That was the headline in a Wall Street Journal article back in 2012. The piece made the point that the word “innovation” (and its derivatives) was being used so much by companies to tout incremental improvement — or worse — that the word lost meaning. Raking through earnings calls from the previous 12 months, The Journal …more
By Andree Latibeaudiere, Account Director, Hoffman Europe . . We value our relationship with the University of Oregon. More than hire U of O grads, we strive to do our part to give students a window into a PR career as well as working at a consultancy. This can take various forms. We participated in …more
The internet has commoditized news announcements, particularly product news from B2B tech companies. This isn’t to say that journalists will never write about a new SaaS offering, a denser storage product, etc., but the why-should-I-care bar sits in the stratosphere. I was reminded of this when our European MD Mark Pinsent scooted the OOO message …more
I’ve always viewed Intel as the gold standard when it comes to communications in the electronics sector. They know how to translate technology into narratives that land. They know how to leverage owned media to fling warning shots to the chosen few. And they’re always striving to put a face on the company, whether that’s …more
Before jumping into the question at hand, let’s acknowledge that the semiconductor shortage has impacted everyone. Even my mom asked me over Thanksgiving dinner if the lack of chips has hurt our business. Naturally, I reciprocated and questioned my Mom’s technique in making her home-made apple sauce. But I digress … How are the actual …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
We’ve been evangelizing the wonders of storytelling for some time. For the most part, our profession has come a long way when it comes to creating content, though you can still find those “pithy” quotes in news releases “We are delighted to announce that …” What hasn’t changed is the challenge of getting those with …more
“I want to be in WIRED. How do I get into WIRED?” By Chris Owen, Director, Hoffman Europe As a PR pro, if I had £1,000 for every time a prospect or client said, “We’d like to get into WIRED / The Economist / the FT,” then I’d genuinely have no mortgage. I might …more
Vince Lombardi, the famous football coach for the Green Bay Packers, had a saying, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” So it’s been for international companies this year as the pandemic and a volatile political climate force executives to navigate a communications environment unlike any in history. One topic that’s worth putting …more
