Spinoff: Gutenberg is scheduled to announce tomorrow that it’s spun off Lumina Communications, which will be based in Silicon Valley, with an office in NYC. Hugh Burnham will be its CEO. Burnham and Harjiv Singhfounded Gutenberg in 2003. Singh will continue to lead Gutenberg. “It was the right time for us to rebrand due to our growth in the Valley,” Burnham tells us. “We feel good for the coming year,” Burnham says, “there’s very strong demand from the Valley, not only for PR services but for marketing…the economy here is very good.” He sees PR for cloud services and cybersecurity as well as work with big data and social media as strong markets in 2017.
Hugh Burnham, CEO, Lumina
Crises Make It a Small World: It literally sent a chill down one’s spine reading about the awful Dreamworld amusement park accident in Australia Oct. 24, which left four people dead and others, including two young children who miraculously escaped the white water ride, traumatized. Beyond the tragedy, it was sad to read how badly the crisis was handled, with the principals repeating many mistakes brands have made in the U.S. After the incident, the park, one of the country’s top attractions, was closed immediately and its owner, Ardent Leisure Group, released an appropriately toned statement, expressing regret. Similar to the Wells Fargo incident, though, voices of the company’s leaders were absent, spurring criticism. The Australian reported Oct. 26 Ardent’s chairman Neil Balnaves was “too emotional” to speak, while high-profile CEO Deborah Thomas “has been holed up at Dreamworld with her mobile phone switched off.” Later in the week Balnaves said he’d be retiring. Thomas appeared at a press conference where she apologized for her poor handling of the crisis. She was forced to admit an Ardent statement saying she had been in touch with victims’ families was not entirely true. In fact, she hadn’t contacted all the families yet, Thomas confirmed. In addition, Thomas had to handle the fact that she’d be receiving a performance bonus of $840,000. Ardent’s board meeting was held Oct. 27, despite the crisis, also prompting criticism. Thomas said she’ll donate the cash portion of her bonus, nearly $200,000, to the Red Cross. Like crisis-riddled U.S. brands, Ardent Leisure’s shares tanked on the news; it lost nearly 25% of its capitalization in two days.
Platform Prater: Go mobile if you’ve not already. A new Publicis Zenith report says 75% of internet use next year will be accessed via mobile. That’s up from 68% this year. The estimated figure is 79% for ’18. – Facebook continues to push live video, unveiling filters Oct. 25 that transform Facebook Live streams into the styles of famous artists. Facebook Live vids have quadrupled since May and are watched three times longer and accrue 10 times the comments of regular videos, TechCrunch says.
Influencer Ban? Not. Several advocacy groups delivered a complaint to the FTC Oct. 21 calling for it to halt influencer marketing directed at children. The groups, Center for Digital Democracy, Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and Public Citizen, lodged the complaint against Google, Disney, DreamWorks and two others. Hold on, though, there’s a long way to go before the FTC will impose such a ban, says attorney Allison Fitzpatrick of Davis & Gilbert. “The complaint leaps to the conclusion that…marketers engaged in child-directed influencer marketing,” but the videos cited are on YouTube, “which the FTC has recognized as a general audience platform, not directed to children,” she says. Calling for a ban on all child-directed influencer marketing “is a broad statement that raises significant First Amendment implications,” she adds. The FTC has said influencer marketing is permissible when brands acknowledge it as such, yet the complaint, in a footnote, “goes as far as to state that influencer marketing is unfair and deceptive even when directed to adults.” Last, this is a complaint brought by advocacy groups. As such, “We should not take its allegations at face value as the FTC first needs to investigate” to see if they “have any merit.” [Note to Subscribers: Materials related to influencer marketing regulations can be found at the PR News ProEssentials page: prnewsonline.com/pr-news-pro-essentials/]
Partner, Health Practice,
Finn Partners
People: 20th Century Fox CCO Chris Petrikin will exit at year’s end to form a strategic communications/crisis management firm. – Fenton named NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio press secretary Karen Hinton chief strategy officer/managing director of its NY office. – Finn Partners named former Makovsky exec Arielle Bernstein Pinsof a partner in its health practice. – Rogers & Cowan named Alisa Granz EVP and leader of its consumer practice. – GSG named HHS deputy for public affairs Marissa Padilla a VP. – Laureus USA named Patty Bifulco VP, marketing and business development.