The USC Center for PR’s 2018 Global Communications Report indicated that 42% of PR professionals were concerned about the increasing prevalence of branded content. In a follow-up study, we asked the same survey participants specific questions about their perceptions of branded content. A total of 220 professionals, representing agencies, private companies, consultancies and government...
It’s both a benefit and a curse that content is king in the digital age. Good content has the potential to go viral, giving a brand a great opportunity to make an impact for little investment, but the flipside is also true.
With a smartphone in every pocket, brands are now facing an environment where someone with 10 followers can now reach millions and jeopardize the reputation of a...
The new revolution of 5G mobile technology will be to 4G technology what social media is to the vacation postcard, campaign fly-arounds are to the whistle-stop speech, and streaming video is to the VHS movie store.
I’ve had a front-row seat watching 5G develop as the chief communications executive at Sprint, Inc., one of the technology’s leading proponents. Sprint, combined with our...
When you hear hiring managers talk about public relations professionals of the future, you usually hear about the hunt for multi-taskers, change agents, the need for work-life balance and, of course, diversity that mirrors the future that awaits us.
I’m always on the lookout for dot-connectors, skeptics and the person who has just one more question.
In more than 20 years of...
When companies such as Facebook, Tesla and Citigroup release their quarterly earnings statements, reporters scramble to assess what’s important. It’s no longer enough to just focus on earnings per share and revenue. Bloomberg’s editor-in-chief John Micklethwait has equated the timely dissemination of breaking financial news to “an arms race…with the battleground moving to secondary data.”...
Whether it’s placing Frank Sinatra on a Coca-Cola poster or Nike contracting Michael Jordan for shoe ads, marketers have been leveraging their audience’s affinity for influential stars for ages. The reason influencer marketing is currently being viewed with skepticism is because while the concept has been around forever, the game has completely changed. So before we write off influencer...
I remember the days when sports, particularly baseball, were played and managed more by feel and intuition rather than strictly by the numbers. Unfortunately, those days are long gone. As sports adapt to a data-obsessed world, I fear the same thing is happening to the communication profession.
With the advent of Sabermetrics in the late '70s, later popularized by Michael Lewis’ book,...
Nearly six years ago our hearts were shattered and our souls were shaken as news broke of the 20 young children and six adult staff members killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School during the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.
Few issues are as politically polarizing or emotionally charged as guns. This time, I and my fellow Starbucks teammates, where I was the head of global...