Here’s hoping your year is off to a great and prosperous start! As you think about how to allocate your marketing budget this year, consider the immense ROI (return-on-investment) of a piece earned media coverage. [ Read More ]
Blog
Hello Amsterdam
I recently returned from a 10-day trip to Amsterdam. What a lovely city! I mainly went there for work – to check out the design influences, understand their impressive city rebranding campaign, talk to a robotics company and a variety of other business-related pursuits. I saw Banksy and Icy & Sot at Moco, their modern art museum, and Fukase at Foam, their main photography museum. And I saw the big “I Amsterdam” sign (more on that later) in front of the famous Rijksmuseum. [ Read More ]
Are You Smarter than a Chimpanzee on Basic World Facts?
I recently finished reading a great book called Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World--and Why Things Are Better Than You Think written by the late Hans Rosling. I knew it would be good when Bill Gates called it one of his favorite books of 2018 and “one of the most important” he has ever read. It is all about our perceptions of the world, how wrong they are and why our instincts are so off. The book is also strangely uplifting. [ Read More ]
Fabulous Portugal, Disappointing Airlines
One of many gorgeous beaches near the southwest corner of Portugal. So many people have been asking about my recent Portugal trip, I decided to write about the highlights as well as some travel issues I encountered so you might learn from them. Portugal itself was lovely, but the journey was a lesson in resilience. As someone who has been to more than 40 countries and traveled more than 99.9% of the people I meet, I can say with some authority that customer service levels of the airlines and rental car companies (in this case Icelandair, TAP Air Portugal and Hertz) have gone way down. [ Read More ]
From World Travel to Nuance in Communications
I am an avid world traveler, 40 plus countries and counting. All of it for fun. I was reading some of my travel journals recently and came across a gem that I wrote. More on that in a bit, but first some context. [ Read More ]
Basics of Strong Messaging
Creating strong messaging takes skill and experience. That said, the very basics of good messaging are so simple it’s surprising to me how many companies get them wrong. There are three primary things to focus on: clarity, consistency and repetition. [ Read More ]
Engage Humanity
Engage humanity. That is the tagline I came up with and I still love it. It was for an Australian company called Whispir that is in the communications space. I was working with them on a massive brand development project last year and worked directly with Jeromy Wells, the creative, smart and kind CEO of the company. [ Read More ]
May the Queen Conch Live On
Conch farms in Turks and Caicos. Conch fritters, and conch in numerous other culinary forms, can be bought at almost every restaurant in the Turks and Caicos Islands. Yet they are endangered. How can this be? I recently visited these islands and their stunningly gorgeous beaches to see firsthand what was happening with the coral reefs there. I had been there 10-15 years ago on a SCUBA diving trip and was interested in seeing if the reefs were surviving climate change, tourist bumping and the notorious lionfish infestation of the Caribbean. Instead I stumbled on the queen conch issue. [ Read More ]
PR for Robotics Companies
I have been interested in doing PR for robotics companies for many years. Just ask my friend Tandy Trower, former head of robotics at Microsoft and founder of Hoaloha Robotics, a company creating companion robots to enable seniors to live more active and independent lives. When I sent Tandy various media articles over the years, he delighted me with long email responses that helped educate me about the industry. I am grateful that he shared this knowledge and provided years of encouragement. In 2016, I have had the honor and privilege of working with three amazing robotics companies. [ Read More ]
Your Life as a Museum
In this age of personalized media, I have often thought about the concept of each of our lives as a museum. What would yours look like? What rooms would it contain and what would be in each of those rooms? My rooms might be Exploration, Connection, Adventure, Laughter, Fun and Wisdom. It is an interesting and expansive exercise to define your life in collections like that. It also forces you to think about the things that really matter to you and all that you have done with your life. [ Read More ]