In the spirit of Johnny Carson’s alter ego Carnac the Magnificent, here’s my look into the communications crystal ball for 2010. But before jumping in, many thanks to Todd Defren who was kind enough to run these predictions on his blog PR-Squared. A Federal Trade Commission Investigation Will Evolve into Bloggergate This year saw the …more
By definition, there’s a feel-good element to a hero. They overcome obstacles on their way to a positive outcome. And if the hero starts out as an underdog a la “David versus Goliath” there’s even more of a reason to have a rooting interest. The same concept holds true in business storytelling. While we tend …more
There’s a reason that the official Google Blog is so well read and shows up on the Techmeme leaderboard. Beyond dominating search, the Google posts are crafted with a conversational tone and often contrast the old way with a new way. Take last week’s post “Go thataway: Google Maps India learns to navigate like a …more
When the New York Times hired Ashlee Vance, many enterprise computing PR folks rejoiced. Tired of watching the Web 2.0 hotshots dominate business media stories on computing, they thought, “Finally. Here is a major daily bringing on Vance with the implied message that enterprise computing once again matters.” Not exactly. It was as if people …more
The movie business provides a window into how people like their stories. The path for movies can take many forms, but they end on a positive note 99 percent of the time. That’s the way we like it. Shrek gets the princess (albeit, with a revised look). Michael Oher goes on to play offensive tackle …more
When contrast is so great that it challenges our assumptions, you’ve got the makings of a good story. So it is in The Huffington Post article, “McDonald’s Gets Modern European-Style Makeover in NYC.” Is there a restaurant interior more dreary than the classic McDonald’s? Clearly, the original objective for the seating area was to make …more
The vast majority of my posts address topics outside the confines of the Agency. My last company-centric post was back in July, taking a trip down nostalgia lane with our 21-year anniversary in mind. With the caveat out of the way, I wanted to highlight a guest post from Wei Wang out of our Beijing …more
Compelling storytelling in business often threads together anecdotes and numbers into a single tale. This dynamic comes across loud and clear in the USA Today article “Utility Turns Table Scraps into Electricity” by Julie Schmit The story focuses on the East Bay Municipal Utility District in the San Francisco Bay Area and its first-of-a-kind treatment …more
Like most business publications, the Journal has been covering the maneuvering related to the Supreme Court addressing the question on intellectual property: When can a business method be patented? As you would expect, stories have revolved around attorneys and CEOs informally pleading their cases that just so happen to align with their own interests. Not …more
