Archive: February 2010

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Storytelling 140 Characters at a Time … Not

I’ve got the Twitter religion. I’ve experienced its power in the form of crowd sourcing, research and new connections. But Twitter is not a platform for storytelling. Mark Drapeau who pens the blog Cheeky Fresh makes this very point in Microstorytelling Overkill and the Conundrum of the Exciting Event (must be nice to not have …more

One + Magazine on Storytelling for a Business Audience

  The title says it all, “Storytelling and Your Quest for Business Success.” It’s rare for a magazine to examine the power of storytelling in business. This particular article comes compliments of the trade book One +, which caters to more than 30,000 meeting planners. Before you scoff, consider the plight of meeting planners in …more

What Can Tiger Say to Diffuse the Crisis?

Tiger takes center stage tomorrow to publicly share his mea culpa. Every pundit and his brother has weighed in with a view. The local NBC affiliate was in our office today to interview our crisis guru John Radewagen. So I’ll keep my view brief. The statement on Tiger’s Web site doesn’t lead me to believe …more

Moes Takes: Communicating with Compelling Language II

I introduced a regular feature called Moes Takes last month. As a refresher, I worked with Rob Moes who was VP of marketing for Philips in the mid 1980s. During an interview at COMDEX, a reporter pressed Moes for projections on how many CD-ROM drives would be sold looking out five years. Rob responded “That’s …more

Storytelling Beyond the Gold at the Winter Olympics (Online Press Rooms)

Alexandre Bilodeau winning Canada’s first gold medal in the men’s freestyle moguls on Sunday got me thinking. Every Olympics reveals terrific human interest stories such as Bilodeau and his inspiration coming from his disabled older brother. You certainly don’t need a media kit to write up Team U.S.A.’s historic beat-down of the Russian hockey team …more

Crisis PR: Third Toyota Customer Letter Falls Flat

Customer letter No. 3 from Toyota arrived on the scene today. Like the previous two – analyzed in “Open Letter to Toyota Customers Hits Pothole” and “Toyota’s Second Letter to Customers Stays on the Road,” this letter was published in major dailies and on the company’s Web site. Unfortunately, the third time was not a …more

Crisis PR: Toyota’s Second Letter to Customers Stays On The Road

I skewered Toyota earlier in the week in the post “Open Letter to Toyota Customers Hits Pothole.” Instead of addressing the issue head on, Toyota started the letter harking back to its 50-year heritage. The narrative went downhill from there. I don’t think Toyota was particularly proud of the letter either given it’s no longer …more

Toyota Recall Crisis Part II: Journalistic "Fishing" a la Twitter

It’s standard practice for journalists to put a “face” on a crisis. It’s called humanizing the story. Which brings me back to the Toyota debacle which I addressed yesterday in the post “Open Letter to Toyota Customers Hits Pothole.” As you would expect, the reporters crafting follow-on stories to the Toyota crisis are indeed striving …more

Open Letter to Toyota Customers Hits Pothole

You know the Toyota debacle has reached a new low when it snares Steve Wozniak. And Woz’s issue isn’t even with the sticking gas pedal (the darn cruise control was malfunctioning). I think it’s fair to say the timing for this celebrity endorsement isn’t ideal. To ensure the “we-care” message reaches the masses, Toyota crafted …more