Politicians tend to be skilled communicators. Lee Kuan Yew was gifted. Today marks the five-year anniversary since his passing. Much has changed in Singapore on the communications front. Maureen Tseng who heads our Singapore office offers an on-the-ground snapshot. Social media represents the biggest change over the past five years. Previously perceived as elitist and …more
Between Huawei’s reputation, 1,000 posts, our Asia team crushing it, taking things personally and Frank Bruni’s acerbic wit, the first half of the best posts in 2019 covered a lot of ground. Here comes the second half. . . 6) Thought Leadership versus Thought Followship The communications industry has wakened to …more
You can throw out many adjectives to describe 2019. Dull won’t be one of them. Writing about the intersection of communications, journalism and branding, a never-ending stream of fodder for potential posts flew by my window every day. I wish I had more time to dig and explore. The following captures the first half …more
The balance of power in media channels has shifted. It used to be that if a company felt wronged by the media, the next logical step involved arranging a press tour to counter the “injustice.” Thanks to the rise of owned media and paid content sometimes masquerading as journalism, companies are no longer dependent on …more
Lou—I wanted to reach out regarding the blog posted this week “When the Media Fails to Distinguish Between PR and Advertising.” It is unclear to me who the author is, and a little disappointing that they developed a whole narrative about us out of thin air, but please share that the North American Meat …more
The New York Times ran a story last month on employee activism at Google and its firing of four employees involved in the movement. No question, the topic warrants coverage. The two NYT journalists, Kate Conger and Daisuke Wakabayashi, dig into the topic with a touch of foreshadowing: “The dismissals are expected to exacerbate rocky …more
Correcting a statistic in a media story is easy. If a company reduces its workforce by 100, but the journalist accidentally added a zero so the number reads 1,000, you reach out to the publication and they run a correction. Unfortunately, inaccuracies in media stories are often not so black and white. Context, nuance, history, …more
I’m not a big of fan of research on journalists. The studies always “reveal” the same core points: Don’t mass blast email pitches to journalists. Offer a point of view, not vanilla commentary. Stop foisting non-disclosure agreements on us. Read the room (understand the journalist’s readership). Corporate speak dulls the senses. There should be …more
Conducting our storytelling workshops never gets old. It’s energizing to help the workshop participants connect the dots to a simple premise: Given a choice between “interesting” and “dull,” human beings pick “interesting” virtually every time. I have to use the adverb “virtually” allowing for the individual who sports a “math is fun” button. Similar to …more
