What a surprise! Derek Jeter is not only a hall-of-fame shortstop who makes the time to help the elderly cross Fifth Avenue, the guy also knows how to write. When I say “knows how to write,” I don’t mean in the literary sense or with storytelling techniques. If my high school English teacher Mr. Harper, …more
The Year of the Horse officially kicked off on January 31 with the 15-day celebration coming to an end today (known as the Lantern Festival) Our Singapore team saw an opportunity to bring the Chinese New Year and the PR profession together as an infographic, part of our push to experiment with visual storytelling using …more
I wrote about this issue last year, “Aliens Converge on Sioux Fall, South Dakota in Quest of Killer Headline.” Given the ceaseless bombardment of information, anyone looking for an online audience increasingly thinks of headlines as a form of eye candy. I experience the gravitational pull myself. One quick example – The headline for a …more
If you’re like me, you picked up last Tuesday’s New York Times and thought WTH? (OK, maybe it wasn’t “what the heck,” but you get the drift.) How did feel-good storytelling on the City of Chattanooga end up above the fold in The New York Times? I’m sure officials from numerous cities who have invested …more
The Sunday Times broke the “Rowling admits Harry Potter should have ended up with Ron Weasley’s chick” story last weekend. Given the clout of the Harry Potter franchise – which continues to go ka-ching – the story constituted a bona fide scoop. “Congrats” from above surely rained down on the journalist Claudia Croft who interviewed …more
My editorial calendar originally slotted a post today for the best tweets at the Super Bowl. The fact that there wasn’t an Oreo moment didn’t surprise me. But I was surprised that culling hundreds of tweets from varied organizations produced little in the way of business storytelling gold. Before going further, it’s important to acknowledge …more
Hundreds of brands anxiously await the kick off for today’s Super Bowl, their war rooms buzzing with caffeinated beverages and momentum-building wit. Organizations of all types are ready to seize their piece of Warhol-like fame. They just need to be clever at the precise moment, riffing off a happenstance during the game. As shared in …more
Today finds hundreds of brands huddled in their war rooms, rehearsing how they will respond to what-if scenarios at the Super Bowl. I loved the line uttered by David Matahia, director of marketing communications for Hyundai, at the Holmes Innovation Summit last week: “Oreo screwed us all with their Super Bowl moment.” Because Oreo generated …more
Have you ever noticed that the more famous a person becomes, the less accessible he or she becomes? Marsha Collier is an exception to this theorem (and I thought I would never use my high school algebra). As a leading expert on customer service, small-biz guru and best-selling author, she still lends a helping hand …more
