The Authentic CEO: What Execs Must Learn from Bloggers on George Washington’s Birthday

Share|by Valerie Di Maria, Principal, the 10 company Today is George Washington’s 280th birthday.  As the first U.S. President, you could say he was our nation’s first chief executive. Whether he actually said, “I cannot tell a lie” or not, most would agree he was an honest and authentic leader. But what does it take to be viewed as an authentic leader in today’s times? And what does this mean to CEOs and the communicators who work with them? We decided to ask an increasingly influential audience:  business bloggers. Working with our research partner, Gotham... [Read more]

Social Sharing Goes Mobile: What This Means for Today’s Communication Pros

Share|By James Citron, CEO and Co-Founder, Mogreet With more than 90 billion pieces of content shared each month, the growth of social sharing is an opportunity that today’s marketers must prioritize in their communications strategies or risk losing ground to third-party websites and content providers who more easily enable content sharing. When consumers find news or content that strikes a chord, they want to share it immediately with friends, family and social networks. In fact, according to a report by ShareThis, Rubinson Partners Inc. and Starcom MediaVest Group, social... [Read more]

The White Face of PR: What Black History Month Means to PR Firms – and Obama’s “White” House

Share|Brian Pittman’s Spotlight: Mike Paul, President, MGP & Associates PR It’s Black History Month—and MGP’s Mike Paul says it’s time for the PR industry to be held accountable for a lack of black leadership. “As we entered Black History month, we’ve seen announcements from major PR firms announcing new diversity programs,” says Paul, who has over 20 years experience in strategic PR, corporate communications, crisis PR and reputation management. “But it’s all talk. I’ve heard it for the past two decades.” Known as The Reputation Doctor, Paul digs... [Read more]

Super Bowl Ads Aren’t Worth the Cost: Why Hollywood, Beckham and H&M Will Be Sunday’s Biggest Losers

Share|By Kirk Wakefield, Edwin W. Streetman Professor of Retail Marketing, Hankamer School of Business, Baylor University In some ways, it’s hard to imagine exposure during the Super Bowl is worth the cost. The average CPM (cost per 1000 households) during primetime TV was just over $22 this past year. The CPM for the Super Bowl is over three times that at about $76. If the brand wants to gain exposure to its target audience, there are far cheaper and better targeted alternatives. So, exposure and its associated objective of gaining awareness can’t be the reason for... [Read more]

Last Year’s Most Successful Super Bowl Ad: How Chrysler Drove Real Sales, Not Just Social Media Buzz

Share|By Jeremy Anwyl, Vice Chairman, and Jeannine Fallon, Executive Director of Corporate Communications, Edmunds.com Who would pay $3 million for a 30-second ad? An advertiser who has grand visions of generating huge consumer buzz, and there are enough of them to fill (most of) the time. There are certainly many memorable examples of successful Super Bowl ads that paid for themselves, expensive though they were. The most powerful example from last year is Chrysler’s two-minute “Born of Fire” ad for the Chrysler 200 featuring rapper Eminem, which launched... [Read more]

Boycotts, Blackouts and Brands: The Tale of SOPA and What It Means to Marketers and PR Pros

Share|By Jeff MacGurn, Vice President, Earned Media Services, Covario, Inc. Editor’s note: Click through to see the author’s infographic analysis of the brands affected by the SOPA blackout. There were no leaders, no headquarters and no official organizations coordinating the anti-SOPA effort, and yet, somehow, a grass roots movement was able to strike a number of very coordinated blows against the legislation knows at the “Stop Online Piracy Act” or SOPA. It seems that everyone has been covering the politics and the players in SOPA ad nauseam, but what hasn’t... [Read more]

Who Did the SOPA Blackout Hurt? An Infographic Look at Wikipedia, Reddit, Craigslist and WordPress

Share|By Jeff MacGurn, Vice President, Earned Media Services, Covario, Inc. Editor’s note: Click through to see the author’s analysis of what the SOPA blackout means to marcom pros. As you no doubt know, on Wednesday, January 18th tens of millions of users (and possibly more) found themselves without access to some of the Internet’s most popular websites, and others found themselves witness to very public corporate protests. Most of the ensuing media coverage of this event was geared toward these very sites, companies and people protesting the Stop Online Piracy... [Read more]