"This wasn't a PR play as much as a cultural play," Mr. Plank told CNBC, explaining that the company offered enough money that renewing the deal would be a no-brainer.

Said Ms. Pelkey: "We wanted to stand up and show our support and tell the world that we believe and are committed to U.S. Speedskating. … We are going to double down on speedskating."

Crisis:

(DOI) Diffusion of Innovation

The classic model described by Everett Rogers involves “the innovation, defined as an idea, practice or object perceived as new by an individual or other relevant unit of adoption, which is communicated through certain channels over time among members of a social system.”

Solution:

Long play:

Change the focus, move the game.

Short Play:

Senior staff front and center. Vigorously defend.

Never apologize.

Use previous endorsers and testimonials. Deploy indirect but related testimonials via Social Media.

Deploy Long Play when ready.

Wait for the culture to change focus.

Social Media is Culture.

Cave Paintings were Social Communication Media. Relax. Advertising hasn't changed in 150 years. Always look to history for ideas. Always communicate within the cultural community to gain value.

Metcalfe's Law: The value of a communication system is based on the number of interconnected nodes within that system.

To humanity and evolution the 2014 Internet with SMO and SMM, global penetration, speed and availability (soon replaced SEO along with ALL new innovations, apps and tech) is the largest most valuable communication system with emergent intelligence since cave paintings became information maps. Social Media can no longer be considered either new or optional. Truly, it never was, the technology followed the Diffusion of Innovation sets because of the -

Relevance Paradox:

An analogy would be that of a near-sighted person who is unaware of their condition. They would not perceive any benefit in getting the glasses they need to improve their sight, until they tried wearing the glasses. Having never experienced a priori results or knowledge from unknown social communities, the near-sighted person requires a posteriori knowledge; dependent on experience or empirical evidence - OR a trusted, known social community sharing experience/information.

Such a situation could be resolved by a third party, aware of this new tech/informational relevance, by recommending an eye test.

Let's call known social communities sharing knowledge across a multiplicity of equally shared media/tech = Social Networks.

In Merriam-Webster dictionary, the word social is "of or relating to human society, the interaction of the individual and the group, or the welfare of human beings as members of society."

The word media means "Medium of cultivation, conveyance, or expression. Media is also a plural form of medium and a medium is a particular form or system of communication."

"Relevance paradoxes occur because of implementation of projects without awareness of the social or individual tacit knowledge within a target community. The understanding of the individual and the social tacit knowledge in a given community, which is a function of knowledge emergence, is the foundation of effectiveness in leadership practice."

Guess what I do?

Persuasion, Decision and Influence based on knowledge and for the good of leading human decision making toward actions producing stated goals. I'm just not an 'SMO, SMM Professionally Published Leader and Innovator.' I'm the guy who draws you a map on a napkin at midnight when you're lost. I get you home. The only difference is it takes more work and time - we both know it's worth investing in getting home.

This powerful and old notion can not any longer be considered new.

Nor can the Millennials for whom Broadband and Social Media are rotary phones, or quicker routes home from school, remain discriminated against for lack of resume and bad attitude:

(Most of this data in the Pew Survey Report came from a February telephone survey of 1,821 adults directed by Princeton Survey Research Associates International. The survey's margin of error was plus or minus 2.6%.)

About 49% of millennials think the nation's best years are ahead, the survey said. That's a higher percentage than among older baby boomers (44% feel the same way), and Generation X (42%).

Millennials are also the generation most deeply involved in social networks: 81% are on Facebook, with a median friend count of 250, far higher than that of older age groups.

- The LA Times

The REAL danger, facing SMO/SEO/B2B in 2014: Outmoded patterns or modes of organizational thought.

Instead we (Galahad Productions) seek clarification through the concept of liquidity, in which the liquid structures, constantly on the verge of chaos, have the greatest potential for creation.

The only thing slower to change than the "laggards" on the Diffusion of Innovation curve is human thought adaptation, change or modal shift allowing for replacement of thought systems. Primarily hierarchy as default 'genetic imprint', as if we shouldn't rise above pecking order.

Let's not be chickens.

Let's agree older informational models in communication and information systems analysis can help us realize the truth;

1) Change is patterned

2) Patterns of change depend on culture but primarily individual thought

3) The next most required leap in human evolution is individual modality shifts in organizational thought.

4) Adaptation is the result of creative problem solving based on analyzation of new data, times liquidity of thought modality which becomes integration over time divided by age.

But don't worry about that age thing.

I'm Gen X, I struggle to research, split-test and absorb massive self collected data sets. While the Millennials on my staff consistently surpass expectation, commitment and hard work afforded them by society. But they still need us; wisdom and a-posteriori knowledge can never be replaced. I think Metcalfe and Roger's would agree.

So do my staff.

P.S. Everett Rogers wrote The Relevancy Paradox in 1962.

Metcalfe created his law in 1980 using fax machines as examples. Last but not at all least to me, my Grandmother was the first young Systems Analyst and Business Consultant working for herself in the 1960's in Manhattan, men were not early adopters. Until she got them home.

Sometimes discrimination is simply the behavior of chickens. No, wait, it always is and UA just showed us all how to Barbecue.

Millennials are preternaturally disposed to be the most highly paid, most notably valued generation of our current time in evolutionary history.

The point is this:

Innovation is coming, the "innovative" tech-systems being designed by the most successful minds of today are tomorrow's hammer, except use is as yet TBD, by Millennials who have grown up swinging them.

Hire them, expect great things, and coach them while learning from them.

Or become barbecue.

BTW, check the logos in green on Branding "Color Emotion Guide"

- Chris Zubryd