Archive: September 2017

Pizza Hut is facing heat on social media after an internal memo, posted at one of the chain’s Jacksonville, Florida locations before Hurricane Irma made landfall in the area, threatened to punish employees that evacuated more than 24 hours before the storm. But while social media’s ire is centered on the Jacksonville location’s apparent disregard for employee safety, one key phrase in the memo, the location’s “commitment to the community,” raises an important point.

As Katie Paine wrote about Bell Pottinger in PR News this past July, “PR counselors long have argued that ethics are critical and apologies, honesty and transparency are the best cures in a crisis. It’s a bit mind-boggling when one of the world’s leading PR firms ignores its own advice.” This was before its recent death spiral.

There’s nothing like doing PR for a much-anticipated, star-studded event, such as the Mayweather-McGregor fight. What about when you’re asked to get people riled about seemingly mundane issues such as the country’s infrastructure? Here are a few tactics PR pros can employ that will help make un-sexy issues seem far more relevant to average citizens.

PR News recently asked its community to tell us who should be listed among the top game-changers of PR in the last few years. Here, we look at Natalie Boden, founder and president of BODEN, an agency that boasts such clients as Target, McDonald’s and United Healthcare among its growing roster. Boden has dedicated her career to diversifying the PR industry, a dream that reflects her own unique background.

Social media can seem like the Wild West. The rules continue to be written, and they change rapidly. Sometimes the amount of posted content correlates directly with the level of consumer engagement. In August, for example, relationships were direct, at least for Automotive and Fashion influencers, according to Shareablee data provided to us.

As you know, doing more with less is a regular refrain in PR and marketing. As such, we regularly bring you tips about doing things on a tight budget. But can brands really create videos on a budget? Food Network didn’t think such lessons applied to it, but found out differently. Here’s what it learned.

With brands creating content without going through media channels, is the art of pitching stories dead? It just might be more alive than ever, our author argues, although he admits pitchers will need to adapt some of their tactics slightly.

Kelly Swanson and her small but capable team of PR pros oversaw PR for the recent Mayweather-McGregor fight. We asked her to discuss some of the lessons she learned from that experience.

Our weekly roundup of trends, news and personnel moves in PR and marketing. Stories this week include the demise of Bell Pottinger, Doug Busk’s new position, the FTC confronting influencers directly and older citizens getting their news via social media.

With employees taking stands on political issues and urging their companies to do the same, what contribution can communicators make to keeping a brand’s reputation unblemished by political turmoil? Our author provides 5 steps that communicators can take to put their company in a position to receive limited negative public attention, minimize business impact and reputation damage.