My personal soapbox is fast becoming visual storytelling. This can be a tough one for PR professionals where words have always ruled. Yet, visuals can serve as shortcuts to the emotional touch points of a story. Which explains why 500 million photos are shared on social platforms each day, a number expected to double next …more
The grab bag returns. Three quick takes coming at you. Journalists Showing Off PR Acuity I don’t mean to pick on David Carr, noted chronicler of the world of journalism for The New York Times. I just find it amusing that Mr. Carr assumes his deep knowledge of journalism also makes him an expert in …more
It’s not easy to do. And it’s tougher to accomplish in business communications. Teasing out company stories that cause the left ventricle to quicken are few and far between. Still, business communicators can learn from the experts – screenwriters – on how to build the front end of a story. They deal with pressure to …more
I conducted a storytelling workshop last week. Yes, the objective for the session was to help this corporate PR team apply the concepts of storytelling in business communications. But I’m hoping for something bigger. I’m hoping for two interrelated actions: They question the status quo. They experiment in their day-to-day jobs. The Holmes Report has …more
Every PR company with a pulse wants to differentiate. It’s not easy. Client centric. Smart. Results-oriented. These words and others show up again and again in agency descriptions. In updating the Hoffman overview for the Council of PR firms, we strived to take the audience behind the curtain. Here goes: Do you perceive communications as …more
Here’s a quandary for communicators. Your CEO has been incognito to the media for 26 years. Rather than charge forward into the mainstream media, he prefers a gentle re-entry. This is not the time to pitch Morley Safer. Huawei’s communications team faced this very situation. Its CEO, Ren Zhengfei, was ready to meet with the …more
PR professionals are quick to sing the virtues of storytelling, but their actions tell a different story. That’s how I kicked off my talk on visual storytelling at a PR Newswire event, scrutinizing the content generated by PR with two questions: Does the content deliver the “frame” that today’s journalists need to write a story? …more
Virtually every novel reflects some form of the classic storytelling arc. Same goes for movies. As I’m driving to see “Zero Dark Thirty,” I’m wondering how the heck will the movie build drama. I already know how the story ends. Yet, the CIA operative played by Jessica Chastain must deal with stuff going cockeyed …more
As U.S. companies increasingly search for revenue overseas, demand for global PR rises as well. For the vast majority of PR agencies without global capabilities, this poses a quandary. Do they start investing in building out a global infrastructure – a pricy proposition with the ROI years down the road – or establish relationships with …more
