For years, PR and marketing stunts have been doing what they are designed to do – make media headlines and generate attention with the public. One of the earliest publicity stunts was in 1896 when the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad organized a staged crash between two full-size trains in Crush, Texas. Attendance was free with 40,000 people […]

Whether you’re in public relations, journalism or content marketing, the meat of your job is communicating. And with communicating comes emailing—lots and lots of emailing. You’re constantly clicking in your inbox: Pitching Sourcing Setting up interviews Sending follow-ups for all of the above Following up on your follow-ups It comes with the territory. However, if […]

Many companies struggle with determining whether it makes sense to secure a monthly retainer with an inbound agency or marketing firm, or employ these agencies on a project-only basis.   As someone who used to work for an agency on the project fee model, where assignments are scoped and an agreed-upon budget is determined before […]

At the beginning of this year, noted marketing thought leader Mark Schaefer of {grow} wrote a now somewhat infamous blog post titled Content Shock: Why content marketing is not a sustainable strategy. If you haven’t read it, I’d recommend taking a moment to do so. His basic theory is that we are nearing the intersection […]

You take the time to write a compelling press release with a great email subject line to hook the journalist…and nothing happens. Journalists don’t respond to your emails or phone calls, and there’s no sign of a written piece when you search the internet. Sound familiar? I want to take you inside the mind of […]

Remember the good old days when you would publish a press release to a newswire like PR Newswire or BusinessWire and suddenly your news flooded the Internet? Well, no longer. I’ve personally never been a big fan of newswires, as I believe a targeted public relations strategy (tailored media pitches sent to specific journalists) is […]

I’ve worked in marketing and public relations for nearly two decades now, and the only constant in this field throughout those two decades? Change. And while the speed with which this industry changes has greatly accelerated over the past few years, I’m still surprised at how slow many companies are in adapting their marketing and […]

Another week is almost in the books! We hope you had a great week. Some brands had better luck than others this week when it came to PR, content marketing and social media. We’ve rounded up the good, the bad and the ugly…. THE GOOD LinkedIn’s acquisition of Newsle gives you the power to stay […]

Remember when traditional marketing was dead? It was only a couple of years ago that everyone from the Harvard Business Review to Forbes magazine was trumpeting the demise of traditional marketing and public relations strategies. In a world of social media and online marketing, they contended, old-school tactics for connecting with customers just wouldn’t cut […]

Working with a professional public relations agency can offer significant benefits for both large and small companies alike. So much so, in fact, that USC’s Annenberg Strategic Communication and Public Relations Center reports that 95 percent of all large public companies and nearly half of all small private companies rely on outside PR/marketing counsel. In […]