[Originally posted on Forbes.com.] It used to be that the people who presented weather and traffic segments on the news were as dry as the topics they covered. They didn’t have the fatherly gravitas of the anchorman, the dashing charisma of the foreign correspondents, or the warmth and relatability of the lifestyle reporters. They just [...]
Mar 11, 2013 | Categories:Brands, Features, Media, PR, Technology, Trends | Tags: AccuWeather, Al Roker, anchorman, Business Insider, Chuck Leavell, crowdsourcing, Dave Price, Dennis Crowley, extreme weather, Forbes.com, foreign correspondent, Google, Google Maps, hottest weather forecasters, iPhone, Jalopnik, lifestyle reporter, local broadcast, meteorologist, Mother Nature Network, national broadcast, National Weather Service, physical appearance, reality TV, Rolling Stones, sidekick, Swackett, The Early Show, Today, traffic, traffic reporter, Waze, weather, weather reporter | Leave A Comment »
[Originally posted on the Huffington Post.] This is the eighth in a series of 14 posts expanding on Salzman’s forecasts for 2013 in her annual trends report, a program of global communications group Havas Worldwide. This year’s book, What’s Next? What to Expect in 2013, was published on 12/12/12 and is available at 120MBooks.com. Salzman [...]
Dec 28, 2012 | Categories:CSR, Features, Politics, Social Media, Technology, Trends | Tags: Apple, Arab Spring, corporate social responsibility, CSR, debt, economic crisis, Google, mindfulness, Occupy, positive psychology, simplify, spending, stress, Tea Party, Trends, trendspotter, trendspotting, What's Next? | Leave A Comment »
[Originally posted on the Huffington Post.] This is the seventh in a series of 14 posts expanding on Salzman’s forecasts for 2013 in her annual trends report, a program of global communications group Havas Worldwide. This year’s book, What’s Next? What to Expect in 2013, was published on 12/12/12 and is available at 120MBooks.com. Salzman [...]
Dec 20, 2012 | Categories:Features, Technology, Trends, Youth | Tags: 120M Books, Academic Room, Asia, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, blended learning, China, Codecademy, college, college degree, competition, constant schooling, Coursera, education, edX, Google, higher education, informal learning, Khan Academy, lifelong learning, Marian Salzman, massive open online courses, MOOC, neuroplasticity, online education, parenting, Singapore, skills, South Africa, student debt, Technology, the Huffington Post, Thomas Friedman, Trends, trendspotter, trendspotting, What's Next?, YouTube | 1 Comment »
[Originally posted on the Huffington Post.] This is the second in a series of 14 posts expanding on Salzman’s forecasts for 2013 in her annual trends report, a program of global communications group Havas Worldwide. This year’s book, What’s Next? What to Expect in 2013, will be published on 12/12/12 and available at 120MBooks.com. Salzman [...]
Dec 06, 2012 | Categories:Features, Health and Wellness, Trends | Tags: 120M Books, annual trends report, Appreciative Inquiry, brain, CEO, Chade-Meng Tan, evolution, Google, Havas PR North America, negative campaigning, negativity, news, optimism bias, positive, positive psychology, positivity, pragmatic, resilience, Richard Branson, Tony Hsieh, Trends, trendspotter, trendspotting, Virgin, What's Next?, worries, Zappos | Leave A Comment »
The newspaper industry continues to face setback after setback. In one of the latest hits, the New Orleans Times-Picayune scaled back to just three print issues a week, making the Big Easy America’s most prominent city without a daily newspaper. Though most of us devote less than 10 percent of the time we spend on [...]
Aug 30, 2012 | Categories:Advertising, Brainsnacks, Marketing, Media, Social Media, Trends | Tags: advertising trends, Google, national post, New Orleans Times-Picayune, newspaper trends, PAPER Because, paper trends, print ads, print advertising, publications | Leave A Comment »
The Twitterverse is sucking us in: While 15 percent of U.S. adults report having used Twitter—a figure that remains relatively unchanged from 2011—the number of people who use it daily increased from 4 percent last year to 8 percent this year. But still, a recent U.S. poll revealed that Google is the most popular tech [...]
Aug 28, 2012 | Categories:Brainsnacks, Brands, Marketing, Social Media, Technology, Trends | Tags: 140 characters, Americans Twitter, Google, Japanese Twitter, Jennifer Egan, poll of Americans, Pulitzer Prize, Social Media, social media marketing, social media trends, SoMe, Sweden, Twitter, Twitter popularity, Twitter serialized story, Twitter traffic | Leave A Comment »
This is the ninth in a series of 10 posts about different aspects of CEO branding. This is not another piece about how a majority of Americans are overweight or obese. Nor is it a description of the way weight problems bear down on employee health and productivity. There are plenty of articles out there [...]
