pros.

What makes GuideWire’s Palm pod cast superior is its professional-level production standards. The audio sounds like it come from someone who had studied directing in film school. That’s what makes GuideWire’s pod casts and audio white papers levels better than virtually every other pod cast I stream across the Internet. And in this case, it was the professional quality standards that made a difference in getting an interesting story exclusively for one distribution channel.

Obligatory disclosure: I was a producer and editor reporting to Chris Shipley when we worked at IDG Executive Forums together. I also happen to think Palm is a good tale of how hard it can be to break new ground in Silicon Valley. Furthemore, I think Palm produces gold standard products. I am not an employee or consultant to the GuideWireGroup, which my former boss, Chris Shipley co-founded and which co-produces the Demo shows in conjunction with an IDG business unit.  But wai,t there's more, I use a Treo 650 for a cell phone on the Verizon cellular network. I have an old Chihuahua named "perro", two cats and I'm kind to most stray animals. I draw the line at gophers that pillage my two vegetable gardens. If I see them, I send them to the big gopher colony in the sky. Next question?