I’m proud to announce that in 2010 Pavone started working on Yuengling’s flagship brands.  One of Pavone’s first projects for America’s Oldest brewery is launching a marketing campaign for Yuengling’s Lord Chesterfield Ale, which also happens to be one of the first two beers D.G. Yuengling brewed when he set up shop in Pottsville, PA in 1829.

The digital media heavy campaign will kick off during Philly Beer Week, which is among the largest of the “beer week” events in America. And what better way to breathe new life into a 181-year-old brand than to bring the beer’s namesake, Lord Chesterfield himself, to life in a series of appearances throughout the weeklong festival.

(A brief history lesson may be in order here. Lord Chesterfield (right) – also known as Philip Stanhope – was an 18th century British statesman famous for frank and sometimes cynical advice he offered in a series of letters to his son. His witticisms number in the hundreds, many of which are chronicled online, including gems like “Advice is seldom welcome, and those who need it the most, like it the least” and “Inferiority is what you enjoy in your best friends.”)

“Chetty,” as those who know him best call him and his beer, will make eight appearances in bars throughout Philly in full period dress thanks to one very talented and willing actor. At each location he will be accompanied by members of the Yuengling team and will give away all sorts of swag, including his trademark offbeat advice (whether it’s solicited or not).

The appearances will be preceded by a full public relations blitz targeting Philly print, radio and television media as well as beer bloggers far and wide. A pre-Philly Beer Week mailer to key contacts included a letter from Chetty and a map detailing his appearances.

Of course, Philly Beer Week is just the beginning of the Lord Chesterfield campaign. After the suds settle in the City of Brotherly Love, the centerpiece of the campaign – the Chesterfield Society – will take over. The Chesterfield Society is an online hub designed to help “Chetty” fans locate establishments that serve their favorite brew and establish Chesterfield Society chapters in their communities. Social media and other modern web-based communication channels will be used to bring the beer’s namesake to life in cyberspace.

As for future live appearances by his Lordship? We’ve definitely got some ideas, but we’ll have to get our actor through Philly Beer Week in one piece first.

In 1992, I hired a recent Elizabethtown College graduate to be Pavone’s first employee. She had about 50 job titles back then. Media planner and buyer, print production manager, traffic administrator, human resources director, backbone of the agency. You name it and chances are she did it.

Of course, I’m  talking about Amy Beamer.

Today, Amy is our chief operating officer. She’s also still the backbone of the agency. I am honored to call Amy my partner. That value was acknowledged recently when Amy was named to the Central Penn Business Journal’s first-ever list of the region’s 25 most influential women.

Amy’s being named  a “Women of Influence” award winner shouldn’t  surprise  anyone who has met her. In fact, if there was a “Women Who Covered a Young Entrepreneur’s Ass When He Opened an Advertising Agency with $300 in His Bank Account” award, she’d win that, too. (Every year, I’d imagine.)

I’ll end my ode by admitting that Pavone wouldn’t be where it is today without Amy. For that, I thank her. And for everyone reading this, don’t forget to thank the Amy Beamers in your company. With any luck, you’ve got at least one.

By now, it’s no secret that Pavone has a thriving digital media department whose members are busy helping clients create and manage blogs, Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, YouTube channels and a host of other social media tools.

But what if you used a blog or Facebook page to bring a company’s marketing icon to life?

That’s exactly what Pavone and Utz Quality Foods did when they took one of the most recognizable corporate mascots in the eastern United States – the Little Utz Girl – and brought her to life with her very own blog and Facebook page. Yes, after nearly 90 years, the ageless, ruddy-cheeked little girl on the front of millions of Utz packages finally has a voice. And like any preteen suddenly given access to the World Wide Web and social media, she’s got a lot to say.

Since its launch on February 1st, the Little Utz Girl’s blog has been visited more than 3,600 times and her Facebook presence has attracted more than 700 fans.

