Stories by Justin Joffe

Kanye West played an opportunistic set at Coachella 2019’s second weekend, held on Easter morning and branded #SundayService. Seeking to repair the problematic year he’s had alienating his audience, Ye’s set was largely received as rushed, opportunistic and appropriative. The overpriced merch didn’t help either. That said, communicators can learn from Kanye’s disastrous #SundayService, particularly about when branding is inappropriate and how poor visual storytelling can drastically hurt a brand’s reputation.

PR pros often focus on the “fun” side of social: the stories, images and conversations that bring a brand to life. Unfortunately, darker forces also exist. Brands face a number of adversaries; from account hacks to bot attacks. Sometimes, brands are their own worst enemy, violating federal regulations that a communicator may not have even been aware of.

The New York Times published a story Saturday detailing how Google shares its location-tracking database with police to identify potential suspects whose devices were within the vicinity of a crime. The police then use this information as evidence while building a case, sometimes going after the wrong suspects. Google’s unwillingness to acknowledge its reputation for surveillance offers PR lessons about recognizing negative trends.

As the boundary between marketing and PR continues to blur, two surveys provide perspective into building a sound media relations strategy. They also remind us that marketing and PR must not be operating with siloed measurement strategies. Ahead of PRNEWS’ Measurement Conference, April 17-18 in D.C., these surveys emphasize that correctly measuring influencer ROI and communicating up are greatly unrealized opportunities for PR and marketing to be on the same page.

Here at PR News, we see such corporate pranks as a perfect window into the optics of humor and how they can, or can’t, work in your external messaging. Following last year’s April Fools’ Day recap of the good, the bad and the ugly, let’s look at some of this year’s campaigns that had us splitting our sides, and others that made our stomachs churn.

Sure, air disasters take a long time to investigate, and much of what’s being said now on behalf of Boeing is speculation to mitigate the crisis until they have real answers. Some big companies are wary of admitting their faults, making the need for true oversight all the more pressing. But when it happens, oh how positive the results can be.

Google launched a $300 million news initiative just more than one year ago, including a product called News Consumer Insights. It allows publishers to crunch raw data from Google Analytics into insights around lead generation, audience segments and who’s paying for their premium content. Building on its commitment to that tool, Google just released a tool called Realtime Content Insights. While NCI is still useful for business development and looking at the longview, the RCI tool will help writers, editors, content producers and social teams make analytics-based decisions in the moment.

As GDPR took effect, countless brands required their network to opt-in to new privacy policies and terms of service. Those changes weren’t required for domestic brands that don’t do business internationally, but they were certainly a good idea given that data regulation remains a topic du jour. But when it comes to spamming, email remains the medium where much of the bad behavior still runs rampant. Here are some other steps your communications team can take to make sure that it isn’t spamming its audience with too much information over email.

Each year, PR News recognizes the leaders and campaigns creating the most social good at our CSR & Nonprofit awards luncheon. The 2019 event, hosted at the the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., saw… Continued

That moment you’ve secured the first batch of influencers to promote your brand’s products, services or values is incredibly exciting. Partnering with people who can speak to what you do is an increasingly valuable media relations strategy whether your influencers are micro or macro. But with the Federal Trade Commission cracking down on influencers for not disclosing their partnerships and relationships, you’ve got to make sure that your contract, or influencer agreement, is clear in both language and expectations around disclosure.