Sharpstown Center Gets New Marketing Leadership

Congrats to Jessica Lam, who's landed the position of community relations/marketing director at this Houston landmark.

While these guys have had serious financial problems in the past, the property and brand both have huge ROI potential. And besides, who wants to manage a brand that's already turned itself around? Much more fun to inherit one with history and then make it a superstar.

The announcement of Lam's appointment was made in a recently sprayed Sharpstown Center press release, pictured above.

Man, BP Really is Getting Green

In my day job as a marketing consultant, I've had the privilege to help develop the brands and plans of some of America's biggest renewable energy companies (which don't really get all that big when you consider the scale of energy as a whole). So I was pleasantly surprised to see BP CEO Tony Hayward proclaim that they're "Investing So Much In Alternative Fuels, Sometimes We Almost Forget To Pump Oil!"

Check out the article in this week's issue of The Onion.

"...Oh, look! I'm waist-deep in cash right now! I didn't even see all this money piling up around my desk. I guess I've just been so focused on developing cost-efficient, clean-burning hydrogen cells that I wasn't even paying attention. Quick, someone take these 40-pound sacks of cash to some guy in Berkeley studying carbon capture and storage..."

This satirical article pokes fun at the contrast, but just proves what a great job BP has done in driving its message home.

In a related story, Houston Chronicle business guru Loren Steffy bashed Dallas billionaire T. Boone Pickens, Jr.'s plan for wind energy development in the Houston Chronicle last week, saying it was "...hard to grasp...how parts of the plan would be implemented." This, indeed, is the problem with many renewable energy plans. At least these days we have real upstream energy players like BP in the driver's seat.

In a formal response to Steffy's concerns, rumor says that Pickens met Steffy for lunch at the Rainbow Lodge today, where he "threw Steffy the keys to his Cadillac and asked him to Simonize it for him" while he smoked a cigar made of $1,000 bills. Also on the docket for Pickens: turning the moon into a horse stable, paving the Panhandle in gold and bringing back Bob Wills to play at Pickens' next birthday party.

With his money, I wouldn't be surprised if he pulls off all of the above.

Progressive Public Relations

The recent high-profile sighting of faceless onlookers at Wimbledon and other ritzy venues, which automaker Lotus engineered to pimp its new Lotus Eagle "British 911" (www.facelesspeople.com) shifts the grey zone between public relations, social media and marketing into high gear.

I think even for less sexy brands, including business-to-business fare, the marketing potential of these type campaigns is huge. And if done properly the economics could be very attractive, especially for nascent brands without lots of equity and huge advertising budgets.

The masters of this medium are the leaders of NY-based Improve Everywhere, which pioneered the art of improvisational role-playing. Improve Everywhere's skits The Moebius, Frozen Grand Central and the latest, Human Mirror, are helping to define the rules for public performance. But Improv Everywhere is in it for the art.

If engineered with a marketing message in mind, these "Making a Scene" endeavors could mean big bucks to brands who want limelight on the cheap. My guess is that progressive agencies nationwide will "put the ACT in Interactive" and make this sort of thing a set-in-stone service line.

C'mon, Improve Everywhere, sell out!