Jul 26, 2012 | Categories:Brands, Features, Health and Wellness | Tags: Anil Ambani, BMI, branding, business leaders, CEO, CEO branding, CEO Challenges, CEOs, Chris Boyce, Cleveland Clinic, competition, corporate wellness programs, Delos Cosgrove, exercise, Forbes, globesity, Google, happiness, health, healthy habits, marathon, mindfulness, obesity, perceptions, productivity, running, Russell Simmons, Virgin HealthMiles, weight prejudice, yoga | 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 »
In the 11 years since it launched, Wikipedia has changed the world as we know it. Not only has the free, collaboratively edited encyclopedia redefined the meaning of “expert,” but it’s been blamed for everything from diminishing traditional journalism to killing Encyclopaedia Britannica. In any case, it’s being taken more seriously than ever: U.S. political [...]
Jul 12, 2012 | Categories:Brainsnacks, Social Media, Technology, Trends | Tags: Amazon, British government, British government Wikipedia, Congress, content, Google, information architecture, Jimmy Wales, Netflix, newscrafting, online reputation, Politics, Reddit, search engines, smartphones, social media trends, White House, Wikipedia, Wikipedia blacked out, Wikipedia blackout, writing Wikipedia pages | 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 »
Looking to boost your PBI (personal brand index) and secure that dream job or snag some new clients? Now that we’ve entered an age in which a solid personal brand strategy is as important as a lack of typos on your résumé, the name of the game is no longer self-promotion but self-curation. We live [...]
Jun 15, 2012 | Categories:Brands, CSR, Features, Marketing, Politics, PR, Social Media, Youth | Tags: Brand Me, cause, consumer brands, Euro RSCG Worldwide, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, millennials, Naomi Troni, PBI, personal brand, personal brand index, Pinterest, privacy, self-curation, Social Media, social networks, strategy, Twitter | 1 Comment »
Nineteen thousand Facebookers die every day, and now that Facebook has launched Timeline, which begins at birth, there’s really only one logical way for it to end, in the words of Ross Andersen in The Atlantic, isn’t there? Modern-day philosophers say that our ritual of communicating with late loved ones, or even celebrities, by posting [...]
Jun 14, 2012 | Categories:Brainsnacks, Social Media, Trends | Tags: Dead Soci.al, death, Facebook, Facebook death, Facebook timeline, Gmail, Google, identity, If I Die, philosophy, social media trends, social media will, Twitter | Leave A Comment »
While anyone would argue that Generation Y’s potential is immeasurable, the reality is that the expectation of immediate results is something unique to my peers. Gratification now comes so easily with social media, smartphones and numerous other ways to access the Internet at virtually any time and place. (Ha. Virtually. Get it?). This “now” way [...]
May 30, 2012 | Categories:Advertising, Features, Social Media, Technology, Trends, Youth | Tags: connected, connection, Generation Y, Google, Hyundai, instant gratification, Internet, Jeff Bridges, Kelly Mooney, millennials, now, Social Media, The Ten Demandments, virtual | 1 Comment »
[Originally posted on CNBC.com.] With the Facebook IPO looming and everybody watching, I’m wondering if the social network to end all social networks is going to live up to the hype. (Could anything live up to all this hype?) With big advertisers not convinced that Facebook is a good platform to propel brands forward and [...]
May 18, 2012 | Categories:Advertising, Brands, Features, Social Media | Tags: Advertising, Disney, Eduardo Saverin, Facebook, Facebook IPO, Ford, GM, Google, Infographic Labs, Instagram, Kraft Foods, Mark Zuckerberg, Pinterest, Sheryl Sandberg, Social Media, social networks, Wall Street, Yahoo | 1 Comment »
Google co-founder Larry Page is reportedly “obsessed” with Facebook, even “paranoid” about it. Seeing the social network as Google’s No. 1 adversary, the recently reminted Google CEO rolled out Google+ last year and revamped Google’s privacy policy, all in the name of stealing some of Facebook’s thunder. But for each of Google’s successes, Facebook appears [...]
May 16, 2012 | Categories:Brainsnacks, Social Media, Technology, Trends | Tags: advertising trends, Apple, C-suite, CEO, Facebook, Google, Google Plus, Instagram, Larry Page, Mark Zuckerberg, smartphones, Social Media, Tagtile, Twitter | Leave A Comment »
[Originally posted on the Huffington Post.] In this election year, I’ve been on fear watch. Folks are fearful of everything from 2012 theories to GMOs to student loans taking over as the No. 1 source of pain for college grads everywhere. A few years ago, I talked at length about the cult of anger our [...]
