I recently had the privilege to attend PR News’ PR Measurement Conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. I was excited to attend, since the conference was designed to answer a question that is central to the public relations practice: How exactly do we show our clients the return on their investment (ROI)? [...]
May 30, 2013 | Categories:Features, PR, Social Media | Tags: accounting, bottom line, business, business type, C-suite, client, coverage, D.C., Excel, math, measurement, Media, media type, metrics, modeling, National Press Club, negative articles, numbers, positive articles, PR, PR Measurement Conference, PR News, public relations, return on investment, ROI, sales, Social Media, social media measurement, tools, value, Washington | Leave A Comment »
[Originally posted on the Huffington Post.] As we approached Brain Tumor Awareness Month (it’s every May), I had coincidentally been posting about my own repeated misadventures in and recent return visit to brain tumor land. Some of what I wrote or tweeted about might have sounded a bit crotchety (the stress of having to negotiate [...]
May 29, 2013 | Categories:CSR, Features, Health and Wellness, Insights, PR, Technology | Tags: Alissa Parker, BlackBerry, brain, brain surgery, brain tumor, Brain Tumor Awareness Month, CBS, craniotomy, Emilie Parker, entrepreneurial, future, hard work, Havas, heal, healing, insurance, Massachusetts General Hospital, media relations, meningioma, National Brain Tumor Society, Newtown, passion, pope, PR, recovery, Robbie Parker, Sandy Hook, second opinion, surgery, the Huffington Post, tweet, Twitter, University of Arizona, work | Leave A Comment »
[Originally posted on Forbes.com.] I recently received an intriguing email from a former branding executive who now runs a small marketing consulting company. Nancy Shenker, whose new venture is called theONswitch, found a way to build a personal brand by breaking rules, being rebellious and tapping into her self-professed “dark side.” It sounds like a [...]
Apr 02, 2013 | Categories:Brands, Features | Tags: Alanis Morissette, Amy Poehler, bad girl, Bad Girl Good Business, Betty White, brand, branding, breaking rules, direct, glass ceiling, Hillary Clinton, injustice, innovating, innovation, inspirational, irreverent, Judith Regan, Nancy Drew, Nancy Shenker, Nancy Sinatra, personal brand, PR, public relations, rebellious, resourceful, results, role model, Sheryl Crow, stereotype, theONswitch, Tina Fey, Tina Turner, women | 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 posted on Forbes.com.] Even though Lance Armstrong has been in the news for months—the United States Anti-Doping Agency’s incriminatory report was released in early October, though speculation was raging well before that—he’s really just at the beginning of his problems. From a crisis management and personal branding standpoint, he has a long road ahead [...]
Feb 01, 2013 | Categories:Brands, Features, Media, PR | Tags: apology, Ashley Olsen, athlete, brand, branding, CNN, crisis communications, crisis management, cycling, doping, drugs, Forbes.com, fraud, interview, Jake Tapper, Lance Armstrong, Livestrong, Matthew McConaughey, Media, media consultant, Oprah Winfrey, performance-enhancing drugs, personal branding, PR, public relations, publicity, reboot, rehabilitation, responsibility, Sheryl Crow, Social Media, sportsmanship, The New York Times, United States Anti-Doping Agency | Leave A Comment »
I, like everyone else, was horrified as I watched the tragedy unfold in Newtown, Conn., on Friday. My colleagues and I crowded around our office TVs and watched the news, feeling utterly helpless. I stayed glued to my TV late into the night on Friday and Saturday, watching Anderson Cooper and other newscasters struggle to [...]
Dec 18, 2012 | Categories:CSR, Features, Media, PR, Youth | Tags: Alissa Parker, Anderson Cooper, Connecticut, Emilie Parker, Emilie Parker Fund, Havas PR, Media, Newtown, PR, Robbie Parker, Sandy Hook, tragedy | 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 PRWeek.com.] This is the second in a series of three posts that will discuss what I see as a PR émigré managing in a world where evolution meets revolution. Some cities always attract the limelight. New York and Paris have rich pasts full of historic events and interesting people that will always [...]
Oct 25, 2012 | Categories:Brands, Features, PR, Social Media, Trends | Tags: Amtrak, Bill Clinton, Brands, Buddy Cianci, C-suite, cities, Cory Booker, David Jones, digital at the core, evolution, Havas, John Wren, Martha Stewart, Newark, One Young World, personal branding, Pittsburgh, place making, PR, Providence, PRWeek, public relations, Richard Branson, Sir Martin Sorrell, solutions mindset, Tony Hsieh, transparency, Trends | Leave A Comment »
[Originally posted on PRWeek.com.] This is the first in a series of three posts that will discuss what I see as a PR émigré managing in a world where evolution meets revolution. You’ve heard it said that the future is now. That’s much closer to the truth than it was even a half-decade ago. I [...]
