I started working in PR back “in the day.” I make interns giggle when I tell them about editing press releases by crossing out letters and words, using White-out and actually taping pieces of paper together to add additional information. We usually sent press release drafts to clients via courier or the mail.
Start-up Sanity Check
It happened again. I spent two hours last night catching up with a dear friend/former colleague whom I haven’t spoken with in a couple years. (We, like many people, recently re-connected on Facebook.) And I got to hear another fascinating business idea. In the last two months, I have been honored to be part of 6 such conversations. They are invariably fascinating and I learn something new with each one.
A Modest PR-oposal
Traditional Marketing is Like Dating a Jerk
Look out — a rant about PR agencies and journalists
Chief Surfer
I get up ridiculously early in the morning. If my gym opened earlier than 5:00 am I would probably be there then too. I also multi-task with relish. I have my iPod on (I still haven’t started listening to the Nature podcast my son likes but I will get there eventually.) I can put my latest read on the elliptical machine book holder and scan a row of televisions usually tuned to the news. (Although, to be fair, TNT does […]
Marketing Metrics
Early on in my PR career I discovered that I could very easily “defend” PR as a function when I showed management some numbers. My discovery wasn’t unique but I didn’t understand how unusual it was among PR people until I started hanging out with the crowd at Delahaye. In the mid ’90s I became their first global client, measuring PR results and message communication in every country we did PR in, which was quite a few. More importantly, we […]
Media Relations via Twitter
Lately I have been reading a lot of “PR is dying”, “PR is dead” articles because there is also the perception that the media is dying. (There is even a Twitter feed called “The Media is Dying” that catalogs the comings and goings of the media world — mostly the goings.) A lot of people are attributing the perceived coming demise of PR to social networks – why do we need a special group of professionals to deal with traditional […]
I am buzzword compliant
My Second Craziest PR story
Actually, this one is just tied for second place. I still can’t tell the story it is tied with — maybe someday. In 1969, the Queen came to Canada and to celebrate her trip, she gifted the city of Ottawa with a pair of swans from the Royal flock. Now, being a pair of swans, they do what swans do and soon there was a whole flock of Royal swans living it up in the canals of Ottawa during the […]