Brand strategist Karen Kang puts the importance of personal reinvention bluntly: “Consider yourself a free agent—no one else is looking out for your best interests but yourself. You need to be crystal clear about who you are and the value you bring to a world where constant change is the only norm.” That’s the premise [...]
May 06, 2013 | Categories:Brands, Features, Insights, Marketing | Tags: Apple, brand communications plan, brand strategy, BrandingPays, business school, Cake, change, companies of one, constant change, emotional value, Forbes, free agent, Genentech, hypercompetitive, icing, image, Intel, Karen Kang, Marketing, personal brand, personal branding, promotion, rational value, Regis McKenna, reinvention, reputation, self-marketing, Silicon Valley, values | Leave A Comment »
[Originally posted on Forbes.com.] When it comes to family names as brand names, unless you’ve done something terrible or had the bad fortune of sharing a name with someone who did, it’s hard to do much worse than “Trump.” For most of the past four decades, the Donald has slapped his name on some of [...]
Mar 27, 2013 | Categories:Brands, CSR, Features, Insights, PR | Tags: affair, Barron Trump, brand, brand name, branding, cause, celebrity, divorce, Donald, Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Elle Decor, Eric Trump, Eric Trump Foundation, family name, footwear, giving back, golden ticket, handbags, Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, jewelry, liability, Los Angeles, Marla Maples, New York, New York City, Operation Smile, personal brand, PR, public relations, St. Jude, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, The Apprentice, The New York Observer, The Wharton School, Tiffany Trump, Trump, Trump Organization, University of Pennsylvania, Yahoo, Yahoo Shine | Leave A Comment »
[Originally published on Stamford magazine's website.] As a trendspotter, my eyes tend to be forever focused on the future, but one of my favorite ways to look back is through various linguists’ and lexicographers’ annual words of the year lists. For 2012, the rearview mirrors at the major dictionaries focused on big cultural trends and [...]
Feb 15, 2013 | Categories:Features, Insights, Trends | Tags: American Dialect Society, campaign, capitalism, dictionary, GIF, hashtag, Merriam-Webster, metrosexual, Open Dictionary, Oxford Dictionaries, Sandy, socialism, Stamford, terms, trending topics, Trends, trendspotter, vocabulary, words | Leave A Comment »
Now that all the college kids in my neighborhood are back at school after the year-end holidays and January terms, I’ve been thinking about parent-child connectivity. (My children are still small, but in our always-on world, I know I’ll have to address this sooner than I might think.) I heard a story not too long [...]
Feb 13, 2013 | Categories:Features, Insights, Social Media, Technology, Youth | Tags: cellphone, child, children, college, connection, connectivity, day care, email, Facebook, George Washington University, helicopter parent, involvement, National Survey of Student Engagement, NPR, parent, parenting, phone, preschool, smartphone, student, text, tweet, Twitter | 1 Comment »
[Originally posted on Forbes.com.] I can’t muster up too much sympathy for a Hollywood star whose personal branding woes haven’t prevented him from earning more money than most of us ever dream of seeing, but from an image point of view, I do feel bad for Ben Affleck. Even after all these years and all [...]
Feb 05, 2013 | Categories:Brands, Features, Insights, Uncategorized | Tags: Academy Awards, Africa, Argo, Ben Affleck, Bennifer, best director, best original screenplay, Boston, brand, branding, charity, Critics' Choice Awards, Dazed and Confused, Forbes.com, Gigli, Golden Globe Awards, Gone Baby Gone, Good Will Hunting, Hollywood, image, J. Lo, Jennifer Garner, Jennifer Lopez, Kathryn Bigelow, Kevin Smith, Matt Damon, movies, New York, Oscars, Perez Hilton, personal brand, Quentin Tarantino, Razzie Awards, reboot, rehabilitation, Steven Spielberg, tabloids, The Town | Leave A Comment »
[Originally published on Stamford magazine's website.] Last year, I took the risk of being blackballed by a nation of rabid fans of the pigskin (and more than a few friends of my own) to ask the question: What is the future of football? In light of all the life-threatening injuries and dangerously destructive playing across [...]