Oct 24, 2012 | Categories:Brands, Features, PR, Technology, Trends | Tags: Apple, future, Havas, iPhone, Media, newscrafting, normal, place making, PR, PR tools, PRWeek, public relations, supercities, Technology, the economy, The End of Normal, tools, trendspotting | Leave A Comment »
This morning, our agency, our global network and many of our corporate comrades around the world start the day with a clean slate: a new name. It’s part of a worldwide rebranding operation to highlight our unified culture. So now we are Havas PR North America. We’ve got the same excellent people and are doing [...]
Sep 24, 2012 | Categories:Agency News, Brands, PR | Tags: awards, connected, future, Future First, global network, Havas PR, Havas PR North America, PR | Leave A Comment »
This is the third in a series of 10 posts about different aspects of CEO branding. You might be sick of people talking about social media. That’s understandable. It can get tiresome when the hot topic of the month becomes the hot topic of the year and looks set to be the hot topic of [...]
Jul 18, 2012 | Categories:Brands, Features, PR, Social Media, Technology | Tags: Bill Gates, branding, CEO, CEO branding, CEOs, comments, controversy, employees, Facebook, Flickr, Forbes, humanity, Internet, investors, LinkedIn, Martha Stewart, Michael Dell, narrator, Pinterest, PR, Reddit, Richard Branson, share, Social Media, social platforms, Spotify, stakeholders, Technology, Tom Peters, Tumblr, Twitter, Vimeo, YouTube | 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 »
[Originally posted on Euro RSCG’s Social Life and Social Media blog.] If we want to characterize the growth in many industries as slowing to a plateau, then the PR industry’s growth might be best described as mountainous. Whether we recognize it or not, there’s a change in our society that is turning people into social [...]
Jun 20, 2012 | Categories:Features, PR, Social Media, Trends | Tags: balance, consumers, Facebook, iPhone, news, PR, public relations, Social Media, social networking, Trends, Twitter | Leave A Comment »
Many of you reading this have worked in marketing, advertising or PR and have made a lifelong career out of building brands and selling products in many categories. But have you ever taken the time to think of what you have to offer the world as a product? Maybe it’s your ability to write great [...]
Jun 13, 2012 | Categories:Advertising, Brands, Features, Marketing, PR, Social Media, Technology, Trends | Tags: adland, Advertising, Advertising Age, Apple, Brand Me, freelancing, linchpins, Marketing, personal brand, Pinterest, polyglots, PR, public relations, self-curation, Seth Godin | Leave A Comment »
I walked into the One Young House kitchen and saw bubbles everywhere. The dishwasher was spewing soapy, bubbly water at a rapid pace. “Cassie! Cassie!” I screamed. Cassie saw the mess on the floor and then the look on my face. She burst out laughing. We both did. A few minutes later, the situation became [...]
May 29, 2012 | Categories:Features, One Young House, PR, Social Media, Technology, Youth | Tags: journalism, One Young House, One Young World, Pittsburgh, Politics, PR, public relations, team | 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 »
[Originally posted on the Huffington Post.] Everybody’s talking about the inevitable social media fatigue setting in, but I myself am having a wicked case of brain blur. At any given time, my head is filled with ways to solve problems that often have no answer, as in trying to make sense of how to communicate [...]
Nov 04, 2011 | Categories:Features, Marketing, Media, PR, Social Media | Tags: ABC, Amanda Knox, Amazon, blur, brain blur, J.C. Penney, Jeff Bezos, Marketing, McDonald's, Microsoft, Missoni, PR, public relations, Social Media, social media fatigue, Steve Jobs, Target, Twitter, Wal-Mart, Wall Street, Yahoo | Leave A Comment »
[Originally posted on the Huffington Post.] Behold the velocity of change, where technology has enabled a Mach 11 approach to spreading and receiving information. And as an outcome of all this now-or-now business, the rumor mill is not only buzzing but also shouting down the lane. It’s not at all unlike the virus portrayed in [...]
