Stories by Seth Arenstein

MillerCoors’ CCO Pete Marino discusses why large brands remain vulnerable to crisis and why PR blunders still occur. He also expands on a discussion about his brand’s relatively new blog, transparency and how he would spend an unlimited budget.

Our regular weekly look at trends, tips, tactics and personnel moves in the PR and communications industry. This week we feature stories about Facebook’s new advertising features, an issue with TV networks’ spelling prowess and the best times and days to post on social media.

In the upcoming Arthur W. Page Society New CCO podcast, MillerCoors CCO Pete Marino talks about the company’s internal video channel MCTV, among other topics. PR News was provided an advance copy. In an interview with us, Marino expands on MCTV as well as what keeps him up at nights.

In data provided exclusively by Shareablee to PR News, we see more evidence that Twitter has become far more than a platform for policy wonks and news junkies. In this week’s data nearly all the brands in the top 10 are in the video game space. The other trend seen in this data, which tracks consumer engagement with B2C brand posts on Twitter, is the growth in consumer engagement with video posts.

Are you worried that a sentient robot will eventually take your job? Don’t be, argues IBM SVP, marketing and communications Jon Iwata during a keynote at the 2017 IABC. Iwata portrays artificial intelligence as something communicators should embrace as it will assist them greatly help them do their jobs. More than that, with the voluminous data available to communicators, AI will help us to target our messages in a more sophisticated way. Now doesn’t that make you feel better?

While it’s still difficult to distinguish all the facts in the airline industry’s latest crisis, there’s enough material available so that we can extract several lessons. Speaking of lessons, those who make a living teaching PR have to be thankful for the wealth of material the airlines have provided them in just the past six months. Since the only freebies airlines provide regularly are small bags of peanuts and soft drinks, PR teachers might consider making a charitable donation to the carriers.

Similar to one of the themes running through the recent, sold-out Social Shake-Up Show, an idea at the heart of the Conference Board’s new study is that some members of the C-Suite continue to doubt the importance of social media as a valuable business tool. The culprits most often reside in the C-Suites of B2B brands, says the report, made available early and exclusively to PR News Pro. One solution is emphasize the positive attributes of social in business terms, the study says.

Want to know some of what was on the minds of attendees at the sold-out Social Shake-Up Show? Ask the attendees to discuss 10 social media-related topics toward the end of the conference. That’s just what happened on Wednesday afternoon at the show. Find out what the attendees were thinking about as well as some of their key takeaways.

The Saturday Night Live actor who plays the girl you wish you hadn’t started a conversation with at a party turned out to be quite conversant about social media during Tuesday afternoon’s session of the sold-out Social Shake-Up in Atlanta. Actor/comedian/activist Cecily Strong provided trenchant points about social media as it relates to celebrities and brands. There were plenty of laughs, too. Photo: www.Jkleinphotography.com

There were things old and new during the sold-out 2017 Social Shake-Up Show’s opening general session today (May 23) in Atlanta. The new started right away, as six members of the Alpha Rho step dancers of Morehouse College literally kicked off the show with a rousing performance. And then Shonduras took over the stage.