Last week, Hulu introduced its Hulu AdZone, which is presented by Toyota and offers easy access to historic Super Bowl ads extending all the way back to 1973. For the project, Hulu invited Advertising Age to highlight celebrity cameos and present expert picks for the most iconic Super Bowl ads of all time. On Sunday, February 5, tune in to www.hulu.com/adzone to watch all of this year’s ads in real-time, share them with friends and vote for your favorites. The best ad of 2012 will be announced early the next day.

On a personal note, I’m hoping for a well-matched battle between New England and New York, and I’ll also be watching for the first-ever Super Bowl spot for Lexus, which is one part of a multifaceted campaign effort produced by my clients at ATTIK. ATTIK’s work has made high-profile Super Bowl splashes in the past, to include their bold logo for Super Bowl XLIV itself just two years ago. Here’s wishing much success to everyone involved in what is sure to be one of the top media events of 2012!

The publishers of Brand Republic, the UK’s leading online destination for people working in the advertising, marketing, media and communications industries, offer an editorial on their website entitled “What’s the secret of a long ‘marriage’?” In that, Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO chief executive Farah Ramzan Golant offers these wise words: “The key to long-term client relationships is constant reinvigoration…. You should constantly be looking at how you can do things differently, keep freshening the account teams and stay ahead of the game.” As a PR practitioner providing ongoing, dedicated counsel to a small roster of clients, I firmly believe in these vows, and back in December, I participated in an enlightening webinar hosted by Vocus and presented by PR industry thoughtleader Deirdre Breakenridge, who is the author of “PR 2.0” and “Putting the Public Back in Public Relations.” Entitled “Eight Techniques of the New PR Champion,” the knowledge and insights Deirdre shared really blew me away.

I have been handling PR for innovative business leaders and their (often relatively small) businesses for more than 20 years, and I’m very proud of my accomplishments helping my clients consistently achieve phenomenal success. There are many aspects of my experience which I feel play well into my role (a few examples include my training and background in the U.S. Air Force Reserves, my high-level contributions in the world of network television production, my writing, editing and pitching skills honed over the years, and my previous posts handling PR, marketing and sales internally and externally for ambitious companies), and I feel I’ve learned how to make myself especially valuable to my clients’ business ventures even when PR is not a top priority.

More and more, I am encountering opportunities among seasoned executives who place even greater value on PR and see it as Deirdre presents it — forming the mission-critical center of virtually all aspects of business operations.

If you have further interest in the evolving role of public relations in successful business ventures, I highly encourage you to read Deirdre’s books, check out her videos, and otherwise immerse yourself in the lessons she offers. In the presentation I attended, she described in detail these eight “new practices” that are key areas where PR professionals are adding immense value to businesses:
#1 The Policymaker
#2 The Internal Collaborator
#3 The Pre-Crisis Doctor
#4 The Reputation Task Force
#5 The Master of Metrics
#6 The Relationship Analyzer
#7 The Communications Organizer
#8 The Technology Tester

Even before detailing these areas and providing insights into the tools she has developed and used, the processes she has embraced, and more best practices and benefits that come from putting them to good use, Deirdre paused to make a key point: “PR people are perfect for handling social media.” With her encouragement and the confidence I’ve gathered in handling my clients, and with all the amazing insights into how to manage PR across organizations of all sizes, I am absolutely ready to rock for my clients in 2012.

For me personally, this is the time of year when business takes center stage after many weeks of relative inaction. In my experience, strategic focus is essential at this moment in order to maximize the best opportunities while also understanding all the real imperatives of success and ensuring they are given top priority today and tomorrow.

Fortunately, I have many wise, experienced friends and counselors who have provided a virtual MBA of priceless information, motivation and inspiration over the past few weeks for free. Here are six links I feel are very likely to help your upcoming actions soar in the right directions. Some lead to articles, some to eBooks; each is highly recommended.

. “The Best Talks of 2011” by Madeleine Rebbechi for Portable.tv
. “The Digital Handbook 2012” from Popular Science, Esquire and Amazon.com
. “Exploiting Chaos – 150 Ways to Spark Innovation During Times of Change” by Jeremy Gutsche for TrendHunter.com
. “How to Become an Expert” by David Baker for ReCourses.com
. “Make 2012 Your Best Year Yet” by Erin Schulte for Fast Company
. “Three Ways Remarkable Leaders Get Noticed” by Joel Garfinkle for TanveerNaseer.com.

This spot for the Illinois State Lottery was produced by Energy BBDO in Chicago, directed by Dom Bridges of Bob Industries, and features visual effects from design-focused production studio Leviathan. As Leviathan’s Jason White recently explained to SCREEN Magazine:

“We appreciate this engaging story. Something we can all relate to. Effective and emotive. We really got behind the aspiration of the spot concept – capturing these amazing gift revealing holiday moments.”

Today, White and his colleagues reported on their very successful 2011 in SHOOT Magazine. Here’s wishing you many magical moments and dreams come true over the days ahead.

This has been an eventful year for everyone at global creative agency ATTIK, including its co-founder and executive creative director Simon Needham. The San Francisco Egotist is currently featuring a brief article Simon contributed entitled, “What I learned this year.” He also shared some career advice with the publishers of Creativepool.co.uk back in November in this ‘5 minutes with Simon Needham‘ article. I thought you might also enjoy the in-depth video interview embedded above. From ATTIK’s humble origins in northern England, Simon’s obviously come a long way, and he has many exciting developments shaping up for 2012 and beyond. For more information, please visit www.attik.com.

Founded in 1999 with full service offices in New York, Los Angeles, London and Stockholm, B-Reel specializes in the field of advanced digital productions on multiple platforms including web, mobile and out-of-home media. They collaborate with sister company, B-Reel Films on integrated campaigns. B-Reel Films is a traditional film production company.