DTC luggage company Away replaced cofounder Steph Korey as CEO just days after a Verge article caused a PR trainwreck by exposing a punitive work culture there. Korey will be kicked upstairs to take an Executive Chairman post and former Lululemon executive Stuart Haselden will step into her old position. To be clear, Haselden’s hire…
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We seem to be in a crisis of confidence. Public faith in many institutions – organized religion, Congress, and the news media — has eroded over four decades. According to Gallup, only the U.S. military has enjoyed a fairly consistent upswing in public confidence since the 1970s. The change seems particularly acute lately in our…
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As we head into the final months of the year and get ready for 2020, public relations pros are looking back on the year and taking stock of what means most to us in our work lives. Here’s what the Crenshaw team was most thankful for in 2019. CHRIS HARIHAR, PARTNER “I’m thankful for…
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FedEx CEO Fred Smith’s overheated response to a New York Times story about its tax bill – or lack of it – offers a PR master class in how not to react to an investigative piece. The NYT story packs a punch. By taking advantage of the 2017 tax legislation that cuts corporate rates from…
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To promote professional expertise and build visibility, it helps to be a media resource – that’s what keeps PR agencies in business. It’s also why it hurts when, after investing in researching and shaping a potential story, an interview doesn’t make its way past the initial phone call. How can subject-matter experts maximize their chances…
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A great PR campaign will obviously build brand visibility. But can it help where it really counts — customer acquisition? Can you draw a line from a PR program to a specific number of prospects generated? What about conversions from website visits, or deals influenced by credible articles or analyst reports? Does good PR create…
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The lifeblood of any startup is new customers. Whether it’s a B2C company that needs a high volume of sales or a B2B with a slower selling cycle, every high-growth business invests heavily in customer acquisition. Many businesses use a mix of email marketing, paid search, SEO, content marketing, and social media marketing to create…
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Most PR pros know that throwing facts and figures at a business audience won’t necessarily win them over. A great story, on the other hand, is more persuasive and more memorable. At a time when we have more data than we can possibly use and people connect on social platforms, storytelling is an ideal tool…
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An open call for trained performers — Have I got a career for you! Performing has an irresistible allure for an aspiring actor. The bug bites deep and won’t let go. Yet according to a recent survey, only 2% of actors make a living from it. That stat is enough to make you reach for…
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In business as in life, reputation is everything. Few corporate CEOs will deny that a company’s reputation colors every aspect of business, including marketing, talent recruitment, employee relations, shareholder relations, and even customer experience. In fact, the 2017 U.S. Reputation Dividend Report calls reputation a “cornerstone of corporate value” and quantifies the dividend that corporations…
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Can PR people do right by doing wrong? Or at least by breaking with convention? In any business there are rules — spoken and unspoken. Yet, sometimes, if you muster the nerve to color outside the lines, you can achieve more than you thought. Here are some examples of times when I broke the PR…
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It’s fascinating when a company’s public relations gets ahead of its reality. Any strategic PR or marketing plan should emphasize an organization’s strengths and rebut weaknesses and threats, but there’s such a thing as too much hype. This is particularly true in the tech sector. Case in point: WeWork. The Gizmodo headline, “WeWork To Delay…
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When is a boycott more than just PR? What makes it work? Recent reports of a slowdown in SoulCycle’s business made me wonder about the staying power of customer boycotts. Why do most fade while others gain traction and even force change? If you missed it, famous SoulCycle fans were outraged when billionaire Stephen Ross,…
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We’re hearing a lot about how automation and machine learning can make our lives easier, as well as how they may threaten our livelihoods in the future. Even in PR, an occupation that’s known as hard to scale and relatively labor-intensive, there are new opportunities to automate large parts of what we do. Entrepreneur and…
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The recent move by the Business Roundtable to redefine corporate priorities by emphasizing value beyond shareholder profits is the latest indicator that corporate reputation’s importance is on the rise. The statement supporting “stakeholder value” is also a good sign for public relations professionals who preach corporate responsibility or even strategic activism in U.S. corporate boardrooms….
