Spend some time with veteran PR pros and ask them what their biggest challenge is—for both themselves and their junior team members—and the likelihood is high that they'll tell you it's building left-brain analytical skills to match their natural, right-brain creative inclinations. Put simply, they know they're good at brand storytelling, but they need to be just as good at metrics and analyzing data so they can be held accountable for the business value of their work.
Still, it's important that they play to their right-brain strengths. Being "good" at brand storytelling is all well and good, but being best is far better. And to be the best, you need to learn from the best.
With that in mind, PR News and Nasdaq Media Intelligence launched a poll earlier this month asking the PR News community which of Fortune's 2015 Most Admired Brands succeeds best at telling humanizing stories that drive positive awareness. One-fifth of the nearly 800 respondents said that Apple is the best at this kind of strategic storytelling, putting it in first place. Coca-Cola came in second, with 17% of the votes. It should be noted that both companies have historically emphasized design as part of their storytelling. Who knows—maybe Steve Jobs was inspired by the iconic look and feel of the classic Coke bottle.
We also asked the PR News community to tell us what had greater impact, stories about customers or employees, and which channels they use most for brand storytelling. Check out the full results in the infographic below.
Follow Steve Goldstein: @SGoldsteinAI