The typical process that guides a company in evaluating PR agencies and ultimately choosing a winner is broken. It was broken when I participated in my first new-biz meeting — wicker furniture, of all things; we did not win — in 1983. It’s still broken today. In the vast majority of PR agency reviews, the …more
The Agency opened its doors in Asia on Oct. 20, 1996. It has been an amazing, fun, torturous, weird, satisfying, frustrating and enlightening run. I made my first trip to Asia in 1994 as part of a press tour for Hyundai Electronics (now known as Hynix). After researching PR resources in that part of the …more
Joint Venture Silicon Valley is incredibly thorough in putting together its annual index on Silicon Valley. Perhaps too thorough. Reviewing the 100-page document might be best described as a trudge. To save you the time of plodding through the pages, here are the CliffsNotes. Where Invention Happens The combined patents generated in Silicon Valley …more
In one corner we have the biggest, baddest and most valuable company on the planet, Apple. In the opposite corner sits the U.S. government getting more ornery by the minute. As you know by now, the government has asked Apple to unlock a phone used by a terrorist in San Bernardino. Apple has refused, believing …more
As PR-led campaigns increasingly blend tactics such as paid media, native advertising bears watching. I called out the genre last month suggesting most of it should be called “alien advertising.” Still, with the rules of the game being invented on-the-fly, we’re seeing fresh wrinkles like this native advertising campaign by Ryder in TIME Magazine. Here’s …more
We’ve completed the “assignment” in the South of France. The last grains of sand have found their way through the hourglass. The experience has been better than what Heather and I expected. And we had high expectations. Reflecting on the professional side — and putting to rest talk of a boondoggle — so many things …more
Let me say up front that this post does not address the age-old quandary: “To meet or not to meet, that is the question.” Moving from Hamlet to Ford trucks, the company meeting is “built to last.” To resist is futile. Still, there is one simple action that would advance civilization in its quest to …more
No, Peter Mayle hasn’t written an abbreviated sequel. But I am feeling the pressure to write a post that’s “stylish, witty and delightfully readable.” How about “simply readable?” Anyway, the tweaked book title portends a looming personal adventure. My wife, Heather, and I head to Aix en Provence today for a seven-week assignment.If the word …more
Everyone seems to think there’s a deep lesson in Donald Trump’s popularity. At the risk of stating the obvious, Furthermore, Americans love a good train wreck. We can’t help ourselves. And one of the few things that will outperform a train wreck is the potential of a train wreck. That’s why the viewing numbers for …more
