Branding the Pope

[Originally posted on Forbes.com.] I’m writing this just after the conclave of cardinals announced the successor to Pope Benedict XVI, who last month became the first modern-day pontiff to abdicate the throne. They charted some new ground, choosing 76-year-old Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the first non-European to fill the role in more than 1,200 [...]
Mar 18, 2013 | Categories:Brands, Features, Social Media | Tags: abdication, Argentina, behaviors, branding, bureaucracy, Catholic Church, change, church brand, communication, conservative, corruption, culture change, debate, entrepreneur, entrepreneurial, environment, Europe, Forbes, Forbes.com, George Brandt, honesty, integrity, Jesuit, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Latin America, leadership development, passion, personal brand, pope, Pope Benedict, Pope Francis, progressive, progressive pope, relationships, respect, Romy Ribitzky, Second Vatican Council, secularism, sex abuse, startup, The New York Times, transparency, Twitter, Upstart Business Journal, values, Vatican, Vatican II, vision | Leave A Comment »
Trendspotting: Leading Expression
To announce his support of same-sex marriage, Barack Obama used just a couple of sentences. But in speaking from the heart, he seems to have won the support of far more constituents than when he’d previously been vague about his standing. That’s the thing about communication: ’Tis better to do it, and authentically, than not [...]
Jul 19, 2012 | Categories:Brainsnacks, Trends | Tags: authenticity, Barack Obama, benefits package, British, C-suite leadership, CEO, chief executives, communication, corporate communication, Forbes, gay marriage, Harvard Business School, leadership, leadership trends, studies on communication, transparency | Leave A Comment »
Trendspotting: Sex, Lies and Integrity
Right now, corporate distrust is at a record high: First there were the Enron and Bernie Madoff scandals, then that whole Wall Street crisis, followed by revelations about John Edwards. More recently, Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn was dismissed (with a $6 million severance package) after allegations that he had an inappropriate friendship with a [...]
Jun 29, 2012 | Categories:Brainsnacks, Trends | Tags: authenticity, Bernie Madoff, Best Buy, Best Buy CEO, Brian Dunn, C-suite, C-suite leadership, CEOs, chief executives, communication, Enron, honesty, John Edwards, leaders, leadership, leadership trends, lying, Rielle Hunter, Scott Thompson, transparency, truthfulness, Wall Street crisis, Yahoo, Yahoo CEO | Leave A Comment »
The Waiting Is Over

Anticipation, they say, is often more nerve-wracking than completing the task. I, along with three other interns, could not wait to start working with @erwwpr and One Young World. Feeling on top of the world as we stepped into the castle-looking PPG Place, we began our summer adventure. As you might know, the One Young [...]
May 22, 2012 | Categories:CSR, Features, Media, One Young House, PR, Social Media, Youth | Tags: communication, interns, internship, journalism, One Young House, One Young World, Pittsburgh, public relations, video editing | Leave A Comment »
Trendspotting: Nothing Sub in the Text
Just Our Type We’re texting more and talking less—and it’s saying a lot We’re spending considerably less time gabbing on our phones these days; not because we’re communicating less, but differently. About a third of us now say we’d rather text a friend than call. It’s easy to see why: Texting requires less time and [...]
Oct 30, 2011 | Categories:Brainsnacks | Tags: communication, cultural trends, smartphones, Social Media, texting, texting while driving | Leave A Comment »
Trendspotting: Smile, You’re on Twitter
Emoticon Marketing As emoticons pick up steam, more marketers—and even scholars—turn to them for sentiment analysis If you believe the New York Times, there’s been an explosion of emoticon usage in the email exchanges of the dourest of colleagues; if you believe Jezebel,
Oct 26, 2011 | Categories:Brainsnacks | Tags: Apple, communication, email, emoticons, JELL-O Pudding Mood Monitor, Marketing, marketing research, mood, mood research, social marketing, Social Media, text messages, texting, Twitter | Leave A Comment »
Between Texts

We are an instant gratification society with an insatiable need for communication. Call it an addiction. While others might lament this, the fact is, it’s shaping our social habits. One example is the migration from email to instant messaging in the office—and in life. (It’s odd to think of email as a more discursive mode [...]
Jun 16, 2011 | Categories:Advertising, Features, PR, Social Media, Technology | Tags: communication, conversation, instant gratification, instant messaging, John Hancock, PR strategy, texting, William Blake | Leave A Comment »
Voice Calls Are Going Bye Bye, Birdie

Originally posted on Euro RSCG Worldwide’s Prosumer Report microsite. Remember that scene in Bye Bye Birdie in which a teenaged Ann-Margret starts a telephone chain with all her friends? For the millennial generation, making actual phone calls feels about as relevant as a musical that’s set in the 1950s. True, “Glee” has made the younger [...]
Apr 22, 2011 | Categories:Features, Social Media, Technology | Tags: apps, brand, cell phone, communication, communications tool, Facebook, iPhone, landlines, millennials, mobile, Pandora, smart phone, telephone, texting, YouTube | Leave A Comment »
Prosumers in E-Love

Originally posted on the Huffington Post. This is the second in a series of four. See Euro RSCG Worldwide PR’s latest white paper, “Love (and Sex) in the Age of Social Media,” for more analysis about how Americans think about online romance. There’s a certain set of consumers who don’t just passively consume goods and [...]
Feb 15, 2011 | Categories:Features, Insights, Social Media, Technology, Trends | Tags: Alvin Toffler, blogs, communication, consumers, DIY, Euro RSCG Worldwide, flirting, IM, interactive technologies, iPad, links, love, mycasting, online love, online romance, Prosumers, sex, sexuality, Social Media, SoMe, Technology, texting, Trends, trendspotters, trendspotting, Valentine's Day | 2 Comments »
Net Gain

This is the third in a series of 12 posts expounding on the 2011 forecasts in the annual trends report from Salzman, president of Euro RSCG Worldwide PR and an internationally respected trendspotter. There’s a loss-of-faith crisis, and it’s as movement-ready as the one that led Jerry Rubin to pen the Yippie manifesto in 1968. [...]
Dec 01, 2010 | Categories:Advertising, Features, Social Media, Technology, Trends | Tags: Amazon, Barbra Streisand, Brands, Chemistry.com, China, communication, connectivity, consumption, convenience, Copains d'avant, CPM, Diet Coke, divorce, Duck Sauce, e-commerce, eBay, eHarmony, Facebook, faith, Foursquare, France, FreshDirect, Google, Gowalla, India, ineractivity, institutions, Internet, iPhone, Japan, Jerry Rubin, LinkedIn, Match.com, Mentos, Microsoft, mobile, niche, Orkut, personal CPMs, QQ, Richard Nixon, self-reliance, smart phone, Social Media, Technology, Thumbman, Trends, trendspotting, Twitter, U.K., values, Yahoo, Yippie, YouTube | 8 Comments »




