Things you probably didn’t know (or care to know) about me. I love Richmond native D’Angelo. I also love—to a lesser degree—Grantland.com writer Rembert Browne, who in my opinion is one of the funniest music/pop culture writers out there. So you can imagine my excitement last week when this happened. (Browne wrote about D’Angelo. I know, right?!?) I was expecting to read about how amazing D’Angelo’s newest album, Black Messiah, is live. What I got was a lesson in corporate branding. Stay with me. The…
Read MoreFirst, thanks for all the comments and kudos for last week's maiden Vlog voyage. We want this to be a true conversation and we'd love some suggested topics as well. This week we tackle the confusion over the terms and phrases used to describe how we sponsor, boost and amplify all the content we're creating. Traditional, online, and social platforms all offer their own ways to get people to see what you write, shoot and post. It's important to know your options and how you should describe…
Read MoreLet me apologize up front to everyone I “talked business” with at the annualish Newman Pig Pickin this past weekend. You know who you are. Thanks for telling me to relax. That being said, every conversation I had over pork and brisket, every phone call I’m having with folks, every new business meeting I’ve taken recently includes the new buzz topic du jour: Content Marketing. Aside from this thrilling me because THP has been focusing our efforts on this for the past year or so,…
Read MoreIn my last post, I discussed the 4 steps businesses should take in order to develop a social lead-generation campaign: develop the offer, build a landing page to explain it, promote it to existing social communities and track their engagement. While this is an important first step in converting social communities into customers—by giving them a compelling reason or incentive to share their email addresses and thus enter your sales funnel—it does not address reaching new audiences. While virality and the concept of social sharing…
Read MoreFirst of all I’d like to thank the folks that got up early this morning to “pack the room” for our first Hodges Starters event. If you joined us for our inaugural session (background here) event, you saw how we manage content on social channels and how it should and can be measurable, strategic and occasionally, magical. (Remember that Ellen selfie at the Oscars?) We haven’t forgotten the folks that couldn’t come (or the folks that made it and asked for a copy of the…
Read MoreFor those of you who aren’t sports or baseball fans, please indulge me for a second. This post will eventually make sense. As many of you know THP is named for Gil Hodges, the manager of the World Champion 1969 Mets. Any great baseball team has its stars and for Gil’s Mets that star was starting pitcher and eventual Hall of Famer Tom Seaver. But Tom wasn’t the only terrific starting pitcher on that team. The starting rotation boasted left-hander Jerry Koosman and rookie right-hander…
Read MoreI love watching the Academy Awards, from the red carpet to Best Picture. And I think we’ve all come to the consensus that the 86th annual Academy Awards, Ellen’s performance in particular, were particularly well-done and entertaining. Ellen did a terrific job of engaging her audience in the auditorium and, in doing so, offering the viewing audience a sense that we were all in on a great joke. Most notably, the “selfie” seen ‘round the world was, I believe, a moment of live-television genius; a…
Read MoreLast week, CVS made a bold move in deciding to no longer sell cigarettes in its 7,600 stores nationwide. The decision garnered CVS beaucoup earned media, including much praise and perhaps a little criticism. But some of that praise, including from CVS vendor and global PR powerhouse Edelman, blew right past hyperbolic, calling the decision courageous. In a guest column this week on The Future Buzz, our own Caroline Platt explains why this is a smart business move, not a courageous act of civil disobedience….
Read MoreWhile I won’t go into a blow-by-blow grading of the Super Bowl fare dished out by our ad agency brethren (although special kudos to Radio Shack and our friends at CarMax just to name a few), I found myself underwhelmed by the latest batch. After spending more of the game on Twitter watching reaction to the Broncos’ lack of action and to the knee-jerk reaction to the spots, something screamed at me loud and clear. It’s not about the ads anymore, it’s about the PR…
Read MoreSo what’s new? I actually asked myself that question during my holiday hiatus. It’s the one time of the year that I actually have the time to ask that question of myself. And while it wasn’t a great epiphany, Richard Edelman, one of the leaders and giants in the PR industry answered my question. Not directly. He didn’t appear in a dream or anything. He landed in my Twitter stream in the form of a research report Edelman (the firm) released on the future of…
Read MoreIt’s time to talk apples — and not the iPhone variety. Cider is one of my favorite beverages — but it’s also a good opportunity to take a look at an industry that is finding popularity from a whole new group of followers and rebranding itself along the way. A recent Time article reports that hard cider sales increased 85 percent in 2012 from the year before. From an outside perspective, the industry is doing everything right. So, what can communications practitioners learn from the ascendant…
Read MoreAlthough I’m only 30, I’m an aspiring curmudgeon. Nothing brings me more joy than getting on a soapbox and ranting about the absurdity of things. My coworkers love it. (Read: I regularly interrupt my coworkers with rants they couldn't care less about.) Well, I recently was perturbed by something that was too important to share with only the select folks at THP. So without further ado… Conversations around public relations can quickly devolve into esoteric nonsense. Go to enough PR workshops, luncheons or conferences and…
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