What’s interesting about this social media case study isn’t  that it’s proof that these new tools really can work for a brand… we knew that already. This one is noteworthy for its ability to create a personality that toes the company line (as all good corporate social media channels should), but also has her own distinct identity. She has likes, dislikes, hobbies, friends, pets, and her own unique sense of humor and writing style (including a love of exclamation points exceeded only by her love of Utz snacks and her dog, Doodle).

In other words, we took an iconic symbol and made her real – at least as real as a person can be in the ether of cyberspace.

Thanks to the Internet and other technological advances, public relations has undergone more changes in the past decade than Joan Rivers’ face. But there’s one medium that’s still as effective as ever, even if it has fallen off the radar of most PR pros (except those at Pavone, of course).

I’m talking about TV — or more specifically, product placement on television programming. In most cases, I’m referring to shows in which the product is part of the story or the focus of the show and not just a prop in the background of a sitcom (though we have had some good success with that tactic, too).

Take a couple of recent successes cooked up by the Pavone PR team. True to PR’s “earned media” foundation, all of these placements cost absolutely nothing, aside from the time it took us to pitch the idea and coordinate or assist with the opportunity.

We’ve worked with the Food Network to score placements for Turkey Hill Dairy. A year or so ago, the show “Unwrapped” visited Turkey Hill’s Lancaster County headquarters to tape a segment for a show about peanut butter treats where they featured Light Recipe Moose Tracks. Today, we’re helping out once again, as the Unwrapped crew wraps up an episode featuring Turkey Hill’s Double Decker Ice Cream Sandwiches.

We’ve even worked with the folks at the Rachael Ray Show to score placement of Utz Quality Foods’ Grandma Utz’s Handcooked Potato Chips as the show’s “Snack of the Day.” A clip of that media relations coup can be seen on the Pavone Food website. More recently, when the History Channel’s “Modern Marvels” wanted to feature a home being built for a March episode about start-to-finish manufacturing processes, Pavone helped to coordinate the taping of a modular home being built by our client, Excel Homes, and its builder partner, Atlantic Modular Builders.

These examples of coverage aren’t without their ROI, either. The six-minute History Channel segment resulted in a 361 percent increase in traffic to the Excel Homes website in the two days following the episode. Leads generated by the website also increased more than 400 percent. Those numbers should be enough to sway anyone who doubts the power of PR.

So has the Internet and technology changed the way we practice public relations? Of course it has. But there’s still plenty of PR gold to be mined in the world of television. You just have to know where to look for it.

I know, I know, another story about digital media, right? Well, get used to it, because it isn’t going anywhere any time soon, and the people who scoff at the power of this new medium are the same people who called e-mail a “dying fad” 15 years ago. I was not one of those people, and I continue to be awed by the power of social media, particularly in its role as a fundraising tool in the wake of natural disasters.

Following the earthquake in Haiti, there should be no doubt about digital media’s ability to mobilize the masses and influence their behavior. Take text messaging, for example. Just 48 hours after the quake leveled much of central Haiti, text message donations totaled more than $21 million. Most of the cash was raised simply by asking people to text “Haiti” to 90999. A $10 charge on their phone bill would then be donated to disaster relief efforts.

And how was word spreading about this magical five digit number? Via Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and other social media channels. And e-mail, of course. Can’t forget about that dying fad.

So what does this mean for digital media’s use as a marketing tool? It means if you’re not onboard at least in some capacity, you’re destined to be left behind. It means great things can happen in 140 characters or less. And it means if you give people a good enough reason to take action, they will… even if it’s while standing in line at McDonalds.

By the way, funny story* about the whole Haiti text messaging thing. A girl (age and location unknown) mistakenly thought that each time she texted “Haiti” to 90999, someone else would donate $10 to the cause. A $2,000 phone bill a few weeks later proved otherwise. I’m guessing somewhere in Port-au-Prince a medical ward is named after her.

* Assuming you’re not her parents.