Currently viewing the tag: "public relations"

On V-E Day, Four Lessons from a WWII News Embargo

On May 8, 2012 By

Today is the 67th anniversary of the official end of hostilities in the European theater of World War II. The unconditional surrender of Germany was announced on May 8, 1945.

The Associated Press correspondent who filed his V-E Day report on May 8 — a full day before competing media outlets [...]

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Will Your Sweepstakes Win You Committed Followers, or Fair-weather Fans?

On April 27, 2012 By

Last Friday, I caught tweets by two environmental reporters who seemed to cast a jaundiced eye on a sweepstakes launched by the Obama re-election campaign. The competition offers people that complete an online registration form the chance to win a ticket to a dinner attended by the president and hosted by George Clooney. [...]

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PV America: Continuing My Love Affair With Solar

On April 12, 2012 By

I love conference season, particularly, solar conference season. There’s something about all the sunny looking exhibits and eager new technologies that just makes me smile.  Last year, at Intersolar, companies competed after expo hall hours in a “Battle of the [...]

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Hunting the Creative

On April 11, 2012 By

Here at Sterling Communications, we’re always discussing creative communications, be it advertisements, PR campaigns, media responses and the like. And, since we’ve recently joined the social media phenomenon that is Pinterest, we figured, what better place to share the creative campaigns we come across? Add a little friendly competition to the [...]

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Skittles, Hoodies and Arizona Iced Tea

On April 4, 2012 By

By now, I’m sure you are all familiar with the Trayvon Martin story (in case you’ve been in hibernation for the last month you can read all the details here) and that his body was found with a bag of Skittles and an Arizona Iced Tea, throwing the two [...]

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This is a Mad Men’s World: 6 Lessons from Don Draper for Agency Life

On March 23, 2012 By

I am obsessed with the world of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce. I even dressed up as an SCDP secretary for a Halloween party (and won third prize). In preparation for the fifth season of “Mad Men” beginning this Sunday night on AMC, I’ve watched the episodes again and despite the lack of surprise, [...]

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Lies in the service of the truth? Or just lies?

On March 20, 2012 By

Mike Daisey is a liar.

He may not see it that way, but no reasonable person can hear or read the misrepresentations and outright fabrications in his stage act, “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs,” without concluding that he has a problem with the truth. A rather big one.

[...]

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Identity Theft: It’s Not Just for People Anymore

On March 15, 2012 By

We’ve all been educated about the dangers of personal identity theft and steps to take to avoid it, but few people, including myself, know about corporate identity theft. In fact, I didn’t know it happened to businesses until I heard a program on NPR addressing just that [...]

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What’s the Most Important Quality in a PR Professional?

On March 8, 2012 By

What do you look for when looking for a PR consultant or agency? Most of us would imagine that we would want expertise in our area of work (technology, consumer products, hospitality, etc.). As a PR practitioner, that has always been what I believed companies were looking for when they hired. When reading about what [...]

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Pinterest: the Next Social Media Frontier

On March 1, 2012 By

By now most brands have (or at least attempted) a presence on Facebook and Twitter. And many companies have added sites such as Delicious, YouTube, Flickr and LinkedIn to their social media repertoire. But what new social medium has risen so quickly that it’s seen site visits increase [...]

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How the Internet Changed Life as we Know it

On February 17, 2012 By

Looking back fifteen years or so, I remember the first hints of what would become the Internet as we know it today. Back then, I was a young twenty-something attending Sacramento State University, majoring in Psychology, when a forward-thinking professor of mine decided to require the class to use email (then completely text-based) to communicate [...]

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5 Steps To Becoming a Good Spokesperson

On February 13, 2012 By

As any company will realize, speaking with the media is inevitable. There is, however, a big difference between just talking to the media, and actually getting your point across in a way that will build lasting relationships, garner positive coverage and convince journalists that you are a good resource for them in [...]

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Battle of the Sexes: Social Media

On February 2, 2012 By

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, I’ve been thinking about how men and women differ. Specifically, I was curious about how men and women interact through social media. What are the differences? In my quest for answers, I pulled some research to show a few basic trends in how men [...]

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How to Develop a Winning Nomination for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards

On January 24, 2012 By

This is awards season at Ernst & Young LLP. The good folks there are not only busy safeguarding the results of the Golden Globes, but have opened up nominations for their own annual Entrepreneur of the Year® Awards. Applications are due March 9, 2012.

The Entrepreneur of the Year Awards (EoY) nomination [...]

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CES: Dead and Buried? Don’t Hold Your Breath

On January 20, 2012 By

Having just returned from CES, I’m surprised to see the “CES is dying” coverage.

This seems to be due, in large part, to Microsoft pulling out of the show.

Is the show changing? Absolutely. Is it the powerhouse it once was? Perhaps not. Is it going away by 2015 as some have [...]

