Stories by Nicole Schuman

Brand love isn’t just for consumers. We at PRNEWS found campaigns to fawn over. Our team picked recent campaigns we loved most, delivered across various platforms. Here are the memorable messages that made us swoon on Valentine’s Day and every day.

You may remember the backlash of #OscarsSoWhite after the 2015 nomination announcements. Many outraged directors, producers and actors, including Spike Lee and Jada Pinkett Smith, boycotted the awards in 2016. How did the 2020 Oscars do on diversity and inclusion? We take a crisis PR perspective to grade last night’s ceremony and the larger issue facing the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

While everyone anticipates the release of Iowa Caucus results, PR and crisis management pros are more inclined to discuss the crisis response of the Iowa Democratic Party. Technological glitches may be common, but to fail on such a grand stage, when timely results are expected, shows cracks in an already shaky system, debilitating public trust in a year when it’s most important.

The Super Bowl can be a benchmark in a communicator’s career. An experience at the big game can make or break a brand, as well as bring out the best (or worst) in any professional. The hours are long, but the payoffs can be great. So what can we learn from Super Bowl PR veterans on how to handle what seems to be a larger-than-life media event?

The overarching theme at this year’s Top Women in PR Awards rooted itself in the way professionals see themselves and how they treat others. Many winners noted that having it all is nothing if colleagues don’t have each other’s backs along the way. The honorees gathered for a luncheon on Jan. 28 at the grand Gotham Hall in New York City,.

The Super Bowl initiates a two-week festival of interviews, practices and storytelling through multiple platforms. Those certainly include mobile and social media, and brands have noticed. It’s now expected that brands will tease Super Bowl campaigns—not just through TV ads, but extensively on social media.

The media discussion surrounding the royal family break seems shrouded with mystery and hearsay—with statements being given on both sides, but no one really coming forth and explaining the real reason for the schism. This creates an open dialogue for the public, leaving the families apt to rumors and falsities. Many takeaways can be found regarding the public relations tactics taken by the famous Brits in yet another family crisis.

Measurement is not just about numbers. It’s about problem solving. It’s no longer enough to retrieve and present data. For communicators, data needs to be folded into everyday strategy, becoming a sixth sense, combining it with a human element to promote focused discourse. To provide communicators with a look into the benefits of measurement and what’s coming next, we enlisted expert Jenna Clark, head of measurement and insights, Google Communications.

Women serve as the backbone of the public relations industry. More than 75 percent of PR jobs in the United States are held by women, and the PRNEWS’ Top Women in PR awards will honor an elite group of these professionals who have worked to inspire not just those in the boardroom, but throughout the creative circuit. These women will be celebrated with a luncheon ceremony on Jan. 28 at Gotham Hall in New York City.

Ten years ago, PR pros never dreamed of creating warping facial filters for Instagram Stories or geotargeting users with video on Facebook. But as technology evolves, so does the ability to enrich storytelling, and stop scrollers in their tracks. Content will remain one of the most important strategies for brands to engage users and stand out from a continual deluge of media. Here are some content trends for the year ahead.