PR Insiders

Say What? Item 1: Who knew? The fact that you’re not sure whether you are loyal to Lady or the Trump influences how much Starbucks’ coffee you drink. It’s true. Starbucks got creative July 21 in explaining a sales-target miss, its third consecutive whiff. Starbucks’s officials said the quarter was an “anomaly,” owing to terror concerns around the world (sadly relevant), civil unrest (ditto) and political uncertainty in the U.S. (see, I told you—a presidential election reduces the American penchant for caffeinated libations).

Say What? Item 1: Who knew? The contest in November is Lady and the Trump. But did you know thinking about it will influence how much Starbucks you drink? It’s true. A quick aside: During… Continued

Cash-flush companies typically more interested in settling lawsuits than pursuing lengthy and costly litigation are easy targets in today’s business world. This is exactly why it is crucial for companies like Nintendo to develop and put in place a dedicated crisis response strategy addressing all of the potential PR crises that may result from their products.

Polarization is deeply embedded in the American psyche, a reality brands must accept and deal with. It affects them beyond the hot-button political issues of the day—immigration, race, gender identity, climate change, for instance—that they have to either tiptoe around or address head-on. The polarization affects the way our minds now function and speaks to the question of how to convince the undecided of anything when, for so many of us, our minds are already made up.

Brand communicators seek to influence the undecided and convince them of the value of the product or service they’re representing. They try to accomplish this through third-party media coverage, the sharing of their own content… Continued

Owned content of an app, video library, article or visual is difficult for anyone to grab true exposure for, and native is still a game for those with the most money. Rarely spoken of is the power of distributing branded content via earned media in a way that is actually scalable and measurable.

Ah, the joys of summer. It’s enough to make you forget what’s going on back at the office. It’s also a good time to unlearn bad habits. Re-energized from your vacation, you might be ready to wash away these misconceptions that have become woven into the communications fabric.

Sand between your tanned toes and the relaxing sound of waves hitting the shore. Happy hour that begins at 4pm (it’s 5’oclock somewhere). Visiting new places. Dealing with crowds (literally, being able to deal with… Continued

Authors, publishers and books have long been the PR clients in the book publicity business. And as the industry has changed, so has the media covering it along with the PR people promoting the books. In recent years, the book industry has changed with the rise of e-books, Kindle, Amazon.com, pressure on big publishers, and more self-published authors. Despite the changes, thousands of new books come out each year, so competition for readers and media coverage is tougher than ever.

At its initial launch, Snapchat touted the disappearance of uploaded user content as a core feature of the service. Yet this format was never really conducive to brands and advertisers that wanted to reach these audiences, but rarely had on-the-spot imagery to share. Snapchat’s recently launched Memories feature changes that scenario drastically.