Jan 03, 2013 | Categories:Features, Health and Wellness, Insights, Trends, Youth | Tags: brain injury, brain trauma, chronic traumatic encephalopathy, concussion, CTE, Dave Duerson, football, Football High, high school, Jovan Belcher, Junior Seau, kids, Lystedt Laws, NFL, safety, Sandy Hook, Stamford, The New York Times, Youth | Leave A Comment »
[Originally posted on Forbes.com.] Hurricane Sandy was a sucker punch, all right. The storm’s devastation reminded us all—even those of us who feel invincible, because we live in this capital of industry and commerce—of how vulnerable we are. A week after she struck, I’m still in the midst of it, coping without electric power (also [...]
Nov 15, 2012 | Categories:Brands, Features, Insights, Trends | Tags: Bowling Alone, extreme weather, Forbes.com, global warming, Hurricane Irene, Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Sandy, Irene, Katrina, Manhattan, name, New Orleans, New York City, Panera, Sandy, Staten Island, superstorm, The New York Times, weather | Leave A Comment »
[Originally posted on Forbes.com.] Greg Smith, the disillusioned Goldman Sachs employee who left the firm in March with a scorched-earth op-ed in The New York Times, is back in the news as his tell-all book hit shelves last week. Whether he really pulled back the curtain on the Goldman brand or he’s just a faddish [...]
Nov 08, 2012 | Categories:Brands, Features, Insights, Media | Tags: backlash, book, brand, Business Insider, financial services, Goldman Sachs, Greg Smith, op-ed, personal brand, tell-all book, The New York Times, transparency, whistle blower | Leave A Comment »
[Originally posted on Havas Social.] It’s October—and to many that means football, pumpkins and German brew. It also means breast cancer awareness. Despite the seeming oversaturation of pink in recent years, I regret to admit that National Breast Cancer Awareness Month never really hit home for me. That is, until this year, when it literally [...]
Oct 29, 2012 | Categories:Features, Health and Wellness, Insights, Social Media, Technology | Tags: "Bang the Drum", blogosphere, breast cancer, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Breast Cancer Sisterhood, Brenda's Blog, cancer, Ford Warriors in Pink, Havas Social, Models of Courage | Leave A Comment »
[Originally posted on PRWeek.com.] This is the third in a series of three posts that will discuss what I see as a PR émigré managing in a world where evolution meets revolution. It is in our hands, we read about it daily, it is going to define the current decade, and each of us (if [...]
Oct 26, 2012 | Categories:Brands, Features, Insights, PR, Technology | Tags: Adobe, Barack Obama, Benjamin Franklin, Havas PR, ideas, innovation, newscrafting, PR, PRWeek, public relations, Steve Jobs, trendspotting | Leave A Comment »
[Originally posted on Forbes.com.] In our ever more digitized and virtual world, the centers of power are shifting. It’s not about establishment capitals anymore but innovative up-and-comers, where a critical mass of creativity is bringing about rapid-fire change, along with a good quality of life and a sense of like-minded community. Some cities have been [...]
Oct 19, 2012 | Categories:Brands, Features, Insights, Politics, Technology, Trends, Youth | Tags: Brown University, Buddy Cianci, California, community, creativity, Facebook, Forbes, G-20, innovation, John F. Kennedy Jr., Juliån Castro, Luke Ravenstahl, Mark Zuckerberg, Obama, Palo Alto, Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Promise, place, place making, power, Providence, San Antonio, Stanford University, Steve Jobs, Ted Kennedy, Youth | Leave A Comment »
Our thought leadership is in full display on our own website, but have you also checked out our latest blog posts on the other websites where we cross-create? In addition to frequent postings by @havaspr staff on Havas Social’s Social Media & Social Trends site, here are some of the latest: CEO Marian Salzman’s new [...]
