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Online Ads Not as Relevant as Marketers Think; Even Strong Content Struggles to Break Through

April 10th, 2018 by

Marketers and communicators admit they don’t always know if their messages are reaching the intended audiences. Yet most believe those messages are relevant when they make it to the target audience. Uh, maybe not, according to a new Adobe survey.

New Job at Google for duBrowa, CMO Mendenhall Leaves IBM and AMEC Seeks New CEO

April 10th, 2018 by

As we went to press Tuesday a slew of top-flight communications and marketing positions changed hands. The biggest was the move of Salesforce’s CCO Corey duBrowa to Google.

PR Leaders’ Roundtable: How to Create a Culture of Inclusion and Communicate Successes

April 10th, 2018 by

A memo from Nike’s HR chief admitted the company has failed to promote enough women and people of color to VP offices and above. This prompted us to assemble a roundtable of communicators to discuss inclusion, diversity and communicators’ role in building a culture of inclusion.

Restaurants’ Fewer Social Posts Cut Consumer Engagement; Starbucks Posts 60% More Videos

April 10th, 2018 by

In our examination of the Restaurant sector, with Shareablee data provided to us exclusively, we find fewer pieces of content posted in 2017 resulting in a reduction in consumer engagement with the industry. This is a trend buster in that nearly all the industries we’ve seen have reduced content and gained consumer engagement.

What Communicators Can Learn From New Study Looking at How Fake News Influences Voters

April 10th, 2018 by

There is a slew of caveats in a new study about fake news and its influence on the 2016 U.S. presidential election from three academics at Ohio State University. While it is incorrect to deduce fake news won the election for President Trump, the paper argues fake news influenced many members of one important group and they made a difference in a close election. Imagine what fake claims about your product or a competitor’s product could do to your business.

Tony Robbins’ PR Gains & Losses From #MeToo Comments in Front of Thousands

April 9th, 2018 by

In a video filmed at Robbins’ “Unleash the Power Within” event, the self-help guru told his audience of thousands that women were relying on #MeToo to “try to get significance and certainty by attacking and destroying someone else.” Audience member Nanine McCool is shown attempting to explain to Robbins that he misunderstood the importance of #MeToo before being interrupted by him with more provocative statements and actions. But is this purely bad PR for Robbins in this era?

‘Engage’ Crowned the Champion of the 2018 Most Overused PR Words & Phrases Tournament

April 9th, 2018 by

PR News’ community on Twitter has been voting for the most overused clichés over the past several weeks—using the hashtag #WordsBracket—through five rounds of brackets. Apparently PR practitioners need a nice long break from hearing the word “engage” but, admittedly, it’ll be hard to find a workable replacement for it.

AI, Fake News and Future-Proofing Dominate Annual Page Society Seminar

April 6th, 2018 by

The organization formerly known as the Arthur W. Page Society—now it’s simply “Page”— hosted its annual Spring Seminar this week at New York City’s Conrad Hotel, bringing together communicators from across the globe for two days of panels, keynotes and breakout sessions that addressed the theme “Are You Future-Proofed? Disruption, Innovation and the CCO.”

Lessons From Morgan Stanley’s Silence in the Face of a Physical Abuse Issue

April 6th, 2018 by

Is it better for a company to own a bad situation and communicate about the underlying issue or remain silent and hope it all goes away? That was the predicament for Morgan Stanley recently when a front-page story in the NY Times exposed the company knew a star employee was battling repeated accusations from multiple parties of physical abuse and stalking. Claudia Keith, chief communications officer of the City of Palo Alto, CA, argues Morgan Stanley’s response will hurt its reputation and bottom line.

Google Workers’ ‘Business of War’ Letter Pits Employee Values Against Bottom Line

April 5th, 2018 by

More than 3,100 Google employees have signed a letter asking the company to halt its work on a Defense Department initiative. While the letter has made headlines, it also raises an important question for professional communicators: How should a brand prepare for the possibility that part of its workforce has a political or moral objection to some of its activities?