Reputation

Pop-up ads, TV commercials, ad-blocker-blockers, sponsored posts: How many of these messages have annoyed you in the past day alone? Consumers are faced with interruptive marketing tactics at every turn, and the fierce resistance to this messaging bombardment is a common barrier for many brands—maybe even yours. In his book “Friction: Passion Brands in the Age of Disruption,” Jeff Rosenblum argues that it’s imperative for brands to escape such “Mad Men”-era aggressive marketing and find a new way to stand out, build loyalty and win evangelists.

Sometimes you hear about a change being made in the name of optics and think “wow, how has that escaped an update for so long?” Such is the case with a section of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” ride at Disneyland Resort known as the “Wench Auction,” which features animatronic women characters tied together to be auctioned off for marriage to lusty buccaneers.

When we dive deeper into the Gould+Partners study about PR firm profitability that we reported about in our June 12 edition, it looks like another case of the rich getting richer. The larger firms are doing well in terms of profits, but the mid-size and smaller firms are struggling. Gould provides insight into why he thinks this is the case and what PR firms can do to raise their profits.

You might think branded content sites have little organization behind them. Perhaps that’s so at some sites. The branded content portal at monster.com is the opposite, however. Content and staff are organized into three groups: to raise awareness; to (gently) nudge readers to investigate what the site offers; and to assist those who are highly motivated to find jobs.