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A Misquote Etched in Stone

On January 18, 2012 By

As PR professionals, we’re all too familiar with misquotes and quotes taken out of context. Whether it’s a statement we delivered ourselves, or something a client said during an interview, it’s tough to see a quote appear in print in a manner that wasn’t how you intended.

Typically, the course of action is to contact [...]

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Running “Deep,” Instead of Running Away

On December 22, 2011 By

“Chevy Runs Deep”

When GM auto company Chevrolet introduced this new slogan late last year, few knew exactly what it meant. According to Chevy’s advertising agency – Goodby, Silverstein & Partners – “Chevy Runs Deep” is meant to be used in such a way that it will solve past marketing problems faced by the [...]

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The Future of Holiday Shopping

On December 14, 2011 By

Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Small Business Saturday, Daily Comparison Shopping.

Technology has changed the way consumers approach the holidays. For years now, media and analysts have pointed to Cyber Monday as the prime example of this.

In the next few years, mobile applications could very well outpace the Cyber [...]

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Small Business is Big

On December 12, 2011 By

Big brands are having no trouble luring shoppers in with low prices and extravagant advertising campaigns this holiday season, with Black Friday and Cyber Monday leading the way. Meanwhile, small, local businesses must find other ways to get an edge. Naturally, most small businesses don’t have the cash flow for pricey advertising [...]

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Why Online Shopping Megabit This Year

On November 29, 2011 By

With bellies full of warm Thanksgiving goodness, many Americans turn from stuffing themselves to stuffing holiday stockings with Black Friday deals. In last week’s blog post, I explored how the Internet and mobile shopping are changing Black Friday. After countless interviews and maneuvering through [...]

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The Digital Turkey: How Technology is Changing Black Friday

On November 23, 2011 By

Black Friday. To some these words conjure images of post Thanksgiving family fun, waiting in line to get the year’s best pricing on hot ticket items. Others grudgingly stand in the freezing cold hoping to score that outrageously priced TV for a steal, and then there are those who forgo shopping of any kind to [...]

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Holiday Gift Guides – Why Didn’t You Start in August?

On November 18, 2011 By

Holiday gift guides are a golden opportunity for companies to showcase their products to a targeted audience using stories and photos. What’s better, it’s free. However, there are a number of key elements that companies need to keep in mind as they begin the gift guide process, if they want to be [...]

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Solyndra: Solar’s Reputation Problem

On November 16, 2011 By

In the wake of Solyndra’s collapse, the solar industry has received a lot of negative attention, and people may be getting the impression that the industry is doomed; however, this is hardly the case. Media have been focusing on the failure of large firms like Solyndra, Evergreen Solar and Beacon Power. This is understandable, [...]

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It takes a community…

On November 10, 2011 By

Have you ever just had to check out a product or website because it seems everyone was talking about it, and you wanted to see what the big deal was? (For me, that was Pinterest, and it’s safe to say I am now a shameless Pinterest addict and evangelist.)

At last week’s Continue Reading →

Social Media: The New Destination for Endorsements

On November 8, 2011 By

Elizabeth Olsen reminds you what film acting can be….

What movie critic said this? Wait, this endorsement actually comes from actor Alec Baldwin – in a tweet! And, the first time I saw this wasn’t even on Twitter, but in a print ad for the new movie, Martha Marcy May [...]

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How to Build Lasting Relationships with the Media

On November 4, 2011 By

While social media is a great tool for disseminating information quickly to a lot of people, it also fuels our gotta have everything and gotta have it now attitude. Remember back when Web pages took a minute or more to load? Now if it takes more than a few seconds we grow impatient and abandon [...]

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Bringing It All Back Home: The Ultimate Decision of Re-rebranding

On November 1, 2011 By

Like the Bob Dylan album title suggests, often the best move to make when all else fails is to go back to basics and return “home” to what made you great to begin with. Stemming from a recent blog entry of mine highlighting Twinings Tea Company’s abrupt revamping and then reappearance [...]

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5 Key Questions (and Answers) on Press Showcases

On October 28, 2011 By

Last summer I blogged a couple of times about different types of paid press events, such as a Satellite Media Tour (SMT) and an in-studio media tour. There’s a third type of event that I recommend to clients: the in-person “party” showcase that often occurs in conjunction with [...]

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The Role of Social Media in Activism

On October 25, 2011 By

We all know that the creation of the Internet and social networking sites have exponentially increased our ability to disseminate information; after all, they are real time mass information distribution networks, but they have also increased our ability to organize. Social media played an important role in the Tunisian and Egyptian uprisings, which ultimately led [...]

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Halloween Goes Social

On October 18, 2011 By

With the proliferation of social media, gone are the days of thumbing through a newspaper to find out about Halloween events, or browsing through a store to come up with ideas for a costume. People are flocking to Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites more than ever to decide not only [...]

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