He wears leather gloves and constantly smokes cigars. He is cool and calm even when in peril. A master of disguise, this chief tactician relishes the moment when he can say, “I love it when a plan comes together.” Thanks to a recent film adaptation of a popular 1980’s TV show, old and young will…
The news that the U.S. government is giving up control of the Internet – that is, the Department of Commerce announcing it will end its oversight of ICANN, the non-profit that administers Internet domains – brought me back to a time in my public affairs career when I learned first-hand about managing controversies, especially those…
Does your company NEED a PR firm? Doing a simple Google search brings up numerous articles on both sides of the question. And even we agree that sometimes the answer is “no.” Don’t get me wrong; public relations is essential to the growth of a business and, at RH, we believe in it wholeheartedly. But…
The modern landscape of PR has changed. When companies hire a new PR firm, not only do they expect placement in top-tier media like The New York Times or the Wall Street Journal, but they also expect their message to be trending on Twitter, written about by bloggers and optimized on Google. Internet publishing has…
One of my favorite, and one of the most under-appreciated holidays is Groundhog Day. While millions of Americans turn to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania to see the groundhog’s predictions for the end of this winter season, many others fondly remember Groundhog Day through the prism of the beloved 1993 comedy. In the film, news anchor Phil Connors…
I read a Washington Post blog recently calling 2013 the year of cybersecurity. While the year saw a profusion of data breaches and leaks, it’s more accurate to call 2013 the year of cyber violations – not cybersecurity. I think it’s more likely that 2014 will be the year of cyber solutions – maybe the…
With the New Year upon us, it’s time again for industry insiders and gurus to come out with their predictions for the upcoming year. Traditional media and blogs are peppered with predictions stories, from technology trends to outlooks for the U.S. economy. The PR industry is no different. PR practitioners have already begun to hit…
There is nothing more frustrating than spending time revising a document and emailing your feedback to your team only to discover seconds later that another person was doing the exact same thing at the exact same time. Version control is such a vital piece of group projects and manually reconciling different versions is a huge…
Last week, New York Times Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Segal aired his grievances about untargeted PR pitches in an article titled Swatting at a Swarm of Public Relations Spam. He called blanket PR pitching antiquated and a waste of money, urging fellow journalists to contact Vocus, Cision, and similar services and ask to be removed…
This week, many Americans will participate in the annual tradition of joining family for Thanksgiving Dinner. Dinner will be shared with parents, grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles, siblings and in-laws. If you are putting on one of these get-togethers, dealing with the logistics of preparing the meal can sometimes be challenging, but quite rewarding. For…
My colleague Kara Lundberg recently wrote about how a company’s greatest PR asset can sometimes be its staff. While we certainly love a full bench of ready-to-go spokespeople, not every executive is suited for interviews and not every interview calls for the same person. As a full-service PR firm, we help organizations identify appropriate spokespeople…
How do you get good PR for winning a spot on a major government contract when you don’t know whether you’ll win as a prime or a subcontractor, whether you’ll win at all (of course), when the awards will be announced, and whether the subs will be amenable to publicity? You can play it by…
