Dear CMOs, I appreciate that communication is often not the “shiny new object” in your arsenal. I also appreciate that the demands on your time mean you’re slurping down a protein-fortified yogurt concoction for lunch and the last thing you need is a PR agency review consuming time you don’t have. That’s okay. If you …more
Father’s Day takes center stage on Sunday. I’ve decided to take the liberty of viewing Sunday as “Parent’s Day.” It’s difficult write about my dad without bringing the mom into the picture and vice versa; hence, this post on the two of them. With all the talk and political rancor flying around on immigrants, I …more
Going back to the Trump administration, TikTok has been in the government’s cross hairs for data privacy issues. The government views user data saved outside the U.S. as a security risk. Rather than distribute a news release or talk to journalists on recent actions to address the issue, TikTok has controlled the narrative by issuing …more
I decided to republish this post from a couple years age when our younger son Elliot got married. While today is Father’s Day, not “Parent’s Day,” I still seems to fit the scene. Here goes … Let’s start with the marriage of Marv and Ruth Hoffman. The photo above shows my parents on their wedding …more
Companies consider brainstorming a magical alchemy, especially if the business puts a premium on creativity. That’s certainly the case in a communications consultancy; not so much if you’re an accounting firm that depends on the rigor of process. The words “let’s brainstorm” bring multiple people together with the singular quest to find a better way. …more
You might have seen the news earlier this month that we promoted Maureen Tseng to oversee our Southeast Asia operation from our hub in Singapore. We hired our first employee in Asia on April 17, 1997. That person was Maureen. The photo above depicts her and our Singapore team during the early days when we …more
By Chris Owen, Director, Hoffman Europe Before I go on, I need to be clear: this is *not* a snarky whingey post. Despite the theme and the title, I’m going to make this as constructive as possible. Here’s the thing. I recently posted a promoted job ad for a Senior Account Manager / Account Director …more
By Chris Owen, Director, Hoffman Europe Blah blah pandemic, blah blah disruption. There we go — bigger picture ticked off without the need for a 150-word set-up. Let’s just get cracking on the discussion — namely, how we can learn from past experience and avoid the problems many face with remote working. First up, an …more
Trust — flowing in both directions — underpins healthy client-agency relationships. Imagine if we had to “fact check” every utterance from a client contact? It would paralyze the PR effort. We make the leap of faith that the client contact is telling us the truth. And we expect clients to trust our judgment. This doesn’t …more
