We’ve devoted a fair amount of real estate to branding and the big companies who trip over their brand narratives in spite of massive resources. Hello United. Money doesn’t guarantee brand utopia. But what about the companies who get it right? Inevitably, they understand there’s a journey to building a great brand. Amazon offers a …more
Andrew Mason’s resignation letter last week reflected the best of storytelling in business communications. With this in mind, I tried to track down Mr. Mason to take us behind the curtain in how the letter came about. Unfortunately, he proved elusive. If Mason had agreed to an interview, I suspect the exchange would have gone …more
It doesn’t matter whether you’re an athlete, singer or executive, the true test of your mettle comes from failure. That’s why I was impressed with Andrew Mason’s farewell note to the Groupon troops. Say what you will about Mr Mason’s performance as a CEO – and every journalist and his brother has – …more
A few thoughts from the grab bag. The Blending of Earned and Owned Media … Literally The Super Bowl preview in USA Today got my attention in a way that had nothing to do with football. Look at how the advertisement from CBS juts vertically into the actual USA Today article with wrap-around type playing …more
Word has circulated through the grapevine that EE Times has experienced yet another staff reduction. At least the move comes at a time when companies including those in the semiconductor industry have got the content marketing religion. For journalists open to exploring gigs outside the traditional media, they’ll find options. But what about EE Times? …more
Eric Savitz at Forbes oversees the CIO Network, a forum for executives to articulate a point of view. If you scroll through a few months of these byliners, you’ll see the number of views at 1,000, 2,000 and a select few tipping the 5K mark for bragging rights. As noted in “Social Numbers Don’t Mean …more
Dare I say, storytelling has become downright trendy in business communications. “Narrative” has officially entered the PR vernacular. Yet, just because words like “protagonist,” “story arc” and yes, “narrative,” get bandied about doesn’t guarantee storytelling has displaced corporate speak. The SlideShare deck, “The Return of Storytelling vs. Corporate Speak,” shares some of the science and …more
In a time of gnat-like attention spans, few publications still practice long-form journalism. Fortune is one exception, and Patricia Sellers is one exceptional storyteller. If you recognize the name, it’s likely because Sellers took Fortune’s annual feature, “The Most Powerful Women in Business,” and transformed it into franchise with its own brand cachet. The Stanford …more
Every company wants a signature win in heavyweight publications like Fast Company, BusinessWeek and Fortune. By signature win, I mean 1,000-plus words devoted to a behind-the-curtain look at the company. Yet, few PR teams cultivate the needed content assets to give themselves a fighting chance for this type of attention. It requires thinking like a …more
