It’s easy to pile on United. More than the mistakes, it’s the type of mistakes, lacking that quality known as common sense. I’ve certainly taken my shots at United over the years with posts ranging from “The Worst Customer Service Narrative in the History of Branding” to the recent “United Enters Third Stage of a …more
We learned earlier this month that The Holmes Report named us one of five finalists for Tech Agency of the Year in the U.S. While some pooh-pooh awards, I view the Holmes Report recognition as a big deal. Our staff works damn hard. They deliver outstanding work. Why shouldn’t they bask in a touch of …more
The Internet has commoditized — and continues to commoditize — the news release. Yet, there’s still a time and place for the humble news release. And when the mission calls for this tactic, it’s logical to craft the narrative so it has the greatest probability of resonating with journalists. I came across a LinkedIn post …more
The quest by both brands and publications to fool the reader continues. In response, the FTC has made a push for disclosure on sponsored content and native advertising. But what about the online search for news? I was reminded of this challenge during a client campaign that included a sponsored content spoke. If you plug …more
It’s been a rough week for United Airlines. When my mom — who is still getting the hang of this thing called the internet — asks if I’ll continue flying on United, you know the PR debacle has reached the masses. I have this theory that a PR crisis typically breaks down into five stages: …more
Checking email during the morning of February 21, I received a smattering of notes that asked me if I was OK. OK? I didn’t understand. Did they know something nefarious had yet to reach me? Then I came across a note that added the context of a flood in San Jose. Seeing the video footage …more
I enjoy studying journalism. When it comes to business communications, journalists are the masters at storytelling. Highlighting this point, I came across the following from a New York Times review on the new Richard Nixon biography last week: “The similarities between Nixon and Trump leap off the page like crickets.There is, first and most superficially, …more
Communicators have picked up the thought leadership religion. With demand for product news similar to Vote-Hillary T-shirts, many have figured out that thought leadership can bring salvation, a door opener to media coverage.Yet, for all the talk about thought leadership, there can be a huge gap between the theory and what happens on the execution …more
Since conducting our first storytelling workshop in 2011, the honing of the material has been a never-ending process. To this point, we’ve considered the methodology as our intellectual property. It was part of how we differentiated the Agency, an approach to developing content that recognized that given a choice between dull or interesting, human beings will gravitate …more
