Stories by Justin Joffe

We’ve all seen a powerful video that makes us laugh, cry or take action in some way. But communicators must be able to craft video content that is both compelling and likely to drive business results—a common requirement from senior leaders before they approve a video budget. PR News hosts our Video Workshop next Friday, March 15, at D.C.’s historic National Press Club. Ahead of the workshop, here are three tips for communicators to keep in mind before shooting video.

On Tues., March 5, investment bank and financial services company Goldman Sachs Group Inc. announced that it would loosen up its stringent employee dress code. Announced via internal memo signed by Goldman executives including chief executive David Solomon, this new “firm wide flexible dress code” has been instituted due to “the changing nature of workplaces generally in favor of a more casual environment.” The memo also urged employees to dress in a manner consistent with their client’s expectations.

A brand’s culture and values are crucial components of its identity—a reminder to your customers that you’re in business for the right reasons. As Simon Sinek famously said, “people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” But sharing the why around your culture and values can sometimes be difficult. Communicators face the challenge of doing so in an authentic way. That’s where video is an often-underutilized tool for sharing the intangibles that make up the very core of your brand’s DNA.

You’ve undoubtedly seen this at concerts or other live events—an excited fan takes out a smartphone to start recording what’s happening onstage and, despite the fact that the stage is wider than it is tall, the fan records a vertical video. Working with vertical video has become a pain point for professional videographers who lament the lack of flexibility and picture quality that 9×16 dimensions provide. We spoke with Patrick Pho, lead brand marketing producer at Volkswagen, about this issue ahead of his session at PR News’ Video Workshop on March 15 at D.C.’s National Press Club. 

On the evening of Tuesday, Feb. 12, Recode editor-at-large Kara Swisher began a long conversation with Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey on his own platform. Swisher, the self-described “grumpy lady of tech,” set a precedent early on that she wouldn’t go easy on Dorsey, and she stayed true to her word.

The conversation that followed was not just full of news around where Twitter sees its priorities in 2019, but included several best practices for communicators about everything from automation to media relations and beyond. Here are some of our key learnings.

What a difference a year makes. After a 2018 Grammys ceremony that gave only one major award to a woman and prompted The Recording Academy president Neil Portnow to say that women should “step up” to advance their careers, the 2019 show was made deliberate moves to promote diversity. The 61st Annual Grammy Awards offered lessons on what diversity and inclusion currently mean to The Recording Academy, most for better and some for worse. Here’s what we learned.

Facebook feeds already feature a “Why am I seeing this?” button that reveals which brand paid for the ad, the parameters being used to target and if a user’s contact information has been uploaded to the platform. Come Feb. 28, however, users will also be able to see when their contact info was uploaded, who uploaded it and how the information was shared between all marketing parties involved.

For a brand with a small team and limited in-house resources, a strategic agency partnership can drastically widen your media relations efforts. It’s important to remember, though, that beyond an agency’s smooth veneer and talk must also be a proven track record. PR News spoke with some brand communicators to learn what they insist on asking when vetting an agency. Here are three questions that any agency should answer before you work with them.

Twitter’s marketing department got in on the fun this year, too, launching a hashtag—#BrandBowl53—and announcing the commercials that garnered the most engagement on its platform early Monday. The results of this case study demonstrate many different paths to success on the platform. Here are the grand prize winners of #BrandBowl53, and what those campaigns can teach communicators.

It’s that time of year again when your belly yearns for wings, nachos and beer—Super Bowl LIII is almost upon us. Millions will tune in to watch the Patriots and the Rams square off on Sunday, but many more will also be watching for the Super Bowl ads, the priciest block of advertising time in broadcast history that are sure to inspire brand wins and losses of their own. Between the ads, the politics that the sport has found itself engulfed in over the past year, and the huge amounts of money being spent, let’s look at some of the biggest PR touchdowns and fumbles ahead of Super Bowl LIII.