Stories by Seth Arenstein

With the start of a new year, brands and organizations will look roll out new products or re-launch brands. This means communicators will be asked to create campaigns and messages for them. This story contains helpful tips to use social for a re-launch and a launch.

The annual tech-laden mosh pit known as CES begins Tuesday at the Las Vegas Convention Center. That and the start of the year make it an excellent time to look at the technology scene, including what’s expected at CES and the implications of that for communicators and the brands and organizations they represent.

Our yearly look at the most-engaged B2C brands of 2018. Women are the target audience for nearly all of the top 10, according to Shareablee data. Overall consumer engagement was down slightly.

Effecitve crisis response is a combination of advance planning and good decision-making during the crisis. For the first Stealable Slide of 2019 we turn to a time-saving tool designed to help organizations and brands plan their crisis response.

‘Tis the season for best of lists. PR is not different. Some communicators spend down time debating the top PR crises of the year. That’s the crux of this short video from Ashley McCown, president of Solomon McCown. See if you can guess what her top 5 PR crises of 2018 are before you view the video. A few hints: not all are examples of poor crisis management and her top crisis is the toughest to guess. Good luck.

Industry icon Jack O’Dwyer has died at 85. A respected journalist and publisher, he founded his O’Dwyer’s Newsletter 50 years ago. That led to other publications that became industry must-reads. A journalist’s journalist, O’Dwyer was a fixture at industry events for decades, carrying his reporter’s pad and pen. “He was one of a kind,” says veteran communicator Andy Gilman.

At some point, perhaps soon, companies will use AI to gather data about target audiences and even create content that best suits their needs. Until that time, it falls to communicators and marketers to use available data to paint a portrait of target audiences and how they prefer to receive content. This infographic provides basic profiles of various demographic units and their content preferences.

Improvisation often is associated with comedy. Yet several PR firms find it useful to use improv tactics as part of their media training effort. Since media interviews share many characteristics with improv performances, it makes sense. Improv exercises help build confidence, encourage quick thinking and improve listening skills, making it ideal for media training.

As the year ends and numerous recaps of trends are discussed, a rise in the esteem of and necessity for communications measurement may be under-appreciated. A new survey from PR News and PublicRelay, a media monitoring and analytics firm, provides evidence. An overwhelming majority of communicators say upper management is asking for more data-backed decisions, the survey says.

We’ve all been there. You click on a product, perhaps even buy it. And then ads for that product and similar ones chase you around the internet. Things are particularly bad when these targeted, programmatic ads follow people who are grieving. That’s a position no brand wants to find itself in. Here’s what communicators need to know in such cases.