Oct 01, 2012 | Categories:Agency News, Brands, Insights, Marketing, Social Media | Tags: @havaspr, blog posts, CMO Network, conversation, dialogue, Forbes.com, Havas PR, innovation, Life Is a Brand, Marian Salzman, Social Media, Social Media & Social Trends, the Huffington Post, thought leadership | Leave A Comment »
[Originally published on Stamford magazine's website.] Living in Connecticut and working in New York City, I’m a devoted Metro North commuter. When the day comes that I cease being a commuter, I might have to join a support group to help me through life without the transitions. Commuting is my psychic punctuation, separating my work [...]
Sep 12, 2012 | Categories:Features, Insights, Media, Technology | Tags: BlackBerry, commute, commuting, Connecticut, Madison Avenue, Metro North | Leave A Comment »
We put the kids on the bus for the first day of school and stood talking with a few other parents about … tattoos, of all things. We shared stories about why we got one and what it meant. We realized that most of our 30-something peers had a tattoo as well. Our kids had [...]
Sep 03, 2012 | Categories:Features, Insights, Social Media, Technology, Trends, Youth | Tags: digital, hybrid, iPad, iPod, mash-up, parenting, post-technology era, Prosumer Report, tattoo, This Digital Life, Trends, turntable, typewriter | 6 Comments »
We already knew women were better educated than men; now, it seems they’re more ambitious, too, with two-thirds saying they’re chasing a high-paying career, compared with 59 percent of men. Don’t think, though, that means more women are giving up on hopes of motherhood: Six in 10 say being a good parent is one of [...]
Aug 08, 2012 | Categories:Brainsnacks, Insights, Marketing, Trends | Tags: ambition, attachment parenting, career trends, college corporate trends, education, female, feminism, mommy guilt, online freelancers, parenting, parenting trends, The Conflict How Modern Motherhood Undermines the Status of Women, women, women trends, work survey | Leave A Comment »
Some of you blog loyalists out there might remember my excitement at the prospect of working with so many talented women this summer, and that has indeed been one of the highlights of this job. In the United States, female leadership averages about 16 percent in every sector across the board. I had just finished [...]
Jul 27, 2012 | Categories:Features, Insights, One Young House, PR | Tags: @erwwpr, Anne-Marie Slaughter, assertiveness, balance, C-suite, drawing clear lines, female leaders, female leadership, having it all, intern, internship, leadership, likability, salary negotiations, saying no, Sheryl Sandberg, success, superwoman stereotype, TED, The Atlantic, women | Leave A Comment »
With leadership in crisis, work-life juggling acts getting tougher, and Twitter and Facebook leading conversations, ethical C-suite executives today have a great opportunity to stand out by showing their true colors and connecting with their employees, their customers and their communities. Marian Salzman, CEO of @erwwpr, is spearheading agency thought leadership on the issue with [...]
Jul 23, 2012 | Categories:Agency News, Brands, Insights, Social Media | Tags: branding, business leaders, C-suite, CEO, CEO branding, CEOs, conversation, education, Facebook, leadership, Social Media, thought leadership, Twitter | Leave A Comment »
This is the sixth in a series of 10 posts about different aspects of CEO branding. As a CEO, you are not only responsible for profitability and productivity, but you’re also the top representative for the views and philosophies of the company you lead. Your company website no doubt has pages dedicated to what your [...]
Jul 23, 2012 | Categories:Brands, Features, Insights, Media, PR, Social Media | Tags: AT&T, blog, book, broadcast media, C-suite, CEO, CEO branding, CEOs, Coca-Cola, content, Dean Kamen, ghostwriter, Google, great story, Internet, magazine, newspaper, Patch, PowerPoint, Seth Godin, speaking, storytelling, TED, the Huffington Post, Tony Robbins, video, website, writing | Leave A Comment »
This is the fifth in a series of 10 posts about different aspects of CEO branding. At every level, the future of America depends on raising the educational level of the whole population. Gone are the mass-production jobs that allowed low-skilled people to get work in a factory operating a machine and earn a pretty [...]
