Antelope Canyon
American photographer Gregory Boratyn shot and digitally enhanced these spectacular pictures of the Antelope Canyon in Arizona.
April42013
April32013
“The greenest building, is the building that already exists.”
Vivian Manasc, Partner at Manasc Isaac speaking at CreativeMornings/Edmonton (watch the talk)
(via creativemornings)
April22013
J. Crew brand partnerships = brilliant brand marketing
I think this almost every time I walk into a J. Crew or flip through a catalogue. Their decision to resell lifestyle brands that reinforce or expand their own is just brilliant. They get the halo of the other brands positive perceptions, which deepen and broaden their customers own brand perceptions with J. Crew. And it’s not just doing ANY brand partnerships, but they are spot on with known (Timex, Sperry Top Sider, and Ray-Ban) and not-so-known brands, becoming curators of cool for their customers. As a consumer, I actually value that they are bringing in other brands that are similar and complement what I like at J. Crew. They’ve actually shown increased value to me as a customer, which I’ve grown to respect and trust. Something that has taken years for them to develop.
I’m a business and tech nerd…I don’t follow the business of retail, so I’m curious to know how J. Crew’s brand perception scores have increased and if they are bridging into new lifestyle associations that hadn’t been able to reach before. I also wonder how it’s affected business for their biggest competitors. Drop me a note if you know…otherwise may be something ill have to research another time.
P.S. those sunglasses are so on my list…
July232012
Muck Rack: Yahoo's Marissa Mayer reveals the truth about mom CEOs
Perhaps this week’s biggest business news was the appointment of former Google executive Marissa Mayer’s as Yahoo’s new CEO. Marissa will be the youngest CEO in the Fortune 500 and one of only 19 females, a new record and sign of changing roles in the workplace. Three hours after Yahoo’s …
6PM
Muck Rack: Five ways VCs are putting the PR in venture capital
Nicole Perlroth has a story today in the New York Times about venture capitalists, namely Andreessen Horowitz (who we’ve covered before), a use public relations to improve their own image and the image of their portfolio companies.
Here are the tactics Andreessen Horowitz PR czar and…
November192011
Behind the Scenes of Presidential Debates
First, off, it really doesn’t get better than Charlie Rose interviewing Jim Lehrer for my money. I love these two gentlemen. But beyond, my nerd obsession, this interview was incredible because they discuss Lehrer’s book “Tension City” which is a behind the scenes of Lehrer moderating the Presidential debates.
In the interview, they discuss some of the biggest debates and the key moments that affected not just the winners of the debate, but the elections. And many of them were based on body language, gestures, or style - not the words they said. Those of us in communications know the importance of these, but how fascinating to see it in play where the stakes couldn’t be any higher. Definitely adding Lehrer’s book to my reading list - right after Steve Jobs biography.
Image Credit: Barnes and Noble
November72011
Lessons on creativity from Steven Soderbergh
A few super smart lessons from this interview on Charlie Rose with director Steven Soderbergh, screenwriter Scott Z. Burns and Dr. W. Ian Lipkin of Columbia University.
1) When creating something, make a list of things you DON’T want. Helps you avoid cliche’s.
2) Come prepared, but be present in the moment and be poised to adapt. Dr. Lipkin talks about how interesting Soderbergh’s process is and he shares how Soderbergh is really present on set and adapts scenes as he feels them in the moment. Burns has a great quote about Soderbergh’s style as well, “Make the movie on that day and not before.” That is, don’t go in so scripted that you can actually create in the moment.
This is a major insight into getting real authenticity and high results. Too often we get caught up in the process or the end goal that we can’t see outside the plan to realize we need to change course. (This part of the conversation starts at 16:40 in the interview, but gets into it deeper at 20:50).
October202011
Four Super Secret Presentation Tricks - Reposted from Weber Shandwick Seattle
My debut blog on my agency’s local office blog. Useful? Not?
February232011
WHY SAVE PBS?
(Click image to enlarge)
On Saturday, February 19th, the House of Representatives voted 235-189 to pass a continuing resolution that eliminates funding for public broadcasting. I put together this handy chart on why PBS is worth saving. Find out how you can fight back at 170 Million Americans.
FULL DISCLOSURE: I am Creative Director for PBS KIDS but a life-long supporter/watcher of PBS ;)
UPDATE: The infographic is officially on the PBS site now: http://www.pbs.org/about/save-pbs/
(Source: bishopia)
January112011
"Broken" Washington? Or just more on broken journalism?
This Vanity Fair article <hyperlink in headline> ponders whether Washington is “broken” but I found one of the threads about the “disintegrating media” more interesting and got me thinking (again) about how broken journalism is too.
Todd Purdom, the reporter, cites a few things that seem to stress out the press department.
- Pretty green reporters who lack historical perspective which results in things being blown out of proportion in the reporters mind and in how they report on the issues
- The web has created lots of issues…the always on, always reporting nature enabled by the web has essentially killed what people used to think of as a news cycle - stories post for a longer time period, all throughout the day and night, and everywhere. It’s created a platform and quickness for rumors and inaccuracies to spread and challenge their ability to correct them. And the increase in blogs and the nature of frequent posting of stories has created a climate where PR is asked for comment on every single little thing - if you think back even 10 years ago, there would only be so many articles and publications that covered the news and only so much space for stories, so there was true editing and editorial oversight to decide which issues to cover - now the president sneezes and there’s a blog post on it.
What struck me about this, isn’t that any of this is new, but how much it applies to most PR and news reporting. We’ve adapted as PR people and manage within this new framework, but I rarely take a step back to think - ahhh ‘back in the old days…’. The principles of media and how I was originally taught PR has completely changed. You just get on board and roll with it and keep evolving.
It got me thinking… as PR people, have we started to comment on things that don’t even warrant a comment? Have we become too reactive to this impulsive, unedited environment? Is that good, bad or no change for consumers a readers? Are they getting more transparency and information or just noise that doesn’t really matter? When you take a step back and think about this, would you advise your clients any differently than you do today on press requests?
When I’m thinking about specific press requests, one of the things I always think about is how that story, or that news cycle, will impact the bigger picture of what people read and think about the company. But how big a picture am I thinking about? What’s been written in the past week? Month? How much perspective are you considering? And does longer term perspective even matter for web companies where the landscape changes fast?
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