Nov 01, 2011 | Categories:Brands, Features, PR, Social Media, Technology | Tags: Anthony Weiner, Apple, Ashton Kutcher, buzz, change, China, Demi Moore, Facebook, freedom of speech, hype, Internet, iPhone, Kodak, Los Angeles Times, McDonald's, Occupy Wall Street, PR, public relations, Sina Weibo, Social Media, TMZ, transparency, Vladimir Putin, Whole Foods | Leave A Comment »
[Originally posted on the Holmes Report.] It’s been almost three years since we first heard about Bernie Madoff and his Machiavellian Ponzi scheme that ruthlessly cheated people out of millions of dollars. But now that Stephanie Madoff Mack (the widow of Bernie’s son Mark, who hung himself last December) has published an autobiography, The End [...]
Oct 27, 2011 | Categories:Brands, Features, Insights | Tags: Bernie Madoff, brand, branding, greed, Marketing, Ponzi, PR, rebrand, reputation, Ruth Madoff, shame, Stephanie Madoff Mack, The End of Normal | Leave A Comment »
As a communications professional, I value the importance of fully communicating to one’s public through various media during any type of crisis. We had a big weather crisis this week in the New York City tristate area with the arrival of Hurricane Irene, and for many Long Island residents it grew into a communications crisis, [...]
Sep 02, 2011 | Categories:Features, PR, Social Media | Tags: communications, crisis, Facebook, Hurricane Irene, Long Island, Newsday, power outage, PR, public relations, tweet, Twitter | Leave A Comment »
[Originally posted on the Holmes Report.] I never liked the name Irene. Growing up in New Jersey, I had a crazy aunt with that very name, a religious zealot of sorts who would occasionally swoop into our suburban promised land from Brooklyn (when it wasn’t cool) and frighten me with her views. I have a [...]
Sep 01, 2011 | Categories:Features, Insights, PR, Social Media | Tags: Barack Obama, Brooklyn, communications, earthquake, East Coast, Facebook, Hurricane Irene, Hurricane Katrina, Media, Michael Bloomberg, New York City, PR, public relations, The New York Times, The Weather Channel, Twitter, weather | Leave A Comment »
Originally posted on Fuel the Future. As someone who has watched trends for many years and come up with a few buzzwords of my own, I’m amused and startled by this notion of “storytelling” as the newest bit of jargon working its way into our marketing/PR vernacular. In the canon of marketing, it seems fair [...]
Aug 31, 2011 | Categories:Advertising, Brands, Features, Marketing, PR, Trends | Tags: 1969, American Airlines, brand, digital, Gap, journalists, Madison Avenue, Marketing, media coverage, military, news, Nicolas Sarkozy, PR, public relations, social, stories, storytelling, transparency, Truth | Leave A Comment »
3. Samantha Jones is completely unrealistic. Other than the obvious reasons that this is true, Samantha (the PR executive on “Sex and the City” played by Kim Cattrall, for those of you out there who didn’t follow the show), from a public relations perspective, could not have done all her work alone. No one at [...]
Aug 15, 2011 | Categories:Features, Insights, PR, Social Media | Tags: Brown University, Candace Bushnell, diabetes, Euro RSCG Worldwide PR, Facebook, Google, intern, internship, Kim Cattrall, Marian Salzman, pharmaceuticals, PR, public relations, Samantha Jones, Sanofi, Sex and the City, Social Media, tweet, tweets, Twitter | Leave A Comment »
Originally posted on Fuel the Future. I’m experiencing a bit of social media myopia these days and think I need to adjust my lens. It’s getting blurry out there, isn’t it? In this crazy connected space we’re all playing in, every move we make is watched, followed and interpreted—sometimes without our consent. It’s a fact [...]
Jul 08, 2011 | Categories:Features, Social Media | Tags: ABC News, Anthony Weiner, blur, blurry, BranchOut, computer, Facebook, Fuel the Future, Google, Harvard Gazette, jobs, marketers, Marketing, networking, New York Post, online, PR, private, public, reality TV, sharing, smart phone, Social Media, social networks, Street View, Switzerland, transparency, Twitter, Unlisted Videos, YouTube | Leave A Comment »
Cultivate Good Social Media Habits
This is the third in a series of 10 posts about different aspects of CEO branding. You might be sick of people talking about social media. That’s understandable. It can get tiresome when the hot topic of the month becomes the hot topic of the year and looks set to be the hot topic of [...]
Jul 18, 2012 | Categories:Brands, Features, PR, Social Media, Technology | Tags: Bill Gates, branding, CEO, CEO branding, CEOs, comments, controversy, employees, Facebook, Flickr, Forbes, humanity, Internet, investors, LinkedIn, Martha Stewart, Michael Dell, narrator, Pinterest, PR, Reddit, Richard Branson, share, Social Media, social platforms, Spotify, stakeholders, Technology, Tom Peters, Tumblr, Twitter, Vimeo, YouTube | Leave A Comment »