Media Relations

When pitching a journalist via email, you have about five seconds to grab his/her attention—and that’s if it’s a slow day in the newsroom.

As millennials move into the decision-making process, BuzzFeed, Funny or Die and the other outlets they grew up on need to be a part of the media relations conversation.

As companies start to shift from “storytelling” to “storymaking,” or creating organic content that didn’t originate from a slideshow or press release, they have another option to consider: the proliferating number of branded content studios designed to help companies tell their stories.

During an interview with CNBC’s Kelly Evans, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul shushed Evans and told her to “calm down” while he answered a question. Use this interview as Exhibit A when prepping top executives on what not to do when talking with the media.

Nationwide Insurance’s Super Bowl ad featured the ghost of a young boy narrating scenes in a life he didn’t get to live because of an accident, and critics didn’t take kindly to it. Still, if you subscribe to the “no such thing as bad publicity” dictum, the spot was a win for the insurer.

This year’s Super Bowl lived up to its hype, and it was one of the first times in recent memory that I found the game to be more exciting than the commercials. This year’s array… Continued

If GoDaddy had considered the clout, passions and research acumen of animal rights advocates it probably would have scratched its lost-puppy Super Bowl ad when it was first proposed. But in the battle for media attention in Super Bowl week, GoDaddy put points on the scoreboard.

When a Florida sheriff’s office recently noticed its new crest-engraved office rug read “In Dog We Trust,” rather than “In God We Trust” it turned a $500 typo into a nearly $10k opportunity. It held… Continued

You would think that the proliferation of social platforms and mobile devices would spell doom for email marketing/campaigns. Not so. Get reacquainted with an enduring PR tool—email.

Parody can help companies cut through the proverbial clutter and humanize their message. Using parody plays into social channels and can appeal to millennials, who were raised on irreverence and now are starting to enter the management ranks. Has the cold-sober approach to branding run its course?