In addition to this week having the leap year day of February 29, it was also a week that featured public relation moves by 2 of the world’s largest restaurateurs – McDonald’s and Starbucks. Each had a cost, got some attention, but who got the most mileage?

On Tuesday, February 26, Starbucks closed all of their US stores for 3 hours to retrain their baristas (the ones who make the coffee drinks) on the art of espresso. For those who don’t know, espresso coffee is not only a standalone drink, but the key component of many of their coffee drinks, such as the latte. This affected all 7,100 of their US stores.

On Thursday and Friday, February 28 & 29, McDonald’s gave away a free McSkillet Burrito breakfast sandwich with the purchase of a drink in all of their US stores. The McSkillet is a relatively new addition to their menu, a large burrito filled with just about every ingredient of a hearty breakfast, including eggs, cheese and sausage.

Both of these events have a cost – lost revenue for Starbucks, but the shutdown was in the early evening when traffic is not as busy as compared to the morning commute, and potential lost revenue for McDonald’s, but you also needed to buy a drink, which have high revenue margins.

Where both companies did these promotions to get free publicity, the reasons behind Starbucks shutdown for training are not purely for marketing. Its founder Howard Schultz has retaken the helm of the company and is trying to get the coffee shop to regain its mojo, or at least that is what I have called it before. Anyone can say they are retraining its staff, but the point gets across much better when you can see it for yourself. The site of an empty Starbucks at the corner of North and Wells in Chicago, a normally bustling, 24/7 location, was something to see.

So who made out better on this? My vote is for Starbucks. First off, most people I asked learned about the free breakfast item from me, where I heard many people talking about Starbucks. And so was the evening news, local and national. Whether you believe the training makes a difference or not, you know Starbucks did so, that they care enough to shut down to do so, and that speaks volumes over something for free.

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On March 29, 2008, people around the world are invited to turn off their lights for one hour for what is called Earth Hour. What started in Sydney, Australia last year is now spreading around the world. I heard about this for Chicago is one of the cities participating in this program at 8 pm local time. And this is not just a grassroots effort, as there are corporate sponsors for the event, including the local electric company.

Why not? For someone whose condo lights could be seen from a distance a skyline shot, I am in. I just hope too much money and effort (and electricity) is not being spent to promote it – wouldn’t that defeat the purpose?

I know from personal experience keeping the lights off can make a difference in your electric bill. Last year when having some work done on our condo, we had the main light fixture taken down in the bathroom and the replacement didn’t go up for another month. Looking at our bills, we noticed a significant decrease. The new fixture also had compact fluorescent bulbs, and we have continued the savings.

Will you be turning off your lights for an hour?

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What the heck is meatball sundae? As it sounds, it is a dish with balls of meat and whipped cream and a cherry on top. Not necessarily something you would want, would you? Replace the meatballs with ice cream and you have something you’d like – something that works well together and is a tasty treat.

This harmony, and the converse lack of harmony, is the crux of the book Meatball Sundae by marketing consultant and author Seth Godin. He uses this graphic example to state how you take your business products and services (the meatballs) and market it with today’s marketing tools, namely online (the whipped cream and cherry). Godin’s premise is you just can’t slap today’s progressive marketing techniques (blogs, viral videos) on staid products and services just as they are and how you have marketed them in the past, or New vs. Old Marketing as he refers to it. New Marketing is making a personal connection between the consumer and the emotion of the product or service, where Old Marketing is broadcasted, interruptive promotion as it has always been done in the past.

My greatest takeaway from this book is not necessarily a positive one – it is more unlikely to happen in an older organization than a newer one. In a newer company or firm, New Marketing is all they know, or could even have been the prevailing catalyst for the start of the business. Therefore, the firm is more in sync with what needs to be done to practice New Marketing.

In older companies, where marketing has happened “that way” for a long time and has worked, this understanding may not be in place, and unless it is guided throughout the organization, it will never happen. In most older, traditional companies, people are concerned more for their own jobs in a fluctuating economy than anything else, and are less likely to champion the cause of New Marketing. Despite this, many companies have taken a fresh look at what they do and sell and have made personal connections with their audience. It takes a different allocation of money and resources than before, but with such a perspective, they can see their results, measurable more than a billboard on a highway.

Meatball Sundae is a quick, lively read and full of many examples of companies and what they did well – and didn’t do well – in practicing New Marketing. I recommend it to newer or old companies, to help them in their thinking. Depending on the company, making such a leap may not be as wide as crossing an ocean.

When I read Meatball Sundae, it made me think of a book Godin wrote back in 2002, Purple Cow. I think I’ll re-read that one next.

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Just as I was about to write a follow-on to my earlier post on LinkedIn’s mobile site, I found another example of a corporation not owning a domain name for their brand, product or service.

LinkedIn’s mobile site is at m.linkedin.com, but not at linkedin.mobi, as it is owned by someone in California and it is a parked page. Then I saw this post on the Chicagoist blog about a Web site for tracking down which McDonald’s restaurants serve Shamrock Shakes called – you guessed it – ShamrockShake.com. It is also owned buy someone in California. I would have thought after being exposed in Wired magazine’s article about not owning mcdonalds.com back in 1994, they would have gone on a spree to buy up ever conceivable name possible.

So make sure to get your domain name – billions have already been served!

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