Topics

In the many months since its E. coli outbreak and the subsequent cleanup, Chipotle has made several attempts to rebuild trust in the brand. The release of the short video, “A Love Story,” did little to divert attention away from E. coli. Not even free burritos could bring the masses back into its restaurants. The new campaign meets customers’ fears head-on, a smart move that might have appeared bolder had it launched sooner.

Communicators know Snapchat is a powerful tool for audience engagement, but that means nothing if they’re dealing with a skeptical C-suite. Limited metrics, doubts about the platform’s staying power and a reluctance to stretch lean social media budgets further are just a few of the arguments communicators might encounter when proposing a Snapchat channel launch.

At the risk of sounding obvious, you need to have strong visuals to have a good Instagram presence. This is not something that comes naturally to some brands, especially nonprofits and B2Bs. With a little help from some communicators at the top of their game, however, anyone can put a strategy in place that will make their Instagram feed more engagement-friendly.

Snapchat is known for its informality and immediacy. For communicators seeking to control their brand’s messages, however, those two descriptors could be reasons to stay away from this hot, new tool. Sarah Maloy, director of social media and external video at Fuse Media LLC, the parent of cable music network fuse, has managed to meld (yes, we could have said fuse) Snapchat’s in-the-moment tone with various corporate strictures.

It turns out that one of those right-brain skills—good writing—may be the best SEO weapon available. Now more than ever, SEO success depends on strategic writing skills. Creating content that satisfies search engines’ need to deliver useful information improves Google search rankings.

Mars Inc., owner of the Skittles brand of candy, waited five hours to release a statement in response to a tweet from Donald Trump Jr. that used an image of a bowl of Skittles and the brand name in a political message posted to Twitter. Those five hours were put to good use.

PR pros understand the importance of a great hook in storytelling. But how do you employ such hooks on Snapchat, where you have just one day to get noticed before that crucial opening moment disappears, along with the rest? Melanie Cohn of Dunkin’ Brands says that success lies in crafting an enticing hook that keeps audiences along for the ride, and following through with a matching payoff within the platform’s 24-hour window.

Our job is to develop the visual and verbal brand an organization will use to tell their story, and to write, design and produce the communications that will bring that brand to life. But unless we start with a shared understanding of how brands are built, grown and promulgated, we won’t be as successful as we—and our clients—want to be.

A recap of the week’s news in PR, including announcements about people. The lead item looks at how Twitter might have found itself a good niche live streaming NFL Thursday Night games. Another item notes that Heather Bresch, CEO of EpiPen maker Mylan, this week will be in the hot-seat on Capitol Hill explaining how her company can justify raising prices of the life-saving device by some 400%.

You saw the headlines Sept. 8 and 9 discussing the record payment of $185 million Wells Fargo made to regulators. The basic details surrounding the reason for this fine also are well known: Some 5,300 bank employees allegedly created an estimated 2 million bogus bank and credit card accounts. Some were started with fake names. Others used identities and funds of unsuspecting Wells Fargo customers. The 5,300 employees were fired during the past five years, the bank said. How can the bank rebound from this hit to its reputation? We asked a specialist in crisis PR and one in reputation management. Both stressed honesty, transparency and accountability.