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The C-suite increasingly is asking communicators to supply more authoritative data about their efforts, particularly in earned media. New demographic and firmographic technologies can help identify audience personas and find potential new audiences.

Every December, in the midst of holiday celebration, PRNEWS hosts our annual PR People & Rising Stars awards. While we certainly consider all of our awards shows to be feel-good events, there’s something extra special about this one. Celebrating the actual people who make the campaigns run, put out the crisis fires and lead their teams to success, along with the rising stars under 30 who are coming up fast, takes on an added significance during this festive season of togetherness.

While these may seem like gag gifts for some, influencers and super fans will fork over serious cash to own a piece of brand loyalty—which they can show off from all social media platforms. It’s probably too late to get on the trendy grab list for this year, but there is something to be learned from brands like Red Lobster, Hidden Valley Ranch and others, going the extra mile to connect with their consumers.

Imagine a crisis resulting in a death is part of your first day on the job as a communicator. That was the case for David Gaier, a former chief of communications at NRG Energy. He offers lessons learned and crisis preparation tips after years on the job.

Many business leaders believe they know how to relate to their millennial staff. They share a lot of material via social media and during town halls. While millennials will acknowledge the sharing, they’ll also say the messages shared seem inauthentic. To counter this, veteran PR pro Deirdre Breakenridge crafted her 12-part FEEL plan that helps build genuine communication between leaders and millennial staff. She discussed it during PRNEWS’s Top Places to Work & Agency Elite Awards in NYC earlier this week.

The 2019 Top Places to Work & Agency Elite Awards highlighted the best agencies, communicators and campaigns in the business, honoring those that set a high watermark with inclusive workplace culture and future-focused campaigns. PRNEWS hosted the luncheon Nov. 21 at New York City’s storied Yale Club, in the heart of Manhattan. 

If you’re seeing purple today there’s nothing wrong with your eyes. It’s World Pancreatic Cancer Day 2019, and purple is the designated color for the awareness campaign associated with this deadliest of cancers. Hill+Knowlton managing director Larry Krutchik offers social media lessons learned during the 2018 effort.

Ahead of her session on day two of our 2019 Media Relations Conference (Dec. 12-13 in Washington, DC), we caught up with Lauren Lawson-Zilai of Goodwill. She discuss how it scaled its influencer program to empower local community nonprofits to recruit influencers, setting a model for how other small nonprofits can activate influencers and brand ambassadors in the process.

At PRNEWS, we thought about how to utilize Slack to connect our readership and community. How could we leverage the relationships we’ve built with amazing contacts to benefit those outside of our circle, and bolster an entire community? And with that, we created the PR and Communications Pros Slack group.

South Dakota’s PR campaign around the state’s methamphetamine epidemic accomplished what it set out to do—create awareness around a state-wide health crisis. But the play on words, “Meth. We’re on it,” superimposed over pictures of teens, farmers and older women, also ignited a debate about the high cost of quick-won awareness, and whether it’s true that “there’s no such thing as bad PR.”