The Elements of Influence: The New Essential System for Managing Competition, Reputation, Brand, and Buzz (Dutton/Penguin Group, on sale Oct. 19, 2006) has drawn significant advance praise and support from noted business, political and academic leaders.

• "Alan Kelly is the Bill Walsh of marketing and positioning strategy and tactics. His playbook reads like an insider's field guide to the ins and outs of positioning warfare. Master it, and you can play with the pros anytime," says Geoffrey Moore, author of Crossing the Chasmand Dealing with Darwin.
• "This is the ultimate playbook for communicators and campaigners of all stripes. If you work in politics, business, or elsewhere, keep a copy of The Elements of Influence on your desk - and give copies to your staff," says Dan Schnur, Communications Director, McCain 2000 Presidential Campaign.
• "The Elements of Influence is a remarkable and timely book. It's also a good read, not only for those who practice in the professions of influence, but for those of us who are subject to their maneuverings. No one in marketing, sales, public relations, lobbying, and other forms of psychological influence can call their understanding complete without first examining what Alan Kelly has written," says James S. O'Rourke IV, Professor and Director, The Eugene D. Fanning Center for Business Communication, Mendoza College of Business, University of Notre Dame.
• "In The Elements of Influence, Alan Kelly emerges as one of the most original public relations theorists in years. Shrewd practitioners will use his system, while scholars will scientifically test it, far into the future," says Frank E. Ovaitt, Jr., President & CEO, Institute for Public Relations.
• "The Elements of Influence will tune you in to the art of playmaking and the strategic moves of players in everyday personal, corporate, or political life. It will give you conscious and competitive insight to ensure your success in the business of your life…and the life of your business," says Thomas L. Harrison, Chairman & CEO, Diversified Agency Services, Omnicom Group Inc. and author, Instinct: Tapping Your Entrepreneurial DNA to Achieve Your Business Goals.
• "Ever wonder how marketing campaigns get built? How messages are spun? How public opinion is managed? Here are the answers - in an eye-opening system that even the black belts of influence will find surprising!" says Jay Conrad Levinson, author of the Guerrilla Marketing book series.
• "I've already started using The Elements of Influence in my political strategy class. It's a great way toteach students about the full range of options available to strategists and to get them thinking about the next moves ahead of the one they select. Alan Kelly has written the first textbook for strategy courses worthy of the name. It will be a boon for scholars and researchers as well," says Michael Cornfield, Ph.D., Vice President of Public Affairs, ElectionMall.com and Adjunct Professor in Political Management, The George Washington University.
• "In the Elements of Influence, Alan Kelly provides a comprehensive and strategic plan for any organization to project its identity, to enhance its reputation, and to anticipate and neutralize its detractors. In an environment of global competition, Kelly has created the tools and techniques that work in that complex and often combative arena,"says Dr. Michael B. Goodman, Founder and Director, Corporate Communication Institute and author of Work with Anyone Anywhere: A Guide to Global Business.
• "The Elements of Influence moves the everyday playmaker from unconscious incompetence, as in the case of the USSR and Chernobyl, or unconscious competence, as in the case of Larry Ellison, to conscious competence. To gain strategic advantage, you need to be conscious and to be conscious, you need a Standard. Here it is," says Bud Michael, CEO Availigent and former CEO of Biz360.
• "The Elements of Influence moves public relations from the tactical to the strategic. It underscores the notion that public relations exists in an interactive world, one where competitors actively plot and counterplot public relations strategy. Kelly's book adds to the strategic use of public relations in today's ever competitive world," says Don W. Stacks, Ph.D., University of Miami, and author of the Primer of Public Relations Research.
• "Alan Kelly provides a unique and strategic look at how the communication process works.

The Elements of Influence and the art of playmaking will impact how people view
marketing, public relations and corporate communications well into the future," says Donald K. Wright, Ph.D., Professor of Mass Communication, Advertising & Public Relations, College of Communication, Boston University.

• "Finally!A clear-eyed, strategic look at marketing.For any serious student of business, The Elements of Influence is required reading!" says Michael Angier, founder and president of SuccessNet.org.
• "The Elements of Influence changes the debate on marketing and promotion. It's the first time anyone has created a reproducible system for building buzz. Anyone who wants a leg up in his or her marketplace has to read this book," says Jim L. White Ph.D., President & CEO JL White International, Inc. Creator Circle of Success, The Speed to Lead.
• "Marketing has always been a business of gut players. No longer. The Elements of Influence shows you exactly how to advance your message using tools that are quantifiable. This should be the Ur-text for anyone in the influence industries," says Matt Bacak, Founder of Frontier Marketing Intl, LLC.

About The Playmaker's Standard, LLC
The Playmaker's Standard, LLC (www.plays2run.com), is a software services and consulting firm specializing in strategy execution and dedicated to the discipline of playmaking. We help business leaders, policymakers, strategists, marketers and media professionals manage competition, reputation, brand and buzz for competitive advantage. Our suite of patent-pending online products, workshops and consulting services, based on The Elements of Influence, the landmark book by CEO and founder Alan Kelly, includes The Playmaker's Table , a first-ever "periodic table" of the 25 moves and countermoves of business, politics, and pop culture, and the StrategyMapper™ , a collaborative web tool that helps playmakers quickly predict and plan the underlying strategies of a marketplace and their options for winning. The Playmaker's Standard, LLC, is based in the Washington, D.C. area.
About Alan Kelly
Alan Kelly is a foremost authority in competitive strategy and a leading innovator in the fields of communication, research and technology marketing. He is the CEO and founder of The Playmaker's Standard, LLC, a software services and consulting firm specializing in strategy execution, and author of The Elements of Influence: The New Essential System for Managing Competition, Reputation, Brand, and Buzz. As founding CEO of Applied Communications Group, an acclaimed San Francisco-based public relations and research consultancy, he formulated the discipline of "playmaking" while counseling some of the best-known global technology companies, including Oracle, HP, Cisco, Sun Microsystems and Genentech, among others. Kelly holds a master's degree in Communication Research from Stanford University and now lives in Maryland.
About Dutton
Dutton Books is a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., one of the leading U.S. adult and children's trade book publishers, owning a wide range of imprints and trademarks including Berkley Books, Dutton, Frederick Warne, G.P. Putnam's Sons, Gotham Books, Grosset & Dunlap, New American Library, Penguin, Philomel, Riverhead Books and Viking, among others. Penguin Group is owned by Pearson plc, the international media company.