May 07, 2012 | Categories:Advertising, Brands, Features, Insights, PR, Social Media, Youth | Tags: 9/11, Advertising, anger, Brands, business, Chevy, Chrysler, college, consumer confidence, Daniel Gardner, fear, fearless, fearlessness, France, French elections, Generation Y, Germany, GMOs, Google, Hermes, hope, Israel, Japan, Martin Luther King Jr., Obama, Palestine, PR, presidential election, public relations, retail, South Sudan, student loan debt, student loans, suburbs, World War II | Leave A Comment »
Forgetting your wallet at home might soon be less incapacitating than it once was, so long as you didn’t forget your smartphone, too. This past fall Google rolled out Google Wallet, which stores your credit card information, then allows you to pay at participating stores with a tap of your fingertip. But not everyone thinks [...]
May 02, 2012 | Categories:Brainsnacks, Social Media, Technology, Trends | Tags: ambient social networking, European Commission, Google, Google Wallet, mobile wallets, Nokia, proximity-based social networks, smartphone, startup trends, technology trends | Leave A Comment »
The concept of targeted advertising has taken a bit of a PR punch in the gut just lately. First, there was the story of the teenaged Target customer who was sent pregnancy-related offers before she’d told her family she was expecting. Target has admitted to tasking a statistician with making educated guesses about its shoppers—but [...]
Apr 23, 2012 | Categories:Advertising, Brainsnacks, Marketing, PR, Social Media, Trends | Tags: America, browsing history, data tracking, Google, Marketing, online privacy, privacy, search engines, Target, targeted ads, technology trends | Leave A Comment »
Online ad spending in Russia swelled by 56 percent in 2011—meaning that officially, but just barely, it surpassed print advertising spending. The U.S. is also set to hit that advertising milestone this year; in 2012 American advertisers will allot an estimated $39.5 billion to online campaigns (compared with $32.03 billion last year). Who’s pocketing these [...]
Mar 20, 2012 | Categories:Advertising, Brainsnacks, Media, Social Media, Technology, Trends | Tags: Advertising, advertising trends, american association of advertising agencies, association of national advertisers, digital ads, Facebook, Google, in-view advertising, infographic, online ad spending, online ads, print advertising, Russia, social media advertising, television advertising, the interactive advertising bureau, United States | Leave A Comment »
If the robotic car Google is testing can ever navigate all its roadblocks, you may one day be able to commute to work while catching some extra shut-eye. Among the burning questions: How would insurance concerns be addressed, and how would a police officer issue a traffic ticket to a robotic car? BMW, too, has [...]
Mar 06, 2012 | Categories:Brainsnacks, Technology, Trends | Tags: BMW, France, Google, Japan, robotics, robots, U.K., United Kingdom | Leave A Comment »
Coughing up the password to an email address or social media site is the newest test of young love. With this top-secret data in hand, modern high school sweethearts scour one another’s exchanges for clues about faithfulness—often storing ammunition for post-breakup warfare while they’re at it. Adults, too, grapple with the issue of disclosing passwords [...]
Feb 03, 2012 | Categories:Brainsnacks, Social Media, Technology, Trends | Tags: AIM, cellphones, children, digital literacy, Facebook, Google, love, Netflix, password, password sharing, privacy, psychology, relationships, smartphones, Social Media, teenagers, two-factor authentication | Leave A Comment »
Google recently announced a donation of a not-too-shabby $100 million to education initiatives and other causes this year. And the global behemoth is not alone in its jaw-dropping good-heartedness; in spite of an idling economy, 72 percent of companies now have formal corporate responsibility programs. That’s up 10 percent from last year. And it’s starting [...]
Jan 18, 2012 | Categories:Brainsnacks, CSR, Social Media, Technology, Trends | Tags: cause, CEOs, corporate social responsibility, corporations, CSR, David Jones, Google, not-for-profit, philanthropy, Power of Thai, Thailand, Who Cares Wins | Leave A Comment »
Consumers worldwide are expected to fork over $466 billion during the 2011 holidays—up nearly 3 percent from last year—and experts say the way we’ll spend much of this money may signal the biggest shift in shopping habits since the catalog was introduced in the late 1870s. This season, interactive tablet apps like Catalog Spree, Coffee [...]
Dec 15, 2011 | Categories:Brainsnacks, Brands, Fashion, Social Media, Technology, Trends | Tags: Anthropologie, app, branding, Catalog Spree, catalogs, Coffee Table, consumer trends, Google, iPad, Nordstrom, print, retail, retail trends, Revel Touch, Saks Fifth Avenue, Sears, Social Media, Technology, TheFind, Walmart | Leave A Comment »
