Counting vs. Measuring

Marketing/PR, Social Media

For a long time, I didn’t understand PR metrics. I’d listen to media relations folks talk about AVEs and put out reports touting impressions. And I couldn’t understand how all these numbers were relevant to achieving much of anything. Then I realized...

Beware the Hero’s Narrative

branding, Marketing/PR

A man shoots his girlfriend multiple times. He doesn’t immediately call an ambulance or the police, and he later claims it was accident. Oh, and there are allegations of previous domestic abuse. This sounds like a sadly very familiar tale. Except the man is...

Kellogg, Kashi, and What Customers Want

branding, Marketing/PR

Saying you’ve done nothing wrong when your customers are angry may not be the smartest response. Calling customers “confused”–really? My friend Zane Safrit pointed me to this story about Kellogg’s Kashi brand. Apparently some of the soy...

Why I Love Billboards

Marketing/PR

I love billboards, and not just because dozens of South of the Border ads have given me and millions of other drivers cheesy entertainment while driving up and down I-95. Billboards work. In an era when we’re constantly on the edge of sensory overload, very...