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According to most people who work at PR agencies, especially tech firms, using the phone for media conversations is outdated. Hardly anyone thinks it’s useful to follow up, or worse, actually pitch a story by phone. PR pundits insist that phone calls will not earn you many friends, and at best it’s a waste of…
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It’s always instructive when PR teams entrusted with managing the reputations of major corporations run into reputation problems of their own. But it’s downright disturbing when it happens to one that presumes to lead our industry. Mega-agency Edelman recently made waves by resigning a lucrative engagement working with for-profit corrections company The GEO Group, a…
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As the influence of digital and social media has soared, PR agencies who focus primarily on earned media (once known as publicity) are often warned that they’re falling behind. There are regular calls for PR services to include paid media and other offerings. Many firms like to brag about how little they depend on earned…
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The past five years or so have seen drastic changes in the media and cultural landscape that impact PR and marketing. Challenges for PR practitioners include a faster-than-ever news cycle and what seems like constant political and cultural controversy. Combine that with an erosion of faith in government and private institutions, and it can make…
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As a profession, public relations evokes images of media pitching or crisis management. But according to the 2018 USC Annenberg Center for Public Relations Global Communications Report, writing is the skill most valued by PR recruiters. That makes sense; persuasion is fueled by artful storytelling, and despite the growth of video, many stories are still…
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As the national holiday approaches, it’s a fitting time to consider the importance of independence in the world of PR agencies. For years, advertising and PR firms have touted their “independent” status. But what does that really mean? One thing might be faster growth. In our industry independent agencies have grown at a brisk clip…
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“Strategy” is an overused word, but in public relations or marketing, it’s a key to success. Without the right PR strategy, a program can fall short or even fail spectacularly. Casual observers of the many ways PR generates earned media, like jumping on a breaking story, might conclude that planning isn’t a priority. Some PR…
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A high-impact PR program can be a technology company’s greatest asset – provided it’s well conceived and skillfully executed. In today’s frothy tech market, where the venture dollars are flowing and 32 new unicorns were created last year, PR can be a strategic weapon. Good will and strong community relations are also in demand as…
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In today’s fragmented media environment, the scarcest commodity for any marketing or PR pro is customer attention. That’s why engaging users and relationship marketing is so fascinating – and so elusive. Too many brands have outsourced their customer relationships to influencers like celebrities for hire. Influencers are effective, but how much more powerful are real,…
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Boeing’s PR crisis deepened this week as a fuller picture emerged of its handling of serious problems surrounding the 737 Max. With the release of audio from a tense November 2018 meeting between the American Airlines pilots’ union and Boeing executives – after the Lion Air crash but before the Ethiopian Airlines accident – the…
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Alexa, will technology change the public relations industry? It already has, of course. We use data analytics to inform our campaigns and to measure campaign outcomes like message delivery or perception change. Social listening and media monitoring is key for many programs, and PR pros have used email marketing for years, even for targeted media…
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There are all types of PR problems, but one of the most troubling is the public relations program that just isn’t generating traction, or one where outcomes fall short of expectations by the client or PR agency. What happened, and what are the best mid-course corrections? Here are some of the most likely mistakes. Fuzzy…
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In the ideal world a PR program has room for everything — a robust media relations component, branded content, strategic events, influencer outreach, and possibly borrowed-interest tactics that ramp up news during slow periods. But in the real world, budgets can be lean, or maybe they’re subject to change. Here are ways to squeeze the…
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When the college admissions cheating and bribery scandal broke nearly a month ago, two names led the headlines. More than 50 people were implicated, but actors Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman were featured in every article. Both actors’ spouses were mentioned, and as a social influencer, Loughlin’s daughter Olivia Jade was also drawn into the…
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In its business and its PR, Apple has had a golden touch. For a decade sales have climbed along with profits, and its reputation for innovation has flourished. Until recently, that is. iPhone sales started slowing several years ago, but no one seemed to mind or even notice much because prices kept going up. The…
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