Jul 20, 2012 | Categories:Brands, Features, Insights, Youth | Tags: business leaders, business school deans, C-suite, Caterpillar, CEO, CEO branding, CEOs, college, early-childhood education, education, James Owens, labor, learning, M.B.A., management, North Carolina State University, strategic thinking, The Wall Street Journal, university | Leave A Comment »
This is the fourth in a series of 10 posts about different aspects of CEO branding. Where does the buck stop in your organization? U.S. President Harry S. Truman spelled it out with a sign on his desk: “The buck stops here!” With those words, which he also keenly referenced in speeches, he explicitly took [...]
Jul 19, 2012 | Categories:Brands, Features, Insights | Tags: accountability, accountable, BP, business leaders, CEO, CEO branding, CEOs, dignity, employees, fairness, Harry S. Truman, Howard Schultz, humility, News Corp., News of the World, president, respect, Rupert Murdoch, shareholders, Starbucks, The buck stops here, Tony Hayward, trust | Leave A Comment »
This is the second in a series of 10 posts about different aspects of CEO branding. People remember moments of great leadership. They treasure them, retell them and burnish them in the retelling. The best become legendary symbols loaded with meaning—reputational gold. John F. Kennedy in blockaded Berlin delivering his 1963 “Berliner” speech, Martin Luther [...]
Jul 17, 2012 | Categories:Brands, Features, Insights | Tags: connect, connection, Jim Stengel, John F. Kennedy, leaders, leadership, Martin Luther King Jr., Mitt Romney, Nelson Mandela, prepared, present, Rudy Giuliani, speech, visible, Wael Ghonim | Leave A Comment »
[Originally posted on Stamford magazine's website.] Last Saturday morning, you could say I had a bit of a wake-up call. We sat eating Nova on Fairway bagels with a few weekend guests, our banter made a bit fuzzier by the previous night’s homemade sangria, courtesy of my sister, and icy margaritas from Jim’s son, courtesy [...]
Jul 03, 2012 | Categories:Features, Insights, Social Media, Technology, Trends | Tags: 140 characters, 24/7/365, Advertising, BlackBerry, C-suite, cloud, connection, digital, distractions, intimacy, Jay Chiat, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Mark Wnek, mobility, smartphone, Social Media, solitude, telephobia, telephone, text, virtuality, voice, voice mail | Leave A Comment »
With many of us still shaken to the core from an unsteady economy, the thought of a staycation holds some appeal as our thoughts turn to how we’ll spend any days off surrounding the Fourth of July. Staying close to home is the de facto choice for those of us scheduled within a microdot of [...]
Jul 02, 2012 | Categories:Features, Insights, Technology, Trends | Tags: Amsterdam, Belize, Buenos Aires, consumers, economy, ecotourism, Google, hyperlocal, Internet, July 4, local, reboot, recharge, respite, Shanghai, staycation, travel, vacation, wireless | Leave A Comment »
[Originally posted on the Holmes Report.] I have now seen Cannes from the inside, as a judge in the PR categories, and I will soon be going home with a head full of ideas for how we can reinvent our business—plus a suitcase full of dirty clothes, a permanent rosé hangover, information overload and some [...]
Jun 21, 2012 | Categories:Brands, CSR, Features, Health and Wellness, Insights, PR | Tags: Alzheimer's, Australia, autism, big ideas, budget, Cannes, Cannes Lions, cause, CSR, Down syndrome, insights tools, Japan, jury, La Redoute, PR, public relations, Puerto Rico, Romania, Sweden, the Netherlands, tsunami | Leave A Comment »
